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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

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^nd the 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^th all 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.

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

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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

Bittersweet—Saturn Neptune Conjunction—August 2025.

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea—Karen Blixen.

Blackberries glisten in the hedgerows, black and juicy. Wave upon wave of sun-bleached grasses ripple across the meadows, branches sag under the weight of blushing fruit. This is a time of harvest here in the north, and for some, as the sweetness of summer begins to fade, a bittersweet sadness settles, a listlessness lingers.

Celestial Titans, Neptune and Saturn whirl closely through the heavens, just zodiacal minutes apart. Saturn and Neptune, are an ambivalent pair, reflecting fundamental human conflicts that accompany “Days of honey, days of onion,” as an Arabic proverb describes this bittersweet experience of life. They’re moving through the sign of Aries, not the most collaborative of zodiac signs. These two archetypal forces collide on February 20^th 2026 at 0° Aries, closing an astrological cycle that began in 1989. Saturn dips back into world-weary Pisces from September 1^st to February 13^th. and then both planets journey uncomfortably together in Aries until the spring of 2028.                   

August gives us a preview of what this cosmic reshaping of the coming times might look like. Already the stage is set the lights are raised as petty dictators dismember democracy and the ultra-rich control every aspect of government and society.

Astrologer, Richard Tarnas describes a sense of depletion and ennui which so many of us are feeling now as we witness the ravaged landscapes of Gaza and Ukraine. “In wartime, Saturn/Neptune alignments often coincide with the later stages of a war when a collective sense of physical and spiritual exhaustion, disillusionment, and low morale—often on both sides—is dominant.”

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. Collectively and personally (as these planets move across your own birth chart) we may be drawn into an undertow of diffuse energy. Things fall apart. People betray and dissapoint us. What we believed was solid and real is washed away.

Saturn signifies boundaries and structure, realism and practicalities. Neptune, named by the Romans after an ancient sea-diety, carries the salt of our tears as it reflects a facet of the collective consciousness that calls for some kind of sacrifice accompanied by boundless compassion.

These times can be the best or the worst of times. We can harness the power of our imagination to dream something into being— or finally accept that what we believed in, what we worked so hard to build, is simply a sandcastle, swept away by the turning of the tide.

When Saturn/Neptune met in 1989 as 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?

These are times of fear and uncertainty. We may feel overwhelmed, powerless, hopeless. Our innate negative bias overwhelms our ability to see any hope for our children during these turbulent times. Yet, the astrology points to a potent possibility.

As Saturn and Neptune glide through the skies, Saturn also sextiles Uranus this month, a portal of opportunity and the second of a sequence of three aspects, with the final one on January 20^th. August’s new moon in Virgo on August 23^rd is an opportune day to begin to harvest those thoughts that nourish and strengthen our resilience. Start small by committing to a daily practice of prayer, mindfulness, or simply weeding out fear-based doubts and self-limited beliefs. As Anne of Green Gables said brightly, “because when you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while.” In the bittersweetness of this moment in our human story, the courage to imagine something worthwhie is our greatest rescource.

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

Home Comforts—Jupiter enters Cancer—June 9th-June 30th 2026.

The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned—Maya Angelou.

Here in the north, the shimmer of summer sparkles across newly mown meadows of powered gold. We’re drunk with light, overwhelmed with a surfeit of beauty. Now the sun pauses at the zenith of the year and ancient Sarsen stones drink in the heat of the midsummer sun.

The sun dips into the cool waters of Cancer on June 21st marking the midsummer solstice, a turning point in the solar/lunar cycle. As the days of June shimmer in shades of green and the scent of dog rose wafts on a hot honeyed breeze, we have come full circle.

Within the constellation of Cancer is a delicate brush stroke of stars in the sky called Praesepe, the Latin word for “manger”. Cancer is associated with wombs, and cradles, with nourishment and containment, with our ancient human longing to belong, to seek shelter and comfort in a place we can call home. The word “home” dates to the Old English, “ham” or “hamum”, and many settlements included the word, “ham” as they were dwelling places, places of belonging to clans. Cities like Nottingham and Birmingham are reminders of the importance of the places we come from, the bonds that are forged in our families and communities.

“I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe,” writes the inimitable Maya Angelou in her superbly written letter to her daughter.

Home, belonging, safe places, will all be highlighted over the coming months:

Mercury moved into Cancer on June 8th, followed by Jupiter on June 9 th. Jupiter finds ease, joy and abundance in Cancer, traditionally, the sign of Jupiter’s exaltation. It is in the tender embrace of Cancer that Jupiter expands our innate human abilities to nurture, create, belong, to feel “at home” in a place, community, or country.

Jupiter travelled through Cancer from June 2013—July 2014 and will be moving through Cancer from June 9^th June 30^th, 2026.

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 success. Cancer is the Moon’s sign, and Jupiter expands the qualities of Cancer, heightening our sensitivity and empathy, our innate ability to nurture, to form deeper, heartfelt connections that add meaning and texture to our own lives. There may be new arrivals in our family—babies born, the joy of an engagement or a wedding, opportunities to reconnect with a family member, to excavate an important event from the past, to heal and repair.

As Jupiter enters Cancer it squares Saturn and Neptune in Aries, demanding discipline and imagination as we overcome challenges, make sacrifices in pursuit of our dreams. This final square between Jupiter and Saturn (it has been in play since last August) suggests closure, a final restructuring, opportunities to in pursuit of a dream.

Venus is moving through Taurus, the sign of her domicile (June 5th-July 4th) as we celebrate the sweet-scented days of midsummer with sensual indulgences and root ourselves in what we truly value.  We may need to focus on money matters this month and this will be an auspicious time to  invest in a property, or list our home, or spend our money on something or someone we value.

A luminous full moon in Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius on June 11th (20 ° Sagittarius opposite the Sun at 20 ° Gemini) squares the fated lunar nodes, nudging us towards brave life decisions, journeys to be taken. Jupiter rules this full moon, bringing blessings and abundance if we are open to them, yet this lunation is quickly followed by a volatile, unsettling square between Mars in Leo and unpredictable Uranus on June 15th, one day after of Donald Trump’s 79th Birthday.

On July 4^th, 1776 when the new nation of America was born, the Sun was moving through the sign of Cancer, Venus and Jupiter were conjunct in Cancer, and Mercury was Retrograde in Cancer. Home, family, belonging, and safety are enduring qualities in this country of settlers and immigrants, qualities that are deeply rooted in the American psyche. This week, active-duty marines and members of the national guard were mobilised against Americans who have protested over travel bans, rushed deportations without due process, and mass detentions, all targeting immigrants and their families.

Now as the Sun dips into the cool waters of Cancer, a sign that clasps us to the familiar breast of comfort and security, may our  hearts my open to the plight of immigrants, to families torn apart by conflict or political ideology.

At this sacred time of pause, of empty space, may we send prayers for the displaced and the homeless out into the darkness. May our prayers blaze with light, find safety and shelter in Love.

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

A New Me —Saturn in Aries —25 th May 2025—April 2028.

She encouraged herself to see her very small presence in the world as a good thing, a power, something that a hero might possess―Helen Oyeyemi.

“Be yourself” we’re told as we muster our confidence and bravely step out of the shadows. Yet as e.e. cummings once said, “the hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be someone else.”  In these uneasy times of uncompromising nationalism, polarised ideologies, changing boundaries, displacement, gender rulings, increasingly we may ask—who are we, how independent is our will?

Novelist Virginia Woolf believed that there are a great variety of selves to call upon… “far more than we have been able to find room for, since a biography is considered complete if it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may have many thousand…and these selves of which we are built up, one on top of the other, as plates are piled on a waiter’s hand…”

On May 24^th, just before a buoyant new moon in Gemini (May 27^th), Saturn moves into the sign of Aries, marking the beginning of a three-year journey that will touch all our lives in some way. Autonomy and identity will be the nucleus of Saturn’s transit through Aries. For some of us, this may be the exhilarating fresh start of everything we have been waiting for. We may finally have the courage to stop tip-toeing around people or situations that keep us small, to emerge unapologetically, as a new me.

Aries is the hero/warrior archetype, and its shadow, the destroyer. In myth and in fairy tale, the hero/warrior archetype is typically masculine. As the bedrock of our civilization shifts and cracks, revealing a new landscape, we imagine new myths, seek out new heroines who collaborate, relate and share. For most of us, our hero’s or heroine’s quest is not muscular but a courageous response to the challenges of life. As Saturn travels with Neptune in Aries our perspective may shift. During the next three years, as unseen forces move through the Collective, our attention will be drawn to the complex notion of identity and belonging, freedom and self-expression. This is the impetus of the risk-taking trailblazer. This is when we feel the fear and do it anyway. As Saturn moves through Aries, we claim our own authority, clarify our goals, grow in maturity and self-acceptance.  For those of us with planets or angles in Aries, this three-year-Camino may compel us to unapologetically reveal a brighter, braver version of ourselves as we claim our own authority, grow in maturity, soften in self-acceptance.

Saturn stations Retrograde from July 12^th to November 27^th, 2025, and moves back to the final degrees of Pisces on September 1^st and then enters Aries on the day before Valentine’s Day 2026, to journey through Aries until April 12^th, 2028. Saturn transits compel us to conserve our energy and reserves to focus on those things that we may now find meaningful, that serve us in some practical way.

These next few months deliver a preview of the substance of Saturn’s three-year journey through Aries. Saturn moves back into Pisces briefly from September 1^st; until on February 13^th, it moves decisively through Aries until April 2028.

Saturn represents the principle of structure and form, restraint and responsibility. Aries is the impulse that prompts us to take a risk, to venture into the unknown. Saturn’s presence will cool and temper the rashness of Aries and activate the Aries section of your birth chart, already primed by the long Venus transit and her Retrograde cycle, as well as Chiron’s journey through Aries (2018-2026). In myth, Saturn is depicted carrying a scythe so there is an emphasis on cutting, severing and when Saturn is in Aries, patience will be needed before we cleave something apart too hastily or commit to something prematurely. On the day of Saturn’s ingress into Aries, Mercury conjoins Uranus in Taurus for the last time (May 24^th) so pay attention to new stories, developments in world events that foreshadow events that will unfold over the next three years. Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale spoke out at the British Book Awards: “Words are our earliest human technology, like water they appear insubstantial, but like water they can generate tremendous power… Political and religious polarisation, which appeared to be on the wane for parts of the 20^th century, has increased alarmingly in the past decade. The world feels to me more like the 1930s and 40s at present than it has in the intervening 80 years.”

Yet the world is a different place now. Humankind has evolved, access to information and misinformation is more widespread. Pluto is moving through Aquarius. Uranus enters Gemini on July 7^th; Neptune has moved into Aries. These outer planets reflect the profound changes in the collective consciousness.

As the days of May pass by, the first delicate blush of spring assumes a new confidence. White and mauve wisteria, blowsy magnolias, the last of the bluebells sheltering beneath a canopy of green. Nature reminds us of the transience of life.

As Saturn enters Aries, we reimagine our identity.  We may meet ourselves, or a new version of ourselves at the starting line. We break new ground. We find the strength to let something, or someone go, to venture forth, to meet ourselves a-new, to feel the fear and dare greatly.

Bronnie Ware worked in palliative care for many years.  In her memoir, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying; A life transformed by the Dearly Departing,  Bronnie writes that is not money or status, but “the regret of not having lived a life true to themselves was the most common of all.”

Here are the five most common regrets:

• I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
• I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
• I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
• I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
• I wish that I had let myself be happier.

On June 16^th, Jupiter and Saturn make their third square, in new signs, Saturn working hard, pared down to bare essentials in Aries, the sign of its fall, Jupiter in its exaltation, in Cancer, calling us back from the busyness of life to those things that provide shelter from the world.

Once we acknowledge that limited time is remaining, although we don’t know if that is years, weeks or hours, we are less driven by ego or by what other people think. Instead, we are more driven by what our hearts truly want. Acknowledging our inevitable, approaching death offers us the opportunity to find greater purpose and satisfaction in the time we have remaining.”
― Bronnie Ware.

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

Change of Heart—Full Moon in Libra—April 13th.

It isn’t too late. Time is not running out. Your life is here and now. And the moment has arrived at which you are finally ready to change―Cheryl Strayed.

Most of us can recall those pivotal moments when our lives were shaped by intuitive choices that catapulted us into a different direction. We may have moved continents, left a lover―or chosen to stay, walked away from a highly paid corporate career to create art. This weekend as we reflect on the turbulence of the eclipse season, amplified by the Mercury and Venus Retrograde cycles, we may realise how much our priorities have changed, how we have healed, how much we have grown.

Venus revisits the same area of the zodiac every eight years. Venus last moved through the Pisces/Aries houses in our birth chart in March-April 2017. Retrograde times deliver gifts of hindsight, or personal descents into hell that up-end our lives. This Retrograde cycle may have carried similar themes―a shift in values and priorities, perhaps sudden realisation that our butterfly-effect choices, even the seemingly small ones, have brought us to where we are tonight.

Venus is exalted in Pisces, the sign of the tethered Fish. As Venus moves direct once more through opaque, Piscean waters, we may feel connected to a deep force of compassion, a swelling of creativity, and―as a flurry of pale pink spring blossom shimmers in the bluest of blue skies―the sweet blessing of heartfelt gratitude. This Venus station might accompany a change of heart, a new realisation that the moment has arrived, deepened by time, to release the past and finally move on.

The pulse of spring quickens. The hedgerows blaze with white blossom. After a fractious eclipse season amplified by the Mercury (March 14^th-April 7^th at 26º Pisces) and Venus Retrograde cycles (March 2^nd-April 13^th at 24º Pisces), Venus glistens like a diamond on dawn’s softly curved breast as the full moon in the Venus-ruled sign of Libra turns her face to the sun this weekend.

Full moons symbolise completion. They are harbingers of light as we  see more clearly, finish now what must be finished. As this full moon moves through the Libran part of our own birth chart, we are called to practice the challenging art of balance, compromise, choice and fairness in a world that so often seems unjust and out of kilter.

Aries is the beginning, Pisces the end. Libra is midway, a crossroads where the old converges with the new, where the winds of change blow across our lives, exposing the roots, bringing us closer to ourselves, and to others in safe relationships where oxytocin and vasopressin activate parts of the brain associated with calm.

The moon and Venus, two quintessential symbols of femininity, infuse the heavens with peace and harmony tonight as we honour those relationships that have sustained us through our darkest hours and allow love to flow freely towards those who mirror those aspects of ourselves that we disown.

Within every human heart is a longing to be cherished and to be seen. Psychologist Sue Johnson writes, “this drive to emotionally attach—to find someone to whom we can turn and say ‘Hold me tight’—is wired into our genes and our bodies. It is as basic to life, health, and happiness as the drives for food, shelter, or sex. We need emotional attachments with a few irreplaceable others to be physically and mentally healthy—to survive.”

Author Gerald Jampolsky writes that love is letting go of fear, and that we choose either fear or love. The essence of Libra brings harmony to polarities, offers a possibility to let go of the melodrama, to transcend the personal, and touch the heart of another with hope. At this full moon, we offer the warmth and containment of a blessing to the world and those around us. As we bow our heads to our hearts, may we feel lighter, may we notice the grace and beauty in ordinary things. For those who will be celebrating Pesach, Easter or Ēostre, this from poet and mystic, John O’Donohue: May all that is unforgiven in you be released. May your fears yield their deepest tranquillities. May all that is unlived in you blossom into a future graced with love.

 Please get in touch with me to book a personal astrology reading: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

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