This is certainly the most action-packed quarter of the year. Although Venus will go retrograde later this summer and we’ll have another couple of Eclipses straddling Libra and Scorpio season, the major planetary shifts have either just started or are just about to unfold.
The first notable shift this spring actually started on March 7th - Saturn moved into Pisces, where he’ll be until 2025. This is a sort of cosmically heavy transit, which will bring seriousness to subjects that are usually dreamy and fantastical. We’ll really need to take this inner, watery realm seriously and look for a sense of structure and integrity as we navigate it. Otherwise, things can get quite swampy. A favorite Tarot deck attributes the 8 of Cups to Saturn in Pisces and titles it ‘Indolence.’
Here, we’ll need to have strong boundaries around the things that blur our conscience and consciousness, and take seriously the pathways that cultivate lucidity and trustworthy relationships with the otherworlds. If you have an inkling of desire to get more committed to a mystical, artistic, or idealistic pathway, this is the time to do it.
I’m starting this season off by undertaking the Artist’s Way, which I’ll be integrating with Astrology in a course with Olivia Pepper - you can find out more and sign up at starpoetry.net. We start tomorrow, the 22nd, although no worries if you sign up late.
We’re starting the course right now in part because this is such a special Equinox. It’s rare that we have a New Moon right on the Equinox. In tandem with Jupiter in Aries, there’s really a potential right now for a strong upward push and a beautiful spring growth. There’s a spark in the air right now, a chance to light a special kind of inner fire. This fire is by nature quite volatile, though, and we live in dangerous if beautiful times - thus, a bit of structure and community support can be quite helpful, if not essential.
Regardless, the next couple of weeks will be a great time to get some serious work in on projects that operate in alignment with this Piscean Saturn, in that Mars is entering a trine with Saturn, which will last until April 8th. These periods of time of positive interaction between Mars and Saturn are some of my favorite of the year, as it gives a bit of oomph, endurance, and cooperation to the two planets who are largely responsible for getting things going and done. It could feel great to take on a healthy challenge or to set a discipline in motion, especially if they feel spiritually and emotionally aligned.
The second big shift is a more epochal one - Pluto moving into Aquarius on March 23rd. Pluto will be moving through Aquarius until 2044, but we’ll just get a taste of it this spring - Pluto will retrograde back into Capricorn for a while on June 11th. Pluto describes where deep, exhaustive change unfolds. Layer by layer, year by year, surfaces are stripped and outworn energies in a particular realm of life are thrown in the compost pile. After a silent, fallow period of invisible regeneration, new, more mature growth emerges. It’s worth taking a look at where early Aquarius falls in your chart and if there are any planets that will receive hard aspects in the next few years - these parts of your life will likely need a lot of sustained attention and care. If things go well, an alchemical metamorphosis can unfold, but there are also plenty of ways that can get noxious and go awry.
It’s also worth emphasizing how this is a profound collective shift. Although there’s been tremendous activity happening in Aquarius over the past couple of years, with Jupiter and Saturn treading through, Pluto’s journey will intensify and accelerate the changes that have already been set in motion. Aquarius most notably has to do with technology and the digital world, and technology will undoubtedly reshape the world through the coming decades. While it will be easy to see the shadow sides of these technological developments - Pluto’s position relates to collective trends of horror and fear and often exposes hidden nasty underbellies - there will also be deep transformation and power available by engaging with this Aquarian energy. So, that’s not just to say that the right piece of tech could be marvelously helpful in one way or another, but rather that I’d encourage an Aquarian spirit of experimentation, probing at the limits of possibility and affirming the radical potentials of the human being. Aquarian folks can feel remarkably, even uncomfortably unique or weird - outliers in different manners. Like the mutants in the X-Men, there are remarkable powers laying latent in each of us. At its best, this Aquarian surge can bring the best of these electric powers out of us. At the very least, that’s what we need to be aiming at.
A central moment in bringing forth this Aquarian spirit this spring will unfold as Mercury slows down to take their retrograde in a conjunction with Uranus. Altogether, Mercury will be right next to Uranus from April 13th till 27th, a time in which our mind will likely be ablaze with Uranus’ radical, wonky electricity. Uranus is a clear ruler of Aquarius, and in this stretch from 2018-2025, they are revolutionizing the sign of Taurus, showing new potentials for our body, physical life, and relationship to the earth. This element of Earth is also a central focus for Mercury’s retrogrades this year and will be activated later this spring by Jupiter’s ingress into Taurus. Altogether, although the energies at play are quite cosmic, extraordinary, and out of this world, it will all be playing out largely through our very tangible, material existence.
That Mercury retrograde starts in earnest on April 20th, which is also the day of one of the most powerful Eclipses in memory, at the last degree of Aries and in a conjunction with Jupiter. Having learned my lesson about being remotely in harm’s way during serious eclipses when I broke my jaw last winter, I’ll be taking this one easy. The Head of the Dragon, the North Node, is understood in Vedic Astrology to lean towards excessive desire, hunger, and a sort of materialistic delusion. In this context, Aries energy will be ramped up, and the potential for explosions of one sort or the other will be increased. I’m definitely nervous about the Ukraine War in this context.
We can nevertheless yolk some useful energy and insights if we can evade the dragon and refrain from biting off more than we can chew. In that regard, the Martial, Aries-like energy I spoke of at the beginning of this forecast is still at play - it will be great to take appropriate risks and strong action this spring - but these few days are off-limits, especially because Mercury is also going retrograde at the same moment. You might think of it as a stretch to train, strategize, or prepare, charging up and waiting for the coast to clear. We’ll have a lot of action going on in Aries over the next few years, and figuring out how to call forth and wield this Martial energy will be tricky but necessary.
The midpoint of the Mercury retrograde will be May 1st, after which things will start to get a little easier, although there will still be another intense, partial eclipse on May 5th, with the Moon in Scorpio and Sun conjunct Uranus. Altogether, we might aim for a sort of humble ambition, being willing to focus on life’s fundamentals and developing into adaptability, rather than looking for anything too too large and potentially dangerously unwieldy for this last stretch of Jupiter in Aries. When Jupiter enters Taurus on May 16th, we might look for a stabilized, steady pace of growth. We’re looking to hit our stride and maintain it for the summer, rather than finishing a race right away.
Jupiter’s position in Taurus is also important relative to Saturn in Pisces, as Jupiter is a traditional ruler of Pisces. The Pisces-Taurus relationship is itself mighty dreamy - there’s a lush, earthly majesty that’s present between them. With Jupiter in Taurus, though, the potential for that indolent energy is higher. Here, I’d emphasize the real magic of the earth, the radiant etheric energy of plants and bodies of water, rather than the dulled-down, dazed-out quality of an intoxicated day in the sun, or a dazzle of beautiful but numbing delights. Through the start of Jupiter’s time in Taurus, he’ll also be conjunct the North Node - here, we might have to discern between real healthy, meaningful ambition and a sort of materialistic, blind hunger.
A couple of other aspects of note: From May 14-29th, Mars will oppose Pluto, a period that could be quite intense, pitting the Hero/ine against a hidden, powerful, or toxic enemy. Mars/Pluto aspects are present in a lot of troublesome or even traumatic charts. Through this stretch, we’d hope for our Mars energy to metamorphose and mature, but hopefully not get too entangled in any potentially consuming Plutonic underworld. The following couple of weeks, from June 1-10, Venus will also oppose Pluto. This could be a challenging time for our relationships - we’d also hope for the same maturation and metamorphosis of our relational energy, but it could get upsetting or nasty at moments. Later this summer, Venus will go retrograde - this intense moment in our romantic experience could play an important role in this bigger arc.
Alright.. I hope this has been helpful for y’all! I apologize for not keeping up the monthly forecast/horoscope rhythm after the magazine I was writing for last year got bought out. This quarterly rhythm might do well for me. I’d also mention that in Charting the Artist’s Way, we’ll do a lot of week-by-week forecasting and selecting electional moments for artistic/creative endeavors. If that appeals to you, feel free to join us, regardless of whether or not you’re super interested in doing the entire Artist’s Way course. Again, you can find out more about that at starpoetry.net
Of course, I’m always available for chart readings. I’m traveling at the moment and have blocked off my scheduler for the next few weeks, but if you’re interested in setting something up sooner, let me know.
Till next time,
Warmth,
Charlie