Astro Stories

If you look at the head of the ram - the symbol of Aries - the two horns seen from the front look like a V or a Y ♈ Meditating on it you may see the tree of life, or a spring, and get good inspiration from that, but if you were a shepherd watching the head of the charging ram coming up to you, you would get a much more straightforward interpretation.  These animals are powerful; they compete with the shepherd for the leadership of the flock.  To interpret symbols, let’s remember that life is movement.  Don’t ask “What is this?” Ask “How is this moving?” A ram is power in action. It pushes forward and it’s too focused to care about anything else.   Taking it from there, you can find metaphorical rams in all areas. Some emotions are like rams: anger, excitement, a shot of adrenalin… There are intellectual rams: sometimes we “attack” a problem and sometimes we have a “breakthrough”. At a social level,  the one who turns a  vague group into an efficient te...

  The symbols of the zodiac are spiritual enzymes.  The anonymous author of “Meditations on the Tarot”  - A Christian Hermetist - introduces the Major Arcanas as “Spiritual enzymes”: they have the power to stimulate and awaken deep layers of the soul when we contemplate them. I have no doubt that the zodiac is the same. The twelve signs are authentic symbols, let’s say arcanas.  Symbols are not mere conventions, like ordinary words. If you don’t know that the French word “bateau” means “ship”, you won’t be able to guess. The sound of the word “bateau” has nothing to do with any sound that may suggest a ship. You can calligraphy the word with great art, it won’t look like a ship at all.  Symbols on the other hand are like tips of icebergs: if you see the tip, you can have an intuition of the whole iceberg.  Imagine being new to the world like a child, and you see an iceberg for the first time; however you have previous experiences of  floating things....

  Let me tell you a story that you already know: Oedipus meeting the Sphinx. This will lead us to astrological principles, you’ll see.   The sphinx had the body of a lioness, a human face and wings. Her job as a monster was to ask a riddle to passers by, which they couldn’t answer and as a result they were killed.  The riddle was:  “What has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?”  Imagine the random passerby cornered by the sphinx; he is in a state of panic, he is thinking of all the animals he knows, tries to remember the weird ones, like the frogs who start their life as tadpoles, but with frogs the legs count doesn’t match, it must be an insect,what insects do I know? Spiders, flies, caterpillars…   Time’s up! What’s your answer? Huh… A butterfly? Wrong!  And the sphinx jumps at the poor guy’s throat…  Like all previous victims of the sphinx, this one used his mind as if he knew only the Mercury side of it. ...

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,...