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April 10, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship By Ingrid Hoffman

Under Wartime Skies—Uranus enters Gemini—April 25th

Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive—Zadie Smith.

Artemis II explored the light and the dark sides of the moon this month, reminding us of the preciousness of our fragile blue planet, this “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” as Carl Sagan famously said in 1990. The naming of this space craft after Artemis the mythic huntress, who embodies the untamed, savage force of human nature, is apt as tech billionaires and Trump focus on exploiting new worlds in preference to tending to and protecting the one we have. The bloodshed and destruction in the Middle East continues to continue, as this war drags into its sixth futile week. Cities are razed to rubble, children are ophaned, and still, arrogant war-lord-politicians seek their brief moment of glory at any cost. War has ravaged more human lives than any virus. There is no inoculation against the long-term malaise of this conflict.

The astrological sky-story for April is loaded with urgent Martian fervour, unexpected twists and turns. Uranus is the main protagonist, poised like a lightning bolt at the final, critical degree of Taurus, dubbed the degree of fate. Uranus changes sign and enters Gemini at the end of this month. As outer planets change sign, something stirs in the collective nervous system, breaking news brings something to our attention.

Uranus transits so often accompany those “out of the blue” events that leave us baffled and blindsided. As western economies shudder precariously and Donald Trump continues to unleash havoc, Melania Trump’s stilted scripted statement, delivered as Mars entered Aries on April 9^th, denying that she was a “victim of Jeffery Epstein,” comes as Uranus lingers over her Venus in Taurus, and Pluto makes a series of squares to her Taurus Sun. We know nothing about the woman from Slovenia who is now First Lady of the American nation apart from her carefully curated public image/brand, her stiffly armoured posture, and vacant eyes. The astrology reveals her inner turmoil and certainly some painful trauma beneath that unresponsive veneer.

Mars meets nebulous Neptune in Aries this month (in close orb until the 27^th) in a steamy combination that speaks of helplessness in the face of impossible odds, which could play out as intense frustration, or not knowing which way to turn.

Mercury impatiently joins the fray, entering Aries on April 15^th, but is soon enveloped by Neptune’s mists, which may cloud rational thinking, amplify our human propensity for compassion and imagination, or deliver a lingering sting of disappointment. On April 17^th, the new moon (27° Aries) conjoins Chiron (in our birth chart this is the tender place of our woundedness) and Eris, sister of Mars in myth (goddess of discord and strife). This may set in motion challenging events that demand self-regulation as Mars and then Mercury meet Saturn, suggesting the need to be discerning as we grapple with a situation that will demand time and patience to resolve.

As the sun moves into Taurus on April 20^th, Venus conjoins with Uranus, anticipating the most notable astrological event of this month: Uranus entering Gemini on April 25^th.

A strange new energy crackles like lightening through the collective nervous system, offering a glimpse of a new reality that is inimical to individual expression.

Uranus circles our sun every 84 years, spending about seven years in each sign. Uranus remains Gemini, an unstable mercurial air sign, until 2033/34. Over these next seven years, how we learn, communicate, and think about our future here on earth,will be rapidly rewired. Uranus’s passage through the mutable sign of Gemini will energise Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces placements in our birth charts as we play with Uranian fire with caution. Liz Greene writes in The Art of Stealing Fire: “No planet is malefic or intrinsically destructive. But collective energies of this kind must be monitored, contained, processed, and articulated through an individual human psyche with an individual human heart and individual common sense. Without this, Uranus can unleash incredible destruction on a collective level.”

America’s birth chart has Uranus at 8° Gemini, conjunct the descendant, that point of projection, opposition and Other. The American Revolutionary war and the divisive Civil war both tore a nation apart as Uranus moved through Gemini in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. As Uranus returns to Gemini once more, a divided America again goes to war.

Uranus entered Gemini in August 1941 and remained there until 1948 coinciding with WW II. In 1945, a Uranian idea quite literally exploded into our consciousness as the atom first bomb was detonated.

For those born between 1941-1949 (Donald Trump was born in 1946 with Uranus at 17° Gemini) these next seven years will mark a Uranus Return.

Both America and Israel were born as Uranus was moved through Gemini.

The Israeli/US war with Iran began on February 28^th as Mars and Uranus formed a tense square in the heavens. The transits to the birth chart for Israel (shown here) show no sign of peace this year or next.

Mars squared Uranus again in late March, and Saturn squared Venus in the birth chart of Israel. All through this year, Pluto opposes the Moon (the people) suggesting another year of survival, trauma, and intensity.

Benjamin Netanyahu was born on 21 October 1949 in Tel Aviv. He has sun in Libra (27°) sextile Mars (26° Leo.) His Libran sun conjoins the Ascendant of Israel’s birth chart, indicating Netanyahu’s strong affinity with the identity of Israel.

Like the slain Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Netanyahu was born on a solar eclipse. Donald Trump was born on a total lunar eclipse and Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, Ali Khamenei ‘s hardline son, was born on September 8^th a few days before an annular solar eclipse.

All four men seem destined by fate and the eclipses at their birth, to play their part in this chaotic conflict.

As Trump begins to tire of the conflict, Netanyahu’s stamina and resilience will be tested first by Saturn (2026-April 2028). Having been thwarted in Iran, Isreal’s horrific mass airstrikes on Lebanon now have added fuel to an already inflammatory situation in the Middle East. Will he pay Saturn’s coin, admit that failure was baked into his hubristic war plan and accept a new reality?

Next, Neptune (2026-2039) will oppose Netanyahu’s planets in Libra, undermining and washing away any remaining illusions that he is a divinely/intuitively guided leader with a special mission and any future hope that he will continue to get US backing in sustained hostilities.

There are no winners in war. Yuval Harari taps into the confusion, the complexities of humans at war as he writes: “Most Israelis are psychologically incapable at this moment of empathizing with the Palestinians. The mind is filled to the brim with our own pain, and no space is left to even acknowledge the pain of others. Many of the people who tried to hold such a space… are dead or deeply traumatized. Most Palestinians are in an analogous situation—their minds too are so filled with pain; they cannot see our pain.

But outsiders who are not themselves immersed in pain should make an effort to empathize with all suffering humans, rather than lazily seeing only part of the terrible reality. It is the job of outsiders to help maintain a space for peace. We deposit this peaceful space with you, because we cannot hold it right now. Take good care of it for us, so that one day, when the pain begins to heal, both Israelis and Palestinians might inhabit that space.”

Amidst the geopolitical turbulence and uncertainty, may we find peace in our hearts, empathy with those who are caught in the conflict of war.

Carl Sagan, in his book, Pale Blue Dot, writes prophetically: “to me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

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

If you are in Exeter on Sunday, April 12^th, Ed Gillam will present An Astrological Diary of the 17^th C astrologer and merchant, Samuel Jeake of Rye at the Exeter Astrology Association.

March 18, 2026 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Fearless—Sun enters Aries—Spring Equinox—March 20 th

What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Spencer Johnson.

March. Martius. Named after the war-deity, Mars. March was the first month in the Roman calendar. In March, as nature blossomed and food supplies became plentiful, Romans went to war.

Mars was venerated as the founding god of the Roman Empire, father of Romulus and Remus. The might and ruthlessness, the pragmatism of the Roman military machine attests to the importance of Mars.

We may notice Mars energy all around us this month. Survival and procreation are embodied in the natural world as the urgent thrust of spring spills over the land in a cascade of colour and sweet song.

In the language of astrology, Mars represents our instinctual nature, our personal potency, our innate need to fight for our territory.

On March 20^th, the Sun slips into Mars-ruled Aries, marking the spring Equinox, the start of the new astrological year. The quality of light is different now. The sun rises earlier, lingers later now, as the year balances between seasons.

On Thursday, March 19^tha compassionate Pisces new moon symbolises gentle new beginnings wrapped in the darkness of endings. Capricious Mercury turns direct (8º Pisces) the next day, emerging now as the Magician, not the Trickster. At this turning time of the year, we may still be struggling with an internal war as we face an important choice. This new moon, and Mercury now moving direct, symbolises some kind of resolution. Mars wades through the opaque waters of Pisces now, his ardour swamped by disturbing cross-currents of emotion, his vitality beleaguered by clammy fears. Mars in Pisces is subtle, more Tai Chi than karate, the kneeling warrior who transmutes brute aggression into service for the greater good.

Jupiter also moves direct (from March 11^th), exulted in Cancer, ameliorating perhaps painful or challenging circumstances. Although like all the planetary archetypes, Jupiter is multifaceted, not simplistically a “Greater Benefic”.

In May and June, as Jupiter transits Trump’s painfully vulnerable Saturn/Venus conjunction and makes a Jupiter Return in the (1971) birth chart of Iran, Jupiter’s complexity and mythic erratic bouts of rage and spite will become evident in the euphemistically called theatre of war. If we are waiting for “good luck” with an approaching Jupiter transit, we might be disappointed when lives are not enhanced in any way. Yet as we engage hindsight and insight to unlock meaning of illness, separation and loss, Jupiter’s passage through Cancer may soothe.

Saturn (fear, restriction, contraction) and Neptune (oil, gas, confusion) are still travelling in tandem through fiery Aries. Lethal drones and missiles rupture the skies over the Middle East and Ukraine. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all bathed in the collective trauma of war. Those caught in the crossfire are mostly women and children. The economic fallout of the US-Israeli assault and Tehran’s retaliation is already impacting the cost of petrol and food prices.

Aries exemplifies the hero/warrior archetype, and its shadow, the bully-destroyer—depicted today by belligerent politicians turned commanders-in-chief. As the bedrock of our civilization shifts and cracks, revealing a new landscape, a new archetype emerges: activist digital warriors, who call for global change—Malala Yousafzai, Elizabeth Wathuti, Amanda Nguyen, Marielle Franco, are speaking out bravely against human ignorance and cruelty.

As the Victorian era ended, a 40 year old woman, armed only with a note book and pen, boarded a train heading for Bloemfontein. She was heading into a warzone. Emily Hobhouse was born in Cornwall on April 9^th, 1860, as the sun and Mercury Rx moved through Aries making a trine to Saturn in Leo.

The sun seared across a cloudless sky as she travelled through a devasted landscape of scorched veldt and grotesquely bloated corpses of hamstrung cattle and abandoned farmlands. She had yet to see the starved corpses of children held in the arms of their emaciated mothers. She had yet to be branded a traitor, publicly dismissed by Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, who stated that Britian’s empire was not “threatened by a hysterical spinster of mature age.” Yet still, she mustered the bravery contained in the fiery essence of Aries energy to expose war-crimes against women and children. Over 154,000 people, mainly women and children, were interned in British concentration camps during the Second Boer War (1899-1902.)

“I call this camp system a wholesale cruelty… It can never be wiped out of the memories of the people,” she wrote.

Although a commission corroborated her findings, she was deported from South Africa. No explanation was given. Her humanitarian work was never acknowledged by the British government.

In South Africa, she is the “Angel of Love”. A woman with a notebook who challenged the might of the British military and revealed the true cost of war. Emily’s exalted Mars in Capricorn is the master warrior, tenacious in the face of obstacles.

For most of us, our hero’s or heroine’s quest is not a muscular or spectacularly brave response to the challenges of life. For some of us, an ordinary life, lived with as much consciousness and courage we can muster, is heroic even when things seem so bleak, so hopeless. For some of us, the taming of our fears, the tempering of our innate human aggression and competitive survival instincts is a work in progress. And even though there are times when it takes every last spark of courage to unearth something positive, anything hopeful, to hold onto, as we turn towards each other in the darkness of this moonless night, Cheryl Strayed offers these words of comfort, “you go on by doing the best you can. You go on by being generous. You go on by being true. You go on by offering comfort to others who can’t go on. You go on by allowing the unbearable days to pass and by allowing the pleasure in other days. You go on by finding a channel for your love and another for your rage”.

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

In memory of Emily Hobhouse, unsung hero, traitor and humanitarian, a woman who waged battle with the British Empire Builders and revealed the true cost of war.

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

Black Moon—Total Lunar Eclipse—March 3rd

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

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

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

Poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer writes in these jagged lines:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The present moment is all you have—Eckhart Tolle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

For the astrologers who read this post, the Aries Ingress chart based in Washington DC speaks of instability and war. This chart encompasses layers of astrological symbolism as it corresponds to events, past, present and our collective future.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In chaos theory, the term “strange attractor,” is used to describe a complex pattern of behaviour in a chaotic system. It’s a term borrowed by Richard Rudd in his Gene Keys series, signifying the disruption of the covid pandemic or the social phenomenon of personalities like Donald Trump. As these “strange attractors” create chaos around us, hastening the dying process of a civilization that is no longer fit for purpose, something is growing in the mycelium that threads and coils beneath the cold ground. What is destined to crumble will crumble and be blown away by the winds of change.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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