Planet Waves for April 6, 2005 This is re-published from my March 18 column on Jonathan's site, covering the astrology of this week. The first degree of Aries, or the beginning of the whole story, is called the Aries Point. It's where we reckon the tropical horoscope and the sidereal horoscope -- that is, the backdrop of the stars. In other words, if you look at the Sun's position in space on the day of the Vernal Equinox, it falls in one of the actual constellations -- which happens to be Pisceus. So for the most part, the tropical zodiac and the sidereal zodiac are off by one sign (which factors into one of this week's questions below). The Aries Point is a truly sensitive point -- often acting with greater potency than a planet or the lunar nodes. When the Sun or any other planet is in early Aries, or making a 90-degree or 180-degree aspect to early Aries, there can be distinct effects. At such times, events can occur that involve a lot of people. An unfortunate example is the tsunami, which came at the same time as a Full Moon square the Aries Point. There are many, many examples in the history of astrology. This quality of bringing in the masses seems to run counter to the highly individualized nature of Aries. But the Aries Point itself is almost always some kind of invitation to the mass of humanity to TRANSCEND INDIVIDUALITY and to think of itself as one. ... Mars in this chart corresponds with an interesting story: on the brink of transformation, about to go into Aquarius and make a conjunction to Chiron. The Mars-Chiron conjunction, which occurs once every two years, is one of those major events that most astrologers miss. It's a real turning point and this is the first time it's occurred in Aquarius since the early 1960s. All in all, the cosmos offers us a rather dramatic equinox season, this year full of surprises, developments and changes that will, with the full power of Aries, really get us to question who we are and maybe even find an answer or two. Let's add some detail to the discussion. On the day of the Vernal Equinox, Mercury stations retrograde in the middle of Aries. So for the first three weeks of spring, Mercury appears to be moving backwards, which it does three times a year. This time around, Mercury retrogrades nearly the way back to the Aries point, to within one degree. If the history of the Bush administration and the Iraq war are any indicators, we are in for some big developments as this station-direct occurs in the days following the solar eclipse. In a distinct way, this Mercury retrograde and the associated Aries eclipse amplify the message, 'We're all in this together'. The message is further amplified by an eclipse of the Sun in Aries on April 8. Eclipses have a similar way of bringing in the masses and stirring up individual experiences, in a way similar to the Aries Point itself. So it fits right in with the pattern, particularly given that this eclipse is in Aries with so much other activity.