[This blog was written on the day that chef Gary Rhodes died. Sir Jonathan Miller died later on the same day at the age of 84 and Sir Clive James at the age of 80. Two out of three isn’t bad…]

Another much-loved celebrity has died at the age of 59. RIP Gary Rhodes, the TV chef with the crazy hair who was so brimful of enthusiasm.

Have you ever noticed that there are patterns in the ages when people die? There are distinct clumps: 27-30, 41-43, 57-59. There’s also 83-5 but that’s a fair age for anyone, so we find it less surprising.

Astrologically, these are the red flag times. They are the astrological Saturn return and Uranus half-return — stages in life when the planets either return to where they were when we were born or are placed opposite to that point in the birth chart. These are important life stages for all of us. The Saturn return (every 27-29 years) often offers us the chance to go home to the heavens, if we’ve done enough, fulfilled or cleared our karma or if we are seriously off-track or just plain exhausted. The Uranus half-return offers us the chance to break out, rebel, change direction—and, as a last resort, go home. For most of us, these red flag times will bring some kind of crisis. Their purpose is to pull us back to the path that our soul set us before we were born.

It’s very important to emphasise that often people die at these ages because they have fulfilled their life’s path and it is perfectly in tune with their soul’s plans that they go home and generally they seem to know that. However, early deaths are extremely hard for the rest of us to cope with and understand, especially if we don’t know the loved-one’s astrological blueprint. My first husband died at the age of 42 so I’m talking from experience here. Gary Rhodes’s reasons for leaving now are his soul’s business and it is not my job to speculate—I don’t look at people’s charts unless they directly affect me and my life or I am asked to do so. However, having been widowed early myself, I grieve for his family and friends, who are bound to say he has gone far too soon. I would suspect his soul knew what it was doing and has a purpose now in the higher worlds.

Okay, let’s say a bit about astrology itself before continuing. Astrology is not a belief, so please don’t say “I don’t believe in Astrology.” Astrology is a language of the mathematical patterns of the Universe. You have to learn how to understand and speak it. Once you do, you can see those patterns clearly and you can help yourself and others to use them to the best effect. You can also spot a potential challenge coming up and the probable reasons behind that challenge. Astrology does not predict the future (and neither should any astrologer) but it does help you to use your free will to decide how you are going to work with the next years’ patterns.

Astrology also has very little to do with the placing of the constellations in the night sky. Those were simply handy ways of identifying recurring patterns. It doesn’t matter in the slightest whether Pluto is a planet or not or whether the constellations are still in the same place as they were 4000 years ago. The overall equations remain and, much as we humans like to think we are far more important than any basic patterns, we simply aren’t.

And please don’t say “I’m nothing like my Sun Sign.” Sun sign astrology was only invented back in the 1930s when the Daily Express published the newborn Princess Margaret’s birth chart, which was so popular that they had to come up with something for everyone and made an entertaining dumbed-down practice that is about as accurate as a politician’s promise to deliver Brexit on a certain day. An individual’s birth chart has—literally—hundreds and hundreds of thousands of aspects that are unique for each person. Yes, maybe a few hundred babies are born in the same few seconds on Earth but they will each use that moment’s astrology to guide them through very different lives according to their location, parenting and karmic choices. A Moon in Aquarius will always be rebellious against the tribe but that can result in becoming a princess or a homeless person. It all depends on how you use it and how that accords with the rest of your fate and destiny. And just one minute’s difference in birth time can change a chart dramatically – twins’ astrology is particularly fascinating.

Astrology is what happens when you don’t use your free will. It is the blueprint for our life We are the ones with the power to make conscious decisions and we have great power to do that. The trouble is, we so rarely use our free will, even if we think we do.

I could go on … but this article is primarily about the red flag times that nearly all of us face – those Saturn returns and that Uranus half-return. The 27 Club is well known and includes Jim Morrison and Amy Winehouse. The 42 Club is less well-known but includes Prince Albert and Elvis Presley and The 59 Club includes Truman Capote, Clark Gable and Peter Lorre. Some of these wonderful people died because they had finished what they came to do—and done it well—and some died because their lives had gone off-track and couldn’t get back.

But don’t panic! The vast majority of us live through all these times and if we have made good and happy choices, we traverse them with relative ease. But if our life is unhappy, unfulfilled or off-track, they are red flags to call us back to our true selves—to get us off the drugs, to make us check out our health, to make us assess our marriage, to make us decide to commit or not. The Uranus half-return is generally referred to as the mid-life crisis where someone suddenly acts unexpectedly, even if it’s only buying a sports car.

One of the reasons I started to study astrology was to be able to debunk it. I’ve always thought it’s pointless to decry something just on prejudice. However, the more I learnt this language, the more synchronicities I saw. Family astrology blew my socks off—and helped me understand my parents so much better. But looking at my own red-flag times was pivotal in my decision to become an astrologer. If you know me, you’ll know how my life changed dramatically at all three pivotal points (career change, widowhood, emigration, divorce and illness) and, if you don’t, feel free to ask. My second Saturn return offered me the chance to go home or start a new impulse in life. Knowing that fact enabled me to do the latter.

So, if you are approaching 27, 41, 57—or even 84—and your life feels off-track or you are feeling lost or depressed, then it is a good idea to find yourself a good astrologer who can guide you as to what decisions you could usefully make to change all that and to start over with hope and clarity.

And yes, there is an advertisement here at the end—Lion and I would be very happy to advise you. Our astrology page is here and there is a special offer for Advent on our StarLight Astrology Facebook page. And, if you simply want to ask questions, then please go ahead. That’s absolutely free on the StarLight page.