Living with the Stars

  There are forty-five minutes left to the old year and I thought I'd put fingers to keypad and quickly jot down a few thoughts. This old year has gone out with a trio of departures, that of Pope Benedict, Vivienne Westwood and the legendary Pele'. To be honest, when I heard that the faithful were asked to pray for Pope Ratzinger, I recalled an article written by the astrologer Bernadette Brady regarding the fixed stars in his chart. Brady wrote that his natal Jupiter near his rising sign had the markings of a spiritual leader, and that although he would rise to prominence, the chart indicated that his 'success' would be compromised in some way. She wrote this around the year 2006, years before his resignation.  Well, this prompted me to look at the position of Jupiter in the charts of Vivienne Westwood and also Pele' (that's what astrologers do, they look for patterns in charts). This is not to say that this would in any way indicate any prediction of death - a

  A New Moon at 1 degree of Capricorn graces our skies on the 23rd December, very close to the Winter Solstice, when the Sun reaches maximum declination south at mid-day. For three days, the Sun will 'reside' in this space, 23.15 degrees declination south, and then begin its return to the north. Of course, the Sun does not move, it is Planet Earth which is dancing around the Sun and 'wobbling' as it does so, and that 'nodding' to the Sun gives us the seasons.  A few interesting observations about this New Moon is the movement of Jupiter into the warrior sign of Aries, urging us to use the wisdom gained by its sojourn in Pisces (where it had retrograded into for a few months) and put our plans into action. Jupiter, in ancient astrology, represented the Crown Prince. Bernadette Brady writes extensively about Assyrian astrology and has a wonderful article over here (just copy and paste this link into a search engine -  https://zyntara.com/the-prince-takes-the-crown

  Yes, it's been over a month since I last posted, in fact I totally missed the New Moon post of the 23rd of November. The truth is, I was drowning in work and after-work duties. You know the ones, cooking, clearning (a new word I invented meaning clearing and cleaning) house and then doggy duties as a close family relative needed to have surgery. The dog is doing well, thank you (the owner needs to be educated into how to feed his dog; this one is overweight!) I put it all down to transiting Pluto sitting on top of my natal Saturn at 25 odd degrees of Capricorn.  Pluto had been hovering over 25-26 degrees of Capricorn since late 2020 and into late 2021, and I'm still feeling its effects: responsibilities, responsibilities and - ah wait - do this too!  Pluto does this, you see. It pulls the carpet from beneath your feet.  Talking of Pluto, it is interesting that Prince Harry has a Pluto thing going on in his chart at the moment. His progressed Sun is now conjunct his natal Plut