This comes from Erin Sullivan’s excellent work Retrograde Planets: [In the Iliad] Hermes is designated by Zeus himself to be the companion of man. This is symbolic of Mercury’s role in the horoscope as the translator of all sensory data as they are assimilated into the conscious mind. Mercury might be the single most important planet in the horoscope since it is through Mercury that we not only absorb but also disseminate all of our perceptions. In the course of... Read more

Chiron was discovered nearly thirty years ago on November 1, 1977. Astronomically, Chiron is classified as one of the Centaurs, a collection of minor planets found between Saturn and Uranus. However, because Chiron exhibited a “coma”, or tail, some astronomers wanted to classify Chiron as a comet. Currently, it is officially classified as BOTH a comet and a minor planet. Chiron’s orbit takes 50.7 years, but due to its elliptical orbit it moves through some signs much more quickly than... Read more

You can read the whole article here, but here’s an excerpt of what the planets are doing in early November: Over the past six months we have been in a heavy retrograde period but recently Pluto, Chiron and then Neptune changed direction so that now only Mercury and Uranus are in retrograde motion (appearing to move backwards from our perspective on earth). At one point this past summer six planets were retrograde, making it difficult to move forward with our... Read more

Some of this is taken from my earlier article on Reese. One thing that struck me (I wrote this originally for the National Ledger site) is yet another marriage that ends in seven years. Some of you will remember this earlier article I wrote correlating the Seven Year Itch with the Saturn cycle and speculating about a Saturn cycle in the composite chart (the chart of the relationship between two people). Saturn takes twenty-eight years to orbit the Sun, and... Read more

Graphic from Mythinglinks.org Halloween truly is a pagan practice, recognizing that this so-called holiday is actually rooted in the old Celtic festival of Samhain. Although Halloween is commonly celebrated on October 31, the festival of Samhain is a cross-quarter holiday that occurs at the midpoint between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice on November 7. Astrologically, Samhain (along with the other cross-quarter days of Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasad) is celebrated at the midpoint of the fixed signs of Taurus,... Read more

Art by Leif LeithIn ancient times, humans were more intimately connected to the tides of nature and consequently felt more subject to the whim of fate than we do today. The ancient Greeks viewed Fate as three sisters that made up a single triple goddess: the Moirae, most likely from the ancient word “moera” meaning a phase. The Moirae did not decide the fate of humans, but they supervised it. Each of the three Moirae, or Fates, were represented by... Read more

photo by Rainer Holzm courtesy of Corbis THOU art the sky and thou art the nest as well.0 thou beautiful, there in the nest it is thy love that encloses the soul with colours and sounds and odours.There comes the morning with the golden basket in her right hand bearing the wreath of beauty, silently to crown the earth.And there comes the evening over the lonely meadows deserted by herds, through trackless paths, carrying cooldraughts of peace in her golden... Read more

Mercury turned retrograde early this morning, turning our attention inward for increased self-awareness. Added to the heavy Scorpio influence, this is a very good time for introspection and writing, for psychotherapy and psychodrama, and for going back and re-doing anything that needs it. Mercury Rx periods have a bad reputation, but that is only because our Western minds place a priority on outward progress and accomplishment. While it’s true that it can be difficult to complete projects that are begun... Read more

There will be a transit of Mercury across the Sun November 8, just in time for the US elections. This is a different event than a simple conjunction of Mercury and the Sun; it is more like an eclipse where we are actually able to see Mercury silhouetted against the disk of the Sun. See the NASA site for the technical information. There are only thirteen such transits of Mercury in a century so they are a relatively rare event.... Read more

We’ve had a rough time astrologically over the past year, which may account for the explosion in new astrology blogs. We get a brief respite in 2007 (except for the opposition of Saturn to Neptune), and then the countdown starts to 2012. Astrologically, the period around 2012 brings a number of major aspects that are big and challenging, but that also have the potential to bring tremendous change and transformation. The square of Uranus to Pluto, heralding a cultural change... Read more