RECENT DEBRIS

 SUB SPECIE AETERNITATIS

When you're an astrologer, you get your stories from Mount Olympus. They are different to the stories that collective humanity tells itself. We need to be able to stand apart from these stories, all of them, especially the ones that come with the authority of our modern state religion: science. Political parties and their stories too, that division into good guys and bad guys that so many mistake for reality. Otherwise we won't be able to listen to these ancient guys who, for whatever reason, have chosen us as messengers.

We are in the world but not of the world. It's a big ask, and I'm sure the gods don't expect us to be perfect. And I'm sure sometimes they roll their eyes at the way we treat modern stories as reality. I say this especially around the sense of crisis that seems perennial to humanity. Our job is to stand outside of all that, it is largely illusion, and it is not how the gods live.

 

PRESIDENT RAMASWAMY?

 

 

Donald Trump doesn't have the empowering transits to win another election. He will have Uranus on his Mars and Angles next year, which makes his trajectory highly unpredictable and unstable. Vivek Ramaswamy, on the other hand, is at the start of a long series of empowering transits: Pluto squaring his Pluto-MC, then Neptune squaring his Venus and Asc, carrying him through 2 terms as President. He was reportedly the clear winner at the recent debate between Republican candidates.

 

 

 

 

THE SUN, THE ASCENDANT and THE ANGLES

The Ascendant is the point on the horizon where the Sun rises and brings new light. The Ascendant is therefore intimately connected with the Sun. It is the doorway through which we find alignment with our deepest self, with who we always were: the Sun, which is both universal, yet unique to us. As an Aquarian, I find my Sun through the service and inner joy of my Virgo Asc. 

 

 

Not only that, but the other 3 Angles - Home, Relationship and Vocation (IC, Desc, MC) - naturally unfold when the ASC is balanced, when it is listening to the Sun. In other words, we incarnate, our spirit makes the often difficult journey into matter, which is what we are here to keep doing.

 

 

BLOWING MY OWN TRUMPET

"I couldn’t put this book down! Astrology has always been a bit of a mystery to me but in the reading of the book I want to learn about astrology now! Thought provoking and intense, yet explains astrology in a way that makes you want more! Barry tells it how it is, pulls no punches yet is gentle in its teaching. You can’t help but know more at the end of the book yet long for even more!"

 

One of the many 5 star reviews of my astrology book on Amazon. And here's the deal: you buy it and leave a genuine rating on Amazon, and I will give you a free astrology reading!

 

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The astrological chart is your Fate, a Gift from the Moirai. It cannot be changed: it is writ. The chart tells you who you are, and the trajectory

of your life. It has a pulse, it lives and breathes.

 

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I don't always pay attention to transits to outer planets, as their sign is generational. But the House is personal. Saturn is backing into an opposition with my 12th House Pluto, and I am having significant dreams. One was particularly about power: a nurse was trying to anaesthetise me to perform an unnecessary operation on my big toe (a symbol of the masculine). But I couldn't be anaesthetised. The Wolf in me, who has loomed large lately, is here for good.

 

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Conventional reality is the matrix. It always has been. It is a shifting set of stories that the collective needs for psychological stability. Neptune can be the blue pill that subsumes us in the collective stories. Or he can be the red pill that wakes us from the dream. Which one you take is an ongoing choice. All strongly held collective beliefs are blue pill territory.

 

 

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Very few people know how to think. What passes for thought is usually just the finding of arguments to support what it is they prefer to believe. Political astrologers beware!

 

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Jupiter, Chiron, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto will all be retrograde until early October. We have an exceptional period of inner alchemy upon us. Pay attention to dreams and the sense of new patterns being laid down within.

 

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Astrology is founded on cycles. It is not going anywhere. It simply advises us on how to live well, in accordance with the planetary gods. This is the ancient, indigenous perspective. It relieves us of the modern pressure to be going somewhere: the Protestant Work Ethic, our imbalanced Saturn.

 

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For the astrology chart to speak through us, we need a felt relationship with the 4 elements: Sun, Rain, Soil and Wind, which are more fundamental than the zodiac signs. We need in this sense to be indigenous, as the first astrologers were. It's something you can do in your back garden.

 

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CHIRON'S 'WOUND' 

 

Chiron is the bridge to the outer planets. The area of life he highlights will often not work in a normal way: it may as a result appear 'wounded'. There is calling, vocation to be lived in order for that area to function well. In this sense Chiron is 'the crack where the light gets in'. He is the crack in conventional reality through which pour the creativity, imagination and renewal of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto respectively.

 

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Mercury is the messenger of the gods. Until 15th Sept he will be off on one of his thrice yearly consultations with them. If you think through carefully (Virgo) anything you want to begin, you might be able to overhear what is being said, and get it right. Otherwise, Mercury is liable to turn up in his trickster form. Which for him is great fun.

 

 

THE DARK GODDESS SEDNA

 

 

Sedna, Inuit goddess of the ocean underworld. Discovered in Taurus in 2003. The outermost (dwarf) planet. Glaciers calve (Taurus) icebergs, 90% of which are below the surface in the ocean underworld. Does Sedna rule glaciers and icebergs?

In 2024 she moves into Gemini. In the Inuit myth, she had her fingers chopped off by her father. The fingers became seals. Fingers are Gemini. She is an ambivalent figure. In one version, her father threw her out to sea because she attacked her parents. She is both the power of woman and the shadow of that power. Like Gemini, the light and the dark twins. She is the Underworld, which is beyond light and dark, good and evil, it just is.

There is so much in this coming astrology. Astrology is the translation of mythology into human affairs. The astrologer has the gift of glimpsing the shapes behind the veil, the larger designs, while honouring the context of mystery, of unknowability. Sedna had her fingers cut off by her father. What a powerful story. It makes me think of the horrors of transgender surgery on teenagers. And the need for the masculine to listen to the feminine, in her dark as well as light aspects. It speaks to me of both sexes allowing the other to be dark as well as light, and not lashing out, as Sedna's father did.

Sedna in Taurus (since 1965) has been a time of huge economic growth (Taurus), in which billions of people have come out of poverty. But which has had consequences for the natural world, also Taurus. Gemini, as an air sign, gives the ability to reflect on that. At present, we are very polarised about it, with many people only seeing the bad. We can't collectively move forward with wisdom unless we can take both sides into account. Gemini has that potential.

 

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Transgender surgery on teenagers is a Pluto in Aquarius theme: using science to do something inhuman, in the name of helping people.

 

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Astrology is the translation of mythology into human affairs. The astrologer has the gift of glimpsing the shapes behind the veil, the larger designs, while honouring the context of mystery, of unknowability.

 

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Jordan Peterson's Mars, on the face of it, doesn't look promising at all: in its fall in Taurus, hidden away in the 12th, opposite Neptune and square to Saturn. Yet he is one of the most combative people you'll find. He never makes it personal, except when it comes to certain public individuals who he finds reprehensible. He fights the battle of ideas consistently and practically (fixed earth) on behalf of the collective (12th and opposite Neptune) with tremendous focus and control (square to Saturn). His ideas have power for many people (trine to Pluto). 

 

So you never know. It demonstrates to me that there is no such thing as good or bad placements. What the chart does show is how to use the placements. What it doesn't show is the moral character of the individual and the choices they will make. That is why you never know. The chart, if you like, shows the type of car we are driving, but not the driver, who remains a complete mystery. Which doesn't mean we won't have intuitions about them that go beyond what the chart says. In fact, that needs to happen if we are to be a good astrologer.

DIVINATORY ASTROLOGY

I run a group on Facebook that used to be called UK Astrologers. I have recently changed the name to Divinatory Astrology, and opened it up to anyone to join. Here is how I introduce the group: 

Welcome to Divinatory Astrology. Divination, I think, is the real nature of our craft. We are vehicles for the intuition, for the sky spirits, for the gods. The tradition itself, valuable as it is, is a launch pad, an orientation, an egregore: it has its own power that has built through the millennia. But eventually we need to move from Capricorn – mastery of what has come before – to Aquarius, where we earn the right to reinvent the tradition, to create the future. Without this constant reinvention, a tradition dies. It often requires courage, and it usually requires years of getting to know the gods – and our demons.

 Astrology is a different kind of knowledge to science: it is knowledge of consciousness, essentially, rather than knowledge of things. Our craft makes no sense from the point of view of the specialised remit of science. We use all 4 Elements – Fire, Earth, Air and Water – to gain knowledge. Science, by contrast, emphasises just Earth (data) and Air (theory). We are therefore part of a broader tradition of gnosis, within which science finds its place. Nor do we need to feel over-beholden to the astrological tradition itself: it needs to be worn lightly, so that the gods have room to speak.

 

So please come along and join. Meanwhile, here are my recent short pieces from the group (and from Twitter):

 

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I have a Pluto conjunct Venus (at 1 Aquarius) transit this year and next. The emerging deep theme seems to be the surrender of Mars to the Divine Feminine.

 

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I learnt astrology by talking with a friend, then doing readings. How you learn is revealed by your Mercury placement. Mine is in Aquarius opposite Uranus. I have to find my own way in, then I can hang the received learning on that. Astrology shows us why we are not stupid, but each have our own ways of learning. A watery Mercury may have to feel the idea, a fiery Mercury will need their imagination sparked, an airy Mercury will need to see its connections with other ideas, and an earthy Mercury will need to see its practical applications.

 

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The BBC News presenter Huw Edwards has natal Sun at 25 Leo. Uranus is in the early stages of squaring it. So his life goals are due for some major shifts. What has been happening with the young woman from the dating site has a self-inflicted, trickster feel around it, and looks set to end his career as he knows it. This is how Uranus sometimes upsets the apple-cart to get us to change. Edwards has natal Sun conjunct Uranus: he is a deeply unconventional (Uranus) and individual (Leo) person, yet he has been doing this staid job all his life. No wonder, in a sense, that this has happened.

 

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The Sun is afflicted in Aquarius because we tend to identify with changing the world, at the expense of that thing deep within us, that we are primarily here to take care of. Leo, the opposite sign, knows about this, and is the remedy, the balancing point.

 

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Sex, death and money. Mars, Pluto and Venus. The 3 things people don't want to talk about. But which are part of my job description as an astrologer. If not me, then who?

 

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James Webb telescope, 1st anniversary picture. From the constellation Ophiuchus, which are also the stars of the notorious and nonsensical 13th sign of the zodiac. Which has the perverse characteristic of actually working, thus demonstrating the divinatory nature of astrology. Here's what I wrote about it some years ago.  It is also a chapter from my book 'Surfing the Galactic Highways', for which you get a free reading if you buy it and leave a genuine rating on Amazon. 

 

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The IC - the bottom of the chart - denotes the end of life. It also describes home. Put together, it suggests death to be a homecoming. Jupiter is associated with death: the king of the gods welcoming you back to his realm. Jupiter is also good fortune, suggesting that death has that attribute too. In the Middle Ages, death was perfectly normal; it only became an event to be feared later.

 

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12th July:  Volcanic eruption in Iceland as the Moon in Taurus conjoins Jupiter and then Uranus.

 

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We are in retrograde season: Saturn, Neptune and Pluto. Uranus and Jupiter will join them at the start of Sept. It is 4 of Swords time: waiting and cooking. And the Moon card: listen to your deeper instincts, rather than where you think you would like your life to be going.

 

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Saturn is the planet of incarnating, of responsibility. The first Saturn Return usually sees us taking some new level of responsibility in the world. I think at the second Saturn Return, the responsibility shifts towards the Spirit. We have done the worldly bit. And it is when we can do our most significant work.

 

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Watching the series Vikings gave me an appreciation of the rationale behind human sacrifice, the genuine power it could have, and prompted me to write an astrological piece: Astrology, Death and Human Sacrifice 

 

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Mercury rules my MC and ASC. When Saturn conjoined my Aq Mercury in 2021, I wrote my first 2 books, after 15 years blogging. It was kind of easy, and earned. When he conjoined my Aq Sun last year, a wolf showed up and nudged me to write my first fiction. A Shamanic fantasy novel. That was much harder. It is good to have something that is difficult. Here is the blurb I have written for the back of the book in my Shamanic blog. Would you want to read it?