Letting the dough rest
In recent years, I’ve spent many happy hours making bread. There’s a point in the process when kneading the dough becomes counterproductive, when it turns tight and tough and refuses to be shaped. And so, you have to let it rest. Cover it with a towel and leave it on the counter for a half an hour or so. Go have a cup of tea and pet the cat. When you come back, you’ll find that both you and the dough are happier and more relaxed.
This is the lesson when the Sun at the very end of practical Taurus makes a sextile aspect to Saturn at the end of Pisces (May 20, 2025, 2:38 am PDT, 29.37 Taurus-Pisces). What’s the key to happiness? It’s some happy alchemy of knowing who you are, what you want to become, and when to stop trying so hard and let things happen.
Abundance
The Last Quarter Moon is the moment in each lunar month for taking stock and recalibrating direction. But this internal progress report isn’t confined to the current lunar cycle, beginning at the most recent New Moon. Rather, it can be a time of reviewing your life in larger terms.
The Sabian symbol for the Last Quarter Moon at 29º54′ Aquarius (May 20, 2025, 4:59 am PDT) is 30 Aquarius, The field of Ardath in bloom, while the Sun is on 30 Taurus, A peacock parading on an ancient lawn. Keep these prosperous symbols in mind as you meditate on what you’ve accomplished since the Taurus New Moon. We nearly always have more abundance than we think we do – in health, friendship, a safe place to live. Sometimes, feeling more prosperous just means appreciating what we already have.
Passenger
Each year, when the Sun enters Gemini (May 20, 2025, 11:55 am PDT), the sign of the short-distance traveler, I find myself itching to take a road trip. It was a family tradition to spend late-60s summers traveling to visit family in Los Angeles in an Oldsmobile station wagon.
I loved those trips, jostling along the open road for days at a time. What luxury, to spend days in that snug, automotive womb with nothing to do but read comic books and watch the landscape change across the miles. When you’re young, you instinctively feel safe with someone else behind the wheel. All you have to do is sit back and entertain yourself while the world drifts by, filling you with a sense of adventure and endless possibilities as wide as the big desert sky.
In 1971, almost exactly one year after my father died in a car accident, my mother, my siblings, and I set out to leave the place where all of us were born and raised, to live in California. This time, Mom had to handle the driving chores alone, and often grew tired; I remember one witheringly hot afternoon nap under a freeway overpass in the middle of nowhere, when we miraculously woke up just as a creepy looking stranger was approaching our car. The sense of adventure and wide-open spaces had given way to an unsettling awareness of our vulnerability.
This week, not long after it enters Gemini, the Sun trines Pluto (May 24, 8:55 am PDT) and brushes up against the shadow side of the open road. It’s not just menacing strangers in the shadows; it’s also the uneasiness we can feel, as adults, with giving over control to another driver. As this Sun in Gemini season dawns, Pluto is behind the wheel. We may be eager to hit the road, but it’s not necessarily all that comfortable being a passenger instead of a driver.
Under the Sun
Together, Venus and Mars tell a story of passion, where beauty and pleasure meet physical desire. This week, Venus in Aries meets Mars in Leo in a rapturous trine aspect (May 22, 2025, 12:42 am PDT, 15.59 Aries and Leo). When this aspect is exact between two planets, it means they’re in signs of the same element, which in turn means that their natures emerge from the same quality and disposition. Their attraction to each other seems inevitable, like the relationship between the head cheerleader and the captain of the football team.
In this case, Venus and Mars meet in the fire element, lively, expressive, and magnetic. Their Sabian symbols are 16 Aries, Brownies dancing in the setting sun and 16 Leo, Sunshine just after a storm. In this element, lovers warm themselves beneath the jubilant Sun and give themselves to each other on a rich carpet spread before a roaring fire. Is it the beginning of a greater love story, or simply a night of erotic pleasure? One night can be enough to conceive a child, or just a heart-opening encounter that can live on long after the lovers have parted.
Detour
Sometimes, a change of scenery is just what you need to refuel your mind, spirit, and creative juices. A lunch break overlooking the ocean or a lake, or in the company of a good book, can do the trick. Do it for the right amount of time – not too much! – and you’ll be refreshed and productive for the remainder of the day.
As the Sun in Gemini sextiles Neptune (May 22, 2025, 5:40 am PDT, 1º40’ Gemini and Aries), remember that stepping away from your daily sights and sounds can make you more productive in the end, as well as livelier and more engaged. Forget your daily to-do list for a moment, and be reunited with the story you’re trying to tell with your life. Look to Neptune’s placement in the Aries house of your chart to locate that narrative, and the Gemini part of your chart to see what you’ll use to tell it. This week is filled with creative possibilities – but you may have to take a little bit of a detour to help them find you.
Authorship
This week, Saturn enters Aries (May 24, 2025, 8:36 pm PDT) for the first time since 1996, marking the beginning of a bold new era of radical personal accountability. This transit, lasting through April 12, 2028—with a brief return to Pisces from September 2025 to February 2026—demands that we stop making excuses and take full command of our lives. Saturn is uncompromising: it demands that we step up, take the lead, and forge our path with discipline and courage. There’s no room here for blame or complaint—only the clear call to become the author, director, and star of your own story.
Fortunately, Saturn stands close to Neptune at the time of this ingress, offering not just discipline, but vision—an inspired dream that, with effort, can be made real. Use this moment to define what you truly want and begin laying the foundation for a life that reflects your deepest values and desires. What are you building? Where are the boundaries? What are the obstacles? And how can you be a stronger, braver, more mature version of yourself?
If you were born with Saturn in Aries between April 1996 and Feb. 1999, you’ll be having your first Saturn return sometime in the next 3 years. And if you were born with Saturn in Aries in 1967-69, you’ll have your second Saturn return. Saturn’s returns are opportunities to take stock and give ourselves a report card on what we’re accomplishing and what’s left to be achieved. It might be time to check in for a reading with me about what this major milestone means for you!
Butterflies
Mercury entering Gemini (May 25, 2025, 5:59 pm PDT), its own sign, tends to makes the things of the mind feel lighter. Worries are easier to shrug off. Puzzles are more easily solved. New possibilities pique your interest, sometimes more of them than are manageable.
This is where Mercury’s sextile to Saturn (May 25, 6:45 pm PDT, 00º04′ Gemini and Aries) comes in handy and helpful. Saturn gives boundaries to Mercury in Gemini’s restlessness, focuses its cleverness in a productive direction. Of the flurry of mental butterflies bursting out of your imagination, which holds the most promise? Which intrigues you the most right now? Saturn in Aries has the decisiveness to choose just one, and the perseverance to make something lasting from it.
Writing and images © 2017-25 by April Elliott Kent
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