Lammas, or Lughnasadh, the festival of the first harvest, falls around the midway point of the Sun’s journey through Leo. The sign of fixed fire, this is often the season of highest summer although right now we have rain and wind here in the UK. The first stirrings of autumn that we often feel around this time have perhaps been with us for a while this year. Whilst elsewhere, the sun blazes brighter and hotter than usual. “Usual” is fast... Read more
A few days ago Venus slowed and turned retrograde in Leo. Her apparent movement backward lasts for 40 days or so, until the beginning of September. If Venus in Leo is our inner queen, now we are called to find that sovereignty within us. It’s easy to default to finding our Venus outside of ourselves, in our relationships, and in what others reflect back to us. But Venus in Leo is self-willed, self-focused, and learning to value herself. Venus in... Read more
As I type, the Moon’s Nodes are hovering exactly on the cusp of Scorpio and Taurus and in just a few hours will move back into Libra and Aries. All of the planets have Nodes, which simply means the point where the orbit of the heavenly body intersects with the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun through the heavens from our geocentric viewpoint, that is, from where we stand on Earth. I kind of love that... Read more
Venus and Mars are both striding and strutting through fiery Leo right now. Mars is there for another 10 days or so but Venus will be there a lot longer. Including her retrograde period which starts on July 23rd, she’ll be in Leo for several months. It’s always interesting when these traditionally male and female planets come close together. Actually, I’m not fond of that particular binary so let’s talk about active and relational instead. In Leo, both are expressing... Read more
Solstice is almost upon us, with the Sun moving into Cancer at 14:57 UT on June 21st. Here in the northern hemisphere, it’s Summer Solstice, the peak of the light and the longest day. Whichever hemisphere we are in, we are halfway through the solar cycle. In the southern hemisphere, the longest night marks the darkest point of the year and now the days will begin to lengthen. And here in the north, even as we celebrate the peak of... Read more
There’s a new moon in Gemini coming up, at 4:37 UT on 18th June. The seed point of a new moon is a popular time these days for setting intentions and magic to start new projects. This is all good, although I’m a little wary of this seed point as the “new” energy. For me as for many astrologers, the conjunction of the moon and sun which begins the lunar cycle is the dark moon. The moon is hidden by... Read more
So I’m aware that I’ve dived right in here without giving too much background. Maybe because that’s the nature of astrology, which shows us the nature of the moment and the ways we can seize it. But in case you’re wondering who I am and what I’m doing here (!), here are some thoughts. I’m a professional astrologer – I see clients, and I teach astrology classes. I do that because astrology is central to who I am and to... Read more
The Sun has moved into Gemini, the sign of mutable air, and I find myself looking up all the time. I’m a bit obsessed, as I am every year, with watching the swifts. The air is their realm, their arena, where they play and spiral and twist with the air currents. Gemini energy is just like that, light and curious and all-embracing. Air is as much an absence as it is a presence. We are utterly immersed in it, unable... Read more
There’s a new moon, or dark moon in Taurus today – the perfect time to start a new column! The Sun and Moon meet in Taurus – but they are not alone. There’s a whole gathering of planets (including the North Node, which is technically a point in space). Jupiter, Mercury, and Uranus are there too, so Taurus energy is especially intense today and in the coming days. It’s a Taurus party! So it will inevitably involve plenty of good... Read more
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