Karena, Author at Magic of the Moon Astrology & Tarot

Uranus

Uranus heightens our sense of rebellion against anything in our lives that doesn’t resonate with us. It is extremely difficult to conform to the status quo and “do what we’re told” when Uranus gets involved.

However, breaking out of the status quo can be incredibly scary and destabilizing! Our job, partner, living location, etc may not be working well for us, but at least it is a known! Uranus asks us to burn everything down and rebuild. Burning down the part that isn’t working feels intensely satisfying, but when that dust clears, we are left with nothing. Not something that works for us, and not something that doesn’t. It is up to us to rebuild!

Because of this, I view Uranus transits as positive in the long term – they keep us from staying stuck! And generally the changes they provoke are necessarily ones. However, in the short-term they can feel very destabilizing. Yes, we got rid of the stuck feeling, but now we have nothing at all!

Jupiter

This is where Jupiter really shines and makes this conjunction significantly more “short term positive” than Uranus transits are by themselves. Historically viewed as the greater benefic planet, Jupiter won’t let us stay paralyzed by fear after the Uranus explosion. Jupiter gives us the optimism and the “luck” to land on our feet and to start rebuilding immediately.

However, as is always true with planetary alignments, there is no perfect silver bullet. There are always challenges to overcome with even the most “positive feeling” aspect. In this case, if we don’t do deep enough work with Uranus to understand exactly what is causing a lack of resonance in our lives, we may wind up rebelling against the wrong thing.

For example, imagine a person who hates their boss. They use this Uranus energy to tell their boss off and quit their job. Only when they quit their job do they realize that the things they hated about their boss weren’t unique to that individual person; they were side effects of the industry itself. Now the individual, rather than feeling liberated from their boss, faces the choice to get a similar job in a similar field working for a similar boss, or they have to change careers entirely. They didn’t do their Uranus work first to understand exactly what they were rebelling against, and projected their problems onto a specific person rather than correctly identifying their industry as the problem.

The caution for Jupiter is: don’t be blindly optimistic! Jupiter may make us feel like we have the world by the tail. We may tell ourselves that if we quit our non-resonant job, we can quickly be making a huge salary starting our own business. We neglect to inject reality into the situation. Starting a business is incredibly time-consuming and typically takes a long time to become profitable. If we rashly quit a job without a full plan and instead rely on Jupiter’s “luck” and optimism to get our salary back quickly, we may be disappointed.

Retrograde Mercury

Both the shadow sides of Uranus and Jupiter are especially worth considering for this conjunction, because Mercury is retrograde during this time. Whenever Mercury is retrograde, it is more important to double check what we are doing. Unless we double check now, we are likely to have to revisit later!

Retrograde Mercury makes it more likely that we will quit our job in a blaze of glory on Friday afternoon, realize over the weekend that starting a new business is more difficult than we thought, and then sheepishly ask to “un-quit” our job the following Monday. Retrograde Mercury encourages us to measure twice and cut once. If we methodically think through (Mercury) our urge to make changes (Uranus), and carefully consider the alternatives we want to pursue (Jupiter), we are well on our way to using this conjunction well! In its best form, if our souls have wandered off of our best path, this conjunction is about making much-needed, likely scary pivots in our life back toward our authentic path. In its worth form, this conjunction is about blowing things up in our lives and then belatedly wondering if we put the dynamite on the correct target.

I am so excited for this conjunction, and I can tell that other astrologers are too. Let’s just all make sure we make the most of this and don’t view it as a free pass that banishes our difficulties and showers us with abundance. As with every astrological event, we will get out of this conjunction what we put into it. Put in thoughtful, meditative, soul-level consideration, and you are likely to create changes in your life that will reverberate in the best way for years or decades. This may be a time you refer back to as an incredibly important turning point in your life.

Discounted reading

Unlike some other astrological events, this is an event where it actually is very important to understand what house it is in in your chart and how it impacts you specifically. There is a big difference between big changes in your career vs your love life vs your family! I am giving a 10% discount on all astrology and tarot readings purchased before the end of April to help people navigate this energy more effectively. If you want to take advantage of this, please use the code Jupiter2024 at checkout!

Photo by Alain Bonnardeaux on Unsplash

A solar eclipse occurs approximately every six months, so it’s not a rare occurrence. However, each eclipse that happens is unique because of everything else going on in the sky, and this year we have some very interesting “other things” happening in the sky during the time of the eclipse!

Background

First, let’s talk about the Aries solar eclipse in general. If you know what house Aries occupies in your chart, that will be a big help to understanding what area of life you will likely experience the beginnings/endings of this cycle! Aries represents the warrior energy in the zodiac. The desire to fight and to defend. In its best incarnation, Aries is a warrior who is fighting for something. In its more shadowy incarnation, Aries picks petty fights that aren’t meaningful. In modern astrology, Aries is also the first sign of the zodiac, and a cardinal/initiatory sign, which gives it more power to get things started. Eclipses typically strongly facilitate beginnings and endings, but this is even more true when the eclipse is occurring in the “beginning” sign of the zodiac!

With all of this talk of beginnings and endings, though, it’s important to realize that eclipses come in year-and-a-half “series”. We had our first Aries/Libra eclipse back in the fall of 2023, and we won’t have our final Aries/Libra eclipse until March 2025. So the beginnings and endings we see as part of the eclipse on April 8th, 2024 will not bring brand new, unexpected beginnings and endings, but rather will bring the next chapter in beginnings and endings that started in October 2023. Think back to the mental space you were in and what changes you were contemplating. Has your thinking around some of those changes matured now? Do you have clearer ideas around not just what isn’t working in your life, but what you might want to do to fix it? Everything that is unique about this upcoming Aries solar eclipse encourages us to go deeper and take the next step in our journey of beginnings and endings. The eclipse in October was more about dipping a toe in the water; by April 2024, we are all in the thick of it and likely contemplating (or already making!) big changes.

So what is unique about this eclipse on April 8th? Several things, and we will discuss all of them below!

Mercury retrograde

As the solar eclipse is happening in Aries, Mercury is also retrograde in Aries. Mercury retrogrades often give us an opportunity to revisit and re-think. This will help us move forward with eclipse beginnings and endings more thoughtfully. Is the change we are contemplating really the best one for us? Are there other changes we could make that would accomplish the same goal more effectively? Mercury retrograde will help us answer questions like these (although with Mercury in Aries, we will have to fight the urge to just move forward without proper reflection! Mercury in Aries is not known for its patience!).

The connection to Chiron

This Aries solar eclipse takes place directly on the asteroid Chiron. Chiron embodies the archetype of the Wounded Healer. It represents the areas where each of us have experienced wounds. Some of these wounds we have healed from, and we can now use our experiences to help others heal from the same type of wound. Some of these wounds we are still in the process of healing. Still others we have likely buried deep in our Souls and haven’t begun the healing process for them yet.

Regardless of which stage we are at, an eclipse taking place on Chiron will remind us how critical it is to integrate the growth from our wounds into the rest of our lives. Can we help others using our experiences? Is there further deep, shadow work we need to do to heal from our wounds? This eclipse will bring up these topics, especially in the house where Aries falls in your chart.

Mars/Saturn conjunction

Mars and Saturn conjoin every two years, and this cycle they are conjoining on April 10th, 2 days after the solar eclipse. Mars and Saturn both represent challenging energies – Mars represents (among other things) our warrior’s desire to fight for what we believe in and our desire to move forward. Saturn represents the importance of discipline, duty, and work toward our long-term goals.

Eclipses always tend to bring endings and new beginnings, but with Saturn and Mars conjoining just as the eclipse happens, we will be feeling even more energy toward closing out things in our life that don’t contribute to our goals. If we take advantage of this double dose of profound energy – the Aries eclipse and the Saturn/Mars conjunction – we can make changes which echo for years within our lives! What an amazing opportunity!

Visible to many people

This solar eclipse is visible to a large group of people across North America! Even though we have a solar eclipse approximately every six months, eclipses often take place over one of the oceans or somewhere that isn’t visible to many people. When eclipses are visible, their impacts seem to be greater and more profound – we are directly experiencing it! (Please use proper eclipse glasses if you hope to view it – it is too much for our small eyeballs!)

Final notes

It is worth calling out that not everyone is affected equally by every eclipse. In general, if you were born near an eclipse (i.e. if the Sun is near either the North or South Moon node in your birth chart), you are especially sensitive to eclipses.

Additionally, each eclipse affects people differently depending on which part of your chart the eclipse is hitting. If the eclipse is happening in an important house (i.e. your 1st house), or if it’s happening near an important planet in your chart (i.e. your Sun or Moon), you will feel that eclipse much more strongly than others around you might.

Since ancient times, people have been a little frightened of eclipses. That makes sense – evolutionarily humans don’t like change, and eclipses are all about change! However, there is an immense capacity for growth during eclipses. Big changes seem to find us, even if we don’t feel ready for them. And often, when we look back on these times in our lives, we see how eclipse-initiated events were crucial to re-shaping our lives in a positive way. If we can find a way to roll with the energies, to accept what comes, and to lean forward instead of fighting the changes, this can be an incredibly powerful and profound month in our lives. My hope is for all of you to give yourself that opportunity!

Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash

Author: Karena

Jupiter & Uranus in Taurus – Out with the Old!