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?

 

 

ASTROLOGICAL DEBRIS

I'm not so inclined to write longer pieces at the moment, more the odd topical comment as it occurs to me. I tweet them (@Astrotabletalk), and I post them in the UK Astrologers Facebook group, which I have opened up for anyone to join.

Here are some recent ones, while they remain topical 😎

The military rebellion in Russia may well be the first sign of a revolution to come, as Pluto moves in on the Russian Moon (the people) in Aquarius (revolution) in the next few years.

 

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Chiron cannot be seen with the naked eye. He is therefore transpersonal. His apparent 'wounding' is a call to listen to the outer planets. If your life doesn't seem to work around your Chiron placement, then treat it as a blessing, as a calling.

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 Ceres' daughter was abducted by Pluto. This time she has been abducted by Neptune: there is currently an opposition between the two, and the Titanic sub has gone missing. Ceres changes sign on Wednesday 21st, so maybe it will be quickly located. (NB I was being hopeful when I wrote this! Privately, I wasn't optimistic with such a short astrological window. Also, there had been a void moon when they embarked on the Sunday.)

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The current economic woes are payback time for the lunacy of shutting down the economy over a minor disease. They will probably continue until Pluto - god of riches - finally moves to enter Aquarius in October 2024. Just in time to decide the next UK election.

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The transits for Boris Johnson's resignation as an MP, in response to having been found guilty of lying to Parliament over parties during lockdown. He is having his 2nd Saturn Return - the reaping of consequences - and it was today being activated by the Moon. Saturn in Pisces just can't keep its flies done up.

 

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After the 2nd Saturn Return, aged 58 or so, we need no longer pretend to be a responsible adult. It is time to play. And out of that can come our best work.

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Perhaps Jupiter in Taurus will give a boost to the world economy, after its Covid battering. Interestingly, he was last in Taurus in 2011, in the wake of the 2008/9 financial crisis, bringing a long bull-run (Taurus!) in his wake.

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 It would make sense that Prince Harry, having first left the vocation laid out for him (tr Uranus opp MC) should now separate from Meghan (tr Uranus conjunct Moon, the long-term partner for a man). Meghan was a catalyst along the way towards an entirely new life.

 

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The Northern Ireland chart has MC at 29 Capricorn. There are 2 more crossings by Pluto to go. I think this transit will see Sinn Fein decisively prevail, and it will be all over bar the shouting in favour of a united Ireland. And let's not forget the 2nd Chiron Return: the first, aged 50, was the start of 'the troubles' that led to the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The second Return recently completed, and Sinn Fein became the largest party in the NI Parliament.

 

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One aspect of the current Pluto-Jupiter square has been the call to legislate (Jupiter) AI (Pluto in Aquarius). The fear (Pluto) can be exaggerated (Jupiter), as we saw under the conjunction in 2020, when Covid hit and the world panicked in the face of the unknown.

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 With the advent of ChatGPT, many experts are worried about AI taking control. A Pluto in Aquarius issue. But maybe it will be a matter of opinion, and surely it will be politicised? Do social media already control us? Or does the government? Is anyone or anything ever in control?

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 I think that electional astrology runs counter to the divinatory nature of astrology. I think it is always best to do something at a time that seems right to you, and to use the chart of the event afterwards to understand what you did. Otherwise astrology becomes a substitute, instead of an aid, to the intuition. The guidance from within is all-important, it is what we are here to trust and to live from.

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 I think that evolutionary astrology attempts to place a linear model on a cyclical paradigm. It asks us to imagine that we are headed somewhere, as we emerge from putative past lives. This misunderstands the nature of astrology, which simply - and strenuously - asks us to live in balance with the calls of the different gods who inhabit us. It is not going anywhere, it is about our fate and a wise response to it.

 

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How you think about the so-called 13th sign of the zodiac maybe describes what kind of astrologer you are. The thing is, it works. But it makes a nonsense of the system-as-is.

 

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The thing with doing readings is that it's not just about the chart. It's also about the impact the person makes on me. And that may not clarify till afterwards, and it may be quite different to how they present themselves.

 

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And last but definitely not least, my 2 books: Surfing the Galactic Highways and The Medicine Wheel. The deal is that if you buy either of them from Amazon and leave a genuine rating, I will give you a free astrology or tarot reading.

Astrology: Letting the Gods Speak

I’ve been reading Robert Harris’ “Pompeii” for a book club I am part of, and he talks about various Roman gods and the offerings to them as part of daily life, and I realised wow, that is powerful and real for me. Astrology has given me a connection with this mythology that is normally one of the functions of religion. This is how it was hundreds of years ago,when most people shared the same Christian mythology and it was reality for them.

Seated Jupiter found in a Pompeii house

 

Nowadays we have creation stories – the Big Bang and Evolution – that have a literal explanatory power, but it is a disenchanted universe they describe. There is not that presence that the gods have, that transcends death and imbues our lives with purpose and meaning.

For me, astrology is about these meaningful presences working through our lives, rather than about objective principles on a piece of paper. The 10 planets are 10 gods and goddesses whose calls need to be answered. (Only 2 of them – the Moon and Venus – are female, so I think they need emphasis when we do a reading. I think we also meet the feminine in eg Mercury’s dual nature, and in the workings of the outer planets, whose presences we need to surrender to.) The meaning of life is to be found in balancing the calls of these various deities. The chart helps us to do that.

A mythology that is real has the quality of telling us that yes, this is how it really is. When you die, Charon will actually ferry you across the river Styx to meet the dark Lord Pluto, so you’d better have a coin with you to pay the ferryman, or you will be stuck in limbo forever. Unless your mate from the pub also dies and is able to lend you a tenner.

Christianity has just one god: I think monotheism lends itself to fundamentalism, which means that there is only one reality. The polytheistic nature of astrology means there are many gods, many realities, and it is much harder to get fundamentalist about that.

The Old Testament god arose amongst a wandering desert people, where there was just one simple, harsh reality – the desert, the sun, and the struggle to stay alive – and their mythology, with its one harsh god, reflected this.

Astrology can be made as complex as you like, and the synthesis of various factors can add to the interpretation. There is a delight to be found when you put various factors together and come out with something that is precise and true. But at a certain point of complexity, the mind is too much present, and it becomes harder for the gods to speak directly through us. They speak through our bodies, whereas complex astrology easily retreats to the head. This is why I like to concentrate on the Sun and Moon when I do a reading: not just because they are the most significant planets, but because we all know them, we have a relationship with them that goes back millions of years. We feel them, it goes deep, and because of that they can speak through us.

This, I think, is the real function of tradition: to lead us to the point where we can trust our own direct connection with its presiding gods. When that happens, the institutions are of course no longer in control, which is why they banned dancing in medieval churches. And you see astrologers who are very committed to what came before, aligning themselves with William Lilly, Ficino or anyone else from the past, on the grounds that if it is old, it must be true.

I had an instructive interchange on this topic over my book Surfing the Galactic Highways, before it was published. A reviewing astrologer told me I needed to quote authorities from the past for what I said, and my response was well I said it, I am the authority, what I say works, what is the problem? We were inconjuncts. 

But that is the difference, in whatever spiritual tradition you look, between the majority who are followers, and the minority of mystics who are easily viewed as heretics. Another way of saying this, in the case of astrology, is that it is essentially divinatory rather than scientific or objective.

Don't get me wrong: we need the tradition. We need to value it and guard it. It is where we all start. But it becomes like the stabilisers on a kid's bike which need eventually to be removed. When I was that age, I went down to one stabiliser for ages, and then my mother removed it without telling me. And I was fine, I could ride on 2 wheels, because I hadn't noticed what she had done. But I was also cross with her, I felt deceived. I suppose my point here is that we need to let go and trust what comes through us. Trust that inner thing that has brought you to astrology, speak from it, give it free rein.

I am talking about the necessary shift from Capricorn to Aquarius and then to Pisces. In Capricorn, you gradually master the tradition as handed down. You learn the formal meanings of the planets and signs etc. Once that has become second nature, you earn the right to reinvent the tradition. That is Aquarius. A tradition has to be continually reinvented and updated, or it dies. But Aquarius is still quite strongly intellectual, even though there is a breeze of something other and sometimes disruptive passing through. It is when we get to Pisces, the pure channelling of the gods, that we get the best astrology. The tradition is seen way below as the launch pad. But these moments are not the norm. And we don't always recognise them when they happen. But we need some of it in any reading we do.

A friend commented recently that there had been a certain point in the reading where I just seemed to be downloading. I wasn't aware of it. The reason I am not usually aware of it is because I am Aquarian. So something Other is passing through me, but I can always justify it in terms of the formal meanings of the planets, so I think that is all I am doing: speaking from the tradition. 

I think astrology is one of those things that gets you, that is in your bones, and you cannot ignore it. If you drop the stabilisers and speak from that place in your bones, or with a planetary god or goddess standing beside you, you will say things that land in the other person, that tell them what they need to hear.

PLUTO MATTERS

 COVID and SATURN-PLUTO

On 23^rd March, Pluto will move into Aquarius. A major event for the collective. A new age slowly dawning, especially with Neptune also changing sign in two years. About time too. Covid was a rubbish time for so many people, occurring under the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020, and therefore an event of great significance, whose implications will be with us for years. When Saturn and Pluto team up, Pluto’s darkness, often ultimately restorative, is given a channel into the world. The loss of education for many children, that will impact on their futures. The economic hardship. The enforced isolation.

 

But why should this type of school education matter so much? And many people in the so-called 3^rd world would die for what we call hardship. Maybe, in an extraverted culture, we have learnt to be with ourselves and question ourselves more. There is depth to Pluto’s darkness. But it is also usually painful.

The Saturn-Pluto conjunction occurred in Capricorn, the sign of government. The governmental response to Covid was almost universally totalitarian. Very Saturn-Pluto. I have heard the US government’s response to Covid traced back to the totalitarian response to 9/11. Very interesting, because 9/11 occurred during the preceding Saturn-Pluto opposition. In both cases, it was governments acting scared, over-reacting like a spooked herd of horses. I don’t think we need read darker motives than that into the governmental responses, even though they make for a conspiracist’s dream. Nonetheless, totalitarian responses are a bad habit for governments to get into.

 

In the case of 9/11, there was not a single terrorist attack on the US mainland after that event. And Covid turned out to be much less of a threat than was initially feared. Like I said, over-reactions by government. But that is what herds of prey animals do. And that is what we are, as human collectives. Pluto is a collective planet, and he can show us our collective nature.

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS, COVID and GENETIC ENGINEERING

Pluto, however, is moving into Aquarius, and that is what I want to talk about, having already written two blogs on the subject (Jan 24th and Feb 5^th). But I had a reason for talking about Covid first. This is because Aquarius is a sign of human inventiveness, of new technology, for better or for worse. So I have been on the lookout for hints of those technological advances in the run-up to the Pluto Ingress. That was the idea behind this piece.

THE WUHAN LABORATORY

 

It has recently come out that Covid in all likelihood did indeed escape from a Chinese lab. It was the product of genetic engineering, and caused a worldwide pandemic. What better example of Pluto in Aquarius could you get? Of course, it happened some years before Pluto in Aquarius, but the conclusion that it was human-made is only now starting to be drawn more conclusively. Great advances can come from genetic engineering, it is a very powerful technology. As well as disasters. These are the 2 sides of Pluto, its destructive as well as its creative power, in the realm of technological inventions (Aquarius). Technology itself I prefer to think of as Virgo, but the initial genius behind it is Aquarian.

There was always suspicion Covid had come from a lab, some people because they wanted it to be true, others because there was a plausible scientific possibility. Trump continued to call it the Chinese virus: he wasn’t just being childish, he had a point. As ever with Geminis, sometimes what look like lies turn out to be truths. Trickster Mercury.

The Chinese were engaged in ‘gain of function’ research with a virus, speeding up, through genetic engineering, the process of it becoming highly infectious and transmissible in humans. This was one of the giveaways, because this new virus became so infectious so quickly. Proper safeguards were not in place. Scientist Matt Ridley lays all this out in proper detail in his interview with Jordan Peterson, which you can find on youtube.

 

It was cock-up that caused the pandemic, and herd panic was the response. So much can be explained in these kinds of ways. I think it is psychologically more sound to do so, firstly because there is a lot of truth in that way of explaining things; and secondly, because once you start attributing dark motives to unnamed individuals, you are usually giving them powers they do not have, and projecting your own malignity and agency (Mars) onto them. Saturn-Pluto and the pandemic was a notable time for this kind of shadow projection, as might be expected. Same with 9/11, another Saturn-Pluto era, and the idea that it was a US government set-up.

So we might expect genetic engineering to make considerable advances in the coming years, for better and perhaps for worse, because it has been flagged up as Pluto advances towards Aquarius.

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I offer astrology readings on a donation basis. Contact BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk. My offer also remains open indefinitely, that if you buy and rate at Amazon my astrology book Surfing the Galactic Highways, I will give you a free reading. The same deal goes for my book The Medicine Wheel.

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NUCLEAR FUSION

Nuclear fusion is the Holy Grail of energy research. It had been 30 years away for decades. Until now. In a recent youtube interview with Lex Fridman, research physicist Dennis Whyte claimed that, due to recent advances, the first working fusion reactor is only about 4 years away.

 

Energy produced from nuclear fission – the splitting of heavy atoms – is currently the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, for the intensity and reliability of energy needed for our major cities: major cities is where humanity is mostly headed. Those ongoing giant cultural melting pots. But many people have been unnecessarily spooked by nuclear energy since the end of the Cold War, when the fear of nuclear war faded, and the fear passed over to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. This was as Pluto moved towards the nuclear axis at 2-10 Gemini-Sagittarius.

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This axis, which has proved sensitive to transits, is based on the first controlled use of nuclear energy, in Chicago in 1942. The Uranus (splitting) -Saturn (matter) conjunction is very descriptive. The axis will next be activated in 3 years time, when Uranus in Gemini begins to cross the nuclear axis, and Pluto in Aquarius begins to trine/sextile it. It will also be the first Uranus Return of the nuclear chart, and this is highly significant, maybe suggesting a completion of the cycle of nuclear energy as fission (Uranus), as it moves on to fusion. But also, perhaps, a re-acceptance of fission energy for the meantime, on a needs-must basis, if we are to gradually wean ourselves off oil. The chart for the 1^st Oil Strike in 1869 is having its 1^st Neptune (oil) Return in the next 2 years, suggestive of this gradual shift – from oil, to fission, to fusion.

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Controlled Fusion needs its own chart, but we have yet to achieve it, so a chart will have to wait. But we do have a chart for the first uncontrolled reaction – ie the first H-Bomb – in 1952. That will have to do the job for now. And it does it very well, in that it has a Saturn-Neptune conjunction: the fusion (Neptune) of matter (Saturn). This is quite remarkable, given that the fission chart has an equally descriptive, parallel signature of Saturn-Uranus. Neptune will begin to oppose this fusion signature in 11 years time, as Saturn squares it.  It too, has its own axis, for the Moon opposes Saturn-Neptune, so we have a tighter axis of 20-23 Aries-Libra.

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Just as remarkable is Pluto on the Midheaven in Leo: the power (Pluto) of Leo’s ruler (the Sun). It is fusion that powers the Sun and all other stars. Astrology can be eerily descriptive sometimes. The Sun itself is hidden by Sign and House, in 12^th House Scorpio, showing perhaps the difficulty we have had in creating a technology to harness this energy, as well as its hidden power (Scorpio). But Pluto is coming up to square the Fusion Sun, and then he will hard aspect the Angles in 15 years time – as Neptune finishes with the Fusion Axis.

Putting all this together, something will be happening in just a few years as Uranus and Pluto activate the Nuclear Axis of the basic nuclear chart, and this is in line with the claim of some kind of working fusion reactor in 4 years time. But it will take another 10 years or so after that for the technology to reach some kind of initial maturity.

What has happened is that the Americans, spinning off from ITER, the giant international experimental fusion reactor, have used a new superconducting material that enables the prolonged sustaining of the magnetic field that contains the plasma of hydrogen nuclei, without using vast amounts of energy. This plasma, heated to tens of millions of degrees, hotter than the sun, causes a fusion reaction. And vast amounts of energy are released, with no radioactive waste, and no possibility of an explosion. Expect the news to get exciting in 2 years time, when Uranus first enters Gemini, and Pluto settles into Aquarius.

In another method of catalysing fusion, in which lasers are fired at pellets containing fusion fuel, more energy was released than was put in. This is a first, and was reported in December 2022.

This technology promises to transform humanity in the long-term.

QUANTUM COMPUTING/ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

A step forward in quantum computing was also recently announced. Data was reliably transferred from one quantum chip to another. This is another first, and holds the eventual promise of computational power of an entirely different order to what we have currently.

 

This raises the wider question of machine intelligence, a very Aquarian theme. Already, computers are producing useful answers to problems where, due to the complexity of the calculations undertaken, the operators/programmers do not understand how the computer has reached its conclusions. There is now a branch of computing dedicated to trying to understand what the computers are doing. This problem can only get harder as ever more sophisticated and demanding programmes are used. Already the machines are irreversibly more intelligent than us in certain ways: Pluto in Aquarius can only empower this trend.

A fortiori quantum computing. I don’t pretend to understand how it works. But there is already, to my mind, something a bit spooky about the ability of conventional computers to be beyond our understanding. Throw in not just the exponentially increased power of quantum computers, but the fact that they operate on the quantum level, a universe that is hard to understand rationally, if at all: the spookiness to come may be of a different order.

Another advance has been ChatGPT, which I covered in my February blog. It was released in the autumn, and had an electrifying effect due to the human-like way it was able to create essay responses to questions.

So these are 4 technological Pluto in Aquarius themes that I have noted activity around in the run-up to the Ingress: Genetic Engineering; Nuclear Fusion, and Quantum Computing/AI.

The dark side that we have seen already is a pandemic created in all probability by genetic engineering in a lab. This is an event of huge significance, but uncertainty over the scientific conclusions, lack of co-operation by the Chinese, and political considerations have kept the issue muted.

Q&A in Oxford

This is a video of a Q&A I did last Sunday with the Oxford Astrology group. Thanks to Christina Rodenbeck for hosting. 

It was by way of launching my book Surfing the Galactic Highways: the offer remains open, that if you purchase it from Amazon and leave a rating, I will give you a free astrology or tarot reading.