Tin Can
Between the evening news and the price of… everything, you might be feeling like a tin can that’s been tied to the bumper of a car and dragged along for a few miles. You know what you need? You need a little Venus. And this week, she arrives with the sweetest kiss of a sextile for the Moon’s North Node (April 6, 2026, 2:19 am PDT).
Sextiles show up as invitations, meetings, correspondence, visitors – all offering opportunities. And when it’s magnetic Venus issuing the invitations, they’re all but impossible to refuse.
Venus in Taurus woos us with comfort: a delicious home-cooked meal, a luxurious sofa, a table full of good conversation and wry humor. And it’s all just what a dented tin can of a person might need just now.
The North Node is where we find the path forward, and especially, the good friends to join us on the road. And Venus fortifies us for the journey with confidence, like Mom sending us off on a road trip with a care package filled with a packet of cash for emergencies and a brisk pat on the arm.
Tripping Over Debris
Sometimes, we have to get good and angry before we’re willing to make a change. This week, as Mars and Uranus come together in a sextile aspect (April 8, 2026, 9:11 am PDT, 29º06′ Pisces and Taurus), that change just might be coming. With Mars in the emotionally charged water sign of Pisces, poised to enter the sign of Aries, expect a tsunami of emotions crashing onto the shore—while Uranus, in steady and stubborn Taurus, creates the ground-shaking energy that further destabilizes things.
Together, Mars and Uranus together can be edgy and impulsive, so be cautious—this planetary combination can trigger impulsiveness and recklessness, especially in extreme situations. It’s a time when changes to your usual patterns could lead to accidents, so step lightly and avoid unnecessary risks. Be mindful on the road, and keep emotional reactions in check. Once the world has been shaken up, it’s easy to trip over the debris that’s left behind.
This is a potential catalyst for change. And if you use it consciously, this transit invites you to stand a little taller, and to move closer to the version of yourself that you’re ready to become.
Enthusiastic, But A Little Wobbly
I generally enjoy unearned good health. But on the rare occasion that I’m under the weather, I give myself over to it with feverish (literally) intensity. I take to my bed, drink lots of water, strap on earbuds, and sleep.
Fighting off physical sickness, or coping with grief or spiritual malaise, is the work of Mars in Pisces, where the warrior planet has been transiting since March 2. But as we’ve approached the end of that transit, as we near the end of any healing period, we’ve been just well enough to be bored, but not quite well enough to jump back into life as usual.
Mars entering Aries (April 9, 2026, 12:36 pm PDT, until May 18), its home sign, is like the first day back at work after an illness. It feels so good to get out of your pajamas and into street clothes again, to feel the reassuring heft of shoes. For the first few hours, you’re brimming with vitality and enthusiasm, but you’re still a little wobbly, like a newborn lamb. And the first days of Mars in Aries are a bit like this, with our spirit outpacing our strength. We’re still emerging from Mars in Pisces’s confinement – and the spirit is willing, but our legs aren’t strong enough to hold us up for long.
The Pugilist in a Relay Race
There is important business to resolve at this Capricorn Last Quarter Moon (April 9, 2026, 9:52 pm PDT, at 20°20′ Capricorn). It’s business that has its origins in the March 18 Pisces New Moon, and it directly affects the Pisces, Capricorn, and Aries portions of your chart.
The Last Quarter Moon is the phase in the lunar cycle for taking stock. You have one more chance to take action toward your New Moon goals, this time with more knowledge and experience than at the First Quarter phase, the other action point in the cycle. But before you do, you need to move into a state of introspection and contemplate what has and hasn’t been working.
The Last Quarter Moon is on the Sabian Symbol 21 Capricorn, A relay race, while the Sun is on 21 Aries, A pugilist entering the ring. Capricorn is a bit of a lone wolf, but it knows how cooperate with others when it’s in Capricorn’s best interests, and a relay race illustrates how working with others can help you win in the end. But Aries is the acme of a pugilist entering the ring, and symbolizes the part of us that struggles to collaborate with anyone we feel is slowing us down. The promise of this square is that Capricorn’s discipline and Aries’ wildness can complement and motivate each other.
The Last Quarter can be a regretful phase; we may still be haunted, held back by, or recovering from what was revealed at the beginning of this Lunar Phase Family cycle – the Capricorn New Moon of Jan. 11, 2024, bound in a fearful conjunction to Pluto. The Lunar Phase Family Cycle extends the influence of each New Moon over a three-year period, with major lunations near the same degree every nine months.
The promise you made to yourself at that Capricorn New Moon was about reaching a cherished goal, step by step; and at last, you’ve got the vitality of the Sun in Aries – and the tenacity and ambition of the Capricorn Moon – to push you over the finish line. Don’t give up now!
Playing Make-Believe
Children play make-believe to try out what it’s like to be something, or someone, else. Even if the games turn warlike, as they sometimes do, they provide a way of developing imagination and empathy.
As grownups, many of us can’t or don’t make time for imaginative play. Special dispensation is given to those who produce especially fine fiction, music, or film for the rest of us. But consuming entertainment created by others doesn’t serve the same function as our own sense of play. And at least in the modern world, we’re often kept too busy earning a living to give ourselves over to leisure.
As Mars comes together with Neptune in Aries (April 12, 2026, 10:30 pm PDT, at 2º39’ Aries), it begins a new 2-year cycle with Neptune. At its core, that’s a cycle about fighting for our dreams – but we first have to take time out to conjure those dreams. Mars entered its home sign of Aries earlier this week, and next week it will team up with Saturn to roll up its sleeves and do some serious work. But this week, Mars takes a soak in Neptune’s tub, and then we sleep like sweet children, dreaming deeply – so that we wake up next week refreshed, happy, and ready to get to work.
Writing and images © 2017-2026 by April Elliott Kent
