Holy Grower - I am due to retire after 35 years as a gardener for a religious order, but am torn by loyalty to continue as they wish.

A. Oh, yes, indeed it does. The timing is divine for your cosmically attuned life makeover. Within several months of your next birthday, you will complete the third quarter of the 30-year Progressed Lunation Cycle, marking a definitive turning point in life’s direction: leaving the past behind to push off toward a new future. This is the harvest of the cycle that began 21 years earlier at the Progressed New Moon.¹

The main pattern in your birth chart is an implied six-pointed star configuration, with natal planets at five of those points, revealing "an especially well-integrated or creative nature with broad interests.”² It’s time to embroider those interests more fully into your life. One point of that star, your 5th-house Sun–Mercury conjunction, reveals innate ingenuity, and its opposition to a Moon–Pluto conjunction in the 11th is a celestial mandate for social integration and connectedness without sacrificing your individuality.

The profound need for change has been brewing over several years, prompted by challenging planetary activity. The progressed Sun opposite natal Neptune fully connects you to the solitary nature of your work and to a sense of your spiritual calling; the solar-arc Midheaven conjoining natal Pluto provides a powerful urge to heed that call. It would go against the very grain of your being to ignore your life’s mission and remain in circumstances that no longer suit you simply to satisfy the needs of others.

Meanwhile, transiting Saturn opposite natal Sun and Mercury encourages the reorientation of personal ideology and goals, demanding focused action. And if that weren’t enough, transiting Uranus opposite the Ascendant and square Mars implies profound restlessness and a sense of tedium with the status quo. This deep unrest will become even more intense as you move closer to your retirement date, demanding that you fulfill the destiny implied in your chart.

To top it all off, transiting Saturn conjoins your natal Moon–Pluto conjunction,³ imploring you to be yourself; anything that no longer encourages the fullness of your being must be left behind. The moment is near to fully embody your natal star pattern and its grand trine — from the 5th-house Sun–Mercury (a creative and enquiring mind) to 9th-house Uranus–Midheaven (unique philosophical perspectives) to 2nd-house Neptune (integrative spiritual capacities) — describing your ongoing spiritual quest and your ability to create a socially integrated and meaningful life.

The many years of solitary service and dedication that you spent honoring your connection to nature and spirit (natal grand trine) are drawing to a close. You have learned the lessons necessary for your next steps, and now you must heed a higher calling. As heavily as your employers may rely upon you, I imagine that they can understand and support your need to fulfill your own spiritual destiny. As you move closer to the moment of change, to prepare for the next phase of your journey, meditate on the question, “how shall I dance to the song in my heart?”—trusting that the universe will provide the music.