Important Dates
All transits are in sidereal. If you’re curious about your chart using the sidereal zodiac you can find a guide with instructions on plotting your sidereal chart here, and a post outlining some of the philosophical differences between tropical and sidereal here.
I’ve been saying that the week of April 9 is the turning point, but the astrology of Friday April 7 through Saturday April 15 are probably the most intense days of the year, second only to late August when the total solar eclipse in Leo occurs and early September when the eclipse degree is triggered. Think of this as act one. Here is a rundown:
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April 7
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Saturn Rx, 3 Sagittarius
Uranus enters Aries
Sun opposite Jupiter
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April 9
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Mercury stations retrograde, 10 Aries
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April 11
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Full Moon conjunct Jupiter, 27 Virgo
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April 12
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Mars enters Taurus
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April 13
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Aries Ingress, Sun conjunct Uranus
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April 15
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Venus stations direct at 2 Pisces
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This 9 +/- period augurs a cyclical shift that sheds light on previously unclear circumstances so that power dynamics change. It’s an overlap of cycles beginning and cycles ending. One thing resolves and another thing surfaces to be addressed. April is extreme, but May provides respite. Read on for a detailed look at each of this astro events.
Saturn Retrograde at 3 Sagittarius, April 7
Saturn has spent the last 2 years in Scorpio. He entered Sagittarius for a brief 6 months stay on January 26, 2017. I’ve made observations on Saturn’s transit through Sagittarius. I want to use this space to talk about Saturn re-entering Scorpio which happens June 20, 2017 through October 26, 2017.
Saturn will spend 4 months back in Scorpio to wrap up unfinished business. Saturn is about power and authority. It’s about sovereignty over ourselves. In Scorpio, Saturn answers to Mars and highlights our volition; do we submit to authority figures willingly or are we coerced?
Saturn breeds either humility or hubris. It can also breed humiliation. That’s where we find ourselves with Saturn in Scorpio. Does the exercising of our will come from:
- An understanding that our power is limited and we are always subject to someone or something?
- A belief that we can strong arm our way to positions of power?
- Or do we feel bereft of personal power and influence in our world?
These are the questions that we will be answering the 4 months between June and October. What is our relationships with our own power and the power of others? This is a theme that manifests in our individual lives, personal relationships, and collectively.
Sun in Pisces opposite Jupiter in Virgo, April 7
Oppositions are a fulfillment of a promise made at the conjunction. Look back to late September 2016 when the Sun and Jupiter had their annual conjunction at 9 Virgo. As the Sun progressed past Jupiter on to a 90° square (28 Sagittarius/Virgo mid January 2017) we met a crises point and opportunity for breakthrough. Let’s look at what this signifies.
The Sun is the mind, the intellect. It is perception and the light of illumination. Jupiter is synthesis, contextualizing all that is perceived, crafting a narrative, and setting a precedent for possibility. When they are conjunct in Virgo, they are subject to Mercury’s need to concretize perception and synthesis into language and symbols, equations and data. We get numbers, facts, figures, and statistics.
When the Sun squares Jupiter from Sagittarius, we get the first challenge to the data. Perspective is provided and an alternative narrative is developed.
Now that we are reaching the culmination, the opposition of the Sun and Jupiter, it’s time for a revelation. The Sun shines light on Jupiter from Pisces. Read more on this opposition below, under the Full Moon in Virgo.
Uranus in Aries, April 7
The significations of Uranus can be gleaned from Mars and Mercury alone. But there is something to be said for the validity of Uranus acting like a fixed star, as I have personally experienced the herky-jerky tribulations of a Uranus transit.
Uranus entered sidereal Pisces for the first time back in 2009, but for good in 2010. This was a feature of the Uranus-Pluto square that has dominated the astrological landscape for the past several years (since 2012). Uranus entered Aries briefly last summer (2016) only just into the 1st degree. This time, Uranus is an Aries for good until 2024/2025.
While Uranus brings disruption and chaos, in Pisces that disruption can be diffuse and misdirected, revealing no clear aim. Uranus in Pisces is like lightning striking water. The electrical current of the bolt scatters over the surface of the water in all directions. Anyone swimming, or ships near the location of the strike, will most certainly be shocked, burned, or killed. But the depths of the water is left untouched.
This is not to say that the many crises precipitated during Uranus in Pisces, especially its extended square with Pluto, didn’t change anything beneath the surface. It’s that Uranus in Pisces conceals the depths of Uranus’ change, it deceives the scope of the effect of the change. But Uranus in Aries comes to make it clear.
Aries doesn’t have the laser like precision of Scorpio. It’s more like an axe that hacks away till the tree comes down. But the tree will come down.
Uranus was last in Aries beginning in 1933. Anyone with just a cursory knowledge of history knows that year changed the trajectory of global politics and economics. I did an astrological comparison of Aries ingress charts from 1933 and 2017 in this post. And there you’ll learn that the Sun and Uranus are conjunct at 0 Aries in the Aries Ingress chart once every 84 years. So Uranus entering Aries is a BIG DEAL.
The next 7 years is a time where the change becomes permanent. Things are not going back to how they were. The Aries house in your chart is getting an old fashioned shakedown. It may be completely destroyed, or at least unrecognizable, after Uranus is finished.
Most of you reading this have never experienced Uranus in Aries, so this is unprecedented in many ways. I’ll be sharing more about ways this may manifest in our individual charts in the near future.
Mercury retrograde, April 9
Mercury in Aries is ruled by Mars. In Pisces, Mercury was a cauldron of symbolism, tasked with finding language for the unspeakable, the unspoken. Now, in Aries, the messenger becomes a bugle, a horn with a battle cry. Mercury in Aries is subject to the drive for self protection, and the will to survive. Words are weapons declaring war, meant to decapitate and permanently separate.
Mercury is following the path that Mars cleared just a few weeks ago. Mars was the bulldozer clearing the way. Mercury in Aries will reveal the messages on what has been cleared.
This is a particularly long retrograde. This one is almost 4 weeks, and it covers the first 10 degrees of Aries. The retrograde station is at 10 Aries on April 9, and the direct station is at 0 degrees on May 4, and that is conjunct Uranus. This is truly a time of dramatic change that upsets the status quo, begs for innovation, and requires constant adjustment.
The Shadow period began March 26, so you may be able to get an idea of what this period will feature for you as March ends and April begins. But we’re dealing with a volatile sign, and two unstable planets (Mercury and Uranus). If you have any angles in early Aries, or prominent planets there, then this may be a particularly busy time for you. And it’s only just beginning with Uranus coming.
It may be helpful to think back to May of 2016 which was the last Aries Mercury Rx. Thinking back to April 28 through May 22 of that year can provide clues to the topics and areas of life that may be up for review this year.
Mercury retrograde is a time to go back and review unfinished business, revisit past situations, and redo things that need to be adjusted. This period is also good for restarting things that didn’t work out the first time, or undoing things that turned out not to be a good thing.
Full Moon at 27 Virgo, conjunct Jupiter, April 11
Lunations are very important because the Moon’s phases are one of the larger cycles that often acts as a trigger for events. We can look at this Full Moon on April 11 as the bright light that illuminates everything else that’s going on. Particularly, the Moon’s conjunction with Jupiter is a trigger for other astro events that have been happening over the past 9 months.
All of the personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) have made multiple aspects with Jupiter in Virgo. Jupiter in Virgo is a hardline logician. Not reason, but equations that provide measurable data.
Planets from Gemini squaring Jupiter in Virgo are spin masters, taking the hard data and spinning it like a magician (enter Donald J. Trump who has natal Mercury in Gemini square Jupiter in Virgo).
Planets in Pisces opposing Jupiter in Virgo work hard to contextualize that data into a larger scheme. We’ve watched a kind of two-way distillation process during sidereal Pisces season. So much information and varied data has been raining on our heads for months, but now it finally seems like we can understand exactly what is all of this data implies. Or maybe it means nothing at all?
Planets in Sagittarius squaring Jupiter in Virgo speak of a partial breakdown. The zeal of dogma and the factuality of data squaring off head on. We’ve seen the zeal of both congress and the president receive pushback because the actual data and personal experiences of folks block bureaucracy
We’re going to see this square off politically as revelations RE Devin Nunes, the Trump family, Jeff Sessions, et al makes serious waves.
One thing that is particularly significant is that this Full Moon in Virgo is ruled by a freshly retrograde Mercury. That means that Mercury is still moving very slowly and is apt to cause delays, reversals, and revisiting matters in your Virgo house and Gemini house.
This particular story has been building since last August, so it may be beneficial to do a personal recap of what was going on in your life at that time.
Mars in Taurus, April 12
The transit from Aries to Taurus is a big one for Mars. He goes from his domicile (home) to far away from home, his detriment. Mars will be in sidereal Taurus from April 12 until May 26.
Mars in Aries is the infantry soldier, the tree logger, and the knife sharpener. Mars answers to himself there. He doesn’t ask for permission. And he doesn’t apologize, he just goes for it.
But in Taurus Mars must answer to Venus who isn’t sympathetic to his needs. Mars is divisive, combative, and conflicting. Venus is unifying, assuaging, and harmonizing. You see the challenge here? When Mars has to get permission from Venus in order to act, Mars has to shed his usual demeanor and take on a more conciliatory approach.
Taurus is about decorum, beauty, sensuality. As a Venus ruled sign it puts Mars in a bind. Mars wants to fight. It wants to cut and separate. Divide and deconstruct. So how do you fight with decorum? Cut with beauty? Divide sensually? It’s a conundrum. You become passive aggressive.
Mars in Taurus is the nice-nasty friend who slides in digs with a smile. It’s “bless your heart”, when they really mean to curse you. It’s fighting while maintaining a connection. And the ultimate in latent aggression. Mars in Taurus isn’t a pushover, just someone who wants to maintain decorum in the midst of the fight.
Aries Ingress, April 13
I’ve already written extensively about the Aries Ingress. Instead of outlining things here I will provide a list of links. These are links to a post on my blog and threads on Twitter where I talking more about what to expect in the USA regarding the Ingress. If you are not clear on what ia ingress is, read the first link.
Venus Stationary Direct at 2 Pisces, April 15
Venus has been retrograde since March 4. That day she sat still at 19 Pisces and appeared to begin travelling backwards through the zodiac. By April 15, she will have landed at 2 Pisces and once again sit still, but this time appear to move forward. She’ll be slow for awhile, though.
Planets moving slower than their normal speed and direction demand our attention. With regard to Venus it’s a time for reexamination of our desires;
- Do you really want what you said you wanted?
- Will you maintain your commitment?
- Or is it time for a renegotiation?
- Do you need more time to make a decision?
This can apply to anything that requires a consensus or agreement between people. It can apply to our physical desires as well. The essence of it all is choice. Venus Rx is a time to consider (which means to examine the stars) why we have chosen or choose as we do. What motivates your choices?
As Venus slows between April 7 and April 15, it is a time to reckon up. We must make an account for how we’ve chosen to proceed in certain areas of our lives.
The direct station occurs at a time when so much else is happening in the sky that it may be hard to know what’s what. But the end of Venus’ retrograde travel is like the icing on the cake to a week of unrelenting activity.
Mercury’s retrograde station and Venus’ direct station overlap and can make for quite a confusing time. Just when you feel like you’ve gotten your sea legs with Venus, Mercury comes along to shake things up. If the work of Venus has mostly been internal for you, Mercury lays the cards on the table.
Are you ready!
