Astro Blog

Sleeping and Dreaming

Dreams are very useful. In the relaxed state of sleep, our minds can reshuffle the events of the day, sometimes bringing important themes to light, sometimes just depositing extraneous thoughts into the rubbish bin. It could be compared to a nightly optimization of our mental hard disk, giving trillions of neurons the opportunity to clear the mind in preparation for the next day.

One of the extraordinary things about dreams is that while we are dreaming them, they seem real. It’s a great relief to wake up from a nightmare, when we may have done something awful, or someone may have done something awful to us, and then to discover it was just a dream. Buddhist teachers point out that precisely the same process is happening in our waking life too – we think it is real.
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The United Kingdom – 222 Years Old

Things have got so much more civilized in Britain. Less than 400 years ago, the British Parliament decided King Charles I was too Catholic and chopped off his head. That’s unlikely to happen to King Charles III. Previously, kings romped off to the continent leading their armies into battle on horseback, and European nations banded together in constant wars. Less than 300 years ago, England repulsed an invasion from Bonnie Prince Charlie and massacred the Scottish army at the Battle of Culloden, which inaugurated a century of repression of the Scots. There was tremendous instability.
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Love and Drama in 2023

If men come from Mars and women from Venus, then we should be able to witness their passionate embrace by following the aspects between Venus and Mars during the year. As Venus and the Earth orbit the Sun relative to each other, Venus performs a magnificent dance, and over a period of eight years with five retrograde loops, Venus describes a perfect rose shape in the heavens. The tip of each or the five petals falls in almost exactly the same degree of each of five signs in this order: Pisces, Libra, Gemini, Capricorn, and – in 2023 – Leo. 2023 is going to be a year of drama and romance.
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3 Queens

It’s just a suggestion, but I think Britain should ban kings and just have queens. They have nice long reigns, and Britain seems to prosper. Kings execute their wives, dilly-dally with ladies-in-waiting, drink and get gout, or smoke too much. Queens are not so eager to go to war, but when they do, then they can drive off the Spanish Armada, give the Russians a good walloping in Crimea, or save all the sheep farmers on the Falklands. Read More

Basic Principles for Mundane Astrology – Using USA chart

There will almost always be a variety of horoscopes, reflecting the evolution of a nation, but the primary chart is the day the people celebrate independence, and for the United States of America, that day is July 4th, which puts the Sun at 13 degrees Cancer close to the fixed star Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius has the quality of Mars and Jupiter and some astrologers associate with a lone wolf tendency and exceptionalism. (Note 1)
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Russia and its wars

Generally Russia loses its battles. When it wins its wars, nothing but rubble remains, and many men are lost cheaply. Of course, going back to World War II we are reminded of the glorious advance of the Soviet army, driving Hitler back from Moscow and Stalingrad to the gates of Berlin. Napoleon too reached Moscow itself on 14 September 1812. But Mother Russia is immense, it is willing to lose territory and men, and it does not like to give up. Russia set fire to Moscow to drive Napoleon out. In Berlin just ruins remained. After that war, there was a whole industry in Germany based on cleaning and stacking wood and bricks, and shipping the dust off to factories, where it made excellent cement.

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Horary for a New Age: Part 3

Part Three: Timing and Retrogrades

Timing is tricky. Often you need to look at a combination of factors to make an educated guess at timing. It helps to discuss realistic options with the client, which can remove some of the guesswork. For example, if a person asks when they can leave their job, but is contractually obliged to stay for a specified period of time, then it helps to know. When looking at timing over long periods, transits and progressions will pinpoint periods with a window of a few months, and when they are used in combination with the horary chart, it helps determined what unit of time you are looking at – weeks, months or years.
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Horary for a New Age: Part 2

Part Two: Strictures and flexibility
If you can interpret a birth chart, you can also interpret a horary chart. Each discipline has elements which strengthen the other. The same principles are involved, and horary astrology afford a means of observing what is happening here and now, and using everyday life as a teaching tool. So far we can see that a modern view of how to practice horary in contrast to a traditional view is more dynamic in its approach to planetary movement and more flexible in interpretation. Traditional horary astrologers tend to adhere to a set of rules called strictures, which must not be ignored. Strictures can be useful because there are rules in astrology. For example, the querent will always be the Ascendant ruler, and for something to happen, then the querent should aspect the planet which rules the house of the quesited. For example, if a person asks whether to join a group, you’d be looking to see whether the 1st House ruler is going to make an aspect to the 11th house ruler. Read More

Horary for a New Age: Part 1

Introduction:
Today horary astrology and psychological astrology are seemingly incompatible, but this need not be the case. To understand horary you need to live in the moment, aware of time unfolding along with its corresponding events. This enhances awareness and consciousness. But even more valuable for the practicing astrologer: the use of the horary chart for the first contact with a client dramatically increases the accuracy of a consultation, and transforms the ability to forecast the client’s development.
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War and Peace

Note: Events have rather overtaken this article, written two days before the actual invasion of Ukraine. Clearly Putin has gone further than I expected with his attempt to conquer the whole country and particularly the capital Kiev. Read further, and you’ll see that I expected Putin to be more patient and settle for the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. However, the basic conclusions in this article are, I think, still correct. In fact, the demise of Putin is hastened by his recent actions.

In these February days of 2022, Mars and Venus are performing an extraordinary dance, with a long and protracted conjunction in Capricorn, first with Mars overtaking Venus in Capricorn and in early March with Venus overtaking Mars as they both enter Aquarius. So will there be war, or will there be peace? Putin, a Libra and judo expert, knows how to keep the world off balance. Perhaps he is represented by Venus. Biden, a Scorpio, knows how to play tough. Mars, perhaps.
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