The Astrology Of April 2024: Universal Singularity

Terrance McKenna talking about the big bang once said:

“Every model of the universe has a hard swallow. What I mean by a “hard swallow” is: a place where the argument cannot hide the fact that there’s something slightly fishy about it. The hard swallow built into science is this business about the Big Bang. Now, let’s give this a little attention here. This is the notion that the universe, for no reason, sprang from nothing in a single instant. Well now, before we dissect this, notice that this is the limit-test for credulity. Whether you believe this or not, notice that it is not possible to conceive of something more unlikely or less likely to be believed. I defy anyone! It’s just the limit-case for unlikelihood that the universe would spring from nothing in a single instant for no reason. If you believe that, my family has a bridge across the Hudson River that we’ll give you a lease option for five dollars. It makes no sense. It is, in fact, no different from saying, “And God said: let there be light!” What these philosophers of science are saying is, “Give us one free miracle and we will roll from that point forward from the birth of time to the crack of doom.” Just one free miracle, and then it will all unravel according to natural law, and these bizarre equations that nobody can understand but which are so holy in this enterprise.

Well, I say, then: if science gets one free miracle, then everybody gets one free miracle. And I perceive that it is true when you build these large scale cosmogonic theories that you have to have kind of an umbilical cord, or a point to start from that is different from all other points in the system. So, if we have to have a singularity in our modeling of what reality is, let’s make it as modest and as non-unlikely a singularity as possible. The singularity that arises for no reason in absolutely empty space, instantly, is the least likely of all singularities. Doesn’t it seem more likely—if we have to have a singularity—that it occurs in a domain with a rich history with many causal streams feeding into the situation that nurtures the complexity. In other words, to put it simply, if you have to have a singularity, doesn’t it make more sense to put it at the end of a cosmogonic process than at the beginning?”

Stephen X. Arthur

He’s talking about the Eschaton, or end point, culminating from accelerated symbiotic processes flowing into a moment of climactic singularity, which in astrological terms is the transition from 29 Pisces to 0 Aries, the simple, extreme fire of the latter being similar to what the Big Bang produced, an infinite density and temperature at a finite time in the past known as the initial singularity. Physics proposes various theories as to what might have occurred, and what will eventually occur going all the way to exponential future and all the way to exponential past. Multiple streams suggest the Big Bang results from the Big Crunch, at the end when the universe again collapses into singularity and bangs into existence once again. It's interesting to keep this in mind right now with the significant starter pistol popping of the Aries eclipse this April directed by a Mars in Pisces conjoining Saturn followed by a Jupiter Uranus conjunction later in the month. It doesn’t flow as linearly as science’s model, and typically nothing does. Instead, we have an in-folded and interpenetrating array of factors, but archetypal, and aligned with Mercury’s retrograde in the Ram’s sign, we might want to inspect what Big Crunches in our lives are leading to what Big Bangs and what new universes are being suddenly born out of the cosmogonic drama.

Pisces is expansive, allows for final letting go and submitting to the ambient everything-ness of the universal whole. Aries is the first mover, the sudden catalyzing into action. Like a child being born and individuating from its mother, Aries is the energetic event where independence and autonomy are initially expressed, and being opposite relational and diplomatic Libra, Aries carries the understanding that actions can be direct and effective often when permission is not required from anyone. In solitary lack of hesitation the trigger is pulled, the button is pressed, and things kick into action. The bazooka blast birthing of individuated expression directly into sensitive territory this month is the direct result of the vibe and atmosphere we are immersed in and how the feeling with which this drama is set has led, from every single nostalgically saturated electron particle involved, under a feeling of obligation to let go of trying to control it while simultaneously take responsibility for the vibe itself, to puncturing or otherwise severing or taking a sudden stab as reaction the larger climate’s obstructions and challenges. A hydropowerful pressure build up of emotional energy condensing to theologically romantic then mystically lucid proportions which mythically blows a hole right out the side wall of the intuitive aqueduct. This pressure release ushers in certain consequences. In most cases the enactings of blades result in irreversible effects. Staff cut in half, branch chopped in portions, digits severed, decapitation, metal engraved, object incinerated. More precise damage can be surgical, so specific it can be acutely remedial, incisions for medical purpose. There is a medical theme in Pisces, that of what is healthy for the whole, the entire world, so if medicinal, this might be aggressive holistic intervention.

The current internet buzz around the biblical sacrifice of the red heifers and how such event might lead to re-locations of religious sites and constructions of long prophesied temples which could catalyze what some have said would ‘open a pandoras box that could not be closed again’— eerily fits the astrological arrays all too well, even the latter quote which has Jupiter’s upcoming transit into pandora-esque Gemini beginning late May already written into it. The theological component fits the Jupitarian and Piscean influence, the sacrifice and aggressive content fitting Mars and Saturn in Pisces and the eclipse itself being tightly conjunct Chiron in Aries, as the gesture is predicted to catalyze action globally spanning Pisces’ whole-world thees and Aries conflict-initiation function. Even Jupiter and Uranus in Taurus coming together in Taurus, as these are cows and their sacrifice leads to possible shuffling of places of worship which would lead to upheaval. This particular intentionally catalyzing spectacle also occurs during a time when planets all have been passing over Neptune to arrive in Aries, which can be deceptive and illusory. That this all leads to the much anticipated conjunction of Jupiter-Uranus in late Taurus implies that long preparations went into this moment, which clearly it did, a huge platform was built and the cows were imported from Texas. The story is proliferating on social media and more apocalyptic astrologers are bugging out, and trying to bug you out, about it for precisely this reason, it fits the astrology so, so perfectly…too perfectly. In a typical scan of mundane occurrences we will see one aspect expressing in this world story and another expressing in that world story. It appears in this very Air period moment, the media, world event participants, religious leaders, astrological configurations, and big budget astrology channels are all seemingly orchestrated, as if it were scripted in the stars and the cheat sheet we get reads: ‘Apocalypse Imminent’ as headline.

Sandra Yagi

Well, it would at the start of a new double century long triplicity period, and especially as there is major emphasis to the final tropical sign as well as the primary tropical sign, which is further exaggerated by the North Node eclipse happening in Aries just after Equinox, an alignment which in itself is a kind of chthonic return, the World Serpent seating into its track. I’m not saying the stars portend actual apocalypse, but the macro buzz of WW3, Antichrist, Apocalypse is a story type symptomatic of the astrological moment: the revelation of a world ending and a world beginning The tail tip Ouroboros bites. In other words, Spring has sprung and continues to spring, the profound projectile coil lacerating the old sky as the there is no container for the clouds or firmament and so the known world tunnels from the vacuum into the next available ground, impregnating the crust below. There is no choice but to move quickly and directly by the laws of physics itself. As this is Pluto in Aquarius, there are new fears and future depths, a technological Devil calling forth a Quantum God.

I hesitate to even draw attention to this event, or really any event proliferating online at this point, but as far as metaphors for the moment it seemed worth mentioning and unpacking. One theme I’m driving at is that not only does the past push the present towards the future but the future pulls the present together with the past towards a purpose, an ongoing cosmological process. We experience fate and destiny and all its propulsion when the process accelerates. In these moments we draw our swords, we do things, we dash in a direction, we react. My last article chronicling spring to summer 2024 I called ‘Shakespearean Astrology’, we are still very much in that tumult. We know the Bard’s characters to be typically star crossed. His lifespan overlapped with both astrologers William Lilly and John Dee.

Mary Sperling

Living in civilization is always hard. It has been 33 years since Terrance McKenna published ‘the Archaic Revival’, calling for a proliferating reinstatement of Paleolithic cultural knowing. I read it 22 years ago and it made a considerable impact. I’ve since forgoten most of what it specifically said but I’ve still come over the years to reach many parallel conclusions, and now also suggest we find ourselves slowly and organically migrating towards pre-bronze age, pre-agricultural, pre-polis understandings of ecosystemic symbiosis and collaborative synergy that we have long ago lost or simply neglect. This is a summoning from the future that pulls the now toward it as well as a propulsion from the past to metamorphosize through our current disequilibrium and re-sync to long and large world cycles. Of that, every moment can be a part. Of now, we may certainly contemplate as we are thrown before the incendiary and rushing archetypes of ending-beginning and viscerally experience the expediting hyphen of quickening twilight in between.

We will typically see a very exaggerated version of the transits appearing in the macro of mass culture, where as in our personal lives the expressions distribute through our various life layers. For each of us, where is the tension surrounding belief and mystical interruption, the existential torpor, the place of breech, the dash and slash to individuate, the whole new world or universe or life this catalyzes, the opportunity to mutate that follows while expanding on shaky ground?

Philip R Goodwin

Maybe a quick run through of the rising signs is in order. (No need to read them all, you might prefer to just find you and family or friends):

ARIES: A personal big bang of autonomous self energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in the subconscious which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in personal resources

TAURUS An internal or private big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure of the public sphere which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in self, identity and agency

GEMINI A public sphere big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in career which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in private, internal and subconscious affairs resources

CANCER: A professional big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in the long term, long distance, wide scope understanding which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in the public sphere

LEO: A long term, long distance, world scope big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in the shared resources and collaborations which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in career

VIRGO: A collaborations and investments big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in the relationships and partnerships which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in the long term, long distance, world scope

LIBRA: A relationships and partnerships big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in health, habit and labor which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in collaborations, investments and shared resources.

SCORPIO: A health, habit, labor big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in creativity, romance, and sex which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in relationships and partnerships

SAGITTARIUS: An art, romance, sex big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in home and family which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in health, habit, labor

CAPRICORN: A domestic or familial big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in local world, everyday sequence and sibling like relations which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in art, romance, sex and children

AQUARIUS: A local world and everyday sequencing or close associates big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in personal resources which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in home and family

PISCES: A personal resource big bang of autonomous energy accumulated from expansive ambient pressure in your identity and agency which corresponds with rapid mutations and substance shuffling in local world or daily sequencing and communications with associates.

Jean-Léon Gérôme

This is obviously a basic exercise and neglects considerable nuances, but is worth spreading some language across the layers to see how the three adjacent houses are affected in the case of a person. Pisces gets squeezed, Aries pops and Taurus shifts and mutates. Really, the fourth house in the equation is Aquarius, which simply has Pluto planted in it around the 2nd degree. The new era of powerful initiations into mysterious hypothesis, shady syndicates innovating to pioneer new design concepts and network mental framework updates decentralizing your life is pressing quite heavily in the background on one layer of your existence which interacts with your other layers in contrasting ways. These scary new ideas may seem unrelated to whats happening in Pisces, but collaborate with autonomous Aries, yet they clash with methodical and slow moving Taurus. We might as well at this point continue our horoscopic game to add in this other component for perspective:

ARIES: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in social sphere and public world

TAURUS: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in career

GEMINI: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in long term, long distance, wide world scope

CANCER: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in shared resources, collaborations and mutual investments

LEO: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in relationships and partnerships

VIRGO: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in health, habit, labor

LIBRA Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in art, romance, sex, fun

SCORPIO Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in home and family

SAGITTARIUS: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in local world dynamics, everyday sequence, communication with associates

CAPRICORN: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in personal resources

AQUARIUS: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in identity and agency

PISCES: Powerful mental framework updates and scary new ideas in private, internal or subconscious layer

John Singleton Copley

With that out of the way we can contemplate April as a sequence within itself. The Libra South Node Lunar Eclipse occurred on March 25th, and readied us to strike while the iron is hot by lessening loads on the scales of diplomatic consideration. “What if I didn’t consider anyone else in the equation, what would I then do?” Obviously this is an exponentially disastrous dynamic when applied to entities with greater and greater power, like corporations, governments, nations, organizations, syndicates etc, but is a healthy thought experiment for us personally and with this refinement we can arrive at needs fulfilled that might have been stifled for the past 19ish years, since last time the Nodes were ordered in this axis.

Thus, April’s stage is set. Right off the bat Mercury stations retrograde in Aries on April fool’s Day and we’re thinking backwards, or backwards thinking, or thinking back to what we might have done differently, or where we lost our power, or how we might rearrange our energy to be more effectively applied. For a few weeks we’re talking indirectly about communicating more straightforwardly. As Mercury is correcting energetic confusions and troubleshooting conflict scenarios Venus merges with Neptune in Pisces, the ultimate Eros-Cupid-Calypso love zombie conjunction in all of astrology. For some this oozes romance, for others max relaxation, or hopeless debauch. This is no more than a few day aspect, but coincides in the timeline perfectly with analytical faculties on tactical maneuvers not being able to think straight. Before Venus joins the impulsive, impatient, immediate burning itch in Aries the Sun conjoins the Dragon’s Head making our eyes much bigger than our proverbial stomachs and we’re snorting flames and chomping at the bit to get ourselves actively involved in some spicy scenarios— I don’t mean kinky, just active/reactive, instigators abound and we’ll notice we’re intent on starting shit. When Venus does enter the Ram’s sign and feels the Vernal amphetamine for herself she comes right into a collaborative sextile with Pluto in Aquarius. Heading out to no man’s land in cahoots with like minded individuals in pursuit of power or otherwise forming network chains within fringe ideas for hypothetical wealth sounds exciting, desirable and aligned with instant gratification.

Ilse Kleyn

Week two delivers the thoroughly discussed Total Solar Eclipse on the North Node conjunct Chiron in Aries which will be visible from the Avalon to Baja peninsulas, St John’s to Capo San Lucas, which for most Americans means Maine to Mexico. Mars is agitating the waters that Saturn is attempting to sustain reality within, which can mean pressurized dramas, perfect storm weather scenarios as well as conflicting religious institutions. Mercury’s inferior conjunction with the Sun arrives at 7:02 pm eastern time on April 11th, within which you might find critical details, key information or particular tools which help you deal with the situation at hand.

The third week begins by dragging retrograde Mercury over Chiron once again, connecting the plot back to equinox and mid-April to late March. Venus also conjoins the North Node, making her dragon minded, like an Eve who does not hesitate to bite the apple as tempter and tempted are one. After-which the Sun enters her sign of Taurus and our objectives become material based, we want substance satisfaction and are focused on planning to be able to sink our teeth in to something we can touch and hold in our hands. Mars is sextling Jupiter from Pisces to Taurus, so the action now is heavily foreshadowing the understanding of what ground is quickly shifting in a state of volatility and how we can opportunistically hop over to fields where more abundance abounds— obviously being able to move independently and unfettered by previous commitments allows for the effectiveness of these tactical leaps.

Joachim Patinir

The rapid mutation of Jupiter and Uranus combined is un-ignorable as the final week of April begins, and you may notice stories that were almost secretly seeded in May of 2018 are gaining full coherence and blossoming into reality, catching up to the moment with a shifting or shuffling of baselines. Rapid mutation is never a completely comfortable procedure, and stuff in Taurus of course doesn’t like to be fucked with, so its fitting we get Venus conjoining Chiron at the time while the Sun squares Pluto. This is an ominous yet awe inspiring view of the very real future moment which has us desiring healing and feeling tender in our direct pursuit of creative satiation. Whether this speaks to love, art, money, stuff, people, places or philosophies of life the is a need to marry the pleasure principle to the healing principle in the heat of the moment while radical new shapes are being celebrated.

At this point, after all that climax and build up, there is a bit of a vibe shift for the final days of the month. We receive the first normal lunation since March 10th with the Scorpio Full Moon on April 23rd, officially ending the fast forward nature of eclipse portal periods and as reality’s train platform of manifestation clears, Mercury stations direct and both Venus and Mars enter their rulerships. The subjective realization of instinctual potency is obvious, we’ve been trialed and now are intent on gathering our skills directly against obstacles, we know what we want and what satisfies us and make that our stable ground. Mars’ entry into Aries is preceded by his conjunction with Neptune on March 29th. This is akin to the warrior’s night of drunkenness and excess where they lose themselves completely only to return after by daylight to the stinging realization of their aim and resolve, a trope of the Samurai film genre. For those more psychedelically inclined, you might insert a kind of vision questing here, edging towards Walpurgis/Beltane/May Day, which realigns us with our purpose at the crossquarter— but either way, take caution in Mars’ immersion in Hypnos while running power tools and operating heavy machinery.

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NOTES

April 1

-Mercury RX station 27 Aries: rethinking autonomy and independence and correcting how to analyze direct impact and review conflict and competition tactics.

-Venus conjunct Neptune: free flow of beauty, love, affection and creativity distributed throughout the entire field in high saturation state where real and unreal seamlessly blend. Perfect for fantasy vacation, mystical love, otherworldly art, but not inclined to make sober judgements.

-Sun conjunct NN: orientation to insatiable impulse to manifest incoming reality shapes related to action, autonomy, impulse, individuation, energy, directness, effectiveness

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

-Venus ingress Aries: direct desire, independent values, independent creativity, hot romance, fricative love, relationship conflict, autonomous pleasure, aesthetic competition

-Venus sextile Pluto: the above in collaboration across life layers with new era of power and initiation of updated mental frameworks, pioneering concepts, like minded networking, distance from the celebrated centrality

-NN total Solar eclipse in Aries conjunct Chiron: new reality entering in the form of autonomy and independent action impulsive to manifest in a totalizing way which includes episodes of awkwardness, triggering, healing and integrating and metabolizing uncomfortable elements.

-Mars conjunct Saturn: Action, energy, critical response, trigger to go and do flowing poetically through the whole and saturated in the holistic drama, and sensitive to he atmosphere fusing with obligation to be responsible for the flow state and loosen control so as to feel the way in which the world is allowing for strategic parameters to naturally cohere. Industrial hydropower of emotions, tsunami of intuitive tension, psychological hurricane protocols— direct productively.

-inferior conjunction: 7:02 pm: insight into the secrets revealed, forgotten details remembered, items recovered and so on in independent thinking and autonomous analysis

-Mercury RX conjunct Chiron: A specific correction to the healing remedy which integrates that which hinders full autonomy and makes independence uncomfortable.

-Venus conjunct NN: desires infused with impulse to manifest in catalyst of direct and autonomous high temperature action

-Sun ingress Taurus: orientation to substance, satisfaction, methodology, plan, baseline, effort, gradual momentum, preparation.

-Mars sextile Jupiter: loose, poetical maneuvers which are more than the sum of their parts accumulating to a net affect of rapid mutation in the culmination of material form which has been crafted over the past years.

Katsushika Hokusai

-Jupiter conjunct Uranus: Coherence of how material baselines, substance, commodity, production and stable satisfaction has been radically altered since 2018 and what opportunities for rapid mutation are urgently present in the moment, which includes opportunity via volatility, profiting from panic, expanding in the instability and growth via experimentation.

-Venus conjunct Chiron: desire to heal that which is wounded, sooth what is uncomfortable, take action towards pleasure despite how awkward, attracted to repairing autonomy and valuing vulnerable independence

-Sun square Pluto: Baseline substance objectives clashing with powerful pioneering concepts

-full Moon Scorpio 4 degrees: culmination of potency and instinctual blooming casting subjective emotional awareness on primal drives and deep, uncivilized forms of meaning. High water mark for feeling from the guttural depths permeating outward to the universe as a whole.

-Mercury station direct: conclusion of review and correction sweep in how we communicate independently, analyze autonomously, exchange directly and measure action effectively. Part of a larger process this year in factoring in what we’re excited about doing and what kinds of activities inspire us to engage energetically.

Gino Severini

-Mars conjunct Neptune: free flow of action, tactics, manuevers and critical responsiveness distributed throughout the entire field in high saturation state where real and unreal seamlessly blend. Perfect for hiking up majestic vistas, mystical sex, otherworldly projects, but not inclined for sober accuracy. Avoid running power tools or operating heavy machinery.

-Venus ingress Taurus: value of quality substance, love of the basics, satisfaction in the moment, creating pleasurable plans, sensual romance, enjoyable effort, methodical craft, preparing for love, desiring stability.

Pablo Picasso

-Mars ingress Aries: direct action, competitive edge, effective skills, independent conflict, autonomous tactics, catalyzing fire, sharpened tools and weapons, pulling the trigger.

-Venus applying to square Pluto, not till May 1st: sensual love of the basic pleasures in the moment clashing with powerful concepts and pioneering ideas in innovative mental framework updates.