On the Erotic Ecliptic for April 2023

Horoscopes For Your Pleasure: all signs for paid subscribers

Photo by Olga Bast on Unsplash

Dates to note:

3^rd: Mercury enters Taurus (12:22 pm ET), Mercury in Taurus square Pluto in Aquarius (2:55 pm ET)

5^th: Sun in Aries conjunct Chiron (6:18 pm ET)

6^th: Full Moon in Libra 16 degrees (12:07 am ET, 9:07 pm PT on the 5^th)

7^th: MERCURY RETROGRADE SHADOW OPENS, Venus in Taurus sextile Neptune in Pisces at (1:58 pm ET)

8^th: Mercury in Taurus sextile Mars in Cancer (2:29 am ET)

11^th: Venus enters Gemini (12:47 am ET, 9:47 pm PT on the 10^th), Venus in Gemini trine Pluto in Aquarius (6:14 am ET), Sun in Aries conjunct Jupiter (6:07 pm ET)

14^th: Venus in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces (12:38 pm ET)

20th: New Moon in Aries/Solar Eclipse 29 degrees (12:13 am ET, 9:13 pm PT), Sun enters Taurus (4:14 am ET), Sun in Taurus square Pluto in Aquarius (12:27 pm ET)

21^st: Mercury Retrograde in Taurus (4:35 am ET)

23^rd: Mercury in Taurus sextile Mars in Cancer (8:19 pm ET)  

25^th: Sun in Taurus sextile Saturn in Pisces (6:48 am ET), Venus in Gemini sextile Chiron in Aries (7:50 pm ET)

27^th: Mars in Cancer square Chiron in Aries (9:34 am ET)

Some housekeeping: if you’re new here, it may be because of some of my viral posts on Twitter in the last week, and if you’re a hate-follow, please note: although I am an ally of sex workers and will defend my friends to my last breath, that is not the work I do. So when you call me “whore” or “streetwalker” because my Substack is called Pleasure Centers, you’re not insulting me, you’re simply showing the world that you’re not very bright. I’m writing this forecast on Trans Visibility Day and my tolerance for bigots who call people “groomer” because their sexual or gender identity is different – it’s nil. I write about sexuality and as a clinical sexologist/sex coach, I help individuals and couples struggling with a wide variety of relationship and sexual concerns, and I’m proud of that.

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So, how was it for you? (March, I mean.)

The month we intensely anticipated has come and gone in a whirlwind of cosmic lions and a few lambs. With Saturn in Pisces for the next 2.5 years, plus Pluto in its Aquarius era (at least until June, when it briefly returns to Capricorn) we’re over the proverbial 2023 hump. Exhale and release any part of your body that’s still clenched. However, Mercury Retrograde and Eclipse Season are part of the story of April, so don’t put your yoga mat away yet, we’re still processing a lot.

TLDR – skip to the next section if you don’t want to read my personal (left af) astro-political views.

We waited with bated breath for most of March and in the last 48 hours of the month, the blockbuster event happened as Venus and Uranus came together on Thursday: Trump was FINALLY indicted on what looks at this moment like 30 counts of business fraud with a sweet, sweet felony charge embedded somewhere in there. As one of the exonerated Central Park Five simply said when they heard this news: KARMA.

Trump’s promised Tuesday appearance in NYC, where he’s supposed to turn himself in to get booked and fingerprinted, is less than 24-hours before a Full Moon in Libra, the moment everyone intends to behave but ultimately acts on their animal instincts. (Aries is Libra’s shadow.) The energy in NYC and frankly, everywhere, is going to be WILD, to use a certain Individual 1’s terminology. Gird your loins and if you live in my hometown, avoid the area below Canal Street that day, as he’s said to be coming around 2:15 pm.

That is, if the orange dude shows up. There’s still a chance he barricades himself in Mar-a-Lago, forcing a showdown to rile up his followers once again. As we all brace for what’s coming, Mars is heading for a direct collision with Trump’s Mercury, making him even more angry, defensive, and bombastic than usual - hard to believe this is possible, but that’s what the chart suggests. Not to mention, his grifting instincts are likely to be next level as the 16-degree Libra lunation is very close to his Jupiter/Chiron conjunction in his second house. (He may actually raise millions of dollars.) Honestly, this could go anywhere, but the man is having a psychological meltdown, even if he deftly uses it for political purposes and stirs up the MAGATS.

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As discussed at length way back last year and again and again in recent months, March is still the pivotal, breathtaking, world-shaking month of 2023. Don’t take that as a prediction that the rest of the year is clear, easy and breezy, but the fact that we made it through the month without a (new) major war, virus outbreak, full AI takeover (it’s only partial so far, phew), or insurrection is somewhat heartening. The protests in Israel and France and union organizing in the US seem to line up most with the liberatory energy bursting through, and that may offer a clue as to what the Pluto in Aquarius could portend – if we plug into people-power, not machines.

The big news of April, the month that contains the bulk of Aries season, is that we’re heading toward our second Mercury Retrograde phase of the year (in Taurus) and a Solar Eclipse in Aries, back-to-back on the 20^th/21^st depending on your time zone. Note that the retrograde shadow opens by the 5^th, the same day as the Full Moon in Libra, so things could be sloooowww from the get-go, especially for communication in our relationships. If everything feels like a slog and you already have errands that you’re avoiding on April Fool’s Day, do your best to kick them off the list during the first week of the month. Our minds are a bit molasses-like with a Taurus Mercury, and a Taurus Mercury Retrograde is another level of brain-mush.

April is mostly Mars’ month, yet Venus will not go gently into that goodnight even while her consort is the star of the show. She’s the ruler of the Full “Pink” Moon in Libra on the 6^th, not to mention that on the lunation, she is still in Taurus, the other sign she rules. This Full Moon, aside from coinciding with the arrest and booking of TFG, is opposite Chiron, the Wounded Healer, and features a square between Mercury and Pluto, suggesting that the romance usually associated with all things Libra may be less in evidence than a Martian fucking and fighting vibe. Yet with Mars muted in Cancer, where he is not comfortable, he’s more on the cranky side of the spectrum than the fierce warrior one.

Aries season is dynamic, vibrant, and initiatory, pumping us up with courage and encouraging risk-taking. It’s a time for FIRSTS, erotically and otherwise. Yet all this Aries energy may feel somewhat carmelized by the Taurus influence. Although Aries season is in full effect until the Sun slinks into sensual Taurus on the 20^th, there is a softening in our bodies as the earth warms, slowing us down and making us want to nap, snack, and cuddle, even more so during the final ten days of the month.

And yet….  DO NOT sleep on the once-in-twelve-years explosion of Aries firepower that pops off on the 11^th, as the Sun joins gas giant Jupiter at 20 Aries, fueling the beginning of something big. If you don’t know where 20 Aries is in your natal chart, I suggest you look that shit up on astro.com. If this is your 5^th, 7^th, or 8^th house, love, relationships, sex and emotional intimacy are sparking and crackling with potential.

The Aries part of your chart is the area of your life bursting with new beginnings. This isn’t just because of the Sun-Jupiter conjunction, it’s also because we had a New Moon at 0 Aries in March, and we’ve got ANOTHER New Moon/Solar Eclipse at 29 Aries on the 20th. (More on that in a bit.) So light the match there (doing a ritual to celebrate this using a literal match could be extra powerful) and see what you can get started. If you’re ritualizing it, aim to say your prayer or chant your mantra close to 6:07 pm ET.

Late on the 19^th/early morning on the 20th, we experience a rare hybrid Solar Eclipse at 29 Aries, the powerful anorectic degree of the sign. This eclipse is from Saros Series 129, and the last one we experienced here was on April 8th 2005. If you can remember what was up for you near this moment, it might provide some insight into what kind of karma you’re dealing with this time around. This is the first eclipse in a series on the Aries/Libra axis that will unfold over the next 18 months. It hearkens back to the series we experienced between 2013 and 2016. I’ll be doing a podcast about this eclipse (and all of eclipse season) for my paid subscribers before it strikes, but suffice it to say, it’s a doozy, once again, for the Aries sector of your natal chart.

We’ve had the rare opportunity to live through a 0 degree New Moon in Aries the day after the Vernal Equinox, page one of our own spring story, and we emerge from this narrative at the eclipse, although eclipse season continues for several more weeks. You may have to choose to eclipse something from your life to access the seeds you need to plant during Taurus season and beyond. If you refuse to let go, this is the kind of moment when it could be eclipsed FROM you, not BY you. With Mercury Retrograde beginning on the 21st, it’s very normal to feel a little bit out of control this week. Slow down, breathe, garden, feel the breeze on your skin, let nature make love to you, indulge your lover with slow yet hungry touch, and don’t push for anything to happen. It’s essential to turn down the volume on your need for speed now, as there is little instant gratification to be had.

Onward to your sign-by-sign forecast!

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