The Story So Far

So I landed in Phoenix just in time for sunset and checked into the beautiful Wild Horse Pass Resort. 

After such a long trip, I was tempted to "hit the sack" (how long has it been since I've said this??) but I didn't want to miss anything!! 

The first person I bumped into was the gorgeous Frank Clifford!! Then I saw Frances Clynes and Poul Madsen and it started to feel like I had never left London!! I tried to stay up until midnight (that would be 8am London time!!) but I fell a little short of the mark. When I woke up four hours later, I was absolutely ravenous. I thought "This is America where nothing is ever closed!" so I went back downstairs on the scrub for grub only to find everything was shut. So what's a traveller to do? Room service!! The menu said "two eggs" but from what was served, I could only come to the conclusion that the hens here in Phoenix had to be ten feet tall. Never mind gila monsters, scorpions and rattlesnakes, the animal I'm most afraid of is giant chickens (I also had chicken at the Rawhide Restaurant which confirmed my theory). Breakfast was delivered by a smiling (!!) and very polite server who was so sweet and genuine I thought I would never want to leave Phoenix. British workers take note!

In the middle of all this, was my talk (the main reason I'm here) and it was well received and people that I've spoken to are intrigued by astrology in education. So I was really optimistic that some good was going to come from networking. Little did I know. . .

In the evening, I re-connected with some super cool people I had met earlier in the day at the poolside bar. One was an astrologer explaining to a non astrologer that the Moon had just ingressed into Scorpio. On the TV, there was an interview with the bouncy Morgana the Kissing Bandit. I couldn't resist saying: "And there's your Scorpio in Moon moment!!" We've been hanging out together ever since. One is NY astrologer, Tisch Aitken who has invited me to stay with her in Manhatten after SOTA!! Whoo hoo!!

On Saturday I was doing a bit better with the old jet lag and I woke up at 7am and hit the pool. I was joined later by Tisch and her friend Kim. Together we are the Witches of Eastwick waiting for our Jack Nicholson!

So as the morning turned into the afternoon, we noticed that the bar staff were starting to stare at the skies very intensely and then started to take the umbrellas down. What's up? we wondered. Turns out, there was a storm coming. I looked at the skies carefully and rubbed some more sunscreen on. Whatever was coming would probably blow over. But then the clouds got quite dark but this only meant it wasn't so hot so we stayed by the pool. All the while, the bar staff huddled together as if planning something. Every now and again, a little raindrop fell on us. Then it started to rain a little harder--and then whoooooosh, the dust blew in and we headed for cover. And then the heavens opened.  Eventually we were shooed (in a very nice way) back to main hotel and we got DRENCHED even though we were only out for a few minutes!! It was an amazing storm that we watched (dripping wet) from the safety of the hotel. It was a doozey. Lots of flash floods, lots of soaked and excited people and lots of hotel workers talking in hushed whispers. Luckily, the storm blew over but we heard there had been funnel clouds in the area. Funnel Clouds! I had forgotten about those.

The ISAR banquet was great fun as it was hosted by the very funny Michael Lutin. I loved the way the America astrologers refer to each other as "our tribe" or "our community". In true Uranian style, no astrologer feels excluded from the herd.

With my tour of The Grand Canyon, Sedona and Las Vegas now booked (as well as a ticket to see David Copperfield!!), I was feeling amazing. I had dinner with Brooklyn astrologer Samuel Reynolds--whom I always wanted to meet (what an incredible man!!)--and I was asked to speak in Austin Texas by Naomi Bennett, the president of the Texas based group. How synchronous that I'm going to be visiting an old friend the day before--I don't have to adjust my itinerary!

So it continues to be a trip that is just miracle after miracle. Thank you Transit Jupiter on my Natal Mercury!

Still Smilin’

So tomorrow I leave for Phoenix Arizona!! A lot of people have been asking if I’m excited about going “home”. Home? London is my home! It may not be where I was born but it is where my heart loves to live.

Having said that, I am UBER excited to be visiting the US. My excitement takes me by surprise because I’ve never been terribly interested in the US, hate my stupid accent (I’ve been threatening for years to take elocution lessons) and I’ve had absolutely no interest in going anywhere in the US. So while I was thinking about why I’m interested in the US all over sudden, it dawned on me that this is the start of my third Jupiter return living in the UK. And I also remembered that I will be visiting people I haven’t seen for a full Saturn cycle.

And of course, Transiting Jupiter is all over my natal Mercury and will be transiting my Moon by conjunction in a few months.

So this is my itinerary. I have some wriggle room because things are still falling into place.

25 September, evening: arrive in Phoenix

26 September: conference

27 September: conference

28 September: Conference

29 September: exploring Phoenix, meeting an old friend, party at Ray Merriman’s (woohoo!!)

30 September: tour of Grand Canyon

1 Oct: tour of Grand Canyon

2 Oct: tour of Grand Canyon (ends in Las Vegas), Cirque Du Soleil show

3 Oct: Hoover Dam, overnight to Long Beach

4 Oct: see an old friend

5 Oct: LA

6 Oct: San Diego (for an afternoon in Tijuana)

7 Oct: San Francisco (lunar eclipse in early morning—going to have a BEAUTIFUL view!)

8 Oct: San Francisco

9 Oct: LONG train journey to Seattle, dinner at the Space Needle

10 Oct: Vancouver to watch the whales

11 Oct: Internal flight to Bozeman for Yellowstone National Park

12 Oct: Yellowstone National Park

13 Oct: Salt Lake City

14 Oct: Albuquerque

15 Oct

16 Oct: Austin (to see an old friend) to New Orleans

17 Oct: New Orleans

18 Oct: Atlanta (to do some research)

19 Oct: Atlanta (to do some research)

20 Oct: Atlanta (to do some research)

21 Oct: Nashville

22 Oct: Memphis

23 Oct: travel to Niagara Falls for SOTA conference

24 Oct: SOTA conference

25 Oct: SOTA conference

26 Oct: Touristy things in Niagara Falls with my parents then to Port Huron

27 Oct: Kalamazoo

28 Oct: Port Huron

29 Oct: Port Huron

30 Oct: To Toronto then on to Boston

31 Oct: Halloween in Salem Massachusetts!!

1 Nov: Salem

2 Nov: Portland Maine

3 Nov: Concord Massachusetts

4 Nov: New York City

5 Nov: New York City

6 Nov: New York City

7 Nov: Philadelphia

8 Nov: Philadelphia

9 Nov: Boston

10 Nov: Leave for London

11 Nov: arrive in London! Playing Last Post at Walthamstow Town Hall then going to Beaconsfield to give a lecture

And then it’s back to work! Hopefully I will have caught up on the mountain of unfinished writing projects and other stuff that got sidelined over the past few years.

I’ll be posting on facebook, writing the blog, getting back to Don’t Sweat It, Planet (been a little too busy these past few weeks!)  and probably tweeting as well (although I don’t really know how to use twitter very well!!).

So catch you later x

On Learning How to Smile Again

I just had my teeth whitened.

Now before you sarcastically tell me that that’s the most astounding news you’ve heard all day, let me add that I’ve found a lot of reasons to smile more these days.

And maybe you still want to go to the next blog to read about Scotland, Syria or Iraq. And that’s fine: thanks for stopping by and au revior.

So why am I smiling (you must want to know because you’re still reading!)?

I’ve had the most astounding 3½ months of my life. I’ve had a lot of rest, saw Barry Manilow and Wynton Marsalis in concert (not at the same time of course), performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, started Don’t Sweat It, Planet, attended the Faculty Of Astrological Summer School at Exeter College (Oxford University!), started my own school of astrology, written a new book and have just returned from speaking at the Astrological Association’s conference about my book (I know, I know: not that again!!)—and all on the verge of going on the trip of a lifetime to speak at ISAR and SOTA. I decided I wanted to do what was important to me in the manner that was important to me.

For the past year, Jupiter has been transiting my natal planets. It should have been one of the happiest years of my life but instead, I can’t recall being more miserable. Jupiter in Cancer means understanding that we are all connected if not by blood (and if you think about it, we are all related to one another by blood) then by a certain belief that what affects one person, affects everyone. Jupiter in Cancer finds confidence and strength in looking after everyone and everything. To be denied that makes a person with a stellium in Cancer very unhappy indeed. In fact, I’m rather astounded I was able to put up with things as long as I did. So I closed that chapter with great deliberation in my Book of Life and moved on. Was it scary? Yes, at times. Am I glad I did it? Great Goddess, absolutely yes. And although I wish I had done it earlier, I can understand why I didn’t because I learned one hell of lesson: never compromise on what’s important.

And if you want to know what’s important in your life, have a good look at Jupiter in your natal chart!

It’s (almost) funny that I’ve been an astrologer most of my life but that never occurred to me. This is exactly why it’s so important for astrologers to engage with other astrologers, to talk openly in a language we understand and to learn from each other. Otherwise the point of the lesson gets lost. As anyone who speaks more than one language will tell you: to understand the language, you have to practice the language. I spent a lot of my time sometimes speaking the language a little bit and a lot of time being unhappy because I wasn’t allowed to speak the language.

But those days are over and hallelujah for transiting Jupiter on my natal Mercury (also my ruling planet). I’m going to crow about astrology like a motherfucker because I’m free to do so!!

I’m off to the US for seven weeks Thursday week. Bookending my trip is a speaking engagement at ISAR and a speaking engagement at SOTA. I’m landing in Phoenix Thursday evening and speaking Friday afternoon. Then I’m hanging out with my astro homies for the weekend, culminating with a party at Ray Merriman’s house. Then I’m embarking on a seven week tour of the US: Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, San Diego, Tijuana, LA, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Bozeman (for Yellowstone), Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Austin, New Orleans, Atlanta, Niagara Falls, Port Huron, Kalamazoo, Memphis, Nashville, New York City, Halloween in Salem and leaving for the UK from Boston and anywhere else en route I damn well please!! I’ll be updating via this blog, facebook and twitter.

Between now and my flight to Phoenix, I have an exam to finish, an article for Frank Clifford’s book to polish up and a little something for In the Loop. When I return from the US, it’s looking like I have another year packed with teaching, speaking and writing gigs peppered with jazz band practice.

So thank you Jupiter for the courage to take those leaps of faith!! Whoever learned anything by playing it safe?

I leave you with a few highlights of my summer so you can see why I’ve been smiling!!

Here are a few of us at Oxford University for the FAS Summer School!

My Facebook page for Don't Sweat It, Planet

Performing with the South London Jazz Orchestra at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

More jazzy stuff (you can just about see my hat!!)

Having a drink with Rob Hand!!

The advertisement for my classes!

Me and Frank Clifford at the Astrological Association's conference (we are personifying Mars In Scorpio!!!)

And finally, me smiling again!!