The Fall of the House of Saud
Globalization can only go so far before everything goes to shit. All civilizations go through the same stages before they collapse and break up into smaller groups. — Camille Bordas, The State of Nature We know from history that empires are born and die. But, somehow, unless it happened in the distant past, it’s hard […]
Nov 2018
Making Nice
Three planets change direction this month. Each of these pivots is an invitation to get to know that planet’s symbolism more directly and intimately than usual (see August’s SkyWatch for tips on using planetary stations). Venus and Mercury station on the same day, Nov. 16th. Venus, back in Libra going retrograde, will turn around and […]
Oct 2018
Habits of the Heart
Venus goes retrograde this month, stationing on Oct 5th at 10 Scorpio. She dips back into Libra on Halloween and won’t go direct again until the middle of November. Venusian retrogrades are relatively rare; and as transit-trackers know, the rarer the event, the more important the lesson. The five weeks of Venus’ backwards motion give […]
Pledging Allegiance
Chaos, for astrologers, is as meaningful as any other organic phase. It shows up in times of transition, accompanying waning planetary cycles, such as the four up in the sky right now — all of them wheezing to their respective finish lines (covered in this webinar). Pluto in particular (in Capricorn 2008-23) is doing its […]
Sep 2018
Siren Call
A couple of oppositions this month will test our ability to balance the real and the surreal. The key is to honor both: the worldly Sun (9/7) and Mercury (9/13) in Virgo, and the other-worldly energy of Neptune in Pisces. One way of doing this is to voluntarily access the oceanic mind, whence all creativity […]
Aug 2018
Answer the Door
There are three planetary stations in August. Uranus stations retrograde on 8/7, Mercury goes direct on the 18h, and Mars stations direct on the 27th. Each station is our private appointment with the cosmos. Each is a chance to make closer contact than usual with the forces the planet represents. When a planet slows down […]
Jul 2018
Dog in the Fight
Mars has a lot to teach us in July. It galvanizes an opposition as the month begins and a T-square as the month is ending. How’s your relationship with fixity? Mars in Aquarius will tend to trigger the things we dislike about the fixed signs — inflexibility and stubbornness — as well as the things […]
Sound and Fury, Part Two
Click here for Part One. Dr Decay Pluto is about death and putrefaction. If you’re looking for a breath of fresh air, it’s probably not the first planet you think of. But I would argue that it is the most refreshing of all cycles to track right now, because it forces us to take the long […]
Jun 2018
Mind and Soul
June begins with a prickly Neptune square, which establishes the tone for the month (exactitude 6/5-7). The Sun and Mercury, airy and logical in Gemini, are faced with the vast inscrutability of the oceanic mind. Popular astrology offers up plenty of symptoms associated with this notorious aspect: confusion, free-floating anxiety, forgetfulness, the tendency to space […]
Royal Shredding
Saturday’s wedding at Windsor Chapel won’t mean much in a week. Hyperventilating fans will get their breath back, and pounce upon some new tidbit to distract them from global crises. But if we view all mass events – the great, the small, and the artificially inflated – as emblematic of the world moment, the spectacle was […]