Mars opposite Pluto, again + Taurus Season

Hello, and welcome back to the Essential Astrocast. I'm Veronica Perretti, your host, and this is where you tune in to find out what's going on in the heavens so that you can dictate your fate down here on Earth. Lots to talk about. Lots is happening. I was away for a long weekend, as I mentioned last week And of course I still need to learn my lesson to not travel during Eclipse season even.

It's if it's the very tail end of a clips season because that full moon in Libra that we had on Saturday the 12th was the official end of eclipse season, and that full moon was at 23 degrees Libra, and it came with a conjunction to Chiron and it was on my natal Mars. So I don't know why I thought I was going to escape getting a wallop from that full moon. Because I definitely got a wallop. I took a spill while I was holding my son, which was very scary. I am still healing my scrapes and bruises.

I had my son got a fever on our trip. But with all of that, I found that this was a really wonderful trip, even with all of the extenuating circumstances. So there is a certainly a story that is playing out for me with this, this

moon cycle. So you may have heard me talk about lunar families before. So this full moon, is in a lunar family with, first quarter moon in Libra that occurred nine months ago. And then a new moon in Libra that occurred nine months before that. And so these lunar families tell longer stories that we can look at through the moon cycle In that way, it's a system that is, created by. I think it's Dietrich Pessin, in her book Lunar Shadows, which is wonderful if you are an astrology enthusiast.

And it's one of the practices or techniques that I use a lot in my own life. So I did a little, what I call astrological archeology a few days ago because I was like, God, there is so much coming up right now for me. And I know it's coming up for so many other people too, but it feels like that Full Moon really brought some things to ahead. The past two weeks have been really intense. so I did some astrological archeology and looked back at those, at those lunar families.

So, if you've got something going on, you know, you can trace it back and look at what was going on nine months ago. And then what was going on nine months before that. If you're looking at a full moon, that is really wreaking havoc in your life or just bringing illumination to something in your life. And if you're interested in that, maybe I'll teach a workshop on it at some point. 'cause it is one of the techniques that I find most useful in my own personal practice.

So with that, let's get into what's going on.

Right now. So as we speak, I am recording this on April 18th. It is Good Friday. It's going to be Easter on Sunday. Happy Passover. To those who celebrate Happy Easter. To those who celebrate. this is a little bit of a wild week and we've got some wild stuff coming up, so I, even though it's a little late in the week, I wanted to make sure I talk to you. Okay. So this week lots of things happening. One is Mercury has, come back to Aries. So you may recall we had Mercury retrograde.

He's stationed to retrograde, and Aries went back into Pisces stationed to go direct, and now on his direct journey, reviewing those degrees of late Pisces and early Aries for a third final time, he's finally reentered Aries. Mars has come back to Leo. Similar story, Mars, way back when was in Leo. He's stationed to retrograde.

He went back into lake cancer, stationed to go direct about midway through cancer has been slowly pulling himself forward as he picks up momentum again, and thankfully has finally made it back to Leo. Mercury entered Aries on the 16th of April. Mars entered Leo today on the 18th of April.

As I'm recording this, it was right after midnight, so we have an energy of directness that is coming back because so much of this energy we've been feeling has been happening at lead degrees, Pisces, early degrees, Aries and Pisces is the very end of the zodiac. Aries is the very beginning of the Zodiac. So we have had this weird, clunky feeling of lots of things ending and lots of things beginning and not knowing if you should let go, not knowing if you should jump into what's next.

Maybe not knowing what is next. There's just a feeling of. Not being able to get something going and get off the ground, and I know politically we're feeling this, there's a big frustration that there's not a big enough fight, there's not leadership showing up to really take on what is fast. Becoming a very scary situation here in the us. It's been a fast. A, a serious situation for some time already.

but really feels like it's reaching a fever pitch, which we will certainly see, this week, the coming week. But I'll get to that in a moment. So we're finding our fire again. You know, mercury, I told you earlier this year, I said it many times. The beginning of this year is really going to be slow moving. People are not going to know. What's coming, what's going? They're not gonna be able to feel the earth underneath their feet because we had so many retrogrades happening.

We've had Mercury retrograde, as of late, but we had that long Mars retrograde and we had Venus retrograde. So Venus will enter Aries because she also, her retrograde path was very close to Mercury. It was stationing in Aries going back into Pisces, and now she will reenter Aries on April 30th, but she's still late degrees Pisces. if you can look at your chart and you can figure out where late Pisces, early Aries is, you know, where that's where all the stuff's been happening.

You have so much happening. You've got so much activity there that part of your chart is lighting up. So if you know where that is, you can deduce a little bit of what the themes are. But in general, we've been. In this push pull between feeling like we wanna go to sleep and pull the cover over our heads and feeling like we wanna get out into the streets and fight. And it's really hard to be stuck between those two things and then going back and forth.

Now, one of the things that happened this week that was really interesting is that when Mercury entered Aries. This time when Mercury came into Aries, he met up with Neptune. Now this is his third of three meetups with Neptune on this retrograde pattern in this path. But this time Mercury met up with Neptune in Aries, and it's the first time in our lifetime that that has happened because Neptune is now an Aries.

And it's the first time in our lifetime that Neptune has been in Aries because it takes Neptune 165 years to go around the Zodiac. The last time Neptune was in Aries was the Civil War, so this is a very interesting time in our lives. The big banner things for this year are Neptune and Aries, Saturn moving into Aries, which will happen in May, and Jupiter moving into cancer, which will happen in June, and Uranus moving into Gemini, which will happen in July.

One of the reasons this year feels so wacky is because we have all of these big planets moving into new signs, so there's a lot going on. It's kind of like, you know, 2020, we had all these planets meeting up in Capricorn. While it was really wild and rare that so many planets were coming together in Capricorn, really particularly of note was Saturn and Pluto, but Mars and Jupiter joined them. That was notable, but now it kind of is like.

everything was happening in one part of the chart, and Capricorn is a very grounded sign. It's an earth sign. It's the Cardinal Earth sign. Now, we've got so much happening, it's kind of happening all over, but a lot of it is concentrated in Aries, which is the cardinal fire sign, and Aries likes to put its head down, go head first into something and ask questions later. So it can be very impulsive. It is the match that lights the fire. It's the initiation.

So that's the energy that we're working with right now. We have a lot of matches that are being lit. we don't know which fires are gonna continue to burn. What's interesting about this Mercury Neptune conjunction for the first time in our lives. Is that for the past 14 years, every time Mercury and Neptune join, it's been in Pisces. So for as long as I've been studying astrology.

It's been Mercury and Neptune joining in Pisces, and so that is a time that we think, okay, your mind is gonna feel a little bit foggy. You're gonna be wanting to dream and escape into a book and to escape into a Netflix binge and kind of check out. Um, maybe you want to numb out, maybe you get stuck in like an online shopping scroll haze.

All of these things you've probably heard me talk about before when we talk about Neptune Transits, because Neptune does have this tendency to dissolve time to dissolve. Reality to make us feel like we're living in an alternate reality. It tends to illuminate the subconscious or the unconscious. So Neptune and Aries, we don't know what that's gonna feel like.

I mean, we can read books, we can look at history, but all of us on the planet at this moment, to not know what Neptune and Aries feels like we're learning for the first time. So as we learn what it feels like, this is one of the first big transits. We had Mercury and Neptune come together on Wednesday the 16th. So what did it feel like to you? What was going on on Wednesday? How were you feeling? Were you feeling bouts of clarity? Were you having moments of creativity?

Were you feeling, direct and clear knowing about what. To do next? Or were you feeling overwhelmed? Were you feeling confused? Were you feeling like you just don't know what to do? So I actually was having a moment, I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday, where I really was feeling like. I don't know what to do about this. And then I took it to my group that I'm a part of. I'm a part of this wonderful business group called Expert Up Club with led by my friend Michelle Mazer.

I've mentioned it before. You should check it out if you're a business owner or you know, solopreneur, entrepreneur, business owner, service provider, et cetera. And I said, I'm gonna take it to the group and I'm just gonna talk it out. I'm gonna soundboard it. I know that when I talk things out, it really helps me. I have a Mercury cazimi in my chart in Aries, so I really like to talk things out with someone or with a group of people I trust and I got some clarity from it.

So you might find that you got some clarity this week with that Mercury Neptune conjunction. one of the things I noticed when I talked things out. With the group was that they said, listen back to this recording and listen to your energy when you talk about this. I thought that was so helpful. because when you listen to yourself talk, that is another way of accessing or understanding what is in your subconscious, Because. We might say things that we don't necessarily mean to say.

So these are ways that we can learn to work with Mercury joining Neptune in a new sign. We might have a more direct experience of our unconscious or subconscious, We were, all learning what it feels like. but I think that the Mercury Neptune conjunction showed us, Ways in which we can direct our attention toward our dreams because Neptune is associated with our ideals, and Mercury is always delivering messages and helping us with the strategy.

So if you're kind of strategizing and working on something, you might have found some moments of inspiration on Wednesday or maybe Tuesday or Thursday, depending on when you were feeling this transit doesn't necessarily have to be on the day that the transit occurred. We also had Mars, or we will have Mars tomorrow, Saturday, the 19th of April.

We will have Mars trying Neptune. Now, Mars trying. Neptune is the planet of action, of taking action of forward momentum now back in Leo. So happy about that. Newly in Leo. Zero degrees Leo Trining, Neptune at zero degrees Aries. So this is another new experience we're newly experiencing. What does it feel like when Mars and Neptune talk, and Neptune is an Aries, which is Mars sign, that means that Neptune is answering to Mars. Mars is in charge.

And Mars is in the sign of Leo where he is confident and comfortable. So it'll be very interesting to see how this feels. You might be feeling a little bit more comfortable being adventurous, being fearless, being optimistic. it'll be an interesting time to. Feel like you're no longer just basking in the dream.

You're no longer sitting back and head in the clouds laying on the couch, dreaming about, oh, what could it be like you are putting on your sneakers, feeling the road underneath your feet and getting out there and doing the work, putting one foot in front of the other and doing the work to actually make the dream happen. That's what I think this is gonna feel like, because Aries is a doer. As a person with a lot of Aries, I can tell you we are doers.

We feel the pull in the gut and then we go take the action. That's why we can be impulsive. So all of these personal planets, mercury and Mars, talking to Neptune this week and going into the weekend indicates to me. That we're going to see a lot more action being taken in the direction of our dreams, in the direction of our ideals. Okay, so that is what's going on in terms of Neptune. A couple other things I wanted to mention about Neptune, but I'm gonna probably save them.

For the end of the podcast, so I wanna keep moving with what's going on in terms of the calendar.

So on Saturday the 19th, since we're still there, the sun enters Urus. So the sun will enter Taurus at 3:56 PM Eastern time. So many of you know Taurus is an earth sign. It's the fixed earth sign, which means it is the earth ist earth sign. It is has a reputation for being stubborn because it's a fixed sign. It knows what it wants. It is steady and reliable.

It's predictable, and right now, predictability, stability, reliability, those are all things that are very appealing to us because the sky is filled with water and fire, which is emotional. Earth is grounding. It brings us back into our body. It helps us feel our feet, it helps us connect with what do we need in this moment? I need to drink some water. I need to eat a sandwich. I need to take a breath.

so I think the sun entering Taurus is really, really needed at this moment where everything feels so chaotic and very. In the emotions and we need to feel the present moment and the sun and tours will help us do that. Okay? So tourist season is upon us. We are in the heart of spring. The cherry blossoms are about to peak here in New York.

Easter will happen on Sunday the 20th, and along with Easter, we will have a few different transits taking place on Sunday that are really going to help us embrace the changes that are happening. We'll have Venus Sextiling, Uranus, a great day for changing up your routine, doing something a little different, maybe making something different on the menu that you wouldn't normally make for the holiday. That can be fun.

just kind of doing something out of the norm feels good with Venus Sextile Uranus, it helps us embrace change. It helps us invite change in. we also have Mercury Sextiling, Pluto. That can be really helpful for strategizing. So if you're not celebrating the holiday with your family, this might be a good day to be doing some business development, doing some creative work, doing some spiritual work. 'cause there's just gonna be. A lot of energy percolating and energy that's helpful.

sex tiles give us opportunities to kind of get into it and work things out. and then we'll also have the Sun Square Mars. Now this is where things can get a little dicey because the Sun Square Mars it, these are both. Fix signs. The Sun and Taurus, and Mars and Leo, they're both fixed, which means they're gonna be a little bit more stubborn. They're not gonna be as movable. So if you have a fight at the dinner table, everyone's gonna dig in their heels. There might be some.

Authority issues of who's in charge, who has the power. truthfully, the Sun Square Mars, to me, feels like a really nice day to be by yourself. I know that's not ideal for a family holiday, but you know, if you can get some solo time to just take care of yourself and take care of your own needs Maybe go to the gym in the morning before things get crazy or go for a walk in the afternoon if you need a break from your family.

Mars is always well suited to moving our body because when we move our body, it moves the the Mars energy.

So next week, the early part of the week, doesn't have a ton of transits, but then we get to Wednesday when the 23rd of April, the sun squares Pluto, and later that week. And I'm gonna go a little out of order here, so stay with me on Saturday, April 26th. Mars opposes Pluto. So here's the thing about Mars being back in Leo. It's great. We're so happy to have him out of cancer. Mars was in cancer for an absurdly long time. I have to check, but I think Mars entered cancer back in October.

Like it was absurd. It's an absurdly long time for Mars to be in cancer. This was an absurdly long. Mars retrograde. So with that, we, we welcome Mars being in a fire sign. We welcome that return of confidence. It's helping us be more confident in our decision making. It's helping us be more confident in our bodies. It's helping us, find the momentum to move forward and advocate for ourselves and take up the fights that we wanna take up. So all of those things are great.

But you may remember late last summer, early fall, particularly, right on election day or around that time, we had Mars opposite Pluto, and we talked a lot about it at the time. And we're gonna talk about it again because Mars will oppose Pluto on April 26th. So as we. Feel this shift of Mars moving into Leo. We also feel that opposition heat up. So I'm taking a look now to see, to give you the exact. Dates of those oppositions.

So the previous one was January 3rd when Mars was retrograde, and the one before that was November 3rd, when Mars was at 29 cancer and Pluto was at 29 Capricorn. So the middle one was the first one with Mars and Leo, Pluto and Aquarius. And now this third and final one, Mars will be at three degrees. Leo Pluto at Three Degrees Aquarius. So you remember me talking about Pluto and Aquarius a ton late last year, early this year. We have Pluto and Aquarius for 20 years.

We're really getting to know what it feels like to have him there. 'cause that's another thing that we've not experienced in our lifetimes until now. Mars opposite Pluto was really, the transit of the election. It really was the story. there's a couple other things, but that really feels like it captures the story of the election. Mars and Pluto are planets of war. they fight, they are, Interested in power and control, when they oppose one another? it is a power struggle. It is a challenge.

It is something that we have to face and overcome. So we're back at it and this time the sun will be at seven Degrees Taurus creating a T Square. So I imagine April 26th is going to be pretty intense. It also happens to be that the day that Mercury exits its post retrograde shadow. So this coming week, which is why I wanted to get on the mic today. And fill you in on what was going on this week, but also to give you the heads up that this coming week is going to be intense.

It is really going to be, the banner headline of the week is that third and final Mars Opposite Pluto. I think a lot of the stories that we had around the election are going to be up again. I think we are going to probably see some information that we haven't seen before. I have no idea how it's gonna manifest, but I know that it's going to be taking us back to that place in some way, shape, or form.

And the themes and the stories that we were talking about back then will be on the radar this week. now the other. Banner headline, if you will, of the week is that we have on Thursday the 24th of April, we have Saturn and Venus coming together. So Venus, conjunct Saturn. We've also had three times because of Venus Retrograde pattern. The first one was January 18th and they met at 16 degrees Pisces. And then while Venus was retrograde, they met at 25 degrees Pisces.

And then finally on April 24th, they will meet one last time for now at 27 degrees Pisces. So that late Pisces part of your chart. Is getting a lot of this venous Saturn energy and venous conjun Saturn. It can manifest as. Feeling self-doubt, feeling imposter syndrome, feeling overwhelm. It's in Pisces, so it can be an overwhelm of emotion, an overwhelm of empathy, an overwhelm of compassion. it can also bring serious commitment. It can bring up your relationship insecurities.

It also might show you where you feel restricted in a relationship. Maybe it's from an authority figure, maybe it's from a boss. Maybe it's from the company that you work for, but it also could be in a personal relationship. So these are ways that it could manifest because Venus is our relationships or resources, our values. Saturn is all things that. Restrict offer boundaries and structure. So on one hand, this can be something that's really awesome.

Maybe you've spent the past few months really committing to your relationship. maybe you are putting the bricks in place to get married. that could be what's going on. for someone else, this could be feeling like they are, Being oppressed in their job and hemmed in and they can't be creative so they need to break out. it really depends on what's going on in your life and where it's happening in your chart. the Venus, Saturn, it also can kind of make us feel bad about ourselves.

We can be really judgmental about our bodies, especially women 'cause it's Venus, You know, just feeling a little down about our bodies or feeling kind of stuck in our bodies in any way that can come up feeling like I'm not worthy of this or that, or, you know, I can't ask for that much money at my job because do I really deserve it? These are the kinds of energies that can come up when Venus and Saturn are together and if you've got any stuff from a parental figure.

Making you feel like you're not enough. That is stuff that might be floating to the surface right now as well, because it is in Pisces, so it is the subconscious. So just be careful this week as we move into this week, the week of April 21st. Through the 27th. You know, Monday to Sunday, you really wanna make sure that you are taking good care of yourself. And thankfully, the sun in Taurus is going to help you.

Remember to feel the feet, feel the feet on the grounds, feel the grass, smell the flowers. Feel the breeze on your face. Feel the. Sun as it touches your skin. All of those things. Taurus loves to be in nature. It's the farmer, it's the gardener, it's the tender of the, of the crops and the soil and the earth and the flowers and the herbs. So, you know, go get some herbs, make it plant an herb garden, or go get some flowers for your front stoop.

Those are the things that can help you feel like you're human. You're here having this, spiritual experience in a human body, and the sun in Taurus can help us remember that. So I encourage you to do that. we will continue to be having a lot of this fire and water. We'll just hopefully feel. A little bit more grounded because the sun is in Taurus. Okay, at the end of the week is going to be a New Moon in Taurus on Sunday the 27th.

I plan on having a podcast out to you before then, so I'm gonna save the New Moon talk, and I wanna share with you a little bit about what I've been thinking about the Neptune. In Pisces, Neptune going into Aries and some of the things going on in the world, and I'm saving it for the end because I know right now we are so overwhelmed with all of the information. I personally decided to block out social media on my phone.

I use an app called Refocus, and I blocked it out a couple days ago because the stories about this. Maryland man, who was sent to El Salvador via a clerical error, but frankly, none of those men should be an El Salvador at all. And the story has been so upsetting to me on a purely just human level that I. Feel like I'm thinking about it before I go to sleep at night and I can't fall asleep. And I just said, I just, I have to get off social media.

I can't be taking in this information all the time. And of course, I'm staying on top of what's going on in the news every day. But I don't need to be seeing the videos, seeing the images, hearing the stuff over and over again. So if you're feeling that way as well, one of the people that I follow, I follow her Substack. I signed up for her newsletter. It's really wonderful. Heather Cox Richardson.

She's a historian and she writes a newsletter every day, sharing what's going on in the world and puts it into historical context. And I find that to be really grounding for me. and I get the information and I get it in a way that is not overly emotional Highly well researched. She is a really wonderful person and a wonderful writer. you can follow her, Heather Cox Richardson for free. She's wonderful. that's the one thing I'll definitely read.

I still listen to some podcasts like the Daily or whatever, but I'm trying to stay away from anything that's overly emotional because I'm just finding that I can't handle it right now and that makes sense. Look at the astrology. We have so much happening in Pisces and Aries. Those are very emotional signs. We are feeling all of it. I have that Chiron and Aries on my natal Mars, so I'm really feeling it. so we all have to take care of ourselves while also staying informed.

So find ways that you can stay informed and stay active without burning yourself out. Okay, that's my soap box. I'm gonna step down off it.

Okay, so I talked about Neptune earlier. Being in Aries for the first time in our lives, Neptune is a planet that dissolves. it dissolves boundaries. In Pisces, Neptune had no end in sight as to what it could dissolve because Pisces is vast. It's representative of the ocean, it's vaster than we can even understand as human beings. We know more about space than we actually do about the ocean. That's how deep and vast the ocean is. So in Aries, Neptune is going to have more definition.

It's going to have more clarity. It's going to manifest differently. It's not in its home sign. Pisces is its home sign It asks for what's the way that I'm going forward. It's not interested in wishy-washy, it's not interested in, maybe I'll do this. Maybe I'll do that. No, that's mutable. That's Pisces. Aries is, that's where I'm going. I know how I'm getting there and if you want, you can follow me, but I'm not waiting for you.

So Neptune and Aries, it's going to be more shocking in some ways, but it's also going to be, encouraging in a lot of ways it's going to help us find our bravery and our courage as well. we saw this story about these men going to El Salvador, which is. Breaking my heart. and these men were disappeared. They were kidnapped and disappeared.

thanks to some really wonderful journalism, particularly there was someone at CBS who found the names of all the men when they were not being released by the government. they were disappeared when Neptune was at 29 degrees Pisces. And that was March 15th. That was the day after the Virgo eclipse. A 23 degrees Virgo. Now we have Neptune at Zero Degrees Aries and with Neptune at Zero Degrees Aries. We're on the World Point zero degrees of the Cardinal Signs is a world point.

It means that whatever's going on at that time, when a planet is at zero degrees of Aries Lire cancer or Capricorn, the world is gonna take notice. So now we had, while this happened March 15th, mercury was retrograde. Venus was retrograde. Mercury's now joined with Neptune this past week. And guess what? This is the story. This is the story that we're all talking about because Mercury and Neptune are meeting at zero degrees. Aries, the World Point. So Mercury is drawing us in.

To pay attention to something that was done under the veil of darkness that maybe they thought we would never see. But now we're seeing it, and now everybody is seeing it. And now it's the thing that we're all talking about because Mercury is with Neptune year. Mercury's doing his job, Mercury's doing his job. Bringing our attention to it. So that was something that I noticed this week.

And the other story I noticed this week that was really taking up a lot of space for people was this all woman flight with Blue Origin and it really falling flat for the public people being like just kind of grossed out by it. And. Especially when so many women are losing their jobs at NASA and the rolling back of women's rights across this country. it's just performative feminism and nobody's really interested in performative activism anymore because we want something real.

Because when Neptune was in Pisces, we were willing to settle for fluff. But now with Neptune and Aries, we really want to see something real. We wanna see something direct. We don't want gestures. And you see that with people really wanting to see the grit, people really wanting to see a fight. And so I think this Neptune in Aries and all these planets talking to it this week is really shifting the top, the set. This. The tide in the collective, This, these inner planets.

Talking to Neptune this week is really. Shifting the tides because Neptune is associated with the collective consciousness and collectivism, you know what we believe as a collective? What do we pay attention to? Sometimes when I think of Neptune as a collective, I think of trends, what's on trend. We'll see what Neptune in Aries, how, a lot of the fashion now is more angular. There's a lot of militaristic. Style fashion right now.

I mean, I'm not a big fashion person, but I'm seeing little bits here and there when I check out celebrity outfits at different events, and so, you know. Romantic fluffy dresses is very Piscean. Having a sharp tailored suit is very Aries. So we're going to see things being more clean, more clear, more angles, more directness, more sharpness, more cutting language, more cutting, energy when it comes to art and fashion and culture.

I think it's really interesting that this whole blue Origin thing felt very, I saw the image of Katy Perry with a daisy and it felt so pi, and it looked like she was face tuned, like her face was almost blurry from the filter, and she was holding this daisy and it just felt like some sort of like made up. Coke or Pepsi ad, like it just felt so fluffy and I said, oh my gosh, that this thing was originated and thought of and put together with Neptune and Pisces. And now Neptune is an Aries.

And we're like, that doesn't land for us. We want something with grit. We want something real. We want something that's sharp. we don't want fluff, you know? So I think that was one of the things I just wanted to mention from the week that really landed for me in terms of witnessing how the collective consciousness is shifting with Neptune in this new sign.

That's it. I think that's all I wanted to share this week. I hope it was helpful. Thanks for hanging in with me and I'll be back to talk about the New Moon and Taurus. Okay, bye.