Friday April 19th 2002 - edited by Bernard Fitzwalter This week in Astro News: ~ Five planet alignment ~ ~ AstroDiary ~ ~ Astrology & Fertility - Can you help with some research? ~ ~ New Service from the Astrological Association of Great Britain ~ More on the exciting, new five planet alignment The big planetary line-up that will make May so special is well under way, and you will be able to watch the planets getting closer to each other day by day. If you are still not sure which planet is which, then have a look tonight, when the moon will help you get your bearings. You need to be out at about 9pm, when the sun has gone down. Find the moon, and then draw an imaginary line from the moon downwards and to the right, to where the sun set earlier. Just below the moon and to the right is Jupiter, bright and easy to see. Down at the bottom of the line, near the horizon, is Venus, even brighter. In the middle, and almost exactly west, are two dimmer, reddish stars with a little cluster of white stars next to them. The red object on the left is Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull; the other one is Mars. Just above Aldebaran is a small dull grey ‘star’. This is Saturn. If you look again each day at about the same time or a little later, you’ll see things in more or less the same places, but with Venus and Mars creeping closer to Saturn each time. It’s Romeo and Juliet in the skies. As Venus and Mars grow closer, their love becomes stronger - but we can see that sooner or later they will have to meet Saturn, which is a bit like coming home late and having to tell your parents where you have been. Watch the story develop over the next three weeks. Mars and Aldebaran sit side by side at the moment, which makes them easy to spot. Times when these two red lights were together were seen by ancient writers as needing extra care; at moments like this, glory and grief are too close to each other for comfort. We should expect the usual international hotspots to flare up yet again - but in a few days, when Mars has moved on, the situation should settle. AstroDiary Fri April 19th: York Astrology Group. ‘She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not’ with John Frawley, Friends Meeting House, Friargate. 7.30pm. £5 (£2.50 low waged) Contact: 01904 659549 or 778762 or yorkastrologygroup@york.communigate.co.uk Sat April 20th: You Can Change Your Life. Introductory course on astrological psychology. South Trafford College, Altrincham, Cheshire. Contact: API (UK) 01565 651131 or huberschool@btinternet.com or visit www.api-uk.org Advance date: September 6-8: Astrological Association of Great Britain Annual Conference, University of Wales, Swansea. Many events. Watch this space. Please double-check with the organisation before attending any events listed here - we cannot accept any responsibility for events changed/cancelled. Are you holding an astrological event - especially one outside London!! - that you would like others to know about? Write to jon@bubble.com with subject heading: Astro Events with website links. Please note - we cannot promise to include ALL submissions but will do our best. Research into Astrology and Infertility by Pat Harris, MSc., D.F.Astrol.S. I would like to thank everyone who has responded to my earlier notices on Jonathan's website and who volunteered to take part in the research that I am conducting as part of my PhD in astrology and health psychology at Southampton University, UK. I now have quite a number of people taking part which will help me in conducting my study into factors that may or may not correlate with fertility treatment outcome. I should have a progress report out soon. However, I am still looking for women who are currently pregnant - not necessarily as a result of fertility treatment - and who would like to contact me about details of my research to see if they would like to take part. My email address is: pharris@interalpha.co.uk New Service is Top for the Charts The Astrological Association of Great Britain is proud to announce that you can now speak LIVE to an expert astrologer. For an instant in-depth telephone consultation about your full horoscope call 0845 120 1416 or +44 207 436 9101 (a confidential 30-minute reading costs £29.50, payable by credit card. Or cheque/postal order from UK.) Lines are open 9am-9pm GMT, Monday to Friday. A few weeks ago, the Astrological Association of Great Britain launched this new, live fixed-fee, telephone chart reading service. It has since proved big hit with callers from all over the world. AA President Roy Gillett told Astro News: "I am delighted with the warm response that we have had. Once, if you wanted a reading of your full birth chart, you would have to struggle to find a genuine, reputable astrologer. Then, you would have had to make an appointment and travel miles. Now, at last, there's a quick and easy way to get your questions answered by a real expert - from the comfort of your own home." Mirror reader Julie Roberts from Rochester was equally enthusiastic. "I rang last Tuesday and spoke to an astrologer called Maria. Within moments, she was telling me details about my childhood that she could not possibly have known... then she said some fascinating things about my future. If you missed any of Friday's Astronews articles, click on the Archive Thought for the Day link in the left hand frame.