Astrology

The cluster of planets in Taurus and Scorpio in May 2013 echoes the opening days of the Second World War in Europe. Back then, austerity and rationing were in. Now, there will be a strange replay of so many financial issues from that time – no doubt explaining the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON slogan’s continued supremacy in Britain. Taurus is the zodiac sign of Her Majesty the Queen and Scorpio is the sign Prince Charles was born under; in the wake of the April eclipse, these two pinnacles of the Royal Family will be at the heart of a significant change in direction. Australia has two months to complete her mission towards fast broadband, a fast Sydney-Melbourne train and media reform. Why? Because Jupiter is in Gemini, which rules all those things. So many false starts will now be replaced by remarkable progress. What used to take two months will take two weeks.

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Your Year-Ahead Astrology Predictions for 2013

Kelly Surtees from Wellbeing magazine, Victor Olliver from The Lady magazine and Jessica Adams, host of The Astrology Show, look at the year ahead for you. If you know your birth chart please have that close by as you listen to this.

Victor will look at your sun sign or solar chart too and Kelly has the scoop on the trines between the water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces in 2013.

For more please visit www.jessicaadams.com or follow The Astrology Show (@astrologyshow) on Twitter

Listen live to London astrologer Paul Saunders (who predicted Kate Middleton’s royal baby months before it happened) on your horoscope predictions for May 2013. You can read more about Paul and his astrological secrets below, and also book a private consultation with him from his website, with links at the bottom of this page.

Paul Saunders,  the British  astrologer who called the date of the pregnancy announcement for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s new royal baby, made a range of stunning predictions in 2012. He also sees personal clients (good news for you) and uses a unique colour-themed approach to the horoscope. Here, he talks about his life and work.

How did you get into astrology, Paul?

This goes back to 1991. At the start of the year I read and kept one of those “Your Year Ahead” guides in a well-known newspaper supplement in the UK that used to be printed every Sunday. Amazingly, some of the details and predictions she made came true as I followed through the year. The next year I got the same pull-out and this time it was completely wrong, nothing the astrologer had written was remotely close to what happened to me that year.

Paul’s predictions are made months ahead.

At this point in my life I went out to live in Prague but the interest in astrological prediction stayed with me. When I returned in 1995, being still curious about why this astrologer’s  predictions could be so right one year and completely wrong the next, I went out and bought my first Astrological book, Parker’s Astrology by Derek and Julia Parker. It completely opened my eyes.

I made out my astrology chart by hand, read what it meant and was inspired by the accuracy of what I saw. I hid that book in my bedroom for several years thinking that my brothers who I lived with would think I was mad or weird if they found it. In the meantime I studied and studied my own chart, and that of others.

In 1997/8 I was working in India and I went to see my very first astrologer, an eminent consultant in Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) who showed me documented proof that he had been consulted by a couple of very prominent people in the 80′s. I saw that Astrology along with faith was the lifeblood of Indian society and this spurred me on.

The internet age in the late 90′s allowed me to calculate charts out by computer, and my interest continued to mushroom, but it was the financial crash of 2008 that changed my life. The amount of work I was doing plummeted and I found that I had more time on my hands. I started helping work colleagues free by looking at their charts.

In meeting my future wife in 2008, I found out that she was a blogger, too. She encouraged me to rapidly expand my astrological work and to write about it. My Solaris Astrology blog only started in February 2011, but through it I have amassed a loyal readership, and I am always humbled by the amount of goodwill and the fantastic feedback I always seem to get.

What is your preferred technique? House system, heavenly bodies, aspects?

Like everyone I guess I started on equal houses, and then progressed to Placidus houses which I still prefer. I try to keep things simple. I reckon if you can’t spot a character aspect using the main planets, from the Sun to Pluto and the Nodes, then you are missing something in your analysis.

I love using the Nodal axis points as they invariably present turning points in one’s life that are not often picked up by the transiting or progressed planets. The colour system I use on my charts I developed myself based around the temperature scale – easy aspects in warm colours (red orange) where the energy moves quickly and tension aspects and blockages in colder colours (blues and purple) where the planetary energy needs your own force or the force of others to make it effective. This is completely opposite to the system used by 99% of the Astrological world.

I see energy transmitting around a chart and I suppose it just makes sense to me. I just use the main aspects – conjunction, sextile, squares, trine, inconjunct, oppositions and the quindecile (165 degrees) that I find amazingly effective in focusing the energy of the planets. Often a quindecile will spotlight a talent or an obsession in a personality where the normal aspects will not indicate one. I have become a big fan of fixed stars and I have found that they add a lovely sub-plot to the chart one is looking at.

Derek and Julia Parker inspire Paul’s work

What are your most accurate long-range predictions  and how far in advance did you make them?

My most stunning one happened quite recently. Back on 2^nd February 2012 I predicted the announcement for a royal baby would come for William and Kate at the very start of December 2012.

During the US elections of 2012, I picked Romney to come out of the pack to win the Republican nomination and then predicted Obama to win in May 2012, six months before the election proper. In France I predicted the victory of Francois Hollande in February 2012, 3 months before he became President of France. I announced the date within one week’s accuracy of the capture and execution of Colonel Gadaffi while the Libyan war was going on, in August 2011, fully 3 months before the actual event, and in sport last year, I predicted in the preceding January that Andy Murray would break his duck of major titles in 2012, and I correctly called the final of this year’s Wimbledon final, Roger Federer against Andy Murray with the correct outcome too – I should have put a bet on!

Do you have a theory on how astrology might work?

I am influenced here by my time in India on this question. I believe that the natal chart shows your soul and its path through this life, and the experiences you will have to endure. Your own free will is the variable that gives you the latitude to take on these challenges in whichever way you see fit. The South Node shows where you have come from and the lessons you learned in your previous existence, and the North Node shows the lessons you must learn in this one. This path is the hardest path to follow in this life, but the most fulfilling if and when you can achieve the aims indicated for you.

Your favourite astrology books?

Obviously my first book Parker’s Astrology is one I would still advise any newcomer to Astrology to purchase. Howard Sasportas’ Twelve Houses is on my list and I always refer to Bill Tierney’s Dynamics of Aspect Analysis. I have been very influenced by the writings of Noel Tyl. For progressions, Sofia Mason’s Delineation of Progressions is a very handy book to own – a little cookbook in style but great to dip into. Bernadette Brady’s Predictive Astrology has helped me along my journey and Stephen Arroyo’s Astrology, Karma and Transformation is a very good read.

What do you say to sceptics?

I remind them that the body is made of around 70% water and if the Moon can affect the tides, then it can certainly affect them too. I also remind people that life follows cycles, the orbits of the planets follow cycles too and I just study their movements and thousands of years of observations of people’s attitudes and behaviours compared to these cycles of the planets. From the 28 days of the Moon’s orbit of the earth tied in with a woman’s cycle of fertility, to the 7-year itch, to the mid-life crisis, to the 20-year economic cycles of Jupiter and Saturn, all these times in life we experience can be explained by the movement of the planets.

How do you see the current series of Uranus-Pluto squares?

I see these connections as a generational shift. The last conjunction of these planets brought a generation into the world that have already made their mark. They were the ones in their early twenties – the students who ushered in the fall of the Berlin Wall and  the collapse of communism but failed in overturning the Chinese regime in Tiananmen Square.

This time this set of squares will see a new generation who will make the same impact later on in their lives. Pluto in Capricorn breaks down structures, governments, companies, countries, currencies, leaders and Uranus in Aries ushers in the enthusiasm to drive away all that is outdated and to replace them with new ways of doing things, radical solutions to old problems. This is a cardinal square so the emphasis is on pro-active change now, with the same generation that I mentioned at the outset now in their prime, pushing these changes to happen.

Which astrology groups, if any, do you belong to?

I don’t belong to any. I exist in wonderful isolation and I do this so as to protect my own vision of how astrology can and should be done. Nobody has ever influenced me to look at this subject in any particular manner, and I see this as a major strength in the way I work.

What advice would you give a beginner in astrology?

Trust your instincts, read from several different authors and make your own mind up. Personal experiences are the most important ones, so take note of them and apply them to the movements of the planets that you see. Finally, don’t rush and take your time. Not only in reading a chart, but in learning this subject. This is a subject that matures with you, the wiser you get, the better the astrologer you will become.

Favourite astrology websites?

I have a Gemini Moon so I buzz from site to site – however I have no time for the ‘spiritual’ mumbo jumbo that many astrologers come out with – they seem to forget we actually live in the real world. I will give a few honourable mentions for astrologers who can actually write. The standard of the writing explaining the astrology and what is happening in clear language I personally find very important.

I really respect Ed Tamplin and his own personal site edtamplin.com. He is a great mundane Astrologer who distils world events and history into a most easily readable form. I love the work of my friend from across the pond in New York, MoonPluto and her site moomplutoastrology.com. She is a playwright and poet by trade, and it shows in her wonderful turn of phrase. Often she comes up with nuggets of Astrological gold make you sit up, stop and think. The Oxford Astrologer, Christina Rodenbeck also writes beautifully on her blog oxford-astrologer.blogspot.co.uk and I enjoy her essays, dipping into the classics and culture to augment her astrological skill.

Contact Paul – or Read Your Horoscope

You can read Paul’s astrology at his blog  , his website,  and finally his Facebook page. Paul offers new clients a comprehensive list of services, writing all reports by hand and sending them out in PDF format, or speaking to clients directly on Skype around the world. For consultations and rates just look here.