PREVIOUS THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY August 1st to August 7th 2005 MONDAY August 1 New Planet - Xena, Warrior Princess New planets are rather like buses. You wait around for decades, hoping one will turn up and then, within a few short years, three turn up together! I have already changed the way I read my charts to take Quaoar and Sedna into account. I'll soon be making more adjustments as I incorporate the influence of Xena. Her discovery does not 'devalue' my past predictions. It merely tells us that our rapidly changing world is about to start changing even faster. New planets emerge whenever radical new technologies are about to burst forth. Uranus, back in 1781, brought us flight. Neptune later brought film and photography. In the early 1930s, Pluto brought us the power to split the atom. Astrologers have long known that more such secret symbols were hiding in our solar system. We were not though, expecting them to emerge with quite such peculiar names. We students of symbolism are obliged to take those names seriously. No matter how casually they may have been applied, we must accept them as the 'invisible guidance of a higher force'. When scientists broke with tradition and called their most recent discoveries after native north american deities, we astrologers felt both pleased and challenged. Now though, we are blinking in amazement. The tales of Xena, Warrior Princess are set in ancient Greece but Xena herself is an entirely new creation, cooked up in the 1990s by writers who wanted good TV ratings. Xena is a peculiar addition to the planetary pantheon but, if the world's top astronomers now want to offer eternal legitimacy to a thoroughly modern myth we should all feel inspired. It suggests an imminent impulse, all across the globe, to shed the shackles of convention. We have a new spirit in the sky; a strong, sexy, independent woman who fights for freedom, truth and justice. The sooner her influence gets to work on our stuffy old male-dominated planet, the better.

TUESDAY August 2 New Planet - Xena Part 2 Somewhere in San Diego, some cheeky astronomers keep finding new planets. They also keep bypassing a strict international naming convention. They just leak their suggestions to the press and, by the time the officials meet up, it is too late! On a whim, they have called their latest find after a cult TV character. They have no idea of the symbolic magic they are messing with. They have made an irrevocable invocation. The spirit of a warrior princess has now been unleashed. For better or worse, 'Xena' will soon make her presence very strongly felt in all our lives.

WEDNESDAY August 3 New Planet - Xena Part 3 Some people think the newly discovered planet is too small to 'count'. But it is bigger (and arguably more important) than Pluto. Some people think it cannot possibly be named after a fictional TV star. But Xena is a name that is going to stick. Though it seems as strange as calling a planet Tarzan or Popeye, it's really no more peculiar than using another name from the pantheon of ancient Greece. Mercury, Venus and Jupiter were 'fantasy figures' too. A leather-clad warrior goddess with distinctly sapphic overtones is precisely the stuff that modern myths are made of.

THURSDAY August 4 New Planet - Xena Part 4 Xena's title has undoubtedly been bestowed with irreverence... but that in no way implies irrelevance. It just gives us our first clear clue about the way in which this heavenly influence will operate. Our new planet is going to show no respect for convention or tradition. It is going to be a thoroughly modern icon, encouraging us all to ignore precedent and protocol. We've got ourselves a different kind of goddess, encouraging a different kind of culture... and consciousness. In your forecast today, you'll find my first interpretation of the kind of change she is about to bring.

FRIDAY August 5 New Planet - Xena Part 5 You'll find more, in your forecast today, about the new planet, Xena. Should I reflect longer before interpreting her influence? Perhaps. But if the spirit of a warrior princess has really been let loose in the world... she's not going to sit around thinking... so nor should we! Next week, though, by coincidence, I have arranged to take a few days off... so I shall use the opportunity to digest Xena's meaning further. Meanwhile, when he sits in for me from Monday to Friday, I'm sure my esteemed colleague Eric Francis will have plenty to say on this topic.

SATURDAY August 6 No Moon visible Your weekend forecast: There's no Moon visible in the sky right now. Over the weekend, as it slowly reappears as a thin sliver of light, make a wish when you catch sight of it. This is a time for bringing about change. Things don't have to be as they have always been. Those who combine faith with effort now will make real progress.

SUNDAY August 7 Mars and Saturn comment Your week ahead forecast: This weekend, after midnight, Mars will start shining brightly. Around dawn, Saturn will be visible on the horizon, just before the Sunrise makes the sky too light to see anything. At that moment, try pointing your right arm towards Saturn. Then hold up your left arm so it points towards Mars. Now get a friend with a protractor, to measure the angular distance between your arms. You don't have a friend who feels like staying up all night to play strange mathematical games? Oh well, never mind. We can't have everything. You'll just take my word for it. Your arms will be at a right angle... because Mars and Saturn are exactly 90 degrees apart. Under such alignments, tempers tend to fray. Old arguments finally get fought out. Restlessness prevails. So, on second thoughts, it is probably best not make the situation worse by going short of sleep. Tell you what. You stay in bed. I'll watch the sky for you! NEXT THOUGHT OF THE DAY BACK TO INDEX

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