Astro-Insight

First Gear: Forecast for April 16-22, 2012 April 16, 2012

The pause button is off. The brakes are being released. All manner of developments are creaking forward and gaining slow but rolling momentum. That’ll mount and speed up next week. What’s important now is that mobility has returned.

That’s because two bodies in the sky have regained ease of motion. One is Mars, the planet of action, who ended his nearly three-month retrograde over the weekend. Matters that have been stalled are moving into position for something, anything, to happen with them at last. Mars will not clear the degree of his turn-around until Monday of next week, which gives us one last, solid week of fiddling with details, fixing, organizing and tidying up.

The Mars Travel Agency

Mercury, ruler of communication, transportation and the technology that has become so pervasive in our lives, is the other body moving more comfortably. The week begins with him leaving the all-connected, sometimes confusing waters of Pisces for the fiery impulsiveness of Aries. Some of that recent brain fog will be dissipating, thank gawd, and we’ll be getting our mental groove back. Mercury is far more compatibly and comfortable in Aries, which encourages bold, independent leaps of thought and action. He was last in these parts in the beginning of March, before his retrograde, and instances may arise now of picking up pieces from them and moving ahead.

With Mercury back in Aries, he is resuming a special relationship with Mars. Each of these planets is in a sign the other governs. This relationship is called a mutual reception, and it blends their energies and influences, so that anything that happens with one resonates with the other. With both of them moving comfortably now, everything that breaks loose or inches forward will have an added oomph, excitement, exhilaration … or maybe just impulsiveness.

Not all of the impulsiveness is going to be pretty, or sweet, or fun. Mars is approaching a clash with the nodes of the Moon, which represent the path to the future, on one end, and instinctual, past behaviors on the other. This clash will dislodge more angry bursts from masculine forces attempting to drag the collective back decades. (Mars is moving into a showdown with Chiron, too, so a lot of wounds are getting salted and irritated.) On a personal level, watch for situations to impel you (not compel — you have a choice) to ditch old ways and step into ones that can carry you into the future. Healthier habits, healthier eating, healthier boundaries, healthier thought patterns, more efficient systems — those are just a few ideas of where the pressure’s heading.

The point is to settle more fully into physical experience and live fully and sensually in the moment. On Thursday, the Sun enters the enjoy-the-earth-mode of Taurus and resuscitates the foundational shoring up of the earth grand trine that took place in mid-March. The Taurus New Moon follows on Saturday, in a tight, easy flow to Mars, a tight cooperative link to Neptune and an easy flow to Pluto that will intensify as the Sun and the Moon move apart. (Read more in my mooncast, which will be posted by Friday.)

This progression is making personal and internal the gifts of last month’s grand trine. At that point, three areas of your life locked together and firmed up, into a supportive patch of ground, tiny as it may be, that is beginning to flourish. Mystical, transcendent Neptune is watering that patch of ground now — perhaps with compassion (toward yourself, first of all), perhaps with artistic inspiration, perhaps with spiritual guidance and insight — and nurturing further growth. This is the platform on which you will stand when Uranus and Pluto go at it in June and September . It’s the promontory that will remain beneath your feet when other parts of your surroundings and life break away.

Ponder the nature and parameters of this patch on a symbolic level. Then go outdoors and immerse yourself in the physical world around you.

More in my extended weekly forecast and quickie weekly podcast.

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