Author: Ingrid Hoffman

November 5, 2026 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Into the Dark—New Moon in Scorpio November 9th.

It’s not the conscious changes made in their lives by men and women which really shape them… but a long, slow mutation of emotion, hidden all-penetrative—Nadine Gordimer.

In Scorpio season, the sun lies low on the horizon. Nature visibly contracts, exposing a filigree of bare black branches. Fallen leaves lie scattered on the ground, bright splashes of raspberry, marmalade and pure gold.

The sky story this month speaks of what is slowly dying and what is waiting to be born.

As the tyranny of Trump’s regime begins to crack and crumble, archetypal patterns in the collective psyche coincide with major world events.

Saturn and Neptune, briefly united on February 20^th, 2026, at 0° Aries, a defining moment in time that marked the close of an astrological cycle that began in 1989 and heralded the beginning of a new one. When Saturn and Neptune meet in the heavens, their restless union razes obsolete systems. In the 1980s, we witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the slow dismemberment of Apartheid.

As Saturn and Neptune united in February this year I wrote: “The Aries Ingress chart based in Washington DC speaks of instability and war. This chart encompasses layers of astrological symbolism as it corresponds to events, past, present and our collective future…. In chaos theory, the term “strange attractor,” is used to describe a complex pattern of behaviour in a chaotic system. It’s a term borrowed by Richard Rudd in his Gene Keys series, signifying the disruption of the COVID pandemic or the social phenomenon of personalities like Donald Trump. As these “strange attractors” create chaos around us, hastening the dying process of a civilisation that is no longer fit for purpose, something is growing in the mycelium that threads and coils beneath the cold ground. What is destined to crumble will crumble and be blown away by the winds of change.”

All-penetrative change is inscribed across the heavens this month. Yet change comes slowly in our human story. The divisive political power struggle in the US will continue as transiting Mars and Jupiter also conjoin Trump’s own belligerent and vindictive Mars in Leo. This conjunction delivers a powerful surge of energy, heightening his will to fight, and win—at any cost. Trump is halfway through his second term of office. A strutting emperor with no clothes, he’s a tawdry caricature with a noticeably dimmed cognition and weakening physical stamina. As Saturn squares his Mercury in the coming months, he will not have the grace or psychological maturity to step away from the spotlight and support younger candidates. He is wounded and dangerous.

A Scorpio new moon on Monday November 9^th draws us back into her reassuring cyclical darkness.

This lunation is charged with the intensity and gut-feel depth of Scorpio. Both the sun and moon make a confrontational square to Jupiter and Mars. (New moon chart shown here.) There’s a fusion of new energy, a potent yet difficult birth. A new cycle has begun, and even though we won’t see the moon’s slim silvery belly until a delicate crescent appears, yet it is in the silence of darkness that new life begins to stir.

Scorpio is ruled by Mars, god of war and Pluto, god of death. The modern symbol for Scorpio comes from ancient Greek stargazers who imagined a solitary scorpion who would bite or sting to survive, even stinging himself to death, if cornered with no escape.

Mercury in Scorpio and Venus in Libra are both still moving Retrograde so expect an unsettling stirring up of the dusty sediment of unfinished business. We may be confronted now with intense situations around finances, property, relationships. There may be misunderstandings and miscommunication. This month we balance the delicate art of relating to others with our own stories about how things should or could be.

Mercury turns direct on November 13th and Venus’s turning point is November 14th. Remember, Scorpio is a fixed water sign, moody, emotional, deeply sensitive, and subjective. Yet Mars-ruled Scorpio is courageous and fiercely tenacious. This is the month to question an ossified belief, even though a situation may seem so fixed and beyond control.

Sometimes we can’t imagine what is possible, yet new moon times offer a container to begin again, unburdened by the drag of experience. We speak glibly about Scorpio season as a time of “release and letting go”. Yet this emptying out, this surrender, is often so very hard to to.

As we touch our own tender vulnerability, keep hope alive amidst the fragility of a dying world, may we sense in our heart, a readiness to receive. Something new is growing beneath the surface, even though its contours are not yet visible. Trust what is unfolding.

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise—Victor Hugo.

To book an astrology consultation, please connect by email: ingrid@truheartwork.com

October 15, 2026 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Take this Heart—Venus Retrograde. October 3rd—November 14th.

Philosopher, Lao Tzu once said, “being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

Within every human heart is a longing to be cherished and to be seen. Yet in a world where social media provides a brittle veneer of connection, a lonely absence of deep love and true intimacy pervades our culture.

On October 3rd Venus pivoted in the heavens at at 8º Scorpio. Venus travels Retrograde through Scorpio and Libra over the coming weeks, stationing direct on November 14th at 22º Libra.

Astrologers pay attention to these planetary turning point moments. These are “heart of the matter” times that may deliver epiphanies, push us toward a deeper understanding of who and what we love. Popular astrology associates Venus Retrograde periods with the return of the ex. People who have played important roles in our lives reappear, either quite literally, or in a sudden tightening of our heart as we hear a song that transports us back to a time of innocence and wonder.

These rear-view glimpses of relationships past may give us an opportunity to let go of any residual heaviness, or deliver a razor-sharp reminder that love should not hurt.

Scorpio is a fixed water sign. Intense, often unyielding, always deeply emotional. As Venus journeys Retrograde through Scorpio this month, she exposes shadowy power dynamics: jealousy, manipulation, control and cruelty. Venus’s realm also encompasses money, and those things we truly value. When she moves through Scorpio, we look to other people’s money: debts, inheritances and taxes, investments, joint accounts.

Power struggles and secrets erode trust in our relationships, financial debt strips us of our sense of agency.

October 24th marks the midpoint of the Venus Retrograde cycle. Venus meets the sun in the heavens at the exact same point in the zodiac: a symbolic turning point, called a cazimi.

Venus will glitter at dawn from October 24^th, when she reappears as a morning star, and she will have greatest morning brilliancy from November 27^th. Mercury also stations Retrograde in Scorpio on October 24^th, as we revisit unresolved issues, confront uncomfortable truths in our relationships, perhaps notice how we curate our own stories about what someone did or said. This month’s full moon in Venus-ruled Taurus on October 26th, offers a brief respite from the hard edges of this world, a wondrous moment in time to appreciate the sensual pleasure of a tender embrace, the sweet sound of a robin’s song at dawn, the glittering beauty of Venus as she rests on the horizon in the early morning.

Venus retrograde cycles are important, as they don’t happen frequently. The last time Venus moved through the Libra/Scorpio section of your own horoscope was in 2018. It might be helpful to notice any reoccurring themes. If we are struggling with one lingering deep and complex issue, take some time for self-reflection, or simply remind ourselves that there is nothing we could have done differently.

As Venus moves Retrograde, womens’ issues surface in our collective consciousness. The Guardian reports that 23-year-old woman, Najmeh Amini, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy in a social media post.

Christa Gail Pike was sentenced to death at the age of 20 for the torture and murder of her classmate, a crime she committed when she was 18 years old. Christa’s childhood was one of abuse and neglect by alcoholic parents. She was raped as a toddler and again repeatedly during her teens. She attempted suicide at the age of 12 and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

After 30 years, on death row, mostly in solitary confinement, Christa Gail Pike was due to be executed by lethal injection on September 30^th as Venus in Scorpio slowed ahead of her Retrograde station and conjoined unpredictable Uranus in her birth chart. She received two doses of the lethal phenobarbital and survived, her badly damaged arms still shackled to her hospital bed despite pleas from medical staff for the removal of restraints. Christa is now experiencing a Chiron return, a time of deep wounding, quite literally, as she has pneumonia, a blood clot and is unable to move her badly swollen and needle damaged arms. Chiron return times are important milestones in our human journey. They can also be times of deep spiritual healing. She is reported to have received compassionate care by the first responders and medical staff attending to her after the botched attempt to execute her.

Helen Prejean, a catholic nun who has called repeatedly for the abolishment of the death penalty in America, told the Guardian: “this is the essence of cruelty. Take a conscious, imaginative human being, give her a date for her death, have her anticipate it over and over again, and then take her out and try to kill her.”

Venus Retrograde in Scorpio is a deep dive into the collective and personal shadow.

Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan. He is due to be shot to death on December 3^rd as Venus, now direct, lingers poignantly on the final critical degree of Libra.

As Venus moves through the still dark waters of Scorpio, she reveals the dark underbelly of toxic masculintiy and misogyny that pervades so much of our society. The obnoxious sexual predator Russell Brand appears in court on trial for rape and sexual assault during this Venus Retrograde period. Back in September 2023, when Venus was blazing through Leo, Brand was in the throes of the second of three Pluto oppositions to his beleaguered Venus/Saturn/Chiron configuration. Now, transiting Saturn (fate, the law) conjoins his moon and Mars in Aries. Carl Jung is often quoted as saying, “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

In a world that feels so fast, so broken, Venus Retrograde periods distil the essence of what it is that we hold dear to our hearts. Venus in Scorpio demands that we examine the stories we tell ourselves about our relationships – are our power struggles about power, or about trust, or our innate human need to be truly seen?

“Nurture your commitment,” advises couples therapist Howard J. Markman. A great marriage is predicted not so much by your finding the right partner as by your being the right partner.” Now, as Venus travels through uncompromising Scorpio, may we replenish our courage to share difficult truths. May we have the courage to love deeply.

Everything that is in the heavens,
on earth,
and under the earth
is penetrated with connectedness,
penetrated with relatedness.
—Hildegard of Bingen.

To book an astrology consultation, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

September 10, 2026 In Astrology, General, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

From this moment on—Sun in Virgo—August 23rd September 23rd.

No matter how big you get, don’t forget where you came from. Stay humble, stay grateful—Shania Twain.

Autumn has arrived, carrying the scent of change. Already pathways and woodlands are carpeted with bright flashes of crimson and gold. Virgo’s arrival heralds the autumn equinox on September 23rd (spring in the southern hemisphere) and, as the seasons change, we enter a threshold state, a time of in-betweenness where there is no firm foothold, just a knowing that something is is about to change.

This may be the season of our own shedding of leaves. A physical spring cleaning of our home. An emotional emptying out, as we leave a place of work, move home, end a relationship or complete something we have been working on for months.

As the sun moves through Virgo, we stand at a doorway, an opening space between the seasons. In Japanese culture, the word, “ma” means an opening or an interval, in space and time. Ann Tashi Slater writes that ma is “found in unpainted areas on folding screens, void areas in a photograph, silence during a conversation, the hush between breaking waves. It’s the vitality generated by emptiness; in the way a blank page gives rise to creative energy.”

So, at this gateway we may glance back at the months since the spring Equinox here in the north. What do we want to leave behind? What will be nourishing and sustaining in the dark months of winter?

The new moon in Virgo (18 ° Virgo) on September 11^th is first lunation after two potent eclipses. The symbolism of the Virgo archetype offers the discernment to see clearly now as we emerge from the eclipse shadow lands. New moons accompany fresh starts, endings and beginnings. This new moon is accompanied by Mercury, which has just moved into rational Libra and makes an opposition to Neptune—a celestial prompt to fact-check, stay in our integrity, and to consider both sides of a situation, as this new season begins.

Virgo carries the energy of pared down simplicity. She presides over the quiet rhythms and routines that root us in seemingly ordinary tasks. Earth is Virgo’s element, and Virgoan qualities are so often depicted in fairy tale where the heroine of the story performs tasks with humility and attention to detail.

Humility derives from the Latin, humilis—down low, on the ground or of the earth. As the sun moved through Virgo, singer songwriter Shania Twain was born in humble circumstances in Windsor Ontario. Her innate talent, business acumen, and hours of hard work have earned her the accolade, Queen of Country Pop. There is no accurate birth time for Shania, so the Ascendant sign and moon placement is unreliable, though her birth chart depicts the slower moving planets and sun in Virgo.

Saturn was in emotional and empathic Pisces on the day of her birth. Saturn symbolises those tough experiences that grow us up, teach us the value of commitment and responsibility. “I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come,” she is quoted as saying. Saturn (responsibility, resilience, maturity) features in her early life as she took on the role of caretaker to her mother who suffered from bouts of dark depression, and parent to her younger siblings. The home was chaotic, often turbulent, her parents often at war, smashing, screaming. By the time she was eight years old, Shania was singing in bars to bring in money for the household. At ten she began writing her own songs with Virgoan commitment and dedication to her craft.

When she was thirteen, she persuaded her mother to seek refuge in a women’s shelter, but her mother returned to her father with the younger children. As Saturn squared her Virgo planets, both her parents were killed in a car accident. She was twenty-two years old. Shania put her dreams of becoming a musician on hold to parent her younger siblings.

Her first Saturn Return in 1995, was marked by a fated meeting with a Nashville music executive while she was singing at a golf resort. She was offered a recording contract that laid the foundations (Saturn – structure, discipline, responsibility and maturity) for a global career. Another hard Saturnian lesson accompanied the separation from her husband in 2008 as Saturn conjoined her Virgo planets. Her husband, Mutt Lange had fallen in love with her best friend, Marie-Anne. It was Marie-Anne’s husband, Frédéric Thiébaud who broke the news of their affair. Shania and Frédéric became close, and were married as Saturn moved through Taurus, marking the stability of this period of her life.

Shania was enjoying a global musical career when she was bitten by a tick while riding through the woodlands and contracted Lyme disease which prevented her from singing for nearly a decade. This health crisis affected not only her voice (earth element expression) but compelled her to turn inward, pay attention to her health, to serve herself. Virgo rules the nervous system and the immune response. Saturn featured again by transit during this period of seclusion and healing, this time in a trine to itself. She didn’t return to public life after this long hiatus until 2017 as Saturn squared her Virgo planets and she struggled with anxiety and depression.

At her Second Saturn Return, Shania has publicly stated that she is fully recovered from Lyme disease. She finished a demanding residency in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve 2025. Her Virgoan ability to stay connected to life’s realities, despite enormous wealth and global fame, has endeared her to her audiences. May this be a time of rest and replenishment for this remarkable woman who has touched so many hearts over the decades. She epitomises Virgoan qualities of humility, service, and quiet commitment to her craft.

In this Virgo season, we may be prioritising self-care, re-imagining our lives. Executive coach, Vanessa Loder speaks about “following our energetic breadcrumbs,” a daily choice, a tiny moment, that we can all feel into when we begin to focus our attention to those seemingly ordinary encounters.

This month ends with an incandescent Aries full moon on September 26^th, accompanying high tides and heightened intuition. Aries carries the impetus for new beginnings, action, and those instinctual life choices, and the moon represents our emotions, often passionate and volatile, when warmed by the fire of Aries. Neptune and Saturn flank the moon in independent Aries, symbolising a tension between structure and reality on one hand and the illusive and the ethereal on the other.

Lauren Elkin writes so poignantly, “And sometimes we hold on with both hands to things we really want to release.

This is a hard thing to admit. How do we know what to keep, and what is just an old idea we had about ourselves?”

In Aries, the fire element is ignited. The sun in Libra makes a trine to Pluto and Uranus, offering opportunities to know what we need to keep and what we need to release as we cross the threshold into something new.

If you would like book an astrology consultation, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

August 11, 2026 In Astrology, General, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

What we can’t See—Season of Eclipses.

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff—Carl Sagan.

On the evening of August 12^th, the temperature will suddenly cool, and a strange silence will settle over the crowds who have gathered to witness the most dramatic solar eclipse in Western Europe in three decades. As the soft round body of the moon slips gracefully between the earth and the sun, a moon shadow will darken the face of the sun and for just a brief moment in time, we may be reminded of our ancient connection to the sun, the moon, and the stars.

This Leo eclipse begins in Siberia, arcs across Greenland and Iceland, the Arctic Circle, and the North Atlantic Ocean. The last place on land to view this eclipse will be Menorca and Majorca. A partial eclipse will be visible all over Europe. After months of drought and wild fires this super-charged new moon (20º Leo) conjures imagery heat and scorched landscapes. It is part of a great cycle of eclipses in the Saros Series 10 South. Astrologer, Bernadette Brady interprets this Saros Series as an opportunity to break out of a very negative situation… a worry that may have been affecting a person will suddenly clear. The solution is shown by the Cosmos and needs to be taken up without too much delay.

In the symbolic language of astrology, eclipses are threshold moments, moments charged with light and darkness. This eclipse carries a sense of urgency, a frisson of tension.

We may feel we are poised on the threshold of a new beginning yet not yet able to see our way clearly (the moon darkens the light of the sun during this total solar eclipse) but we will have time to follow the call of our heart as the effects of this highly charged new moon will last six months.

This solar eclipse aligns with the star Merak, in Ursa Major. Merak is one of the pointer stars in the Big Dipper, associated with guidance and direction as it leads us to the North Star. Eclipses often accentuate important check point times in our lives. This eclipse chart shows Mercury opposite Pluto, Venus opposite Neptune, Mars has just entered Cancer, and there is a powerful concentration of planets in fiery Leo.

Symbolically, eclipses amplify the intensity of power struggles, life-changing choices, triangular dramas, those pivotal moments that charge our lives with a new impetus, a new sense of direction.

Eclipses arrive in pairs, and more rarely, in threes, and there is an eclipse every six months when a new or full moon conjoins the moon’s nodes. On August 28^th, the body of the earth passes between the sun and the moon, throwing a shadow on the surface of the moon, a lunar eclipse in Pisces. Symbolically, our earthly concerns overshadow lunar qualities of intuition and imagination.

These two eclipses won’t cause anxiety, upset, a horrible argument, or propel us onto a new trajectory. They symbolise a moment where something is obscured, interrupted, brought to light, and revealed. Some imagination and self-reflection might be needed to interpret the meaning of these two eclipses:

Leo carries the energy of fire, courage, creativity, and authentic self-expression. In a world that is already awash with “influencers”, personal branding, and grandiose politicians, we might direct our energy towards those people or projects that feel whole hearted rather than performative or self-proclaiming.

Pisces encompasses the boundary-less realm of water, the collective, rather than the personal. This lunar eclipse might offer an opportunity to ask ourselves what must I sacrifice, surrender? How can I serve, what can I give, rather than what’s in this for me? Pisces is the imaginative dreamer, the sensitive and empathic expression of an open heart.

Not everyone will resonate with the same intensity as an eclipse brushes over their birth chart. Eclipses are feral, unpredictable things, yet for us all, the symbolism of this season of eclipses calls us to pause and gaze up at the heavens. To remember that we are connected to the earth, and the stars. That, in the words of Carl Sagan, “we are the universe experiencing itself.

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

July 27, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Hear me Roar—Sun in Leo meets moon in Aquarius—29th July.

You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling. Christopher Nolan.

We’re almost half-way between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox.

The sun entered Leo on July 22^nd, a sign that has been associated with the fierce heat of summer for thousands of years. The Mesopotamians recognised the lion-shaped constellation as early as 4000 BCE, and lion motifs and enormous statues appeared alongside thrones and in temples throughout the Indus valley. The bright star Regulus, the “star that stands at the Lion’s breast”, was one of the four Royal Stars of Persian astronomy, a regal guardian of the four cardinal points in those ancient skies. To ancient star gazers, priests and farmers, the sun’s dominant presence and heat matched the qualities assigned to Leo. Wild lions, king of the beasts, their manes shining in the mid-summer sunlight, entered human settlements in search of prey and water. Golden-maned lions, gods and kings of the Bronze Age then became the haloed martyrs, messiahs, the saints and emperors, heads surrounded by radiating light, depicted in the iconography of ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy, and in the Hindu and Buddhist religions.

In medical astrology, Leo rules our spine and our heart. As the sun illuminates the Leo part of our birth chart, we consider a time in our life where we felt too much for someone, where we stifled our passion, our instincts, our natural sexuality. Leo symbolises confidence, our authentic self-expression, the courage it takes not to shrink from our true worth.

In her resplendent memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” Maya Angelou writes: “I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We are born to this moment for the purpose of realizing our inherent strengths and striving to become all that we are capable of being. But we are not capable of being our best unless we have the courage to face who we are and to live out our full potential.”

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan was born on July 30^th 1970, as the sun moved through Leo. (Birth chart below.) His latest gigantic, shimmering offering, The Odyssey, an Imax-sized, broad-brush stroke movie, crowns Nolan as one of today’s leading filmmakers.

His birth chart shows a Leo sun and Mars in a tight, muscular conjunction with Mars adding extra fire power to his presence and charisma and the boldness of his self-expression. Heroes, wars, and larger-than-life characters like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Odysseus have all been subjects that light his solar fire. His moon, in sensitive Cancer rules the Midheaven (status, career, public) and semi-squares Saturn. Mercury squares Neptune, aiding his ability to dream big, to tap into the utter futility of warfare, the grim sorrow of ruined lives and the emptiness of loss.

As we tend to our own solar fire this month of the Lion, a configuration of planets has been silently forming a graceful geometric pattern in the skies since late June.

The energy of this important alignment sweeps through the collective as Uranus (visionary impetus), Pluto (destruction), Jupiter (expansion), and Neptune (dissolution, loss) align at 4 degrees. The alignment is called “Barbault’s Basket”, or less evocatively, “Barbault’s Cyclic Index”, and is billed as one of the most important planetary cycles of the 21^st century. The current hype about this alignment is designed to feed hungry algorithms and be regurgitated by Chatbots. It delivers just what the punters want to hear: a collective reset, a rebuilding, a collective healing, societal restructuring.

André Barbault, in Planetary Cycles: Mundane Astrology, wrote: “the next conjunction (of Saturn/Neptune) in 2026 is … is the most benefic configuration of the century, and its interplanetary partnership will work for the best in a splendid relaunch of civilisation.”

Sadly as yet, there are few indications of such a relaunch, though you may be feeling the energy of Barbault’s Basket as you consider an important reset in your own life right now. In your own birth chart, planets or angles at 4 degrees Leo/Aquarius; Aries/Libra; Gemini/Sagittarius will be held in the Basket. Those who wield power in our world seem oblivious to the existential crisis of global warming, the suffering caused by war, or the widening gulf between rich and poor. A conflagration of wildfires scorches vast tracts of desiccated land in Canada, America and Europe, as Saturn (losses, obstacles, reversals) and Neptune (dissolution, sorrow) move through the fire sign of Aries.

Saturn stationed Retrograde on July 26^th, with Eris (outraged goddess of discord, contention, and rivalry) turning Retrograde just a few days before (July 22^nd). Saturn makes a demoralising T-square to the US nation’s natal Sun-Saturn square, and will then turn direct in November 2026, to square Trump’s natal Mercury-Neptune square, a repeat of February/April 2026 that marked the beginning of the senseless, futile war on Iran. There may be more destruction to vast tracts of the natural world, with untold destruction to wildlife as Mercury, now moving direct, enters Leo on August 10^th followed by a solar eclipse in Leo on the 12^th. Jupiter in the fire sign of Leo opposes Pluto this month amplifying issues of crisis, survival, death and destruction.

As the sun makes his grand tour through the vibrant fire sign of Leo, the moon positions herself in the opposite sign of Aquarius (6° Aquarius conjunct Pluto at 4º Aquarius) on July 29^th. This is a marriage of opposites that aligns with the Basket: Ardent Leo, all heart, and detached Aquarius, ideals and intellect.

Full moons illuminate, bring completion, sensitise and intensify our emotions. This full moon is shadowed by the energy of Pluto, with the sun and Jupiter in Leo, which will further inflate any issue. Transiting Venus and Mars are also forming a fractious square, so be kind and compassionate to yourself and to those around you.

There are few who can stare at the pain of the world without blinking. We all long for some light, vacuous distraction from the reality of raging wildfires that consume forsaken landscapes, the tumult of politics, and the vagaries of the obscenely rich. Yet amongst the little fires or the flames of the inferno, new possibilities will grow, the much longed for changes we dreaded, yet unconsciously manifested.

“Despair is our chance to wrestle with fire and come through,” writes Christina Baldwin. The vibratory signature of this regenerative full moon conjunct Pluto may light the way, even if dimly at first, to a flowering of purpose, a deeper way of listening, a different way of seeing, an outward rush of a life force that floods through us even in the flaming heat and smoky darkness.

To book a personal astrology reading, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartheart.com

June 29, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship By Ingrid Hoffman

Refuge—Sun in Cancer—June 21st – July 22nd.

We are not the survival of the fittest. We are the survival of the nurtured—Luis Cozolino.

An excess of light shimmers, bright and strange. In a warming world, June’s torrid heat has enveloped Europe, exposing fault-lines in infrastructures, the fragility of our human bodies. The midsummer sun entered the sign of Cancer on the solstice, June 21^st, and days later, on June 24^th, the earth heaved and cracked and tall buildings crumbled in Venezuela. As traumatised people pray for the recovery of missing loved ones or sit in shock on the rubble of their homes, underfunded healthcare systems are at breaking point. Saturn, moving uneasily through the fire sign of Aries, makes a grim, uncompromising square to the sun in Cancer in the birth chart for Venezuela.

Mars and Uranus meet in the heavens this week, exact conjunction on July 4^th, escalating passion, stirring up an erratic, electric energy that may erupt in violence as anti-immigration protests in South Africa on June 30^th, the day of the full moon. Fear and hatred spill over the sprawl of squatter camps, lap against the high walls and electric fences that encircle the high-security enclaves of South Africa.

Just two days before the mid-summer solstice, Chiron (archetype of the wounded healer) crossed the threshold into Taurus, marking the start of an eight-year passage through that sign. Taurus encompasses those things we value: money, belongings, as well as the earthy physicality of our bodies. The passage of Chiron in Taurus (2026-2034) will also highlight the plight of those whose lives have been upended by war, natural disaster, extreme weather, and by political contrivance.

Refugee. “One who flees to a refuge or shelter or place of safety.” The word came to be associated with the French Huguenots who were driven from their Motherland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685.) Many fled to a wild colony on the tip of Africa, bringing their skills in wine making and their Calvinist faith to South Africa.

Nelson Mandela welcomed African immigrants after his election in 1994. Many have lived in South Africa, raised their families, and contributed to the economy, for decades. Now, thousands of men, women and children are being returned to their homelands, homes torched, lives in danger, as xenophobia festers.

Chiron entered Taurus in 1926, heralding a global economic depression, unemployment and poverty, and the climate crisis of the Dust Bowl that devastated ecology and agriculture in the US and Canada in the 1930s and 40s.

Chiron last entered Taurus in May 1976 and British taps ran dry during the heatwave and severe drought, as temperatures of 32°C caused 250 deaths and a sharp rise in food prices. Scientists warned us that our world was warming due to high greenhouse gas emissions. Now, fifty years on, 32°C has become the new normal. The UK Met Office has issued a new projection of temperatures that may peak at 45°C in England in 2050s. As Chiron last moved through Taurus, Margaret Thatcher’s policies provoked the biggest industrial dispute in post-war Britain with devastating economic consequences.

On the morning of June 16^th, 1976, students protested in the streets of Soweto, their protests met with whips, guns and trudgens. A darkly defining moment in South African history. Millions of refugees fled Mozambique between 1976-1977 as Chiron moved through Taurus, and millions more were violently displaced from their homes and communities during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that began in 1979. An archaic fear fuels violence. Endemic poverty and rampant unemployment make immigrants an easy target for hatred rather than holding the government to account. Historically, the passage of Chiron through Taurus highlights economic hardship, inequality, the often-literal wounding of our earth and misuse of resources.

As the collective anxiety escalates, our human response to suffering can be caring or cruel. For thousands of years, humans have lived, survived, in small groups. These bonds of connection are hard-wired in our brains, in our nervous systems, as well as primitive strategies for survival—fear, competition, power over others we see as inferior.

Physician Dr Paul Brand recalls attending a lecture delivered by Margaret Mead, the renowned anthropologist. Dr Brand recalls she was asked what she would consider to be the earliest signs of Civilization. She responded by saying that it wasn’t the arrow heads, clay pots ,or a delicate string of beads. Instead she showed her audience an ancient human femur bone with a thickened fracture that had healed. The odds of survival would have been slim. “Such signs of healing are never found among the remains of the earliest, fiercest societies. We find clues of violence. A rib agonisingly splintered by an arrowhead, a skull crushed by a heavy stone. This healed bone suggests that someone must have cared enough to hunt for this person, to bring food, to nurture them.”

Cancerian Nelson Mandela was fondly addressed as Tata, which means “father”. To millions of South Africans, he was “Father of the Nation”. He was born on July 18^th, 1918, into the Thembu Royal Family in Mvevo. The sun, Pluto and Jupiter were in Cancer that day, and it is likely that the moon was in Scorpio. This suggests powerful undercurrents of emotion, as Cancer and Scorpio are water signs, and signs of profound sensitivity, attunement to the emotional currents around them. Barbara Masekela, says of Mandela, “when you worked closely with him, there was always a kind of deep sadness.”

Scorpio’s steady self-control, Cancer’s compassion, the ability to command respect (Mercury conjunct Saturn in Leo) and his courage in skilfully navigating treacherous negotiations – with activist prisoners, the ANC, and the South African authorities would have been aided by his Mars in diplomatic Libra and Venus in agile Gemini. His birth name was Rolihlahla. A name that in isiXhosa, means “pulling the branches of a tree,” or the one who challenges the status quo. A troublemaker. On the first day of school, his teacher, Miss Mdingane told him that his new name was Nelson, an English name that would be easier to pronounce, she said. So, Nelson was his name, yet those qualities of his birth-name were what sustained him during his 27 years of confinement, physical and emotional suffering. He left a legacy of courage and compassion as he guided his beloved Motherland towards a collective healing after decades of deep collective trauma. In the poet Mario Benedetti’s powerful words, “it is only when we cease sparing ourselves and start spending ourselves that we come truly alive.”

Cancer has for thousands of years been depicted as a hard-shelled creature with a soft centre – a tortoise in Babylon, a scarab beetle in ancient Egypt.

In Greek myth, it was Hera, protectress of families, archetypal Mother, who asked the little crab to wound the hero Herakles. It dug it’s claws into his ankle and was crushed under his enormous foot.

As a reward for this ultimate sacrifice, Hera placed the crab in the constellation of Cancer, a glittering symbol of its service to her.

Most leaders today will not bequeath a legacy of statesmanship, courage and compassion, like Rolihlahla Mandela. But when we touch something greater than we are, we change inside. When we cease sparing ourselves and start spending ourselves, that we become truly alive.

For a personal astrology consultation, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

May 26, 2026 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Breathe it in—Sun in Gemini May 21st—June 21st

Beneath the popular astrological descriptions of breezy Gemini, the fun-loving and fickle eternal child, lies a story of loss and longing. Gemini is the story of twins and soulmates; the story of brothers and sisters, an age old story threaded with the pathos of loss and separation, woven with duality and ambiguity. Twins in myth and fairy tale, are similar at first glance, then reveal themselves to be fundamentally different.

The story of Castor and Pollux, and their beautiful twin sisters, Helen and Clytemnestra are stories of theft and revenge, kidnapping and murder, love and loss. Mercury, ruler of both Mercurial zodiac signs, Gemini and Virgo, was the younger brother of the handsome golden-haired Apollo, favourite son of mighty Zeus, and their story is one of sibling rivalry tempered by playfulness. Gemini’s two brightest stars are Castor and Pollux, mythical twin brothers, twin souls. When his brother, Castor dies in battle, a bereft Pollux implores king of all the gods, Zeus, to allow him to die also. Zeus agrees and the brothers are forever united in the heavens, holding hands, talking, laughing, doing those things that brothers do.

Whether we’re closely bonded, painfully estranged, our relationship with our siblings is the longest relationship we will ever have. Maya Angelou once said, “I don’t believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.”

Working at it can be a Herculean labour that may erode our energy, gnaw at our resolution to untie the knots that keep us bound in conflict or rivalry. Siblings betray one another, they quarrel, they separate, they reunite. The love one another with a love that is different from the love we have for our parents. Brenna Yovanoff writes so poignantly, “I wanted to tell her that I loved her, and not in the complicated way I loved our parents, but in a simple way I never had to think about. I loved her like breathing.”

There’s a new documentary on Netflix that’s worth watching, even songs like Can’t Get You Out of My Head, Dance to the Music, and the thumpingly repetitive Padam Padam make your toes curl. It’s a heartfelt, vulnerable depiction of the glittering ascent of one of the most enduring and engaging female singers, Kylie Minogue. Her undimmable power has shimmered since she appeared on TV weekly at seven years old. She has a warm and loving relationship with her younger sister, Dannii, who has managed to forge her own successful career as actress and singer. Dannii has a very different birth chart to that of her older sister: Libra sun, Venus conjunct Mercury in Scorpio, a Scorpio Ascendant and Mars in Aquarius. Saturn was Rx in Gemini when Dannii was born. These two remarkable women have expressed their creativity in very different ways and both have supported one another in loving ways throughout their careers.

Described by Nick Cave as a “joy machine”, Kylie has managed to sell over 80 million records in an industry that can be excruciatingly cruel to women artists. Kylie epitomises the spirit of Gemini. Kylie was born with an effervescent string of planets in Gemini: sun, moon, Venus, Mars and Mercury, all so beautifully expressed in her chosen métier. All those Gemini qualities of adaptability, youthfulness, playfulness, and the wonderful ability to communicate to people from different generations and social backgrounds. Kylie speaks of her need for freedom as an artist, saying she does not want to be “boxed in” which exemplifies the airy qualities of someone infused with the Gemini archetype. As Saturn moved over her Ascendant, Kylie withdrew from public life to focus on her recovery from breast cancer. More than 15 years later, as Pluto opposed her Ascendant, a second cancer diagnosis brought another initiation and awakening. Kylie is quoted as saying, “you learn what resilience means and what love means. Having had cancer one important thing to know is – you’re still the same person. I remember coming out at the other end and feeling more like myself than ever before.”

Kylie’s second Saturn Return (2026/2027) coincides an energising Uranus transit over the next seven years with Uranus animating Kylie’s Venus, sun, mooon and Mercury in Gemini. For those who speak the language of astrology, here is Kylie’s birth chart:

The constellation of Gemini is visible now, low on the western skyline. It will begin to fade as our sun reaches its zenith on 21^st.

As the Sun, Mercury and Uranus whip up the winds of change this month, a new moon in Gemini on June 15^th offers a “celestial instruction” on how we can use our innate dexterity to create something beautiful and useful. Intention is important at new moon times. Focus on where we might be flexible, open to trying something new.

This lunation carries the spirit of siblings and twins, so notice what comes in pairs, observe how we might project our unprocessed sibling issues onto a friend, a lover, partner or antagonist: those sympathetic similarities that draw us in; those polarised differences that repel. Mercury slows mid-month and will turn Retrograde on June 29^th, moving into the protective waters of Cancer followed by a luminous full moon in Cancer on June 30^th as Mars joins Uranus in Gemini.

In this Gemini season, may the winged sandals of Mercury carry us towards those extra-ordinary encounters that bring everything into focus. May the mythic Twins preside over those soulful tugs of the heart that herald of radical change in the way we live, and the way we love.

To book a personal astrology reading, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

May 6, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Month of the Three Moons—May 2026

The moon can only fill up once it becomes empty. It can only shine in all its glory once it’s gone through its darkest expression—Carl Jung.

May’s blossoms flutter and fall from the brief embrace of greening branches. As the sun moves through Taurus, spring swoons in the warm exuberance of summer. Daisies and golden buttercups dance across meadows. A froth of milkwhite cowslip flanks a woodland path. Whether we live in cities made bearable by parks and public gardens, or whether we have our own small patch of earth to tend, nature calls us back home.

The constellation of Taurus rose at the vernal equinox, accompanying nature’s re-birth around 4,000 BCE-1,700 BCE. Over thousands of years, the earth has wobbled, and the Sun has shifted in what is called precession of the equinoxes. Taurus which is not simply a personality trait or a list of keywords. Taurus is a metaphor for beauty, sensuality, and indulgence. Taurus invites us to attune to the slow circles of nature, to be receptive to those things that bring us pleasure and delight.

Encrypted in the sliver fire of the starry skies this month, are three important lunations: On the seasonal cross-quarter day of Mayday, (Beltane in the old religions) a Scorpio full moon, (Beltane, May 1^st ) a perfect time to prune and weed the garden, to place an intention of release and renewal into the soil as you dig in rich organic fertiliser. And on May 31^st, the second “blue moon” of the month blazes brightly through the fire sign of Sagittarius, her upward pull nurturing leafy greens and bright-coloured annuals. The moon empties, and in the darkness of a new Taurus moon on May 16^th we’re invited to pause, to begin again, with a new sense of clarity as we cherish our belonging in the delicate web of life. Virginia Woolf remembers a moment of new moon grace in a garden in St Ives, “It seemed suddenly plain that the flower itself was a part of the earth, that a ring enclosed what was the flower, and that was the real flower, part earth, part flower.”

Taurus is a fixed sign, some might say stubborn, some might say determined. This new moon might offer an opportunity to graft something new to the rootstock of a belief that might be gnarled with dogma—unable to grow.

Where Taurus is in our birth chart is where we must work the ground, nurture our gifts and talents, attentively manage our resources, cherish those people and things we value.

The moon is exulted in moist, fertile Taurus. If you have a herb or vegetable garden, this new moon is the best time to plant root vegetables and salad greens and ease back on the weeding. “Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace,” writes May Sarton.

This month, on May 8^th, David Attenborough celebrates his 100^th year on planet earth. His moving documentaries have enraptured us. His pioneering work in television has brought the beauty and fragility of nature into our living rooms. The sun was in Taurus when he was born. There is no official record of his birth time – see his birth chart below. The sun conjunct the Lot of Fortune, opposes Saturn Retrograde in Scorpio, signifying his resoluteness, his ability to endure the highs and the lows of filming in locations that were so often dangerous and uncomfortable. Again and again, he has brought our attention the urgency of the climate crisis and the existential threat to all life on earth as the burgeoning human population becomes unsustainable. “We can now destroy or we can cherish. The choice is ours,” he once said.

Transiting Saturn and Neptune have passed over his natal Venus in Aries, (Venus is the ruler of his Taurus sun) as he nears the end of his life.

Another important inflection in the cadence of this month is Pluto’s station Retrograde on May 6^th.

Pluto’s intense, complex energy has been hanging heavy in the collective since its ingress into Aquarius in 2023. Pluto transits deliver obsidian hard truths, strip us of those things, thoughts, habits, relationships, we no longer need. Pluto’s passage across the heavens is ponderous, and this turning point has been building for weeks now (Pluto has been moored at 5° Aquarius since the end of March and will creep slowly backwards, accentuating this area in your birth chart all through this year and next, as something emerges, comes to life again, in your psyche.) In the darkness of space, Pluto will station direct on October 3^rd. For those of us who have angles or planets in early Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio, something might have to “die”, or a hidden truth may be revealed. These Pluto transits cast a long shadow.

As we move through this new era of air and fire (Neptune and Saturn in the fire sign of Aries and Pluto and Uranus in the air signs of Aquarius and Gemini) many of us feel a tension in the collective nervous system, taut and charged with urgency. In response, our own nervous systems have become dysregulated―stuck in dorsal shutdown―or hypervigilant. Author and yoga teacher, Zabie Yamasaki says, “So much of healing the nervous system is unpacking our relationship to urgency. Sometimes what the nervous system needs is less.”

There are many ways to unpack our relationship to urgency, unplug from the collective current, and turn towards the simplicity of less. We might take ourselves on an “artist’s date”, allow ourselves to be seduced by beauty when we visit an art gallery. We might let music fill our senses. Wrap our arms around a tree. We might start this new day with a cup of tea or coffee in a beautiful porcelain cup; a fresh flower picked from the garden in a vase on our breakfast table. We might walk bare footed into the garden and sit in silence. Neurologist, Oliver Sacks once said, “in forty years of medical practice, I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical “therapy” to be vitally important for patients with chronic neurological diseases―music and gardens.”

Cheryl Strayed reminds us, “there’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it… put yourself in the way of beauty.”

To book a personal astrology reading, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

April 10, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship By Ingrid Hoffman

Under Wartime Skies—Uranus enters Gemini—April 25th

Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive—Zadie Smith.

Artemis II explored the light and the dark sides of the moon this month, reminding us of the preciousness of our fragile blue planet, this “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” as Carl Sagan famously said in 1990. The naming of this space craft after Artemis the mythic huntress, who embodies the untamed, savage force of human nature, is apt as tech billionaires and Trump focus on exploiting new worlds in preference to tending to and protecting the one we have. The bloodshed and destruction in the Middle East continues to continue, as this war drags into its sixth futile week. Cities are razed to rubble, children are ophaned, and still, arrogant war-lord-politicians seek their brief moment of glory at any cost. War has ravaged more human lives than any virus. There is no inoculation against the long-term malaise of this conflict.

The astrological sky-story for April is loaded with urgent Martian fervour, unexpected twists and turns. Uranus is the main protagonist, poised like a lightning bolt at the final, critical degree of Taurus, dubbed the degree of fate. Uranus changes sign and enters Gemini at the end of this month. As outer planets change sign, something stirs in the collective nervous system, breaking news brings something to our attention.

Uranus transits so often accompany those “out of the blue” events that leave us baffled and blindsided. As western economies shudder precariously and Donald Trump continues to unleash havoc, Melania Trump’s stilted scripted statement, delivered as Mars entered Aries on April 9^th, denying that she was a “victim of Jeffery Epstein,” comes as Uranus lingers over her Venus in Taurus, and Pluto makes a series of squares to her Taurus Sun. We know nothing about the woman from Slovenia who is now First Lady of the American nation apart from her carefully curated public image/brand, her stiffly armoured posture, and vacant eyes. The astrology reveals her inner turmoil and certainly some painful trauma beneath that unresponsive veneer.

Mars meets nebulous Neptune in Aries this month (in close orb until the 27^th) in a steamy combination that speaks of helplessness in the face of impossible odds, which could play out as intense frustration, or not knowing which way to turn.

Mercury impatiently joins the fray, entering Aries on April 15^th, but is soon enveloped by Neptune’s mists, which may cloud rational thinking, amplify our human propensity for compassion and imagination, or deliver a lingering sting of disappointment. On April 17^th, the new moon (27° Aries) conjoins Chiron (in our birth chart this is the tender place of our woundedness) and Eris, sister of Mars in myth (goddess of discord and strife). This may set in motion challenging events that demand self-regulation as Mars and then Mercury meet Saturn, suggesting the need to be discerning as we grapple with a situation that will demand time and patience to resolve.

As the sun moves into Taurus on April 20^th, Venus conjoins with Uranus, anticipating the most notable astrological event of this month: Uranus entering Gemini on April 25^th.

A strange new energy crackles like lightening through the collective nervous system, offering a glimpse of a new reality that is inimical to individual expression.

Uranus circles our sun every 84 years, spending about seven years in each sign. Uranus remains Gemini, an unstable mercurial air sign, until 2033/34. Over these next seven years, how we learn, communicate, and think about our future here on earth,will be rapidly rewired. Uranus’s passage through the mutable sign of Gemini will energise Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces placements in our birth charts as we play with Uranian fire with caution. Liz Greene writes in The Art of Stealing Fire: “No planet is malefic or intrinsically destructive. But collective energies of this kind must be monitored, contained, processed, and articulated through an individual human psyche with an individual human heart and individual common sense. Without this, Uranus can unleash incredible destruction on a collective level.”

America’s birth chart has Uranus at 8° Gemini, conjunct the descendant, that point of projection, opposition and Other. The American Revolutionary war and the divisive Civil war both tore a nation apart as Uranus moved through Gemini in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. As Uranus returns to Gemini once more, a divided America again goes to war.

Uranus entered Gemini in August 1941 and remained there until 1948 coinciding with WW II. In 1945, a Uranian idea quite literally exploded into our consciousness as the atom first bomb was detonated.

For those born between 1941-1949 (Donald Trump was born in 1946 with Uranus at 17° Gemini) these next seven years will mark a Uranus Return.

Both America and Israel were born as Uranus was moved through Gemini.

The Israeli/US war with Iran began on February 28^th as Mars and Uranus formed a tense square in the heavens. The transits to the birth chart for Israel (shown here) show no sign of peace this year or next.

Mars squared Uranus again in late March, and Saturn squared Venus in the birth chart of Israel. All through this year, Pluto opposes the Moon (the people) suggesting another year of survival, trauma, and intensity.

Benjamin Netanyahu was born on 21 October 1949 in Tel Aviv. He has sun in Libra (27°) sextile Mars (26° Leo.) His Libran sun conjoins the Ascendant of Israel’s birth chart, indicating Netanyahu’s strong affinity with the identity of Israel.

Like the slain Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Netanyahu was born on a solar eclipse. Donald Trump was born on a total lunar eclipse and Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, Ali Khamenei ‘s hardline son, was born on September 8^th a few days before an annular solar eclipse.

All four men seem destined by fate and the eclipses at their birth, to play their part in this chaotic conflict.

As Trump begins to tire of the conflict, Netanyahu’s stamina and resilience will be tested first by Saturn (2026-April 2028). Having been thwarted in Iran, Isreal’s horrific mass airstrikes on Lebanon now have added fuel to an already inflammatory situation in the Middle East. Will he pay Saturn’s coin, admit that failure was baked into his hubristic war plan and accept a new reality?

Next, Neptune (2026-2039) will oppose Netanyahu’s planets in Libra, undermining and washing away any remaining illusions that he is a divinely/intuitively guided leader with a special mission and any future hope that he will continue to get US backing in sustained hostilities.

There are no winners in war. Yuval Harari taps into the confusion, the complexities of humans at war as he writes: “Most Israelis are psychologically incapable at this moment of empathizing with the Palestinians. The mind is filled to the brim with our own pain, and no space is left to even acknowledge the pain of others. Many of the people who tried to hold such a space… are dead or deeply traumatized. Most Palestinians are in an analogous situation—their minds too are so filled with pain; they cannot see our pain.

But outsiders who are not themselves immersed in pain should make an effort to empathize with all suffering humans, rather than lazily seeing only part of the terrible reality. It is the job of outsiders to help maintain a space for peace. We deposit this peaceful space with you, because we cannot hold it right now. Take good care of it for us, so that one day, when the pain begins to heal, both Israelis and Palestinians might inhabit that space.”

Amidst the geopolitical turbulence and uncertainty, may we find peace in our hearts, empathy with those who are caught in the conflict of war.

Carl Sagan, in his book, Pale Blue Dot, writes prophetically: “to me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

To book an astrological reading, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

If you are in Exeter on Sunday, April 12^th, Ed Gillam will present An Astrological Diary of the 17^th C astrologer and merchant, Samuel Jeake of Rye at the Exeter Astrology Association.

March 18, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Fearless—Sun enters Aries—Spring Equinox—March 20 th

What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Spencer Johnson.

March. Martius. Named after the war-deity, Mars. March was the first month in the Roman calendar. In March, as nature blossomed and food supplies became plentiful, Romans went to war.

Mars was venerated as the founding god of the Roman Empire, father of Romulus and Remus. The might and ruthlessness, the pragmatism of the Roman military machine attests to the importance of Mars.

We may notice Mars energy all around us this month. Survival and procreation are embodied in the natural world as the urgent thrust of spring spills over the land in a cascade of colour and sweet song.

In the language of astrology, Mars represents our instinctual nature, our personal potency, our innate need to fight for our territory.

On March 20^th, the Sun slips into Mars-ruled Aries, marking the spring Equinox, the start of the new astrological year. The quality of light is different now. The sun rises earlier, lingers later now, as the year balances between seasons.

On Thursday, March 19^tha compassionate Pisces new moon symbolises gentle new beginnings wrapped in the darkness of endings. Capricious Mercury turns direct (8º Pisces) the next day, emerging now as the Magician, not the Trickster. At this turning time of the year, we may still be struggling with an internal war as we face an important choice. This new moon, and Mercury now moving direct, symbolises some kind of resolution. Mars wades through the opaque waters of Pisces now, his ardour swamped by disturbing cross-currents of emotion, his vitality beleaguered by clammy fears. Mars in Pisces is subtle, more Tai Chi than karate, the kneeling warrior who transmutes brute aggression into service for the greater good.

Jupiter also moves direct (from March 11^th), exulted in Cancer, ameliorating perhaps painful or challenging circumstances. Although like all the planetary archetypes, Jupiter is multifaceted, not simplistically a “Greater Benefic”.

In May and June, as Jupiter transits Trump’s painfully vulnerable Saturn/Venus conjunction and makes a Jupiter Return in the (1971) birth chart of Iran, Jupiter’s complexity and mythic erratic bouts of rage and spite will become evident in the euphemistically called theatre of war. If we are waiting for “good luck” with an approaching Jupiter transit, we might be disappointed when lives are not enhanced in any way. Yet as we engage hindsight and insight to unlock meaning of illness, separation and loss, Jupiter’s passage through Cancer may soothe.

Saturn (fear, restriction, contraction) and Neptune (oil, gas, confusion) are still travelling in tandem through fiery Aries. Lethal drones and missiles rupture the skies over the Middle East and Ukraine. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all bathed in the collective trauma of war. Those caught in the crossfire are mostly women and children. The economic fallout of the US-Israeli assault and Tehran’s retaliation is already impacting the cost of petrol and food prices.

Aries exemplifies the hero/warrior archetype, and its shadow, the bully-destroyer—depicted today by belligerent politicians turned commanders-in-chief. As the bedrock of our civilization shifts and cracks, revealing a new landscape, a new archetype emerges: activist digital warriors, who call for global change—Malala Yousafzai, Elizabeth Wathuti, Amanda Nguyen, Marielle Franco, are speaking out bravely against human ignorance and cruelty.

As the Victorian era ended, a 40 year old woman, armed only with a note book and pen, boarded a train heading for Bloemfontein. She was heading into a warzone. Emily Hobhouse was born in Cornwall on April 9^th, 1860, as the sun and Mercury Rx moved through Aries making a trine to Saturn in Leo.

The sun seared across a cloudless sky as she travelled through a devasted landscape of scorched veldt and grotesquely bloated corpses of hamstrung cattle and abandoned farmlands. She had yet to see the starved corpses of children held in the arms of their emaciated mothers. She had yet to be branded a traitor, publicly dismissed by Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, who stated that Britian’s empire was not “threatened by a hysterical spinster of mature age.” Yet still, she mustered the bravery contained in the fiery essence of Aries energy to expose war-crimes against women and children. Over 154,000 people, mainly women and children, were interned in British concentration camps during the Second Boer War (1899-1902.)

“I call this camp system a wholesale cruelty… It can never be wiped out of the memories of the people,” she wrote.

Although a commission corroborated her findings, she was deported from South Africa. No explanation was given. Her humanitarian work was never acknowledged by the British government.

In South Africa, she is the “Angel of Love”. A woman with a notebook who challenged the might of the British military and revealed the true cost of war. Emily’s exalted Mars in Capricorn is the master warrior, tenacious in the face of obstacles.

For most of us, our hero’s or heroine’s quest is not a muscular or spectacularly brave response to the challenges of life. For some of us, an ordinary life, lived with as much consciousness and courage we can muster, is heroic even when things seem so bleak, so hopeless. For some of us, the taming of our fears, the tempering of our innate human aggression and competitive survival instincts is a work in progress. And even though there are times when it takes every last spark of courage to unearth something positive, anything hopeful, to hold onto, as we turn towards each other in the darkness of this moonless night, Cheryl Strayed offers these words of comfort, “you go on by doing the best you can. You go on by being generous. You go on by being true. You go on by offering comfort to others who can’t go on. You go on by allowing the unbearable days to pass and by allowing the pleasure in other days. You go on by finding a channel for your love and another for your rage”.

To book your astrology reading, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

In memory of Emily Hobhouse, unsung hero, traitor and humanitarian, a woman who waged battle with the British Empire Builders and revealed the true cost of war.