The moon wants to burn it all down (again?) to free itself from any lingering pain, but the sun in Libra and Mars in Cancer say 'wait, we might not be done here.' This is confronting because we are pain-avoiding creatures, and to be asked to examine our wounds hurts.

Paradoxically, choosing to focus on one thing at a time — and doing that thing really well — creates more energy to devote to something else.

Ultimately, the new moon invites us to really sit and reflect before jumping into a course of action. Are the actions really aligned with our authentic selves or are they simply a knee-jerk response beacuse we either fear being seen as idle or because we are operating from outdated conditioning?

Just as the sun is the largest object in our solar system, your sun sign in astrology has the greatest amount of influence on who you are as a person — yet many people feel disconnected from their sun sign. Why?

I also did a simple Mercury ritual, using a beeswax candle, the Magician tarot card, a clear quartz (for clear thought and speech), a piece of green jade (for financial success and because green stones are a Mercury correspondence) and some clover picked from my backyard.

But, when we think of the winter solstice — the shortest day of the year — what we are actually celebrating is the return of the light. From here, the days lengthen. The seeds of nutritive Cancer are found in sparse Capricorn, and visa versa.

The Ascendant refers to the zodiac sign that was located on the eastern horizon at the exact time you were born. Just like the sun rises in the east each morning and moves across the sky before setting in the west (as viewed from our perspective on Earth), the signs are constantly circling around the sky.

So while on the surface it doesn’t seem like Aries has much to do with relationships, upon reflection the most crucial relationship Aries experiences is the one with its self. It is the instinct of self-preservation, the little voice that tells us to stand up for who we are, even if others don’t understand.

Chiron meeting the North Node is a perfect time to reflect on those deep wounds we all carry, but to see them in a different way — and more importantly, to use them as a catalyst to behave differently.

Maybe the crux of this new moon, then, is that we are free to dream big yet these dreams are embedded in an architecture that may not support the changes we seek.

I think it can become easy to focus on the idea that Aquarius is 'society,' and because society is bigger than us, there's nothing much we can do. We worry we'll be swept along by the current regardless of whether we like the direction it is flowing. And that's where Leo comes in.

Venus in Leo doesn't want to get sucked into a political miasma, and during this time period we might see more people aggressively checking out and choosing to focus their energies closer to home, where they can bring joy to their friends and relish life's pleasures even if the future is uncertain.

If that's not enough, we have finished our first week of Saturn settling into Pisces, where it landed with the soft plop of a stone sinking into a pond after 5 years of holding court in the two signs of its rulership, Capricorn and Aquarius. This transit will force Saturn to loosen its tight grip on the reins.

At the same time I have journalled, sipped cacao, pulled cards and spoke to trusted advisors about the why behind this seemingly sudden halt in everything I spent the past few years building. And the answer has come, slowly, that I'm making space for something else to come through.

During your Pluto square, you will likely be thrust into experiences which test the foundations you have built and topple anything that is not in alignment with your soul purpose. This time can be devastating and destablising yet clarifying, encouraging you to rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

Scorpio and Taurus invite us to shift our focus in a different direction and move from the realm of ideas to the tangible plane of our physical environment. Taurus wants to accumulate, to cultivate the soil and to nourish the body. Scorpio, on the other hand, desires to eliminate — to purge anything that is no longer serving from our lives.

In honour of today's Mercury ingress into Virgo, where it will join Venus and Mars, I want to focus on signs in opposition, unpacking the relationship between Virgo and Pisces.

Although I have been practicing astrology for years, I started my business during the height of the pandemic, which means that remote consultations have been the cornerstone of my offering from Day 1.

Like all transits, Mercury retrograde is transient. Whatever happens, big, small or nothing at all, this too shall pass.

We have officially entered eclipse season, which commenced with yesterday's total lunar eclipse at 5 degrees on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis.