Comet ZTF

Comet ZTF

Comet ZTF, first appear only in the Northern Hemisphere earlier in the year, has recently moved in the part of the heavens visible from much of the Southern. In this short post I share a little on its location in the evening skies and some thoughts and links on comets in astrology.

Madge Hill, Outsider Artist: an astrological exploration

Madge Hill, Outsider Artist: an astrological exploration

From my recent time in Switzerland I became acquainted with a genre of art referred to as ‘Outsider Art’, or Art Brut. I found the works confronting, exciting, compelling, intriguing, sometimes beautiful, and almost always touching. Given the number of these artists creating out of mental torture from within asylums or psychiatric institutions after often excruciating starts to their lives  I was fascinated by implications: who defines ‘normal’ or ‘inside’ (as opposed to ‘outside’)? Is the impulse (and therefore perhaps all art?) Self-generated ‘healing’ or self-soothing? If so, could it lead to ‘cure’? How might the average person, less troubled than these, learn from this? What might we learn from their horoscopes?

Transmission Gully road revisited

This short piece updates an earlier post I wrote in 2018 on a roading project in my local area, Transmission Gully. I write this the day after the road has finally been opened, almost 8 years after the work on it commenced.  The chart of the official opening - a ribbon-cutting affair by Prime Minister Ardern - is shown below, drawn for an approximate time taken from photos and news reports on the day.

It won’t surprise to see, given the ‘Project’ was initiated with Saturn-ruled Capricorn rising (see original post), that it was completed only after significant (over 2 years) delays and vastly over-budget. Also, at the opening transiting Saturn squared its original placement in the Project chart (orb 3º18’), indicative of a challenge-rich threshold moment, one of completion and a testing time of bedding down a further stage of development.


As expected by far the majority of the road’s problems arose as Pluto crossed Project Ascendant, from 2019 to early 2022 (see here for a timeline including some of these difficulties).  The Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020, which crossed the Ascendant over that year, was the crux of this, which, as predicted, threatened to destroy the whole project. Time-bound Saturn’s connection with this road is also shown in the almost 100-years it’s taken for the initial impulse to be finally realised.


There are many interesting and significant connections between the two charts - for example both have forceful and ruthlessly determined Mars-Saturn conjunctions in fixed signs - but I leave it for the reader to explore these. 


In the Road Opened map, chart-ruler Venus closely conjuncts Saturn, suggesting that the road may continue to be beset by difficulties, including those of a political and management nature. I am also intrigued to see Uranus rising - remember its importance in the Project chart explored above. Beyond being a planet associated with ‘transmission’ (of both sorts - electrical but also the direct transferral of ideas), this also carries symbolism of the fault line that the road follows and its geological instability, its use of experimental or emergent technologies, and its controversy. Perhaps even its name (something associated with the 1st house), Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata, or Great Path of Te Rangihaeata (a chief who played an important role in the area in the 1840s), gifted by the local tribe, might prove contentious. The coming two years, as Uranus moves to square the Road Opened Mars-Saturn-Venus conjunction and oppose the Project Saturn-Mars conjunction, may see this volatility expressed. 

Brief Musings of the Astrological Ages and Southern Hemisphere Astrology

Brief Musings of the Astrological Ages and Southern Hemisphere Astrology

The above image, chosen in honour of Taurus, the Sun’s recent zodiac sign is a photo of one of the more than 600 stunning Lascaux cave paintings in SW France. Dating from Palaeolithic times they are truly spectacular examples of early human artistic endeavour. But I’ve also included it for reasons of other astrological interest.

Recently I’ve been researching the Astrological Ages - the approximately 2000 year-long epochs ruled by one of the twelve zodiac signs…

An Inter-Planet Cycles Index: Charting The Global Breath

An Inter-Planet Cycles Index: Charting The Global Breath

This article explores an Index calculated from the 10 possible synods or inter-planet cycles from Jupiter through to Pluto, simply based on whether the cycle is waxing or waning. The background astronomical and interpretive ideas behind an inter-planetary cycle are given, using the Moon-Sun synod as an archetype. The graph arising from a conflation of all the cycles, calculated for the period 1840 - 2050, is given and briefly discussed, with a few key world events and trends located on significant parts of the graph.

Some notes on the chart of the UK Parliamentary Election, 12th December 2019

Some notes on the chart of the UK Parliamentary Election, 12th December 2019

In this short analysis I explore the astrological map drawn for the opening of voting on Election Day 2019 to see whether it yields any hints as to which party may have the upper hand in this hard-to-predict UK election. I also look at key leaders’ and party charts, including a proposal for a new birth time for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Extinction Rebellion: a brief look at its horoscope

Extinction Rebellion: a brief look at its horoscope

A short analysis of the chart of the global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion (XR), that is challenging governments and businesses throughout the world to wake up to the threats of the climate crisis. The chart shows wonderful apt symbolism, marking it as iconic of the transit of Uranus through Taurus (2017-2026), and, with some strong transits in 2020, possibly something of a bearer of the new zeitgeist symbolised by the Jupiter-Saturn mutation from earth into Air.