On Finding Safety Inside the Seismic Shifts
April 2024 Dates to Note
1st: MERCURY STATIONS RETROGRADE IN ARIES (6:14 pm ET)
3rd: Venus in Pisces conjunct Neptune (9:10 am ET)
4th: VENUS ENTERS ARIES (9:00 pm PT/12:00 am ET on the 4th)
6th: Venus in Aries sextile Pluto in Aquarius (5:11 pm ET)
8th: SOLAR ECLIPSE/NEW MOON IN ARIES AT 19 DEGREES (2:21 pm ET), Sun in Aries conjunct Chiron 2:28 pm ET)
10th: Mars in Pisces conjunct Saturn (4:36 pm ET)
11th: Sun in Aries conjunct Mercury/Cazimi (7:03 pm ET)
15th: Mercury in Aries conjunct Chiron (11:23 am ET)
19th: Mercury in Aries conjunct Venus (4:59 am ET), SUN ENTERS TAURUS (10:00 am ET), Mars in Pisces sextile Jupiter in Taurus (11:28 am ET), Mars in Pisces sextile Uranus in Taurus (7:56 pm ET)
20th: JUPITER IN TAURUS CONJUNCT URANUS (10:27 pm ET)
21st: Venus in Aries conjunct Chiron (7:49 am ET), Sun in Taurus square Pluto in Aquarius (7:02 pm ET)
23rd: FULL MOON AT 4 DEGREES OF SCORPIO (11:20 am ET)
25th: MERCURY STATIONS DIRECT IN ARIES (8:54 am ET)
28th: Mars in Pisces conjunct Neptune (9:31 pm PT/12:31 am ET on the 29th)
29th: VENUS ENTERS TAURUS (7:31 am ET)
30th: MARS ENTERS ARIES (11:33 am ET)
Spring
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
— Edna St. Vincent Millay
No poem is more appropriate for this moment, as we know what we know of a world untethered from its axis, hurtling toward god knows what. This is a precipice moment, as eclipse seasons always are, but it is complicated by a laundry list of other major planetary configurations that might boggle the mind, just by their sheer compound activity. Mercury Retrograde in Aries co-present with the Solar Eclipse would be enough, if it were all there were to rattle us. But that’s just the start of this cleansing by fire.
Last week I wrote about working with this Chironic eclipse season as a healing tool, so if you missed that post, think of it as a prologue to this one.
April begins with the communication and technology planet stationing retrograde on the 1st, as if to say, “Yeah, motherfuckers, strap into the portal because shit’s about to get real.”
Yesterday my hairdryer made an alarming POP when I plugged it into my bathroom outlet, and moments later I smelled fire and smoke. I was seconds away from literally setting my hair on fire, rushing to get out of my house. Cardinal Aries, the first fire sign of the zodiac (where I have my Sun and Chiron) rules the head and our hair. I didn’t risk turning it back on — instead, I threw away the hair dryer, let my hair semi-dry naturally, and took this as a warning to take it slow, to watch and listen and be ready to duck and cover.
Mars, as the planetary ruler of Aries, is generally not precise. It senses prey and flails itself, full-throttle, rushing head-first to the goal of capture. We might consider taking notes from the far more patient and precise Scorpio, the other sign that Mars rules, when our instincts tell us to cross a street because we can make it before the oncoming car. Or we might heed sensual, slow Taurus, Aries’ next-door neighbor, ruled by Venus. This is just to say: April is an accident-prone month for more reasons than one. Look both ways and consider your risks carefully.
All the usual admonitions about Mercury Retrograde apply, but I’ll add a few. Not to sound like your Con Ed bill, but if you smell gas, call 911 and get out of the house. Don’t leave candles burning unattended. Personally, even I, a person with a candle fetish (Diptyque is my kingdom of heaven) will not be burning any wicks until the final week of April or early May. If you must play with fire, use extreme caution.
Venus in Pisces makes one final stop before entering Aries. Her conjunction with Neptune in Pisces on the morning of the 3rd could make for some ridiculously romantic overtures or transportive fantasy play the night before. Your dreams might be provocatively arousing on this night, and because of the retrograde, they could involve people from your past, or have some psychic dimension, like dreaming of someone who is at the same time dreaming of you, or dreaming of someone and waking up to a text or email from them. On the 4th, Venus charges into Aries, building up yet more tension in this part of the zodiac, and giving us permission to be assertive about our desires.
Total Solar Eclipse: April 8th, 2024, 2:21 pm ET
The next big astro-moment is the Total Solar Eclipse at 19 degrees of Aries on the 8th, which isn’t a one-day event: we’re already deep in the throes of it. It is exactly conjunct Chiron, the archetype of the Wounded Healer, bringing our traumas to the fore, both collective and personal. Here is a bit about that from my previous post:
…the exceptional healing potential of the Aries eclipse that is exactly conjunct Chiron. The outpouring of pain leading up to that eclipse could be overwhelming, allowing us to finally unclench and remember that grief is not a linear process, so even if we are weeping, it doesn’t mean we are broken. This might just mean the news commemorates the six-month mark of the war, reminding us of its unceasing horrors. If we finally get a ceasefire, it is okay to cry like a child, knowing all that happened that our prayers could not prevent.
Eclipses can bring sudden, unexpected crisis, but we can look at them like Leonard Cohen looked at the cracks in everything — just as way to let the light shine in.
The good news is that after the eclipse is exact at 2:21 pm ET, we can start to come down from it, to see the dust begin to settle, or at least to descend from its explosive heights before reaching the ground. If your heart races, your chest clenches, and your hypervigilance increases during the days around the eclipse, know that you’re not alone.
I’ve seen a lot of talk about what to do or not to do on the day of the eclipse, and during the exact totality. My take is that this is close to a once-in-a-lifetime natural event, and I don’t see any reason you shouldn’t go outside, and view it carefully with eclipse glasses. Yes, ancient astrologers spoke of bad omens for those who witness an eclipse (sometimes called “baleful rays”) but that’s not my read on it. Whether you stand under the beams or sit inside your home or meditate in a temple, you will feel the effects of this eclipse in the area of your chart ruled by Aries, and you will feel them even more if you have planets within five degrees of 19 Aries and the other cardinal signs (Cancer, Libra, Capricorn). It’s best to analyze and mitigate that, and not deprive yourself of experiencing something truly wild and wonderful.
My personal recommendation is not to perform any manifesting rituals, to rest and relax and nourish the body and lean into calm and stillness. Meditation is a nice option for this, but if that’s not for you, just sitting quietly, eyes closed, breathing deep into your belly could be the thing that settles you. Remember that this eclipse is exactly conjunct Chiron, and our oldest, deepest wounds could be thrust into sharp relief. I would have a journal ready, my therapist’s number on speed dial, and tissues — set up whatever you need to let it out and to feel held through that process.
This eclipse is visible over the United States, starting in Texas and winding a path across the country and finally through Maine. Eclipses are generally understood to have their strongest effects in the areas where they are visible. Our last Total Solar Eclipse was in August of 2017 — this is the one that Trump looked up at, within a few days of Charlottesville, marking the moment as one where the evils of white supremacy were made visible to all. The April 8th Total Solar Eclipse has created an even more intense eclipse mania, with Airbnbs booked months in advance and millions of eclipse tourists fanning out across the country to catch the path of totality. But in terms of what it will mean for us, as a collective — that’s still an unknown, although I suspect that Israel/Palestine will loom heavily.
There are so many ways to parse the influence of an eclipse in one’s life, but the one that I find most effective is looking at the Saros cycle. The last eclipse in this Saros cycle (cycle 139) was on March 29th, 2006 — do you recall the themes that were alive in your life then? They may be coming back, or coming full circle, during the next few months.
The eclipse is a lot on its own, and its effects will likely reverberate for six months, but what makes it extra wtf/omg is the Mars/Saturn conjunction in Pisces two days later, on the 10th. Saturn, the archetype of that which will not be moved, meets Mars, the archetype of that which explodes in anger when it’s forced to stop. In short, these two do not keep company well. Mars is the ruler of the eclipse, and there it is, within 48-hours, enacting a powerful slam into another malefic two days later. They are so close in time that it might feel like the eclipse and the conjunction are part of the same event, in your life or in the world, or both. Pay close attention to the Aries and Pisces houses of your chart to get a sense of where the eclipsing and the wall-slamming sensations will take place.
Adding to the days around the eclipse is the Mercury cazimi on the 11th, also in Aries (at 23 degrees) — this just puts an extra sharp point on everything we’ve just been through, making sure it’s indelible on the subconscious and perhaps the collective consciousness. Mercury is conjunct Chiron on the 15th, perhaps offering a rewind that deepens our healing, if we’re still reeling from events/experiences. Finally, on the 19th the Sun enters Taurus, softening the sharp glare of the last few weeks.
Yet on the very next day, we’re again in an amped up, supersonic, electrified, anything-goes moment: Jupiter and Uranus come together in their once-in-fourteen years conjunction in Taurus. How would I feel about this if it were the singular event of the month? It could be awesome and inspiring — bringing some kind of mind-blowing scientific discovery, breakthrough, or cultural moment that we all pay attention to. But coming at the end of this series of harsher transits and during a Mercury Retrograde phase, I think the upshot of this could get lost in the fray.
A few days later, on the 23rd, the Full Moon in Scorpio is square Pluto, underlining the seriously heavy shit we’ve been through during the last six months: the wars we’ve fought with ourselves, the darkness we’ve encountered, the underground spaces we’ve hidden in to shelter from horrors outside, the ones we could not escape, and that grief, our endless, all-encompassing grief for what we’ve lost. We can use this lunation to do what Scorpio teaches us: to be alchemical, to transform into new matter and start again.
When Mercury stations direct on the 25th we’ll have been through something we may not be able to imagine at the beginning of the month and the retrograde, and we might finally have the fuel we need to blaze with infinite creativity through the remainder of spring.
The sexy bits come at the end of the month: Venus enters her domicile in Taurus on the 29th, and Mars enters his domicile in Aries on the 30th. With these cosmic consorts each in their own homes, we might be able to accept their invitation to play, to have fun, to indulge in sensorial experimentation, and to simply be with our bodies (and our lovers’ bodies). Pleasure: it’s our birthright, and after this month, we will need even more.
Asteroid Eros is in sensual Taurus through the 14th, aiding us in using our senses for grounding and
Housekeeping note: I am recording the audiobook for my forthcoming book Sex and Your Stars: A Sexologist’s Guide to the Erotic Energy of the Zodiac this week (wish me luck, it’s a first for me) and preparation has consumed a lot of my time over the last few days, so my dear paid subscribers: I will roll out your sign-by-sign horoscopes over the course of the week in my free moments. Once they’re all up, I’ll send out an update, but if you check back periodically, you might find yours updated.