The week ahead is the biggest astrological week of April with the beginning of eclipse season, start of Taurus season, our first Mercury retrograde in 2023 and the Sun making a challenging connection to Pluto.
Let’s start with the New Moon
Eclipse in Aries
On Thursday, April 20th, we have our first Solar eclipse of the year in Aries at 29 degrees. Solar eclipses are potent, and bring about changes in our environment over the course of several months. It will foreshadow a longer-term vision and changes over the next several years, both on a collective and an individual level.
There will be an insatiable hunger to get projects and initiatives started and into action with this courageous, bold New Moon! But other energies at play will create some restlessness, impulsivity, and instability. Be wary of premature actions and decisions, doing things at once, or going to extremes. Different sets of energies are right on the heels of this eclipse!
Look to Aries and Mars areas of life (houses) in your natal chart for what themes are at play.
If you have any personal planets at or close to 29 degrees Aries or other Cardinal signs (Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), this is significant! For my natal chart savvy friends, this energy will also activate the house of your natal Mars.
It’s time to slow down and get grounded
The energy will start to stabilize when the Sun moves into Taurus just a few hours later – a slowing down energy that comes with a fixed, earth sign, so watch for impatience and restlessness right on the heels of this eclipse.
With the Sun joining forces with Mercury (the planet of communication and intelligence), the North Node (fate and destiny) and Uranus (sudden, unexpected changes), things may be in a state of flux over the next several weeks.
The Sun and Pluto have their first “square off”
Also on the 20th, the Sun has its first challenging interaction with the mighty Pluto in the sign of Aquarius. With this connection comes power and control dynamics in the themes of Taurus (wealth and resources) and Aquarius (innovation, humanitarianism, community). Look for clues to begin to surface as a sign for changes on a collective level.
On an individual level, there may be push/pull energies in the Taurus/Aquarius areas of your life (natal chart houses) that you weren’t fully aware of. This is a good time to be in observation of where a sense of power, or “being in charge” needs to be reclaimed.
This may play out in your EXTERNAL realities in business, family or personal relationships, or within YOUR OWN journey.
Where have you felt disempowered or out of control?
It’s time to shift things back into a state of alignment with self to empower ourselves, empower groups and empower the collective.
Potential Delays and Holding Patterns with Mercury Retrograde
Mercury goes retrograde April 21st to May 15th when you may experience a slow-down, delays or temporary holding patterns in the Taurus area of your life. While you may start to feel a breakthrough, there’s the potential delay for now.
Mercury retrograde can be a very productive time for Review, Revise, Reflect and Re-Do for gathering information and having conversations that may be helpful to get things sorted out. It may require re-reading things that you wrote or decided a week ago, or reflecting on changes, or re-organizing missing information or data before moving forward.
During this long tour of Mercury in Taurus, it would be a great time to connect more with nature and become more mindful, sensory and in tune with the undercurrents of the energy around us.
We tend to look at information and facts from an intellectual view when making decisions. But having a visceral sense of what “feels right” in your body develops a stronger sense of inner knowing of what’s true and authentic for you.
As always – cosmic energies play out specific to your natal chart placements AND you get to choose how to play!