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There is much moving in our cosmos this week with Mars dancing in between the tangible and intangible, Venus reminding us that the sacred is in the mundane, and Pluto taking us deep into our psyches.
Weekly Astrology Forecast for April 28-May 4
April 28: Moon enters Capricorn
April 29: Mars conjunct Neptune; Venus enters Taurus
April 30: Mars enters Aries; Moon enters Aquarius
May 2: Pluto retrograde begins; Moon enters Pisces
Mars Conjunct Neptune
Mars entered the waters of Pisces earlier this year on March 22, 2024. This week, Mars makes its once-every-two-years meet-up with Neptune on April 29, 2024, forming a conjunction.
In astrology, Mars is action, will, assertion, and drive. It moves us forward. It propels us into action. It is the ambition, courage, passion, and force to claim ourselves and our way forward in the world. Known as a personal planet, Mars serves our individual will and sense of selfhood.
Neptune is almost the opposite. It is surrender. It is imagination. Receptivity. Dreams. Allowing. Neptune is the slow stream of water carrying us into the sacred. It is the merging of self with all that is. Known as a transpersonal planet, Neptune moves beyond the personal self and into the space where we are all one, held within the arms of the cosmos. It reminds us that somehow, we are also one with all.
As these two planetary bodies come together in the cosmos, we are reminded of a truth inherent in astrology and, perhaps, humanity. We are dancing between two worlds—the world of the tangible, action, individuality, and selfhood and the world of the intangible, receiving, intuition, and oneness.
As we dance, we weave together the dreams and visions with physical action and creation. We allow space for the divine and receiving what is ours so that, through us, it can be expressed as action. We remember that the desires and directions that call our names are inextricably linked to the larger workings of the cosmos that are purposefully guiding us and waiting for us to claim them and create something with them.
This day and this conjunction remind us that these seemingly opposing spaces and worlds of the tangible and intangible, receiving and expressing, surrendering and exerting desire one another. They merge into the same dance on this day.
Venus Enters Taurus
On the same day as Mars meets Neptune in the cosmos, Venus enters Taurus. In astrology, each sign of the zodiac has a planetary ruler or partner. Taurus is ruled by Venus. As these archetypes come together, they hold one another, support one another, bring out the best in one another.
Venus is love. Love of being alive. Love of self. Love of pleasure, beauty, abundance, others, joy. While in Taurus, this love gets to come deep into ourselves, into our bodies, and into this tangible experience of life and ourselves. Here Venus is at home.
Venus in Taurus is an invitation to savor simple pleasures. To tangibly remind ourselves that we are worthy through how we tend to ourselves. To build a life that is a piece of art, a devotion to beauty, in service to the love we hold for ourselves.
Venus in Taurus brings greater depth and focus to the energy of Taurus season, into the pleasure of being alive, choosing to notice beauty, sinking into this tangible experience and moving in a way that honors our own pace.
Mars Enters Aries
A day after Mars comes together with Neptune in Pisces, it enters through the fiery gates of Aries, where it will remain until June 9, 2024.
Just as Venus rules Taurus, Mars rules Aries. They move together, coherent in their vision, intentions, desires, and energy. Aries is where we begin again, the first of the zodiac it is an influx of energy, inspiration, excitement, and passion. Mars in Aries is where we claim our direction and leap into it. It is pouring our life force, passion and energy into the desire that is calling our name. Creating our lives. Claiming our expression. Owning our space.
As Mars transitions from Pisces into Aries, there is a clear timeline of receiving transitioning into creating. This dance of intangible and tangible, surrender and exertion, receiving and expressing calls forth our awareness. What inspirations were received from Mars in Pisces and Mars conjunct Neptune, and how do you now desire to move through the world with these inspirations? How do you desire to move them through your body and create with them? Where do you desire to go with them?
Pluto Retrograde
Welcome to Pluto retrograde, our backward spin through the underworld. Our dance with transformation. Our return to the depths of our own becoming.
Pluto has been dancing through an era-defining shift in our cosmos. After spending 16 years in Capricorn, Pluto entered Aquarius in March 2023. An outer planet, Pluto is known for movement that is slow, so its retrograde that begins this week takes Pluto straight back into Capricorn.
Pluto is psychology, inner patterns, and unconscious emotions. It is excavation. It is profound insights into ourselves. It is transformation. It is the kind of cracking open that brings change down to the roots, the center, the core of who we are.
Retrograde movements represent “re” words. Review, revise, reconsider, realign, revisit, and more. They are where we turn around, observe, question, and explore the path that we have been walking and the person we have been becoming.
Pluto retrograde journeys deep through our underworld, our psyche, our unconscious. It travels to spaces unknown and untouched within us that have been running us from beneath the surface, shaping our experiences and influencing our movements in ways both conscious and unconscious. It brings things to light, asks us to be with what we see, and shows us what has been waiting beneath the surface.
As Pluto retrogrades, we meet and reclaim more of ourselves and visit what is ready to be transformed within us. We journey into a part of us that is ready to be claimed and integrated into our consciousness.
Pluto begins its retrograde on May 2 and remains in its seeming backward spin until October 11, 2024. Dancing in between the final stages of Capricorn and the new beginnings of Aquarius, this retrograde represents Pluto’s final dip back into Capricorn for more than 300 years. It is our final stage of the dance before we begin an entirely new era of Pluto in Aquarius until 2043.
Your Invitation
It is a week inspiring surrender and movement, self love and action, transformation and inner healing. Yet even in these many movements, there is spaciousness. Allow yourself this space.
As Mars partners with Neptune, explore inspiration. Where does it come from? How does it move though you?
As Mars enters Aries, become curious about your role in this inspiration. How is it directing you or are you directing it? What excites you?
As Venus enters Taurus, remind yourself to revel in the process. How can you bring greater richness to it all? How can you remind yourself of the beauty within it all and the beauty within yourself?
As Pluto journeys into your underground, you have time. You have space. Profound transformation cannot be forced. Yet it usually the very first beginning of a backward spin that is felt the most. During Pluto retrograde, you are observing, questioning, and meeting corners of yourself that have perhaps never seen the light of your awareness. And you are releasing, shifting, updating, rewriting, healing, and reclaiming yourself in the process.
This week, allow yourself to observe any inner callings from deep within. Allow your experience to show you the direction you are being called in as you journey into yourself. These observations will continue to unfold, guiding you as you move with them into beautiful inner healing. These many movements, invitations, shifts, and changes are your life.
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Learn more about the influence of astrology in your life, including astrological events the Moon cycles, your Sun and Moon and rising signs, how journaling can help you connect with the current influences, and more with Jordane Maree at Girl and her Moon.
Jordane Maree is the founder of Girl and Her Moon, a platform and community exploring Soul through the lens of astrology, tarot, and energy healing. She is a writer, intuitive astrologer, energy and soul guide, and host of Girl and Her Moon, The Podcast. She is inspired, every single day, to be the mirror for you to see all that you truly are, you in all your infinite abilities, in total expansion, in infinite opportunity and love.