April 2024: Horoscopes for Moderns
"Stay, illusion." Every picture tells a story, and Joni Mitchell—Scorpio supreme—returns.
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I’M EXHAUSTED AND ATTEMPTING to find ways to recalibrate and locomote. It's not an unusual theme when Mars and Saturn occupy the same sign as they do now (in Pisces). The problem is, for me, natal Mars resides there as well.
Still, with a new Moon eclipse in Aries looming on the 8th, along with the bulk of the solar system in Aries, there’s a schizoid vibe infusing the atmosphere. It’s like being stuck in the “On your mark, get set—” phase, but you can’t quite hear the “go” in the three-command start. And my bent knee is killing me. Mercury turning retro in Aries tomorrow doesn’t help.
That hearing loss for the Aries ‘launch’ relates to Neptune also transiting Pisces. With Mars and Saturn preparing to conjunct there, I’m reminded of that line from Hamlet: “Stay, illusion.” And being Shakespeare, the utterance has a double meaning. From one take, it’s interpreted as “stopping” the misconceptions and finding clarity (Saturn) by stepping out of the fog (Neptune). Neptunian ghosts, doubts, and incessant questioning are the central themes in Hamlet.
But “Stay, illusion” can be read as an attempt to arrest one’s muse, to slow down (Saturn) and capture the inspiration and vision (Neptune), to attempt to mold (Mars) the intangible into the tangible. Every artist and poet’s wheelhouse.
Every Picture Tells a Story
When I look at the mandala of a horoscope, I ignore the signs, planets and lights and look first for the patterns—the dispersion of bodies around the wheel. It’s like delineating the intent of pressure. Is the force evenly distributed, or is it concentrated into one segment of the Zodiac? For character analysis, this is, as I tell my students, a critical way to enter the ‘first chapter’ of the natal chart’s narrative.