Astro Stories

The Sun is the Great Spotlight, but Saturn is in exile in Leo. Leo is a sign where things and people show. They may show up, show off, show how to do things or how they work, they may be a role model, a hero, a dad, one to look up to, a king or a queen… Saturn on the other hand is a naturally shrinking energy: it crystallises, condenses, hardens. It obscures and cools down. Saturn is fear, or prudence. It means discipline, the work that is done behind the scenes with patience. Its best expressions are achievement and mastery, the rewards of hard work. A friend of mine was complaining in front of his four year old son about not having money left. The boy gave him the solution: “Just go to the cash machine!” This made us laugh. Saturn is being grown up enough to know that money doesn’t grow on trees. Leo loves having fun, but Saturn says “But…” Some people become artists, dancers, musicians or acrobats. When they perform, you believe that gravity has been cancelled. It takes a lot ...

  What are we thinking, nowadays, about fate?  I have often heard people say that “everything happens for a reason”.  Sometimes people wonder whether a relationship is “meant to happen” or what they are “meant to become”. What does “meant to happen” mean? Was it written, from all eternity, in the book of fate? Was it the inescapable consequence of our actions, good or bad, tracing back to past lives? Do we “always have a choice”? Do we believe that  “The best way to predict the future is to create it?”   The way we practise astrology is inseparable from the answers we give to these philosophical questions.  In Hellenistic times, the philosophy of the Stoics was very influential. The Stoics had a deterministic view of life. For them, we are like a dog tied to a cart. The cart will go where it must. The dog can kick and scream, or walk along with acceptance.  If your philosophy is stoicism, you ask an astrologer what is going to happen because it wi...

Have you ever wondered how come the 12th house, traditionally called the “House of Hidden Things” –or of “Hidden Enemies” is found above the horizon, in broad daylight?   If, in your chart, the Sun is in the First House, which is traditionally called the House of Self and has a lot to do with how we appear… It was still dark when you were born. As soon as the Sun crosses the Ascendant, there is daylight but we’re back in the House of hidden things. Strange inversion, don’t you think? If you are using whole house as your preferred system, you still have the house of hidden things in broad daylight, and at least part of your first house under the horizon.   There is another way to look at what’s going on with the houses which makes more sense.    If you have planets in the First House, what matters is that these planets are about to rise. This gives them super power. If the Sun is in your First House, it was still dark when you were born, but just wait a few minutes,...

I have a chart here with Saturn in Aries in the 12th house.  It gives me a headache...  A headache is a relevant interpretation. Aries rules the head, Saturn is often painful, Saturn in Aries gives me a headache. Literally or metaphorically.  Metaphorically a headache means struggling with thinking. Thinking is usually associated with Gemini and Mercury. I won’t contradict that, but the exciting difficulty with astrology - is that it is never so simple.  Mars and Aries rule the head, and thinking doesn’t happen in the lungs as far as I know. We often hear that Mercury rules the mind so how does this work with the association of Mars and Aries ruling the head?... let’s just refine a bit:   Mercury connects. There is an expression: connecting the dots. Mercury does just that.  The mind does a lot of connecting, so much so that we end up associating Mercury and the mind. In reality, all planets are involved in everything.  So what is the Aries or Mar...

  Hello there!  The first house, defined by the Ascendant, is called the “House of Self”.  The Sun is said to be the ego.  What is ego?  For people on a spiritual path, the “ego” is the obstacle. I don’t agree with this negative definition. In a more psychological sense, the ego is simply our sense of identity, our sense of self.  S ince both the Sun and the Ascendant are connected to our sense of self, i s there  some form of competition between the two?  The symbol for the Sun is the dot at the centre of a circle. It is one of the most powerful symbols. The self is at the centre.   Let me tell you a metaphor.  Imagine you’re planning to visit the bottom of the sea. There are beautiful fish down there.  The sea is very deep.  There is a lot of pressure deep down and you wouldn’t be able to breathe. You need a vessel of some kind, a submarine.  So you embark on a small one.  When you reach the bottom of the sea, ...

The MC is who we are as a member of society. If someone says: "Let me introduce you to Dr Faust, who is opening a medical practice in the borough" they are talking about the MC. If they add "I know him personally and he is a real bastard but don't worry, he knows his job and does it well" they are talking about the Ascendant or other personal planets in the first part of the sentence, but when saying "...he knows his job and does it well" they are b ack to the MC. For most people in the borough, that's all what matters. Now, if the guy ends up known in the whole borough as "The Bastard" then yes, it's the MC. The MC is not necessarily about our profession. If the Doctor keeps his bastardness private and is known essentially as "Good doctor, never makes a mistake" then the MC is only about being a good doctor. His wife may leave him anyway, if she married him for his MC she made a big mistake. Check the eighth house f...