PREVIOUS THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY January 18 2010 to January 24 2010 Monday January 18 Alerts for the Alerts Hours before the tragedy in Haiti, my colleague Eric Francis, sent out an email warning of earthquakes. Other astrologers have also foreseen more natural disasters than usual this year. But what use is such a prediction unless it also says where and when? I've long hoped to create an international database of prophecies in the hope that it will help all in my profession pool their work. I'll work harder on that soon. Meanwhile, now the eclipse is over and Mercury is no longer retrograde, most of us can expect less extreme temperatures and dramatic upheavals... for a while. Tuesday January 19 Retro Over Hi Jonathan, I'm a Gemini. Normally I pride myself on my communication skills, but for several days now, everything I say or write seems to upset somebody. What's going on? And when will it be safe to open my mouth again? Janet Hi Janet, I wonder if you are really upsetting people more than usual... or just becoming more sensitive? Mercury, the communication planet and the traditional ruler of Gemini, has been 'retrograde' for a while. Retrograde planets don't so much make things go wrong as make us more aware. Either way, Mercury has now turned 'direct' once more. Wednesday January 20 Just a Kind of Magic I don't watch many films or TV shows. I have, though, enjoyed all seven Harry Potter books - and, on my laptop, I've recently been watching Merlin, the drama series where the legendary magician is portrayed as a teenager. These adventures are set in a world where magic is feared and forbidden and those with special powers risk persecution. That, to me, seems much like our modern world, where science dictates that everything must be 'explained away'. I wonder if the world is yet ready to evolve into a society where children are encouraged to trust and explore their intuition. Thursday January 21 Winning at Spinning Recently, my eight-year-old daughter described a 'heads or tails' guessing game with her friends. She said: 'I kept winning because, when I closed my eyes, I saw a yellow sign. It said "win". Under this, I could see which side of the coin to pick.' I told her about intuition and suggested she look inside herself for answers more often. Then she changed the subject. I wonder how many more children may have this gift... and how our world might improve if only, in the national educational curriculum, there was a real provision for nurturing such ability. Friday January 22 Building a Better Future Since I wrote about Betelgeuse, I have had letters. 'Maybe you were right' they say, 'to predict that this star will not explode - but what about T Pyxidis, a white dwarf, 3,620 light years away?' For the record, I do not foresee any threat from space. As recent events have shown, it's not the sky above our heads that we need to worry about. It's not even the earth beneath our feet. It's the people who live on that earth and the priorities they follow. With better buildings, most of those tragic deaths in Haiti could have been avoided. Saturday January 23 Your Week Ahead Sometimes, even people who normally agree with each other find themselves with different points of view. A little 'dynamic tension' is a good thing. It stimulates debate. It challenges assumption. It obliges us to think about what we really feel. A lot, of course, is another matter. None of us thrive in a climate of constant conflict. This week, Mars and Venus oppose each other in the zodiac. This may well trigger trouble in situations where all is normally harmonious. But then a passing drama may yet help to breathe new life into a dull or jaded situation. The current cosmic climate is very good for creativity. Sunday January 24 In the past 12 months, Leona Lewis has had a lot of sudden surprises. Around April 25, 2009, she was hurt by her horse in Los Angeles, suffering cuts and bruises to her face. On October 14, she was punched in the face at a book signing in London by a man who, it turned out, had once tried to get himself on the X-Factor but had been turned down. Randomly, he chose to take out his resentment on her. The day before New Year's Eve, back in Los Angeles, she fell off her horse, hurting her leg this time. And then, on January 12, 2010, she popped to a Starbuck's near Los Angeles Airport. As fate would have it, just at that very moment, police were laying siege to a bunch of armed robbers! It all got a little too close for comfort, though Leona emerged unscathed. Still, it's beginning to sound like what Lemony Snicket might call, 'a series of unfortunate events'. Was she born under a bad sign? Does she have more trouble ahead? Leona is a 'triple Aries', born April 3, 1985. She has a 'sesquisquare' between her Sun, Mercury and Venus and Saturn. That's an angle of 135 degrees. A right angle, plus half a right angle. Sesquisquares divide the circle of the sky into eight and, though eight is an auspicious number in many cultures, including Japanese tradition, traditional western astrology associates the 'eighth harmonic' with stressful conditions. Think of it, if you like as a sign of 'almost too much luck!' Plus, even more powerful than that 'sesquisquare' is a 'trine' from her triple conjunction to Uranus. My conclusion? All these events could have been a lot worse. The same good fortune that has helped her develop her exceptional talent is looking after her in other ways too. Back to Index   Click here for Jonathan Cainer's Daily Zodiac Forecasts