Timeline:
Mon, April 3
☿ → ♉︎
Mercury enters Taurus
12:22 pm ET
♉︎ 00°00’ ♉︎☿ ☐ ♇
Mercury squares Pluto
2:55 pm ET
♉︎ 00°10’ ♒︎
Wed, April 5
☿ ✱ ♄
Mercury sextiles Saturn (1 of 3)
12:21 pm ET
♉︎ 3°12’ ♓︎☉ ☌ ⚷
Chiron cazimi
6:18 pm ET
♈︎ 15°51’ ♈︎
Thurs, April 6
☽ ☍ ☉
Full Moon in Libra
12:35 am ET
♎︎ 16°07’ ♈︎☿ ☌ ☊
Mercury conjoins North Node (true node)
1:19 am ET
♉︎ 4°00’ ♉︎
Fri, April 7
☿
Mercury enters pre-retrograde shadow
8:02 am ET
♉︎ 5°50’ ♉︎♀︎ ✱ ♆
Venus sextiles Neptune
1:58 pm ET
♉︎ 25°57’ ♓︎
Sat, April 8
☿ ✱ ♂︎
Mercury sextiles Mars
2:29 am ET
♉︎ 6°53’ ♋︎
Notes:
I had written up a lengthier, more comprehensive draft for this week, but I didn’t have it in me to edit it, so I am keeping it relatively brief this week.
Mars has been in Cancer for just over a week, where it has been in a trine with Saturn. And I gotta say, I started feeling this trine quite strongly last week once the Moon entered Cancer on Tuesday and immediately upon entry formed a conjunction with Mars and a trine with Saturn in Pisces. This really activated the Mars-Saturn trine, which went exact on Thursday and is still within a 3-degree engagement range.
And this energy felt heavy last week, particularly when the Moon was in Cancer Tuesday through Thursday, and it really gave me a sense of “so this is what it feels like for the malefics to be in water signs.”
Now a trine is (generally speaking) a very flowing, positive aspect that provides a sense of ease and abundance. But with the sullen quality of last week, it got me thinking about the less pleasant side of trines. It almost felt like the two malefics in these two emotional signs were certainly working together in a flowing way, but that they were conspiring against us!
Since Mars is said to be in its fall (or depression) in Cancer and Saturn is quite morose and unsure of itself in Pisces and still trying to find a way to bring order to that watery space, there is a sense that this trine was amplifying these energies.
The trine aspect is said to be of the nature of Jupiter, the planet of abundance. Jupiter can be known for excess, so this trine might have brought an excess of the difficulties associated with the malefics being in these two water signs.
This isn’t to say that the Mars-Saturn trine has been all bad: it’s felt awful, but it is a call to get serious and be steadfast. So it got me thinking: maybe trines involving planets in difficult placements don’t feel good, but they provide help nonetheless. Mars-Saturn can be stern, but maybe it’s a necessary wakeup call or bitter medicine. These aren’t easy energies to work with, but they’ll be with us for a while, but as these planets settle into their signs, we should be getting more of a sense of the new normal and better able to find our sea legs (to steal a couple of phrases others have used with me in conversation).
This week we have a Full Moon in the second decan of Libra, which is ruled by Saturn, a planet that wants to bring form and structure to things.
The Full Moon will go exact at 12:35 am Eastern Time on Thursday, about a half hour after its opposition to Chiron goes exact, so we should be feeling the Full Moon pretty strongly Wednesday evening, so that will be a good time to go outside and look at the Moon.
Now the second decan of Libra is associated with the Three of Swords tarot card.
In the famous Rider-Waite-Smith image, we see a heart that is pierced by three swords over a backdrop of a rainstorm. This isn’t a pleasant image and is associated with heartbreak and painful realizations that can’t be unrealized. But it is also a decan that is associated with contracts and commitment, such as in the case of a marriage. These kinds of things can hem us in, as there is a kind of Saturnian restriction to this decan, but Saturn can bring form to things and there is a sense that (in the case of a marriage or committed partnership) something new emerges when two join together, and threes represent the emergence of a new thing that comes when two separate things are joined in this manner. Saturn is about binding things, so this Full Moon in Saturn’s decan in Venus’ sign of Libra is about the ways in which we are bound to others.1
Now this Full Moon will highlight the Sun-Chiron conjunction (or Chiron cazimi). When two bodies conjoin, it’s the beginning of a new cycle between them, so this cazimi marks the beginning of a new Sun-Chiron cycle. The reason that cazimis are significant is that, when a celestial body gets too close to the Sun, it is said to be ‘combust’ and it is as if it is being burnt up by the rays of the Sun. It becomes debilitated, or its effects become hidden. But when the planet or body forms an exact conjunction with the Sun, it becomes empowered, as if allowed to enter the inner sanctum of the king. And at the time of the Full Moon, Chiron will only be 15 minutes away from the Sun, and thus still cazimi. You can see this in the chart below.
Now the asteroid Chiron is known archetypally as the wounded healer and there has been a lot going on with Chiron and Jupiter, as they have been traveling together in Aries for a while now.
In the sign of Aries, Chiron is about healing our sense of self and clearing out our skeleton closets. There is a sense that we can finally be ourselves, that we can drop the old baggage and the old story lines that kept us afraid and hidden, that kept us from taking up space and getting out into the world. So this cazimi is about the renewal that comes through healing, and this Full Moon will highlight this.
But while Chiron will be cazimi, Jupiter will be combust, which could weaken Jupiter and our sense of hope, optimism, and confidence. But the combustion of Jupiter could also signify that whatever is being wrought by Jupiter is happening behind the scenes, only to become apparent later on. Jupiter will have its cazimi next Tuesday, offering a sense of blessing and a renewal of things Jupiterian, but since cazimi moments are brief and the fact that we have eclipse season one week later, it’s important to take hold of these glimmers of hope to sustain us through the rocky road ahead.
Now this Full Moon will be happening in the sign opposite Aries, in Libra, and Libra is a sign that is about finding harmony between self and others, and is about balancing the needs of others with the needs of self. So we have this self-other tension in this Full Moon. Sometimes when we are focused on our healing, we can become self-centered, so this Full Moon reminds us that our healing is never complete until we repair and renew our relations with others. We aren’t fully committed to ourselves unless we commit to others. This Full Moon invites us to take the inner wealth that comes from healing our sense of self and share that wealth with others.
As you can see from the timeline above, this is a big week for Mercury. The planet of thought and communication leaves the sign of Aries—where it is quick, direct, and perhaps even impulsive—and moves into Taurus—where it is slower, more methodical, and present. I think that this will be a welcome energy and since it will be sextile both Saturn and Mars, it will be more suited to work with them, to slow things down and really help us be present to the flow of these slower energies, provided that we show up and put the work in ourselves. If you look at the chart above, you can see these three planets in a tight triangle formation during the Full Moon.2
The sign of Taurus is ruled by Venus, which will be spending its final full week in Taurus this week. Taurus is a sign that is very sensual and loves to savor things sweet and lovely, just as we savor the sights, sounds, and sensations of spring. Mercury in Taurus helps us be attuned to our senses. It is in invitation to smell the flowers, to be mindful and present, and with Venus in Taurus for one final week, Mercury’s initial foray into Taurus will be imbued with the blessings of Venus, which will also be ruling this week’s Full Moon in Libra.
Taurus is a very stabilizing sign. It slows things down, which is a nice corrective to the headstrong quickness of Aries. So we get a Mercury in Taurus that is much slower in an archetypal sense. But also, Mercury itself is slowing down, preparing to station retrograde later in the month. This week, Mercury enters its pre-retrograde shadow, which isn’t a big deal. It just means that it’s going to cross over 5° Taurus, which is the degree of Taurus to which it will eventually retrograde back and station direct. It could symbolize that we will revisit things we are dealing with now a little on down the road.
On Friday, at 2:29 am, the Moon will move into Scorpio, so Friday and Saturday could feel heavy and there could be a sense that something is wrong deep down.3 The Moon will enter Sagittarius on Sunday morning, perhaps renewing our optimism, but note that the Moon in Sagittarius will be ruled by a combust Jupiter, so this may be a time where we don’t feel Jupiter’s blessings all that much or that Jupiter is working its magic behind the scenes.
Ok, that’s all I am going to say this week. There’s a lot more I had initially written, but I am going to leave it at that. I cobbled together this week’s newsletter this morning pretty quickly from the larger rough draft I had written yesterday, so let me know if there are any typos or errors.
Be well, everyone!
During the Full Moon, Venus (the ruler of the Full Moon) will be in a tight applying sextile to Neptune in Pisces. With Venus empowered in its earthy domicile of Taurus, this trine to Neptune can help us bridge the distance between ourselves and others. But also note that Venus will be in Saturn’s decan of Taurus (which you can see in the chart of the Full Moon), which might suggest that these blessings of connection might be delayed and that we simply have to wait for them to grow and reach full bloom.
Now before Mercury forms these aspects with Saturn and Mars, it will form a square with Pluto immediately upon entry into Taurus. With Mercury-Pluto aspects, there is a very probing quality, so we might find ourselves going deep, whether in conversations with others or in pursuit of getting to the bottom of something. Mercury-Pluto has a capacity to expose and uncover, and often in relation to abuses of power. And I find it fascinating that Trump’s arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday, during which the indictment against him will be unsealed and when we still should be feeling Mercury-Pluto.
This week’s lunar ingresses:
Sun, April 2
☽ → ♍︎
6:57 am ET
Tues, April 4
☽ → ♎︎
5:51 pm ET
Fri, April 7
☽ → ♏︎
2:29 am ET
Sun, April 9
☽ → ♐︎
8:57 am ET