The Rising Sun of the Montmarte
Ikigai and the Earth Houses
Searching for Ikigai is a life’s work for many people, and that’s even before they get started on the actual task that has been found to be ‘the one’. It is little surprise therefore that it is one of the areas for study in which I am most frequently consulted in my work.
The Dream Dealer
I believe that Neptune is given a fabulously good press by contemporary astrology, and one that is scarcely deserved. Certainly, Neptune’s reputation is enormously positive compared to his brother Pluto’s, and yet I am endlessly sceptical about how deserving of his many generous epithets Neptune truly is. Like the ocean, Neptune seems beautiful, yearning and restive, a vastness of potential and a personification of a gentle eternity, but it seems that way from the perspective of the safe shore. Anyone who has been beyond sight of land in a black and angry sea understands that Neptune’s power is just as dread as his brother’s; equally as alien and inhumane.
How big is your Pluto?
This is an interesting diagram which delineates the 'strength' of Pluto through the signs. With Pluto, stronger does not mean better, it means, well, stronger. To have sympathy with an energy does not always mean to have more of it, indeed, Pluto is subtle, deep and most of all hidden, so to have Pluto in... Continue Reading →
Future Imperfect
I think one of the great uncharted territories of astrology lies in the arena of prediction. It's probably foolhardy, as an astrologer to even try, but we all fall for it from time to time, on any map of useful astrological employments, prediction ought to be accompanied by appropriate warning: "here be dragons" or somesuch.... Continue Reading →
Daybreak and the 12th House Sun
Why exactly all the fuss about the 12th house Sun? I hear the reality of a 12th house Sun bemoaned on a frequent basis. That Venus in the 12th has its plus points too, but generally, wouldn't it be better for me if...? It's funny, because nobody makes a great hue and cry about having... Continue Reading →
The Astrology of Breaking Down
Today’s article is a story. Not a made-up story, it’s a real-life story, a part of my own story, and it demonstrates, I believe, just how astonishingly powerful astrology is when you are open to its most fundamental principles, when you are fluent (and that’s a potent word in this context) in its language, and... Continue Reading →
Erisian Elusiveness, Plutonic Potential
Here is an interesting idea. Eris, Goddess of Discord, so named after being more or less directly responsible for the declassification of Pluto as a genuine planet and his reclassification as a 'dwarf planet' - if anyone is going to take Pluto down a notch or two it had to be Eris (the sister of... Continue Reading →
An Accident of Birth?
I am by no means a traditionalist when it comes to the study of astrology, but by the same token neither am I so much of a modernist that I am happy to discard much of the ancient wisdom either. In truth my only genuine difficulty with traditional astrology is its fixed bias, but I... Continue Reading →
Pluto through the signs: what’s your obsession?
Today, I wanted to make a study of the various effects experienced under the transits of Pluto, but I would like to make a few remarks before I attempt that article about the particular ambience of Pluto in the signs, from Cancer through to the present time. The two themes cannot be treated entirely separately,... Continue Reading →
Dignity and debility and the fine art of furniture making.
Ancient astrologers placed enormous emphasis on dignity and debility in the nativity. Any proficient astrologer will be well aware of the classical assignments, but fundamentally the theory of essential dignity suggests that planets are considered to be more ideal in some signs than in others. Of course, this mode of thinking is relativistic and leans... Continue Reading →
A Sense of Saturn (Part 2)
Saturn is very comfortable in Libra, the sign of its exaltation, and to some extent it embodies, via the polarity some of the youthful potential of Saturn in Aries. Britney then relates and appears as a Libra Saturn, while Prince William will be motivated to try and create a life purpose from it. This suggests... Continue Reading →
A Sense of Saturn: through the signs…
Astrology simply cannot be about lists. A list of qualities is an attempt to extrapolate something that is innate and this is fundamentally why there is no better adjective to describe the quality of Saturn than Saturnine. We can use approximations that flesh out this fundamental and core energy such as thoughtful, austere, serious and... Continue Reading →
The 8th House: A Good Death?
If you're a halfway competent astrologer and you have no interest in knowing how you're likely to meet your maker, then stop reading now. Today I am going to explore some of the key insights relating to death in the nativity; it is a profoundly difficult subject for very obvious reasons and not one that... Continue Reading →
Lost in Translation: Neptune in the 3rd
Today, I would like to look a little at the various manifestations of Neptune in the 3rd house. It is never kind to mock the afflicted. However, since I can speak entirely subjectively - I have Neptune in the first few degrees of the 3rd in Scorpio - I feel I am allowed some absolution.... Continue Reading →
Why is a square?
It seems like a perfectly obvious question, but it's one that most astrologers seldom think to ask, not least, I suspect, because there are certain unquestioned assumptions in astrology as much as in any other field of study: and thus a square is simply a square because it's a square! This logic has always troubled... Continue Reading →
The Astrology of Marital Breakdown…
It is unfortunate that love, perhaps more in keeping with Artemis than Aphrodite both waxes and wanes and there is no doubt whatever where the one is wondrous and fair, the other may often be laced with venom. I have advised a considerable number of clients in this particular regard and I have enough theoretical... Continue Reading →
The astrology of marriage
Today, I want to discuss, broadly and without being too definitive about it, the astrology of marriage. Almost immediately, there is a slight difficulty because semantics are involved, but in this instance I determine marriage to be any significant partnership with another human being in which you share affection, a duty of care and -... Continue Reading →
Venus in Virgo, Venus in Pisces: same difference?
So then adepts, here is a question that my grandfather would have asked when he wanted to make the most important point in the entire philosophy of the astrology. What is the difference between Venus in Virgo in the 12th and Venus in Pisces in the 6th? You can say that the former induces a... Continue Reading →