Astrology

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.

March 2, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Black Moon—Total Lunar Eclipse—March 3rd

At the epicentre of this month’s sky story, two eclipses cast out their cosmic energy like fishing lines, electrifying the collective nervous system.

On February 17^th, a new moon solar eclipse in Aquarius squared volatile Uranus, as seismic change rocks and rattles our realities. Just three days later, the Saturn/Neptune conjunction in Aries signified the seeding of a new era. Eclipses feature powerfully in the birth charts of the British Royals, and this one fatefully fell within orb of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s sun, activating his sun opposite Pluto and the 8^th and 2^nd houses in his birth chart – conjunct the cusp of the 8^th house and the second house Pluto opposition (second house: money, values, self-esteem, personal possessions; eighth house: other peoples’ money, death and rebirth, sex, and at best the recognition that radical change is needed.) The rush of incoming energy from this eclipse (North Node in Pisces/South Node in Virgo) was shocking and undermining. Pisces is a sign associated with the victim archetype, with release and sacrifice. Virgo attends to the details with thoroughness and attention to detail. Andrew is the first British Royal to be arrested since Charles 1^st nearly 400 years ago. The House of Windsor (an expedient re-branding from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha prompted by anti-German sentiment during the first world war) has, in true Plutonic fashion, closed ranks, casting disgraced Andrew into the maw of the paparazzi, and the slow grind of the law.

Mercury is now moving Rx (February 26^th-March 20^th) and a powerful Mars squares Uranus—an accelerant that ignites Trump’s Ascendant and his own tumescent Mars in Leo.

Poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer writes in these jagged lines:

Illogic. deploying bombs
to achieve lasting peace—
like planting barbed wire
and expecting to grow
a rose bush.

As violence erupts and things fall apart, this month’s lunar eclipse falls on Saturn Rx in the 1979 chart of Iran. News of the Ayatollah Ali Khameini’s death in an air attack permeates the media. Astrologers tend to use two birth charts for Iran. This one is drawn for the time that Ayatollah Ali Khameini returned to Tehran, February 1^st, 1979, and seems most appropriate given the US-Israeli wave of attacks “in the heart of Tehran.”

The explosive Mars/Uranus aspect becomes muted, more ambiguous, this week as Mars moves into Pisces (March 2^nd) and Venus joins Neptune and Saturn (March 7^th and 8^th.)

On March 3^rd, the delicate light of the full moon in Virgo is obscured by the body of the earth, pulling us towards change, tying us all to a rhythmic cosmic process, directing our attention to where something is complete. Shadows may loom larger during eclipse season; revelations flash into our consciousness. Our dreams are wild or bewildering, our body calls out for deeper healing, our partner’s identity crisis detonates our marriage.

The astrological moon symbolises the soul. Author Thomas Moore, in his book, Care of the Soul, distinguishes between the spirit and the soul. Spirit seeks to rise, to transcend the personal. Soul draws us down, through the portal of the heart, into our emotions and the aquifer of melancholy that so often lies beneath our personas. In our dreams, in our off-guarded imaginings, we may become aware of a sense, a feeling, a life unlived.

Matt Licata writes, so beautifully, “there is a movement on the path of awakening that does not lead upward at all. It moves downward into the body, into memory, into what has been waiting.”

This full moon makes an aspect to Jupiter Rx and the Saturn/Neptune conjunction still looms large, emphasising the collective fear, confusion. Our wise bodies respond to full moons, our instincts, emotions, visceral responses, and this full moon will be super-charged, emphasising the qualities of discerning Virgo and compassionate Pisces. Mercury-ruled Virgo’s domain is our working lives, our routines, the health of our minds and bodies. Pisces domain is poetic, soulful. This is where the aquifer of grief and compassion lie.

Air strikes and bombings continue in Iran and spreads today to Lebanon and beyond. The Sabian symbol for this eclipse (13º Virgo) is chilling: A powerful statesman overcomes a state of political hysteria – disorder takes over when affairs are not controlled with firmness and resolve.

As this full moon eclipse brushes across the imprint of our own birth chart, she accompanies us on our own tender transition as we withdraw from the hard edges of the world and assimilate, metabolise, dream, all we have experienced since the solar eclipse in Aquarius on the new moon. Nothing is immutable in this dynamically changing world. All around us there is change and movement even though we may feel stuck or trapped in a situation right now. “Life is simple,” writes Bryon Katie pragmatically. “Everything happens at the exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it. It’s just easier if you do.”

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

Source for this horoscope for Iran, grateful thanks to The Book of World Horoscopes, Nicholas Campion, 1995.

February 16, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

A Defining Moment—Aries Ingress Saturn/Neptune Conjunction—20th February 2026.

The present moment is all you have—Eckhart Tolle.

The days, suddenly lighter now, stretch a little longer here in the north.

Already amethyst and gold crocuses circle mossy roots. Demure snowdrops, tiny bonnets fluttering in the spring breeze, colourwash the woodlands in pure white. And in the hushed darkness of space, two planets come together, marking a defining moment in our human story.

Although this week may have begun just like any other week, an archetypal cycle of death and rebirth is unfolding. As new life emerges here in the north, Saturn unites with Neptune at 0° Aries in a decisive, single, conjunction on February 20^th. This rare event last occurred in 3,000 BCE, marking the start of the Early-Middle Bronze Age when societies became more complex, and writing as a way of communication developed.

(As AI dredges the internet, it comes up with various dates. Computer software and data is unreliable that far back in human history. This date, has been calculated by UK astrologer, Ed Gillam, and corroborates my own research.)

Neptune will be in Aries for the next 13 years. Saturn, for the next two. Although these two planets meet in other signs approximately each 37 years – this meeting is at the Aries Point, a Cardinal degree point of initiation.

2026 is a turning point for us all, a defining moment that stands like a guest at the door. We may feel a deep sadness, a sense of overwhelm, or even fear, as we turn towards a future that seems blighted by divison, climate breakdown, and an epidemic of loneliness.

For the astrologers who read this post, 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.

The sun, moon, Venus, Chiron, Saturn and Neptune are marshalled in tight formation in Mars-ruled Aries. Mars, that day will be in the cool waters of Pisces, and the chart ruler, Mercury, will be Retrograde, exactly conjunct the North Node.

Saturn shows us where the boundary lies (as the fallout from the release of Epstein files shakes the infrastructure of the entitled elite globally…and there’s still so much we do not yet know) and Neptune dissolves our illusions, washes away the perspectives we have sheltered behind, so that we can face what can be changed. Gabor Maté asks, “would you prefer to be illusioned or disillusioned? Would we rather engage with the world as it really is or only as we wish it were? Which approach brings more suffering in the end?”

February’s sky story is weighty. Uranus made its final station in Taurus on February 4^th as the effects of the full moon on February 1^st lingered. Mercury is moving slowly this month and will station Retrograde in Pisces on February 25^th. Venus moved into Pisces on February 10^th, but the planet to watch this month is troublesome Mars which makes a jarring square to Uranus on February 26^th an aspect associated with accidents, sudden shocking or violent events.

We’ve entered the shadowy season of eclipses, marked by the first new moon solar eclipse of 2026 on February 17^th (28° Aquarius) followed by a full moon/lunar eclipse on March 3^rd (13° Virgo.) The new moon solar eclipse is charged with the idealistic essence of Aquarius, a sign that speaks to intellect, ideology, zealous reform, the intellect as god. This is the first in a Leo/Aquarius sequence of eclipses, setting the stage for the next six months as we focus on friendships, alliances and groups, perhaps, using this potent energy to ask for support, to give back to our community. This New Moon squares erratic Uranus, alluding to the unsettled energy as geo-political faultlines widen, and AI hallucinations are repeated as truths. We may not be able to see a way through a relationship impasse or imagine ever moving from a place of stuckness within ourselves, we may feel unmoored as we try to discern truth from lies, yet Poet Rainer Maria offers these words of encouragement, “fear not the strangeness you feel. The future must enter you long before it happens. Just wait for the birth, for the hour of the new clarity.”

Defining moments aren’t always loud or even obvious. Although they can be.

As Saturn and Neptune unite in the heavens this month, seeds of peace and compassion begin to germinate as the love and commitment of the 19 Buddhist monks who walked 2,300 miles through snow and ice in a walk for peace, arrived in Washington last week. As we face into an unknown future, the pain of the world serves as a catalyst for profound change in our lives. We can be bodhisattvas in a troubled world.

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 civilization 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.

As we move through this epoch of becoming, we wade into a new current of cosmic energy that spills across boundaries. On moonless nights, giraffes hum to stay connected to each other. Elephants, dolphins and bats, connect with sounds that drop below human perception. There is a harmonic symphony, a hum, all around us. Listen with your heart. Walk in peace…

“It is sacred. It is the end of one world and the beginning of another. Stay close. In these moments, which may always arise in the heart of an open, sensitive human being, slow way down. Touch the earth, look up into the sky, listen to the song of the unseen. Dare to consider that things are not always as they appear. Today may not be the day for answers, but to finally let your heart break open to the vastness of the question,” writes psychologist and spiritual teacher, Matt Licata.

For personal astrology readings please email: ingrid@trueheartwork.com or sign up to receive a free monthly insight into the sky story this month.

January 14, 2026 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Dark Skies—New Moon in Capricorn—January 18th.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme―Mark Twain.

As the days of this new year unfurl, honeyed or harsh, we may not yet distinguish who we are becoming. We may be clinging to where we are now, accepting those things we simply cannot change, or embracing the unknown of a new beginning.

January’s storyline reveals a glimpse of those things we can’t yet fully know. As the planets circle silently in the darkness of space, the astrology of this month proclaims a year of endings and beginnings, rage and love, sorrow and joy.

In the first week of January, an incandescent moon dominated the heavens. Her silvery light washed over the bare bones of the trees, tempering the gaudy flash of fireworks.

Imperial Jupiter, powerful in Cancer, held court in the heavens, rising in the east each evening as he escorted the pregnant moon across the skies.

Just before dawn on January 3^rd, explosions rocked Caracus. News of an internet black out, the capture of Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores, swept through the post-Christmas torpor, foreshadowing what will be a tumultuous year.

Nations, like people, have birth charts. On the day of the attack, January’s full moon (13º Cancer), conjunct Jupiter, brushed across the birth chart of America (sun 13º Cancer.)

Jupiter amplifies the qualities of whatever planet or angle it touches. Jupiter will be one of the planets to watch this year as it ingresses into fiery Leo on June 30^th and opposes Pluto Rx just as Mercury stations Rx in Cancer and Mars and Uranus conjoin in Gemini. This may be a volatile celestial recipe for sudden disruption, conflict, domination by arrogant and grandiose leaders, or a dramatic AI bubble bust.

This month, Neptune and Saturn whirl closely through the heavens in the final degrees of Pisces. We may sense a collective energy of fatigue, psychological exhaustion, or sorrow. When the contradictory forces of Saturn and Neptune converge, the boundary between what is known and unknown becomes blurry. What is solid and certain, fantasy, or fiction becomes difficult to see clearly. For those who have Pisces, Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius placements, this has been a long haul. Neptune has been moving slowly through Pisces since 2011, and Saturn entered Pisces on March 7^th 2023.

As geopolitical tension builds, Saturn (blockades, authority, control) and Neptune (oil, propaganda, sacrifice and dissolution) dominate the skies. This disquieting pair have been conjunct Mars/Mercury Rx in Iran’s birth chart for some months now, as violence erupts and things fall apart. Transiting Uranus Rx conjoins the Taurus moon and makes a disruptive square to natal Uranus of the chart of the Republic of Iran.

Saturn and Neptune meet uncomfortably at 0º Aries on February 20^th. Aries is not the most collaborative of signs and this meeting of these two archetypal forces seeds a new astrological cycle, signifying the end of the cycle that began in 1989. This disparate pair travel together in Aries until 2028, reflecting fundamental human conflicts. As history rhymes, this may present initially an idealisation of the “muscular warrior”, the glorification of war and aggression, celebration of a leader who appears at first as a redeemer, then madly deluded or immature… at the end of it all, a sense of bitter disillusionment, unspeakable suffering.

January offers a preview of what this cosmic reshaping of the coming times will look like. As Saturn and Neptune met in 1989, students poured onto Tiananmen Square. Their cries for freedom (idealistic Neptune) silenced by guns and tanks (Saturn).

In South Africa, after years of resistance and unrest, as well as international sanctions, the cracks of institutionalised racial segregation widened. Prime Minister, PW Botha resigned, and FW de Klerk became State President. Fast forward to 2025. Millions now live in the sprawling shanty towns that ring the fortressed communities of the rich. Their cries for equality and freedom subsumed by a relentless struggle for survival.

In 1989, the year of the last exact Saturn/Neptune conjunction, the UN established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A closing square took place during 2015-16, which saw Obama bringing the US into the Paris Climate Agreement and Trump withdrawing from it a year later. As Neptune (signifier of oceans) meets Saturn (laws, sobering re-structuring) will we treat our waterways and oceans with care, or will water-wars define this next Saturn/Neptune conjunction?

The new moon (28º Capricorn) falls on January 18^th. Mercury and Mars in Capricorn add energy or irritability if blocked. This presents as a restless, aggressive combination that ideallly requires a physical outlet, some goal or purpose to strive for. This aspect adds to the potency of this new moon. This is a wonderful time to begin a new project that requires focus and energy. This alignment of Mercury and Mars also marks the completion of a trio of Mercury/ Mars conjunctions―October and November 2025. This final conjunction nudging so close to the new moon this month symbolises an ending, a new beginning, some resolution perhaps to a fractious situation or a anxious state of mind. New moons are dark sky times. We may not yet be able to see clearly the path ahead. But with these planets in pragmatic Capricorn, making an easy trine to Uranus Rx, now might be an opportune moment to take practical action and find a new way through a frustrating impass, set a clear intention and be prepared to do something about it.

In the meantime, Venus, Mars, Mercury and the Sun all conjoin Pluto, dark god of the Underworld (January 19^th-27^th). It is only a benign Jupiter in Cancer that sweetens an unfolding storyline that will become more dramatic towards the end of June. This month and next, Jupiter moves Retrograde across the Cancer section of our own birth chart as we tend to those things we wish to nurture and protect. Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, so pay attention to opportunities that emerge as Jupiter stations direct on March 10^th. There will be a distinct change in tempo then, and an opportunity to tend to those things that make us feel optimistic, positive, grateful and blessed, in the Cancer area of our birth chart.

Trust your intuition. Know when to make wise choices. Sing in the face of fear. Keep the flame of faith and hope burning brightly in the darkness. “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” Mary Oliver.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more about what this luminous astrological invitation means for you. To book a session, pop me an email: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

December 31, 2025 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Fire and Air— Astrology of 2026.

Learning compassion, understanding love, and experiencing joy. That’s our purpose, our reason for being here. That’s our true mission on this planet—Melody Beattie.

January is Capricorn’s month. As we pack away sparkling decorations and prepare to cross the threshold into this next year, we may feel the austere pragmatic presence of Saturn, Capricorn’s ruling planet; we may sense the archaic presence of Janus, the two-headed god as we glance backwards and remember the highlights and the lowlights of 2025. As we imagine the blank slate of this year yet to be, a tide of cosmic changes gathers to scatter star dust over all humankind.

At the start of the calendar year, we may be looking ahead, yet the mood this month is introspective, sluggish, even as many of us may be feeling low in mood or energy. Mercury ushers in this New Year, crossing into the pragmatic sign of Capricorn as we focus on what feels solid and sure enough for us to carry into this new year. Chiron turns direct (22º Aries) on January 2^nd as we attend to our physical and mental health. Depending on where this degree point sits in your own birth chart, this could be time to hold a tender curiosity for what still needs to be healed, what needs our attention and compassion, what we need to support us in our healing journey.

A full moon in Cancer conjunct Jupiter (13º Cancer) on Saturday, January 3^rd, may stir deep feelings, illuminate unresolved, self-limiting beliefs that might have their roots in our family of origin. A new moon in Capricorn on January 18^th, aligns with Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto; and opposes Jupiter as we focus on our professional lives or a material goal. This month, we might sense what feels sustainable, what supports our journey as we hold a soft curiosity for the beauty and grace that is all around us. For many, energy levels may still be low. Jupiter is still moving backwards in Cancer and will turn direct in March; Saturn and Neptune are both lingering painfully in the final degree of Pisces, as we move through a time of sorrow, a time of physical or emotional exhaustion or despair, if our own birth chart is activated by these slow-moving planets. Erratic Uranus moves sluggishly, Retrograde, as we might question how tightly we hold onto what might feel safe and secure, whether this safety and security, predictability or routine really serves us. We might be redefining our relationships, our way of working, our personal happiness as Uranus moves direct on February 4^th.

At the start of this new year, we will need to devote time and focus to what is quietly forming, we will need to ready ourselves to adapt to unprecedented change and transformation, both personally and collectively. Take it slow. The pace will quicken in the summer.

2026 is billed as the Chinese year of the fire horse, a year that brings rapid change, innovation, and opportunity, and “luck.”

We’re entering a new astrological cycle of fire and air, two elements that may swirl through the collective psyche in a heated rush that may scald and burn, or propel us to cherish the moments, all of them, the highs and the lows and not speak too glibly of “trans-formation” as these great cosmic cycles within cycles and spirals swirl. David Whyte once said, “transformation is to hit current reality at high velocity and energy and watch it break apart into a million tiny pieces at impact.”

This year we will be offered a new dimension of meaning and new possibilities. We may confront experiences that alter our consciousness, or reconnect with issues that we didn’t manage to deal with the last time this cycle was seeded. The tempo is fast, the tone is loud, so stay focused on what we wish to bring into our lives—our health, our relationships, our work, or simply finding peace and contentment in a world where everything seems to be moving so fast. Practice discernment this year. Don’t scrape AI “facts” off the internet and repeat superficialities. This year, the images we consume on social media, the thoughts we think, the beliefs we digest, will be as important as the food we eat. Take time to pause amidst the busyness of life. To dare to be still and present with what is.

Both Saturn and Neptune move into fiery Aries in January and conjoin in February, Uranus enters airy Gemini in April, and Jupiter enters fiery Leo in June. As the outer planets change signs, they reflect the emergence of archetypal patters in the collective psyche coinciding with major world events.

Marion Woodman reminds us, “there’s no sense talking about ‘being true to yourself’ until you are sure what voice you are being true to. It takes hard work to differentiate the voices of the unconscious.”

2026 brings four eclipses: an annular solar eclipse in Aquarius on February 17^th, a total lunar eclipse in Virgo on March 3^rd, a total solar eclipse in Leo on August 12^th, and a partial lunar eclipse in Pisces on August 28^th. The Nodes of Destiny enter Aquarius and Leo on July 26^th.

Mercury turns Retrograde in the three water signs (Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio) from February-March in Pisces, June-July in Cancer, and October- November in Scorpio, adding more steam to the heat, but also offering us time to reflect, to pause, to retrace our steps.

Venus is Retrograde between October 3^rd and November 13^th, moving between introspective Scorpio and relational Libra as we balance the delicate art of relating to others with our own needs. Mars slows throughout December, turning Retrograde on January 10^th, 2027.

Already the days are growing longer. Primroses on the riverbanks turn their delicate yellow faces to the sun as we begin to resume the routines and rituals that ground us in our ordinary lives. As winter’s frosty grip softens, our earth-born bodies respond to the light, new dreams seed themselves in our imagination. Silently, irrevocably, the great cycles of birth, life, death, and regeneration are at work.

Our birth charts respond to the cycles of our bodies and souls, and what we have lived in the years gone by is still present within us, the joy, and the sadness, the resilience and the strength we have accumulated, the courage that has brought us here to the threshold of this new year, the love that is all around us. There will be highs and lows this new year. Cherish them all. Look for what is right in the world around us. Practice, daily, kindness and generosity. Be brave. Honour the ending as this year draws to a close…

“General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love, actually, is all around. ” Love Actually.

Wishing you all love-filled new year. Let the journey unfold.

For personal astrology readings please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

December 17, 2025 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Dazzling Darkness—New Moon in Sagittarius—December 20th.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear— Rumi.

The sun rests low on the horizon, spilling light through living room windows, igniting Christmas baubles that dazzle behind bay windows. There may still be gifts to buy and to wrap, potatoes to peel, and that last dash to the grocery store to buy the cream we’ve forgotten, Yet, tonight in the womb of darkness, the astrology of midwinter offers a moment to pause, even for a moment, to give thanks for this year now almost gone.

Inscribed across the heavens, the astrology of midwinter speaks of endings and renewal. The old sun symbolically dies at Yule. A new sun is born. Just two days before the midwinter solstice, a new moon nestles in the dark womb of the sky as we tenderly acknowledge the anniversaries of the heart—the death of a loved one, the day we started our new job, the moment we bravely stopped a self-destructive habit, or defied our fear, and said yes to love.

The final new moon of the year is in Sagittarius, a sign usually associated with optimism, vision and faith. Yet this new moon makes an uncomfortable square to the doleful union of Saturn and Neptune, both planets still swimming through the last degrees of Pisces, since October, the final sign of the zodiac.

As Mars squared Neptune earlier this week, news of the senseless shootings in Bondi and Brown University weighed heavily on hearts already saturated with sorrow, nervous systems already strung too tight to hold yet one more shock.

Neptune moves into Aries on January 27^th while Saturn lingers in Pisces till the day before Valentine’s Day, so we have a few more weeks of this oppressive, enervating collective energy to wade through. Saturn/Neptune conjunctions in Pisces so often accompany emotional and physical exhaustion, cloak deception, or engender pitiful disillusion. This week, Venus also squares Neptune and Saturn, accenting themes of disillusion, blurring truth and lies.

On December 22^ndthe sun moves into Capricorn, marking the mid-winter solstice here in the north. As ambassador of the mid-winter darkness, Capricorn embodies stoic acceptance, the pared down necessity of wintering through difficult times. The essence of Capricorn is structure, so amidst our midwinter rituals, this is a perfect time for putting things in order, preparing for a spiritual or physical metamorphosis.

The Chinese Zodiac has increasingly become part of the prevailing culture in the west, powered by indiscriminate scrolling and sharing on social media without much curiosity or deeper enquiry. Animals and elements, paired with a year, apparently can be traced by to the Han Dynasty of 201BCE. As the year of the wood snake ends with its powerful serpent energy, many anticipate the year of the fire or red horse as bringing a respite: strength, courage and “good luck”. Yet the last year of the fire horse, in 1966 delivered disruption and war, chaos and mass violence. In China, The Cultural Revolution of 1966 lasted 10 blood-stained years. The astrological weather forecast for 2026 (read my forthcoming new year post) carries the potential for loud, radical, innovation (for better or for worse), the need for resilience to adapt to change beyond human scale.

Venus and Mars are invisible in the heavens now. Mars moved into Capricorn, the sign of his exultation, on December 15^th joined by Venus on December 25^th prompting us to focus on practicalities, to stay grounded in those things that calm our nervous system, bring peace and comfort to our hearts. From Christmas day to January 6^th, Venus and Mars are at the lowest point in their cycle. A symbolic descent into the Underworld of the two planets that symbolise our values: what we love and what we desire. On January 6^thall three are exactly conjunct at 16º Capricorn. Venus and Mars are then combust—symbolically consumed by the brilliant rays of the Sun—forged, purified, and weakened according to traditional astrology.

Mercury moved out of his shadow on December 17^th, arriving back at the exact degree at which he turned Retrograde, which may bring things to full view, those small details of our daily lives that we might not have noticed in the fog of the Neptune/Saturn conjunction. Now any Retrograde anomalies can’t be blamed for misunderstandings or transport glitches. If we connect with this energy and the introspective mood of the astrology that is inscribed in the night skies now, we may feel the need to rest, to stay quiet for a while.

This is not only an ending of a year but a turning, a moment of re-orientation, a powerful astrological threshold as the heat of the fire-horse yang energy mounts and builds, as planets change signs and make new alignments, all throughout next year.

Take some time to be grateful for the brave, beautiful, uncomfortable moments we have experienced in the months now past. Feel what is beginning to stir and grow in the darkness. Grow quiet. Listen.

Margaret Atwood reminds us, “this is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath, the door of a vanished house left ajar…”

Heartfelt thanks to all of you who have supported my work this year past. I am taking a break from technology over the solstice and will be looking forward to meeting again for personal astrology consultations in early January. Please email me to make a booking: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

Wishing you all a replenishing and peaceful solstice.

With love,

Ingrid.

December 2, 2025 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Long Night Moon—December 4th.

We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep—William James.

In small suburban gardens, dancing reindeer and corpulent Santas twinkle. Fairy lights garland trees and hedges. As the old year dies in the darkness of midwinter, rituals—quirky and quaint—secure threads of continuity and connection, create meaning, beguile us with wonder.

The sun lies low on the horizon, just two weeks before the mid-winter solstice. For some, this may be a lonely wintering. For those unmoored by a cluster of losses, as the darkness closes in. The gaudy glitter and surfeit of this Christmas season amplify isolation. For some this may be a fallow time of scant resources. For some, the protracted dying of a relationship may rachet up the strength to shrug off a life that now feels too small, too tight. And for some, this festive season may be a time of joyful celebration, gifts exchanged, good food enjoyed, a long awaited reunion with family or a much-loved friend.

The last full moon of the year caresses the face of the earth on December 4^th, an imposing supermoon in the sign of Gemini, an astrological archetype associated with duality.

Supermoons―a term coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979―arrive consecutively, in threes or fours, amplifying the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon upon the earth, affecting the circadian rhythm of all living things. This supermoon cycle ends on January 3^rd, with a Cancer supermoon. The next cycle begins in November 2026.

December’s supermoon is accompanied by the Geminid meteor shower as the earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet or asteroid―shooting stars that streak across the skies. They emanate from the heavens near the bright star, Castor in the constellation of Gemini. They blaze through the night skies from December 4^th to 17^th.

The best time to view will be as the moon begins to wane from December 11^th and the skies darken, preceding a new Sagittarius moon, just before the mid-winter solstice on December 20^th.

This lunation invokes Gemini’s contradictory, mercurial magic. The moon conjoins erratic Uranus Retrograde and squares the Nodes in Virgo and Pisces. Tonight, we might reflect on those bonds of love and loyalty that bind us, or the painful bruise of estrangement. We may be suspended between Piscean idealism/empathy and Virgoan pragmatism/discernment. Saturn (structure and boundaries) and Neptune (dissolution) are still moving through the final degrees of Pisces, stirring deep currents of sorrow, world-weariness and exhaustion, in the closing phase of this long cosmic cycle.

In the Greco/Roman world, Mercury/Hermes presided over thresholds, crossroads, and boundaries. As we prepare ourselves for the challenge of crossing a new threshold, we may meet the spirit of Gemini in the wind that rustles the branches of the tree outside our window, a reminder that nothing is constant. Against the rich warm browns of dying bracken and marmalade and honey-gold of the last autumn leaves, it is the oak that holds fast the green the longest. A reminder perhaps that change emerges discretely for some of us, or in a flash, with a sudden change of heart, for others.

Air is Gemini’s element. This is the energy of the trickster—versatile, elusive, clever, playful, and infuriatingly inconsistent. Gemini moves through its two personas, appearing in those either-or choices we feel compelled to make, sometimes showing up at crossroad moments in our lives. Through Gemini we encounter the power of two, the kindred spirit, those relationships we find most challenging, the conflicts that bring out our exiled dark twin. Spiritual teacher, Caroline Myss’ Gemini Moon conveys the archetype of the Storyteller, the Data Gatherer. She writes, “the challenge is for us to decide whether to make choices that enhance our spirit or drain our power.”

The deeper meaning of Gemini encompasses a subtle tuning into the invisible currents that flow through the fabric of life. The Sabian Symbol for this lunation is “Transcendent Connection”. Tonight, we may feel conflicted about a choice (the sun and moon are in opposition at full moon times), yet if we can still our minds, connect with our heart, we will find the courage to be with what is. As Mercury, ruling both the moon and the south node, infuses the energy of this lunation a ritual, an intention, a heartfelt prayer will be amplified tonight.
Mercury is now moving direct in uncompromising Scorpio, yet the mood will lighten as he enters buoyant Sagittarius on December 12^th, leaving his shadow (the degree at which he turned Retrograde) on December 17^th.

We can’t avoid winter’s darkness, yet the Sun’s passage through hope-filled Sagittarius is a reminder that we may have become too rigid in our opinions, too wrapped up in anticipatory anxiety, or encased in cynicism to dare to trust and hope. Venus and Mars join the Sun in exuberant Sagittarius, as even the most churlish succumb, perhaps just a little, to the effervescence of this season.

Raising our glasses to the year almost gone, may we listen deeply to what is said around the dinner table, sensing a heartache or a longing that may be concealed in an emotionally charged silence; then choose to soften our stance, allow a change of heart, a deepening of connection.

Please get in touch if you would like to book an astrology consultation for the year ahead: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

Screenshot

November 25, 2025 In Astrology, Relationships By Ingrid Hoffman

Amazing Grace—Sun in Sagittarius—November 22nd-December 22nd.

Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful. L.R. Knost.

The Sun in exuberant Sagittarius scatters star dust and sparkle into the weeks preceding the winter solstice. This is the month of Thanksgiving. For counting our blessings and breathing in the amazing. This month we turn our attention away from the cynicism and lies of the swaggering polititians who dominate the news. This month we switch channels to something lighter, less dissonant, less deeply disturbing.

On November 22^nd, the Sun in profligate Sagittarius rises from Scorpio’s generative mud and looks upwards, towards new horizons. As we engage with the archetype of the archer, we become explorers, adventurers, pilgrims. We look for meaning, watch for signs. We reach for the stars, dream the impossible dream, buoyed by the faith that it will all work out in the end. Sagittarius is ruled by portly Jupiter, a planet which, on a good day, softens the hard edges of the world with good cheer. We invoke the spirit of Jupiter when songs of grace touch our hearts with their beauty, when we look up, when we notice the silver lining on the dark clouds of circumstance.

Jupiter has been moving through the emotional currents of Cancer since June 9^th bringing our focus to safety, home, and family. Cancer is the Moon’s sign. Jupiter expands the qualities of Cancer, heightening our sensitivity and empathy, our innate ability to nurture, to form deeper, heartfelt connections to people, places, to our faith, or our religion. To what brings meaning to our lives. Jupiter finds ease, joy and abundance in Cancer, traditionally, the sign of Jupiter’s exaltation. Jupiter’s 12-month journey through Cancer will influence all our lives in some way if we tune into Jupiter’s benevolent wavelength and focus on positivity, abundance, and gratitude.

Jupiter stationed Retrograde on November 11^th and moves direct on March 11^th, introverting the expansive energy of Jupiter as it moves through the watery sign of the crab—a creature that lives between the material reality of earth, and the ever-changing swirl of emotional and imaginative tides. Amidst the sparkle of festive lights, the Christmas playlist that pulses through shopping mall, the human-rush of life, a wash of fatigue may grey our days. We be physically or emotionally exhausted as this year draws to a close. It might be that we outgrown our shell—a home, a place of work, a state of mind. Cancer is a sensitive, intuitive sign, and Jupiter amplifies this energy. Over the coming weeks, take time to close the curtains, indulge in your favourite comfort food, and withdraw from the noise and bustle as you gestate something new, much like the crab who must seek safety as he grows a new shell.

Changing our attitude takes practice and repetition. Rick Hanson, a psychologist who focuses on mindfulness reminds us that our brains are biased towards fear and threat and negativity because the brain keeps us safe. Yet our brains are plastic, constructed for growth and adaptation. Research acknowledges what shamans and wise women have known for eons. The thoughts and images that flow from the deep ocean of our imagination have real physiological consequences for our bodies. Yet our ancient human brain often can’t distinguish whether we are imagining something or experiencing it in “real time”. It’s up to us to re-frame our dark nights of suffering and loss, to take our bundle of straw and spin it into gold. To practice gratitude. To allow grace to find us.

Within the sacred geometry of overlapping cycles, light and dark, the amazing and the awful, and the wonder of the ordinary, Mercury turned Retrograde (3º Sagittarius) on November 9^th — stationing direct on November 20^th (20º Scorpio) and will quicken the tempo of our lives as it opposes Uranus on December 10/11^th before leaving Scorpio’s dark waters to move into optimistic Sagittarius on December 12^th. From fixed water (Scorpio) into the fire (Sagittarius), Mercury travels over that same Retrograde degree on December 14^th as we consciously focus on our state of mind, tracking the wonder, celebrating the amazing. Writer and teacher, K.M. Weiland describes gratitude as a state of being, a frequency we must choose to embody. She writes, “the older I get, the more I believe gratitude is the secret sauce. Without it, nothing is good. With it, all of life is miraculous. I don’t believe gratitude is a feeling, any more than love is. It is a force that changes the world—perhaps, ironically, less because it demands change and more because it is focused on accepting and celebrating exactly what is.”

Pragmatic Saturn stations direct in Pisces on November 27^th, squaring the sun on December 17^th, an inflection point in its journey in tandem with Neptune. Saturn and the sun are in combat in our natal chart, as they are two antithetical forces. As Saturn begins to move slowly forward, a feeling, a thought, a desire, that is gestating within us is beginning to grow.

Both Saturn and Neptune linger at that critical, final degree of Pisces (29º) symbolising sorrowful endings, also often quite literally, water symbolism: storms, floods, wet, wild weather. As Saturn/Neptune journey through the final degrees of Pisces we may have a sense of what we must now release from the past, what we must lay to rest, what we must mourn. Venus opposes erratic Uranus on November 29^th, carrying the promise of incandescent encounters that may not last long, but that offer us the opportunity to move from the sadness that has weighed us down towards what could be…to believe in love after love, to tap into the power of gratitude which never wanes.

Thank you for sharing with me your stories, the amazing, the awful and the ordinary.

Thank you for supporting my work, for your trust and faith in the power of astrology to illuminate the way.

Together, let’s savour the “secret sauce” of gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving!

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

November 4, 2025 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Rooted—Full Moon in Taurus—November 5th.

To be rooted is not the same thing at all as being tied down. To be rooted is to say, here I am nourished and here will I grow, for I have found a place where every sunrise shows me how to be more than what I was yesterday, and I need not wander to feel the wonder of my blessing—Kevin Hearne.

The moon rests her bright face close to the heart of the earth tonight. The extravagance of autumn is muted now. Flowers past their bloom. The scent of fallen leaves mingles with the earthy smell of burning wood. This is the season of bonfires, pruning, and staking.

Melody Beattie reminds us, “there are seasons and cycles in us, just as there are in nature. Learn to recognise and honour the seasons and cycles of the soul.”

This so-called “supermoon” in Taurus will be followed by a regenerative new moon in Scorpio on November 20^th and as this lunar cycle completes, Taurus symbolism directs our attention to our finances, the energetic terrain where we so often feel empowered/disempowered, lacking, or abundant.

Money matters, abundance blocks, accompanied by fear and shame, may be weighing heavily in the month that preceeds festive spending. Where Taurus is in our birth chart is where we must work the ground, plant the seeds of our gifts and talents, learn how to manage and conserve our resources, grow towards stability and security, stay connected to the material world. “Being grounded” can seem like one of those self-help adages, yet as moonlight washes over the face of our earth tonight, we may ask, what makes me feel grounded, stable and safe? Have I planted roots in a place that feels nourishing? Am I tired and depleted; my body and nervous system dysregulated? How well am I managing the currencies of my time, skills, and money?

Taurus imagery offers us a chance to stay steady, perhaps begin to address our money wound, which usually is deeply rooted in our family’s relationship and attitude to money and possessions, charged with an energy that spans generations.

This full moon precedes an important celestial pivot point: Erratic Uranus back tracks into Taurus on November 8^th. Uranus lingers at the potent, critical 29° point till December 1^st, before stationing direct in Taurus on February 3^rd, moving back over old ground before returning once more to that anaretic degree point between April 7-29^th before leaving Taurus to move into Gemini.

As we review the years between 2018 and 2026, as Uranus travelled through the sign of Taurus, we recall those practical necessities that have shaped our choices, helped define our values. As Uranus moved through Taurus, crypto currencies gobbled fossil fuels and the climate catastrophe worsened. Stocks and shares rose and fell. A tariff war escalated anxiety and economic chaos. Uranus, like the Tower card in the Tarot, represents a toppling of a structure, a breakdown, a breakthrough, that shatters and shocks us into a new realisation, releasing a renewing surge of energy from the heavens.

This month, Saturn and nebulous Neptune meet in Pisces. As they move over the sensitive degree point of the new moon eclipse on September 21^st, there’s speculation of an AI bubble burst in a precarious world economy that teeters on the brink of recession. Saturn has been moving through through the liminal realm of Pisces since March 2023, and will remain in Pisces till February 2026. The archetype of Saturn carries ponderous associations with fate and consequence, and Saturn/Neptune conjunctions correlate with events that bring dissolution to structures; a sense of deep ennui, a vague, undefined sorrow and hopelessness that pervades the collective; confusion, disillusionment, political polarisation. Saturn and Neptune will be co-present in the same signs until 2028 and although these great astrological cycles and seasons don’t form in isolation, this corrosive cosmic energy unmoors, unsettles, makes it hard to discern truth from lies. Astrologer, Richard Tarnas writes: “There is also a tendency during Saturn/Neptune eras to experience a subtle but pervasive darkening of the collective consciousness, sometimes as a diffuse and difficult-to-diagnose social malaise, at other times as a direct response to deeply discouraging or tragic events.” This month, Saturn presses slowly forward, suffusing our experiences with necessary endings, the dissolution of outworn structures. Neptune invites us to grieve.

The effects of September’s two eclipses linger perhaps in our own lives, and certainly for Mr Mountbatten Windsor.

The lunar eclipse (15° Pisces) fell on Mr Mountbatten Windsor’s Mercury. He now faces pressure to give evidence before the US Congressional committee about his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The House of Windsor is still embroiled in a criminal crisis.

The explosive, deeply cutting Mercury/Mars aspect of October burns across the heavens this month. Mercury stations Retrograde on November 9^th, with Mars now moving swiftly through the fire sign of Sagittarius close on its heels, gaining ground, till they meet in another combustive conjunction between November 11^th and November 14^th as Mars, the war-god, viciously slices through communication (Mercury). Poet, Andrea Gibson, speaks to hunting out the fear, which might mean facing a painful truth and harnessing rampant reactivity or finally daring to open to that difficult conversation.

As nature contracts, exposing an uncompromising knot-work of bare branches and stubble fields, the primordial pulse of change stirs deep in our blood and bones. Yet, tonight, we may sense a slow, steady certainty moving through our body, a knowing, that at month-end, the invisible new moon in Scorpio carries the seed for repair, for release and renewal.

In this world of dying things, may those dead places in ourselves open to Love in new and deeper ways. And as the moon’s light bathes the earth tonight, may we trust the rhythm of the universe, the cycles and the seasons that bring endings and new beginnings.

Please get in touch if you would like to book an astrology session: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

October 22, 2025 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Resolute—Sun Enters Scorpio—23rd October.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another—Anatole France.

In October, leaves of gold turn to mulch. Shimmering spiderwebs sparkle in coppery hedgerows. The sunlit days, charged with beauty, are more precious now as the light begins to dim.

October is when we turn towards the quiet darkness of winter. This is the season of dying things, a time of shadows. The season of Scorpio brings two powerful forces into sharp focus: life and death. This is a liminal time, halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. A time when we may notice an unsettling shift in the seasons. A time when melancholy wraps itself around the wan light of the dying year and ghoulish costumes create a safe diversion from our squeamishness about death. This is the month when the dead come calling—Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead with roots that twist down through the centuries to Aztec death rites.

Hallowe’en, loud and gaudy, prickling with single-use plastic, was once Allhallowtide, a time in the liturgical year that was dedicated to the departed, before that, the Celtic festival of Samhain.

Soft-bred pumpkins grimace with menacing faces; bonfires consume summer’s fruitfulness, light-hearted tricks and sugary treats sweeten the older tradition of guising (disguising ourselves from sinister wandering spirits) while ruby-red toffee apples symbolise the potent symbol of the pentagram that lives in secret within every store-bought apple; incantations against the supernatural, rituals for protection against the descent into the dark of the year.

As the sun moves through the sign of the scorpion this month, we may become acutely aware that our time here is finite, as we ask ourselves, “what is really important to me?”

It was the serpent, not the scorpion, that ancient Hebrew and Egyptian astrologers associated with the qualities of the modern archetype of Scorpio. Snakes, in ancient times, were associated with wisdom, prophecy, and healing as well as destruction. The cyclical shedding of the snake’s skin was thought to be symbolic of renewal and immortality. In modern times, Scorpio is associated with the far-sighted eagle that soars high above the mayhem. The mythical Phoenix that soared from flames and ashes. Now, as the sun moves through Scorpio, we may be letting something or someone go, rebuilding, starting anew.

When confrontational Mars and communicative Mercury, both personal planets, meet in the still waters of Scorpio this month, they can deliver a nasty bite that wounds. Power struggles, Machiavellian betrayals, buried truths emerge. Snakes and scorpions move easily through the darkness.

On the world stage, Mars/Mercury themes have played out in the truce violations in Gaza and the unspeakable horrors of torture, executions that continue to ravage any hope of peace. As Mars and Mercury move through Scorpio, a sign connected simplistically with the regenerative act sex, comes the unsurprising revelation that Prince Andrew hired internet “trolls” to harass Virginia Giuffre, the courageous advocate for justice for the survivors of sex trafficking, who committed suicide in April this year. As new sordid allegations emerge, Prince Andrew is stripped of his royal titles, just as transiting Mars and Mercury travel in tandem across his secretive Scorpio moon, and Saturn (law, responsibility, accountability) conjoins his fated south node (the past, karma) and Chiron lingers over his Midheaven (reputation and status). It is unlikely that he has willingly and generously given up his prestigious titles. This decision has been made to bolster the power and reputation of the Royal Family brand. Prince Andrew continues to resolutely deny his part in the abuse and sexual assault of Virginia Giuffre.

Cosmic static begins this month as Mercury has entered its Retrograde shadow (misunderstandings, travel delays, technology glitches all start creeping in—notably the major website outage experienced globally on Monday, October 20^th) and will station Retrograde in fiery Sagittarius on November 9^th, finally moving direct in watery Scorpio on November 29^th. With Mercury moving Retrograde in Scorpio, we may feel a strong desire to withdraw from the world. Our dreams may be intensely disturbing or revealing. This is a cosmic nudge to slow down, focus, pay attention, repair, heal, before moving forward. Fact-check what you post online before you send it, resolve an old argument with a loved one, attend to the tedious admin, read the fine print before signing a document.

Scorpio carries enormous power, for good or ill. The deadly sting or painful bite may self-inflicted.

“Just as splinters can get embedded in our body, old emotions and beliefs can act like toxins and become embedded in us too. We may have picked up residue along the way, beliefs we didn’t consciously choose, feelings we weren’t safe enough to feel, toxins from the world around us” Melody Beattie writes. “What hurts? What are you remembering? Who has come back into your life? Sometimes the process will sting just a bit when you pull out the splinter, or the process of releasing old toxins can be as gentle and natural as the way a flower or tree grows with sunshine and rain.”

Scorpio is associated with the element of water, so tune into what flows and what feels frozen and immovable in your life. Pay attention to what rises to the surface now, what is worth holding onto, and what must be allowed to die.

Swedish archaeologist Cornelius Holtorf observes, in a field of work where preservation is so valued, that accepting loss and change can be important in fostering resilience. Holtorf believes that seeing things fall apart may help us recognise that life is not static. He warns that we can all be drawn into the swamplands of melancholy, rabid nationalism, fanaticism, ghoulish witch hunts, in the name of keeping things “as they were”.

As we prepare for the coming of winter, the sky-story carries a message of hope and regeneration through its association with the snake that sheds its skin, the mythical phoenix that rises from dust and ashes, and the all-seeing eagle that soars above the beauty and the suffering. Let’s enter this Scorpio season of change with the willingness to trust the process of shedding, embrace the sorrow of loss. Let’s turn towards life with grateful hearts.