April 8: Aries New Moon Solar Eclipse
The astrology of April 5th-12th are some of the roughest skies of the year. The Vernal Equinox on March 19th began eclipse season, when the only advice is to expect the unexpected, and Mercury is retrograde from April 1-25, causing everything to go backwards instead of forwards. Psychologically we’re pulled into the underworld when Mercury travels the 3rd road, and the eclipses, the first was the Libra Full Moon on March 25, are revealing the most disturbing swamp of mire there.
The astro weather of the second and third week in April, plunge us into the bog we’ve nearly died to avoid. Within this space is a horror we would do anything no to see, but there is no getting around what the universe uncloaks. Gather your courage and your loved ones close, and don’t take any unnecessary risks this month.
The Aries New Moon total solar eclipse at 2:21PM ET on April 8, is one of the most difficult days of the year. Followed closely on its heels by April 10, which is also an unpleasant time. This is not the happiest of horoscopes, so feel free to skip it if you’re only up for good news right now, but I prefer to be prepared. This overview of Aries season will help you in knowing when to hold 'em and fold ‘em over the next 3 weeks.
The New Moon at 19°24 Aries is conjunct Chiron, the wounded healer, and ruled by Mars in a conjunction with Saturn in Pisces. It's quite malefic energy, meaning it inhibits light/life/growth and can bring about troubling, dangerous, and painful experiences. The duration of totality for this “great American eclipse” will be visible for 4 minutes and 27 seconds starting in Texas at 1:27PM CDT through 3:35PM ET in Maine.
Eclipses are portals that reveal what is hidden and bring about sudden endings and new beginnings. There is an unexpected nature to eclipses that you can’t prepare for and may not be able to avoid. Check your natal chart for the houses with Pisces and Aries on the cusp. These are the areas of life where you are most susceptible to accidents and more likely to feel the tests.
Aries season has an unusually sensitive overtone thanks to Mars' ingress into Pisces on March 22. The joyful spirit that Aries brings has been tempered by the emotional journey that peaks with a painful shatter at the Mars-Saturn conjunction at 14°41 Pisces at 4:36PM ET on April 10. Mars is our will and the force behind our ambitions and Saturn represents the external obstacles we face and internal struggles with depression, fear, and control. This collision could result in ankle, feet, or head injuries. If you’re more prone to clumsiness, Mercury retrograde is always a time for extra precaution and that warning is tripled now.
Chiron entered Aries in 2019, awakening questions about what we are gaining and losing on the battlefields of our life. The wounded healer has been helping us get in touch with our own wounded warrior, and all the anger, hurt, and avoidance of conflict that is contained within our hearts. Chrion offers both the hope that terrible pain will pass, and the promise that it will teach us something significant if we can look it in the face. These themes pinged three times in Aries season: at the New Moon on April 8; when Mercury goes cazimi at 22°32 Aries on April 11; and when Venus conjoins Chiron on April 21st at the start of Taurus season. See this patreon post for how Chiron expresses through the houses.
Chiron is a significant figure in mythology, but its symbolism has only been incorporated into modern astrological analysis since it was discovered on Halloween, October 31, 1977. In Greek mythology, Chiron holds a place of honor as a wise teacher and skilled healer. Chiron was a centaur and was rejected by his parents, the Titan, Kronos, and a nymph, Philyra, because of his form as half-man/half-horse. He is known as the wounded healer because he suffered many injuries including, the first and most fundamental, abandonment by his family-of-origin. Chiron transits can trigger difficult experiences of betrayal and loss, especially with fathers. Hold yourself gently if this eclipse brings those dynamics to the surface. It might be an opportunity for you to test out stronger boundaries with those who fail to consider your welfare.
Autonomy and authority are activated during Aries season, which corresponds to the Emperor card in the tarot Major Arcana IV. The Emperor represents authority figures, political office, boundaries, the law, and those who uphold the structure of society. This may be a card we welcome or reject depending on our own experience with those who enforced the rules in our family, school, and community. This archetype can manifest as a fair but stern judge or a cruel disciplinarian parent. Some folks look at the Emperor and see an abusive and coercive patriarch while others work with him to learn how to set healthy boundaries. It's hard to access the good in this symbol if we’ve only ever known the bad, but the purpose of the Emperor is to create stability by setting codes of conduct for acceptable behavior that keep us all safe.
The eclipse cycle between Libra and Aries, that began in April 2023 and will conclude in March 2025, asks us to honor our truth by sitting on our throne, clear in our values and without the need for external validation. It is our work to embody the healthiest version of the Emperor that we can. Of course, when we step into our power we are inevitably drawn into tests of strength by those who would seek to dominate us. This is a theme we will revisit in the Fall as election season is getting underway.
The last “great American eclipse” of this magnitude was the New Moon at 28°25 Leo total solar eclipse on April 21, 2017, which fell directly upon Donald Trump’s ASC (Gemini Sun, Sagittarius Moon, Leo Rising). The path of totality for the Leo eclipse spanned the areas of the USA that supported his presidency and was viewed by 20 million people. Trump rose to political office during the Pluto return of the USA (active in Capricorn from 2015-2024), and is a representative of the shadow of the home of the free and the brave. Like all Plutonian figures, Trump is obsessed with power and embodies the worst of humanity.
This Aries eclipse falls in an election year and heralds the grand finale of the Pluto return of the USA. Pluto will return to Capricorn on September 1st, station direct on October 11th during the next eclipse season, and depart for Aquarius on November 11th. It is ominous and fitting that Pluto will be in Capricorn at the election on November 5, in which Trump is considered to be the presumptive Republican nominee. Pay attention to the headlines when the Moon conjoins Pluto at 5PM ET on November 7, for the last time in 230 years.
Trump’s political platform has revealed the ugly underbelly of hate that millions of people were harboring in their hearts. For those of us who were not aware that nearly half the voting block of America, which is not representative of the entire country, just those who cast ballots, supported a racist, abusive, fascist–well, now we know. The question of how to heal this incredible wound is writ large with the eclipse on April 8th.
These are dynamic times and they don’t let up once the Sun enters Taurus on April 19th. Eclipse season is concluded by one of the most exciting days of the year when Jupiter conjoins Uranus at 21°50 Taurus at 7:49AM ET on April 21st. This once in a decade transit brings about great awakenings, innovative breakthroughs, cultural milestones, and the outpouring of revolutionary philosophy that has the power to define the zeitgeist. We should see the most prominent manifestations in the Taurean areas of labor rights, food supply chains, banking systems, the pleasure principle, and the bounty of the Earth. Oh, la la.
However much we get battered about at the start of April, the end contains a big bang that none of us will see coming. Look to the area of your chart with Taurus on the cusp for where this inspiring energy will pop off. If you’re looking for guidance in navigating the high highs and low lows, book a reading with your favorite astrologer. Go gently my friends.
May the goddess keep you and protect you through all things.