TrueHeartWork

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

What we can’t See—Season of Eclipses.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 29, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship By Ingrid Hoffman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Month of the Three Moons—May 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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