Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Ganeshaspeaks.com: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly

Ganesha is the Hindu god of prosperity, a friendly and jovial god with an elephant's head. I enjoy Ganeshaspeaks.com horoscopes -- generated in India -- because, starting with the home page, readers are offered a huge range of choices: daily, weekly (my favorite), monthly, and annual scopes, and also love-match-by-sign scopes, all free. Also one may register and enter birth information and receive for free a current biorhythm chart or one's "lucky direction," among other fun things. For a fee you may consult with the very serious-looking Ganeshaspeaks team of astrologers. They write and post blogs about current astrological conditions and how they affect business, stocks, or sports.

If Vedic astrological principles and predictions are strange to you, there is more than enough Western-style or "zodiac" astrology on on the site so that those who never heard of Rahu and Ketu can skip it and still experience the site's generosity and richness. The Vedic stuff is always there should you want to check it out. Although the daily and weekly zodiac scopes are brief, in my experience they have proven to be right on the mark and very pleasant reading. Because it's generated in India, if you live in North America be sure to consult your daily Ganeshaspeaks.com readings in the early half of your day, because at about noon the next day's horoscope will be posted and there are no archives. I happen to like looking a day ahead at what Ganesha is planning for me.

Make a visit to GaneshaSpeaks.com and see for yourself. Three and a half stars out of five.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Eastrolog.com: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Annual

Eastrolog.com, by "professional European astrologers" who are never named, in fact comes from a site based in Utah, U.S.A., and almost certainly the "European" astrologer/writer is Valentin Dragu-Banu, a Romanian translator and webmaster for whom English is clearly a second language. Eastrolog.com has a homepage with advice for all signs; individual daily, monthly, and yearly horoscopes; and Sun-sign compatibility notes. The site is easy to navigate. Its advice, however, takes a brusque, no-frills approach which can feel refreshing but more often feels like someone wagging a finger in your face. Sample daily scope, Aquarius, July 25, 2010:

"The results of your efforts at work over the last period of time will start showing. You will have the opportunity to assert yourself in society, but the tense atmosphere around you will not work in your favour.

You are advised to avoid meeting with friends today, for you might easily be involved in a quarrel.

You'd better avoid driving today, for you are prone to causing an accident."

Good to know. However, about half the time Eastrolog sounds like a Chinese menu. For example:

"Aquarius’ Love & Relationships Horoscope In July 2010

In your relational life there are two significant directions: one of them highlights shared intellectual preoccupations and communication, and the other highlights an increase of the interest in sexuality, not for the pleasure in itself, but for the influence it can have on the harmony in the couple.

The conclusion can be that July 2010 might be an excellent month to discuss with the partner various aspects of eroticism, maybe even have an update of the knowledge in the field."

Dragu knows what's going on in the sky, but Eastrolog is not good counsel for a casual horoscope fan or one who needs guidance more complex or nuanced. Dragu is a professional translator and it sounds as if the "Love and Relationship" scope above was run through translation software. Nonetheless I check Eastrolog occasionally, particularly when I'm impatient to read "tomorrow's" horoscope. Two stars out of five.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Georgia Nicols: Daily, Weekly

Advertised as "Canada's most popular astrologer," Georgia Nicols is a former theater critic who's got a way with snappy one-liners and sassy innuendo. Her daily forecasts score high on entertainment value. Based in Vancouver, Nicols writes a daily horoscope that appears online and in many Canadian newspapers, and offers a free weekly column by email. Her monthly columns appear in magazines such as Elle.

Daily forecasts for all 12 signs appear on her homepage, www.georgianicols.com, and that page links also to her forecasts for "yesterday" and "tomorrow"--a feature I love, offered by too few astrologers.

Nicols appears to be unique among popular astrologers in attending to "moon void" periods. To greatly simplify, I will explain: The moon changes zodiac signs every two days. When it's between one sign and the next it is said "the moon is void-of-course," and it can remain so for a couple of minutes to several hours. Astrological tradition has it that "nothing will come" of plans hatched under a void-of-course moon: first dates may fizzle, meetings end in stalemates, and major purchases prove unsatisfactory. At the very least, confusion is likely. Nicols' warning is limited to (example from July 18, 2010): "Avoid shopping or making important decisions from 10:15 a.m. until 2 p.m. EDT today." She adds, "After that, the Moon moves from Libra into Scorpio." Those were facts, which is more than you can read in some daily horoscopes.

In my experience, the "moon-void" effect is real. If you're not in the Eastern Daylight time zone (EDT), correct for it and you will have your own personal "moon void" consultant in Georgia Nicols. I find her "moon-void" note the most useful thing about her horoscope.

Nicols offers Sun-sign forecasts for the calendar year for $11.95, donating 90 percent of the receipts to a Tibetan refugee school in Nepal.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Michael Lutin's Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Horoscopes, Plus More

Michael Lutin used to write the witty and knowledgeable horoscopes for Vanity Fair, and that's how I became his devotee. Michaellutin.com just got a makeover, much for the better, but to see your "Daily Fix" you must still scroll down the home page. "Daily Fix" is blanket advice for all signs, based the day's most powerful planetary energies. I find this helpful and feel secure because Mikey knows his ephemeris. Daily Fix messages are often riddled with typos probably because busy "Mikey" lives in fast-paced NYC, but you'll know what he means.

Find Lutin's "Next Week in Review" scopes -- for all twelve signs -- through the menu buttons on the left. They usually are refreshed late Monday or early Tuesday. I take them seriously. Lutin's "Your Monthly" predictions are a single paragraph, except for the sign concurrent with the Sun, and not as helpful. My bookmark is on the Daily Fix.

On the homepage's right side are the premium offerings. For $15 Mikey will email you his interpretation of, say, Saturn leaving Virgo for Libra and what it will mean to your Sun sign. I ordered one and felt it was not worth $15. For free, and to get a sense of who Michael Lutin is, see his five-minute YouTube video on Pluto in Capricorn. He believes it means "you're (all of us) under surveillance," and "the party's over" -- and he's so right. Four stars out of five.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Who is Sylvia?

An Aquarius with a Scorpio ascendant and 12th-house Scorpio moon conjunct Neptune, I began studying astrology in 1976. I monitor 70-plus online horoscope sites and cast and interpret natal, transit, horary, and compatibility charts. For two and a half years I wrote a monthly astrology column using the name Sylvia Sky, and I published an article on The Grand Cross in American Astrology under my real name. My Pluto is at Midheaven conjunct Regulus. I'm also a trained media professional and writer, and live in the U.S.A.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Monthly: Astrologyzone.com

Let's start with my absolute favorite monthly horoscope, Susan Miller's astrologyzone.com. Miller's a certified astrologer with a huge following because she writes lengthy, detailed, highly specific monthly forecasts for each sign for free. They appear around the first of the month, and they are so good that another horoscope site, which does fairly good daily and weekly scopes, www.dailyscopes.com, refers you to Miller's site for monthly forecasts.

Miller offers daily horoscopes by email for $4.95, and I'm tempted, but by searching I thought I'd found a place where I could read them for free. I was wrong. When writing monthly forecasts Miller will refer to the reader, distinctively, as "dear Aquarius" (or "dear Virgo," or whatever). I'd found a daily scope that used the "dear" and sounded so much like Miller I was convinced. But Miller assures me that those are not her scopes; they are the work of imitators.

One year I ordered Miller's wall calendar but did not like the dark and swampish New Age paintings that served as their illustrations. But Susan Miller, astrologer, has my total respect and -- trust me -- that's saying a lot. Five stars out of five, especially for those two-thousand-word monthly scopes!