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Christina's Blog
The Oxford Astrologer
Culture, Sociey and Astrology 
from Mythopia
I don't subscribe to any particular school of astrology, but I do make a point of keeping up to date.  I choose the ideas that work when I apply them to a real chart and real life and throw out the ones that turn out to be, well, wishful.
... NeptuneCafe presents ...

Christina Rodenbeck, based in the ancient centre of learning, Oxford, examines living mythology through the lens of astrology. She likes to challenge prevailing orthodoxy,  champion
originality and enchant with a good story. She is available for personal consultation. Read more of what she has to say at The Oxford Astrologer.
The New Horizons 
Mission to Pluto
Boxing the Euro - The outer planets have been wrecking havoc on the Euro. Now Saturn is stationing right on Chiron, challenging culture differences

UK Election - was a seismic shift in the political geology. Discussion of the UK's and David Cameron's charts, and Pluto to the UK Moon.

Two blogs - The latest addition to the royal family is a baby girl with a glamorous chart. Plus, the K Generation defined by Uranus in Aquarius.

Angela Merkel - is perhaps the most powerful woman in the world. Here's a look at the Chancellor's chart, which explains how she does it.

George Clooney Marries - the cosmopolitan lawyer Amal Alamuddin. Clooney was a commitment-phobe, what changed his mind?

Saturn in Scorpio - is going through the last third of this sign, and will be entering Sagittarius soon. What this transit means for each sign.

Jupiter in Leo - 10 fun things to do. It’s time to throw off that cloak of Cancerian wistfulness and embrace the game of life once more.

Tony Blair - has become a multi-multi millionaire. Like Satan himself he has become a fixer, middle-man, adviser to the international .001%.

Two posts! - the UK's Independent Party upsets traditional loyalties, and Maya Angelou and her poem Phenomenal Woman

Chiron, the Wounded Healer - turns retrograde in June at 17º Pisces, a key degree area that has historically coincided with major wars.

Conscious Uncoupling - The astrology behind Gwyneth Paltrow's and Chris Martin's gentle separation, plus a look at their composite chart.

Mars in Libra - Now that transiting Mars is in Libra, have a look at what celebrities born with this placement have to say. Famous quotes.

Woody Allen's UR-PL transits - A look at his horoscope and what it indicates about Dylan Farrow. Plus Mia Farrow and Woody's composite chart

Ukraine - History as Process - Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, but is currently being torn by riots, Here's what its horoscope tells us.

Nelson Mandela's Chiron Return - The famous South African leader gave his most celebrated speech one Chiron cycle before his death.

Doctor Who's Chiron Return - The fabulous sci-fi series first aired in 1963. How does the show’s story lines reflect the British psyche?

The US Fiscal Deficit - is the mother of all debts. Mercury and Saturn combine to stall discussions along with the UR-PL square and eclipses

The Dwarf Planet Ceres - is profoundly connected to nurturing, parenting, fertility: the cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth

UK Nixes Syrian Invasion - PM Cameron Page's intention to join the U.S. is thwarted by Parliament. Here's how the UK chart is shaping up

Prince George - his Cancer Sun, chart with Scorpio Ascendant and 8th house planets explained. Plus the royal pattern of 10th house planets.

Turkey's Identity Crisis: As Saturn crosses Turkey's Scorpio Sun, the nation and its neighbors wonder if it's a secular or Islamic state... 

Water Grand Trine - This isn't just any old Grand Trine: it's between three heavy-duty planets, Jupiter in Cancer, Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in its own sign Pisces.
Oxford Archives
It’s quite catching: the excitement of all those NASA boffins.
The success of the New Horizons mission to Pluto is wonderful. The images bring the planet so close, show the importance of his henchman Charon, the dark planet’s “heart”, and his handsome craggy features.
The astrology? Well, this mid-month we’ve been having a pretty tough opposition from Mars-Mercury to Pluto. On the day of the closest approach, July 14, the dynamic duo were sandwiched between the Sun and the Moon, all in watery and imaginative Cancer.

Now Cancer is the sign of home and tribe, so you could see this as symbolising the human family, cosily tucked up in our watery blue home, gazing out into deep, cold, distant space (Pluto in Capricorn). Mercury is the planet of flight, of course, so he would need to be involved. Mars gives the whole thing pioneering energy and daring. It’s a bit cowboy.
Who sent the mission to Pluto? The United States. Mars was at 13° Cancer, right on the US Sun on the day.

Uranus, the planet of tech, squares the Sun from Aries, Mars’ sign. We know that Uranus in Aries ought to be making some scientific breakthroughs, like this. Uranus is all about breaking through the Saturnian boundaries.

The thing is, though, that this chart is cast from planet Earth at 11.49 UTC — and the New Horizons mission was far, far away. So this chart would, theoretically anyway, only tell us about the impact the mission has on Earth. You’d have to cast a chart from Pluto’s point of view to get the other angle. The mind boggles.

Which is as it should be. We should be boggled.

And here’s something interesting, at the exact moment of the closest encounter — and NASA was doing the timing so we know it’s dead accurate – our own Moon was on the “bendings” at 3° Cancer, that is the point half way between her own nodes. If the Moon symbolises the people, our collective mind, maybe this close-up view of Pluto has opened our minds in a way that we have yet to work out.
The moment of the closest approach to Pluto. 11.49UTC July 14, 2015. The chart is set with 0° Aries on the ASC because there was no particular point on Earth to pin it to — maybe NASA? — but this does put Pluto where it should be, at the top.