It has been instructive and useful to stand back from the massive flurry of detailed, fascinating mundane and personal astrology centred on the upcoming USA election, to look instead at what the epoch-defining cycles are telling us about this historic event. Its outcome will profoundly affect the whole world and all our lives, directly or indirectly.  ..read more

I'm excited about Stellar, a new astrology publication... picking up on the energies of the emerging New Order. As Editor Victor Olliver says: '...Stellar online is a multi-media publication – with text, images, podcasts and other regularly updated video content – and aimed at the vast global audience interested in astrology. Stellar is accessible, digestible and engaged ..read more

Mercury turns direct tomorrow night, 28.8.24, at 28 Leo, 21.17 GMT ( uk time) I have now been sharing Mercury Retro Tales off and on for several decades. Rather than regale you with this most recent saga – please, I need time to recover! – thought I'd read through the MRetro collection and share my favourite Mercury Retro tale with you, dear Reader. Feel free to use the comment boxes to share your own ..read more

I have always loved August, that month where a particular coolness in the morning air on stepping out, a papery rustle tingeing the wind blowing through the trees, intimates that Summer is losing its hold upon the year, that Autumn is ascending ..read more

“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time…” Andre Gide (1) That quotation occupied a prominent place in my kitchen for a very long time, from 2001-2012, to be exact. Especially during 2001-6, I needed all the inspiration I could get, having been pitched into what amounted to a frightening inner voyage of discovery with no landmarks, no map, no companions – and no idea if I would ever again reach dry land.  Winter Seascape by Anne Whitaker During this voyage, the defences I had constructed since childhood to keep my ..read more

When you’ve been an astrologer and teacher for as long as I have, certain questions keep cropping up… This year, I’ve been doing a series of Astrology Q and As in different settings, in person and over Zoom, responding to the many thoughtful and curious questioners who want to find out more about astrology Beyond the Sun Signs. It has been great fun, and quite heartening, doing those sessions. Invariably, the response I get having tackled an hour’s worth of sometimes searching questions from open-minded enquirers is this: ” Wow!! I never realised there was so much more to astrology than the S ..read more

‘…All of the remarks here are 14 years old, so I don’t know if you still exist… I was in effect asked that headline question today, via this morning’s comment on an archived blog post from July 2008. Rather apt, Saturn’s currently being opposite where he was when I set up Writing from the Twelfth House in May 2008. I do not know who Fhyre Phoenix is, but their question certainly jolted me. One, because I am the only other person who has ever asked me that question! ( …and not infrequently, to be honest: see answer above…). Two, because I was so moved by the life circumstances implied by the co ..read more

Next to Twins, one of the most popular questions for beginners learning astrology centres on the – at times – hotly-contested question of House Systems. Here are my thoughts… Sooner or later, it dawns on the student or budding astrologer that the method of dividing the inner space in a horoscope into twelve sectors or spheres of life, known as Houses, poses some problems. The Astrological Houses Firstly, since there are a number of different house systems – click HERE for more detail on this – which should you choose? Secondly, to a varying degree depending on your chart, plane ..read more

In her 2014 book “Cosmos, Chaosmos and Astrology”, a rethinking of the nature of astrology, Dr Bernadette Brady makes the following point: ‘…the real result of …eighty years of research into the possibility of astrology being a science is the evidence that it is not…’ (p 69) Well – what is it then? In this wide-ranging discussion, Victor Olliver and Anne Whitaker discuss that very question with fellow astrologer, Ana Isabel. 100 words ©Anne Whitaker /Victor Olliver/Ana Isabel ..read more

Yesterday, 60 year old John Swinney was sworn in as Scotland’s seventh First Minister: twenty five years since the establishing of a Scottish Parliament in May 1999 for the first time since 1707. No doubt in days and weeks to come, there will be much speculation re how events in Scotland are going to unfold under its new leader, and Swinney’s horoscope will appear to be duly commented upon. However, in this post I am confining myself to an analysis of Scotland’s chart – and the few comments, prescient as it has turned out, which I made following the Scottish Parliament’s inauguration in 1999 ..read more