The Sun enters Aries I The Double Bladed Axe on March 19, 2024 this year, at 11:05 pm EDT. The name comes from Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces, while T. Susan Chang named it Seeds of Dominion, a reference to the Tarot card associated with this decan, the so-called Lord of Dominion, The Two of Wands.
The Alexandrian calendar, a mix of Egyptian and Greek ideas from the early Common Era, assigned this decan to the planet Mars and to the god Aidoneus — an uncommon name for a power we all face sooner or later, in one form or another. Implying both “reverent” in the positive, and “awful” or “shameful” on the negative side, Aidoneus was the name given to the ruler of the underworld, whom we now call Hades when he appears in Greek and Roman mythology. The reasons why he carries the two-edged name that matches his axe? We have only to look at the rape of Persephone — and the many efforts both ancient and modern to soften that story — to see why he might be dignified with a name that honored his future tyranny over all mortal life, while also expressing horror for his sovereignty.
Consider the original story, if you can (or skip on a few paragraphs if you can’t) — that Aidoneus saw a youthful goddess playing in a spring meadow and decided to have her for himself. Opening up a chasm, he dragged her aboard his chariot and carried her down to Hades, the underworld, closing up the cave behind him. Demeter searched in vain for her until she learned who had kidnapped her, and then she withheld her grace from the world so that no plants grew, until Zeus compelled Aidoneus to give up the maiden to the surface world again so that mortals didn’t starve. But alas, the girl had eaten pomegranate arils from Aidoneus’ secret garden, and was thus compelled to live in the underworld six months out of the year, one month for each seed she’d consumed.
But since ancient times, we’ve been softening that story — Zeus as the girl’s father made the arrangements himself with Aidoneus through his intermediary and herald Hermes; and in some parts of the ancient Mediterranean even today, the bride is carried off weeping and wailing to her new husband’s house — a happy occasion dressed up as a re-enactment of a kidnapping. Demeter’s wailing and weeping is merely a performative grief of a mother who is secretly glad that her daughter now has a household of her own to manage and run; and the girl herself is now given a name and title worthy of honor (which I’ll write about in Aries II).
Another version of the tale, more clearly a product of modern times, suggests that the girl herself has run away with Aidoneus, and that his kidnapping is more akin to the hippie chick running off with a motorcycle rider in black leather after Woodstock or Burning Man, and getting pregnant in a yurt or minivan campsite down by the old cave mouth. Now, at the inevitable family reunion, her domineering Evangelical mother is yelling at everyone about how her daughter has been corrupted by Satan and the natural order of the world has been disrupted… even as the girl’s delighted father slips the newlyweds a check for the down payment on a real house. And in the long run, maybe she finds happiness there and maybe she doesn’t — but she’d rather die than go back to that miserable old hag that raised her and admit the man she chose was a bad egg.
So the double-bladed axe is a dangerous tool. It’s really more weapon than casual wood-chopper… and as dangerous to the wielder as to their opponent. Movies like Fargo and the real-world case that inspired it, the 1986 murder of Connecticut woman Helle Crafts, point to the nature of the double-bladed axe too — it kills and dismembers, but it wounds the bearer, too, in such a way that they are unlikely ever to be fully whole. Aidoneus is a diligent worker and manages his household and his kingdom efficiently… but his business is gathering in the dead souls of the world, and both he and his darkly-humored wife are not famous for their kindness or hospitality. Nobody wants to meet them. Not yet.
The ancients believed the first ten degrees of Aries were under the administration of the warlike planet Mars — who also rules the last ten degrees of Pisces, the only place in the Zodiac where a planet manages twenty degrees in a row. Some ancient astrologers theorized that this was for the purpose of generating sufficient energy and heat to end the old year and start the new, rather like combining an electrical spark and push with a little spurt of extra gas to start the engine of your car and get the wheels moving — or the crack of the whip over the ears of the horses that pull your chariot, it still needs both your action and the horses’ movement to spur the cart-wheels into motion.
But Mars is of course, another kind of two-edged axe — in our natal charts he represents our courage and our ambition, but also where our own anger or misdirected or misapplied bravery or emotional outbursts can harm us; and where our headstrong actions may lead us to personal injury through risky business. It’s hard to get much done in life without ambition, courage, or self-discipline; but bravery can easily turn to audacity, and discipline can turn to authoritarianism and rigid inflexibility that leads to damage. Remember to steer the middle way as you learn to use the next ten days to your advantage.
The four dodeks of Aries are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer — the headstrong youth who picks up the axe and intends to chop and stack four cords of wood in a day. First comes the energy of the morning and the thunk as the sharp steel bites the wood; then comes the steady slow labor of the afternoon as the man finds the rhythm of the day and chops and stacks at a gradually slowing pace. In early evening, he feels his muscles and alternates his thoughts between maybe that was too much and hard, but worth it; in the night he can’t sleep because of the water-and-pus blisters on his hands and the aches of his arms… Set direction and goals these next ten days, but be a little circumspect about setting deadlines.
I’ve written before about Aries I, in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020.
Planetary Placements
The chart of the Aries Ingress 2024 over my location shows an Ascendant in Scorpio II the Alchemical Apparatus, in a night chart with the Moon still riding high in the sky. Among visible objects, it’s just Moon and stars tonight, suggesting that many of our operations and plans for the coming ten days are best conducted in secret, but with a constant fire boiling underneath them. The Moon herself is in Leo I The Spotlight, showing a need for emotional or intuitive leadership in your workplace or in public affairs — but similarly promising a lot of hard labor in that role without much reward for it, and a great deal of nit-picking and fussy micromanagement. Be cautious about offering to do this work yourself… or allowing the designated person to meddle too much in your life outside of the workplace.
When the Aries Ingress occurs in a fixed sign, as here, it’s usually an indicator of considerable stability over the next twelve months — what occurs now and here isn’t likely to change much over the next twelve months. At the same time, the ingress makes Mars doubly important this year, ruling both the Sun in Aries and the Ascendant — a sovereign acting as his own prime minister. It’s a good time to be ambitious for yourself and your family, but be wary of contentions in your household and home.
The chart is unusual in that it has considerably more activity in the Occidentall or Western side of the chart, usually understood to mean a good deal of reaction and reply in our lives, rather than initiating, active, or instant actions. It’s not impossible for
The Nodal Axis has reached the midpoint of Aries-Libra at 15°, arousing an urgent fever in us for routines and the good order of plans and schedules — while expelling noxious farts and gassy misery on our long-range objectives. It’s hard to plan for tomorrow, much less nine months ahead, when the Nodes will move into Pisces and Virgo. (I’ll be writing a column on that ingress for the Astrologers Co_Op project, which should appear over the summer.) On March 25, the Sun will pass over this place at the Full Moon, resulting in a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse visible across most of the Americas, reaching its height around 3:21 am EDT. The Eclipse will last 4 hours and 39 minutes, meaning that its effects will last four months and a nineteen days — whatever effects it has, they’ll be largely over by Tuesday 13 August 2024. One possibility to consider as related is a significant shadow over public affairs related to crises in the American real estate and housing market — particularly as the National Association of Realtors’ recent settlement on commissions and fees comes into effect. We’ll have to wait until April 8 for the Solar Eclipse that will slice across North America from Mexico to Nova Scotia, which will have much longer-lasting effects..
In the Fourth House, Pluto and Mars bring a focus on finances and completion of long-overdue projects to home-improvement efforts in the coming days. As I already mentioned, Mars rules the Ascendant from the square, and holds the sextile to his own sign of Aries. Mars is in a complicated position — angular and just past the Imum Coeli, peregrine but holding significant dominion over other planets. Pluto seeks to make money from the housing and real estate markets, including commercial and agricultural land, but also promises significant turbulence in these areas later this year. Encourage those who know what to do, to do it, and pay them what they’re worth.
The Fifth House is home to a stellium of Venus, Saturn and Neptune, with Venus making conjunction to Saturn on March 21 and to Neptune on April 2-3. Venus loves being in the fifth house and loves being in Pisces (where she’s exalted), and loves being in water signs. For the moment, she’s highly dignified. But she’s sharing the sign with two obvious party-poopers, one of whom insists that no one can actually go in the pool during the pool party, and the other of whom … poops in the pool. You can expect someone to spoil your fun during upcoming days, and you won’t be able to rely on certain key resources this week when it comes to enjoying yourself. Plan early, but be flexible on your personal cancellation policies.
The Sixth House is home to the Sun and to Mercury, with Mercury inside the shadow of their retrograde which begins on April 2. There’s a number of communications at work that are likely to go awry. Expect doctors’ notes and advisory opinions to be disbelieved or hand waved away — or expect that these things will come back to get you later. Don’t worry too much if you’re in the right here: you’re likely to be able to resolve this issue, with advantages to you, by the end of April. For now, document everything but keep your mouth shut: passionate denials are unlikely to be believed, but having receipts in hand in April can be worth quite a lot.
Jupiter and Uranus are both in the Seventh House, angular and mirroring one another across the horizon. In the seventh, these planets bring uproar and disruption to your relationships with others, but also create opportunities for you to deal generously and kindly with others. Be aware that there may sexual tensions and flirtations between you and others which are not entirely real, and which should not be acted upon without appropriate conversations about real-world intention and consequences; don’t mistake light banter for earnest desire this week. However, we can expect at least one long-term friendship or connection to pass a marker this week that leads to new learning opportunities for some — and a desperate urgent desire, yearning to get to be the one to deliver a clue-by-four to the head for others.
Horoscopes by Rising Sign
Decan I of any sign (usually covering the 21st of the month to the first of the following month) is free to all visitors; Decan II is only available to Patreon and Ko-Fi.com subscribers; and Decan III is available to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and MailChimp subscribers.
I recommend reading your Sun sign, Moon sign, and Rising sign for best results. I write them with rising sign in mind, but several people have told me they find that they do better with all three.
Scorpio: A desire to connect with others requires breaking agreements — but rather than formally shattering the commandments, you may find yourself organically crossing the lines you agreed to hold. That urge to flow between and among friends may be limited by prior expectations and long-held boundaries; some renegotiation is wise, but in formal dialogue not “oh, by the way…” House-home-family are starting to come under structural economic stress; a long-range realignment of expenses to income will be needed to achieve your dreams. What you say at work to underlings and people who report to you can come back to bite you in April; keep contacts professional and document them with follow-up emails; even if they’re really, really pretty — now is not the time! Attend to health matters with professional care wherever possible, but get second opinions. You’re going to shine at work but relationship questions may darken your long-term prospects — give more to your peers this week than you get (and keep receipts).
Sagittarius: Financial matters are important to you, but it’s in the questions of your extended family’s health and well-being that those financial matters are likely to crop up — and likely not without argument or contention. There are opportunities for love and delight, but they come with some strings attached, and closer to home than you might like. Communicate about your pastimes and hobbies to others, of course, but spend more time doing what you love and less time wrangling about it. You’re giving a lot of time to unpaid or unrewarded labor, but recognition for these efforts will be forthcoming and in ways that honor you. You’re going to have to bend a few of your personal guidelines to get new work, but you have some important lessons to learn in this eclipse season. Efforts to connect with friends may be difficult.
Capricorn: You won’t be able to escape from family history during the spring and summer, and there will be greater demands on your resources than you’re used to from extended family. Would you be able to host a cousin or an aunt for a month? What would multi-generational living look like in your home? How would you manage it? Best to think about these questions, because it’s a long-range structural change to how you apply your resources. You can count on older relatives – and your own aging – putting limits on your more athletic pastimes in the near future; take it easy as you attend to how your health and management of injury is going to play out as you grow older. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a good time, either: play hard for now, but work through the long-range plan.
Aquarius: household and family will be central to your identity this week, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be fighting with them. There are long-range structural questions of what your family looks like in economic terms — and shorter range questions about how to continue to provision your life in the face of financial inequalities that are starting to bite. Have you considered how all your hobbies and pastimes can apply leverage to your economic standing, in both negative and positive ways? A hot-headed, long-running conversation with your parents, cousins, or siblings is not going to solve this: you need to approach this more rationally with your kids and parents… and draw on your partner or spouse’s emotional and technical expertise, too: they’re more skilled at this than you might think.
Pisces: Your plans for celebration and personal passions — whether music or dance, costume or play — may get tied up in harsh knots over the course of the next two weeks. You’re also likely to experience emotions that are out of tune or out of touch with realistic expectations, especially when it comes to what sorts of pleasures are available to you right now. Don’t get all mopey and sad about it, but recognize that you have enough resources to earn your daily bread — but maybe not to support ALL the other things that you want to do. There’s a season ahead of you in which making some decisions about which and how to pursue entertainment is on the table: lean toward textiles or fluid movement, but most of all toward privacy. Your expertise is valued in many areas, but use your intuition and family conversations to suss out some truths: what will earn the money you want for you and your family? And what will bring you happiness when you’re required to work late? Do that.
Aries: Some big things are coming your way, and the temptation is going to be to swallow it whole. The full moon eclipse on March 25 carries a risk of smearing feelings of loneliness and separation from people you love all over the next several months — and the solar eclipse on April 8 may carry several years of medical worries — but it’s essential to remember that these experiences and feelings are largely subjective rather than objective. They’re your feelings and opinions, both of which have been shaped by rules and routines you’ve inherited from friends and family, and insights you gained from prior life experiences. But as intense as your hold on these guiding principles may be, you have an extraordinary opportunity to reshape how you face difficulty and challenge in your life in the next four months — but it will require you to open up boundaries and remove some of the guard rails you’ve established in earlier periods of your life. Others can only help you, economically and emotionally and spiritually, if they know you need help. And this would require that you initiate others into (some of) your mysteries.
Taurus: Your chart’s upside-down the next ten days, and you’re exercising your powers of leadership to get your way from business partners, spouses, and significant others — and it’s very much a process of immediate gratification. But, very much like a duck, you’re all serene above the surface while paddling madly underneath. Deep shifts in your spirituality, your relationship to home and siblings and family, are underway. There’s chunks in your daily schedule that you’re having trouble linking together, too — and there are limits you’ve set for yourself that you’re going to have to learn how to break in order to build the next big thing. Even if you work from home, your professional life is starting to change too, and the arguments and intentions of this week may set the stage for where you go and what you do for the next two years. However, you really need to connect with your friends, and align your goals with your present routines.
Gemini: “Make good choices” should be your mantra every time you open your wallet this week – spend for experiences and for learning, but be cautious about acquiring new stuff. You should call your siblings or close friends, and say something along the lines of, “I had a feeling we needed to talk… is something on your mind?” Your advice is likely to help them out a lot, although there may be a few requests for funds and resources like time (or your grandmother’s golden brooch) that you may be reluctant to honor. It’s up to you, but it’s worth asking if it’s as needful to you now and in the future, as to them right now? Some time spent in retreat from your daily routines would be a good idea — journaling, reflecting, and recording your impressions of the first few months of 2024 and setting some goals for the next nine. Some of your friends, though, may get in the way of the entertainments you plan to do without them.
Cancer: An opportunity arises to travel, or to select new classes or new forms of learning that you can do on your own — but attend to the costs both in time and money and choose the ones which allow you to show off without breaking the bank. The trip, or class, should be focused on hobbies or pastimes, but again — you may have to ask for a full or partial refund, so know what the expectations and policies are, here. Your most significant friend should be your lover, business partner or spouse, but there may be some rockiness or upheaval in this space as you navigate one another’s spiritual or religious expectations of one another this week. Along those lines, save all your working notes for the rest of March pretty carefully, and back them up in some way; you’re going to need them all through April as proof of concept and as a tool for demonstrating commitment to the work. You can tie yourself in knots around your responsibilities and duties this week, and it won’t exempt you from critique — remember that most of the stress here is self-created.
Leo: So… how does your current job make you feel? Obviously, there are some parts of the role that you enjoy because you get to be the expert; even when you’re in the back rooms or out of sight of the main clients, you get called on to answer the big questions. And similarly, everyone knows that it wouldn’t take much for you to take the place over and run it… as long as you were carrying the brand forward and making them, the owner(s) would heed your every word. But — that very capacity to understand, lead and influence means that you’re deeply knowledgeable about how your employer(s) are worth criticizing; you’re aware that their miserliness is paid for in employee creativity and happiness; and that you’ve probably learned everything you can from this job that you’re going to learn. The question is, what next if not this? Sure, you could continue in this role a long time… but this week, give yourself the freedom to think bigger and plan larger. Even if you never act on that plan, you owe it to yourself to imagine yourself on a new stage.
Virgo: You’re a creature of precise habits and intentionally set rules, but you may find yourself breaking (or at least bending) them in pursuit of new relationships and friendships. And that’s fine — give yourself permission to do that, because your long-range vision is to carry the banner of the ideals you’ve chosen to espouse. Just… expect that the forging of these new links with new people is going to cost something. Money, time, resources? Sure. But even more than that, it costs you something of yourself to open up to the place where you live, and the people who live there. There’s no other way to be transformed than to transgress the edges you’ve defined. Those transgressions are going to shift your life over the next twenty years, but the first steps are the hardest. Just remember that quality relations with others, friends to play with, the rewards of new responsibilities, and the opportunity to lead others in learning productive skills — are all on the other side of the fence from where you are now. You don’t have to tear down the fence… but you do need a couple of gates.
Libra: I’m sure you’re having challenges this week, linking where you are now to where you want to be (or think you want to be) in the future. Some of this concern arises from looking at your bank balance or your accumulation of possessions, and feeling unnerved. Some anxiety may come from a fight or an argument with the people you call family, who seem to be making economic and political decisions that you know will have deep and unforeseeable consequences — and you’d like to balance that with your own diplomatic rebuttal that comes from a higher sense of purpose and order. Yet it’s worth considering if your beliefs are truly as grounded as you think they are, or if you’re standing on tidal plain that will look quite different in the coming Eclipse Season. Give yourself a couple of months to talk about this with your partner(s), shoulder your current responsibilities … and make the best choices you can, moment to moment, for yourself and no one else.
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If you want to read some of my astrologically-oriented poetry, the largest collection is called A Full Volume of Splendor and Starlight, available through my Etsy shop, and containing poems and hymns to the planets, constellations, decan deities, and Moon Mansion angels. 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.
I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts. I also use Hugh Tran‘s Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.
I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces for much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.
