Relationship

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 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.

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.

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

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.

To schedule a virtual astrology reading, please email: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

October 5, 2025 In Astrology, Relationship By Ingrid Hoffman

Together—Libra Season—September 22-October 23rd.

We say, a person is a person through other persons. I need you in order to be me and you need me in order to be you―Archbishop Tutu.

Autumn flames out in October in bolts of gold and copper. This is the month that the astrological sun sweeps through the sign of Libra, highlighting our relationships. Libra is a sign of paradoxes. A sign depicted by a set of scales.

The Sumerians called the constellation of Libra Zib-ba An-na, “the balance of heaven.”

The Egyptians weighed the souls of the dead against the Feather of Truth in golden scales of balance.

The Sun, the symbol of our creative self-expression, is said to be in its fall in Libra implying that a perpetual state of balance is impossible to achieve in the messy complexity of life.

“Paradoxically, it’s in our most enduring and important relationships that we’re least likely to be our most mature and thoughtful selves,” observes psychologist Harriet Lerner.

Yet this month, a super full moon in the assertive sign of Aries on October 7^th and a new moon in Libra on October 21^st serve as cosmic reminders to hone our relational skills.

It’s an act of courage to reach out to a friend or family member after years of silence, yet unconscious anxiety and pain tends to surface as anger or stay submerged as depression. “Keep in mind that people, like other growing things, do not hold up well in the long run when severed from their roots,” Harriet Lerner reminds us.

This month’s full moon in Aries (courage, self-assertiveness) opposes the Libran sun (diplomacy, relatedness, fairness and balance) illuminate situations where we might need to temper our need to be right or to “win”. Finding our “authentic voice,” telling it like it is, might require some careful editing. Raw, unbridled Mercury in the early degrees of emotional Scorpio now squares Pluto and forms a Yod with Uranus and Neptune, adding tension, the potential for ruthless truth-telling. Yet, the sextile between Uranus and Neptune offers new insight, a chance to act with courage, integrity and compassion as we end an impasse or repair a misunderstanding.

Mars is in Scorpio presides over this Aries moon, amplifying the potential for conflict as we march into battle with a colleague or a loved one. We may have reached a crisis point, we may choose now to give up, to save ourselves, speak our truth, even if this means losing a relationship. Mercury is now sweeping through uncompromising Scorpio, adding impetus to reflexive anger, our need to defend our point of view.

Venus, Libra’s ruling planet, is now a morning star. She shimmers in the modest, temperate sign of Virgo at dawn, a reminder to take care of the ordinary things, practice common sense, take one small step at a time, patiently repair those bonds of connection that have been ruptured through fear of being hurt, or through misunderstanding. Venus makes an opposition to Saturn in Pisces from October 11^th bringing opportunity for a practical reality check as we re-evaluate our part in our relationship dance. Venus enters its home sign of Libra on October 13^th as we practice the art of relating to others in this uncertain world. This change of sign may bring us to a crossroads in a situation that requires sound judgment and careful consideration.

This first lunation of the month follows the Autumn Equinox here in the north (September 22^nd) when the sun entered the cardinal sign of Libra and the unsettling winds of change whisked across carpets of fallen leaves. Aries and Libra are both cardinal signs. They carry an urgent momentum through the cosmic air: energy for movement, change, getting things in the right order before we come to this year’s end.

Pluto stations direct on October 14^th, dredging deep into collective unconscious, bringing up those essential truths, life or death issues we would rather not face. Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Eris, and Chiron are all still moving Retrograde, signifying a silent, unseen energy of evolution that is shaping our collective and personal destiny. It is unlikely that there will be compromise and peace in Gaza in this “me and you” cosmic weather. Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post threatens belligerently, “if this last chance agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas…”

With both Mars and Mercury moving through the fixed sign of the Scorpion, battle lines are drawn. Threats add fuel to the fire. Compromise and lasting peace are unlikely in the near future and the tragic loss of human and animal life will continue.

A Libran new moon on September 21^st arrives with charm and grace at this time of changing seasons. New moons signify new beginnings, fresh starts. As we practice a light touch in our conversations, generous gestures of love and kindness, and the careful editing of our untamed words, psychologist and author, Harriet Lerner reminds us, “it’s an act of maturity to not take things personally and to understand that the other person’s response may have more to do with them than with us.”

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