Rather than viewing your Uranus placement as a description of your individuality, it helps to understand why you became so individuated in the first place. And usually, that story involves some trauma.
Uranus: The Cosmic Crank
Hard Times – The Astrology of Charles Dickens
Let us talk about the nativity of the wonderful, flawed soul that was Charles Dickens. My own experience was at first indifferent. Despite an interest in reading the classics, many years passed before I decided to read some Dickens, I first read Great Expectations several years ago and did...
The Cancerian Woman
Beauty comes from the happiness within — Liv Tyler I'm pretty damn hot, if you ask me — Khloe Kardashian (Okay, a slightly facetious quote selection, but you get the drift.) Last time we talked about rendering a more subtle apprehension of using rulers to inform an archetype instead of...
A Subtle Astrology
“We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence." — Philip Pullman Today, let us attempt to appreciate, in all it’s fundamental magnificence, the importance of rulership. Rulership is the golden key to understanding. Indeed, it is perhaps the...
Anatomy of the Kite
This week we take a deep dive into the Kite pattern, and really get underneath the glittering outer promise of so many trines and sextiles, to understand that the Kite is not entirely a balm to the soul, even if it offers great benefits to the initiated. The Kite begins...
Celestial Songs: June 13th – 19th
Monday Moon square Orcus Today’s energies are not easy at first glance, but it’s better than it looks. With Moon in Sagittarius there is a temptation to explore, to travel or to expand the mind, but there is nonetheless a rather solitary sense about it, and this might feel challenging. But time alone can nonetheless... Continue Reading →
Celestial Forecast June 6th – 12th
Overall, a tricky week, Saturn stationed yesterday - Saturn retrograde is like the teacher walking out of the classroom. You can take a nap or study but when she comes back you’re gonna have to take the test (thanks for this great analogy Sarah) - just as the Moon makes in the direction of discomfiting... Continue Reading →
Celestial Forecast May 30th – June 6th
This week starts with a new Moon in Gemini, good for starting new writing, communication, or school projects. Moon trines Saturn on Tuesday, concentrate on building firm foundations in your local community. Go for a kickabout in the park with the kids. From Wednesday the Moon comes home to the sign of Cancer, it’s a... Continue Reading →
Eris the Iconoclast, Part 2
Yesterday, we made our initial foray into the archetype of Eris. We got an impression of stirring up, of shocking or unsettling opinions and behaviours. Erisian people are contrarians, and they often espouse controversial or unpopular views. Before we go on to examine case studies, let us think about the...
Eris the Iconoclast, Part 1
After reading about yet another storm in a teacup fomented by British TV “personality” Piers Morgan I have recently been giving some thought to the principle of Eris, an archetype that seems to me to be increasingly prevalent in society’s various discourses. I had a very strong sense of Morgan’s Erisian nature, and when I... Continue Reading →
Seeing the Astrology with Johnny pt. 2
So, here we are again, getting to grips with Johnny as a means of understanding how to see what is important in a chart. We are stepping through each component and learning as we go, what we need to take notice of. Yesterday, we came to see that Johnny is...
Seeing the Astrology with Johnny
Seeing the astrology with clarity is the aim of the astrologer. To be successful in this objective, we must learn to understand what is important, and what is, we will not say unimportant, but what is less important. It is not always easy to narrow down the chart to be...
The Hidden Trauma of Trines
Writing books is not easy – of course, one would expect this, so there are no myths being busted in the making of this observation – but while most people who have attempted to write are familiar with blocks to exposition, there is another pertinent pitfall, and that is knowing when to not keep writing... Continue Reading →
Pluto Work
Pluto is a special case in the astrology, not at all the same as personal planets which have direct, measurable influence and manifest openly and outwardly. Instead, Pluto operates covertly, unconsciously, and often, compulsively and is thereby rendered obscure. Like a malady, he cannot be seen, so much as experienced,...
Sun with Neptune: Letting Go
Last time we looked at a fairly simple example of blending the archetypal qualities of Mars with Jupiter, and then we added Saturn to the mix. There are many approaches to blending archetypal concepts, but the most productive is to apprehend the underlying principles of each planet in the mix,...
Blending Planetary Archetypes
Astrology is hard because we cannot simply add together elements and obtain reliable results as with a sum or even an equation. We can take measurements, which provide insights, but even having done so, we are still faced with seemingly amorphous and uncertain concepts that we cannot simply place in...
A Chiron in Aries Reference
Sometimes astrology can be frustratingly sparse on outcomes. Regular readers will know that I have written on Chiron in Aries before (specifically here and here) and these disucss underlying dynamics. What though, can we expect in practical terms from these placements? You can apply these to transits too, and it's...
Mars – Pluto in the Female Chart
Mars – Pluto is in many ways rather under-represented in the astrological parade of stellar combinations. It is one of the less discussed pairings, compared to say, Venus – Pluto, who attracts all sorts of special mentions and lyrical insights by comparison. Why should this be? In part it is because the two signatures are... Continue Reading →
Astrology Foundations: The Ascendant
The Ascendant is one of the cornerstones of basic personality, but it doesn't just happen by chance, rather it evolves in the first years of life as a response to the environment and is constellated from a need to feel safe and to be approved of. Today we are going...
The Esoteric Principle of Jupiter and Saturn
In our most recent tutorial, we discussed – among other matters arcane and esoteric – the principle of Saturn alongside its counterpoint, the principle of Jupiter in their disposition vis-a-vis hard and easy aspects. This understanding is based upon the foundational methods of the greater benefic and malefic in their...