If variety is the spice of life, then we’re in for a saucy week. Personal planets Mars and Venus will make their way into progressive Aquarius and social Gemini, Mercury and Neptune will meet up in Pisces, and Jupiter will join forces with Pluto in ambitious Capricorn, adding further reverberations to January’s Saturn Pluto conjunction. On the one hand, the year’s established Capricorn and Pisces patterns are resurfacing. On the other, we are assuredly breaking new ground.

Appropriately enough, instigative Mars gets the week’s action underway. On Monday the red planet will move into offbeat, ingenious Aquarius. Unconventional methods, radical action and innovative strategies become the new normal when pushy Mars aligns with structuring Saturn in the eccentric air sign. Their conjunction takes place on Tuesday, and has implications far and wide. Mars will transit Aquarius through May 13th and Saturn until July 1st (and then from December 2020 through March 2023). Newly freed from red tape and regulations, Mars and Saturn will strut their scientific and technological stuff.

On Friday Venus will also move from an introspective earth sign to an outgoing air sign, when she heads into tech-savvy Gemini. Here, she’s highly compatible with Mars and Saturn in Aquarius, and in fact trines Saturn on Saturday. Her presence adds a little more wind to the astrological sails, and may provide a few hints about good long-term investments. However, Gemini is where this money planet is due for her next retrograde. I’ll cover that in depth next week, when Venus enters the retrograde’s shadow zone. Friday is also when Mercury meets Neptune in Pisces. In its highest expression, Pisces embodies the virtues of integral living. It grasps the big picture and moves through the world with endless empathy and compassion. In its lowest, its penchants for addiction, escapism and deception are ruinous. After spending much of its recent retrograde in Pisces, Mercury’s meeting with Neptune will feel very familiar. However, because the speedy planet never originally caught up to Neptune, this will actually be the first time that they meet this year. On Saturday Piscean dreams are met with the blunt force of a Jupiter Pluto conjunction in Capricorn

Keeping it real is Capricorn’s job, and favorite past time. The cardinal earth sign is also the realm of governments, institutions and banking. Jupiter expands and Pluto purifies and reforms. This conjunction is the first of three in 2020. The next one will take place on June 30th, when we’re emerging from the Venus retrograde, and the final one is on Nov 12th, following the US Presidential Election. During that time, various economic stimulus packages will have rolled out into the real world. Those future dates may indicate further iterations of these packages or more challenges to economic systems. Austere Capricorn, where the Jupiter Pluto conjunction takes place, is ruled by responsible, ringed Saturn. So, like most of 2020, we’re continuing to negotiate between boundless Pisces and Saturn’s limits. The week concludes under a practical Virgo moon. Big banks may ask what’s in your wallet. Virgo knows what’s in the pantry. Like Capricorn and Saturn, the mutable earth sign brings us right down to earth and into the here and now. Its clarity informs our plans and its calm our daily routines. From its serene, organized frame of mind, we take our next steps.

Early Tuesday morning there is a new Moon in Aries. New moons occur each month when the Sun and Moon meet at the same point under the same zodiac sign. They present a time to reflect on the unique qualities of that sign and to set out intentions for the new cycle. Aries is astrology’s energizer bunny. Its boundless effervescence infuses us with enthusiasm, courage and motivation. With aggressive Mars as its ruling planet, the cardinal fire boldly initiates and asserts. Importantly, this is also the first new Moon of the new astrological year. While many will feel as if they are trapped in the malaise of coronavirus effects, others will recognize the special burst of vitality inherent in this new Moon. They will look at the changed landscape and find the new opportunities revealing themselves. Those people will find confirmation for their positive outlook and actions as the week progresses.

On Thursday the Moon moves into sturdy Taurus. Taurus is astrology’s fixed earth sign. Resources, finances and raw materials are within its abundant domain. The Taurus Moon will make constructive connections with the planets in endeavoring Capricorn. It will also receive boosts from Uranus and Venus, also presently in Taurus. While the Moon transits this sign, money planets Venus and Jupiter will form a very lucky trine late Friday night. On Saturday night Venus will forge the same positive alliance with powerful Pluto. That one takes place just minutes after a very friendly trine between the then Gemini Moon and Saturn, in futuristic, progress-oriented Aquarius. This Moon Saturn angle suggests agreement on ideas and scientific solutions. Finally, on Sunday Mercury moves beyond the shadow of its last retrograde. Mercury entered the shadow zone in early February, and the confusing, infiltrating energies of Pisces, where much of that retrograde was spent, have hugely influenced the COVID-19 story. Knowing about these fortunate, forthcoming aspects gives more meaning to Tuesday’s new Aries Moon. Winter is lifting its heavy cloak, the Pisces cycle is largely behind us, and the time for planting new seeds has arrived.

It’s not often that I describe weekly astrological happenings as blockbusters. But we’re definitely living through historic events, and this week is filled with important happenings in the sky. They include the Sun’s shift into invigorating Aries, Saturn’s move into innovative Aquarius and a Mars/Jupiter/Pluto collab in enterprising Capricorn. Throw in a couple of sextiles involving Uranus and Neptune, on the day Mars meets Pluto, and yes, it’s a big week. Unfortunately it begins with Mercury leaving the quick, clear thinking of scientific Aquarius and heading back into befuddling, muddling Pisces. Yuck! Happily, this is Mercury’s final pass through the mutable water sign, where the Messenger planet has spent nearly two months, including its recent retrograde. In cahoots with oceanic Neptune and a Pisces Sun, the waves of confusion emitted by this bunch have grown to titanic proportions. Thankfully, Mercury leaves Pisces for good on April 10th, and this week also starts with the moon moving into pragmatic, industrious Capricorn. That’s where a league of planets have been valiantly working to keep businesses open, workers employed or compensated when self-quarantining, medical systems operating and economies moving, despite the outbreak of a pandemic. The forces in Capricorn will prevail throughout the week via the moon’s occupation of Cap through Wednesday night and more significantly, via a powerhouse Mars, Jupiter and Saturn combo from Friday through Sunday.

While the Capricorn contingent is working to support infrastructure, the Sun will head into bold, enlivening Aries on Thursday, for a month-long-stay, and Saturn will venture into experimental Aquarius on Saturday, where it will be through early July. The “get her done” ethos of Aries will be the perfect antidote to Pisces paralysis. Aries motivates us to take action. Sometimes its independent and decisive tactics are viewed as inconsiderate or insensitive. But the blast of energy it brings to matters both clears fog and is well suited to Saturn’s foray into inquisitive, outlying Aquarius. Both Aries and Aquarius value freedom, and neither finds the approval of the herd necessary. After over a year of planets predominantly being in the yin water and earth signs, this week’s changes will bring a welcome breath of fresh cosmic air.

The week closes with Mercury sextiling Uranus, Venus sextiling Neptune and Mars combining forces with Pluto, under a Pisces moon. This looks like the expression of further iterations of the systemic issues that COVID-19 has begun unearthing. Translation, more government action will be taken to combat the virus and to stabilize economies and markets. So, while the week begins and ends with the familiar Pisces Capricorn mixture, noteworthy shifts by the Sun and Saturn prompt a push into new territory and towards scientific and technological solutions.