April 2023: Horoscopes for Moderns

Attempting to focus amidst a fiery cauldron of building-to-bursting forces can be a puzzle, but it offers a substantial opportunity for securing sanity.

“The world is constantly threatened by two things: order and disorder.” —Paul Valery

THE ARTIST AND AUTHOR William Segal, in one of his diaries, writes about the power that arrives when we cultivate attention.

His methodical description is worth considering amidst the festering, powder keg-like atmosphere that’s roiling throughout the global mindset this month. I’ve highlighted a bit from his book below.

Mars, the fuse-lighter, is hard angling a cluster of forces in Aries, fomenting a thar-she-blows state of mind.

I had to unhinge completely from the ongoing circus related to Donald Trump. My chiropractor (and my budget) couldn’t deal with my weekly visits related to whiplash.

As a quintessential, ultra-deluxe Gemini supreme, Trump knows how to work every nook and cranny of the human attention span, both dark and darker.

This is a fabulous situation for his base. And congratulations to those aligned with Trump’s particular platform (more of an animal instinct actually) for galvanizing hybrid political techniques that upend the ‘old’ world order.

But do the rest of us need to be played so expertly? No. Go elsewhere. Not in an ostrich’s retreat sort of way—but reclaim your sovereignty, gather into the calm in your belly, and carry on in whatever form of attentive activism that best suits your innate skillsets.

Here’s Segal on the topic of attention:

“Attention is the quintessential medium to reveal man’s dormant energies to himself.

Whenever one witnesses the state of the body, the interplay of thought and feeling, there is an intimation, however slight, of another current of energy. Through the simple act of attending, one initiates a new alignment of forces.

Maintenance of a conscious attention is not easy. The movement, the obligations of day-to-day existence constantly distract. With no base of operations, no home in one’s organism, the attention serves random thoughts, feelings, and appetites which conflict and tyrannize each other.

Sensation of parts or the whole of the body can anchor the attention; provide it with a kind of habitat. The structure, becoming more sensitive, helps to unify attention, so it is less liable to veer into mental channels that consume its power. In turn, perceptions and sensations are quickened, insights are multiplied.

Opening to the force of attention evokes a sense of wholeness and equilibrium. One can glimpse a possibility of a state of awareness immeasurably superior to that of the reactive mechanism, an awareness which transcends one’s automatic subject/object mode of response. Freely flowing, the concentrative, transforming effect of conscious attention brings the disparate tempos of the centers to a relatively balanced relationship. Thought, feeling, and sensing are equilibrated under this vibrant, harmonizing influence.”

Here are your horoscopes for April. Note: These are not rising sign horoscopes. I fashion each overview by considering your Sun sign.