Dr Edith Eger Tag

May 25, 2021 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Moonlight Mandala—Total Lunar Eclipse—May 26th

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it—Terry Pratchett.

A voluminous Moon shimmers through a sphere of strange light tonight, swelling the tides, unsettling sleeping birds, spilling her milky light on lovers that lie encircled in each other’s arms. Tonight’s Full Moon/Total Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius may stir a crisis in faith, may carry us in our dream time to faraway places, stir those longings we have secreted behind bright smiles and positive thinking for so many months now.

This super-charged Full Moon is in the sign of the Archer. She nestles close to the South Node, pulling us back to prior lifetimes, to the womb of past beliefs that may comfort or burden us now.

Sagittarius is the nomad, the pilgrim, the outlander, the foreigner. Those who are introverted by nature may feel like a foreigner or outsider amidst the noise and the laughter of a social gathering. Those of us who are in a place of transition, may feel like outsiders in our families or communities.

Sagittarius and Jupiter are associated with journeys (and travel restrictions) and with our beliefs. Last year’s explosive Sagittarius Full Moon Eclipse (June 5^th, 2020) bared ancient prejudices, and eons of racial and social inequality. Systemic change is barely noticeable one year after the brutal killing of George Floyd on May 25^th 2020. This year’s Eclipse jolts Uranus in America’s chart and the T-square with Jupiter may expose those those certainties we thought were truths, challenge our faith in a future that still seems uncertain, strengthen our resolve to be kinder to one another.

In the affairs of nations, and in our own lives, eclipses herald times of endings; they ease our ability to release, to let go. They are harbingers of new beginnings concealed in painful endings; silver threads of thoughts and choices that we spin and weave for years to come.

Eclipses upend the natural order; they stir up those things we’d thought we’d burnt and buried, nine, eighteen years ago. They catapult us to the crossroads of choice; they bare uncomfortable truths about triangular relationships that usually accompany power-over someone else. They expose our shadows. Tip those rose-coloured glasses from our eyes.

As the Moon slips through the Earth’s shadow tonight, she charges the night with infinite possibilities, sensitising planets or angles at 5° Sagittarius, Gemini, Virgo and Pisces. We may wish to stay with what feels familiar or safe, yet this full moon may light our path towards deep soul healing that truly sets us free as she makes a trine to Chiron.

This month, stern Saturn in Aquarius and quicksilver Mercury in Gemini begin their backwards dance across the skies.

Saturn’s backward motion in Aquarius (May 23^rd – October 10^th) functions as a celestial task master this summer, as we learn to be patient and resilient, as we embody new ways of living in a world of rules and restrictions that inhibit our spontaneity; challenge our imagination.

Magician/Trickster Mercury begins his notorious Retrograde (May 29^th – June 22^nd) and will don his clown suit and toss banana peels as some of the world’s leaders and their retinues converge on the pristine coastal town of Carbis Bay, Cornwall for the 47^th G7 Summit (11-13^th June.)

The astrological weather forecast predicts protests, disruption, civil unrest.

The troublesome Saturn (rules, restrictions, delays) /Uranus (electric, iconoclastic) square infuses 2021 with drama, violence, plans upended, sudden shocks and serendipities. The waning square is in effect throughout 2021, with the final square on December 24^th. It came up close on February 17^th, and again delivers a concentrated clout on June 14^th shaken, not stirred, by the Solar Annular Eclipse on June 10^th as police prepare for mass protests in the UK. Priti Patel’s “digitise the border” project alters the UK’s asylum and immigration system that separates human beings into “them and us”—cast adrift, shut out. Strangers in a foreign land. This is the motif of Sagittarius as the wanderer, walled and shut out by Saturn’s bureaucratic boundaries and the unpredictable omnipotence of Uranus.

The motif of The Journey is emphasised today as the Moon shines so brightly in Sagittarius even though most of us are choosing to stay home this Summer. Every quest, every journey, requires preparation. Every quest, every journey requires us to choose what to take with us and what to leave behind.

Dr Edith Eger’s inspiring book, The Choice: Embrace the Possible, describes a journey of healing, of forgiveness and of faith. A journey that began in her family home, with her parents and sister, and ended at Auschwitz. Her mother’s words as they travelled have been an integral part of her healing and her work as a psychologist: “We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but no one can take away from you what you put in your own mind.”

In these uncertain times, we may need to plot our journey with care. We may need to listen to our instincts and be aware that our open minds can be filled with someone else’s beliefs about the world.

“To journey without being changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and to be transformed by the journeying is to be a pilgrim,” poet Mark Nepo writes.

At the start of this eclipse season, we may feel as if we are stepping onto foreign ground. So much has changed, so much is changing. May we travel lightly on this earth. May we know who we are and why we are here as we begin our journey.

Please get in touch if you would like a personal astrology consultation: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

November 8, 2018 In Astrology, Relationship By Ingrid Hoffman

The Journey―Jupiter In Sagittarius―November 8th.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars―Dale Wasserman. Man of La Mancha.
For those of us who tilt at windmills, for those of us who dream impossible dreams, the time has come to reach the unreachable stars. The journey may mean leaving the tender touch of our loved ones as the urgency of the call to adventure takes us to foreign lands. For some of us, the journey may be a painfully private struggle to slay demons of addiction or despair. For some of us, this journey begins with a kiss and continues as we bravely hold hands through these Dark Times of uncertainty.

68c4d24cf02d4c3af1d8fcf9b5e9925e Today is Thor’s Day. The Moon and Mercury accompany corpulent Jupiter into Sagittarius, his place of domicile and ease. The mood lightens as Jupiter rises gratefully, from the cool, still depths of watery Scorpio into the warm urgency of fire, igniting the possibility to reach the unreachable stars. Jupiter has returned Home, triumphant, singing “What a Wonderful World”.

The motif of The Journey will be emphasised as Jupiter travels through Sagittarius until December 3rd, 2019. How we prepare for that journey, what we take with us, what we leave behind. Journeys require attentive preparation, stamina and resilience as we meet the inevitable challenges along the way. For the next year, we will explore new places and new encounters, even if this Journey means we never leave home.

Jupiter in Scorpio accompanied the #MeToo movement, exposing predators, opening uncomfortable conversations. Today, we enter the symbolic realm of social, religious and moral issues. Jupiter in Sagittarius confronts us with a quest for truth and meaning, with the possibility to expand our horizons.

Jupiter is a complex symbol in astrology. Jupiter’s domain is long-distance travel, intercultural encounters, international activities. Jupiter’s unbounded exuberance is also associated with risk-taking, the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that reaches for the sky, sets the stakes high in casinos and on racing tracks, merrily rolls the dice over a lover’s tender heart. Jupiter sells aspirational dreams to the masses. Every day is Black Friday. Anything is possible. Bigger is always Better.

In the Norse, Greek and Roman pantheon, Thor/ Zeus/Jupiter were celestial sky gods. Supreme deities, elitist, autocratic. They dispensed moral and religious justice, yet from the earliest times these autocratic and self-indulgent gods were exempt from their own moral injunctions. On a whim, they bestowed good fortune, dispensed justice, and claimed Droit du Seigneur with impunity. Relentless optimism, brash bravado, and the cheery refusal to sweat the small stuff cast a long shadow. Overblown, indulgent, excessive, Jupiter’s vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself is evident in the grandiosity and entitlement of those who wield power. The kind of hubris that spurs invincibility, races onwards and upwards, without a backward glance. Over this next year, the excesses of the plutocrats, puffed-up politicians, and those autocrats we encounter in our neighbourhoods and offices, will seem more extreme. We may have to plan circuitous routes to avoid their overbearing presence. We may have to vote with our feet.

Zeus was also the protector of those who journeyed to far away lands, yet xenophobia is also part of this domain. For those hapless men, women and children, labelled “illegal aliens”, or migrant workers, or who simply don’t have the right-coloured passport, the right to remain will be emphasised by Jupiter’s journey through Sagittarius.

Moon in Sagittarius 1 The Sun blazes confidently into
Sagittarius on November 22nd, inspiring Jupiter with optimism, perhaps the ability to find humour in those things that threaten to capsize our lives and roll us into the depths of despair. Sagittarius is the gypsy, the philosopher, the inspired visionary who sets off on a quest, perhaps impulsively, but with the kind of innocent faith in the kindness of strangers, certainly trust in a benevolent god. Jupiter in Sagittarius is the Pilgrim on life’s Camino. Jupiter’s journey has a single pointed vision, there is a sense of an arrow of certainty, a destination, a purpose, which differs from Mercury’s more fluid travels.

Ninety-one-year-old Dr Edith Eger’s new book, The Choice: Embrace the Possible, describes a journey of healing, of forgiveness and of faith. A journey that began in her family home, with her parents and sister, and ended at Auschwitz. Her mother’s words as they travelled have been an integral part of her healing and her work as a psychologist: “We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but no one can take away from you what you put in your own mind.”

Sun in Sag - Always 11 Edith’s journey of healing and faith epitomises another aspect of Jupiter’s domain: “I believe in the power of positive thinking—but change and freedom also require positive action. Anything we practice, we become better at.”

As demagogues dismember nations with hollow talk and empty promises, Mars—the planet associated with war and aggression—changes sign on November 16^th, moving into Jupiter-ruled Pisces, swirling through the miasma of politics, perhaps strengthening our resolve to continue our quest amidst the noise of things falling apart, to practice becoming better at walking lightly on this earth.

On the same day, another eighteen-year cycle begins as the Nodes move into Cancer and Capricorn. These are harbingers of the eclipse season that begins on July 2^nd, 2019. Cancer and Capricorn underscore motifs of security, home, safety and patriarchal power. Venus moves direct in Libra on November 17^th, still in a tense opposition to Uranus which has slipped back into Aries for the very last time, offering opportunities to finalise what was begun in March 2011 when Uranus entered into Aries and squared Pluto.

Mars remains in sensitive Pisces until December 31^st, and Mercury moves Retrograde on November 18^th, apparently moving backwards through the sign of Sagittarius until it re-enters Scorpio for a few weeks between December 1^st and December 13^th, a reminder to be attentive to our thoughts, to make this journey a sacred thing.

Every quest, every journey, requires preparation. In these uncertain times, we may need to plot our journey with care.“To journey without being changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and to be transformed by the journeying is to be a pilgrim,” poet Mark Nepo writes.

Over these next months, may we have the faith to dream the impossible dream, may we have the vision to accept those invitations that transform us, and may we walk with those fellow pilgrims on Life’s Camino, receptive and true to our own glorious Quest.

The boat is safer anchored at the port; but that’s not the aim of boats―Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage.

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