Shine—Full Moon in Aquarius—August 19th.

Darkness will always give you an opportunity to create your own light—Iain Thomas.

August’s full moon arrives trailing appellations: She’s a Supermoon, a Blue moon, an Aquarian moon.

In these dog days of summer, as Sirius, the fabled Dog Star rises with the sun and Venus shimmers at sunset, this full moon blazes close to the earth and for a fleeting moment, softens the rough edges of this world with her shine.

In a world that so often steals our ability to see any light, this full moon arrives at a peak point astrologically. Today, a graceful celestial duet commences as Jupiter in airy Gemini (growth, expansion, optimism, hype and misinformation) squares Saturn in watery Pisces (discipline, effort, limits, finality, contraction). This marks an all-penetrative change in tempo. An opportunity to create our own light even when the world around us seems so dark.

This choreographed dance across the night skies repeats three times: August 19^th, December 24^th (Jupiter Retrograde 14° Gemini and Pisces), and June 15^th (Jupiter exulted at 1° Cancer and Saturn in fall at 1° Aries.)

This transit calls for cautious optimism and determination. Saturn transits arrive as the henchmen of stasis that often thwart our efforts to move forward. Yet they present as circumstances that grow us up, if we’re willing to learn. Jupiter brings bold vision, big possibilities, and the opportunity for self-enquiry as we carefully consider what will truly fulfill us. This is about the slow build towards a future that will feel more aligned, more authentic. If we are on the precipice of a big decision, these coming months will require thoughtful planning, patient vision holding. If we are feeling stagant or stuck, we might use this time to rest, enrich our connection to spirit. As we let go of the heaviness or fear,  perhaps we might become more compassionate and accepting of our imperfections, validate the small incremental steps that allow us to revive our energy, define ourselves once more.

This Saturn/Jupiter cycle was seeded at 0° Aquarius on the December solstice of 2020. This alignment marked the start of a pivotal period for humanity as we emerged from months of stifling restraints that prohibited our innate need for touch and connection.

Pluto has been energising this generative 0° Aquarius point  this year. We have already glimpsed the future: civil unrest, cancel culture, fanaticism, waves of migrants and homelessness, and the naïve belief that the new gods of technology and AI will offer redemption. Yet there is still so much goodness in this world. The innate kindness and generosity of so many who ask, “how can I help”? When the world looks so dark, let’s remember that Martin Luther King once famously said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

This big-bodied moon makes an unsettling square to Uranus, wild card of the zodiac. Look for  signposts and signals, embrace unexpected news that might shed light on a blind spot. Find the courage to take that momentus U-turn, that in hindsight, “was for the best.”

Mercury Rx times typically highlight setbacks, detours and delays that challenge our resourcefulness, hone our ability to be grateful for small wins.

One day before this lunation, in the lead up to the US Democratic Convention, a charismatic Mercury Retrograde in Leo is “cazimi”, nestled in the heart of the sun. When Mercury is re-forged in a tight alignment with the sun, it is bathed in the strength and vitality of solar fire, escorting brilliant ideas, effortless solutions, hightening our ability to think counter-intuitively. “The real heroes of race and culture would always be the people who stepped out of their own line to make a larger circle,” writes Naomi Shihab Nye.

The tail end of August’s dog days offer the potential for quiet introspection and attentive, practical planning. Mercury is Retrograde August 4^th-28^th moves from Leo into the sign of Virgo, as we bring our attention to the little things that make up the hours and days of our lives. Virgo presides over our health—what we ingest into our bodies and into our minds.

Past and future intersect this over-heated summer. For those who have planets or angles between 26-28° Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, this energy might manifest quite literally as an epiphany: a sudden, unexpected turn of events that compels us to redirect our plans in unexpected ways.

From Bangladesh to Butler Farm, Southport to Venzuela, it’s been an impassioned summer. We witnessed the ruthless, destructive, chaotic symbolism of the volatile Mars/Uranus/Argol conjunction portrayed in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13^th. Uranian symbolism infuses the race to the White House as Kamala Harris takes to TikTok, and Swifties mobilize in support.

On July 19^th, Mercury entered its shadow phase and came into square with the separating Mars/Uranus conjunction—a symbolic and literal electrical overload. A global IT outage reminded us of all of the fragility of our reliance on technology.

The horror of a mass stabbing of young girls and their teacher at a dance workshop in Southport on July 29^th froze a nation. Communities circled in grief. The moon and Uranus met in the heavens and a garrulous Mars in Gemini raced towards Jupiter, ratcheting up malicious misinformation, algorithms roused primal fear. Archaic xenophobia in deprived areas of the UK, where the scourge of poverty is the real villain, was deliberately unseen by millionaire politicians and the billionaires of Silicon Valley.

Wild winds whipped up fires in the suburbs of Athens as temperatures soared on August 12^th as the destructive energy of Mars combined with the largesse of Jupiter in airy Gemini.

Stock markets shuddered while glossy wolves of Wall Street gobbled up more profit.

The celebratory combative Mars/Jupiter combination was depicted in the triumpant, combative and courageous sporting achievements of the Olympian gods and goddesses.

Venus and Saturn form a tense T-square, activating the Mars/Jupiter conjunction from August 16^th-19^th, dismantling what has reached breaking point, illuminating situations that must change. This is about faith over fear as things fall apart: as we leave a stultifying job, move to a new city, finally have the strength to keep moving towards what feels authentic. 

The vibratory signature of this grand finale Supermoon may light the way 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. Trust. Don’t let go.

There are times in life when people must know when not to let go. Balloons are designed to teach small children this―Terry Pratchett

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

Way marker—Full Moon in Capricorn—June 22nd.

How beautiful to finally understand that solitude is a mark of self-worth… to truly accept that you, alone, are worthy of your own company—April Green.

A striking full moon in the sign of the Sea-Goat stares into the heart of the sun tonight.

On June 22^nd a rare lunistice, or lunar standstill, occurs once every 18 years when the moon is at the most extreme point in her cycle. We have reached a place of pause where we can rest in this moment, reflect on how far we have come, maybe allow ourselves to turn instinctively to what nourishes our soul. This is a time to take some time alone. Perhaps to set an intention, be clear and conscious of what it is that we long for. Capricorn accompanies a steady quality that we draw upon when we set healthy boundaries, focus on goals, harness the self-discipline to put in the hard work required. Yet, this unusual moon, warmed by the intense light of the midsummer sun, carries with her a trace of something out of the ordinary. She’s just entered the sign of Capricorn, a sign inbued with the qualities of integrity and responsibility on good days; steely ambition and calculating opportunism on days when the Devil Wears Prada. As the moon moves through Capricorn in our own birth chart, she is a steady reminder of the need to stay true to qualities like maturity, integrity, and discernment, in a world where the clapping hands of social media or a hunger for worldly power can rip us from our roots, shred our self-respect.

The moon is in her “detriment” in Capricorn.  When a planet is in its detriment, also called “in exile”, it journeys circumspectly across a foreign landscape. It functions in ways that might seem strange or unexpected. It can be extremely creative and innovative as it seeks new ways to be in the world, to find its highest expression. This full moon is also “out of bounds”, another technical term that conveys a quality of energy that often correlates with feelings of being an outsider, of not fitting in, of behaving unconventionally. This lunation reminds us of the ancient archetype of the exile, the outsider who behaves differently and is a stranger in a foreign land, a feeling we may experience in situations where we feel our aloneness or differentness, when we feel unheard, ignored or misunderstood. We may feel exiled in our communities, cast “out of bounds” by the choices we have made to experience a life that does not conform to what is deemed to be “normal,” or lost and adrift in frantic activities that untether us from our faith, our values.

The astrological tempo changes, at this high-point of the year. The mid-summer solstice on June 20^th or 21^st (depending on where in the world you live) marks the sun’s still point in its passage through the heavens, the nadir of mid-winter in the south, a celebration of light here in the north. The sun, Venus, and Mercury are now moving through self-protective Cancer, a sign that contains a reservoir of emotion and vulnerability. A sign that reminds us of the comforts of home and belonging in a world where so many are displaced from the comfort of home and community by famine or war, where mass migration now has become a contentious political and moral issue.

We are halfway through this year, a year of 80 elections as more than half the world’s population go to the polls. In some countries, fragile hopes for change have already been crushed by authoritarian governments; in others, pacts have been made by opposing parties to work together in cautious coalitions; while “snap elections” deliver a cacophany of harsh rhetoric devoid of fact-checking.

As Jupiter races through loquacious Gemini, and the Nodes move through Aries (self) and Libra (other) calcified ideologies are cut and reshaped by compromise. In South Africa, a collective psychological watershed has been reached. South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa (transiting Uranus opposing his Scorpio Sun) and the former liberation movement, the African National Congress have agreed to form a government of national unity with the pro-business Democratic Alliance. In France, Emmanuel Macron’s gamble on the dissolution of parliament has provoked a political crisis that may send France moving Eurosceptic hard right. Under a confusing transiting Neptune square to Macron’s Sagittarius Mercury and sun, the astrology suggests that Macron’s flutter may not end well. Here in the UK, transiting wild-card Uranus conjunct Sunak’s sun prompted another snap election punt with an election on the symbolic day of Independence, July 4th.

“After the ecstasy, the laundry,” author Jack Kornfield reminds us as governments turn to the daily task of translating the collective hope for change into an imperfect political system. Saturn, the ruler of this moon, turns Retrograde on June 29^th, a collective ebb of the tide, an invitation to slow down to allow something new to seed and gestate over the next nine months. As Saturn moves Retrograde, it’s energy turns inward prompting us to reassess, to  perhaps to respond to outer events with more maturity, more caution. Typically, the last passage of Saturn over this degree point will quite tangibly manifest what was seeded and has grown very gradually over the slow months of Saturn’s slow retrogression, so it will be in our Pisces house that we may encounter a necessary delay, an internalisation, or a phase of withdrawal. Saturn begins to form a tense square to Jupiter from 17^th to 23^rd August and again in December 23^rd to early January, requiring us all to temper our hopes with a good dollop of reality, to think clearly before adding more fuel to the narrative delivered by political performers who shock and dazzle the punters with their sociopathic rudeness and preposterously impossible promises.

Tonight, as this unusual full moon casts her light over a noisy, colourful, glittering world, she reminds us that solitude is a balm for fried and frazzled nerves. May our innate integrity steady us as we take stock of what truly matters. May we move with discernment amongst the babble of voices calling for freedom and for change. May we find the courage to question our beliefs and the beliefs that were never ours to begin with—with clarity and compassion. If we allow ourselves to be still tonight, we might hear change approaching, and if we’re hesitating at the threshold, still holding tightly to a situation that is stunting our evolution, now might be the time to step over, let go and begin again.

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

Possible—Full Moon in Sagittarius—May 23rd.

“May is the month of expectation, the month of wishes, the month of hope,” wrote Emily Brontë.

All things seem possible in May. Frothy hawthorn spills  along hedgerows, a diaphanous train of dazzling white. Slender spikes of foxglove thrust skywards. Daisies, bluebells, buttercups, and floaty cowslips tumble over pathways. Nature rejoices in her loveliness and as change swirls through our lives, scattering summer’s petals, May’s full moon falls in the expansive sign of Sagittarius.

Under these hope-filled moonbeams, we may glimpse what is possible as we imagine what William Ury, author of Possible: How We Survive and Thrive in an Age of Conflict describes as a balcony, a place of far-seeing perspective within ourselves.

For those whose birth charts are tuned to the “wavelength” of 2º Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini or Virgo, this lunation may hitch up a yearning for freedom, hoist a longing to sample a smorgasbord of new experience, expand horizons, dare to do differently.

In Sagittarius, we soar above the triviality of daily routine. We become explorers, adventurers, pilgrims seeking signs and finding meaning. We challenge our bodies and our minds as we reach for the stars, dream the impossible dream, and are lifted and struck by a firm belief that it will all work out in the end.

Sagittarius is ruled by portly Jupiter, who so often evokes the kind of laughter that brings tears to our eyes and softens the hard edges of the world. We invoke the buoyancy and resilience of Jupiter when we keep the faith, when we look up, when we notice the silver lining in the dark clouds of circumstance. Although popular astrology associates Jupiter with “luck” and “good things”, inconstant Jupiter, the astrological ruler of Sagittarius and Pisces, is also an archetype so often imbued with a tincture of loss and longing.  Despite our prayers, despite our positive affirmations, the veils of illusion go up in flames, our lives scorched to the ground. Jupiter is the roll of the fickle dice, the ever-spinning Wheel of Fortune. In myth, Jupiter didn’t stay around long, he was always off, chasing the next conquest, taking what he wanted, when he wanted, just because he could. The shadow that stretches behind Jupiter’s cheery positivity is self-absorbed grandiosity, a cavalier entitlement, which may be highlighted as Jupiter moves through the mutable, easily distracted sign of the Twins from May 26^th to June 9^th, 2025.

Jupiter’s first aspect after changing from earthy Taurus into airy Gemini is a trine to Pluto (now moving Retrograde in Aquarius) on June 2^nd, expanding the potential for healing and renewal.

This could present as a realignment of our moral compass in a relationship power struggle, a readjustment in a situation where ethics loom large. This aspect prompts us out of a stuck place, it’s a call to make an important change, or a empowering recognition that we must free ourselves from a situation that has been stifling.

Jupiter is also associated with the Guru or the Teacher archetype and its contacts to sensitive points in our own birth chart deliver opportunities to embrace something new. This is an expansive, positive prompt if we are willing to stand on that imaginal balcony and see the world with new eyes.

“There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person” wrote Rumer Godden. As we air each room, every day, we may discover the confidence and courage to listen to the whispers of our heart’s desire.

Jupiterian themes may be prominent in our lives between May 26^th this year and June 2025 as Jupiter expands his influence across sensitive points in our birth chart and in the chart of nations. Jupiter’s presence in Gemini supports those things that require mental focus, careful choice, considered speach and attentive listening. As nature blossoms, the sun entered the sign of the Twins, on May 20^th to be joined by Venus on May 24^th. Mercury, winged messenger, also enters Gemini on June 3^rd. If we can avoid distractions, this will be a wonderful time to begin a writing project or seek new social connections. The danger here is that we may overextend our nervous system, scatter our energies, take on too much, too quickly, or too soon.

Jupiter is a complex symbol in astrology.

Jupiter’s shadow is all sparkle and shine, as arrogance and ego trick us into a false sense of our own potency and invincibility. We fall for appearances, can’t see that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes. On May 15^th, as the moon moved through self-mythologising Leo, Netflix released a three-part documentary, Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal.

Ashley Madison, the Canadian social networking and dating service dubbed as a “business built on broken hearts” was launched in 2002. Pluto and the south node were moving through the expansive, opportunistic sign of Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius back then.

In the Norse, Greek, and Roman pantheons, Thor/Zeus/Jupiter were celestial sky gods. Supreme deities, elitist, autocratic. They dispensed moral and religious justice, yet from the earliest times these self-indulgent gods were exempt from their own moral injunctions. On a whim, they bestowed good fortune, dispensed justice, and claimed Droit du Seigneur with impunity.

Jupiter and Venus were conjunct in Leo (passion, core aliveness, self-expression, feeling adored) when, in 2015, the premier destination website for clandestine affairs was hacked, exposing sensitive and supposedly confidential information, detonating the private lives of more than 37 million subscribers in 40 countries. The human cost of the data leak was devastating and tragic. The promise of security, discretion and anonymity made by Ashley Madison proved to be rancid snake oil. Reputations, relationships were ruined as the shame, the stigma around infidelity ricochetted through families, places of work, and communities. The hack didn’t destroy Ashley Madison. Business is booming, reportedly now with more than 70 million users. Jupiter sells aspirational dreams to the masses. Jupiter’s unbounded exuberance is also associated with risk-taking, the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that reaches for the sky, sets the stakes high in casinos and on racing tracks, merrily rolls the dice over a lover’s tender heart. This is Jupiter the Trickster, inflated with self-importance, flying too high, too fast, too soon.

Popular astrology associates Jupiter with luck, good fortune. There’s a more nuanced approach. We may ignore Jupiter’s bounty. Good fortune may be disguised as a crisis. A loss may actually be a gain. Over these coming months, may we embrace our human foibles and contradictions tenderly as we stand together on the imaginal balcony of possibility. “May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.” John O’Donohue.

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