OK, Jupiter/Neptune together in Aquarius, another take - personal instead of global.  Seems a lot of people are identifying with the idea of being inside a taut balloon and the concentration of air pressure is doing weird things to your temples, and it's time that's speeding up and stretching.  Temples - temporal, and I've been anticipating end November as the bubble bursting again.  Everyone seems to be waiting for something to happen, and I'm increasingly coming to realise that it's already happening but it's happening within as opposed to without and the ‘out there' manifestations are reactions to what is going on with us - both individually and collectively.  And this collective urge is propelling us into a future unimaginable even ten years ago.  To quote McKenna:  ‘Human history represents such a shift compared to the biological processes of evolution that preceded it ...

The Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune conjunction is entering its final phase now, and those Aquarians born around  the 9th-12th and Leos from the 12th to the 15th are in for a really nice few days.  But anyone who was affected at the end of April and start of May this year should now be in a position to start finalising things, popping over-inflated balloons but at the same time bringing things down to earth like a feather instead of with a bump.  Chances and actions taken in moderation now will work better than normal, so don't undercut yourself but neither stretch too thinly.  The next week is not about getting faster or bigger - it's about becoming more refined and effective.  Times like these are uncommon.  It's a good time to take chances - not risks, but chances.  And how often do you hear me say this?

Along with tens of thousands of others, yesterday I visited a large cathedral, but to shop not pray.  The huge retail parks that have sprung up in recent years on the edge of our cities, along with the football stadiums, have taken over as the congregational places for humanity.  It seems that over millenia all religion has been hijacked by the money makers, and either willingly or unconciously the population of at least the UK are leaving the churches in droves.  No more bible or koran, instead individuals are either becoming atheistic/amoral, or else finding the Divine within themselves.  I regularly chat with what I flippantly call the 'upstairs department', but it's advice and suggestions rather than doctrine.  At the end of the day, religion is about disempowerment of the individual in favour of religious coffers.  Ask yourself as to who is the richest groups in the world?  The churches, that's who, and whilst they acrue wealth the world starves.  Enough of these false gods I say - let individuals decide their beliefs for themselves.

Fate or free will, that's always the paradox in astrology.  If you've got the majority of planets on the left of your chart, you're free will and self determination, whilst the right hand side of the chart is fate and pre determination.  And although I'm an astrologer and theoretically should strive for the middle ground, everything in my chart is on the left so I'm hopelessly biased towards personal responsibility.  And in a weird way, that leads me to broach for the first time a new subject, that of the coming political chaos in the UK and the resultant hung parliament, and the potential changes in our political system at a fundamental level that this situation would bring.  A hung parliament....  I think it would be great.  There would be no extremist policies.  And anything that brings us towards the ultimate goal of proportional representation has to be welcome.  Or am I completely off beam here?

Mars is slowing down, standing still for the next six weeks right in the middle of Leo, so if you're born around the 8^th to the 12^th August or for that matter the 4^th to the 8^th of February, expect the pace of life to be faster, more dynamic, more impulsive, potentially clumsy and accident prone as well as having more assertive, energetic and projective ability.  There can be an almost childlike enthusiasm coupled with a desire for achievement that could easily go over the top if you're not careful.  With most of the active day by day planets in the heavens in Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, there is a fixed quality about these few days that on the positive side can be seen as durable, persistent, reliable, steady and thorough.  Alternatively, stubborn, cantankerous, immovable, resistance to change and sheer bloody mindedness can also be evident.  A day for perseverance, and keeping your ...

My intention is to write every day, but on average I only get to do it about three hundred times a year and the last four or five days has been so fast for me that I've been too busy living and being to even think about writing - but oh! The networking I've done.  Lots and lots of things to say, but a big, big thank you to all the wonderful people who braved the storms to come to Cambridge at the weekend - it's really good to see familiar faces on the other side of the country.  Did about thirty readings overall, almost got instantly financially seduced by a SE Asian media company until common sense kicked in and I googled their ethics, heard some real horror stories from clients that made me really grateful for being who I am, ended ...

A few people have asked me about what I think of the discovery of water on the Moon.  Firstly, it's dirty ice, not water, and secondly, when asked, the leading NASA scientist said 'yes, there was a lot of water in the plume, at least twenty four gallons'.   Twenty four gallons is not a lot, but I concede is better than nothing.  Astrologically, of course there's water on the Moon, it's the most watery of astrological influences, but I don't think the astronauts are going to need their speedos.  The Moon has no visible signs of life, it has no light of its own.  The Moon reflects the light of the Sun on to the Earth, much as how the Moon position in your chart reflects the light of the inner Sun out into the world.  The Moon governs your basic habit patterns, your emotions and feelings, your basic responses and sensitivities.  It is your most feminine side, where you emote, it's the way you deal with people and situations that you care about.  So of course there's water on the Moon - how could there not be?  And be sure that there will be frozen water on every other ...

In 2005, Neptune was in the middle of Aquarius, the resource wars were under way globally and individually a number of people were starting to enter a process of uncertainty, confusion, evasiveness and even deception, either by themselves as in sleepwalking or else believing what they were told.  Since then, the quicksand has not settled, the treacle and thick fog has become pervasive, and every step forward has become a question of surety.  Since April and May of 2009, Jupiter has begun to expand those bubbles of uncertainty larger than previously, and then started popping them.  And that's what's happening around this time, the first signs of over inflation are becoming more and more transparent, and any self delusion or avoidance of real issues is now coming down to earth with a bump, a process that will continue expanding until the end of December.  I anticipate big, large and off planet developments shortly - how long before ‘contact' is announced?  At the personal level, it's really important that you don't go over the top between now and the end of December, because moderation now provides the bedrock for long term success.  And by January it's all over, and the almost ...

It's new Moon in a few hours, and just within the last few days it's become very important that things don't go over the top.  Bubbles are bursting left, right and centre and with Neptune so, so strong at the moment there is such a capacity for confusion, despair and neurosis - only matched by the capacity for imagination, intuition and dream/vision!  In many ways today's new Moon is the end of a cycle started in 2005/6 and confusing since then.  At the same time it's a symbolic point of new beginning because when one is at the very bottom under the greatest of pressure and in the total dark, then at least you know you're at the bottom, you can't go any lower and if you put your feet down and push you'll find that rock bottom really is solid rock and you can use it as a firm foundation to begin again.  Today is new Moon, in a dark, dark place.  Time for the pendulum to start swinging back to the light, and to begin again.

 As I write, Saturn is exactly square Pluto and the Sun is hours away from squaring Neptune.  And it is strangely still, as though there's a void, where everything should be happening but nothing is.  The feeling I get is that of superglue being applied and setting really fast, cementing in place new directions of movement by simply burning your boats.  And of course, tomorrow it's the Scorpio new moon, traditionally the deepest time of the year where nothing is visible and all is unconcious and subconscious.  This is what All Hallows should really be, that one day a year where you can step out into the gap betwen the worlds.  Quick answers - Neptune and Jupiter in Aquarius does bring concerns about subjects covered recently, like oil, prostitution, drugs, religion.  It also covers areas I've not talked about that much, like spirituality, empathy, elevation of consciousness, compassion, aestheticism artisticness and sensuality.  I don't talk about them because I know that both I and you lot out there are strong with this, or you wouldn't be reading it.  We know what we're good at, it's dealing with what we're not good at that counts.  And that comment about people leaving ...

Sure enough, I got into trouble with yesterday's post.  I've published the sane and amusing comments, ignored and deleted the rabid and the religious.  Seeing as I've already upset 10% of you, let's go for broke.  Another way of looking at Jupiter and Neptune together in Aquarius, the sign of communitty and humanity, is to suggest that this is one of the very last hurrahs of orthodox religion, that God has left the churches, synagogues and mosques and has reinvented his or herself through direct communion with individuals.  When their weren't many people on planet, we needed to congregate and have people minister to our spiritual needs.  But now, the idea of having priests of one type or another saying that 'you can only talk to God through me' makes me want to lose my lunch.  Time to close the churches etc and reopen them as community centres.  Time for each and everyone of us to have our own relationship with the Divine, however we see it as being, and stop this ridiculous kowtowing to populist religion.  I suppose it's the difference between those who can think for themselves and those who need others to tell them what to believe ...

The dominant aspect in the heavens until the New Year is the finale of the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction, and seeing as swine flu isn't ravaging the world just yet, i though I'd have a look at another Neptunian favourite that is being amplified by Jupiter - drugs.  Last year in the UK, no people died of cannabis, five died as a result of ecstacy, thirty died of horse related injuries, thousands died in car accidents, today's UK headline is about how needless anti psychotic drugs for dementia are killing many thousands each year, whilst alcohol and tobacco kill tens of thousands each year.  Guess which ones are illegal?  Personally (and I'm going to get into trouble for this) I'd legalise every drug and within a year or two most all the junkies would be dead, half the crime in the UK would be eradicated, drugs would never be a problem again and the health service, police and society in general would be less stretched.  Of course offer help - but they've got to want to stop, and increasingly the demands of addiction, whether alcohol, drugs, chocolate, religion, food whatever - are bringing issues of self discipline to the fore.  Ah yes, ...

It's a weird one for me, according to my interpretation of today's chart there's a lot of sizzle and pop and noise - but I don't see it in the news, my emails, my personal life or the markets.  But if recent trends are predictable, then the coming week is likely to see oil suddenly boom, or some type of news about oil to dramatically erupt.  The cyce I'm using to guess this also suggests that metallic commodities, whilst stable in the medium term, are going to turn into white elephants within ten years.  The pressure of population and the synchronous acceleration of technology suggests to me that we really are on the brink of some type of fusion which will manifest as (almost) free energy.  It's obvious really - as long as we rely on coal, uranium, oil, all the carbon stuff, instead of the free renewables as in sun, wind and sea, then we're at a cultural and evolutionary dead end.  This will happen a lot faster than we think.  Within ten years 80% of the vehicles on our roads will not be using oil based resources.  Sooner the better.

The Sun squares Jupiter today, Chiron on Friday and Neptune on Sunday, bringing to an end a period of time that is rooted in late April and all of May 2009.  If those times affected you in terms of things being larger than life and overheated then the coming five days represents the bubble bursting, the end of the hype and spin and a coming down to earth with a bump.  However, if you've acted with moderation and caution over recent months, this is a time where your actions will be vindicated.  And Monday's Scorpio new Moon is a snapshot of the last six months.  If things are going to explode or collapse, it will be now.  On to the rollercoaster once again.....  And yes, that is me in the pages of the UK's leading national newspaper, substituting again for Jonathan Cainer.  And ...

In the forecasts I've been doing recently for clients, which act for me as a mirror on what is going on in the world, I've seen a lot of compressed change over the coming five to ten days.  Go back to May of this year, when if you look I was suggesting that many things were larger than life and over the top.  Now, as the Sun and Mercury square Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune over the coming week, I suspect that a number of big balloons are going to pop and that many people's situations are going to come down to earth with a bump.  If you've been on the receiving end of some over inflated news during the last six months, expect things to rapdily both inflate or deflate (or both!) over the coming week.  For those of you born etwen the 7th and the 11th of your month - this is the last gasp of the old.  Don't buy into the hype and spin of the next few days, it's a metaphorical death gasp.

Someone asked me yesterday about reading sunsigns and reading ascendant signs, and what the difference is.  I've done this before a few months ago, so I'll keep this brief - the four most important points in a horoscope are primarily the Sun - your individuality and sense of uniqueness, the Moon - your personality, feelings and emotions, the Ascendant - the armour you put on as you go outside the fornt door, the way you're seen at the day by day level, and the Midheaven - public image, the way you project yourself into the world as being.  The planets merely (merely?) denote specific energies (communications, structure, growth, love, sex etc), but the Sun, Moon, Ascendant and Midheaven are the core factors that when added together give an astrological summation of one's sense of self at all levels.  Si if you're a Virgo with six planets in Virgo and an unaspected Ascendant in Cancer, then of course look primarily at Virgo's forecasts.  But if you've onlly got an unaspected Sun in Virgo, with five planets and the Ascendant in Leo, then obviously the forecast for Leo is going to be as significant as that for Virgo.

Here's a sobering one.  Friends of a friend of a friend of a friend took their own lives a few days ago.  They were in their early eighties, fully aware and fit, but chose to die together with dignity rather than grow old decrepidly.  When summarising their life, they singled out for praise the National Health Service for extending their lives by twenty five years, and criticised society for denying them the right to die together, at home and in comfort.  Be sure that with the ongoing square from Saturn with his scythe, cowl and skeleton appearance to Pluto doing its regenerative bit in society orientated Capricorn, the debate around assisted suicide will not go away and will get stronger.  Everyone has a right to a clean life:  surely everyone also has a right to a clean death?

Finally, most things are updated.  For a forecast of the coming month have a look at your sun sign or the forcast page for a global perspective, but first of all let's get through today's full Moon in Taurus shall we?  It's not only opposite the Sun, it's also opposite Mercury and strongly square Mars.  So - here's a list of expected attributes for today.  Feisty, fiery, stubborn, argumentative, recalcitrant, competitive, dynamic, rash, impulsive, headstrong and volatile.  As you can see, not a great day for beginning something new.  Now I'm off to hide in my bunker till tomorrow.....

late evening - I'm running late, everything's a day at least behind, there's a big full moon out there playing games with the link between my mind and my fingers, everything will be in place within 18 hours..  bear with me, I'm occasionally reminded I'm only human.