End of the month stuff....  Bit worried that some of you may take my words too literally.  I forecast, not predict, and my words should be used only as a guide.  The planets impel, not compel and I just do my best to translate their meaning.  Just spent some time looking at my stats over the last three months, found out some really weird things about you lot out there...  In the last ninety days, for example, I've had 3 hits from Kenya, but 294 from Uganda (who the hell is watching me in Uganda?).  In the top ten cities in the world, there's four from the UK plus Hong Kong, New York, and amazingly given the numbers of population, four cities from Australia, with Melbourne just edging Sydney.  Guess I'll have to visit down there sometime.  Perhaps late July next year could ...

THE STORY OF THE ROSE

Sun.  A seed, vibrant in its completeness, solid in its identity and purpose, all knowing and all being, yet restless.  So the seed takers on nutrients and water, and seeks to go beyond its shell.  Moon.  The seed sends out tendrils, both up and down.  Down to consolidate roots, up to explore possible futures.  A little green shoot breaks the surface.  Mercury.  The shoot accelerates into rapid skyward growth, the adolescence of the plant.  Venus.  The bud forms at the top of the plant, with the protective leaves revealing just the first sign of the luscious leaves inside.  Mars.  The rose explodes into a fiery, vibrant and pungent ball of sensation.  Jupiter.  The flower expands, and becomes overly showy.  Saturn.  The rose loses its petals and leaves, naturally or through pruning.  Chiron. The plant knows that in one way it is dying, so prepares for metamorphosis.  Uranus.  The ...

Since the Grand Cross of '99 and 9/11, we as a species have lived through some of the most difficult times in human history.  At this time, as opposed to hundreds or thousands of years ago, the difficulty is not about life and death (apologies if you're in Zimbabwe or Burma, or for that matter Sri Lanka or Palestine), it's about extricating oneself from the morass of religion, confusion and materialism around us all.  The pressure of the last few years should begin to hit a plateau soon, and whilst Mars is still dancing and bringing things from the last seven years to a conclusion over the coming five weeks, I think that the biggest challenges for humankind as a species are now crystalising in readiness for a new beginning, which should be evident by early-mid September of this year.  Certain individuals, however....   ...

The Pisces/Virgo dichotomy continues, Uranus in Pisces and Saturn, shortly to be joined by Mercury, in Virgo.  A friend commented today that perhaps the transit of Uranus through Pisces is the final nail in the coffin for moderate religion, and that realistically, fundamentalism of all types can only rise in the short term.  That this is happening at the time of transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius is synchronistically so relevant for human evolution that it makes me wonder if God does, indeed, play dice with the Universe.  For centuries we have been lied to and denied of our inalienable human rights of equality and intuition.  Now that the impotence of world leaders is becoming obvious to all, except to those fundamentalists who need something to believe in, and the "new wave" of consciousness and intelligence is beginning to sweep the planet.  There is a madness sweeping this ...

I'm not going to waffle too long about the Big Green Gathering, because I know it doesn't mean that much to many of you.  But to the astrologers amongst us at the start of the BGG in 1994, it was clear that this was a seven year thing.  In 2001 I proposed closing it down and relaunching, but was knocked back.  So it goes.  The reasons it has been cancelled will never be crystal clear.  Certainly there are vested interests in the hierarchy of this country who don't want environmentalist attitudes to prevail, and amongst certain areas of the police and council there was opposition.  But if the damn thing had been organised properly, the forms filled in correctly and a realistic approach to finance embraced from the start instead of hippy dippy platitudes, everything would be watertight and it would have gone ahead.  And yes, with Jupiter on the BGG's Sun, and ...

What constitutes a ‘difficult' Neptune?  Enough of you have asked, so...  Most astrologers might define this as a square, inconjunction or opposition (90, 150 and 180 degrees) to/from the inner planets, often leading to identity issues/the artist (Sun), neurosis/intuition (Moon), confusion/imagination (Mercury), deception, unconditional love (Venus), quicksand/innovation (Mars), being ‘off planet'/spiritualised (Ascendant), and being rootless/glamourous (Midheaven).  But over thirty years of practice, I've learnt that in every challenge lies the potential to turn it into a skill, and that the positive way of manifesting Neptune in your life is to have a good relationship with the Divine, however you conceive of it as being, whether that be through the universe, creator, God, intuition, angels whatever...  I call it the upstairs department.  It physically manifests instantly in the area between the navel and the solar plexus, it is negated by alcohol and toxins, it ...

Extra...   I've just heard that the Big Green Gathering has been cancelled at the last minute.  As some of you will be aware, I was a founding member of the BGG, the whole Earth Energies area was my idea in 1994, and I was elected to the board of directors in November 2007 on a platform of transparency and a willingness to open up all of the financial transactions to public scrutiny.  I resigned at the end of July last year due to my lack of trust and faith in other director's financial judgement, a decision which has now been vindicated.  I feel angry and disappointed that something that I've fought for for fifteen years of my life has been trashed by what I see as the head in the sand mentality of a few incompetent idealists who refuse to face financial reality.  Thousands if not tens of thousands of ticket holders to whom this may have been their only holiday of the year have seemingly lost their money, as have the stallholders who have paid up front and the crew who won't be paid.  The Big Green was a part of my life, and now it's finished.  There will ...

As someone from Australia so adeptly pointed out, the conjunction of Jupiter to both Chiron and Neptune is bringing a typical Jupiterian spin on things, making issues of viral and toxin, health and healing all just a little bit over the top.  And Jupiter hit both Neptune and Chiron for the first time properly during April and May 2009, just as the fear and hype kicked in big time.  And it was during May 2009 that Mercury was retrograde in permanent square to Ju, Ne and Ch for an entire month - just as the virus spread worldwide.  Remember - less people have died of or caught swine flu than the average numbers for 'normal' flu.  More later today.  LATER...  As my blogs at the end of April and the start of May will confirm, at that time when swine flu was sweeping the world I was saying that this is all hype and spin.  I still think, howevr, that the middle two weks of December this year are likely to see a resurgence of virus scares, and also that the time of now until mid September the situation is going to get worse before getting better.  So inoculate if ...

Neptune is a planet covered in methane clouds, a gas giant that we can never really know all about.  It obscures, eludes and evades, as well as bringing spirituality, aestheticism and compassion.  In Aquarius, the sign of humanity and community from 1998 to 2012, I have associated Neptune here with oil and the ongoing warfare in the Middle East as well as the dissolving of orthodox religious attitudes and the rise of spirituality and environmental concerns.  I also find that a difficultly placed Neptune in one's horoscope shows a preponderance towards getting bunged up, a slightly higher than normal vulnerability to toxins, poisons and virals, and a tendency to get one's own psychic space invaded regularly.  Now, of course, both Jupiter and Chiron are together with Neptune, really upping its potential effects... - more tomorrow or perhaps later....  LATER  In the future, Neptune ...

You can use yesterday's eclipse as an excuse if you wish, but the real action apart from a few of you  doesn't start for another week yet.  But believe me, August is going to be very developmental indeed.  All the politicians and top bankers are on their three month break, few are expecting August to be anything but silly season.  I'm bucking the trend here, I think that August will be the most important month of the year.  I hear all the ‘experts' telling me that the currencies are up, the markets are up, there's light on the horizon, and I think they're looking in the rear view mirror.  And I think that the first shots of the new changes coming in are imminent - I expect some revelations about ancient history, notably nine/eleven.  I hope I'm wrong, and that by mid September we'll all be living in the land of milk and ...

Eclipse blues.....   Should be spectacular, as far as astronomy goes. The astrology says that there isn't much to it, apart from the odd geological phenomena  A fair few of you have emailed me about this eclipse, wondering what it will do to your charts.  Well, unless it is your birthday within two days of today or January 20, not a lot.  Having said that, eclipses are generally about endings and new beginnings, so I expect a few crises and traumas, but I just don't get the feeling that astrologically, this is of any substance.

Continuation (Finale)....   I remember fifteen years ago suggesting that Pluto in Sagittarius would see the end of religion as we knew it and that issues of truth and lies would predominate.  Uranus at the end of Pisces now, just starting to square Pluto, is the end of 2,000 years of dominator imposed suffering in the name of false gods. Saturn in Virgo is assessing, surveying, measuring and judging much of the last fifteen years.  And Mars in Gemini for the next six weeks is going to close doors finally and permanently, but in order to do that it will need to make cuts here and there.  There are three separate periods during August when Mars dominates, with Saturn bringing the final mop up in early September.  Now I know I'm losing people because I'm too ‘heavy', and some of you want me to lighten up, but I can only say it as I ...

Continuation (3).....    Over the last decade of so, Pluto has forever changed many people's lives, pushing them into an area where they've survived only by stepping back into limbo. In the last six years, Uranus the awakener has played his role, and in the last twenty months Saturn has come along like a vacuum cleaner and begun to clear the mess.  Now, just in the last few days, Mars has entered Gemini and a type of end game has begun.  Over the coming five weeks, a large number of doors are permanently and finally closing in a way that is suggestive not of suppression and repression but of issues being finally resolved, folded up and put away forever.  So now and the coming few weeks are times to bring things to an end, because how can the future come in cleanly if it has to negotiate lot of old worn baggage?  There are many new beginnings indicated in September, so clear the decks cleanly whilst you still can, and don't be scared to bring things that have been lingering on for a number of years to an end.  Those things, people, situations and environments that are still around you by ...

Continuation (2)....  Saturn moved into Virgo halfway through 2007, and since then it's been accelerating the stress, gravity and pressure that's been hitting the mutable signs over recent years.  I'm not going to preach about Saturn:  done it too many times.  From September 2007 to July 2008 Saturn hit those Virgos, Saggies, Gems and Pisces born in August, November, February and May.  Since September 2008 to the current time he's affecting those born around the 4^th to the 11^th of your month.  Now he's speeding up, and catching up with both Uranus and Pluto.  As he accelerates, so he wraps up, cleanses, eliminates, prioritises, streamlines and focuses whilst giving you what seems like a thoroughly good kicking at the same time.  And August and September Saturn starts summarising much of the last year, with a number of permanent choices and decisions being made.  So Pluto, Uranus and Saturn getting feisty with each other, ...

Continuation (1)....  Uranus moved into Pisces in 2003, and stays there until end 2010.  Uranus brings change, which manifests in many ways.  It brings chaos, unpredictability, sudden disruptive circumstances that pull the rug from under your feet and an all round feeling of instability.  And/or it can bring words like liberty, ndependence and freedom, enabling you to break the mould and throw it away ready to begin again.  As Uranus entered Pisces in 2003, it affected the people that Pluto trashed in 1995/6.  In 2006 Uranus changed those people that Pluto cauterised in 2000/1/2, and in 2009 Uranus is liberating those who got Pluto'd in 2005/6.  This acceleration is seen in the heavens by the coming of the Uranus/Pluto square, strongest in three years time, and last seen in the early 1930's.  So during the last twelve years, Pluto has put most if not all of the mutable signs into limbo, with the ...

This week's blogs are linked...  Pluto entered the mutable sign of Sagittarius in 1995, and left in late 2008.  During that time, every Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces (the mutable signs) would have experienced Plutonic energy in ways that could be seen as crisis, trauma, intensity and extremes, ultimately leading to death and rebirth.  Tha later in your sign you are, the later this would have happened.  For example, if you were born on the 27^th it would have been around 1997, born on or around the 5^th then in 2001, born on or around the 15/16^th then 2005/6.  And although in every case you survived these periods of crisis, perhaps the only way you did this was by stepping into limbo, where no-one and nothing could touch you, in some cases for a fair few years.  And you could have floundered in that limbo indefinitely if it weren't for the attentions of ...

It's weekend, only the regulars are looking, so I can ramble safely...  Continuation of yesterday.  As I theorised yesterday, I choose to believe that Earth interacts with us subtly through landscape and our perception of it to a far greater degree than we suspect.  If that is so, then we (humanity) become the interface between heaven and earth, the nanobots of evolution, stuck in this thin membrane of life between the dark void and the gross material.  To quote (here) McKenna, ‘Human history represents such a radical break with the natural systems of biological organization that preceded it, that it must be the response to a kind of attractor, or dwell point that lies ahead in the temporal dimensions'.  But the difference between us and other forms of life is that we can anticipate futures, predict, hope, laugh and love in a way that no other species seems to do (apart, possibly, ...

One of my papers for my MA was on the existence (or not) of ley lines in the city of Bath.  I scoured old books and maps, found out about old legends, walked the paths, climbed church towers with binoculars and theodolytes, used GPS and Google Earth, and at the end of the day disproved six of the eight alleged ley lines in Bath.  But two were rock solid, accurate to ten feet over eight miles of hills, valleys and such like, linking churches, springs and prominent landscape features with buildings on 1,000 years apart in age.  So does this point to a plan amongst certain elite members of humanity to superimpose geometric patters on the landscape (the 'conspiracy' theory) for their own purpose over millenia?  No.  No-one keeps secrets for that long over that scale.  But if there is no long term humanity driven plan to establish patterns on the landscape with symbolic and religious meaning, then what the hell are they doing there, given that I don't do little green men or God.  The only conclusion left open to me is it is not humanity subjugating the landscape, it is the Earth and its landscape that is moulding ...

Woke up in the middle of thenight, and thought 'who left the lights on?, then realised I was in moonshine.  So I got up to have a look at the Moon and saw Jupiter, as bright as I've ever seen it, next to and left of the Moon.  Tonight it will be right of and next to the Moon.  And the Moon conjnct Jupiter all day?  Should be a good day, a time of generosity and warmth, with a strong element of humour.  The Moon and Jupiter together, whilst it happens every month, is still one of the most favourable aspects in the sky.  If you've got it in your natal chart, you may be a little short for your width (Jupiter!) but you compensate in terms of humour and laughter and your ability to inspire others.  It's a Jovial day.....

Back to basics....  The core of any horoscope is where you find the Sun, Moon, Ascendant and Midheaven.  These are the four points that define one's individuality and one's place in the world.  The Sun is the star that gives us heat, light and life - without it we wouldn't be here, so it represents that part of oneself that is unique and individualistic - one's sense of identity.  The Moon reflects the light of the Sun onto the Earth, so it reflects the light of the Sun out of us.  The Moon is your personality, emotions, feelings, habit patterns and day to day routines, it's the way you behave when you're not watching.  The Ascendant, or rising sign, is the armour that you put on as you go outside the front door, not the way you are but the way you're seen to be by the outside world.  And the Midheaven is the public image, the way you project yourself into and onto the outside world - it's the first impression.  Different layers of the onion....

Evening, been in the office twelve hours, knackered...   But still standing, unlike a few of you or so it seems!  Never known a time like this, but I do suggest that by the start of September the gravity and pressure of the last nine months will be over one way or another.  And there's something new coming in during September, the next phase of the correction.  Now - mutation.  And France.

Written an hour before full Moon.  The theory says that this full Moon, sextiling and trining Saturn, should be a time of consolidation, reformation and the bringing of both professional opportunity and emotional reliability, with the middle course in all options being the productive one.  However, the last four days I've heard so many stories of woe that I can't help but conclude that a lot of very hard choices need to be made - but that those choices are relative.  I've heard from someone on the point of breakdown because their property portfolio (8 houses) is not making ‘enough' money, from someone who's partner is leaving because he works all day and night but still doesn't make enough money, from someone worried that they can't afford to cater for their child's luxuries over the summer holidays, from small businesses going under for the lack of a few hundred pounds (scarily close to ...

I've just logged out of the SOHO website after looking at the very latest images of the Sun, as well as checking the solar wind, and there's bxxxxr all happening despite the predictions.  And it's full Moon in a couple of days, sextiling Saturn, suggesting a greater groundedness and more pragmatism. The indications from an astrological perspective are that we are heading into a 'W' recession, I still maintain that the middle weeks of September will be the crunch time for the next set of developments.  Meantime, back to Quest tomorrow for the final day.  Oh yes,go here

As a few of you know, yesterday was my birthday.  I spent it at Quest, and saw a fascinating astrological experiment.  When the event started, it was sober and sombre, really quiet.  And within five minutes of the Moon changing sign mid afternoon, from Scorpio into Sagittarius, the whole place seemed to fill and lighten up, very different energy.  I only did six readings yesterday, but five of them were all concerned about residential situations. Today the main emphasis will probably be on relationships, or work, or health - it's weird how certain days have patterns inherent in them  Now - Italy.  Russia.  Elsewhere.

.down in the sticks, preparing for the weekend, blogging on a 3G mobile signal after a bottle of mead, which as a few of you know is my favourite vice, but then it's weekend and only the regulars are looking in.  And it's gone absolutely mental out there. I said something big was about to happen, and here it is.  Followed by here.  And here.  I have never known anything like this in my life.   Why is it not being reported?  I'm beginning to wonder about July 7th....  

The coming month offers a respite from the collective madness that seems to have infected us all recently, but it is a respite, not an end.  August is likely to be particularly developmental, so for many of us July is a chance to recover and recharge, to make sure that our energy banks are full as August approaches.  The full Moon in Capricorn on the 6^th/7^th is favoured by crop circle enthusiasts as indicative of some type of solar storm.  The new Moon in Cancer on the 22^nd is a total solar eclipse over SE Asia.  More significantly, Saturn is beginning to pick up speed, directly affecting everyone born between the 6^th and the 11^th of their respective month in terms of finality and conclusion of the old in preparation for the new.  It is clear that the next revolution in Iran is ...