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| APRIL 2014 FORECAST ©2014 by Richard Nolle last revised MAR 31, 2014 |
If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world, not some mystical mumbo-jumbo psycho-babble word salad. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT, aka GMT). Also please be aware that, while I never change a forecast once it's published, I do post errata to acknowledge typographical errors and the like.
PLEASE NOTE: This month’s forecast incorporates elements of (and refers to) my complete 2014 World Forecast Highlights (41 8-1/2 x 11” illustrated pages), focused, amplified and elaborated with details for the month as appropriate. The full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights is available in hard copy by mail ($75) or as a PDF document by email ($50). Orders may be phoned in (toll-free from anywhere in North America to 800-527-8761) and charged to any major credit card. PayPal orders may be placed direct from your own PayPal account page to rnolle@astropro.com – or by using the AstroPro PayPal order page.
Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.
-- Bill Keane
April promises to be the most dramatic month of what has already been an eventful year. With the first of this year’s two exact Uranus-Pluto squares – this one tied into a Grand Cross incorporating Mercury, Mars and Jupiter; plus two eclipses and the Mars Max peak on the 8th, April brings shocks and storms on many fronts: seismic, meteorological, economic, social and geopolitical. This is by no means the “sky is falling” scenario trumpeted by the same Chicken Little/Henny Penny types who brought you the end of the world back in 2012. (Remember the Mayan Apocalypse grand fail?) No, there won’t be a world war, a global financial collapse, or a supervolcano calamity; but April does get a bit turbulent now and then, here and there. Let’s get ready: here are the whats and the whens.
The month begins on a stormy note, in the wake of the March 30 new moon at 9°59’ Aries – which just happens to partake of a T-Square configuration with Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto. As described in my March forecast (published in February), this sets up a geocosmic shock window "from the 27th into April 3 (bracketing the new moon on March 30, and accentuated by the moon’s northward equatorial crossing the day before)." Per that forecast, an "uptick in damaging storms (with heavy precipitation and subsequent flooding); as well as higher than usual tides, a surge in volcanic eruptions and moderate-to-severe earthquakes (Magnitude 5 and up)" is in the offing from late March into early April.
We’ve already seen some of this in March, what with the 5.1 Magnitude temblor in California on the 28th, followed by numerous aftershocks for days; not to mention a cluster of lesser quakes in Yellowstone National Park. (Just in the last few days of March, there have already been 13 M5 and higher earthquakes world wide.) And storms? Well, just watch for the heavy rain and high winds – including tornadoes. It’s only just beginning over these past few days.
Shock windows of this type, as I have explained for decades now, are astronomical in scale and therefore planetary in scope: there’s no place on earth beyond their reach. That said, see the astro-locality map for this particular new moon for a few pointers as to some of the more vulnerable zones during the March 27-April 3 shock window. These include the western US and Canada, Alaska, the Great Plains states and central Canada; Mexico (including the Mexico City area) and Central America, and Chile; also Western Europe and West Africa; parts of Russia, Kazakhstan, India, Mongolia and China; as well as New Zealand. Not being in range of one of these lines (they’re 200-300 miles wide) is no guarantee of safety. But if you do live near one, have your emergency kit ready just in case.
A word about astro-locality mapping is appropriate here, if you’re unfamiliar with the technique. The heart of the matter is that these maps show where on earth the planets (and other points) are rising/setting and culminating/anti-culminating at the moment of an event – a birth, a planetary configuration, etc. Rising and setting should be self-explanatory: they’re the places at which a planet is on the eastern or the western horizon, respectively. Culminating/anti-culminating roughly equates to being directly overhead/directly below. The rising/setting lines are curving arcs, while the culminate/anti-culminate lines are longitudinal (straight up and down, i.e. north-south). In the format I use (Esoteric Technologies’ Solar Fire), rising arcs are white, setting arcs are black; culminating lines are solid, anti-culminating lines are dashed.
That new moon is a faint foreshadowing of the turbulence to come, which arrives in a big way with the April 15 total lunar eclipse. The nominal shock window for a new or full moon is three days before and after the event. But this particular full moon eclipse anchors a geocosmic shock window that extends from a day before the moon’s southward equatorial crossing on April 12, through the lunar eclipse on the 15th, out to the 20th (extended a couple days by the peak lunar declination south of the celestial equator on the 19th).
Eclipses both solar and lunar have a long historical association with powerful storms (high winds, heavy precipitation and flooding), as well as extreme tides and increased moderate-to-severe seismic activity (M5+ earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis). That’s exactly what’s on tap during the April 11-20 lunar eclipse shock window. The whole of planet earth is in the crosshairs for any such geocosmic alignment, by definition: be prepared, in other words. Maybe most especially if you happen to be in one of the astro-locality stress lines for this eclipse. These include a meridian (longitudinal) arc across the US west coast and mountain west states plus western Canada and Mexico; over the pole and down through Russia, the Caspian Sea and Straits of Hormuz, stretching out to include a swath from the Middle East out to Pakistan and India.
There’s also a horizon arc curving across northwestern Mexico into the US plains states and on into the Midwest and eastern Canada; continuing through Iceland and northern Europe down through the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. A second horizon arc drops down from eastern Greenland through the Atlantic (just off the coast of Brazil), emerging through eastern Australia and Papua New Guinea northward across the Pacific and on to eastern Siberia (including Kamchatka) and the Bering Strait.
Geophysical events like storms, quakes and such aside, eclipses touch us geopolitically and even individually. The April 15, 2014 total lunar eclipse falls at 25°15’ Libra, and is accompanied by (but doesn’t participate in) a Grand Cross between Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto. This represents another global outbreak of public dissatisfaction with the powers that be, and outrage over issues of social justice, hard times, etc. It comes less than a week before the first exact Uranus-Pluto square of the year. We’ve seen this picture before: protests, riots – even revolution, civil war and international conflict.
Remember: the Mars in the Grand Cross is a Mars Max, so this tends to escalate from one level of violence to another. The global economic crisis that underlies all this is a huge stressor: it virtually drives people crazy. Outbreaks of mass murder, school and workplace shootings, suicide and murder suicide have been on the increase ever since the financial collapse that emerged during the 2008-2010 Saturn-Uranus opposition. They only get more intense when Mars goes Max, which it last did in December 2013. (See the full version of my 2014 World Forecast Highlights for a fuller treatment of these issues.)
Think international in this regard, as well: it’s not just brother against brother, it’s nation against nation. Total war? No. But people get hurt. This is a year for all such things, including terror attacks – but this eclipse marks one of the peak vulnerabilities. April is one of the high points for this kind of strife, with the Uranus-Pluto square remaining within a degree of exact all month long. April 8 and 21 – give or take at least a week – are very much red letter days on the calendar.
This is a truly global issue, but Japan, Indonesia and east Australia are emphasized, along with the western US, Canada and Mexico; as well as a broad horizon arc sweeping from the central US and Canada across Greenland and Iceland and down across northern and eastern Europe through east Africa and the Middle East; as well as a longitudinal band from Iran in the west to India in the east. Watch Brazil, as well! (The eclipse is visible all over the New World, as well as from parts of Western Europe and Africa; and throughout much of the western Pacific Ocean, including Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan.)
Putting aside the more macrocosmic perspective for the moment, at the personal level, eclipses point to an emphatic focus on a particular facet of life; described by the area in the natal chart where the eclipse falls. For example, last year’s October 1l8 lunar eclipse was in a hard square (90°) arc to Saturn in the President’s natal chart, which for anyone indicates a time of challenges, heavy responsibilities and struggle to deal with these things. In the wake of that eclipse, the President’s public approval ratings hit the lowest levels of his tenure – to date at any rate, because the April 15, 2014 lunar eclipse makes the same aspect. Seeing these things coming in our own charts, it behooves us to focus on the indicated issues to strengthen our position going into the eclipse.
With this in mind, check your own natal chart! If it features significant points around (or in hard aspect to) the 25°15’ Libra eclipse degree (or anywhere in the middle of the Grand Cross cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn), then it’s time to take stock and get a grip. Contrary to primitive astrological lore, eclipses are not omens of disaster. They indicate focus: play along and grow through it, or pay no heed and pay the price.
Just as momentous in its own right as the mid-month lunar eclipse is the April 29 solar eclipse. Solar eclipses have a nominal shock window extending seven days before and after the exact alignment – sometimes longer, depending on any significant lunar factors (e.g. declination extremes, equatorial crossings, lunar perigee) immediately before or after the boundaries of the seven day window. None of these factors applies to either of this year’s solar eclipses, so the April 29 annular eclipse window stretches from April 22 to May 6.
This month’s solar eclipse occurs at 8°51’Taurus, and is accompanied by (but does not participate in) the same Mars-Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto Grand Cross as the April 15 lunar eclipse. Same story, second chapter. Except that this one has a strong economic component. Financial instability, market sell-offs. Currency fluctuations. Probably, for the first time in a long time, a good opportunity to buy precious metals. I’ve been advising a focus on equities instead over the last several years, expecting gold and silver to underperform – which they did. That’s changing, and probably about now. Don’t go crazy like a gold bug and sink your whole nest egg into a mine, but do consider picking up some gold and silver while it’s cheap, before the next bull run begins. (Probably in July.)
To see what to watch for on the personal front during the April 22 to May 6 shock window for this eclipse, it’s time to check your chart once more. If you were born under significant celestial points in the neighborhood of nine degrees in Taurus or any of the other fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius), look for an emphasis on the corresponding life areas as a focal point for your life path now. These are the areas where you need to pay more attention, work harder.
Of course, there’s also the storm and seismic potential associated with this eclipse: extreme tides, and a surge in severe storms with damaging winds and heavy precipitation; as well as an uptick in moderate to severe earthquakes (Magnitude 5 and up) and newsworthy volcanic eruptions. Plan ahead for such eventualities, if you’ll be in areas of special risk. Keep tuned to the weather – especially if you’re traveling or otherwise at the mercy of the elements.
Given the combination of eclipse activations in April, I have to figure that this will be an especially strong tornado season in the US Great Plains and Midwest – one of the areas targeted by both horizon arcs and meridian lines in the astro-locality map for this solar eclipse. (Other risk zones include the Gulf of Mexico; southern and western Mexico, the western US and Canada, and the whole western and northern coasts of South America. Follow the tracks on the map, and you’ll see Alaska; along with eastern India, western China and central Russia. Iceland gets a brush, along with central and northern Europe, the Middle East and southwest Asia, and the western Pacific Ocean including Japan, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia – close enough to count to New Zealand, I think. This one is practically all over the map! (Hello, Hawaii!) Frankly, the combination of a Grand Cross with an eclipse makes for a tangled web of horizon and meridian lines, to the extent that a picture is far more descriptive than words in this case.
The most powerful solar storm to hit earth in recorded history, the 1859 Carrington event, occurred with Jupiter in Cancer – which is where it is right now. Jupiter in Cancer alone is not sufficient to signal a strong solar storm – not by any means. But there are a couple of lesser signals coming up next month, around the 10th and 25th (give or take a few days either way). More about that next month.
All astrological charts as well as eclipse and astro-locality maps are calculated and produced using Esoteric Technologies’ Solar Fire Gold Version 7.0.8 Sky map images are screen captures from the Pocket Universe app for iPhone, or produced by Starry Night for Windows. Storm tracks are screen captures from The Weather Channel app for iPhone. Solar activity images are screen captures from the 3D SUN app for iPhone. And earthquake maps are screen captures from Quakes Pro Earthquake Alerts app for iPhone.
SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)
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Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer consultations/orders (AmEx/Discover/MasterCard/Visa) 800-527-8761 data/fax 480-753-6261 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA www.astropro.com |
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