April Energies. Buckle In

April is a “3” Universal Month [4 (April) + 8 (2024) = 12 = 1+2 = 3] in an “8” Universal Year. 3 months are about connection & building – three can be a party OR a crowd, depending on your perspective. With all eyes on Aries season & the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Chiron, & the North Node in Aries over the month, it’s more likely to be the latter. We’re focused on independence and our own journeys during this time.

The Set Up

We begin the month with the Sun, Mercury, Chiron, & the North Node in Aries; Venus, Mars, Saturn, & Neptune in Pisces; Uranus in Taurus, & Pluto in Aquarius. That’s a huge cluster of planets all in sequential signs overstretching the last two & the first two signs of the horoscope. This shows that this is a fundamental shift & ending going on – likely in the world around us & our own lives. We’re also deep in between eclipses & entering retrograde season.

By month’s end, all of our personal planets except Mercury will have changed signs. The Sun will have moved on into Taurus, & Venus & Mars will have moved into Aries. Additionally, Mercury will have retrograded & stationed direct again.

The Nitty Gritty

All eyes are on the sign of Aries as it will be involved with most of the major astrological transits of the month. Ten of the fifteen total aspects in April are conjunctions & all but two will be found in the sign of Aries. That’s a lot. Expect the energy to be fast, dry, hot, & ornery all month long. Aries is a sign of endless ambition, or, at least, endless energy. Aries need focus (given by their ruling planet Mars) & an unobstructed pathway to be at their best. Neither of those two things will be in ample supply.

This is to say that this will be a rough Aries season. Everyone will want to be doing, going, & accomplishing but getting nowhere fast. There is a major culprit here as the energy of each astrological season is augmented by the planetary ruler of its sign (in Aries’s case, Mars). For most of the month, Mars will be mired in the watery depths of Pisces. While Aries is sign #1, Pisces is sign #12. Pisces has seen and done it all, or at least that’s what they like you to believe. Pisces doesn’t move fast, they abide like The Dude – they’d rather spend their time daydreaming & fantasizing than accomplishing much in the tangible world. Mars can’t find any solid footing in the sign of the fish & we all may end up feeling like we are treading water (or drowning) if we try to maintain too much control.

This is going to manifest as a shitstorm of epic-level temper tantrums.

Let’s be real here: Aries isn’t known for being the most mature sign.  That’s not what they are here for.   Astrology teaches us that all sign energies have a place & Aries’s is to be the trailblazer.   As Sign #1, Aries is SUPPOSED TO step out into the world on their own.   It is their cosmic design to run ahead & scout things out.   Part of emotional maturity comes from the ability to stop & consider how your actions affect another – although it’s a powerful skill, it naturally inhibits some types of growth & innovation.

Aries tends to keep its blinders on for a reason.   Nobody gets to the top of the mountain if we all slow down & keep pace with the person who can’t climb.   The mature Aries knows that they are wearing blinders & when to take them off.   

Most actual Aries types (Sun, Ascendant, Moon, or Mars in Aries, at least those that have lived long enough to have experienced a Saturn return) have learned this lesson.   The problem comes when EVERYBODY ELSE has to stew in this thwarted Aries energy.

I’d say pack your patience, but I doubt there will be enough patience to go around.

April won’t begin with a bang but with a liminal whimper as Mercury stations retrograde at 27° Aries on the first. We’re already deep in this story – Mercury has been in Aries since 3/10 (in its pre-retrograde shadow since 3/18) & will remain there until mid-May. This is a very long stay for our fast-moving planet which normally takes 2-3 weeks to transit a sign. This shows us that there is work to be done around Mercury in Aries themes: notably owning our voices & speaking up for ourselves.

Important dates involving the retrograde: 4/1 Mercury retrogrades, 4/11 Sun conjunct retrograde Mercury, 4/15 retrograde Mercury conjunct Chiron, 4/19 retrograde Mercury conjuncts Venus, 4/25 Mercury stations direct It’s worth noting that from 4/15-4/17 & even a bit beyond that, we will be experiencing a major Aries stellium between retrograde Mercury, Venus, Chiron, & the North Node. These dates will be a big hit on your Mercury retrograde story, however that shows up for you.

Standard Mercury retrograde advice applies from 4/1-4/25, but most especially on the above dates: check your work twice, save often, think before you speak/send, & enjoy the strange winding path rather than worrying about your destination. Apply the above advice metaphorically & physically in equal measures. Mercury retrograde is a good time to focus on work you’ve already started: practice the words that start with re: review, revise, rethink, retrace…

As if to deepen the mood, Venus will conjunct Neptune on 4/3 in late Pisces. Que the mists & probably some waterworks, too. Even your emotions seem unreal. Neptune is considered to be the higher octave of Venusian energy – while Venus focuses on human love, Neptune can tap into universal love. Both are at home in the watery sign of Pisces (Venus’s exaltation & Neptune’s home sign). It could end up being a sweet day in amongst the muck. This transit will pass quickly.

On Thursday 4/4, Venus enters Aries & takes on her mantle as the Starlett.   Venus is in her detriment in Aries which is a fancy way of saying that the natural (giving/receiving) energy of Venus is at odds with the aggressive cardinal fire energy of the Ram.  Whereas Venus – especially in her rulership of Aries’s sun-sign opposite, Libra – is focused on connection & togetherness; Aries is focused on the self.   If you want to get along with Venus this month (work in the arts, fashion, or need to get along with people at all), maybe throw here a little something-something on & around this date.   Roses & red wine would do nicely.

Since we’re counting: Mercury isn’t at their best in retrograde, Mars isn’t at his best in the waters of Pisces, & Venus is not at her best as she’s in detriment in Aries. We can presume that we will face some personal challenges with all our personal planets afflicted in some fashion.

Venus in Aries may make you want to make your mark or step out into the limelight. Spoiler alert: nobody is watching.

This leads to our total solar eclipse on Monday, 4/8 at 19° Aries. This is our major pain point of the month as it will be exactly conjunct to Chiron & closely conjunct to the North Node. This may be our major pain point for the entire year. Chiron is the Wounded Healer which shows that the pain can be healed but this comes with a major caveat: the way out of Chironian pain is THROUGH the pain. This isn’t the kind of situation that can be laughed away or repressed easily & there’s a huge danger here in trying to put a bow on a pile of shit & call it your new pet. Truth be told, with the North Node so closely involved, you may not be able to look away even if you want to.

This won’t apply to everyone, of course. I don’t mean to be scare-tacticy here. If you don’t need deep soul healing, the above obviously doesn’t apply. But in this “post-pandemic” world, I’m not sure that I believe there is a person who doesn’t need some deep soul healing. This lunar event could really work for you, you just need to work for it.

As always, standard eclipse advice applies: eclipses occur on the nodes of fate – what happens in & around the dates of the eclipses should be weighed at least slightly more heavily than what happens during the rest of the year. If something suddenly enters or exits your life, pay attention & BELIEVE IT. This is our second to last eclipse cycle on the Aries-Libra axis & that puts a lot of strain on the dichotomy of selfness vs. togetherness. Stay aware of where you & your Others naturally fall on that scale. Retrograde Mercury is widely a part of this stellium (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Chiron, North Node) so try not to fight about it because there is no common ground to stand on right now.

If you’re traveling in the US to view the totality, stay safe out there & try not to travel on the interstate within 24 on either side of the event if you can. (keep in mind retrograde Mercury rules travel so things may take longer than normal)

I wish I could say that we will get a reprieve but the consequences of whatever has just occurred are coming in hard on the back end with a rough Mars-Saturn conjunction at 14° Pisces on Wednesday 4/10. Saturn doesn’t mean to be nasty about it, but without lessons, you would never learn a thing. This will be a great cosmic pause. One of Saturn’s domains is time in the sense of limitation. As time passes, some choices become off-limits. Existence is fleeting.

Note whether that stokes fear or wonder (or both?) in your heart.

Situated in Pisces, the ruler of the 12th house, Saturn is working to reexamine some of our deepest-rooted trauma stories. The twelfth house rules the unconscious (where we store all of the things we don’t want to look at) & Pisces can sometimes be said to have accumulated all of the baggage of the signs that have come before it. This ties in with the pain point of Chiron in Aries which is getting triggered by all of our personal planets transiting over it.

The way to overcome some of Saturn’s inertia repeats the month’s themes: you’ve got to get into the shadowy bits of it & do that weeding. Saturn stops you so that you can dig into the ground & find the roots you have grown that are holding you back.

Cut them & grow new roots.

We won’t see another aspect for the rest of the week which is probably a good sign that we need to think about what we have done. (that doesn’t have to have a bad connotation)

There is a twisted-up knot that has something to do with the pain of aloneness that’s aching to come forth. A boil of some kind, even. On the week of 4/15, it comes to a head. The Sun has pulled away from Mercury, Chiron, & the Nodes but Venus has moved up to join them. In this way, that mid-Aries stellium stretches from 4/8 through to 4/19 as our personal planets apply stress & pressure to Chiron & the North Node. Or better said, Chiron & the North Node apply pressure to our personal planets.

Aloneness means a lot of different things to different people. An Aries type can think of nothing better, most Libras can think of nothing worse. That is the pressure we will be sitting under all month long. Aries & Libra are alike in many ways but, in this, they are divided. Irrevocably so. This will put a huge stressor on relationships between people with very different attachment needs & styles. I would expect some relationships to end permanently, especially those with one or more of the partners involved who have a personal planet Libra. Possibly Aries as well. I wouldn’t count out Cancer or Capricorn, either.

If it ends on the date of the eclipse, there’s no saving it. If it ends after that in the month, you may have a second or third chance. But what is happening right now has a reason. I think that is important to remember.

Spoken like a true Moon in Aries: sometimes love ISN’T enough.

Sometimes you just need some space, yo.

It seems like everybody needs a healthy dose of empathy for their others but there is zero empathy to go around. Venus will be directly conjunct to the North Node & Chiron this week – expect some theatrics. As I mentioned earlier, she’s in her Starlet form & let me tell you, she is not getting the attention she wants or deserves. Watch out. Venus certainly isn’t at her most vindictive in the sign of Aries, but she won’t think twice before slashing a few tires to get her point across.

The Sun enters Taurus on 4/19 which may be somewhat of a reprieve. It depends on how far you’ve pushed Venus though because she IS the natural ruler of Taurus, the Bull. Don’t wave any red flags for the rest of the month, okay?

Mars in Pisces sextiles Jupiter & Uranus in Taurus as well which is…interesting. Somebody could hit it big – Jupiter & Uranus form an exact conjunction on Sunday 4/21. If you need Chance to be on your side this month – on & around 4/19-4/21 are the days to choose. Watch out for overspending or overindulging during this time though, high reward tends to come with a lot of risks.

The Sun will be square to Pluto. Things are changing. If they are changing in your favor will depend on a lot of your perspective & your ability to duck and roll as the towers fall.

The rest of the month is a downward slope & as we shift out of eclipse season it may begin to feel quite pedestrian. It’s a much-needed break.

On Tuesday 4/23 we have a full moon at 04° Scorpio that may seem dark & dramatic, but it pales in comparison to the edgy eclipses. Stay aware of vindictive bitches, you know who I mean. Scorpio full moons can bring out the worst in people who are looking for somebody to blame. Mars, the ruler of our Scorpio moon is just barely still in Pisces, too. Expect it to be both heavy & wet. Maybe even a washout.

The rest of the month just rolls downhill as the energy finally begins to right itself. On 4/25, Mercury stations direct at 15° Aries. On 4/29, Mars enters his home sign of Aries. On 4/30, Venus enters her home sign of Taurus.

May will be a much easier month. We just need to get there.