Is it spring or winter? Hard to tell this week where I live, with ice enrobing these tiny flower-like structures on a tree branch. There’s something about the idea of time being encased that I associate with eclipse zones, and with this image. Photo by Amanda Painter.

We’re in it now! We’re officially in the slipstream of the Eclipse Zone:

The two weeks between a pair of eclipses when life can feel like it speeds up or takes a sharp turn. You may be asked to notice what you no longer need to stay attached to, to choose your next step toward your vision with intention, and to stay loose enough to roll with the unexpected — trusting that even seemingly “disastrous” events are likely to open the way for something even better to emerge.

True, that’s not always easy. And one element of the chart for this morning’s lunar eclipse (which was exact at 3:00 am EDT) describes some possibly chaotic thinking, or a sense of feeling discordant or disordered, especially about what you want or what to do to get it: Mercury, planet of the mind and communication, conjunct Eris, dwarf planet of discord and chaos, in late Aries.

Potentially compounding that is Mercury slowing waaaaay down. It’ll be stationing retrograde in late Aries in exactly one week.

What this says to me is that this next week, especially the day or two on either side of April 1, is asking us to notice when our thoughts are jumping ahead, leapfrogging over steps that perhaps really need to be taken first. Aries energy is all about initiating action, and Mercury in Aries describes an active and impulsive mind; with Mercury getting ready to station retrograde, there could be noticeable snags when we don’t slow down the thought-to-action response time just enough to notice what we’re overlooking.

Yet that’s not the same as avoiding action, or deferring desires and dreams. Overall, the astrology this spring describes a useful process of getting clearer on where you want to take your life, and continually moving toward that goal: the April 8 total solar eclipse (the Aries New Moon conjunct Chiron) describes a powerful opportunity to focus your intentions and consciously realign your actions with the them; Jupiter’s conjunction with Uranus on April 20-21 describes an energetic culmination for taking tangible action toward a “big, bold vision” for your life.

For most of us, these things won’t arrive with a sudden, magical 180-degree change of life circumstances. If there is dramatic change approaching this spring, it’s more likely a result of all the many choices and actions you’ve been making for months, combining with external factors. With luck (a Jupiter theme), these choices and actions simply put you in a fortuitous position to take advantage of whatever unexpected opportunities arrive this spring.

Bear in mind that the reverberations of Jupiter and Uranus will likely continue to manifest for months after the conjunction is exact. Their meeting is the ending of Jupiter-Uranus cycle and the beginning of a new one, all part of a continuing spiral of experience. So yes, do what you can to get things in motion, but don’t freak out about “missing” the conjunction’s exact date, because you’re already in it.

Which brings me back to this morning’s eclipse, which we’re still in energetically. As a Full Moon, it’s the peak of the current lunar cycle between New Moons. And Full Moons always feature the Moon reflecting back to Earth the bright light of the Sun — a relationship called an “opposition” in astrology.

You can think of an opposition like a confrontation, or like a dance or a conversation: any situation where two people need to figure out how to balance their two points of view, or their opposing desires, impulses, and needs, ideally through negotiation or similarly reciprocal give-and-take.

I am curious: between yesterday and today, what has another person (or a situation) been showing you? Do you feel like you’ve been seeing the “other” or the circumstances in their true light, or are they really reflecting back to you something about yourself?

Does a relationship in your life need to shift in some way to be more balanced?

If you’re having a more internal experience (rather than interpersonal), what’s the first thing you might need to adjust in response to what you’ve been shown about yourself? What would help bring your actions back into balanced relationship with your intentions, your dreams, your “whys”?

You don’t need to know all the steps to the plan right now. It’s enough to recognize the first step, perhaps illuminated by this morning’s Full Moon and eclipse, and to take it. With each decision and action we make in the face of the unknown, new options emerge.

It feels kind of magical when you stop to notice this dynamic. Yet it’s really just life.

With love,

Amanda

Chart for the Libra Full Moon and penumbral lunar eclipse. The Libra Moon is in the upper-right corner, and the Aries Sun is directly across the wheel. Next to the Sun in Aries are (L-R): the lunar North Node, Chiron, Mercury, and Eris.

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