Weekly Hello

Well, it has arrived. Autumn – meteorological autumn. Season of mists and mulch. (Astronomical autumn begins on 23 September as the Sun enters the sign of Libra.) And to celebrate the arrival of a new season, Mars squares Saturn, one of the most challenging aspects in the astrological lexicon. Even if the skies are blue and the sun is shining, it’s going to feel chilly and gloomy. But, hey, when the rain falls, what do we warriors do? We put up our umbrellas and head out into the storm.

I’ve been hesitating to say that the worst of the astrology is behind us because even when we pull away from a series of vertiginous influences and into more harmonious and gentle ones, the bigger picture remains volatile. At best, we get a small breathing space. So, if you find yourself with time on your hands and no adversaries to fend off, get ahead with all those tasks that need to be done, and you’ve probably been putting off. Saturn will be proud of you.

In my Friday Bite I spent some time on the catastrophic events in Nepal. While a 30-metre-high wall of water, ice and mud thundering down from the mountains into the populated valleys below is a perfect rendering of a lunar eclipse in Pisces, what such an event is telling us is that we are all powerless in the face of nature. And no matter how astrology informs us of what is to come – admittedly in a code that is almost impossible to crack – we cannot prepare for such random acts. We can learn from them, and arresting the speed of climate change is probably a good start, but we can’t prevent them.

If we widen this argument to the current state of global affairs with its escalating conflicts, food and energy shortages, financial uncertainty and the rest, it seems we are powerless in the face of forces far greater than us. However, I would rather see these times as the passageway to a new world, which we have no choice but to traverse. And I hasten to add, that new world probably isn’t full of unicorns and rainbows. But we will learn from these times and I believe it will be to our benefit and evolution as human beings.

Serious food for thought with Mars and Saturn in the ascendancy.