Wednesday, March 13, 2024

MERE ANARCHY IS LOOSED UPON THE WORLD

Astrology provides a compelling myth for how the universe works, that is far older than the Christian story. We feel it in our bones, we cannot resist it. That is what a Creation Myth should feel like. None of this wondering whether the Bible is true or not. Of course, we doubt if astrology is literally true, as we should. But we live in an age where the only truth is literal truth, so that makes us doubt astrology itself. Never doubt that visceral feeling that your story is writ in the sky.


The culture at large has had, since the death of God, no unifying myth. The scientific story is not myth, it is mere fact without the power to take us outside ourselves. As the poets Yeats said in The Second Coming: "Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

Astrology has a hold upon the population at large that Christianity does not, that the best efforts of the scientific establishment cannot undo. The non-rational always holds the power. That is why "a man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." It goes both ways!

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born

Yeats continues, "the best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity." We see things falling apart in the rise of relativism and its injunction that there are no absolute truths - it has a point - but goes to extremes in eg the dismantling of gender, about which the worst are full of passionate intensity, denouncing those who do not agree. (The research shows such people to be low on verbal intelligence.)

I want to say that astrology does provide an absolute truth. Our stories ARE written in the sky. Maybe the only absolute truths are mythological? They are absolute because you feel them in your bones, you would die for them.

The lack of a unifying religious myth is, IMO, the central problem of our culture. It is worth recognising that, if you are an astrologer, you do have one, a very ancient and primal one: the idea that your destiny was written into the universe at the moment of your birth. Jung, a somewhat secret astrologer, said the same kind of thing.

Astrology is not an 'add-on' to other modalities, as I have seen it put: it is the thing itself. We have a faith that is deep and ancient, and which is harder than many to get dogmatic about; but people still do in their slavish adherence to 'tradition', as if it is not something that has to be continually re-invented to stay alive.
                                         
PLUTO and the ANIMAL
Pluto is the instinctual, the animal. Aquarius is the human. Humans like to think they are above the animal. Airy Aquarius could write whole books, and create whole theologies, in defence of human superiority.

When Pluto enters Aquarius, there is a reckoning. If the animal has been relegated, his response will be savage. Think the French Revolution, when Pluto was last in this sign, and what Christianity had previously done to the animal. Think about Evolution, with humans implicitly at the top of the chain of being, where God used to be. Think - perhaps - the horrors of transgender surgery on young people as the savage animal response.

Let us welcome the animal. In the words of Mary Oliver's poem Wild Geese: "You do not have to be good.... you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves."
 
                              ----------------------------------------- 

The Sun tells us who we are, it speaks of the fire in us and its purpose. That is why sunshine is good for you 🦁
                                
                              -----------------------------------------
 
URANUS and JOE BIDEN'S MENTAL CAPACITY
Joe Biden's mental capacity was questioned in a recent report. This is not a good sign for him, in a year in which Uranus will be opposing both his Sun and Mercury. Expect this issue to develop. With Sun and Mercury hidden in both the 12th and in Scorpio, the issue is probably already a lot worse than we know.
 

AN OFFER YOU CANNOT REFUSE 😎 Buy either of my books on Amazon - pictured below - leave a genuine rating, and I will give you a FREE astrology reading. The books are very readable, and I defy you not to be seriously tempted once you have read some of the reviews. I blogged for 15 years before I wrote them, and I think I know in my bones what I write about. There, I'm boasting now 🤣 If you're not a great reader, I have also created a video course for Watkins Books on The Medicine Wheel, which you can find here

Friday, March 01, 2024

KNOW THYSELF and THE LATEST VIDEOS

 KNOW THYSELF

Who we are is a mystery. Self-knowledge lies not in accruing explanations for who we are, but in knowing our callings: doing that which we have to do. The astrological chart shows us the gods, the daemons knocking at our door: that is what the planets really are. Childhood explanations for who we are tend to take us away from the mystery and its creative power.
 

"The soul... hath had elsewhere its setting, and cometh from afar." (
Wordsworth)
 
From The Journey by Mary Oliver
"One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do...
 
                        ----------------------------------------------
 
My main output continues to be short videos, but I will be giving you the youtube rather than the tiktok links from now on, as they were problematic for some of you. I am having fun making them; there is something I can express through speech that I cannot through writing. Maybe it is the electricity of my Mercury in Aquarius opposite Uranus! Here goes:

 
 
 
 

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

VIDEOS

Mars conjoins Pluto on Wednesday, and the world holds it breath as Israel prepares its potentially terrible purge of Rafah.

 -------------------------------------------

There is too much correlation between the movements of the planets and human affairs to say that the planets do not cause events; but not enough correlation to state definitively that they do. As astrologers we dance along the diaphanous pathway between this world and the other, avoiding the temptations of ungrounded mysticism on the one hand, and reductionist material explanations on the other.

  -------------------------------------------

The series of Pluto transits I lived through in the 90s was my real qualification to be an astrologer. It wasn't any courses I had been on, or books I had read, but the hard-won Plutonian knowledge of the soul and it's transformations.

  -------------------------------------------

I have started making videos for Tiktok, maximum 10 mins each. Here are the tiktok links to the show so far 😊 Blogger said they were too big to upload directly

MARS-VENUS-PLUTO IN AQUARIUS

Pluto in Aquarius 

WILD GEESE  (Me reciting a Mary Oliver Poem)

THE ASTROLOGY OF CREATION

 

Tuesday, February 06, 2024

THE FISHER KING

When the king is ill, the country does not thrive. While Big Ben was silent for 4 years from 2017, the country was politically paralysed over Brexit. Symbolism is a real thing, as any astrologer can tell you.



The country needs renewal: that is what King Charles' illness tells us. The Fisher King, the guardian of the Holy Grail, recovered, and his land recovered, when Parsifal asked him, "Whom does the Grail serve?" In our case, we maybe need to ask "What is the point of the UK, who are we now?" We lost an Empire, and tried to find a new purpose as part of the EU. That didn't work out. So who are we? We have an election coming up, but neither party has the vision of renewal necessary for the King to be well again.


Charles has Leo Rising, befitting a king. It is ruled by Sun in the collective sign of Scorpio, conjunct Chiron: his wound is collective. Uranus is currently opposing his Sun, a lightning rod for the country's malaise. In the Fisher King story, the wound is to the groin - the place that generates new life - very appropriate for Chiron in Scorpio.

My theory is that England forgot who she was 1000 years ago, when the Norman (Viking) conquest turned us into a conquering nation, beginning with the rest of the British Isles. The Empire has gone, and Scotland and Northern Ireland may go too. Charles' kingly line began with the Normans: that is one way of seeing the wound that he carries. His illness is that old soul loss healing. Just a theory :)


We may have to wait until next year, when Neptune enters Aries and begins a long slow sweep across the UK's Sun, Moon and Angles, to start to find the way again post-Brexit, with humility and reality: no longer a superpower; and no longer the next best thing, the vicarious power that came with being part of the EU.
 
 
KING CHARLES' HEALTH
Pluto is currently changing signs in King Charles' 6th House of Health, while squaring his Moon/Node in Taurus. This suggests his cancer diagnosis is of major significance. Pluto will not finally leave his 6th House until the end of 2027, giving a possible time frame for his illness. At that point, Neptune will be completing a square to Prince William's Sun-Moon conjunction in Cancer: a defining change for him is also in the offing. Uranus has also just turned direct, opposing Charles’ chart ruler, the Sun. Here is wishing him well!
 
                     ------------------------------------------- 
 
Everyone is weird once you get to know them. Aquarians are just more upfront, even honest, about it. That is why they are Everyman.
 
                  ------------------------------------------- 

A friend said recently that he felt Gemini was associated with the fairies, and was that the case? I said if it wasn't, it is now.
 
                  ------------------------------------------- 
 
I think Pluto in Aquarius will see GM crops come into their own, allowing for improved food production in the 3rd world. The power (Pluto) of technological invention (Aquarius.) Much of the opposition to GM, as with oil, is simply hatred of technology and human progress, and Pluto will march through that.
 
                  ------------------------------------------- 

Astrology is poetry.
 
                  ------------------------------------------- 

All the planets from Jupiter outwards are going forward. Time to make new s**t happen.
 
                  ------------------------------------------- 


On 12th Feb, Mars will cross the MC of the Northern Ireland chart, with Venus following soon after. Pluto crossed it 3 weeks ago. An agreement has just been reached on a return to devolved government, after a 2 year gap due to Brexit fall-out. Pluto still has 2 more crossings to go this year. NI is inching towards eventual reunion with Eire.
 
                  -------------------------------------------
 
The world is being held back from the abundant energy that nuclear power promises, and the abundant food that GM promises, by irrational fear of technology and hatred of humanity. The coming age of Pluto in Aquarius will march through this opposition, taking no prisoners, because it is our survival and flourishing (Pluto), through human inventiveness (Aquarius), that is at stake. And our destiny. Pluto is in this sense a protector of what humanity can become. Neptune in Aries will also play its part in this renewal of the collective dream. 
 

Elon Musk, with his vision of humanity as an interplanetary species, symbolises the optimism and inventiveness of this coming age. And let's not forget Uranus moving into Gemini too. A whole new age to look forward to.
 
 
THE AQUARIAN REBELLION AGAINST GREEN POLICIES
The last transit of Pluto through Aquarius saw both the French and American Revolutions: the people rebelling against unrepresentative, authoritarian government. Power (Pluto) to the People (Aquarius.) I think we will see a similar mood in the coming years, this time with green policies as the focus, as they begin to erode people's standards of living. I'm not saying this is good or bad: I'm just saying I think it is what will start happening. They have become the norm, and that is something Aquarius sees the holes in and pushes against.
 
 

In the UK we see it already, with the two main parties, in the run-up to a general election, vying to water down their commitments to net-zero. We saw it in the lack of media coverage of COP28. We see it in the huge protests by Dutch and German farmers against the imposition of green policies, and the rise to power of political parties that reflect this mood. In the US, Donald Trump is well-known for his lack of belief in the climate crisis. The rebellion will also be against the authoritarian, ideologically driven way net zero is often being implemented. The media is likely to tar this political movement with the label 'far right', a term that is gradually losing its meaning through over-use.
 
                   -------------------------------------------
 
If you attempt to turn astrology into a statistical truth, then you disrespect the gods and they will stop speaking to you. Astrology is not scientific. It is not for us to try to probe and judge the workings of the divine. It is for us to stand back in awe.
 
 
VENUS IN CAPRICORN
Venus is now in Capricorn. Not very romantic. Or, at least, not a time for love-bubbles, based around 2 people not knowing each other. That's so yesterday, so Venus in Sag. Venus in Capricorn wants you to listen to your experience, listen to the whole of yourself. That takes time and patience. But it can produce results that actually work, that last.
                   -------------------------------------------
 
Aquarians, if you want to be radical, be conservative. If you want to be even more radical, go to church. Got this idea off Nick Cave in this brilliant interview. Nick Cave has a hell of a work ethic. I looked him up: Sun in Virgo square to Saturn. 
 
 
PLUTO IN CANCER?
In Sardinia, the use of the "femina agabbadòra hammer" was a women's practice. Whenever an elderly man or woman of a given family was dying and in great pain, the family would call for the Accabadòra or Lady of the Good Death. She would usually be a widow dressed entirely in black, who likely inherited her role from her own mother or grandmother. The title Accabadora means "She is the One Who Ends." She arrives with a large hammer of carved olive wood wrapped in heavy wool, and is left alone with the individual who may yet be screaming in agony and terror. 
 

A witness testimonial of the practice translates: "It was dark. The room was illuminated by a single wick in mastic oil. The Accabadòra entered the house -- the door had been left open for her. She passed no one as she enters her patient's room at at the bedside. "She caressed the face of the dying person, chanted the rosary, sang one of the many lullabies usually sung to children. Finally she raised her hammer wrapped in thick, black wool, and gave a quick sharp blow on the skull. 
 
"She then left the bludgeoned patient in quiet peace, and our family blessed and thanked and paid her for her good work as she was leaving. It is a hard job. The Accabadòra may herself be feeble, and is often a friend of the ailing individual. So you must always respect her. "We do not consider her a murderer. In our village she is known as compassionate, a holy assistant in fulfilling the final destiny. Her act is loving and benevolent. She is our Last Mother." 
 
Though usually done with a hammer, each Accabadòra may have her own technique, including smothering with a pillow, or climbing atop the sufferer to wrap her legs around the neck to squeeze the throat closed. The last recorded Accabadòras went about their missions of euthanasia in 1929 in Luras and in 1952 in Orgosolo. But a recent work of fiction about the life of a modern Agabbadòra alleges that the ancient practice still exists in rural parts of Sardinia, where there are no physicians or any other help for the suffering.” 
 
=== Photo: An Accabadòra ready to serve, though her hammer is considerably larger than would be used by a real Accabadòra. Inset: An actual femina accabadòra hammer in a Sardinian museum.
 
                   -------------------------------------------
 
The Ukraine War will have it's Mars Return in early Feb, a Mars (at 22 Capricorn) that is at the same degree as the Saturn-Pluto conjunction the year before. That connection makes this minor war very significant geo-politically. Whether the Mars Return leads to an escalation or to negotiations, I do not know. But new developments are likely around that time.
 
                   -------------------------------------------
 
We belong not to ourselves but to the universe. Ordinary humanity does not understand this, astrologers and healers do.
 
 
PLUTO in CAPRICORN CRISES
Pluto can be associated with crises, inasmuch as they often precede the fundamental restructuring that this planet engenders. Pluto's time in Capricorn has been a time of institutional (Capricorn) crises, beginning with the financial crisis of 2008, the biggest since the 1930s. Then there was the Eurozone crisis, the political crises that led to Trump and Brexit, and then the COVID crisis. Last but not least has been the climate crisis which big business and government (both Capricorn) are being seen to ignore, despite protestations to the contrary, as Pluto leaves this sign.

                   -------------------------------------------

The International Climate Conference (COP) started in March 1995. This year it has its Saturn Return at 17 Pisces. Last year's COP 28 was barely front page news. I reckon the age of climate anxiety is starting to come to an end.

                   -------------------------------------------
 
The transit of Neptune through Pisces will be remembered for its religious madnesses around climate and gender and the victimhood of minorities.

Sunday, December 31, 2023

NEW YEAR PIECES

NEW YEAR'S ASTRO-DICE 

Sun in Aquarius in the 10th House.


Going forward, this is a time for putting what you uniquely have to offer out into the world. It doesn't have to be noticed by a lot of people, it just needs to be out there. It is something different, that breaks up the rigid moulds that humanity usually creates around anything over time. If you are bothered by what other people might think, then consider that a warrior training: Aquarius is not a wallflower 😆

 

THE PARADIGM SHIFT OF 2024-26

The Berlin Wall fell on 9 Nov 1989, 3 days before Saturn made his 3rd conjunction with Neptune in Capricorn: the dissolution (Neptune) of a wall (Saturn/Capricorn). Saturn makes stuff happen - transits involving him and Neptune or Pluto often bring world-changing events. It is not so much the event itself - a wall coming down, twin towers coming down - as the significance, the political implications. 4 years ago Saturn conjoined Pluto and Covid happened: not in fact the most major of diseases, but much of the world shut down in over-reaction, with huge economic and social consequences.


Saturn and Neptune will conjoin in just over 2 years. Who knows what this will bring? Most astrologers saw something big coming up at the start of 2020, with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, but none of us could have guessed what it would be. Who foresaw Communism collapsing in 1989? (Actually Liz Greene got it pretty much right in her 1985 The Outer Planets and Their Transits.)

We have 3 years of paradigm shift in the world, as Pluto beds into Aquarius in 24-25, and then Saturn-Neptune takes over. And Uranus enters Gemini. All 3 collective planets changing sign.

Pluto in Aquarius is already bringing AI to the forefront. The first wave of AI was in the late 1700s, the Industrial Revolution, when complex machines first began to do our work for us. That was when Pluto was last in Aquarius. It was also the time of the American and French Revolutions. The power (Pluto) of the people (Aquarius). This time, we have the culture wars. Now it is not enough for the power of the people to be centre stage: it is the oppressed minorities who are being thrust centre stage. Those who think this has gone too far call it 'woke'. It is a battle that has been won by the 'woke' at many universities (we saw the black woman head of Harvard defending calls for Jewish genocide recently, in defence of Palestinians, and keeping her job), and it may rage in the wider culture in the years to come, as graduates become influential in the world.

Neptune, as ever, is harder to see. What has Neptune in Pisces brought with it? The dissolution of gender? The feeling that the end of the world is near through climate change?

OK, here is a stab at one meaning of Neptune in Aries: the end of apocalyptic thinking around climate-change. I will intrude my own opinion to say such thinking is silly: humanity has always been able to adapt to change, and we are now better at it than ever. So it is the apocalyptic mindset that will dissolve, as the power (Pluto) of our inventiveness (Aquarius) in relation to climate moves forward.

Saturn and Neptune in Aries very much suggests a new vision for humanity. The transit of Neptune through Pisces has produced collective madnesses that I think many of us have felt, from the over-reaction to Covid through to the extremes of wokeness and fears of climate armageddon. The teenage transgender epidemic - and tragedy - and Just Stop Oil are emblematic of the madnesses we have been living through.

As Pluto and Neptune change signs, I think we will begin to see these madnesses for what they are. Last time Neptune entered Aries was the time of the American Civil War, which brought a new vision for the country. There is a new vision brewing, it may have to be fought for (Aries), and its early stages will present themselves at the end of 2025/start of 2026 as Neptune and Saturn line up.
 
 
OPEN TO INVITES...
I'm not a great advertiser of myself. But I reckon I'm good at running workshops of many varieties. It's something I love to do. I've been at it for nearly 40 years in one way or another. In my youth it was Buddhism. After a major revamp that turned into Astrology, Tarot, Medicine Wheel, Journeying, Pipe Ceremonies, Sweatlodges, Trance Dances and just general chewing stuff over: maybe my favourite :) I prefer not to plan too much, and let things unfold in their own way.

The point of a teacher is to edge you in the direction of your own inner guidance. That is why I say cherish the things you don't agree with me about. If you've been in this group a while, I will almost certainly have said some things you don't agree with 🤣

I have 2 books as a sort of CV (pictures below), published by Moon Books in 2022. I'm not that inclined to set up workshops myself, but if you would like me to come and do something foran evening or a day or even a week, I will probably say yes, enthusiastically. Anywhere in the world! As long as I don't lose money on it. Happy to sleep in a tent. Or my van :)

 
 
FATE, FREE WILL and TIME
Free Will is causality moving forward in time: what you do now bringing about an effect in the future. Fate is causality moving backwards in time: the future reaching out and bringing about an effect in the present. You can never be entirely sure how much is due to one, and how much is due to the other. Astrology takes place at the interface between these 2 causalities.
 
 
THE SHAPESHIFTERS TRILOGY
 

The chart above is for when I began writing my first book in 2021. It was not planned, one morning I just thought dammit, start. It is weighty, with all the Capricorn 10th. Before Christmas I signed a contract with an American publisher for my 3rd book, The Shapeshifters Trilogy, a shamanic fantasy in which those who can adopt animal form are abominated, but end up helping to save the world from a tyrannical cult of reason. I didn't plan the chart, I never do, I think that is counter-productive to trusting one's own inner guidance. 
 

The Shapeshifters Sun-MC aligns nicely with the 1st chart's Venus and MC, and is also sextile Jupiter and Saturn. I am Capricornian in my ambitions: I want something that will sell slowly and steadily over a long period. A cult classic, that is what I'd like it to be 😎

Book Cover painting by Ali Broughton

I particularly like the Mars-Mercury conjunction is Sag in the 9th. Perfect for signing a contract with a foreign publisher. I chose my moment well! Mercury is retrograde, but to me that just means there will be a few things to iron out along the way.