Zodiac signs – True Tarot Tales

Hey Toro! The Season of the Star Bull Taurus

This year the sun is in the sign of Taurus 19 April 2024 -20 May 2024. The dates for the sun signs can vary by a day or two from year to year for astronomical reasons.

The word ‘zodiac’ comes from the Greek meaning ‘circle of animals.’ The only zodiac sign that is non-representative of a living creature is Libra, the sign of the Scales. But in astronomy, even the Scales of Libra are borrowed from the stars of Scorpio and the claws of the giant scorpion in the heavens next door.

Taurus, from the Latin for Bull, is the second sign of the Western Tropical Zodiac and represents the height of spring in the northern hemisphere, ruled by the planet Venus and the goddess herself in all her verdant mythological glory. Venus rules Taurus by day, and the Moon, which is exalted in the sign of the Bull, rules Taurus by night.

Symbolic Associations

· Ruling planet: Venus

· Element: Earth

· Quality: Fixed (mid-season)

· Birthstone: Diamond (April) Emerald(May)

· Metal: copper

· Body: neck, throat, tonsils

· Homeopathic salt: Nat Sulph (Sodium sulphate) used for indigestion or at the onset of cold and flu symptoms

· Flower: the Daisy; innocence, sanctity

· Tree: the Apple Tree; happiness, immortality. Avalon, the resting place of King Arthur was the ‘isle of apples’

· Colours: pastel blue, green, pink

· Spheres of Influence: The Establishment, Church, universities, publishing, agriculture. Professions: Politics, Banking, Agriculture, Church, Government, Construction, Arts, Music/Dance, Entertainment, Beauty, Retail, Fashion, Restaurants

Astronomy

Taurus is a large and prominent constellation bordered by Aries to the west and Gemini to the east. It ranks 17^th in size of the 48 Greek constellations as recorded by Ptolemy in The Mathematics of the Heavens, the Almagest, written AD/CE 150.

The stars of Taurus depict the face, horns and forepart of the bull’s body. His face is made up of a triangular cluster of stars called The Hyades. There are no legs. The bull is imagined half-submerged like the mythical Bull from the Sea. A cluster of stars, The Pleiades, also known as The Seven Sisters, swarms like bees above him.

Aldebaran is Taurus the Bull's fiery eye — Via Earthsky

The best time to observe Taurus is December and January. By March and April, you might see it in the west in the twilight. To find Taurus first you need to find the three stars of Orion’s belt. This is very easy on a clear winter’s night. Now look up to the right, looking north- east, See that bright orange-red star? That’s Aldebaran, ‘The Follower,’ a red giant. Aldebaran is the biggest, brightest star in the constellation, the famous red eye of the Bull, glaring down towards the Hunter. Orion isn’t after the Bull. Orion is chasing the hare, Lepus. But the Bull doesn’t like him anyway.

Should the Bull ever escape his heavenly pen, said ancient Arabic legend, he would stampede the universe to pieces, and it would be the end of things for all time. Let’s hope nothing upsets him up there, and there are plenty of daisies and buttercups, and no flies or mosquitoes to bother him.

History and Mythology

Taurus has been recognized as a sky bull since at least the Early Bronze Age, when the figure of a bull was discerned in the stars by the Sumerians around 3000 BC, and was later recorded in cuneiform by the Babylonians.

In modern astrology Aries is the first sign of the western zodiac, ushering in the spring (vernal) equinox along with the culmination of the first lambing season. Aries was encoded as the first sign of the zodiac by Ptolemy. This remains the case symbolically, although the vernal point of the spring equinox is now technically occurring in the constellation of Pisces owing the wobble of the earth, and the effect known as the precession of the equinoxes. The invisible celestial point that represents the spring equinox changes roughly every two thousand years

4000 years ago, it was still happening in Taurus. For Babylonian astronomers Taurus was the first sign of the Zodiac, and the Bull was also the first sign for the early Hebrews, who called it Aleph, as in A, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Why is Taurus celebrated in spring? Taurus coincides with the calving season. The bull, like its ancestors, the wild aurochs, is a potent symbol of strength and fertility. But where Leo the lion, represents wild strength, Taurus the bull is domesticated, controlled strength, just as the power of the oxen was harnessed for ploughing the fields. One of the archetypes associated with Taurus is ‘The Farmer.’

But the sheer animal power and potency of the bull has exerted a magical influence on the human imagination long before the dawn of agriculture. Paintings of aurochs, the wild ancestors of the modern bull, were discovered in the Lascaux caves in France in paintings, thought to date from 15000 BC/BCE. The most famous section of the Lascaux caves in the Dordogne in France is the Hall of the Bulls, featuring four black bulls, or aurochs. One of these bulls is 5.2 metres (17 feet) long, the largest animal so far seen in cave art.

It is thought that the aurochs migrated at this time of year; a dangerous but potentially highly rewarding hunting opportunity for sabre toothed tigers- and for human hunters. Not only did the aurochs provide the luxury of meat, but the horns,hide and sinews had many uses. Elsewhere, the physical remains of auroch have been discovered on Salisbury Plain near Stonehenge in the UK. Salisbury Plain was once a “lek” -a mass gathering site of the auroch on their annual migration route. These mighty stones were not raised simply on account of ancient ancestors or solar solstice alignments, but to honour the rich and ancient hunting grounds along this resting place on the migration route of the auroch.

a grassy field with rocks in it with Stonehenge in the background — Photo by Karen McKeogh on Unsplash

Hunting gave way to farming, guaranteeing vital survival supplies with less risk attached. The first evidence of the domestication of cattle, goats, sheep and pigs was found in the ‘Fertile Crescent;’ a region covering eastern Turkey, Iraq and south-western Iran from about 12000 years ago.

These farming practices spread westwards, and in time had a genetic effect on the human population, with the sudden appearance of a gene mutation that enabled humans to digest raw cow’s milk into adulthood. It’s not known when this first occurred, but it happened in Northern Europe, probably driven by the food challenges of longer colder winters. Today, an estimated 35 % of the adult human population can digest the milk sugar, lactose, mostly in Europe, while this is much lower in other countries and as many as 99% of Chinese people are lactose intolerant.

Bull Worship

The bull was considered a divine animal throughout antiquity; a symbol of the moon, fertility, rebirth, and royal power, while today, the Lithuanian word ‘taurus’ means ‘noble.’

There is evidence of bull cults throughout the Mediterranean starting in Anatolia, dating from at least 70000 BC. From the worship of the Apis bull in Egypt, to bull-leaping in Knossos and the sacrificial portrayal in Roman Mithraism, the bull has been an integral part of many diverse and important religious traditions. The High Priestess in the Tarot deck wears a two- horned or crescent moon crown with the full Moon in-between in token of Hathor, the cow goddess of Thebes (Egypt).

Smith Waite Tarot

Greek legend associated Taurus with the legend of Zeus and Europa, in which the god Zeus, up to his tricks yet again, disguised himself as a beautiful white bull, coaxed the princess Europa into climbing on his back, then swam away with her to Crete, and made her one of his mistresses, giving her the gift of a pet dog that later became the constellation Canis Major. Their children included Minos, King of Crete, the builder of the Labyrinth and the famous palace at Knossos where the bull games were held.

Bull worship; the concept of the bull as a divine concept, gradually migrated westwards and northwards. The Celtic druids held Tauric festivals at least 2000 years ago, and there is archaeological evidence of bull worship near Newcastle and York in northern England in the UK.

The Buddha was born when the Full Moon was in Taurus (Vesak.) The Buddha’s birthday is celebrated at the Vesak Festival which in 2024 will be celebrated on the day of the Full Moon May 23 based on the Vedic lunar calendar. Vesak day honours the day of the birth, the enlightenment, and the death of the Buddha and is considered a public holiday in South East Asia in countries including Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

shallow focus photo of Gautama Buddha figurine — Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

The Taurus Archetype

All the zodiac signs represent archetypes, meaning something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing. A zodiac sign paint a poetic portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season. A baby born in summer in either hemisphere arrives into a different physical environment from a winter baby; differences of temperature, hours of daylight, maternal diet during pregnancy and so on, with potentially different effects on the baby’s physical makeup and constitution.

As a fixed sign, Taurus rules anything associated with the mid- zone of spring, the height of the season. The other fixed signs are Leo, mid-summer, Scorpio, mid-autumn and Aquarius, mid-winter. The fixed signs are traditionally considered the most stable and steadfast signs, rooted in their ruling element, protectors of the status quo, the signs in tune with ancient things, the guardians of conservation and protecting continuity.

Taurus rules the ears, neck and throat. Taurus is known for its particularly pleasant or distinctive voice. Taurus may seem slower to learn compared with say, a mercurial, quicksilver Gemini native. But their grasp is both intuitive and thorough, and they possess an excellent memory. Once learned, never forgotten.

Taurus has an equable, pleasant, even magnetic personality, always excepting the grumpy, taciturn, self-opinionated natives. Taurus is known for a quiet style of physical attractiveness. Ruled by the Moon and Venus, these are sensual people. This sign especially needs to watch they don’t overdo the whole comfort thing, over-eating and so on. Taurus is a singer and a dancer. They have natural rhythm, but while they are strong and they have good stamina, they are not known as sporty types. This beautiful model is wearing the colours of Taurus.

woman in green and purple floral dress — Photo by Chalo Garcia on Unsplash

Taurus won’t be pushed about. Many a bull has worn a ring through his nose for the safety of the farmer. Masters of passive resistance, notoriously resistant and stubborn, their strength and stability is the bright side of this same coin. Taurus has a gift of soothing and reassuring others, though, like a bull shaking off gadflies while chewing the cud, they can be irritable if you try to rush them, crowding them while their thoughts are elsewhere.

herd of brown and black bulls on brown sand — Photo by Kendall Ruth on Unsplash

Bulls cannot actually see the colour red. It’s the movement of the matador’s cape that provokes them in the bull ring, and not the colour. Taurus is slow to anger but rarely loses in a fair fight. The bull ring is not a fair fight. The bull is weakened by the picadors on horseback, injured before he meets the matador, who would have a far smaller chance of survival otherwise. Still, the matador requires superb courage to meet the mighty bull in an open space, and this is the chance for the bull to have his revenge for his death, a chance denied to other bulls who will go to the slaughter house.s

When the human bull ‘sees’ red they either dig in hard or else charge head on. Taurus in a full-on rage is a ‘bull in a china shop’ – the Earth sign that will withstand or demolish the opposition of the other more famous ‘fighting’ signs, Aries, Leo, and even the famously lethal Scorpio, its opposite number in the zodiac. Other people get a shock when Taurus suddenly turns and starts lowering their head and hoofing the turf. The mistake of the other person was in pushing the boundaries once too often, taking their good nature for granted.

If a Taurus is being unreasonable, or being a ‘bully,’ stay calm and quietly stand your ground. Do as you would be done by, and more often than not, the typical Taurus will respond in kind.

Thank you for reading. Back soon with the story of the Decans, Taurus in the Tarot and the weather in Taurus season 2024…

Enter the Season of Pisces The Heavenly Fishes, 2024

Most of us know our Western Tropical zodiac sun sign, but what’s the story behind it? And what are the decans? It’s time to find out more about Pisces the Heavenly Fishes

13th century window in Chartres Cathedral

Traditional associations

Symbol:

Date of Birth: 19 Feb to 20 March

Ruling planets: Traditional: Jupiter Modern: Neptune

Element: Water

Quality: Mutable

Lucky Days: Monday and Thursday

Energy: Yin (receptive)

Key phrase: I believe

Body: Feet, eyes, bladder

Tissue Salt: Ferrum Phos (Iron Phosphate) An oxygen booster.

Birth Stone: Aquamarine but also amethyst, ruby, blood-stone and jasper. Aquamarine is the blue variety of beryl. Emerald is a green beryl. The aquamarine is believed to enhance foresight, clairvoyance and a sense of well-being.

Colours: Purple, violet, sea-green

Herbs/Flowers: the water lily (associated with Neptune)

Tarot cards: The Moon: ebb and flow, cyclical shifts, intuition, dreams, visionary capabilities, ghosts, fertility, instinct v societal norms, wild creatures, difficulties with travel, infection, poison, uncertainties, shadow boxing, wild creatures.

Other cards: the Knight of Cups and the 8, 9 and 10 Cups.

Smith Waite Centennial deck © U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Pisces Astronomy

Pisces, named for the Latin plural of fish, is the 14th largest constellation overall, located in the first quadrant of the Northern Hemisphere and covering a large V-shaped region. But although it’s a fairly large constellation its stars are faint, none brighter than fourth magnitude. Not easy to see with the naked eye.

Even so, its brightest star, Eta Piscium, also known as Alphergor Kullat Nunuis a bright giant star 294 light-years from Earth, 316 times more luminous than the sun. Its Babylonian name is Kullat Nunu, ‘Nunu’ meaning ‘fish’ and ‘kullat’ meaning a bucket.

The fish of Pisces are often depicted in art as two koi carp swimming at right angles to each other; one to the north, one to the west, and attached by a cord. This imaginary cord, Alrescha or Alpha Piscium, is made up of a pair of white dwarf stars. Astronomer Ian Ridpath explains: “A cord joins the tails of Pisces. The horizontal dashed line passing through the southerly fish is the celestial equator, and the diagonal dashed line is the Sun’s annual path, the ecliptic. The point where they cross is known as the vernal (spring) equinox.”

Pisces rules the feet. Symbolically Pisces has one foot in the death of the old year, and one foot in the new life of springtime.Pisces is the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac year, ruling the twelfth house in a personal horoscope, representing hopes, dreams and fears- what lies beneath. “Can thou draw forth leviathan from the deep?”

In Christianity, Pisces represents Christ, and its opposite sign of Virgo represents Mary, the mother of Christ.

Pisces stands for what is unknowable.

The nature origins of the Pisces story

green pine trees beside river during daytime — Springtime snow melt Montana Photo by Gary Yost on Unsplash

February and March is the time of the winter melt, the fullest mountain rivers and the first spawning of fresh water fishes in the Northern hemisphere. This was the flooding season in Mesopotamia where the zodiac signs and stories of the Western Tropical zodiac first originated. There is evidence of recorded astrology dating back to the third millennium BC/BCE.

Pisces is a mutable sign, marking the subtle transition of one season into another. Pisces marks the end of winter leading up to the vernal equinox. Of all the zodiac signs, the mutable signs; Pisces, Gemini and Sagittarius, are traditionally the most adaptable, the ones most at ease with endings, transitions and change.

The fishes of Pisces are attached by a cord of stars, just as life and death, and winter and spring are conjoined, and cannot be separated. Pisces is not only the last sign of winter, moving into spring; it is the last sign of the zodiac year; a symbolic culmination of all the signs that came before it.

undefined — From Urania’s Mirror, Sidney Hall, 1824

The end of winter often brings mourning. More than any other season, it is the end of winter that carries away the old and frail. A mild or green winter was especially feared as it “made fat the graveyard,” as the old saying went.

Pisces straddles winter’s grief and the bright green shoots of spring.

The Pisces Archetype/Astrological Personality

The court card of Pisces is the Knight of Cups, signifying an offer, an invitation, a proposal, a welcome message, a bringer of good news, an admirer, lover, chivalry, a Sir Galahad, good health, a healing cup, a loving cup, fertility, pregnancy.

Pisces is famous for its emotional depths and visionary capabilities; sensitive, intuitive, psychic, often musically or artistically gifted, but also capable of not only scientific or technical competence, but brilliance.

These are talented individuals and famously loyal once committed; compassionate and sensitive. They adapt with ease, are spontaneous and full of surprises, but while their steel may be largely hidden, all the same, it is there. Not much is said about this Piscean steel but Pisces can be, not just resilient, but downright tough in its own quiet way.

Many police officers, arbitrators and judges are born under Pisces, as well as artists and musicians. Administrative work, although Pisces can do it perfectly competently, is not their forte by and large.

Strengths

Pisces can make excellent and approachable leaders of small teams, loyal to the staff in their charge. They will take on injustice, and challenge those of superior status. But Pisces, unlike Aquarius, confines their remit to action on an individual basis. Pisces is not temperamentally disposed to the mounting of group actions, campaigns or crusades. Unless perhaps, they are early Pisces, born on the Aquarius cusp. The later subjects of this sign, born close to the Aries cusp are potentially very much the warrior ‘doers’ of Pisces, and they will keep their own counsel and act alone if their blood is up.

Pisces is brave, kindly and instinctive, but their constitutional physical energy, once depleted, is not buoyant or easily restored. If Pisces is prone to headaches at the back of the head, there may possibly be related bladder infections or other issues.

Pisces, while sociable, needs a fair bit of time to itself. Pisces thrives on rest, music, hobbies and relaxation time near to rivers, ponds and sea. The writer personally knows two freshwater anglers who are Pisces sun sign natives. One keeps his own pond of koi carp at home.

Challenges

Depending on other planetary placements, Pisces may fall prey to wishful thinking, melancholy or unhealthy lifestyle habits. They may struggle to recover and regroup from setbacks. Without enough to do, or without a clear sense of purpose or direction, Pisces can drift loose from their cord, becoming detached and living too much in their own imaginary world.

But of course there is no such thing in reality as the Pisces personality. You are a unique individual. Your zodiac sign (sun sign) is a major keynote, but it is nothing like the full picture in real life – or in astrology. There are many other factors in play in your natal chart; your rising sign, your Moon sign; the planets in your houses, the aspects, your decan, and the degree of the actual day you were born.

If you don’t feel like a ‘typical’ Pisces, perhaps you are a second or third decan Pisces, rather than a ‘most typical’ first decan Pisces.

The Decans of Pisces

two Siamese fighting fishes — Photo by Worachat Sodsri on Unsplash

The decans (or decanates) are a further way of marking time, breaking down each of the zodiac signs into three shorter blocks of roughly ten days each.

While the Mesopotamians (Babylon and Sumeria in what is modern day Iraq) were developing the signs of the zodiac and the concept of natal astrology, astrologers in Egypt were developing the system of the decans. These two astrological traditions came together sometime around the 1st Century BCE and the 36 decans were merged with the astrological signs.

The Zodiac is a belt of sky we see from earth, tracking the path of the sun across the sky over the course of the year. We call this pathway of the sun ‘the ecliptic.’ The Greeks named the zodiac signs after twelve of the constellations appearing on, or crossing this zodiac belt: Aries, Taurus, Gemini Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and lastly, Pisces.

Each of these designated zodiac signs represents a 30 degree section of the zodiac belt. Each sign is then further sub-divided into three blocks of ten degrees ten days in length, with slight variations. This gives us the decans or decanates from the Latin meaning ‘ten.’

The decans are popularly known as the ‘thirty-six faces of astrology,’ adding subtle depth and nuance to the stories of the signs of the zodiac, distinguishing between someone born at the start of their zodiac month from someone who is born during the middle or at the end of the zodiac month.

Readers may also use decans to help with the determining of timing issues.

First Decan Pisces

Pisces- Pisces

Dates: 19 Feb-29 Feb

Planetary rulers: Traditional: Jupiter/ Modern: Neptune

Tarot card: Eight of Cups

Card meanings: Moving on, cutting ones losses, leaving something behind, but not in anger. Reversed: disillusionment, regret

The first decan of any sign is considered the most typical. Pisces makes for versatility and adaptability, while Neptune presents a soft or gentle manner or appearance. This Pisces decan is rarely aggressive or confrontational.

But there is a sense of a push and pull going on here. Jupiter means Pisces thinks big and steps forward. Neptune means Pisces swims in circles or hides in the weeds. This Pisces native connects with other people on an unconscious level, almost hearing what they are thinking. Maybe they haven’t noticed this about themselves yet, or they take their telepathy for granted, but if this is you, watch out for the signs.

While quiet, this Pisces has deep passions and their love life can be tempestuous. Their ideal partner will be lively and communicative with a can-do approach but the first decan Pisces tends to go on a lot of detours before arriving or settling in their happy place or rightful destination.

They often look younger than their age, but they need to be especially aware of their dietary and other habits in order to protect their health; mood, and the chest, lungs and feet in particular. Pisces is extra-sensitive to the effects of overindulgence of alcohol or mind altering drugs.

Second Decan Pisces

Pisces-Cancer

Dates: 1-10 March (approx.)

Planetary ruler: Moon

Tarot card: Nine of Cups

Card Meanings: the wish card, dreams come true, food and drink, the hospitality industry. Reversed: overindulgence, complacency, self-satisfaction

The sub-influence for this decan is Cancer, ruled by The Moon. Cancer is the natural ruler of the fourth house of home, family and security. These Pisces subjects typically stay close to birth family members. This Pisces may struggle to loosen parental ties, becoming fully independent, but must do so if they want to progress and develop and become the adult in the room (Saturn in Pisces

The zone of the sky from March 1 –10 houses the stars of the water of Aquarius, Eridanus the river and the western fish of Pisces. These are the faintest, most elusive stars. Now you see them, now you don’t.

These Pisceans blend in anywhere. Sensitive and psychic, this decan absorbs like moss. For the same reason these highly empathic people need to choose their company with care, and form healthy habits early on in life. These subjects are supremely susceptible to the influence of others in their environment, and this can work positively or negatively.

Third Decan Pisces

Pisces-Scorpio

Dates: 11 March-20 March

Planetary rulers: Ancient Mars Modern Pluto

Tarot card– Ten of Cups

Card Meanings: contentment, completion, arrival, family life, stability, safety and security, team effort, a happy home Reversed: losses,family conflicts, break-ups, unhappiness

The sub-influences for this decan are Scorpio and its rulers, traditional Mars or modern Pluto. Energetic Mars and Scorpio – natural ruler of the eighth house of desire, willpower, drive and determination – brings to this Pisces extra charisma, and the drive and determination to push forward where Pisces in general can tend to err on the side of caution, holding back. This Pisces native has the artistic creativity of Pisces/Neptune with extra sticking power to turn dreams into realities.

Pluto brings depth and Mars brings speed and energy of attack. This Pisces native needs to keep busy, with plenty of energy outlets. Pisces marks the completion of the zodiac wheel. This final decan marks the point at which we move into Aries, the cycle starts over again and Aries too, is ruled by energetic Mars. What these Pisces natives start, they finish.

These Pisces natives, like the other decans, are enormously attuned to their environment, but they tend to stay more aloof and watchful, less likely to blend in. They are highly observant, natural detectives, well suited to police work or other kinds of investigative work. Pisces-Scorpio listens between the lines and notices what is not being said.

The Cusps of Pisces

Aquarius-Pisces: February 15-21

Aquarius-Pisces: This is a Pisces native with Aquarius tendencies; a person of high principles, quiet, refined, and with strong likes and dislikes. This Pisces native is likely to do a lot of travelling. They have executive capabilities and can earn or make a lot of money, but tend to become bored quite easily. This native needs to be careful not to get trapped, committing too soon in a relationship that doesn’t suit them, simply out of a fear of being left on their own.

Pisces-Aries: March 17-23

Born on the Pisces-Aries cusp, this native is especially instinctive and brave. This mix of energy combines physical and moral courage with compassion for others which can make this Pisces individual a successful leader. This person is loyal to friends and colleagues and they are also generous, and eager to see others do well.

Famous Pisces subjects

Michelangelo, Copernicus, George 111, Albert Einstein, Neville Chamberlain, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor, Yuri Gagarin, Michael Gorbachev, Osama Bin Laden, Steve Irwin, Steve Jobs, President Erdogan of Turkey

Thank you for reading.

Back soon.

Tarot talking 2024

a number that is written in sparklers on a black background — Photo by Moritz Knöringer on Unsplash

Let’s take a quick look at the Numerology of 2024. The key numbers of this year are 2, 0, 4 and 8. Why 8? This is the number we get when we add up the digits. You’ll notice we have a dominance of even numbers: 2, 4 and 8; all of them divisible by 2.

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This is all about creating or protecting our stability during a time of great shifts, but the 0 stand for the wild cards at work in our lives. Births and rebirths, literally or metaphorically. Zero is the most numinous number, or non-number. Originally invented as a placeholder, The Fool card in the Tarot stands for Wyrd or Destiny, and is the greatest mystery of all the cards in the deck.

The Major Arcana card representing the Number 8 is Strength. This card correlates with Leo, which like Aries, is also ruled by Mars. This card stands for health, strength and courage. This is both physical and moral strength, resilience and fortitude, the kind that says we don’t give up. The one who wins is the last one standing. “Tomorrow is another day.”

There are no easy answers. We will all be tested this coming year, guaranteed, and this will be collectively and personally. This is not a quiet cycle we are in, the whole world is feeling it, and we may not come out of this cosmic wash-cycle that began in 2019/2020 until February 2026 when Saturn quits Pisces for the final time in this current cycle of transits.

When I look at Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy, time and again I draw The Hanged Man reversed, signifying either significant Pisces timing and/or an unwanted compromise that is ultimately reached. This card of Pisces points out that Saturn moved into Pisces in March 2023 and does not finally move out of Pisces until February 2026. This does not mean the war can’t end sooner. The Hanged Man could indicate Pisces season 2025, possibly triggered by events around the time of the eclipse in Libra season 2024. As ever, only time will tell. The reader is always “looking in the glass darkly.”

I have been struck by the physical resemblance to Zelenskyy of this card from The Tarot Illuminati deck. This card below, I drew in a reading for Zelenskyy back in March 2022. I was looking to see if Russia would succeed in assassinating him, as we understood Russia was trying to do at that time, and the feeling was no. The cards showed he will come through all this, but emerge a very different man. Not defeated, not diminished but disappointed. Reading between the lines, Russia’s President Putin will get away with far more than justice says he rightfully should, although much less than he wants.

We are all desperate to see an end to the darkness of the wholesale horror we are witnessing in Ukraine and in Gaza. There could be crucial turning points in these and other conflicts (and also in personal matters) around 14 February, around the solar eclipse of 8 April, during Leo/Virgo season- July and August, and again, around the solar eclipse in Libra, 2 October (ruled by Venus, cards 2/3 Swords- diplomacy/severance) and again towards the end of the year in Sagittarius around Christmas Eve, 24 December 2024, though this last date could likewise prove very tricky.

My cards have not so far seen a second term of office for Donald Trump. I first looked at this in 2021, looking to see signs of a second term after the Capitol Riot.

Link to that 2021 reading is here.

But nor are they showing me a second term for Joe Biden. I will be looking more closely at this later, as will twenty gillion other readers and astrologers. Some Vedic astrologers do say it will be Trump.

May-June could prove the most productive and easygoing months this coming year when Jupiter moves from productive Taurus into agile arch-communicator Gemini.

The April solar eclipse in Aries suggests a window of opportunity, bold decisions finding ways forward, and at a personal level for any of us, but especially for the Aries native or those with Aries rising, brave new initiatives in prospect.

The tarot card of this eclipse at 19 degrees of Aries is the expansive, outgoing and far seeing Three of Wands.

The possible negative interpretation of this card is the clear and present danger and obvious potential in 2024 for an escalation of maritime aggression in any of these areas: the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Straits of Hormuz, in the South China Sea or the Straits of Taiwan.

This is a twitchy year and the very end of the year may prove the trickiest time.

Image from The Legacy of The Divine Tarot.

First comes the vision, but planning, co-operation and timing is everything. We are equal to these challenges, and we can achieve more by approaching our most personal problems with an attitude of kindness and respect. The lady in the Strength card does not subdue the lion by killing it. This card references an old story, Una and the Lion from Edmund Spenser’s 16th-century poem The Faerie Queen. Una is the daughter of a king and queen who have been imprisoned by a dragon. Most unfortunate.

Una undertakes a quest to free her parents, but on her journey she encounters a lion. Rather than eating her, the lion is so captivated by Una’s innocence that he follows her instead, accompanying her as a protector, and in the painting by William Bell Scott, Una gently rests her fingers in the lion’s mane, as they make their way together through the autumnal wood.

But the lion is not going her to kill her, either. She calms its threat by holding her nerve, moving decisively but quietly, and using a carefully measured restraint with the lightest touch.

Image from The Gilded Tarot.

This is a year of gravitas. We are changing, and we are feeling that change. There is a sense of a greater self discipline, but also striking out in a new direction, expanding our lines of vision, enlarging our horizons as per the Three of Wands. We are starting new things or revisiting old things and re-imagining them anew.

These are just seeds or buds in 2024. We won’t see the results this year, but we are changing direction. The particular nature of this, and the life departments it will affect will depend on our own natal charts.

Jupiter is on our side in 2024, and he can be a big old bully. But Jupiter is also “the bringer of jollity.” People need to eat, but they also need beauty. They need laughter and they need other people. Jupiter keeps it large, and Jupiter in Gemini can be a big fat beautiful butterfly, the symbol of Psyche, the soul.

Airy, breezy, airy pollinator of renewal of the richness of the earth of Taurus, Jupiter enters Gemini 25 May 2024 and stays there until 9 June 2025. This can be all manner of good news, with April, May and June are the most promising months for communications, networking, teaching, publishing, business, study, travel and progress in the most general terms.

Jupiter in Gemini is endlessly curious and enquiring. Jupiter is however, in detriment in Gemini, meaning that Jupiter is opposite the sign of Sagittarius where it is exalted (most naturally at home.)

There could, in politics and geo-political conflicts, be a lot of dithering, delaying and fair- weathering.

person holding butterfly — Photo by Natalya Letunova on Unsplash

But even so, Jupiter in Gemini may bring better things to the world, while the Aries Eclipse in April is an even bigger hitter this year. Big and brave. What brave new stories shall you be creating this coming year?

Thank you for reading.

Wishing you a very Happy New Year, 2024.

Introducing The Decans of Pisces

20 February 2023 the sun re-enters the zodiac territory of Pisces the Fishes until 20 March 2023, the date of spring equinox when we will move into the mythical sky territory of Aries the Ram.

‘Pisces’ is from the Latin plural for fish, and the zodiac sign is named after one of the largest constellations in the zodiac. The two fish are said to represent Venus and Cupid in Greco-Roman mythology after they turned themselves into fish to escape a terrible monster, a Titan called Typhon who was later imprisoned by Zeus, tricked and trapped under Mt Etna where he still roars to this day, seeking to escape.

The twin fishes of Pisces are often depicted as koi carp.

Pisces symbolizes the concept of The Flood. This time of year marked the rainy season in Mesopotamia -where western astrology originated.

This is also the time of the winter flood melt, when mountain streams swell the rivers and will sometimes flood the valleys below. This is the time of year for the earliest spawning of fresh water fish.

The spring equinox now occurs during the zodiac month of Pisces when the sun passes across the ecliptic, crossing the imaginary line of the cord joining the two fishes. This year, 2022, the spring equinox will occur on Sunday 20 March.

Once upon a time the equinox occurred during the time allotted to the zodiac timing of Aries, the first sign of the western zodiac, but this has changed over time owing to the wobble of the Earth; an effect known as the precession of the equinoxes.

Pisces is the 14th largest constellation overall covering a large V-shaped region of the northern hemisphere. While it is large, its stars are faint — none brighter than fourth magnitude — making it hard to see with the naked eye.

Pisces is seen as two fish swimming at right angles to each other, one to the north and one to the west, attached to one another by a cord of stars, just as life and death, and winter and spring are conjoined and cannot be separated.

Pisces is the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac year, and rules the twelfth house in a personal horoscope, representing hopes, dreams and fears- what lies beneath. It stands for the mystery of the unknowable. It operates outwith the boundaries. This is its power, its magic and its danger, in the meaning of the spaces between reality and illusion.

Planetary aspects: Jupiter and Neptune

Pisces is the constellation associated with watery Neptune in Modern astrology but this planet was not discovered until 1846, and optimistic Jupiter is the original ruler of Pisces in traditional (Hellenistic) astrology. Astrologers vary in respect of which of these rulers they use in their own work.

The Pisces Archetype

The zodiac signs represent archetypes, meaning something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing.

The zodiac signs paint a portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season. A baby born in summer arrives into a different physical environment from a winter baby; with differences of temperature, hours of daylight, maternal diet during pregnancy and so on, with potentially different effects on the baby’s physical makeup and constitution.

The major arcana Tarot card for Pisces is The Moon, The Moon: ebb and flow, cyclical shifts, intuition, dreams, visionary capabilities, fertility, difficulties with travel, uncertainties, shadow boxing, wild creatures, instinct v civilisation, genius, delusion, visions, and ghosts.

The full moon is a hunter’s moon. The crab, sometimes shown as a crayfish, lives between the sea and the land.

Pisces rules the liminal spaces.

*From The Gilded Tarot Royale, illustrator Ciro Marchetti*

Pisces is a mutable sign, marking the end of a season. The other mutable signs are Gemini and Sagittarius. Pisces marks the end of winter leading up to the spring/vernal equinox. Of all the zodiac signs, the mutable signs are traditionally considered as the most flexible and adaptable, the ones most at ease with endings and transitions and change.

Pisces is not only the last sign of winter as we are moving into spring; it is the last sign of the zodiac year, the culmination of all the signs that came before it. Pisces rules the feet and symbolically Pisces has one foot- in the death of the old year, and one foot in the new life of springtime.

Saturn transits into Pisces 7 March 2023 where it will stay for two and a half years. This planetary transit, for many of us, will feel like the end of an era.

I am writing this by the telephone, keeping vigil for my mother, a true Capricorn native ruled by Saturn, as disciplined and dutiful as she is brave and beautiful, with a keen intellect, and a wit that can bite but that is equally playful at times, even childlike. She is very poorly indeed at this time of writing, and is being treated in hospital for pneumonia and a suspected heart attack.

Pisces is famous for its emotional depths and visionary capabilities; sensitive, intuitive, psychic, artistically gifted but also competent or capable of scientific or technical brilliance.

But of course there is no such thing in reality as THE Pisces personality. You are a unique individual. Your zodiac sign (sun sign) is a major keynote, but it is nothing like the full picture in real life – or in astrology. There are many other factors in play, your rising sign, your Moon sign; the planets in your houses, your decan and the degree of the actual day you were born.

If you don’t feel like a ‘typical’ Pisces, perhaps you are a second or third decan Pisces, rather than a ‘most typical’ first decan Pisces.

Many years ago I painted this portrait of my parent’s venerable goldfish, Whizz. One of my sisters won him at a fair and that’s how he came to live with us. Perhaps not the greatest start for him, but he lived to be seventeen! One fish, two portraits in one in pen and watercolour.

What are the decans?

The decans (or decanates) are a way of marking time, breaking down each of the zodiac signs into three shorter blocks of roughly ten days each.

The Zodiac is a belt of sky we see from earth, tracking the path of the sun across the sky over the course of the year. We call this pathway of the sun ‘the ecliptic,’ The Greeks named the signs after twelve of the constellations appearing on, or crossing this zodiac belt: Aries, Taurus, Gemini Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and lastly, Pisces.

Each of these designated zodiac signs represents a 30 degree section of the zodiac belt. Each sign is then further sub-divided into three blocks of ten degrees, each about ten days in length, with slight variations. This gives us the ‘decans,’ from the Latin meaning ‘ten,’ or they may also be called decanates.

The decans are known as the ‘thirty-six faces of astrology’, adding extra depth and nuance to the stories of the signs of the zodiac, distinguishing between someone born at the start of their zodiac month from someone who is born during the middle or at the end of the zodiac month.

First Decan

Pisces- Pisces

Dates: 19 Feb-29 Feb

Planetary rulers: Traditional: Jupiter/ Modern: Neptune

Tarot card: Eight of Cups

Card meanings: Moving on, cutting ones losses, leaving something behind, disillusionment, regret.

But there is a sense of a push and pull going on here. Jupiter means they think big and step forward. Neptune means they swim round in circles or hide in the weeds. Neptune, planet of illusion, is their sub-ruler, which emphasize creativity and imagination. This Pisces native connects with other people on an unconscious level, almost hearing what they are thinking. Maybe they haven’t noticed this about themselves yet, or take telepathy for granted, but watch out for the signs.

This Pisces 1st decan double style has a tendency to go on a lot of detours before arriving at their final destination. While quiet, this Pisces has deep passions and their love life can be tempestuous. Their ideal partner is lively and communicative with a can-do approach.

They often look younger than their age, but they need to be especially beware unhealthy habits in order to protect their health; mood, and the chest, lungs and feet in particular. Pisces is extra-sensitive to the effects of overindulgence of alcohol or mind altering drugs.

A desire to do good for mankind is characteristic of the kindly first decan Pisces.

Second Decan

Pisces-Cancer

Dates: 1 -10 March (approx.)

Planetary rulers: Jupiter

Tarot card: Nine of Cups

Card Meanings: dreams come true, wishes granted, food and drink, the hospitality industry, overdoing things

The sub-influences for this decan are Cancer, ruled by The Moon. Cancer is the natural ruler of the fourth house of home, family and security. These Pisces subjects typically stay very close to birth family members. Pisces may struggle to loosen break parental ties and become independent, but must do so if they want to progress and develop and become the adult in the room, to provide for and parent their own children, building their own family unit.

These are the most elusive most watery of the fishes. Now you see them, now you don’t. Their zone of the sky from March 1 –10 houses the stars of the water of Aquarius, and Eridanus the river and the west fish of Pisces.

These Pisceans are masters of disguise and can blend into any environment effortlessly. Pisces decan 2 absorbs. It is sensitive and psychic, but for the same reason these people need to choose their company with care, and form healthy habits early on in life. These subjects are supremely susceptible to the influence of others in their environment, and this can work positively or negatively.

Third Decan

Pisces- Scorpio

Dates: 11 March-20 March

Planetary ruler: Mars

Tarot card– Ten of Cups

Card Meanings: contentment, completion, arrival, family life, a happy home

The sub-influences for this decan are Scorpio and its rulers, traditional Mars or modern Pluto.

Energetic Mars and Scorpio – natural ruler of the eighth house of desire, willpower, drive and determination – brings to this Pisces extra charisma, and the drive and determination to push forward where Pisces otherwise can tend to hold back, lacking that forcefulness. This Pisces has the artistic creativity of Pisces/Neptune; but has that extra sticking power to turn dreams into realities.

Pluto brings depth and Mars brings speed and energy of attack. This Pisces needs to stay busy, and needs plenty of energy outlets.

Pisces marks the completion of the zodiac wheel and this final decan marks, the point at which we move into Aries and a whole new circle starts over again. Aries too, is also ruled by energetic Mars.

These Pisces natives, just like the other decans, are enormously receptive to their environment, but they tend to stay more aloof and watchful and are less likely to blend in or fall under the influence of what is going on around them. They are highly observant, natural detectives, well suited to police or other kinds of investigative work. Pisces-Scorpio is an excellent listener, tuning in the wants and needs of others, listening between the lines to what is not being said.

The Cusps of Pisces

Aquarius-Pisces: February 15-21

Aquarius-Pisces: This is a Pisces native with Aquarius tendencies; a person of high principles, often rather quiet, refined, and with strong likes and dislikes. This Pisces is likely to travel a fair bit and has executive ability and can make money, but can become bored quite easily and needs to be extra careful not to get trapped, becoming committed too soon in a relationship that really doesn’t suit them

Pisces-Aries: March 17-23

Famous Pisces

Back soon 🙂

The Tarot, the Fool and the Return of Orion

Orion The Hunter, ‘Man of the Mountains’ or as he was known to the early Sumerians, the Akkadians, The Light of Heaven, returns to the northern hemisphere in late July or early August, once again striding the eastern horizon at sunrise, though he is tilted on his side this time of year facing up.

But when we say return, where has he been, then? The answer is, he has been invisible, hidden in the glare of the sun since May. Yes. Now he is back, and will rise earlier each day until he is visible all evening by early December. As a girl I used to like to go out on cold frosty evenings to fill the coal scuttle from the coal bunker in the back garden. Looking up at him. I knew his name. I knew he was The Hunter but that was all, and I wondered about him, and what he was hunting up there. Those winter evenings still have that same kind of magic.

Orion is only the 26th largest constellation, sitting on the celestial equator, facing the constellation next door, the oncoming, charging, Taurus the Bull. It’s smaller than another Greek hero, Perseus but Orion’s got more brilliant stars.

(The biggest constellation is Hydra, and the biggest Zodiac constellation is Virgo.)

Orion’s brightest stars are the blue-white star Rigel, representing the Hunter’s left foot (where the scorpion bit him, sent by Gaia, and caused his death) and the red super-giant Betelgeuse, his right shoulder,only ten million years old, which makes Betelgeuse young to be a red super-giant, but it’s evolved faster due to its enormous mass. It is expected to go supernova in the next million years, and when it does will be brighter than the Moon and the brightest supernova ever to have been visible from Earth.

Orion’s third brightest star is Bellatrix, his left shoulder, while Orions’s Belt is one of the most easily recognized asterisms with its three stars, nicknamed in Arabic ‘the Golden Nuts’.

Their Arabic names, read east to west or left to right; Alnitak (girdle), Alnilam (string of pearls) and Mintaka (belt) But of course they have many other names across the world; The Magi, the Three Mary’s….

The Mayans called them ‘The Fire Drill’, invoking them in an annual fire ceremony to delay the onset of the end of the world.

‘No other constellation more accurately represents the figure of a man,’ said Germanicus Caesar

Orion has been identified as a human figure in every culture at every latitude, with countless story variations

Orion, aka Nimrod, was the son of Poseidon in Greek myth; the most handsome man ever to walk the earth. He was a great hunting buddy and friend of Artemis.Her twin brother, Apollo glowered, seeing that Artemis fancied Orion something rotten, though she had taken a vow of perpetual chastity.

Orion was a bit of a sex pest, chasing the Pleiades, so that Zeus confiscated them to the sky for their own peace and quiet. And a fat lot of good it did them, because when Orion was killed by a scorpion (THE scorpion) Artemis in her grief, asked Zeus to post Orion upstairs to the heavens, which he did, right next door to the Pleiades, who also represent the celestial bull pen of Taurus.

Thanks Zeus. You didn’t think that one through, did you?

Should Taurus ever break free of his pen, said an ancient Arabic legend, it will be the end of all things, so let’s hope he’s happy up there, and that Orion doesn’t chase the Pleiades away.

Orion bravely strides towards the Bull, but although he killed the scorpion that also killed him, he still fears it, and dreads its appearance fleeing west as the autumn wears on and Scorpius rises (Scorpio)

Orion in his eternal battle with Scorpius

The stand off between Orion and Taurus the Bull, its red eye, Aldebaran glaring at him, daring him to come nearer, does not fit the story of Orion, and a question has been raised in some quarters over the identity of Orion, and whether he has become confused with Herakles/Hercules at any time in his identification with this constellation.

The reasons are likely historical. The constellation as recognized by the Greeks originated with the Sumerians, who saw in it their great hero Gilgamesh fighting the Bull of Heaven whereas, as previously mentioned, the Sumerian name for Orion was URU AN-NA, meaning ‘light of heaven,’ and Taurus was GUD AN-NA, ‘bull of heaven’.

Gilgamesh was the Sumerian equivalent of Heracles, the greatest hero of Greek mythology, and one of the labours of Heracles was to catch the Cretan bull, but Orion was never in a fight with a bull. Heracles, it has been suggested, deserves a magnificent constellation such as this one, but has been consigned to a much more obscure area of sky.

The Sumerian story is older.

Orion and the Tarot

The Tarot card most commonly associated with Orion is The Fool. The most numinous card in the deck, its element is Air and it is ruled by the planet of revolution, Uranus.

It is the portal of the number Zero. The Fool or as some called him, The Jester, is both beginnings and ending.

In a real life reading it may detect or forecast a birth of a child, or a new offer or a launch or opportunity of some kind. And change happens all the time but this is always major or significant in scope. But although is not associated with Death, unlike the famous Death card, it can mean a death too, representing infinity, the ouroboros.

The Fool lives in the moment. He may be fun, he may be joy, or he may be frightening. There’s every reason a lot of people are scared of clowns as the living embodiment of The Fool. He represents the wisdom of innocence, or mistakes made through impulsiveness or ignorance rather than stupidity. But he may represent a threat, whether direct or existential, clearly sensed but not as yet clearly identifiable. The fear is visceral, not lightly to be dismissed.

He may be a shamanic, gnostic figure; the stranger, the outcast, the wise Fool or the Fool on the Hill. He dances to his own tune. He takes chances, risks, and sometimes these pay off, but sometimes he steps over the edge of the cliff, heedless of his dog’s most urgent warning.

The dog in the card is not biting the Fool, but desperately trying to get his attention. If someone asks the Tarot’s advice and then I draw this card reversed….someone needs to draw back from the precipice and look again before they leap.

I may bark like the Fool’s dog but will they act on this advice? CAN they? Will they even really hear it, let alone find a way to use it? We are who we are, and we do what we do, based on who we are. It is a rare person who can step back and see things anew once they are committed to Opinion A or B or they are emotionally invested in outcome A or B.

Advice, to be heard, must be sufficiently timely, before the paint dries.

Everywhere the Fool goes, his dog follows, just as Orion is followed in the skies by his two hunting dogs, Canis major and Canis minor. Sirius, the Dog Star is in the constellation of Canis Major and is THE brightest star in Earth’s night sky.

The only objects that outshine Sirius in our skies are the sun, moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury – and Sirius will usually outshine Mercury too.

All Mankind is Orion.

We were hunters at the dawn of man (The Fool) And gatherers too, but we were never gorillas, and never herbivores on our ancestral line.

“We were risen not of fallen angels but risen apes, and they were killer apes besides” – Robert Ardrey, in African Genesis.

Hunting was what brought us together in teams, then communities. Co operation meant compassion.

Fatboy Slim tells a version of that story here (except that we were apes but we did not evolve on the gorilla branch).

Watch out for Orion overhead in the final frame of the video.

Until next time 🙂

Season of The Lion 2022

Today is a New Moon in Leo, a moon phase of endings and beginnings. Kings and empires rise and fall, but to paraphrase Outro M38, ‘we are all the kings in our own land’…Facing tempest of dust/ I’ll fight on till the end/Creatures of my dreams/Raise up and dance with me/ Now and forever, I’m your king.’

No one needs any more doom-saying, but we all understand these are dangerous times. There is something deeply unsettled right now, says this Taurean subject born with a first quarter Moon in Leo. The astrology paints this New Moon in buoyant, passionate, Jupiterian terms, though with a potential for chaos. But a New Moon phase only last two and half days, while a rare and major Mars, Uranus and North Node in Taurus triple conjunction is approaching 31 July/1 August. This is a rare event, historically associated with major political, weather, explosive or seismic events. Such events may not occur precisely on these dates but are set in train by association with such a rare and volatile conjunction. More here from astrologer SJ Anderson

Mars is action, enterprise, initiative- or aggression. Uranus is innovation, revolution, upheaval, technology -and the unpredictable while “The North Node is an astrological point in space found by an axis,” says astrologer Arnus Arraut said. “This axis is found by the crossing of the orbit of the Moon around the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. This axis is conformed by the north node and the south node. In this case, the north node is like a gateway, it’s like a door. So, by Mars and Uranus arriving at this astrological point, that acts like a door, and in Vedic astrology is known as the ‘head of the dragon,’ -hungry for knowledge and experiences.

The head of the dragon or snake is also called Rahu. It is ambition without restraint, a head with no body, and has no means to digest what it consumes, and in this conjunction the converging point of Mars, Uranus and this north node/Rahu is in the constellation of Taurus: world finances, agriculture and territory. Countries astrologically ruled by Taurus, just as a matter of incidental curiosity are Australia, Holland, Ireland, Ecuador, Israel, Japan (postwar), Tanzania.

Vedic astrology however correlates the approaching North Node conjunction with Aries, not Taurus- aggression.

Whatever manifests on terra firma, which may take months to become apparent, the only immediate practical takeaway from this rare triple conjunction during this year’s Leo season that is within our direct personal control, is for us to take a little extra care 31 July-1 August, and to be extra risk averse in respect of such activities as travel, speed, climbing or handling power tools.

Leo Associations

Dates in 2022: 22 July-23 August

Symbol: Lion

Celestial ruler: Sun

Element: Fire

Metal: Gold

Quality: Fixed (mid- season/high season)

Body: Heart and spine

Trees: Palm trees, laurel, walnuts, olive trees, lemon and orange trees.

Plants: Marigolds, sunflowers, dandelions, celandines, passion flowers

Gemstones: Peridot, carnelian, ruby, onyx

Wikipedia: peridot

Key phrase: I love

Tarot cards: Strength, courage, pride, self-discipline, and The Sun, life, vitality, innocence, childhood

*The Gilded Tarot Royale, Ciro Marchetti*

Minor Arcana cards are the 5,6,7 Wands.

Astronomy

Leo is the 12^th largest, and one of the most easily recognizable constellations due to its many bright stars, and a distinctive shape suggesting a crouching lion, apparently facing right.

The bright light beneath Leo as seen in the photo below is planet Jupiter.

In the northern hemisphere, in the Spring is the best time to see the Lion, starting around the March equinox. By June, Leo is descending in the west in the evening, drifting westward, and by late July or early August, the Lion begins to fade into the sunset, returning to the eastern sky and visible before dawn around late September or October.

Look for the Big Dipper then look southwards, Leo is below the Big Dipper.

Leo’s brightest star, Regulus, The Royal Star, representing the heart of the lion; is a sparkling blue-white star at the bottom of the backwards question mark pattern. The star’s name, Regulus, means “little king” or “prince” in Latin and its Greek name, Basiliscos, has the same meaning. The Arabic name is Qalb al-Asad, which means “the heart of the lion.”

Mind boggling fact- Leo’s fifth largest star, Epsilon Leonis, 247 light years from Earth, is 288 times more luminous than the Sun, four times as massive, and with a solar radius 21 times bigger.

A triangle of stars in eastern Leo depict the Lion’s hindquarters and tail, the brightest, Denebola, Arabic, is the Lion’s Tail.

The Perseids

In 2022 the Perseid meteor showers are visible between 17 July and 24 August, the number of meteors increasing every night and peaking in mid-August, after which it will tail off. This year the peak falls on the night of the 12th and before dawn on 13 August. But this year’s full moon will affect the chances of seeing them in their full glory.

See the video below for more on the Perseids 2022, a presentation courtesy of Peter Detterline

The Leonids are the meteor showers associated with the constellation of Leo, coming from that direction around November 17-18 every year, and again in January; with a smaller shower peaking January 1 – 7.

There are 15 stars in Leo with 18 known planets between them, but none are thought to be habitable.

Mythology

Leo the Lion has since ancient times been associated with the sun, and is ruled by the sun in astrology. Leo is one of the oldest constellations collectively recognized in the sky, with many ancient civilizations agreeing on perceiving it as a lion. Archaeological evidence suggests that Mesopotamians recognized a constellation similar to Leo as early as 4000 BC. The Persians knew the constellation as Shir or Ser. The Babylonians called it UR.GU.LA (“the great lion”), the Syrians knew it as Aryo, and the Turks as Aslan, a name familiar to so many from childhood readings of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The story goes that the ancient Egyptians venerated Leo because the sun shone in front of this constellation at the time of the annual flooding of the Nile River, the lifeblood of their agriculture -the lifeblood of the nation entire. Marking the end of drought, this flood shortly followed the arrival of desert lions at the river.

The lions had come to this stretch of the river out of need, driven closer to the city by the drought in the desert. Their appearance meant the worst was nearly over, the rains were on the way at last, and the Egyptians honoured the lion with festivals and today, their statues of these lions are still seen along the course of the Nile River.

It’s thought that the lion-headed fountains commonly designed by Greek and Roman architects equally symbolized the life-giving waters released by the sun’s presence in Leo.

Many stories are associated with Leo the Lion. A well known tale features the first labour of Hercules or Herakles- the killing of the Nemean Lion.

This terrifying lion lived in a cave in Nemea in Corinth. It was killing and eating the locals and several attempts had been made to kill it, but all had failed miserably. This lion had a supernaturally tough hide. No weapon seemed able to pierce it. Hercules surprised the lion in its cave, caught it napping, strangled it, and then rather disrespectfully, if pragmatically, skinned the body of the lion with its own claws, and wore its skin as a cloak, making himself even more ferocious in appearance- and now arrow-proof.

Astrology of Leo

This fixed sign is known for its pride, ambition and determination, warmth and generosity of spirit. But above all, Leo is known for bravery. Leo is represented in the Tarot by the “Strength” card, representing the divine expression of physical, mental, and emotional fortitude, which is a virtue.

Courage takes many forms. There is the courage of proceeding in the face of fear, “feeling the fear and doing it anyway.” Then there is moral courage, the courage to endure, the discipline of damage limitation, and the fortitude that quietly says to itself, “tomorrow I will try again”.

An eternal optimist, tough, the golden Leo can have a dark streak, and can be their own worst enemy; loud, reckless, self-centred, headstrong and careless. For these reasons, unless they can learn patience, consideration and self-control, they are not necessarily always as lucky in life as their promise deserves.

Leo is the sign of childhood- and childhood’s end.

Dandy Lion

Dandy Lion’s

Greying mane

Casts away

In golden hope

Alight on chance

To lionize again

–Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

Spring Equinox and the fiery Sky Ram, Aries

Here comes spring in the northern hemisphere. The spring of vernal equinox officially occurred today, 20 March 2022. Today we enter the turf of Aries the Ram, marking the beginning of the new astrological year in Western (Tropical) astrology.

Common Associations

Symbol:

Date of Birth: variable 21 March to 20 April

Ruling planet: Mars

Lucky Day: Tuesday

Energy: Yang (Masculine/Extrovert)

Element: Fire

Quality: Cardinal (the start of the season of spring)

Key phrase: I am

Body: Head, neck

Birth Stone: Topaz, Aquamarine, Diamond

Colour: Red

Herbs/Flowers: Honeysuckle, tulip, thistle, bryony, peppermint, tiger lily, geranium, hops, impatiens, onions, hollyhock, thorn-bearing trees/shrubs, some firs

Major Arcana Tarot Card: Major Arcana: The Emperor (Masculinity, Fatherhood, Government, Law and Order, Courage, Stability)

Image from The Legacy of the Divine Tarot, illustrator Ciro Marchetti

From The Legacy of the Divine Tarot, Ciro Marchetti

The Tarot court card correlating with Aries is the Queen of Wands. Note the sunflowers and royal lions on her throne, and the black cat, considered lucky. The Queen of Wands is a warm, kindly but shrewd, capable and insightful figure.

The Minor arcana cards associated the cardinal sign Aries are the 2, 3 and 4 of Wands.

The 2 of Wands, ambition, global trade, agreements, career choices, direction, partnerships.

The 3 of Wands, making ready to launch a ‘ship’, or a ship comes in, trade, export, new horizons, exploration, but the timing and the planning has to be right. No rushing this. No cutting corners.

The 4 of Wands: a house becomes a home, a business puts down solid foundations, professional achievements, qualifications.

Astronomy

Aries is a small, rather dim constellation in the Northern Hemisphere between Pisces to its west and Taurus to its east.Imagine the Ram sitting with his head pointing downwards.

The brightest star in Aries is Alpha Arietis, or Hamal, from the Arabic Al Ras al Hamal, ‘the Head of the Sheep.’ Hamal is the third star up from the bottom, a red giant with a magnitude of 2.0, and is visible to the naked eye, shining about as brightly as Mars when the planet is at its farthest point from Earth.

Below Hamal, the two bottom stars in the photograph are the stars Beta Arietis, also called Sheratan, a blue-white star, and Gamma Arietis, also called Mesarthim, a whitish binary star with two components. These are the horns of the Ram, and their names mean the Two Signs, meaning these ‘horns’ were seen as the two first signs of spring.

The best time to see Aries.

Aries Profile Image on http://www.underthenightsky.com

The three stars of the Head of the Ram are the stars to look out for, especially December around 9 p.m. local time, seen rising in the east. December is an especially good month for viewing Aries, when the Earth is on the other side of the sun .

During spring in the Northern Hemisphere or autumn in the Southern Hemisphere autumn is the worst time of year; Aries is lost in the glare of the sun. In late October, Aries rises in the east at sunset, reaches its highest point in the sky at midnight and sets in the west at sunrise.

Aries reaches its highest point in the sky – at about 10 p.m. local time (the time in all time zones) in late November, 8 p.m. local time in late December and 6 p.m. local time in late January.

History and Mythology

The spring equinox was a time of renewal throughout the northern half of Earth, an event of great significance to people who were much more aware than we are nowadays, of the direct human dependence for survival on the earth and its produce, land, weather and sky.

Aries marked the main lambing season of wild sheep in Europe, 21 March – 20 April. The lambing season extended with agricultural husbandry.

The Sumerians

Sumeria is one of the oldest known urban civilizations in what is now called Southern Iraq, during the Neolithic-Bronze Age, 4500 BC to 1500 years BC. The ancient Sumerians called the sun, Subat, meaning the Ancient Sheep or Ram and the planets were the Celestial Herd.

The Egyptians

In ancient Egyptian astronomy, the constellation known to us as Aries was called ‘Lord of the Head’, referring to its symbolic significance, and it was associated with the sun god Amon-Ra, who was depicted as a man with a ram’s head and represented fertility and creativity. Because it was the astronomical location of the spring (vernal) equinox, it was called the ‘Indicator of the Reborn Sun’. Sources suggest the position of Aries at the zenith coincided with the rising of Sirius in the east and flooding of the Nile.

The Greeks

To the Sumerians, the stars of Aries were a herdsman. Aries was not fully recognized as a constellation until classical times when the ancient Greeks from about 1580 B.C. to 360 B.C. oriented the construction of many of their sacred temples to line them up with the star Hamal.

In Hellenistic astrology, the constellation of Aries was associated with the golden ram of Greek mythology that rescued Phrixus and Helle.

The brother and sister, Phrixus and Helle were the children of the Boeotian king Athamas and the cloud fairy, Nephele. But Nephele died, the king remarried, and his new wife, Ino, feared and hated them as a perceived threat to her own two children by the king, and planned to have them done away with.

They were warned and fled, rescued by a flying golden ram sent by Hermes at the plea of the dead Nephele, watching in anguish from the other world, but poor Helle fell into the sea below and was lost in the Dardanelles, named the Hellespont in her honour. Later, safely in Colchis, Phrixus (rather ungratefully?) sacrificed the Golden Ram, as a way of returning it home to the gods, and presented its fleece as a gift to King Aeetes, who placed it on a tree in a grove under the guard of a terrible dragon, the hideous Hydra, whom Jason later killed in order to steal the magical healing fleece.

Christianity

Founded in a society and at a latitude where ‘shepherds watched their flocks by night’…with a clear view of the night skies much of the year round, Aries speaks of God as The Shepherd, and Jesus as The Lamb of God.

Astrological Profile

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Astrology deals in terms of archetypes, meaning a very typical example of a particular thing, person or situation. Of course there is no such thing in reality as THE Aries personality and the same goes for all the zodiac sun signs. Your sun sign is an archetype, a keynote, but it is not your full astrological portrait. We are all unique and it could never be the whole story.

But the archetypes did not come into being for no reason. You don’t mess lightly with The Ram. Aries is number one, the first sign in the Zodiac year, youthful and exuberant. But it is also the sign of a king, and not only that, but a warrior-king, as illustrated in the watchful, slightly weary, Emperor card in the Rider-Waite Tarot, ready armoured, always on guard. Note the Ram’s heads decorating his throne.

Aries is ultra-virile, with a warrior spirit, just as a ram will charge headlong at an intruder, and may even kill a person who enters his field, threatening his ewes and his territory at the wrong moment.

Aries is known for its determination and zest for life, and in the same spirit, Aries can be reckless and with it, accident prone in its general haste to get on and do whatever is the next thing. Aries are at a statistically increased risk of road accidents, in particular with head and neck injuries in comparison with other zodiac signs, and must beware of impatience leading to risk-taking behaviours.

Aries is ready to experiment or pioneer but may not finish what it starts. They are determined but run on a short fuse, and can be sabotaged by their own impatience if they don’t get quick results.

Aries subjects may exhibit careless or even ruthless behaviour with a disregard for others in their desire to achieve and excel. They can bear grudges but, though sensitive themselves, and occasionally a touch too quick to take offense, they are prone to be careless about the sensitivities of others.

However, in their personal relationships Aries are lively, affectionate, pleasant, frank, direct and generous. Full of bounce and joie de vivre, there is much to like and admire about the early springtime subjects of fiery Aries, the Mighty Ram.

Famous Aries in history

The Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne. Oh wow. Now there is a surprise. I mean, look at him for goodness sake…..

More famous Aries natives HERE

Below, a video via National Geographic explaining the equinoxes.

Till next time 🙂

Scorpio, slayer of Orion, the Stellar Scorpion

The season of the Scorpion is here once again.

Common Associations

Zodiac symbol

Dates: October 23 –November 22 (Western astrology)

Ruling planets: Co-ruled byMars and after its discovery in 1930, Pluto

Symbol: Scorpion, Eagle, (nearby constellation, Aquila, the Eagle) Also, the Phoenix

Zodiac element: Water

Zodiac quality: Fixed

Keyword: I desire. I transform

Colour: Dark red

Birthstone: Yellow Topaz, Opal, Aquamarine, Tourmaline.

Tree: Walnut. Hawthorn. Blackthorn

Tarot Card: Death, Transformation and Resurrection. Without Death there can be no Life. Without Death there can be no Individual. We chose the destiny of the Individual.

Astronomy

Scorpius , Latin for Scorpion, the constellation from which the zodiac sign of Scorpio gets its name, is a massive and spectacular j- shaped constellation in the southern hemisphere near the centre of the Milky Way. In the Northern hemisphere it can be seen in July and August, most visible in July at 9.00 PM. In the Southern hemisphere it is visible from March to October, looking like a faint band in the Milky Way overhead.

Its is one of the 48 constellations identified by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the second century but its story is far, far older.

Scorpius is the southernmost of all the constellations in the zodiac, and lies between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east. Its claws later became part of the newer constellation the Romans named Libra.

Its brightest star, one of the brightest of all in the night sky, is the ‘heart’ of the scorpion, Antares, meaning ‘rival of Ares’ (the Greek name for the Roman god of war, Mars) Like Mars it is bright reddish in colour, and Scorpio’s ruling planet was Mars until Pluto was discovered in 1930. Now it is considered co-ruled by both Mars (The Warrior) and Pluto (The Transformer)

Scorpius contains many bright stars, and some exo-planets. One is extremely old, and more than one is considered potentially habitable. The planet PSR B1620-26 b is sometimes nicknamed “Methuselah” being estimated at 12.7 billion years old. (The universe is about 13.7 billion years old.) Methuselah is vast, with a mass about twice that of Jupiter and it orbits around not one, but two stars.

Gliese 667Cc is a “super-Earth” about four times as massive as Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star, Gliese 667C; part of a three-star system only 22 light-years away from Earth. It’s considered potentially habitable and the same system contains two other potentially habitable planets: Gliese 667Ce and Gliese 667Cf – both are about 2.7 times the mass of Earth.

“Habitability” is defined as a rocky world that is close enough to its parent star for liquid water to exist on the surface, though other factors may later rule it out, such as the variability of its star, or the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

Mythology and History

Nature, Religion and astrology were intertwined in the ancient world, and the scorpion has been here far longer than we have – hundreds of millions of years, more than 450 million, as compared with our six million or so.

Sometime around four thousand years ago the Babylonians looked up, discerned the brightly leaning J- shape in the summer stars and called this constellation MUL.GIR.TAB – the ‘Scorpion’, literally read as ‘the (creature with) a burning sting’.

The movements and relative positions of Scorpius were mapped by Babylonian magicians and astrologers, who left written records of the omens they observed.

“When a halo surrounds the Moon and Scorpio stands in it, it will cause men to marry princesses, (or) lions will die, and the traffic of the land will be hindered.”

A comet appearing in Scorpius was read as a warning of a plague, but when the Sun rose in Scorpius, alchemists saw their one chance for the transmutation of lead into gold.

In Greek mythology the scorpion refers to a story about Orion. According to one of these myths Orion boasted to his friend the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto that he would hunt and kill every animal on Earth.

Demeter, the goddess of Earth decided this was completely unacceptable behaviour.

Artemis was a great hunter herself, but still, Artemis did not kill for the sake of killing, and offered protection to all creaturesand stood for the principle of conservation. Demeter sent a scorpion to deal with Orion. He fought back, and according to some accounts he killed the scorpion, but whether or not Orion killed the scorpion, the scorpion killed Orion, and they are not seen together in the sky at the same time. Orion flees before the Scorpion.

Zeus was impressed by the scorpion’s battle spirit, and raised it to heaven, and at the request of Artemis; he did the same for Orion, who stands for our earliest selves, The Human as The Hunter.

It was the human as hunter that founded human society, not the human as forager or farmer. Hunting has high stakes – Life and death when the prey is powerful and dangerous, as with the auroch and the mammoth. It demands teamwork, absolute co-operation in a way that foraging does not.

Orion stands for the dawn of Mankind.

“We were born of risen apes, not fallen angels, and the apes were armed killers besides. And so what shall we wonder at? Our murders and massacres and missiles, and our irreconcilable regiments? Or our treaties whatever they may be worth; our symphonies however seldom they may be played; our peaceful acres, however frequently they may be converted to battlefields; our dreams however rarely they may be accomplished. The miracle of man is not how far he has sunk but how magnificently he has risen. We are known among the stars by our poems, not our corpses.”- Robert Ardrey, African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man (1961)

Other Legends

In Indonesia Scorpio is the Banyakangrem – “the brooded swan,” or the Kalapa Doyong, meaning “the leaning coconut tree.” The tree is quite easy to see in that pattern of stars. In Hawaii, it is “The Fishhook” of the demi-god Maui.

In Chinese mythology, the constellation is part of the Azure Dragon.

And yet, there is consensus across not only continents but hemispheres. Thousands of years before the Greeks and Romans established their societies, the Australian Aboriginal people also saw the stars of Scorpius as a cosmic scorpion, as did the Aztecs of Central Mexico.

The Lowland Mayans had scorpion constellations. These may have matched up with the Scorpion of the zodiac, but there no clear proof. It is thought that the Mayans viewed the celestial scorpion as an eclipse-causing agent.

The arrival of Scorpio’s sign in the northern hemisphere coincides with the advent of mystery, the fast fading autumn light, and the ghosts, myths and superstitions of Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, hence its association with the Tarot’s Death Card.

Facts about scorpions

They are a truly ancient creature. The earliest evidence dates from the Silurian period 450 million years ago, when the first scorpion ancestors left the seas for the land. Fossils from the Carboniferous 300 million years ago indicate little change since then. Early scorpions may have had compound eyes.
They are arachnids: arachnida scorpiones, with a body in two sections, 2 pincers or pedi-palps, 8 legs like a spider, and an exo-skeleton made of chitin. But they are more closely related to Harvestmen than spiders.
They dance before mating, a stately promenade, and give birth to live young and carry them on their backs until the babies have their first moult when they disperse. The mothers may eat the young if resources really are desperately scarce.
They have a long life span compared with other arachnids, 2-3 years in the wild but can live up to 25 years in captivity. They eat insects, spiders, other scorpions and lizards. They also eat small mammals, such as mice. But they can go a year without food if they have to.
They glow in the dark unless they have newly moulted and scorpion fossils still fluoresce, after hundreds of millions of years embedded in rock.
They are famously venomous but of the nearly 2,000 known species of scorpions, only 25 are dangerous to an adult human. In the U.S., the Arizona bark scorpion, Centruroides sculpturatus, produces venom strong enough to kill a small child, but anti-venom means deaths are nowadays rare.

The Scorpio Archetype

All the zodiac signs are ‘psychic’ in their own ways, but like the other water signs, Cancer and Pisces, Scorpio is considered especially clairvoyant, or at least, keenly intuitive. But where Cancer is ruled by the Moon, and Pisces by Neptune, Scorpio is ruled by fiery Mars. It scalds. It is is water behaving as steam.

Co-ruled by Pluto, Scorpio rules Birth, Sex and Death. No wonder the subjects can be intense, but also possessed of great personal charisma.

They are watchful but keep their feelings hidden. Born investigators, spies or secret agents, they are shrewd judges of human nature, born detectives and good at covering their tracks, while less conscientious Scorpio subjects may consciously make use of this to their personal advantage.

But combined with their intense determination and loyalty where they decide to accord it, Scorpios can make great leaders, scientist, and devoted doctors and family people. They are quick learners, agile, often changing careers, going down new paths.

Scorpio is vengeful…and patient. But they never forget a kindness either.

And unpopular Pluto, Hades, lord of the Underworld has a compassion all his own. It is not Death that is the enemy of Life, but useless suffering, and the ‘Seasons Don’t Fear The Reaper’.

Scorpio is also the fire-bird of resurrection, as new life rises from the ashes –The Phoenix.

Till next time…and for keen astronomers, I’ll leave you with this video via YouTube channel, Learn The Sky. You can support them by giving it a Like or Subscribing.