The Sun enters Aries III, the decan that Austin Coppock called The Burning Rose, on April 9 at 5:00 am EDT — not even twenty-four hours after the solar eclipse brings darkness to midday across a 70-mile wide corridor of the United States from the Mexican border all the way to the Gulf of Maine. T. Susan Chang explored its happy associations with the Four of Wands in her writings and work on the Fortune’s Wheelhouse podcast, which shows some kind of wedding or possibly a Dionysian revel; she gave her own name to this decan, Beauty Weds the Architect. Meanwhile, the Late Antique Christian author, Cosmas of Jerusalem, while reviling “the pagans” in his Christian apologetics, happily preserved a list of deities worshipped in Alexandria for posterity — one which makes Eros the ruler of this ten-day period ahead… Eros, god of Naked Desire.
It’s hard to say much about Eros that hasn’t already been said, except that the fat little winged baby that we see each Valentine’s Day is hardly a fair representation of them. Eros Protogonous — “Desire, who is Firstborn” — was assumed to be the child of Aphrodite and Ares, Venus and Mars, in much Greco-Roman mythology. But surviving Orphic sources often attribute Eros’ parentage to Nyx, goddess of night… making Eros much older, and much more woven into the cosmic fabric, than a minor deity. When you want something desperately, so much that it gnaws in your belly or growls in your loins… that’s Eros, that naked desire that cannot imagine anything but wanting, and needing so much that it will be taken by force. Sara Mastros’s hymn to Eros reminds us that χaos (Chaos? ksaos?) came first — but learned sensuality, reproduction, and evolution from Eros. That’s no happy-go-lucky cherub, my friend —that’s the sort of orgasm that births galaxies.
Eros is thus an appropriate choice for a decan administered by Venus under Mars’ rulership. Venus herself won’t arrive here until the early morning hours of April 21, but she’ll have her own nine-day period to awaken longing and bring new growth to the green layer of life upon which all our lives depend. However, in the next ten days, find some time to journal about your desires and wishes, and how you’d like them to appear over the next ten days; that’s especially valuable advice in the first day or two, when Mercury and the Moon will be supporting both the emotional and linguistic effort to capture your ideas in ink and paper.
The dodeks, or 2° 30′ segments of Aries III, are recapitulations of Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, representing the sort of visionary fire by which a filmmaker or a novelist creates and releases their work into the world. First comes the visionary fire, the imagined story in all its perfection, told with words around a campfire’s embers. Then comes the practical reality of raising the money to buy the costumes and make the sets and rent the film equipment (or the hours stolen from other work to write, write, write, and pull the fiery thread of the tale from the head into ink); and the lonely periods of writing or rehearsal and self-doubt and critique that go into creating and releasing the film or novel on the world, like an arrow snapped from a bowstring. Then comes the period of criticism and reflection, in which the work’s finer points are both praised and panned, debated and debased. No matter how well done, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy — and no creative work is entirely loved by its creator’s fans.
Planetary Placements
The chart of April 9, 2024 at 5:00 am EDT is unusual in that it’s a night chart with only Pluto above the horizon, and all of the planets squeezed into Aries, Taurus, and Gemini. These are the parts of the chart primarily concerned with self, possessions, extended family, and immediate neighbors — and Pluto is crammed into the twelfth house, which invites us to consider retreating from the world as the path of prosperity in the coming week. Yesterday’s eclipse puts a lot of subtle, long-term pressure on governments, institutions of higher learning, and travel systems — and a lot of immediate, short-term pressure on the same parts of our public life. Thus, it’s not surprising to get a chart that tells us to stick close to home, keep an eye on our stuff, and help our neighbors and family through the immediate mess.
In the first house, the Lot of Fortune is above the horizon, while Mars, Saturn, and Uranus are below. Tomorrow will bring a Mars-Saturn conjunction here in Pisces (I provided my Patreon members with a more in-depth look at this event). There’s a sense here of having the freedom to act and to choose your own course of action through the coming days — but also the problem of having incomplete or inaccurate information, and a lot of seething resentment and frustrating limitations. If you’re one of the people caught up in the massive traffic jam that usually follows an eclipse these days — consider whether you’d benefit from sticking around at your AirBnB an extra day, or staying stuck in traffic for the whole of Tuesday, and make choices accordingly.
The second house, lately home to the eclipse, is Aries this time around — and playing host to Venus, the North Node, the Sun, Mercury, and the Moon. Mercury is retrograde in Aries at the moment, which I detailed in a Facebook post not long ago:
First off, Mercury will be retrograde in fire signs this year. When Mercury is retrograde in air signs, it usually indicates a lack of intellect — projects fall behind due to failures of brainpower and thoughtlessness. When Mercury is retrograde in fire signs, though, it usually indicates a lack of intentionality and purposefulness. So 1) lists like to-dos and “honey-do” and punch lists and checklists are your friends; 2) Priority grids, 3) gamifying your action items (“if I finish these 3 things I can go to the ice cream shop”), 4) rewarding others for completion of projects, and 5) expect that mustering passion for work will be hard… nothing is going to have that ‘spark of brilliance’, but a first draft that’s workable is A-OK.
Second, this Mercury retrograde in April is taking place in Aries… head colds, sinus trouble, waxy build-up in the ears, eye trouble, laryngitis, should all be taken seriously. It doesn’t mean “go hypochondriac” – but spending extra time on cleaning and washing your face and head is going to pay dividends. Getting your head clear will also be valuable — take a mini-vacation from stimulants, relaxants, euphorics or other recreational drugs that you know interfere with your mental processes.
Third, know the schedule. Today is the beginning of the Retrograde, at 6:14 pm EDT. It’s going to be accompanied by a sense of a loss of purpose, of fire, of energy. Lean into that – choose a comedy rather than a serious drama for your evening entertainment. Read a funny book rather than a sad one. On April 11 at 7:02-:03 pm EDT is the “cazimi” (a fancy way of saying a Mercury-Sun conjunction, the exact middle of the retrograde) — and this can be used as a moment of clarity and deepened understanding of what holds you back: be thinking about the right problem during the hour or so beforehand and afterward! On April 15 (the time isn’t as critical here), Mercury will enter its own Egyptian Term in Aries — and it will be there for the rest of the retrograde. “A planet in its own term is like a general in his chariot in the parade” says one of the ancient texts — and so it will be much easier to think and muster enthusiasm on or after April 15 than before. The retrograde ends on April 25, 2024 at 8:53-:54 am EDT — so these ten days between April 15 and April 25 are best used for finishing up an old project rather than launching something new. Finally, Mercury will stay in that Term until April 30, but be direct — so April 25-30 are good for launching a new project, AND finishing it; just make sure you ‘right-size’ that project to something you can accomplish in this window.
Finally, Mercury will be ‘coming down to earth’ during this period — while the Sun’s apparent motion is moving northward toward the North Pole and away from the Equator, Mercury’s motion takes them toward the Celestial Equator. This means that it’s a good idea to work on projects with a concrete result rather than abstract plans — you will do better with projects that have an actual physical result than with things that are merely intellectual: print out a copy of the book, rather than leaving it on the computer screen; make the quilt, don’t just stare at the fabric; cut the wood rather than just making a cut-list; alter the jacket instead of just imagining that you’re going to get to that alteration eventually; practice the actual presentation instead of just outlining it or handing off the presentation to an underling to build in PowerPoint. JUST DO IT is good advice for this retrograde.
Venus will have a brief period of heightened power on April 10-14 when she passes through her own (Egyptian) Term — “a planet in its own term is like a general riding in a triumph”, say the ancient sources: no matter how denigrated or demeaned or despised by the powers around her, she’s still riding as the guest of honor in the parade. This is a good time to rain glory and honor and recognition down on your partner for what they contribute to your life, and to go out of your way to do nice things for them — even if you’re currently in a contentious era of your relationship, this is a good way to show your admiration and desire for the relationship to continue.
The Sun and Moon of course, are coming out of an eclipse. I wrote a poem for this eclipse in Aries II — but it’s far more important to understand that this eclipse will continue to have follow-on effects through mid-August; and some consequences and aftershocks may linger into May of 2026. Eclipses are said to have effects that last for a number of years equal to the length of their appearance in hours. If we consider only the maximum period of totality, at four minutes 28 seconds — this works out to about 27 days, meaning until May 4, 2024, somewhat later in the afternoon. If we consider the first appearance of the shadow on the Sun until the return of complete sunshine, it’s five hours and 10 minutes from first appearance over Pacific Mexico until it ends over the extreme North Atlantic — working out to five years and two months, or until 7 July 2029. In other words, eclipses are rather like stage magicians — there’s a big flashy presentation on stage, but the way it puzzles you to tease out how the trick was done can take a long time afterward. Don’t be in a hurry to label this or that event as a result of the eclipse — this is not going to resolve itself quickly.
Eclipses also belong to patterns called Meton cycles and Saros series — and the Saros series #139, to which Monday’s eclipse was connected, appears to have significant ties to how European powers have explored and exploited the globe through sea power and international trade — and how their foreign subjects have pushed back against colonialism. This is Saros 139’s thirtieth event of 71 distinct eclipse or eclipse-lite events, suggesting that we’re nearing the halfway point, but not yet there. Don’t be too tied to this explanation, though, or rush to see the sequence to its end — Saros 139’s thirty-sixth event, the halfway mark, isn’t until June of 2132 — and the last one is in 2763. Eclipse cycles grind their topics with exceeding fineness and subtlety, and they can’t be rushed.
Moving on to the Third House of neighbors, intimate friends, siblings and extended family — here, Jupiter and Uranus are now separated by only a few degrees, and preparing for their May conjunction. Before they get to those events, though Venus will swing through Taurus and make conjunctions with both planets; and the Moon will get in at least one more swipe at them both before June 1. Jupiter invites you to generosity and kindness toward your neighbors — both the civil and the feral — while Uranus promises a change in the local status quo. Be alert to changes in your community status, and shifts in the condition of your town’s schools over the next two weeks.
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.
Pisces:
Aries:
Taurus:
Gemini:
Cancer:
Leo:
Virgo:
Libra:
Scorpio:
Sagittarius:
Capricorn:
Aquarius:
Colophon
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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.
