Weekend Entertainment Guide 4/25/25 + New Moon 4/27/25

Farewell to Venus conjunct Saturn, Mars opposite Pluto, and Pope Francis

Sunday’s New Moon looks intense, but maybe it’s not entirely as scary as it appears. I like that the Moon will be void of course in Aries for most of the day Saturday, beginning at 9:18 a.m. PDT — void of course Moons tend to calm things down, which could moderate some of the other things going on.

New Moon 4/27/25

This New Moon has attracted attention because the Sun and Moon in Taurus will form a T-square with Pluto in Aquarius and Mars in Leo. Mars and Pluto are both associated with violence, power struggles, and aggression, so having those two in hard aspect to the Sun and the Moon suggests the potential for tension to burst out into the open. That being said, the Sun will finally be separating from its squares to Mars and Pluto by the time the New Moon happens, so maybe the worst will already be over.

This New Moon actually marks the ending of two difficult configurations drawn out longer than usual due to planetary retrogrades. Due to Mars Retrograde, we got three hits of Mars opposite Pluto: November 3, 2024; January 2, 2025; and April 26, 2025 (tomorrow). Due to Venus Retrograde, we got three hits of Venus conjunct Saturn in Pisces: January 18, 2025; April 7, 2025; and April 24, 2025.

Interestingly, we have just experienced the last Venus-Saturn conjunction in Pisces for more than 20 years. The next three Venus-Saturn conjunctions (March 8, 2026; May 7, 2027; February 28, 2028) will all take place in Aries. In Aries, Venus is in detriment, and Saturn is in fall, so Venus-Saturn conjunctions in Aries could be tougher than Venus-Saturn conjunctions in Pisces, as Venus is at least exalted in Pisces.

My point being, certain clouds that have hung over us for the past several months are likely to finally break up. The process of shaking off the muck won’t necessarily be comfortable, but at least it probably won’t last forever.

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Hot on Substack

Posts about political turmoil in the United States

Patrick Geary✨

, Unnerved

Geary, based in London, reports feeling nervous on a recent visit to the United States. Geary then comments on the current T-square between Pluto in Aquarius, the Sun in Taurus, and Mars in Leo. I had the thought while reading Geary’s piece that if anyone other than Donald Trump had won the 2024 presidential election — Kamala Harris, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bernie Sanders, Gavin Newsom, or whoever else — that person’s presidential administration would still have experienced all the same astrological transits that the current Trump administration has experienced to date.

The Cranky Astrologer

, Astro Forecast 4.18.25: Our Planets Illustrate How The Little Things Add Up

The Cranky Astrologer analyzes the US political scene going back to the 2000 presidential election:

Every distasteful element of the 2016 election was true; people hated Hillary Clinton because she was a woman, and people hated her because she was a warmonger. People liked Donald Trump because he was racist, and people also liked Donald Trump because he wasn’t a typical, ass-licking politician.

Posts relevant to Mars re-entering Leo, which took place April 17

Lauren Davidson-Ibarra

via

House Inhabit

, Murder at Midtown: The Trial of Luigi Mangione // An Intro

Mars retrograded from Leo into Cancer on January 6, 2025. However, Mars was in Leo for most of November 2024 and all of December 2024, so I think it’s likely that issues from November and December will be revisited with Mars now returning to that territory. A big news story in December 2024 was the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly by Luigi Mangione. (My past coverage of Luigi Mangione is corralled here.) Although the ruckus over Mangione died down after Mars went into Cancer, it could reignite at Mangione’s upcoming court dates. Attorney Lauren Davidson-Ibarra, writing from a non-astrological perspective, summarizes the current status of the legal machinations.

Posts about Easter, which took place April 20

AstroTerica

, I am The Way

AstroTerica begins a series of posts exploring the story of Jesus Christ.

ART of the ZODIAC

, Reclaiming the Stars: Astrology, Queerness & Christian Radicalism with Lindsey Turner

Vivi Henriette interviews Lindsey Turner, also known as Bad Pastor and a member of the steering committee for Astrologers’ Co-Op.

Jenn Zahrt

, agar agar

Zahrt chronicles an attempt to make vegan marshmallow Peeps.

Posts about the death of Pope Francis, which was announced April 21

Heart Astrology

, Pluto and the death of a Pope

Dorje Kirsten connects the current T-square between Pluto, the Sun, and Mars to the death of Pope Francis.

My take on Pope Francis

As I discussed in Weekend Entertainment Guide 2/21/25, Pope Francis has been more controversial than recent past popes even within the Roman Catholic Church. I see this reflected in his natal Saturn-Neptune opposition, which T-squares his Sun in Sagittarius. He was viewed in a very polarized way — there were people for whom Pope Francis could do no wrong, indicated by idealistic Neptune square his Sun, and there were people for whom Pope Francis could do no right, indicated by gloomy Saturn square his Sun. Pope Francis probably added fuel to this dynamic with his Mars in appeasing Libra, trying to be everything to everyone and inevitably falling short somewhere.

Completing the mutable grand cross with Neptune in Virgo, the Sun in Sagittarius, and Saturn in Pisces, Pope Francis also had Chiron in Gemini. I have this placement too — being 50 years younger than him, I was basically born on his Chiron return. For me, having Chiron in dualistic Gemini has played out in being from a family background where there was a big schism between conservative Christians and liberal atheists; my interest in astrology began when I realized that it was a potential third way out of that sort of seemingly binary conflict. Pope Francis was similarly affected by tension between liberal and conservative factions within the Roman Catholic Church.

Pope Francis died shortly after experiencing his third Saturn return in Pisces. His first Saturn return in Pisces took place during the 1960s as the reforms of the Second Vatican Council reshaped the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic News Service reports that Pope Francis said in the preface to the 2021 book Fraternity: Sign of the Times, “The council became the horizon of our belief, our language and our praxis, that is, it soon became our ecclesial and pastoral ecosystem. Quite simply, the council had entered into our way of being Christians and of being church, and throughout my life, my intuitions, perceptions and spirituality were simply generated by the suggestions of the doctrine of Vatican II.”

My 2023 book Impossible Dreams: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations for Saturn in Pisces includes personal reflections by Samantha Corey and Jeanne Bishop on growing up Catholic during the Second Vatican Council — check it out!

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