I don’t normally get personal, but I’m saddened by the loss of John Michell, who died from cancer last Thursday.  Arguable the founder of the current ‘earth energies’ movement, his absolutely seminal book from the late 60’s, ‘The New View over Atlantis’, launched many people, myself included, into a field of consciousness exploration involving the landscape and the magic inherent in it.  A truly magic man who I was privileged to meet, host a couple of times, and engage with.  All of his works are required reading for students of geomancy, earth consciousness and ancient sciences preserved in the landscape.  A great loss.  We would sit around camp fires and argue about the validity of fairies, crop circles, UFO’s, ley lines etc.  It was him who convinced me that the crop circles were of terrestrial origin, as opposed to non-terrestrial.  So he’d like this, the latest offering – go here.  And I’ve shared a few emails with some of you recently about dance – so go here and press play to see something truly phenomenal, and then go here for an old favourite and I challenge you not to be smiling broadly within thirty seconds.

The start of the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction is represented by the swine flu outbreak.  This will die down by the end of May, but there may be a much bigger surge in December - I would expect something like this.  What's making it particularly bad at the moment is that both Venus and Mars are at the start of Aries, squaring Pluto.  Talk about volatility and hysteria!  The fear will evaporate within a week.  And if you've got planets on or around the solstice or equinox points and are getting clobbered in recent days, hang in there - or even better come to your favourite astrologer for an update!

Pure astrology here...  Moon/Mercury interactions.  The Moon represents your feelings, emotions, sensitivities, habit patterns and general day to day life, it's your basic personality.  Mercury is the way you read, write, speak, travel and move, it's communication at all levels, whether mental, verbal or mobile.  If you have these two sextile or trine in your chart, there is a blend of the mental and the feelingful that gives a balanced perspective on the world.  A conjunction of the two blends the mind and the feelings, whilst the opposition between the two creates a kind of fusion when the person is constantly torn and has to act rather than think or feel.  The square produces the person who plans things but fails because they don't feel like it at the time, or who feels something strongly but the rationalises it away.  Sometimes the intellect and the emotions are different sides of the same coin, and it takes a crisis of confidence to realise that imbetween the two lies the internal knowing, the internal learning, the in-tuition.  When all else fails, trust the body - although dancing helps, right?

Jupiter/Neptune will cloud, obscure and misinform, and the coming Mercury retrograde will make all information have a quicksand or treacle like capacity.  This is not a pandemic, although all the astrological indicators suggest it may be.  There will be a lot of mixed and confusing signals on this one right through to the end of May, but it is worth noting that this aspect repeats itself again in a much stronger form at the end of December this year.  That worries me to a certain extent.....  but wash your hands, eat natural antibiotics and stay positive and all will be well.

Jupiter conjunct Neptune - three different versions, with Jupiter amplifying Neptune at every opportunitty.  Neptune as oil, Jupiter bigging up the oil price - no, that's already happened and that's caused the economic mess we're in.  Neptune in Aquarius is about the dream and illusion of the common man, seeking for the Christ like figure who will lead us from this mess.  It's the time of false prophets, of cults, sects, religions and theologies that promise to show us the light, whether it's a non existent pension or insurance plan when and if we retire, or God promising us heaven after we die, or politicians promising us jam tomorrow.  Neptune rules virals and toxins, and with Jupiter amplifying this there is the potential for the hype and spin of the current virus scare to get well out of hand.  Jupiter/Neptune makes things larger than they are, particularly in terms of fear and neurosis.  Later in the year, when Jupiter conjuncts Neptune again at the end of December, then we may get serious epidemics, yes.  But pandemic at this time?  Well possibly, but this coming month is full of both the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction as well as a dodgy Mercury retrograde squaring ...

It's ridiculously early and here I am setting off for another day of readings...   don't let anyone tell you that an astrologer has it easy, I work a 90 hour week on average.  Yes, it's new Moon in less than 24, yes Mars has now passed into Aries and the brakes are off - now comes the 'false messiahs' that I've been predicting for a number of years.  May, with its Mercury retrograde and Jupiter/Neptune conjunction, is likely to bring very confusing information.  individaul clients are advised not to sign any long term binding bits of paper now until early June.  And this happened last night.  In mature plants with brittle and hollow stems two centimetres wide.  Of course, it's just the wind, or humans.  Of course it is.

A few hours ago both the Moon and Mars moved into Aries within fifteen minutes of each other, there's a new energy in town, the time for action is upon us.  Admittedly, the next few days are critical with the square betwen Mars and Pluto challenging everyone born on or near the solstices or the equinoxes, but by the beginning of next month there will be clear signs of old endings and new beginnings.  And yes, I will do an article on Obama - once we're into the second hundred days.

Someone correctly pulled me up on something I wrote yesterday - the recent periods of transformation and intensity that have affected us all one way or another are not necessarily a bad thing, and that for some of us recent months have been a time of positive transformation, suggesting that right now and over the coming few days there are golden chances to actualise, to manifest and to make real.  But still, with all the upcoming squares to Pluto, exercise caution and watch your collective backs.  And just in case you're thinking of relaxing once the current spate of Mars conjunctions, oppositions and squares are over, guess what?  It's our old friend Mercury retrograde starting up again at the beginning of May, so information and news is going to have an element of intangilbility about it.  More on that nearer the time, but I don't think it's going to be a stinker.  And to end, a dig at a discredited and sad figure.  Not all Sun square Saturn individuals are bad, indeed most of them are very hard workers who struggle to bring structure and determination into their lives, mainly successfully.  But some Sun square Saturn individuals need to be ...

In terms of personal development, I still maintain that April is the pimple on top of the boil.  We've had Mars/Saturn, we've had Mars/Uranus, now we're at the start of a six week conjunction of Mars and Venus.  In a few days, they move together with the Moon into Aries, immediately square Pluto, and create an energy dynamic which seems to me to be one of the two most dangerous times of the year, albeit only for a few days.  If you've been on the end of manipulative or underhand energies over the last two years, and particularly if the period of the last week of December really changed things forever, then the coming week will start the permanent process of welding doors shut forever.  And it will hurt.  But it will only last a week.  In forty eight hours time the world will be a different place - it's important to tread the middle path at the moment.  And the boys are back in town.  Go here, and then go here.

In terms of personal development, I still maintain that April is the pimple on top of the boil.  We've had Mars/Saturn, we've had Mars/Uranus, now we're at the start of a six week conjunction of Mars and Venus.  In a few days, they move together with the Moon into Aries, immediately square Pluto, and create an energy dynamic which seems to me to be one of the two most dangerous times of the year, albeit only for a few days.  If you've been on the end of manipulative or underhand energies over the last two years, and particularly if the period of the last week of December really changed things forever, then the coming week will start the permanent process of welding doors shut forever.  And it will hurt.  But it will only last a week.  In forty eight hours time the world will be a different place - it's important to tread the middle path at the moment.  And - the boys are back in town.  Go here and then go here.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but I've already done well over 300 readings this year.  This number came to light when researching how specific patterns seem to crop up  periodically in consecutive readings, sometimes seven out of ten people I see at an event will have similar aspects.  Because of this, I constantly jig the formulae that I use, trying to adapt to the times, and as a result of that I find that certain advice I give to clients sem to repeat itself a number of times over a few days.  Of course, it could be the universe telling me something, but that's too cosmic for me to work out.  One thing I have noticed recently - Mars/Neptune combinations.  Neptune is the link with the divine, the aesthetic and subtle, the visionary as well as the illusion and deception, the mist.  Mars is your physical energy in all shapes and forms, whether gym, bedroom, garden or dog walking.  A combination of the two sometimes gives physical addiction - to exercise, sex, drugs etc - but also can be used in a positive way through being physically creative through pottery, theatre, film or photography, and particularly dance.  Neptune has an ...

Here's a subject I don't like to talk about but can't ignore.  The impending population crisis, conveniently ignored by politicians and environmentalists, corporates and churches - there are too many people on planet for our current lifestyles to be sustained.  When a virus overwhelms its host, one of two things happen.  Either both the host and the virus die, or the virus mutates from single into multi cellular oganisms, requiring less room and food.  I still believe in the prociess of accelerated evolution, it seems to me that we collectively are on an unstoppable course towards an unavoidable point of destiny that will change things for ever.  I don't like to think of large scale death, but an increasingly common phrase I keep hearing is that at any time we in the western world are only nine meals from anarchy.  If the supply chain breaks down, it will be those on medication who will suffer first, so the lesson here is get yourself off of the drugs , eat well, exercise and get fit.  Our system of life is so stuck in a rut of excess and profit driven motive that I can't conceive of a bright future for us ...

Mars conjunct Uranus in a couple of hours, particularly hitting the generation born in the mid-late 1960's in a way that's calling them to action.  This time is symbolic of opening the flood gates, allowing change to come in in a way that's not happened before.  It's a trigger time, one of throwing fishing lines into the future safely confident that at least one or two are going to bring in a good catch.  There are new beginnings being born now, out of the frustration and impotence of the last six months, and in the short term things are somewhat feisty and tenuous.  Hang in there!

So my day started with me being described as astrology's Gordon Ramsay - not sure how I feel about that, my face isn't that lined, and I don't swear as much as him, but I admire the sentiment......  OK, we're getting to the business end of the month.  The decisions have been made, now it is time for action.  With a Venus, Mars and Uranus conjunction over the coming few days, there will be sudden changes and incisive actions that will cut the crap and change things forever. The wave of change is turning into a tsunami, and you either surf or flounder.  The anticipation and even trepidation of recent months is now at peak, something has to give - make sure it isn't you.  If the above describes you, then make choices you'll be proud of in times to come - and give your favourite astrolooger a ring!

Mars/Saturn is drawing to an end - the plug is being pulled, it's the lancing of the pimple on top of the boil.  In 2002-2004 many of you had to deal with crisis and trauma.  You survived by going into limbo, with 2007/8 pulling you back into the world either willingly or kicking and screaming.  From last October through to this July is the examination of the last seven years, with this last week the tip of the iceberg, with one more challenge to come in a few months.  Your corners have been knocked off, now what is left is ready for the rough and tumble of the coming week that is Mars conjunct Uranus.  It's going to get fast......

Well, that was some full Moon.  We are now through the first part of April, the Mars/Saturn anger, aggression and need for structured expression of recent days is just beginning to peter out.  But don’t worry, you can’t relax!  One thing exits, another enters.  This coming week sees an increasingly strong Mars/Uranus conjunction, bringing a great deal of spontaneity and chance taking to the fore.  Look at your chart and see what the house the end of Pisces falls in, and expect fireworks there, especially if Uranus is already affecting your chart.  There will be sudden actions that change the dynamic, more tinged towards the positive and the inventive rather than the traumatic.  But Jupiter is brewing, so the chances of further geological shakeups are also stronger than usual.  I repeat myself – April is the most difficult month of the year for many of us – live with it, grin and bear it, ride the wave and get ready for permanent change.

I am truly humbled by the response I’ve had to yesterday’s posting – I didn’t know I had so many listeners out there, thank you all so much for your comments, I can’t tell you how much they mean to me.  I’ve published a selection of the replies, but in response to many questions – no, I’m not going back.  What’s done is done, je ne regret rien.  The way I was summarily and instantly removed without warning or admonishment makes me realise that some of the people I was working with are just facsimiles of the corporate world disguised as ‘alternatives’,  and whilst I made a mistake it wasn’t that big.  And you can’t kill the spirit, so onwards.  Now – it’s full Moon in just over twenty four hours, and whilst the Sun and Moon are both working very well indeed with Jupiter, suggesting a degree of optimism and growth potential, there is still the ongoing opposition between Mars and Saturn to contend with, suggestive of old patterns collapsing and new structures of a more flexible nature coming in.  Time for hard decisions regarding endings – this is Saturn at its strongest, so don’t be scared ...

Briefly - The Caustic Astrologer is no more!  Glastonbury Radio, in their infinite wisdom, have chosen to sack me on the spot because of something derogatory that I said about one of the advertisers.  Well, that's Uranus for you.  Sudden changes.  But the glass is always half full, I'm really grateful to them for letting me learn my skills.  Something new will emerge, always does.   More tomorrow.

In regard to my hopeful comments about Obama, someone emailed in to say that if someone/thing is too good to be true, then it usually is!  Well, I thought I was cynical……  Nevertheless, the cult of Obama gathers pace and so far so good, I will be writing a piece on his chart specifically for this website over the coming week or so…..  And to the reader who said that they wished that Saturn lived in a different solar system – I used to think that, but now I’m older I see him as necessary for us to bring a degree of structure and form into our lives.  He is old father time, and whilst he’s not the easiest of energies he is ultimately reliable.  If you do things the hard way, then you only have to do them once!

‘We can either make events to lead us, or we can be lead by events’.  I’ve just this minute heard the Great One utter these words, and despite my ingrated distrust of politicians I still like him.  I’ve also just hear the British leader say that we are within just a few hours of a worldwide agreement around fiscal responsibility, and I just don’t believe that one.  Cleanliness starts at home, and will the British demonstrate their transparency by investigating and publicising the off shore tax avoidance of all of our major newspaper owners, or opening up the tax havens of Jersey, Guernsey or the Isle of Man?  Not a chance.  So what does the astrology say for this month?  Well, the coming week holds the Mars/Saturn opposition.  This is the pimple on top of the boil, I suspect that both globally and personally there will be a lancing of poison, and the first week of the month is definitely seen as a turn about point ...