Moon Enters Balsamic Phase; Several Contra-Antiscias & “Not Unfolding the Way It Should: The Universe”
Daily Horoscope Check-In for Friday, April 5, 2024
Good morning, friends!
There’s a lot building up today and over the weekend so let’s get right into it.
I’m going to get a bit Astro-Nerdy right now, so if this is too technical, you can skip down to “Today’s Transits.”
The threshold from Pisces to Aries marks an interesting dynamic that is going on between all the planets that have recently gone, or are about to go, over this spot, especially since we have Neptune, now at 28° of Pisces (the last time that Neptune occupied this space of the zodiac was approximately 165 years ago) the furthest we’ve ever been with Neptune in our lifetimes, guarding this threshold.
Planets in Pisces and Aries that are at degrees that add up to 30° share an interesting relationship called a contra-antiscia and it has to do with the number of daylight hours and nighttime hours experienced at those points along the zodiac when the Sun travels through them.
An antiscia is when the points experience the same amount of light and dark hours and affect the signs reflecting across the solstices—this aspect acts as a hidden conjunction. The contra-antiscia is when the points have the opposite amount of day and night hours to each other and affect signs reflecting across the equinoxes, thus this transit acts like a hidden opposition.
So, across this threshold from Pisces to Aries, we are leaving the winter behind, the light is returning, taking over, and dominating. Since the winter solstice, the nights have been getting shorter and the days longer, and at the spring equinox they are equal. This means that planets in Pisces are experiencing approximately 10 hours of daylight and 14 hours of nighttime, waning down to an even 12/12 on the equinox and then planets in Aries experiencing an increase of daylight from 12 to 13 to 14 hours and a decrease of nighttime from 12 down to about 10 hours of darkness. When two planets hit their contra-antiscia, one planet has approximately 10 hours of light and the other has approximately 10 hours of dark, so they have an opposite combination of light and dark.
Hopefully, that makes sense.
So, today, we have four contra-antiscial relationships occurring between planets in Pisces and planets in Aries. This is all internal, hidden, and private, but the opposition is an intense aspect that brings things to a peak and we have to make a decision, or we feel pulled in two different directions, or it represents a pivot point where the scales are tipped in one way or the other.
Now that you understand what a contra-antiscia is, let’s break down today’s transits.
Today’s Transits
The Sun today has reached 16° of Aries and is only 3° away from the Solar Eclipse point. Early in the morning, the Sun, still conjoined to the North Node made, a contra-antiscia to Saturn, which acts like a hidden opposition bringing up some hard truths that perhaps colored last night’s or this morning’s conversations. This could’ve manifested as a heartfelt chat with an authority figure or father-type figure where things were brought up and discussed, and a boundary was laid down. Or maybe you had a conversation or an exchange with a loved one where old issues came to the surface and were worked out. The Sun shines a light on situations and Saturn is concerned with boundaries, limitations, and old things.
Today, Mars at 10°Pisces 46’ will form a contra-antiscia with Chiron at 19°Aries 13’, again acting like a hidden opposition, so we could be faced with a wound, a vulnerability, or something we are easily triggered by and feel forced to fight, argue, or defend ourselves.
Mars is only 5 days away from conjoining Saturn, ending their current cycle and beginning a new 2-year cycle of challenge, hardship, and frustration. Mars and Saturn can mean the destruction of a structure, boundary, or limitation; they can also mean resurrecting something solid that was built with a lot of brute force and muscle—in Pisces this could be something spiritual, religious, or artistic.
Venus just entered Aries last night and is on her way to forming a contra-antiscia, a hidden opposition, to Neptune, whom she recently conjoined days ago. This is a quick turn of events and we saw this same dynamic when the Sun entered Aries on March 19, 2024, after conjoining Neptune on March 17, 2024, and then the contra-antiscia occurred on March 21-22, 2024.
This time it is Venus that is going through this space. A few days ago on April 3, 2024, she conjoined Neptune and art, music, and imagination flourished, flowed around, and made poetry in our lives. Now, today, she will oppose Neptune in the contra-antiscia and something will come to a head, duality will be felt, and a decision will have to be made; the poem, the song, or the dance will come to an end. It could be about love, relationships, things we value, or be money-related. Maybe we were wearing rose-colored glasses about something the last couple of days and today the fantasy wears off. It’s a feeling of coming to and Venus may not be happy about it for she is now in Aries, the sign of her detriment because it opposes her home sign of Libra, and is ruled by aggressive Mars who stands for everything that Venus does not: war, fighting, asserting oneself with force, pushing, poking, and prodding things into action. Venus is kind, calm, and loves things to go along pleasantly. She loves harmony, walks in the garden, picnics in the park, and eating doughnuts and other sweets. She doesn’t want to fight, but in Aries, she has to.
It could feel like waking up from a dream and fighting off the cobwebs of sleep paralysis.
On the other hand, maybe you resonate deeply with the Aries energy and when Venus comes into this space you feel artistically revived and alive again! For Venus does bring growth, nourishment, and sustenance. And she’s a beautiful fighter—graceful, like the wind, a force to be reckoned with!
The final contra-antiscia occurring today is between the Moon in Pisces and Mercury in Aries retrograde.
The Moon entered Pisces at 7:12 am ET and an hour later made frustrating aspects to the nodes. At 9:13 am ET she formed a semisquare to the Sun, which means delays and setbacks. Around 1-2 pm ET, She will form the contra-antiscia to Mercury indicating the possibility for private or hidden arguments, disagreements, and communication issues. With Mercury retrograde, this could be about going back over things, changing one’s mind about a decision you made in the past, or needing to rearrange the schedule in some way and emotionally this could be a drag and create tension and strife. Maybe something gets messed up and we have to go back and deal with it and redo it. Maybe something was said that you wish you could take back, but you can’t, so you have to try to remedy the situation.
Then around 2 pm, the Moon enters the Balsamic phase of her cycle, the last 45° before the New Moon and this is a touchy period of release and letting go of whatever didn’t work during the last lunation cycle and making space in the metaphorical garden to plant the seeds of the New Moon. This is a really big New Moon coming up since it is a Total Solar Eclipse and thus it may require A LOT of space to be cleared! This could be a really intense weekend because of this!
At the same time as the Moon going dark, for in her balsamic phase we can’t see even a sliver of her beauty, she perfects a semisquare to Chiron bringing up our ego wounds that we would really like to heal but it’s as if they aren’t responding to the medicine and are left open. We may feel remorse, guilt, or like a gut punch to our pride.
At the same time as the Moon’s semisquare to Chiron, Mars in Pisces is perfecting his contra-antiscia to Chiron, a hidden opposition—pouring salt in the wound, so to speak. This could feel really emotionally complicated and painful or triggering and it may throw us off our game today as we try to grapple with all of these conflicting feelings and sentiments.
Life today and over the weekend may not make much sense.
Let’s see what the cards have to offer…
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