Under the bridge astrology

Category: Case studies

The shamanic work of David Lynch and the astrology of Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks had a huge impact on me. I first watched the series as a teenager and it’s been on my mind since reading about the passing of its creator David Lynch.

So what can astrology tell us about the nature and meaning of the show?

Twin Peaks premiered April the 8th 1990 at 9PM. I’m using Los Angeles as the location, mainly because it feels right (but ABC has their headquarters in Burbank, so perhaps that gives the choice a bit more legitimacy).

The chart has Scorpio rising with Pluto near the Ascendant. Very fitting for a tv-show about a murder, but also for one that revolves around a mystery and things not being quite as they seem.

The Sun is in Aries in the 6th house. This was a pioneering show, not afraid to take the soap opera formula (6th house-ish) and use it to go somewhere completely different.

The Moon is in Libra in the 11th house so the visual style was an important part of the show’s DNA and that’s what gave it mass appeal (11th house).

That Moon is also part of an interesting t-square – there is a tension between it and a Neptune/Uranus conjunction in Capricorn in the 2nd house and a loose Chiron/Jupiter conjunction in Cancer in the 8th house.

This is the key to understanding the nature of the show.

Here we have that beautiful and pleasing Libra Moon in the house of the collective, in a tense aspect with the planet of the dream world (Neptune) and the planet of creativity, genius and sudden shocks and insights (Uranus) in the second house of safety and security.

Those placements in turn connect with an inner wounding (Chiron) and the planet of blessings and luck (Jupiter) in the sign of home and the homeland (Cancer) in the complex 8th house of sex, death and money.

The show spoke to something deep in the American psyche. And, as many writers have mentioned in the days following the passing of its creator, Twin Peaks turned the American dream on its head. It used the visual language of the small town with its picket fences and diners, its football stars and prom queens to worm its way to the rotten juice underneath it all.

There were the woods where things are not quite what they seem. There was domestic violence, abuse and corrupt businessmen, and a darkness at the heart of the seemingly perfect and “respectable” nuclear family.

This was exposed in almost a subliminal way and people kept watching – partly because of the feeling and the look (that Libra Moon) of the show.

The traditional chart ruler Mars also speaks of the show’s purpose. It sits almost right on the IC, the point of home, in Aquarius – close to the North Node in the 3rd house of communication (also conjunct the IC).

So the show also highlights all that is different and eccentric about the homeland (Aquarius IC) and the absurdity of the stories the country tells itself about itself.

I think the astrology also suggests that David Lynch, like many genius creators, was able to tap into something larger when he was creating the show. A story from the collective flowed through him and the people involved.

What is lovely to see in the many articles about him and the show that have been published recently is how he allowed space for that to happen on set.

In an article in the Guardian the actors remember the atmosphere:

Michael Ontkean (Sheriff Harry S Truman): David was purely and absolutely attentive to what’s in the air. He was always ready, willing and completely able to incorporate anything and everything into a scene. He calmly conducted the orchestra with all six senses. Number six being instinct/intuition.

Wendy Robie (Nadine Hurley): He would create something and then it was up to you. He’d leave this big empty box for you to fill. It was wonderful, an absolute faith: whatever bonkers thing he was going to set before you, your job was to fill it, to make it real, to make a human story.

This is a good lesson for all of us who create. To leave enough space and room for the magic to flow, for the right story to appear.

As this happened on a film set it makes me think of family constellations therapy, where the participants act out a role that’s been prescribed to them by someone in the group – and somehow (if it all works) there is magic, there is healing, there is something coming through the participants to create a resolution and a release of tension.

Twin Peaks was cathartic in the same way. Perhaps it was a bit like family constellations therapy for the US as the American dream started to crumble following the end of the Cold War. “What we thought was perfect wasn’t actually perfect.”

But perhaps there was something even more magical going on.

In a fascinating profile in The New Yorker the author speculates that David Lynch was able to tap into numinous forces in his work – that he was in fact a sort of shaman.

The actor Michael Horse, who plays Hawk in Twin Peaks, talks about feeling relief after being able to leave the room where the cast was filming a scene where Bob is possessing Leland Palmer.

“We were all in that room and I knew we were calling on evil”.

The article moves on to looking at surrealism and how surrealists like André Breton and his contemporaries believed they were investigating a higher reality and through the art they were connecting their audience to that higher reality.

The article continues:

“An acquaintance of mine is an energy healer: she sees spirits and auras, describes her past lives, goes on journeys out of her body at night, and converses with the dead. I can’t bring myself to believe in her experiences—I’m too rational—but I’m moved and fascinated by David Lynch, who explored the world she inhabits … Lynch knew that the old ways of being were still inside of us, waiting to be found.”

David Lynch was a shamanic creator. And the numinous was revealed and glimpsed through his work – often it seems as if he was able to channel darker forces and I wonder how he was able to work with and contain this in his own life.

It would have been part of his natal astrology with his North Node and a Mars/Saturn conjunction in the 8th house of the occult. A big part of his life probably revolved around figuring out how to contain and work with these forces. His Virgo Moon on the Midheaven might have helped as he channeled these energies into his work, he gave them a container and he kept his own mind safe by a rigorous mediation practice.

So what was it he channeled into Twin Peaks?

The synastry between the US and the Twin Peaks chart spells it out quite clearly:

The Twin Peaks Sun sits on top of the US’s inner wounding: Chiron. The Twin Peaks Chiron is on top of the US natal Sun.

This show brought the nation’s wounds into the light.

January 23, 2025
Why 2025 and 2026 are huge for the British royal family according to astrology

The British royal family is going to be shaken to its core by the astrological weather during 2025 and 2026. The events during the next two years are going to affect all of them and have an impact on the UK as a whole.

This is a continuation of the events last year when various health issues and conspiracy theories relating to Kate Middleton lead to another period of heightened interest in the royal family.

In January 2024 the palace announced that King Charles was being treated for cancer. Later the same month Kate, or Catherine as she is known as now, was taken into hospital for unspecified abdominal surgery. She then disappeared from public view for a few weeks which lead to an avalanche of conspiracy theories and online sleuthing related to her health and her marriage.

On the 22nd of March she released a statement saying she had been treated for cancer and the speculations mostly died down.

That was two days before a lunar eclipse at 5 degrees Libra. This was the beginning. What we are seeing this year and the next are the following acts of this story.

Several members of the royal family have placements in the early degrees of fixed signs – which will now be pinged by powerful Pluto moving into Aquarius. Especially four degrees seem to be a particularly sensitive point for many.

But Pluto, the planet of the fates, is only one part of the story. Several of the outer planets move signs this year. They are power players in astrology, they move slowly and when they form an aspect to a point in our natal charts we tend to feel it.

The royal family will be affected by the outer planets changing signs. And it will affect all of them, not just the family members in the UK. Prince Harry and Meghan are also particularly sensitive to this astrological weather, as is the UK’s natal chart.

There are some ethical questions around going into what this might actually mean. These people might be royalty – and astrologers have written about royalty since day one – but they are also just people.

My personal view is to take a step back from predictions relating to the lifespan and health of people in the public eye. It isn’t a nice thing to do and it also gives the astrologer more power than he or she deserves or should take upon themselves.

The astrological weather affecting the royal family during the next two years does speak of change and upheaval, but this can manifest in a myriad of different ways. When looking at the transits it seems like the underlying theme here might be the media storm, not the health of the family members.

So what can we expect to see in 2025 and 2026?

It could all start around another eclipse – this one a lunar eclipse on the 29th of March at 9 degrees Aries.

Eclipses were momentous events in ancient times and they have traditionally been connected to the rise and fall of kings and leaders.

The royal family also seem to be particularly sensitive to eclipses. Both Prince William and Kate Middleton were born on an eclipse so their birth charts would also naturally resonate more strongly with eclipses.

The eclipse on the 29th will oppose Prince William’s Mars from his 3d house of siblings and the media. His Mars, his inner warrior, is in the 9th house of foreign places and philosophy. Could it mean a clash of views, playing out in the media?

This is the start of a massive astrological period for William as Neptune, the planet that dissolves, will square his Moon and then Sun from his third house and Pluto will square his status point, the Midheaven, from his first house.

A square can be a challenging aspect, it forces us to grow – often because of something happening outside of us, sometimes someone or something challenging us.

This eclipse affects his brother Harry too, but he might have an easier time as it will trine his Uranus in the 11th house of groups and sextile his Chiron in Gemini the 5th house of childhood, love affairs and children. These aspects speak of an easy flow. Will the flood gates open for Harry? Will he take to social media (or something similar) with that maverick Uranus and speak about some wounding in his childhood (Chiron in the 5th) to a large audience? The eclipse happens in his second house of finances, so it is possible that there is some financial reward in this for him.

This eclipse is opposite Kate Middleton’s Mars in Libra in the third house of the media, with transiting Mars on her destiny point the North Node, conjunct her Moon and opposing her Sun on the day of the eclipse.

When the Nodes are involved it often suggests that there is a larger story at play behind all of this. Perhaps an ancestral theme is coming out at this time – and she is part of it. The points in her chart that are affected during the eclipse are very close to Queen Elizabeth’s Ascendant/Descendant axis at 21 degrees Capricorn/Cancer. So whatever happens could also reverberate back through time.

The eclipse will be huge for King Charles too, as it’s very close to his career point. the Midheaven. Pluto has already squared his Moon and is moving towards the sensitive 4/5 degrees in his chart when it will square his Nodes and cross his Descendant in February 2026.

The epic-ness of the astrology here shouldn’t be underestimated. The king is a symbol of the country, of its people, and whatever befalls him also affects the whole country. His chart carries with it the echoes of those who came before him and it is also linked with the chart of the UK itself.

The astrological weather also affects his wife, who astonishingly has almost exactly the same Midheaven and Ascendant as Charles. The eclipse on the 29th will be opposite her Neptune in the third house – so the media might be part of the story for her too. It also squares her Moon and Neptune in the 12th house and trines her Saturn in the first house. A more complicated picture, suggesting it will activate her fiery and steely Saturn in Leo, which is a very visible side of her personality, but might also cause her private pain.

The other (ex)-royal wife, Meghan Markle, also has almost exactly the same Aries Midheaven and Descendant/Ascendant axis as her father- and mother-in-law. So this eclipse will also be on her career point, with Mars on her Cancer Ascendant.

The eclipse opposes Meghan’s Moon/Saturn/Jupiter conjunction in Libra in the third house, a very significant placement in her chart that will get a helpful trine from Pluto when the planet of the fates starts to square and challenge many in the royal family.

Will she be the power player that sets the whole thing off?

Early 2025 Pluto will cross her South Node, the point that can stand for an ancestral wounding (or a past life wounding according to some). Could that be a clue to the larger story here? Some astrologers have suggested that Meghan is a reincarnated Anne Boleyn coming to seek revenge on the royal family.

Symbolically that is interesting, but the Windsors are not direct descendants of Henry VIII.

The simplest explanation to the meaning behind all of this might be to look at the story so far. What is the thing coming up again and again with Meghan, Harry and the royal family? Depending on where you stand on the political spectrum it can be described as either a story of racism and institutional oppression or a story of over-zealous wokery.

But underneath all of this is an undercurrent, a slow moving theme connected to racism, oppression and imperialism. It is a story that has slowly been developing over the last century – with flash points and sudden breakthroughs.

The royal family is part of this story, because for better or worse they still represent the British Empire.

Starting in March 2025 everyone in the family will have a role to play in this drama. It will unfold over the next two years, possibly leading to a permanent change to the royal family and how it is seen by the public – possibly even affecting how the UK is seen by the world.

This eclipse on the 29th of March is significant for the UK too. It falls on the Descendant of the 1801 birth chart, with Mars on the UK’s prominent 10th house Moon and Pluto opposing the country’s Jupiter from the 4th house of the structures of the nation.

Astrologers’ have long predicted that William will be the last King of the UK. Stranger things have happened and we live in turbulent and unpredictable times.

If this is the end of the line for the monarchy as we know it then the beginning of that story will start in 2025 and 2026 with Pluto in the early degrees of Aquarius.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

January 16, 2025
What is next for Elon Musk according to astrology

He’s now even wealthier than the incredibly rich robber barons of the 19th century – and he’s the so called first buddy. So what can astrology tell us about the rise of Elon Musk and what’s next for him.

A clear connection with the US chart

Elon Musk has amazing synastry with the US. His Sun is exactly conjunct the country’s Jupiter, his Ascendant and Mercury are on the US’s natal Cancer Sun.

Like it or not he embodies and gives a voice to an aspect of the country.

Let’s look a bit closer at that American Sun and what it means to try to tease out who and what he speaks for.

America’s natal Sun in Cancer in the 7th house of relationships forms an exact square to Saturn in the 10th house in the country’s natal chart. It is a patriotic Sun, but being in the 7th house, it is also enmeshed with the “other”, it is concerned about others. And it wants to share its vision of the homeland with others.

If the country was a person this could speak of someone who cares deeply about relationships, but struggles to express it fully because of burdens and/or an ambition related to status. Or someone who expresses their views quite forcefully, because they think they know best.

So perhaps Elon Musk embodies the US’s need to care – and also to meddle. Cancerians can sometimes be quite self-interested and are often willing to go to great lengths to protect those they care about, those in the inner circle.

What is Elon Musk doing at the moment?

He is throwing his weight around, he is commenting on, trolling, governments in Europe, seemingly suggesting that he can influence elections and change the political winds on the continent.

Is he speaking for America? There are probably many in the country who agree with him, even though much of what he says is either ill-informed or actual misinformation.

Pluto playing a part

Part of the astrological reason for his rise to power is his synastry with the country he now speaks for.

But Pluto might also have had a role to play. As it’s traveled through the late degrees of Capricorn over the last few years it has sent a positive sextile to Elon Musk’s career point, the Midheaven, from his 7th house of relationships. His connections have been crucial to his success.

When Pluto is involved it means the fates are playing a part in this – exactly how this story ends remains to be seen though. What we are seeing now is the first act, the rise to power.

And Pluto has been generous. It has also sextiled Elon Musk’s lucky money making Jupiter in Scorpio in the 5th house of the gambler, trined his natal power-player Pluto in the 3rd house of communication and is now moving to a trine with his natal Saturn in the 11th house of groups – leadership.

The astrology suggests this has been a lucky period for the so called chief troll officer.

But what’s next?

Pluto’s journey through Aquarius over the next twenty years will reveal what the fates have planned for him. And just to caveat this, I’m not a fatalist, I believe we can bargain with the Gods and the choices we make are important, but as with many famous people a larger story is playing out through Elon Musk. He has chosen to play that role and that sometimes means being swept along by forces beyond his control.

The lessons of the Russian oligarchs

An astrologer might tell Elon Musk to watch out. His natal Sun is in his 12th house. That can sometimes speak of a spiritual person, a person connected to something larger than just the mundane. It is also a house that was traditionally linked with prisons and hospitals.

When the Soviet Union fell many people feasted on the ruins and took the country’s wealth as their own. They became the oligarchs, but the story didn’t end happily for many of them. Those who disagreed with Vladimir Putin or were seen to have become too powerful ended up dead or in prison.

Donald Trump has often expressed his admiration for Vladimir Putin. Someone like Elon Musk might want to study the story of the oligarchs who flew too close to the sun. As the fates lift you up they can also tear you down.

A more challenging time ahead

In about four years transiting Pluto will start to form the apex of a yod with Elon Musk’s natal Sun and Moon. This is another astrological pattern that speaks of the Gods playing a part in the story. This aspect is also called an inconjunct, it can be difficult, uncomfortable and sometimes speaks of endings.

At the same time Pluto will cross the US’s South Node in the 2nd house of finances and security, sextiling revolutionary Uranus in the 6th house. This is a transit that could speak of financial turmoil causing an uprising of some kind. The US will also have its Uranus return, the last time this happened was when the US entered World War Two, the time before that was during the Civil War.

During this period and the years that follow Chiron and then Saturn will cross Elon Musk’s career point the Midheaven. Revolutionary Uranus will square his Moon from the 11th house of the people.

Then Pluto moves on to a conjunction with his point of fate, the North Node, and Mars in the complex 8th house in the 2030s.

Chiron in Aries

It’s interesting that Elon Musk’s rise to power coincides with his Chiron return – one of the astrological milestones in life – when we are faced with our wounds and weaknesses in our early fifties.

Elon Musk’s Chiron sits in the 9th house in Aries – a Chiron that speaks of a wounding around being the pioneer in a foreign land. His family emigrated to South Africa, a country that was segregated and suffered from deep inequalities.

He moved to the US – a country where those same wounds around equality and civil rights lie closer to the surface than many might want to acknowledge.

And the US has almost exactly the same Chiron placement as Elon Musk. It is just a few degrees later in Aries and in the 4th house of home in the country’s birth chart. His wound is also the nation’s wound.

It will be part of the story playing out over the next few years.

The transits coming up for Elon Musk could be described as challenging – but as always with astrology it is difficult to predict exactly how they will play out. And if he leans into his Chiron wound as the asteroid crosses his Midheaven, it is possible that he will be able to use that wound to speak to a part of the US population. Which part though?

Perhaps he will speak to the descendants of immigrants and settlers who voted for Trump, who are right leaning and who feel scared of and oppressed by the society that surrounds them. They are, just like his family, pioneers in a land where civil unrest lurks not far from the surface.

Musk comes from a country which for decades othered and dehumanised its black population. Where the wealthy shut themselves in gated compounds and drive from one heavily guarded place to the next. Violence still ripples through the country.

Is this where the US is heading? If so Elon Musk can draw on his experiences from having grown up in South Africa as he will understand what the US population is going through. He will understand this particular expression of Chiron in Aries.

But all of that will be more difficult if he falls out with Donald Trump. The two men have a very interesting composite chart with a Sun/Saturn conjunction in late Gemini in the 11th house trining a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction in early Scorpio right on the IC. Both placements also form a sextile with a first house Pluto in Virgo.

This is a fated relationship, a partnership allowing both men to becoming even wealthier. It will be severely tested as Pluto crosses its Ascendant/Descendant axis starting in 2027.

What is interesting is that the North Node in the composite chart sits at 17 degrees Aries in the 9th house, right in between Musk’s and the US’s natal Chiron.

It all comes back to the pioneer, the settler, themes that are so prominent in Donald Trump’s chart as well. Here we have the settlers, yet again conquering a foreign land, ready to crush all who oppose them and then there is the wound created (Chiron in Aries) in both those who oppress and conquer and crush and those who are oppressed.

What exactly does that wound look like? Perhaps a stuntedness and a myopic focus on the individual – an inability to work for balance, harmony and for holistic solutions that serve all (Libra).

Mega-wealth

If I was Elon Musk’s personal peppy astrologer I would suggest that he is now entering a period that will allow him to become even wealthier.

In March he will have a progressed New Moon conjunct progressed Venus in Leo in his second house of finances. This is the start of a new thirty year chapter in his life. For some reason the fates are clearly pushing him towards incredible wealth.

But why?

It doesn’t always end well for the people who throughout history have gone down this path. Astrologers have long spoken about Pluto in Aquarius being a time of revolutions. The last time Pluto worked his way through the sign of the people gross inequality lead to the wealthy being beheaded during the French revolution.

It doesn’t have to end that way this time. But that means those involved in this particular play by the fates have to make enlightened choices and think about what is best for the people (Aquarius) – all of the people – not just the ones that are part of the inner circle.

The people might of course also have a say in this too, and they have a will of their own. Take that Aries wounding too far and Libra will rise up to restore the balance.

January 8, 2025
The astrology of Julian Assange – why was he released now?

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has left the UK and has landed in Australia. He is now a free man after reaching a plea deal with the US – who had been seeking to prosecute him for leaking military information.

Assange has spent five years in prison in the UK fighting extradition to the US. Before that he spent seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

During the post-Iraq invasion/financial crisis/Occupy-years he was lauded as a hero.

Then came allegations of sexual assault in Sweden and questions around his links to Russia. Instead of being extradited to Sweden, where he would have faced charged of rape, he escaped bail in London and sought political asylum and refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy – just around the corner from Harrods.

The astrological story of Julian Assange

Julian Assange has an interesting birth chart with Mars almost exactly conjunct his IC, point of home and the North Node thrown into the mix too. His Sun is in patriotic, home loving Cancer in the 8th house of sex, taboo, power and secrets. His Moon is in perceptive, sharp-thinking and power-hungry Scorpio in the 12th house of the subconscious.

Cancer is often described as the sign of the mother and the nurturer, but Cancer can also be quite a self-interested sign. It’s interested in nurturing and mothering itself. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just a different expression of those Cancerian vibes.

To me Julian Assange’s birth chart speaks of a person who has a sharp and penetrating mind, someone who is focused on questions around power and home, and who isn’t afraid to shake things up, to break things in order to change things to how he thinks they should be (IC/Mars/North Node in the maverick sign Aquarius).

He wouldn’t be afraid to hurt people along the way either with this chart – it’s the ideas and the ideals that matter, not the people or their feelings.

He has Pluto and Uranus in the 11th house of the collective – so he might appear a bit shocking to the collective, but there is also some kind of deep, compelling or perhaps compulsive link between him and “the people”. The collective might also bring shocking and difficult events into his life.

Saturn is almost exactly on his Descendant, the point of “the other”, in the 6th house of service. Relationships might not come easily and there might be power imbalances to deal with.

Finally he has Neptune and Jupiter in the 12th house on his Ascendant in free-thinking, ideological and free-spirited Sagittarius. So who he is seen to be is lifted up by the fantasies of the collective. And at the same time he would be someone who becomes the target of others people’s projections and fantasies – perhaps being made to spend his life playing the role of the archetypal Sagittarius.

Why was he released now?

I suspect the discussions around this plea deal might have started when Pluto moved into Aquarius in the spring. That’s when it would have started to trine his Saturn/Descendant and sextiled his Neptune/Ascendant – both positive and supportive aspects suggesting a significant change is in the air.

Jupiter, the planet of good fortune, would also have been crossing his Saturn/Descendant and opposing his Jupiter/Neptune and Ascendant, sprinkling some extra good fortune on that Pluto transit.

As Pluto is now moving backward over those points the deal has been finalised and he is released.

It’s fitting that it is Pluto who will release him as he entered the Ecuadorian Embassy and his imprisonment started with Pluto squaring his natal Moon and opposing his Sun from his second house of finance, security and self-confidence. Mars, the planet of aggression, also crossed his natal Pluto in 2012.

It’s also interesting that Uranus, the planet of sudden shocks and surprising events, was conjunct his Chiron in the 5th house of children and love affairs in 2012. Suggesting his inner wounding was activated in a sudden and surprising way – and that this wound might be connected to some kind of aggression and sex (Aries and 5th house). Chiron is sometimes a placement that can speak of self-sabotage.

Saturn would then have crossed his Moon and the other placements in the 12th house, as well as his Ascendant, during the years in the embassy – bringing constriction, restriction and perhaps a period of low health.

Then, in April 2019 when Ecuador revoked his asylum and he was sent to HMP Belmarsh, Pluto and then Saturn moved from his second house into his third house of communication and the mind. Perhaps suggesting that this was the time when he became serious about how to get out.

Another significant time for Pluto transits came two years later – around the pandemic. Pluto opposed his natal Mercury, trined his Pluto and sextiled his Jupiter, which could have been a positive shift and lead to breakthroughs around how to move forward, especially with the legal side of the story. Around this time Australian MPs visited the UK in order to help him and his case.

There might have been setbacks – or hard work – when Saturn crossed his IC and Mars in 2022. He also had his Chiron return. In April that year his extradition to the US was approved.

Why didn’t it go through? Perhaps his lucky natal Jupiter saved him. On the day when the extradition was approved by the UK courts a Jupiter/Neptune conjunction opposed Assange’s natal Pluto and trined his Jupiter and Mercury – suggesting that the outcome of the ruling might not be negative for him.

After several attempts to appeal he was given permission to do so in May this year – just as Pluto had crossed into Aquarius and with transiting Sun/Venus/Jupiter and Uranus tapping into the same pattern – on his natal Saturn. This was the point when he won his freedom.

Ultimately it seems like it was his country that came through for him – or at least claimed the win.

When Julian Assange touched down on Australian soil on the 26th of June 2024 Australian PM Anthony Albanese said he had fought for Assange because he believes “in standing up for Australian citizens”.

Quite a fitting end to this chapter in the life of a man with so many placements that speak of home and his homeland.

The astrology suggests this isn’t the last we will hear of Mr Assange. He had a progressed New Moon in 2020, very near his Midheaven, suggesting the next 30-year chapter of his life might bring more fame, infamy and renown.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash and Acidpolly on Flickr.

June 26, 2024
A tale of two politicians – fear, hope and the UK general election 2024

Two politicians are currently getting a lot of media attention in the UK ahead of the general election on the 4th of July 2024. They represent opposites of a spectrum. One has spent his whole political career speaking to our fears and our prejudices, leaning into feelings of discontent and anger. It has made him hugely influential and he is now running to become an MP for the first time in his life.

The other politician has had a low profile until now. Suddenly he seems to be everywhere on social media. Journalists are sharing his latest stunts – videos of him looking jolly and joyful, laughing as he’s drumming in a retirement home or going down a water slide.

In a more serious video he talks about what it’s like to be a carer for his disabled son. He talks about his father dying when he was young and how, a few years later, he nursed his mother when she was suffering from terminal cancer. He speaks of the importance of a society looking after everyone. He talks about carers, about those who suffer, those who are ill and vulnerable and about what politicians can do to help them.

So here we have the two sides of the British general election – appealing to two different sides of human nature.

We have the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, once again promising that the answers lie in getting rid of everything that scares and angers us.

Then we have Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal democrats, speaking to the part of this country that wants to be inclusive, to help, to nurture and to support.

So what can astrology tell us about these two characters and the upcoming election?

Nigel Farage’s birth chart

It looks like it will be a good election for Nigel Farage. If the birth data is correct then Jupiter, the planet of good fortune, will be almost exactly conjunct his Midheaven on the 4th of July. He will be lifted up, he will be seen and all eyes will be on him. Perhaps the Tories will fall apart and elect him leader. It’s all possible.

The North Node has just crossed his natal Sun, so this is his destiny. He speaks to something in the collective consciousness. Often with characters like him and Donald Trump their purpose is to collect all that is ugly and nasty out there and then speak it back to the crowd. They highlight the parts of society that need help, the bits that we haven’t focused enough on. A lot of darkness is channeled through them, to hopefully, eventually be transformed and released. The question is just how much damage those dark urges and instincts can cause while they are being uplifted and given power.

There is a sense that victory, when it comes on the 4th of July, might be short-lived or a bit of a poisoned chalice for Mr Farage. He will have Saturn retrograding over his Chiron and then crossing his Mars and Sun in the next two years, as well as squaring his Moon. Tough.

He might be stymied in power. Hamstrung, because his whole career has been about tearing things down.

Uranus will also cross his Venus, then his Midheaven and move into his 10th house. Lots of change and upheaval.

And Pluto is squaring his Mercury, potentially a sign of conflict and power-struggles. Although looking at the transits I’m wondering if there might be some domestic stuff going on for him too. Perhaps a love affair or some kind of romantic entanglement that will take up time and energy as Pluto is in the 5th house and his Mercury is in the 8th.

His progressions also speak of a short period of success, that could be followed by disappointment and disillusionment with his political peers.

Ed Davey’s birth chart

I don’t have a birth time for Ed Davey, so looking at his chart will be a bit more hit and miss.

He also has powerful transits around the time of the election. The first is Pluto on his natal Moon/Mars conjunction. Pluto can bring someone power and Pluto on Moon/Mars means the transit is connected to deep set values and feelings that he is willing to fight for. With that conjunction he is a fighter at heart. And who does he fight for? The Aquarius placement suggests it’s the underdog, the left behind, the misunderstood. Aquarius can also simply stand for “the people”.

He’s also had Saturn on his natal Saturn/Chiron conjunction, which is opposite Uranus/Pluto. That’s quite the chart pattern. This election has been hard work. It’s highlighted his childhood wounds, but there is a sense that this is an unusual and resilient character who is somehow compelled to work with that wounding.

Jupiter will be conjunct his natal North Node during the campaign and moving towards his natal Jupiter after the election. All good signs for Ed Davey and the Lib dems.

His progressions suggest this will be an important chapter in his life. He has recently had a progressed New Moon (in 2022), this is the beginning of a new phase.

His progressed Moon is on his Chiron in Pisces. So he really is working with his own wounds here, wounds that speak to the collective and might perhaps be healing to the collective. Progressed Venus is moving towards his natal Moon/Mars, another positive astrological sign.

The connection with the collective

So what can these two uplifted men say about the UK as country?

The connections between Nigel Farage and the UK chart from 1801 are uncanny. Farage’s North Node is on the UK’s Midheaven. His Sun is on the chart’s North Node. Yikes. He really is part of the country’s fate and growth.

His Moon is on the UK’s Mercury. So he can feel into the country’s state of mind. His Saturn is on the UK’s Pluto, channeling and concretising its darker instincts and hunger for power. His Mars is very near the Descendant – he will stand for fighting “the other”.

What about Ed Davey then?

The links aren’t as apparent and much softer. There is a Venus conjunction between the two charts – a connection around what we love and how we show it.

Davey’s Sun is very close to the UK’s point of home and ancestry, the IC. So he does stand for and represent something in the country’s nature. His Pluto/Uranus trine the UK’s Mercury and sextile its Moon from the 12th house of the collective. So he can be a channel for a different story, a different energy. They sit in the sign of Virgo – the sign of service and of those who work in the healing arts.

Fingers crossed this is the story that starts to resonate on the 4th of July and in the years that follow.

Photo by Chris Boland on Unsplash.

June 11, 2024
What’s up with the water? The astrology of contamination

The rivers are full of E coli and we’re told not to go wild swimming. The shores stink of untreated sewage. The Thames is turning into a sewer – again.

And while this is happening the privatised water companies have payed their shareholders and directors millions and millions of pounds in dividends and bonuses over several decades as the infrastructure crumbles around them.

It’s bad. But it’s not the first time its happened in the UK.

Some of you might have heard of John Snow. Not the guy from Game of Thrones, the scientist who was much derided in the 1800s for suggesting that it was the bacteria in the water that was causing waves of cholera outbreaks around the country.

Back then no one had been able to see these little bugs and Snow’s ideas seemed too far fetched. The medical establishment laughed at him. Even though people were finding pieces of toilet paper in their drinking water.

This went on for decades. Thousands of people died a horrible death. It wasn’t until after John Snow himself had died that people started to take matters into their own hands.

They started to boil their water, then they started suing the water companies that had pumped unfiltered water straight from the Thames into their homes. Then the thinking shifted. But it took a long time.

And now it seems like we’re having to learn the same lessons again here in the UK.

So why is this country seemingly so bad at looking after its water?

The astrology of the Great Stink

One event to look at is the so called Great Stink in 1858, when the stench from the Thames became so intolerable that parliament finally decided to build the city a new sewer.

What’s interesting about the chart for the day when parliament started to debate what to do with the Thames is the grand trine in water signs.

Neptune is in Pisces in the 6th house of hygiene trining Mars in the second house and Saturn in the 11th house in Cancer. So the collective had had enough, they had decide to start caring for their water and made sure there were funds available to do it.

Neptune is in the last quarter of its transit through Pisces in the chart. The issues had been building and building until a point where there was finally a decision to do something about it.

Neptune is currently in Pisces as well. The watery planet has been in its own sign since 2011 and will stay there until 2026.

The astrology of the Brixham water contamination scandal

On the 18th of May there was a modern water scandal here in the UK. That day residents living in an area of Devon were told to boil their water after the bacteria cryptosporidium was found in the supply. Several people fell ill.

The chart for that day also has Moon in Leo. And there is a positive pattern linking Neptune in Pisces to Sun/Uranus/Jupiter/Venus and Pluto.

There is an urgent need in the collective (Pluto in Aquarius) to find innovative ways of sorting things out (the very healing and practical Sun/Uranus/Jupiter/Venus conjunction in Taurus). And it’s connected to how we treat our water – Neptune in Pisces.

Water, the general election and astrology

The UK is soon about to vote in a general election. And what I’m interested in is if it will have an impact on the 1989 Water Act – that’s the legislation that privatised the water companies and it might be one reason for the current mess we’re in.

The Act was given royal assent at midnight on the 6th of July 1989.

The Ascendant is at 27 degrees Pisces. A chart point that Neptune will cross a couple of times before it leaves the sign in 2026.

This chart also has the Moon in Leo. This time its in an uncomfortable conjunction with Mars/Venus in the 5th house square Pluto in the 8th house. A gambling, dare-devil and devil may care risk taking – leading to financial rewards.

Neptune/Saturn are exactly conjunct in Capricorn in the 10th sextiling that Pluto. This Act will make some people very rich. And it’s the people – Chiron/Sun in Cancer in the 4th – who will suffer.

Unfortunately there isn’t much in the transits indicating that things will change soon. Pluto will start to oppose the Water Act’s Venus, Mars and then Moon from the 11th house of the collective as it moves through Aquarius over the next twenty years. The people might speak up.

Saturn and then Uranus will cross the IC and then Chiron and the Sun, opposing the placements in the 10th. This will change things, but it will play out over the next decade or so.

What sort of person do we need to sort this out?

Perhaps someone like John Snow with his grand trine in water signs, a powerful Pluto/Sun conjunction in those final degrees of Pisces, connecting to Jupiter in nurturing Cancer and a genius Uranus in detailed focused and perceptive Scorpio.

There is also a health focused T-square between a physicians Moon in Virgo, the wounded healer Chiron and Venus in Pisces and visionary Neptune in Sagittarius.

Just the sort of person we might need to end this sad chapter in the story of the sacred waters of this country.

But I didn’t answer my question – why has the country gone through periods of neglecting and abusing its water?

Perhaps the Moon in Leo offers up a clue. It’s a Moon that potentially doesn’t care about anything but itself. Is that Moon having a good time? Is it rolling in money? Then everything is fine. So there is no need to worry about the toilet paper in the drinking water – until the people (Aquarius on the opposite side of the Zodiac) rise up and say they’ve had enough.

Pictures via Unsplash by: Benjamin Elliott, Paul Macallan and the blowup.

June 5, 2024
Writing with the help of the stars – famous authors and astrology

Astrology is story-telling. The symbols in a birth chart are the raw data that allow me to start shaping a story. And I’m not the only writer who’s been drawn to this ancient art – but how can we use astrology as writers?

First we can look at our natal charts to try to figure what sort of writing that works with our astrological wiring.

JK Rowling

The most famous writer known to have used astrology is probably JK Rowling. It seems like she didn’t just dabble in it. Recently a handwritten and illustrated natal chart that she’s drawn up for a couple she met during an antenatal class came up for sale. According to the vendor of high end collectibles that sold the document for $20 000 “Rowling displays a strong knowledge of astrology, referencing texts such as the influential 15th century French work The Kalendar and Compost of Shepherds“.

She is known for writing the mega successful Harry Potter-series and then becoming a hate figure because of her combative views on trans issues.

But what does her birth chart tell us about Rowling as a writer?

Like many people who write she has several planets in Virgo, a sign that’s ruled by the messenger Mercury. Virgo placements can create an active and precise mind. Virgo can also be pedantic and overthink things and several planets in that sign could create a writer known for their intricate plots – and/or a writer who struggles with perfectionism and writer’s block. For Rowling the former seems to be more on point, she famously plots out all her books on a complicated and detailed grid pattern.

She has an influential Neptune in Scorpio in the 9th house of publishing. Here is someone who can dive into the undercurrents of society, the urges and drives of the collective consciousness and then shape what she’s picked up into stories that connect with something in the zeitgeist, stories that are published and read.

With Harry Potter she connected with a long tradition of story-telling and children’s fiction in the UK – fantasy, boarding schools and a brave orphan standing up to the forces of darkness.

Her Sun in Leo in the 6th house is able to pour a lot of energy into her work. It wants to shine, but it also wants to be of service. There is a sort of moralising tone to Harry Potter – be kind, stand up to bullies etc.

Finally Jupiter, the planet of blessings, is in the sign of the writer – Gemini – in her 4th house. Stories and story telling about home and family are part of her strengths as a writer.

The main thing that pops out to me when I look at her chart is a powerful and interesting pattern. She has a so called T-square, a dynamic and sometimes challenging aspect, between stern Saturn and the wounded healer Chiron in her first house, her Jupiter and her many planets in Virgo in the 7th house of relationships and her inner nature the Moon in the potentially tricky 8th house.

For a writer this could mean that she will be naturally good at stories about wounded heroes who set out to complete a quest that is hard and will challenge them, through this they are confronted with questions and learnings around home and family and also their relationships. But with that Moon in the 8th there is almost an obsessive quality to it, a compulsive need to exorcise demons – real or imaginary.

And perhaps that also describes the writer herself.

Eleanor Catton

This is an author who has been open about using astrology in her writing. Eleanor Catton, a young writer from New Zealand, took the literary world by storm with her second novel The Luminaries, which won the Booker prize in 2013 when she was just 28 years – making her the youngest author so far to win the prize.

The book is over 800 pages long and follows the stories of twelve men in 1860s New Zealand. These twelve men all represent the twelve signs of the zodiac. Catton also tracked the planets during the year when the novel is set and used that to inform the plot – quite a clever way to use astrology as a writer.

She has said that she became slightly obsessed with astrology when writing the novel.

Her take on it?

I like to think of the zodiac as having a lot in common with the Greek pantheon: less of a thing to be believed in, and more of a repository of cultural knowledge and history that is archetypal, and mythic, and responsive to close study.
Eleanor Catton interviewed by The Age.

So what does her birth chart tell us about what kind of story-teller she is?

There are planets and angles in Virgo, Gemini and Libra. Signs that rule communication and the arts. She has a conjunction between her Sun, her self, and Mercury, her mind, in Libra in the first house. It’s connected to her inner self, the Moon, and Jupiter in strong-willed Aquarius in the fifth house of creativity and creative projects. She also has Venus and Mars in the 12th house of the subconscious in meticulous Virgo.

The placement that really stands out to me is her Chiron, our core wound but also a point that can stand for healing, right on top of her Midheaven – the highest point in the sky when she was born, signifying our career or our status in the world.

What sort of stories would an author with this particular birth chart create?

They would be beautiful and deeply informed by the author herself. They would be different, unusual and with a strong sense of right and wrong, they might help the reader see the world through a different lens by showing them unusual and fascinating characters. Finally they would probably be ambitious works, dealing with topics like home, politics and the author’s country of birth (here I’m looking at her Neptune in Capricorn in the 4th, which is connected to her Mars and Venus).

But what does that Chiron mean? Perhaps that fame will be difficult for the author, that it could cause her some feelings of anxiety or insecurity, but that she – through being her beautiful Libra self – can help promote harmony, balance and empathy through her writing.

Olga Tokarczuk

What a birth chart and what a writer. Polish writer and Nobel prize winner Olga Tokarczuk’s powerful book Drive your plow over the bones of the dead has a protagonist that uses astrology. The book itself deals with themes around the destruction of nature and how we treat each other – and in that other she includes both humans and animals as equals.

Tokarczuk is also a clinical psychologist and an activist. When she was interviewed about why she created a protagonist who uses astrology she put it like this:

I don’t know what it’s like here in the United States, but in Poland, astrology is a pseudoscience worthy of ridicule and contempt. The intellectual establishment neither values nor is interested in it. It’s considered to be the delusion of old women or hysterical girls; it’s part of the newspaper culture. Because I was creating a character who was supposed to be a bit rebellious, even as an older person, I gave her the astrology to annoy all those who treat astrology as something silly and frivolous.
Olga Tokarczuk interviewed at the Brooklyn Library.

She then described how her own attitude to astrology is that it’s an old science, or art, “that foreshadowed psychology, perhaps even some kind of sociological way or thinking”.

So what does astrology tell us about her?

Most of her chart is concentrated in one corner – creating a forceful personality in whose life certain themes will crop up again and again. She has a stellium, several planets in one sign, in Aquarius – the sign of the maverick, the genius, the free-thinker and the activist. A part of that stellium is a Sun/Venus conjunction. There are also planets in Pieces and Capricorn on either side. Her Aquarius placements are squaring a Moon/Neptune conjunction in fixed, perceptive, deep-diving Scorpio in the 3d house of the writer. Phew!

So writing will be activism and there is a sense that she as a writer wants to be of service, she works hard to try to change the world for the better – and she has very strong views on how to do it. Partly because her life and her character have given her challenging, but important and formative, experiences around the human psyche and the human soul. She knows what is going on underneath the surface. In a different time she could perhaps have been a healer or a shaman. What she knows isn’t always comfortable and she’s willing to be confrontational, to shake people up.

She also has Pluto on her Ascendant, the lens through which her personality and chart is projected into the world. Pluto is in the 12th house of the unconscious and it’s in Virgo – the sign of the writer, the doctor and the nanny.

I’ve only read Drive your plow, but after having written this I think I’m going reach for her back catalogue.

Tips for writers who want to use astrology

Astrology and writing go together quite naturally. Astrology can inform a plot or create characters, a technique that has been used successfully by both JK Rowling and Eleanor Catton.

It’s also possible to look to the birth chart to identify our strengths as writers and figure out how to make the best use of our talents and skills. Olga Tokarczuk’s activism and hard won knowledge of the human psyche and the archetypal forces playing out in the world are all part of why she’s had such an impact as an author. Those talents stand out clearly to anyone who look at her birth chart.

But this is just scratching the surface of how writers can use astrology. As a writer it’s a topic I want to keep coming back to.

April 26, 2024