Lunar News: Solar Eclipse in Aries
A teacher gives new symbolic forms to traditional images
New Moon Solar Eclipse at 9° Aries on March 29th at 4:57 AM MDT
Sabian Symbol: A teacher gives new symbolic forms to traditional images
Did you know… Each song on the Lunar News playlist is a horoscope for each of the zodiac signs, in order!
It’s likely that, if you’ve been tuned into the astrology-oriented algorithms, you’ve been hearing lots of buzz around “March 2025” being the most dramatic month of the year. Astrologers were saying this because there was so much going on in the sky, but also because some of the more consequential transits and ingresses of the year were happening this month. I would venture to say that this weekend is when all of the drama peaks. It’s not going to be cinematically climactic, though, and I do not expect anything particularly Earth-shattering to suddenly happen out of nowhere. If anything, the most revolutionary events to play out this weekend are going to be completely internal and personal to our individual selves. Personal transformation, confrontations with the Shadow, and a healthy dose of ego death is on the docket for this solar eclipse in Aries.
My posts lately have been focusing quite a bit on the important crossing from the sign of Pisces to the sign of Aries. This is, of course, because there’s so much celestial activity happening in that section of the sky right now, but also because it is the end and the beginning of the zodiac. It’s not just a new Moon on March 29th, it’s a solar eclipse; and it’s not just a solar eclipse, it’s a solar eclipse in Aries. The new beginnings that are being launched by this syzygy are backed by huge power surges from the universe, the bold Aries energy and the behind-the-scenes action in Pisces. Now with Venus back in Pisces and Mercury to follow a few hours after the eclipse, we will re-experience that same stellium that had us feeling like we were drowning under water back in February and early March. This time around, Saturn is closer in the mix and Venus and Mercury, of course, are both retrograde. It’s a time of serious reality checks and lessons, but, ideally, we are using the Pisces energy to tap us into the parts of our unconscious that we have to integrate, rather than use it for escapism and indulging in rose-colored fantasies.
Aries, the battering ram, is a sign imbued with passion, heroic action, and self-centered focused (I use the term “self-centered” completely neutrally in this context—it’s not always terrible to be focused on the self). It is a highly individualistic sign—hot take: Aries is actually the egomaniac everyone thinks Leo is—that is always looking for new things to do, new goals to set, and new accomplishments to achieve. This solar eclipse, then, is pulling our attention to these themes. It is a highly motivating new Moon that inspires us to (re)commit to our independence, which can look like many things. For example, starting a new creative project; reflecting on our life’s purpose and how we’ve been living; making a career change, or deciding to pivot; discovering a new hobby; starting, or ending personal relationships; deciding to invest a significant amount of money into something. The specific impacts the solar eclipse will have on us depends entirely on the natal chart and what area of our charts this lunation is occurring in, but for certain we’ll be more action-forward this time around (as opposed to the lunar eclipse in Virgo two weeks ago, which was a more chaotic build up of psychic energy that had to be released through the body).
Aries shares polarity with Libra, the sign of harmony, justice and balanced relationships. Aries is primarily focused on the self and Libra is primarily focused on the self in relation to the other. Even though this new Moon encourages us to prioritize ourselves and make moves toward self-development, the actions we take will also end up serving our relationships in the long run. The intentions we set, or the things we initiate during the new Moon could even manifest as positive relationship developments as early as the full Moon in Libra on April 12th. For this to happen, though, our martial actions have to be balanced with awareness of the role of partnership in our lives. Too often, Aries energy gets leveraged into doing things solely for the purpose of self-development; or too much distorted Aries energy thinks, “At the end of the day, I only have myself” and all action stems from this common misconception. We might only be fully privy to the existence of our own selves, but we do, in fact, live amongst and with others. Relationship is at the heart of our humanity. Healthy and integrated Aries energy understands that the benefits of developing and refining the self is coming into harmonized alignment with other people. What good does it do you to be the most integrated version of yourself if that’s all you have? The meaning of life is other people.
Lunar Cycle Transits
March 30: Neptune ingress into Aries
This is one of the most important days of the year* as it initiates a 14-year period of new spiritual pursuits as well as new challenges around seeing the world for what it truly is. This transit is a huge deal not only because it’s a Neptunian energetic shift which hasn’t been felt for 14 years, but because Neptune has officially made one full progression through the entire zodiac. The chronological order of the zodiac goes from Aries→Pisces, so Neptune’s march through the final sign of Pisces is a grand finale of sorts Neptune will begin a new journey and we get to witness and experience the start of a 165-year new Neptunian-zodiacal volume. Over the last several weeks or months we’ve likely been experiencing more intense dreams, visions, or even hallucinations leaving us with symbolic omens. The border between Pisces and Aries is a powerful crossing that brings lots of chaos, dramatic rebirth, and fierce aggressive action. As Neptune transits this part of the wheel, our dreams and visions and spontaneous ideas are more charged with premonitory imagery meant to help us internalize the collective transition happening during this ingress. It’s important to note that Neptune will be hanging around these anaretic degrees of Pisces and Aries for the better part of the next year, so it’s not too late to start incorporating some kind of dream recording practice to get better attuned to these shifts.
As for what to expect… Neptune, the planet of the supernatural, collective consciousness, and the unknown is bringing mystery and glittering images into the bold, impatient, and headstrong sign of Aries. Putting all of these attributes together we can generally predict more impulsive decisions being made based on delusions and fantasies; possibly misguided actions driven by an intense desire to assert ourselves individually based on the spiritual cleansing Neptune brought us over the past 14 years. Neptune being an outer planet, these themes won’t necessarily feel too personal unless you have planets or placements in the nativity that will be aspected by transit Neptune (in general: placements around the end of Pisces and beginning of Aries, or the borders between Gemini and Cancer, Virgo and Libra, and Sagittarius and Capricorn).
On the global stage, this ingress is going to affect cultural attitudes at large and organized religion and its relationship to individual spirituality. Some notable historical events that occurred the last time Neptune was in Aries (1861–1875) are:
→The surge of Spiritualism, which was the religion focused on contacting the spirits of the dead through psychic mediums and séances.
→Christian Revivalism, which was seen mostly in post-bellum/Reconstruction Era United States as evangelist preachers urged American Christians to reform for the sake of their salvation.
→The American Civil War began the day before Neptune entered Aries, on April 12, 1861.
→Photography as a nascent technological innovation was being used to document the atrocities of the Civil War.
These four examples perfectly embody the spiritual influence of Neptune in the warlord sign of Aries. Prior to this most recent Neptune transit through Aries, we can also look back to 1697–1710 when the Age of Enlightenment was bridging spirituality and science; to 1532–1545 when King Henry VIII sparked the English Reformation with his break from Rome; to 1367–1380 when the Catholic Church experienced the climactic finale to its Avignon Papacy, which led to Christendom’s Schism. I expect the most turmoil will be felt by religious institutions the world over with major transitions and new practices incorporated.
This transit will take a while for its full effects to be seen and felt, but there are already ripples of transformation being signaled via dreams and symbolic omens. Some personal reflections we can contemplate during this time are: in what ways have I been exploring the hidden parts of myself and how they affect my conscious, waking life? Do I feel urgency around changing my orientation toward spirituality? Have I learned anything through dreamlike revelations or symbolic imagery in my day-to-day life?
*If it sounds like I and every other astrologer on the planet is saying “this is the most important time of year” all the time, it’s because we are. The momentous planetary transits just keep coming.
March 31: Venus Rx conjunct the North Node
Here we are back at another mile marker from early February when Venus was direct and conjunct the North Node on February 1st. During that first week of February we experienced heightened romantic drama and we may have felt as though external forces, or fate, were influencing the events in our lives. Insatiable desires to chase after, or cling onto love/romantic connections were fueling our actions and daydreams. The phenomena we were experiencing during this time were entirely new to us and it may have all felt a little dreamlike, and now, with Venus Rx returning to have another run-in with the North Node in Pisces, we are beginning to see what the purposes of those new experiences are serving. This conjunction provides us with an opportunity to re-evaluate what we were chasing after or clinging to and understand what our hunger is really after.
Consider what it’s like when you’re starving and you know your body needs a balanced meal, but you’re too impatient to prepare or cook the meal and you just snack on whatever’s in front of you. Consuming the tasty snacks will satisfy you in the moment, but ultimately does not sustain you in any nutritional way. This is what this conjunction is like. The North Node, or, the mouth of the dragon, is constantly craving and devouring and with Venus’ influence, this transit is going to make us want to feed on the energy of the people we idealize; or on things that make us feel beautiful; or it could also make us want to spend money and engage in a little retail therapy. Move carefully and slowly and resist the temptation to act impulsively. Think about your values and what serves your highest good in the long term when it comes to love and beauty in your life.
April 2: Mercury Rx conjunct the North Node
The North Node Revisited story continues to unfold with Mercury touching back and we can check in on the thoughts and conversations that might have sparked or seeded a creative idea one month ago. Think back to the beginning of March, check your notes, text messages, etc., and see if there were any flashes of inspiration that came to you around that time. These ideas might be revisiting you now with the opportunity to act on them, or perhaps you are starting to form coherent thoughts around some creative downloads.
Mercury will come back to this conjunction in one week, on April 9th. Our heads and words might be a bit clearer and we’ll be ready to say what we need to say.
Mars trine Saturn
Today is a particularly great day to lock in. Few aspects between Mars and Saturn feel good, but the trine is helpful because it provides us a surge of energy, which boosts Mars’ activity, and Saturn’s discipline helps to channel it. We did experience this aspect between February 6th and 10th, when Mars was retrograde, and so, it could be really helpful to think back to that time and any projects that you might have started or thought about starting. Alternatively, you might also want to think about what goals you were pursuing and actions you were undertaking that week. Were they worthy pursuits? Did your energy working toward these goals dissipate over the following weeks? If yes, then now is the time to take up the work again as Mars’ direct movement provides helpful follow through. If no, then now is a good time to investigate the underlying desires that pushed you toward those goals and figure out why your actions were misaligned.
April 5: Venus Rx conjunct Saturn
This can be a difficult, or sobering transit that greatly tempers our affection and feelings of love and warmth. Themes of sustainability and longevity in our relationships (to self and others) will be brought up again (Venus has been here before already). Saturn demands hard work and honesty of Venus Rx and we can harness the energy of this transit to be honest with ourselves about the paths we are on with ourselves and one another. Relationships that are built on simple feelings of pleasure, but no values of trust or loyalty will be encouraged to end under this transit. The relationships that have a stronger foundation and are backed by commitment to walking alongside one another with steadfast, mutual care will be strengthened.
April 7: Mercury stations direct at 26° Pisces
Considering the epic drama playing out between Mercury Rx and Venus Rx this month, this is probably the most poetic and bittersweet Mercury stationing we’ve had in a long while. After their conjunction on March 11th, Mercury stationed retrograde and began chasing after Venus Rx into the underworld. They have come very, very close to another conjunction—only separated by one degree—but it is now time for Mercury to move on and leave Venus Rx behind to fare for herself as she completes her descent to the end of the underworld. You can see this tragic moment in the Orphic-Eurydicean story unfold in the animation below:
You’ll notice that Mercury Rx is closing in on the distance between him and Venus Rx, only for his place to be usurped by Saturn suddenly jumping between them. This is the moment when Orpheus has looked back too soon and loses Eurydice forever. Saturn is the great decider here. As we are learning from his conjunction to Venus Rx two days prior to this, these days are make or break in terms of what relationships and values remain in our lives after this. Mercury gives language and expression to this important moment of the season.
Since March 11th, our conversations and personal thoughts have been rife with confusion, quarreling, internal conflict, and we haven’t the adequate means of understanding or comprehending these various crossed wires because of misalignment of feelings and words. Things have been confusing and we have been encouraged to remain silent and hold strong in personal reflection rather than trying to open up conversations with others. Ideally, this time of thorough consideration has helped us understand our true desires and true intentions behind our relationships with and to others and ourselves. With this newfound clarity, we can trust our words better than we could last month.
