Anne Whitaker's Blog, page 2

Mars in Leo square Uranus: Surprise, Surprise!

Having recently found out from a very helpful person, Nitesh, at a reputable development site, Growzify, that my blog was a class act re content but pretty much a disaster area re SEO ( my choice of phrase, Nitesh was much too respectful and tactful to say that) I was most surprised to say the least to find out that Writing from the Twelfth House is today sitting at Number 2 in Top 15 UK Astrology Blogs from Feedspot.

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How on earth did that happen? To say I’m surprised is an understatement, since my attempts at PR have been understated of late, to the least. So – many thanks to my followers, subscribers and supporters, who must have something to do with this…

I have certainly been thinking of late that it’s time to get some skilled help in updating and improving the FORM of my site, since the content seems to be going down pretty well to judge from the feedback I receive. So – watch this space, dear subscribers and supporters. Changes may well be afoot…

And the astrology of all this? Well, my MC/North Node is at 29 Taurus, currently being transited by Uranus at 28 Taurus in my ninth house , square Mars at 27 Leo – in my 12th House. Pretty apt, eh?

Watch this space!!

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250 words  Anne Whitaker 2025

Astrology and Science: Bridging the Gap?

As a person with both a lifelong interest in and respect for the marvels of scientific discovery – and as an astrologer for over forty years now – I have for a long time found reductionist scientism’s dismissal of the practice of astrology as ‘pseudoscience’ profoundly depressing and frustrating. Wouldn’t it be just great if even a few of the dismissers took the trouble to study our great art in some depth before offering their opinions?

Image from James Webb Telescope

So – I don’t know about you, but I have been taking great enjoyment not only from viewing the stupendous images of deep space now being sent back by the James Webb Telescope, but also from noting that the JWT’s observations have been challenging long-held scientific assumptions about the early universe, specifically regarding galaxy formation and evolution. For more detailed commentary, click HERE. 

Reflecting on this topic reminded me that I had actually written a column on the complementary nature of both scientific and astrological perspectives some time ago for that wonderful, hardy perennial, Dell Horoscpe Magazine, sadly no longer with us.Thus it seems timely – given the current climate of challenge to long-held scientific theories (most apt symbolically as Pluto settles into his long transit through Aquarius ) – to share those observations here:

‘…Every so often, I take a vow not to buy any more books. As I left our excellent local charity book store in full vow mode a couple of weeks ago, a book cover stopped me in my tracks. On the back, in large white letters on a dark blue background, it said: “The realisation that an individual genetic code can result in multiple different outcomes is at the heart of epigenetics – the most exciting discipline in biology today.”1 

‘Yes!!’ I said, perhaps not entirely to myself judging from the pained look from a fellow browser next to me. Remembering the vow for a moment, I scanned the back page with my smartphone app. Then, feeling mean and irresponsible, I bought the book. Reader, it was worth it. 

By now you are probably wondering ‘Where on earth is she going with this?’ 

To in-depth astrology, that’s where. Both the hard sciences including genetics and the symbolic arts including astrology are attempting to put comprehensible frameworks round a vast puzzle: why are we here, and how can we best cope with the unpredictable and often brutal uncertainties of life?  This being the case,  I find it deeply dispiriting that they have increasingly been at odds with one another since the dawning of the Scientific Revolution. We need complementary disciplines, surely, to help us live as constructively as possible on our beautiful, fragile planet. 

My excitement at the back cover quote from “The Epigenetics Revolution” therefore arose from the link it instantly made for me between the practices of both genetics and in-depth astrology. Most astrologers would agree that the complex patterns revealed in an individual’s horoscope can express themselves in a range of possible manifestations from the same core. That quote regarding the genetic code struck me as being remarkably similar to what astrologers find in their practice.

In effect, two individuals with identical DNA can and do manifest both similar and different lives…In a chapter titled “Why Aren’t Identical Twins Actually Identical?” author Nessa Carey states that “…The differences between identical twins have certainly captured the imaginations of creative people from all branches of the arts, but they have also completely captivated the world of science…”(ibid. p75)

This is certainly the most frequent question which students, clients, friends and the general public have thrown at me over the years. If identical twins born no more than a minute apart have identical horoscopes, how come there are usually significant differences both in their personalities and their life patterns, as well as undoubted similarities? Epigenetics would appear to provide the answer from a scientific point of view.

Geneticist Nessa Carey is a very clear, entertaining writer. She uses vivid analogies from everyday life to illustrate an incredibly complex web of varied influences – both before and after birth – carried by infinitely subtle chemical messengers, which modify our DNA epigenetically to produce, as she puts it, considerable variations on life’s basic script.  Using Shakespeare’s famous play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as one example, she points out that in the hands of two different directors ie George Cukor in 1936 and Baz Luhrmann in 1996, … “ Both productions used Shakespeare’s script, yet the two movies are entirely different…”(ibid. p2)

Theatrical analogy is also very useful to astrologers. Along with, no doubt, many of my astrologer colleagues, I invite my clients to think of their horoscopes as a stage with the planets representing the characters standing quietly on it, waiting for life’s script to unfold from their birth moment.

 I explain that I can certainly portray accurately the essence of each character illustrated by the ten planets, their ‘style’ as illustrated by the sign they occupy, and their location in terms of which houses are tenanted. I can also describe their dialogues and interactions, pointing out how different the conversation is between eg Moon square Saturn and Mars sextile Uranus. 

However, I tell them that I cannot describe with unfailing accuracy the whole range of possible branches which arise from each core character or archetype. I have seen, often enough, how for example one person’s Moon square Saturn expresses very differently from another’s – this is true of every other horoscope pattern. This is also true in observing clients’ varying responses to the challenges and shaping influences of transits and progressions. 

It can be difficult – if not impossible –  to work out why one person emerges battered but strengthened from eg a lengthy Pluto transit to several planets, whilst another of the same age, with a very similar horoscope, emerges battered and beaten. Neither has epigenetics, as yet, come up with a full explanation of why some genetic variations occur in some circumstances, but not in others of remarkable similarity.

I have long grappled to understand at least something of the essence of what quantum physics has revealed regarding the contradictory vastness of the energy field in which we exist, and the patterns arising therefrom which appear to interact to create the whole of life of which we are part. My conclusion is that practitioners of both the hard sciences and the symbolic arts are considering the same vast energy field, and attempting to describe in different but essentially complementary ways, those mysterious patterns that shape our lives. 

Wouldn’t it be great if we could share our knowledge?…’

Endnotes

This is an edited, updated version of my ‘The Astro View from Scotland’ column which appeared in the September/October 2018 issue of USA’s Dell Horoscope Magazine

Nessa Carey “The Epigenetics Revolution”, Icon Books,  2011

1100 words  Anne Whitaker 2025

As Neptune enters Aries: Saturn, Neptune and Synchronicity…

Synchronicity is such an interesting, only partially explicable phenomenon.

A term coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, it refers to a meaningful coincidence which happens when an inner psychological state of mind corresponds to an event in the world to which it is not causally related, but nevertheless is experienced as meaningful.

I’ve had recent experiences of exactly that recently. 

Some time ago, I sent my colleague Ana Isabel a copy of my open-minded ‘take’ on paranormal experience, “Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness” which has been available as an ebook on my site for some time now. Last year, Ana and I discussed this account on her popular In the Light: Growing Your Soul podcast. I began the book during the 2004-5 part of a long Neptunian descent and slow return, triggered symbolically by transiting Neptune’s long opposition to all six of my 11th/12th house Leo planets. 

Then, the writing of that account of 37 anomalous experiences I’d had over a period of thirty years from 1970-99 had two main functions: the first, to give me a creative project to help keep my head above some very dark waters. At that point, I was so burnt-out after a long family crisis that I barely had the energy to get off the couch. It was my late husband Ian’s suggestion that I ‘write about all those weird experiences you’ve been telling me about for years’ as a means of keeping contact with my creative self, since I could do next to nothing in the world of the everyday. 

The second was to try and make peace with an intermittent, unpredictable and unwelcome part of my being. As a rational pragmatist ( I liked to think!) , it offended me that my memory banks held a number of anomalous experiences which lurked in my psyche, refusing to be forgotten. Probably out of pique, I now realise, because of my refusal to acknowledge their validity and give them an honoured place in my life’s story.

So it was that in the Spring of 2024, not without some nervous hesitation, but prompted by the forming Saturn/Neptune conjunction, both Jupiter and Uranus approaching my MC/North Node conjunction, AND Pluto beginning his long opposition to my planetary logjam in the 11/12th houses, I edited and incorporated ‘ Wisps…’  into the first part of A Neptunian Night Sea Journey. 

This book is an account of an archetypal experience of descent and return: from 2001/2 with Neptune in Aquarius opposite my twelfth house Mercury when I burned out and had to give up work and retreat, until 2011/12 when Neptune left Aquarius, moved away from opposing my Leo Sun, and I at last returned to teaching and consulting.  

I find it so striking that Jupiter was in Gemini in 2001/2 for the Descent period, then in Gemini again in 2012 for the Return – and returned to that sign in early summer 2024 as I settled into writing the first part of A Neptunian Night Sea Journey. (You’d never guess I have Jupiter in the third house, square all six Leo 11/12th house planets…)

That summer of 2024 – how’s this for synchronicity – a small bolthole on the Ayrshire sea coast became unexpectedly available for my (and my fellow writer friends’) use as a writing retreat. As Liz Greene once pithily observed during one of her 1990s seminars at the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London: ‘You have to give the god what the god wants. And if it’s Mars, don’t offer a bunch of flowers!” That god Neptune was surely looming on my personal horizon…

Then, in late February 2025, just as I was preparing (with some nervous hesitation) to get on with the further drafting of A Neptunian Night Sea Journey, stalled at 36,000 words for a variety of reasons since late autumn 2024, I had some supportive feedback – unexpectedly as usual, thanks again Uranus conjunct MC/NNode! – from none other than Ana Isabel. Out of the blue, Ana sent me a lovely review of “Wisps…” together with the link again to our enjoyable 2024 discussion of the book. 

I was really struck by the synchronous timing of Ana’s review’s arrival: just at a point where I needed some encouragement and a bit of a push. Balancing Saturn’s challenge to create form and structure, with Neptune’s inclination to lie on the sofa with a good book or go for a walk by the sea, when both of those giants are squaring my 10th house Mars, is a little tricky, to put it mildly!

Gods Saturn and Neptune: Formidable!

( A.I generated)

Here are both the review and the link:

Feb 27, 2025 

‘…I love this book. It gently takes us on a journey, as Anne shares her personal experiences of the inexplicable; a simple sharing of events leaving the reader to decide what to think. Woven amongst the memories are quotes, definitions and potential “rational” explanations making this an account of one individual’s search to understand the mysteries of life, experienced by so many….’

You can watch me discussing the book with Ana Isabel on

In The Light- Growing Your Soul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUFm4…

To read more reviews, find out more about  ‘Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness’, and buy a copy which is still available in its ebook version, click HERE 

I’m not sure how long A Neptunian Night Sea Journey will take to complete – partly because it’s Neptune who is the god dominating this process and I have to be respectful eg by lying on the sofa with a good book or going for a walk by the sea when prompted to do so!. Also, because having recorded various extraordinary inner journeys and other material whilst on that long retreat, I do not know what I will find on opening the archives – or will wish to edit and present. 

However, if you’d like to be on the mailing list for updates and the occasional extract as I go through this process, and the first to know when it’s complete and ready for publication, please send me an email to info@anne-whitaker.com. I will then include you on the list which will not be used for any purpose other than to keep you informed about A Neptunian Night Sea Journey’s progress. 

I should perhaps conclude by saying that this book will be dedicated to all Twelfth House folk who – like me – have been challenged to make peace with undoubtedly valid dimensions of our being which do not fit with the reductionist paradigm of our current Era. My hope is that my account will help you to make your own peace – as I eventually have done myself.

Wish me luck on my share of this journey, Readers and Friends! And every good wish for yours, whoever and wherever you are…

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Endnote:

Yesterday was a momentous day for our world community as Neptune entered Aries for the first time since 1861 which heralded the start of the American civil war. We’re already seeing fires, floods and earthquakes: physical planetary heralds of the new world order beginning to emerge. Saturn and Neptune’s conjunction at 0 Aries in February 2026, after their long Pisces/Aries dance during 2025, will initiate a major energetic shift for our world community, and for all of us ‘plugged in’ to the end of Pisces and the beginning of Aries – that Mars-ruled sign heralding Life’s energetic new sap rising…

1200 words©Anne Whitaker 2025

Understanding Synchronicity: A Personal Exploration as Neptune enters Aries

Synchronicity is such an interesting, only partially explicable phenomenon.

A term coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, it refers to a meaningful coincidence which happens when an inner psychological state of mind corresponds to an event in the world to which it is not causally related, but nevertheless is experienced as meaningful.

I’ve had recent experiences of exactly that recently. 

Some time ago, I sent my colleague Ana Isabel a copy of my open-minded ‘take’ on paranormal experience, “Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness” which has been available as an ebook on my site for some time now. Last year, Ana and I discussed this account on her popular In the Light: Growing Your Soul podcast. I began the book during the 2004-5 part of a long Neptunian descent and slow return, triggered symbolically by transiting Neptune’s long opposition to all six of my 11th/12th house Leo planets. 

Then, the writing of that account of 37 anomalous experiences I’d had over a period of thirty years from 1970-99 had two main functions: the first, to give me a creative project to help keep my head above some very dark waters. At that point, I was so burnt-out I barely had the energy to get off the couch. It was my late husband Ian’s suggestion that I ‘write about all those weird experiences you’ve been telling me about for years’ as a means of keeping contact with my creative self, since I could do next to nothing in the world of the everyday. 

The second was to try and make peace with an intermittent, unpredictable and unwelcome part of my being. As a rational pragmatist ( I liked to think!) , it offended me that my memory banks held a number of anomalous experiences which lurked in my psyche, refusing to be forgotten. Probably out of pique, I now realise, because of my refusal to acknowledge their validity and give them an honoured place in my life’s story.

So it was that in the Spring of 2024, not without some nervous hesitation, but prompted by the forming Saturn/Neptune conjunction, both Jupiter and Uranus approaching my MC/North Node conjunction, AND Pluto beginning his long opposition to my planetary logjam in the 11/12th houses, I edited and incorporated ‘ Wisps…’  into the first part of A Neptunian Night Sea Journey. 

This book is an account of an archetypal experience of descent and return: from 2001/2 with Neptune in Aquarius opposite my twelfth house Mercury when I burned out and had to give up work and retreat, until 2011/12 when Neptune left Aquarius, moved away from opposing my Leo Sun, and I at last returned to teaching and consulting.  

I find it so striking that Jupiter was in Gemini in 2001/2 for the Descent period, then in Gemini again in 2012 for the Return – and returned to that sign in early summer 2024 as I settled into writing the first part of A Neptunian Night Sea Journey. (You’d never guess I have Jupiter in the third house, square all six Leo 11/12th house planets…)

That summer of 2024 – how’s this for synchronicity – a small bolthole on the Ayrshire sea coast became unexpectedly available for my (and my fellow writer friends’) use as a writing retreat. As Liz Greene once pithily observed during one of her 1990s seminars at the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London: ‘You have to give the god what the god wants. And if it’s Mars, don’t offer a bunch of flowers!”

Then, in late February 2025, just as I was preparing (with some nervous hesitation) to get on with the further drafting of A Neptunian Night Sea Journey, stalled at 36,000 words for a variety of reasons since last autumn 2024, I had some supportive feedback – unexpectedly as usual, thanks again Uranus conjunct MC/NNode! – from none other than Ana Isabel. Out of the blue, Ana sent me a lovely review of “Wisps…” together with the link again to our enjoyable 2024 discussion of the book. 

I was really struck by the synchronous timing of Ana’s review’s arrival: just at a point where I needed some encouragement and a bit of a push. Balancing Saturn’s challenge to create form and structure, with Neptune’s inclination to lie on the sofa with a good book or go for a walk by the sea, when both of those giants are squaring my 10th house Mars, is a little tricky, to put it mildly! 

[image error]

Ana

Here are both the review and the link:

Feb 27, 2025 

‘…I love this book. It gently takes us on a journey, as Anne shares her personal experiences of the inexplicable; a simple sharing of events leaving the reader to decide what to think. Woven amongst the memories are quotes, definitions and potential “rational” explanations making this an account of one individual’s search to understand the mysteries of life, experienced by so many….’

You can watch me discussing the book with Ana Isabel on

In The Light- Growing Your Soul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUFm4…

To read more reviews, find out more about  ‘Wisps from the Dazzling Darkness’, and buy a copy which is still available in its ebook version, click HERE 

I’m not sure how long A Neptunian Night Sea Journey will take to complete – partly because it’s Neptune who is the god dominating this process and I have to be respectful eg by lying on the sofa with a good book or going for a walk by the sea when prompted to do so!. Also, because having recorded various extraordinary inner journeys and other material whilst on that long retreat, I do not know what I will find on opening the archives – or will wish to edit and present. 

However, if you’d like to be on the mailing list for updates and the occasional extract as I go through this process, and the first to know when it’s complete and ready for publication, please send me an email to info@anne-whitaker.com. I will then include you on the list which will not be used for any purpose other than to keep you informed about A Neptunian Night Sea Journey’s progress. 

I should perhaps conclude by saying that this book will be dedicated to all Twelfth House folk who – like me – have been challenged to make peace with undoubtedly valid dimensions of our being which do not fit with the reductionist paradigm of our current Era. My hope is that my account will help you to make your own peace – as I eventually have done myself.

Wish me luck on my share of this journey, Readers and Friends! And every good wish for yours, whoever and wherever you are…

++++++

Endnote:

Today is a momentous day for our world community as Neptune enters Aries for the first time since 1861 which heralded the start of the American civil war. We’re already seeing fires, floods and earthquakes: physical planetary heralds of the new world order beginning to emerge. Saturn and Neptune’s conjunction at 0 Aries in February 2026, after their long Pisces/Aries dance during 2025, will initiate a major energetic shift for our world community, and for all of us ‘plugged in’ to the end of Pisces and the beginning of Aries – that Mars-ruled sign heralding Life’s energetic new sap rising…

1200 words©Anne Whitaker 2025

Understanding Astrology 7: What first attracted you to astrology? And continues to do so?

For the first 27 years of my life I was a scornful astro-dismisser, this stance typically based on the wrong assumption that popular astrology eg ‘…You’re a Gemini, I’m Scorpio so we won’t get on…’ tells the whole story of an ancient and complex art and science going back millennia.  

The Callanish Stones, Isle of Lewis:

Measurement and Mysticism, Neolithic Style

However, during my late twenties Marxist phase, in a launderette in Bath, England I had (in retrospect) a fated encounter with a couple of artist/astrologers who invited me home to theirs for a cuppa. They drew up my actual horoscope, giving me such an accurate in-depth reading of my character (including the murky bits we all try to hide!) that it took me a long time to get over the shock. However, seven years after that, just as they had predicted ie ‘…in seven years time you’ll end up either doing this yourself, or something very like it…’ I became compelled by astrology, ending up as a qualified and committed practitioner. Here’s the full story…

Looking back, though, I am quite sure that two major factors had an unconscious but powerful impact on my subsequent attraction. Initially, growing up in the wild and beautiful landscape of the Outer Hebrides with its clear starry night skies, its stunning seascapes, wild weather, and famous Neolithic Callanish Stones made me very aware of the power and rhythms of nature – and of humans’ attempts during our long history to make some sense of why we were here and what it all meant. And secondly – from the moment of opening my eyes to the world, it was in my nature to wonder what Life was for: my horoscope makes that very clear!!

That curiosity still drives me…

I am by nature sceptical, in the open-minded sense of the word. I need good evidence: quality experiential as well as scientifically tested procedures are of equal value in my eyes. The challenge set by those astrologers’ being able to give me an in-depth character and life pattern reading from marks on a piece of paper – when they knew nothing about me – was a piece of experiential evidence I could never quite set aside. How could they have done it?

So – by more apparent quirks of fate seven years later I found myself enrolled for a year’s correspondence course with the UK’s Faculty of Astrological Studies. The Faculty really put you through your paces, up to and including a whole week’s exams on every aspect of the maths, craft, art, history, ethical and interpretative skills required to become a fledgling astrologer. I was fortunate to have a long background in adult education, generic and psychiatric social work and counselling before beginning to practise.

Astrology is a powerful art, and should not be taken up lightly. 

On obtaining the Faculty Certificate I began teaching small classes, and doing ‘blind’ readings with birth data only. Just as those Bath astrologers had done, by then I too could make marks on a piece of paper from which to give people accurate character and life pattern readings. I continued and deepened my studies in the 1990s – whilst continuing to practise and teach in Glasgow – by flying to and from London to attend classes at the Centre for Psychological Astrology, graduating with the Diploma in 1998. It was such a privilege during that decade to study with Directors Dr Liz Greene, the late Charles Harvey, and many of the top astrologers of that era.

The more experiential evidence I amassed of astrology’s capacity accurately to mirror back in symbolic form every level of complexity in my students’ and clients’ lives, and in the collective lives of human beings both in the present time and throughout history via planetary cycles, the more fascinated I became. Although my preoccupations within  the subject have changed over the years, my fascination for in-depth astrology has not…it’s a voyage of discovery which never ends.

The study, teaching and practice of astrology over more than 40 years has shown me that certain dimensions of life appear fated: eg our genetic inheritance, or that birth moment from which every horoscope is derived. Each planet in that horoscope describes, symbolically, a core essence which must be met in our lives: eg Saturn which demands from us self-definition and the taking of personal responsibility. However, as we have seen from the challenges already described ( in Part 3) at the Saturn Return, many branches of manifestation can and do grow from that and every symbolic planetary core. 

We have agency – and my life’s experience in sum has taught me this: working to develop as much self-awareness and self-responsibility as possible in how we live our lives is the key that unlocks our capacity for sidestepping poor decision-making  and making the most constructive life choices. I have also seen through my work as an astrologer how the astrological model can help greatly in that process. 

For me, astrology’s greatest power and gift has been to show me through its symbols – both in terms of the natal chart and how the planets move in their regular pathways through space/time – that we are not just random meaningless blips in space and time. We are not  just butterflies pinned to the board of Fate. That great psychologist, mystic,(AND astrologer!), Carl Gustav Jung, once observed that

‘Man cannot live a meaningless life…’

The study, teaching and practice of astrology has challenged and stimulated the rational, imaginative and spiritual dimensions of my being in a manner unique in my experience. Nothing else I’ve done in a colourful and varied life has even come close. I am forever grateful to that great, ancient Art for providing me with my sense of meaning and purpose. I do hope I have managed in some small measure to help develop a similar sense in the many astrology students and clients I’ve encountered along the way.

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1000 words©Anne Whitaker 2025

 

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Understanding Astrology 6: What are some common misconceptions?

There are so many! The most common one, most beloved of those who choose to dismiss astrology as ‘a load of old rubbish’ without actually taking the trouble to study it, is that astrology is about describing a person purely by invoking their Sun Sign. eg “All Capricorns are humourless and boring” or “All Geminis are superficial”.

Mediaeval Stargazer

As should be obvious to those of you out there who have taken the trouble to read these recent posts of mine, there is A LOT more to astrology than eg placing only one character ie the Sun or Star sign on the stage and expecting a gripping three-hour play, full of action, excitement, intrigue and unpredictable turns of events to take place. Human life is complex. History is complex. Individuals are complex. It takes all the symbolic complexity of an art and science going back at least six thousand years to do justice to describing Life in all its richness.

Another misconception is that astrology can be put in the same category as eg fortune telling or mediumship. It cannot, and should not, although regrettably it is – far too often. There is certainly a predictive element to astrology: one can predict very accurately eg when exactly the planet Saturn will return to its natal position, thereby beginning the coming-of-age process known as the Saturn Return. This lasts around a year between the ages of 29 and 30 – but for its precise duration, one would need to consult both tables of planetary movements (the ephemeris) and the exact birth date, place and time of the individual whose life is being considered via their horoscope. 

But, as previously mentioned (i), that predictable Return point can and does give rise to a range of possibilities. One cannot predict exactly which way this process might go, nor should one do so. One can only work with the client, their life circumstances, and their aspirations, to help them meet the planet’s challenges in the most constructive way for them. Definite prediction can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy, remove agency from the client, and transfer it to the practitioner doing the predicting, which may well be more about enhancing the practitioner’s ego than assisting the client’s development.

It should be clear from this that fortune-telling, whatever means are used, is another order of activity altogether, and simply reinforces any feeling that people have no agency, but are indeed ‘pinned to the board of Fate’. As an astrologer, I have had to try in my practice to  undo the damage done by such approaches to coping with the human condition, more often than I care to mention.

There is often a high price to be paid by the client (financially also!!) for attempting to buy into certainties, especially when delivered by people who have no awareness of what their personal power drives or unconscious projections onto their clients might be – or what damage they may cause.

Endnote

(i) Respected academic and astrologer  Dr Richard Tarnas answered this question  by stating that ‘…Astrology is archetypally predictive, not concretely predictive…’  In other words, we can accurately describe the essential core meaning of a particular planet eg Venus or planetary combination eg Venus conjunct Uranus, but can never know or predict exactly either the full range of ways the planet can manifest, or how its combination with another planet or planets will work out.

To be continued.. .

NEXT:
What is the most powerful thing about astrology?

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600 words©Anne Whitaker 2025

Understanding Astrology 5: Is life controlled by fate or do you believe in free will?

Humans have been debating this question since the beginning of Time and no doubt will continue to do so! No-one has as yet come up with a definitive answer, leaving each of us to make up our own minds regarding what the balance may be. My own view, (hardly original!) based both on life experience in general and the study, teaching and practice of astrology in particular, is that life is a blend of both. 

In Old Norse, the word for ‘fate’ and ‘genitals’ is the same: through genetic inheritance we know there is much that we cannot change. Personally I believe that the factors determining how much free will we can exercise are down to the degree of self-awareness we are able to achieve – and the degree to which we are able to take responsibility for our own lives and avoid blaming other people – or worse still the planets! – for what happens to us in life.

Astrologers’ job is to plot the entirely predictable unfolding patterns of the planets as they weave their multi-coloured energy threads through space/time. It is now possible thanks to sophisticated computer technology to calculate an individual’s birth chart – from their date, place and vital TIME of birth – at the touch of button. We could also, if we had sufficient time, take an average life span of eg 80 years, then from the birth chart plot the weave of the threads of an individual’s birth pattern in relation to the huge pattern of the Big Picture. Thus we could reveal from birth to death how the unfolding larger planetary pattern correlates with the threads (or energy patterns if you prefer) of our small individual lives.

From this reality arises the inevitable question: Can astrology predict my future? 

Respected academic and astrologer  Dr Richard Tarnas answered this question  by stating that ‘…Astrology is archetypally predictive, not concretely predictive…’  In other words, we can accurately describe the essential core meaning of a particular planet eg Venus or planetary combination eg Venus conjunct Uranus, but can never know or predict exactly either the full range of ways the planet can manifest, or how its combination with another planet or planets will work out.

Imagine you are having a reading (hopefully with a well qualified and experienced astrologer!) and the astrologer spots that in your horoscope the planet Venus, planet of relationships and the Arts, is having a transit of the planet Uranus in, say, a year’s time. That is, Uranus in the heavens up there will then be a the same degree of the zodiac – eg 25 deg Taurus – as your 25 degrees Taurus Venus in your natal chart down here.

 Uranus demands new, unusual experiences and dislikes any form of restriction or constriction, so good astrological advice in this situation would suggest that either you, your partner (Venus in your chart refers not only to you but any key relationship in your life) or both of you are best to take some steps to let some freedom and space into your lives together.  This would diminish the risk of  relationship break-up, and enhance opportunities to make your joint lives less routine and more adventurous. 

This simple example shows how the essential meaning of a pattern can be predicted, but NOT its precise outcome …that depends on our choices rooted in our levels of awareness understanding, and willingness to set our sails to the prevailing winds of our lives with astrology as our guide.

In this way, astrology well and wisely practised can help you to arrive at a respectful, constructive relationship with the dynamic between Fate and free will in the leading of your life.

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P.S Here is an interesting in-depth discussion between me and astrologer/therapist Ana Isabel on the topic of ‘Fate, Free Will and Family Fate’ which you may enjoy. We certainly enjoyed the exploration…

Fate, Free Will – and working with psychological complexes in understanding family Fate…

FateTo be continued...

NEXT:

What are some common misconceptions about astrology?

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700 words© Anne Whitaker 2025

Understanding Astrology 4: How can astrology help people deal with life’s challenges?

I’ve taught astrology to an amazing variety of people, from bus drivers to consultant psychiatrists. I’ve probably read thousands of horoscopes at every level, from well-known folk to young people just beginning to make their way in life. I’ve gradually learned more about myself from my own birth chart; astrology has also helped me to understand  my loved ones better. 

The personal dimension:

While personality shows what you are outside or what you are to the world, character reveals what you are inside: for example what your values are, how resilient you are, how much effort you are prepared to put into living a positive and useful life. Astrological knowledge and the insights which hopefully go with it, cannot alter either your personality or your character, two key dimensions of who you are. What astrological knowledge CAN do, however, is help you to understand and gain insights into both. This can lead to more constructive ways of managing yourself and your relationships with other people, thereby leading to more satisfaction with life. 

In essence, I think astrology’s greatest gift, if it is practised with compassion and sensitivity, is that a good reading or series of classes can send clients or students away knowing and accepting themselves better, feeling more able to operate constructively and honestly in their world than when they came in – by supporting their courage and confidence to lead their own lives using their own judgement. 

The astrologer’s ego should have as little influence as possible. Our job is to help people, not to show how clever we think we are…and quality astrology is definitely not about fortune telling, as should be clear from what I’ve previously said!

The collective dimension:

The planetary cycles are pointing out to us very clearly in symbolic form that we are at the end of an Earth era which began in 1803 – a materialist era centred on exploitation of Mother Earth for the material and political gain of the world’s richest nations at the expense of its poorest. 

In 2020 a new Air era began, centred on the shift of major planets Jupiter, Saturn and lastly Pluto into the the technology-focused sign of Aquarius. Pluto, planet of purging and rebirth, moved from earthy Capricorn into airy Aquarius in mid-March 2023, not fully settling into that sign until late 2024. Unless you are living in a shed miles away from anywhere with no wifi, you must have noticed the HUGE upswing in our engagement with the massive implications both positive and negative of the approaching Artificial Intelligence revolution since this Spring – not to mention the world-wide turbulence since 2020 caused by an air-borne virus upending all our lives but eg leading to greater human inter-connection across the globe via platforms such as zoom. 

Scientifically-oriented Aquarius’ preoccupation is with bringing community together in striving to make the world a better place. Let’s hope we don’t lose connection with our ordinary earth-bound humanity in the process, as the new Air era gets under weigh…

Personally, I find it very helpful knowing what the planetary energies’ changing patterns are as Time unfolds, taking us all with it. Knowing astrology lets me see where the broad challenges lie for humanity as we step into a largely unknown future. Both collectively and personally we are all ‘plugged in’: both to the energies of the time into which we are born (through our personal horoscopes), and the ever-changing times through which we are living, described in symbolic form through the interweaving of the planetary cycles. 

By learning more about ourselves through our horoscopes, then taking guidance from what personal patterns are being triggered by the current planets and what those connections mean, we can make better sense of our lives and what we should be doing to lead as constructive and useful lives as possible. I would recommend that anyone feeling in need of quality guidance contact a qualified and experienced astrologer to arrange a birth chart reading. I no longer do readings myself, but if you contact me on info@anne-whitaker.com I will send you my personal list of recommended astrologers: all people I know personally, and respect as quality professionals.

To be continued.. .

NEXT:
Is life controlled by fate or do you believe in free will?

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700 words© Anne Whitaker 2025

Understanding Astrology 3: What is a ‘Saturn Return’?

Along with Mercury Retrograde, the Saturn Return is probably the other most notable piece of astrological terminology to have floated away from the shallows of popular astrology, with its one-dimensional focus purely on Sun or Star signs, into somewhat deeper, more complex waters. So – what is this thing called the Saturn Return? And why is it useful in managing our lives’ turning points to know about it?

I hope this post will at least begin to answer that question.

Saturn

As described in the previous post in this series our horoscope is a section cut through time and space for a particular moment, ie the moment of our birth. It is fixed for life. However, the planets continue to move, at varying rates. In our example, the Sun returns to its natal position, ie 27 degrees Capricorn in our example, once a year. Saturn, bigger and farther out in the solar system, takes between 29-30 years to return to its natal position – at 16 Pisces in our example. 

Each planet has a different symbolic meaning. Saturn challenges us to define our limits, teaches us that we cannot go beyond them, teaches us self-discipline and responsible behaviour. It is called the planet of strict justice, and the biblical quote ‘as ye sow, so shall ye reap’ fits its challenges well. 

So, at age 29-30 (and again at ages 59-60 then 89-90) you are challenged when Saturn returns to the same place as he was at your birth– in this case 16 Pisces – in essence to separate out as best you can from what you have grown away from, in order to become more clearly who you are now. It’s a challenging, sometimes painful but essentially liberating time of growing up and becoming more your own person.

It’s also a time when a number of branches can arise from the same Saturnian core: some people change career, others separate from unsatisfactory relationships, others still commit to a life partner at that time. Some people have children. Others may decide that’s not their path. Some folk locate to other countries. Others return after years of travel.

Many branches of expression: but the same underlying challenge. Grow up. Decide who you want to be. And get on with that process as best you can. Here is an article I wrote some time ago, most recently published in “Postcards to the Future” pp 54-62. To get a fuller grasp of how to work with the wisdom offered by the Saturn archetype, this essay may be a helpful pointer:

The Cycles of Saturn:Forging the Diamond Soul

To be continued.. .

NEXT:

How can astrology help people?

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500 words© Anne Whitaker 2025

Understanding Astrology 2: What is a horoscope or birth chart?

Essentially, a birth chart or horoscope is a one-dimensional ‘slice’ cut through the prevailing energy patterns created by planetary motion on any given place, day and precise time. To move beyond the limited focus of popular sun sign astrology – e.g “You were born on the 17th January therefore you are a Capricorn” – in creating a symbolic picture of your complexity, the astrologer needs these precise details. 

The image here gives you a visual idea of what this means: I’ve just calculated a chart for 17th January 2025 at 13.33 pm in Glasgow UK. It is a one-dimensional visual image of the planetary picture (with a few asteroids thrown in for good measure!) at the time I am writing this post. This horoscope or map of the heavens can refer to ANYTHING/ANYONE born in this place on that day and that time: a person, the start of a relationship, the launching of a ship, the start of a business etc etc.

There’s a lot more to astrology – and astrology charts – than purely the Sun Sign of Capricorn as per our example.

What is the difference between my sun sign, moon sign and rising sign? And which one is more important? 

Those three are equally important, complementary energies – the scaffolding, as it were, upon which the whole  Birth Chart hangs. Sun is the essential self, Moon is the emotional self, Rising Sign is the persona, the public self: the private self may be, often is, very different. But the Ascendant or Rising Sign is the first character on the stage that the audience gets to meet… 

Let’s assume the horoscope shown above is a person, and look at the above three key factors, bearing in mind that a horoscope reveals in symbolic form many more than three factors in this (or any) person’s makeup:

The Sun is in Capricorn, the Moon is in Virgo, both earth signs. Having two of the Big Three in the earth element indicates that the person very much needs grounding and material security to feel comfortable in his or her world. It also strongly suggests a healthy dose of common sense and practicality, and strong drive to be in the natural world. The Capricorn Sun, sign of the mountain goat, suggests that its owner might like being out in the hills, climbing and hiking. The Virgo Moon suggests more detailed, focused earthy activities, such as gardening or being involved in practical service: caring or healing activities come to mind.

Earth is a rather reserved, introverted energy. However, this person has the air sign of Gemini rising: varied stimulus is therefore essential otherwise boredom sets in very quickly. So – our subject is likely to come across as chatty, curious and communicative. However, Mercury, which is the planet associated with Gemini and therefore said to ‘rule’ the horoscope, is found in the earthy sign of Capricorn as well. Sitting next to Pallas, the asteroid of wisdom, this particular Gemini Rising probably knows when to exercise caution in expression, and when it’s wise simply to shut up!

This should give you a brief introductory window into how looking at just three key factors can offer a significant point of entry into working out what makes a person ‘tick’. But bear in mind that much more fine tuning can also be done eg via the house position or location of the relevant planets, and what the impact of connections to other planets in the horoscope and their location can add to the picture.

Humans are complex beings, and astrological knowledge wouldn’t be worth much if it could not reflect that complexity through its rich symbolism. However, I well remember my own feelings of both awe and overwhelm when the sheer richness, nuance and complexity of the art/science of astrology began gradually to dawn on me.

However – you have to start somewhere! So I hope this brief dip into three of the key symbols from which an astrologer begins to build up a picture of the rich complexity inherent in your horoscope, intrigues you sufficiently to want to know more…

To be continued.. .

NEXT:

What is the Saturn Return?

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700 words© Anne Whitaker 2025