April is a reawakening. Under winter snow, the deadfall decomposed, giving way to nutrient-rich soil for new flowers and budding trees to flourish. With the increased daylight, you might be feeling a little more optimistic, a little more energized. Or, like T.S. Eliot, the spring might bring up deep grief. 

In The Waste Land, Eliot writes “April is the cruelest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain.” It’s hard to justify feeling sad, lonely, or heartbroken when the world seems to be streaming with joy. It’s painful to navigate loss when it’s juxtaposed with abundance. But there’s space for whatever you may be feeling this month. Whether you feel excited about the shifting seasons or this new cycle brings up mixed feelings, there are plenty of opportunities to find supportive energy in the coming astrological transits.  

April begins with a New Moon in Aries on the 1st, where it meets up with a conjunction between the Sun and Mercury. This New Moon might feel less emotional and more passionate and creative. It may be easier to communicate your vision and connect with your goals and desires. You’ll have an easier time getting clarity on what you want out of life. It’s a great time to figure out how you want to live more fully. What feels juicy, freeing, exciting, and authentic to you? How can you cultivate these feelings on a more regular basis? This lunation invites you to wear your heart on your sleeve. Take pride in your tenderness and longing. It’s both brave and terrifying to love life, even when things are difficult. This is a great moment to embrace your expansiveness and joie de vivre–a sense of the joy of living. 

Mars will travel through Aquarius this month while Venus ends its time in Aquarius and moves through Pisces. The clarity that you might have on the New Moon will get a little hazy for the rest of the month. To hold onto it, you’ll need to connect with your intuition and intellect. Venus in Pisces makes space for heavy feelings, particularly feelings of hopelessness about society and that longing for a less cruel world. Venus desires comfort, beauty, and harmony while Pisces represents the deeper truths of the human condition and symbolizes utopia and possibility. This transit is like a child’s heart, which has the capacity to see both the wonder of life and its horror. This episode of On Being, featuring children’s author Kate DiCamillo, is good medicine for moving through Venus in Pisces. 

Mars in Aquarius has us looking for practical solutions and actionable steps to get to where we want to go. Researching and learning provide a foundation for action at this time. These activities might also help you regain a sense of control as dreamy Venus in Pisces might leave you feeling a little groundless. Mars in Aquarius is the kite string keeping Venus in Pisces tethered to reality. Mars will be in conjunction with Saturn on April 4th. The transit invites us to set boundaries around what we’re actually responsible for. While collective action can truly move mountains, it’s important to remember that you alone cannot solve the whole world’s problems. Focus on keeping your little corner of society neat and tidy. Be as loving and gentle as you can, stand up for what’s right, but don’t overburden yourself with worrying about things you simply do not have the power to change. 

When Mars joins Venus in Pisces on the 14th, there will also be a conjunction between Jupiter and Neptune in the sign. With four planets stacked up here, you might be drawn back into some of the themes that you moved through in late February and March. Once again, the focus is on the psychic realm, expanding our intuition, and getting familiar with disruption. Neptune is the planet of long-term undercurrents and intergenerational emotional echoes. Since it’s so slow-moving, Neptune’s placement influences entire generations and connects us to a timeline much larger than our short lifespans. Jupiter helps us grow and experience all that life has to offer in its fullness. Remember that the only constant is change and that we were built to handle a life of struggle and uncertainty: your heart can handle this life, no matter what it throws at you. 

On the 16th, a Full Moon in Libra puts more focus on the conversation between Venus and Pisces, as Libra is ruled by Venus. During this Full Moon, you might want to focus on aesthetic catharsis. Take yourself shopping or to a museum or gallery. Indulge in beauty, celebrate with self-care that makes you look and feel pretty. Beauty is always available to us, even when we feel the heaviness of being human. 

As the month comes to a close, the Sun moves into Taurus, and there’s a New Moon eclipse on the 30th in the sign. At that point, Mercury will have been in Taurus since the 10th, but will head into Gemini the day before on the 29th. There will be a sense of coming back down to earth. You might feel more in your body, more whole and certain. Go put your feet in the earth, hug a tree, list five things you noticed nature doing every day. Ground into what gives you support and cultivate the activities and relationships that make you feel like you have a stable foundation under your feet.

Keagan is a writer, tarot reader, and astrologer. Find her on Instagram @moonsingemini to book a reading. Subscribe to her monthly tarotscope newsletter here.