I am not a Mac user, but some of my best friends are.

This is only the second astrological appreciation I have felt called to do, despite the worthiness of all those who have passed since my little piece on Anita Roddick in 2007. Strangely enough, they are both entrepreneurs, with their Jupiter close in the third decanate of Cancer.  I will try to make this a small tribute as well.

Steve jobs was a Sunsign Piscean genius with the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction I call “The Entrepreneur” which incorporates risk-taking, so one for the astrology textbooks. With the Part of Fortune at the beginning of his 2nd House squaring his Jupiter-Uranus, he had a zest for making money and invention.  His Virgo ascendant gave him the eye for detail, sense of service, and relentless perfectionism of his formidable reputation.  His Ascendant was trine his Venus on the cusp of his 5th house, which showed his love of beauty in design and talent for creativity. Jupiter exactly trine his Saturn gave him the balance and strength of character which he needed to accomplish all he did. He was a Buddhist and believed in alternative medicine, and though his Chiron was not strong, it was situated in his 5th house of creativity, so his creations were actually healing.  Mercury also in his 5th house in Aquarius describes the nature of his technical and communication-based creations. Mars trine Pluto in fire signs gave him phenomenal creative energy.

He was at peace with himself spiritually at his leavetaking, as evinced by Neptune trine his natal Neptune.  Uranus, the planet of information technology, was exactly square his nodal axis, time for pastures new.

It is only in recent years that I came to a personal appreciation of Jobs’ worth…  But when I am away from home, my iPhone and Apps provide great solace.

The new line up in the current series of Strictly Come Dancing looks promising!  In particular, Jason Donovan and Anita Dobson seemed to shine initially.  Jason has his Venus, Sun and Mars in Gemini, the sign of Neighbours, but does not have a traditional dancer’s chart.  So I was pleasantly surprised.  Anita is a Taurean through and through, with a flashy outer covering of Leo.  But what is really interesting about her chart is her conjunction of the Midheaven (Careerpoint) and North Node (karmic mission) which means her outer career and spiritual purpose are united.  That gives her a special ability to focus in all that she does.  Lulu – I expected her to be much more co-ordinated than she appeared in her first dance, and maybe she was just having an off-day (or really doesn’t have good chemistry with Brendan Cole and isn’t just pretending?).  What makes Brendan the naughty boy of Strictly?  Answer – Mars square to Venus.  Spiritually, they are in tune, with their Neptunes in trine with each other.  But the spark between them is Brendan’s Uranus conjunct Lulu’s South Node, a liaison which could go back to Atlantis.  The good news is that Lulu’s aspects are set to improve, at least for the next week or so – I hope to monitor all the contestants from time to time throughout the series.  The piece de resistance was Russell Grant, every bit as delightful in his debut as I had hoped!   He may not have as much time as usual to look up his own stars at the moment, but natally he has 3 planets (Venus, Mars and Jupiter) in Pisces making him an inspirational figure (to some).    Pisces is the sign of dance, and he also has his North Node there, so it may be his karmic mission to entertain us on the dance floor…His first career, Astrology, is shown by Uranus, the planet of Astrology, at the top of his chart.  Delicious!  Now feelings are running deep, as Venus enters Scorpio on Sunday. You may have been exchanging social pleasantries on Saturday while Venus was still in Libra, then realize on Sunday that you find yourself in deeper waters. Venus also trines Chiron on that day, so the deeper waters have a healing purpose, and no doubt that’s about recognizing what needs healing and feeling on an emotional level. On Wednesday (12th) the emotional focus turns away from relationship, and others, and needs to focus on the self, with a full moon in Aries. There’s no compromise to be had, no matter how convincing the case put forward by the other half , as represented by the sun in Libra. You must do what is right for you. Full Moons can work better if both parties focus on a cause outside themselves, or on a solution where all parties can win.  Neptune trines Mercury later on Wednesday morning.  If you suffered confusion the week beginning 4 September when Mercury was opposite Neptune, now you may find the mental harmony and balance between the rational and the spiritual, the two reflecting each other like a skyscape on water.  It could all make much more sense now. Record this sensibility in your diary or in a poem, so that you can consult your own inner truth when Mercury next makes a wobbly aspect with Neptune.  The next day ( Thursday 13th) Venus sextiles Pluto and more balancing is set to occur, more deep feelings are acknowledged and revealed and shared, and more emotional healing is possible, early in the morning.  However, a few aspects jostle for influence on that day, so later on in the morning you may sense a change with Mercury entering Scorpio.  While fine words may have been oiling the wheels nicely when Mercury was in Libra, they may not butter any parsnips after 10.52 am (U.K. time).   A light salad lunch would be more appropriate than a heavy roast, lest the accompanying conversation may be unpalatable or indigestible. You may find that you hear words which are more profound and more truthful than expected though. Maintain your stamina on Thursday for a further two aspects: next up,  is Sun conjunct Saturn. Despite good  intentions to avoid negative emotions, you may have taken to heart another’s  comment earlier in the day ( hope it’s not a comment on this blog!).  The conjunction takes place in Libra, so relationships could take the brunt of remarks made:  romances could be disillusioned;  a dear one may shut off emotionally in order to work on their own inner process.  Finally, Mercury trines Chiron, bringing the mental illumination needed to make a whole out of all the perplexities of the day.  You may remember the word which eluded you earlier, and accept that minor memory lapse is just part of growing up!  It’s a good day for the healing of the nervous system.  Congratulations for getting through to Friday, when you will be greeted by an opposition between Venus and Jupiter.  Not too much to fear: a social gaffe or two, or a playful  tug of love.  After an intense but rewarding week, you can handle that.

The week in bullet points:

• Sunday – depth and healing
• Wednesday – self-serving, and mental clarity
• Thursday – deep feelings, deep thinking, withdrawal, and mental healing
• Friday – silliness

The fiscal crisis rumbles on, with no end in sight.  What is going on? The world wonders.  What is it all leading up to…?  Obama looks to Europe to solve the crisis, and the situation in Europe is no further forward from last week.

Last week I wrote about how the current aspects are affecting the charts of the main financial characters.  Let’s see if anything has changed this week:

IMF:  Pluto is conjunct the Sun of the International Monetary Fund chart.  Aspects don’t get tougher than this.

Christine Lagarde: Neptune still opposes her Pluto (an extreme test of her skills) and squares her Saturn.  No change there.  Still way too much pressure.

Barack Obama: Uranus trines his natal Mercury and squares his Venus, while Jupiter opposes his Neptune.  Mentally he is in good shape, emotionally he is a little volatile, and spiritually he is a little florid.  That doesn’t explain the Wall Street protests, so hopping over to the U.S. chart…

…U.S. Chart:  Transitting Mars conjuncts its North Node (forcing a karmic issue) and sextiles its Uranus.  This signifies an awakening of energy, and specifically rebellion, and Uranus is in its 6^th House of the workers.

Angela Merkel:  Jupiter still currently sextiles her Mercury, and Pluto trines her Venus, both excellent aspects for her.

George Osborne:  Jupiter squares his Mars, and Uranus trines his Jupiter, and this week Jupiter squares Mars generally, so overconfidence is increased.

George Papandreou:  Pluto (the slowest moving planet) is still opposing his Mercury (mental strain), and Mars sextiles his Saturn (a cosmic urge to action), plus Saturn is conjunct his Neptune adding to his problems.

As you can see, watching transits can sometimes be like watching paint dry, but watch this space if that appeals to you.

We have three aspects this week.  Tomorrow Mars squares Jupiter, an aspect which can encourage fieriness and over-the-top enthusiasm.   Mars squaring Jupiter often results in high-flying balloon emotions, but with Jupiter (the expansive one) currently in Taurus, it could be a little more grounded, so that something more tangible can grow from the roots of ideas born this day, or week.  The Robert Browning line comes to mind here:  “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?”  So if your ideas are high falutin’, check that you are equally grounded.

On Thursday (6^th) Mercury is conjunct Saturn, so people mean business.  But communications may be delayed, traffic jams could occur to popular venues, such as protest sites or if the warm weather continues here, beaches.  But it’s not a holiday atmosphere, and a serious intent is going to be at the heart of things.  If you are studying, it may be a good day to get down to work.  If you are seeking to escape work, you may be pinned down.

The best aspect of the week occurs on Friday (7^th), in the shape of Venus trine Neptune.  Artistic and spiritual endeavours are highlighted, dance and fashion could be inspired.  Victoria Beckham’s heels could get higher…Those seeking to take their art and their life that bit further beyond, but still retaining elegance and style, will be rewarded.  This contrasting with Monday and Thursday’s aspects which will be more tricky in terms of satisfactory results.  Though excellence can be achieved on Friday, it may go unnoticed or be too subtle for its intended audiences.  But if everyone raises their consciousness on that day, everyone will be able to admire everyone else’s achievements as well as preening on their own.  It’s an appropriate aspect for World Smile Day, and there could be a lot behind the smile of the passerby…

Please Note: My Chief Commentator Sarah, who like 20% of the population, receives less than a minimum wage for her services, is out of action due to computer problems.  Regular readers will know that she has struggled for 4 years with her computer.  At the risk of giving out too much information, the dogs knocked over her router at 5.30 pm on Friday (with Uranus squaring her Mercury) and forced the issue.  She is now wrangling to leave one internet provider and begin anew with broadband.  Another friend recently tried to do the same, and I overheard her on the phone having to repeat 20 times to the outgoing provider that she wanted to discontinue their services.  So Sarah may be a while…

The week in bullet points:

• Monday – High flying
• Thursday – Applying yourself
• Friday – Inspiration

I can no longer avoid blogging about the world economy this week.  Every week the noises about being on the brink of meltdown become louder, so that now I can’t hear myself think.  The big figures on the financial stage seem to be Christine Lagarde, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and George Osborne, but the general impression seems to be indecisiveness and the question leveled being “Who’s in Charge”?  Astrologically the question seems very complex, and the general consensus is that the crisis is due to the square between Uranus and Pluto.  Where is the decisiveness and leadership in the Astrological community in terms of economic wisdom?   I would say that it lies with Raymond Merriman, on his website “The Merriman Market Analyst” subtitled “The Leader in Market Timing Services & Products”  Accordingly, the link to his website is permanently fixed on my Contact page.  What is he saying about this week?: “The main geocosmic configuration in effect this week will be the new moon (with Mercury) on Tuesday, September 27, forming a cardinal T-square to the Uranus-Pluto square. This powerful configuration portends yet one more round of huge price swings and extreme volatility.”  I decided I would take a look at how the current aspects are affecting the charts of the main financial characters, plus the Greek politicians, at the most dire end of the situation.  Christine Lagarde, newly appointed to the head of the International Monetary Fund on paper occupies the leadership position: Neptune opposes her Pluto (an extreme test of her skills) and squares her Saturn (her responsibilities oversee the most complex of operations, hence her very subtly worded pronouncements, including that the global economy was at a critical junction but was that it was a matter of “pushing through to get to the other side”).  For Barack Obama, President of the United States, Uranus trines his Mercury, Saturn trines his Ascendant, and the North Node sextiles his Ascendant.  Astrologically, he is not having such a bad week – leaving the Eurozone crisis to take centre stage, and joining Bill Clinton for a round of golf to talk about the economy (give him a break, he has been working hard recently).  For German Chancellor Angela Merkel , Jupiter currently sextiles her Mercury, and Pluto trines her Venus, both excellent aspects for her to be holding the financial balances of Europe – she needs these aspects to keep her buoyant in the face of public hostility about bailing out the Greeks.  For U.K. Chancellor George Osborne, Jupiter squares his Mars now, so he may be overconfident.  While for Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, Pluto in Capricorn opposes his natal Mercury, so he does have the worst position of the lot, a real headache in fact.  Apologies to those I have missed out.  And on to the week ahead.:  Mercury enters Libra today, making it a good day to review your documentation, particularly regarding legal matters.  Where you may have been in a quandary, not being able to see the wood for the trees, your mental outlook can become more balanced.  In relationships, the role of dialogue is strengthened.  The Sun opposes Uranus tomorrow, and indeed if you sensed the underlying currents between Venus-Uranus-Pluto last week, you may sense them in a slightly different way this week, with less focus on relationships and with more focus on the whole problem.  This is because the Sun substitutes for Venus in this triangle this week, so power issues are more to the fore.  It is likely that the indecisiveness and lack of leadership in political and financial arenas will continue this week therefore.  The Sun opposing Uranus will make the unexpected the determining factor, the loophole will decide, the spanner the key to the works.  On Tuesday (27^th) Mercury also opposes Uranus accompanying the Sun this week, joining this complex line-up.  There will be words, and the words will be contentious or outrageous.  These may be said in haste, or carelessly, and possibly regretted, but revealing the true or unconscious thoughts of the speaker.  The good news is that there is a New Moon in Libra that day (4 degrees) but the not-so-good-news is that it is squared by Pluto, and that if you are starting a new venture you need to look for the seeds of destruction.  The questions you need to ask are “Are all the contributers entirely trustworthy?”  “Is this really a good time to start a new venture at all?” “What does this tell me about myself and my deepest motives?” “Have I got the patience to wait until I feel clear of this mental maelstrom?”  On Wednesday (28^th) things are no easier, with Pluto exactly squaring the Sun, and revealing the crisis in more black and white terms.  It is not a good day for authorities, who will wonder if they have authority.  This aspect is followed by Mercury squaring Pluto, so the misgivings and uncertainties will have to be relayed by someone to others, by email or blackberry.  Text may be too lightweight – surely there are some things you just can’t do by text, even in this day and age?  Wednesday may be the height of the week’s crisis, for on Thursday (29^th) there is a lighter note at the beginning of the day: Mercury sextiles Mars, and maybe people take their news more courageously than the bearers of the news might have thought.  It’s a good day for getting things done, briskly – zipping along on yer bike, for instance, going to work on an egg, that sort of thing.  But sadly, by the evening a conjunct between Venus and Saturn forms at 18 degrees Libra, and the emotional cost of the week begins to be counted.  Could you afford to offend a friend, sack an employee, neglect your family or spouse?  In the effort to soldier on, you may have buried your feelings temporarily.  What can you do – it is hard trying to be superhuman and attend to everything and everyone.  You’ll have more energy for this attempt the next day, Friday (30^th) with the Sun sextile Mars.  New (yang in particular) energy rises to the fore, and new attempts to put the outside world back together, especially if you can let go of the emotional issues for the time being.  David Cameron declared us a “broken Britain” at the time of the riots, and now wants us to be proud of our greatness.  Friday is the sort of day to accentuate the positive.  Perhaps read my new blog “Future Lives – A Literary trail” posted yesterday, in the spirit of creating a better future.

The week in bullet points:

• Today – you can sort it out
• Tomorrow – the cat’s among the pigeons
• Tuesday – out of the mouths of babes…; new ventures get off to a tricky start
• Wednesday – take a good look at what is going on, then attempt to express it in words
• Thursday – new energy springs up in the morning; emotions fall flat in the evening (not to mention finances)
• Friday – pick yourself up again

I have been fascinated by the concept of Future Lives for over twenty years, and as I am about to go on a new adventure of discovery in that regard, I feel now is the time to review my journey so far.

When I first came to Astrology in 1970, I felt that it was a tool for creating your own future, and it slotted in with my idea that we create our own lives.  That is a commonplace new age idiom now, but at the time it emerged for me as I learned to work with Astrology.

Helen Wambach (1925-1986) was the first person I heard of in connection with future lives.  She was an American hypnotherapist who tended to work in large groups, and assess the data statistically.  She worked with past lives, and then wrote a groundbreaking book “Life Before Lives” about our preparation for coming into incarnation.  This work preceded that of Michael Newton who specializes in life between lives, which he calls spiritual regression, but that is another subject.  What would characterize the chart of one who works in this area?  I have not looked into this, but Helen has a close conjunction of the Sun, Neptune and her Ascendant, with several planets in Leo.  I have a much dog-eared copy of “Life Before Life” which I read several times in 1979 and several times since.  What was enthralling about this book was about the scope of the choices we make before we come into incarnation.

She did not actually write a book of Future Lives, that task being left to her successor Chet Snow who met and worked with her shortly before she died, and was the author of an equally groundbreaking work “Mass Dreams of the Future”.  I casually selected this one from a bookstore in 1991, not knowing what I was opening up to.  I had read about future earth changes in books by Ruth Montgomery, but the visions which Chet Snow had produced while working on his future with Helen Wambach were graphic and terrifying, apocalyptic views of 1998.  This work opened up many areas of work in connection with earth healing for Chet Snow, who told that he had undertaken this task as a result of having done the opposite in Atlantis – he had denied there were problems when he could have helped people to see what was going on at the time.  He now lives in Arizona, where he saw himself from the mid-1980s looking at 1998.  You might find all this time-hopping confusing, or alternatively enjoyable as I do.  That the specific earth changes he foresaw did not happen in 1998 he sees in terms of the spiritual work done by people like him.  He also put out a video a few years ago saying that there had been a reprieve, and hinting that the end of the Mayan calendar (circa 2012) would be a marker for such changes.  Please note, I am not wishing to fan the flames of conjecture of what would or would not happen at that time.  Suffice it to say that Chet Snow woke me up to what we need to do now in terms of looking after planetary resources, though I still feel I am lagging behind what is needed.

In his statistics of groups he has taken through mass future progression, Chet identified 4 possible human groupings in different social environments, possibly co-existing:

1. Space Stations
2. Small New-Age style communities
3. Hi-Tech Cities
4. Simple rural lives in isolated villages

(you choose)

Chet has a much more sober karmic mission from his chart than Helen, with the North Node conjunct his Sun and Saturn, showing a serious responsibility.

We (my friends and I) did follow the trail of Chet for a few years, using his future life tape, and attending a couple of his workshops.  In one of my future life scenarios, I was a grandmother in a crater in Germany, looking sprightly, in the company of some of my present-life friends.  In this lifetime I am currently enjoying grandmotherhood, but am not as sprightly as I could be, so perhaps I will make progress next time round.  Certainly, the experience of becoming a grandmother has opened up my future vision.

In 1993 we were treated to a TV documentary and book tie-in (“Yesterday’s Children”) of the story of Jenny Cockell who died as Mary Sutton in Ireland in 1932, leaving behind several children.  In her present incarnation (as a Cancerian) she had recurring dreams about these children she had left suddenly through ill health, and eventually traced them and met them.  She wrote subsequent books “Past Lives, Future Lives” (1996) and “Journeys through Time” (2008) detailing her efforts to trace her future lives, which make fascinating reading.  I did write to her and obtained her birth time, which showed interesting correlations between the life of Mary Sutton and Jenny Cockell.  Subsequently I went to a lecture she gave, and introduced myself.

Brian Weiss, an American psychiatrist, has produced a number of enthralling books on the subject of past life regression, such as “Only Love is Real” describing various cases in his practice, and what can be learned about life through them.  In 2004 he published a book of Future Life therapy entitled “Same Soul, Many Bodies”.  He developed a method of surveying the results of present choices through three possible future paths, which seems to have been very effective.  Often one path stands out as being brighter than the rest, but depends on present negativity being worked through.  Of the glimpses into the future which are shown in these samples, there are a variety of scenarios, including many hi-tech or scientifically advanced examples.

So far, the authors and books described have been in chronological order, but around four years ago I discovered (and devoured) the books of Bruce Goldberg, whose books on futuristic subjects date much further back.  Like Jenny Cockell, he also wrote a book entitled “Past Lives, Future Lives”, but dated 1982.  Here he gives examples of future progressions he conducted, with some quite detailed pictures of the future.  He too gives some examples of hi-tech living, and some clinical scientific types.  He also portrays some more detached forms of human relationship, which I find unsettling – hopefully there is still variation and choice in that matter.  An unusual feature of his work, is the connection between our future selves and our present selves, for which he gives graphic examples and exercises in his many books.

Future Life work then (in my narrative at least) leaps forward with the advent of Anne Jirsch’s book of 2007 entitled “The Future is Yours”.  Anne Jirsch was a psychic who worked with past lives and then was suddenly brought into future life scenarios, in working with her group of friends.  She then realized the creative potential of this work in many applications, and her book takes us through many exercises both relating to the future in this lifetime, and future lifetimes.  I attended her workshop at the Festival of Mind-Body-Spirit in London in May (regular readers may remember) and was sufficiently impressed to put my name down for a future practitioner course.

In my own practice, given my interest in the subject for many years, future scenarios do come through from time to time, and are always very revealing, and empowering for the individual.  Working with future lives is more malleable than working with past lives, and karmic considerations need to be catered for, but it can take us forward in unusual ways – out of the box, out of the comfort zone, and left field!

On Sunday, having negotiated the socially bizarre opposition between Venus and Uranus of Saturday night, and maybe even laughing it off, we are working our way to Venus’ square with Pluto in the early hours of 19th. So Sunday could be a process of trying to work out a social and relationship difficulty as part of a T-square between Venus-Uranus- Pluto, which you need to process in a quick change consciousness transformation of the heart, before it processes you!

Here’s a sample film script:

Saturday night (17th: Venus opposite Uranus) Girl walks into a bar in Soho.
Man:  “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine”.

Girl (donning a nicotine patch) : “You know how to whistle, dontcha?”

Early Monday morning (19^th: Venus square Pluto), man persuades girl to take the last tube to Heathrow Airport and board the plane, telling her:  “You’d regret it if you stayed.  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”

This Monday you may be boarding a metaphorical plane, away from an impossible situation.

Essex Girl on plane to Ibiza, thought bubble: “Oh how much easier relationships were just last week, with Venus sextile Mars and entering Libra and all that. He was some cool dude, but it wouldn’t have worked.  I’ll send him a text when I get to Ibiza, wishing him a nice life.”

Immediately she leaves on Monday, Mars walks out of Cancer, leaving behind his home comforts, the lifestyle he knows running the café/bar, to join the Arab Spring in Libya.  Enters Leo, and is a changed man: he finds his creative fire, the courage of lions, and his inner King of the Jungle, in the desert.  Here he is more able to live in the Now, and forget last week’s romance.

The middle of the week is quiet, to allow our swarthy hero time to acquaint himself with his new battlefields, and learn to operate in a new sign.  Then the Sun switches signs on Friday (23^rd) entering Libra at the Autumn Equinox, and our hero believes his mission is to promote peace and justice in a world where the inner warrior must express itself, but in new ways (the 21^st Century Iraq war taught him that).

Finally on the same day, Mars trines Uranus, a dynamic aspect for any action, invention, and revolution.  Our hero meets a fellow freedom fighter on the battlefield, and declares:  “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.

Whether it’s Cameron and Clegg, Cameron and Sarkozy, Putin and Medvedev, or Ed and David Milliband, it’s a good day for male bonding, and efficient use of machinery, such as artillery discarded by the outgoing regime.

For those who lead a more primarily feminine or domestic lifestyle, you may express your inner male very powerfully on Friday, or begin new initiatives.  At the supermarket you may come upon an old workmate with a toddler in her trolley, and suggest you start a new cottage industry selling raw meals on the internet for those who don’t have time to peel and chop their own vegetables.  It is a day when you can but dare to ask. The answer she gives depends on how much quality time she believes a toddler needs with mum, and how much she likes prepping veggies.

The beginning of the week is the end of the road for a personal or social scenario, and the end of the week is the beginning of a new road, a regrouping socially and the initiation of new projects.

And the film?  It wins a Bafta for its dialogue, but loses out in other categories, such as characterization and plot, on the grounds of implausibility, according to the judges.  There is a possibility of a remake…

The week in bullet points:

• Monday – call it a day emotionally, then move on to pastures new
• Friday – new hope in relationship, dynamic new initiatives

Today the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the fall of the twin towers in New York, is marked astrologically by an opposition between Mercury and Chiron.  If you grappled with last week’s confusion in the shape of Mercury opposite Neptune, you may find that, with today’s similar aspect involving Chiron you reach the nub of the problem, which can then begin a new healing.  The healing may be worked on the mental level, as it involves Mercury.  A tenth anniversary is a real marker, and it could be that with the emotional plane being so insistent in the past (year or ten), you may experience an emotional coming to terms, and are now ready to start a new phase of mental understanding.  Certainly I feel there has been a great deal of subconscious angst recently coming up to this point.  On that day 10 years ago, I heard the news on my way home on the train, from my commuter buddy at the time.  Then barely an hour later, it was the time for my Fixed Star meditation group to turn up.  So we sent out healing, barely knowing what we were sending out healing to.  The event was unprecedented, and incomprehensible.  The event itself has come to be synonymous astrologically in my mind with the late summer/early autumn Fixed Stars, among them one name Alkaid in the Big Dipper, the actual tip of the handle of the Big Dipper,  eerily similar to the word Alkaida.  The star we were working with that night was Denebola, a star in the constellation of Leo, and one of the meditators wrote in our little silver hologrammed spiral notebook a message that there will one day be Unity.  That is still a very much needed commodity, ten years on.  Venus is sextile Mars today, which instills a co-operation between the sexes.  My husband Mike and I travelled to New York for the first time in October 2007, and stood at Ground Zero.  My prayers there produced a sense of Heaven and Earth uniting in co-operation, those who had lost loved ones being helped to understand by those who had passed into other dimensions.  A book I read just a few weeks ago seemed to bring this thought to life.  It was written by Bonny McEneaney, whose husband died in the disaster.  It’s entitled “Messages: Signs, Visits, and Premonitions from Loved Ones Lost on 9/11” and I expect it is much more well-known in the U.S. than here.  The copyright at the beginning of the book tells us we can only quote a few lines, and I would have loved to quote some of the poems, but will just quote from the introduction: “This is a book about men and women who lost loved ones and who have been fortunate enough to have spiritual experiences surrounding these losses.  This is not a book about death.  It is a book about hope and the deep and loving connections that go well beyond the boundaries that exist between life and death.”  Tomorrow, Mercury trines Pluto, so this is a timely aspect for learning deep lessons, and moving on to a new phase of life and living.  Maybe for instance you have evolved a new philosophy, and can start to live it.  On the same day we have a Full Moon in Pisces, and emotions may be full on, but balanced and encompassed by a wider and deeper mental outlook.  On Thursday (15^th) Mercury trines Jupiter, and all ye entrepreneurs out there should have a good day practicing your art.  Also favoured are students, such as freshers, embarking on new studies, and philosophers living new philosophies.  Later  that day Venus moves into one of its own signs, Libra.  This will be a stimulus to the Arts, and to relationships in general.  Justice, fairness and harmony will be much sought after, and there may be new initiatives in human rights.  In your own close relationship, if you have been splitting hairs and being a bit picky about the behaviour of your other half, you may change to seeking a rapprochement and be more willing to compromise about the foibles of your loved one.  On Friday 16^th Pluto is stationary prior to turning direct, and you may start to make more long term progress in the area of your chart currently occupied by Pluto and the sign Capricorn.  The end of the week, Saturday 17^th, brings an opposition between Venus and Uranus.  If you are socializing, be prepared for some erratic behaviour.  If you are having a quiet night in, it might turn out a bit like Abigail’s Party (Mike Leigh’s play, circa 1977).  Returning to the Fixed Stars, if you are lucky enough to have a clear sky at night you may still be able to catch the Supernova PTF 11kly exploding in the Pinwheel Galaxy (not to be confused with the Pinwheel Galaxy in Triangulum) near the tip of the handle of the Big Dipper.  Our meditation group used to occasionally nip out and stargaze on my primitive telescope, and wish they had a proper Astronomer guiding them!

The week in bullet points:

• Monday – Deep thoughts and emotions
• Thursday – Brisk sales, stimulating mental outlook, and smoother-sailing relationships
• Friday – A sea-change towards progress
• Saturday – Strange social outlook

This week is about questions. The whereabouts of Gaddafi are still unknown. And the issues thrown up by the London riots (violence, poverty, social alienation, policing, parenting etc) are just beginning to be unravelled.  In order to arrive at solutions, the problems need to be fully understood. Rarely, we only have one aspect this week: Mercury opposite Neptune, which we met in late July and then early August during the English riots. Though the riots were caused by the violent and shocking T-square of Mars, Pluto and Uranus, the element of mental confusion was a factor present due to Mercury opposing Neptune (confusion of the rioters, the Police and the public) and it is this element of confusion that we revisit this week. Look at the questions and unsolved mysteries of your life currently. It may be that the more you investigate, the more the mystery, fog or illusion deepens.   The issue may, for instance, be health.  It has been reported that the investigation into the deaths of patients at Stockport’s Stepping Hill Hospital has become more complex since the release of a former suspect in the matter of contaminated saline.  Police will have to question 500 people, in an effort to understand what has been happening.  The need for enquiry in your life’s issues lasts at least until Mercury opposes Neptune on Thursday.  You may look back at your diary to see what questions were thrown up around 28/9 July and again 8 August and see how far you have come in thinking about and discussing them. One thing for sure you will have found that the issues and your understanding will have become more complex and more sensitive. I do feel however that our Prime minister David Cameron, in trying to deal with the problems, shows from the statements he puts out that his psychological understanding is no more sophisticated than Tony Blair’s was. I always felt that it was Tony Blair’s primitive psychological understanding that held back proper progress and solutions – he was always scratching at the surface in his policies. In an interview on Friday on the Today programme, according to the Spectator “The interviewer, Evan Davis, offered Cameron the chance to retreat from the firm, almost draconian line he took at the height of the riots. But Cameron refused, comfortable to risk appearing ‘morally certain’, or, even more daring,‘nasty’… Even his compassionate points were couched in slightly unflinching terms.”.  David Cameron may have struck lucky in Libya, but in his home policies he could take a leaf out of the book of psychotherapist Camilla Batmanghelidjh founder of Kid’s Company (she of the colourful headgear) or at least listen to what she has to say about the sensitive issues of disaffected youth, instead of drafting in soldiers to teach in schools. Going back to the aspect of the week, our progress up to Thursday lies in listening and surrendering to the need for ever-unfolding of the complexity of truth, though stressful. It is a week when draughts of camomile tea and aromatherapy massages can negotiate this passage. The actual aspect occurs at 15.25 Hrs on Thursday (8^th) in the UK, so the effect is full on in the daytime.  In the USA it will occur around breakfast time, an appropriate time to report on and analyze any weird dreams.  In Australia it will be dreamtime, so strange convoluted dreams or possibly nightmares may be a feature of the psyche reporting to the conscious mind what it needs to convey.  After this point, there may then be some resolution, some ability to piece together the multiple jigsaws, to encompass the issues in your mind in a more coherent form. There follows on Friday (9th) the ingress of  Mercury into Virgo, and the possibility that you may start to get  answers, and factual information. Will we know the true whereabouts of  Colonel Gaddafi?  Will we see through the fog of the questions that surround us? We will certainly be getting on with life on a practical level. This astrological feature (not actually an aspect) occurs at 5.58 a.m. in the UK.   In the U.S. it occurs late at night on Thursday, so Americans may find they have a burst of efficient energy before bedtime.  In Australia it will be mid-afternoon, and ideal for working activity.  Friday’s astrological climate is where the real school term begins, the knuckling down to the new curriculum, the settling to a new regime, establishing new mental patterns and routines. Mercury ruler of Virgo is in its rightful place and there is a fresh new sense of organization. If you have not already read it, it may be timely to read my guest blogger Asia Haleem on decluttering.  It’s the first in an occasional series entitled Zodiac Masterclass which displays the expertise of each sign. Here is the link:

http://www.lanawooster.co.uk/blog/2011/08/zodiac-masterclass-series-the-virgoan-guide-to-decluttering-2/

The week in bullet points:

• Thursday – The peak of confusion and the beginning of Understanding
• Friday – The opportunity to put into motion new plans of thought and action

We are poised at the moment, waiting to see what effect Hurricane Irene will have on New York; waiting for the Libyan rebels to find the whereabouts of Colonel Gaddafi.  We are being asked to encompass so much in our minds at the moment, so much that is new and shocking.  Either that or we are in recluse, shutting our eyes and ears to any form of media.  The U.S. chart is going through the challenges of its Saturn Return this year, and at the moment that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the storm had arrived (3.30 a.m. GMT) Saturn was exactly conjunct the natal Saturn at 14 degrees 47 minutes.  The natal Saturn is 14 degrees 46 minutes!  Depending on the ground level, Bloomberg has asked residents of New York to evacuate (low ground) or stay indoors (high ground).  The possible effects are unknown as a storm of this kind is virtually unprecedented, and Irene herself may hopefully be running out of steam.  Libya too is in a moment of great uncertainty.  Though the rebels are elated to have taken Tripoli to all intents and purposes, they cannot progress until they have found Gaddafi and it is uncertain how the country will be constructed when they do.  At this time, Tripoli is facing a humanitarian crisis with many dead, and water and food in scarce supply.  The aspects for the original chart of Libya include a current powerful square of Pluto to its natal Jupiter in 7^th House: undergoing a dramatic change to its belief system, and challenges in its international relations.  Curiously enough Libya is also undergoing its Saturn Return this year, with its natal Saturn in the same degree as that of the United States, at 14 degrees 6 minutes.  This important moment of time is astrologically at least in some ways an opportunity, for today the Sun is trine Pluto, and we have an opportunity to take stock in a real and deep sense, before building something new for tomorrow’s (29^th) New Moon at 5 degrees of Virgo.  Today then is a day for searching the soul, and tomorrow a day for building on that wisdom – let us hope that New Yorkers and Libyans would be in a position to do that.  We may have a chance to do more than breath-holding later in the week, with the aspects dominated by the currents of Jupiter.  On Tuesday (30^th) Venus trines Jupiter, and this is certainly of benefit in our private and personal lives, establishing relationships on a happier footing, and perhaps celebratory in mood.  Jupiter then stands still, prior to turning retrograde, so the celebration may linger or turn nostalgic.  The best man’s speech may be especially evocative, and the champagne may stay in the system longer than usual.  Like an Indian wedding, the good will may last even until Saturday (3^rd September) when the Sun trines Jupiter and good wishes may prove to be more than just pipe dreams.  Despite the crises we are facing internationally, we can make headway this week at least personally, but hopefully the protective vibrations of Jupiter minimizing the damage feared in New York, and some diplomatic progress made in international relations elsewhere (Venus trine Jupiter), and preservation rather than destruction being the keynote as we go through the week. Uranus squaring Pluto continues to seek change where change is necessary, but where there is worth for you in your life Jupiter will encourage and support your efforts to cherish and save now.

The week in bullet points:

• Today  – Soul Searching
• Monday  –  New Building
• Tuesday  – Celebration
• Saturday  –  Luck

Virgo New Moon Mandala painted by Sarah Berry

Line Mandala from Mandala Colouring Book by Barry Stevens

available at http://www.mandalas.freeserve.co.uk/colouringinbook.html

This is the first of an occasional series written about the expertise of each Sun Sign. The articles will be found under the category “Zodiac Masterclass” so that eventually there will be 12 such articles, e.g. “The Libran Guide to Relationships”, “The Sagittarian Guide to Optimism”, “The Cancerian Guide to Parenting” etc. Each article will be written by someone who has the Sun Sign in question. With the season of going back to school, and starting further education courses, we all try to be focussed and organized in the month of Virgo.

Here Asia Haleem writes about clearing our clutter.

Asia started out as an Art Historian (London University) but when embarking on a doctorate to explore the roots of astronomical imagery in the ancient near east, got sidetracked into writing two books using the information she came across, about priestesses and goddess festivals in the ancient world.

For more information about her background, please refer to her guest post (Babylonians, Mexicans and the Total Count), and interview (No. 1 in the series).

The Virgo Guide To Decluttering and Cleaning
Asia Haleem

Having moved from a house to a flat, and then spent 20 years commuting and spending most of the day at work, for a long time I lived a life of keeping a semblance of order at home which involved carrier bags containing a month’s stuff at a time put under beds or behind rows of books -just as a temporary measure.

But a year ago when I finally stepped off the roundabout and found myself at home all the time I said to myself, I can now really tidy up (thinking it would take about a week). I was wrong: I’ve been at it a year now and there’s a long way to go – but I’m cool about it (Virgos can cope with phases of chaos if they are steps on the way to order). These are some of the strategies I have arrived at in order not to panic.

THE OVERALL SWEEP

I would start out with rooting out the things you know you can get rid of straight away, in bagfuls, because this gives you a good initial feel of achievement. In the UK we have a lot of charity shops which sell second-hand stuff people have thrown out, and if they’re not nearby you can usually phone and ask them to collect. My main throw-out bulk categories are clothes (if you haven’t worn it for two years, chuck it) and books (do you need all those cookery books, and will you ever read those crime paperbacks a second time?). But also what about the carrier bags, jars, and other kitchen items that you virtuously kept to recycle, but are now gathering in dust (also the mouldy herbs)?

Getting rid of big amounts of obvious junk creates space for you to now begin the more detailed operation of shifting belongings around into better combinations – and you need the odd spare shelf or cupboard in which to park material that is ‘in transition’.

TIMETABLING

You say to yourself that you’ll spend a whole day decluttering, but here’s what I discovered: you need alternative strategies to follow to avoid getting tired, bored, or sheer overwhelmed.

• It’s better to put aside one day a week to concentrate on radical tidying;
• If that doesn’t work, one particular morning every week (like Sunday morning) can be put aside, so it becomes a habit;
• Or, deal with one category of belongings at a time, like books, then clothes, then indoor plants, then windowsill ornaments or silver polishing – have a real binge on one kind of thing at a time.
• Conversely, deal with one corner, window area or cupboard of each room only in one session. For instance a corner I cleared recently involved tidying the books on the shelves above, pulling out the filing cabinet and hoovering just that section of carpet underneath which usually I don’t get to, spraying with moth spray while it’s exposed, wiping the walls, dusting the ornaments on the filing cabinet and even polishing the cabinet with wood polish. You will never have to come back to it again for a year, or even two years in my case!

If in the process of doing a corner you find stuff which would be better placed elsewhere, I allow myself to park that in a temporary area until its new home in another corner is ready for it. You can even put them in storage boxes under the dining room table – you can get such pretty ones these days in hardware or stationery shops. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you need to allow yourself time to work out this vast three-dimensional Chinese Puzzle!

PAPERWORK

There are some things you have to put together over the year for annual events like your Tax Return or Christmas. In the hurly burly of everyday life, I have one drawer in a plan chest into which I chuck all invoices and statements, come the day I have to draw up my tax return. It depends how far you’ve reached in your decluttering journey, but I’ve now reached a level of refinement where I now have a concertina folder tabbed with labels such as Electricity, Phone, Office Supplies where if I stop for just ten seconds longer I can put the invoice into the right compartment and save myself a lot of work come Tax Return day, since they are ready sorted.

As the year goes on, and you have established some main blocks of order, you may even have time, for instance, to go through all your mortgage or credit card papers and see that all the leaflets and secondary correspondence about meetings now past can go in the bin. Needless to say, shred anything with your name and address on, and financial documents, or chits with your credit card details on. A strong double-cut shredder can be obtained these days for £30 and it will last for ever as long as you don’t stuff too much into the feeder. Shreddings makes good compost interwoven with vegetable matter!

CONCLUSION

I’ve gradually started to treat cluttering as a game which goes on for ever (a bit like Hermann Hesse’s Glass Bead Game of Life on the domestic level). I have started to enjoy the never-ending process in itself, rather than expecting to ever arrive at a perfectly ordered set of interiors and belongings in which I display myself, as if in a Museum cabinet! The thing is, if you don’t make some attempt at it you really do descend into chaos. Think more of establishing oases of order within it, dealing with the most important ones first. This will set your mind at rest and make you feel you can run the rest of your life knowing where a thing is when you need it (very important to Virgos, but I ’m sure also to all the other Signs)!

There’s also something calming about a freshly cleaned floor or pair of curtains because material surfaces can once more interface with the invisible divine world with the dirt taken off . It is absolutely true that cleanliness is next to Godliness, and that domestic order mirrors Cosmic Order. This is what the soul feeds on, so make some parts of your house or flat into a sanctuary for you and others. You will get a lot further by doing a little a lot of times, rather than trying to do it all in one go, which nearly always plough s into the sand.