The Bodega Around the Corner
Mercury turns retrograde when it’s reached its maximum distance ahead of the Sun. Like a little kid attached to its parents by an invisible leash, it races back toward the Sun with news of what’s just ahead. Some of it’s important, some of it isn’t. “There’s a big white dog about two blocks up the road!” and “The Wilsons are painting their house red!” spills out alongside “There’s a group of scary looking guys hanging around the bodega!” It’s not really Mercury’s job to sort out the important from the trivial; it’s all just news.
When retrograde Mercury reconvenes with the Sun by conjunction (March 24, 2025, 12:48 pm PDT, 4º24’ Aries), we get to ask ourselves whether any of its news pertains to us, and how much energy we should put into preparing for what lies ahead. Meanwhile, Mercury continues on its way backward through our recent journey, looking for missteps. Did we forget to pay a bill? Overlook an important page on the document we signed? Neglect to make a service appointment for the car?
What needs to be addressed? Start with the things that will put you in a better position to deal with what you know is around the corner – the white dog, the Wilsons, the guys at the bodega. Then handle what’s obviously going to be helpful whatever comes your way. Pay the bill. Get the car serviced. And take some dog treats along with you.
Engage Your Brain
Mercury makes the second in a series of sextiles to Pluto this week (March 25, 2025, 3:02 pm PDT, 3º27’ Aries-Aquarius; the first was on March 5, the last on April 20). I’ve had transiting Pluto in aspect to my natal Mercury for a while now. Allow me to share what I’ve learned about this planetary combination.
First of all, this Mercury-in-Leo gal is generally pretty upbeat and can usually summon an optimistic point of view. But Pluto visiting Mercury is making that difficult, and there are some days that drift into sadness and pessimism. My best coping strategy is proving to be bookkeeping and crossword puzzles, the kind of emotionally neutral pastimes that require me to dive deep and solve problems. You’ve no doubt got some similar pastimes of your own.
Mercury and Pluto are unlikely bedfellows. Mercury is curious and light, loves to keep moving; Pluto is determined to sit in one place and deconstruct things right down to the studs. As they meet up this week, keep that brain engaged and interested, and you’ll keep the negativity to a minimum.
Permanent Happiness
When Venus entered Aries on February 3, I felt I’d woken up, at last, to the new year. I filled in a calendar with my projected course schedule and speaking obligations for the year. And then, Venus turned retrograde on March 1, and I looked at that calendar again with overwhelm and dread. Sure, growing my business requires constant forward motion – but at what cost to health and happiness?
This week, Venus retrogrades into the drowsier climes of Pisces (March 27, 2025, 1:41 am PDT), as if to say, Oh, so you thought you only needed rest and a slower pace during Pisces Season? No, my friend, you need permanent habits designed to keep your life balanced between ambition and contentment. You’ve got until April 30, when Venus returns to Aries, to initiate those habits. Until then, try to enjoy a slower pace. Connect with loved ones. Let Venus doze and dream.
Oxalis
As Venus continues her retrograde journey, we review our mental list of what’s important. And as Venus comes together with Neptune (March 27, 2025, 6:13 am PDT, 29º53′ Pisces) in the second of three conjunctions (the others: Feb. 1 and May 2), we take a closer look at beauty, grace, music, and the sorts of things that make life delightful.
What is life without beauty and harmony, even if we have to work a little bit to find them? I love flowers, but bitey cats deter me from having them indoors. Luckily, outside my north-facing office is a patch of oxalis that emerges each spring, a note of obstreperous yellow in March’s sometimes flat, gray skies – delicate, fragile, and cheerful. My work doesn’t lend itself to a musical soundtrack, but I smile at the sounds of the March winds moving the windchimes around, a diligent woodpecker attacking a power pole, and the cats chattering at him from the window.
Together, Venus and Neptune remind us that however ferocious the winds of change, there is so much gentle beauty all around us, so much to listen to and enjoy, and so much to love.
Pull Over Until the Fog Clears
Mercury retrograde brings a double-dose of haziness on March 29, first entering Pisces (7:18 pm PDT), and then almost immediately conjoining Neptune (7:46 pm PDT).
This is a sensitive combination, a sponge-like Mercury that absorbs every bit of information that comes its way. And this is already an extremely intense day, with a Solar Eclipse and Neptune just hours from its Aries ingress.
It may be tempting on this date to avoid upsetting news or sensitive conversations, either out of concern that we might hurt somebody else or fear that we might be hurt ourselves. And I have to say, avoidance is probably not the worst idea; after all, if you drive into a dense fog, it’s usually advisable to pull over until things clear up. And Mercury will be direct (April 7) and reenter Aries (April 15) soon enough.
Until then (or for a few days at least), take naps, read fiction, play music; allow space for reflection. You can tackle tasks that require rational thought and analysis, but it may be harder to focus, and it would be a good idea to get someone to proofread your work. It’s a better time to dive into artistic pursuits and to explore spiritual and intuitive interests.
Buck Up
Since April 2023, when a Solar Eclipse fell at 29º50′ Aries, eclipses have alternated between Aries and Libra. The Moon’s North Node has been in Aries, and for the duration, astrologers have extolled the virtues of the warrior sign. “Embrace your independence, your individuality!” we wrote. “Pursue your own goals instead of letting others tell you what to do!”
I wrote those kinds of things, and I stand by them. But what I didn’t write, because I failed to fully appreciate reality, was that this Nodal/eclipse period has in fact been boot camp, designed to cultivate Aries’s fighting nature. What is important enough to you that you are willing to fight for it? Important enough to stop playing nice and put up your dukes?
This Aries New Moon (March 29, 2025, 3:58 am PDT, 9º00’ Aries) is the final eclipse in this sign until October 2032. The chart for the eclipse moment features six planets and the Moon’s North Node packed within 15 degrees; so much energy confined in a small place, so many eggs in a single basket. The eclipse point itself is sextile Pluto on one side, Jupiter on the other, positioned like sentries; we may avail ourselves of Pluto’s dark tendencies or the hopeful disposition of Jupiter.
Meanwhile, Neptune floats through its final hours of Pisces, poised to make its long-awaited ingress into Aries the very next day. We’re now at the end of the sleepy, meditative Pisces time, and what comes next will be altogether different.
Eclipses point to change, and offer an opportunity to move from the default setting of the South Node toward the North Node’s bright promise; to leave behind what’s keeping us from growth, and propel us in the direction of The New Thing. Growth always sounds promising, but in truth, it’s scary to be thrown out of the nest and shoved toward change. It can be like the tough father who teaches a frightened kid to swim by throwing him in the deep end of the pool.
Aries has noble qualities like courage and motivation, and the innocence of the novice. But it also brings us the ferocious ram, the bloody warrior, the hard-bitten Great Santini. “Be a man,” it might say. “Buck up. Fight back.” Summon your courage, and keep swimming.
The Lamb and the Ram
This New Moon Solar Eclipse at 9º00′ Aries is on the Sabian symbol 9 Aries, A crystal gazer. Does it offer a glimpse, a prognostication, into what Neptune might look like in Aries, the fierce sign it enters 25 hours later (March 30, 2025, 4:58 am PDT)?
Neptune symbolizes the healing lap of the ocean’s tides, cleansing and rough as a kitten’s tongue; faith in, and worship of, what we deem sacred; but illusion and delusion, too. Famously, Neptune last entered Aries on April 13, 1861, just one day after the attack on Fort Sumter kicked off the American Civil War. The most divisive and bloody battle in this nation’s history had its genesis in a Neptune “dream,” the determination to preserve an agrarian culture and economy that was shimmering and beautiful until you noticed its cost in human enslavement.
Each time Neptune enters a new sign, we audition scenarios for a new collective dream. In Aries, this vision could be the ram, battering its horns against its enemy to the death, or it could be the selfless, sacrificial lamb.
Neptune will be in Aries until March 2039, with a brief retrograde to Pisces on Oct. 22, 2025 through Jan. 26, 2026.
Writing and images © 2017-25 by April Elliott Kent
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