Social Issues Archives - The Oxford Astrologer

Category: Social Issues

Looking at important social issues through the astrologer’s microscope.

Pluto in Aquarius: Connect or Disconnect

This year’s great cosmic shift — the move of Pluto into Aquarius — has already caused much hammering of keyboards, bursting of brain cells and copious words to be spilled across the internet. Here’s what you need to know. • Pluto will be in Aquarius from 20 January [...]

Talking About Teaching Teenagers & Helping Families

As you know, members of the Oxford Astrologer have a monthly Q&A, which really ought to be relabelled a salon, since, in fact, everyone pitches in. Usually, it’s closed so that people can talk freely, but I am publishing this one because Alex Trenoweth was kind enough to come along [...]

Neurodiversity and Astrology

In the past few years, many people have realised, sometimes quite late in life, that they have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or autism — and it’s been a massive relief. Both autism and ADHD are wide spectrum conditions (not disorders, thank you), of course, and [...]

International Women’s Day

The first national women’s day seems to be 28 February 1909 — as far as I can find. It was organised by the Socialist Party of America. The idea began to spread and by 11 March, 1911, the first International Women’s Day was marked by more than a million people across [...]

I’ve been avoiding the whole Harry/Meghan/etc saga, but yesterday it was so in my face that I thought I’d sneak a peek at the prince’s chart. My question was essentially: why now for Harry? I looked at just three charts: Prince Harry’s natal chart, which has an A rating [...]

The US Pluto Return: We Took It Personally

Well, it was quite a welcome. In our first 36 hours in America, we accidentally saw Miss America (for real and about 20 feet away), stood for the Star Spangled Banner, went on a Pro-Choice demo, saw hundreds of police, tens of teen-age girls juggling fake guns, and got caught in an [...]

Overturning Roe, Sowing Dragon’s Teeth

As soon as Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice, the overturning of the federal law protecting a woman’s right to abortion in the United States was inevitable. It was a matter of when, not if. Knowing a bad thing is going to happen does not make it less bad. The […]

“I Can’t Breathe”

When George Floyd was murdered on May 25 by a police officer in Minneapolis kneeling on his windpipe, his final words were: “I can’t breathe.” Somehow, this statement resonates powerfully with our time, and it was taken up by demonstrators across the US. “I can’t [...]

On the “Other”: Lilith, Harvey Weinstein and the Fate of Nations

Why are there so many Liliths to choose from astrologically? I asked myself this question recently, and wondered if the answer might not lie in the archetype herself. Just to be clear. There are: True Lilith, Mean Lilith… and the asteroid Lilith… and furthermore, in some software, [...]

Why Meghan Is Brilliant For The Crown

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, are finally suing the tabloids. The British media and the royal family have a weird symbiotic relationship. The media veers between creepy sycophancy and vicious criticism; relentless pursuit coupled with endless judgment. The family invites [...]

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Saturn Returns

When you venture into the dark woods of fairy tale, be careful of the creatures you meet — they might not be what they seem. The wolf may speak like a gentleman, the witch may live in a house of gingerbread. Hansel and Gretel’s witch lured them with sugarplums and cake; then she [...]

Toni Morrison and Black Moon Lilith

I’ve been thinking about the American writer Toni Morrison today, the day after she died, and remembering her book Beloved, which won her the Pulitzer Prize, and is considered by most critics to be her masterpiece. Beloved tells the story — in densely poetic language and imagery [...]

Greta Thunberg, One of the Wise Children

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. [...]

The Goddess Weekend

Oh those neglected asteroids, floating around in the Kuiper belt wastes, ignored and even derided (as a bunch of rubble behind Mars). Well, no longer. The Oxford Astrology Group will be devoting an entire weekend to Ceres, Pallas, Vesta and Juno this September (29-30) — and you are [...]

Imagination and Curiosity

Was there ever a more Gemini image than this one. Twins reading on a moving train? This painting was made during the last tour by Neptune, the planet of the imagination, through Pisces, his own sign. Neptune is, of course, currently in Pisces also, and there are some obvious parallels between [...]

Saturn in Capricorn: Winter is Coming

This video was made during the one-day workshop held in January by The Oxford Astrology Group here at Trinity College, Oxford. I took a look at the UK chart during the talk as well as touching more generally on Saturn, Capricorn and the shape of 2018. I note that the comment on UK property [...]

Mad About Each Other: Harry and Meghan

Let’s focus on some good news. Prince Harry, brother of the future king, is going to marry a successful, mixed-race, working woman in her 30s. She’s American, divorced and brought up largely by her single mother. Her family is not out of the top drawer, but out of that capacious middle one. [...]

#metoo: Emotional Insight

Every single woman that I know has experienced a straightforward sexual assault — raped, groped, flashed — mostly by someone she knew. And from her working life, every single woman I know has a catalogue of the occasions when she was manipulated, intimidated, pestered, ignored, frightened or [...]

I couldn’t help but note that on the day American footballers staged a peaceful protest across the country, Neptune, the higher octave of Venus (planet of peace) and Mars, the planet of warriors, came into perfect opposition. The athletes chose to kneel when The Star-Spangled Banner was [...]

No matter what you think about the candidates for president in the USA, the campaign has given rise to some barnstorming feminist political speeches. It feels like a real breakthrough — a change in the weather. In astrology, we have a “nasty woman”. She’s called Black Moon Lilith, and she’s [...]