SPRING EQUINOX 2023 HOROSCOPES | MARCH 21, 2023
image and text created by Shane Powers
originally published in Table Magazine
The first week of spring 2023 is exceptionally rich with planetary influence. On March 21st, a day after the vernal equinox, there is a new moon at 0°Aries. Mars is the planetary guide of Aries and at this time is located in the final degrees of Gemini. The final degrees of any zodiac sign come with a sense of heightened anticipation. Liken this moment to the delicate but firm pull on a bow and arrow. The tiring mental stimulation we may have felt while Mars was in Gemini is about to lift. Hold that tension with a feather light agility while relaxing into a calm aim.
For the first time since the 18th century, on March 23rd Pluto temporarily enters Aquarius where it will remain for two decades besides one brief retrograde back into Capricorn. Spring’s initial ingress of generation defining Pluto gives us a three month preview of what the next twenty years this transit has to teach us. In Aquarius, it will be topics concerning our complicated relationship with technology and social issues that have not served well for all. Pluto, god of destruction and regeneration, moves slowly but surely, composting difficult issues into fertile soil.
Later, on May 16th, beneficent planet Jupiter enters the earth sign Taurus until May 2024. As the centerpiece of springtime transits, after months in fire sign Aries, Jupiter entering Taurus will feel like a stabilizing balm. For approximately one year, Jupiter invites us to focus on the wisdom inherent in our bodies who need silence and rest in order to maintain health. Jupiter in Taurus asks us to idle restoratively. From here on and throughout the year our intentions are set on slowing down and appreciating the most valuable things we already have: the living earth beneath our feet and those around us.
ARIES
Like water, memory runs deep. Early this spring, the rust stained planet Mars, your planetary guide, will enter Cancer in your fourth house where your roots are astrologically planted. Aries, you are courageous and often burn a trail with piercing direction. But as Mars leaves Gemini, where it has rewired your sense of reasoning and enters water sign Cancer, your focus will initiate and spiral from your deepest well of reference: your sense of ancestry, place of origin and the proverbial "home." Imagine, with a lantern in hand, you are now exploring the prehistoric caves of your past searching for clues to your sense of belonging and the fundament of your being. Like interpreting the shapes of clouds, develop a keen eye for signs emerging in the flickering shadows cast by your light. See into the cracks and crevices of your past for clues to what home means to you. As a solstice point in the zodiacal year, Cancer marks a threshold between beginnings and endings. Emerge from your imaginal cave embodying Janus, the Roman god who presided over transitions. Look backwards and forwards at once while remaining centered where you find yourself rooted.
TAURUS
It is difficult to remember our first breath, a primordial instinct marking a transition between worlds. We wail upon birth to inhale the vital force of life while coming face to face with the reality of survival. In late March, there is a new moon in your twelfth house associated with the area just above the eastern horizon. Here, the heavens rise obscured until they have cleared the atmosphere. Within this liminal place a riddle sown with insight and a prophetic voice is being born. This omen is encoded with the primal cry needed to birth new life forms. Taurus, it is the vulnerable time before the cry that is key here. Aided by additional wisdom gleaned from eclipses occurring between your first and seventh houses tousling the bonds of self and relating; open up to an uncertain voice emerging within yourself. Taurus, born with patience, you are refining the unconscious through steadying the breath and forming the word. With benefic and fortified Venus as your guide, soon you'll begin breathing beauty into flesh and bone.
GEMINI
The quality of our individual resources are essential to physical and mental vigor: health is our supreme asset. After seven months of Mars grinding through your first house of the body, mind and vitality, you may feel a bit sapped. Very soon following the vernal equinox Mars will ingress Cancer thus entering your second house of personal assets. In Cancer, ruled by the Moon, Mars navigates the emotional tides of luck, fortune and the sense of protection our reservoir of resources may provide. Mars lacks direction in slippery Cancer but can work offensively to ferociously protect the precious goods of your livelihood. For support, look to your community where the Sun, who is exalted in Aries will join Jupiter in your 11th house of fellowship, hope and aspirations. The conjunction of the Sun and Jupiter establishes an optimistic moment of focus and abundance. Use this time to cherish your friendships. Selflessly give to them the proper care and nourishment needed to flourish. Honor the nutritional wealth of your friendships as they will have a great effect on your vitality this spring.
CANCER
You've placed a few pots on the stove top as activity reaches a pinnacle for you this spring. You may ask yourself, "What have I done?" Rest assured, you are prepared to stretch yourself. As a fact of life, I do not praise multitasking as a virtue. But this spring multitasking for you Cancer may be an approach to work through an endeavor you've been nervous or hesitant to push forward and see to fruition. Forbearance laced with passion is key for you and with the new Moon in Aries as the point of ignition, your astrology this spring is resourced with the careful urgency and attention that is needed during this highly generative time. Your patience will be tested. You’re juggling the delicate line between protecting your well being and re-establishing that which you are called to do in this world. It is OK to go back and forth on decision making as a pot or two boils over, making a mess. You'll have the energy to clean up and see the mistakes as unexpected inspiration. You're a busy bee operating on raw but stealth instincts aided by multiple strategies of care and preparation. By mid April the divine chaos you've sorted through will begin to funnel, distilling your feverish efforts into an elixir of pure intent. From here on be confident in the choices you've made.
LEO
Human conceptualization of landscapes revere idealized representation of our connection to harmony within our living environments. Leo, this spring is about broadening your scope through the smallest lens possible, enabling your world view to be turned on its head. As the Sun transits Aries this March through April, you are seeking to symbolically capture and illustrate a new landscape. This can be done from where you sit comfortably. It is all in your head. Pick and choose the landscape you want to see as a painter selects the elements of a painting regardless of what is visibly before them. Freely juxtapose contrasting geographical components that conceptualize what utopia means for you. It is not a time for fixed resolutions, rather a time to dream. April 11th the Sun will conjoin Jupiter in your 9th house of philosophy, far away places and spirituality. As this conjunction perfects, a sense of clarity will seer like a ray of sunlight through a magnifying glass burning a pathway into this landscape you've imagined. This transit holds revelatory power through a generous opportunity for spiritual and intellectual growth. It is an exciting time but will feel like you have landed on unmapped territory. A paradise of your own making.
VIRGO
Lichen, the grayish green or brown patches that grow on stones and trees, are composed of a fungus and alga exchanging specific resources. The fungus provides life sustaining water which the alga can not. The alga provides what the fungus can not provide, photosynthesis which is necessary for growth. Earth sign Virgo, you are considering new modes of sharing. Reciprocity comes naturally to you with planetary guide Mercury, the mage of the cosmos merging variable forces to shift reality. Orbiting closest to the Sun, Mercury's apparent retrograde motion occurs more frequently than any other planet. Through this back and forth motion, Mercury weaves new understandings from enigmatic circumstances. Your focus this spring Virgo is to master the art of mutualism, the symbiotic relationship where both organisms benefit from specific gifts the other can not offer. As the spring equinox occurs in your eighth house, referred to as the place of shared resources, consider slowing down and taking stock of the talents you have to share with others. Take your time as lichens do, growing very slowly. Your gifts are sure to be in abundance and would be of great benefit to others.
LIBRA
Relating is a cyclical process. We experience this visibly in the sky each month as Earth's moon waxes and wanes in a perpetual relationship with the Sun. The rhythmic dance of these local celestial bodies creates the phases of the Moon we see night after night. Sometimes the Moon is full and other times invisible. This partnership is in constant flux while habitually communicating in novel configurations. Symbolically speaking, at times they are opposed, at other times negotiating or romancing one another, eventually conjoining again with newly arrived understanding. As are our human relationships, continually relating to each other in new and unimaginable ways. Libra, this spring as the eclipse cycles begin to form in your first house of self and seventh house of others you are invested in the mystical values of relating platonically and romantically. To prepare for this time which will last about a year and a half, clear the air with healthy discussions. Relish in the strange beauty (i.e., frustration) that relating can stir while re-enchanting your love through open communication and constructive boundaries. Develop an appreciation for your existing relationships as you would a treasured antique in their chipped, scratched and sun faded magnificence.
SCORPIO
To understand how a clock works, take one apart. While reassembling it, observe how the gears work harmoniously to harness the abstract concept of time. Scorpio, this spring you are learning through doing. Sure, you can read more books and take more classes but the kernels of truth you seek will not be found in print or with academic approaches. It is a get in there and get your hands dirty approach. Only through hands-on engagement and a bit of good "horse sense" can you begin to yoke the chaos of an idea or desire into working reality. Early this spring a stellium, or concentration of planets in a zodiac sign, will convene in your sixth house of work and service. This group of planets will be in a pragmatic aspect with Mars in Cancer, in your ninth house of higher learning. Mars in Cancer can be an arduous placement. If you lack the skills to do something, acknowledge that and ask for help or find someone to learn from. Be comfortable in the amateur phase of whatever comes up this spring, embracing an apprentice-like approach. Volunteer or offer your help in exchange for knowledge and wisdom found in the grace of blissful service. Become a humble disciple of your dream. Opportunity stems from modest and incremental effort.
SAGITTARIUS
Children let their intuition rip. Their drawings hold little back, offering worlds within worlds of interpretative possibilities. Uninhibitedly, they hold the fear of a blank page at bay, obliterating obstacles as they render outrageous proportions, shapes, scales and perspectives. Each clashing in a cacophony of texture and color. For kids, toys are instruments for exploration and tools for learning. For a few months now, Jupiter in Aries has been transiting your fifth house of games, children, pleasure and risks. This combined with the vernal equinox occurring in that same house initiates a jovial time astrologically for you. What does the idea of play mean for you? If you have children or are close to one, sincerely ask them for advice about something. Children seldom lie and if they do there is most likely a nugget of truth inside their witty and imaginative responses. Play dress up for a day. Roll down a hill. Scribble on the wall. Grab an instrument and play horribly. Make a beautiful mess like kids do. Honor and give your inner child the microphone for the following months. Unwind a bit and metaphorically, or not, allow some paint to hit the wall.
CAPRICORN
A family tree is a chart representing family relationships in a common tree structure. They say you can't choose your family but you can choose your friends. Family means different things to different people. Saturn, your planetary guide, governing the outer limits of our solar system is at home atop our cosmic family tree. Having entered Pisces on March 7th where it will remain until May 24th, 2025, Saturn will be transiting your third house of folklore, kinship and habitual practices. The Moon was said to have its “joy” in the third house because it tended to family matters and domestic rituals that made the ethereal tangible here on Earth. While Saturn is in Pisces you are devoted to establishing trust in the value of kinship. The parental qualities of the Moon and Saturn aid third house matters by providing the needs that support family building. Whoever you choose to draw into your family tree, Saturn in Pisces encourages the roots to grow deeper and wider, ensuring stability. On every branch rewrite the DNA of what it means to express sisterly and brotherly love for one another.
AQUARIUS
Earth, like our body, is a living organism, vulnerable yet capable of adapting to profound transformation. Aquarius, abhorring tradition, you're committed to progress but only for the advancement of humanity's ultimate and thriving good. On March 23rd, dwarf planet Pluto, guide of souls through breakdown and rebirth will enter Aquarius in your first house of the self, mind and body. Pluto here inaugurates a twenty year period where you'll experience, at a glacial pace, deeply felt change concerning your identity. Slow as land masses form, your reclaiment of sovereignty from consensual reality and the broken promises of technology will rewrite history. It will feel as if all five of your senses are evolving with a mysterious but inevitable pulse. The more you resist Plutonian transmutation, the more uncomfortable it becomes. As a born intellectual you live in your head with supreme guidance from wise Saturn. Your transmutation during this time will harbor the genius we long to become. Pluto, whose medicine is tough love, will have you leading with your heart.
PISCES
Humans have explored less than 5% of the ocean floor. Understandably, it is indeed an enigmatic landscape to navigate. Upon each visit to the abysmal depths of the ocean we find undiscovered creatures that, defying rational, land based reasoning, have evolved into astonishing forms with eccentric, mythical-like features. There is nothing futile or frivolous regarding these flamboyant biological displays. Each feature has a purpose for survival, traversing the adverse and peripheral realms of uncharted territory. Pisces, you live for fantasy and the possibilities within the unreal. You are devoted this spring to making new sense out of apparent nonsense. Saturn, the lord of cold hard reality has recently entered water sign Pisces where it will remain for more than two years. Saturn rules monsters. It also rules the dark. Pisces, board your make-believe submarine and descend to the bottom of your wildest reverie. Use your innate psychic power as a form of bioluminescence as many deep sea creatures do in the absence of light. Down-to-earth Saturn will offer a sound method for making that dream a reality you can bring back to land.