Proteus Astrology

26/10/2025

That Orpheus connection

Saturn has been in Pisces since 2023 and that has helped to bring the cold harder edge of reality. It has steadied some of the Neptunian mish-mash and given it form and discipline again, so we can see at least the problems that having no boundaries creates. Now we can see where to go forward when it returns with Neptune to Aries with that grand conjunction waiting to happen on February 20th, 2026.

But from October 22nd to January 26th Neptune’s does this parting glance to its own sign. This last episode is reminiscent of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. We have been travelling through hell- the underworld is a symbol of the unconscious mind- and something has to be lost and left behind. But the more we regret what's gone, the less able we are to move on. Looking back can cause things to wither and die. It is double edged as we need to learn from past mistakes while at the same time keeping our eye on the goal of a better world and that requires intense vigilant focus as good and bad in equal measure can be created by casual everyday thoughts. Mercury too can have this ability to travel in the underworld and he is there now in Scorpio unearthing stories that will go big when he arrives in Sagittarius on 30th October.

But just to recap the story: Orpheus’ wife Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died, so a distraught Orpheus travelled into the underworld to Hades to bring her back alive. He sang and played his lyre to Hades and Persephone the King and Queen and persuaded them to deliver her back to life. He was granted his wish, but there were conditions to follow. He was ordered ‘never to look back’ on his way out of hell, as if he did, he would forfeit his wife forever and lose her.

He passed through the Stygian realm, passed many dead souls and ghosts of the unknown on the way (very much like that last degree of Pisces). But Orpheus was unable to maintain his focus forward. He turned back and looked. Eurydice was gone. This is something we all may need to be wary of during these last months of 2025. There is an Asteroid Orpheus and what I find interesting is that it will reach the Galactic Centre by the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in February 2026.

Changes in 2025 have been profound and even disturbing, but they’re not over yet. I found a message on Instagram that said ‘May the last months of 2025 be the best plot twist your life wasn’t expecting’. That can go either way.

Neptune stays at the anaretic degree of 29° for almost 3 months- even when it moves forward on December 11th, it does so only by minutes at a time staying at this degree until January 26th.

Image; 'The Death of Orpheus', Jean Delville (1893)

#2025

24/10/2025

A brief look at Neptune returning to Pisces and the beginning of the Scorpio season.

1: The Parting Glance Neptune dipped back into Pisces yesterday and it has been non-stop rain in the UK. This will be the last time it does that for the next 165 years so what does that mean? This …

23/09/2025

This article is the result of a recent journey to Vietnam. It combines travelogue with astrological analysis, geodetics, astro-cartography and a number of photographs I took. It's in five sections which can be read in a sequence, or separately. They are thematically interlinked, but say you wanted to read about Geodetics or Naht Hahn first then go to that section and backtrack as needed. The sections do all come together like tiles in a mosaic. There is the Vietnam chart, Ho Chi Minh's chart and the chart of Thich Nhat Hahn.

https://proteusastrology.co.uk/2025/09/23/red-river-under-a-blood-moon-the-astrology-of-vietnam/

1: On the Trail of the Red River 2: The Status of Astrology in Vietnam 3: Travelling and Astro-Cartography 4: The Geodetic Lines across Asia 5: The Natal Chart of Vietnam 6: ‘Uncle Ho’ …

12/09/2025

Final page of the travel diary: Typhoons in Asia are known to be fierce. On the morning I was due to visit Ha Long Bay, the port authority snapped into action and closed the port. Typhoon Kajiki was blasting inland from the Gulf of Tonkin causing widespread torrential rain that submerged cars-3 dead and 13 injured. It was not safe. The port was summarily closed. I had to go to Ninh Binh instead two hours south but at least inland. Tensions were still high at High Long because on July 19th a boat of tourists overturned in a flash thunderstorm and 39 people perished. Only 10 survived, one of whom was a 14 year old boy who was trapped for over four hours in the capsized boat. The boat was called ‘The Wonder Sea’.

The Gulf of Tonkin is infamous also for the alleged attack in August of 1964 which provoked the US to attack the Communist North Vietnamese, thus officially beginning the Vietnam War. This lasted over a decade of bloody conflicts and indiscriminate use of weaponry and massive loss of lives. The very same Naval Admiral George Morrison involved in relaying the false messages was none other than the father of Jim Morrison, charismatic singer of the Doors, a fact that has puzzled many commentators.

Yet Ha Long which means ‘descending dragon’ is one of the world’s most famous beauty spots and is a magnificent seascape formed of almost two thousand limestone karst formation islets that look like towers jutting from the sea. I finally got there in September. It also has enormous stalactite-stalagmite caves and sailing though it feels like truly a different world. These trips take place every day without hitch though a thunderstorm did start grumbling just as I started swimming at Titop island and the sky became dark, mysterious and with a brooding sky. Binh

06/09/2025

Another page from the travel diary .My Son -pronounced Meezon is about 60k outside Hoi An and it is squirrelled away in a hidden valley much like the garden of Eden and a mountain the same shape as the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ it is a serene place of little steams and lotus ponds. My Son means ‘beautiful mountain’ - and there are remains mainly of the brick temples- the one made of stone is more or less a ruin. Whoever said that My Son is the Angkor Wot of Vietnam is exaggerating for effect- so let’s get this out of the way. There is no comparison between the size and scale of Angkor Wot to this little enclave of ruined temples here in Vietnam. It can all be done in a couple of hours. The style of using brick is similar, and that there are Shiva statues and shiva-lingams- worth touching if you want to increase your power. It is a beautiful spot and there is a dance performance of the Champa people. The Champa people at My Son built the ruined Hindu temples and their flower is the morning glory. They wrote in Sanskrit and followed a matrilinear line in families. They worshipped Shiva Brahma and Ganesha but were eventually forced to convert to Islam but they never gave up their Hindu practices. Son

04/09/2025

Travel Diary Page 6: As soon as I heard of An Bang as a ‘City of Ghosts’ I became excited and wanted to visit. It’s off the beaten track a bit, 20k outside Hue and not so well known. I was the only ‘living’ person there. it is hard to believe this riot of sculpture and architecture is primarily a celebration of death. Vietnamese people venerate ancestors so much they leave food on their ancestor shrines but the money to build all these structures comes from Vietnamese who left Vietnam, earned money outside the country and then returned to settle again. There are a lot of handsome villas being built nearby as if they want to be close to their dead relatives. This is more than just a cemetery it is a Necropolis- that's the correct term. The only other one I’ve seen this vast is in Havana all very Christian, but all the colourful dragons, lions and pagoda-like structures here are all very Buddhist. People come to talk to their dead ones here- and I imagine it is spooky as hell at night so I’d like to return to do that. Broken pieces of pottery would crunch underfoot like human bones. Whoever made the ground plan must have been on mushrooms as each tomb intrudes on each other’s space in an irrational layout making it easy to get lost. The brashness of style, the riot of colours is in stark contrast to some other cemeteries in a Vietnam which are ‘haunted by an army of hungry wandering souls’. These are the ‘con ma’ spirits, the residue of deaths from the wars and all the bodies that disappeared and never received a proper burial or were honoured by one of these exuberant tombs. It's an incredible, unusual place full of crazy looking memorials all competing with each other for attention in the afterlife and it covers a huge area hence the name ‘City of Ghosts’

02/09/2025

Yet another mausoleum- this one the Kiah Dinh tomb- is far more in your face compared to the more subtle Tu Duc. This one is more bumptious and Baroque and has rows of human sized stone soldiers guarding the throne. 100 steps to the top There are incredible views of the surrounding hills.

31/08/2025

Another page from the travel diary.....I am now in central Vietnam, this is the lush green setting of the Tu Duc Mausoleum in Hue, Vietnam. I am sure at least one of these tombs is haunted. Tu Duc's mother was 91 when she passed, but I got the feeling she is still there, maybe? Her tomb is the darkest in tone and mood with all its tropical wood pillars. Tu Duc himself was a poet who remained childless and that is evident in his choice of location, all done with impeccable taste and reverence for Feng Shui principles, in a gorgeous lakeside area.

28/08/2025

Travel Diary Page 3: Hanoi (between two rivers) Sometimes it is just the random shots taken that give you the best flavour, colour, noise, texture, tastes and sensations of a place. HaNoi is quite photogenic in that way. It has charm and allure even in a typhoon, even if the traffic is chaotic and maddening and the people live their lives on the streets- all quite openly, there is also the feeling that it is still haunted by its past and the leadership of Ho Chi Minh who some say was more a patriot than a communist. Interesting that he died on the very same day, 2nd September, that Vietnamese Independence was declared as if his dharma - his task in life - had come full circle like an Ourouboros serpent. The book by Mai Lan Gustafson goes into these notions ‘War and Shadows: the Haunting of Vietnam‘ about spirit possessions and ‘angry’ ghosts, how that darkness and deprivation lives on in mental health disorders and strange illnesses. It is all fascinating but one thing stands out - that the people of Hanoi love their food- the Bun Cha in all its varieties. Eat up!

26/08/2025

Travel Diary Page 2: What could be simpler? Propelled by a local woman who is lightly paddling and steering a simple boat made of bamboo, yet you are transported to this other worldly landscape of numerous limestone outcrops with lush green foliage and soft fluffy green river weeds just below the surface of the tranquil water. A swim here would be a healing experience for sure in the soothing water. As you enter the caves you are warned to duck your head in case you hit it on a dripping stalactite -and the air goes clammy and stuffy in the caves making it a nice darkness to light experience when you finally breathe fresh air again at the mouth of the cave. Magical. Remember to tip the rower, even if you row yourself with her, as they don’t get paid much. On a bamboo boat on the Tam Coc river in the Mua Caves in Ninh Binh.

25/08/2025

Page from the travel diary: The astrological events brought in the chaos of the Uranus square to the New Moon in Virgo at zero degrees. I was half expecting it, but anticipating the unexpected is near impossible with Uranus- so I did not know this would happen. Here in Hanoi plans went awry as the port authorities early morning Sunday Aug 3rdclosed the Ha Long Port as being too unsafe- a cyclone was on its way inland- so the trip switched at the last minute to Ninh Binh where I wanted to go anyway. Plus, the traffic in downtown Hanoi was chaotic as the military exercises meant a lot of the streets were closed. So there you go when you ride on a disruption, you end up climbing the Dragon’s peak at Hang Mua. Curiously, the angle from Hanoi to Hang Mua is about 90 degrees outwards from the city centre. At Hang Mua, the rocks are sharp and slippery and the climb is 500 steps, all totally worth it if you can mange that and it is a photographer’s dream location with so many scenic panoramas of the mountains and rice paddies below where the Tam Coc river winds its way along calmly. Here are some of these photos I took. A pagoda marks the halfway point. The goat was actually on the lunch menu.
Jupiter is on the geodetic line through Vietnam for me so it is living up to expectations and offering a wider scope with which to view the world, and compared to the UK it is refreshing to see so much business growth, no net zero madness, people having lots of children, and people proud of their heritage and totally in touch with their ancestors in case their spirits wreak havoc as they are wont to do if they are neglected. The UK should take note. Part 2 of the Travel diary to follow and can be even more amazing at the Mua caves on a bamboo boat.

23/08/2025

There was a time when sages were scholars and scholars were sages and they studied and worshipped at the Temple of Confucius or the Temple of Literature. This is the Van Mieu Temple which has pavilions gardens and courtyards designed for students to do exams where they wrote an essay. Tranquil and contemplative, it is more like a monastery and it's the first time I have seen statues of Confucius on the altars instead of Shiva or Buddha. Still the atmosphere is one of reverence and quietude which is so badly needed in a bustling city like HaNoi. It has its own little lake and restored well. Built in 1070, It has stelae resting on stone turtles which are symbol of patience and resilience. Heavily influenced by the Chinese Imperial Academy system, the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam obliged students to know the classics of poetry and prose and to be able to write essays on ethics and politics and the two do not always combine very well. The story is told of one great teacher who was highly respected but who resigned when the emperor rejected his educational reforms and his critique to restore morality to the civil service. Such honourable behaviour is extremely rare indeed.