Matters Topical & Sidereal ...

Long time no blog! - all down to the current crop of winter viruses (viri?...) and our old friend Saturn who is being more than usually attentive. Even raw garlic didn't work this time! Lo, tropical Pluto is now stomping along in his sign, too, so every one of us is entitled to our fair share of the prevailing Yuk.
Capricorn symptoms are beginning to show - today I learned of a new perk for underpaid office staff: UpTitling! In other words, if galloping recession erodes any chance of a pay rise, you may compensate yourself by assuming a posh and complicated new identity in the workplace such as Non-Executive Head of Temporary Finance Allocation or Director-in-Chief of Minor Stationery Enhancement. Just watch the rush up Snob Hill!
Also - more pleasantly - the Slow Food movement is (paradoxically) gathering pace, and a mood for fuzzy appointment-keeping. After the last frenetic 16 years of unbridled Jupiter-culture where every behavioural or conceptual negative was subverted to a positive with disastrous results, the globe really will get a chance to chill out and re-set its moral compass. The pendulum really is swinging at last; there is a prevalent yearning for a slower, quieter, steadier way of life within secure frameworks and with more realistic goals. We will learn to cut our collective coat according to our cloth.

The Passionate Prince

One person working as hard as ever to improve the quality of life not only of us here in the UK but all over the place, is our Passionate Prince - Charles, Prince of Wales.

The recent BBC documentary was very interesting and quite intimate - above all it illustrated for me yet again the importance of applying Sidereal charting to public figures. Yes, all the passion in his heart and the hunger for regeneration belong to his tropical Scorpio nature, and this drives him on ... but his role, the objects of his obsession, his principles are all shown elsewhere. Over and over again he stressed the importance of bringing beauty back into people's lives, the importance of balance - "It all comes back to balance." Here is the voice of the Libran Sun which is his at not just one but two levels, the Draconic (principles) and the Sidereal (role.) Instead of tropical Leo rising (conjoined by Reflex Sun and Chiron, branding him consciously a maverick Prince) there is Cancer moving him to actively care for the people whose world he can help to change. This caring nature goes very deep - in the Dwad Cancer is the sign of the Sun, sextile Uranus and trine Jupiter, constantly thinking of new ways to enhance environment and society. However this late Cancer Sun is squared by an opposition of Moon and Saturn across early Taurus-Scorpio marking his constant awareness of being son of the Queen and the unavoidable frustrations, present and future, inherent in that position. Mercury in Capricorn in the 4th pinpoints his preoccupation with the Built Environment; Chiron on the Ascendant again - the environmentalist and mentor - ensures that he will always, in his mind, be his own man.

The KleeneX Factor!

Topping the Christmas chart this year is (as planned no doubt by the musical movers and shakers) the winner of X Factor 2008. I don't usually watch this as it involves, to my untutored ear, much caterwauling; but this year I made the effort and was astonished at the quantity and liquidity of high-profile blubbing that went on at every personal set-back and every triumph, irrespective of gender!
Much of it centred on mentor Cheryl Cole, whose capacity for empathy set off fountains of self-pity and gushing gratitude from the stage; and ah, yes, a fruitful rummage in Wikipedia revealed a birthdate of June 30th 1983 - Sun Cancer trine Moon in Pisces nearly all day! Chief blubber was the eventual winner - now Hallelujah-ing in an unexpected duet/duel at pop-chart numbers 1 and 2 - Alexandra Burke. This is surprising in a Earth girl born 25th August 1988 under a Virgo Sun and a Capriquarian Moon ... but if you wind that Moon back to late Capricorn where T Jupiter was heading, at 1h10 am, she gets Sun at the IC and Cheryl's degree of Cancer rising right opposite a setting Neptune! I wonder...

What I really wanted to point out though was that as soon as she turned off the tap and started singing she turned into the Diva. And Divas are Solar. And underprivileged Virgoan Alexandra, stepping into her chosen, desperately desired role, is a Sidereal LEO.

Dragon Doodling

Let's top this off with some astrological froth! I love messing about with words, anagrams are great fun, and lately instead of counting sheep I've been rearranging some favourite phrases. Here are two of them.

First, Dragons Head -
- from which we get: Grand Shoe Ad, So Had Danger, Hard Aged Son, Rash Aged Don, Shaded Organ, Ah! Dread Song! and best of all, And Hears God! There are probably more.

Next (logically), Dragons Tail -
- which kept me awake for hours instead of sending me to sleep, because they just kept on coming! - Dagon's Trial (how apt!), Lasting Road (of course), In Gods Altar, Doing Altars, God Ra Last In, Last Adoring, Star Loading, Into Lad Rags, A Nod At Girls, I Roast Gland, ...Or Its A Gland..., Gloria Strand (are you out there, Gloria?), Altos In Drag (that would be our lot), Storing Lada (that would be the Top Gear Garage...), Glad On Stair, Aldo Staring, Roasting Lad, Rt. Diagonals, O Glad Strain! (please note the opposite of Ah, Dread Song!), A Lads Trigon, Grit On Salad (very S.Node!), Anodal Grist, Gain Old Star, In a Gold Star, Do a Starling, Trigonal Ads, Daring Altos, Gonad Trials, Atonal Grids, Dr. I Sang A Lot!, I Stand Largo, Load A String, Gads On Trail, Old Gas Train, ...As To Darling ..., Goats In Lard (the mind boggles!), Saint Or Glad, L.A. Trains Dog, Darts In Gaol, Also Trading, Losing A Dart, Lost Again, Dr.!, Ada Lost Ring, I Lost A Grand (even more S.Node!!!), I A Strong Lad, A Strong Dial, Dial Art Song, Land Gas Riot, So Garland It! Stain Old Rag, and for the Welsh-speaking Draconic astrologer, Tal Draig Nos! which means ginormous night dragon.

Email me your own anagram favourites!