Two planets (Saturn and Mercury) retrograde this week and we have two festivals (Palm Sunday and the Aries Spring Festival). Sunday is Palm Sunday and next Sunday is Easter. Tuesday is full moon and the Aries Spring Resurrection Festival, the first of the Three Spring Festivals. The two retrogrades (Saturn and Mercury) can, at first, create confusion as we all turn inward. Retrogrades are magical unpredictable times, fun and humorous to observe.
Saturn retrograde (until Aug. 31) helps us with discipline, structure and patience, rethinking responsibilities and commitments, restructuring plans and projects. We become wiser during Saturn retrogrades.
Almost everyone knows about Mercury retrograde (April 9–May 6), turning us inside out, upside down and sideways. Three weeks of magic and mayhem as the trickster Mercury shifts our perceptions inward. We assess (synthesize, eliminate) everything we learned since Mercury’s last retrograde (December/January).
Palm Sunday, beginning Passion Week, biblically marks the triumphal entry of Jesus of Nazareth, overshadowed by the Christ, into Jerusalem (City of Peace). Palms (symbolizing peace, victory and respect) were waved, heralding the Messiah, the Promised One. In our days now, we await His return.
Spring’s first full moon is the Aries solar Festival, when the Love of the Father, the Forces of Restoration and the Spirit of Resurrection flow into the Earth (the Mother). They offer humanity a new “livingness” by restoring moral and psychological health. They bring about the new Aquarian culture and civilization and the new Spiritual Materialism.” And a new hope and vision for the new world to unfold. Join us, everyone!
ARIES: Everything changed for you when Mars entered Aries. Your energy lifted and became more available. You also felt more impatient, wanting to move forward, engage in new enterprises, make new impressions in the world. You might feel the need to assume leadership over everyone and everything. Careful. Be kind. Be a leader, but understand that you move more quickly than others. Always have love.
TAURUS: You tell everyone you’d rather remain at home and research and not go out and about for a long time. You want to catch up on tasks not tended to for the past many years. Needing to maintain reserves of energy to get through each day, you need privacy and solitude. Many previously learned behaviors may arise. Observe them. Consider, are they useful? You may dream more. Record all dreams. Over time they tell you a story.
GEMINI: You need to participate in your affiliations and groups of friends, seeking their cooperation in either working on a project with you or listening to you with care and intention so you can clarify your thinking. If leading a group, teach cooperation, organize them as a team to achieve a particular goal. Ask each member their hopes, wishes, dreams and aspirations for the future. You’re achieving Aquarian goals. You’re mentoring humanitarianism.
CANCER: You want to be recognized for your knowledge, abilities, and what you accomplish each day. It’s good to want this recognition for it stimulates your ability to share and provide information to others. Many are in need of real and true information. You always ask the question, “What is real and true?” When we ask, the answers are always given. For those seeking new work or a job, after mid-May step forward into the world.
LEO: You may feel a hunger for things far from your usual life and ways of living. Other cultures, people, places and things seem to be summoning you in subtle persistent ways. You’re restless for new realities, a new adventure. You need new activities, conversations, goals, new subjects to study. An outer fire blends with your inner Leo fire. Everything you seek will appear. Careful with legal issues. Cultivate patience.
VIRGO: You may be called to be more cooperative and this may be a challenge. But you can do this. Relationships will be the challenge, the wound, the confusion. It may be good to consult with someone concerning how to settle differences and how to allow everyone to be heard. Careful with impatience and ending things too quickly. Reconcile with those you have had differences. Love more.
LIBRA: Life seems to be accelerating, moving faster each day. Sometimes those around you move too quickly and you feel left behind. Perhaps you’re working too hard and too long. Even though you may have abundant energy, tend to your health, make tending to your health a consistent daily practice. Careful with inflammation and infections. Slow down on glutens, grains and all sweets. Eat apples. Be calm with co-workers.
SCORPIO: Intimacy is important for you at this time. There are many types of intimacy—from friendship to lovers, intimacy of the mind, the heart, and physical intimacy. Things held in common with another is an intimacy. Knowing your values is an intimate level concerning the self. Sometimes, intimacies end and a new intimacy begins. Both affect you deeply. Be aware of your subtle feelings. Realize what you need. Ask for it. Intimates will help.
SAGITTARIUS: There’s so much energy flowing through your body and mind you simply can’t seem to find self-discipline. That’s OK if you use that unbounded energy for creative activities. You could also find children, or those who are child-like, to play with. Romantic things are good, too, and your love life may sense a deeper level of passion. Make sure you get enough sleep. Don’t risk anything by gambling. Play (innocently) more. Reveal yourself more.
CAPRICORN: Much of your energy is focused at home or where your domestic self resides. You’re highly instinctual at this time and protective. It’s important that you feel secure because you are called to make important decisions concerning family and the home. When feeling unusually moody or frustrated tend to home repairs and re-arrange family activities. Step back if arguments begin. Old emotional issues may resurface. They’ve arrived for review. Soothe them. Then they disappear.
AQUARIUS: So many ideas and plans on your mind that you feel a bit overwhelmed and scattered and so you try to share these ideas with others but so many errands and tasks come in between you and sharing with others that you feel frustrated and can move into arguments if you’re not careful. Realizing you could feel impatient and impulsive, be careful driving and when using machinery, scissors or knives (while cooking). Your inventive original mind slowly reveals your future.
PISCES: It’s a good time to create a journal of values (past, present and future values, aspirations). Often we can ascertain values by deciding what we need. Tend to monetary issues—bank accounts, taxes, insurance, inheritances, precious metals, etc. With Venus continuing its retrograde, money, values and resources need attention. Have you changed to a local bank yet? If not, do so. Don’t impulse buy. It’s important to acknowledge your value and worth. Meditation upon the self is good.
