Stonehenge has always been in Vogue (this image is from a 1970 edition). Astrology has always been in and out of Vogue, too, and yet how many people who circuit the stones, also realise that it’s one big astrology calendar? At least, that’s the way we think of it in the 21st century, in the horoscope work we do.
The druids may have claimed Stonehenge, but the Aubrey Holes tell us this goes back way, way in time before they even put on a white gown in their wardrobes. We’re talking really old moon predictions here. And who knows – that may even have led to the very first kind of astrological thinking.
Stonehenge and Her Australian Sister
Stonehenge and her Australian sister, Wurdi Youang (an even older stone circle near Melbourne with a secret location) both mark the moment the sun stops – in June and December 2019. They have done this for thousands of years.
Naturally, indigenous cultural astronomy has nothing to do with astrology. Our way of thinking about the heavens, and horoscopes, is post-Roman, so from 55 B.C. onwards. This incredible stone circle, a solstice reckoner, and likely the oldest in the world, is thought by some archaeologists to go back 11,000 years.
Yet, for astrologers, what is really fascinating about both Stonehenge and her older Australian sister circle, is the connection between the Sun standing still (solstice) in Cancer and Capricorn, across two Full Moons on the Cancer-Capricorn axis, every June and December.
Why is this so remarkable? For a start, it’s because Cancer has traditionally been associated with history, roots, heritage, culture, the family tree, the clan and the tribe. And Capricorn has always been associated with the authorities, the King, the Prime Minister, the police, and those in charge.
You might say both stone circles have a very old story to tell about those themes. And that’s typical of astrology.
In 2019 the Sun stops in the sign of Cancer in time for Friday June 21st. That’s big in astrology, because the North Node of karma is there too. Same sign. And it is all opposite the South Node of past lives – in Capricorn.
You can be born under any sign at all and feel the pull of the past in 2019. In a moment I’ll look at how your sign is affected – and also your personal birth chart, if you are a Premium Member.
It doesn’t matter how modern Stonehenge looks in some photo shoots.
Karlie Kloss at Stonehenge is astrology updated to 3-D printing, thanks to the wonders of Vogue. Yet even if we are thousands of years past the original ‘henge’ that began with 56 holes in the ground (a woman’s period, measured every day and night, to be exact) the old rules still apply. This is an eclipse calculator. It is a moon marker. It is a solstice (sun standstill) marker. And in the 21st century it all happens in two signs. Cancer and Capricorn.
How the Solstice in Cancer Shines on World Stone Circles – and You
The Summer Solstice at Stonehenge in 2019 attracted 25,000 people as the sun shone (and stood still) in the sign of Cancer. In your personal astrology chart, but also in your usual Sun Sign horoscope, this is an event not possible in 19 years. If you’re in London and want to hear more about this come along to a special event on Monday 15th July at The Astrological Lodge, just off Baker Street, from 7.00pm, with a Summer Party at 8.30pm and the launch of our Avebury and Stonehenge Astrology Podcast too (free online for Premium Members of this website and Sun Sign School students).
This event, rotating backwards through the zodiac signs every 19 years or so – when the North Node is in Cancer, the Sun stands still in Cancer and we see an eclipse in Cancer too – is a big one in astrology.
Check your chart. Are you affected? If you have factors in Cancer in the Fourth House of your chart ruling your home town, homeland, residence, accommodation, property investment, renovations, family, household and so on – 2019 is big. And it is so interesting that Stonehenge and her Australian (older) sister circle Wurdi Youang measure it today – even though they were never set up for that purpose! When the sun stands still at Solstice in Cancer it’s an exclamation mark about that sign.
Why People Still Crowd Stonehenge
You have to be committed to turn up here! This photograph of me looking like it’s 5.00 am (it felt even earlier when I posted this), at the famous stones, for Summer Solstice 2019, is just one of thousands you will see, on Twitter, for that one moment in time. If you have ever wondered why people bother – getting up to catch the bus from Salisbury after midnight – sleeping out in cars or in vans – even putting sleeping bags on the damp ground – the answer is complex. This goes beyond a party. It goes into a craving for the past, perhaps, but also something mysterious. Swing your car keys over the ground near the stones and they go left, right or in a circle. Put your hands on the stones and feel the pull, like a battery. Take your shoes off and register another pull, taking you into the earth. The site for this circle never was random. Beyond the fact that the original holes in the ground measured women’s periods, there’s energy underneath!
The solstice itself is the exact time the sun shines over the Tropic of Cancer. You see – even the world map nods to astrology. I don’t think any of the people who camped out overnight across June 20th, June 21st 2019 were here because of the world map, by the way – but it’s a tribute to the lasting power of astrology. We have found our way into geography. Take that, doubters!
The Winter Solstice Down Under
Two world famous stone circles with astronomical/astrological alignments -Stonehenge in Britain and Wurdi Youang in Australia (the world’s oldest) – share common patterns. You can find out more about Wurdi Youang here. The (reckoned to be) 11,000 year-old Wurdi Youang circle at Little River, near Melbourne – tell us that once a year, the Sun dramatically stops moving – it makes a full stop or exclamation mark – in Cancer. At Stonehenge you can see the Heel Stone as the first part of that exclamation mark, symbolised by this !
This is a good way to think about 2019 and particularly June and again, December – into January 2020. It’s a Cancer moment!
Let’s look at your personal birth chart now, if you are a Premium Member, and see if you have that full stop and exclamation mark triggering June and July for you. Cancer and Capricorn are opposite signs, so different in nature, but both tell a story.
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What are the themes here? In 2019, with the Sun in Cancer, and the North Node too, we are seeing karma, going back to the years 2000 and also 1981, regarding your family. Your parents, brothers or sisters. Aunts and uncles. Cousins, nieces and nephews. Grandparents. Cancer rules all these things. What kind of karma? All kinds. This 2019 Solstice is just emphasising your family tree.
Do You Have Cancer Birth Chart Factors?
If you are a Premium Member, make sure you are logged in so you can see if you have Cancer factors in the Fourth House of your chart, which rules the family.
That is just one real-life example of how the Cancer Solstice is panning out in real time in real life. But what else does this sign rule in your chart and how is it triggering you, if you have Cancer placements?
Home, Hometown, Homeland, Household
The whole idea of home is central to Cancer. Where and how you belong and why. Choosing where to live. Figuring out your residence. Your local area, but also your whole region. Your country!
Getting History Right
Of course, the zodiac sign of Cancer the crab came along centuries after the first Australians and the prehistoric people of Wiltshire were marking the solstice. It had quite a different meaning for them. For us, though, it is a fantastic reminder of the importance of the Cancer cycle in astrology.
As a professional astrologer, I have to say that the cycles of time in astrology are peculiar things. Even if the people of Stonehenge or Wurdi Youang made no association at all with Cancer the crab at this time of year – what we now call late June – and even if ‘June’ was not even a concept for them – it still so happens that we see Cancer themes and ideas around June 21st, on solstice. Look at any newspaper or Twitter news story now and you will see lots of flag-waving going on. Patriotism. Even, nationalism. Plenty of stories about property prices, or families.
How the Sun in Cancer Cycle Affects You in 2019
Are you a Premium Member? If you have your personal birth chart and see factors in Cancer in the Fourth House of home, family, home town, property and homeland – then the Solstice on 21st June will draw your attention to that. There are decisions to be made. They may take you back into past lives, because the North Node, also in Cancer, goes back 19 years to not just 2000 and 1981, but further in time – even in 19 years loops before you were born.
In India the nodes are called Rahu and Ketu and the Dragon’s Head and Dragon’s Tail perform a loop in the horoscope that in Vedic Astrology (different to ours) there is a focus on reincarnation. Past lives, and the reckoning up of past deeds and actions. Apply this to you and your family now, if you do have Cancer factors and perhaps you are seeing an old, old issue from lifetimes before, arise with the Sun, as he shines over Stonehenge.
Your Sun Sign chart shows you the headlines of your life. It’s a really good weather map of June 2019, at Solstice, but also the year as a whole. This year we have the North Node of karma in the sign of Cancer, and when the sun stands still at the ancient Australian stone circle and at Stonehenge, it’s like a spotlight. Pay attention. What must be fixed from the past? What needs closure?
Now let’s look at the weather report for your sign. This is not personal to you, but general. Just like the real weather forecast. Yet – it is a really great guide to the big focus of late June through late July 2019, and actually the entire year, if you are interested in balancing old karma, confronting issues from previous lives and settling scores, perhaps – or seeing them settled by you, for you, because of something unresolved for you! Dreams can sometimes show you what the past life issue is.
How Your Sun Sign (Solar) Chart is Affected by Solstice 2019 in Astrology
Aries: Home town. House. Apartment. Family. Household. Homeland. Clan. Patriotism. Property.
Taurus: Writing. Public Speaking. Journalism. The internet. Books. Education. Language. Bibles.
Gemini: Money. Goods. Values. Valuables. Art. Jewellery. Charity. Debt. Banks. Currency. Cash.
Cancer: Appearance. Portrait. Title. Reputation. Name. Profile. Cameo.
Leo: Religion. Confession. God. Astrology. Witchcraft. Spirituality. The soul. Psychology.
Virgo: Friendships. Guilds. Trade Unions. Bands of brothers. Sisterhood. Solidarity. The group.
Libra: Success. Social position. Profession. Honours. Rank. Ambition. Achievement.
Scorpio: Exploration. Foreign people and places. Religion and other beliefs. Education. Travel.
Sagittarius: Legacy. Inheritance. Art. Jewellery. Property. Gold. Charity. Insurance. Dowry.
Capricorn: Marriage. Divorce. Adultery. Business partnership. Duels. Rivals. Battles. Partners.
Aquarius: Work. Housework. Service. Duty. Health. Wellbeing. Fitness for duty. Obligation.
Pisces: Pregnancy. Children. Young people. Pretenders to the throne. Heirs to the throne.
Australian Astronomy and Astrology
We know for a fact that Aboriginal Australians had their own astronomy and beliefs (the Emu constellation, for example) and Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn – or even a ram, crab, set of scales and mountain goat – were not in their minds, when they attached meaning to the constellations. Those are Roman patterns, developed from the Greeks and others, then shipped to Britain in 55 B.C.
Stonehenge people were prehistoric – literally, it was prehistory, nothing was written down – so even if they had read some meaning into what we now call the June or mid-year, midsummer (in Britain) solstice – we don’t know what it was. Perhaps it was similar to our Cancer ‘time bookmarks’ today. Perhaps not.
Using Stonehenge Chalk to Draw Circles – or Horoscopes
At Stonehenge this year I was picking up huge pieces of wet, white chalk in the damp ground. I reckon they did the same thing thousands of years ago, the better to draw moon shapes on rocks. The chalk has disappeared with the centuries.
Yet, as astrologers are as qualified as anyone else to comment on the mystery of Stonehenge and Wurdi Youang – particularly as the Sun, Moon and meaning are our concerns– maybe it’s time to look at these two stone circles with new eyes. This is especially true for all you female astrologers, or astrology fans out there. Reclaim our monument! I really don’t think all the people who were sitting in the damp and cold with me on Summer Solstice 2019 waiting for the sun were yet more astronomers or ‘cultural astronomers’. Do you? An awful lot of them looked like women sharing their herstory/history to me!
How Australia’s Stone Circle Lines up With Stonehenge
As the Sun passes into Aries in late March after the first Equinox of the year, Cancer in late June in the first Solstice of the year, Libra in late September in the second Equinox of the year and Capricorn in late December in the second Solstice of the year – the patterns at Wurdi Youang line up with the patterns at Stonehenge on the other side of the world. Stonehenge is 5000 years old, making Wurdi Yuoang older by some 6000 years.
The first Australians were marking the standstill of the Sun 11,000 years ago, as we’ve seen, according to current estimates. Perhaps pilgrimages to that place, millennia ago, were taking place – just as they were taking place at Stonehenge on Summer Solstice 2019. This is prehistory and it belongs to indigenous Australians who are making the study of Aboriginal/First Australian astronomy their own.
Just to repeat – it has nothing to do with our zodiac or our interpretation of the planets. It is, however, so typical of astrology that an ancient stone circle that aligns with what we now call the Cancer and Capricorn solstices, should embody those themes. Cancer is roots, heritage, tribe. Capricorn is authorities, leaders, the system!
You might say that both stone circles have historically symbolised that great divide, all the way up to the 21st century when local activists are trying to save Stonehenge from the British government’s plans for the area (in the name of traffic management).
Modern Worshippers at Stonehenge
I took this photograph of modern travellers/worshippers on June 20th, 2019. They were trudging towards the circle from the car park, not across Victoria, Australia, but perhaps the solstice has always had a similar lure. Just look at how strong and bright that sun is, as he prepares to stop. It’s that exclamation mark or full stop. A drama. Just as powerful at sunset on June 20th as it can be at sunrise on June 21st. It’s likely that some of these people have distant ancestors who were trudging towards the stones, at sunset, at about the same time – centuries ago.
The very first attempt at a pattern at Stonehenge was a huge circle of 56 holes – Aubrey Holes. I’m sure it hasn’t taken you long to figure out, that’s two Moon cycles. The Moon takes 28/29 days to rotate back to its original position as a New Moon or Full Moon. We will be talking more about this on Monday night, July 15th 2019, at The Astrological Lodge of London.
This is where astrology becomes really interesting. How on earth is it, that a woman’s period (her monthly or ‘moonthly’ period) corresponds to the lunar cycle? The Moon repeats itself throwing the same shapes. A woman’s womb does much the same thing – on the same timeline!
This must have seemed remarkable to the people of Stonehenge in particular. So we’re not just talking about the Solstice being marked by the stone patterns of Stonehenge. We’re also looking at Moon cycles too.
These core ideas of Sun and Moon are everywhere in divination. You can find both the Sun and Moon in the Tarot of Pamela Colman-Smith and Arthur Waite, for example, pictured below. Pamela was making her cards at a time when you could still wander among the stones, quite freely, whenever you liked. Back in 1909 the barriers had not gone up. This beautiful card, showing the Sun, below, is a memory of that time.
The 56 Aubrey Holes
At Solstice at Stonehenge, both in June (Summer or Midsummer) and December (near Christmas) there is tremendous attention paid to the Heel Stone and the big, movie-famous Trilithons in the centre. Wandering around Stonehenge this year I was amazed at the total lack of attention paid to the site of the 56 Aubrey Holes. Yet these matter most of all to astrology.
These pits were dug thousands of years ago and we only have the Stonehenge museum to remind us of their existence now. They date back to 2800 B.C. and the holes can be used to track a 28 day cycle. Counting day and night times, which women would have done, you might have been able to conduct pregnancy testing. ‘If Boadicia began counting a hole per day beginning at the menses, then the next menses was due halfway around the circle. If, however, the counter completed a circle without another menses, then a pregnancy was likely.” (Susan Brinkley, Biological Clocks).
Stonehenge, Sun, Moon and the Birth of Things
Why is it that the Sun in astrology is Father and the Moon is Mother? Why is a New Moon, when the Sun and Moon are in the same zodiac sign and at the same degree (number), always a time for the birth of things?
This is part of astrology’s mystery, but it’s not hard to see the Heelstone as a phallic symbol, at the far side of the Stonehenge circle, pointing to the Aubrey Holes going around the outside.
It is quite true that as the Sun slips into Cancer at about this time every year, June 21st, no matter if you are in Australia near Wurdi Young or near Salisbury at Stonehenge, you will see the beginning of something. In 2019 it is karmic. And it starts for you around June 21st.
Australian Indigenous Astronomy
If you are curious about Australian indigenous astronomy, I suggest you follow Duane Hamacher on Twitter @DuaneHamacher, who is Associate Professor of @AboriginalAstro at the University of Melbourne, not too far from the first Australians’ own stone circle, Wurdi Youang, in country Victoria. This is a fascinating new branch of stargazing.
My own publisher in Australia, Allen and Unwin, will produce a book by Hamacher in 2020 about this emerging field of indigenous astronomy – from an astrologer’s point of view, this is worth waitlisting for.
Time and Timing
We all know time is a cultural concept, or construct. Mostly in modern life it’s linear. People assume it goes in a straight line. The past is over, this is the present and you can’t see the future – so say the sceptics and most people (only about 25% of any population use astrology, according to survey after survey in the modern world).
Yet – Aboriginal Australians had, and many still have, quite a different view of time. And that takes me to the circular nature of Stonehenge and all the natural features around it. That’s one of the things this unique brand of stargazing and observation, going back thousands of years, has in common with 21st astrology. This is ‘The Round Art’ as my friend and colleague Tad Mann calls it. Time goes around…and around.
Time is a Circle
In July 2019 we are launching the Avebury and Stonehenge Astrology Podcast which is a walking tour (if you wish) of the stones, featuring special guests from the world of astrology including Olga Morales (talking on dowsing at Avebury), Natalie Delahaye (speaking on the Taurus-Cancer symbolism of Avebury), Penny Thornton (who has a personal view of Avebury), Maggie Hyde (who has intriguing views on Stonehenge) and myself.
We are developing our podcast in stages, just as Stonehenge and Avebury also evolved across time. Circle upon circle. By 2020 we see this as an audio tour, but also a visual experience, taking you on a non-mainstream view of the stones. There is a great deal of history written down about Stonehenge and Avebury…by men. This is her story, for the most part, put together for the most part by female astrology professionals.
In it we will look at the natural world in the fields around Stonehenge. Why is everything a circle? From fairy rings of mushrooms, to the white chalk still ground into wheel shapes in the grass, to the shape of the huts the Stonehenge people lived in – it is circle upon circle. You see the same shapes repeating in indigenous Australian art.
I don’t need to point out to you that the horoscope is also a circle. In fact, in 2019, the Cancer ‘weather’ with the North Node in this sign is about just that kind of endless repetition. You cannot say when the North Node first appeared in the zodiac sign of Cancer, in its backwards 19-year loop. The Big Bang? But if nobody was there to come up with this invisible point in the sky, how did it exist at all? More mysteries!
Astrologers Play Detective
The first thing anyone asks when visiting Stonehenge is ‘What does it mean?’ Closely followed by ‘Why did they build it?’
Both Stonehenge and Wurdi Youang have what modern astrologers would call cardinal zodiac sign signatures or patterns in common.
The cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn. At Stonehenge the cycles of the Sun and Moon highlight all four, throughout the year, as we mark not only Solstice but also Equinox.
The Capricorn Solstice – December of Any Year
What interests me as an astrologer is that at Wurdi Yuoang in particular, the December Solstice (near Christmas) would have found the Sun in Capricorn, back in 1787, when the British arrived in ships, steadily making their way to New South Wales, to colonise and take over Australia.
Capricorn has long been a symbol of ambition. Any Full Moon at that time of year, at the height of summer in Australia, puts the Sun in Capricorn against the Moon in Cancer. Those in charge, versus the family. Those in charge, versus the homeland. That was the ‘weather’ at that stone circle at the end of 1787 and start of 1788, and we know that the British, under King George III, landed and claimed the country in late January, early February. Just weeks after that Solstice.
This is not remotely what indigenous Australians had in mind around 11,000 years ago when they began to mark the solstice with that egg-shaped circle of around 100 stones! But it’s so true of synchronicity (Carl Jung’s acausal connecting principle) and astrology, as we know, is all about this kind of quirky timekeeping.
The strangeness of astrology is that it works backwards and forwards in time. The first Australians did not relate the constellations to the goat or crab at all. There is an emu shape sketched in their constellation over the night skies of Australia, but certainly none of these Greek/Roman symbols or the meanings given to them.
That crab association (with the home on one’s back) and the ambitious goat (climbing to the top of leadership) came thousands of years later on the other side of the world. Yet – you’d have to say that what we can see in a horoscope from Christmas 1787, right through to the end of January and start of February 1788, is pure Cancer-Capricorn stuff. The natives (literally the native Australians or owners of the land) versus the ambitions of King George III to colonise the rest of the world.
Putting 2019 in Context With Capricorn and Cancer Weather
It’s like this in 2019! The North Node is in Cancer, the South Node is in Capricorn, and here we have a Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, at the end of June, just as classic Cancer-Capricorn issue are blazing in the media. Who will the new British Prime Minister be? These are questions about ambition but also country. Questions about the vacancy at 10 Downing Street – the most famous home in the nation outside Buckingham Palace – and who moves into the top job.
Nobody makes these things happen using astrology – they just happen. And that’s astrology. Forwards and backwards across time, we see Cancer-Capricorn themes in June and December, from now all the way back to the invasion of Australia by the British around 200 years ago.
Who gets to live in the new country? Who is in charge? Same issues, different point in history. In 2019 we see the eclipse cycle move through Cancer, the sign of patriotism and ‘my home and country’ which spells even more mysteries ahead.
Stonehenge, Family, Land and Territory
It is possible that Stonehenge also existed as a place for the Ancient Britons to figure out land, family, territory and ownership. Clan and country. Perhaps it was a place for duels or other tests. It may have been the ancient equivalent of Wembley, today, or the Coliseum of the Ancient Romans. A vast space for rivals groups to gather, on Solstice in June and December, to see leaders battle it out. There was certainly feasting thousands of years ago – animal bones littered the place.
At Stonehenge for a fact we know it was an Event, to which people travelled vast distances, with a feast at the end. The animal bones tell us about the feast; the human bones tell us these were not always locals.
How the Aries-Cancer-Libra-Capricorn Patterns Show Up
As astrologers we know that the late March, late June, late September and late December timing of these big occasions gives an Aries-Cancer-Libra-Capricorn stamp, or signature, to both of the circles. Those four signs out of the zodiac’s eight are particularly emphasised, just by virtue of the way the stones are arranged. Equinox and Solstice in the cardinal signs.
We’ve looked at the Cancer Sun Solstice on June 21st 2019 (the solstice actually always falls in the sign of Cancer the crab at the end of June) and how it pans out in your birth chart, but also your solar chart, based on your own zodiac sign.
What about the other cardinals? Aries, Libra and Capricorn? Together with Cancer they form a perfect cross in the horoscope. A cross inside a circle is another ancient symbol. And actually, all four signs relate to each other in the human or family story.
Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn
Aries is about war. Cancer is about family. Libra is about peace. Capricorn is about power. These are the four cardinal signs of astrology, which make a cross shape, facing off each other across the horoscope circle.
At the end of March, as the Sun prepares to enter the sign of Aries, we have the first Equinox of the year. It’s the Spring Equinox in Britain and the Autumn Equinox in Australia.
At the end of June, as the Sun prepares to enter the sign of Cancer, we have the first Solstice of the year. It’s the Summer Solstice in England and the Winter Solstice in Australia.
At the end of September as the Sun prepares to enter the sign of Libra, we have the second Equinox of the year. It’s the Spring Equinox in Australia and the Autumn Equinox in Britain.
At the end of December, as the Sun prepares to enter the sign of Capricorn, we have the second Solstice of the year. It’s the Summer Solstice in Australia and the Winter Solstice in Britain.
Different seasons, different temperatures, different hemispheres but from a modern astrologer’s point of view, same question. This is Carl Jung’s synchronicity at work. The strangeness of quirky time. When connections are made backwards and forwards in time, that seem deeply meaningful.
Wurdi Youang and the Aubrey Holes
We have no exact idea at all when the first stone at Wurdi Youang was laid, or the first Aubrey Hole at Stonehenge was dug. Thus, we don’t have a chart for either circle. Yet, astro-logic says, given that both these places were created with great care to mark the soltices and equinoxes, and that these were their grand moments – it would make sense to assume placements in the Aries, Cancer, Libra and or/Capricorn in both charts, given that the Sun passes straight into those signs after it crosses the stones. The Sun is, in effect, shining a spotlight on those signs in the zodiac year.
There are around 100 stones, at each site – Avebury and Wurdi Youang. That’s more than a little interesting.
Being at Stonehenge in Summer 2019, I have to say – all four signs are present and correct in the car park. Families are camping together in vans (Cancer). The police are all around (Capricorn). There is bag-searching going on for weapons (Aries) and we’re also seeing couples kissing on the stones, and occasionally more than that (Libra).
Simple Astrology – How June of Any Year is About Family and Home
Really simple astrology puts it this way, about the month of June, which from around the 21st, is Cancer season.
On the June Solstice of any year, as we head towards July, the focus is on home and family. In Europe, people go away for summer or prepare for holidays. This puts them in close proximity to their own relatives for 2-3 weeks and so family relationships become more apparent and more important.
Going away means packing up the house or apartment and staying somewhere new. This also puts a big focus on property and accommodation. Relatives come to stay. That’s the same story.
In Australia, New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere this is also the mid-year ski season. Again, people go on holiday. Halfway through the year, winter is so cold that people can also choose to take their holidays then and fly to warmer states or countries. Packing up the home and going with the family puts the spotlight on both those concerns!
Cancer the Crab and June – Families and Homes
On a very basic level, then, mid-year (Summer Solstice in Britain, Winter Solstice in Australia) is really about Cancer the crab themes and ideas. Carrying your home on your back. Having a clan.
I’m sure you can think back to your own life and see why late June is always a time for a focus on your close relatives, the property market, vacation accommodation and so on. Perhaps renovating or building.
We go more deeply into Cancer themes when we think about home town and homeland. Patriotism. Local feeling and sentiment. Belonging. A sense of place. June is big on the sporting fixtures calendar. People fly the flag, then, for their team or country, around the world. More Cancer!
Buildings, Monuments and Circles Have Horoscopes Too
People are surprised when astrologers tell them that – just like people – buildings, monuments and even stone circles can have horoscopes. All you need is the time, place and date of foundation, or beginning – the ‘birth’ – and an astrological chart can be calculated with a computer in a second. You can do it for a company with a certificate of registration and for a country with its constitution.
Now, we have no record at all of a ‘foundation stone’ if you like, for Stonehenge or Wurdi Yuoang. We don’t know when the first Aubrey Hole was dug at Stonehenge. We find stone circles all over the world. So many of them were set up to mark the solstice. Some date from periods when the signs of Capricorn (shown here) and Cancer were known. Some do not. Yet, strangely, in June and December, we still see evidence of sweeping Capricorn or Cancer weather around the world.
Taking Stonehenge alone as an example, though, it makes sense to assume that if the Winter Solstice in late December, in particular, meant so much to these people, perhaps the birth or beginning of Stonehenge – in its later form – might have chimed with the Solstice itself.
Maybe Stonehenge was born with the Sun in Capricorn. Maybe it was born with the Sun in Capricorn and Full Moon in Cancer.
Archaeologists dig, astrologers interpret. It’s what we do!
What if Stonehenge alone was ‘born’ just as we might expect, with planets or angles in the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn? Would it work as a chart? Would key events dramatically transforming the destiny of Stonehenge show up as transits?
The Evidence of Astrology and History at Stonehenge
The classic Cancer-Capricorn themes we might expect to see – property, family, clan, territory – and ambition, authority, the establishment and the elite – both swirl around the actual history of Stonehenge itself. We can look back at astrological cycles to see it happening.
21st September 1915 – Stonehenge is Saved for the Nation
Stonehenge was famously put up for sale at auction last century and bought by a man named Cecil Chubb, who then donated it to the nation. We have a time and place for the chart – 2.00pm, 21st September 1915, Salisbury. Pluto was at 3 Cancer. Neptune was at 2 Leo. These two were almost exactly semi-sextile each other and Pluto was in Cancer, where we always find the Sun entering at June Solstice. You might say modern Stonehenge was ‘born’ with Pluto in Cancer. Given that the Solstice is also in Cancer, that’s extraordinary.
Power struggles continue about Stonehenge today, led by Andy Rhind-Tutt and other activists. You can follow them on Twitter. (Pluto has long been a symbol of power and control battles in astrology). It is also significant to astrologers that Pluto was the Roman ruler of the underworld. Stonehenge battles are being fought below the surface – deep underground – where government plans are taking shape. The activists are pushing back. You can read more about that further down – the Stonehenge Tunnel is a modern take on the old Cancer-Capricorn Stonehenge pattern.
1st June 1985 – The Battle of the Beanfield
The Battle of the Beanfield took place on 1st June 1985 when Wiltshire Police stopped New Age travellers from setting up a free festival at Stonehenge. It was one of the biggest arrests of civilians since the war – over 500 people. Uranus stood at 2 Capricorn that Saturday. It was exactly sextile Pluto at 2 Scorpio.
Capricorn as we know is a symbol of the establishment, the elite – the authorities.
You’ll note that 70 years earlier, when Stonehenge was sold at auction, Pluto stood at 3 Cancer. These are two big occasions in the life of Stonehenge where slow-moving outer planets hovered around 2-3 Cancer and Capricorn – the same cardinal signs which star at the two Solstices. Both times there have been other triggers from other planets around 2-3 degrees on the day.
A Very, Very, Cancer-Capricorn Monument in Time
This is intriguing astrology. We are looking at a very, very Cancer-Capricorn monument! It’s so interesting that Stonehenge is a British icon. It’s an advertisement for the nation. A massive lure for tourists. That’s all very Cancerian, this being the sign of ‘my home and country.’ This famous viral internet photo shoot (another 20th century fashion magazine classic) appeared on my Twitter timeline and I’ve saved it ever since.
Sixties/Seventies Stonehenge chimes with the golden age of British patriotism, when England won the World Cup in 1966 and The Rolling Stones even promoted the Stonehenge stones in a wild photo shoot. At some point, this Cancer-Capricorn monument also became the face of Swinging London. Even today, like anything or anybody with Cancer-Capricorn placements (like Her Majesty the Queen) Stonehenge ‘speaks’ its patriotic duty.
Stonehenge image from Twitter @poppetymoffitt
The Stonehenge Tunnel 12th January 2017
Proposed on 12th January 2017, the Stonehenge tunnel has provoked protest by UNESCO among others. One of the reasons people don’t want the tunnel is the effect of traffic lights on the famous Stonehenge sunset.
As I write this the fight goes on, but are we about to see more cardinal sign triggers here?
On 12th January 2017, as the battle raged on, between activists and authorities, Pluto stood at 17 Capricorn. Uranus was at 20 Aries. Again, we have two slow-moving planets where we might expect to see them. Capricorn – authority. Aries – aggression. And again, this picks up the cardinal axis of Aries-Cancer-Libra-Capricorn with which Stonehenge is so much associated.
The Battle for Stonehenge Sums up the Astrology of Stonehenge
Are there other triggers at 17 and 20 degrees on 12th January 2017? Yes.
The Moon was at 17 Cancer opposite Pluto at 17 Capricorn. It then moved to 20 Cancer square Uranus at 20 Aries.
Mars stood at 17 Pisces exactly sextile Pluto. This was really when the fight was peaking, though it may yet peak again. We might predict January 2020 as ‘peak time for the peak’ as we are in an intense phase of Capricorn-Cancer weather then.
As an astrologer you’d have to predict that the fate of Stonehenge will be decided in the first month of the year 2020, as patterns line up with the ancient cycles of Capricorn-Cancer in the history of the monument. Let’s hope history decides – for history!
Wurdi Youang and Transits to Aries-Cancer-Libra-Capricorn
We’re beginning to build up a picture here of a Stonehenge which does, in fact, seem to show itself through important transits of the slow-moving outer planets through the cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn.
Beyond that, the symbolic meaning of the zodiac signs and the planets are showing in the events. The 1915 auction was about buying Stonehenge for the nation – Cancer. And Pluto was at 3 Cancer. That only happens about every 240 years.
The 1985 riot, or battle, was about the authorities – the government, the police – against hundreds of New Age travellers who thought Stonehenge was their property – Cancer issues again. Uranus, the symbol of rebellion, radicals and revolution stood at 2 Capricorn.
There are parallels with the other famous stone circle, far older, on the other side of the world. Astrologically speaking.
British Settlement 19th November 1834
Wurdi Youang is in Victoria, Australia, where the British settled on 19th November 1834. This came about a century after the original 1788 settlement. January 26th is Australia Day to some and Invasion Day to others.
Sheep farmers took away the Aboriginal people’s land after the 1834 settlement of the local area. Massacres followed. This sounds like a classic cardinal sign dance – Aries, the aggression, Cancer, the ownership of property and the importance of the tribe and family – and Capricorn, the white authorities.
On 19th November 1834, we find Pluto at Aries 12. Uranus is at Capricorn 29. Saturn is at 18 Libra. Those are three slow-moving planets, including Pluto (transformation) and Uranus (revolution) alongside Saturn (fear).
That combination, by itself, is sufficiently rare to suggest that Wurdi Youang might have been ‘born’ with cardinal sign placements.
Are there triggers for any of them from other heavenly bodies or points at 12, 29, 18? Yes.
The North Node at 18 Gemini and South Node at 18 Gemini were in exact aspect to Saturn at 18 Libra.
Chiron was at 29 Taurus, exactly trine Uranus at 29 Capricorn.
Astrology, history and mystery. It remains for indigenous astronomers to continue their findings and research on what this stone circle, and those solstices, meant to them – but through the eyes of modern astrology – there is a really intriguing story here. This circle is hugely important in Australian history as it proves that long before Stonehenge, the first Australians, and owners of the land, were marking the Solstice. They knew it – and they knew what it meant to them. The rest is history and a mystery for indigenous researchers to pursue, and it’s fascinating.
Full Moons and Eclipses – Stonehenge and the 56 Aubrey Holes
Let’s go beyond a woman’s monthly period here. Or her ‘moonthly’ period! (If you ever wondered where all these words come from, just think about the history of language as a virus.)
Astronomer and Professor, Sir Fred Hoyle, thought the 56 Aubrey Holes – the first Stonehenge circle – could predict eclipses and lunar phases like the Full Moon. The leading Stonehenge cultural astronomy/astrology authority Robin Heath agrees with him.
Vedic or Indian astrologers use 28 Nakshatras or ‘Mansions of the Moon’ and that number is exactly doubled by the 56 holes.
Why do lunar phases, like a Full Moon, matter? Because if they fall in the same zodiac signs and houses as the big, slow-moving, outer planets – we see big change.
John Aubrey, Pisces Extraordinaire
Maybe this kind of prediction and synchronicity was also taking place at Stonehenge as far back as the digging of the Aubrey Holes – the first circle.
These were discovered by John Aubrey, a Piscean – the man who gave King Charles II a tour of Avebury and the author of Miscellanies, in 1696, a book about angels, spirits, prophecies and people with second sight.
Aubrey was fixated with these holes in the ground! These pits. Perhaps his Pisces psychic abilities were telling him something we should pay more attention to, today. It’s the trilithons (the big stones in the middle) that get the attention. The megaliths. Yet, it’s the holes that tell the astrology story about Moon cycles.
Oral History and the Moon
The word ‘moon’ comes from ‘mona’ pre 725AD. This sound M/O is still with us today in the form of Monday, Mother, mom, moods (associated with Cancer and the Moon) and the M/Vowel/N sound is with us in menstruation and also monthly period (again, associated with the Moon and Cancer because of the 28 shapes that the Moon throws in a regular cycle every month/moonth – in synch with the 28 days of a woman’s monthly period.
Mood swings are associated with menstruation. I can’t help but wonder if cattle have something to do with this as well – when the ancients called their cows in, where they imitating their ‘moo’ and is the association between cows/milk also part of the word-map of Moon, mothers and Cancer? We are dealing with pre-history here, but language travels through time.
Aboriginal Names for the Planets
The first Australians had different names for planets which could be seen with the naked eye – depending on their tribe. The University of Western Sydney tells us that Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were all known to Aborigines.
Venus had three names – all different – in Arnhem Land, Victoria and the Western Desert. In Arnhem Land, Venus is associated with death and known as Barnumbir. Venus is used in a ceremony with ‘morning star poles’ some of which are in the Australian Museum in Sydney.
The Sun was a woman to some tribes. The Moon was a man. This is a reversal of the modern astrological view – Sun as male/father and Moon as female/mother.
The Zodiac Sign of Scorpio and the First Australians
According to Charles Mountford (University of Western Sydney) the Australian winter sky map featured Scorpio among other constellations. This was a seasonal sky map which helped with food supply. So on opposite ends of the earth, thousands of years apart, the Europeans and first Australians were seeing similar patterns though for different reasons.
The Southern Cross
The Southern Cross was known as an eagle, pair of fishermen, stingray, or possum depending on which part of Australia Aboriginal people were from (Australian Geographic).
Eclipses in Australian History
Aboriginal people also knew (and feared) solar and lunar eclipses according to studies done at Macquarie University, Sydney. A powerful or clever man would protect the people from the evil of an eclipse, chanting and throwing sacred objects at the Sun.
Now, let’s look at the December Solstice side of Stonehenge and other stone circles which line up with the standstill of the Sun, around Christmas.
There is something utterly natural about astrology. It is the ‘supernatural’ side of life, which accompanies the natural world. The Ancients used the stars behind the Sun at December Solstice as a memory-jogging device. They fancied it looked like a mountain goat, symbolic of climbing, patience, ambition and staying power.
Digging into the ‘Capricorn-ness’ of December from the natural world point of view is very interesting.
Today, December Solstice (just before Christmas Day) is also a time of hirings, firings, redundancies, promotions and reshuffles. It is also the time that Her Majesty the Queen makes her Christmas Speech. An annual reminder of the hierarchy that is the British class system with the British Royal Family and the monarch at the top, with her heirs climbing patiently up behind her.
This brings us back to 1777, 1778 and the December Solstice experienced by the first Australians. Today we would say it was about Capricorn weather. The elite. The ambitious. The system. The hierarchy. As day follows night, when the Sun is in Capricorn we also see a Full Moon in Cancer. The family. The land. The clan. The homeland.
Stone circles which mark solstice have epic stories to tell, in history and astrology, about Capricorn the mountain goat and Cancer the crab – those themes – those ideas.
How do the Capricorn Sun Solstices Affect Your Horoscope?
In December 2019 the sun stands still, at Winter Solstice in Britain, in the zodiac sign of Capricorn the goat. Just a few days before Christmas, the most serious Capricorn weather in over 240 years begins. Now, that is nothing compared to the great age of the Stonehenge monument, but it does matter to your personal birth chart but also your Sun Sign or solar chart.
Why? Because it’s not just the Sun. As 2019 ends and 2020 begins we are seeing Ceres, Pluto, Saturn and the South Node line up in Capricorn too – along with Jupiter. This is a massive period of transformation for the people at the top. Prime Ministers and Presidents. Big business. The police. The authorities. The Royal Families of the world.
Of course, in Australia, this will be the Summer Solstice of December 2019, as January 2020 comes closer. Yet on either side of the earth you are going to experience a major spotlight on the big transition of the next decade. Where? How? Find your sign, below. This is where, by January 2020, you will experience big life lessons. Tremendous solutions. A change in the balance of power. A new order, or new arrangement in your life.
Aries: Career. Taurus: Travel. Gemini: Finance. Cancer: Partners. Leo: Health. Virgo: Children. Libra: Home. Scorpio: Internet. Sagittarius: Money. Capricorn: Image. Aquarius: Spirituality. Pisces: Friends.
Your Capricorn Factors and December Solstice 2019
If you do have Capricorn factors in your natal or personal birth chart then December 2019 through January 2020 will see reshuffles, mergers, departures, promotions, hirings, firings and the rest directly affect your own career, studies or unpaid work. Just watch!
How Astrology Works at Stonehenge at Winter Solstice
Again, at the most basic level, at Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice in Britain, thousands of people leave home, with their families, to take holidays in and around Stonehenge. So they can line up and watch each solstice. In this they are doing exactly what the ancients did thousands of years ago. Leaving home, with their families, to walk to Wiltshire for the feast – for the event.
This really is astrology in action. And it doesn’t matter if the ancients did or did not make any connection at all between Cancer themes about home and family – and late June – we can see it working today. And that’s the peculiar way in which astrology works!
People who visit Stonehenge say they feel a powerful and moving connection with their ancestors. They are experiencing pure Cancer emotion when they go there. The past. Their roots. Their heritage.
What survives as oral history in the form of ‘words most popular’ (or ‘words most crucial to survival’) comes to us today from what’s called Indo-European language. It’s late Stone Age and it’s post 5000 BC.
Menses is from 1590s Latin, the plural of mensis – month. Or moonth.
So, 28 nights (typically) of a woman’s monthly menstrual period correlate/correspond with the 28 nights of a full Moon cycle, from New to Full. Double that and we have 56 Aubrey Holes.
Counting Day and Night at Stonehenge – Women’s Periods and Prediction
It’s approximate. Give or take a day. But then, as any woman or doctor will tell you, a period can be approximate. This isn’t rocket science. But it is ancient moon-watching. And likely, period watching. You’ll never see dry male historians, cultural astronomers or archeologists writing about this in their books – and most of the books are written by men – but a woman’s period, in those ancient tribes, must have been quite a dramatic event. One worth watching and recording.
And pregnancy? The greatest human drama of all. At some point, someone, somewhere, very likely a woman or girl, made the connection between the changing shape of the Moon at night and the changing shape of her stomach, holding a baby, or the changing nature of her womb, bleeding from month, to month.
Today, the Moon still rules mothers, it still rules the menstrual cycle and it also rules pregnancy. From this we get families, the family tree, the clan, the home – and I am sure you know that the Moon rules Cancer. So again, with Stonehenge, we come back to this zodiac sign, but for different reasons. There is powerful synchronicity here! Quirky time. Meaningful connections across time. You have to wonder where Cancer’s connection with motherhood and her rulership by the Moon comes from. The answer may come from prehistory, at Stonehenge. Word of mouth, passed down generation to generation, until we reach the written word and the rise and rise of astrology.
The Tropic of Cancer
The Tropic of Cancer is north of the equator. As we know, Cancer and Capricorn are opposite signs, facing off each other in the horoscope. At the June solstice, at the end of the third week of June, the Sun points in that direction – or it did. The precession of the equinox means the June solstice finds the Sun in quite another sign. Again, as astrology is a fixed, symbolic, system – astrologers pay no heed. There are no lines in the sky, as the astrologer Sue Tompkins has said. There are no lines in th sea either! These are useful markers for us.
One is for sailors the other for astrologers, yet as we sail a different kind of time (circular time) it is also important for us to know about these solstices in the zodiac signs of Cancer and Capricorn. How is your chart affected?
The Stonehenge and Avebury Astrology Walk featuring Jessica Adams, Amazon number one bestselling author and astrologer Maggie Hyde, award-winning astrologer Sharon Knight, household name astrologer and author Penny Thornton and other very special guests, will be launched on July 15th 2019 at The Astrological Lodge of London with a special Summer Party and Stonehenge pizza selection.
All welcome. Please bring your pendulum if you have one and an open mind. For more information about our launch, the party and this wonderful new audio tour of both stone circles, please follow @jessicacadams on Twitter for exclusive updates and for booking information visit www.astrolodge.co.uk
A virtual image of Stonehenge moving through time and space is at Stonehenge Skyscape – new for 2019.
The North Node in Cancer, triggered by the Stonehenge Summer Solstice Astrology of June 2019, is here.
Read all about the North Node and South Node of karma in your personal birth chart here.
Specific Predictions about 2019 and 2020 using the Nodes here!
If you have a stellium in Aquarius (more than three factors in that zodiac sign) then your Eleventh House of friendships and groups is unusually packed. What happens to those friendships when Saturn, Jupiter and then Pluto all pass through Aquarius? Have friends been lost, or has the friendship changed? That’s typical of this long cycle.
The NHS was founded on 5th July 1948 in London with an astrological chart that shows a complete replacement in 2022 and 2023. The horoscope for the National Health Service reveals a perfect storm that will affect nurses, doctors and patients.
Astrology forecasts made before an historic chain of eclipses chimed with predictions of drama for the Royal Family, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump – and a strange twist of fate involving Lolita. Published so long ago that Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were still unknown to the public, they now suggest July-August 2021 is a time of reckoning. Meghan, Harry, Kate and William have also been drawn into the astrological timeline. How do the Leo eclipses pan out in 2021 and 2022?
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9 Responses
Hey Jessica! I love that you put out so much great content for users to read through, as I have been soaking up information as fast as I can! I recently finished this post as well as the part 1 and 2 series about the Capricorn effect after realizing that my North node is Capricorn and my South node is in cancer (opposite of the current nodes) and that Uranus and Neptune are both in Capricorn (I believe a conjunction?) I also have Pluto in Scorpio, and Uranus and Neptune are both square to my Ascendant (Libra) … this makes me so nervous about the year 2020 for me as I don’t quite have a good understanding of what all of it means for me personally. I have been doing some intense internal work for the past two years and honestly, I am quite exhausted from it all. I am so ready for some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Do you mind taking a peek at my birth chart and giving me some insight into this?? I would appreciate it so much! It all just seems so scary as I’m a single mom supporting three children but I am absolutely miserable with the current work I do. Thank you for your time!
I wanted to clarify that I meant “work” as in my paid work, my 9-5. I Absolutely LOVE being a mother. Just so we are clear!
You are speaking your chart here, as Cancer rules motherhood and children, and of course Capricorn rules work and ambition. You are doing this alone, so you are one of life’s heroines! I am sure you are pretty tired out, as you have been going through extreme Cancer-Capricorn weather for a very long time. In fact, you are here to complete karma from the years 2000, 1981 and also into past lives – as the Nodes go back through 19 year cycles. In Cancer one is about paying your dues, and having dues paid to you, as a mother – this also involves your own mother or grandmother. In Capricorn it is about social position (being a single mother versus being a wife, for example) and also career – loving or loathing your work. You want light at the end of the tunnel. You will find solutions, big answers, sweeping progress and excellent, strong outcomes from December 2019, as Jupiter the ‘fixer’ of astrology moves into Capricorn. I am not saying that working through karma is easy, particularly as one child knew you before in a previous life, likely as a parent to you, as a child. Yet, that moment will come eventually and you will be stunned at how different life looks and feels from Christmas 2020 in particular. You get a break before then, so do watch December 2019, January 2020 for new job or retraining opportunities, new chances to reshape your lifestyle, workload and so on. In the meantime do use your Tarot, Astrology Oracle cards and the new journal Justin Tabari has designed so beautifully for July, August and September. All this ‘me’ work should be lightened by the resources here, so do use them, get the most from membership and ease your path.
It’s fascinating and yet intriguing to me reading the hypothesis about Stonehenge and the fact that you touched on the cycles of women and their menstrual cycles, this is all true but the fact is not only the moon and its twice cycle being the gestational period of a pregnancy, the stones themselves have the coming of age (soil ready), making love (planting of fertilized seed), woman is with child (abundant and bountiful) also shows the way her body grows with the life inside, it pinpoints key markers for first, second and third trimester..and it shows the way her body labors and opens for the babys head as it decends and crowns through the entire birth. It even depicts cutting the umbilical cord ..the stones have a presence, imprinted memories if you will, of our past ancestors and their journey to motherhood. “Set in stone”, in the event that her mother or grandmother wasn’t by her at the birthing. It also harbors the true and deep pain associated with laboring without pain medication or epidurals to the actual pushing of birth itself and the triumphs or at times the fatalities suffered by both mother and child. It’s beautiful without having spoken a single word … I’m deeply moved.
So interesting! Thank you for this. I love ‘set in stone’ – we have to wonder where that phrase comes from – beyond the laying of foundation stones in the mostly male building industry. Avebury has also been compared to the female form. It certainly looks like the origins of these stone circles and circles of holes – and perhaps the hills and mounds – are about women not men. They may have been created by women.
Hi Jessica and thank you again for another great article. There was so much information I had to read it 3 times to take it all in!
Stonehenge has always been a place that has fascinated me and reading this has whisked me back in time to the 60s and 70s to my childhood, when the family would take the annual 2 day-long pilgrimage to the West Country for a month of sailing, swimming, fishing and all things to do with the sea; staying in a rented Cornish Country Cottage.
The roads, along with cars were more basic back then so the journey would take 2 days from London with an overnight break close to Stonehenge. It was so exciting that second morning of the trip as we would visit Stonehenge. This was in the time when you could freely walk around the site.
I remember when I was about 9 or 10 touching one of the stones with an outstretched palm to see if I could sense anything. Nothing happened. Which was a relief in a way, as the information that you would get through tv, radio, magazines and schoolbooks implied that Stonehenge was a rather scary place full of blood-soaked sacrifices and chanting druids. If anything the stone felt surprisingly warm for 9am on a cloudy morning and pleasant to the touch like warm sand, or stroking a cat.
I prefer the idea of Stonehenge being like a Celestial Calendar where the solstices could be observed and people would gather and celebrate, perhaps it was like a Stone-age Glastonbury.
I was fascinated to read about the Aubrey holes in your article, as I understand it the Aubrey holes date back to 5000 to 3000 BC and the Stone part of Stonehenge dates to 2500 BC. I was wondering if the time of the Aubrey holes dated back to the middle stone-age Hunter-Gatherer societies which were more egalitarian when men and women would be seen as equal and it was the Moon rather than the sun that was revered. The Stone part of Stonehenge being later and related to the Agrarian period that followed which was more male-dominated and observed the Sun rather than the Moon.
I also noticed the pregnancy connection like Angela above after reading your observations on the 56 Aubrey holes corresponding to a woman’s monthly cycle. I love the idea that the 56 points (which may have contained timber posts) being used for fertility or maybe contraception purposes.
As Angela has mentioned the 56 points could be used to mark out the phases of a pregnancy, 56 dividing into 280 (40 weeks of 7 days, 40×70) rather nicely to give 5 phases of 8 weeks. In our present time we see pregnancy in trimesters but this is more about the development of the foetus/baby with knowledge gained from X-rays (in the 50s and 60s) and Ultrasound from the 80s onwards and less about the changes the mother goes through. I can imagine stone-age wise-women/midwives making observations more on the mother.
At 8 weeks the mother may have realised she is pregnant with 2 missed periods and the start of symptoms such as morning sickness.
By 16 weeks the chances of a miscarriage fall to about 1%
17-24 weeks you feel the baby’s first kicks and hopefully the sickness settles.
25-32 weeks lots of baby movement and mums often have lots of energy.
33-40 weeks getting bigger and more tired.
Maybe timing the pregnancy would allow the Wise-women to help the mothers better with symptoms or altering diet in the various phases.
I am really looking forward to your Stonehenge podcast and many thanks again for a great article.
Oh, this is fascinating. Do I have your permission to quote from your reply for our new podcast? I want it to come from readers as well as experts, because Avebury and Stonehenge were created by all of us, for all of us. How would you feel about that? You would be credited as ‘a reader’ unless you prefer your real name – calling herself ‘Soup Dragon.’
Thank you so very much, I am very flattered and would love that.
I chose the name Soup-Dragon as I always liked the cute green dragon in the Clangers tv series. Like her I like to provide for and feed people, maybe my cancer stellium (I think I have one).
I don’t know if my real name is preferred as that would be Jennifer W. I prefer not to mention the surname as I like anonymity on the internet especially after the Nostradamus Trump article as I got irrationally scared then that your website was going to get hacked and names and addresses would be found. Thankfully this never happened and was my imagination getting carried away (again).
I was going to write a bit more about Stone Circles and the West Country but feel a bit deflated at the moment as England lost to USA in the world cup, but they were the better team. Maybe England got “eclipsed” literally.
Thank you Soup Dragon. We will just use ‘Jennifer’ on the podcast. My website can’t be trawled like that, so rest easy. It’s interesting about England losing to America in the football. I was watching Argentina versus Brazil. The eclipse sent Argentina dark. That game was a cover-up!
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