John Townley's AstroCocktail News Archive 2013

The rare overlap of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and mobbed Black Friday sales is a special message to all this December: start celebrating early! With Mercury retro and eclipse season in the rear view mirror, the first half of the month is its prime time, with Jupiter trine Saturn the whole time, making a grand trine with the Angles four times a day. Mars has moved into Libra as well, adding air to a previously inchoate sky, so when you make your move, you can say exactly what you’re doing, adding explanation to adaptable action. Easy speed and accuracy make time fly and activities whir and hum.

It all changes mid-month, however, as by the seventeenth, the first of many returning cardinal grand crosses hits, followed by Venus retrograde until almost February, so suddenly getting (or even knowing) what you want will be an elusive quest within a perimeter of conflicting tangles. So, settle as much as you can in the first two weeks, then retreat to a safe position from which to watch the rest of the show as Christmas and New Year come crashing through.

Because the crosses are coming back, you’ll want to follow our advice to dodge them by keeping an eye on our new planets on angles guides for the month, to know what times the hard aspects will be strongest, on the Angles, and wisely avoid them…

November is the month to get a move-on, as the solar eclipse three days in ends the biannual silly season and Mercury goes direct a week after that. After months of nasty, barbed-wire skies, the road is smooth and the air is crisp and clear, so it’s time to make all progress possible right up to and including the solstice holidays. The wind on the open road, or open sea, will feel good in your hair, even if you never actually get outdoors to enjoy it, as events fly by and opportunities beckon. But a total lack of planets in air, except for the occasional lunar pass, means it's hard to explain what you're doing or do things you envisioned according to plan.

The temptation to take all this very seriously is worth consideration, as Saturn is more prominent than usual, highlighting the eclipse, because the gains you make now will have to be well-thought-out in preparation of defending them when last summer’s grand cross-littered minefield in the sky comes crowding back starting at New Year, when you can expect a lot of previous battles to be re-fought, this time for the last time. To help you through that, you can use our brand-new helpful feature “Planets on the Angles” linked to the right on this page to help you dodge danger, maximize opportunities. Now’s the time to make sure you gain plenty of ground and have it prepared so you can keep it, regardless of expected challenges. The long-awaited Jupiter dominance doesn’t finally clear into its own until next summer. Until then, it’s still bona fide progress, but the kind you have to fight for against dogged, if doomed, reactionary forces.

But in the meantime, enjoy the respite of a swiftly-moving autumn that sparkles with the best qualities of that crisp and bracing season of cutting winds and racing skies…

October brings freedom and relief from several months of distressing cardinal T- and grand crosses, once the first week’s new Moon is past. It’s been a long, fractious, and contentious trip since the midsummer grand water trine dissolved and deceptively smooth waters turned to rocks and reefs all around. But now, as autumn speeds along, the agitating edge that seemed to bedevil even the most favorable operations now evaporates and both intent and results ring purer and truer.

To a certain extent, that is. This month’s full Moon is a lunar eclipse, heralding the biannual silly season, and Mercury goes retrograde in the middle of it all, so don’t expect to have everything buttoned down securely, as there are lots of surprises around every bend, and it will take a rework or two to get the details ironed out. Still, the general feeling of possible progress and a more peaceful approach to almost everything allows a lot more enjoyment of even the occasional rogue wave.

Enjoyment is the key to the fall, as once winter arrives, starting with the New Year’s Eve cardinal grand cross, it’s a replay of late summer’s tie-ups all over again, ending with a grinding Mars retrograde period taking up the turn into spring. Revel in the autumn, and then hope for late spring – and be prepared to weather out a winter of struggle that will, eventually, lead to greater accomplishments – after all, it’s bountiful Jupiter that’s driving it, no longer sour Saturn.

September: last month’s shift from July’s mellow grand water trine to a prickly and contentious grand cardinal cross continues. The aggressive T-square of Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto is filled out repeatedly by Venus, Moon, Mercury and Sun into an often-angry and overbearing tangle of intents and cross-purposes that can be hard to sort out. Although it’s fraught with fighting, it’s also extremely ambitious and motivating, so use its energy to push you forward while trying to avoid the collisions that abound in its path. Watch where the Moon is, as it moves between the arms of the cross, as that will tell you just how, when, and where its energy will manifest.

Further, this is just the moment to learn the ins and outs of daily timing, as you plan important moments to make decisions, schedule meetings, make significant purchases and travel. Unless you want to risk accident or confrontation, make sure your moments are chosen when the cross is off the angles (meaning directly up or down, rising or setting) and is simply shifting from one to another set, as it does four times a day, when you should back off and let others get in trouble while you watch and then pick up their pieces to your own advantage. Keep convenient retreat and cover nearby, and foray out in the calm periods, between those troublesome sky-strikes. If there is any handy use for astrology, that is surely it…

After a month of a sustained (and often amplified) grand water trine which delivered a new royal prince plus no more than the usual set of world alarms, August looks a lot more ragged and risky, so be prepared to move warily. It starts with a cardinal T-cross of Mars aggressively aspecting Uranus and Pluto on day one, which Jupiter then replaces the following week, finally turning into a cardinal grand cross with the Moon on August 11 and yet again with Venus the whole last week of the month. Blustery, to say the least.

What does this sudden change from mellow to harsh forebode? It promotes a shift from easing into situations where you can get what you want to crashing into scenes where you have to battle for whatever you can get. Enemies who briefly laid aside the sword for mutual gain return to accustomed hostilities, and although possible gains can be generous (Jupiter and Venus), it takes a lightning Uranus strike or a Pyrrhic Pluto pounding to snatch the purse or forcibly drag off the prize.

Of course, it’s also the middle of the dog days (in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway), so seek a siesta as an alternative, preferably a long one away from the madding crowd, and you may miss most of the mess. But if you’re stuck in the middle, make like a storm chaser…if you’re skillful and step lively, you’ll come away with a thrilling experience of dancing with danger and a memorable story to tell – without becoming the story yourself…

July sees a sudden shift from the swift, windy passage of Jupiter escaping Gemini into an unexpected calm, as that big planet not only has arrived in moistly intense Cancer, but suddenly falls into a grand water trine with Saturn and Neptune, achieving an unexpected equilibrium among three gas giants. Mars quickly slips into the pattern as well, making it the sky’s main feature. Whatever is going on outside, there is an inner, emotional balance that is suddenly available to all, and is locked into the charts of anything started this month, be it the birth of a child, a business deal, or just a nice vacation.

Mercury is still retrograde over half the month, so many may miss this new arrival at first, as readjusting previous entanglements is still center stage. And, the recent unexpected crescendo of solar storms plus the violent Uranus-Pluto square are still cooking up angry and often-deadly mischief, especially if you’re in the wrong neighborhood. Too bad, because this grand trine treat only lasts the month, so try to put the rest on hold and tune in, utilize its peaceful and centering aura while it lasts. It’s a strange combination, too, of usually at-odds political and economic realities (Jupiter and Saturn) with dreamy and sometimes illusionary Neptune. It’s the real hope and possibility of peace on Earth in the midst of strife. See what you can create with it, while the opportunity lasts…

June’s big news is all about speed, as behemoth Jupiter barrels through the end of Gemini airspace and ploughs into the waters of Cancer at its highest speed of the year. Bringing ambition, expansion, and general high hopes with it, the giant planet changes its tone from a whirling thought-storm to a boiling mass of feeling and emotional intensity the last week of the month, following the Sun into Cancer as summer makes its official entry. Expect the change in seasons to be more marked than usual this year as a result, from a breezy, cool and laggard spring to a steamy yet ebullient summer riot of inner passions turned into breath-catching outerwear. It’s setting the pattern of the next four years to come.

And if that wasn’t enough, Mars is on its own speed trip, rapidly tailing Jupiter’s recent track through Gemini and into Cancer next month, putting the fire in Jupiter’s footsteps and turning recent motivation into current action. What was only dreamed about a few weeks ago suddenly plays the burning reveille for today’s schedule to be made real accomplishment by sunset. Indeed, when all is said and done (which will be a lot), Mercury retrograde at the end of the month will be a welcome opportunity to take a breather and revisit urgent and sometimes hasty moves that could use a little refining before continuing the race ahead.

Lunar eclipse, as seen from the Moon...one last month, one this month, plus solar.

April came in like a lamb and (as predicted) was roaring like a lion by mid-month, punctuated by the explosive super-Aries “Devil’s Week” stellium and Sun-Mars conjunction. Now, May brings the second and third eclipses of this extra-eclipse season, augmented by Jupiter racing through Gemini at breakneck speed. The combination of a heavy foot on the gas (Jupiter) and sudden, unexpected turns in the road (eclipses) can lead to all kinds of incidents and accidents, both fortuitous and fateful, so stay alert and be ready to suddenly alter direction. Broken-field running is the order of the day.

Although the discomfiting Saturn-Uranus-Pluto square/quincunx arrangement remains loosely in place, which has made for a late and edgy spring, Jupiter has at last broken out of that tangle, so despite resident perils around the margins, the imminence of a fatter period on its way is becoming palpable. Mercury and Venus conjunctions with Jupiter by the last week make positive plans manifest and put recipes for a jovial summer on the front burner. If ever there were a time for dancing around the Maypole and making hay while the Sun shines, this is it, so get out there and participate. Stay on your toes, and this merry month will not disappoint…

April features Venus/Mars conjunction, lunar eclipse, hot flashes all the way...

After a sleepy March that picked up radically at the end, April explodes onto the world with more like fiery flowers than spring showers. After a watery Pisces-filled March, this month is all Aries fire with both Venus and Mars running together with the Sun, spreading desire, passion, and sparkling action at a startling pace. Mercury brings up the rear in Aries and passes over Uranus mid-month, sparking explosive statements and original ideas that both inspire and enflame.

And underneath it all, the driving engine of a speeding Jupiter racing through Gemini puts a positive and ambitious spin on everything, and chances are if you can put it into words, you can put it into action, especially as the real obstacles to progress, Saturn and Pluto, are backing off for the moment into their own corners, leaving space for breaking new ground and progress in general. Just be ready for some broken-field running, however, as an especially-active eclipse season begins on the Scorpio full Moon (and lunar eclipse) of April 24, opening the door for two more eclipses next month. Lots of surprises to come, so take a flexible stance, ready to react.

If you’ve been waiting all winter for the action to start, the starting gates swing open this month, and it’s flat out and freaky until well into the summer.

March spends its first half in a continuing long winter’s nap, deep in Mercury retrograde, with a giant stellium of Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, Mercury, and Neptune in dreamy Pisces gathered on the weekend of March 10-11. Enjoy the rest if you can, because as the month progresses, most of the planets suddenly catapult into Aries for a dramatic wakeup – rather like a surprise missile strike – the turnaround time for what promises to be a new and exciting year. That will include Mercury going direct, Mars conjunct Uranus, and a radical speedup like an afterburner has cut in by April, with dominant Jupiter racing hell-bent-for-leather through Gemini all the way to Cancer by midsummer.

So feel free to nod out until mid-month, and then be ready to jump up and hit the ground running, as it’s going to be a fast-moving spring, and you’ll have to be ready to move quickly and decisively to catch that swiftly-passing brass ring!

While even former pessimists are sensing the current shift toward Jupiter change and expansion after four years of crushing Saturn skies, it still seems like the struggles that caused universal deadlock are busily in play. And so they have been, as the long-term Uranus-Pluto square continues to drive deadly conflict and revolution, and the several-month Jupiter-Saturn quincunx has had the forces of change and resistance sparring for ascendance without much apparently tangible result.

But all that’s about to change. Jupiter has just gone direct and will be picking up speed to tear right past the end of Gemini by summer, while this month Saturn turns retrograde to go back to linger and ferment in early Scorpio. The net effect is that progressive and regressive forces will stop going head-to-head, competing for the same spoils, and move off into their own directions to either march madly forward or retreat and regroup. This is a month of (mostly) quiet decision as the last face-offs come to stalemate and all parties choose new, more productive fields upon which to pursue their separate endeavors.

It won’t be a month of hugs, handshakes, or sudden Valentine reunions – quite the opposite. It will be more like an empty winter park bench, a quiet abandonment of fruitless enmities as the rose of spring suggests other meetings in other places with other more promising partners than those of the punishing (and now perishing) past. It’s a still, silent shift, marked by a Pisce super-stellium of Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Neptune, and (briefly) Moon, drawing dreamy fantasies of hopes unrealized and futures yet unknown. All will be jolted into action in the following months as this drifting Pisces cluster rearranges into a super-Aries collision with Uranus and a startling triple-eclipse season in the spring. But for now to sleep: to forget, to dream, to imagine…

The newly-ascendant planet Jupiter rules the night skies this winter, and for four hopeful years to come, but it’s going to be a bit of a siege until it fully runs the show. That’s because it’s arriving under heavy fire, so to speak, of a very pushy double-quincunx (called a Yod) between Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto on the opposite side of the sky. And, of course, Pluto itself is in a violent square with Uranus (think Syria), so with all that competitive and often destructive negativity going on, it’s hard to hear the clarion call of Jupiter above the fray, sounding the trumpets of progress.

Nevertheless, it is still there, and by the time the snows of winter melt into spring, Saturn will have backed off and Jupiter raced ahead, so the evidence of the change underway will begin to be much more obvious. Until then, dig in, stay warm, and stay positive, the stars are (eventually) on your side! Like at the Battle of the Bulge, the enemy is running out of gas, and huge reinforcements are on their way…

What chariots, what horses
Against us shall bide
While the Stars in their courses
Do fight on our side?
-- Rudyard Kipling

Written In The Stars (Oxford University Press) – Planets as both science and symbolism in literature across the centuries…

Global Art (MetroWest) – Astrologer’s artwork picked by U.S. government to be displayed in embassies around the world…

Astrology Orchestra (SBWire) – An instrument constructed for every planet according to its properties, and so on…three performances scheduled so far…

Russian Apocalypse (RT) – Doomsday fever is sweeping Russia as Mayan astrological calendar winds down to its end…including travel tickets to heaven and hell…

MoonIt (Business Insider) – Astrology-based flirting app tops a million users…

Emu Farm Scam (Times of India) – OK, we can’t resist astrologers on the police blotter, it’s just so real…;-)…and here’s another, linked to the recent murder (below), it seems India is having an astrological crime wave…

Astro-Tattoo (Examiner) – Ink your birth chart on your arm…some celebrities will try anything…with slideshow…

Storm Over Saturn (Huffington Post) – Superstorm Sandy isn’t the only hurricane raising dust in the solar system lately…actually, trouble on both Jupiter and Saturn have in the past correlated with shifts on Earth, so worth consideration…

Murder Suspects Nabbed (Times of India) – Pricey plot for drive-by shooting of astrologer was known by neighbors for days…

Makemake Airless (Space Reporter) – The recently-discovered dwarf outer planet has no atmosphere, unlike Pluto, it has been discovered…

Kidnap Astrologer (KuenselOnline) – Starcaster abducted three days ago in Bhutan is still missing, no motives, suspects, or clues have turned up…

Tilted By Rogue Star (ScienceNow) – That would be us…our axis, and hence the existence of our tropical Zodiac, are thanks to a past encounter, long gone…

Astrologer Murdered (Indian Express) – Two gunmen on motorcycles, dressed as cops, mowed him down…

Orphaned Planet (CSMonitor) – Giant Jupiter-like planet found wandering in space, looking for a home…

Win For Astrology? (ANS) – More on successful election predictions, how, where, why…

Worship Wealth (Daily Bhaskar) – You have to do it at the right astrological time, for it to work…!

Election Turmoil (ABC News) – Everybody with an eye on the sky is predicting it…

Ganesha Says Obama (Sys-con) – Our friends at GaneshaSpeaks are calling it for the Prez, by a hair…

Reply, Hazy (Dallas Morning News) – Mixed historical trends on the election, including astrology and magic 8-ball…

Retro Commerce (Practical e-Commerce) – Astrologer and retailer looks at effect of late fall Mercury retro on holiday season sales…

Shifty Ohio (Huffington Post) – Journalist/starcaster Eric Francis outlines why critical swing-state Ohio is ripe for all the election day problems Mercury making its station will bring…

Huge Burp (NASA) – On Saturn, after giant storm. Keep an eye out, storms on the big planets have been synched with upsets here before…

Looming Cliff (Crawford Perspectives) – Our old friend and market starcaster Arch Crawford forsees “something that no on can Stop[sic]” just over the horizon…

Prediction Punishment (Fox) – Astrologers, beware of what you don’t predict. An Italian court has convicted top seismologists of not correctly forecasting a killer earthquake…six years in jail for manslaughter…

Big Planet, Big Change (NASA) – As Jupiter moves to dominate the sky from our point of view, large-scale transformations are afoot on the planet itself. Like the Great Red Spot collision a few years back, this could reflect here, too…

Red Astrology (People’s Daily) – Western style astrology, like other things Western, is showing growing appeal in China…

Tiwanaku (Thunderbolts) – Astronomical alignments, along with piers and watermarks, suggest this ancient high mountain Bolivian site may have been next to the sea!...

It’s Never Too Late… (The Citizen) – …to change your career. Like, become an astrologer, as this Dar es Salaam writer did…

Stomped (Times of India) – 33-year-old astrologer pulls temple elephant’s tail, pays with his life…

Election Conundrum (Huffington Post) – Astrologer Eric Francis notices what we’ve been saying all along, it’s not the Mercury retro, it’s the Mercury station…which does help clarify things…

Losing Its Spots (New Scientist) – The expected rising sunspot cycle may have fizzled out, and may stay that way. Will what once caused the Little Ice Age now help slow global warming?...

Earthsong (NASA) – Music of the Spheres? Here are some of the notes we’re playing, from our section of the orchestra…

Congress Blames Astrology (Economic Times) – Congress? Oh, that Congress…if America’s did this, they might get higher ratings, couldn’t do worse…

Astrological Implications (DesMoines Register) – That’s what the failure of Peregrine Financial Group displays, as they had an astrologer who should have steered them clear. Unless, of course, they ignored the advice…fuller story here…

Transit Triangulation (RedOrbit) – Videos of recent, rare transit of Venus over the Sun have implications for the future as well as the past…

Full Moon-Uranus (Slooh) – Lively conjunction (no doubt, see here) of Harvest Moon (astrologically, Hunter’s Moon, in Aries) with Uranus will be broadcast live…gives Paul Ryan a big smack, BTW, keep your eyes peeled…

A Little Planet (Space Daily) – Asteroid Vesta, it would appear, is an almost-planet…

Solar Shock (Space.com) – Shockwaves from the Sun may have formed the planets in steps, one class at a time…

Raped… (Deccan Herald) – By an astrologer, says pregnant woman, plus more on starcaster now being sued by celebrity for predictions that came true…trouble with the law…

Military Star-Mongers (NY Times) – More about the use of astrology as deceit and propaganda on both sides in the Second World War…

Sues Astrologer (Daily Bhaskar) -- …for predicting her marriage would break up, which it did…!

What If It’s Real? (ANS) – Astrology, that is. Former psychologist turned starcaster addressed the issues that changed his life…

Pagan Lament (Patheos) – Here’s a New Age blogger that believes in Bigfoot but not in the stars…

Boom! (io9) – Protective Jupiter just scooped up another wandering asteroid that might have otherwise come our way…

Chaotic Destiny (Wall St. Journal) – Astrology follower and astro-calendar illustrator (and, of course, heiress) Gloria Vanderbilt has led a fated existence…

Suicide (IBN Live) – Educator and personal motivator jumps into lake after warnings from astrologer…

The “Real” Venus (Full Comment) – Occult astrology has had this planet pegged as lush and full of greenery, instead of the boiling hell it physically is…

Huff Picks Obama (Huffington Post) – Or their astrologer does, in this second part of astro-election coverage…

Star Power Lure (Times of India) – New backwater boat tour will feature a visit to an astrologer for visitors to Kerala…

Glacial Object? (LifesLittleMysteries) – Or Ice Age Stonehenge? More on the mysterious Baltic undersea find…

Mars Hoax Day (Space.com) – This whopper floods the Net every year about this time…here’s a nice history and some other fun Mars (and hoax) related links…

Romney’s Stars (Huffington Post) – After UAC’s herd of starcasters totally went for Obama this summer, now the rest start to weigh in…part 2, to come, will look at Obama…

Another Dating Site (Marketwatch) – This one uses Western and Chinese astrology, plus Myers-Briggs personality test…happy hunting…

Facebook Fiasco (ANS) – The Facebook IPO was a classic of bungled timing, according to prominent business astrologers…

Peruvian Stonehenge (Technology Review) – Thirteen towers aligned to solar positions suggest yet another culture into early star stuff…

Vesta’s Sister (Thunderbolts) – That would be Ceres, and some predictions of surprises about what it will actually look like, when space probe gets there…

Sipping Whiskey (MTU) – What intergalactic space-time now appears more like, rather than more bubbly beer…

The First Life Crisis (Sidney Morning Herald) – That would be the Saturn return, of course, covered with some new twists (like divorce statistics) by down-under journalist…

Still At It (Carefair) – That describes indomitable Hollywood astrologer Jackie Stallone, Sylvester’s mom. And the current Martha Stewart of astrology is no longer a spring chicken herself…

Upskirts (Market Oracle) – Sure-fire market indicators include astrological cycles and, yes, social behavior indicators like the length of skirts…

Birth Certificate Times (Indian Express) – India will now require exact time to be on birth certificates, to help with natal horoscopes. Would that the likes of the UK would do the same…

Planets Align Over Giza (Bad Astronomy) – Or, well, maybe they really don’t…unless in the eye of the beholder…!

The Sun Is Round (IFA) – Almost perfectly round, which it shouldn’t be, which baffles scientists. Something else must be going on inside our star to make this happen…

Cliodynamics (Nature) – That’s the new word for studying repeating historical cycles, a key element in mundane astrology, so astrologers take note…

The Curse of Nostradamus (Examiner) – Lots homophonic prophesying here…fun but weird…

The Mars Effect (Deccan Chronicle) – Not a good one, if you’re a manglik looking for marriage…

Superstitious Trader (Business Insider) – New robotic trading algorithm incorporates astrology and full Moons, even fears the number 13…

Electric Explanations (Thunderbolts) – Electricity theory of cosmology explains planetary myths, with a whole different viewpoint…

Dr. Doom Predicts (Examiner) – Guy who predicted crash of 2008 now says 2013 will be the next disaster, in line with astrological aspects…

Olympics Outlook (the SOP) – Vedic astrologer looks at coming games, first of many, no doubt…

Astrologizing The Weather (Rappler) – In the Philippines, a useful tool, claims this Manila journalist…

Astrology and World Religions (Huff Post) – They mix, inevitably, since the beginning, as Nicholas Campion points out is his new book…

Murder Case: Seek Astrologer (Deccan Chronicle) – Cops hunt for starcaster who may have advised suspected killer…

Astrology Computer (IEEE) – Computer museum includes Nancy Reagan’s astrologer’s dedicated chart-casting machine...

Cops Tap Astrologers (Times of India) – A little help from the stars goes a long way to collar a crook…

Ban Banned (Newsday) – Louisiana town’s anti-astrology law bites the dust…

The Zodiac Mystery (China Daily) – First astrology-themed film for mainland China opens, parents urged not to bring kids…

Fifth Moon for Pluto (Hubble) – The officially-neglected planet of Death is turning out to be the powerhouse we knew it was…

Fire Horse Plague (Japan Times) – New Scientist editor bemoans the Japanese birth drop due to 60-year-cycle Chinese astrology tenet…

Alive and Well (Rappler) – That’s astrology in the Philippines, where the real thing is supplanting the newspaper Sun-sign variety…

New Career Option (Indian Express) – Astrology as a career is enjoying growing appeal among the younger generation…

How To Pick The President (ANS) – That’s what this astrologer’s research study claims to have found the key to…

Hidden Portals (NASA) – Like diaphanous, twisting umbilical cords, these magnetic conduits keep us connected to our mother star…

Baltic Mystery Deepens (Fox) – It’s made of rock, totally anomalistic, maybe a Stonehenge sort of thing, maybe natural, but totally weird…

Astro-Ponzi (Wall St. Journal) – Busted for a pyramid swindle by SEC, stock broker claimed he was investing based on lunar gravitation cycles. Fake astrology, just didn’t work out that way…

Stonehenge Mysteries (Natural Plane) – The ancient astrology/astronomy megalithic monument is the vortex of ley lines, which could make you vanish?...

Solar Return Demise (The Telegraph) – Your next solar return could be your last, according to this study…

African Horoscopes (PR Web) – Here’s a new collection of African national charts, lots more, for your reference shelf…

Reggae Stars (Space.com) – Lab converts star data into music for reggae band…we love this stuff…

Christening Elephants (Business Standard) – Fifteen orphaned baby elephants named by attending astrologer according to their birth charts in mass public celebration…

The Lost Planet (Discover) – Once upon a time there was another, Jupiter-like giant planet in our midst. Until, like an ancient gods myth, the rest got together and cast it away into the outer darkness…

A Venus Hypothesis (Robert Brown) – Did the ancient Venusians’ goose get cooked when they ignored runaway global warning? Are we headed the same way?...

Demon Star (Yahoo) – Egyptian calendar reveals earliest record of variable ill-portuning Algol…

But What Does It Mean, Astrologically? (IBTimes) – Astrologers understandably don’t have much to say about an aspect that spans only a few hours every 120 years. Not much to go on…a big nothing says one…

Baltic Anomaly (Fox) – Is huge mystery object under the Baltic another Stonehenge, submerged? …or something more alien? Swedish divers will explore the possibility, right on the eclipse and Transit of Venus…which U.S. and Russia are now blocking... and suspiciously, a publicity flaw...

Wisconsin Transit (Madison.com) – Though this newscaster doesn’t pursue it, the Venus retro transit is appropriately a big political deal, with pivotal recall (Venus retro = changing desires) election that could swing the whole year’s trends…

New Use for Transit (Huff Post) – The Transit of Venus, no longer the key to the size of the solar system and its planets, may now be the key to alien exoplanets…

Frozen Earth (Scienceblog) – We should have been frozen solid, but we weren’t…a mystery planet could explain it all…

Wedding Date Pick? (Entertainmentwise) – Is Angelina Jolie consulting a Buddhist monk astrologer to pick an auspicious Brangelina wedding date? Wouldn’t be the first time she’s gone that route…

Electric Moon (NASA) – One might note, which NASA doesn’t, that during a solar eclipse, Earth is directly downwind from this…

Superstitious Fund (FineExtra) – Here’s a new investing algorithm that includes astrology, numerology, and even your lucky underwear…

Cosmic Story of Venus (OpEdNews) – Columnist waxes philosophical on meaning of Transit of Venus, one of few to do so, astrologically…

The Ghouls of May (The Moderate Voice) – Fixed star Algol is still making mischief, now in the political blogosphere, in this long and thoughtful article…

Wall To Wall Starcasters (Chicago Tribune) – Reuters takes a peek at the massive New Orleans gathering…

Big Easy Boffinfest (AP) – A veritable herd of astrologers from virtually everywhere has massed in New Orleans, with plenty of predictions…

Blame the Beer (Philly.com) – Pluto is looking more and more like a planet again, and it’s 2006 opinion-poll demotion could be an alcoholic artifact…

“Planetarium” (SMH) – Talent and planets unite in this 90-minute astro song-cycle…

Planet X Redux (Huff Post) – Perturbations of Sedna suggest that Planet X may indeed be lurking just out of sight…

Painful Joints? (Endless JRNY) – Could it be the Sun that’s causing it? Check it yourself. We remember following the first snail-mail Sandia Labs solar reports in the early 1970s, just like this…

Calling All Astrologers! (Nola.com) – UAC astrology conference in New Orleans has a list of starcasters as long as your arm…lots from the planetary pundits to come this week…

Do You Believe?... (Daily Journal) – In astrology? In evolution? In the New Jersey Devil? New Jersey residents surprise us…

The BIG Mayan Calendar (io9) – It now appears the 2012 end-of-the-world Mayan calendar was just a single page of a much longer one…

Inside Antikythera (BBC) – New X-rays of the ancient sky computer reveal its inner workings on BBC-TV special…downloadable at BBC site…

The Transit Of Venus… (transitofvenus.org) -- … has it’s own site, so here’s everything you might want to know about history, details, even has an app…

Rogue Neighbor? (National Geographic) – Is there an undiscovered planet from another system hanging around in our own?...

Supermoon Shakes (Death By 1000 Papercuts) – Well, the approaching “Supermoon” might not be the end of the world, but will it at least rattle some cages?...

Cop Shot (Daily Pioneer) – Astrologer told police officer there would be another death in his family, so he shot himself dead…

Entry Time Slots (Daily Pioneer) – Our friend Hemang Pandit at GansheshaSpeaks.com weighs in on astrologically elective Caesarians…

Leap Of Death (Emirates247) – Well-known Kuwaiti astrologer jumps five stories to escape apartment building blaze, perishes. Press mocks that she “didn’t predict it”…

Venus Transit Approaches (TG Daily) – The rare “Transit of Venus” on June 5-6, at the apex of its retro period, will be increasingly in the news. More when there’s a really complete article…meanwhile read the book about it…

Planet Phoebe (Ars Technica) – Saturn’s Moon may be a captured planet and sister to Pluto…

Late Heavy Bombardment (NASA) – When the big boys decided to move out of our neighborhood, the asteroids came in and put the big hurt on brother Earth and sister Moon…

Arch-Conjurer (The Independent) – In this new biography, QEI’s primary astrologer and general higher-world consultant is depicted as battered by political infighting…

Snagged Planets (Harvard) – Seems those wandering interstellar planets get roped in to solar systems quite regularly. Is one of our regulars, in fact, from elsewhere? Or...is it us??!!..

Missing Matter… (ESO) -- …of the dark kind. It turns out there isn’t any around our neighborhood, which scotches everything…

Tycoon In Trouble (The Australian) – Media mogul turns to astrologer to help turn his fortunes around…

Test for Astrology (Science 2.0) – The ancient art deserves another look, especially as psychology tests, even when self-administered, don’t do much better…

Garage Door Eclipse (Naples News) – Modern seasonal alignments, like the now-famous Manhattanhenge, mimic the ancients in silly ways…this one’s a stitch…

Buried Alive (Jakarta Post) – On the advice of an astrologer, parents inter infant under their house in a clay pot to insure long life. The surprise…the kid lived, and they’re all busted…

Gaga Stars (The Sun) – Lady Gaga consults the stars over her coming tour dates…

Death By Fire (The Star) – Crooked astrologer burns drugged client alive to keep him from squealing to the cops…

Uranus Ablaze (R&D Daily) – The weird planet is hopping with auroras, showing off its electrical nature for the first time viewed from Earth…and, unexpectedly, Venus, too…

Inconvenient Astrologer of MI5 (The Awl) – Louis DeWohl mixed everybody up about WWII’s stars…it’s still not straight…

Disassembly (EnergyMatters) – We’ve often wondered if it would help to simply remove a malefic planet from the sky. Well, here’s the well-meaning plan, unfortunately not just for the bad guys…

Overtaken (DNA India) – Claim that India’s scientists don’t get their due because the people believe in astrology…give us a break…

We’re Normal (AlphaGalileoFdn) – Study of exoplanetary systems reveal they’re disclike, like ours. So who knows how many alien astrologers are casting horoscopes of their own systems, just like us…

or, go to the entire Archive Index