Hi folks! It’s your friendly Sagittarian Astrologer intruding into your life again. The tone of the coming week is set by Venus re-entering Virgo on Monday (8th) and trying to maintain standards. Venus has high standards and fine taste in everything while in Virgo, and you may find, if you catch her mood, that you’ll be trying not to lower the tone. Taureans, Librans and Virgoans in particular will be settling for nothing less than organic, locally-sourced ingredients. But Tuesday (9th) brings rebellion and high kicks, with Jupiter sextile the Sun and square to Uranus. While Mars sextile Saturn may attempt to keep things under control and maintain some decorum, the influences of Jupiter and Uranus will probably dominate in favour of progressive values, while Venus in Virgo frowns or averts her gaze. Jupiter square Uranus is a theme which has been around most of this year, starting at the end of January when you might have noticed exciting new avenues in connection with technology, electronics and computers, and possible disruptions to them as well. Then came more of the same in May, but Tuesday brings a culmination of sorts to these proceedings. You may have been installing some complicated and sophisticated computer system which has taken months to get right for instance. If that’s not your thing, then alternatively you may have been engaged in a project throughout this period designed to bring a new and different vibe into your lifestyle. Look back and recognize that you’ve done something amazing this year! So between adjusting the tone and the vibration, you may strike the right balance. Hopefully we won’t be caught off guard, even if Gordon Brown announces he won’t be holding an election. Welcome in the New Moon in Libra on Thursday (11th), providing us with another chance to practise balance and equilibrium in our relationships, which may have wobbled a bit at the last Full Moon. There may be an air of people being careful with each other or treading on eggshells with Saturn conjunct the Mean South Node (it’ll be conjunct the True South Node later in the month, so you’ll have a chance to compare effects). Mercury goes stationary on Friday (12th) and you’ve guessed – it’s going retrograde again, and that could increase the rail and postal disruption, especially at Cambridge Station at weekends (speaking more as a Commuter than an Astrologer here). Just make sure that you get your communications loud and clear in those relationships which need clarity and don’t need confusion. And Saturday (13th) dreams up a lovely trine between Sun and Neptune, so you couldn’t wish for a more gentile aspect to entice Venus from behind the scenes. It favours painting, dancing, channelling, making music and generally using the right side of your brain. Time to let your left brain off the hook, breathe in trust and hope on the in-breath, and release any paranoia on the out-breath.

Feels like a new era this week: new month, new season, new horizons…This week, we’ll follow the fortunes of 3 characters: the University fresher, the traveller on a late holiday break, and the novelist. We’ll leave behind the hapless office worker at her desk, having a mundane week, sharpening her pencil and resisting the relentless advance of the “paperless office”. She may be back next week. The week revolves around the sliding doors of two aspects this week, and hopefully we’ll cover them in a little more detail than usual. First to present itself is the ever practical Mercury sextile Saturn tomorrow, the door to the mental tone for the week. It’s an aspect which involves attention to detail, bringing its own rewards. Our fresher finds himself in endless registration queues filling in endless forms, but in his newfound maturity knows it brings him ever closer to the serious business of Having Fun. Before meeting those clever debator dudes in Soc Soc, you have to actually join the thing and hand over the money. Next up our tourist: the journey is a chance for a serious catch-up with her travelling companion, and touching down on foreign shores it’s the serious but worthwhile challenge of getting the tongue round those strange-looking vowels in the phrase book, and mastering the local currency to three decimal places. And our novelist? There’s definitely a new chapter to be written, if not a new volume to the trilogy. What a responsibility – you really need to plan in fine detail, even though you’d love to just let it flow. Now it’s volume three you really have to think about getting your message across, and it’s a day to knuckle down. So to sum up generally then, once you have laid down the structures of your week on Monday, you can relax and let things unfold. Emotionally, the climax comes on Wednesday (3rd October) through Venus trine Pluto, the door to the emotional plane. For the fresher, you may find that the posh totty down the corridor (it’s all right, she’s not reading this) is already spoken for back home. But, faint heart never won fair lady, especially if she is majoring in the novels of Jane Austen. The Shirley Valentine abroad meanwhile needs to mark her diary with a heart on Wednesday, as that’s the day she is most likely to have a romantic brush with a stranger, eyes locked across a crowded swimming pool. This may also serve to put into context her relationship with the One she left behind back home. This aspect goes deep, and reveals the secrets of the psyche. She’ll weigh the shallow pool encounter against those deeper waters, and guess which will win….? As for our struggling novelist, it’s time to tackle the thorny question of the sex scene. Remember you ducked out of it in your last trilogy, despite the urgings of your literary agent. It may help to picture your prospective readership and pitch it accordingly: whether it be the Sun readers, broadsheet readers eagerly awaiting their weekly instalment (are there still broadsheets?) or New Age Aspirants ascending to other dimensions…Oh, and we can’t resist a peek at the office worker. What’s she up to? Daydreaming her life away…

…I didn’t predict that I wouldn’t be blogging from sleepy Snailwell this morning, but I did predict that there would be awkward customers on Friday. Anyway, a Happy Equinox to you all! The focus as the Sun enters Libra this morning is on balance, inner and outer, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Deep and meaningful discussions are possible on Monday morning with a sextile between Mercury and Pluto. Perhaps you will assess the true meaning of the Autumn Equinox in our lives and the life of the planet. Or if you are back to work, you may have an idea to revolutionize working conditions. Those snazzy new paper clips you ordered from Stationery on the New Moon may be coming into their own and be just the job. From then it’s onward and upward to the Full Moon on Wednesday (26th) which comes with a trine between Mercury and Mars in tow (it makes such a change to be reporting good news). Mercury trine Mars helps you achieve your goals for this Full Moon in Aries opposing the Sun in Libra. It is another focus for balancing this week and for equalizing the power struggle between male and female. Mercury enters Scorpio on Thursday (27th) and this may slightly tip the balance again, especially on the mental level, necessitating the acknowledgement of deep emotions and how they need to be fitted into the equation. And late on Friday night, Mars enters Cancer, again leaving aside theoretical equations and pouring in more emotion to be taken into consideration. It’s a good time to nurture the inner child or any newborns who have recently come into incarnation, and to honour their life force and the new energies they have brought in with them.

There have been a few reports in the news over the last two weeks about people recovering from brain damage or coma and speaking in different languages or accents. As a regression therapist, I would be inclined to put this down to activation of a link with past lives. The region(s) of the brain connected with language(s) may be the holding place for languages known in other lifetimes. Dyslexia too can show clues to its origins in past lives, e.g. a language block acquired in medieval times can result in medieval spellings, while a Russian or Tibetan style of forming letters can point to a lifetimes spent in those countries. You may conversely be one of those lucky people who instantly know another language wholesale without having to learn it, which points to a clear access to that part of the brain, mind or even the cells of the body which connect with past lives. If you are learning a language, try programming yourself before sleep to recall a past life in that country.

A sea of squares and oppositions this week for us, and a couple of positive aspects to keep us afloat. Take a deep breath (I’m talking to myself here) and assess the healing benefits of last week and how you came to them, presuming you were not too stung by the eclipse. Those healing benefits are still there, as some ephemerides will still show a sextile between Jupiter and Chiron. That vibe is still capable of acting as the wind beneath your wings today. The first square is tomorrow, though you may already be experiencing some hot-headedness in you or those around you as we come up to this skirmish of Sun square Mars. But hard on its heels is the soothing balm of a sextile between Mercury and Venus, the gentle parent looking on at the fighting toddlers exhorting that they kiss and make up. The assistance of Mercury-Venus will be one of the floats this week, so you may find that fine words can mend situations, and words carefully chosen can be mighter and ring longer in the memory than the arguments. Linger along to Wednesday (19th) and the other serendipitous aspect to get you through comes with Mercury’s trine to Neptune. Whatever flights of fancy your mind takes you on could be illusion, but then again they could be real – “how amazing would that be?” is a question you can ask yourself. Dream the impossible dream. That combo of Mercury-Venus-Neptune forming the core of the week can produce a poem, a symphony or a mandala, whose spiritual benefits are tangible. Back to reality very rapidly for the same day holds a square between the Sun and Pluto, and it is difficult but not impossible to hold the vision and see how to put it into practical action. It seems like things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, but actually if you just refold the origami – voila you have part of the original plan and you wonder why you couldn’t see it all along. Everything is flowing along the right lines, it just needed a little restructuring. And at the end of it you could be closer to your vision. On Friday (21st) however, you could feel torn apart by the old and the new order (but still hold fast to your cosmic vision) with two oppositions: the first to arrive is Mars opposite Pluto so keep your wits about you as you can come across a plague of undercurrents from the collective unconscious in the shape of awkward customers, angry drivers and stormy weather. Pack your umbrella and deal with the awkward customers as humanely as possible, then give yourself some tender loving care in the evening for Venus opposes Neptune and the vision may vapourise, leaving only its spirit or essence (be grateful for that). Friday night, really, is only suitable for cranio-sacral massage in the hands of your most trusted therapist, so book an appointment now. If you are taking part in or hosting one of those whacky New-Agey workshoppy event-type things, beware. Next week’s blog by the way is billed to come from the Mandala Workshop in sleepy Snailwell…

Anita’s leaving, like Diana and Mother Teresa’s was close to an eclipse in Virgo, thus highlighting the Virgoan virtues they came to show. Anita’s karmic mission is shown by Chiron conjunct the North Node in her natal chart, with the North Node at the beginning of Virgo (purification in the treatment of our planet) and Chiron at the end of Leo (her creativity and entrepreneurial spirit). Her practicality is shown by Mercury exactly trine Saturn. On a personal level, her strong marriage is shown by Venus exactly conjunct Mars in Libra. Her birth chart shows four squares to Jupiter, which represents the liver, and therefore one way or another that was a vulnerability for her. At her passing, Saturn was exactly transiting by conjunction her North Node, signifying that she had completed her karmic mission, an inspirational life well lived by anyone’s standards.

The beginning and tail ends of today will be very different: this morning almost serene with a trine between Mars and Neptune and this evening more electric with the Sun opposite Uranus. So it’s a yoga and yoghurt-type morning, and a panicky (have I packed my packed lunch for tomorrow) type of evening. The answer is that no you haven’t packed your packed lunch, but the good news is that your telepathic guides will prompt you just before you go to sleep. Numerologically, today is a 9, so if that is your number you could buy a lottery ticket, and if it is not you may try channelling on its significance, which is what Sarah and I will be doing in the Light Body meeting this afternoon. There’s a day’s grace before the partially eclipsed New Moon on Tuesday (11th) to get re-established at your desk in the office, eat your sandwiches and put on a pound in weight (nothing drastic). While you are sedentary, go through your New Moon ritual of intent. If you know what house in your birthchart the New Moon falls in, then you will know what area of life to plan for. Otherwise, try the Virgoan virtues of economy, purification and perfectionism in the Virgoan-related areas such as your workspace (re-arrange the icons on the desktop of your laptop), your environment (take your carbon footprint down a notch) and health (wean yoruself off the herbal tranqillisers). Thursday (13th) is a beauty for travel and philosophy (recommended reading for your journey: “Great Railway Journeys” by Michael Palin on the physical plane, “The Art of Travel” by Alain de Botton on the mental plane and “The Camino” by Shirley MacLaine on the spiritual plane). But reading on your journey, you’ll miss the delights of looking out of the window: the fen wide skies, the rabbits on Ely marshes, the piglets at Waterbeach…Actually, the physical and mental journeys you undertake around 13th could be profound and healing, for Chiron sextiles Jupiter and trines Mercury this week. Take a notebook with you on the journeys as the insights or poetic lines or sketches that appear can continue to inspire for the rest of the week, and a little beyond. That small red embroidered notebook could serve you better than Michael, Alain or Shirley on future journeys. Wot no scary aspects? No, the second half of the week is strictly for your healing…

Did you find the healing key provided by Mars and Chiron last week? Perhaps it was a symbol, or a philosophical thought. The Mars and Chiron healing effect is still influential this week, so you can still use it, though watch for the philosophical thought or symbol to change form or evolve. The big event of the week, and it’s about 3 hours away as I write, is the entry of Saturn into Virgo. Saturn has been in Leo for the last two and a half years, teaching you something, maybe that when you are feeling frivolous someone else may not be. So for Leos it’s party on dudes, but bearing in mind what came up for you. For Virgos, it’s down to serious business, maybe economies or ecologies. How important is this astrological event in the scheme of things? Diarists flip your pages back to mid-July 2005 when Saturn moved out of Cancer and into Leo: then we had liberated an emotional issue and begun a new test of our creative expression. More dedicated diarists (such as moi) flip back even further to the last time Saturn was in this exact position, to mid-November 1977, and you will have a more accurate picture of what to expect in context of the area of your life which is most involved, though you’ll have moved on and will experience on another level. The significance of this event may be temporarily lost in the maelstrom of squares starting tomorrow (3rd) which form part of a loose Grand Cross in the mutable signs composed of Mars in Gemini, Mercury and the Sun in Virgo, Jupiter and Pluto in Sagittarius and Uranus in Pisces. This could be an initiation for the uninitiated, but certainly we will all have to pull together, and where we have differences put them aside. If anything, the intensity of the Grand Cross was stronger last week, but I didn’t spot it in time (a few people reported feeling intense depression just after the eclipse) – sorry folks! Here’s the breakdown: Mercury squares Pluto early tomorrow morning and if you are travelling make sure you are accompanied by St. Christopher and your travelling Angels. There’s a sextile in the evening between Venus and Mars sandwiched between another two squares: Mars square Uranus earlier in the evening, and Sun square Jupiter in the early hours of Tuesday (4th) morning. For Mars square Uranus read expect the unexpected, including electrical faults. Venus holding hands with Mars brings harmonious cooperation between the sexes. Sun square Jupiter doesn’t mean much harm, but can swing to extremes, so a balance needs to be found. These aspects taken all together mean that events can take over, but hold fast to loyalties and alliances and remember that we are all one. We are all in it together. As Suzuki Roshi once said, in the front of a vegetarian cookbook “We are all friends from past lives”. Wednesday (5th) Mercury enters Libra, and if Wednesday is particularly important in your life, it is a good day for dialogue, and you may have a lot to catch up on. Pluto goes stationary on Friday (7th). It’s been taking a long lingering nostalgic glance at Sagittarius before it moves into Capricorn in January. There is still a lot of co-operation going on between Pluto and Saturn, so any benefits you accrued on August 6th when they were in trine can still work in your life. You may be able to see now what a permanent marker that was for you. Jupiter also sextiles Chiron, and that philosophical tenet or healing symbol can be re-charged. Finally, Venus goes stationary on Saturday (8th) after a few weeks of reuniting us with past loves, picking up personal stitches and seeing how they fit into what we are making of our lives. Pause to look at your handiwork. In the meantime, I am carefully keeping an eye on our two cats who have Saturn transiting their Sun this week…

What’s the story this week? Not a lot to write home about if you’re looking at the quantity of aspects, but what there is has enough significance to keep you mentally and emotionally alert. All the action takes place on Tuesday 28th August, so ring it in your diary. It may already be ringed, as “back to work” day or “catch up time” or even “decision day”, but take the next couple of days to think things through as Tuesday’s eclipsed full moon could still throw you off your intended course if you are not absolutely aligned with your own pole star. This eclipsed full moon is the opposite (Moon in Pisces, Sun in Virgo) of that which occurred on March 3rd (Moon in Virgo, Sun in Pisces) and for this reason you could see your own world view do a complete 180 degree turn from the way it looked then. That can be a good thing, as you may then complete the picture. So think back to that time or consult your journal, to look at the issues which that eclipsed full moon brought up. What in your life was born at that time? For me it was the Full Moon research project (Moonpod for short) which came about because a few friends experienced extreme emotional reactions at the time, and one of them demanded an explanation! So we have been keeping a record of the fluctuations of the moon as it has affected our lives since then. Some (especially those born under Cancer or with a prominent Moon in their chart) are more consistently affected than others. But as a Sagittarian I have to admit that I have found the Moon’s activities more significant than I had previously given credit. Now those of a nervous disposition look away; those of a prediliction for sci-fi listen up: the other aspect which occurs that day is Mercury opposite Uranus: this has as much effect on the mind as the Full Moon has on the emotions, and again it is an opposition aspect and also takes place across the signs of Virgo and Pisces. You will probably find then that Virgoans and Pisceans out of all of us go through the most changes and metamorphoses this week, it’s safe to generalize. Mercury represents the mundane mind, and Uranus the higher mind, and when they connect there can be a direct stairway to heaven, or an electrical short-circuit malfunction in the nervous system if the light coming through is unable to find a smooth path through the human apparatus. So it could be a good day for UFOs and UFO-watchers and for those practiced in the New Age art of channelling, as well as being an interesting day for the psychotherapeutic profession, but for the rest you have two days to stock up on Vitamin B, migraine tablets and rescue remedy. I also find those eye shades you used to get on air flights to help you sleep (before you were worried about your carbon footprint) very handy. Anyway, that’s it, so take the rest of the week off (actually you may find that the arrangements and appointments just cancel themselves) and enjoy life. There’s a trine between Mars and Chiron some time this week (ephemerides vary as to which day it falls on) so the opportunity to heal is waiting to be seized. I like a happy ending.

Our Moon Research group Moonpod is now six months old, so thank you (you know who you are) for sticking with it, for valiantly filling in all the questionnaires and noticing every nuance of your change of mood, and for even putting up with its branch project the Depression Dossier (which fell a bit flat, but we’re still working on it). Don’t forget to fill in your graph for this week, recording each day’s fluctuations between the five points between agony and ecstasy.