Insights for Aries

March 20:
Sun enters Aries: 5:01 AM EDT
Knowing Aries’ reputation for aggression and assertiveness at a time when the world seems on the brink, it is easy to lose sight of the rather cosmic fact that today is one of only two days of the year when the hours of day and night are truly equal. It’s a reset, a rebirth, a clean slate – for a very brief moment. And then, bang! Off to the races.
Here in this world made of light and shadow, day and night, conscious and unconscious, it’s no wonder that Aries shows up with aggression as it asserts itself against all odds to get born again and again toward the light. It’s easy to confuse creation with destruction: Bold and courageous? Yes. Foolhardy and impulsive? Yes. Insecure yet fierce? Absolutely.
How are you being reborn as you welcome the light of longer days?
This year the Sun in Aries will be quite busy as it conjuncts Mercury and Venus at the midpoints of their retrograde motions. These are moments of transformation when planets are not one thing or another. We imagine that they are consumed by the fires of the Sun only to rise phoenix-like as morning stars in the eastern skies.
Of course it’s not a (re)birth if nothing changes. We are that change. Planets that rise in the eastern sky in the morning are said to be more determined than their evening counterparts. They initiate and drive the energy of the day. Time to get on with it. Whatever it might be.
The Sun will also sextile Pluto and Jupiter and conjunct Chiron later in the month. You can follow along below.

March 21
Venus sextile Pluto    
With friends like Pluto, who needs enemies? Consider the strange (to Venus) notion of virtual value. What could it possibly offer if I can’t smell, taste, touch or feel it?

March 22
Sun conjunct Venus

Venus in the underworld, at the exact midpoint of the retrograde, invisible to the naked eye, neither one thing nor another, at the crux of becoming. So much has been lost along the way to getting here. What would it feel like to let it be the way it is? To sit in the stillness of change at least for a moment and be both witness and witnessed in all your naked humanity? To honor the past and the passing? Every sunrise is unique. Each time a phoenix rises out of the ashes it is different than it was. Today is about the ashes, not quite the rising.

March 23
Sun sextile Pluto
There is a way, I’m sure of it, to bring our unique individuality to the project of a changing world. We do not need to succumb to an algorithmic cookie cutter to arrive eventually at the door of a New Age. Beware the Jabberwock that is doing its mighty best to turn you into a clone.

March 24
Sun conjunct Mercury
Between March 21st and 25th we have: Two planets cazimi, 3 heavenly encounters with Pluto as well as a waning Moon. We are letting go. Of what? You ask. Make a list, light a candle. Honor as best you can, all that you don’t understand and can’t account for,  all the confusion, disinformation, misinformation and more: Changes which you didn’t choose and don’t believe you signed up for. Watch it burn in the fire of your assumptions of how it was and would or should be. Let it cook for a few days after which it will be time to consider what could come from the inescapable and relentless power of transformation, transition and radical shift.

March 25
Mercury sextile Pluto
Mercury is not quite finished transforming from evening to morning star. As it leans toward the light of morning imagine... If this life, this world, is a poem and you the poet, how might you guide your thoughts rather than allow them to jerk you around? Poets listen to the world even as they drill down into what they hear. 

March 26
Mars square Chiron
Here is a story, our history in the making, complete with bad actors, bad choices and unprecedented conditions. (There are other parts to this story as on April 4th when Mars is quite active with other planets as it continues to complete the shadow of the retrograde.) In this particular part of the story as in most, Mars meets his challenges 3 times:
The first time Mars squared Chiron on October 13th. This encounter set the stage. We feared the weakness of our leaders to take us through the rough waters ahead (anticipation of the US election results, the demand for a change in leadership in Canada for example). No matter what we thought, reason was only part of the picture.
The second time Mars squared Chiron was on February 3rd; Mars was retrograde. We were inspired and frightened by forces we could only anticipate. A better world, the one we want to make, might have a better chance of coming into being if those who are meant to lead had more courage? Strength? The feeling is that we are at the mercy of men who have no feeling, no consideration for the needs of the world. The wounds of patriarchy bring painful lessons.
And now for the third and last time Mars completes the square to Chiron showing in some places, disregard for individuals who are struggling on their own. In other places we see Mars, our wounded hero, finding himself in a strange new world, full of extreme and unfathomable potentials for suffering as well as connection. What’s a hero to do? This is somehow unfolding in each and every one of us. We have been honed and it is time to acknowledge the tender incredulity of our situation. Time to feel and use our feelings to strengthen our resolve and acknowledge that this is as true for others as it is for me. In Cancer, Mars finds strength in vulnerability. This was the task all along. Feeling connects us and the singularity of Mars and Chiron in Aries underscores this for better and for worse. Our ability to attach and bond is a power not a liability. This may be easier to see on April 4th.  

March 27
Venus retrograde re-enters Pisces as it conjuncts Neptune
Venus, like Mars is also on a journey in which she does what she does three times. We hope indeed that the third time will be the charm.
The first time Venus was conjunct Neptune was on February 1st in Pisces. At that time the thought was about how longing allows the soul to speaks to and through us. That love and beauty are kin to longing and allowing ourselves to feel these powerful feelings can open the way to bliss.
That was then. Now, at the second of three conjunctions, we might consider how our longing for whatever it is that we long for has changed and is changing. Our desires are fashioned from many factors influences conditions. It’s a kaleidoscope but ours is not the hand that turns the kaleidoscope.
(The third and last time Venus will join with Neptune will be in Aries. A very different kind of meeting.)

March 29
New Moon: 09* Aries: 06:57 AM EDT Eclipse
Mercury rx re-enters Pisces
Mercury rx conjunct Neptune
Here, on the cusp of Great Change and New Beginnings we push up through the frozen ground of patriarchy.  An intention to keep on pushing is quite enough.
Mercury seems to be copying Venus as it conjuncts Neptune and re-enters Pisces in retrograde motion just before Neptune takes its first step (in 148 years) in Aries tomorrow.

March 30
Neptune enters Aries
There is no getting away from the fact that the last time Neptune entered Aries on April 13,1861 was the day after the American Civil War began. History does in fact repeat itself as we all know but there must be some possibility that it’s a spiral not a mindless circle. Up to us humans. Looking back at the astrological configurations for that day when the war began Neptune was actually at 29 degrees of Pisces. The very same threshold we find ourselves crossing at this time. Venus was in Aries but not retrograde. The season was spring. Things were different then but in some ways we might think that the issues that were active have never been resolved. Neptune at the same cusp asks us to look at our situation and remember. That war was also a kind of trade war. The issue of slavery for some was a moral humanitarian one but for others it was purely economic and a desire to maintain a way of life. One thing for sure, our way of life is gone and a new way has not been established.

April 4
Saturn sextile Uranus
Mars sextile Uranus
Mars trine Saturn
Mars is at it again; cleaning up or completing that which it started back in October.  Only this time our hero is bringing strength and support to chaos and the need for stability even as we have been jerked this way and that by our fear and reactivity. Having come through enough we understand that this is how it is at the moment. We are committed for better and worse, hell and high water. We stand wherever we are, with whomever. We find our core strength, anchor ourselves between heaven above and earth below and affirm that we are here. This is our planet. We belong just like everyone else, particularly the ones we are called to protect or/and nourish. If this feels like too much you could just pretend. One thing a hero like Mars knows is that you can fake it till you make it.

April 6
Sun sextile Jupiter
Mars trine Venus Rx
Not only do we have opportunity to affirm our existence we can also dare to be optimistic and to feel the power that comes when we know what we value. When we are determined to invest our time, effort, money and love where we know it matters to us. Desire is not menacing unless it becomes craving. We are learning to cook with the ingredients we have knowing we can make something we can eat.

April 7
Venus conjunct Saturn (for the second time)
Mercury stationary direct
We are serious about managing our resources in the chaos. We take responsibility even as we understand that our circumstance, our conditions didn’t come into being by our will, alone. Life is a great web of connections reaching back into the depths of the past and forward to the remote future as well as connecting each and everyone one of us to the entire cosmos with every breath. No big deal. Just do the best you can within such a vast and limitless universe. It’s always good enough.

April 08
Venus sextile Uranus
Venus, along with Mercury, is almost direct. Promises are scattered all over the place. Opportunities and possibilities glitter like shards of glass in the sun. Maybe it’s enough to sit with potential and let the Moon wax to full over the next few days as you consider your options. Likely you’ll know when and which one to choose when the time is right. (For those who followed along with Psyche’s journey during Venus retrograde, now is a time to remember the wisdom of ‘how’ and ‘when’ that she learned during her second task.)

April 12
Full Moon: 23* Libra: 08:22 PM EDT
Sun conjunct Chiron  
Venus stationary direct
What kind of war is it? Who are we fighting and how? What are we trying to achieve? Who are our teachers? And what are we learning as we go?

April 16
Mercury enters Aries      
We all want to get there, already… It is said that ‘right thought’ leads to ‘right action’. Makes sense. It isn’t that all our thoughts must be the right kind; it’s knowing which ones are and aren’t that allows us to move through the world responding to what we meet rather than reacting with little awareness.

April 17
Mercury conjunct Neptune                    
Definitely a glimpse of the new world in which we are living. The first conjunction of a planet to Neptune in its new realm of Aries. Aries can be short, sharp, and reactive. It can also be assertive, focused and determined. Usually we play somewhere between these possibilities. Watch what you say and who you say it too. Take a pause between knee-jerk and righteous.

April 18
Mars enters Leo
The very last leg of the Mars retrograde period. Remember that? What kind of hero did you encounter, within you and without? What does it mean to be courageous within the conditions of your very specific life? How can action arise from love rather than power?