Can there be such a thing as a delayed astrological effect from Mercury retrograde?

The anticipated chaos of Mercury retrograde passed us by without so much as a computer breakdown or a delayed train. But it seems that two weeks later Prediction is being hit by a delayed planetary reaction...

'Mercury retrograde' describes when Mercury, the planet of communication, appears to travel backwards in the sky. This happens about three times a year for a few weeks.

Mercury symbolises: words, travel, computers, transport, post, telephones and, well anything to do with communication. So when the planet turns backwards it slow down, screws up and generally upsets anything to do with these issues.

It happened a few weeks ago on 26th May and ‘went direct’ (finished) on 19th June. It was a particularly noticeable one because it was travelling backward through its own sign, Gemini (also connected with words, communication, computers, talking etc.)

Maybe the reason I’m still feeling it is because I’ve got Mercury in Gemini in my birth-chart. For the past two weeks, almost exactly when Mercury stopped being retrograde, I’ve been waiting to exchange contracts on a new house and everything connected with communications has gone a bit mad. Important things have been lost in the post, I’ve had problems re-directing my mail, travel plans have been delayed, computers have stopped working, alarm clocks fail and I’ve had to re-book so many different services and people that it has become a joke!

Mercury symbolises words, reading and therefore magazines… so it figures that everyone on the mag has suffered with the most random hold-ups and frustrations. Files have disappeared, stuff got deleted by accident, we’ve all been held up by frustrating travel delays from either commuting or driving. We even laid out the plan for the Prediction annual (196 pages) to have a freelancer point out there was no page 50!

Good god, the electricity in the office just went off! The lights, the machines, the lot.

A friend who’s trying to rent his flat had people that didn’t like the colour of the living room (yellow, Mercury’s colour) and I’ve been trying to retrieve things from computer that simply won’t let me open the files. Hands and arms are Mercury’s related parts of the body – and I discovered I’ve got Dupuytren’s Disease - (more dramatic than it sounds, it's a painless, lumpy palm condition).

I can’t even get on to the website to post my blog because it won’t recognise my password!

Has anyone ever heard of a delayed Mercury retrograde effect? Maybe we should post Prediction's birth chart and look at what's going on there...

Art Editor's Prediction on who will win Euro 2008

I like football and although I am not a fan of any clubs in particular, I do always watch the European cup as well as the World cup. My prediction for Euro 2008 is that Croatia will win. I have no explanation for this except that I have a gut feeling. I could be way off base with this one although I do think they have been playing very well. What I will say though the last time I had a gut feeling about a football championship was the 98 World cup in which I was sure France would win and of course they did in a big bad way against Brazil 3-0! Now I will also say that I was/am a big supporter of the French team and in all honesty wanted them to win. I have no attachment to Croatia but have a good feeling about them. There you have it. Take it for what its worth but at least if I put it out there and they do win I can prove that I predicted it. Having said that, I take no responsibility should they lose and you have placed a bet for them to win.
Happy watching

"Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or are we wake-walking through our dreams?"

This is the question posed by the intriguing film Waking Life. The film is set inside the dream of a man who slowly discovers he is dreaming but cannot wake up, he realises he can fly and meets all sorts of dream characters along the way.

I'm not usually into animation films but this is unique.The changing types of animation reflect (to me personally) our varying levels of consciousness and awareness. The film is more like a documentary with interesting philosophical asides and existential questions like what happens when we die? What is reality? Can we control our dreams? What is consciousness?

I have experienced lucid dreaming several times but this film set me off thinking about the true potential of this phenomena and what it means. Waking Life leads you to ask yourself many questions about your own existence. I ended up pondering these thoughts for the rest of the evening, nodding along as my boyfriend tried to explain football or cricket or some such, while I secretly pondered the true potential of us as human beings and what our purpose is on this planet.

This is a refreshing movie and a great way to get your mind ticking over some seriously interesting issues. I think I will probably have to watch it a few more times to actually get the full benefit. One quote I liked was, "They say that dreams are only real as long as they last. Couldn't you say the same thing about life?"

If you watch it please leave a comment and let us know what you think. You can see a trailer for the film below.

Who'll win the European Cup? Everyone expects us to know the answer!

There’s a sweepstake running in the office, for the winner of the European Cup. We had to pick the teams out of a hat with our eyes closed. As often happens with us, we were accused of cheating, like we just know who’s going to win and could magnetically charm the bits of paper in the hat into our magic hands. Couldn’t have worked though because Jemma picked Switzerland. But suspiciously I ended up with Croatia, who’re apparently quite good.

Sometimes we get asked to pick the winner of sporting events – once we were asked to do the horoscopes for all the rugby coaches in the Rugby World Cup, which was fun, and pretty accurate as it worked out. And another time we were asked to predict the winners of the England/Argentina game in the World Cup 2002 - and to name the winning goal scorer. We predicted England - and David Beckham - whose Mars (planet of action, sport and glory) was in a particularly favourable position in his horoscope. He also happened to be one of the only footballers we’d ever heard of, but that was just a coincidence.

Stay tuned for our Predictions on the football… we’re just working out the best method of divination. Crystal ball seems most appropriate at the moment.

In the meantime, this guy’s got it sussed… loved the bit about how to place a curse on the opposing team!

http://www.psychics.co.uk/sport/football.html

Friday 13th is known as an eerie day when you have to be on your guard. But should you stay at home with all the doors locked or carry on as normal?

Friday 13th. Are you afraid? I know I was slightly more careful crossing this morning and double-checked the oven before I left for work. You know it was on Friday 13th when a Uruguayan plane tragically crashed in the Andes, which the Ethan Hawke film, Alive, was based on... the one where they eat each other.
 
This day doesn’t just give you the willies - there’s an actual name for the phobia: paraskavedekatriaphobia. Fear of the number 13 is practically everywhere you look. Many roads do not have a number 13, many hotels have no 13th floor, planes often skip a 13th aisle and hospitals avoid having a ward 13. When this kind of fear is so widespread is it any wonder we are a bit apprehensive when Friday 13th comes round?
 
On the other hand, is it just a day when we create our own misfortune by expecting it? The same way you have to put your desire, belief and intent into a spell to make it successful, you can put your fear and suspicion out to the universe to create your own experiences.
 
I managed to spill my lunch on the floor today and my first thought was ‘That’s Friday 13th for you!’ But actually I remember this particular incident because it happened on Friday 13th. If it happened any other day I would have dismissed it as my own innate clumsiness.
 
In actual fact I think that we believe in superstitions as they are not clear-cut and are led by a desire to believe in something ‘other’ and unexplained. It’s the magical part of our nature welcoming these bizarre superstitions to make life more interesting, rather than having everything explained by facts. Now I enjoy the fact that I never walk under ladders, under no circumstances open an umbrella inside and quake in fear for the 24 hours that are Friday 13th.

Finding a voodoo doll can be slightly disconcerting. Especially if it's a specially crafted voodoo doll and it's lying on your editor's desk.

When Marion's mum sent her a beautiful doll of Marion herself we all fell immediately in love with it. There was this personalised, handmade doll of exquisite detail. She had multi-coloured hair, fish net leggings and her own jewellery, the likeness was quite eerie.

When Marion was taken to hospital and ended up having her appendix out no one thought to question the doll. I mean, voodoo magic is not that uncommon is it? Drinking my morning tea, my eyes turned suspiciously to the doll that was sitting innocently on top of the Collins Thesaurus. Grabbing the mini-Marion doll I pulled up her skirt and checked where her appendix would be. I was convinced I would find a pin or hole there but there was nothing. Relieved, I placed the doll back on her perch and returned to work. You can't be too careful when it comes to voodoo.

(I would just like to take a moment to apologise to Marion's mum about harbouring such thoughts about her beautiful doll but it's better to be safe than sorry. What if someone had dropped the doll in the office shredder?)

The symbol for planet Neptune appeared in Jemma's lunch. We always believe in coincidence.

Jemma was sitting at her desk today having lunch while I was finishing up an article about poltergeists. She doubted that her bacon, avocado and chicken sandwich had much avocado in it, so she opened it up. A few seconds later she said, “The symbol for Neptune is in my sandwich.”

Well you don’t say that sentence every day, I thought, but before I could say anything she was holding her Neptune sandwich under my nose. It was indeed the symbol for Neptune formed with bacon and avocado. She took a big bite out of it.

It’s curious symbolism, eating Neptune. Neptune is the planet of inspiration, poetry and beauty but it's also linked to impracticality and a lack of commonsense.

Interesting that since lunch Jemma’s had loads of good ideas for the website - none of them workable.

We’re going to keep a close eye on her lunch for the rest of the week.

The songs that never fail to cheer us up

For months we’ve been toying with the idea of a Prediction jukebox. The same tunes just keep infiltrating our minds. They do tend to have a prediction-ey theme, such as Age of Aquarius or Moon Shadow. But none of us remember why we sing Jolene by Dolly Parton, but we do, irritatingly often, as our long-suffering colleagues will testify. But this song is my current favourite. It always brings me back down to Earth…

GALAXY SONG by Monty Python

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
,
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,

That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,

A sun that is the source of all our power.

The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see

Are moving at a million miles a day

In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,

Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.

It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.

It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,

But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.

We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.

We go 'round every two hundred million years,

And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions

In this amazing and expanding universe.



The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding

In all of the directions it can whizz

As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,

Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,

How amazingly unlikely is your birth,

And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,

'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

Any more ideas for the Prediction jukebox? We're working on a list then we're going to you-tube it, or something....

Making your own talisman is a powerful, personal way to draw love, wealth or health into your life... but there are a few risks involved!

We had a lot of fun making our own Prediction love talisman in the June issue. We started by trawling the shops and raiding our homes for talisman-making equipment and came back with all sorts of ribbons, beads, crystals, symbols and feathers to get us started. One of the best bits of working for the magazine is getting to test out all the features while we are putting them together and we always learn something new.

Making the talisman as great but it wasn't as easy as it looks - when we performed the ritual to imbue the talisman with love energy we had to burn a piece of paper to finish it. The problem was we couldn't put it out and I nearly burnt my hand off! Who says working for a magazine is a safe profession? It's definitely not when magic is involved so if you attempt the ritual yourself make sure you have a fireproof dish and some water to hand. Read the full feature to find out how to make your personal talisman for love, wealth or health.