If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget it. This is real astrology. See the section above. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT). Current UT date and time appear at the top of this page. (To update display, use your browser's reload/refresh button.) 

April starts out being very much in the slipstream of a couple astrological configurations left over from March. For one, the March 31 Blue Moon - the last of this millennium – remains in force until April 2. (For more on Blue Moons, see my online table covering all of them in the 20th Century.) As described in last month's forecast, this particular full moon signals an up-tick in floods, strong storms and moderate to severe seismic action (volcanic eruptions and Richter 5 or greater quakes). "Fires whipped up by high winds, ultimately extinguished in large part due to heavy rain" are also in the picture, as noted in my March forecast.

Expect developments of this sort to taper off after April 2 – the day Mercury's retrograde ends, coincidentally. Until then, be aware that there's no safe haven where geocosmic alignments are concerned, because they operate on a planetary scale. That said, the astro-locality map of this particular Blue Moon suggests that east Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe are special target zones this time around; likewise, a north-south zone stretching from the Pacific Northwest to Alaska and down to Hawaii; and a band from eastern China southeast through central Australia.

Don't forget that any Blue Moon is more than strong tides in the Earth's crust, atmosphere and oceans. It's also strong tides in human psychology – mass hysteria, crowd appeal, the herd mentality. And with the Saturn-Neptune square being exact on April 6 – having already been within a degree of absolute alignment since March 27 and remaining so until April 15 - this is one of the major equity market action periods all year.

The Saturn-Neptune square, as I have written since last year, points to a huge bubble in the stock market. We're now at a critically vulnerable phase in that bubble. While I still look to the July-August time frame as being the start of the next big correction (20% or greater), if not the start of a strong bear market phase . . . well, we're vulnerable now. If you have any chance to take profits now and move into securities and other investments to protect your capital, please think it over and be ready to act quickly! This bubble is growing huge as Saturn squares Neptune, and once the aspect is completed the bursting point is not far off.

The other major hangover from last month is the Mars retrograde that started on March 18 – the day the Kosovar delegation signed off on the Paris accord. From that day forward, the NATO attack on Yugoslavia was inevitable. (The Serbs were warned by the US State Department that if they refused to sign and the Kosovars did, then NATO would bomb Yugoslavia.) If you read my March forecast, you know what I predicted that the Mars station of March 18 would bring: "terrorist atrocities and other vicious crimes, evil stuff cooked up in a home lab, accidents, explosions . . . if you're sitting there at your radar screen trying to spot the cruises and F-117s coming in, forget it." The world remains very much under the aegis of Mars pretty much throughout April, so I expect the international military conflict and confrontation begun last month to continue and intensify. Especially around April 20, when the Mars-Saturn opposition is exact; and for the rest of April for that matter, since there are so many strong Mars-Saturn activations through the end of the month: Mars squares Neptune on the 24th and the Sun opposes Mars and squares Neptune the same day, while the Sun aligns with Saturn on the 27th. That Sun-Mars opposition puts Mars in its closest approach to Earth: all things martial are paramount at times like this.

Bear in mind that Yugoslavia and Kosova will hardly be the only focus for all this – although the situation there is bound to get much worse in April. (Short of a nuclear strike, an air war that doesn't set the stage for a ground attack is pointless. The generals already know it. The public will find out in April.) When I predicted that March would see "danger, conflict and controversy surrounding world leaders and nations with significant fixed sign emphasis in their charts," and mentioned "Japan and Israel, Clinton, Yeltsin and Blair, Saddam and Castro" as "the usual suspects," I didn't have Slobodan Milosevic's birth data. I still don't have his time of birth. It's what data diva Lois Rodden calls "dirty data" (DD), because there are several reported birth times for the Yugoslavian President. But even from the untimed birth data published in his official biography – see the biography section of Astropro's NetSelect Directory for the online rundown – it's plain that he too falls in that 'significant fixed sign emphasis' category, what with his Sun-Mercury conjunction in Leo square Saturn in Taurus. (Both are fixed signs, of course: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are the four fixed signs.) So add Milosevic to that fixed sign danger list. But don't forget North Korea (Mars in Leo), either.

All this macrocosmic stuff aside, the strong Mars and Saturn factors at work throughout April – and particularly toward the end of the month – make for a potential rash of horrible accidents, heinous criminality and the like. Pretty much an extension and intensification of what we've already seen in March. Remember: Mars opposed Saturn within days of the Cuban missile crisis, which brought the world to the brink of global thermonuclear war. (See my online 3000-year table of Mars-Saturn oppositions for more.) In short, April is a time to steer clear of trouble as much as possible; to be aware and in a defensive mode so as to reduce your vulnerability to the tensions and mishaps that characterize the very nature of time itself during this period.

There's a hangover from March that I mentioned only in passing; namely the Mercury retrograde. It ends on the 2nd, so the worst of the communication breakdowns, transportation tie-ups and general Murphy's Law manifestations that have been so evident since the retrograde began on March 10 should be behind us by April 2. But frankly, there will probably be a few malingerers until the 21st, when Mercury reaches the point where the retrograde began.

The first SuperMoon alignment of the year happens in April, on the 16th to be precise. (A SuperMoon is a new or full moon that occurs when the Moon is within 90% or greater of its closest approach to Earth. For more, see my 20th Century table of all these alignments.) Even more than an ordinary new or full moon, in fact at least on a par with an eclipse, a SuperMoon ups the ante for strong storms, flooding and moderate to severe seismic activity (including Richter 5 or greater quakes and volcanic eruptions) within three days before and after the fact. So keep a weather eye on the period from the 13th through the 19th – and especially around the 17th, when the Moon reaches perigee. (See my online 1999 Lunar Apogees & Perigees table for more on this.) And if your plans include travel, figure on allowing extra time for weather-related delays while you're at it. If you're a white-knuckle flier anyway, don't even think about the political, military and paramilitary (i.e. terrorist) potentials, what with this SuperMoon occurring even as Mars aligns in opposition to Saturn.

Being planetary in scale, SuperMoons are planetary in scope. No place on Earth is safe from the potential for wild weather and seismic upheaval during the April 13-19 SuperMoon window. Still, there may be some hints as to regions of special vulnerability. The Astro*Carto*Graphy map for this particular SuperMoon suggests, as I wrote in my 1999 Forecast Highlights, that "the western and eastern extremes of Canada (and southeastern Alaska) are among the apparent risk zones for this alignment . . . other vulnerable regions lie along a north-south line from Maine down through the southernmost tip of South America; as well as eastern Europe, central Africa; and along a north-south line from western Australia up through eastern China."

Last but not least is the full moon at 10 Scorpio on the 30th, with the Sun conjunct Saturn. Although not in the same league as the April 16 SuperMoon, this particular full moon is still a very strong storm and seismic risk signal. (Saturn's involvement ensures that, and what's more the Ringed Planet is involved in a T-Square configuration to Mars and Neptune as this whole thing takes place.) So once again, look for a bigger than usual batch of strong storms, floods, and seismic action (including volcanic outbursts and Richter 5 or greater quakes). This particular storm and seismic shock window remains in effect from three days before to three days after the full moon; i.e. from April 27 to May 3.

  

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)