Aspect Patterns in Colour

My new book
Aspect Patterns in Colour
is now available

• from the Astrological Psychology Association On-line Book Shop (with discount if you're a member)

• and from Amazon

First introduced in Bruno and Louise Huber's Aspect Pattern Astrology, aspect patterns provide a key to understanding our inner motivation. In Aspect Patterns in Colour, the individual aspect patterns from that book are fully illustrated in colour, together with the meaning of each figure, example charts and interpretations.

I've drawn on a wide variety of charts to illustrate each of the 40 aspect patterns. Some examples come from the charts of people I know, others include actors, politicians, musicians, scientists, writers and artists. If you want to know more about Barack Obama's Megaphone, Marlon Brando's Large Talent triangle, Clint Eastwood's Irritation triangle, Tony Blair's UFO and Peter Sellers' Bathtub, you'll find them all in this book.

Recently reviewed, the book has been well-received:

I have to say this is a beautiful book – there are some books I don’t want to put down and this is one....it was a delightful experience to open Aspect Patterns in Colour and to find aspect patterns and charts depicted in full colour. The introduction to this book is rather modest: “I aim to present in this book an easy-to-use reference to the aspect patterns given by the Hubers... together with an interpreted example of each individual aspect figure, using a selection of well-known people and people that I know.”

Aspect Patterns in Colour achieves exactly the description set out, as it were, on the tin. However, this introduction underplays the vast amount of research that has gone into finding charts that contain a remarkably clear example of the pattern under discussion – you will not be struggling to find the aspect pattern buried somewhere in the complexities of the chart. It also belies the depth of astrological knowledge and experience that Joyce Hopewell brings to interpreting the example horoscopes.

The book explores each of the aspect figures given in the Hubers’ work Aspect Pattern Astrology. Every aspect figure is illustrated and the essential motivation and features are explained simply and concisely. Forty different charts are used to describe the impact of an individual aspect figure in someone’s character. With her gift for explaining complex concepts clearly, Joyce’s sure hand guides the reader through the aspect patterns, which must be understood if we are to explore the energies animating consciousness.......my students often ask about the availability of material that presents aspect patterns in a way that is easy to understand. This book meets that need and I would have no hesitation in recommending it both to them and to advanced astrologers who would like a quick reference to the aspect patterns of astrological psychology.

Reviewed by Kathy Rogers, Tutor, Astrological Psychology Association

Aspect Patterns in Colour is now available from the Astrological Psychology Association On-line Book Shop (with discount if you're a member!) and from Amazon.

John Lennon

John Lennon, born on 9.10.1940 at 18.30 in Liverpool, UK

What would have been Lennon's 70th birthday is being celebrated in his native Liverpool by the projection of a previously unseen photograph of him on to the buildings surrounding the Albert Dock at Liverpool's Pier Head. This is the tourist area of the city, where The Beatles Experience exhibition is housed.

Lennon's chart resembles an arrow head, with highest planet Moon as a focal point, receiving many aspects. Lennon's unconventionality was well-expressed through his Aquarian Moon. The overall aspect structure shows a predominantly mutable, flexible motivation, but there is one quadrangular aspect pattern - a Megaphone - which will need and thrive on having some measure of security and stability. Lennon is said to have found this in the home of the aunt who brought him up as a child.

With 6 planets on the DC/"You" side of his chart, Lennon was more attuned to being with and interacting with people - he did have a charismatic presence, perhaps attributable to his Libran Sun close to the DC , this being the energy others would be most likely to pick up on meeting him.

The Megaphone would have made it relatively easy for him to convey his ideas via his artistic talent of song writing and composing. Bruno and Louise Huber say of this figure: "The person is a thinker who extracts a lot of information from communication...." Lennon was also a idealist and a dreamer ("..you may say that I'm a dreamer..." from Imagine), and here the Moon at the highets point in the chart, heavily aspected, in idealistic Aquarius and in 11th house speaks.

For more on the Megaphone and ALL the aspect patterns used in the Huber Method, watch out for details of my new book Aspect Patterns in Colour.

Sun in Libra

The Sun enters Libra today, 23rd September. Libra is the Sign associated with beauty, harmony, balance, taste, diplomacy, indecision, pleasant interaction, friendship, appreciation of aesthetics, fashion and style...just to mention a few.

To celebrate the start of the Libra time of year, when autumn colours appear in nature in the northern hemisphere making the world looks very beautiful, when the grape harvest is made, and when the fashion-conscious dive into new-seasons' clothing, here are some images which for me have Libran qualities of balance, harmony and beauty.

Elegant Swans by Maylis

Perfect poise - Hummingbird Hawk Moth


. . . and balance - Meadow Brown Butterfly.

The Family Model: David Cameron's new baby

In astrological psychology, the Family Model is a very useful tool for understanding how an individual might have experienced their family set-up when they were children. All too often, some of the conditioning received during formative childhood years sticks around far longer than is necessary for adults and can cause problems and hang ups throughout life. Working with the Family Model can help people recognise and accept this, enabling them to move forward making their own life choices rather than be quite so heavily influenced by the expectations laid upon them in childhood.

In the Family Model, the Sun represents the father or the person who took on this role, and is ideally placed somewhere in the upper part of the chart. Saturn represents the prime person who looks after the safety, caring, nourishment, stability, structure and well-being of the child. Although both parents do this, it is the mother (or someone who takes on this role) who provides the primary mothering principles. Saturn is ideally placed in the lower half of the chart. The child is represented by the Moon, ideally placed somewhere on the horizontal axis of the chart where contact can most easily be made. For more on the Family Model see my book The Cosmic Egg Timer, available at the APA on-line Book Shop.


British PM David Cameron recently became a new dad unexpectedly early whilst on holiday in Cornwall. Florence Rose Endellion Cameron was born on 24.8.2010 in Truro at 12 noon - time quoted by Cameron in BBC News interview. With a noon birth the Sun is at the top of the chart where it can shine and be seen, a fitting place for a father who is Prime Minister...but will he be able to live up to her Virgoan high standards when she's older?! Her Sun has all 3 aspect colours lighting it up, so potential exists for her to develop her own sense of self with considerable awareness.

Saturn is not best placed as it's not in the lower half of the chart where it can offer optimum stability and grounding. It's interesting to see that Saturn is placed just before the 12th house cusp, indicating that mum Samantha (dubbed SamCam by the media) might prefer, as wife of the PM and mother to Florence and her other two children, to stay in the background and away from the glare of publicity. Saturn receives just red/green asepcts, indicating a touchy sensitivity. The overall shaping of the chart shows a Fixed motivation, so stability is going to be important for Florence.

Moon is in the lower half of the chart and is conjunct Neptune in 4th house. Florence may well enjoy and need the security of home and family, to the extent of not wishing to move far away, even when she's old enough to do so. Neptune conjunct Moon could indicate some special creative talent, but with an Aquarian Moon she could well want to do her own thing. This could prove interesting, as Moon is opposite Sun (she was born on the Full Moon); there could be clashes between her and dad.
Florence's chart has a relatively unusual aspect pattern - the Irritation Rectangle - which is pinned on 3 of its 4 corners by Sun, Moon and Saturn - the planets representing the Family Model. This suggests a close and binding relationship could exist between her and her parents, one she might not easily break away from because of its binding nature and its sensitive red/green combination of aspects.

Astrological Houses - Where in the World are You?

The 12 astrological houses are divisions of time and space which are applied to the birth chart to divide it into 12 separate areas, each one relating to a specific field of life experience and expression. There are many house systems used in astrology, most of them unequal apart from the equal house system, which is a very basic and simplistic method of house division.

The Koch house system is used in the Huber Method of Astrological Psychology as it gives the most reliable results when working with Age Progression, using the correct time of birth.

The houses are the environment we live in, and this changes all the time, depending where we are and who we're interacting with. We may be in the 6th house when at work - but what if you work from home? Does the 4th house then become your place of work? Or do you have a designated "6th house" room or area in your home where you do your work? Supposing you are a child minder working in your own home? The 5th house is sometimes associated with children and creativity so does your living room treble up as 4th, 5th and 6th house? If you work alone and in isolation like, for example, a night time security guard, you could be on your own and very much in the 12th house - but this is also a 6th house setting as you'll be at work.

This begs the question of whether the boundaries of the houses should be regarded as rigid? Or are they more dynamic, something which is movable and adaptable because one area of life flows into and intersects with another? That sounds much more like real life to me, where astrology becomes far more than a theoretical appraisal of us and our place in the world around us, and takes on tangible shape and meaning as we interact with the environment in which we find ourselves.