Astrological interpretation lends itself, of course, to future casting. Little is discussed in the just after, the suspended place. April is arguably the most instructive month of 2024. Eclipse Season. The Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction. Mercury Retrograde through the bulk of it. We feel the shifting, the new beginnings, the almost. It’s a lesson in faith and trust, in letting the road unveil itself, brick by brick, step by step until one day, without notice, the landscape has changed - or, perhaps more importantly, we have.
What does it mean to change, though? And do we really ever change? What part of us remains immutable? Which parts are variable?
I’m someone who embraces change in my external circumstances. I’ve moved more times than I can count. Across America, within cities, even across the globe. But what about internal change? What about seeing the world through a different lens, altering my perceptual reality. Or my response - or lack of response - patterning. What about how I think, argue, or what details I notice? Likes, aesthetics, taste, too.
Scorpio is stubborn, Taurus, too. All the fixed signs are, holding fast and steady and unyielding. But this Full Moon, two weeks after the Aries Eclipse, insisted we loosen our grip. Let go or be dragged. Hold on for dear life or cut our losses. Pluto is non negotiable.
Here’s what I wrote on Instagram:
Tensions are running high; we’re experiencing a culmination, completion. Scorpio holds on for dear life or amputates, cuts its losses. Pluto is square, upping the ante, pushing extremes. Transmutation. We’re past the Eclipses (though still in its lunar cycle). The Jupiter - Uranus Conjunction has peaked. Mercury is still Retrograde, the pause feels extended. We know things have shifted, we’re just not sure how they’ll shake out. Maybe, just maybe, this lunation dislodges the sediment, opens new roads, opportunities. We must feel it to heal it, it’s been said. And Scorpio feels. Intensely, to the bone, churning, brooding. Here, it’s purposeful. Catharsis. Transformation. Let it work its way through. Life isn’t a Google search. Natural and cosmic law abide by their own rhythm and tune. Control, once again, an illusion. We play the hands we’re dealt. Againstness, righteous rage, walling off - they don’t solve a thing. That Disney song from Frozen, ‘Let It Go’ comes to mind. Or perhaps even more apt, Marcus Mumford’s ‘How.’ Finding, in whatever way we can, to make sense of this world, our place in it, the pain and suffering, the incandescent moments of bliss. And from the ashes, the phoenix, however mangled and raw, finds its wings, finds flight.
Daniel was attacked by a dog down the road from us over the weekend. I was away, celebrating a friend’s birthday when I got the call. He was at the hospital and fine, but his ankle had swelled to the size of a grapefruit, the bites there, and on his fingers were deep, to the tendon and bone. Given the nature of the lunation, I was, more than anything, grateful it wasn’t worse.
It wasn’t the dog’s fault. I’d witness it attack a few of the other dogs on our road twice myself and the dog’s owner had assured me the dog would be leashed and trained. There are 8 pups on our road that play, romping around as if they own the place. This one wants know part of it and so, we’ve been purposefully walking in the other direction. But we hadn’t seen her out and so Daniel walked Audrey and Hugo (ours) to the mailbox, past this house and saw Sunny (that’s the dog’s name) go after Luna (our neighbor’s husky who one can often find hanging on our porch). It escalated, Daniel stepped in and here we are.
Everything can change in an instant. That’s all I could think. How fragile and how resilient life is. Having miraculously survived my car flipping four times on a major highway, I’m not immune to this thought. But still, it echoed.
Sometimes we’re aching for change, sometimes we repel it, and often it’s out of our control, completely.
But sometimes it is. Sometimes we can say, I’m going to respond differently, or I’m going to take an alternate route, or I’m going to shift my thought around this subject.
Yesterday, on our evening walk (in the other direction), I was thinking about a public figure in what I’ve come to call The Opinion Economy who stirs and activates through Tweets and Posts. The purpose, it seems, is to agitate. And it was working, I was agitated, inventing responses in my head. And then I stopped myself, and I prayed. I prayed for healing and grace. Small change, yes. But it’s a change that could also alter my life in a myriad of ways. I used to enjoy heated debate. Words as swords. Not so much anymore. Perhaps it’s age. Perhaps it’s the noticing, the self-inquiry. Rage feels awful. When I was younger, I got off on it (Existential Kink is a must read). Now it just drains. An avoidance of the ache and grief it cloaks.
Change.
Mercury is Direct now. A shift in course.
What’s changing, big or small, in your life? What have you noticed this month?
May calendar is up. You’ll find the New Moon Circle sign ups there as well.
xDanielle