This Solar Eclipse carries awkward energy. There is effort required, yet results move at a snail’s pace. Challenges need to be faced and put to work, as they help sort out what really matters to you now. In fact, I recommend finding the desirable difficulties. Yes, there is such a thing. Bottom line, this Eclipse cycle is packed with transformational tension. There are enough aspects I could list to make your eyes glaze.
Mars in Cancer is out of bounds and highly reactive to Chiron, the original wound. Mercury Retrograde is in Taurus, a fixed sign right on the heals of the eclipse. This eclipse is a rare one because it’s a hybrid total and annular eclipse and it’s in the last degree of Aries. Which means you can bravely go further than you’ve ever gone to safely expand your known world. Or you can take defensiveness into offensive territory.
The Sun tightly squares Pluto in Aquarius while it is being eclipsed. Ego and power struggles are present. The Moon moves into a square with Pluto 20 minutes after the New Moon. Old wounds are poked. This eclipse in the very last ten minutes of Aries emphasizes the need to move beyond our perceived limitations and into the power you have as an adult now. The challenges in front of us can bring about changes that delight us, even if they challenge us. Or you can lock yourself into increasingly smaller spaces of the same old power struggles filled with rage. Tough choice, right?
You can replace the pain story with what you long for and love now. When you shift where your emphasis is, you benefit. Obstacles in pursuit of what you love and lights you up are desirable difficulties! They create bonding moments with what you love. If it matters enough to make an effort for, then you know it’s valuable. Those moments call out the adult in you to do better than you were done by in your past.
Now Mars in Cancer can bring over reaction in defense of what we believe and feel. The suffering of the past can be loud, demanding justice. Or it can be a constant greek chorus of your pain running in the background of your mind. Since Aries is involved, anger is present. Our anger is meant to consolidate our strength and hold a boundary, not to invade someone else’s. Invasion creates more wounded people.
The Victim state of mind is always, always, always a request for your own attention. As Gabor Mate says, ‘you can’t ever get enough of what almost works’. A wounded state of mind then tries to get either you or those around you to change so you feel safe. But then you are forever trying to control things to feel safe. No thanks! This eclipse can turn out the ego light so we see that war only creates more wounded.
Watch for anger as an over correction. It’s human to want another to suffer as you suffered. Tempting though that may be, it still doesn’t improve things. Eye for an eye leaves a lot of blind people. Bending others to your will is a short lived power and the backlash is getting increasingly costly. Yet for some, anger is necessary to hold those healthy boundaries. Find your Goldilocks sweet spot for temper.
Which is why when you land in those difficulties, hit pause and feel the creative space. Where is ego and anger in your personal mix? Are the challenges in front of you the right ones? Are they in pursuit of what really matters most or just a more fighting an old battle. Try re-telling the story in as many ways as possible. Use your imagination – take the rules off. What might be there when you take in a wider field of options than your reactive state first saw? Start there. It’s easier to move to an observer state once you give pain quality personal attention.
Sun square Pluto means the end of this new beginning we’ve been in since early 2020. Like a newborn, you’ve doubled in size. So take stock of how you’ve grown. See where you’ve been expanding your influence. Of course, be kind to any shell-shocked moments where you fall into familiar stories and habits. Growing is a process. What’s the long The Cards and Stars will help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
TruthinHand.com
P.S. I’m going to break these posts into Hand Analysis and weekly forecasts. You’ll have a chance to sign up for which ones you most want to read. I want to share what I love and what interests you about YOU.
4/19 aries solar eclipse the star
What a perfect card to pair with this eclipse. One meaning for the Star is the freedom to be yourself. What joy, what bliss to be who you are uniquely designed to be, right? Absolutely. And yet with that freedom comes responsibility. This Sun is in the very last ten minutes of Aries along with Chiron and Eris is going to confront you. It’s is square to Pluto. Are you capable of being fully known by you. Can you acknowledge where you may cause others pain and justify it because you’ve been hurt and it’s just your way of coping?
It’s called offending from the wounded position. If each of us takes responsibility for our own pain, gives it our quality time and attention, it can stop running the show. The gold out of that leaded pile of pain is to know what we do want and need. Try that as a focus right now. Once you know your values, your priorities in present time, you’ve got navigational marks. The two most damaging functions I see in the world is when people use core wounds to justify bad behavior and when they don’t know their own power, and so they use it badly. Can you do the difficult job or seeing and loving all of you? Instead of trying to get everything around you to change, bend or adapt so you feel safe or secure, what changes when you really know how to do you?
If you can confront the unpleasant truths about yourself and accept that you alone have the power to do it differently, then dreams do come true. These are desirable difficulties. That’s the promise of this Star card and eclipse cycle. Imagine if the whole world took responsibility for their actions, full stop. We may have differing opinions, but we also have the raw material to collaborate for better circumstances and outcomes. Constructive conflict builds stronger results. And that requires you be in your power, self aware and capable of acknowledging your shortcomings without being paralyzed by them or overcompensating for them.
This is not a small task. But it’s a worthy one. The Star is about reaching for the heavens while your feet are still planted in reality. Which is well matched to this tense, energetic cycle. It’s not easy. Yet the results are beyond what you’ve lived so far. Because Mercury sits with Uranus, we are able to go into the hell realm and confront this underground truths in ourselves. But Mercury is also the one who can feely leave that realm and travel on with what it knows. As we begin Mercury Retrograde this Moon cycle, practice the pause. Use your visualization skill to see the story and play with where it goes from here. Imagine your shadows are outlines that allow the light in you to be even more defined. Learn to use your power more effectively within and the outside world changes as you do.
4/20 eight of pentacles
We head out of the gate in this Moon cycle and run straight into power dynamics. We get a little help because the Moon travels with Saturn and the North Node to shed light on what we want in the long term. But how we achieve that goal matters. With Chiron in Aries along with Jupiter and Eris, first impulse can come from a place that doesn’t know how to trust who you are in the world. It’s easier to see what you are not. This earthy Eight is the card of mastery. Not just lessons learned, but mastered. Which means gauge how what you do impacts your world and where adjustments benefit you.
This isn’t about perfection, it’s about progress. So the word patience is a good one to take with you. I know, it irritates me to hear it again. Yet it helps immeasurable. This is uncharted territory. Our instincts can have us reacting instead of creating. If that happens, correct or adjust before you move ahead. As tempting as it is to ignore the little adjustments, they add up. Find your courage. Look at what interests you. Go beyond interest and into curiosity. Play with the moving parts. Like blocks, put them together. Even the clunky or unattractive ones can be useful with a little creativity. It makes it easier to work with all of you when you approach it this way.
4/21 knight of wands – Mercury Retrograde
As we travel through Taurus territory with this Mercury Retrograde, we find natural limits rather than the ones we inherited. It takes courage, as this Knight represents. When you step outside the confines of what you think is possible and instead feel into what you wish to create, magic happens. It isn’t without it’s bumps and curves. But it’s where you go beyond the straight, narrow pathway of what you know. You can move out into a great big world of possibilities and play there. Time to be brave. So as Mercury moves backwards slowly through this earthy sign of what your power potential is, take your choice of risks and discover new limits based on natural expansion, not beliefs.
4/22 two of wands
Today is a great day to lift the lid on what you think can happen. The Moon trine Pluto lets you confront your fears about being as big as you really are. Don’t worry, she then squares off with Saturn to ground your imaginings in solid steps towards that stretch goal. Work with the gas and brakes today. Notice when you want to floor it and when you stamp down to stop. This two is about the spark that allows for shared ideas to help light up the world around you. Give it a healthy container so you don’t burn down the house (Saturn helps with that). But do let the energy fly. Sometimes your soul needs to soar.
4/23 king of pentacles
We have a solid, purposeful presence available today with this grounded King of tangible power. The Moon and Venus get together in Gemini have both the mind and body buzzing with potential. Jupiter meets up with Eris, so the unclaimed part of us needs a seat at the table of what we want and love. Where do they fit in the scheme of things now. The powerful King says creation is the goal, not retribution or punishment. Repurpose the past in service of your present. Use it like leaves from last year’s trees feed the spring bloom. With Mars and Mercury in tandem, you can go beyond defensiveness and into caring creation for what matters in present time.
4/24 eight of wands
This is the second of two eights in the Moon cycle. That combination brings a development you didn’t expect. The Sun meets up with the North Node in Taurus and looks for solid ground to stand on for what comes next. But Venus and Pluto are in tense conversation, because what you want may be unnecessarily colored by past wounds. With the Moon diving into Cancer, protection can be over done. You have to walk through those fears to get to the other side and high ground you seek. This Eight is proof that when you do the work, you get a standing ovation. Wands are fire, which means there’s no linear path ahead. Just sparks of intuition and courage. When you do that, you reach and unexpected reward. Be sure to celebrate it.
4/25 queen of pentacles
There is a lot of support today for you to stay open to receive. Make no mistake, being receptive is both strong and brave. Because when you take things in, nothing is purely good or bad. There is an alchemy required to work with what you get and shape or reshape it into what works for you. She is a fit companion for the King of Pentacles who appeared earlier in the Moon cycle. The combination of the two merges how you take things in and then put them back out to sculpt in measurable ways the life you wish to lead!
Thanks to help from Venus and Chiron in harmony you can use what you didn’t get in the past to inform not just what you want now, but how to ask for it in a way that gets heard. You then have to deal with your expansion lighting up habitual defenses. In order to go where you wish to go, you must leave the safety of familiar space. The Moon and Mars square Chiron, so part of you may want to dive under the desk once you’ve been brave enough to take in the fresh options. Just witness the impulses, don’t necessarily act on them. And by midnight you can shake off the knee jerk contraction and take good care of yourself as you slowly go beyond the current limits of your world.
4/26 lovers
Choices are front and center with the Lovers underlining that message today. Because the Cancer Moon squares off with Jupiter sitting on Eris’ lap, it’s easy to justify self defense. The smarter you are, the better you rationalize why it’s necessary. Why not swap out walls for a kinder way to take care of those old pain points. Remember feeling wounded is a call for our own attention. No one else is going to be able to make that pain go away at its source but you. If you chase outside relief you’re back in that space of trying to get enough of what almost works. It can’t be done.
So stick with a simple solution. What do you feel and what does that feeling need. Be sure you are getting the emotions rightly identified. Research shows we are very limited in our understanding of what we feel when we feel it. Which is why you need to be curious. What is really going on in your heart and head makes a big difference. It’s the difference between heaven and hell ultimately. If you want a different outcome you have to change what you do to get there. You can’t just swap out for a new set of circumstances or people. You have to shift as well or the same pattern repeats. Choose carefully. You’re worth it.
4/27 Judgement
We are hard wired to belong. Which is why disapproval lands hard. Judging or being judged are both separating energy. Yet we do it over and over in the name of protection. Today Mars in Cancer squares Chiron in Aries, ouch. It’s normal to fear unpleasant responses from those around us. What are your coping skills when it happens? Where do you put your disapproval to work to leverage others into doing what feels ‘right’ for you?
Belonging is a complex emotional need. The opposite of belonging is fitting in somewhere. We sacrifice individuality in order to be part of the group. How are you wired around this topic? Do you know your responses. Remember that we judge what we ourselves struggle with, we are just doing better in the moment than the person judged. Use this difficult emotional process wisely as it comes up for you. Notice when you want to justify or defend your need to judge. Today offers a chance to break existing limits on those hidden urges to conform. But it takes sitting with the shame. So does seeing how you judge others as part of group think.
Judgement is used most often as a misguided attempt to set a boundary. That wall of disapproval highlights what is good in your opinion from what is bad, for you. It’s also possible that what works for you may not be an authentic expression for someone else. Or bad behavior may legitimately threaten the healthy function of a group. Still, what serves the whole Land on your boundaries so you can release judgement as a protection. Rigidity is part of a trauma response that requires certainty. See where that operates in your life and please, don’t judge it when you do. Just know it can heal and help you open up to delightful moments outside what you’ve lived so far.
4/28 the chariot
Do you know what you feel when you feel it? Research shows that most people can only identify three emotions when they are in the middle of their presence. We know Mad, Sad, Glad. Most of the other emotions fall by the way side with barely an examination of what they are. Do you know the difference between jealousy and envy? Jealousy involves a fear of loss and almost always three people or more. Envy can be just two. They also have different kinds of envy. The first kind wants what you have but doesn’t require you to have less. The second involves feelings of judgement and wants the other person to lose what they have and for personal gain in exchange.
The Chariot signals major victories. Victory comes when you understand what you feel when you feel it. Don’t rush to label and resolve the feeling. The win when is your authentic emotions. Then you can act on them more deliberately. Really grasp what’s driving you, then respond. What do you feel in this moment and how much of it is accumulated story that needs reshaping? Can you land on a simple feeling and need? When you do, then you can ask for what you want and need. You win when you have hard conversations on your behalf. It takes practice. Perfection is not possible. So add some layers of understanding to your emotional range today. That’s your win.
4/30 king of cups
Hello ego with all it’s plusses and minuses today. This King is the wild card of the Minor Arcana cards. It is the symbol that one plus one can equal three. Man plus woman can equal baby, after all. So something new and unexpected makes an appearance in unlikely ways. It may not be something you immediately recognize. The Magic may take a while to show, much like a baby bump. But rest assured, the day is pregnant with possibilities, no matter what it looks like at first. The Leo Moon is in easy aspect to both Eris and Jupiter, which dials up the disruptions. But this is ultimately to your benefit.
Remember yesterday’s lessons on authentic emotion. Take that with you into the day. What do you feel and what does it need. The better you are at doing that in the moment, the more the wounded spot loses the driver’s seat. Ceres is in the mix with both rewards and consequences. If you feed yourself things that aren’t good for you it makes you ill. That goes for thoughts, beliefs and stories as well as food. But sometimes a little discomfort helps motivate change. Avoiding pain is one deterrent. You are the magic. So take all the days ingredients, get to know yourself now without the trauma lens dictating the story. When you do that, anything can turn in your favor.
4/30 knight of cups
We have an easy day of rest this Sunday. The Virgo Moon trines the Taurus Sun and Mercury still retrograde. A day off is just what the doctor ordered. This Knight is an invitation. What do you love to do and who do you want to do it with in your time off? By all means, be lazy. Send the energetic invite. You don’t need to call or press. Ride the waves of emotions in a playful way, like surfing. How often do you take time to just play? Make some of that today. Discover what delights you and do a little just for you. Or do a lot. It’s your day.
5/1 the sun
Pluto stations retrograde today. Aren’t you glad you had a day off yesterday? As this heavy weight travels back into the murky depths of Capricorn, we will dig through remnants of power struggles. One of the most important things you can do in this life is learn your right use of power. You have it. It’s your gift and also up to you to build and refine. Mercury is in an awkward position with Neptune. So part of this exploration includes where your imagined self and real self don’t match. Ooof.
The Sun is the promise that your dark corners can stand the light of day. It allows for shadow but is not overcome by it. Your flaws have a purpose. It’s each individuals job to own their own so it doesn’t own them. Thanks to a few sticky aspects today, family dynamics or the stories you took from them are up for review. Time to look at things from a more neutral observing place. Ask your inner witness to see the biggest possible picture on what the long standing grudges or fights are really about. Hint, we rarely fight about what it seems on the surface. Most people long to know they are loved and lovable. Start by loving your shadow but bringing the Sun to right size it. Others may follow suit.
5/2 the heirophant
Big decisions are at hand when this weighty card appears. It represents the authority of the church, state or tradition. Who is the authority in your life? What has the final say in your world? Whatever outside power you adhere to, how well does it match your inner power? The aspects are fairly quiet today except for Sun and Neptune in a slightly tense discussion. It’s time to move your inner guidance up to the head of the table. That isn’t a call for anarchy. It is an invitation to be sure that structures that hold you securely in their grasp still provide as much as you give up in order to work under their shelter. Take your time. Imagine your are building your own inner Sistine Chapel.
5/3 two of swords
As we near the end of the cycle we have the second two. This signals separating paths. There is more of the authentic you making decisions and shaping your world. Anything that is not a match will fall by the way side. It doesn’t feel dramatic. But it may be a little sad. Which is where this airy two can have us in our heads trying to decide what it all means. When you catch yourself playing mental ping pong, remember you can’t think your way forward. You can only feel your way. The mind is there to help you serve those feelings in the best possible way that preserves options.
For example, you may be genuinely enraged at something. But when you step back and understand what’s at stake, you can leave past injustice behind and ask for what you want and need in this moment. That has a much higher success rate than punishing the current person for a litany of wrongs. The Moon opposite Chiron ensures we see the wound today. But don’t give it the wheel. If you want a different outcome, do things differently. Stay present, tune in to all of what you feel. Land on what you want and need and have the conversation if it’s possible. Sometimes it’s not. Progress, not perfection is the goal.
4/4 high priestess
We have more of a roller coaster day today. This High Priestess is the partner to the Heirophant. Just like the partners of Queen and King of Pentacles appeared together in this Moon cycle. In both cases the masculine came first, then the feminine. Which signals you need to know you have structure or safety before you can let the emotionally intuitive, receptive feminine to open. Use that combination. Set the boundaries. What does and doesn’t work for you.
Once you know you can do that, you can safely receive intuitive guidance and actual tangible opportunities. While we say we want abundance, most people are armored against change, which is what abundance always brings. So if you wish for delicious, unceasing flow of good, you need to know how to handle it. That’s what this Moon cycle does. Step by step you learn to do your version of it. Go back and reread the days. Observe what you felt and did. See YOU. Know YOU. Know all of you, not just the imagined version of you. That’s abundance too. Then imagine what you can do with all that rich material. Now that’s how you put desirable difficulties to work for your greatest good.
