Astrobabble Issue 16, 2025: Remembering Ollie Olsen Zine

Astrobabble is a zine dedicated to the language of astrology as a form of cultural commentary. Through this symbolic lens, I explore the musicians, songwriters and cultural icons who helped shape my formative years. Each issue examines the connections between personality, creativity, mythology and the lives of artists whose work continues to resonate.

Published irregularly, Astrobabble appears whenever inspiration strikes and a subject demands deep exploration. 

It’s been a while – seven years to be exact – since the last issue of Astrobabble (#15/Aquarius) and an Astrobabylon entry. At the time, I was in two minds about continuing both because their left brain treatment requires commitment – reading, researching, writing and analysing an individual’s cosmic blueprint with the limited understanding I have of the ocean that is astrology. Placing distance between Astrobabble/Astrobabylon and myself has given me time to reflect on a few things: why I started zine and blog, what my aims were, and what I wanted readers to take away. All interesting questions that writers usually ask themselves, and to that, I can answer that they are exercises in getting inside a creative’s astrological DNA, to examine what makes them exceptional. With the help of astrology, I attempt to crack the fame code, if such a thing exists, and search for the x factor that elevates luminaries like Nick Cave and David Bowie from the rest of us. I can’t say that my investigations have always been fruitful but it has been one of the most fascinating rabbit holes I’ve toppled into.

This special issue of Astrobabble is dedicated to Ollie Olsen, a legend in Melbourne’s underground music scene and a triple Piscean (Sun/Moon/Ascendant) who died in October 2024 after a long illness. It’s fitting that I return to Astrobabble with such a creative and sensitive character to unpack, given Ollie’s pivotal connection with the subject of my last issue (Michael Hutchence). –Astrobabble