The New Moon will be exact at 6:37pm BST on the 12th August, at 20°01′ Leo and is a powerful Solar Eclipse. It’s a total eclipse for those fortunate enough to be within the path of totality, while here in the UK we will experience a deep partial eclipse, with the amount of the Sun obscured varying according to where you are. Here’s the chart.

If you’d like to see what the eclipse will look like from where you are, together with the local timings, you can head over to timeanddate’s eclipse page and change the location to wherever you’ll be on the 12th. If you’re able to witness it as it happens, do make sure you protect your eyes!

Astronomically, eclipses occur when the Sun and Moon align close enough to the nodal axis at the time of a New or Full Moon. They have acquired a fearsome reputation throughout history, and not entirely without good reason!

It seems to me that the power of a solar eclipse is that it gives us a fleeting glimpse of the star-filled darkness that is always there behind the daylight, reminding us that astrology is ultimately rooted in our relationship with the whole sky - and the night sky in particular. We cannot normally see the stars while the Sun is above the horizon, and yet every single day we continue to plot the paths of planets that have temporarily disappeared from our sight.

There is something deeply significant in that, something the ancient astrologers understood and which comes down to us partly through the concept of sect: whether the Sun is above or below the horizon in a particular chart, changing the condition and expression of the planets within it. And with this eclipse occurring in Leo, the sign ruled by the Sun itself, surely there is an additional potency in the symbolism of the Sun’s light being obscured in broad daylight.

A Lunar Node is one of the two points where the Moon’s orbit intersects the ecliptic and, astrologically speaking, can be understood as an intended - or perhaps even fated - direction for the collective. The Lunar Nodes take around eighteen months to move through each zodiacal axis and, unlike the planets, appear to travel backwards through the zodiac. We could say that the axis they occupy at any given time reflects the archetypal themes humanity is collectively being invited to engage with.

In evolutionary astrology the South Node is often understood as representing what is already familiar to us, and by some astrologers it is also associated with the inheritance of past lives. The North Node, by contrast, points towards the direction in which the soul is seeking to learn and grow through new experiences. On the 27th July the True Lunar Nodes* shifted, for the first time in eighteen months, onto a new axis: Leo and Aquarius.

*Some astrologers prefer to use the “Mean Nodes”, which smooth out the small oscillations in the Nodes’ motion that occur from time to time.

Although I find these evolutionary interpretations helpful, I’m less certain that the Lunar Nodes can be reduced to quite so simple a meaning. In the Jyotish tradition they are understood rather differently, as the Head and Tail of the Dragon that devours the Sun during a solar eclipse, or the Moon during a lunar eclipse.

The North Node, the Dragon’s Head, is known as Rahu, while the South Node, the Dragon’s Tail, is Ketu. Rather than being seen primarily as indicators of personal development, they are treated as powerful grahas (which translates as ‘grabbers’ - the planets are also grahas) in their own right, carrying an influence comparable to that of the planets themselves. That is a very different emphasis from the way the Nodes are approached in much of modern Western astrology.

And from my own experience, I increasingly think we need to be careful of imagining that the North Node is somehow all “good”, while the South Node is “bad”, what we need to let go of, or merely represents something we already know and have therefore outgrown. This is, of course, a huge simplification of a subject about which entire books have been written, but I hope you can see the broad brushstrokes of what I’m trying to convey.

The North Node isn’t simply where we are being asked to grow, any more than the South Node is simply what we already know from previous lives and are therefore “good” at. I think the relationship between them is far more profound than that.

For me, the North Node can indicate where we seek material success and physical prosperity, but also asks what we are prepared to do in order to achieve them. With the North Node now in Aquarius, perhaps we are being asked to work more consciously with the collective. And with Pluto already present in Aquarius, that may require us to face some uncomfortable truths about the structures of society that need to disintegrate in order to form a rich, fertile compost from which something better; might eventually grow. Something more tolerant, equitable and accepting. Which would be such a relief! That if something manifested by Pluto can ever fully be a relief of course….

The South Node, meanwhile, for me becomes a place in which we have the potential to seek spiritual understanding; but also where we encounter our inner demons, karmic debts, our shadow. We begin to recognise that we are more than simply our bodies, our status, our possessions or the identities we present to the world. It is where we may seek connection with “all that is”, recognising that all life is interconnected and, from an animistic perspective, that the universe itself and all its parts participate in a living field of consciousness. And this is how I practice my own spirituality, my own philosophy, my own astrology and my own card-slinging cartomancy.

Yet this is also where we need to guard against becoming overconfident in who we think we are, and in what we believe we already know and understand. Spirituality can become another throne for the ego. And in Leo that possibility becomes particularly interesting.

Leo seeks radiance, creativity, recognition and the courage to stand visibly in the world. At its most beautiful it allows the individual heart to shine without diminishing anyone else’s light. Yet distorted, it can seek adulation and approval even while convincing itself that it has transcended such earthly concerns.

Here we might therefore encounter the true guru - or the false or outdated guru who uses spiritual teachings for self-aggrandisement. At an eclipse in Leo, close to the South Node, we may see apocryphal “kings” fall, and perhaps real kings and leaders too. Crowns of authority can slip. Masks can fall. Hidden and unpalatable truths may suddenly become visible.

And perhaps the mask can fall from our own eyes as well, revealing what has been in front of us all along but concealed by the brilliant Solar-Leo glare of ego and overconfidence. Both our own and that of the people upon whom we have projected authority.

As a society we seem extraordinarily focused upon the North Node as a direction of travel we must follow in order to learn and grow, and therefore, in my interpretation, upon material wellbeing as something towards which we should - must - continually strive. This is certainly how I often hear the Nodes described in modern Western astrology, particularly by some who practice evolutionary astrology.

Maybe, then, that way of thinking also offers a clue to our wider obsession with endless growth at any cost, even when that cost includes ecological destruction and climate breakdown. In our own bodies uncontrolled growth is called cancer, and cancer can ultimately only lead to death.

Meanwhile, co-present in Leo we find Mercury rapidly approaching a conjunction with Jupiter, while both face across the zodiac towards our old shadowy friend Pluto in Aquarius and at the same time forming flowing aspects with retrograde Neptune in Aries. Uncertainty and instability feel almost palpable, although perhaps by now we have become so accustomed to living with them that we barely notice.

Into this mixture we can add airy, graceful Venus, strong in her own sign of Libra, opposing Neptune and trine both an unpredictable, cerebral and insatiably curious Uranus in Gemini and the previously mentioned Pluto. Combined with the Mercury-Jupiter-Pluto pattern this feels like the potential of sweet words gently spoken, dreams of hope, and attempts at reconciliations. Perhaps even fame - or infamy - beckons!

But all may not be as it seems; things may be open to differing interpretations, with criticism of motives questioned. Even so this may open the door to a more diplomatic way forward and the challenging of the rising tide of both social media vitriol as well as signalling an awakening and recognition that our society can no longer accept violence and hatred as solutions to the many problems we face. With Uranus in Gemini in the mix things may get a little out of control and unpredictable and escalate before they get better, but for me this really does feel a moment of hope for the future.

Pluto, Neptune and Uranus, meanwhile, remain engaged in their own lengthy conversations about how that future might be shaped, probably without worrying too much about how we feel things are turning out so far.

You might think Neptune could show a little compassion even if Uranus and Pluto couldn’t care less, but that is to misunderstand Neptune altogether. Astrological Neptune may be misty-eyed visionary and filled with dreams and illusions, but that doesn’t mean his motives take your personal feelings into account in the least. Have a read of The Odyssey, where Neptune appears in his Greek guise as Poseidon, or go and see the movie, and you may come away with a rather different opinion of dear sweet Neptune.

To be honest, I could say something similar about Venus as Aphrodite too, but I’ll leave that aside for now!

At the time of the eclipse, a moody and somewhat constrained Mars, conjunct Ceres in Cancer, makes a sextile to earthy “centaur-mentor” Chiron in Taurus while moving towards forming a square to a Neptune in Aries, the fiery temple of Mars. We might hope this offers some possibility of grounding and healing through our visions and actions, although probably not without some emotional or physical discomfort along the way. It’ll be worth it.

Neither can we ignore retrograde Saturn in Aries, forming a wide trine to the New Moon. Traditional astrology tells us Saturn is far from comfortable in Mars-ruled Aries and indeed, Aries is the sign of Saturn’s fall. Right now Saturn is retrograde, being forced to retrace his own steps.

So might this offer an opportunity to reconsider the barriers and blockages standing in the way of a more free and fairer society? Again, this may feel horribly difficult and painful to deal with but surely some short-term pain must be worth enduring for something far better? Although as I write that I’m reminded of Saturn being in martial Aries and Lord Farquaad’s speech in Shrek:

“Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

There is always the awkward question of exactly who is being asked to make the sacrifice.

It is very easy at the moment to become despondent, even desperate and disillusioned, with the way things are, and modern society in general: restrictive unnecessary laws, the removal of hard won equality rights, the removal of many of our rights to protest, arrests of peaceful protestors against genocide, and more. Increasingly it feels to me as though despair is precisely what those who hold power would like us to feel. They want us to ‘give up’.

This Leo eclipse, however, may also reveal another direction: new possibilities, new visions, perhaps even glimpses of a better society and a better world. Not everyone wants that. Or perhaps more accurately, not everyone wants all of us to share in that better world.

But remember this: expressing joy in life and joy in diversity reminds those who would reduce us to little more than obedient servants of a monied elite that they cannot completely control the human spirit. Even when peaceful protest is restricted, even when civil liberties and rights are curtailed, there remain ways to resist; and one of them is simply refusing to surrender our capacity for joy, creativity and life. And if there’s one sign that loves creativity and joy, it’s Leo!

This, then, is a moment to express your personal power, and to be brave. Embrace the uncertainty. Embrace the difference. But we must also recognise and guard against our own selfishness. Individuality and individualism are not quite the same thing.

I think this may be a moment for a kind of righteous anarchy. Not anarchy as chaos, because goodness knows we already have enough of that, but anarchy in its deeper sense of questioning imposed authority and accepting responsibility for our own moral choices. Personal sovereignty matters, and it matters because of what we choose to do with it.

We need to embrace our differences and our individuality while also confronting our collective shadow, so that our individual conscience can become collective positive action.

This eclipse (or indeed the recent 8:8 “Lion’s Gate”, which is not really an astrological phenomenon at all, although I don’t deny that people may find meaning or power in it) is not, for me, about receiving mystical “downloads”, though I can’t dismiss them. Maybe they help you and others come to terms with what needs to be done. Instead, for me, it’s simply about facing our fears and doing what is right anyway.

It’s about respect and honour, and above all about understanding what it is for each of us to do. It asks us to release the conditioning of the past that may still hold us unconsciously in its thrall, so that our creativity can grow without endless “shoulds” and “musts”, guided instead by a deepening relationship with other people, with nature and with the wider universe.

It’s about being filled with joy and celebrating life and celebrating differences even when those in power would rather diminish us through increasingly draconian controls.

Because in the end, if your voice had no power, nobody would be trying to silence it.

And finally…

I always try to write my astrology notes a week or two in advance. That way I’m not left with a last minute rush to get something out there! So I wrote this article before recent events in the astrology world unfolded, but will add these words here….

“There is something almost uncomfortably literal about the symbolism of recent events in the astrology world: authority and reputation, teachers and gurus, Leo and the South Node, the crown slipping, and uncomfortable things becoming visible in the sudden shadow of an eclipse.

Sometimes astrology has an unfortunate sense of humour. Is now the time to face not just our personal shadow but the collective shadow of colonialism so that we can truly embrace what those outer planets are trying to tell us?”

For now, though, thank you so much to everyone who subscribes and follows my writing - and if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this rather long eclipse journey, thank you especially for being here.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx /|\

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

A gateway to eclipse season, and a moment of choosing

The Full Moon in Aquarius arrives on 29th July at 3:35pm BST, illuminating a sky that has been slowly gathering its power for many months. Much has already been written (by me and many others) about the extraordinary planetary alignments of 2026 - the great Grail, Cauldron, or Basket pattern formed by Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto - and rightly so. These aren’t ordinary configurations as they speak of profound shifts in culture, consciousness and society that unfold not over days or weeks, but across decades.

Astrologers - and those who follow astrology - can sometimes imagine such configurations as singular moments of revelation, as though the heavens pause before delivering a thunderbolt. Some of us may want the spectacular to happen so that we can show the world how profoundly clever we are as we make our prognostications and predictions. Others - the majority - have expressed much more caution with this particular unfolding, and right so, because more often than not they resemble the slow movement of glaciers.

The landscape changes almost imperceptibly while we are living within it. Only when we pause and look behind us do we realise how completely the horizon has altered. Of course, there are plenty of exceptions; the falling of the Berlin Wall being the one that most stands out for me!

Many of us can recognise those gradual, almost imperceptible moments. The closing years of the twentieth century carried their own sense of anticipation. The financial upheavals of 2007 and 2008 shifted our assumptions about security and prosperity. Then came the events of 2020, when the familiar structures of everyday life suddenly became uncertain. None of these moments stand alone. Each feels increasingly like another step along a pathway into a more uncertain, perhaps ‘darker’ world.

For me, this Aquarius Full Moon feels like another such moment as it crystallises, unfolds and personalises some of those ‘upperworld’ planets: unseen and hidden by unfathomable distances on one level, but also by our conscious thoughts and perceptions. Yet they are now ever present - and this Aquarius Full Moon invites us to participate in creating what is to come.

The great planetary pattern is beginning, ever so slightly, to loosen its grip, even though its work is far from complete. The gods of the upper heavens are still in conversation, still reshaping the deeper architecture of our world. This Full Moon simply shines its light directly into that conversation, revealing something we might otherwise overlook.

Perhaps most significantly of all, it also becomes the threshold leading us toward the eclipse season beginning with the Solar Eclipse on 12th August. The choices made now - quietly, personally, almost invisibly - may echo far beyond this lunar cycle.

The Bow of Heaven

If we set aside, for a moment, those invisible sky gods - the outer planets - and simply look at the heavens as our ancestors once did, a pattern clearly and powerfully emerges over and above those outer planet trines and sextiles. Pretty and full of potential though they are, they are not intrinsically inevitable and powerful in and of themselves. Trines and sextiles offer opportunities, but ones we can either accept or decline - or simply ignore if so inclined.

More ‘difficult’ aspects - squares, oppositions, sometimes conjunctions - and even weirdly named ones like sesquisqaures or the quincunx (say it slowly) - can become powerhouses of change. That change may often be uncomfortable, but can lead, in the end, to better times if we rise to the challenge.

Mars rises before dawn in the eastern sky. Venus, as the beloved Evening Star once more, visibly sinks towards the western horizon each dusk.

Although they form an exact square astrologically, they never actually behold one another. One arrives as the other departs. They are locked in perpetual dialogue without ever sharing the same sky. And between them - semi-square to both - stands the Sun, within whose blazing heart Jupiter has disappeared in a cazimi (an exact conjunction with the Sun), invisible yet immensely empowered.

Opposite them shines the Aquarius Full Moon, and alongside that Moon hides Pluto.

And so the image that’s stayed with me ever since I first gazed at this chart is the one you see above.

Seen symbolically, the heavens seem almost to draw themselves into the shape of an enormous bow. Mars marks one side of the bow, while Venus steadies the other. In the centre sits the Sun and hidden Jupiter - the tip of the arrow? Or the target? The opposition between Sun and Moon becomes the shaft of the arrow.

The Full Moon and Pluto together draw the string taut; the blazing Sun, concealing Jupiter within its heart, becomes the arrowhead itself. To me, this feels an image of extraordinary tension.

But every drawn bow asks the same question: “Where is the arrow aimed?”

Is Pluto - the ancient lord of the underworld - taking aim at Zeus (the Greek precursor to Jupiter) himself, hidden within the brilliance of the Sun? Is the instinctive wisdom of the unseen world challenging the authority of kings, empires and certainty?

Or is the opposite true? Is the light of conscious purpose descending deliberately into the depths, illuminating those forgotten places we have long avoided?

Perhaps you will have your own thoughts. No doubt you will have a preference for one or the other to be the ‘true’ interpretation. Yet the chart refuses to answer because both possibilities already exist.

Astrology so often presents us not with inevitabilities but with living potentials. The heavens reveal the field of fate on which we live our lives - but equally they show us the places and opportunities upon which our freedom acts. What we *do* may or may not lead us to the same place, but undoubtedly one path will be easier than another depending on the choices we do make. Or, of course, we can abdicate responsibility for our own lives and let fate take its own course. In that choice (for we have still made a choice, albeit one of passivity) lies apathy and hopelessness.

The Descent of Inanna

Whenever I encounter mythic skies such as these, I think of one of humanity’s oldest stories: the descent of Inanna. Here is a story of feminine power that evokes - and reflects - the roots of the patriarchal Jupiter-Pluto one we see in the skies now. Here we return to an older mythology of feminine empowerment, where the Queen of Heaven, radiant, powerful and beloved, Inanna chooses to descend into the realm of her dark sister, Ereshkigal, Queen of the Great Below.

As she passes through each of the seven gates she is required to surrender a symbol of her authority:

Her crown first
Then her lapis necklace
Her double strand of beads from her breasts
Her breastplate
Her gold bracelet
Her sceptre is taken
Finally, her robes are removed, leaving her naked.

Each gateway strips away another certainty about who she believes herself to be, and only when she stands utterly exposed does she finally encounter the deeper mystery as she faces her sister and Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal.

This has often been interpreted as a story of death and rebirth, yet perhaps it is equally a story about power itself: no one enters the deepest mysteries carrying titles, and no soul journeys through the underworld wearing crowns.

This descent asks not whether we are successful or admired, but whether we are willing to give up our perceived material power in order to become fully authentic, and stand in our true power.

This Full Moon feels deeply reminiscent of that ancient journey: Pluto does not ask us to become smaller. On the contrary, he asks us to become truer.

Macht or Kraft?

Jupiter, hidden within the heart of the Sun, raises another question, and one deeply woven into the very heart of my shamanic practice .

The German language offers two words that English simply translates as “power.”

Macht is power exercised over others. It represents authority taken, dominion, institutions, and the ability to command.

Kraft, by contrast, is something altogether different. It is living strength, creative vitality, the inner force that enables a seed to become an oak, a river to carve a valley, or a human being to grow into the fullness of their own soul.

Both forms of power exist within us and both exist within every society. As Jupiter disappears within the solar heart we might ask ourselves what kind of greatness we seek. Do we long to become more influential? Or instead, more authentic and fully ourselves? In alignment with the World Soul and all of nature? In service to all beings and not just ourselves?

The difference may shape not only our own lives, but the collective future now quietly taking form.

Mars and Venus

The subtle tension between Mars and Venus adds another layer to this celestial story. Too often these two planets are reduced to simplistic opposites: masculine and feminine, action and relationship, desire and affection. Yet both are far richer than that.

An evolved and mature Mars asks: “What am I prepared to defend and stand for?” whilst an emotionally secure Venus asks: “What and who am I prepared to love?”

Without Venus, Mars becomes conquest, but without Mars, Venus becomes accommodation. Together they create the possibility of courageous compassion. Or, equally, compassionate courage.

In evolutionary astrology they become the twin forces through which the soul learns to balance authentic desire with genuine relationship.

In mundane astrology we see that same dance unfolding across cultures, politics and communities. Strong convictions can harden into division, while compassion without discernment can lose its direction. The challenge is not to choose one over the other, but to allow each to refine the other.

Perhaps this is one of the key and most powerful invitations of this Full Moon. How can we remain steadfast without becoming rigid? And how can we remain open without losing ourselves? Can we meet those whose lived realities and beliefs differ profoundly from our own with both clear boundaries and a genuine acceptance and curiosity?

These are not easy questions, yet they may be among the most important of our time.

The Road Towards the Eclipse

The days following this powerful and dramatic Full Moon become successive chapters in a single unfolding story:

On 3rd August, Chiron stations retrograde, inviting old conversations and familiar narratives to be revisited with greater honesty.

On 6th August, Venus enters Libra, reminding us that beauty, fairness and relationship are not luxuries but foundations of civilisation itself.

The following day the Sun forms a harmonious trine to Saturn, helping inspiration become responsibility.

Mercury enters Leo on 9th August, encouraging speech that is both courageous and heartfelt.

Then, on 10th August, Venus trines Pluto while at the same time opposing Neptune. Love meets truth, and beauty meets illusion. We may discover that genuine compassion asks more of us than sentiment ever can.

Finally, on 11th August, Mars enters Cancer, redirecting courage away from conquest and towards protection: of the home, family, memory and belonging.

All of these currents lead us towards the Solar Eclipse of 12th August. Eclipses have long been regarded as thresholds rather than endings: old light disappears, and new visions slowly emerges.

The weeks between this Full Moon and the eclipse therefore feel like a liminal landscape, the crossing of a place where the future has not yet fully chosen its form. Desert or lush forest, misty woodlands, or stark cliff tops? What landscape will it be that you traverse?

Solar patterns and sacred ritual

Lammas: The Harvest of Becoming

On the 1st August, only a few days after the Full Moon we arrive at Lammas, Lughnasadh for the Irish, Gwyn Awst for the Welsh; the first of the harvest festivals.

Its timing feels beautifully appropriate, for while the heavens speak of immense planetary transformations, the earth asks us a much simpler question: What have you actually grown and what is your personal harvest?

Traditionally this was the season when the wheat and barley were cut. This year and unprecedented in living memory, with heatwaves breaking more records here in the UK, the harvest began in June, and the fields have been bare after the harvest for many weeks. The old seasonal pattern is breaking down, more and more each passing year.

Still, traditionally bread was baked from the year’s first grain and offered in thanksgiving. The harvest carried within it both celebration and sacrifice, for every loaf reminds us that something living has willingly been transformed so that others may live.

In Irish myth this festival remembers Lugh - Samildanach, many skilled - and the death of his foster-mother Tailtiu, whose labour prepared the land for cultivation. The ancient Lughnasadh Games honoured not conquest but excellence and hard work offered in service to the community.

Perhaps that remains their deepest lesson: that our gifts are never ours alone, and they become meaningful only when they nourish others.

A Lammas Practice

If you are able, and to honour and celebrate your own personal harvest, spend some time outdoors over the Lammas weekend. Perhaps carry with you a small piece of bread, oats or barley.

Offer a little to the earth with gratitude.

What too, can you offer as sacrifice - not as payment, but as participation in the ancient reciprocity between people and place, as thanks and acknowledgement to all you have reaped in your own solar journey? To sacrifice is to make sacred. We aren’t releasing something that holds us back, but something that is meaningful to us, and in doing so we rebalance the scales between what we take and what we offer. It can be something physical, but it doesn’t have to be. Be creative. Be open. be honest!

As you make your offerings, ask quietly:

“What harvest within me is ready to be shared?”

A Tarot Reflection for Lammas:

Which gift, long cultivated in quietness, is now asking to become an offering to the wider world?

Suggested draw: Three cards.

The Seed I have nurtured
The Harvest now ready
The Gift I am invited to offer

Walking Through the Gateway

We can’t yet know where the arrow released beneath this Aquarius Full Moon will finally land, nor can we know how future generations will describe these extraordinary years through which we are living.

What we do know is that history is not shaped only by governments, technologies or world events. It’s also formed through countless quiet choices made every single day: every act of kindness; every conversation approached with curiosity rather than certainty; every boundary held with compassion; and every small offering made for the good of another. Imperceptibly yet inevitably, these too bend the future. All things shift in cycles, and so as the wheel turns we know that nothing lasts forever.

This Aquarius Full Moon reminds us that the heavens don’t simply describe destiny, but they also invite us into relationship with it. A symbolic great bow has been drawn across the sky, and as the Sun and Moon quietly shift the arrow will already be leaving the string. The question has never been whether the world is changing, because it always has and always will. Instead the question is, and remains, who we are willing to become as it does?

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx /|\

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

With the final days of July and our daily tarot reflections we lift our gaze from our personal path toward a wider landscape. The questions here are no longer only about growth, healing, or discovery. They now become questions of contribution, participation, and belonging. What gifts do we bring to the world? What future are we helping to create? The Aquarius Full Moon culminates on the 29th July, as a pivotal point in our month of meditations on these great planetary patterns. They too are reaching a culmination, though we may not yet realise it. The great Jupiter-Uranus-Neptune-Pluto pattern will reverberate and echo through the months and years to come, as a key part of a transformation we are in the centre of. Only when we look back will we perhaps understand the gifts and challenges we have faced, and are yet to face. The skies are never still; they are constantly changing, and our challenge is to change with them in a way that offers personal and collective growth. It is over the last days of July and in to August that we are invited to see ourselves not as isolated travellers, but as part of a much larger story.

25 July - The Gathering

There are times when life feels like preparation, and there are times when it feels like emergence. Today belongs to the latter: ideas, dreams, and insights gathered throughout the month may begin seeking expression. The challenge today is not to reach for an impossible sense of perfection, but to gather our courage and act; to participate! A seed does not wait until it is flawless before it begins to grow.

Meditation: I trust myself enough to begin where I am.

Tarot Reflection: What is ready to emerge from preparation into expression?

Suggested Draw: One or two cards.

26 July - The Turning Tide

The atmosphere shifts. Not every change arrives dramatically. Some announce themselves through intuition, subtle awareness, and a sense that something is beginning to move beneath the surface. Today invites us to trust what we are sensing, even if we cannot yet fully explain it. Listen carefully to your instincts.

Meditation: I trust the quiet wisdom that notices change before it becomes visible.

Tarot Reflection: What inner knowing am I being asked to trust?

Suggested Draw: One card.

27 July - The Future Calls

If you are an astrologer and use the ‘true nodes’, then today they enter Aquarius and Leo: a new collective chapter begins.

The North Node in Aquarius asks us to think beyond personal ambition and consider our place within the wider human family. What kind of future are we helping to create through our actions, values, and choices? How can individuality serve community rather than oppose it?

The South Node asks us to reflect on where we have come from on our personal journey - and perhaps more importantly how we can engage spiritually with our own immense creativity in a way that also serves the collective.

The invitation is to remember that every gift becomes more meaningful when shared.

Meditation: I recognise my place within the greater web of life.

Tarot Reflection: How can my unique gifts contribute to something larger than myself?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

28 July - Bridges and Pathways

The Sun joins the larger planetary pattern. The personal and the collective meet.

Today highlights the role of connection. Bridges between people, traditions, ideas, communities, and perspectives become increasingly important. The world changes through those willing to help different worlds understand one another; not through bombs, repression and conflict.

Meditation: I seek connection where others see separation.

Tarot Reflection: Where am I being called to build a bridge?

Suggested Draw: Two cards.

29 July - The Courage to Shine

The Sun approaches Jupiter in Leo. This is a day of confidence, generosity, and possibility, and true personal confidence arises from accepting and expressing who we genuinely are. The Sun and Jupiter used positively reminds us that growth often begins when we stop hiding our strengths and stop apologising for our light.

Meditation: I allow my gifts to be seen and shared.

Tarot Reflection: What would become possible if I trusted my own potential more completely?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

30 July - The Sky of Many Stars

Overnight, yesterday’s Aquarius Full Moon rides high in the sky. Aquarius reminds us that every person is a unique star within a greater constellation. We each follow our own path, yet none of us travels entirely alone. Community, friendship, shared vision, and collective purpose become illuminated.

The Full Moon encourages perspective. Step back from immediate concerns and consider the wider pattern. Sometimes distance reveals wisdom.

Meditation: I honour both my individuality and my connection to others.

Tarot Reflection: How does my journey contribute to the larger community around me?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

31 July - Journey’s End

The month concludes beneath the lingering light of the Full Moon, the recent Sun–Jupiter conjunction, and what we hope are the blessings of those epochal outer planet cosmic patterns.

Ancient myths and stories often end with a feast or celebratory games; the honouring of a journey’s end and a recognition of wisdom gained. July has offered storms, crossroads, revelations, memories, dreams, and new possibilities. Now comes a moment of gratitude as we give thanks for the harvest we have gathered, not just over the past month, but throughout the whole year. Tomorrow will be the traditional time to celebrate the harvest as the festival of Lammas, Lughnasadh, Gwyl Awst.

It is time to acknowledge what you have learned, what you have released, and what you have become. Every journey changes the traveller.

Meditation: I honour the wisdom gained through this chapter of my life.

Tarot Reflection: What gift, lesson, release, and blessing will I carry forward from July?

Suggested Draw: Four cards: the gift, the lesson, the sacrifice, the blessing.

The Story Beneath the Month

If July were told as a myth, it might begin beneath the Capricorn Full Moon on the last day of June. A traveller stands between duty and desire, wondering which road to follow. A summer thunderstorm arrives, and the lightning illuminates hidden paths.

The traveller follows forgotten tracks through mist filled forests of memory, visits ancient wells, and discovers a hidden pool, surrounded by Hazel trees. Seven small streams flow into the pool, each representing part of the journey: the dream, the challenge, the opportunities, friendships, losses, inspirations, and acts of courage. All combine to become part of the sweet clear waters of the pool.

The thirsty traveller drinks from the pool and as the days pass, the traveller begins to understand that this pool is not merely a place, but a sacred vessel capable of carrying meaning. The New Moon fills it with memory, the Stars fill it with vision, the Leo Sun fills it with courage and the Aquarius Full Moon fills it with perspective.

By the end of the month, the traveller realises something important: the journey was never simply about finding a destination. It was about learning how to participate more consciously in the living web of relationships that connects people, ancestors, communities, landscapes, dreams, stories, and stars.

After all the adventures, after all the challenges, after all the ‘monsters’ faced, the traveller returns home. Not with all the answers. That’s not what this tale is about. Instead, the traveller returns with a deeper question:

“How might the gifts I have gathered along the way become blessings for the world around me?”

Dear reader, may the roads you have travelled this July lead you toward wonder, wisdom, and the courage to walk your own path beneath the ever turning heavens.

Beneath a radiant Sun I wish you a fruitful harvest and a blessed Lammas.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx /|\

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

Here are the next eight days of my tarot astrology meditation marathon. I’ve used the term Barbault’s Basket throughout as it seems to be the term the astrological community has taken to, with only a few exceptions.  Being a contrary soul I’m one of the exceptions, but didn’t want to complicate matters. And as the heatwave here in the south of England still continues I think I’m suffering from a bit of heat induced brain fog anyway!

With the skies so complex and full of potentials and possibilities over July I wanted to make this a daily practice or myself to help me understand on a personal level what is going on, both globally and personally. So far I’ve found it highly illuminating, though also time consuming in that the cards often reveal things that take time to sit with, contemplate, and gestate. This isn’t easy work, and it wasn’t designed to be. So if you’ve missed a few days, don’t beat yourself up. Just acknowledge that we lead busy lives, and move on. For those who have stick with it every day, I am in awe of you!!

Of course, these suggestions are just that. And without having your natal charts to refine the meditations or the questions there may be moments when these prompts haven’t quite resonated for you - that’s fine too. Use your own if they sit more in tune with how you feel.

Thanks for everyone who is continuing the practice, and for those of you sharing what you’ve learned. It pleases me so much to know it helps a little in these troubled times.

So, here they are:

Daily Meditations & Tarot Reflections for 17–24 July 2026

We have entered the days of the great (re)weaving. The time of a cauldron of forces of change, deconstruction - and the restructure to come. Rarely do so many long-term planetary forces find themselves in such remarkable relationship. We may not fully understand the significance of these patterns for years to come, yet we can feel their presence now. The atmosphere is one of possibility, connection, and participation in something larger than ourselves. The task is not to understand everything - that would be hubris of the highest order. But we can still remain present to the unfolding pattern.

17 July - The Woven Vessel

The great Basket configuration strengthens. Imagine a basket woven from many strands. Each strand alone is fragile, yet together they become capable of carrying something precious. Life often works the same way. Our experiences, relationships, dreams, skills, setbacks, and successes may seem unrelated until suddenly a larger pattern emerges.

Today invites trust in the wisdom of connection.

Meditation: I honour the many threads that have shaped my journey.

Tarot Reflection: What experiences in my life may belong to a larger pattern than I have previously recognised?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

18 July - Listening for Echoes

As the Basket continues to form, subtle connections become easier to perceive. Repeating symbols, recurring conversations, familiar themes, and meaningful coincidences may all deserve attention.

The old stories teach that wisdom often arrives through repetition. If something keeps returning, perhaps it is still trying to teach us.

Meditation: I listen carefully to the messages that return again and again.

Tarot Reflection: What recurring theme is asking for my attention?

Suggested Draw: One card.

19 July - The Message Within the Pattern

The Moon enters Libra, completing the remarkable Envelope configuration I wrote about.

If the Basket is a vessel, then the Envelope becomes the message - the letter. within the envelope. Something wishes to be communicated. A new perspective may emerge regarding our place within a wider story.

Mars and Saturn also cooperate today, offering a valuable balance between initiative and discipline. Inspiration gains structure. Enthusiasm gains direction.

Meditation: I bring patience and commitment to the visions that inspire me.

Tarot Reflection: What becomes possible when imagination and discipline work together?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

20 July - Words with Wings

Venus and Mercury harmonise.

This is a day for conversation, learning, writing, teaching, listening, and sharing ideas. Communication becomes more graceful when heart and mind work together.

The most meaningful exchanges are often not those that impress others, but those that create genuine understanding.

Meditation: I speak with clarity, kindness, and authenticity.

Tarot Reflection: What wisdom am I ready to share with others?

Suggested Draw: One or two cards.

21 July - The Threshold Stone

The final day of Cancer season invites reflection before the next chapter begins. Thresholds are powerful places. They allow us to honour what has passed while preparing for what lies ahead.

Take time to acknowledge the lessons of recent weeks. Notice what has changed, what has healed, and what has become clearer.

Meditation: I honour the journey behind me and welcome the road ahead.

Tarot Reflection: What am I ready to carry forward, and what am I ready to leave behind?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

22 July - The ‘Return’ of the Sun

The Sun enters Leo. A new season begins, our harvest is gathered.

Leo invites confidence, creativity, generosity, courage, and wholehearted participation in life. If Leo is strong in our natal chart we may feel confidence overflow, become louder or feel we are more important than others. Instead we maybe asked to perform with a joy for life; make this an invitation to become more authentically yourself.

Every person carries a unique light. Leo season asks us not to hide it.

Meditation: I honour the gifts that make me uniquely myself.

Tarot Reflection: What part of my true nature is ready to shine more brightly?

Suggested Draw: One card.

23 July - Turning the Key

Mercury stations direct. Conversations, plans, ideas, and projects that have been paused or reconsidered may begin moving forward again. The wisdom of the retrograde period can now be applied in practical ways.

Yet Mercury’s tension with Mars reminds us that words possess power. Careful speech builds bridges; careless speech can create unnecessary division.

Meditation: I communicate with intention and integrity.

Tarot Reflection: What truth is ready to move from reflection into action?

Suggested Draw: Two cards.

24 July - The Golden Thread

The great pattern remains active. Today invites us to step back and observe the larger design. Sometimes we spend so much time examining individual threads that we forget to look at the tapestry they create.

Consider the people, places, opportunities, challenges, and insights that have shaped your life. What thread connects them?

The answer may reveal more than any single event.

Meditation: I trust the deeper story unfolding through my life.

Tarot Reflection: What thread connects the most meaningful experiences of my journey?

Suggested Draw: Three cards — Origin, Expression, Future.

Overall theme of 17–24 July

This part of the month carries the feeling of standing in a great hall while many voices begin singing the same song; different keys, yet harmonised perfectly:

Jupiter encouraging us to grow spiritually and philosophically.
Uranus encouraging us to see things differently; to change in ways we never expected.
Neptune encourages us to dream, to explore our imagination and visions.
Pluto encourages us to dive deeply into our subconscious and allow profound transformations.

For a brief and remarkable moment, these forces support one another - though there is an astrological tension between growth and transformation, which we can nevertheless harness positively - or to our detriment.

The lesson for us to grasp is that change and complexity can become coherent; that releasing what no longer works may be difficult but ultimately lead us to becoming who we were always destined to be.

The image that may emerge from the skies is of a basket of light and shadow lowered into the underworld; a cave illuminated. The basket is our experience. The light is our wisdom. One allows us to carry the other as we dive deeply into the unconscious.

We can, perhaps, think of the invitation beneath these days as:

What if every experience - joyful, difficult, ordinary, and extraordinary - has been helping to prepare you for the next chapter of your story?

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx /|\

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

On the 14th July at 10:43am BST, the Sun and Moon meet at 21°59’ Cancer, joined by a retrograde Mercury.

At first glance this might seem a relatively quiet New Moon. Cancer is not usually associated with spectacle. Its concerns are closer to home: family, belonging, memory, ancestry, roots, nourishment, and the invisible bonds that hold people and communities together through changing times.

Yet beneath these familiar Cancerian waters, something extraordinary continues to stir. There is ‘that’ pattern finally coming into form in the sky. Some have called it a basket, others a chalice, or perhaps most fittingly, a cauldron. For one fleeting moment it even resembles an envelope! A missive from the gods?

For now, let’s think of it as some sort vessel. Something designed not merely to hold, but to carry potential.

This New Moon feels to me like the nascent point of a larger story that is only just beginning to reveal itself. Not the culmination of a process, nor some dramatic celestial explosion that changes everything overnight, but a discernible shape emerging from the mists of possibility for the first time. Oh, it’s been around for a long time in the form of that ‘magic triangle’ between those behemoths of the outer solar system - Uranus, Neptune, Pluto - but nothing’s been quite clear and definable. It all seems shrouded in mist and confusion - which I suppose is unsurprising with Neptune so profoundly involved - and Pluto loves to hide in the deep shadows like a secret agent with an aura (or a helmet if we adhere to the mythology) of invisibility. And we’ve yet to decide whose ‘side’ he is on (for what it’s worth, like Tolkien’s Ents, he’s on no-ones side).

But things are now becoming clearer on an epochal way - and I’m really not exaggerating. The days immediately following this lunation contain one of the most remarkable planetary configurations of our age.

Between the 15th and 25th July, Uranus in Gemini perfects its sextile to retrograde Neptune in Aries before completing its trine to retrograde Pluto in Aquarius. Jupiter in Leo simultaneously trines Neptune, opposes Pluto, and sextiles Uranus, while Pluto and Neptune themselves remain in sextile. I’ve popped Pluto on the Ascendant for the chart above, to highlight the shape of this configuration - it could be cauldron, or a ship maybe, sailing on the cosmic stars of the Milky Way of destiny? I’ll leave you to decide.

Anyway, together these planets form the pattern that some astrologers have called Barbault’s Basket. I confess I prefer the other image I’ve talked about. If I hold this pattern in my mind within my spiritual practice this feels less like a basket and more like a sacred chalice - or a great cosmic cauldron.

Four immense powers gather around it, forming it’s rim and it’s legs: Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, all occupying 4° of their respective signs. Some astrologers have suggested that configurations of this nature have not occurred for four, five, or perhaps even six thousand years. Whatever the precise figure, it is clear that we are witnessing something exceptionally rare. Yet even this is not quite the whole story.

On the 19th July, the Moon enters Libra and briefly reaches 4°. For only a few hours it joins the pattern, transforming this cosmic Cauldron - or Basket if you prefer - into what some astrologers call an Envelope. For me, this is the moment the cauldron is given a final stirring - or woven together with the material world if that metaphor works better for you.

The outer planets describe vast collective forces moving across decades and generations. They operate on scales so large that they can be difficult to perceive directly. The Moon, however, belongs to human experience. She governs feeling, memory, instinct, relationship, and the tides of emotional life. When she joins the configuration, however briefly, the larger story touches the realm of lived experience. The future ceases to be merely theoretical, and instead becomes personal. And so the question becomes: what exactly is being stirred?

The temptation with astrology is always to look for singular events. We imagine a great cosmic thunderclap, a moment after which everything is suddenly different. But history rarely works that way. More often, the truly important moments are recognised only in hindsight.

We might look back to the financial crisis of 2008, to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020, or to the profound technological, political, and social transformations that have accelerated throughout the past decade. We can clearly see that much of what once appeared stable is no longer secure. Institutions struggle to command trust. Political systems increasingly polarise. Communities fragment. Old assumptions about identity, economics, communication, and power continue to unravel.

What is dying is often easier to identify than what is being born, and that uncertainty is reflected perfectly in the planets gathered around this celestial cauldron.

Neptune in Aries dreams new dreams while dissolving old certainties. It inspires vision, myth, spirituality, imagination, and idealism, yet can equally manifest as confusion, illusion, fanaticism, or wishful thinking.

Uranus in Gemini disrupts established ways of thinking. It accelerates innovation, communication, technology, and intellectual revolution. The rapid emergence of artificial intelligence offers perhaps the clearest expression of Uranian energy in our current era. Entire assumptions about creativity, our work and jobs, education, and even consciousness itself are being challenged.

Pluto in Aquarius works at an even deeper level. As lord of the underworld, Pluto concerns himself with power: who possesses it, who is excluded from it, and how it is exercised. In Aquarius he transforms collective systems, social structures, networks, and communities. Yet power is never merely political or economic. It is also mythological. The stories societies tell about themselves eventually become the foundations upon which laws, institutions, and identities are built.

Jupiter in Leo expands everything he touches. He brings vision, meaning, creativity, confidence, leadership, and the desire to participate in something larger than ourselves. Yet Jupiter also amplifies excess, certainty, and ideological conviction.

It is Jupiter’s opposition to Pluto that perhaps forms the heart of this pattern as the lip of the cauldron. Mythically, we might imagine Zeus facing Hades across the heavens. The ruler of Olympus stands opposite the ruler of the underworld. Meaning confronts power. Vision confronts control. Creativity confronts authority.

Neither can eliminate the other. Instead, they generate a living tension through which something new may emerge. Whether that emergence becomes liberating or oppressive remains unresolved.

And that is perhaps the most important point. Astrology does not tell us what must happen. It reveals fields of possibility.

We are already seeing many expressions of these planetary forces. Across much of the world there is increasing social fragmentation, economic uncertainty, ideological conflict, and growing concentrations of power. Fear becomes a political tool. Vulnerable groups become convenient scapegoats. People retreat into opposing camps and speak increasingly different languages of reality. Yet this is only one possible manifestation of the pattern.

The same astrology also speaks of innovation, creativity, community-building, new forms of cooperation, technological breakthroughs, spiritual renewal, and entirely new ways of imagining what human society might become.

The cauldron contains both possibilities; the ingredients are present. Still, as the Sun soon enters Leo, the fire will be lit. But the outcome as yet remains unwritten.

For me, this is where the Cancer New Moon becomes so deeply significant and important. While the larger planetary pattern speaks of collective futures, Cancer asks a profoundly intimate question: What are we willing to nurture?

Before societies change, people change; before institutions transform, values transform; before futures emerge, someone must first imagine them.

Cancer reminds us that every great movement begins somewhere small: around a family table, within a circle of friends, through acts of care, through communities choosing to support one another, through the stories we tell our children and the values we choose to embody.

As with all New Moons this is a beginning, not the culmination. It’s a moment, a seed, a first stirring within the cauldron.

And so, on the 19th, the Moon briefly joins that greater ‘Cauldron’ configuration to form that envelope, and asks whether we are prepared to participate in what comes next.

Opportunity is rarely announced by trumpets, more often it arrives quietly. But it always asks for attention, for courage, and most of all, it asks for participation. Blink and the moment, the opportunity may be gone, perhaps for good. If we ignore the possibilities emerging around us, others will shape them in our place.

But we are still not done with this momentous cycle. The final days of July continue to accelerate the story.

Mars in Gemini forms a productive sextile to Saturn in Aries, helping ideas find practical expression, while Venus in Virgo harmonises with Mercury in Cancer, encouraging thoughtful reflection and careful discernment. As Mercury turns direct on the 23rd, clarity begins to return, gently lifting the fog of recent weeks and allowing intentions to take clearer shape.

Amid this gradual shift, the Sun enters Leo on the 22nd. The fire really is now lit; the flames beneath the cauldron begin to rise.

By the 27th, the Sun joins the wider planetary pattern, making a partile (exact) opposition to Pluto while forming the same harmonious aspects to Uranus and Neptune that we saw with Jupiter - a solar repetition of Jupiterian hopes, or the endless story of Earth and Sky? More echoes of ancient stories of Uranus and Gaia in the age of the Titans?

Two days later, the Sun conjoins Jupiter in Leo as Venus squares Mars and the Aquarius Full Moon approaches, intensifying the atmosphere and drawing the unfolding energies toward a point of culmination.

The cauldron begins to boil. And here, at its very rim, the tension between Jupiter and Pluto becomes unmistakable.

Jupiter in Leo, radiant and expansive, pours vision, meaning, creativity, and the desire to express something larger than the self. Pluto in Aquarius, deep and uncompromising, holds the forces of power, transformation, and collective destiny. Opposed across the heavens, they form the lip of the vessel itself - the edge where pressure gathers, where heat concentrates, where something must eventually spill over.

This is no quiet boundary. In the old traditions, there are words for what emerges at such moments. The Welsh speak of Awen - the flowing inspiration that cannot be forced, only received. The Irish speak of Imbas - the sudden illumination that rises from deep within, as if drawn up from hidden wells of knowing.

To me, this opposition feels like that. There is immense tension here, yes, but that tension creates a pressure building toward revelation. It’s the necessary friction that allows something new to rise to the surface. And here I’m minded of Merlin revealing the Red Dragon fighting with the White Dragon.

As the cauldron heats and the ingredients combine and transform, it is here - at the rim between Jupiter and Pluto - that inspiration gathers, swells, and inevitably overflows.

The question is not whether something will emerge, but what form that emergence will take. Yet even as the intensity builds, it is worth remembering where this all began, with a quiet New Moon in Cancer; with a vessel held close to the heart; with a question about what we are willing to nurture, protect, and bring into being.

For all the grandeur of the outer planets, all the mythic tensions and sweeping possibilities, the cauldron does not stir itself. It responds to what is placed within it. It responds to attention, to intention, to care.

Participation is not a grand gesture. It is not reserved for moments of spectacle. It begins in the smallest acts: in how we listen, how we speak, how we show up for one another, how we choose to imagine the future, and whether we dare to believe that our presence matters within it.

The Cancer New Moon reminds us that every great transformation has its origin in something tender, something human, something quietly chosen.

The fire is rising. The ingredients are gathering. The cauldron is alive with possibility, and at its rim, inspiration waits to spill. What remains is the question it has been asking all along: what will you bring to it?

To everyone who got in touch about the first eight days of my astrology and tarot daily meditation and spread mash up I give a huge thank you - and a special thank you to those who chose to share their daily card draws with me!

I’m very grateful for all the feedback received - I’m going to continue with the daily meditation experiment for the rest of this month, but may well tinker with these ideas and maybe change to either something weekly, or one for each of the four (or maybe eight) moon phases. The general consensus is that a daily practice is fine if there are no other commitments to deal with, but it can be more difficult with other things that need to be done. Your thoughts are, as always, very welcome.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the third heatwave this summer here in the south of England is knocking me for six - again. I never thought I’d struggle with the heat so much, though with my fair skin and blue eyes I’ve never been able to spend hours out in the sun without my skin becoming a rather unflattering red. There’s no doubt that as I’ve got older, I’m not coping well at all. Still, I’m hoping to get a New Moon update out this Friday, though it may be a few days later of the heat gets the better of me.

One last thing before we dive into the meditations and tarot/astrology: two friends of mine are holding a Zoom workshop on the nodes called “Leo Aquarius : the next chapter in your soul’s journey” on the 18th July. I’ll be there, and I hope some of you will join me there too. You can find all the details in this post.

Or you can head to Eventbrite to book here.

For now, though, here are the next eight days of the ‘tarology’ experiment:

Daily Meditations & Tarot Reflections for 9th to 16th July 2026

The middle days of July invite us away from noise and toward discernment. The storms of the month’s beginning have revealed new possibilities; now we are asked to consider what deserves our devotion, what belongs to the past, and what wishes to be carried forward. These are days of weaving, tending, remembering, and preparing the vessel that will hold the future.

9 July - The Sacred Craft

Venus enters Virgo.

Beauty moves from the palace to the workshop, from the rose garden to the herb garden. There is a quiet holiness in tending details, refining skills, and caring for what sustains life. Not all acts of devotion are dramatic. Some are found in patience, attentiveness, and service. Offerings to those sacred to you - gods, guides, ancestors - are acts of devotion that make them holy, and that is particularly so now.

Meditation: I honour the sacredness hidden within ordinary acts of care.

Tarot Reflection: What deserves greater attention and devotion in my life?

Suggested Draw: One or three cards.

10 July - The Crossroads of the Heart

Venus opposes the North Node.

Today may bring awareness of the roads behind us and the roads ahead. Old values, familiar comforts, and well-worn patterns may call for reflection. Some belong to the foundations of who we are. Others may have quietly outlived their purpose.

The challenge is not to reject the past, but to carry forward only what remains alive.

Meditation: I honour my past while remaining open to the future.

Tarot Reflection: What part of my history still supports my growth, and what am I ready to release?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

11 July - Walking with the Lantern

There are moments when wisdom requires a little distance from the noise of the world. Today favours reflection, contemplation, and honest self-examination. Solitude need not be loneliness. Sometimes it is the space in which deeper truths become audible.

The Hermit teaches that withdrawal is not escape. It is preparation for a wiser return.

Meditation: I create space to hear the quiet voice of inner wisdom.

Tarot Reflection: What truth becomes visible when I step back and observe?

Suggested Draw: One card.

12 July - Remembering the Well

As the New Moon approaches, attention turns toward roots, nourishment, memory, and belonging. We may find ourselves reflecting upon family, ancestry, teachers, traditions, or experiences that have shaped us.

Not all inheritance comes through blood. Some comes through friendship, learning, community, and shared stories.

Meditation: I remember the sources that nourish and sustain me.

Tarot Reflection: What gift from my past is ready to be used in a new way?

Suggested Draw: Two cards.

13 July - The Hidden Invitation

Venus forms a Yod with Neptune and Pluto while also challenging Uranus.

This may feel like one of those rare days when something significant is trying to get our attention. We may not fully understand it, yet we sense its importance. Insights arrive unexpectedly. Longings deepen. Old certainties become less certain.

The Yod is often described as a finger pointing toward destiny. It does not always reveal the destination, but it encourages us to pay attention.

Meditation: I remain open to guidance arriving through wonder, surprise, and transformation.

Tarot Reflection: What possibility is quietly calling me toward growth?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

14 July - The Moon’s New Vessel

Cancer New Moon conjunct Mercury retrograde.

This New Moon invites us to return to what truly nourishes us. Rather than seeking something entirely new, we may discover wisdom through remembering. The most important beginning may emerge from revisiting something overlooked, neglected, or forgotten.

This is a beautiful day for journaling, intention setting, divination, family connections, dream work, and listening to the heart.

Meditation: I create space for what wishes to be renewed within me.

Tarot Reflection: What part of my life is ready for a fresh beginning rooted in deeper truth?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

15 July - The First Threads

Uranus and Neptune draw ever closer in their harmonious dialogue.

The future often arrives first as imagination. Ideas, dreams, possibilities, and inspirations begin seeking form. There may be glimpses of a larger pattern emerging behind recent events.

The invitation is not to demand certainty, but to trust curiosity.

Meditation: I welcome new possibilities without needing immediate answers.

Tarot Reflection: What vision would I pursue if I trusted my imagination more fully?

Suggested Draw: One or two cards.

16 July - The Living Pattern

As the larger planetary configuration continues to develop, we may begin noticing connections where none seemed to exist before. Relationships between ideas, events, people, and experiences become more apparent.

The world often reveals itself not as a collection of separate parts, but as a network of relationships. Today invites us to recognise our place within that living web.

Meditation: I trust the deeper patterns unfolding within my life.

Tarot Reflection: What hidden connection is beginning to reveal itself?

Suggested Draw: Three cards - The Thread, The Knot, The Pattern.

Overall Theme of the 9th to 16th July

These days feel like sitting beside a well with a basket half woven in your lap.

Venus asks what is worthy of devotion, while the Nodes ask what belongs to the future; the New Moon asks what wishes to be renewed, and the Yod asks what is calling from beyond the horizon, while the unprecedented emerging Cauldron pattern in the sky asks how seemingly separate parts of life may work together, inspiring and revealing hidden creativity and meaning.

As the lip of the starry cauldron is formed by a Jupiter - Pluto opposition (the Sky God as Zeus opposes the Lord of the Underworld as Hades) it brings an unending flow of inspirational, magical Awen (if we use it well!)

The invitation beneath these days may be something like:

What if the future is not something waiting for you ahead, but something already being woven from the threads of your life today?

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx /|\

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

For many years now, part of my spiritual life has been rooted in a simple daily rhythm of reflection. Most mornings I spend a little time with the astrology of the day, weaving it together with whatever is unfolding in my own life and in the wider world. From there I settle into a short meditation before drawing one, two, or perhaps three tarot cards with a specific question or prompt to help guide my thoughts and intentions through the day ahead.

So what follows is something of an experiment.

I have often wondered whether others might find value in a similar approach; a way of engaging with the astrology that is less about prediction and more about participation, reflection, and conversation with the living currents of the day. So, dear reader, I’d like to share a small portion of my own process and see whether it resonates with you.

To begin with, I’ve prepared eight days of meditations, affirmations, and tarot reflections. If you choose to work with them, I’d be delighted to hear your thoughts. Do they spark insight? Do they deepen your relationship with the cards, the planets, or your own inner landscape? Most importantly, do they feel useful?

Should there be sufficient interest, I’ll continue the series throughout the remainder of July. This feels important as this coming month promises to be particularly significant from an astrological perspective, full of movement, change, and unfolding stories.

Looking a little further ahead, if these reflections prove popular, I would love to make them a regular feature. Creating daily material that remains both meaningful and astrologically grounded takes a surprising amount of time and care, so at some point I may place future instalments behind the smallest subscription fee that Substack allows. For now, however, I’d simply like to offer these first steps freely and see where the path leads.

A few notes before you begin. Use whatever deck calls to you. Tarot, oracle cards, or a blend of the two are all equally welcome. Draw as many cards as feels right, whether that is one card, three cards, or a larger spread inspired by the prompt. The suggested card counts are merely that; suggestions.

Likewise, if a meditation, affirmation, or reflection doesn’t quite fit your circumstances on a particular day, adapt it. Follow the thread that catches your attention. Allow these prompts to serve as doorways rather than instructions. Take what is useful, leave what is not, and shape the practice into something that feels authentically your own.

So let’s step into the current and see where it carries us.

July’s meditative dance

Daily Meditations & Tarot Reflections for the 1st to 8th July

The stars describe the weather of the soul, but each traveller walks their own road. These daily reflections are not predictions. They are invitations: small lanterns to carry through the unfolding landscape of July.

1st July: Building the Hearth

The Capricorn Full Moon lingers in the sky like a bell still ringing after it’s been struck. We may feel pulled between the need for security and the desire to accomplish something meaningful. The day invites us to consider what truly supports us. Not every task is urgent and not every responsibility belongs to us. Yet some commitments are sacred because they help build the life we wish to inhabit.

Meditation: Today I honour what is enduring, practical, and worthy of my devotion.

Tarot Reflection: What responsibility strengthens my life rather than depletes it?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

2nd July: The First Spark

Jupiter’s recent entrance into Leo begins stirring the fires of confidence, creativity, and self-expression. There’s a difference between seeking attention and sharing one’s gifts. Today invites us to remember what brings joy, enthusiasm, and vitality.

Meditation: I allow my natural gifts to shine without apology or fear.

Tarot Reflection: What part of myself is asking for fuller expression?

Suggested Draw: One card.

3rd July: The Winds of Change

The approach of Mars and Uranus may feel like a gathering storm. Unexpected ideas, sudden insights, or a desire for change may emerge. But not all disruption is destructive. Sometimes life shakes the branches because something new wishes to grow.

Meditation: I welcome necessary change while remaining rooted in wisdom.

Tarot Reflection: What change is ready to enter my life?

Suggested Draw: Two cards.

4th July: Lightning on the Horizon

Mars and Uranus unite.

Today carries the energy of awakening. Something unexpected may arrive in thought, conversation, circumstance, or insight. Remain flexible. The path ahead may not look exactly as imagined, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Some of the most important journeys begin with a surprise.

Meditation: I remain open to inspiration arriving in unexpected forms.

Tarot Reflection: What opportunity might I overlook if I cling too tightly to certainty?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

5th July: Following the Current

As Mars harmonises with Neptune, action and imagination seek cooperation. There’s wisdom in knowing when to push forward and when to allow life to guide us. The strongest river doesn’t need to fight every obstacle, but knows how be patient and to flow around them.

Meditation: I move with purpose while remaining open to guidance.

Tarot Reflection: Where can I trust the current rather than force the outcome?

Suggested Draw: One or two cards.

6th July: The Centre Within

The Sun’s challenge to Saturn may bring questions about limits, obligations, and emotional truth. We may find ourselves examining where duty supports us and where it constrains us. This invitation isn’t rebellion, nor is it obedience, but more expressing discipline and authenticity.

Meditation: I honour my responsibilities while remaining true to myself.

Tarot Reflection: What expectations am I carrying that no longer reflect who I am?

Suggested Draw: Three cards.

7th July: The Returning Dream

Neptune stations retrograde.

The outer world grows quieter so that the inner world may speak more clearly. Dreams, intuition, imagination, and spiritual reflection are highlighted. Answers may not arrive through logic today. They may emerge through symbols, feelings, memories, and quiet knowing.

Meditation: I trust the wisdom that rises from stillness and reflection.

Tarot Reflection: What message is emerging from beneath the surface of my awareness?

Suggested Draw: One card before sleep the evening before, one card on waking.

8th July: Tending the Flame

After days of movement and revelation, today offers an opportunity for integration. Lasting transformation is rarely created by dramatic moments alone. It’s sustained through small daily actions that honour what we’ve learned.

Meditation: I nurture today’s insights through patient and consistent practice.

Tarot Reflection: What simple action would help anchor recent changes into everyday life?

Suggested Draw: Three cards — What is fading? What is growing? What requires care?

Theme of the First Eight Days

July begins with a meeting of earth, fire, air, and water.

• The Capricorn Full Moon asks what’s mature and enduring.

• Mars and Uranus ask what’s ready to change.

• Neptune asks what’s dreaming beneath the surface.

• Jupiter asks what longs to grow.

The invitation for this first stage of the journey is simple:

What if change is not something happening to you, but something awakening within you?

Do please let me know what you think: any feedback really is very welcome.

With infinite love and blessings,
Christine Vixx

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

We reach the peak moment of the lunar tide that weaves with that of the solar cycle, which has also recently reached its own peak with the Summer Solstice and accompanying Midsummer celebrations. In years past you would find me atop Uffington White Horse Hill to witness the solstice sunrise. Only some fifteen years or so ago there would be just me and a couple of close friends to make our offerings of drumming, prayers and moments of quiet contemplation. I would return again at sunset - when even fewer were present to mark the turning of the wheel. A few days later - at dawn on the 24th - I would lead the Gorsedd of Côr Gawr in the sacred temple of Stonehenge.

I’m now into the second half of my eighth decade - and thus in my seventies - on this beautiful planet. Over the years I have found it increasingly difficult to climb to the top of the White Horse, and to make the early morning pre-dawn walk from the Stonehenge Visitor Centre to the Stones themselves, but the last time I made it up to the Horse there were many more people there than back in those days. The main National Trust car park would be almost full at 4 in the morning in a few years before the time of the lockdown, while years ago there would still be room to park at the tiny disabled car park, much closer to the start of the climb to the summit. One part of me wishes it was still a small intimate group, while another recognises that it’s good that so many more are becoming aware of the cycles of nature and are in tune with the rhythms of the earth and the seasons.

With this full moon we are at the culmination of what I call Poppy-Dance Moon, relating it to the ripening fields of golden wheat and barley with scarlet-bright poppies spread amongst the bleached growth of the coming harvest. These days, with modern herbicides and other chemicals used on our crops it’s something we simply don’t see anymore, but it remains a vivid memory of my childhood - and beyond! I generally don’t use ‘generic’ Moon-tide names as they are often derived from indigenous cultures on other continents and just don’t quite ‘vibe’ with me. But that’s just my own idiosyncratic perspective, shaped by my own relationship with the land where I live.

This Full Moon, then, arrives just a week after the Summer Solstice, and there is a curious quality to this particular turning of the wheel. The light remains strong and the days long, but something subtle has already shifted. The great outward rush of spring and early summer has reached its culmination. The energy has not diminished, but its direction is changing. The land knows this, the oak knows this, and the wheat and barley - soon to be sacrificed to keep us fed - know this. Somewhere beneath our conscious awareness, we know it too.

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.” — Carl Jung

The Sun stands in Cancer, the sign of belonging, memory and kinship, while the Moon shines opposite in Capricorn, the sign of responsibility, structure and accomplishment. Together they illuminate one of life’s enduring questions: what are we building, and who are we building it for?

At the height of summer it can be tempting to think only in terms of growth. More experiences, more activity, more achievement. Yet the wisdom of this Full Moon lies not in endless expansion but in recognising what has already taken root. Capricorn is often associated with ambition, but in its deeper expression it understands stewardship. It asks us to look honestly at the structures of our lives and consider whether they are supporting what truly matters or merely consuming our time and energy.

This question becomes even more significant because the Full Moon occurs at the very moment the larger astrological story continues its unfolding. Only hours later Jupiter leaves the waters of Cancer and enters the fiery realm of the Sun’s own sign in Leo. The great benefic has spent the past year encouraging us to deepen our roots, strengthen our connections and rediscover the meaning of home, whether literal or symbolic. I’m not sure how successful it has been in achieving that, as it seems to me there is still a deep sense of uprootedness, dissatisfaction , frustration and disillusion within so many of us.

Still, as it crosses into Leo the emphasis changes. The hearth-fire becomes the hilltop beacon-fire. Where Cancer asks where we belong, Leo asks what we have to offer.

There is a noticeable shift here from protection to expression, from nurturing what is precious to allowing it to be seen. Yet Leo is frequently misunderstood. At its best it is not just concerned with attention or applause - though Leo does love some recognition. Rather it is the sign of wholehearted participation in life. Jupiter’s journey through Leo encourages us to rediscover creativity, joy, courage and generosity at a time when much of the world appears increasingly anxious, fragmented and uncertain.

Leo is associated too, with the divine right to rule - astrological ‘kingship’. Yet to rule is no longer the divine right it was in ancient times. To rule today means to win elections - at least it does in Western democracies. But to win elections means to rule with consent, and more and more we are seeing governments attempting to rule, not with consent, but through imposition. Imposing, enacting and re-interpreting laws to restrict, confine, or even remove rights that we have taken for granted for years - sometimes for our whole lives. There are clear warnings here, not just for us to use and demand the continuance of the hard earned rights we have, but warnings that without the winning of our hearts and minds by those who hold power, the systems we are familiar with can, and must, fail.

Uncertainty, then, fills the skies.

Throughout the days surrounding this Full Moon, Mars moves ever closer to its conjunction with Uranus in Gemini whilst simultaneously activating a square with the nodal axis. If Jupiter’s ingress feels like the lighting of a great ceremonial fire, Mars and Uranus feel more like lightning striking the landscape. The atmosphere becomes charged, metaphorically - mayby even literally - electric. Ideas arrive suddenly. Decisions that have lingered unresolved for months may demand immediate action. Old certainties can disappear in a moment.

Collectively this may manifest as disruptions, shocks and sudden changes in direction. On a personal level it may feel as though life is accelerating even more than it already does, presenting crossroads where none existed before. Yet Gemini reminds us that not every impulse requires action, and not every spark must become a wildfire. The challenge of Mars and Uranus is learning the difference between liberation and reaction.

At the same time Neptune stands in supportive relationship to these volatile energies, preparing to station retrograde on the 7th of July. This is one of the reasons I do not view the coming weeks necessarily or simply as chaotic. Beneath the noise and turbulence there is also vision. Beneath the lightning there is inspiration.

Neptune’s station feels rather like a tide turning in the unseen world. The dreams that have guided us, individually and collectively, begin to reveal their deeper meanings. Illusions may dissolve, certainly, but so too can unnecessary cynicism. What emerges is an invitation to imagine differently.

When viewed together, Jupiter’s entry into Leo, Uranus’s continuing movement through Gemini, Neptune’s station in Aries and Pluto’s long work in Aquarius tell a larger story than any single transit can describe. The old narratives are losing their hold. New stories are seeking to be born. New forms of creativity, spirituality, community and identity are beginning to emerge, though their final shape remains impossible to predict.

This is why the Full Moon’s Capricorn wisdom is so important.

When the world becomes noisy and unpredictable there is a temptation either to cling desperately to the familiar or to embrace change recklessly. Capricorn chooses neither. It places its hand upon the stone and asks what will endure. It understands that true stability does not come from resisting change but from remaining rooted whilst change unfolds around us.

The latter part of the lunar cycle continues this theme. Venus enters Virgo on the 9th before opposing the North Node a day later, drawing our attention toward questions of value, service and meaning. In a culture that often encourages us to measure success through accumulation, Virgo quietly asks a different question: what is useful to the soul?

The opposition to the North Node - and thus conjunct the South Node - may bring encounters with old patterns, old attachments or old definitions of worth. We may find ourselves reflecting on the tension between material security and spiritual fulfilment, between efficiency and enchantment, between what society tells us is valuable and what we know in our hearts to be true.

This inquiry deepens further on the 13th as Venus forms a Yod with Neptune and Pluto whilst simultaneously squaring Uranus. Here the heavens seem to point toward a subtle but profound recalibration of values. Something may need to be released. Something unexpected may emerge. Relationships, creative projects, spiritual practices and even our sense of identity may be asked to evolve in ways that initially feel more than just uncomfortable, but ultimately prove liberating.

The astrology of this Poppy-Dance Full Moon speaks of a threshold. The Cancer Sun asks us to remember where we belong, while the Capricorn Moon asks us to take responsibility for what we are becoming. Around that ancient axis of birth (Cancer) and endings (Capricorn) swirls a far more volatile current: Jupiter igniting the heart in Leo, Mars and Uranus crackling with disruptive possibility, Neptune reshaping the dream, and Venus quietly asking us to reconsider what truly holds value.

This is not a season for fear, though it may sometimes feel uncertain. Nor is it a season for rushing ahead simply because the winds of change are rising. Rather, it is a season for conscious participation. The fields are not harvested overnight. The oak does not grow by force, but naturally and organically. The stars themselves unfold through cycles of emergence, fruition and decline.

Perhaps the invitation of this moon is to stand in the midst of change without losing your centre. To remain rooted whilst staying open. To honour what has already grown whilst welcoming what wishes to emerge next.

The road ahead may twist unexpectedly, but there is wisdom in remembering that every harvest once began as a seed, and every future first arrives as a whisper upon the wind.

And so we arrive back where we began: standing in fields of ripening grain beneath the height of summer.

The world around us appears full and abundant, and within that abundance is the first recognition of what we shall harvest, whether personally or collectively. The same is true of this Full Moon. Beneath its invitation to pause, reflect and take stock, something new is stirring. The winds moving through the barley fields are the same winds moving through our lives and through the wider culture. They carry both uncertainty and possibility.

Our task is not to predict every twist and turn of the road ahead. Rather it is to remain present to the season we are actually living. To recognise what has grown. To tend what still requires care. To welcome inspiration without abandoning discernment. And above all, to remember that every harvest begins with the initial seeding of the land - with trust - and ends with sacrifice.

If I had to sum this waning moon-cycle up in one sentence I would probably say something like this Full Moon asks us to tend what we have grown, while the sky simultaneously begins to dismantle any structures that have become too rigid to survive the future.

Now if all that feels a bit overwhelming and intense I drew a freeform three card spread from the Zoomies Tarot deck by Zeppelinmoon (Amber Fossey) to cheer everyone up and give us all a bit of a giggle. Here’s what popped up - perhaps more profound than I expected

• VII - Interstellar: what is your mission now you are a free beast? As you will it, so shall it be.

• XIX - Round of applause for the Sun: where once we trod grew sunflowers; large, lanky and joyous

• VIII of Wings - Clay Pigeon: a clay pigeon is momentarily liberated.

I don’t know about you but personally I’m cheering on the clay pigeon!

With infinite love and blessings,
Christine Vixx

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

Life is hectic and busy for me right now. While my responsibilities as a carer for my partner continue, I have my own self-imposed urge to finally write, you know, that book we all think we have within us. It’s proving time consuming and not quite as straightforward as I expected; but then with a 1st House Saturn in Virgo I’m up for the challenge. Still, finding time to write posts here on Substack isn’t always easy, so for the Solstice astrological outlook I’m happily sharing a post from a friend and first class astrologer instead.

So why the cliche of a picture of Stonehenge? Many (most?) of you will know I used to lead a Druid Gorsedd at Stonehenge on traditional Midsummers Day - the 24th and not the actual Solstice - at dawn for many years and so this pic of the temple brings back many memories of glorious sunrises - and the occasional chilly mystical mist filled dawn as well!

The Gorsedd would also come together on the Sunday closest to the winter solstice at sunset, which always felt much more ‘in-tune’ with the spirits of place than the jangled (and sometimes stressed and somewhat resentful) energies of midsummer inside the Stones.

These days the Gorsedd is still held at the same times and it still offers access to those who come with honour and respect in their hearts. It’s ticketed as English Heritage restrict numbers but anyone can apply. There may even be tickets still available. Check it out at bards.org.uk.

Meanwhile here’s a lovely, gentle look at tomorrow’s astrology from that great astrology and good friend of mine….

Alison's Astrology

Summer Solstice: The Turning of the Light

Summer Solstice, the longest day, when our life-giving luminary pauses, and then turns back towards the dark. This is a magical time, known for aeons by our ancestors who built great monuments as temples to celebrate the light and the passage of the solar god across our skies. Here in France, we celebrate with music – open air events in every town and c…

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2 months ago · 2 likes · 1 comment · Alison's Astrology

I was also going to write my own article on the planetary patterns of “Barbault’s Basket” which will perfect in mid-July - and who knows, I may do so yet if a window of opportunity arrives. But meanwhile, Ray Grasse has written something very close to my own views - and so beautifully -I shall simply share his post here instead.

Ray’s Substack

NOW, ABOUT THOSE REMARKABLE ENERGIES THIS JULY. . .

I’ve seen roughly a dozen posts recently on the unique planetary configuration taking place now involving the outer planets, but climaxing in a specific way this July — particularly around July 19th. This will be when four of the outer planets will be occupying similar degrees (4°) of their respective signs: Pluto in Aquarius, Neptune in Aries, Uranus i…

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2 months ago · 3 likes · Ray Grasse

I wish you all a blessed and beautiful Solstice/Midsummer.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

“To find your own way is to follow your own bliss.” Joseph Campbell

The Gemini New Moon arrives in the small hours of Monday 15th June, at 3:54am BST, carrying the bright, restless, winged energy of the Twins. Gemini is the sign of language, exchange, thought, curiosity, story, conversation, nervous systems, thresholds, roads, messengers and choices. It is the place in the zodiac where the world becomes many-voiced, where nothing is fixed for long. Everything speaks, everything translates, and everything has a different side.

Archetypally, a New Moon in Gemini is usually a seed moment for new ideas, new conversations, new perceptions and new ways of thinking. It asks us to listen more carefully, speak more consciously, and notice the stories we are living inside. Gemini does not always bring certainty. In fact, it often dissolves certainty into questions, yet questions can be sacred things. They are doorways if possibility and crossroads to be navigated. They are often also the first flutter of wings before a journey begins.

This particular Gemini New Moon is not a quiet one. It arrives with Uranus now in Gemini, still fresh in this sign and within just a few degrees of the Ascendant in the chart of the UK for the lunation. That immediately gives this Moon cycle a charged, electric, unpredictable quality. Uranus in Gemini is the lightning-strike through the field of thought. It disrupts language, media, information, technology, travel, education, nervous systems and collective narratives. It asks us to think differently, speak differently, connect differently, and perhaps to realise that the stories holding the old world together are beginning to crack. The evidence has been there for a while, but this lunation seems to me to be a moment of realisation, and of choice.

“Turn and face the change.” — David Bowie

Where Gemini multiplies possibilities, Uranus electrifies them. This can bring brilliance, invention, liberation and sudden revelation, but it can equally bring overload, anxiety, fragmentation and a collective volatility. It is the quickening of the mind, but also the storm in the wires. We may find ourselves asking: what information can we trust? What voices are guiding us? What future is being spoken into being, and perhaps more importantly, by whom?

This becomes even more significant because Uranus is not acting alone. It is part of the wider, extraordinary pattern forming between Uranus, Neptune and Pluto that I feel like I’ve already been talking about for an age: the so-called “magic triangle” of outer-planet energies that has been slowly reshaping the deep atmosphere of our time. Pluto in Aquarius, Neptune in Aries, and Uranus in Gemini are all signs that combine to indicate beginnings, intellect, fire, air, revolution, emergence and reinvention. They speak of technological acceleration, spiritual disruption, political volatility, new mythologies, new movements, and new forms of collective imagination. We are in epochal times, whether we like ti or not; whether we are experiencing it in our personal lives - and many of us will be - or not.

By July, this flattened triangle pattern develops into what astrologers have called Barbault’s Basket, a rare configuration associated with the French mundane astrologer André Barbault, who linked major outer-planet alignments with collective turning points. We can explore that much more deeply later, because it deserves its own altar, its own candle, and possibly its own safety helmet. But for this New Moon, it is enough to say that we are not merely experiencing a passing mood. We are standing inside the ongoing movements of a much larger historical and spiritual re-patterning which will last for a long time.

Also at this lunation, Uranus is in a partile (exact) square the lunar nodes. That feels a crucial indication of a huge shift to me.The nodes often speak of direction: where we have come from, where we are being drawn, what karmic or evolutionary path is being opened, as well as where we experience our spiritual desires (the south node) and where we desire physical security (north node). In Vedic astrology, and for some western astrologers (me included) they represent the head and tail if the dragon - Rahu and Ketu. When Uranus squares the nodes, the symbolism is sharp and unmistakable. A crossroads appears, a current is interrupted and a sudden turn becomes not just possible but perhaps necessary and inevitable. It least as much as anything in astrology is inevitable. As astrologers are fond of saying, “the stars impel but do not compel” though I know one or two traditional Astro lets who may disagree. Is our fate already set, or can we overcome it through our free will? Whatever our perspective, something here is asking to break free from our old familiar path, whether or not we call it fate or free-will

This can all feel horribly destabilising because Uranus rarely asks politely. It arrives as the unexpected announcement, the strange idea, the rupture in the pattern, the thing that cannot be unseen once seen. In personal terms, this may correspond with sudden shifts in direction, changing alliances, unexpected insights, or a strong sense that the old map no longer matches the land. Collectively, it can speak of abrupt changes in the public mood, technological disruptions, social turbulence, ideological shocks, and a heightened sense of being pulled toward futures we do not yet understand. Sounds familiar?

But Uranus square the nodes is not merely chaos. It is the evolutionary alarm bell. It says: wake up, choose consciously, do not sleepwalk into a future that others would design for you or impose on you, as if fated. Do not allow fear, propaganda, tribalism or despair to choose for you.

This is where the Gemini New Moon becomes more than clever thought or sparkling conversation. Instead it becomes a moment and a test of discernment. Gemini asks us to hold more than one perspective with ease, but Uranus asks us to liberate the mind from inherited scripts. Together, they ask: what do we actually believe, and who benefits from us believing it?

There is also a darker, wilder presence in the chart, with Lilith opposing the New Moon from Sagittarius. This brings in the exiled feminine, the untamed voice, the one who refuses to be domesticated by polite consensus. Lilith opposite a Gemini New Moon may challenge the stories we tell to keep things comfortable. She may expose where language has been used to diminish, distort, seduce, shame or silence. She may ask whose voice has been cast out of the circle.

In Sagittarius, Lilith becomes the dark priestess of forbidden truths. She may appear as Lilith herself: fierce, sovereign, unrepentant, unwilling to kneel. At this moment of darkness, before the new moon shows herself as a slim crescent in the sky once again in a few days, she may also arrive as Hecate at the crossroads: a torch in her hand, accompanied by dogs and ghosts, asking which path we will take now that the old road has irrevocably split. There is something very Hekatean about this lunation: the night-road, the forked path, the threshold between worlds, the necessity of choosing with a deep soul presence rather than with panic, worry, and fear.

Lilith opposite the New Moon can bring discomfort, projection and polarisation. It can also bring liberation from false niceness. This is an unavoidable invitation for honesty. Do we follow a path of exclusion, fear and even cruelty, or do we follow a path that leads to liberation and our own embodied truths. There are times when peacekeeping becomes self-betrayal, times when the feminine voice must become thunder.

The tarot card traditionally associated with Gemini is The Lovers, but this card is often far more complex than romance alone. It is the card of choice, correspondence, mirroring, attraction, duality, dialogue and alignment. It asks whether our choices reflect our deeper values, or whether we are simply choosing what keeps us safe, liked, or comfortably unchanged. Under this New Moon, The Lovers becomes the image of the crossroads itself: two paths, two voices, two futures, and the need to choose with heart, mind and spirit in conversation.

The New Moon itself falls in the final decan of Gemini, associated with the Ten of Swords. That may sound stark, but it fits the symbolism perfectly. The Ten of Swords is not simply betrayal and ruin; it’s the moment a false story has gone as far as it can go. It’s the end of a mental pattern, the final exhaustion of an old narrative, the recognition that we cannot keep thinking, speaking, arguing or interpreting the world in the same way and expect healing to come. In this context, it becomes a card of release. The mind has reached the end of one road. Dawn waits beyond the dark ridge.

We might also bring in The Magician, the card associated with Mercury, ruler of Gemini. The Magician reminds us that words are not neutral. Words are magical, speech is spellcraft, attention and *intention* is power. Every post, conversation, prayer, argument, song, article and whispered reassurance participates in the weaving of reality. This New Moon asks us to become more conscious magicians of language. There are those who may use words as manipulative, performative, false yet compelling. But of we are awake to the fact that what we repeat, we strengthen, what we name, we summon, what we bless, we help to grow, then we can create something better and something that benefits us all.

Alongside this, Venus forms a quincunx to the North Node, and this is subtler but deeply important. A quincunx is an awkward aspect. It does not flow easily, maybe experienced as an unconscious sense of disquiet. Yet it asks for adjustment, humility, and recalibration. Venus wants connection, beauty, tenderness, pleasure, affection, harmony while the North Node points toward growth and future direction. This quincunx suggests that relationship itself may require uncomfortable adaptation.

How do we love when we do not fully understand each other? How do we remain in relationship across difference without pretending the difference is not there? How do we practise kindness without collapsing our boundaries? How do we avoid turning every discomfort into exile?

This aspect asks us to find relationship through tension, not by avoiding it. It may show us where our values and our future direction are not yet aligned. It may reveal where love has become too comfortable, or where harmony has been purchased at the price of truth. Yet it also offers a beautiful possibility: that relationship can evolve, that tenderness can stretch, and that love is not always agreement, but can become refined and ennobled.

Then, as the Moon cycle begins to unfold, Venus becomes even more important. On 17th June, Venus trines Neptune and opposes retrograde Pluto. This is a potent combination. Venus trine Neptune can open the heart to compassion, romance, art, spiritual longing, forgiveness, beauty and devotion. It is the aspect of the love song, the temple veil, the dream of union. It can soften us, inspire us, and remind us that beyond all the noise there is still music.

But Venus opposing Pluto brings intensity. It can reveal power dynamics in love, money, desire, attachment and value. It may expose where affection has become control, where desire has become obsession, or where we have given our power away in the hope of being loved. With Pluto retrograde, this may be less about outer drama and more about old emotional patterns rising from the underworld. Perhaps the remembering of a forgotten bargain, an unspoken longing, or the time where love and fear became tangled.

Together, Venus trine Neptune and Venus opposite Pluto ask for a love that is both compassionate and truthful, a love with depth, with eyes wide open. It’s a love that sees the wound and does not turn away.

“Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” — Joseph Campbell

A couple of days later - on the 19th - Chiron moves into Taurus. After years in Aries this marks another important shift in tone. Chiron in Aries has been working on wounds around identity, existence, courage, selfhood and the right to say “I am.” Many of us have been confronting the pain of feeling unseen, invalidated, attacked, erased or forced to fight simply to exist.

As Chiron enters Taurus, the wound moves into the body, the earth. Here we may find themes of survival, safety, money, food, touch, pleasure, self-worth and belonging. The question changes from “do I have the right to exist?” to “can I feel safe enough to live?” This may bring up collective wounds around economic insecurity, land, resources, embodiment and the desecration of nature. Personally, it may ask us to tend the places where we have felt unsafe in our own skin, disconnected from the body, or unsure of our worth unless we are useful, productive, desirable or strong.

Chiron in Taurus may not heal quickly. Taurus is slow medicine, it heals through repetition, presence, nourishment, simplicity and time. It asks us to return fully into the embodied. It asks us to rebuild trust with life through bread, soil, song, rest, beauty, touch, and the steady rhythm of small acts done with devotion.

Then, on 21st June, the Sun enters Cancer, marking the Summer Solstice here in the northern hemisphere. After the quicksilver air of Gemini, the Sun’s movement into Cancer helps turn us back toward feeling, to memory, home, kinship, ancestry and the waters of belonging. The Solstice is the high point of solar light, but Cancer reminds us that light must be held somewhere. Even the Sun needs a hearth.

This may be a beautiful closing note for the first movement of this New Moon cycle. The mind is awakened, the crossroads revealed, the future unsettled, but the heart must still be tended. We cannot live forever in mercurial swiftness and Uranian lightning. Eventually, we need water, shelter, the chalice, and a hand tenderly held.

For a simple ritual, we might work with the image of the crossroads and the spoken spell. On the night before the New Moon, or within the first day or two after it, light a candle and place beside it a pen, paper, and one small object that represents choice: a key, a coin, a feather, a stone from a path, or a tarot card such as The Lovers, The Magician or the Ten of Swords. Take a few breaths and write down two stories: one old story you are ready to stop feeding, and one story that feels more true to you that you are willing to begin practising. The old story might begin, “I no longer give my life-force to the belief that…” The new story might begin, “I choose to speak and live as though…”

Then speak the new story aloud three times as a vow to the listening world. Afterwards, tear up or safely burn the old story, and keep the new one somewhere visible for the Moon cycle ahead. This is a Gemini ritual, so words matter. Let them be simple, exact and alive.

So how do we make the best of these volatile and changing energies?

Perhaps first by admitting that volatility is real. We do not need to pretend everything is fine. The astrology of this period does not describe a gentle return to normal, because “normal” itself is part of what is being dismantled. The great outer-planet patterns suggest that we have been in - and are still in - a long threshold period and emerging into a generational turning. The old world is not ending neatly and the new one is not arriving politely. It is messy, brilliant, frightening, creative, dangerous and alive.

So when will these themes conclude? Not quickly. The Uranus-Neptune-Pluto pattern belongs to the larger astrology of the whole 2020s - and beyond! The forms will change, the intensity will rise and fall, and particular moments will peak and pass, but we are likely to be working with these great questions for years rather than months. That does not mean we are doomed to remain in crisis. It means we are being asked to become more conscious participants in history, community and spirit.

“Patience is not learned in safety.” — Pema Chödrön

The real question may not be “when will this end?” but “who are we becoming while it unfolds?”

This Gemini New Moon asks us to guard the mind without closing it. It asks us to stay curious without becoming scattered, to speak truth without becoming cruel and to refuse division without pretending harm is harmless. It asks us to recognise that love can cross differences where possible, while allowing clear boundaries where necessary.

When others seek to foster hatred, we do not have to answer with hatred. But neither do we have to answer with passivity. Love is not weakness. Tolerance is not the same as surrendering discernment. Compassion does not require us to abandon the vulnerable, including the vulnerable parts of ourselves.

To find our centre now, we need to become like the still point in a turning sky, and that we are *always* at the centre of our own lives, our own personal circle of existence. Gemini and Mercury ask us to listen, to breathe, to choose our words carefully. We are being asked to find the inspirational spark of Uranus without leaping thoughtlessly into arguments and unresolvable dissent. Remember we can keep returning to the body, the land, the altar, the trusted friend, the quiet cup of tea, the small act of care. We have no choice but to let the future come, but we do not need allow it to steal our soul before it arrives.

Under this Gemini New Moon, the road forks and the voices multiply. The lightning speaks through the wires while Lilith stands at the edge of the circle. Hecate lifts her torch, Venus asks whether love can stretch without breaking and Uranus asks whether we are awake. And somewhere beneath it all, the stars are not silent.

They are singing in strange harmonies, asking us to become wise enough to hear the difference between noise and revelation.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

Over this last weekend I attended the Earth Energies, Interwoven Realms Conference, and came away feeling nourished, stirred, and quietly re-enchanted.

It was one of those rare pockets of time where the ordinary world, with all its noise and fracture, seemed to soften around the edges. I went with a good friend, met three old friends there too - even if they were mostly swept up with the noble art of catering for folk with tea, coffee and exquisite home-made biscuits - and found myself inside what felt like a small, temporary sanctuary of connection, conversation, laughter, memory, land, spirit, and shared meaning.

A little Venus-Jupiter bubble, perhaps.

And how fitting that, on Tuesday 9th June, Venus and Jupiter meet in conjunction in Cancer.

In astrology, Venus is the planet of love, beauty, harmony, pleasure, friendship, desire, attraction, art, affection, and the blessings that come through sweetness rather than struggle. She is the principle of relationship: not only romantic love, but the ways in which life draws us together through sympathy, grace, delight, and mutual recognition.

Jupiter is the planet of expansion, wisdom, generosity, faith, abundance, good fortune, meaning, teaching, and the wider vision. He magnifies whatever he touches. In traditional astrology, Jupiter is especially strong in Cancer, the sign of his exaltation, where his generosity becomes protective, nourishing, familial, ancestral, and emotionally rich.

So when Venus and Jupiter meet in Cancer, there is a beautiful symbolism of love made generous, home made sacred, friendship made abundant, and prosperity understood not merely as money, but as belonging, nourishment, kindness, shelter, and the deep wealth of being held by people, place, memory, and spirit.

This feels especially precious because the wider astrology of the coming months and years does not suggest that we are entering a simple or settled time. The world feels increasingly unpredictable. The old structures are creaking. The ordinary realm is noisy with uncertainty, polarisation, surveillance, authoritarianism, and the restless static of too much information and not enough wisdom.

Yet this is exactly why such moments matter; not because they allow us to escape the world, but because they help us remember what the world is for.

Love. Beauty. Kinship. Shelter. Generosity. Shared bread. The old gods at the threshold. A sacred candle in the window, blessings of shared experience passed from hand to hand.

For this conjunction, I am going to be working with Venus and Jupiter as Aphrodite and Zeus: not in a rigid reconstructionist way, but in the spirit of ancient planetary magic, Orphic hymn, and devotional relationship: Aphrodite as the bright power of attraction, beauty, desire, pleasure, and living harmony; Zeus as the great sky-father of blessing, justice, increase, protection, and wide-seeing wisdom.

I am also placing the tarot cards that represent Venus and Jupiter - the Empress and the Wheel of Fortune at the heart of the rite.

The Empress speaks of embodied abundance: the garden, the hearth, the body, the senses, the fertile imagination, the mothering principle, the green world that gives and gives again. She reminds us that blessing must be rooted. Love must be tended. Beauty must be made real in the body, the home, the table, the soil, the life we actually live. And I’m reminded by Patrick Dunn in his wonderful ‘The Orphic Hymns’ book that Aphrodite in her form of “Aphrodite Ourania was sometimes worshipped as a cosmic principle of order and fertility” - just as does the Empress card.

Meanwhile, the Wheel of Fortune brings the mystery of timing. The turning of fate. The larger pattern. The moment when the tide shifts and the door opens. It reminds us that prosperity is not always forced into being by willpower alone. Sometimes we align ourselves with the turning wheel, make our offering, speak our prayer, and step forward into the flow of manifestation when the gods whisper: now.

For timing, I think there are two possibilities here in the UK and I rather like both, for different reasons.

The first is the more technical astrological election. In the afternoon, roughly between 2:30pm and 4:30pm here in the UK, the Venus-Jupiter conjunction is high in the chart, close to the Midheaven, with Libra rising for that window of time. This gives Venus rulership of the Ascendant, and places the conjunction in a strong, visible, public, elevated part of the chart. For the astrologer and astrological magician, this feels like the stronger moment for the main working: the formal rite, the candles, the offerings, the petition, the deliberate weaving of intention.

Yet nothing is ever perfect. Mars in Taurus falls in the 8th House (by whole sign and most other common house systems) in that version of the chart, and another evening option places the conjunction itself in the 8th. But perhaps that too has its teaching. The 8th House is not only difficulty; it is shared resources, intimacy, trust, inheritance, ancestral patterns, and the mysteries of what we exchange with others. In Cancer, even that symbolism can be softened into a rite of healing, family, emotional courage, and shared blessing.

The second timing is devotional and observational. After sunset, Venus and Jupiter will be visible low in the west or west-northwest, close together in the evening sky. By then the conjunction may be separating by a few minutes of arc and may not be in the most perfect house position, but the planets themselves can be seen. And there is real magic in that. Yes, the ancient astrologers calculated, but they also looked up, observed, and wondered.

So my own feeling is this: do the main rite in the afternoon, when the election is strong and the conjunction is elevated. Then, after dark, step outside for a brief prayer beneath the visible planets. The afternoon rite plants the seed. The evening prayer waters it under the eyes of the gods.

For the rite, I would keep it simple but beauty and clear intention. And please feel free t adapt and change this as much as you wish. As Caroline Casey says - believe nothing, entertain possibilities. Here’s a structure to use as a base for your own rite:

Light one candle for Venus — pink, green, or white.
Light one candle for Jupiter — blue, purple, or gold.

Place the Empress and Wheel of Fortune cards on the altar.
Add a bowl of water for Cancer, home, memory, ancestry, and emotional blessing.

Use rose, jasmine, cinnamon, basil, or bay if you have them.
Frankincense with rose would be ideal as incense.

Rose quartz, moonstone, citrine, amethyst, or emerald-coloured stones would all be suitable.
Offer honey, bread, wine, milk, flowers, or fruit.

Then speak from the heart:

Ask that love may become generous.
Ask that prosperity may become ethical.
Ask that home may become sanctuary.
Ask that friendship may become medicine.
Ask that beauty may become strength.
Ask that the turning Wheel bring not empty luck, but right timing, meaningful opportunity, and blessings that can be shared.

A simple incantation might be:

“Aphrodite of the golden heart,
Zeus of the generous sky,
bless this home,
bless these loves,
bless the hands that give and receive.
May beauty take root.
May kindness increase.
May fortune turn toward wisdom.
May abundance flow where it may nourish life.

By candle, water, flower and flame,
by hearth, heart, heaven and name,
may this blessing grow.
So may it be.”

Then, later, if the sky is clear, go outside. Astronomically, Venus and Jupiter will be visible low in the west to west-northwest after sunset placing them conjunct by degree (within a few seconds on arc) and around 1.5–1.6° apart vertically, and best viewed in twilight with a clear horizon. Around 21:45 to 22:30 BST lis ideal, looking west-northwest .

Find Venus first: bright, unmistakable, the evening star. Jupiter will be close by, quieter but still shining brightly.

Offer a few words, nothing elaborate is needed. Perhaps only this:

“Bright Aphrodite, generous Zeus,
I see you in the twilight.
May what was blessed in the hidden temple
now be witnessed beneath the living sky.

May love expand.
May fortune flower.
May the home of the heart be filled with light.”

And then listen. Because perhaps the most important part of any rite is not what we ask for, but what we become able to hear.

After the conference this weekend, I feel reminded that even in a chaotic world, there are still circles of meaning. There are still old friends and new conversations. There are still cups of tea, shared meals, sacred landscapes, strange synchronicities, and the quiet weaving of realms.

The Wheel is still turning; the Empress is still flowering, and for a brief moment, Venus and Jupiter meeting in Cancer to reminds us that blessing is not naïve. Sometimes blessing is resistance; sometimes beauty is a form of wisdom; sometimes gathering together in love, friendship, ritual, and meaning is exactly how we keep the soul of the world alive.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine Vixx

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” Rainer Maria Rilke

The Sagittarius Full Moon arrives like a flaming arrow loosed across a restless sky. With the Moon at 9° Sagittarius opposing the Sun at 9° Gemini, and the culmination point of the Sagittarius New Moon of the 1st December 2024, we stand at the threshold between information and meaning, facts and faith, cleverness and wisdom. Gemini gathers the fragments: the words, messages, questions, contradictions, rumours, choices, crossed wires, and bright-winged possibilities. Sagittarius asks where they are taking us. What story are we living inside? What truth is large enough to hold the many small truths we have collected along the way?

This is not a quiet Full Moon. It belongs to the quickened elements of Air and Fire: thought igniting vision, speech becoming spell, perception becoming direction. The Sun in Gemini offers us the chance to collect all the facts in the world - which may bring a sense of satisfaction in the collecting - but without a refining sense of what to do with all those facts. We may, instead of clarity, find potential mental entanglement, where the mind can become caught in its own maze. We may see too many sides, hear too many voices, or feel bound by old narratives that were never as fixed as they seemed. In reply, the Moon in Sagittarius answers from a place of movement and release. Something wants to break through. Something wants to run, speak, travel, confess, laugh, risk, believe.

This is Gemini’s sharp-edged questioning facing Sagittarius’ flaming need for meaning. The tension may reveal where we have mistaken analysis for understanding, or where certainty has become a cage of its own. At worst, this opposition can scatter us between nervous overthinking and impulsive judgement. At best, it becomes a sacred dialogue between the mind that examines and the soul that knows. The Full Moon asks us to loosen the knots without abandoning discernment, to seek truth without turning truth into a weapon.

There is a story here of release from an old mental battlefield. The Gemini Sun, joined by Uranus in the same early territory of the sign, carries a feeling of awakening from a spell: the sudden realisation that a thought-pattern, conversation, contract, pledge, or belief has held us in place for too long. With the Moon opposite Uranus, revelation may come abruptly. A sentence lands. A mask slips. A door opens. A person says the thing no one was supposed to say. This can be disruptive, but also liberating. Uranus doesn’t know how to arrive gently; but it does arrive spectacularly and abruptly, with lightning in its hands. What was bound may begin to loosen. What was frozen may begin to move.

The Gemini-Sagittarius axis is also being drawn into a deeper collective pattern through the Full Moon square the Nodes, with the North Node in Pisces and the South Node in Virgo. This gives the lunation a fated, crossroad quality, pulling us into a mutable grand square of tension between mind, meaning, service, surrender, detail, devotion, criticism, and compassion. The South Node in Virgo can describe the old habit of trying to perfect, fix, account for, or work our way out of uncertainty. The North Node in Pisces asks for something softer and stranger: trust, spiritual imagination, forgiveness, and the willingness to leave behind what no longer nourishes the soul.

This does not mean abandoning skill, discipline, or good judgement. It means recognising when the work has become a cage. It means knowing when the craft has served its purpose, when the path of competence has led us as far as it can, and when we must walk away from the workshop and towards the river. The nodal square asks: are we still learning, or are we repeating? Are we refining something alive, or polishing a relic of a former self?

“Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.” Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The Moon in Sagittarius is also in mutual reception with Jupiter, and this is important. Although the chart is vivid with Air and Fire, both benefic planets - Venus and Jupiter - are held in Cancerian Water, and with Jupiter exalted.

Beneath the heat and movement, beneath the mental pressure and fiery urgency, there is a tide of feeling, memory, belonging, and protection. The Sagittarius Moon may want the wide road and the distant horizon, but Jupiter in Cancer reminds us that every true pilgrimage begins somewhere sacred. We do not seek meaning in order to escape the heart. We seek meaning so that the heart has somewhere larger to live.

Jupiter in Cancer brings a deep, nourishing counter-melody to the chart. It speaks of emotional wisdom, ancestral blessing, the bowl that may appear empty only because we have not yet turned toward what is being offered. This is the hidden grace of the lunation: a sense that even if we feel restless, disappointed, or spiritually underfed, there may be a blessing close by, waiting for our attention to soften enough to receive it. Not all gifts arrive as thunderbolts. Some arrive as water returning to the well.

Venus in Cancer offers us the potential for joy, kinship, tenderness, and shared ideals and visions. Yet Venus makes a square to Saturn in Aries, and here the chart becomes more complex. Venus in Cancer seeks safety, emotional reciprocity, sweetness, closeness, and care. Saturn in Aries, however, is in fall: stern, pressured, perhaps defensive, trying to establish courage and autonomy in a place where it may feel raw or unsupported. The Venus square Saturn may reveal where love meets fear, where the need for belonging clashes with the need to stand alone, or where old emotional walls rise just as intimacy asks to enter.

This aspect can feel lonely, but it is not without medicine. Humanistically, it may ask us to mature in the way we love: to recognise where we seek comfort without honesty, or independence without vulnerability. Evolutionarily, it can mark a point where relational patterns are tested so that truer bonds can endure. Shamanically, it is the warrior returning to the hearth-fire at the threshold. The question is not whether we need protection. Of course, we do. The question is whether the armour still fits the soul we are becoming.

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” Laozi

Saturn in Aries also forms a trine to the Sagittarius Moon and a sextile to the Gemini Sun, offering structure to the otherwise volatile Full Moon field. This is a crucial stabilising thread. The Moon trine Saturn gives the flame a container. The Sun sextile Saturn gives thought a direction. If the Full Moon brings revelation, Saturn asks what we will do with it. If the Moon brings truth, Saturn asks how we will live it. If Uranus breaks the old pattern, Saturn helps us build the next bridge.

There is something deeply initiatory in this: courage is not only taking a wild leap. Sometimes courage is the steady decision made after the revelation. Sometimes it’s the boundary spoken calmly. Sometimes it’s the long road chosen, not because it is easy route, but because it’s the honest one.

The Sun and Uranus both form trines to Pluto retrograde in Aquarius, deepening the intellectual charge of the chart into something far more powerful. The Sun trine a retrograde Pluto brings penetrating insight, the ability to see through surface narratives and recognise the hidden machinery beneath events. The Uranus trine Pluto suggests collective awakening, sudden shifts in perception, and the dismantling of old mental or social architectures. Yet retrograde Pluto here in Aquarius occupies a territory associated with the collective versus the individual, the old versus the new, the old order versus the new nascent order. It’s themes of conflict, strategy, betrayal, defeat, and the bitter knowledge that some battles cannot be won in the old way.

This is where the chart asks for honesty. Some part of the story may indeed carry the taste of betrayal or loss. We may have fought for a version of the future that cannot be carried forward unchanged. We may see where the old argument has become corrosive, where victory would cost too much, where the mind has been sharpened into a blade and turned against itself. Yet even here, there is grace. When a battle is over, the sword can be lowered. When the old contest ends, energy returns. The dawn after defeat is still dawn. Sometimes the soul’s liberation begins at the moment we stop trying to win a war that was never truly ours.

Mercury, the ruler of the Gemini Sun, is also in Gemini and therefore strong in its own sign. Yet it occupies a later, sharper place in the sign where it can almost touch its imminent shift into the waters of Cancer, which will take place on the 1st June. Here is a Mercury we can associate with the endings of explorations of the mind, exhaustion of narrative, and the painful finality that comes when the intellect can no longer deny what it knows. Mercury in rulership gives clarity, intelligence, and articulation, but not necessarily comfort. Words may cut through illusion. Information may end an old story. A conversation may feel final.

And yet Mercury forms a sextile to Chiron in Aries, bringing real healing potential. This is the aspect of saying the difficult thing in a way that restores dignity. It’s the medicine of naming the wound without becoming the wound. Chiron in Aries asks us to heal the injured self, the thwarted will, the place where courage was shamed or anger was exiled. Mercury’s sextile offers language, understanding, and perhaps the blessing of a conversation that allows something stuck to move again. A painful truth may become a doorway back into life.

Mars in Taurus adds another layer. Mars here is slower, earthier, more reluctant to move quickly. Mars here wants to rest, to take his time, but may also speak of scarcity, exclusion, bodily strain, or the feeling of being outside the warm circle of ease. With so much Air and Fire in the chart, Mars in Taurus reminds us that the body cannot be rushed just because the mind has had a revelation. Material realities matter. Nervous systems matter. Food, rest, money, shelter, and touch matter. The spiritual path still has feet that can ache from a long arduous journey.

This Mars may show where we feel tired, under-resourced, or uncertain of our worth. But it also teaches endurance. It asks us to move from survival panic into embodied persistence. Not every breakthrough is a lightning strike; some are made by returning each day to the field, the body, the practice, the work of tending what still lives.

Neptune in early Aries forms a weak separating trine to the Moon, a fading but still perceptible current at this Full Moon. One of vision, dream, and spiritual fire. Neptune in Aries is the mystic warrior, the dream of new beginnings, the strange longing to act on behalf of something larger than the personal self. Its contact with the Sagittarius Moon can bring inspiration, imaginal courage, and a sense of being called toward a horizon not yet fully visible. But because the trine is separating, we may also be emerging from a dream rather than entering one. The vision has touched us. Now we must decide what remains when the incense clears.

Lilith in Sagittarius (I use ‘true’ Lilith and not the ‘mean’ Lilith) in a wide opposition to the Sun - and thus a wide conjunction to the Moon - adds a wild feminine edge to the Full Moon. Here we meet the defended instinct, the untamed knowing, the part of the psyche that has been wounded but not conquered. Lilith in Sagittarius may speak bluntly. She may refuse false piety, false optimism, false wisdom, false teachers. She stands at the edge of the fire with scars visible and bow drawn, not because she seeks war, but because she remembers what it cost to surrender her truth. Under this Full Moon, the wild feminine does not ask for permission to know what she knows.

Taken altogether, this is a Full Moon of revelation, release, and reorientation. The Air-Fire emphasis brings speed, speech, vision, agitation, and awakening. It may feel as if thoughts are catching fire, bursting into flames, as if old stories are being fed by hot winds. There may be endings in the mental field: a belief, a conversation, a battle, a role, an argument, a way of explaining ourselves to ourselves. Some of these endings may not feel gentle. But the chart does not leave us in ruin. It shows a battle completed, the blade lowered, and the first light of a new dawn arriving.

Beneath it all, perhaps it’s Venus and Jupiter in Cancer that hold the deeper medicine: Venus and Jupiter in Water, reminding us that the future is not only forged by courage and vision, but nourished by tenderness. We are not being asked to become all flame and no feeling, all intellect and no soul. We are being asked to let the mind become clear enough to serve the heart, and the heart become strong enough to hold a wider truth.

The Sagittarius Moon lifts the lantern high and asks us to look beyond the immediate tangle. The Gemini Sun asks us to name what we see. Saturn asks us to act with maturity. Uranus breaks the pattern. Pluto reveals the deeper stakes. Mercury gives the words. Chiron offers the healing. Venus and Jupiter remind us that even in the aftermath of conflict, there may be cups waiting at the table filled with sweet refreshing wine, shelter by the fire, and a blessing rising quietly from the ancestral well.

This Full Moon does not ask us to pretend everything is easy. It asks us to recognise when the old stories must end. It asks us to gather what wisdom we can from the ruins of the argument, the exhaustion of the mind, the disappointment of the heart, and the hard-won truth of experience. Then it asks us to turn toward the horizon.

The arrow has been drawn back long enough. Now it must fly.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine x

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.” Rainer Maria Rilke

There is a story - that I’m sure you’ve heard - of a traveller in Ireland asking directions from a local, who replies

“Ah well now, I wouldn’t be starting from here….”

Once, while travelling with my parents years ago, we got lost in Waterford. I can’t recall where we were going, or how we had got lost, but when I asked the way the kindly man replied with that very phrase. I’ll admit to needing to stifle a bit of a giggle at the time.

He did, to clarify the situation to me, point along the road and ask:

“you see that junction up ahead?”

I nodded in agreement as I could indeed see the very junction he was referring to. “Well, you need to start from there.” He continued with very precise instructions, using local pubs and churches as the reference points, none of which, of course, we knew.

The point I’m making here is that we are all on a journey, and one that we may have clear signposts to follow, or we may be stumbling along with a vague map in our heads - or we may, these days, be using certain map apps on our mobile phones to guide us. Which they do very accurately. Yet, somehow, we are left feeling disconnected from our surroundings, as if we haven’t quite aligned our consciousness with the changing outside world as we study the ever changing map in front of us, but missing out on being physically ‘in’ the territory. Sometimes we may even need directions to find our way home, both physically and/or metaphorically.

Now is a time to find that way home, to our roots, to where we feel fully at one with ourselves, with nature, and with the living cosmos, of which we are but a tiny part.

Of course, the huge intertwined cycles of astrological reckonings still turn, grinding and spiralling through space, time and the living cosmos - some so slowly as to be utterly imperceptible to one lifetime; while others rush by so fast most of us take not a breath of conscience thought as the opportunity presented whistles past.

Two examples: think of the triple cycles of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto as they interplay, forming oppositions, squares and conjunctions, trines and sextile - not to mention all those squirky ones like the quincunx and the rather gorgeous quintile. These are the patterns of ages. Then we could go deeper, into the precession of the equinoxes as our planet wobbles through space; and then there’s the swirling of galaxies. We are talking here of hundreds, thousands of years. Perhaps even tens of thousands of years. And throughout all of that time humanity has watched and studies the stars; created stories, myths and star-lore from watching the swirling heavens above us. Mind boggling.

Or we could look at the details - as we are now with this New Moon. We could look at the cycles of the Moon over each cycle of 28 or so days. And then go deeper into the shifting of the Moon through each sign over those 28 days. And deeper still into the shifting of the Moon through its daily shift through the 28 Arabic Mansions - or the Vedic Nakshastras.

Why talk about all these cycles? It’s because astrology is complex, and as a good astrologer friend of mine says, everything in the sky - everything! - is important. Mind blown again.

I think my earlier words in this article are a bit of the energy I’m feeling from Venus in Gemini activating my own natal Venus in Gemini. And Venus rules Taurus, where the New Moon will take place on the 16th May at 9 in the evening here in the UK, 25TAU57.

So why all this talk of finding direction and coming home? Well, for a brief - too brief maybe - time I think this is an astrological moment where there’s a sense of calm, and rootedness, and of feeling the call to find a safe haven, a place of safety where we can some time and simply *feel* who we really are, feel where we’ve come from, and feel where we are going.

Those big cycles are still turning, like geological ages of tectonic plates quietly shifting - and then suddenly exploding, like earthquakes that shake us to the foundations of our broken - or at least breaking - civilisation. Pluto, as part of these huge cycles, is now retrograde, looking backwards with his annual invitation to stop a while and look at all we deny about ourselves and society. Lurking from the shadows under a gaslit streetlight - like Harry Lime in The Third Man - Pluto is asking us to revisit what still remains hidden, what is still in the underworld that needs - must - come into the light. In other words, don’t fall for the bullshit; don’t fall for the snake oil pedlars of lies, of hate, hopelessness and division.

And the ‘magic triangle’ - two sextile and a trine - between Uranus in Gemini, Neptune in Aries, and Pluto in Aquarius - slips in and out of our consciousness as it moves towards the moment it perfects in July 2026 - bringing who knows what in its wake. We still have agency, we still have choice, though the fate written in the stars tells us we have to make choices consciously or become the victims of those who believe they hold ultimate power. If we fail now we become slaves to that power. We can choose to do nothing, to close our eyes, close our minds and tell ourselves there’s nothing to be done. That the world is broken and we can’t fix it. That road leads to a dystopian future I don’t want to think about. We are being asked, with these huge shifts, to step up. To do something - and many will.

But it’s the ‘small stuff’ we need to pay attention to at this New Moon. Mercury is in close attendance to the New Moon, and so hidden from our eyes, while Venus twinkles brightly in the western sky at sunset, with bright benefic Jupiter in Cancer following her beneath the visible western horizon around midnight. We may find blessings in this New Moon. Blessings of hope, stillness, beauty, ideas; of simply ‘being’.

This, then, is a strong and positive New Moon chart:

• Mars is in rulership,

• Mercury and Venus are in mutual reception (though in Hellenic astrology they can’t ‘see’ each other, which weakens that mutual reception as they are working to their own individual agendas),

• The Moon is in exaltation and triplicity,

• Mars is in rulership,

• Jupiter is in exaltation,

• And both Mars and Jupiter are in mutual reception by triplicity

I find it interesting that we have eight planets (if we include Ceres and Chiron - and we absolutely should) in the last decan of their respective signs right now: Jupiter in Cancer; Venus in Gemini; Sun, Moon, Mercury and Ceres in Taurus; Mars and Chiron in Aries. These all form a pattern of ‘interlocking’ sextiles, and potential positive opportunities if we grasp them.

If we think tarot for a moment, we can associate the planetary positions as:

• Jupiter in Cancer - 4 of Cups

• Venus in Gemini - 10 of Swords

• Sun, Moon, Mercury, Ceres in Taurus - 7 of Pentacles

• Mars and Chiron in Aries - 4 of Wands

The story those cards could tell is something like this:

We stand at the edge of an old garden - for a long time; waiting for the garden to speak. We have been offered much, perhaps more than we realise, but some part of our heart has been tired. Not ungrateful, not closed exactly, just inward. A little rain-soaked. A little lost in the ache of what did not arrive in the shape we hoped for.

Yet we know that blessings may come through feeling, through softening the shell. Through letting ourselves be nourished, not only by grand miracles, but by ordinary kindness, memory, family, food, shelter, touch, the small cup of tea placed in our hands at the right moment.

This is a sacred pause. A moment of emotional digestion. The soul saying, before I receive more, let me understand what I already carry.

A wind sweeps through the garden. Bright-eyed and quick-tongued, like a bundle of old letters pierced through with pins; words that once wounded, stories that became too sharp. The conversations that ended badly, or never happened at all. The thoughts that circled and circled until they became ravens in the mind.

Then, listening more carefully, we realise that this moment is not the end. It is the end of just one particular narrative. It is the dawn after mental exhaustion. Instead it is moment of healing, and the beginning of love - through language, choice, curiosity, and the courage to tell a different story. In that moment we realise we no longer have to keep lying beneath old sentences. We can stand up. We can remove the blades one by one and say, this thought is not my fate; this ending is not my whole life; this pain is not the final author of me. Change the words, and the spell begins to change.

We finally recognise this is our home. Rooted deep in the soil, the mud. And the blood of lineage. We tend the land. We wait. We choose what needs to be planted. We ask - what is truly worth continued devotion? This part of our story is slow, but it is not stagnant. The garden is growing beneath the surface. We cannot rush the rose, the apple, the root, the body, the healing, the art, the money, the love, or the becoming.

This is a return to embodiment. This is when we ask the questions: what do I need, not in theory, but in my bones?

Our mind became practical and patient, our questions deeply maternal: what am I feeding, and what is feeding me?

Even where things feel unfinished, something has been ripening. We may be asked to prune, refine, recommit, or redirect, but this isn’t failure. This is the sacred moment when the wise gardener looks at the land and knows which plants need more light, which need staking, which need harvesting, and which must be lovingly cleared to make room.

Finally, at last we can speak openly and honestly of wounds. We can speak of wounds around courage, identity, assertion, anger, independence, and the right to take up space. There may have been old pain around beginning again, around being seen in one’s raw aliveness, around saying, I am here, I want this, I choose this, I claim this. Now we must claim it as a celebration, no matter how difficult that may feel. Healing can only take place through the courage of doing and being. The only way out, is through.

This is the threshold garlanded with flowers. It is the hearth relit. It is the moment after struggle when we realise we are allowed to build a place of joy. It is time to act, to reveal that the wound of selfhood can become a doorway into deeper confidence. Here is where we finally recognise that healing does not only happen through grief. Sometimes it happens through dancing. Sometimes we mend by returning to life. By gathering with others. By blessing the threshold. By honouring how far we have come. By creating a home, a ritual, a project, a relationship, or a version of ourselves that says: I survived the old story, and now I am allowed to celebrate the new one.

So the whole story becomes something like this:

• A heart that has been tired is learning to receive again.

• A mind that has been pierced by old words is learning to speak differently.

• A body and life that have been patiently tended are beginning to show signs of growth.

• A wounded fire is becoming a sacred hearth.

It is a reading of renewal, and it says: pause, but do not close. Release the old stories, and do not mistake exhaustion for destiny. Keep tending what is real. Let the body guide you back to what is fertile. And when the first signs of joy return - however small, however shy - do not dismiss them.

Put flowers on the gate. The garden is not dead. It has been waiting for you to come home.

Make the most of it by beginning something real, something creative, something that reflects your roots and who you are, who you want to be. Use it to express your soul purpose. Who knows, you may even make some money out of it if that’s your thing.

We haven’t had many moments like this recently. Spend time out in nature, take time to meditate and reflect, and enjoy the moment!

I can’t finish this post without saying a few words about the death of Gordon White. I suspect many of my subscribers will never have heard of Gordon White but his passing is a massive loss to the magically inclined. And I confess I cried when heard the news of his passing into spirit.

A quote from this article gives the smallest glimpse of who he was and how we can build on his legacy:

“We keep Gordon’s story by doing the work.

By testing. Reading. Failing better. Making offerings. Learning history. Building shrines. Growing food. Talking to the dead. Watching the skies.

We keep his story by becoming harder to enchant by tyrants.”

You can read the full article at https://substack.com/@alkistis/note/c-258477802?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1kk35b

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine x

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

We arrive at this Scorpio Full Moon on the 1st May at 8:36pm UK time - the same day as the Celtic festival of Beltane (more on that later) - beneath a sky still lit with Fire and quickened by Air. Aries holds a strong presence - Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Neptune, and Chiron gathered there - while Venus and Uranus now move through the shifting, curious realm of Gemini.

Although Scorpio calls us inward, into depth and stillness, the atmosphere around it is alive with motion. Something is stirring. Something is asking to be understood at a soul-deep level, and then to be embodied and lived.

Mercury stands conjunct with Chiron in Aries, sharpening awareness. Thoughts, conversations, and quiet realisations may carry a particular clarity now, especially around patterns we have been circling for some time.

I think it’s important to understand that Chiron is not an easy energy. He does not offer us a simple and easy way to heal - as a being who sacrificed himself to help heal others, he represents something that may never be healed within us. But he can act as our mentor, showing the way and how to heal ourselves. That, sometimes, is what shamanism is about too.

So Chiron reminds us that healing is rarely straightforward. It is not always about a cure and a resolution, but more about relationship, about how we meet what we carry. What repeats in our lives is often a sign and a pattern asking for our attention, for compassion, and for a deeper kind of listening.

What we have called a wound may, in time, reveal itself as a doorway. In the end we discover that we are our own healer. Seeded at the time of the April 2024 Solar Eclipse - with Chiron then exactly conjunct the New Moon and Mercury close by - this is what must finally be revealed and acted on at this Full Moon. The message suddenly becomes clear; only we can heal ourselves. We can’t rush this healing, but we can begin the process with self-love, care, compassion, and grace.

Venus in Gemini, still within reach of Uranus though now moving away from thier earlier conjunction, brings an unpredictable, more intellectual and perhaps lighter current through the depths. There can be surprising shifts here in how we connect, what we value, or the stories we tell about ourselves - and others. A Gemini Venus can be a teeny bit of a gossip….

Gemini reminds us that we are not fixed. That we are allowed to change, to explore, to hold more than one truth at once. Uranus adds a spark and an invitation to step beyond familiar narratives and allow something freer to emerge. With Gemini in play indecisions can become a little problematic - shifting thoughts, plans, ideas, information…. yet eventually everything still needs to be decided. Still, some things, it seems, simply need to be discovered in their own time and way.

In the background, Saturn and Neptune continue their long, subtle meeting in Aries. A quiet but profound influence. Here, vision and reality continue to shape one another. What once felt solid may soften; what once felt intangible may begin to take form. At times this can feel uncertain, like standing between worlds, but there is a deep quiet creativity here too. It may become too easy to feel disillusioned and discouraged, but this work needs patience. One step, one choice, one act of imagination at a a time made real.

And so we return to the Moon.

A Full Moon in Scorpio illuminates what has been beneath the surface. Let’s be clear - it can easily overwhelm us if we aren’t someone who is comfortable with deep dives into the psyche and facing up to the depths of the soul. Instead it may be helpful to see this as a time of introspection enabling us to bring something into awareness that is finally ready to be acknowledged and acted on.

The Taurus Sun is there as a grounding energy, steadying us, asking us to root deeply, and drawing us back into the body, into the breath, into the simple truth of being here. Scorpio, opposite, deepens us into feeling: into instinct, into unquiet truths, into the places we don’t always name. Together, they ask us for honesty, the revelation of inner depths and emotional currents bringing us a clearer vision of who we truly are and why we are here. Deep and profound work.

The Moon’s wide trine to Jupiter in Cancer offers a gentle support. There is space here for compassion; for ourselves, for our histories, for the complexity of what we feel. Even what seems heavy can be held within something wider, something kinder.

At the same time, Pluto’s square to the Sun and Moon deepens the moment. This is where something real asks to shift, quietly but inexorably seeping into our awareness. When we see something clearly, we begin to loosen its hold.

Scorpio reminds us that feeling is a gateway to self-understanding. it may be difficult and challenging but it’s one that leads us to a deeper knowing of our soul purpose.

Emotions may run deep under this Moon, but they are also intelligent. They show us where something is alive, where energy is moving, where attention is needed. We don’t need to be overwhelmed by them, nor do we need to push them away. There is a quieter path; one where we allow feeling to move through us, without letting it define us.

This, then, is the practice. To feel, and to stay present, even when the waters deepen.

We won’t have, can’t have, all the answers, but it is about being willing to stay with the questions that matter:

What feels true for me now?
What no longer does?
What brings me alive, and what quietly diminishes me?
What is ready to be released?
What have I been holding onto out of habit, or fear, or familiarity?

And what might open, if I softened my grip just a little?

We are not being asked to transform everything overnight - that would be foolish even if it were possible (it’s not). But we are being asked to notice, to listen and to respond with honesty where we can.

If we listen, if we feel, there is a quiet turning point here. A moment where something within us shifts… and we can begin, gently, to move with it.

Beltane fires and shifting stars

The traditional date for Beltane is the 1st May, which coincides with the Scorpio New Moon this year, giving it a perhaps even deeper significance than usual.

A cross-quarter fire festival it sits between spring’s first quickening and the full-bodied bloom of summer, and in Celtic tradition marks the beginning of summer.

In the old Irish sources, Beltane is marked by twin fires lit on hilltops, through which cattle were driven for protection and blessing as they brought back onion their summer pastures. It was a threshold moment: a crossing into summer the brightest half of the year, when life moves outward, becomes visible, fertile, and expressive.

Today, Beltane is celebrated in ways that feel both ancient, and sometimes joyfully modern. Fires are lit, and folk are invited to ‘leap’ across the flames as through a gateway into summer and all its creativity and vibrancy. People gather at sites like Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh and on the Hill of Uisneach in Ireland, where performers embody seasonal archetypes in a living myth of creativity and renewal. Elsewhere, the celebration may be quieter: garlands of hawthorn, offerings left at springs, a walk at dusk or dawn. And some may be wild and raucous, celebrating riding desire, forbidden faery lovers and greenwood adventures. It’s a recognition, more than anything, that the land is no longer awakening but is alive, and we are awakening alongside the blossoming trees.

And yet, beneath the flowers and flame, something else is happening.

The Sky at Beltane

If we step outside on a clear April evening and look west, we might just catch the last glimmer of Orion sinking toward the horizon. Within days, he is gone, lost in the Sun’s light.

The Pleiades too, that shimmering cluster long associated with faery, souls, and story, are slipping into invisibility. Soon, they are no longer visible in the night sky.

To ancient eyes, this mattered. Across cultures, from Hesiod’s Greece to the temples of Egypt, these stars were were timekeepers, threshold markers, and often, animate beings. Their disappearance was deeply symbolic, marking seasonal and perhaps spiritually significant times where something was withdrawing.

Where Samhain opens the gates, when Orion rises and the Pleiades blaze in the dark, Beltane seems to do the opposite. The stars of the Otherworld slip behind the Sun. The night sky empties of certain presences. They aren’t gone, but are hidden.

Gwyn ap Nudd and the Turning of the Year

In Welsh tradition, Gwyn ap Nudd is the ruler of Annwfn, the Otherworld. He is a hunter, a gatherer of souls, a figure who moves between realms. In later folklore, he leads the Wild Hunt, a spectral procession across the night sky at Samhain, honoured as psychopomp - a guide for the souls of the honoured dead into the otherworld - and belongs, unmistakably, to the dark half of the year.

In one fragment of medieval lore, we encounter a striking image: Gwyn is locked in an eternal contest for the maiden Creiddylad who is fought over between Gwyn and his rival Gwythyr. Gwyn has abducted Creiddylad, and her husband to be demads her return, turning to the Arthur (of the Welsh - not the later Medierval Arthur of Camelot) as mediator. Arthur orders Gwyn to return her, and that they shall fight for her hand each Beltane until the end of time.

It is a myth that feels seasonal at its core. Gwythyr, whose name is linked to brightness and summer, and Gwyn, whose name suggests whiteness but whose domain is the Otherworld, are not simply rivals. They are counterforces - winter and summer, descent and ascent, inward and outward life - and the Beltane-Samhain axis is their hinge.

On the day of Beltane Gwyn yields ground, Gwythyr rises and Creiddylad, the sovereignty of the land, passes into the keeping of the bright half of the year. But the key is this: the struggle never ends. Even in the height of summer, Gwyn is not defeated - only withdrawn.

There’s more to this tale - and other figures from Welsh and Irish muth that fit this theme - but for the sake of brevity I’ll leave it there for now, and perhaps return to it in a later post.

A Pattern in the Sky, A Story on the Land

Over recent years there has been an increasing interest into whether this tale - and others - are based on the heliacal rising and setting of certain constellations marking the source of these intriguing myths. But the problem is that we have no surviving text that tells us directly that Gwyn ap Nudd is Orion, or that the Pleiades mark the gates of Annwn. The historical record is quiet than that, but the pattern is clearly there, if we allow ourselves to see it. Orion is visible in winter, a hunter in the night, and a guide of souls; Orion is gone by Beltane, the hunter descends, the Wild Hunt recedes. The Pleiades are visible in the dark half, a cluster of presence, fate, otherworldly connection, and hidden in the light half, the veil drawn, the mysteries turned inward

And on the land Samhain and the gates open; Beltane and the gates soften, close, or turn invisible.

I’ve mentioned that these constellations align with Beltane and Samhain, though today this isn’t quite true. The heliacal rising and settings have ‘slipped’ to later in the year by around a month due to precession, and so were much more closely aligned with calendrical Beltane around 2,000 years ago, in the Iron Age, when these tales were probably first told.

While we can have no idea if these associations are accurate, or even if the Iron Age Celts necessarily recognised the same constellations we do today, nonetheless it makes sense to me from a mythopoetic perspective that we are looking at something deeply aligned with the rising and setting of certain stars, just as we find myths across all cultures and all time-periods. Faery lore in particular is filled with associations with the fey and elves taking to travelling at and around the rising and setting of the Pleiades.

Beltane, Now

So what are we celebrating, really, when we light fires at Beltane? Fertility, growth, the sensual joy of a world in bloom. But also that the unseen has stepped back, just enough for the visible to flourish, that the Otherworld has not vanished, but turned its face away, inviting us to live, fully, here. or perhaps that we can take that last chance to pass through the gateways to the otherworld - and risk being kept there until we can find our way back. And we are also celebrating and honouring that the dance between Gwyn and Gwythyr continues, that the seasons continue to turn, to spiral around us, whether we reconise it, and whether we name it or not.

And that somewhere, just beyond the brightness of the Sun, the old stars are still there, waiting for the dark half of the year to return, when once again, the gates of Annywn, the Otherworld, and Faery will open once again, and the sky will remember its stories aloud once more.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine x

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

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“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”
Seneca

The Aries New Moon arrives on the 17th April in a blaze of unstoppable, and perhaps necessarily uncontrollable fire. The volcano may erupt and bring what seems like destruction, but could yet turn out to be rich fertile soil of a new start. With the New Moon conjunct to Chiron (and Eris), these fires are prehaps the start of something that can shape who we are - and the world around us - in ways that right now we will find difficult to imagine or contemplate, but which will ultimately prove deeply healing if we are prepared to recognise that none of us has all the answers to the problems we face, either individually or as a society.

Together with the Aries New Moon, we have Mars, Saturn, Neptune and swift winged Mercury all within a few degrees of each other in Aries too; we are in almost uncharted territory once again. According to Astro-Seek the last time we had a New Moon in Aries with so many planets in the sign of the Ram, was in 1586!

Still, even with all that energy surging, Saturnian forces want to bring slow steady change; Neptune may want us to embrace our dreams; Mercury may want us to express the inner fires of our soul; the Sun - in his exaltation - and the Moon fuelled by expansive Jupiter in Cancer, may come together and offer us the opportunity of a new cycle of personal empowerment; Venus in her own earthy sign of Taurus may will us to root deeply into what inspires us with an uncharacteristic air of unpredictability, energised by a Uranus eager to be rid of earthy constraints and fly free in the winds of Geminian inspiration and change; and of course Pluto may continue his hidden agenda under his helmet of invisibility through collective innovative Aquarius.

But I think it’s Mars, in his Aries home, who wants to - and will - set the agenda. Deny him in his own temple and he is likely to get a tad upset and annoyed. And you really don’t want to see Mars get annoyed. Trust me. Whether he does get annoyed out there in the big bad world may be beyond our control, and we can only hope that the adults in the room are able to harness the positive protective assertive energies of Mars for the common good. Combined with the level headed constraints of Father Time Saturn, the compassion and hopeful dreams of misty eyed Neptune, and sweet tongued Mercury acting as magician and mediator, hot-headed selfish aggression may be seen as not the only way to resolve quarrels and disputes; and with so many planets in Aries, it feels like there will be continuing disputes over this coming moontide - and probably beyond.

Venus and Uranus in Taurus suggests there may be continuing disruption to trade across the globe; Jupiter may manifest as a continuing desire for aggressive disputes over territory, and Neptune has the potential to bring stormy waters to our oceans - both physically and metaphorically. As Neptune is seen as the ‘ruler’ of all liquids, we can add in the threat to Oil supplies as well (Well, Oil Wells, anyway - sorry, poor humour).

On a more individual note the adventure has begun, our course set, and there’s no turning back! Right now things are changing incredibly rapidly and unpredictably. We must act now with our grand plans already in place, drawn up over the previous few months - to hesitate is to lose momentum and miss the moment.

From a shamanic perspective I think we are moving towards a shift of how we perceive ourselves, how we relate to each other and to our sense of security and certainty. It’s a time to understand our excesses- recognise and integrate those shadow aspects of who we are and that society disapproves of - and ride the waves of those excesses if that is what we want. Life fluctuates, and our sense of balance may sometimes need to be thrown out of kilter to truly experience all life offers us. That pleasure and pain are polar opposites isn’t always the case, even if we think they are, and a safe life isn’t necessarily the most fulfilling one. Still, there’s always an aftermath to unbalanced excess, and we must be prepared to pay the price if we indulge in too much of a good (or bad but oh so pleasurable) thing. There may be rough Neptunian waters ahead, we may need to cross rivers in spate, floods of emotional tides; or we may be called upon to raft the white waters of life to reach the safety of dry land and the deep rooted sense of homecoming amongst sheltering trees. If we succeed and don’t drown it’s here we can finally grasp onto strong branches as we climb above the storms and transcend what is going on all around us.

Saturn’s deep roots can support and sustain us - and may even lead us to a place of our own sense of personal power and sovereignty and emotional maturity. Here is where we can finally express our personal truths alongside the hope of new beginnings that will undoubtedly sweep away the old, the outdated, the worn out; and also sweep away our personal lack of confidence at the same time, if we are brave enough. It’s here we can discover a deeper centre within a place of personal sovereignty; one that doesn’t depend on external certainty and from where your truth can be expressed as rooted presence.

Times are changing so rapidly. The world may feel volatile, fast-moving, and at times overwhelming, and we can expect that to accelerate once Uranus moves into Gemini early in the morning of the 26th here in the UK. To prosper in the midst of these times we are experiencing means to unashamedly and intuitively fully embrace who we are. While seemingly unstoppable forces wish to control us, we can choose a different path - our own personal path of power - and through our individual power create something greater than the sum of its parts by coming together as a ‘hidden’ but powerful collective. The ability to remain connected to yourself even as everything shifts around you holds the key.

This is a threshold of enactment. The seeds already planted now ask for movement, for expression, for life. The most potent action arises from clarity. Know what steadies you. Know what centres you. Know what makes you feel calm. These are necessities in these times of acceleration.

And so, the invitation is this: to move forward with courage, but also with deeply held and focused consciousness; to allow passion and compassion to walk hand in hand. To act boldly, with clarity of vision and purpose; and to remember that while fire can destroy, it illuminates as it brings new growth and fertility in its wake.

Like it or not, the flame is lit. What you do with it - that is where the magic lives. As Goethe said:

“What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine x

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

It’s been a while since I’ve found the time - and the inspiration - to post here because of my ongoing responsibilities in caring for my partner, which continues to be exceptionally time consuming. Not that I resent the need for me to care for someone so unwell, but given we are rapidly approaching the Libra full moon it somehow feels appropriate for me to share some thoughts on what’s going on in the skies.

I’ve read a few astrologers and watched some videos talking about this full moon, and most do seem to be following similar thoughts along very accepted meanings, but I am feeling the need to give an alternative view - perhaps even a little heretical!

I’m feeling there’s something dangerously and yet exquisitely paradoxical about this Full Moon - something that loosens the old boundaries and invites us into a wider field, where the individuality of the Aries Sun’s separation begins to feel like a useful illusion rather than a fixed truth.

On the 2nd April at 3:12 in the morning, at 12° of Libra, the Moon will rise opposite the Sun in Aries. The familiar tropes tell us this is all about polarities - of opposites, of self vs other, perhaps of gender stereotypes. But I think what’s unfolding is far more than a simple polarity.

The Sun carries with it the lingering presence of Neptune and Saturn: dream and form, ocean and bone, still entangled even as their exact conjunction fades and begins to drift apart. Saturn has tasted the infinite; Neptune has touched structure. What remains is a strange and luminous hybridity, where identity becomes permeable, and form remembers its origin in the formless, and isn’t quite as solid as we’d like to hope and think.

It seems to me that the Moon in Libra receives all of this permeability confronted by structures that once seemed immovable yet are dissolving (or perhaps now being destroyed by self ignited but unintentional fires) and reflects it back as a living mirror of ourselves, as a surface through which awareness recognises itself.

Ancient Platonic psychological rhythms seem to echo through this Libran New Moon: the “One” folding outward into relationship, then returning to itself through reflection. Libra asks us to find safety in relationships and moves in the tides of its ruler, Venus, while Aries responds with questions of individuality, of expressing who we are with assertive energy, which may slip beyond that into aggressive and even violent action. Yet both gestures arise from the same breath, the same pulse circulating through different forms.

The atmosphere around this lunation is alive - charged, restless, dangerously “honest” in its articulation and actions. There are few filters. Chiron and Eris, bound together in Aries, stir something raw and uncompromising. Eris tossed her apple into the arena a year ago and Chiron continues to offer us his mentorship to get us through the ensuing battle of egos provoked by Eris; but are we ready to listen, or do our words and deeds cut through any possible diplomacy with the precision and fervour of Mars at his most determined and thoughtless - a rage that holds nothing back and without any sort of plan for a just peace that Libra so desperately desires and seeks. Not that Libra is always as diplomatic as she may be right now; blind justice can be as dangerous as needless violence.

Of course, with a Jupiter in Cancer - seeking a homecoming and a security within a Cancerian shell of safety - there may be a deep instinctual desire to hide from external forces to retreat into familiar family structures that may feel safe, yet will only delay the inevitable if we scurry sideways from the reality of a crumbling world order. Yes, there’s the promise of hope and safety here, but it needs to be earned. There’s no automatic right to comfort in these uncomfortable unpredictable times.

Venus, too offers us a different tempo to a quarrelsome - and some would say selfish - Aries with its current (and growing through the month) stellium. Steady and sovereign in Taurus, and ruling this Libran Moon, she has completed her descent into invisibility and begins her slow return to the evening sky, emerging once more on the western horizon. Her journey echoes the ancient descent of Inanna into the realm of Ereshkigal, where all adornment is relinquished, and essence alone remains. It lives also in the story of Persephone, whose time with Hades binds her forever to both worlds: root and blossom, shadow and return. Venus as the evening star carries that underworld knowing.

Her coming conjunction with Ceres speaks quietly of restoration, of nourishment returning after a season of depletion and of life reweaving itself from beneath the surface. There is a deep reassurance here that we desperately need in these chaotic times: nothing that descends into the underworld is ever truly lost. It is transformed, composted, made fertile in ways the surface world cannot always see.

Beneath all of this, Pluto and Saturn continue their long, slow conversation. The tension between them has begun to very slowly and imperceptibly ease, yet its imprint remains like the aftershock of tectonic plates shifting deep below the visible landscape. The structures that shape reality are still in motion, still renegotiating their foundations, and we can see these shifts all around us.

As the month unfolds the fire gathers. Mars enters Aries, followed by Mercury, amplifying the concentration of energy in this single sign. The sky becomes focused, intent, alive with movement. It is as though life itself is leaning into expression, into immediacy, into the vividness of being. Where and how can we hold to the positive courage of Mars in his own sign of Aries without turning a righteous rage on others who make easy scapegoats to blame for our own weaknesses and mistakes. Will the shadow of this Full Moon holds a quiet centre of healing and recognition or will we let its force ride roughshod over any remaining sense of what is right and just? Will the evolving new order of the world and own lives hold to a moral compass that is more one of Aquarian community, or one of Aquarian control by force?

This Full Moon feels to me a reminder that what appears as many is carried within a single field of awareness. The fire, the mirror, the descent, the return, each movement belonging to the same collective living intelligence, exploring itself through contrast, through relationship, and through form.

In the early hours of the 2nd April, this Moon reflects all of this, asking us to face up to who we are within the ‘whole’; as individuals with collective responsibility for more than just ourselves. We are being offered something to recognise and make a choice. We are not separate from what we encounter. This isn’t the time to ponder and deliberate before weirding the sword of justice, like an academic problem to be solved. It’s much more than that, and we are the meeting point where it becomes known.

With infinite love and blessings,

Christine x

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

When talking to friends and clients, their experiences of the current astrology seem to range from extreme activity and excitement all the way through to a sense of disillusion and disappointment, for some even verging on depression. My own experience has been one of deep emotional challenges that have left me feeling both emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted. It sometimes feels difficult to even get out of bed and get motivated to face the day. But life goes on, and we all have commitments - whether imposed or chosen. Thinking about that: are they all ‘chosen’ at some level, whether we believe in our lives being fated or subject to the vagaries of fortune or pure chance?

Meanwhile the world around us seems to become a little bit more bonkers each and every day. Watching the leader of the most powerful country in the world continuing to throw tantrums of hurt feelings when a comedian offends him, while at the same time threatening to sue another nation’s national broadcaster while ongoing chaos reigns in so many parts of the world seems the ultimate absurdity - at least so far. But I suspect there may be more to come. Which may lead nicely on to the astrology:

Patterns

Patterns abound over the next month or so - Grand Water Trines, Magic Triangles, Kites. Even as the Sun shifts towards fiery Sagittarius Water and that Grand Water Trine continues to dominate. There is so much going on! Let’s try to make some sense of it all:

The threshold of Mercury and the Scorpionic Moon

Revisiting my words from my last Substack post on the run up to the Scorpio New Moon, a brief reminder that retrograde Mercury leaves Sagittarius and returns to Scorpio on 19th November.

We find the winged messenger retracing his steps at the threshold of the Archer’s gate. Retrograde, he pauses at the liminal doorway between the fiery vision of Sagittarius and the shadowed depths of Scorpio. This is Hermes as psychopomp, reminding us that wisdom is not linear but spiral, and that truth must be re-seen from the underworld before it can be proclaimed in the heavens.

Mercurial thresholds

Even though Mercury has been well within orb while in Sagittarius, his return to Scorpio immediately makes a reprise of the Mercury-Uranus opposition by sign, recreating a very different dynamic to the out of sign Sagittarius-Cancer opposition.

This is a lightning strike across that Scorpio-Taurus axis; the mind is jolted awake, secrets unearthed, revelations sudden and destabilizing. Uranus demands liberation from stagnant thought; Mercury, still retrograde, whispers that freedom comes only after descent into shadow. Expect the crackle of insight, the shattering of old narratives.

Immediately after the shock, and still on the 19th, comes a softening as Mercury trines Neptune in the oceanic waters of Pisces: the dream-voice of Neptune offers mythic coherence. What was fractured by Uranus is dissolved into oceanic vision. This is the poet’s balm, the mystic’s song, reminding us that revelation is not only disruptive but also redemptive.

The Scorpio New Moon

Which leads us to the New Moon in Scorpio on the 20th November at 6:47 in the morning. Here the Moon and Sun unite in the deep waters of Scorpio, 28°. A swirling sense of possibilities rise from the depths of transformation. This lunation is a ritual of death and rebirth, a vow to surrender what no longer serves. Evolutionary astrology reads this as a karmic turning point: the soul chooses to release attachments to power, control, and secrecy, so that intimacy and truth may flourish.

With Mercury cazimi (Mercury exactly conjunct the Sun) at this New Moon
The empowered mercurial mind meets the solar heart in Scorpio’s depths. This is the “inferior conjunction” - Hermes in the underworld, carrying messages from the soul’s shadow to the solar consciousness. We can think of it as a moment of clarity born from darkness, a ritual of naming what has been hidden.

The following day - 20th November - the long standing Uranus sextile Neptune aspect perfects. This is a rare harmonic between the revolutionary and the dreamer. Collective currents shift: visions of liberation, spiritual technology, and mythic imagination align. This is the evolutionary call to weave innovation with compassion, disruption with dream.

The Sun’s path and Mercury’s gifts

On the 21st November the Sun opposes Uranus; the solar self confronts the wild god of change. Ego structures tremble; freedom demands sacrifice. This is Prometheus unchained, reminding us that awakening often comes through rupture, and then makes a sweet trine with Neptune. Perhaps the rupture is softened by Neptune’s tide, or perhaps we are swept up in false optimism and illusion. The Sun, illumined by dream and visions, learns to surrender control and flow with the larger myth. A reminder that true power is found in yielding to mystery.

The following day (22nd November), after Scorpio’s descent, the Sun strides into Sagittarius - the mythic archer aiming toward vision. The collective mood shifts from shadow-work to quest. We may frame this as the soul’s expansion after catharsis: the hunger for meaning, myth, and truth.

Mercury, still retrograde, trines Saturn and Jupiter on the 22nd November
seeking to root into Saturn’s wisdom and Jupiter’s expansive blessing. Words carry weight, thoughts attempt to crystallize into structure, and insights expand into possibility. Yet both Saturn and Jupiter remain in the sign of the fishes, Pisces. This is Hermes, Saturn and Jupiter as subtle teacher, bringing visions to a place of inspired thoughts and ideas, seeking to stabilise the revelations of the past days with a clarity that may prove either inspirational; or perhaps we will be swept up in a tide of wishful thinking and impracticality.

On the 23rd November the Sun will sextile Pluto - our solar will or ego allies with the lord of transformation. This is empowerment through surrender, and strength through shadow integration. Over this brief aspect the soul learns that evolution requires both courage and humility.

A day later, on the 24 November 2025, Mars in Sagittarius forms a square to the karmic axis - the North Node in Pisces, the South in Virgo - challenging the soul to reconcile instinctual action with its evolutionary path. This is a skipped step moment: Mars becomes the initiator, the agitator, the sacred disruptor whose tension must be resolved for the soul to move forward. Mars in Sagittarius is the Pilgrim-Warrior, the mythic archer, the blade of belief, the restless fire that seeks truth beyond borders. He acts on vision, fights for freedom, and burns with the zeal of cosmic purpose. But when squared to the Nodes, his arrows may miss the mark - fired too quickly, too righteously, or in avoidance of deeper soul work.

With the South Node in Virgo, Mars may trigger patterns of acting out through judgment, perfectionism, or the need to “fix” rather than feel.

The soul’s growth lies in surrender, compassion, and mystic trust. The Pisces North Node calls us to dissolve boundaries, embrace the ineffable, and act from intuition rather than analysis. Mars must learn to serve the dream, not dominate it; to become a spiritual warrior rather than a crusader of certainty.

Venusian mysteries and Saturn’s turning

On the 25th November Mercury will be conjunct Venus. Mind and heart entwine in Scorpio. Words of love, truth-telling in intimacy, the alchemy of speech and desire. This is the lover’s confession, the poet’s vow.

A day later, on the 26th, Venus trines Jupiter and Saturn. Here, Venus receives blessings from both benefic expansion and Saturnian structure. Relationships deepen, values stabilize, abundance flows through commitment. This is the weaving of beauty into form, love into longevity.

The 28th sees Saturn turns direct in Pisces. This is a turning point. The first of the many retrogrades in the sky turns direct signalling a shift from passivity and the familiar to a sense of movement. There’s a way to go yet, but it’s a start! So the great teacher turns forward in the oceanic sign. Collective lessons of faith, boundaries in compassion, and responsibility in dream begin to move outward. We can read this as the soul’s maturation in spiritual service - learning to embody devotion with discipline.

Then on the 29th, Mercury follows Saturn’s lead and turns direct in Scorpio
Hermes begins his journey of emergence from retrograde shadow, which won’t be fully complete until the 17th December . Still, he truths unearthed during his retrograde will now slowly find expression. What was whispered in the underworld can be spoken aloud. Here is a turning point in communication, clarity, and soul contracts.

Venusian awakening and transition

Venus opposes Uranus on 30th November: the goddess of love confronts the rebel! Relationships may be shaken, values disrupted, desires electrified. This is Aphrodite meeting Prometheus: love must evolve, beauty must be freed from possession.

Immediately, Venus trine Neptune, the dream softens the shock. Love dissolves into compassion, art into mysticism. The soul learns that freedom in love is not chaos but devotion to the larger dream.

Then, later on the same day, Venus enters Sagittarius. Desire shifts from Scorpio’s depth to Sagittarius’ quest. Love becomes a pilgrimage, beauty a vision, relationship a shared adventure. The soul seeks truth through connection, myth through intimacy.

As Venus continues to run the gauntlet of aspects to the outer plants, she sextiles Pluto on the 2nd December. With this aspect, desire allies with transformation, love deepens, values are empowered, intimacy becomes a crucible for evolution. This is the alchemy of devotion, the sacred marriage of eros and shadow.

Finally, on the 4th December, we reach the Full Moon at 13° Gemini.
The culmination of this cycle: the Moon illuminates Gemini’s multiplicity, opposing the Sun in Sagittarius. This signifies a tension between story and truth, detail and vision, multiplicity and unity. This is the soul’s challenge to integrate many voices into one mythic coherence. The ritual here is dialogue, storytelling, weaving the fragments into a living tapestry. But more on that next time.

A Mythic Arc?

This whole sequence feels like it’s a form of Scorpio - Sagittarius initiation:

It’s a descent into shadow (Scorpio) to revelation through rupture (Uranus/Neptune) leading to emergence into vision (Sagittarius). We see Mercury and Venus act as psychopomp and goddess, guiding the soul through confession, intimacy, disruption, and expansion, while Saturn and Pluto help anchor the process - sometimes in rich Piscean mud, sometimes in higher minded Aquarian ideas - ensuring that transformation is not fleeting but may be embodied. Finally, the Gemini Full Moon closes the arc with multiplicity, reminding us that truth is not singular but polyphonic.

This whole cycle feels like a ritual of death and rebirth in intimacy, thought, and vision: a mythic passage where Hermes, Aphrodite, and Prometheus dance together, dissolving old contracts and opening the soul to new quests.

May these times bring you blessings of hope,

With love,

Christine x

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

Tradition tells us that it is the evening of October 31st that marks Samhain – Nos Calan Gaeaf in the native Welsh language; Hallowe’en in modern culture; All Saint’s Eve in the Christian tradition. For me it has always felt that Samhain isn’t quite as clearly defined as that. In my practice it has become more a time to mark the ‘end of Summer’ over a longer period. Days, maybe even weeks. My intuition tells me that Samhain wasn’t as fixed as it is today. Perhaps it was even a Solar-Lunar festival, marked by the first New Moon after the beginning of what we now call November or the closest equivalent to the calendar used in elder days. That feels right somehow, though there is - as far as I know - any evidence for such a practice. Perhaps it was simply marked by the first frosts? Which seem as good an indication as any other and keeps us in perfect symmetry with the seasons year by year.

However it was marked, we witness the sun as it sinks ever further east on the horizon each dawn and each dusk, and the days grow darker and colder. Leaves fall from the tress, carpeting the land with earthy browns and golds and reds, and we ourselves turn inward in reflection of the passing of summer.

It’s time to recall all we have achieved this year before discarding the things that we now realise we cannot sustain through the cold dark nights of the coming winter. In times past before industrialisation each of us would be faced with the stark knowledge that what we have harvested in the fields – wheat, barley, rye, corn – and what we have gleaned from the hedgerows – nuts, lush soft berries, apples, pears – is all we now have to last us the winter.

We need to choose what animals we will feed through the dark times and those we cannot sustain. Difficult, painful decisions but ones that our own lives may well depend on.

We gather fallen branches and perhaps cut a few down asking permission of the spirit of the tree in order that we can make a fire to keep us warm as the weakening sun loses his strength.

It is said the veil thins and we are able to make contact more easily with the Otherworld, with the ancestors and our healing spirits, the fey, the sidhe and other personal guides and guardians, while Gwynn Ap Nudd leads his Wild Hunt over the land and across the sky, calling to the sprits of those who have died over the past year but have failed to find their way to the other side, or who still cling to this material world.

We make ritual and let go of all the things that may have failed over the last year; all the things that never reached fruition, and things that have held us back from achieving the best of who we are.

What have we done? What have we achieved? Where have we fallen short?

It is now time for contemplation and deep insights as we spend more time indoors, gently watching over the flickering dim light of our hearth fire, holding it gently in our hearts as the year wanes and we await its tender imperceptible return.

We light candles for the dead, and we give thanks to our ancestors who are good, true and beautiful asking for their help and guidance through the dark days to come.

While world events continue to be spiral out of control around us that, and while modern Halloween celebrations revolve around the scary and spooky presence of ghosts and spirits, it is at this time of year we have the best opportunity to celebrate our loving ancestors joyfully and respectfully, asking them to share their wisdom with us as we grapple with our own everyday lives. They can bring us healing and love, just as we can heal them through our prayers and shamanic work.

With love and the blessings of the Ancestors,
Christine

Beannachtai daoine uaisle; Beannachtai déithe agus aindéithe

We begin the month with the fading of the Water Grand Trine between Mars in Scorpio, Saturn in Pisces, and Jupiter in Cancer that peaked around the 27th and 28th October.

Together with Saturn conjunct to a Neptune that returned to Pisces - his modern home and domain - this rare and deeply emotional configuration creates a watery flowing between the mystic, the elder, the nurturer, and the warrior, where Saturn in Pisces attempts to offer structure to the spiritual, Neptune in Pisces dissolves boundaries and invites divine connection, and Jupiter in Cancer seeks to expand emotional wisdom and ancestral memory. Meanwhile Mars in his traditional watery home of Scorpio desires transformation through deep emotional truth.

This is a grand trine of contained ritual in motion: it’s the potential of a sacred choreography of healing, depth, and intuitive power. With Mars in his rulership, we may see provocative energies, but they flow rather than erupt, almost as if we are offered the opportunity of a baptism of sorts. Yet, it is also self-contained, and while it flows, it flows within itself, and so without focused attention it can become a moment of disillusion, more drifting aimlessly on an infinite ocean than rafting dramatically along white water rapids to a new beginning. We may feel inspired if it touches our natal chart, or we may feel lost.

Water flows where it will, and needs a container for us to hold it - a sacred chalice, a cauldron of hope, the banks of a river where it flows with grace and beauty - or perhaps through a rocky gorge as a raging torrent of white water. Otherwise it can create vast floods, unpredictable wide muddy deltas or marshes (Saturn in Pisces?). And when the Water Gods are provoked, perhaps we even face tsunamis - either literal or metaphorical. Mythological and folk tales of dangerous sea creatures reinforce the deep soul memory of how dangerous and unpredictable water uncontained can be. Water is remorseless and in time its slow drip drip drip can wear away mountains. Yet, if we have made good use of these divine waters, found our container, this may have been a time of profound blessings and peace.

As we move into the month, perhaps our next release point to bring dynamism to the watery theme is Venus in her own airy home of Libra squaring Jupiter, which perfected on the 2nd November, but will still be felt as the Full Moon climaxes on the 5th. She then made a tense quincunx to watery Saturn the following day.

Venus represents attraction, cohesion, coalition, personal love, social instincts and activities, art, ornamentation, beauty. From her Libra temple she is Justice (with a capital J). Together with Jupiter’s search for meaning and truth from his Cancerian place of moonwise exaltation we find qualities of expansion, vision, optimism, ideation, orthodox religious tendencies, benevolence, broad-mindedness, respect for law, honour, charity, reverence, conservatism, opulence, popularity, success.

The Venus–Saturn quincunx brings a more sombre twist to the moment, and perhaps we find insincerity or overprotective energies in play: feelings are kept in check, taking a back seat to responsibility and duty. But let’s remember Saturn is retrograde in Pisces, going over old ground amongst the watery depths of Pisces; not the easiest place to build structures that last the test of time, unless we are seeking to refine our inner self into some form of spiritual practice, no matter how unconventional it may be. In Tarot terms, we aren’t talking the Heirophant, or the World here - more the Empress meets the Eight of Cups.

The Mars–Neptune trine perfects on the 4th November, the day before the Full Moon, just as the Mars–Jupiter trine fades. Both Jupiter (traditional) and Neptune (modern) have rulership of Pisces, so we aren’t losing any of that watery emphasis with this almost seamless shift. If anything, we can say that perhaps we are moving from a collective consciousness outwards to that which is beyond our rational thought processes altogether. Neptune is the dreamer, the infinite coming through our unconscious as hopes, wishes, dreams, visions. It is utopian visions or impossible illusion. With Mars as planet of action I can honestly say I’ve no idea how this transit will play out. It may be beyond my wildest dreams and expectations of hope, or become a moment of loss and disappointment. Let’s focus on the hope bit though! Let’s all head to an ashram, or go fishing for a while…

The day before the Full Moon, Mars enters Sagittarius, bringing themes of exploration and expanding the horizons of our mind and world. Energy is put into our aspirations, with a forceful idealism, optimism and generosity, a love of action and activity. Let’s be a little cautious though, as a Sagittarian Mars can get carried away with unbounded and scattered enthusiasm. Here in Jupiter’s fiery home and co-present with a debilitated Mercury - who wants to focus on the details that Sagittarius as a sign feels unnecessary - we may find the balance of right action tipped beyond what is prudent and become over-confident, dogmatic, even to the point of fanaticism.

There’s an added complication in the mix too, as within a few hours Mars will be in exact opposition to a retrograde Uranus in Gemini - a sign ruled by Mercury! Watch for rising storms, whether metaphorical or physical. This clash of hidden fires may call forth conflict or rash deeds. The unguarded hand may invite mischance, and the restless foot may stumble where shadows stir. Tread with awareness through the realms of motion and flame; swift tempers and sudden strikes may walk close by.

So we reach the Full Moon in Taurus, which culminates at 1:19pm on the afternoon of the 5th November. Changes and potentials abound, held in abeyance for now. Pluto, Neptune and Uranus, all still retrograde, remain in the lockstep of their ‘Magic Triangle’, though for now Neptune is ‘out of sign’; Saturn and Neptune ride the skies together, teasing and tantalisingly close to their exact conjunction, which will remain elusive until late February next year; Jupiter remains in a trine with a slow retrograde Saturn - the last remnant of the dissipated Grand Water Trine spoken of earlier - as well as being square retrograde Chiron, who sits ever beside far distant and all but motionless bringer of strife, Eris.

What’s more, on the 6th November, Venus enters the sign of Scorpio - the day after the Full Moon - and finds herself at the apex and release point of a ‘Thor’s Hammer’ pattern with Ceres and Uranus - both moving backwards in the sky. When Ceres walks backward through the flames of Aries, the Mother of Harvest becomes the Warrior-Midwife, tending not just the fields, but our desires, our passion, our pioneering soul. Her retrograde path demands that we reclaim the wild grain of self-nurture. Uranus is turned inward, retracing his steps - seeking freedom from restricting constellations of the mind. Theirs is a sextile of rebellion and renewal: electric seeds of the mind beneath the soil of identity, promising awakening through disruption. The quincunx is awkward, a reminder that the heart’s longing and the mind’s restless rebellion don’t easily align. Expect sudden sparks, dissonant conversations, or the sense that intimacy requires a new language.

Then, on the 8th November, Uranus retrograde re-enters Taurus (8 Nov, 2:21 am), shaking the ground beneath our feet, offering a final chance as he demands revolution in the realm of resources, embodiment, and belonging. Old certainties about stability, money, and the body are unsettled. What we thought was solid reveals its cracks, and through them, new roots push.

Venus squares Pluto in Aquarius on the same day, a clash of fixed signs that is not gentle. It is obsession, power, and the raw truth of desire. Venus in Scorpio wants depth; Pluto in Aquarius wants transformation of the collective order. Together they ask: how do our private passions ripple into the wider web?

On the 9th November, Mercury stations retrograde in Sagittarius at 7:01 pm, halting at the edge of a conjunction to Mars, turning back from an outward adventurous quest for truth, and instead seeking that knowing within. Retrograde in the sign of the seeker, Mercury asks us to reconsider the stories we tell about freedom, belief, and meaning.

Next, Jupiter stations retrograde in Cancer on the 11th November, expansion now turning inward too. Nourishment, belonging, and ancestral roots become the terrain of growth. This is a call to reweave the stories of home, to find abundance not in outward conquest but in the deep well of memory.

On the 17th November, the Sun in Scorpio trines Jupiter retrograde in Cancer and Saturn retrograde in Pisces, forming a sort of temporary reprise of the earlier Water Grand Trine. Once again, we are in the flow of water, a chalice of containment, a ritual vessel. Scorpio’s intensity, Cancer’s care, and Pisces’ dream coalescing into a current of healing and integration. Here the waters cleanse, but they also consecrate.

Finally, Mercury retrograde returns to Scorpio (19 Nov, 3:20 am) - retracing Venus’ earlier steps - and then finds himself in a brief face off with an opposition to Uranus, and a sweet but perhaps confusing trine to Neptune. We may find that words become spells, secrets resurface, and conversations pierce to the bone. This may not be Mercurial chatter but more a deep confession; it’s not an exchange of information but more an initiation: but into what?

The arc of November up to the Sagittarius New Moon is a watery descent into the underworld of intimacy, truth, and memory. Venus and Mercury both move through Scorpio’s gates, while Uranus, Saturn, Neptune (and Pluto in the sign of the ‘Water Bearer’) shake the foundations of love and power. The retrogrades of Mercury and Jupiter turn us inward, asking us to re-story our beliefs and our belonging. The return of a Water Grand Trine on the 17th offers a rare vessel of grace, a chalice in which the currents of Scorpio, Cancer, and Pisces align to cleanse and consecrate. It is a moment of deep integration, where the waters, if they do not overwhelm us, may hold us, reminding us that healing is not always dramatic - it can be quiet, tidal, and profoundly sustaining, if we can find the flow and have the courage to raft it.

Yet the descent is not endless. As Mercury retraces Venus’ steps into Scorpio on the 19th, the psychopomp gathers up the whispers and secrets of the underworld, preparing us for transition. And then, on the 20th November, the cycle turns: the New Moon in Sagittarius ignites the horizon. After weeks of watery immersion, shadow work, and underworld initiation, the Archer lifts the bow. The arrow points forward, toward vision, expansion, and the promise of new stories.

This New Moon is the threshold: the end of the lunar cycle that began in the Libran depths of October’s New Moon, and the beginning of a fiery quest. It is the moment when the pilgrim emerges from the depths, carrying the wisdom of Scorpio’s descent and the blessings of the Water Trines, ready to seek meaning beneath the wide Sagittarian sky. Let your Sagittarian arrows fly! But more on that next time…

With love and blessings,

Christine

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”

First of all I want to apologise. I’ve been very unwell this last week or so. Over a year of caring for my chronically ill partner at home has - and continues - to take its toll, and last week I hit a brick wall. Emotionally and physically drained, my body finally said “enough”. Everything planned has been put on hold, tasks that needed my attention neglected, other than caring for my partner. Except for a couple of days, I’ve not had a proper break or time fully for myself since August 2024, and it has caught up with me. I’ve managed to get some rest the last few days, and a few extra visits from the nursing team has helped, so while I feel physically better, I’m still a little overwhelmed with, well, things.

So, this post isn’t as thorough or as deep as I’d like it to be. No tarot exploration, no Sabian Symbol stuff, no really deep analytical depth. But I hope it will suffice. I’ve taken a look at the whole month and not focused just on the New and Full Moons as I transition to a different and more flexible way of using Substack for my writings. Still, I hope it’ll do, and that you find it useful. Let me know? Here then, are some thoughts on the astrology for the rest of October….

At first glance, October tiptoes in with the guise of cosmic ordinariness - a brief lull in a year of mythic crescendos. But beneath the surface, the sky stirs with paradox: the inner planets race forward, flinging events like confetti, while the outer ones retrograde, slow and remorseless, dragging us backward into the undertow of unfinished stories. We are caught in a spiral dance of déjà vu and dizzying acceleration, where the past whispers through the cracks of the present.

This month invites us into a ritual of reckoning. Revelation, revolution, perhaps even peace - at least of a sort - beckon, but they are not guaranteed. The call to diplomacy is real, yet fragile, easily distorted by emotional dissonance and the manipulations of those who thrive on division. Right relationship is the altar we must return to, again and again. So lets have a look at some of the details:

Mercury slips into Scorpio on 6th October and immediately squares Pluto on the 7th, plunging us into the underworld of truth. Secrets surface. Conversations deepen. Mars, cloaked in his nocturnal Scorpio temple, lends introspective heat to words and motives. We are asked to discern: what must be surrendered, and what must be fiercely protected?

The day after, at 4:48am BST on the 7th, the Aries Full Moon at 14°08’ arrives like a drumbeat of urgency.

Decisions demand embodiment. Yet haste may betray us: this lunation is wired with tension. A yod formation points to Mercury in Scorpio, flanked by Uranus in Gemini and Neptune in Aries, suggesting catalytic revelations and impulsive pivots. Mercury’s square to stationing Pluto could unearth volatile truths, igniting chain reactions. Conflict may feel inevitable, but we are only powerless if we allow ourselves to be. Our words can wound or weave healing. As always, the choice is ours.

Venus in Virgo opposes Saturn in Pisces on October 11th, tightening the screws of detail and duty. That same day, Pluto stations direct, and the cosmic gavel falls - accountability is summoned. We may find ourselves naming injustices, confronting unethical behavior, or demanding integrity.

Hope glimmers on October 13th as Venus enters Libra, her airy sacred temple and sanctuary - filled with incense of Sandalwood, Rose and Lavender.

She invites us to reweave beauty, harmony, and connection. This is a perfect time to explore things you love - art, film, poetry, writing, whatever! Her dance with Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus - forming their minor grand trine, a “magic triangle” - creates a kite configuration that lifts our aspirations skyward, seeking love, beauty, harmony. This is a moment to dream of lasting peace, not just personally, but collectively. The Uranus-Pluto trine, exact next July, continues its slow crescendo. What we seed this month will bloom, or burst, next year. Hidden talents stir. Dormant gifts knock. The universe hands us a key and asks: are you ready to open the door?

But October is not the climax; it is part of the ongoing prologue. The balancing act between self and other continues. Yet with Mars in Scorpio and Venus in Libra, our personal planets are empowered. Mars in Scorpio acts with emotional precision, diving into the depths of motive and meaning. Venus in Libra offers justice, grace and aesthetic balm. Together, they create a fleeting harmony amidst the tectonic shifts of the outer planets.

On the 17th-18th October 17–18 the Sun opposes the long-term Chiron-Eris conjunction in Aries, illuminating wounds and discord. Then, at 1:25pm BST on the 21st October, the Libra New Moon (28°21’) arrives.

This lunation forms a T-square with Chiron, Eris, and Jupiter, while an exalted, potentially pretentious and over-protective Jupiter also joins a Grand Water Trine with Saturn, Mars, and Mercury. Jupiter becomes judge and philosopher, urging us to see the bigger picture and heal collective suffering, though maybe only from a one sided and emotionally protective perspective. Compassion, realism, and gentle speech - all Venusian virtues - become our tools for bridging divides, while Mercury brings focus and precision to what we wish to say.

Meanwhile Eris and Chiron amplify the call to face chaos with courage. Their alignment invites us to unearth buried truths and choose forgiveness over polarization. Mars trines the North Node on October 18th, nudging us toward soul-aligned action, even when the path is steep. These days spark the revolutions of 2025 and beyond.

Even if the verdict stings, this lunation carries a certain finality. The opposition to Eris whispers: surrender gracefully. The alternative is deepening strife and disharmony. Venus in Libra reminds us that in some circumstances and times harmony matters more than being right. We may want to push our own agenda but sometimes it’s better to harness diplomacy and patience. Don’t be the one to throw the apple of discord into the gathering while asking unanswerable questions. Bide your time, and choose your battles with care. Our actions now ripple into the mythic tapestry of collective transformation.

Neptune retrogrades back into Pisces on the morning of 22nd October, blurring boundaries and beckoning us back into the dreamtime. The veil thins. Intuition heightens. But discernment is key; Aries energy lingers, adding a pioneering spark that could inspire or mislead. Still, we won’t fully understand this shift until Saturn meets Neptune next February.

Finally, on 29th October, Mercury enters Sagittarius, trading precision for possibility. Thoughts expand, but clarity may waver. Mercury in Sagittarius may not prove to be as flexible as we like to think. While a Sagittarius Mercury may explore possibilities, once its mind is made up it can be more intractable than the most stubborn Taurus or Capricorn!It’s during November that we will begin to discover whether our visions are mirages or manifestations.

October, then, is a month of mythic tension and tender truth. It asks us to listen deeply, act wisely, and remember: we are all part of something epochal: vast, enduring, and sacred. Whether we recognise it or not we are all a part of history.

With love and blessings,

Christine

“In the end we are nothing more than Love and stardust”