Self Growth

January 22, 2024 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

What Matters to the Heart—Full Moon in Leo—January 25th.

Chase away the demons, and they will take the angels with them—Joni Mitchell.

The first Full Moon of 2024 sails across a mantle of stars tonight, blessing the earth as she travels through heart-centred, self-mythologising Leo.

The essence of Leo is vibrant self-expression. Yet in our light-poisoned cities, in a culture where so many are infected by a sense of alienation, numbed, and dumbed by a relentless press of competition or spurred by a false sense of lack to consume more and more, our spontaneous self-expression may be injured or lie dormant.

In medical astrology, Leo rules the heart, the guardian of the soul. This lunation offers a reminder that we all have an authentic, divine spark within, an instinctual force that does not emerge from an acquisitive, competitive ego, but from what matters to the heart.

The Sun and Pluto in Aquarius oppose the Moon in Leo on January 25^th, and the New Moon of February 9^th will accent the Aquarian energy that will infuse the zeitgeist for the next two decades.

On January 20^th the Sun joined Pluto in Aquarius at the sensitive 0° as Mercury moved out of the shadow, signifying that some new force is stirring in the collective and in our own lives.

This critical 0°- point circles back across celestial song lines to the mid-winter solstice of December 21^st, 2020 when Saturn and Jupiter conjoined in the heavens in Aquarius, heralding a start of a new air sign era. Sabian Symbol for this degree is “Building structures for the survival of the group”. For new souls incarnating this month and next, the Aquarian celestial signature will be part of a life long journey: Pluto and Mercury will be in Aquarius on February 5^th, joined by the war-god, Mars (February 13^th,) and Venus (February16^th.) These personal planets rendezvous with Pluto at the supercharged 0° signalling a slow emergence of a new consciousness that will require clarity and discrimination, profound self-inquiry, and an intelligent questioning of societal norms and values.

Pluto’s entry into the humanitarian sign of Aquarius is no abstract event in the age of the Anthropocene. The first astrologers, the stargazers of Mesopotamia believed that the stars transferred messages from the gods.

Pluto returns to Aquarius after 245 years of colonisation, genocide and ecocide, a mere blip in the spiral of human his-story. Aquarius like all astrological archetypes, is nuanced and complex. There will be no sudden shift into a golden “Age of Aquarius”. It’s unlikely that “peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars.” The New Age dream may become a nightmare as we witness the rise of popularist governments, autocratic leaders, fanaticism, and groupthink, accompanied by unprecedented emphasis on science and technology.

For many, Pluto’s two-decade passage through Aquarius will incite a slow internal awakening, a deeper questioning of our place in our community. For some of us, this will mean a different approach to activism as social and environmental issues press into our ordinary lives. For others, the challenge of seeking meaningful, paid work as AI supersedes what we thought would be a life-long career.

Pluto, or Hades as he was named by the Romans, represents natural law, the cycles of life and death which involved a descent into the darkness of the underworld. In myth, Pluto is depicted as wearing a helmet which rendered him invisible, so we only sense his presence as we glimpse the shadowy truth of what has been buried alive in our own psyches. Collectively, Pluto tends to dredge up all that lies rotting beneath the surface, so we can expect the shadowy aspects of Aquarius to rise up like bloated corpses from the fabled water of this paradoxically named fixed air sign.The old order will resist change.

Pluto dipped into Aquarius briefly last year (March 23^rd -June 11^th) as ChatGPT and Nividia were heralded as the harbingers of a technological renaissance. As Pluto moves through Aquarius these next two decades our quasi-religious reverence for technology, our faith in science to provide all the answers will be challenged.

As you are reading these words, AI trawls the internet, dredging up the dross we have dumped there since the 90s and spewing it back at us again in the form of misinformation and repetition. We may find it difficult to distinguish posts by real humans from “fake”; AI art from someone’s soulful self-expression. How effective social media regulations will be amidst the flotsam and jetsam of AI generated content will be a Pluto in Aquarius concern that will affect us all. The superb ITV drama, Mr Bates vs the Post Office directed our gaze on an indifferent, omniscient institution and a flawed technology that wreaked havoc on human lives. It was a human story that touched a raw nerve in the collective and unleashed a torrent of rage. Columnist Charlotte Higgins writes, “our current tragedy is that in the 21st century we have replaced the idea of cruel, unpredictable and all-powerful deities with our very own human-made institutions that are just as terrifying as, and rather more real than, any vengeful Greek god.”

Pluto makes one last and brief visit to Capricorn from September 1^st – November 19^thand will remain in Aquarius till 2044 as humankind re-imagines the myth of progress or succumbs to the illness of alienation, a numbing soul-loss as we lose our hand-crafted lives, forget what matters to the heart.

This is a call to create a new relationship with nature, and with each small act, to tend to each other, to allow the ragged scars of patriarchy slowly heal from the bottom up. This is a call to reach out to a friend who is shrouded in the darkness of depression. This is a call to sprinkle wild meadow seeds on the barren edges of what was once a fertile marsh land, now a concrete parking lot. This is a call to remind ourselves, in the words of Paula Gunn Allen, that “snowflakes, leaves, humans, plants, raindrops, stars, molecules, microscopic entities, all come in communities. The singular cannot in reality exist.”

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

January 1, 2024 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

New Dawn Rising—2024 Astrological Weather

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.

Anne Lamott.

“This year will be better…” we say hopefully, perhaps as a talisman to ward off potential heartbreak and hardship.

The mood this month is serious, focused on the goal-directed activity, underscored by a determined Capricorn new Moon, on January 11^th augmented by Mars in Capricorn, a celestial prompt to get things done and as author, Doris Lessing reminds us, “whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”

Elusive Mercury moves direct on January 2^nd and Jupiter, the planet associated with abundance and “good fortune” moved direct on December 30^th after a three-month backspin in the sign of Taurus, a sign where where change comes incrementally, one small step at a time.

The astrological signature for 2024 wraps itself around the next three years, signifying the changes that have been emerging since the solstice of 2020, in our own lives and collectively.

Pluto moves into Aquarius on January 22^nd , dipping back into Capricorn as profound evolutionary forces sweep through the collective psyche, breaking down what no longer serves us. Since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2018, we have witnessed the rise of authoritarian governments and the revelation of the abuse of power, the #MeToo campaign and the #BlacklivesMatter Global Network. As we bring our attention to any unfinished business in our own lives regarding power or powerlessness, responsibility and accountability, Pluto will finally enter Aquarius on November 19^th and will remain in Aquarius till 2043. Already, we have a sense of what Pluto in Aquarius what might be like as the climate emergency, mass migration, gruesome conflict and fanaticism cast a long shadow. The unprecedented proliferation of AI that is already hardwired into our daily lives is a taster of things to come as the Silicon Valley Plutocrats gain omnipotence. Pluto’s presence will be felt in politics this year. 2024 is the year of The Election as more than 40 countries hold national elections, some free and fair, others determined by despots.

Pluto, mythical lord of the underworld, sovereign of the dead, draws us all into his shadowy world to confront the truth with courage and honesty this year. In myth, Pluto was custodian of what has been interred: the complexes, patterns that have not yet been accepted or exorcised. As Pluto arrives at the end point of its 14-year passage through Capricorn, those who have planets in early degrees Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius will feel Pluto’s presence as it crosses over the charged 0° Aquarius once more. Saturn conjoined Jupiter at this sky point on 21^st December 2020 as we began a slow emergence from the pandemic.

Saturn and Neptune are still floating in the nebulous waters of Pisces, moving closer to a conjunction in 2025/2026 as things become blurrier and in the echo chambers of social media, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction.

When Saturn and Neptune perform a Dionysian dance in the heavens, we swoon. This intoxicating combination offers the sweet promise of redemption, intensifies our yearning to return to Eden. These are the murky waters where charismatic con men create cults that offer a false belonging, where opiates and psychedelics carry us away from the harshness of this world, and cyber criminals and hackers hunt across the dark web. When Saturn meets Neptune, wonder who or what is real, or we wake, as if from a trance, bitterly disillusioned. When Saturn (carbon) conjoins Neptune, permafrost thaws and noxious gasses, bacteria, and viruses (Neptune) are blown by the wind. This combination of celestial energies may unleash a tsunami of pent-up grief and suffering; it may surge through cryptocurrencies, drown the hype, dissolve castles in the air. This is the hungry energy of the speculator, a glimpse of hope that may be unfounded, perhaps, the realisation that as we drop the salvational fantasy we are freed up to sweetness of simple pleasures, self-acceptance, and a deeper appreciation of the poetics of life.

Uranus, Saturn and Neptune both move into new signs in 2025, and the rest of this decade will be infused with the energy of Uranus trine Pluto, Neptune sextile both Pluto and Uranus.

April may be a tumultuous month for many as rotund Jupiter aligns with explosive Uranus, an indicator of volatility in financial markets, inflation, and the potential for seismic activity. Jupiter will amplify the uncertainty and unpredictability of Uranus, and this energy will permeate society, paving the way for Jupiter’s entry into Gemini, on May 25^th which may amplify divisions and polarisation on social media platforms, or offer the opportunity to heal a ruptured relationship, offer words that land gently.

2024 ends as Mars moves Retrograde in Leo opposite Pluto (in orb from October 2024 to January 2025) with one close contact on November 3^rd, only two days before the US election and one more on January 3^rd. Mars/Pluto contacts accompany unscrupulous power struggles that have a life-or-death quality and have the potential to erupt in violence. The eclipse season begins with an Annular Lunar Eclipse (5° Libra March 25^th), followed by a Total Solar Eclipse (19° Aries, April 8^th), and ends with a Partial Lunar Eclipse (25° Pisces, September 18^th) and an Annular Solar Eclipse (10° Libra, October 2^nd.)

93 million miles away, solar storms create magnificent aurora spectacles on Earth, yet can also distort the magnetosphere, the protective magnetic wrapping of our earth, disrupting our body’s magnetic field, as well as distorting electrical grids, GPS signals and the movements of the millions of satelllites that circle our home planet. A peak of “solar maximum” between January and October 2024 will be stronger and longer than estimates made back in 2019 according to a US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statement. Neptune was backtracking Retrograde (26° Pisces) on September 1st, 1859 when The Carrington Event, the most intense geomagnetic storm ever recorded, caused wide spread fires and powerful auroral displays. This year, it might be worth noting that transiting Neptune is now moving direct (25° Pisces) and will turn Retrograde on July 2nd.

Already the days are growing longer and the 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 we welcome this brave new year and sit with the paradox of those things that stir our anger and release our tears, let’s pause for a while in the quiet shade of the unknown before we enter the fray.

This is the year of living bravely, soulfully, imaginatively, abandoning those things that are irretrievably broken, and reimagining our place in the world as we root, with profound gratitude into the rhythm of our lives.

Wishing you all a gentle beginning to this new year.

With love,

Ingrid.

For an in-depth exploration of your own birth chart, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

December 18, 2023 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Approaching the Dark—Winter Solstice December 22nd

To this world you belong. To this moment, in this place where you already stand, something greater has ushered you—Toko-pa Turner.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. A demure fir tree bejewelled with baubles becomes a dazzling diva. The unassuming delivery man wears a gaudy novelty sweater with “I’m sexy and I snow it” emblazoned across the chest. In small gardens, dancing reindeer and corpulent Santas twinkle, and fairy lights garland trees and hedges. As the old year dies in the darkness of midwinter, rituals—quirky and quaint—secure threads of continuity, create meaning, beguile us with wonder.

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 amplifies 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, as we welcome a new baby into the family, or reunite with a much-loved friend.

On December 22^nd the sun enters Capricorn. The old sun dies. A new sun is born. This is the mid-winter solstice, a sacred still point in the year, the longest night, and in the darkness, something is gestating. Capricorn, like all astrological signs is multi-layered, profoundly complex. As ambassador of the mid-winter darkness, Capricorn embodies stoic acceptance, the pared down necessity of wintering through difficult times. Capricorn is an earth sign, a sign that is associated with the quiet alchemy of winter, with lean times and quiet determination. The essence of Capricorn is structure, so this is a perfect time for putting things in order, methodically getting things done.

Capricorn brings a moral awakening toughened with pragmatism, often the self-denial that strips us of those things that are stagnant or decaying and must be relinquished. In a throw-away culture where even our longest relationships can be reactively “unfriended”, where family estrangement has reached epidemic proportions and exile is often self-chosen, we may be actively seeking a new place or relationship that meets who we are becoming. Yet, so much of our conscious awareness lies hidden in the shadow. We might think we think independently, yet we are identified with institutional ageism, sexism and the insidious collective dogma that is so evident in politics, religion and corporations as warring factions separate spheres of belief and project their shadows on the Other. Jung is so often quoted as saying, “when an outer situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.”

Before we reactively severe ties this Christmas, we might remember that the archetype of the Mountain Goat is also about the endurance, the resilience, of the long-haul.

“At the heart of ‘belonging’”, writes poet Toko-pa Turner, “is the word, ‘long’. To be-long to something is to stay with it for the long haul. It is an active choice we make to a relationship, to a place, to our body, to a life because we value it. Even though that it may not be all that we hope it to be, we are keeping the long view of what is possible, and our life becomes an offering to making it so.”

The last full moon of 2023 journeys through the heavens on December 27^th. This full moon falls in Cancer, a sign that embosoms our belonging—to a place, a community, a tribe, or family. The vibratory signature of this lunation symbolises the heart fire of our emotional security, our sense of safety, life-giving friendships and soulful connections that nourish and sustain us through difficult times.

Cancer is a Cardinal water sign, so the days after the festivities may release a torrent of emotion, stir the sediment of memory, dislodge vestiges of nostalgia, and remind us, as we unwrap our gifts and hug our loved ones, of those separated from their families by conflict, or trafficking, those who have fallen through the cracks of the system and are now homeless, sleeping rough.

The astrology of midwinter aids reorientation to what we value, offers a sanctuary to reconnect with ourselves within the darkness. Mercury turned Retrograde in Capricorn on December 13^th and on December 27^th will be moving Retrograde through the fire sign of Sagittarius, conjunct Mars. This is a time to listen generously, to practice curiosity, to allow ourselves to be surprised. On a more mundane level, Mercury Retrograde times can accompany miscommunication, transport difficulties, train or air traffic control strikes, lost or stolen devices that are alarmingly now the sole point for function in a virtual world. As we enter the new calendar year, Mercury stations direct in optimistic Sagittarius on January 3^rd as Mars joins the Sun in pragmatic Capricorn. Jupiter changes direction just before new year’s eve. Jupiter has been moving Retrograde in Taurus (sensual pleasure, finances, property) since September 4^th and this cycle ends on December 30^th, which might offer impetus to act, to dare greatly, to reach for what you long for with good faith in the outcome.

As we come to the end of this year, the bare bones of winter and the dark contours of the landscape offer no distractions. This is a time to turn within, to gift ourselves with some contemplative time, away from screens and devices, so that in silence we can sense what is dying and what is stirring, waiting to be born.

“The biggest illusion about a path of refuge is that we are on our way somewhere else, on our way to becoming a different kind of person. But ultimately, our refuge is not outside ourselves, not somewhere in the future— it is always and already here—Tara Brach.

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 restful and peaceful festive season.

With love,

Ingrid.

November 23, 2023 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Change of Heart—Gemini Full Moon—27th November.

One new perception, one fresh thought, one act of surrender, one change of heart, one leap of faith can change your life forever. Robert Holden.

Now as we tend to the cherished customs and familiar rituals of this holiday season, it may be easy to be distracted by busyness, overwhelmed with fatigue, whiplashed by unexpected events that leave us disorientated, discombobulated, yearning for soul shelter amongst those simple things that bring us comfort and joy.

November’s full moon invokes Gemini’s mercurial magic as we approach the Solstice on December 21^st. 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.”

So often in myth and fairy tale, opposites are depicted as the hero and his enemy—Parsifal and the Red Knight; Biblical brothers, Cain, and Abel; and in Gnostic teaching, Jesus and Satanael, twin sons of God, symbols of light and dark. Our human minds are hard-wired to see opposites and differences, warring opposites instead of complementary pairs. As yet another divisive far-right politician brandishing inflammatory rhetoric gains power in Europe, the astrological signature this weekend is dominated by Saturn (structure, authority, tyranny) in boundless Pisces.

As Mars leaves the dark waters of Scorpio to join an optimistic sun in Sagittarius, a deal has been struck for a brief pause in hostilities in Gaza and the release of some prisoners and hostages. On November 24^th, Mercury (mediation) makes a trine to the Moon in Aries. On this day, the moon (in Aries) trines Mars (in Leo) in the birth chart of Israel and transiting Mars and Sun trine Israel’s Leo moon, which augers well for the families and those who have been kept in captivity. Mars rouses our survival instinct, stokes our will, and heats our desire. Saturn (boundaries and limitations) arrives in the form of realistic, measurable outcomes that demand accountablity and maturity. This weekend there may be situations and circumstances that test our resilience and fortify our spiritual mettle.

As Mars and the Sun confront this Gemini Moon on November 27^th, our battle for security and safety is not yet over. We may still be grappling with impossible choices, still embroiled in misunderstandings that erode our trust, still aching from a betrayal that armours the bruise in our heart. We may have slipped into the habit of expecting a catastrophe, we may find it safer not to hope or dream. We may be wintering, even though the sun is shining.

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.

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

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

Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice—Maya Angelou.

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

November 11, 2023 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Blessings and Bombs—New Moon in Scorpio—November 13th.

Children of chance, we have made ourselves into what we are — creatures who can see a universe of beauty in the feather of a bird and can turn a blind eye to each other’s suffering, creatures capable of the Benedictus and the bomb. Creatures who hope—Pattiann Rogers.

Darkness comes early now.

As we descend into “fall”, Nature responds to the ancient rhythm of life and death. Shoals of fluttering leaves twist and turn like golden minnows and delicate spiderwebs spangled with diamonds of dew shimmer in the hedgerows. The brilliant greens of summer have turned to marmalade and plum revealing the bare bones of the branches.

As the light slips softly off the hillsides, a new moon in Scorpio nestles beneath the dark hem of the night. New moons are generative times. Seeding moments when we plant wishes in the darkness and wait patiently, expectantly for them to grow. In our own birth chart, it’s the moon that conveys our private longings, our place of comfort and belonging, our habits and emotional topography.

In ancient astrology, Scorpio was The Serpent that shed its skin, healed and renewed itself, the mythical Phoenix that soared from flames and ashes.

In modern times, Scorpio is associated with the far-sighted eagle that soars high above the mayhem.

Even if we avoid “the news”, we may sense a seam of blackness in a world advancing through a dark night of the soul. Set-backs and existential challenges pervade our consciousness. Bombs and bullets continue to kill and maim in war-ravaged Gaza and Ukraine. In myriad forsaken places, cities are razed, lives destroyed. Iceland declares a state of emergency as tremors split the earth and the country prepares for a volcanic eruption in the coming days. As things fall apart, divisions widen. Polarised and impassioned opinions cleave friends and family as we reduce anxiety by focusing on something, or someone other there to fear or blame.

In our own lives, the primal energy of Scorpio may come in the form of that wrecking ball that smashes through the illusions, a truth that breaks the shackles that have bound us for so many years. It may come in a heroic apology, a severance that sets us free from a relationship that has outlived its purpose, a revelation of a truth.

Mars strides into battle at the midpoint of this new moon. This lunation (20° Scorpio) reflects the volatility, the anger, and the rage we may feel in the world around us. It’s an edgy, unpredictable astrological signature that accentuates a combative and explosive opposition to Uranus (21° Taurus), reflecting a reactive, heated rush of energy that may spill over into our lives, manifest as an accident, an earthquake, volcanic eruption, and accelerate the brutality of war.

“Anger is a tool for change when it challenges us to become more of an expert on the self and less of an expert on other,” writes psychologist, Harriet Lerner. Yet seeds of compassion and forgiveness germinate at this new moon time as we tune into Scorpio’s power to heal a relationship rupture or make a heroic heartfelt apology for something we wish we could have done differently.

“It’s a profound challenge to sit on the hot seat and listen with an open heart to the hurt and anger of the wounded persons who wants us to be sorry—especially when that persons is accusing us and not accurately as we see it—of causing their pain,” Harriet Lerner in her book, Why Won’t You Apologise?

The Sabian Symbol for this hard-hitting lunation offers a subtle, intuitive glimpse into the shadows and the hidden light of this new moon: Obeying his conscience, a soldier resists orders.

Jeff Foster asks that we “kneel before the power in your anger; honour its fiery creativity. From this place of deep acceptance, you do not become weak and passive. Quite the opposite. You simply enter the world from a place of non-violence, and therefore immense creative power, and you are open to the possibility of deep listening, honest dialogue, and unexpected change. In suffering, you become small. In love, anything is possible.”

As we prepare for the coming of winter, this dark moon 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. It invites us all to enter this new day with a blessing or a prayer for healing, and the wisdom to obey our conscience.

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

October 25, 2023 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

The Light Within—Partial Lunar Eclipse in Taurus—October 28th.

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending—J.R.R. Tolkien.

As mist curls in spectral plumes across swathes of rust-coloured forest, the plaintive roar of a rutting deer echoes across the valley.

In the north, Scorpio season draws us into rot and decay. This is the realm of dragons and serpents, scorpions that sting, endings that ambush, darkness that seeps from night to day.

October is the month of mulching and composting, of endings and letting go. The ancient festival of Samhain, at the midpoint between the equinox and the winter solstice, marks the death of summer and the impending darkness of winter. October is the month of the dead, monetised at Halloween when the dread of darkness is brightened with a parody of plastic costumes and grotesque face masks destined for land fill. At this time of the earth’s shedding, many of us sit with uncertainty, painfully aware that climate change and the unspeakable brutality of war continues to deliver death and devastation to millions consumed in the conflagration. As news of more suffering washes over our safe, comfortable lives, we may feel scooped out. An unhealable grief sits wetly in the chambers of our still beating heart.

“Life changes fast. Life changes in an instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it, ends,” wrote Joan Didion when her husband of 39 years died of a heart attack while she was mixing the salad.

On October 28^th, a Scorpio Sun and Taurus Moon hold a séance in an autumnal sky. At Full Moon times, the lunar cycle completes. An eclipse is a super-charged full moon, so we may quite literally be at a time of ending as we draw deep and find the courage to let go and face in the growing darkness, whatever losses we inflict or must endure.

This eclipsed full moon marks the culmination of an 18-month cycle of eclipses in the signs of Scorpio and Taurus, that brought up issues relating to security and rescources and the existential crisis of climate change. Not everyone will resonate with the same intensity as an eclipse brushes over their birth chart. Eclipses are feral, unpredictable things, yet for us all, the symbolism of this lunar eclipse calls us to slow down, feel our feet on the earth and connect with our heart so that we can send love and healing energy out into the world, wrap love around war-ravaged places.

Taurus is associated with material things, property, those things we value and deem to be beautiful, and sensual pleasure. Taurus is a dependable earth sign. Although “being grounded” can seem like one of those self-help amorphisms, grounding, rooting, being in the power of now, affirms the richness of our ordinary lives. Scorpio involves a confrontation with destruction and darkness, and like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes, we gain insight, healing, and renewal when we drink Scorpio’s strong medicine.“Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it” writes Terry Pratchett, in Reaper Man. Death, darkness, trans-formation may be unfolding themes in our lives this month and in our collective future.

At this in-between time of transition, we may feel suspended between life’s crevices and cracks of a choice about a relationship, career or a place of belonging. Eclipse moments bring us to the heart of the matter. Tonight, we may be drawn to what we cherish and hold close to our hearts.

October’s eclipsed moon (5° Taurus) conjoins Jupiter Retrograde as she opposes a coven of planets in Scorpio: Sun, Mercury, and Mars.

Jupiter expands the bitter and the sweet. And Scorpio’s uncompromising intensity takes us deep below the surface, if we are willing to go there.

The symbolism of this lunar eclipse may play out in world events, as Mars and Mercury meet in Scorpio one day after the lunar eclipse, a caustic combination in the fixed sign of Scorpio, amplified by Jupiter Retrograde in the fixed sign of Taurus and the Taurus lunar eclipse. This could be enormously challenging for hostage negotiations 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.

On November 4^th, Saturn (boundaries, structure, self-discipline) turns direct at 0° Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac. Saturn presses slowly forward, suffusing our experiences with necessary endings, the dissolution of outworn structures. Saturn moves through the liminal realm of Pisces from March 7^th, 2023, to February 2026. The archetype of Saturn carries ponderous associations with fate and consequence as the western civilization turns to rubble, and unfettered growth and expansion are bounded by the inconvenient truth of climate crisis and mass migration. “Everything you love, you will eventually lose. But in the end, love will return in a different form,” writes Susan Cain in her new book, Bittersweet: how longing and sorrow make us whole. In a world where enforced smiles and white-knuckled positivity clenches against the wild winds of adversity, she reminds us that “light and dark, birth and death—bitter and sweet—are forever paired.”

Nature contracts, exposing an uncompromising knot-work of bare branches and stubble fields. The primordial pulse of the year stirs deep in our blood and bones and tonight, as we sense a slow, steady certainty moving through our body. This lunation carries the seed for repair, for release and renewal, if we trust the instruction of our hearts and acknowlege that death, like birth, is both an ending and a beginning. As we pause awhile, 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 grows dark tonight, Tolkien reminds us of the light within: May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

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

October 12, 2023 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Shadow Season—New Moon Solar Eclipse—October 14th

The beauty of darkness is how it lets you see. Adrienne Rich.

We’ve entered eclipse season, the season of shadow. As the days grow shorter a small flock of wild geese have returned to the estuary near my home. Spider webs glitter with dew in the misty mornings and scarlet hawthorn berries hang in bright bundles from bare branches.

As the shadows lenghten, the light of the sun will be darkened by the moon. This is the first eclipse of the autumn and falls at 21° Libra.

Eclipses arrive in pairs, and more rarely, in threes, and there is an eclipse every six months when a new or full moon conjoins the moon’s nodes. Symbolically, eclipses amplify the intensity of power struggles, life-changing choices, triangular dramas, those pivotal moments that change our destiny. A new moon eclipse in Libra carries the symbolism of the scales of balance as we weigh up moral and ethical choices pertaining to our relationships.

Mars the war-god entered the shadowy realms of Scorpio on October 12^th, charging this new moon eclipse with passion and intensity. The luminaries oppose both Eris, Greek Goddess of discord and strife, and Chiron the wounded healer, associated with profound pain and woundedness. The eclipse also makes an unyielding square to Pluto.

Now as the dark shadow of war stains the Middle East, eclipsing the devastating conflict in Ukraine and the myriad conflicts that fester in forgotten countries, we glimpse the gateway to hell.

As a tornado of destruction rips through the land, Pluto turned direct this week (October 10^th at 27° Capricorn) bringing into our consciousness the insanity of war. Pluto (collective and generational survival angst) moves Retrograde every year for five or six months, dredging up the darker elements of life: issues of power and powerlessness, death, survival and fate, prompting us to look at the shadow we cast across other people’s lives, so often quite unconsciously, by our thoughts and our behaviour.

The attack by Hamas on Israel has been described by some as a “Pearl Harbour moment”, “an opening of the gates of hell”. The event chart for the flare-up of the conflict is remarkable. It contains numerous painful and explosive conjunctions that reflect the enormous scale of the pain and wounding on both sides as this relationship breakdown will displace, wound, kill, and polarise so many people. As the Biblical “eye for an eye” commandment, is reactivated, measure for measure, the trauma of this war will reverate for generations to come. Historian and author, Yuval Noah Harari writes, “the current conflict is likely to put the last nail in the coffin of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”

The essence of Libra is paradox. Richard Tarnas, author of Cosmos and Psyche, writes, “Our time is pervaded by a great paradox. On the one hand, we see signs of an unprecedented level of engaged global awareness, moral sensitivity to the human and non-human community, psychological self-awareness, and spiritually informed philosophical pluralism. On the other hand, we confront the most critical, and in some respects catastrophic, state of the Earth in human history. Both these conditions have emerged directly from the modern age, whose light and shadow consequences now affect every part of the planet.”

In the scales of Libra, we hold the tension of opposites. Light and shadow. The paradox of our humanness in the eye of the storm. Compromise or polarisation. Judgement or discretion. Quiet desperation or the grace to remember that this is precisely what we have come here to do. Perhaps, as Carl Jung believed, if we hold the tension between two opposing forces, a third way emerges, uniting, transfiguring, transcending the two, giving birth to something new.

For those with planets or angles at 21° Libra this new moon solar eclipse offers a powerful boost of energy and an opportunity to reflect on the changes that have prompted us to learn and grow since the spring eclipses (solar eclipse in Aries on April 19^th and lunar eclipse in Scorpio on May 5^th.)

For us all, this is a time to rebalance and reflect on how, in the words of author Stephen Richards, “our level of love or our level of fear determines the state of our reality.”

Our evolutionary challenge this month is inner serenity and a selective, deliberate focus on those things that are right in the world and in our relationships. Life coach and author, Shannon Kaiser offers a reminder to return to a prayer or a mantra when we feel frazzled or fearful, exiled from unshakable inner peace. “The outside world is going to keep being chaotic. When we’re looking out there, it will pull our energy. It will keep us stuck in fear. It will keep us in exhaustion… when we use a mantra such as “can choose peace instead of this… this anchors us back in the moment, to the light within you.”

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.

“I know that hope is the hardest love to carry,” writes Jane Hirshfield in her exquisite poem, Hope and Love.

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 contact me directly for private astrology readings and for more information about forthcoming webinars—ingrid@trueheartwork.com

August 29, 2023 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Once in a Blue Moon—Supermoon in Pisces— August 31st.

Heaven and earth, the Celtic saying goes, are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter. They are places that make us feel something larger than ourselves, as though we are held in a place between worlds, beyond experience―Kerri ní Dochartaigh.

Two full moons sit uncomfortably side by side, unnaturally confined in the man-drawn calendar month of August. This Pisces “supermoon” is the second “supermoon” in August, and in contrast to the previous big bold fiery supermoon in Leo, tonight’s moist full moon in Pisces skims across the heavens, silvering the earth’s thin places with her otherworldly light.

This anomalous 13^th moon is peculiar in her not-blueness. She travels through the last world-weary sign of the zodiac, signifying completion, release. This is a dreamy moon, a moon that may arouse our intuition, or remind us that, in the words of John O’Donohue, “we have fallen out of rhythm with the secret signature and light of our own nature.” The moon moves from a conjunction with authorative Saturn (tradition, rules, boundaries, limitations) as we reflect on the month now almost gone, the choices we’ve made, the decisions taken, the twists of fate that have brought us to this precious moment of now.

Four planets are in transition, changing direction between August 23^rd and September 4^th accompanying anticipated endings, threshold crossings and opportunities to choose again. What now needs to be lovingly repaired in our relationships, our communities, painfully polarised because we simply don’t and won’t pause long enough to listen and hear one another?

Pisces contains the symbolism of purifying, cleansing water, and Jupiter, the moon’s dispositor is one of the few planets that is still moving direct, prompting deep healing if we are willing to carefully examine our own biases and entrenched narratives.

Writes Kerri ní Dochartaigh “We have lost, broken, murdered, burned, stolen, hidden and undone—all in the false name of tradition. Lives, places, and stories have been ripped out by their roots because ‘that’s how it has always been’. I wonder, I wonder so very much these days, what wealth of imagery and meaning was lost when we became so focused on our differences here, that we buried the things that had once tied us together, the things that might still know a way through, for us all”.

Venus (those things and people we cherish and value) has been moving Retrograde in Leo since July 23^rd, drawing old lovers, friends not forgotten but perhaps neglected, from past to present.

During a Venus Retrograde cycle, we may revisit those things we valued and lost, seek out second chances, repair and heal those relationships that have become entangled in assumptions or frozen silences. Venus Retrograde periods are cosmic magnifying glasses, amplifying our inherent values.

Venus and Uranus turn in the night skies as one month ends and another begins. These celestial events carry a charge of energy. They are heavenly pivot points that are worth noticing as they brush across angles or planets in our own birth charts.

Uranus turned Retrograde on August 29^th (23° Taurus) and Venus moves direct on September 4^th (12° Leo) which will bring deeper insight, additional focus to Venusian themes if you have planets between 12-28 Leo, or 19-23 Taurus as capricious Uranus brings unforeseen opportunities to find a way through an impasse, break through a stalemate.

Now as Venus prepares to turn direct, it might be helpful to look back to July 23^rd when she moved Retrograde and reflect on the light of our own nature as circumstances and encounters have challenged and grown us.

The Sun entered Virgo on August 23^rd and made an opposition to Saturn as Spain’s football federation chief Luis Rubiables planted an unwanted kiss on the mouth of Jenni Hermoso during the World Cup Ceremony, igniting a conflagration of condemnation by politicians, and defiance from those who choose to ignore the toxic masculinity that pervades our culture.

Venus pivots, making her final square to disruptor Uranus on August 29^th, then the last square to Jupiter on September 17^th as gender issues challenge our default gaze; as our often messy, imperfect relationships offer opportunites to heal and to forgive.

Chogyam Trungpa teaches the practice of the awakened heart, “the genuine heart of sadness”, which he said is natural to us all when we allow ourselves to receive the full experience of life with open hearts. It is in this “genuine heart of sadness” that we discover our repressed grief, our forgotten anger, our thin shard of shame, our boundless capacity to Love.

Elusive Mercury switched direction on August 23^rd, turning Retrograde at 22° Virgo; direct once more on September 15^th (8° Virgo) out of shadow (the degree at which Mercury originally turned Retrograde) on September 30^th. A Retrograde Mercury asks us to be patient and tenacious in the face of delays or obstacles, amidst the ceaseless, clamorous chatter or the polarity of choice that skewers us in indecision.

We are collectively in the alchemical stage of solution. Jung describes this process as “the selfish hardness of the heart is dissolved: the heart turns to water. The ascent to the higher stages can then begin.”

As we make fluid our rigid routines, dissolve our hardened habits, cleanse the debris of emotional blockages, we draw moisture into our parched lives, may we flow outwards again. May we make our world beautiful.

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

August 15, 2023 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Spells of Sunlight—New Moon in Leo — August 16th.

It’s easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends—Joan Didion.

Tonight, in a secret corner of the sky, a new Leo moon curls behind a bank of cloud. New Moons signify moments of conception, the beginnings of things. This new moon wears the crown of the lioness, as she unites with the sun in regal Leo close to Venus Retrograde, also in Leo.

This lunation makes an edgy, discordant square to Uranus, foreshadowing those things that arrive unannounced and drag us to the edge of a creative block, a change of heart, an important relationship commitment, a renegotiation of a contract that affects our finances, an unplanned pregnancy, or an disconcerting repetition of an old theme. The square is accentuated by Mars in Virgo trine Uranus which creates the impetus to begin again, or to reach a final closure, with clear intent.

Leo arrives with a confident rush of creative energy. An energetic force that powers our creativity and vitality.

Yet, in the fleeting hours of days that are already growing shorter, we may not feel warmed by inspiration. We may have wandered far from the divine spark of our innate creativity, estranged from our heart’s desire. Our passion may have deserted us, our creative spark may lie concealed within the nesting dolls of our long-forgotten selves.

Author Julia Cameron speaks to the suffering of a creative drought: “All artists get discouraged. All artists have deep inner wells of self-pity, into which we periodically dive. All artists specialize in self-doubt. It is how we hone the creative imagination.”

We’re in the nexus of a Venus Retrograde cycle and a double Retrograde period when Mercury turns Retrograde too.

Venus has disappeared from the evening skies, surrendering to the embrace of the darkness of each night, a fragile, vulnerable version of her former splendour. For thousands of years, the spectacular cycles of Venus have been tracked and observed by our prehistoric ancestors. The Mayan and Mesoamericans timed wars when Venus emerged as the Wasp Star from the darkness of her 40 days and 40 nights sojourn in the underworld—renewed, resolute, resplendent in her fierce beauty.

The ancients tracked the passage of Venus in a perfect pentagram across the skies, ascribing her disappearance in the skies to her descent into the Underworld. In myth, Innana (Venus) is stripped of all her valued regalia and exquisite clothing. She enters the Underworld vulnerable and exposed. In modern times, the Underworld is a symbol of our own unconscious: those shadowy, neglected, disowned parts of ourselves that need our love and compassion. As Venus travels Retrograde, absent from the night skies now until we may detect through the static of the past, a yearning, a passion long estranged from a life now bounded by responsibility and a never-ending list of things still to be done.

Venus will be reborn, a fragile crescent rising in the east before sunrise in late August. Venus follows her own unique cycle and her five retrograde periods within every 8 years creates a five-pointed star, an exquisite pentagram, a glorious rose pattern that ancient star watchers tracked because it is rare, because it is significant. This liminal space offers a replenishing retreat of 40 days and 40 nights that comes with an uncomfortable dilemma – how to indulge in pleasure, now to appreciate beauty, how to create how to stay present and connected when the world is in crisis. As wildfires razed parched foliage on Maui, the fire symbolism of Venus Retrograde in Leo speaks to mandarin skies smudged with smoke, and the horror of not knowing if someone precious has been consumed by flames. “We’ve got an area that we have to contain that is at least 5 square miles, and it is full of our loved ones,” Maui Police Chief, John Pelletier is quoted as saying, as Venus passed close to the heart of the Sun on August 13^th squaring unpredictable Uranus.

Venus squares Uranus for the last of three exact squares at the end of August (2^nd July / 9^th August / 29^th August) shattering perishable dreams, accentuating the impermanence and unreliability of things. This wrenching square is somewhat tempered by her three fleeting squares with optimistic Jupiter (11^th June / 22^nd August / 17^th September) revealing insights into past and present experiences around intimacy, worthiness, those things we value and deem to be beautiful, offering opportunities to move toward “what if” … “what could be” …

All planetary archetypes portray our human experience of relationship—attachment, separation, autonomy, and dependence. Tonight, we may feel the heat of fire as the sun and moon nestle close to Venus Retrograde. Jungian analyst Ann Bedford Ulanov suggests that “as the instincts are to the body, so the archetypes are to the psyche.” Those who have natal Venus in Leo or a Venus Retrograde placement and those with planets and angles in fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) will have opportunities to witness and heal those parts of ourselves that have felt unloved and neglected this summer. Venus Retrograde invites us to place more worth on our creativity and our skills, to open to love generously and to seek healing through connection.

Mercury entered its shadow on August 4^th, turning Retrograde on August 23^rd (22° Virgo), direct on September 15^th, and out of shadow on September 30^th, so we may feel as though we have entered a liminal space. A place between two realities where our life force is dimmed and our hearts weighted by concerns that create distance from ourselves and those familiar pleasures that fuel our joy.

In our culture of haste, as we lean in, stretch forward to the next bigger, better thing, it might now be helpful reflect on the rich symbolism of the current Venus Retrograde cycle. She may reveal those things that pain us—the jagged schisms in our relationships, our concerns about money, our creative or sexual anorexia, our uneasy relationship with beauty and art, our terror of age and decay.

Venus leads us down to the Underworld to experience love, loss, and longing. We will emerge once more bearing the marks of our initiation.

And now, as Venus travels through the darkness, may we trust that our creative gifts will be welcomed with love and appreciation, that we will remember our joys and our pleasures so that we can return to the world, replenished, stronger.

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

July 26, 2023 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Marriage of Opposites—Sun in Leo and Supermoon in Aquarius—August 1st.

Another world is possible. On a quiet day, I can hear her coming.

Arundhati Roy.

On this day when the first fronds of bracken turn to gold and tawny grasses are shorn and wrapped in rolls the colour of burnt butter, a supermoon charges the world with light.

We’re half-way between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox as this super-charged full moon falls on the ancient harvest festival of Lughnasadh – named for the Celtic sun god, Lugh.

On August 1^st, as the sun makes his grand tour through the vibrant fire sign of Leo, and the moon circuits close to the earth through the opposite sign of Aquarius, a full supermoon pulls at the tides and our tears.

This is a marriage of opposites: Leo, all heart, and Aquarius, ideals and intellect. Firey Leo radiates charisma, dramatic declarations of heartfelt emotion. Aquarius is a cool air sign associated with technical and scientific innovation, ideals ahead of their time, grassroots communities, as well as the exiled parts of ourselves and the collective – fanaticism, totalitarianism, cancel culture. This lunation offers a glimpse into the future, and it presents in our own lives and in world events, themes that will be accentuated during Pluto’s 20-year passage through Aquarius (November 2024 – March 2043).

As wildfires blaze across desiccated landscapes in Southern Europe and an AI arms race gathers momentum in Silicon Valley, humankind is poised on an existential precipice.

Yet, this lunation makes an applying square to expansive Jupiter in Taurus, illuminating our unlimited potential as human primates in these flammable, heart-opening times. Tonight, as we align ourselves with the life force that flows through the universe, author Lynne McTaggart reminds us that “the power of mass intention may ultimately be the force that shifts the tide toward repair and renewal of the planet.”

There are days when despair settles like ash over our weary bodies and psyches as we collectively emerge from a pandemic into a world that feels so fragile; a world where those in power just don’t seem to care.

Mercury has just joined war-god, Mars in Virgo (workers) to oppose Saturn in Pisces (creative arts, movies, music) as the battle over human creativity and labour and AI continues in Hollywood; as deepfake technology captures the voices and likenesses of celebrities for advertisements, porn and song; and human extras, as well as make-up and costume artists are replaced with digital scans.

“The wave of the future is on the local level,” writes activist and author Joanna Macy. “Don’t waste your heart and mind trying to pull down what is already destroying itself. Come to where you’re almost below the radar and reorganize life. We want communities where we live and work and fight for the future.”

During the hottest July in fifty years, a conflagration of wildfires scorches vast tracts of desiccated land. Temperatures soar to brutal unbearable levels.

As flames rise higher, turning the land to smoke and ash, Venus in Leo and Chiron in Aries, both associated with the element of fire, turned Retrograde on July 23^rd symbolising the literal wounding of the land that we all feel rippling through the web of life, as heat-induced fires increase. Venus, goddess of pleasure and love moves Retrograde for six weeks and will vanish from the evening skies on August 6^th as her underworld journey begins. She’ll make an unsettling square to Uranus (sudden shock, break throughs, break downs, and reversals) between July and late September, and the square tightens on August 9^th, close to the midpoint of her Retrograde cycle.

Whatever happens to upend our plans, a devotional approach to this Venus Rx cycle (July 23^rd – September 3^rd) invites a space to pause and reflect on relationships past and present, to what we truly value and desire, as we feel the flames of the climate emergency.

Venus Retrograde calls us back to the past, to those things we love, those things that bring pleasure and joy, those things that make us feel young again.

Rising on a pink wave of nostalgia, Barbie bursts onto the screen as Saturn moves Retrograde in imaginative Pisces (fantasy manifest.) Greta Gerwig’s creative offering is now the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman. As the Sun travelled through Pisces, on March 9^th 1959, Barbie was born, long legged, wasp waisted, wearing a tiny black and white striped swimsuit. Barbie was not welcomed by skeptical buyers at the New York Toy Fair, but how could they know that there was a new moon in Pisces on that day? How could they possibly see that Barbie would capture the hearts and the imaginations of men, women, and children in her many manifestations for 64 years?

The supermoon arrives on the anniversary of the catastrophic annihilation of Hiroshima (August 6^th, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9^th, 1945) as America dropped two atomic bombs, unleashing an insatiable lust for destruction in those who cling to old beliefs of scarcity and dominion.

Oppenheimer, haunting, overwhelmingly dark, is Christopher Nolan’s account of the hero-scapegoat physicist who gave humanity the means to destroy itself. Death by fire, nuclear fission, plutonium, not the Disney dog but Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld, the “unseen one,” first sighted in 1930 and back in the collective psyche once more.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (portrayed by the superb Irish actor by Cillian Murphy), the theoretical physicist widely known as the “father of the atomic bomb” (Sun at 1 ° Taurus, now activated by the square from Pluto also conjunct his natal Uranus Rx,) emerges even long after his death as he again returns to public consciousness and Pluto lingers on the edge of icy Aquarius.

The astrology suggests that we are in a cycle of turbulence and destruction. We may keep afloat if we have global co-operation, but the waves of change will be tumultuous, even for those who can afford a first-class cabin.

The Star Card in the Tarot is often associated with Aquarius. And the myth of the beautiful, but curious Pandora who searches for the truth, dares to open the forbidden casket, and releases a swarm of stinging, biting insects that fills the world with darkness; primal cold-blooded creatures that bite, puncture, and goad—terrible afflictions that infect mankind. Pandora kneels at the casket, her long-lashed eyes raised heavenward as she gazes at a shining star, for Hope remains in a corner of the chest, still there amidst all the confusion, despair, and suffering. And as old structures teeter and fall, as we sift through the rubble of broken promises, shattered dreams, landscapes blighted by drought or caught in the flames of war, the moon in Aquarius, its image an elegant urn filled to the brim with regenerative water, is a reminder that throughout his-story there have been cycles of destruction and renewal.

Like the ebb and flow of the tides, war lords will grow weary of battle, those who acquire and accumulate might grow weary of the extracting and the gathering and find a deeper connection with their heart-mind.

The earth is changing beneath our feet. As we look to the moon tonight, may our hopelessness be transfigured by an infusion of lustrous moonlight, our dreams and visions of rivers and glistening oceans teaming with life, cities where children play amidst tall trees, their little bare feet planted on green grass, their tiny lungs gulping clean air.

Tonight’s full moon sends an energetic charge across our earth. It is a reminder to hold the tension of opposites, to treat each other with tolerance and respect, to embrace our differences and come together in community to re-imagine a kinder world. May we do everything we can do to be in right relation with this precious pale blue dot, this earth, and all sentient creatures.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. 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.

Carl Sagan.

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