Bea at four: she loves pink, princesses, and flowing dresses My little daughter Beatrice is now four years old! In September, she will enter the reception class of a primary school. She is now at the age when she confidently declares her full name to be ‘Beatrice Violet Maunder’, and she can tentatively write her first name. Her writing and drawing have improved tremendously over the last few months; these things can suddenly come together in a developing child, just when yo

The familiar picture of Nostradamus (from independent.co.uk - The Independent listed eleven apparently accurate prophecies of his in their article of 14 December 2015!) When I first encountered astrology during my twenties, I also discovered the prophecies of Nostradamus. My first lecture at the Astrological Lodge in London focused on the sixteenth century French seer, who is the most celebrated of all mystical forecasters. As time went on, I became more and more convinced

Demeter and Persephone drawn by Walter Crane (1914) from https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/demeter-persephone-greek-myth-motherhood/ One of my favourite Greek myths is the story of Demeter and Persephone (who were named Ceres and Proserpina in the Roman version). This is because the myth covers something rather missing in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the relationship between a mother and daughter. The Bible includes many stories about fathers and sons, and there are also

The musical Hair on in Sunderland in 2019! ( sunderlandecho.com ) ‘This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius’; so went the song from the 1960s musical Hair. The 60s were the optimistic decade of equal opportunities, new freedoms, and the exponential growth of pop culture, so it did feel like a new age, at least it did in Western Europe, North America, and Australasia. Even the Roman Catholic Church underwent reform! But where did such an idea come from? Is there such a thin