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.

We are entering eclipse season with a lunar eclipse, over the Full Moon in Libra (5˚). The full moon eclipse occurs at 7am on 25th March, which happens to be my birthday! Having an eclipse right on your birthday is quite a thing, and suggests that this could be an intense year for me personally (though my solar return actually falls a day earlier this year, as I write this on 24th March - phew!). The primary themes of a Libra full moon centre around conflict and harmony, war and peace, action and reflection, the assertion of individual sovereignty - vs - consideration for others. It is about the art of relationship, and the negotiation of agreements within any kind of partnership. It's that eternal question: how do we remain open to connect with another, whilst at the same time retaining an authentic connection with ourselves?

On Sunday 10th March 2024 (9.00am, UK time) we have a new moon in Pisces, as the Sun and Moon align in the sign of the fishes. This water sign connects us to the deepest aspects of our soul life, where we embrace the deeper mystery of how we are connected to one another, and to other realms of being. We have to surrender control in this sign, and recognise that there are things in life that we simply cannot understand through logic and reason. This is the sign in which we process our losses, move through grief, forgive those who have caused us pain, and find our way way back to compassion, both for ourselves and others.

We have a very potent new moon today in Scorpio.  The eclipse season may have passed now, but the intensity that characterised it far from over.  Today the Sun and Moon make their monthly conjunction aligned to the Mars-Uranus opposition, and this packs a punch that can be volatile and unpredictable.  The Sun is applying to a conjunction aspect with Mars and an opposition aspect to Uranus, with tight aspect orbs in both cases. Mars is very strong being in its own sign of Scorpio, and it is at one of the most unpredictable moments in its two year cycle when it opposes Uranus.

As I consider the meaning and symbolism of the Libran new moon solar eclipse (exact on 14 Oct 2023, 6.55pm), I find myself in a deep contemplation on the nature and process of peace, given what has occurred, and is occurring now, so tragically in the Middle East. In the midst of such a heart-breaking conflict flaring up again, with all the complex history that contextualises it, we are inevitably thrown back upon ourselves to address the source of conflict within our own hearts and minds.

This month’s new moon sees the Sun and Moon aligning in the early hours of Friday morning in the UK (15th Sept, 2.39am, UK time) in the sign of Virgo. A new moon is a time where we focus our intention for the month ahead, and what is seeded here in this deeply feminine sign has to do with discernment and refinement, healing and rites of purification. This is where we tune in deeply to the innate wisdom of the body and cultivate the power of our inner spiritual and physical essence. Virgo is represented in the heavens as Demeter, the harvest goddess, responsible for the fertitlity and fecundity of the earth.

Today’s new moon in Leo occurs at 10.38am UK time. The Sun and Moon align in Leo, in a separating conjunction with Venus - still deep in her retrograde phase - and in an exact square aspect to Uranus. This new moon calls us to dig deeper than ever into our hearts, and to stand for the truth of love and sovereign expression, even in the midst of unanticipated change and upheaval.

This month’s new moon in Cancer occurs on 17th July at 7.33pm (UK time). With the Sun and Moon aligning in this sensitive water sign, we can make a deeper connection with our innermost being, as our attention turns toward the care and protection of what we hold most dear. Immersed as we are now in the warm belly of summer, the trees pregnant with their sweetening fruits, their roots drawing deep for watery sustenance, so we ourselves can draw on our own roots for sustenance and support. The sign of Cancer is under the guardianship of the moon, which draws us inwards, evoking memories of what has passed and reminding us of the familial threads that our woven through our soul’s journey.

This month’s full moon is in Capricorn occurs on Monday 3rd July at 12.39pm UK time. A Capricorn full moon always occurs during the Cancer season, when with the Sun in the sign of the sensitive crab, with the Moon opposed to it in Capricorn, the sign of the hardy goat. Cancer represents everything that we have been, and part of our work is to honour the past during the Cancer season, and to recognise the the patterns that have supported us historically, including those that have traumatised us. And to recognise also, that we cling to these patterns whether they have wounded us or assisted us on our journey.

We have a new moon in the late degrees of Taurus this week (Friday 19th May, 4.54pm UK Time). This new moon connects us to a slower rhythm, that of the natural world; it seeks to impart to us the goodness of life, that we might engage in good faith what with the first fruits of the season and to drop deeper into the sensuous, embodied dimension of life. This new moon rounds off a significant week astrologically, which has seen Jupiter ingress into the sign of Taurus and Mercury station direct, while a powerful t-square between Mars, Pluto and Jupiter has been gradually forming, becoming exact in the first degree of the fixed signs this weekend.

On Friday 5th May (6.34pm, UK time) we have full moon lunar eclipse in the mid-degree Scorpio to complete this eclipse season, following on the heels of the solar eclipse, which occurred on 20th April in the last degree of Aries. And what a powerful day for this eclipse to fall, with the Sun at 15˚ Taurus, the exact midpoint between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, the true astronomical Beltane. Beltane marks a turning point in the year, charged with the power of creativity and fecundity, a moment of great calendrical significance, when the ratio of daylight over darkness (in the northern hemisphere) has reached its maximum acceleration rate of increase.

On Thursday 20th April, we begin our first eclipse season of the year with a solar eclipse, occuring in the final, ‘anaretic’ degree of Aries. It is the second Aries new moon in a row, and so represents a second and much intensified call to connect with that burst of fiery Aries initiative to spur us into action and catalyse new initiatives. Being a solar eclipse, however, we need to be especially mindful of the shadows that can gather around our intentions at such a time, and check our true motivation and calling.

Pluto moves into Aquarius on Thurs 23rd March, making its first venture into this sign, just for two months, before retrograding back into Capricorn, and returning in January 2024 for its 20-year stay. This is a time where we must confront the shadow aspects of a sign that is too easily idealised and anticipated as a harbinger of what is good. It seems we are destined to experience the dark side of Aquarius before we can truly know its radiant, light-filled potential.

Welcome to Aries Season, and the astrological new year! And we really start this new round of the zodiacal wheel with a spark of fire, as the Aries New Moon lands within 24 hours of the Aries ingress at the Spring Equinox which occurred yesterday evening; a brief, but potent moment in the year and when light and dark are equalised across the world, and mythologically the forces of light are seen to overcome the forces of darkness, bringing renewal to the natural world.

This Sunday 12th March, Chiron and Jupiter make their conjunction in the fire sign Aries. These conjunctions occur at irregular intervals of between 13-19 years, the last one having occurred in Aquarius in 2009. Here we have the coming together of two planetary bodies of such stark contrast: the giant gas planet Jupiter: powerful, majestic, and overarching in scope, and Chiron a tiny rocky planetoid who irreverently crosses the margins between the visible and the invisible, moving inside the path of Saturn and beyond the path of Uranus in its highly eccentric oribt. As these two archetypes align this week, the conceptual knowing of Jupiter fuses with the insinctual wisdom of Chiron. Jupiter helps to grow the meaning and morality that shapes a society, while the wild knowing of Chiron pays homage to the deepest wounds of the soul, and connects us with the primitive roots of our being. Perhaps through their union, we might hope to rehabilitate the indigenous wisdom that lies deep within each of us.

The Camino pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain is something very close to my heart. I walked the 780km route myself in 2012, and it had a very profound effect on me. Shirley Maclaine’s book about her experience was an influential part of me deciding to undertake this intense 5-week journey. So I was thrilled this morning, when doing some research for my upcoming course on “AstroCartoGraphy & Relocation Astrology” to discover how beautifully resonant Shirley Maclaine’s astrocartography map is with that part of the world, and with her experience of walking the Camino.

This month’s full moon falls in charismatic Leo, the sign that invites us to open our hearts, claim our true sovereignty and radiate our presence. And it is a highly charged moon this, full of radical, revolutionary energy, as the Sun and Moon, opposed across the Leo-Aquarius axis, are making an exact t-square with Uranus at 15˚ Taurus. So whatever was seeded as an intention at the new moon (14 days prior), may now experience an unforeseen consequence, whether that be an unexpected change of plan, an accelerated insight, a crisis or breakthrough of understanding or perspective. This full moon also occurs with Venus (in Pisces) and Mars (in Gemini) in square aspect which ramps up the energetic sexual tension in our lives, and can intensify the dynamics in our relationships with others. It’s strong stuff!