Care and Feeding
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
The Purging of the Priesthood
V enus meets Neptune this week (April 27, 2022, 12:12 pm PDT, 24ºPisces 28′) on the Sabian symbol, The purging of the priesthood. Think of how we start out so idealistically in relationships or in a life of service, and how, over time, those pure motivations sometimes jump the track. The artist sells out for money. The priest becomes enamored of financial gifts from his flock. The spouse falls out of love and has an affair.
The union of Venus and Neptune symbolizes the hope of refreshing and healing our human connections, of elevating earthly desire to a state of purity, holiness. Wherever we’ve become enthralled to the pleasures of earth and flesh, now is a time to release those desires and marry ourselves to spirit.
Sit Next to Me
Pluto is retrograde for half of each year, but we mostly feel its heft on the days when it changes direction, as it will this week (turning retrograde on April 29, 2022, 11:36 am PDT, through October 8).
A Pluto station day can feel downright haunted. It’s as though a large Plutonian boulder has been overturned, revealing all the squirming, slimy things that were living underneath.
Uneasiness is part of the Pluto journey. I don’t intend to rush, whistling past the graveyard, desperately seeking comfort, redemption, or even wisdom. Instead, I’ll pull up a low, hard bench in the middle of the cemetery. I’ll listen to a cool wind in the trees, rustling the tall grass of panic, confusion, grief, and rage.
I could as easily watch a horror movie or read a ghost story. These are ways of letting the gremlins out to play, projecting our fears onto a blank screen or page where they feel manageable. So are dressing as a goth, devouring vampire books, or having a picnic in a cemetery. Flirting with death at a cool, ironic remove is cathartic, Pluto kabuki theater.
But every now and then, life makes it impossible to keep fear at a safe, rational, sanitary distance. Boulders get overturned, and long-buried compost is revealed. We find that what’s been long buried is rolling over in a shallow grave, begging for release.
Come sit next to me. We’ll listen carefully; we’ll watch for what comes next.
Knitting
Where do your ideas come from?” Creative folks are asked this question a lot. As a writer my whole life, I can tell you how I would answer.
There are those magical days when a writer sits down and produces a song, a story, an essay, as though taking transcription from some divine source. But mostly, it’s a process of making connections. All the bits of stuff you’ve collected – images, ideas, jokes, memories, dialogue – have been stored away in the database of your mind. One day you do a search for, say, Mercury in Gemini – and the database returns a couple of things that, while on the surface don’t seem connected, can be knitted together into something new and interesting.
As Mercury, planet of the mind, enters sociable, curious Gemini this week (April 29, 2022, 3:23 pm PDT), it’s time to open the vault, sort through all your mental treasures, and experiment with putting them together in brand new ways. Mercury enters its shadow period on the 26th and turns retrograde on May 10, so this week’s territory is roughly what Mercury will re-cover during its retrograde period. It’s fertile territory for reviewing past endeavors, renewing bygone connections, and incorporating them into something new.
Care and Feeding
The Taurus New Moon (April 30, 2022, 1:28 pm PDT) is a Solar Eclipse at 10º28’ Taurus. Eclipses are disruptive, and this one doubly so: it’s in a close conjunction with Uranus. If you have planets or angles in your birth chart between about 6º and 14º Taurus (or its fixed sign brethren, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius), this eclipse is determined to wake you up.
A week ahead of the eclipse, I’m already battling a series of frustrating technical issues – maddening, as this is one of my busiest times of the year. But it’s pointed out a few matters I’ve let slide and made me determined to address them once and for all.
The Sabian symbol for this eclipse degree, A woman sprinkling flowers, reminds us of the necessity to maintain, mend, and nurture. Taurus nurturing is practical and straightforward – firm, but not unkind. You want pretty flowers? Water them, or they’re gonna die.
This eclipse point falls in my sixth house, the house of routines, maintenance, and all the day-to-day systems that keep life’s flowers from dying. The Taurus voice in my head is saying, “You’ve been talking about leaving your web hosting company for years; about ready to actually do it now, after two days of downtime during your busiest season of the year?” Well yeah, Taurus, now that you mention it….
Look for the house of your birth chart where 10º28’ Taurus falls. Where do you need to step up to the better care and feeding of your life?
Everything Seems Possible
Venus rushes gratefully into a conjunction with Jupiter this week (April 30, 2022, 2:14 pm PDT, 27º57’ Pisces), on the Sabian symbol 28 Pisces, A fertile garden under a Full Moon. This heart-opening union between the planets of relationship and infinite possibilities reminds me of something my husband-to-be said just after we became engaged all those years ago. He said that our decision to marry had made everything seem possible.
I knew just what he meant. When you join forces with another person – and this doesn’t have to be marriage, or even love; it happens with business or creative partners, as well as best friends – there’s a feeling of strength, joy, and optimism. The skies open up. The load seems lighter. And everything, indeed, seems possible.
Apple Pie
One autumn weekend a few years ago, I took a drive and ended up in the mountain town of Julian, where the trees were changing color and the autumn apple season was underway.
I parked myself at the window table in a diner at the center of town and ate my breakfast with a view of the autumn leaves and bustling tourists. Every one of them seemed determined to wear their autumn sweaters even though the temperature was edging into the mid-70’s, determined to buy fresh apple pies to take home although no one is eating gluten. In short, determined to have the best damn autumn Saturday possible in the mountains of San Diego.
And I noticed something else: Everywhere I looked, there were pregnant women. Even my waitress was pregnant!
Venus, the goddess of attraction, walked among us glowing and fecund, radiating new life in the season of endings. Venus and Pluto in aspect, as in this week’s sextile (May 1, 2022, 3:37 am PDT) – their first major connection since a series of hard conjunctions in December and March – contain the contrasting wisdom of life and death, brightness and dark; and from time to time, if we sit quietly at the window, we can glimpse them holding hands and carrying an apple pie.
Writing and images © 2019-22 by April Elliott Kent
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