Friday February 28th 2003 
          - edited by Bernard Fitzwalter
           This week in Astro News:
            ~ Mercury, Venus and Mars changes ~
          ~ AstroDiary ~
          
          
 
            
          
 
          
          
            
              
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                    WHY is February only 28 days long? It's because of the 
                    ancient Roman calendar – based on lunar cycles, and started 
                    on the new moon in March. This made the years uneven in length, 
                    so February was lengthened or shortened to suit. Sometimes 
                    it had only 24 days! The modern solar calendar keeps it steady 
                    at 28 or 29. 
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                   Three planets change signs in the next few 
                    days. Mercury moves from Aquarius into Pisces, Venus moves 
                    into Aquarius out of Capricorn, and Mars moves into Capricorn, 
                    just after Venus has left. 
                     
                    The planets provide background mood for us. This mood changes 
                    according to how the planets react to the signs they are in. 
                    Mercury enjoys being in Aquarius, because it is a thinking-and-talking 
                    planet, and Aquarius is a very crisp and logical sign. Mercury 
                    is much less happy in Pisces – in fact, he is at his weakest 
                    here. Pisces is much less logical, and more emotional, so 
                    Mercury finds himself getting bogged down. What this means 
                    is that politicians speaking with Mercury in Pisces say things 
                    which are less clearly argued, and rely on emotion rather 
                    than facts for their impact. 
                     
                    Venus' affections are cooled in Aquarius, as they were in 
                    Capricorn, so there's no real change there, but Mars in Capricorn 
                    is massively different from the way he was in Sagittarius. 
                    Mars in Capricorn is at his strongest, able to throw his weight 
                    around. He is god of war, remember, and in Capricorn he has 
                    both the authority and the opportunity he has been waiting 
                    for. A strong Mars and a Mercury that can't think straight 
                    are a destabilising combination in world politics. 
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          ASTRODIARY 
          with Adam Smith 
          
          
            Monday (Mar 3): From Grail Romance to Revelations, Cat Cox. 
            Astrological Lodge of London
            50 Gloucester Place, W1. 7pm. £6 (£3 members); www.astrolodge.co.uk
            
            Tuesday (Mar 4): Suffolk Astrological Society, Black Boy, Guildhall 
            Street, Bury St. Edmunds.
            “The Synastry Grid”, 7:45pm. £3.50/£2.50. www.earthsea.co.uk/sas
          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?
            Send 
            your diary events to Adam at rnb@clara.net 
            with subject heading: Astro Events with website links.
            Please note - we cannot promise to include ALL submissions but will 
            do our best. 
          
            Researcher 
            Seeking Assistance  
          
  Graham Douglas is 
            carrying out research into possible astrological relationships between 
            the births of siblings in the same family. He is looking for sets 
            of birth data for complete sets of brothers and sisters
            of any age. If you are able to help please include date, time and 
            place of birth, gender of the child,
            and (if known) whether or not the birth was natural or induced in 
            any way. 
            A report of the findings will be sent to anyone who requests it, when 
            the investigation is completed.
            The email address to contact is Grammino@Onetel.net.uk 
            Many Thanks for your help. 
          
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