Dear gods, when will it end? Why April is an astrological nightmare

We’re midway through April and nowhere near the end of the drama, folks.

Looking ahead and within, this is unequivocally the craziest month of 2024.

The bad news? It ain’t over.

The good news? If you can handle/harness this gnarly baptism by fire, brighter days await.

We’re wading through a deeply confusing Mercury retrograde cycle. Mercury is currently retrograding in the fierce fire sign of Aries, lending conversations and communication a searing potency and a severing severity.

Mercury will continue its retrograde through April 24 but will remain in the sign of Aries until May 15.

Aries energy = light everything on fire for fun

The April 8 eclipse in Aries formed a conjunction with Chiron, the asteroid of unhealed wounds, suggesting that all of us were activated or confronted by our oldest aches.

Under the strange skies of the eclipse, themes of revelation and release are prominent, and what we are unable to let go of will quickly be taken from us.

(Eclipse + retrograde) X Aries = Seismic change is guaranteed and bravery is required. If we can embrace the change, then holy hell fire — we’re in it to win it; if we can’t, no matter, it’s coming for us anyway.

On a personal note, both my car and appendix have exploded in the past few weeks, I went from comfortable environs to couch surfing, and three out of 10 of my primary relationships have gone the way of the funeral pyre.

Eclipses destabilize us so that we can ultimately find higher ground and higher purpose. The story is still unfolding, so what feels like horror and loss in the moment may yet prove to be exactly what we didn’t realize we needed.

Every inch of April’s pain is akin to a contraction/labor pain and all of it — the muck and the mire the epic endings, and the fledgling, baby giraffe’s first steps of new beginnings — are conspiring in service of our evolution.

April is indeed a time of rebirth, but as Nicole Love, owner of Soul Gratitude Holistic Healing, recently imparted to me, going through the birthing process is painful. While there’s the light of life at the end of that proverbial tunnel, the moments before become dark, constricting, tightening, terrifying and very, very akin to death.

Rising after ruin, birth after death

Courtesy of my recent surgery, I have a brand new scar running through my belly button, a stack of stitches I am choosing to imagine as an umbilical cord that allows me to reparent and nourish myself in every way I need.

While the eclipse cycle technically completed itself on April 8, due to the onslaught of Aries energy, it won’t truly feel like it has run its course until Mercury leaves the hellfire of Aries for the buffet table of Taurus on May 15.

Chaos culminates

On April 20, the sun moves into the fixed, grounding earth of Taurus. The 20th also comes in hot with the once every 14 years conjunction of Uranus, planet of lightning and freedom, and Jupiter, planet of abundance, abandon and excess.

This transit is a powerful one that puts the cherry on top of the havoc. Expect the unexpected but also the unexpectedly delightful.

When chaos abounds, my problematic Libra dad has a habit of calling the situation “a f–king casino.” The metaphor is apt as our lives recall a roulette wheel, and we’re all bound to feel at one point or another this month that the chips are down and defeat is imminent.

But hold fast to the knowledge that everything is temporary and good stuff awaits, and if you couldn’t imagine how things got this bad, trust that the same disbelief will strike when it gets better.

Fall apart to come together, burn to the ground to vitalize the soil: You can’t have a phoenix moment without devastation.

Here’s to rising.

Astrology 101: Your guide to the star

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, a “girl’s guide” to strip clubs, and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.