“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.”
— T. S. Eliot (Libra Sun and Ascendant, Gemini Moon), The Wasteland (1922)
The opening words to Eliot’s long form poem, penned in the years after the devastation wrought by World War I and the subsequent influenza pandemic, might just land with a bit more bite this April, which comes charged with a cluster of significant astrology.
Not only do we open the month in the midst of dramatic eclipse season and the start of a Mercury retrograde in fiery Aires (one of the signs lit up by eclipses), but we also have Chiron, the Wounded Healer asteroid, heavily involved in both, churning up old and new wounds to be healed. On top of that: a Mars-Saturn conjunction in Pisces that is either a useful application of the brakes or a brick wall we’re careening towards.
On the bright side, expansive Jupiter’s meeting with disruptor Uranus on the 20th offers a rare breakthrough in practical, on-ground-matters.
What these configurations mean to any of us is, of course, individual and depends on our charts. Astrology is a lot like the weather, a background phenomena that can make going about our lives easier or more difficult.
Loud and Proud: A Mercury Rx Healing Adventure
This month there is likely to be a more chaotic background than usual, full of hot takes, miscommunications, and snafus, thanks to the Mercury retrograde.
This retrograde takes place entirely in Aires, a direct and no-nonsense fire sign that never hesitates or minces words. Charging off half-cocked while missing crucial pieces of information is certainly a possibility.
In a classically unsubtle Aires April Fool’s joke, Mercury stations retrograde at 27° Aires on the 1st. Shortly before the solar eclipse on the 8th, the first two weeks of the month look to be the most chaotic.
Mercury’s conjunction with the Sun on the 11th, which brings a moment of clarity, starts to ease up the retrograde chaos.
A meeting of Mercury and Venus on the 19th, on the same day as Mars forms energizing sextiles with Jupiter and Uranus, suggests positive communication informed by breakthroughs.
On the 25th, Mercury stations direct at 16° Aires, just a degree from the North Node, the “Dragon’s Head” point of this eclipse season. Any planet meeting with the North Node is amplified, especially in Aires. So, Mercury’s turn direct, a moment that emphasizes its planetary themes, is also louder.
And what this Mercury retrograde is talking and thinking about has to do with healing, since Mercury is so close to Chiron — the two meet up exactly on the 15th. We are being asked to reconsider and rethink in deep and potentially healing ways about dynamics in the Aires houses of our charts.
As Aires is a very physical sign, working out the stress of this Mercury retrograde physically can be helpful.
War and Peace, the Saga Continues
Eclipses bring changes — beginnings and endings — along the opposing signs they light up. The April 8th solar eclipse (new moon) at 19° Aires continues the narrative previewed a year ago, with the first Aires eclipses of this series, and continued in earnest with the dramatic solar eclipse in Libra last October and the lunar eclipse in Libra on March 25th.
These eclipses have been ushering in new storylines along these two signs in our charts and the areas of life they represent. Broadly speaking, there is energy and new beginnings, represented by the North Node, in Aires, supporting bold, independent action. Meanwhile, there is a release, loss, or a time of endings around things related to relationships, other-oriented action, diplomacy, and aesthetics, in Libra, where the South Node resides.
The April 8th eclipse features an unusual exact conjunction with Chiron, linking the simultaneous experience of wounding and the ability to heal oneself and others to this potent eclipse moment.
It’s also an eclipse that will be visible in much of the U.S. — eclipse are thought to be more potent in the areas in which they are visible on Earth — and so may be felt more strongly here.
Putting on the Brakes
Yet the ruler of the eclipse, Mars in Pisces, which normally charges ahead, albeit slip and sliding, as it were, in Pisces, runs smack into a conjunction with Saturn a couple of days later, on the 10th.
Whatever new beginning heralding bold action, tied into healing some wound, that arises at the eclipse runs headlong into Saturn’s limitations.
There may be a sense of frustration or the sense of not being able to hold the whole story in our heads, of facts running through our fingers like water. This conjunction is happening in mutable Pisces, after all, with slippery Neptune nearby.
Practical Breakthroughs
If you can’t get around the brick wall in your path, you just may have to invent a flying car. Such are the possibilities for innovative breakthroughs that accompany the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on April 20th at 21° Taurus.
In stolid, down-to-earth Taurus, which likes its creature comforts, these breakthroughs may be quite practical, having to do with food, commerce, the arts, or agriculture.
It’s a grounded moment to look at what innovations or 2.0 moments we can all dream up related to the Taurus house of our charts.
Off the Racetrack and Back to the Pasture
The Jupiter-Uranus breakthrough lights up Taurus season like a steady lantern, leading us out of the craziness of this Aires speedway.
A full moon in Scorpio on the 23rd pulls the plug on this eclipse season. Square Pluto, this lunation goes deep, as only a Scorpio moon can, but more so, asking what we’re really fighting for, as its ruler, Mars, heads into the underwater weeds with Neptune.
Late April finds Venus and Mars, the rulers of the eclipses, both in dignified positions — Venus in Taurus and Mars in Aires, suggesting a calm down and reset back to basic, but effective, mode.
No doubt we’ll still be cleaning up the metaphorical stacks of paper sent flying earlier in the month. But Taurus season, especially this one, is patient, less car chase and more leisurely puttering. And resting, ideally in a bower, with some flowers. Maybe not lilacs, though.