This Month’s Astrology

What a surreal, radical, exceptional time we live in!

We astrologers always expect major upheaval when the two heavyweights Saturn and Pluto come together every 40 odd years, as they did in January. But the likelihood of an exact line up between them “coinciding” perfectly with an eclipse is something that may only happen once in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years. So, astrologically this time is radically out of the ordinary even by Saturn/Pluto standards.

Aries Sun conjunct Chiron, Black Moon, Psyche and Medusa!

The intense cycle of wounding and healing that we are currently in continues, as the natural fire of Aries struggles to find clear space and oxygen, while the Wounded Healer and the Great Mother maintain their joint purificatory and transformative pressure upon us.

The two will stay within 5° of each other until June when they finally separate but right now at the start of April they are in an intense T-square involving the South Node and the North Node of the moon, with the Lilith asteroid on the South Node in Capricorn and our regular Moon on the North Node in Cancer.

The squares to both nodes described the fact that we are at a massive turning point, not just on the planet, which is pretty obvious, but karmically. While the South Node in Capricorn can reflect the consequences of 4000 years of patriarchal culture, a fierce and often enraged goddess is rising out of the ashes and returning from exile, demanding a place at the table in this next stage in our evolution.

This is mirrored by the actions of both the Black Moon and Medusa in this month’s mix.

The North Node in Cancer reflects movement towards a collective future more integrated with the earth, with the personal and the divine feminine and, with greater caring for all living things and each other.

Everything that we are experiencing around the coronavirus challenge is a mirror of both the necessary destruction of the old ways and, as Andrew Harvey has been pointing out, we are birth pains of a massive collective rebirth. We are right in the middle of that crucible.

This movement is also supported by exquisite sextiles to the healing goddess Hygeia in Gemini, bringing much love, Shakti and healing power to an already potent brew.

Aries Sun conjuncts Psyche and Medusa: Aries Sun and Relationships!

In the midst of the more primal processes involving Chiron, Black moon and Medusa, is a surprising focus on the evolution of quality relationship.

The Sun conjuncts the goddess Psyche, that exquisite and delicate part of self that longs for soul to soul union, much like a Venus and Neptune combination. It would be easy for her to get lost or overlooked by these bigger processes but nevertheless she adds a tremendous level of sensitivity not normally associated with Aries.

Psyche opens a level of longing in relationship that is hard to attain and, can subtly put pressure on existing relationships that don’t meet that lofty standard, but one that encourages the evolution of our capacity for such relationships. This theme is also supported by the fact that the goddess of the sacred marriage Parvati is directly opposite the Chiron/Black Moon/Sun and Psyche conjunction from the sign of Libra.

Parvati is in turn supported by the presence of Juno, the goddess of marriage, who is also opposite the Black Moon, Sun, Psyche and Medusa!
What I get from this complexity is that the purificatory processes inherent in this stellium in Aries are also about removing obstacles that inhibit higher quality relationships, while presenting us, once again, with the dichotomy between the independence of Aries and the relationship orientation of Libra.

Jupiter conjunct Pallas Athena and Pluto at 24° Capricorn

This now exact conjunction has been warming up since mid-March, as I wrote in last newsletter. This is a deep, earthy, expansive and brilliant combination of energies intent on enhancing our ability to both flow more fully with the transformative demands of this time and present us with expansive visions and unique insights into the creative possibilities of this time of radical deconstruction of the old.

The expansive visions of Jupiter and, the clear-sighted and one pointedness of Pallas Athena combines well with the transformative muscle of Pluto.

It’s a combination that also gives us an alternative perspective when there is so much around us that can seduce us with despair and feelings of victimisation. They tell us to stay grounded, watch our boundaries, identifying very clearly what in ourselves needs to be purified, transformed or jettisoned, and to watch out for points of intense light in the midst of the collective darkness that we are facing.

Mars conjunct Saturn in Aquarius squaring Uranus

Last month Mars was trawling through Capricorn, initially with Pallas Athena, and the two warrior deities reached the expansive Jupiter just as the latter was aligning with Pluto, that primal source of these huge destruction and rebirth cycle that we are currently in. At any other time, this four-way line-up would have been the source of great forward moving power and creativity, and while this is still essentially true, this potential has been significantly compromised by the darker, more shadowy influences in the collective.

And now with Mars joining Saturn in the more spacious sign of Aquarius, it begs the question of what are we going to do with these powerful energies, as our conscious minds gather more information while entering a more dynamically creative sign.

Saturn can equally slow down the warrior’s proactive leanings, but he does add more stability, potential wisdom and earthy realism to his actions, fortunately, as they are heightened in Aquarius and, radicalised by a square to Uranus on the 8th.

Mars squaring Uranus is a volatile, unpredictable and potentially explosive expression of the urge for greater individual freedom. This is going to be quite a challenge considering how many of us are in partial or total lockdown, so it’s going to be very important to find effective releases of this energy.

Certainly dance, movement and dynamic exercise are going to help tweak the pressure valves but if you find things getting more serious emotionally, it would be good to draw on emotional release practices that allow for safe and partially controlled explosions (like screaming into a pillow, beating the crap out of the mattress, practising any of the more dynamic active meditations, like the Osho kundalini, dynamic or chakra breath ones.)

Unfortunately, we can expect a spike in domestic violence incidences, as well as some fairly adolescent, but less dangerous, bouts of rebelliousness from some individuals.

The above practices are not just about releasing excessive build-up though, as there are deeper healing opportunities here as Mars sextiles Chiron and the Black Moon, while trining the healing goddess Hygeia in the first and second week of the month, another great arrangement for healing ancient psychic emotional baggage.

Mercury in Pisces conjunct Persephone and Neptune.

As the ruler of our predominantly mental operations, Mercury, in the very psychically fluid realms of Pisces, is in a bit of a tug-o-war between the goddess of the underworld and the planet of heightened psychic and spiritual openings.

Traditionally, Mercury is one of the few deities who can travel between the terrestrial world and the underworld safely and without dying. His ability to do this is an expressions of his capacity as a messenger of the gods.

Within us mortals then, he opens us to information, insight and expansive awareness from both our lower and upper chakras at this time, making it an ideal period for any form of meditation that drops us beneath the day-to-day operations of our minds.

This doesn’t necessarily make this easy for us though, as it can also produce a great deal of psychic fluidity that can stretch us between the exalted states and then drop us into more shadowy energies on an irregular basis.

However great the spiritual potentials of this time, it can also over-expose us psychically, emotionally and mentally to the collective, which can be a very unhealthy place given the amount of anxiety and fear around.

If you aren’t in a situation where you don’t have the space or privacy for traditional meditation, at the very least use protective visualisations, flower essences or aurasoma to simultaneously protect your psychic bodies, without shutting you down to the spiritual potentials inherent here.

Venus Trining Mars the Whole Month

The lovely Venus/Aphrodite starts the month in Taurus, initially trining the Jupiter, Pallas, Pluto conjunction, while tightening up a trine to the Saturn Mars conjunction. This lays down a template of positive transformative and creative potency, including around our love lives for the whole month. Even on a more mundane level, Venus trines her traditional lover Mars for the whole month, so that once he gets over his initial bumps with Uranus, these two settled in to a mutually supportive and balancing relationship between masculine and feminine full of creative and passionate juice.

She leaps into Gemini on the fourth and in doing so lights up her own healing journey by crossing the priestess Vesta on the eighth, then simultaneously sextiling Chiron in Aries and, the goddess of the sacred marriage Parvati in Libra on the 10th. This is beautiful support for healing wounds to our hearts, while connecting to some authentically Tantric archetypes that simultaneously deepen and heighten our experience of love and sexuality.

A highlight in this process is when Venus joins the healing goddess Hygeia on the 12th/13th, whose Indian equivalent is Lalita, the gorgeous goddess of sacred sexuality and a Queen of Tantra, (along with her older soul sister Parvati!) These would be good days to set up a hot healing, spiritual date with someone you love and trust!

Go well, stay well and keep an eye out for points of light in the midst of all of the chaos!

With love and blessings,

Daniel