At 10:45 am on Sunday, 19 April 2020, the Sun enters the First Decan of Taurus. Associated with Charis, one of the Graces of ancient Greek mythology, the First Decan was called “the Plough” in Austin Coppock’s book 36 Faces, and it is given to Mercury in the descending order of planetary rulerships for decans. All of this is a fancy way of saying that it’s a time for applying communication and business skills to creative and nourishing activities and projects that are both desirable and repeatable — plan on doing things that you know you’ll have to do again and again in order to achieve reliable success. Let’s take a look at the chart, examining the planetary placements.
With the Ascendant in Cancer, a Cardinal Sign, we can expect that the next ten days will see a beginning of new things, but not necessarily an ending. The days ahead are likely to be of nurturing character; however, with its placement in the middle decan, we’re likely to see characteristics of a walled garden, or an armored crustacean: soft and cuddly within, and hard-shell or brick wall aimed outward.
Planetary Placements
We find The Sun, of course, in the first decan of Taurus, in the 11th house, and preparing for a conjunction with Uranus in the next week (that will become exact on April 26, about 12 minutes before 5 am EDT).
In this position, the Sun focuses our mind on issues of effort and reward — what must we do now, in order to receive benefits later? Some of this is repetitive technique and deliberate activities that yield results later. Some of it is creative reinvention of old boundaries. Trine to the North Node and square to Saturn, the Sun is likely to receive more-than-usual messages about maintaining boundaries, even as it’s desperate to have more clarity about why to have them. In the eleventh house, and approaching conjunction with Uranus, we’re given to understand that our higher minds will focus some attention on friendships, professional relationships, and community assistance in surprising ways over the next ten days.
The Sign of Fortune and Venus are in close proximity in the 12th house in Gemini — money is to be made in home crafting work, in a state of relative solitude at home; a trine to Mars in the 8th house suggests that at least some good fortune is to be found in making armor against a stalking sudden death: mask-making, anyone? Their presence in Gemini indicates a Mercury-themed tint to our solitude these days: quarantine or physical isolation has likely got everyone cooped up.
The North Node in Cancer (and South Node in Capricorn) indicate a strong polarity in our current experience between more time at home, in the company of ourselves… and less time out in the wild, wide world in the company of others.
Yet for a chart at a time when so many people are staying at home, there is a strong public side to the chart, and a weak private side to the chart. Our selves are ruled by the Moon in Pisces in the ninth house, besieged between Neptune and the Midheaven — as the imaginary becomes real, and as our chance to understand becomes clouded by very-public false information; our money by the Sun in Taurus, indicating that former luxuries now become essentials; our families and neighborhood are moderated by analytic Virgo ruled by Mercury in Aries — who walks by our house, and why, and why are they outside at all; and home is balanced by prevaricating Libra ruled by Venus in Gemini — each action beyond the house is a risk, and each action inside the house can potentially affect the well-being of all within. Even the realms of personal pleasure are governed by a combined fear of children and death, ruled by Mars in Aquarius’s second decan, and mediated through Scorpio’s intensity and secrecy: are we hiding our sex-lives from young children? Does worry for our adult children living elsewhere affect our current happiness? Then there is working from home: Jupiter in Capricorn reminds us all how much more you have to do for ourselves, and how much more challenging it is to do hard labor when our family (and pets) are all so close at hand, sometimes on our keyboard… apparently NASA even had conversations about how to prevent cats from accidentally flying spacecraft while everyone is working at a distance from otherwise cat-free mission control centers.
The pile-up in Capricorn has eased, of course: both Mars and Saturn have moved on to Aquarius, but they are pointing in the next ten days to an increase of death and a tightening of quarantine rules, as clarity emerges about what we’re all in for. Yet Jupiter and Pluto still sit upon the decan called “The Throne” in Capricorn, and the South Node dumps all sorts of vile waste upon the decan called “The Headless Body”: in this Sign, in the Seventh House representing The Other — the message seems to be that a mixture of mercy and toxicity is at work in our relationships with the wider world: our lovers, our business partners, our allies. We want to care for them and uphold them, but we’re also eager to hold them at a distance, and to delay both entertainments and pleasures in pursuit of a different kind of relationship in these wild times.
Madame Moon holds the upper part of the sky, running ahead of the Sun and yet easing her journey toward the Dark Moon on April 22. Separating from conjunction with Neptune, she reminds us that all is not what it seems, and we must dig deep into the stream of information to separate signal from noise. At the same time, dreams and figments are being made real: don’t believe everything you read or see, but at the same time recognize that there is more to the story than you truly know. Tropically, she’s in the 28th Mansion, “the Great Fish”, but by the stars (sidereally) she’s in the 25th Mansion, “Man Planting Trees”: it’s a good time to let down your nets and bring in a great catch, a windfall, and see achievement from the completion of your projects — but it’s also a time for starting your gardens, planting your seeds, and preparing to have a future harvest. These ancient emblems are associated with Venus, and with Saturn and Mercury: it’s a time for isolated creativity, within appropriate boundaries and with careful curation of the latest hot take on available information — Slow down. Trust nature. Be among green, growing things. Nurture your projects. Bring good dreams to reality. Don’t dwell on the horror. Be public with your hope rather than your fear.
Rising Sign Horoscopes
In the past, I’ve written poetry, a rhyming quatrain, for each of the horoscopes. Trying to do that last time, as the pandemic and quarantine came into widespread awareness and fretfulness, broke something in me, at least for the moment. I’ve replaced these poems with short prose paragraphs instead in this edition.
Cancer: Expanding waistline? It’s OK, the nurturing will do you good. Partner spending too much time in their chair… get them moving. Spend time on creative work at home, find something that feels prosperous. Spend some time learning new skills, or imagining a project from first idea to completion.
Leo: It’s ok to focus on your comforts for a while, as long as there’s a plan to pay for them. Surprise yourself with a taste of luxury. Your partner is working hard on the throne, and this is where the crap comes out in your relationship right now. Make sure your partner is healthy on a regular basis; death-dreams may be heightened in your mind, but re-focus on happier results from this cocoon time. Any career goals are going to require professional networking: reach out to people, they’ll remember your kindness later.
Virgo: “Family” is likely at the forefront of your experience right now, although romantic relations with your spouse may be a mixture of grace and grubbiness; and work, dirty four-letter word, is stressful and angry. Weed the garden with your relationship, and plant an olive — recognize that it takes a long time for this kind of tree to bear fruit, but the peace it brings is better than current trouble. Your fortune lies in solo work on a well-nurtured communications project.
Libra: Home is two-faced right now: a business command center on the one hand, and a joyous and well-loved community center — a mix of business and pleasure, with Zoom calls in the office tinted with the smell of rising bread. There’s a certain wildness in the family these days, though, a bit of cabin-fever intermingled with the good graces that arise from close proximity.
Scorpio: Sex? Sex. Fear? Fear. Intensity? Intensity. Yeah. Cooped up at home, tension rising every day — chances are that it’s led to some powerful experiences already, and could lead to more if you play your cards right (or wrong, it’s hard to tell with you folks). You have some struggles to work through with the neighborhood watch, though, or with your partner’s family drama. And you may have to surprise your partner with a planned exercise in comfort to break through reservations.
Sagittarius: You have work to do, of course — but your partner’s money-issues also begin to weigh on you, and as familial ties of loyalty and legacy begin to bite and chafe your wrists. It’s time to imagine a new relationship to the ‘outdoors’ around your home, too, and spend time learning to love that space, in ways you find rewarding. Light a communicative fire about your passion projects, but at the same time engage in affirmative ways with processes to help your partner’s financial efforts.
Capricorn: Your partner’s issues need your full attention. There’s risk of serious financial shortfalls in your life due to both accidental and deliberate limitations. Public plans in your neighborhood put your own dreams on the line for the moment, so pay attention to local ordinances for a change. You’re likely happy with your current creature comforts — but shine a light of introspection on them, all the same: surprising new discoveries may be in the offing.
Aquarius: Walls up? Good. Prepared for conflict? Good. It’s not to say that either will genuinely be needed, but you’ll feel better prepared if you know how to make use of your inheritance in times of crisis. A careful look over your accounting, particularly the surprise expenses of the last month, may yield profitable insights… but it also might indicate a greater reliance on existing resources is genuinely needed. Walk your land or neighborhood, examine your house’s nooks and crannies, and tend appropriately to your children’s creative needs with outdoor time.
Pisces: Big changes coming if you can figure out how to put out your nets and tend the ground. It’s a good time to learn to garden, friend, and learn to manage the ground where you stand tall. There’s a necessary money-conversation that you’re going to have to initiate; but real prosperity begins at home for the moment. You may be longing for the taste of the beast with two backs, but tending your existing children, and keeping the garden secure against intrusion, is likely the best course of action for the moment.
Aries: Communicate those career goals, to yourself at least if no one else — you can’t charge ahead if you don’t know where you want to go. Surprise yourself with a few unusual comforts in these troubled times, but don’t buy the whole cow if steak-tips will do. You may feel locked up in your own neighborhood, and starved for successes —try to treat inside the box as a creative challenge worthy of your talents, and fortune will follow; activity and receptiveness to limits yield beneficial results. Take inspiration from a friend’s effort, and get tangled up either in your garden or a new fishing expedition.
Taurus: Surprise yourself with visits to friends — six to thirteen feet apart, please, but in comforting surroundings. You’re going to have to get more creative about money during this solitary confinement; the needs of siblings and allies may strain your cash flow. Remind your partner about their educational commitments: in the current environment, some issues may slip their mind completely. Death, or legacy holdover challenges, create signficiant problems in your workplace or for your boss or supervisor. Help an ally understand the strange windfall they’ve just captured.
Gemini: Loneliness is simultaneously your safety and your prison — good fortune comes from it, but it still feels like being a damsel in distress waiting for rescue… or is that a knight seeking to liberate the imprisoned dame? Your business success comes from successfully seeding a new project, or capturing the windfall by setting up the income-traps at the right time. Timing matters here, so pay attention to the signals that the earth and sky are giving you — but the next ten days bring to fruition some of your potential dreams. You have a lot to learn about setting limits and managing conflict, and unfortunately the next ten days may bring some golden opportunities to practice these skills as a partner’s financial plans go off the rails.
Colophon
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. My own book, A Full Volume of Splendour and Starlight, is now available as PDF download from my Etsy website.
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.
