The Sun entered Aries shortly before midnight yesterday, marking the Spring Equinox in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere and the beginning of the zodiacal year.  Now its first full day in the Ram, sign of its exaltation, the Sun is midway between the year’s darkest and lightest points.

Aries’ energy is much like the names of the seasons instigated by the cardinal yang axis of which it is part — ‘Spring’ and ‘Fall.’  Aries is a vehement push forward, the fiery suchness of inner vision externalized in a typically bold, instinctual way.  Spirit is enfleshed, and the willing forward of personhood invigorates.  Beginnings and ‘severings’, virtue and vice, pioneering thrusts and ease or struggle of followthrough.

The first decan of Aries is called ‘Dominion’ in The Book of Thoth, as new life is filled up with swirling components of the inner daimon spat forth from a streaming piscean continuum, perhaps.  Already a Mars-ruled sign, Aries’ first decan also holds rulership by Mars — reinforcing the ‘cord-cutting’ necessary after birth, as Austin Coppock deftly emphasized by calling Aries’ first decan “The Axe” in his eminent work 36 Faces.

Some will see blossoms of new life promised or already peeking through.  Some will see the martial ‘God of War’ speaking through vast digital echo chambers in Aquarius, a holographic hall of mirrors with groupthink and doublespeak like a tryptamine Tetris effect, the Beast’s many eyes all replaced by politician bobbleheads, plastic parts fused together by planetary lifeblood, dinosaur bones, tears, teeth and skin of the proletariat.

As mentioned, Spring and Fall are instigated by the cardinal ‘yang’ axis of Aries and Libra respectively, with the fixed ‘yin’ signs of Taurus and Scorpio stretching across the center of these seasons — not unlike how the cardinal ‘yin’ axis of Cancer and Capricorn instigate the stasis of Summer and Winter, with the fixed ‘yang’ signs of Leo and Aquarius within them.  The eternal mandala of the zodiac and its nuanced expression across seasons, shifting though they do through climates across Earth, carry a wisdom through which we can perceive the intelligence of our fluctuating karmic landscapes, transcendent instincts made known through the prismatic intelligences of the planets and their temples.  As above, so below.

Mars in the third decan of Aquarius rules this early Aries Sun if only for two more days, an idealistic and even ideological place for the red planet, yet one whose ‘human question’ can be as distant or misanthropic as it might be open or progressive.  When Mars enters Pisces on Friday, March 22nd, an already significant Pisces stellium will be fed — continuing 2024’s trend of each month ending with a plethora of planets in the sign which dominates a given month.

Venus, in her exaltation of Pisces since March 6th, nears a conjunction to Saturn in Pisces which would do well to reduce drama and hone in on particular objects of love, creation, and sustained harmony between others.  Yet with Mars near Aquarius’ end before joining in the waters of Pisces, we see that teetering between ‘total ideologic dominance’ and the fluid capacity to love or fight that Mars holds in the mutable water sign.  ‘Fish Mars loves to fight!’ as Coppock once said.  This mix of themes feeds and fans the Sun’s rays during its thirty days in zodiacal Aries.

Such tensions can be a strange thing to contemplate, however, as the mutual reception between Venus in Pisces with Jupiter in Taurus has fed an idyllic sense the past two weeks, a ‘calm before the storm’ of the upcoming Lunar Eclipse in Libra on March 26th.  Venus and Saturn together might see constructive scaffolding in the furthest romantic reaches of our dreams, or a negation amidst confusing emotional malaise.  Such is the archetypal multivalence of Venus and Saturn in a sign such as Pisces, even if the temple of Venus’ exaltation.

Just some of the dynamics to feel around for:

*love and war
*beginnings and endings, peace and ‘severings’
*virtue and vice
*pioneering thrusts, and the question of ease/struggle in followthrough
*a desire for the light, whether physical or metaphoric
*conflict and pain mixed with a want for resolution
*Venus-Saturn and the embodiment of venusian matters: love, harmony, good relations, creation of art, principles of beauty be them material or immaterial
*seeking to bring structure or demonstrativeness to said matters
*politics as distant or misanthropic as they might be open or progressive
*ideastic, ideological or dogmatic tendencies couched in paradoxically pleasant frames
*as Sun-Neptune fades, gaps between the real and ideal become more apparent
*things not as they appear, cracks showing in the facade
*with the Sun sextile Pluto, an increased agency or mobilization of action around our feelings about the plutocrat; light cast on secret agendas

Remember that astrological archetypes, planetary aspects and delineations thereof conjure the -question- of something more than a guaranteed outcome.  For example, Aquarius is often associated with humanitarianism and concerns with ‘the collective’… this can manifest in beautiful philanthropic efforts and unspeakable tragedies alike, as prominent Aquarius placements are found in the charts of many noteworthy humanitarians, as well as the most grievous mass shooters (a number of those with pointed manifestos too)… the -question- or dynamic of groups and collectives is present, but the choice lies with the individual: because fate and free will are not opposites.

We all swing the blade of the will against the sharpening block across myriad moments of the day.  The planets are like soothing balms and sharpening blocks alike; we still get to choose to set it down, or to swing — whether in playfulness or punishment.

More soon on the upcoming Lunar Eclipse!  Swim well stargazers ~

—A.B.