Aries always seems to hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s not bad, just busy, and I usually get knocked over by whatever else is going on. For me, this is not the fact that I’m sick with some sort of respiratory infection (thank goodness, knock on wood, etc.), but that I’m am dealing with the fallout from the pandemic — which has follow-on consequences for my clients, the various social circles I’m in, and the organizations I belong to (and in some cases lead).

Which brings us to the chart for the next ten days. I knew that the day of the ingress was today-ish, but I didn’t know that it was at not quite 2:00am today, and not 2am on the 31st. What can I say, even for an astrologer, that’s out of sorts. We’re supposed to be on top of the question, what time is it? Alas, this time, I wasn’t… but, regardless of how lethal or harmless COVID-19 turns out to be, I still had to act as though people’s lives came first, particularly when they look to me as a leader in their volunteer organization. So, the column is late, but I happen to have been busy organizing people to save each others’ lives. Let’s take a look at the planetary placements, and then consider the horoscopes by rising sign.

Planetary Placements

The Ascendant is in Capricorn, the sign of cardinal Earth. We’re at the beginning of something, the whole shape of which is not yet clear. Under the earth, various forces seethe: The South Node is just below the horizon, preparing to cross into Sagittarius in the near future — the whole shape of the sh*t about to go down, isn’t yet certain. Following behind are the planets Jupiter, Pluto and Mars, seated upon the decan that Austin Coppock called “The Throne” in 36 Faces, his book about the Decans. Mercy, toxicity and violent authority all lurk below the surface, ready to emerge.

In the Second House of money and possessions, Saturn makes its first entry into the decanic realm of Aquarius called “The Mark of Exile.” A certain amount of outlawry follows —anyone who is making money, is doing so under a ban or operating within tight limits. There’s little clarity about how tight those limits are, or what the consequences might be for violating them, but we should be aware that an outlaw’s brand has long-lasting consequences.

In the third house of extended family and siblings, Mercury still struggles in detriment and fall with its close neighbor, Neptune. While not technically conjunct now, that conjunction is approaching. The herald is carrying messages from a squared Moon in Gemini in the sixth house, to the watery lord of dreams-made-manifest — a certain unwelcome guest is likely to go viral with intimate friends and relations in the next ten days.

The Sun is in the Fourth House of home and family at the moment, and will reach his exaltation degree in about nine days. Forming neither conjunction nor aspect, he shines a light with particularly-intense splendor on the state of your home and internal family workings — and like a welcome guest, he requires you to rise to the occasion. A joyful noise, “We! Are! Family!” rises from the loved ones you have gathered close around you — the people you’re actually in daily, personal relationship with. Get comfortable, folks.

At the same time, that home is likely to be home to unlikely and creative comforts. The Fifth House, currently Taurus, is the home of both electric and eclectic Uranus, who brings unexpected surprises and mysterious entertainments; and creative Venus. The mystic, magical outer planet holds the middle degrees of the Decan called “The Plough”, while the fecund queen reigns with prayer beads that stave off illness. We’re likely to find unexpected joy in nostalgic returns to older entertainments, or to the kinds of repetitive craft-work that allows us to enter a meditative state.

The Moon holds the center of Gemini, that part of the chart which Austin called “The Hermaphrodite”. In the Mansions of the Moon, this position plays on the relationship between the Sixth (tropical) and the Fourth (Sidereal). Where the Sixth Mansion deals with the coming together of husband and wife in a state of ardent attraction and joyous union, the Fourth is considered a place of ill-will and hindrance. The Hermaphrodite (the male and female in one body) strongly suggests the present situation in many homes — a man and a woman inside one sealed organism of a house or apartment, possibly with children… and either finding themselves joyously and happily reigniting a mutual commitment to health and well-being; or actively intruding on one another’s thoughts with fury and malice: what the virus has joined, no one shall put asunder. At least, not in the next ten days. The Moon is rising toward full, but hardly out of the shadow of the Sun yet — we should expect that the shape of the next ten days is only just becoming clear, but matters are unlikely to resolve themselves before the full Moon in Libra on April 8, and even then we might find ourselves more thoroughly chained up than before.

The placement of the Midheaven and the Lot of Fortune deserve some attention: both aligned in the tenth house of career and public repute, they are distinctly at odds, and square to the toxicity of Pluto and the violent authority of Mars. Money-making activities are unlikely to win much praise from those in authority these next ten days, but the wheels on the bus will still go around. There’s money to be made, providing that you have the stomach to stare down disapproving neighbors, and maybe the cops as well.

Finally, the North Node in the Seventh House has its place in Cancer, in the nurturing embrace of the Decan called “the Mother and Child.” There’s a lot of nurturing going on right now, and a lot of caretaking to be done, much more so than usual. It’s a public form of armoring up for whatever might come next.

Rising Sign Horoscopes

Capricorn: Don’t ask for the one in authority,
when you see all the crap that’s going on.
Between job and home, find bless’d parity,
and family check-ins a routine at dawn.

Aquarius: You’re not your money, no matter the news;
though it’s hard to recall that on your own.
Siblings are singing their financial blues;
foot no bills til your kid’s future is known.

Pisces: You’re at the core of the network at last,
which seems to spread wider each passing day,
as all of your friends are troubled, aghast,
by how swift normalcies all pass away.

Aries: The light in you is the light in your house,
though all of your work is under some woes;
What fortune there is, must come from your spouse;
from crafty surprises, your income grows.

Taurus: Take time for delight; be happy and awed,
as solitude brightens the loads you bear.
Classes are canceled; you won’t go abroad,
yet your luck’s enough to balance and share.

Gemini: Rough is the labor that falls in your lap,
easy for women, challenging for men —
write a poem, knit a scarf, take a nap,
and double-check the paid bills once again.

Cancer: See your partner gets what they require;
be active in setting their mind at ease;
make careers of tending the home fire —
both of your purses are in a tight squeeze.

Leo: Tend to what is shared; make your home a stage;
take comfort as work, and act in command.
some distance from spouse may feel like a cage;
find peace in tending a garden of land.

Virgo: See the big picture with balanced accounts,
and guard your health with distance where you can;
pleasure appears in minuscule amounts,
so practice the grace of the patient man.

Libra: Spinning in circles, you hold bits of home,
constrained by exile’s old defined borders.
Letters reveal truths buried, or unknown;
shared supplies don’t make you secret hoarders.

Scorpio: Family marshals supplies like majors —
hoping for one strategic strike at dawn.
plan for internment — which needs long wagers,
subtle finesse, and less-obvious brawn.

Sagittarius: Reserve capital for a rainy night,
when family may need a bailout, and quick.
Home and house need surprise, and new light;
work is in need of an inventive trick.

Colophon

You may have noticed, this column was late. I’m currently serving a term as a District leader for Toastmasters International, an all-“in person” organization for experiential education in public speaking and leadership. I did… quite a lot of public speaking and leadership this week, as our part of the Toastmasters world went from exclusively “face-to-face in the same physical place”, to exclusively online. It’s been an… interesting transition, and my writing time has suffered. Trying to get back onto a regular schedule.

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces as the basis of some of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.

Any errors in these columns are my own.

If you’d like to schedule a consultation with me, you can find additional information on the Services and Classes page.

If you want to read some of my other astrologically-oriented poetry, To the Mansions of the Moon is a collection of hymns to the angels of the Mansions mentioned in these columns. For the Behenian Stars is a collection of hymns to the first/brightest sixteen stars. The Sun’s Paces are hymns to the thirty-six Hellenistic-era deities and ascended souls of the Greco-Egyptian Decans-calendar. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.