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October 5, 2025 In Astrology, Relationship By Ingrid Hoffman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

August 29, 2025 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Season of Eclipses—September 2025.

Hope has holes in its pockets. It leaves little crumb trails so that we, when anxious, can follow it. Hope’s secret: it doesn’t know the destination–it knows only that all roads begin with one foot in front of the other—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

All too soon, leaves of crimson and gold flutter and fall.

As the seasons turn, September arrives accompanied by two eclipses that rhyme with the changes in our lives. We may be moving through our own season of metamorphosis as summer ends. Change, even change that is longed for, unstitches us from all we know, unravels those things that offer familiar comfort. A beloved child leaves home, a relationship strips us of our innocence, a retrenchment escorts us to a crossroads of choice.

On September 7^th, a super-charged full moon daubs her silver light across our earth. As the moon slips between the earth and the sun, she blocks the sun’s light and energy, a temporary power outage, a cosmic punctuation point that marks an ending and an in-between space for a new beginning. Full moon eclipses catapult us from those soft places of comfort. Like an escape room experience, we must find our way in the darkness for a while, and then quite suddenly, something is revealed.

Eclipses often accompany resolute shifts in consciousness, changes of heart. Relationships are illuminated at full moon times and more intensely at full moon eclipses. We may realise our own role in a power struggle or misunderstanding. Quite suddenly, the grace of a gentle compassion settles. We forgive ourselves and the one who has bruised our heart.

During these next few days as the eclipse energy builds, and we attune to this powerful cosmic energy, we may find ourselves assimilating what we have taken in during the hopeful days of spring, and the sun-saturated days of summer. This lunation gifts us with a serving of practical Virgoan self sufficiency as we realise we are much stronger than we think.

This eclipse carries the poignancy of endings, the hopeful promise of fresh starts. As life coach, Martha Beck, writes so beautifully in her book, Steering by Starlight, “no matter how many years have been stolen from you by your own ignorance, by cruel fate, or by the acts of others, you have a clean, broad slate before you. In this instant—this one now—you can begin steering by starlight, and if you do, the rest of creation will conspire to guide, teach, and help you.”

If this eclipse sensitises your natal moon, a house move, a birth in the family, or a situation pertaining to a woman will be emphasised. The moon in our birth chart is delegated to our most intimate, private life, our security, as well as our popular appeal if we are a public figure. Eclipses begin a cosmic process that take time to ripen. Some astrologers suggest that the effect of an eclipse to a personal planet may linger for up to three and a half years. In 2001, before the insider trading scandal broke in 2003, an eclipse fell on the moon of the ultimate Homemaker, Martha Stewart. Her public popularity was about to be eclipsed.

Another note to the cosmic symphony in this season of change is Saturn’s Retrograde into Pisces on September 1^st. One final pass, one last opportunity to lay to rest what we experienced between March 2023 and May 2025 when Saturn moved through this soulful sign.

On September 6^th, Uranus makes its first station in Gemini, a precursor to what will unfold for the world and for us personally, until 2033.

Birth charts with placements in early degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, or Sagittarius will encounter this unpredictable Uranian energy that accompanies change, sudden awakenings, shocking revelations. There will be opportunities to open our hearts wider. Take those small resolute steps into unchartered territory.

Just days before the autumn Equinox on September 21^st, a Partial Solar Eclipse at the final degree of Virgo offers a powerful opportunity for inner house keeping. Now is the time for clearing, healing and repair. This new moon eclipse opposes cautious Saturn, now backtracking through Pisces for one last time: a cosmic intruction to clear the decks, prepare for change, to begin anew. Even as the sly rogue thought lands with a reproachful “what’s the point?” Virgo energy supports us as we clear our thoughts, declutter our homes, tidy our desks. In this clear bright space, something new is possible. All roads begin with putting one foot in front of another.

And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings. Meister Eckhart.

To book an astrology consultation, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

August 14, 2025 In Astrology, Relationships, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Bittersweet—Saturn Neptune Conjunction—August 2025.

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

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

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

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

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

When the contradictory forces of Saturn and Neptune converge, the boundary between what is known and unknown becomes blurry. What is solid and certain, fantasy, or fiction becomes difficult to see clearly. Collectively and personally (as these planets move across your own birth chart) we may be drawn into an undertow of diffuse energy. Things fall apart. People betray and dissapoint us. What we believed was solid and real is washed away.

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

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

When Saturn/Neptune met in 1989 as students poured onto Tiananmen Square. Their cries for freedom (idealistic Neptune) silenced by guns and tanks (Saturn).

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

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

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

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

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

July 24, 2025 In Astrology, Relationship, Self Growth By Ingrid Hoffman

Rewind—Mercury Retrograde—July 18th-August 11th.

There is always a risk in increasing your awareness. You risk seeing things you might rather not notice. You risk feelings you might rather avoid. You risk having to change what you think and worse—having to change what you do. Betty Martin.

July’s green days stretch drowsily into the endless arc of a china-blue sky. School’s out here in the North. Families flock to golden beaches, children make hearts and angels in the sand. Stunned by the glut of sunlight, hordes of visitors amble slowly along promenades, slump in deck chairs, grateful for any distraction from the ache of the world.

A brave new moon in Leo on July 24^th accompanies Mercury Retrograde passage in Leo. This lunation accents the powerful emotions we cradle in our hearts; what we love, and the anticipatory clench of what we fear. Leo rules the heart in medical astrology, so clasped within the darkness of this new moon lie heart-directed choices, opportunities to begin again. Pluto (irrevocable endings), opposes this lunation, adding a charge of potency to what we initiate this week as every bright promise of a beginning requires a little death.

Pluto demands honest soul searching. If you have planets or angles in early degrees Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius, you will be unable to avoid having to change course, you will be compelled to increase your awareness. Change will be an evolutionary imperative. And for us all, this is a year of life-changing ingresses―Pluto in Aquarius, Jupiter in Cancer, Neptune and Saturn now moving in tandem through Aries―an uncomfortable medley of distinctly different energies swirling through the collective and impacting on our own lives in some way.

Disruptive, inventive Uranus entered changeable Gemini on July 7^th agitating the frequency around us all, ushering sudden change and chaos to societies, as borders and boundaries are shattered. As our children play in the sunshine, our thoughts may turn to the children who endure the unspeakable terror of war.

Uranus is associated with innovation, civil unrest, revolution, and those shocking “wake up calls” that jolt us from our complacency. Uranus will hurtle through the sign of Gemini over the next eight years, accompanied by an unprecedented acceleration of technical momentum as AI appropriates our autonomy, requisitions our work, presses—unbidden—into our awareness.

This week, as Mercury (intellect, nervous system, transport, and communication) backtracks through Leo, the Trump administration signs executive orders to take the guard rails off AI, dismantling safeguards and standards that will protect us from hate speak and othering. The “Build Baby Build” also plan dismantles environmental and land use regulations to bolster the vast AI infrastructure, and the energy needed to power it.

Dharna Noor sounds the alarm in an article in The Guardian, “the AI sector is already depleting land and water rescources and taking a massive toll on climate, with AI-powered large language models such as ChatGPT taking up to 10 times more energy than a regular Google search, according to an estimate by the Electric Power Research Institute.” Good news for the Billionaire Tech Bros. An accelerant for global warming.

We know that when fear curls tightly in our nervous system it hooks us in anticipation of what lies ahead. When we feel the awful squeeze of fear, we become self-centred, we lose our capacity for caring and empathy. We are locked in developmental arrest.

They’re calling it the age of anxiety, says Kristen Lee, author of Worth the Risk: how to micro-dose bravery and grow resilience. Yet, amidst the overwhelming pain and chaos of it all, we may be moved to do something noble, gracious, kind today.

As the sun shines brightly and our children make sand angels on the beach, we may be reminded of what Mark Twain famously said: The worse things in my life never actually happened.

Mercury Rx periods so often bring to our awareness those thoughts that are entryways into a state of fear. We may linger in the past, fret about the future.

Spiritual teachers ask that we bring our fear to our awareness and tend to it like a timid wild creature. The shamans say that when we name a fear, it loses its power over us. Science corroborates this. We activate the pre-frontal cortex, calm the limbic system, when we can gently name and turn towards our fear.

The vibratory signature of this regenerative New Moon 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 darkness. “Despair is our chance to wrestle with fire and come through,” writes Christina Baldwin.

Today, let’s risk seeing things we might rather not notice. Bring to our awareness those feelings we would much rather avoid. Practice wishful thinking.

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

July 2, 2025 In Astrology, Relationships By Ingrid Hoffman

Sign of the Times—Uranus enters Gemini—2025-2033.

To survive, to avert what we have termed future shock, the individual must become infinitely more adaptable and capable than ever before.

We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots—religion, nation, community, family, or profession—are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust—Alvin Toffler, Future Shock.

The month of July marks a change in tempo. In indigo skies pricked with stars, Uranus explodes into the mutable air sign of Gemini, an accelerant for change in this living, dying world. On July 7th, for the first time in 84 years, Uranus leaves the solid ground of Taurus, to whirl through the unstable element of air.

Uranus briefly returns to Taurus on November 8^th, then returns to Gemini on April 26th, 2026 where it will rush through the zeitgeist till 2033.

Uranus accompanies innovation, disruption, anarchy, and rebellion. When Uranus moves through restless Gemini (information, communication, transportation) anything that is too fixed, too crystallised or rooted or limited, will be torn apart, as Uranus offers the promise of something better, more perfect.

Gemini is a mutable air sign. As the winds of change wrap around the globe, we might think back to the events that unfolded in our world when Saturn and Jupiter aligned in Aquarius, on the solstice of 2020. It was then that we collectively entered the astrological age of air, an element associated with ideas, information—and mis-information. Pluto entered the air sign of Aquarius (March 2023) and now, Uranus the archetypal creator-sky-god, enters Gemini, a hurricane force that will intrude on all of our lives in some way over the next eight years.

Futurist Alvin Toffler coined the term “future shock” and “information overload” to describe what happens to a society when change escalates beyond the human scale. We have lost our bearings in the swirl of social media, wearable tech, disembodied AI, algorithms and “influencers” that draw from our most tender places for commercial gain. The tempo of technological and social change coupled with climate chaos has shattered our illusions of autonomy and control. We are brittle, anxious, reactive, addicted to those very distractions that leave us feeling empty and alone. In 2023, at least 24 million Americans took drugs like Xanax, known as benzodiazepines, according to the Wall Street Journal. We are Generation Xanax.

Author and spiritual teacher, Caroline Myss observes, “we’re living at an unprecedented time of change in the world… the ingredients that are creating this chaotic rupture have never come together before, ever…now we begin to consider the unimaginable. That maybe life’s not casual. That a human life is a sacred assignment and that the purpose of life is not to accumulate stuff with a great big, huge shopping cart, but rather it is to experience how powerful every one of us is. And to decide, that every choice I make is an act of creation.”

Transits of Uranus to our own birth charts are often accompanied by sudden events that shake us awake, bring into sharp focus something, some hidden spark of light within us, that has been there all along. When Uranus transits jolt our birth chart, they take us by surprise; awaken us from the trance that anesthetises, offers a promise of something new, better, brighter.

Uranus transits come with a velocity that requires a whole new set of skills, that demands an honest soul-searching enquiry, a stepping back from the old coping strategies. Endurance and resilience alone won’t be enough.

This month, the sky-story invites us to take a sacred pause before tumbling into the future as Uranus draws us into the currents that swirl through the collective :

Neptune stations Rx on July 4th, Saturn turns Retrograde on July 12th. On July 18th Mercury turns Rx (15° Leo), turning direct on August 11th (4° Leo) and will move out of shadow on August 25th to enter detail-orientated Virgo on September 2nd. Pluto has been Retrograde since May 4th.

Venus enters Gemini on July 5th, a grace-note that may signal sudden reversals or unexpected surges in the financial markets, or the opportunity to revise our “wants” or “needs” as we revise our monthly budget, make new choices around what we truly value.

Venus aligns with Uranus between July 2nd and July 7th, highlighting this cosmic turning point and perhaps bringing to our attention those places where we feel bruised and vulnerable, which are so often triggered by those we are closest to.

Tara Brach talks of the trance of fear that keeps us imprisoned in a primitive survival mode. As Uranus moves through Gemini, we might notice the cycles of reactivity that play out in our own relationships—shaming, blaming, control, judgement and revenge—the need to break free, to be independent—and how these primitive survival mechanisms play out when nations go to war. Gemini is assocaited with the arms, hands, lungs and nervous system, our coordination and fine motor skills. When we soften our fingers and hands, we send a message to our nervous system to relax. When we hold our loved one close in tender embrace, we fortify our capacity to be with whatever is so scary.

Hindsight is often associated with Uranus, the kind of rear-view mirror gazing that only comes after some great force moves through the collective and impinges upon our own lives. Uranus in Gemini accompanies innovation birthed from chaos.

“Before the earth and the sea, and the all-encompassing heaven came into being, the whole of nature displayed but a single face, which men have called Chaos.” wrote Ovid in his poem, Metamorphoses around 8CE.

Uranus moved through Gemini in the 1940s (1942-49) as we emerged from the trauma and chaos of World War 11 into a period of geopolitical muscle flexing, we call the Cold War. Uranus in Gemini was expressed by espionage, propaganda, and the rapid development of science and technology, intercontinental ballistic missiles, jet aircraft, the space race, and the lingering threat of the annihilation of all life on earth as nuclear weapons proliferated. Portable television replaced the fireplace, as the focal point in the living room. America went to war when Uranus moved through Gemini during the 1860s. And once again, it was conflict and chaos that birthed innovation and technical advances.

Expect the unimaginable as Uranus moves through the unstable element of air. Stay anchored in Love. Mindful of the false stories we tell ourselves that shock our nervous system, scare us into feeling lost and alone.

At this time of transition, we may be seduced by the security of the old ways. We may try to continue as we did before. Yet there is another way. “Where do we begin? Begin with the heart,” wrote anchoress Julian of Norwich who was walled up in a small cell built onto the church for most of her life. “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well,” Julian of Norwich is quoted as saying.

Even as we feel the slow suck of apathy, a sense of numbness or hopelessness, the sharp stab of fear… All shall be well.

So, let’s rest awhile, then begin again, with tender, open hearts. All manner of things shall be well.

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