FACEBOOK APRIL 29, 2022
By Daniel Giamario
There are lots of things to report on today in addition to the Partial Solar Eclipse at 1:28PM PDT this Saturday April 30th. Check out previous post here .
Venus exactly conjuncts Jupiter less than an hour after the Solar Eclipse Super New Moon at 2:14PM PDT Saturday. Venus will be just 0.23degrees SE of Jupiter (27Pisces57). That is really close, and almost can be seen to be touching! Over here in Asia the exact conjunction is really well placed at 5:14AM Sunday morning, just before sunrise. Sadly, in the US, Canada, and Mexico, the exact conjunction is in the afternoon, so the times to see them at their closest would be Saturday morning and Sunday morning before dawn. The conjunctions of Venus and Jupiter are actually not that rare, happening every 11-15 months. The previous one was Feb.11, 2021, too close to the Sun for easy viewing. The next one is March 2, 2023, better placed for viewing about 31degrees out in the evening sky. Therefore, this one is not to be missed! The added feature is that it’s a major Piscean amplifier of the Solar Eclipse.
On Friday at 11:38AM PDT, Pluto turned retrograde at 28Capricorn35. This ended a long time-frame where all planets (including Chiron) have been direct, that began February 4th. This is really a long period of all planets direct, longest that I can remember. We are still gathering data as to what that means. What I do know is that just as retrograde motion is not dualistically “bad”, likewise all planets direct is not necessarily “good”. Using the approach our school takes, there is at least a three day period of Plutonian intensity Pluto is stationary retrograde or stationary direct. The same situation happens with the yearly solar conjunction, opposition, and quadratures with Pluto. Certainly this adds a Plutonian flavor also to amplify the Solar Eclipse. Not to be forgotten is that the retrograde turning of Pluto brings it back to the next exact conjunction with the United States Pluto on July 9-10th.
With all the understandable attention on the beauty and evocative power of the four planets in the morning sky, meanwhile Mercury has risen in the evening sky, now a good 22degrees clear of the Sun. Mercury has recently entered Gemini, its favorite place to be! This also happens to be Mercury’s finest evening apparition of Mercury in 2022 for the Northern Hemisphere. In the current Mercury synodic Capricorn over-story, this is the Hermetic phase. Mercury remains in the evening sky at least until May 10, then turning retrograde and soon descending into a metamorphic initiatory process which leads up to a new synodic over-story (which will be Taurus).
All in all, it’s such a special time to be with the visible planets and to receive their transmissions.