Mercury Retrograde, New Moon and Solar Eclipse in Aries, March 2024
On April 1st, Mercury the psychopomp stands still in the later degrees of Aries and begins the journey backwards for its retrograde phase. Stationing retrograde between the two eclipses on the Aries-Libra Axis (one on March 24th/25th and the other on April 8th), this retrograde is deeply tied to the eclipse energies that’ve already been working us. On a personal level, you could regard this period of time as an exclamation point or exaggeration on themes that likely came up in October of 2023 when we last experienced eclipses in these signs. What was top of mind for you then? How has that storyline developed in the months since?
Over the course of the retrograde, we have a remarkable pile up of planets in Aries as Venus, Mercury, the Sun, Moon, Chiron and the North Node all find one another in the same sign. Meanwhile, Mars, the ruling planet of Aries, energizes it all from behind the scenes in watery Pisces.
Pisces, the dissolution point, and Aries, the new beginning, come together during this retrograde to position us on a threshold. Where Aries drives for clarity, Pisces abides in liminality and timelessness. Where Aries desires action, Pisces allows, senses, and absorbs. Where Pisces is the end of the wheel, Aries is the reset of a cycle. While these Zodiacal figures may appear somewhat contradictory, they offer a critical hinge point in the wheel of life: the beginning and the ending, or Emergence and Return.
These transits remind us that Action is most powerful when energized by spirit, empathy and presence, rather than urgency, and invites us to incorporate receptivity and responsiveness into our drive, desire, and Will.
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Waking up this morning, on the day of the Mercury retrograde station, I distinctly heard the word “fool” ringing out from my dreams. I’d been dreaming about the Fool Tarot, as well as the Ace of Wands. The latter card appeared as a sort of continuation of the Fool’s journey, showing me the fiery enthusiasm required to take a leap of faith. In the mysterious way that dreams do, I felt clear that these cards and images were pointing me to the concurrent energy of Pisces and Aries informing our astrological moment. We must be Fools to venture forth the way we do, and to be a Fool requires such trust in our divinity; trust that through our experience of separateness, we will experience wholeness again. Aries is the bravery to break with this original union, and within this bravery I see a seed of primordial trust that beautifully illustrates the flow of character from Pisces into Aries.
The fiery fool holds our attention during the solar eclipse on April 8th, when we see a configuration in the sky that calls persistently for a total RESET. The Sun is exalted in Aries, and thus the capacity to shine forth as an individual is highlighted. Yet on this day, the blazing soul is called to darkness, shadowed by the reflective moon. We are asked to sublimate the light of self and find our inward luminosity.
Astrologically speaking, eclipses are not ideal moments to initiate or begin new projects. They are moments of respite, rest, reflection, when us humans curl up in our caves and return to the earthly safety of the womb. What to do with a moment that offers up so much Aries extraversion in a time that calls for the enclave of one’s inner life? Given the predominance of solar significations, entertain this as an invitation for the very light of your Soul to receive the cosmic update. A period of darkness is required to feel, truly, where next to direct our inner light, focus, and creative force.
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This Solar eclipse comes with another potent influence: an exact conjunction with Chiron - right at the peak of the New Moon. This means that the Sun, Moon, and Chiron all land together to share in this darkest of moments at precisely 19 degrees and 24 minutes of Aries.
In Chiron we see some of our deepest hurts, and in particular, the unique gifts that we grow to express when we find the genius in our sorrow and the gratitude in our grief. The blessings of Chiron are liberated in our lives when we are not owned or imprisoned by our hurts, but have integrated them as an aspect of the medicine that we carry.
The intimate proximity of Chiron with the Sun and Moon during this eclipse is something to wonder at, a moment of cosmic grace that speaks with a clear intention: We are being called, with vigor, to integrate our anger, our heat, our conflict and pain. It is not time to put them away, to bypass them, to pretend our wounds are anything but what they are — Rather it is a summons to the part of ourselves that recognizes, with aching profundity, the vast teachings that are available in times of madness and pain.
I will emphasize this with the reminder that Aries, being Mars-ruled, can provoke both the wounded and the wound-er in our personhood. It can point to moments of separation and severe departures, where we were “cut,” or in which we were the ones inflicting pain.
With Chiron in the mix, and with the strong Piscean undertones, I leave you with the following reflections for the upcoming eclipse and the Mercury retrograde that lasts until April 25th:
What aches and pains in my life have authentically completed their life-cycle?
Where was there once a charge of heat and anguish in my body where there is now silence and stillness? What used to illicit this response that no longer does?
Where in my life, in my body, in my heart, in my psyche, can I pour the cool waters of healing as I say a loving and final goodbye to a particular chapter of disruption and unrest?
How can I move forward now, with the energy of an ever-loving fool, who honors the past, but is not shackled to it?