 Sunday, April 23. Let’s talk a little about Mercury and Jupiter. Mercury turned retrograde at 15° 36’ Taurus on Friday, April 21 just one day after the Solar Eclipse at 29° 50’ of Aries. Remember how I said this season has a double edged sword around endings and beginnings? Solar Eclipses are about planting seeds for new beginnings and the sign of Aries is the first sign of the zodiac indicating speed, birth and initiation. Yet, the degree of the eclipse is 29° 50 Aries indicates something coming to an end and now Mercury retrograde added to the picture doubles down on the review process of what is being ended from the past before moving forward and making that new beginning. In essence it’s all happening at once. It’s like selling an old house while buying a new one or the death of an elderly relative at the same time a baby is born into the family. These are the evolution cycles of life and time.
Mercury is quicksilver and light on its feet while the sign of Taurus is slow and languid. Mercury retrograde in Taurus is slow down your thinking. Everyone’s motto right now should be: Think before you speak. Absorb the information and digest it before you express a reply or give an answer. Choose words that carry more weight and value and have a bigger bang for the buck. It’s important to consider appropriate language and pick fewer words that carry more substance. A diatribe is not needed with this placement like Mercury in Sagittarius. Rethink old habit patterns, routines and the daily structure of life. Let the review process aid in making changes during the next three weeks to break out of a rut. Walk more slowly and observantly through the local neighborhood and environment and appreciate your surroundings more carefully. Ponder nature walks through the mountains, forests, trees, beaches or anywhere that Mother Nature is in full bloom. Breathe in the scent and beauty of the Earth and feel it rush through the lungs, body and all the senses. Let your thoughts be inspired by the physical word as the brain becomes an electrical transmitter of thought stimulating and illuminating all the physical senses. There’s a reason why Taurus is the most sensual sign of the zodiac. It experiences life physically and activates all the chakras. Taurus is visceral, raw and primal. Leave yourself space for rumination and contemplation. Hone the ability to deeply listen because you’re slowing down the thought process and lingering more carefully over the information. Think about how you feel in the body so that instinct mingles with logic. Think about the things that bring you peace and add beauty to your life. The beauty of words, language and grammar. How does the sound of your voice make others feel through the tone and words you choose? Rediscover how to improve an existing talent and gift that adds worth, value, self-esteem into your soul and money into your pocket. Mercury retrograde in Taurus is a good time to rethink old bad habits such as diet, weight, overindulgence and overspending. Reflect and review those poor habits and revitalize a physical regiment. Rethink your financial plans for the future (more on that below). There will probably be more tax extensions and larger payouts to the government. Mercury retrograde in Taurus is very interesting and has longer ramifications this time around because it happens just before the Jupiter ingress into Taurus. Mercury retrogrades on April 21 at 15.36 Taurus and turns direct on May 15 at 5.54 Taurus. The following day on May 16 Jupiter enters Taurus where it will remain until June of 2024. That’s very interesting. Mercury is setting us up for Jupiter. Both are communication planets. Mercury likes to collect facts and information while Jupiter likes to synthesize, broaden and disseminate those facts and information through opinions, philosophies and spouting its beliefs. Mercury is lower education and Jupiter is higher education. It’s as if Mercury is giving us a preparatory step to relearn some ABCs before Jupiter comes in to allow us to see the bigger picture. As I said, Mercury retrograde will cover between 5-16 degrees of Taurus. That’s a very important three weeks that will have ramifications throughout the rest of the year. Pay attention to what issues come to light around this very important time because Jupiter immediately will cross those same degrees as a review and growth process from May 16 through September 4th on its direct motion. Jupiter will then retrograde over those exact degrees a second time from September 4 through December 30 and a third time on its direct motion from December 31 through March 26 2024. That’s almost a year long period where the degrees between 5-16 degrees of Taurus being activated now by Mercury, are reactivated by Jupiter over and over. Jupiter will synthesize and adapt all the information that Mercury collects from the past and present as the King of the Gods goes over the same ground. Jupiter will till the soil and gather the seeds that were planted by Mercury. I recently had a client asking me about investment plans and told him Mercury retrograde was a good time to rethink financial plan for the future and when Jupiter enters Taurus make those new investments. Mercury retrograde is an ideal time to rethink, investigate and re-plan a financial course for the future. Those three weeks from April 21 through May 15 are optimum to study financial trends and review strategies and then when Jupiter enters Taurus on May 16 will be the time to carry out the new strategy and make the financial investments based upon the research done on Mercury retrograde. Mercury likes to collect facts and information and Jupiter likes to disseminate and spread it around so that it grows. This March, April, May and June is a precursor of greater things to come. Watch carefully what is percolating in the world and your own personal life because it will intensify during for first quarter of 2024. It’s of great importance to pay attention to what is happening now:
All these astrological phenomena have set up an appetizer course of major events. The main entrée will be served during the first three months of 2024 when everything that is popping up now will intensify.  Wednesday, April 19. Today is the years first Solar Eclipse at 29° 50’ Aries that takes place at 9:13 pm PT, 12:13 am ET (on the 20th). It’s a Hybrid eclipse which is unusual but it’s interesting because it’s the 2nd New Moon in Aries and that’s not a frequent occurrence. There was a new moon at 0° 50’ Aries on March 21.
A Solar Eclipse is about planting seeds for new beginnings. This one is rather unusual in that it is at the Anaretic degree of 29.50 Aries. The very, very, last degree and minutes of the sign. When planets or eclipses travel at an anaretic degree it usually represents an ending and a finishing up. That feels rather contradictory since by definition a Solar Eclipse is about new beginnings and Aries is the first sign of the zodiac which only emphasizes births, launchings and beginnings. The language I would use in this case is that it is a time of endings in order to make new beginnings. At this time of life something is being wrapped up in order make way for new horizons. A slate is being wiped clean. It also has a more urgent and extreme nature in the last degree because it’s on the precipice of being in the next sign, so the Aries nature is more extreme and loud in its announcement of the end of something and the start of something else. For many they are linked, so for example, it can be the end of the way a job has existed for many years and the new beginning is a fresh start in the old job moving forward. Or maybe it literally is the ending of one job as another begins. For others the subjects may be different. This is also the first eclipse we will have in the Aries/Libra polarity for the next 19 months so it’s hitting the relationship signs. We often think of relationships with people and that is usually first and foremost with Aries/Libra, but do not forget about a relationship with ideas, places, things and situations. The house position of the eclipse gives meaning to “where” the eclipse is happening, planets supply information on “what” is being changed and the signs represent the “style” of change. The Aries new moon at 0.50 on March 21 was Astrology’s way of announcing a new beginning with the energy associated with the planet Mars. The warrior God had been traveling in Gemini for the past 8 months having been retrograde a good 2 ½ months during that time. He ended his travels in Gemini on March 15. The vernal equinox in conjunction with the new moon announced the rebirth of Mars. It’s time for Mars to assert itself once again after 8 months of rehabilitation during its retrograde period. The retrograde in Gemini was like a car going into a body shop for a complete overhaul and upgrade. That 0° new moon in particular was Mars’ way of saying I’m back and ready for action. Bigger, bolder, braver and stronger than ever. The major aspect in this eclipse is the tight square to Pluto. That planet is traveling over the 0 degree point of Aquarius and back into late Capricorn over the course of the next two years so this eclipse is very representative of a gateway into destruction of the old to make way for the new. Things that are rotting and decaying in society and your personal lives are coming up for continued review, to purge, transform and let go in order to make way for a new beginning. If you read me on a regular basis you’re aware that I’ve been talking about this Plutonian energy for a long time. Pluto triggering the eclipse degree and traveling back and forth between Aquarius/Capricorn has the energy of a new world order. The Aries vision of the eclipse is ending and destroying things which have reached their expiration date to make way for evolutionary progress as represented by Pluto in Aquarius. That kind of energy is painful, uprooting, and rather volcanic in nature. It’s like a plumber sucking out the sludge from the toilet because things have gotten way too clogged over years and years of mire, muck and build-up. We see major upheavals in the political sphere, with wars, with forms of government including democracy, socialism, communism, fascism and autocracies. Polarities become even more polarized as the old guard represented by Capricorn digs its heels in even stronger to hold on to traditions that the new guard wants to change. The new guard will equally dig in their heels for what they believe is progress for the future. We will see how the infrastructure of society is changed via technology, economy, ecology, government, social values and social security. Is it a period of enlightenment or a blood bath? Revolutions leading to evolution are always a combination of the two. Pluto in Capricorn has been uncovering the flaws in old, stalwart, standard institutions and destroying the ossified. Aquarius will try to democratize everything for better and worse. The new and radical can be scary because in some cases there is the fear that the abuse of technology at its most extreme is akin to Dr. Frankenstein playing God with creating life in his own image. Artificial Intelligence technology comes to mind here. One can see the positive side but also imagine the tremendously creepy monster-like energy that can be created if abused. Here we have the forces of nature as represented by Capricorn coming in conflict with the alien and new in terms of artificial intelligence and new technology as represented by Aquarius. Pluto is the struggle between how much do we accept of the new before it corrupts us with misuse. Aquarius is the sign of infrastructure and we are destroying the old systems because we need a new power grid that rewires our electrical infrastructure. Are you doing everything you can to get ready for the new electrical currency or will it short-circuit your body and mind. Sometimes major events happen around the day of the eclipse, sometimes they don’t. Often seeds are planted that are triggered and opened up at a later date. In some cases the eclipse is foreshadowed by a month if a planet triggers the degree before. Here are planetary triggers to be aware of: Pluto at 29° 50’ Capricorn – 3/15/2023 Jupiter at 29°50’ Aries – 5/15/2023 Mars at 29° 50 Cancer – 5/20/2023 Pluto again at 29° 50’ Capricorn – 6/21/23 North Node of the Moon at 29° 50 Aries – 7/15-19/2023 Sun at 29° 50 Cancer – 7/23/2023
Don’t forget that Mercury turns retrograde at 15° 36’ Taurus the day after the eclipse on April 21 so that colors a lot of what is being reviewed during eclipse season. More on Mercury retrograde in Taurus, Jupiter entering Taurus on May 16 and Taurus season in general in another posting to come soon! |