April and Aries

Let's look at the transits to my chart for 10:30am on April 16th 2026. The activity in Aries in intense as Figure 1 shows:

Figure 1

Figure 2 focuses on the planetary positions:

Figure 2

We see the following transiting aspects:

• Sun and Chiron conjunct my natal North Node
• Moon and Saturn conjunct in 7 degrees of Aries
• Mercury and Neptune conjunct my natal Mercury
• Uranus conjunct my natal Moon

It's certainly a busy time, certainly for the world and possibly also for me. I guess the Uranus conjunction to my natal Moon is most concerning. When Uranus stationed on my Ascendant in late July of 2016, my gall bladder died. At least this time, the planet is not stationing but it's still a concern.

Coming Mars Transits

I won't divulge the details of this "accident" that was quite trivial in the grand scheme of things but it could have proven very embarrassing had there been witnesses. Fortunately there weren't and so it remains my little secret. However, it was a salutary reminder of my increasing age and the consequent physical decline. I thought it might be interesting to look at the astrological configuration at the time of the "accident". This was around 10am on August 2nd 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

What struck me was the almost exact square between transiting Mars in 26º55' of Virgo and my natal Uranus in 26º52' of Gemini. Transiting Mars is on the cusp of the sixth house which is appropriate enough. Given the minor nature of the event, only fast moving transits need be considered and so Mars qualifies in that regard.

I tend to neglect Martian transits because the aspects that they form to natal planets are usually short-lived but this incident reminds me that they can produce "results". I'll try to monitor my Martian transits more closely, especially when Uranus is involved. Talking of which, Mars will oppose the transiting Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries on August 7th. Mars will just have entered Aries. This is the day that I'm having my potential skin cancer excised. This will involve cutting (Mars) into the skin (Saturn) with an element of mystery (Neptune) involved because it's undecided if it is cancerous. Only a subsequent pathology examination will reveal that. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

By the time I get my results on August 21st, Mars will be in 8º50' of Aries and thus almost exactly opposite my natal Mars-Venus conjunction in Aries. Transiting Mercury will be in 9º46' of Leo and so it will aspect both ends of the opposition. Transiting Venus in 24º25' of Cancer will be exactly square my Ascendant-Descendant. See Figure 3. 

Figure 3

Neptune and Saturn Stationing

Figure 1

Today, Sunday the 18th of May 2025, we have (see Figure 1):

• transiting Sun (27º25') conjunct transiting Uranus (27º18'), very close to my natal Moon (29º25' Taurus)
• transiting Venus (12º22') conjunct my natal Sun (12º47' Aries) and closing
• transiting Mars (13º51') conjunct my natal Pluto (14º16' Leo) and closing
• transiting Chiron (25º01') conjunct my Ascendant (24º27' Aries) and separating 
• transiting Moon passing through my 10th House
• transiting Jupiter (24º56') is conjunct my natal Uranus (26º22' Gemini) and closing

Overall it's an active time with a lot more activity coming as Saturn moves into Aries in a little over a week and comes closer to transiting Neptune. Ceres (0º25') has already entered Aries and will team up with Saturn and Neptune is a stellium that is right on my natal Mercury. 

The midpoint of transiting Chiron and Jupiter is close to both transiting Uranus and my natal Moon. If there is to be a health crisis, then I'm trying to look at precipitating factors. So far I've focused mainly on the exact conjunction of Uranus with my Moon in late June but this is just the first of three contacts, the others occurring in November of 2025 and April of 2026. There are no stations of Uranus on my natal Moon similar to the station of Uranus on my Ascendant when I had my gall bladder crisis.

Looking at planets stationing on sensitive points of my chart, I have Neptune turning stationary retrograde in 2º10' of Aries on July 5th of 2025 (see Figure 2). Soon after this, on July 14th, Saturn will turn stationary and so this might be the critical time period for some crisis: July 5th to July 14th. I hadn't noticed this before but now that I have, I can't un-notice it.

Figure 2

With the involvement of Mercury, any health crisis would likely be neurological or pulmonary. Natal Mercury and natal Uranus are in a square aspect in my chart, although the separation is about 5º22'.

Revisiting Astrotheme

I decided to revisit the online astrology site Astrotheme. It had been a while since my last visit. I discovered that there were only two charts stored there: my own and Sabina's. Since I lost a lot of stored charts in a computer crash, I took to storing astrological data on Airtable, along with screenshots of the charts. It's better than nothing but not terribly useful without an the accompanying astrology hardware.

I'm allowed to store 200 charts on Astrotheme which is far more than I'll ever need so I thought it would make sense to store all my astrological data there where it's not likely to be lost and where it can be instantly made use of. It's just somewhat tedious to enter all the data but it's a project worth completing and should prove very useful in the longterm. 

Figure 1 shows the display for today's transits to my natal chart.

Figure 1: transits to my chart for June 20th 2024

The exact degrees and minutes of the positions of the planets can be displayed by hovering over the glypth. Using the zoom feature makes these coordinates visible as I later discovered. Having the charts of family and friends online and readily accessible might encourage me to post more often to this blog. I have only made four posts this year, including this current one.

So what's coming up for me in the near future? Well, on July 16th transiting Mars and Uranus will be conjunct in 26°20' of Taurus, about three degrees from my natal Moon. This may exacerbate my already delicate physical condition. Figure 2 shows the configuration.

Figure 2: transits to my chart for July 16th 2024

Another possibly significant event involves Chiron. It is currently moving forward through Aries but it will station and turn retrograde in 23°32', very close to my Ascendant in 24°29'. With an orbital period of over 50 years, this is the second time that Chiron has approached my Ascendant. The station occurs around July 26th of 2024. Given that this astrological body is often described as the wounded healer, this might be time where I undertake some much needed self healing or where I receive some healing from an outside party. 

No astrological software quite compares to Astrolog and I do have it still running on my old Macbook Pro that I have connected to the TV. It will not run on my Macbook Air M1 and I am still trying to get it run on my Raspberry Pi 400. However, it's important that I persevere with adding all relevant charts to Astrotheme where they are accessible from any device with an Internet connection.

Betrayal

I received some interesting news this evening from afar that had an emotional impact on me and is appropriately reflected in my chart. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

We see transiting Mercury in 25°41' of Sagittarius conjunct the transiting Moon in 24°05'. Both are opposite my natal Uranus in 26°52' of Gemini and trine my Ascendant. This opposition is across the 3rd and 9th houses, appropriate given the geography. It's no big deal and life goes on but the betrayal rankles and will never be forgotten. I've made excuses for this person's behaviour in the past but not anymore.

Neptune into Aries

Looking ahead to July of 2025, I noticed that Neptune turns stationary retrograde in 2°10' of Aries, right on my natal Mercury. However, transiting Saturn is also conjunct in 1°52' of Aries. Transiting Ceres in 12°55' of Aries is conjunct my natal Sun and transiting Chiron in 26°52' of Aries is conjunct the North Node of my Moon. Furthermore, transiting Uranus in 29°53' of Taurus is conjunct my natal Moon with transiting Venus close by in 0°10' of Gemini. Pluto in 3°03' of Aquarius is in sextile aspect to the Saturn-Neptune reaction.

This promises to be an intense time and what it presages I'm not sure. Perhaps my powers of communication (Mercury) will be affected. After all the Saturn/Neptune conjunction is aspecting the Uranus/Venus conjunction on the cusp of the Second House. Pluto promises it may be transformational. This is purely speculative so I'll have to wait and see.

Figure 1 shows a chart cast to the time that Neptune turns stationary retrograde.

Figure 1

By that date I'll be 76 years old and one can't help but wonder if this configuration could portend my end. That's clearly a worse case scenario. Looking at Desy's chart, it can be seen that the Saturn-Neptune conjunction sits right on her Ascendant. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

Whatever happens will clearly affect her as well. Many of these aspects will be ongoing. For example, Saturn and Neptune will again be conjunct in 0°45' of Aries in late February of 2026 while Uranus will continue to hover around my natal Moon. See Figure 3.

Figure 3

I get the feeling that whatever happens it will be ongoing. With Neptune already on the cusp of my twelfth house, the prospect of some sort of Neptunian healing has been playing on my mind. Chiron, the wounded healer, is currently transiting my twelfth house and will remain there for some time. The injunction, "physician heal thyself", is relevant as my thymoma remains an ongoing problem and I'd certainly like to cure myself of that affliction.

I've dabbled in finding a cure before or at least diagnosing why the problem had arisen in the first place. In November of 2021, I asked the following question:

Why did my thymus gland malfunction in the first place and create my current thymoma?

You have a hollow heart and you're trying to fill up the gap that has been created. The thymus gland is associated with the Heart Chakra, a centre of unconditional love and forgiveness. Since a falling out with a family member a couple of years back I've been containing a lot of resentment and anger. In a sense, I've been hollowing out my heart and ridding it of compassion and understanding for the family member concerned. 

This answer suggested some sort of meditation but I never took action of any kind to fill my "hollow heart" with "compassion and understanding". Perhaps it's time that I did. The practice of meditation has also been shown to be helpful in improving remote viewing proficiency, something else that I've recently become interested in. 

Neptune has a period of revolution of 165 years and so this is the first time that Neptune has been on the cusp of my twelfth house. In my natal chart, Neptune is strongly aspecting my Sun and Mars/Venus conjunction by opposition. I've always been interested in mysticism and spirituality and so Neptune's passage through this house will likely see a burgeoning of my interest and understanding of such matters.

August 19th 2021

For various reasons, the date of August 19th 2021 has been playing on my mind but today I just drew up a chart for the mid-morning of that date in Jakarta, at a time when the Ascendant is conjunct the South Node of my natal Moon. It's an interesting chart in itself because every planet is involved in an aspect of one sort or another, with many overlapping interactions. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

It's only a transient chart with the Moon moving especially fast but for the time of 9:35am, Mars and Mercury are almost exactly conjunct in terms of both latitude and longitude (12°47' v 12°44' and 0°59'N v 0°55N respectively). These two planets are in a grand trine with the Moon and Uranus. 

There is an interesting YOD-type pattern formed between the Sun, Moon, Jupiter and Chiron. It's not strictly speaking a YOD because that involves two quincunx (150°) aspects and a sextile (60°) whereas here the two aspects are sesquiquadrate (135°) and the other aspect is a square (90°). 

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of it all. The date is not far off.

Chiron Station

Figure 1 shows the transits affecting my chart on July 15th 2021. What caught my attention initially was that yesterday transiting Chiron stationed in 12°56' Aries and today it has turned retrograde. It will station again in 8°26' Aries on December 19th 2021. See the post on my Astrology blog titled A Closer Look at Chiron that was created in anticipation of Chiron's entry into Aries on April 17th 2018. Chiron spends about eight years in Aries but only about 1.5 years in Libra.

Figure 1

There are other activity that I've also marked in Figure 1. These are:

• Sun approaching my IC in about three days
• Ceres in very close semi-sextile aspect to my Ascendant
• Uranus exactly square my natal Pluto
• Jupiter retrograding toward an exact opposition to my natal Saturn in late July
• Mars and Venus separating after their exact conjunction a few days ago

Pluto of course hovers over my MC and will be doing so for quite some time.

Gromit's Passing

My dog, Gromit, passed away shortly after midnight on July 12th 2021. Figure 1 my birth chart with the planetary transits superimposed and drawn up for 12:01am in Jakarta:

Figure 1

Pluto, conjunct my MC, dominates my chart at the moment just as it did when my brother passed away on June 8th of this year. The area around my Ceres-Pluto conjunction is quite active with the Moon, Venus and Mars all close. Mars and Venus will be exactly conjunct tomorrow and I wrote about this conjunction in my previous post. Other transits also affect this area, including:

• transiting Saturn opposite natal Ceres
• transiting Uranus square natal Pluto
• transiting Chiron square natal Ceres-Pluto
• transiting Moon trine natal Mars-Venus and natal Chiron

In fact, natal Chiron in the eighth house forms a transient but near perfect Grand Trine with the transiting Moon and my natal Mars-Venus (with transiting Chiron conjunct my natal Sun and very near my natal Mars-Venus).

Progressed Moon Crosses MidHeaven

Looking at my progressed chart, I notice that my Moon will soon cross the MC, on December 22nd 2020 to be exact. Previous crossings occurred on August 4th of 1993 and March 28th of 1966. The time periods surrounding these earlier dates are quite significant to me. 

The 1966 date marked my final year of high school. I was about to begin "my ascent" in the world, climbing a mountain whose summit was shrouded in clouds. I wasn't sure what route to take but I was beginning the ascent. 

The 1993 date is around the middle of what was a transformative year for me on many levels. In terms of my worldly ascent, I had climbed as high as I was going to climb. I was the computer coordinator at a high school in Australia and later I would be the computer coordinator at high schools in Singapore, Jakarta and Shanghai. The settings were different but the role was the same. I was happy with what I had achieved but in 1993 I realised that it was the spiritual ascent that was really important. By August of 1993, I had accepted Meher Baba as the Avatar and my spiritual ascent was beginning.

It's interesting to speculate what this forthcoming December crossing will herald. Perhaps my ascent to the astral plane as I leave this tired old body behind. Probably not however, as I feel I have a few more years left in me. What then? Well, for five years I've pretty much just amused myself doing whatever I felt like intellectually. I've relished the permanent release from the grind of the school year but lately I feel that I've plateaued. I'm ready for something different but I don't know what.

Interestingly, transiting Saturn is rapidly approaching my MC. Like the progressed Moon, this should be the last time that Saturn crosses my MC during my lifetime, unless I live to be close to 100. Figure 1 shows the October 30th 2020 contact.

Figure 1

Perhaps this imminent contact will give me a clue as to what I should do, or maybe it will be done for me. Naturally, I'll return to this post in the future once I've realised the impact that the progressed Moon has had on me. That's the idea of this blog, titled AstroWatch because I intend to watch the astrological aspects affecting my own chart and that of others. For each post, I will add an addendum at a later date, reflecting on the impact that the aspects have had.

ADDENDUM: January 12th 2020

It's too early to gauge the impact of the progressed Moon's crossing of my MC. However, on March 7th 2021, it will reach the position of my natal Jupiter in 28°47' of Capricorn and on May 15th 2021 it will reach the position of my progressed Jupiter in 1°15'R of Capricorn. What happened at the very end of 2020 is that my visa was been renewed until 19th February 2022. That was a relief and it means that I'm free to concentrate on whatever I want to. I've made a New Year's resolution (see this blog post). The resolutions were to improve:

• my guitar skills
• my Indonesian language competency
• my exercise regime