The Astrological Journal

I'm proud to say that my article Whistleblowers at The Galactic Centre features in the Mar/Apr 2016 issue of the Journal of the Astrological Association of Great Britain. The cover, I'm sure you'll agree, is nothing short of beautiful and I'm thrilled to get a name check on it.

The article came out of research into the Galactic Centre done in collaboration with astrologers Rod Chang and Mechthild 'Nusse' Belton, over many fun and inspiring meetings that saw us finish off several bottles of wine and countless frothy coffees.

It postulates that the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, the Galactic Centre - a super-massive black hole (or a 'giant cosmic broom') positioned in late Sagittarius - plays a key role in chart signatures of people who spill the beans on organisations and governments, as the many famous cases in my article attests.

In this issue I find myself in very good company:

Priscilla Costello (Shakespeare 's hidden astro keys); Brian Clark (the 'night' approach); Sue Joseph Kientz ('new' Pluto); Frank C Clifford (durable couples); Marjorie Orr (Angela Merkel); Marcos Patchett (Rejection and other Reception variants); Sharon Knight (Astrologers' Feast of the Astrological Lodge of London and Astrologer of the Year at Gopal Bhattacharjee's fabulous conference in Kolkata [not forgetting Robert Currey's lifetime achievement award]); Smiljana Gavrancic (Paris atrocities and 21° Aquarius in France's chart); Christina Rodenbeck (David Bowie); Nicholas Kollerstrom (debunking French debunkers of Gauguelin's Mars Effect); Lucy Zolonga (Jup in Virgo solarscope); Pam Crane (astro crossword and the Dwad); Marion Williamson (Jo Logan remembered); Alex Trenoweth (Kolkata diary) ; Anne Whitaker (Age of Aquarius?); Roy Gillett (the enlightenment) and Sarah Cochrane (transits).

Thanks to Editor Victor Olliver for his fine work in putting together and publicising it.

The AA Journal, published bi-monthly, is free to members of the Astrological Association of Great Britain, or single copies can be purchased for £5.95. For a trial period this issue will be available for sale in digital format.

For full details of how to get your hands on the Journal (including downloading a free copy of the equally fabulous Sept/Oct 2015 edition), see the Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/AstrologicalJournal/?fref=ts 

For more on the output of our research on the Galactic Centre, see Where God Divided by Zero: New Thoughts on the Galactic Centre, co-authored with Rod Chang, in issue 2 of Infinity Astrological Magazine, which can be downloaded free (you just need to register) from: http://infinityastrologicalmagazine.com/

Rod also has an article on the Galactic Centre in the current (Mar/Apr 2016) edition of Infinity (available from the same link as above) linking planetary transits to the Galactic Centre (GC) to the banking crisis of 2008, 9/11, the end of the Cold War and more.

What is also startling, is that like myself when I was researching the GC and whistleblowers, he has discovered that Mars seems to be an important factor in activating the energy of the GC and I suspect that exploring the significance of this observation will mean a few more vino and caffeine-fuelled meetings. Watch this space!

With love,
Mandi xxx

The Spider

I have two great new astrology articles coming very soon, but in the meantime, some fiction.

As some of you know, as well as writing about astrology, I write short fiction under the name Mandi S. Lockley. Here’s one that was published in September 2015 in Mused Bella Online Literary Review, in which a young woman is inspired to question her lifestyle whilst watching a spider spin its intricate web.

Enjoy…

The Spider

Lonely, that’s how you’ll end up. Old and lonely.

His remark had reminded Louise of her mother’s reaction when she’d told her all those years ago that she never wanted to marry. Who would be a spinster by choice? she’d asked. The word spinster was loaded with shame and rejection and Louise wondered how many girls of her mother’s generation had condemned themselves to loveless marriages just to escape that tag. Not for the first time, Louise wondered if that was why her mother had married her father.

But it was the twenty-first century now. Independence was something to be proud of and being alone wasn’t the same as being lonely. Even so, James’ words and the memory of her mother’s insult had set her thinking about her life.

She poured herself a drink and took a long swig, as if the sweetness could rinse away the nasty taste the spinster word had left in her mouth. As she drank, she wandered into the lounge. West facing, it was always bright in the evenings during the summer. She opened the sliding glass door and sat down in the opening. The sun, low on the horizon, warmed her legs, which cast long shadows across the patio.

She noticed a grey spider dangling from a rhododendron bush. With the sun behind it, she could clearly make out its silky thread and the tiny hairs on its multiple legs. Louise smiled to herself. She recalled how, as a child, she’d been terrified of spiders, had screamed at the mere sight of one. Now she thought of them as friendly housemates helping to keep down the flies. Her fear had dissolved through necessity. Who else was going to remove a spider from the sink or chase one away from the bedroom ceiling in the middle of the night? Once, she had accidently drowned one in the bath and felt so bad she had made a spider ladder out of matchsticks and string and hung it over the bath taps.

She knew she should do some work. She had a lecture to rewrite and her students’ end of term papers needed marking, but she felt frozen on the spot, her attention captured by the suspended spider, her thoughts on James...

...Read the rest of this story (for free) at this link: bellaonline.com

For more of my stories follow the image links on the sidebar.

Lots of love, Mandi x