The King of Swords knows air. Air is breath. Magical air is mind. Clean air; clear thinking.

I was in the last foul ‘pea-soup’ fog in London, in 1963. It was thick dark yellowish toxic brown. It took life.

Several British monarchs grappled with the effects of burning coal in London, beginning with King Edward I, 14th century, right through to several governments under Queen Elizabeth II, 20th/21st century.

After almost 700 years of frequent, deadly, poisoned air, the answer became apparent.

Guess what it was: if your answer is correct, you win a buy-one-get-one-free consultation. Contact for details.

Here’s a clue: when they stopped burning a certain substance, pretty soon people could breathe again.

A decision to be made

How and when will you know what to do?

Maybe when a new moon rises in Libra, late September or early October.

A blindfold figure seated on a plinth downstage centre holds in hands at the end of folded arms, two swords.

But what is going on behind the front cloth?

When it comes to orbital motion, Mercury fairly nips around the Sun. A year on Mercury takes a mere 88 Earth days. It used to be thought that Mercury’s axial spin was equal to the orbital period — in other words that the same side of the planet always faced the Sun, as with the Moon relative to the Earth. Now we know that for every two Mercurial years, there are three Mercurial days.

Three times in an Earth year Mercury appears to move backwards along its orbit. This is an optical illusion, of course, caused by our fixed perspective from the Earth’s own orbit. Astrologers know that retrograde Mercurial periods can be times of mis-communication here on Earth. There can be lost letters, un-returned emails, dust-ups with loved ones, funny business while traveling, and other Mercurial mischief … positive uses of these times can include, but are not limited to, checking the details, catching up on the filing, editing the manuscript and re-scheduling the extreme sports holiday.

There’s astronomical data on Mercury and other celestial bodies here. And you can get the astrological perspective here, at Astro — If you scroll down when you get there, you’ll see that at the time of writing, Mercury is in Pisces (but not for long). A good time to broach sensitive subjects possibly?

Called Mercury by the Romans, Hermes by the Greeks, the trickster God appears in Shakespeare as Ariel in The Tempest, and as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And I guess The Donkey in Shrek would have a prominent Mercury in his chart.

You won! Nice. Take a lap.

‘In war: resolution

In defeat: defiance

In victory: magnanimity

In Peace: Good Will.’

— Churchill (Again)