The Pisces Conjunction of April 2022
The Pisces Conjunction of April 2022
Jupiter/Venus/Neptune
It has been a while since I have been able to post anything. Starting in late 2021 when Mars entered Tropical Scorpio, I have been in a period of astrological confinement. Now that hasn’t been as bad as it may sound. This was in part because this meant Mars (and all the other inner planets) have spent that period of time in the night side of my natal chart, and so I knew this was a time I could make progress on internal and creative projects, but privately and only being revealed to the world at large at a later date. I will be releasing some of the new videos and blogs I have prepared over this period during the summer and fall of 2022, for instance.
Once Venus entered Tropical Capricorn in early November 2021, she has been in the Underworld with Pluto and Saturn. We have previously compared the retrograde cycle of Venus to the ancient story of Inanna In The Underworld, and how that 40 day cycle was expressed by the Sumerians as the story of the death and rebirth of the love goddess. However, this Venus retrograde period was exceptional in that Venus was in co-presence with Pluto and ruled by Saturn from November 5th 2021, and even once the retrograde was over and she had crossed out of her shadow, she still never came up out of the Underworld, energetically speaking, because once she left Tropical Capricorn, she then entered Tropical Aquarius, to be in co-presence with Saturn in the other sign he rules and with Mars closely on her tail. From the time Mars entered Tropical Capricorn, he and Venus have been exceptionally close and were, basically conjunct until April 4th, when Venus changed sign to Tropical Pisces. While they were close throughout, the actual conjunctions between Mars and Venus occurred almost in conjunction with Pluto in late Tropical Capricorn and again at the exact point of the last Saturn/Jupiter conjunction in December 2022 - 0 degrees of Tropical Aquarius.
For me, the period from November 2021 until April 2022 has been an Underworld voyage. That has not all been bad. I want to emphasize that. I know some of you have contacted me, worried for my health (and I have been very grateful to hear from you), but I have (mostly) been fine, and this has been a very rich and creative period from me. I did a deep-dive into the ancestral realm, the realm of the their memory in the genetic depths of the Underworld. I took trips through memory and perspectives different than, but impactful upon, my own personality and life-experience, as well as the collective of human experience. I have been experiencing the life force of the departed, helping some pass, just listening to others, and that has been heavy, because a lot of people have passed recently. That is a thing beyond my control and outside my desires, and it has at times felt intrusive and like it was keeping me from getting my work done. That’s ok, though, because shaman gonna shaman, or whatever. The first half of the period from October through January was very creative and expansive, while the second half, through January to April, has been more restrictive, frustrating, and the Underworld has felt more obtrusive and less nourishing, which exactly mirror my expectation for the transits of the cycle.
Once Venus and Mars conjuncted Pluto, and subsequently crossed over into Tropical Aquarius, they have been in enclosure or containment by Pluto and Saturn, so we have seen a lot of Underworld manifestations of the less pleasant and more confronting and triggering form. The enclosure of Mars and Venus is now passing, as I wrote this on April 7th. Venus has left the building and moseyed on into the mildly hallucinogenic waters of Pisces, while Mars, though still in co-presence with Saturn in Tropical Aquarius, has completed the conjunction with Saturn and is now departing the scene. For me, personally, that means a return to the upper world by writing this article. It is a big deal for me, because I have felt frozen in place since January. However, This sudden better feeling is not something to grasp too tightly, for Pisces doesn’t lend to being held down or defined, and not everything in that misty bay is as it seems. It is a nice period though, especially until the 15th when Mars joins the party to make things steamier and more humid, maybe with some thunderstorms.
My hope is that you were able to use the underworld period from November 2021 through April 2022 to work on yourself. I have done that a lot, and I have not necessarily enjoyed everything I have found. The ancestral memory within the underworld is filled with horrors. The dead didn’t all go peacefully in their sleep. It is essential that we look at hard things though, for what we ignore we are doomed to repeat. Fear is a monster unless faced. The healing of an individual or a species is carried out by putting the ghosts of the past to rest, learning from their mistakes and not repeating them. Tradition is peer-pressure from dead people, and damage is all we get from repeating their mistakes by holding on to their ways of being. What served people in past ages may no longer serve us in this one. Saturn and Jupiter started a new 200 year cycle in December 2022. The forerunner of that cycle was the period from 1980 through 2000. I have a lot to say about that period and the one that followed it, in an upcoming article, so I will leave that off for now and get on with this article. What I am trying to say is that no matter how dark the last few months have been, there was within that a tremendous doorway open for inner healing, as well as new creation, if you could embrace it, to whatever level you were able. Really, the only thing you have to do is retrain the neural pathways in your brain by unbelieving untrue things. Every time you face a new level of reality, you are experiencing the gift that Saturn offers, and the first quarter of 2022 was a real Saturngasm, for those who know how to have them.
Now we turn to the month of April, having given a setup for the period we are just leaving to allow us to consider what comes next. Venus, who is really really relieved to be out of the coldest areas of the zodiac, will begin to bring some light and color back to the world. Things are going to feel better. The period from April 4th through April 15th are the best feeling part of the month, because Venus is sick and tired of Mars at this point, and she is probably thrilled by the break. Once Mars enters Tropical Pisces, that brings the more combative energy back up some, but Mars just ain’t great in Pisces, won't get into a conjunction with Venus, and feels a little wishy-washy in Pisces, making it hard to follow through or get plans fulfilled and finished. With Jupiter and Venus there though, you might be able to achieve to heights of action on creative enterprises, whether art or craft or even career, though be warned to take great caution in matters of great weight, because with Neptune there as well, Mars things can go horribly awry. Take caution. The way I will approach the whole month is that there is no way to be certain of anything, and so I will save every possible decision of weight until later. If I am forced to make a decision of any weight, I will weigh it carefully. I hope you can find it in yourself to do that too, and I hope the world at large can, as well.
The conjunction of Jupiter and Venus is almost exact right now. The two enter the same degree on the 8th of April. They remain in the same degree, and then cross together to the next degree, remaining together from April 8th through April 16th, with the exact conjunction on April 12th. They remain within 3 degrees of exact conjunction until the end of April, when Jupiter finally pulls ahead and prepares to enter Tropical Aries in May. Venus will conjunct Neptune on April 27th and Jupiter on April 30th. While Jupiter and Neptune will be past their exact conjunction, they are still within the three degree range throughout this time period and the conjunction of Venus to each will likely trigger some glittery after-effects. Mars remains in co-presence, possibly giving bite to some fo these things, but he is over ten degrees away from any of these planets as they make their conjunctions. I personally consider Venus, Jupiter and Neptune to be of a set - similar energies that each manifest on a more subtle realm the further you get away from the Sun. Venus is predominantly physical and sometime mental. Jupiter is predominantly mental and sometimes physical, with emphasis in the realm of ideas and ideals. Neptune is mental and energetic, dealing with the realm of ideas and inspirations. All of this can be good or bad. We focus on their good side, and they all certainly have that, but they can all got askew, especially with Neptune. Enjoy these good feeling this month, because they will certainly be there, but don’t take them too seriously and know they are a passing phase in the overall cycle. Think of them a great vacation from the shit-show that Saturn’s trip into his own kingdom has been allowing us to experience (to see deeper realities) since December of 2017 when Saturn entered Tropical Capricorn. Enjoy this good energy and make use of it.
How might you make use of it? Well, you might get better sleep. Have you slept well during the last few months? If not, then you might find this a period that is recuperative. You might be able to get your mundane tasks done more easily and with less frustration. You might find that projects you have wanted to get done are possible or easier to do. You might find inspiration of a high sort and start a new venture or project, but don’t invest a lot of money at this time, because there is no way to yet know if ventures started at this time will remain stable. A good mundane chart reading for such endeavors might give you a better idea, but Neptune is slippery and Venus and Jupiter together are not known for discretion. Saturn is dignified in his own home and sign, so when we apply Saturnian energy, we are exerting effort that may reward over time. If you do things during the month of April, do them for fun or because you want to and not because you think you have found the next great thing, but some few undoubtedly will find their "next great thing" during this period. I will say too that I think there are other, greater, potentials available to us during this time.
Let’s look for a moment at the Sidereal astrology. The beginning of the Tropical sign Capricorn falls at about the first degree or so of the True Constellation Sidereal (TCS) sign of Sagittarius. So Tropical Cap and TCS Sag are layered over each other and because they are about the same size, in our time, they layer each other exactly. Tropical Aquarius starts at the end of Tropical Capricorn, but also at the end of TCS Sagittarius. So the start of Tropical Aquarius is also the start of TCS Capricorn. The sign of Tropical Aquarius is layered with TCS Capricorn. That is very interesting to me, because the first set, Tropical Capricorn and TCS Sagittarius mean a layering of Saturn and Jupiter, while the second pair, Tropical Aquarius and TCS Capricorn, represent a doubling of Saturn, and this is the most purely Saturnian part of the entire Zodiac cycle. What is further of interest is that we also have, in our time period, a situation where the next pairing, between Tropical Pisces and TCS Aquarius, layer closely, though not as perfectly as with the other two, and this again gives us the dual rulership of Jupiter and Saturn. This suggest to me that we see a Jupiter/Saturn period, followed by a purely Saturnian period, which is then followed by a Jupiter/Saturn period, which is then followed by a small period where the rulership then flips to purely Jupiterian. You see, there is a small part of Tropical and TCS Pisces that overlap right at the end of Tropical Pisces. TCS Pisces begins at about 20 to 23 degrees of Tropical Pisces, so there is about a seven to ten degree period where the two signs overlap. For the fast planets, that implies maybe a week or so in this zone, but for a slow planet, or for any of the bigger cycles like great conjunctions, or cycles within the ages, that period can last for weeks, decades, centuries. Of course, it is not a permanent feature, because the precessional cycle of the TCS zodiac is ever in motion, slowly turning the dial so that every degree of every constellational sign eventually passes over every degree of the fixed, solar-oriented Tropical zodiac. This is just the one we find ourselves living in.
So what do I think this means for the upcoming conjunctions of Venus, Jupiter and Neptune? It is of interest to note that the conjunctions all occur within this small area of the sky where the Tropical and TCS Pisces overlap occurs, so this is purely a Piscean undertaking. Neptune has just entered the 23rd degree of Tropical Pisces and Jupiter will enter it on the 8th of April, 2022. Venus enters the 20th degree of Tropical Pisces on April 25th and the 23rd degree on April 26th, then exits this overlap region of doubled zodiacal Pisces on May 2nd, followed by Jupiter exiting this region on May 10th, though he will return to this region through retrograde one final time to complete his transit of Pisces in the fall of 2022. Neptune remains in this region for several more years, finally exiting around 2025. I think this period we are now entering is an opening to make subtle shifts and changes that can lead to long term results that become manifest, physical, real and apparent, over time. Saturn still in his sign of rulership suggests to me that the inner changes made at this time can become manifest in outer reality, but not instantly. I also think it is so important to not give in to fear, grief, doubt or anger during this time. Don't believe everything you see, hear, feel or think. Maybe don't even believe any of it. Just feel, and let this time carry you through until more grounded aspects show you the actions to take based upon the feelings you have during this time.
I think the window of these conjunctions can be a profound time to bring healing, change and an increase in awareness and empathy to the world. Be extremely careful of crusades and tangents though, and know that anything gone into with any aggressive posture is liable to backfire over time. Let your messages be for you, let your knowings be for you, but don’t try to force them on others. Such actions will not work out like they used to. For those who have banked on being able to enforce their beliefs, their worldview, on others, the old tricks of their trade are no longer going to give the expected result. Those are iron age magics, and they do not work anymore as they once did, because we are in the ascending bronze age, and while that isn’t the promised golden age of our fantasies, it is a step up and the road to getting to that golden age for our species. This age carries a new magic, and those who seek to subvert and control will find that the old magic is ineffective and actually becomes self-destructive. Iron age magics will tend to invoke the trickster in the ascending bronze age.
Bronze age magics are simple. They invoke something like, “Let it lift all boats” or “No being left behind” or “There are no ‘others’” or “We’re all in this together”. Truly wish the best for everyone, and don’t think you can know what that best is. You might not even be able to know what the best for you is, and especially at this Pisces intensification through these conjunctions. I hate to talk to much about things like energy work or “light”, as it just sounds so revoltingly hokey and New Age to my own ears, but there is something entering our reality now that appears in my mind’s eye as a golden-yellow light, and it is the force that lifts all boats. I also see a protective energy available as well, and it is black, but glows blue and purple. When those two energies interact they make a third thing, which is a glowing green light that is reflective of every color - a rainbow effect, much like you see on birds such as hummingbirds. I don’t know what these perceptions actually are, but that is how I see them, and they have become stronger and stronger since 2012. I think it is because that marked our movement fully into the ascending bronze age of the Yuga cycle as applied to the precession of the equinoxes (which is the force that make the TCS zodiac turn through the fixed Tropical zodiac).
I think this purely Piscean period of conjunctions, including the ruler of the sign - Jupiter - with "co-ruler" Neptune and an exalted Venus, opens a doorway to helping increase this energy in the world. Will it bring instant peace and enlightenment? Oh, no! Will we see anything absolutely, unequivocally conformational in the real world? Maybe? And maybe not. What I think is important about this time is not to enter it expecting flash and splash and glitter and all the amenities. What I think we enter it with is the sense of planting energy seeds that can germinate, grow, flower and be harvested as other transits continue into the cycle and trigger off the energies of this transit series. Such transit series become like echoes in time that can be amplified by later transits. I will enter this time in quiet, humble acceptance of where I find myself and focus on that which lifts all boats, so that the human race and our planet rises together, rather than falls apart.
I want to acknowledge that our time is filled with horror. I am not blind and I am no pollyanna. I have too much Saturn for that. I see it and I know it. I feel it. The species is going through a crucible. An old age has ended after 2,600 years, and we have literally just moments ago entered the new one. The rules have changed. Those who benefited by the old cycle have panicked. Those who were born for the new cycle are impatient and prone to self-defeating beliefs because of what they experienced in the old cycle. Much is in chaos as this new cycle births itself. I think this Pisces doorway through April offers us the possibility of dreaming a better world, and not just in spite of the horrors of our time, but because of them. They can become a catalyst. We are entering a new Saturn/Air cycle for 200 years, and we have been a greedy, expansionistic species for millennia, and now the Saturn cycles we enter are going to start bringing the bills home to be collected. We can either try to continue on with the old methods, even as they become less and less effective, and their old iron age magic no longer works, or we can start to explore the new that is available to us that can carry us through as a species. This opening is a good time to just rest, take in the love of these planets and radiate the love out to the whole thing, no matter what it is doing or how ugly it looks. That is a meta-usage of these powerful, but potentially tricky, conjunctions of Venus, Jupiter and Neptune in Both Tropical and TCS Pisces.
Keep an eye out on this blog during the summer and fall for new updates!
