Monday 4/25/2022: Sneak Peek at the Week; Pluto Retrograde; New Moon in Taurus — Eclipsed; Venus Conjunct Jupiter, Oh Joy!

Allllllrighty then!

Lots to talk about this week — here are the highlights:

  • Mercury sextiles Jupiter early Wednesday morning
  • Venus meets up with Neptune in Pisces on Wednesday afternoon
  • Mercury trines Pluto on Thursday morning
  • Pluto turns retrograde on Friday
  • Mercury leaves Taurus for Gemini on Friday
  • New Moon in Taurus — also a solar eclipse on Saturday
  • Venus meets up with Jupiter, also on Saturday
  • Venus sextiles Pluto on Sunday

The upcoming eclipse means that it’s time once again to offer Avid Readers several paragraphs on how this week’s solar eclipse and next month’s lunar eclipse are likely to affect your own personal horoscope. These paragraphs are not computer-generated. They are my typed-by-hand observations unique to you, and they all can be yours by tossing $52 into the Joyful Random Expression of Appreciation basket, located here. Then you’ll need to email me your birth data, if you know I don’t already have it. I will send insights before Saturday’s New Moon.

Here’s how the week goes:

  • MONDAY: Moon is in Pisces, driving the day with a need to work with impressions and ideals, and go with the intuitive flow. Humming in the background are the potentially luscious patterns noted above, with the potential for someone’s cup to runneth over. The Pisces Moon makes a cooperative connection (a sextile) to the Taurus, Sun at 4:08 PM ET; pull your resources together and go for it. At 8:51 PM ET, Moon meets up with Mars, planting seeds for provocation, action and assertion. As I type, Elon Musk seems determined to take over Twitter, and since the luscious Venus-Jupiter conjunction exactly opposes Musk’s Pluto…AND…another measurement between Mars (action) and Uranus (daring, technology) is also exact this month, chances are that he’ll be able to pull together the resources required to persuade the Twitter board to capitulate. [UPDATE: the world’s richest man has now apparently acquired Twitter for $43 billion.]
  • TUESDAY: Moon sextiles Uranus at 7:39 AM ET, facilitating news in the tech world, thinking outside the box, reaching across the aisle. Go with the intuitive Moon-in-Pisces flow.
  • WEDNESDAY: Moon meets up with Venus, Neptune and Jupiter between 12:49 AM ET and 7:07 AM ET, putting themes of value, vision and reward in focus. At 1:11 AM ET, Mercury (how we need to think and communicate) sextiles Jupiter, suggesting a cooperative flow of expansive information involving publishing, legal opinions and foreign affairs. Moon sextiles Mercury and Pluto at 7:34 PM ET and 9:35 PM ET, dumping more facts and opinions for us to process over morning coffee. Chill during the brief two and a half hour Moon void. See how the pace picks up at 12:09 PM ET when the Moon zooms into me-me-me-first Aries, looking to get something started — while likely wearing rose-colored glasses. I say this because at 3:11 PM ET, Venus meets up with Neptune, seeking to plant seeds involving ideals of soulful beauty, women, money, arts and empathy.
  • THURSDAY: Moon in Aries charges through the day with no interference. How do you get an Aries to do something? Tell them it’s impossible. This fact, combined with the wish-fulfillment potential of this week’s patterns, suggest big dividends. The only exact pattern today is a trine between Mercury and Pluto at 8:04 AM ET. Depth, power, resources and news from underground are likely water-cooler topics, as the Powers That Be consolidate whatever it is they want to acquire or maintain.
  • FRIDAY: We are now in the dark of the Moon –– the end of the lunar cycle. Now is the time for clandestine meetings — or anything else you hope will fly under the radar. But there is an eclipse on the horizon, so there’s no guarantee that it will stay hidden — as I’ll explain. First let’s give a nod to the sextile between the Moon and Saturn at 9:15 AM ET, which is helpful for those asserting executive authority or trying to structure an action plan. Things get interesting in the afternoon. All this week – as mentioned in the last forecast — Pluto has been slowing down to a virtual standstill from our perspective on Planet Earth, preparing to turn retrograde at 2:35 PM ET today. Avid Readers will recall a planet preparing to change direction is reflected in our mundane experience as the sound of a car horn blaring. The planet demands our focus, and what Pluto at the end of Capricorn demands is a focus on breakdown, transformation and empowerment in matters of government and corporate structures, as well as energy resources (gas, oil, plutonium, etc.). You are more personally affected by this particular Pluto retrograde if you are Emmanuel Macron, who has transiting Pluto sitting right on his 28 Capricorn Ascendant. Note that Macron just defeated Marine Le Pen in an election held over the weekend in France. Good news: Macron prevailed over the would-be autocrat. Bad news: LePen secured 42% of the vote — more than she did in the election five years ago. Zut. Merde! Meanwhile, if you are Kyle Rittenhouse or Greta Thunberg, you share a birthday — and Pluto is sitting right on top of your shared Mercury, suggesting continued empowered and persuasive thoughts and communication throughout 2022.
  • FRIDAY: Power plays become more apparent around 5:38 PM ET, when the crusading warrior Aries Moon squares Pluto and then goes void for almost three hours. Chill! Did I mention that communication and information that strives to preserve material comfort and/or the status quo may be in high gear today, reflecting Mercury at the verrrrrrrrrrry end of Taurus? That “crisis mode” shifts at 6:23 PM ET, when Mercury enters one of its home signs — Gemini. Mercury functions effectively in Gemini, facilitating less ponderous thinking, more wit and speed — all of which may be entertaining. Put that efficient mindset to good use when Moon enters Taurus at 8:18 PM ET, seeking to build something sustainable out of the pioneering ideals sparked during the Aries Moon.
  • SATURDAY: Moon in Taurus travels without interference until 4:28 PM ET, when it meets up with the Taurus Sun. It’s official — the New Moon has begun — eclipsed! A 5:13 PM ET, Venus meets up with Jupiter, expanding on empathy and artistry (that’s the upside). If you have planet around 27 degrees of just about any sign, you could try your luck with a few lottery tickets purchased before then. If you win big, send me my cut. Moon sextiles Mars at 7:23 PM ET, facilitating an easy flow of action that builds material security. The evening may end with a surprise twist, reflecting the disruptive potential of the Moon’s meet-up with rebel Uranus, exact at 12:24 AM ET on….
  • SUNDAY: Good grief, is it May already? Go outside and smell the spring flowers. A sextile between Venus and Pluto is exact at 6:37 AM ET, reflecting emotional depth in social expression, arts, money and matters involving women. This is the last full day of Venus in Pisces — and remember, any planet at the end of Pisces can feel like it’s the end of the world. The Pisces Moon is not void this weekend, so you’re free to snap up yard sale bargains, if people are finally doing those things again (wear a mask). The weekend ends on a sober note, as Moon squares Saturn at 7:32 PM ET –– then strives for an idealistic spin as Moon sextiles Neptune at 8:04 PM ET.

Here is what the New Moon/Solar Eclipse looks like, set in Washington, D.C.:

 

Observations:

  • A New Moon in Taurus needs to establish and maintain material comfort and security. The keywords for Taurus are I HAVE. Moon in Taurus people are more likely than others to be tactile. Famous people with Moon in Taurus include:  Prince Charles, Elizabeth Warren, Mick Jagger, Meryl Streep, Amma (the Hugging Saint) and of course, President Joe Biden.
  • The Ascendant and the Midheaven of this chart are at the end of Virgo and Gemini, at the Aries Point. This is a statement of prominence.
  • The potentially luscious conjunction of Venus and Jupiter is minutes away from being exact, and it opposes the Ascendant. At 27 Pisces, Venus and Jupiter expand on the illumination received in the wake of the Full Moon in Virgo on March 18th.
  • Venus-Jupiter are almost exactly sextile Pluto, suggesting an easy flow of among these two usually “fortunate” planets and the Powers That Be, for better or for worse.
  • The New Moon is in the 8th house — which in a mundane chart may refer to mortality and loss; other potentials include debt, inheritance, taxes; managing resources of others
  • New Moon is sextile Mars in the 6th: workers, unions, diseases, diet, servitude. Mars is about to sextile Uranus, suggesting innovation, technology and disruption of the status quo
  • Moon’s next aspect is a conjunction to Uranus, echoing the potential for surprise revelations and shocks to the system. Next week the Sun will meet up with Uranus, suggesting more of the same, but with respect to leaders of state and commerce.
  • Chart ruler Mercury is strong in Gemini and in the 9th house: courts, publishing, education, foreign affairs, collective belief systems. At 0 Gemini, it’s at a starting point, subject to change. More information and experience required before the path ahead is determined. This is an interesting contrast to the angles and other planets which are at the end of their signs.
  • Saturn is unaspected in the 5th house, the areas of children, creative self-expression (including sexuality), entertainment, speculative ventures and ambassadors. Saturn refers to necessary controls, structures and authority. Saturn in Aquarius refers to networks, technology, rebels, humanitarians and those on the fringe. Being unaspected suggests that this high-functioning Saturn may run away with the whole horoscope. Compared this potential runaway Saturn with the placement of the Moon in the chart for the Aries Ingress.
  • The Sabian Symbol for this New Moon is “a woman sprinkling flowers.” The keyword for this Symbol is CARE, as in caring and cultivating something you have planted in the hopes of having it grow. “Never give up the good fight,” writes Sabian Symbologist Saijin of this Symbol — with more of their thoughts here.  Well, then. Those are our marching orders on this New Moon. Now is not the time to give up, and consider that “the good fight” might be to ensure that every flower gets the water it needs, not just a select few.

Oh, but this is a solar eclipse, too. So let’s write about that — or if you prefer to listen to a talk about eclipses (and also Pluto’s retrograde), here’s 25 minutes of a fun conversation with Avid Reader Alison in Episode 15 of her podcast, “2022: The Year of Love.”

Solar eclipses act like a “bottleneck” of energy. Light flowing from the Sun is temporarily interrupted, focusing attention on that interrupted point. As light is held back, something new and possibly fragile may enter the picture and grow. And here I would be thinking of Michael, the kindhearted policeman in the storybook Make Way for Ducklings, who stopped the flow of traffic on Beacon Street so Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and their brood of eight could safely make their way to the Boston Public Garden. Otherwise, they would have been roadkill. Got that?

Often the seeds planted for growth during an eclipse are hidden. Sometime later, when the eclipse is activated by a transiting planet, whatever was planted can make itself known quite suddenly and forcefully. And once it’s out, there’s no going back.

Here’s an example of an eclipse trigger. On January 10, 2020, we had an eclipse at 20 degrees of Cancer/Capricorn. It was a lunar eclipse, offering illumination and release. This is when the novel coronavirus was named and its genetic sequence released. Countries began mobilizing to deal with it. In early March 2020, Jupiter hit 20 Capricorn, followed by Mars on March 17th. That’s when most of the world went into lockdown. Then, on December 14, 2020,  Mars was at 20 Aries for the third time this year (because Mars was retrograde). 20 Aries is a square to 20 Cancer/Capricorn, thus triggering the eclipse again. That’s the day the first Covid vaccine was administered in the U.S. The planet representing the vaccine in the chart for that event is Mars! Meanwhile, in the UK,  a mutation of Covid-19 that spreads faster than the original was identified. Coincidence or conspiracy?

  • This week’s solar eclipse will be triggered by Mars on July 20th. Make a note of it, especially if you are Willie Nelson, who celebrates a birthday on 4/30.
  • If you’d like personal insights on how this week’s solar eclipse and next month’s lunar eclipse are likely to affect your horoscope toss $52 into the Joyful Random Expression of Appreciation basket, located here.

A pause, while I marvel at the synchronicity between the marching orders of the New Moon (“Never give up the good fight!!”) and Beth Owl’s Daughter’s Tarot Card of the Week, which just landed in my inbox. To illustrate this week’s prescient Card, she cites an essay Dan Rather penned yesterday, “Standing Up to Bullies,” with three recent inspiring examples of courageous souls never giving up on fighting the good fight!

And now, the news.

These two from WaPo aren’t new, but they’re fun:

Also fun: the upside potential of challenging aspects between Mars (action, assertion) and Neptune (pixie-dust, music), as evidenced by Randy Rainbow. He has an exact Mars-Neptune opposition that also engages his super clever Mercury (in Gemini) and probably his perfection-seeking Virgo Moon. Here’s a write-up of his horoscope from a few years ago. Today, as transiting Jupiter (expansion, publishing) makes contact with his Mercury, the NYT reports this:

Randy Rainbow will never give up the good fight. His last musical parody was a response to Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ horrible “Don’t Say ‘Gay'”bill, ICYMI.

Are you registered to vote? Check your status here — and make sure you vote in the primary elections, too.

That’s the news for now, only because there is so much going on in the cosmos this week, and I feel I’ve given you plenty to digest.

Here’s the 411 on personal consultations.

Thank you for reading this forecast.

When I entered “Pluto Ukraine” and “Hades Ukraine” into the Adobe Stock search engine, this is the image that came up.

“Sonya, the Fisherman’s Wife” stands in the Odessa harbor, looking out to sea. She represents loyalty and fidelity.

Slava Ukraini!