This month’s full moon occurs in the early hours of 24th April (00.50 on 24th April) and sees the Sun and Moon making their monthly opposition, with the Sun at 4˚ Taurus and Moon at 4˚ Scorpio. Scorpio is not a restful place for the moon, it stirs up deeply buried feelings and resentments, and we will likely have to face some unconfortable truths over this full moon, especially with the Sun-Moon opposition making a t-square to Pluto in Aquarius. Pluto, the mythological ‘Lord of the Underworld’ is the modern ruler of Scorpio and draws our gaze downward and inward toward the deeper aspects of the soul, away from the light of outer appearances. The square aspect is hard and unforgiving, it darkens the mind, and intensifies the emotional life, delivering the starkest of truths. It is worth pondering on Carl Jung’s famous statement: “one does not become enlightened by imaging figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious”.

We are experiencing one of the most important astrological alignments of the year as Jupiter and Uranus make their conjunction in Taurus (22˚) over the weekend of 21-22 April 2024. This happens every 14 years, and coincides with accelerated leaps of consciousness, revolution, technological advance and innovation. You might imagine what it's like when far seeing Jupiter, the light bringer and god of thunder meets Uranus, the radical iconoclast and innovator who shatters the old order with the intensity of a lightining strike! Both these planets have their eye on the future, and see beyond constraints and limitations. Their conjunction represents a paradigm shift of vision and ideas.

On Monday 8th April at 19.20pm UK time, we have a solar eclipse on the Aries new moon (at 19˚ Aries). It is certainly a very powerful astrological moment, the themes of which will reverberate powerfully for several months to come. The main astrological feature of the eclipse chart is the sun and moon, conjunct at 19˚ Aries, making an exact conjunction to Chiron, the wounded healer, in the same degree, and an applying conjunction to Mercury (5˚ orb). Aries brings a fiery initiative to spur us into action and catalyse new initiatives but with Chiron conjunct, we are painfully aware of our vulnerability, and we may be compromised in our boldness and courage to initiate. And being a solar eclipse we need to be especially mindful of those aspects of our unconscious which might overshadow our best intentions at such a time, and really connect inwardly with our true motivation and calling.