So often in consultation with clients, I have found that the ruler of the Ascendant — its sign, house and condition — highlights an important storyline, an important thread that weaves its way throughout life development. Many times it allows the astrologer within minutes (if not seconds) to get right to the crux of the matter, to the heart of a very relevant theme within a client’s identity development.

With the recent passing of Lynn Redgrave and her eight-year battle with cancer, I was intrigued to study her horoscope and life events to understand what may have triggered the onset of her breast cancer diagnosis in 2002. It was within that year Redgrave found a lump in her breast. In December she was diagnosed with breast cancer, had a mastectomy in January 2003 and underwent chemotherapy.

I had a consultation with a new client the other day, who had had a severe problem with recurring bladder infections, continuously —non-stop— over the past five years. As soon as she would finish taking antibiotics and the symptoms cleared up, the bladder infection, would return. Miraculously however, over the past few months, she was astonished to observe that her bladder infection had not returned. It had vanished. It was gone!

Dear all,

Right now we are under the strong influence of Saturn square Pluto aspect.

"Astrologers generally allow 2°- 12° of "leeway" for aspects. This "leeway" is called an orb. So two planets within this orb are considered to be in aspect. Some astrologers allow bigger orbs and some naturally enough allow less. The closer to exact the aspect the stronger, when the orb is very wide the influence may be quite weak. Standard orbs are given for each aspect. The modern theory of aspects espouses that by dividing the 360° circle by two gives us the opposition.

"How did I find out about Phase Charts?

A short and clear explanation of the main planetary aspects: conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition, inconjunct,semi-sextile, semi-square, sesquiquadrat, quintile.

"Aspects are angles between two planets or between a planet and any points on your horoscope wheel. When planets form certain angles with each other, they interact, they work together."

"The nature of life is such that we are enabled to circumambulate the quintessential core of truth of life (whatever that is!) by experiencing facets of it, strung out in a movie-like storyline. Life is itself a cycle passing through many stages – if we experienced childhood, youth, maturity and old age at the same time we would not only get confused, but would also miss the main gist of what living on a planet is all about!

"In astrology, an "aspect" is a geometric relationship between two planets.  Aspects are important in analyzing a horoscope because they seem to make the two connected planets function together or be linked.  The aspects considered here are just the major ones: the conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition."