If you registered for the lecture on this year’s constellations at the beginning of the year, you may remember that I emphasised the month of April back then. I’ll explain why in a moment. But first I’d like to look back a little, to February 2024:
01/02/2024 Me Ingress Capricorn
05/02/2024 Me conjunction Pl 6 Capricorn
05/02/2024 Ma Ingress Capricorn
12/02/2024 Ve Ingress Capricorn
14/02/2024 Ma conjunction Pl 6 Capricorn
17/02/2024 Ve conjunction Pl 6 Capricorn
These are some of the dates I have mentioned. Here “Ingress” always means “ingress”. We had a big cluster of planets in the sidereal sign of Capricorn in February. And since Pluto, the significator for power themes, for transformation, but also for cruelty and disintegration is in 6 degrees there, first Mercury, then Mars and then Venus came into contact with Pluto one after the other. The period from 14 to 17 February is particularly significant, as not only was combative Mars conjunct Pluto, but peacemaking Venus also came under the influence of these two malefics, so that their actually balancing energies were, so to speak, submerged.
During this period, the terrible news of death, war and human suffering became more frequent. The death of the Russian dissident Navalny, who died on 16 February, also occurred during this phase. Astrologically, I would interpret this as an indication of outside influence, of a death brought about by a conspirator.
March didn’t come off quite so badly in the preliminary discussion, but since in astrology – as in real life – everything is cumulative, the negative energies built up in February didn’t simply disappear. On 15 March, i.e. tomorrow, Mars will change signs and move into Aquarius. There it will then meet Saturn on 10 April, which is not a good situation from an astrological point of view. But before that, there will be a lunar eclipse on 25 March and a solar eclipse on 8 April. Whenever difficult conjunctions occur in close temporal proximity to the eclipses, the challenging energy is multiplied or even potentiated.
If we turn to the news now, in mid-March, we hear of devastating conditions in Haiti after several thousand prisoners were freed in February as part of a major uprising and criminal groups seize everything they want. In Gaza, the suffering and hardship of the people is likely to be far greater simply because of the unimaginable numbers involved. If there were a measuring device that could measure collective pain and hardship, the scale would probably be blown up right now, of course also by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Unfortunately, the planetary constellations do not indicate an imminent end to these conflict situations. However, Saturn-Mars conjunctions have great potential – especially for the situation to come to a head, whatever it is. If we assume that such an escalation or confrontation is to be expected in April, then we can only hope that this situation will become a “game changer”, that it will mark a turning point. Some clever minds in the astrological world are assuming this and I very much hope that there is something to this idea.
Of course, we could also look at the political situation in our own country against the backdrop of these constellations. Here too, constructive and meaningful cooperation seems to have taken a hit, not only in politics but also among the trade unions and large employers. No matter how much good energy we invest in all these issues, we will probably have to realise that the end of these conflicts is not in sight before mid-April, because in addition to the tests of power that are currently taking place, communication is not currently effective either. Mercury, the planet of communication, is weak (in retrograde) for most of March, under Rahu’s overpowering influence and will go retrograde on 2 April. After that it goes back into the sign of its fall so that almost the whole month of April will be characterised by very unclear or even deadlocked communication. Even mediation committees will probably reach their limits.
For all of us, these constellations should trigger mindfulness in our everyday communication with our fellow human beings. We too can be swept away by these energies, perhaps overreacting in conflict situations or simply expressing ourselves very unhappily. Being mindful and in good contact with ourselves can significantly help to minimise any negative effects.