Candy van Rood

Candy van Rood is an astrologer, tarot reader and meditation teacher, and a lifelong student of spiritual and creative disciplines that include meditation, yoga, Qi Gong and Reiki. She has practised astrology since 1974. She works with the Tropical Zodiac and draws on Reinhold Ebertin and Dane Rudhyar, with Carl Jung's archetypes in the background. She uses birth charts and transits as a tool for self-knowledge and for understanding one's purpose. Her tarot readings use the Marseille deck, and she describes them as a way to take the pulse of a person's life.

She has meditated for over fifty years and teaches Vipassana-style (mindfulness) meditation from that experience. Her training includes Reiki II, Family and Systemic Constellations, 5Rhythms movement meditation and certified meditation instruction (Rigpa). She also holds postgraduate art studies. She offers Sacred Women's Circles and workshops, and has created Candid Cards, a 75-card oracle "game" for personal growth and connection.

Before this work, Candy was a visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1990s for her jewellery design, which was sold in Melbourne, in London and in over 30 fashion boutiques across Australia. In 2016 she moved with her family from inner-city Melbourne to a coastal town 75 km south-east of the city. She says the move deepened her connection to nature and led her to co-found Save Westernport in 2017, a local organisation working to protect an internationally recognised Ramsar wetland from inappropriate development.

Her Earth Heart mission is to bring self-awareness and self-love into life, so that compassion, connection and consciousness can grow.