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Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse—March 14th.

Life turns on little things. The momentous events in history can leave us untouched, while small events may shape our destinies―Jennifer Worth.

On the night of March 13th or 14th, depending on where you live, all the world’s sunrises and sunsets will be painted onto the soft curve of the moon as she sails through the atmosphere of the earth. A pair of eclipses bookmark the month of March: a full moon “blood” eclipse, (moon at 23° Virgo) followed by a partial solar eclipse on March 29th  (sun at 9° Aries.)

During a lunar eclipse, the sun, moon and earth make a perfect alignment as the moon passes through the darkest part of the earth’s shadow and we collectively enter, for just a moment, the womb of darkness. We may feel quite literally in the dark about a situation that has been building. For many of us, it will be the little things, the small events, that shape our destinies. Yet, if one of these eclipses aligns with one of our personal or progressed planets (in the mutable signs of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius) we will be touched by some kind of crisis or an abrupt awakening that marks an important turning point in our lives.

Blood is associated with the war and death in our culture, yet this full moon reminds us that blood is a female symbol of fertility and of new life. At this time of dimming light when we face the necessity of endings collectively and personally, this full Moon lunar eclipse may herald a return to clarity about what has been eclipsed in our lives, and may offer a glimpse of what can be birthed a-new.

This full moon presides over the quiet rhythms and routines that root us in seemingly ordinary tasks as she moves through the modest sign of Virgo. Virgo reminds us to tend to the little things that matterbonds of love and friendship, our connection to the natural world, those things we hold dear that bring us comfort and joy amidst shifting circumstance. Earth is Virgo’s element, and Virgoan qualities are so often depicted in fairy tale as the heroine performs tasks with humility and attention to detail. Humility derives from the Latin, humilis—down low, on the ground or of the earth. Executive coach, Vanessa Loder speaks about “following our energetic breadcrumbs,” a daily choice, a tiny moment, that we can all feel into when we begin to focus our attention to those seemingly ordinary encounters, when we notice the signs, pay attention to the prompts.

The Sun moved into watery Pisces on February 18th (Pisces corresponds to our lymphatic system, our feet and toes, while Virgo’s domain is our digestive organs) so this full Moon brings our focus on the quality and origin of the foods we assimilate, the health of our colon, our immune system and the comfort of our feet.

Saturn in nebulous Pisces opposes this month’s Virgo moon, creating a force field of vulnerability and heightened emotion. Saturn aspects accompany frustration, obstacles often associated with laws, responsibilities, duty and demands. The sun in Pisces sextiles disruptive Uranusm so plans could quickly unravel, what seemed so straightforward, now might be complicated.

As our lives turn on those little things that shape our destinies, the shadows of both the lunar and solar eclipses this month, suggest that things will not be smooth in world politics. Venus, symbol of what we hold dear to our hearts, is moving Retrograde in Aries. Aries is a hot-headed, martial sign and Aries is where Venus is in her “detriment”.  Venus in Aries wears warpaint and battle gear. Venus stationed Retrograde on March 2nd and will turn direct at 24° Pisces on April 13th. Tempers flared and diplomacy dissolved in the Oval Office under the glare of the media on Friday February 28th in an undignified display of what psychologist Dr. Dan Siegel describes as “flipping your lid”―when the the amygdala, the emotional brain, hijacks the frontal cortex, the thinking brain. Mars (ruler of Aries) is moving direct now in Cancer, an emotional placement, that feels offended and can explode into immature temper tantrums.

The astrological weather for March and April will be unsettled as Mercury turns Retrograde (9° Aries) on March 15th.  

Both Venus and Mercury sensitise the 9/10 degree points in our birth charts then move over the 24/26 Pisces degree points, the same degree point as the full moon total eclipse. Be prepared to be flexible and open to new moves. Expect the usual Trickster/Mercurial technical, transport, communication glitches that compel us to pause, re-think, re-work, re-do, and be mindful that Mercury in Aries can be brash, impulsive and reactionary. Pause, breath out slowly before responding. Engage the frontal cortex.

Midwife and nurse, Jennifer Worth who knew so intimately the power of female blood, the dark and the light of human nature, worked amongt the very poor in South East London in the 1950s. She writes so poignantly, “we do not get what we expect. We stumble on cracks, are faced with imperfection, bonds tested and tightened. And our landscapes shift in sunshine and in shade. It was light where you went once. It was light where you are now. It will be light where you will go again.”

For every one of us, this eclipse season marks a space between darkness and light, the bloodlust of war, or the blood that accompanies a new cycle of fertility, the miracle of birth. May we soften those places in ourselves that have become calloused and hard. May we cleanse our thoughts and open our hearts as events, big and small, shape our destiny. Peace and contentment to all who have entered a time of quiet reflection during Ramadan and Passover.

 

For personal astrology readings please contact me on ingrid@trueheartwork.com

 

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The Loveliness of Things—Venus Retrograde—March 1st to April 12th

[With apologies for the late arrival by email due to technical issues.]

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more timeMaya Angelou.

In these first hope-filled days of spring, a benevolent sun settles over city parks and woodlands. And for a brief moment, people look up from their screens and smile at the loveliness of things.

February is a month dedicated to Love. As cloyingly sentimental or overtly commercial as this celebration may seem, Valentine’s Day has survived world wars and financial crashes. On February 14th in most places on this earth, millions of people demonstrated through chocolates and cards, music and flowers, their longing to love and be loved. “Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved”, writes author Alain de Botton.

At sunset this month, Venus, goddess of beauty and love, shimmers in a sky striated with peach and gold. On Valentine’s Day Venus was luminous, reaching her greatest brilliancy as if declaring Love’s power to overcome all human sorrow. She lingers  languidly in the evening skies and dazzles us with her beauty till mid-March, then she vanishes beneath the horizon, triumphantly reappearing  as morning star in the last days of April.

The ancients tracked the passage of Venus in a perfect pentagram across the skies, ascribing her disappearance from sight to her descent into the Underworld. This descent into the darkness was a dangerous time for humanity. When Venus vanished from the skies, the pre-Colombian Mayans believed, kingdoms became unstable, regimes toppled, and an ancient bloodlust stirred in the  heart of warriors.

In myth, Innana (Venus) is stripped of all her valued regalia and exquisite clothing. She enters the Underworld vulnerable and exposed for 40 days and 40 nights. In modern times, the Underworld is a symbol of our own unconscious where we may encounter a truth that reverberates viscerally. The trial of these times are a cosmic reminder for us to dissolve, discard out-worn values and beliefs. In astrological language, Venus describes our self-worth and self-esteem, as well as the people or things we cherish and admire. Venus describes our loveability, how we give and how we receive love. We may be prompted to reconnect with our heart’s longing as we reevaluate our intimate and business partnerships, our friendships, our finances, our creative expression, and importantly, what value we place upon ourselves.

Between late January and mid-May this year, Venus becomes a maverick, expressing her qualities in unusual and unexpected ways as she moves over the Aries/Pisces area of our birth charts as well as the birth charts of our fallible leaders, and of nations.

Venus entered her shadow period on January 28th at 24° Pisces. On March 2nd, she stations Retrograde at 10° Aries and stations direct at 24° Pisces on April 13th. She will leave her Retrograde shadow on May 16th at 10° Aries.

The last time Venus moved Retrograde through Pisces and Aries was eight years ago, so as we reflect back to the themes or our responses to events in 2017, we might get a sense of where we might need to focus our attention over the coming months.  Venus and Mercury meet in Aries on March 12th then Mercury stations Retrograde on March 14th  as we pause before making decisions and pay careful attention before signing any important documents. The few days before and after Retrograde and direct stations are risky times to enter into negociations or make long term decisions.

As Venus moves apparently backwards through the heavens, she will accent the building energy of the important Neptune/Saturn conjunction at that first initiatory degree of Aries, mirroring trigger points politically and economically, as well as important events and choices in our own lives as we grapple with what is “real” or illusionary.

As Venus begins to gather speed, moving direct, she passes over the important Aries point on May 1st, she will also energise this jetstream of powerful political and cultural currents that will sweep away what has been built, and will ebb and flow, long after we are gone. As civil rights activist and writer, James Baldwin once said: “No time can be easy if one is living through it.”

As we move through the turbulent maelstrom of this moment in human history, with its darkness and its light, we might remember that there are cycles within cycles. As author John Steinbeck wrote during the darkest days of the second world war, “all the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up… it isn’t that the evil thing winsit never willbut that it doesn’t die.”

In our own private lives, Venus accents the impulsive, assertive, risk-taking Aries energy in our birth chart, as well as the caring, compassionate, intuitive part of ourselves as she moves through Pisces between now and early June.

Venus’s Retrograde passage may expose our vulnerabilities, our blind spots, and our lack of self-compassion.

Most of us are unskilled at self-love. It is often easier to look for what is wrong in our relationships or in the world around us, than to place our attention on what brings joy to our hearts. As we take time to hear our inner pulse beat, may we honour the stability of our own substance, resist the meaningless quantification of likes and retweets, and protect our tender hearts and minds from corrosive comparisons.

As our earth strains beneath the weight of our appetites and numbers—and so many of us sense the ultimate ending—Jonathan Franzen writes in his book, The End of the End of the Earth “even in a world of dying, new loves continue to be born… this is now the time to give yourself over to what you love, perhaps in new and deeper ways. Your family and friends, your animal friends, the plants around you, even if that means just the little sprouts that push their way through the sidewalk in your city, the feeling of a breeze on your skin, the taste of food, the refreshment of water, or the thousands of little things that make up your world and which are your own unique treasures and pleasures.

Make your moments sparkle within the experience of your own senses and direct your attention to anything that gladdens your heart.”

These posts continue to remain AI free and free of charge to all lovers of astrology.  If you’d like a private astrology reading, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com or visit the consultations page of my website: www.trueheartwork.com

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Astrological Weather for 2025.

Putting things off is the biggest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes and denies us the present by promising the future. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately. Lucius Annaeus Seneca 4Bc to 65 AD.

 

On January 1st, we cross over the burning ground where our intentions, our resolutions are ignited. As we stand on the cusp of this new year, January’s promissory note offers a chance to do things differently, to dare to change our minds and our hearts. To move from what we have outgrown. To begin again.

This new year is shaped by some major astrological markers that will infuse the collective energy and impact on our own lives as familiar things fall away and we learn to adapt to all that is new.

On January 11th, the North and South Nodes change signs, moving into the Pisces/Virgo lunar axis, defining the zeitgeist for the next 18 months, as we keep the faith while attending to those ordinary things that knit the days of our lives together.

The lunar standstill that has been building month by month since 2020 reaches its peak in March 2025. A lunar standstill or lunistice is similar to a solstice when the sun seems to stand still for a few days around mid-winter or mid-summer, but a lunistice lingers for a period of two years as the moon rises and sets in more extreme positions, reaching high in the sky in the summer, and low in the winter here in the north, affecting our emotions, the liquid in our bodies, the tides.

There are four eclipses in 2025: A total lunar eclipse in Virgo on March 13/14th depending on where you live. A partial solar Eclipse in Aries on March 29th. A total lunar eclipse in Pisces on 7/8th September. And a partial solar eclipse in Virgo on September 21st, each eclipse imbued with its own meaning and significance as it drops into your own birth chart, perhaps energising a passion that lies dormant, offering a prompt to discover a purpose within.

The volatile Mars/Pluto opposition peaks on January 3rd as unresolved anger and trauma resurface perhaps in our own lives if this aspect ignites an angle or planet in your own birth chart. This is the intractable energy that accompanies power struggles, stand-offs and ruthlessness.  Mars remains opposite Pluto until February 22nd as we tame our inner beasts and appreciate what is beautiful and graceful in our lives. Mars stations direct on February 24th at 17° Cancer, accompanying abrupt reversals, maybe a loss of interest in a goal, and awareness of a turning point that exposes a lingering problem and a choice to be made as Mars brashly unsheathes his sword and we are compelled to change course.

If you are poised to travel or make a commitment that concerns a relationship or money, there may be delays or setbacks as Venus and Mercury go retrograde in Aries back into Pisces in March. March 14th to April 7th for Mercury. March 1st to April 12th for Venus.

This year will have a different tone as Jupiter slips into Cancer, a sign of its exultation, a feminine counterbalance to brute force and assertive action. This transit might direct our energy and rescources to our sense of safety and belonging as we focus on home, family and community. Jupiter enters Cancer on June 9th and will remain there until June 2026, as we nurture ourselves, and perhaps as we look deeper, find depth and meaning in the word, “mother”…

Pluto entered Aquarius on November 19th, 2024, and will re-shape our experience of being an individual in a world where science and technology will utterly transform societies and nations for the next twenty years.

Neptune enters Aries on 30th March 2025 and stays until 22nd October before returning to Aries from 26th January 2026 until 2039. This transit will inspire many new beginnings in spirituality, creativity, art and politics that may be idealistic and imaginative, or delusional and self indulgent. Uranus enters Gemini on 7th July 2025 and stays until 8th November before returning to Gemini from 26th April 2026 until 2033. This transit will revolutionise, possibly disrupt how we think, communicate, and share information, and impact on our use or mis-use of media, as well as ways we educate and transport ourselves.

Saturn takes charge as he enters Aries on 25th May 2025 and stays until 1st September before returning to Aries on 14th February 2026 until 2028. This transit is about taking a realistic approach to defining our identity, our integrity and reliability. Saturn represents our rule-book for life, and describes important developmental processes that garner more meaning as we mature and age.

 

In March, a conjunction of Saturn and Neptune nudges close to the North Node in the very last decan of Pisces, moving within half a degree orb at 0° Aries in July. As Saturn and Neptune dance together all through 2025 what we knew to be safe and sure may become untethered. Neptune breaches, erodes and undermines the steadfast structure of Saturn, which release a tsunami of disillusionment and disorientation. We may be called to make sacrifices for the greater good. We may discover qualities of resilience, steadfastness and courage as we draw from our inner reserves of strength and passion.

On February 20th, 2026, these two celestial dancers will meet at 0° Aries point (the first degree of the zodiac, signifying endings and new beginnings), setting in motion precipitous deconstruction of what seemed indestructible. Saturn and Neptune contacts in Capricorn coincided with the gradual dismantling of apartheid in South Africa, the end of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Nothing stays the same. Not here on earth, nor in the heavens. The sands of time rush ever more swiftly through the hourglass of our life. Today,  we take a leap of faith and bravely cast our hopes and wishes towards the ever-shifting horizon of the possible. Nothing is certain. All is flux and change. This new year can be shaped by what we have lost or what we yearn for. It can be remembered by how well we have loved.

In loving memory of Mary Whelan, July 11th 1961 – 29th December 2024. Thank you for shining your light so brightly into this world.

For personal astrology readings in March, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

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Come Together—Gemini Full Moon—December 15th.

Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again. George Eliot.

The days before the shortest day of the year are shaped by the honest starkness of winter. Bare branches etched against grey skies. A russet flash of a fox daintily picking her way across a glistening frosty field. Silent starry nights. Gardens barren and bare. And yet, in the darkness of winter, new life is growing underground.

The astrological sky story speaks of endings and new beginnings after two years of transition as Pluto traversed between the very different signs of Capricorn and Aquarius. On November 19th, Pluto entered Aquarius, heralding a new age for humankindan app-driven Age of Artificial Intimacy, an Age of Authoritarianism, an Age of Reimagining what it means to be human. Now we stand collectively at the threshold of a new era as we try to imagine the unimaginable—what the world will be like in twenty years time.

As our nervous systems adjust and attune to what is emerging, we may sense a shifting in our priorities as we come to some kind of ending in our own lives.

December’s full moon invokes the mercurial essence of Gemini as we approach the Solstice on December 21st. In the Greco/Roman world, Mercury/Hermes presided over thresholds, crossroads, and boundaries. Air is Gemini’s element. This is the energy of the wind that blows through the branches, shaking off that last golden autumn leaf. The Trickster is an archeype that versatile Gemini epitomises —this energy can be  elusive, clever, playful, and infuriatingly inconsistent. This full moon may illuminate those tricky either-or-choices we must make as we stand at those crossroad moments in our lives. Spiritual teacher, Caroline Myss reminds us, “the challenge is for us to decide whether to make choices that enhance our spirit or drain our power.”

Neptune steers direct on December 7th, followed by Mercury direct on December 15th, signifying turning points, new perspectives, choices made, decisions resolved. Now, a coming back to a state of faith and peace as we allow our nervous systems to recalibrate and resettle.

Mars stations Retrograde on December 6th (6° Leo) and will station direct on February 24th (17° Cancer.) A slow-burning Mars Retrograde exacerbates residual frustration as our will may be thwarted by those things we simply cannot control. The intense energy of the Mars opposition to Pluto that has been building since mid-October will stretch across the heavens until January 3rd, sparkling the flames of love and war, igniting volatility as unseen, primal forces are unleashed. If this opposition plays out across your own birth chart over the coming weeks, this potent energy will provide the adrenaline rush, and hopefully a cathartic resolution to a situation that has been simmering for some time. As the sun moves through Sagittarius now, Jupiter is travelling Retrograde through Gemini (October 9th-February 4th.) Jupiter and the sun oppose one another on December 7th, as we review the year gone past, plan for the future, dare to trust and to hope.

Now as we tend to the cherished customs and savour the familiar rituals of this holiday season, may we glance back over the months of this year almost gone and allow those moments of pleasure to glitter across our memory—our daily walk with the dog, a swim in the ocean, a birthday meal shared with a dear friend—or the Big, heart-blossoming, life-changing arrival of a precious grandchild.

“Locking pleasure into our memories through savouring is a skill worth learning, not least because we make our decisions today not so much based on rational pros and cons of a given choice but based on our memories of the past,” suggests researcher and sex educator, Dr Emily Nagoski.

Anchored to the restless tail wind of a year that has seen millions of voters going to the polls, inhuman immigration and asylum policies, and the grim toll of vicious combat in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the ratcheting climate crisis, the last new moon of 2024 falls in the stoic sign of Capricorn on December 30th. This final New Moon of 2024 is a Saturn-ruled lunation. Saturn reminds us that time is is transient: once it’s gone, it’s gone. Emily Nagoski writes, “our body’s energy can be renewed, money comes and goes, but time is limited and fleeting… so I choose to do this with my time.”

Rilke spoke of the winter months as the season for tending to the inner garden of the soul. Now as the sun lies low on the horizon, may we find the courage to gently gather the worst and the best of this year and commit to healing them as best we can. May we generously accept our sadness, acknowledge the brevity of our fragile human lives, feel the fertile substance of our wanting. As we come together this festive season, may we celebrate the dark and the light of this year gone by, and be grateful for those precious times of connection. And in those silent moments, beneath the glittering stars, may we breathe out a prayer of gratitude as we prepare to blossom once more in the spring.

I am gestating a new beginning of my own as I take time to be curious about Pluto’s passage through Aquarius and what this means for humanity. I will  be wintering quietly and listening deeply. Thank you all for all your love and support during this year now almost gone. Wishing you a restorative and hope-filled Solstice.

Please get in touch if you would like to book an appointment for an astrology session for March 2024.   ingrid@trueheartwork.com

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The Mirror and the Dark—Pluto enters Aquarius—November 19th.

It was not by a serpent, but by paper and ink that evil came into the world.
Hilary Mantel.

November is the season of falling leaves. Here in the north, a dying sun lies lethargically on the horizon. Trump’s in charge now, a landslide win has loosened a dark sludge of discontent that has been bubbling since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 and financial markets tumbled and fell. As historian Heather Cox Richardson writes, “democracies die more often through the ballot box than at gunpoint.”

At this inflection point in our human story, for so many, this new era stirs up an ancient fear that flexes like the slim tail of a serpent as it slithers across centuries of patriarchy, torture and burnings, women’s bodies owned, defiled, bartered, and sold.

Sales of dystopian books have soared, while leaders hurry to pay homage to the man who is a mouthpiece for the collective. In response to the misogyny that ripples through society, the 4B movement goes viral. Young women refuse to marry, engage in sex or bear children, until they have their rights back. Margaret Atwood, author of the Handmaid’s Tale, posts on the Musk-owned X, “despair is not an option. It helps no one.”

The astrology mirrors the light and the darkness as we enter this crucible of change.

On November 19th, Pluto returns to 0° Aquarius. There will be no sudden shift into the golden “Age of Aquarius”. It’s unlikely that “peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars.” Pluto’s potent energy infuses our lives over the next two decades, society as we know it is destroyed and reshaped. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is “Building structures for the survival of the group”. These new structures will only emerge slowly, as Pluto represents an invisible, unfathomable level of life. Pluto in the fixed, rational, air sign of Aquarius acts like a poultice for the trauma and heartbreak in the collective consciousness. The shadowy qualities of Aquarius are rationalisation, icy detachment, immoveable ideologies, totalitarianism, group think collated and controlled by algorithms, seduced by AI and science.

Societal reform, often accompanied by bloody revolution and fanaticism shattered societies during Pluto’s passage through Aquarius in the 1700s long before we had “discovered” Pluto in the darkness of our solar system.

Pluto the invisible planet was orbiting silently in space when Herschel “discovered” Uranus in 1781, that planet associated with breakthroughs and revolution. This was a time of upheaval and revolt in France, America and Haiti. The first Industrial Revolution was under way. Captain Cook and William Bligh searched for new consumables in southern lands. Pluto’s last passage through Aquarius (1778-1798) marked the beginning of the climate crisis and a soulless sense of alienation and loneliness that now threatens our survival as a species.

We speak glibly of “patriarchy”, yet as Pluto gouges out embedded beliefs and offers a different way to live, how many of us will be willing to relinquish our “comfortable” way of life? How many of us will be willing to question and think deeply about personal and collective issues. How many of us will really be willing to share our resources and live equally?

Writes Angela Saini in The Patriarchs, How Men Came to Rule, “patriarchy “is not ‘they’; it’s all of us”. And changing it would mean losing many of the things many people cherish…to really radically create a completely equal society would mean rethinking everything fundamentally. Marriage, childcare, how we structure societies … work, pay, everything. It would mean challenging class, capitalism … monarchies … We’re not just creatures who want to live equally. We’re also creatures who care about the cultures that we’re in. And challenging culture is really hard.”

The full moon in Taurus on November 15th carries the uncomfortable, erratic signature of Uranus, co-ruler of Aquarius. Uranus stirs up the grounded nature of this Taurus moon by tight conjunction, reminding us that nothing is certain, nothing is permanent, that we must redirect ourselves now and rebuild in new, unexpected ways. Uranus transits often accompany a sense of alienation from bedrock aspects of life and thrust us into the uncharted terrain of choice and crisis that we’ve been doggedly resisting.  As we choose courage over fear, Saturn turns direct, also on November 15th, as the log-jam of obstacles that have been blocking our progress since June, at last begins to move and we find a way through.

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 clench against the wild winds of adversity, she reminds us that “light and dark, birth and death—bitter and sweet—are forever paired.” 

These next weeks and months will require determination and effort, as Mars and Pluto stay within orb of their opposition until mid-January and Mercury turns Retrograde on November 25th-December 16th so take time to rest and restore amidst the busyness of work deadlines and social commitments.

As we stand collectively and personally at the threshold of this new era, may be hold our dear ones close. Pluto’s long slow passage through Aquarius will demand of us all that we continue to engage our imaginations, trust our intuition, bow our rational minds to the ancient wisdom our hearts.

I am fully booked ’till mid-February 2025. To make your booking for an astrology reading in the new year, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

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