Dear all,
The New Moon in Taurus is next week, but I’m sending out the newsletter a bit early due to my travel schedule. I’m in Florida this weekend with family, celebrating my dad’s 90th birthday. Then I have just a couple of days back in New York City before heading to Tuscany for the retreat. I’m excited but a TINY bit stressed at the moment, and it seems that most of the people I talk to are, too.
[NOTE: This post went out to our mailing list on Friday, April 26. Not subscribed yet? Click here for the earliest access to my astro-annalysis.]We are in the midst of two intense planetary stations: Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld, stopped to go retrograde on Wednesday, April 24th; and Saturn, God of Karma, will do the same thing on Monday, April 29th. The energy hearkens back to the autumn of 1982 and the spring of 1983, when these two behemoths met up in the late degrees of Libra. What were you doing (or, what were your parents doing) then? That story is echoing now.
This 1982-83 energy is heightened for those of us in the United States, because the chart for the New Moon in Taurus, when cast for Washington, DC, has 29 Libra as its Ascendant degree. Saturn rules structure, Pluto rules destruction. The season we are in now — stretching from next week’s New Moon till the next Saturn-Pluto conjunction on January 12, 2020 — is a portal, an opportunity to realign our policies and our principles. Back then, we had Regan and the so-called war on drugs; now the Democratic Party is debating carceral justice.
Pallas Athena in the Twelfth House of the New Moon for Washington, DC, encourages us Americans to reflect on the long arc of history, to carry the hope that whatever feels bad about our country now can stir us to create a new future.
There’s a lot of both discord and faith in this chart: it’s not an EASY moment, yet it carries the potential for great action. Plant the seeds that you wish to harvest! Tune into your spirit, and ask it for guidance on how to work most productively with the cosmos now.
Since April 17th, Mercury and Mars have been in what we call mutual reception. Mercury is passing through the Mars-ruled sign of Aries, while Mars is in Mercury-ruled Gemini. Whenever two planets interact in this way, the offer an opportunity for us to “flip” the energy. Mercury is at his happiest in chatty, playful Gemini, while Mars is decisive and incisive in action-taking Aries — and by applying consciousness, we can persuade the two planets (metaphorically, of course) to switch places, to evoke the energy of the sign that puts them most at ease.
So, the next time you’re writing a email and you feel that Mercury-in-Aries is making you too sharp or acrimonious, take a breath and call on Mars-in-Gemini to help you lighten up. And the next time you are stepping out into the world feeling scattered and anxious with Mars-in-Gemini, take a breath and call on Mercury-in-Aries to help you focus.
Mars in the New Moon chart is directly opposite Jupiter, who is now moving retrograde in Sadge, while the Sun and Uranus are still in orb of their conjunction from Tuesday, April 22nd. And Venus, Goddess of Love, in Aries, is entering a tough square to Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. Though this is Taurus season, there’s a great deal of Fire in the sky. Feel your passions, but think before you act. Consciousness is paramount.
And finally, for more on the New Moon chart and how to work with it, I invite you to join me for my New Moon Manifestation Circle webinar on Monday, April 29th (MP3, MP4, and PDF slides will be available for purchase after the event).
xo,
Anne
