Star Tracks - Weekly Horoscope for the Week of April 28, 2025

Venus steals the show as Pluto smolders - this is your weekly horoscope for the week of April 28, 2025: We all need some quiet time after last week’s abundance of angry, fixed energy, so Venus comes in this week to soothe our nerves. She quietly reenters Aries mid-week, and meets up with big brother Neptune for the first of many conjunctions in their new, fiery home. Pluto spends the week at a complete standstill, turning retrograde this weekend. The Moon is waxing towards her full phase this week. She’s still in Taurus through Monday, but slips into Gemini overnight on Tuesday. She reaches home sign Cancer early Thursday morning, and gets to Leo just in time for Saturday morning cartoons. 

Read on for more detailed planetary aspects. All times listed are based on the USA Eastern Time Zone.

Wednesday, April 30, 2025 - Venus enters Aries (1:16 p.m.)

In what can only be described as anticlimactic at this point, Venus (re)enters Aries today, yet again. Normally, any planet moving into Aries brings excitement, and signifies the start of a new cycle; but we are still wrapping up a months-long Venus retrograde. So this move, while indicative of at least some progress, really isn’t all that special this year. Nevertheless, it’s an important piece of a still-unfolding Venus retrograde puzzle, so let’s recap: Venus got all the way to 10° Aries by the end of February, before reversing direction on March 1st and hightailing it back to Pisces. She spun direct at 24° Pisces a couple of weeks ago, and now she’s moving back into Aries for good. She won’t clear her shadow for another couple of weeks; but by this point, many of her retrograde lessons should be evident. For the past couple of months, Venus-themed issues like love, money and relating have all benefited from more compassion and sensitivity. Maybe her dip back into Pisces encouraged you to reconnect with your deepest core values. Maybe it even muddied the waters a bit. With her move back into Aries, we are being called to refocus on self. Take what you learned while Venus swam through selfless Pisces, and consider how you can use those lessons to further your own cause now. Fortune smiles on the bold.

Friday, May 2, 2025 - Venus conjunct Neptune (1° Aries)

Newly initiated into Aries, Venus makes a conjunction to big brother Neptune today. This is her third and final conjunction with Neptune - because of her retrograde, she met up with him at the end of Pisces twice already (February 1 and March 27). Today sees them connecting for the first time in Aries, which changes the flavor of the conjunction quite significantly. Both Venus and Neptune enjoy heightened strength in Pisces, so for the better part of the last two decades, their annual conjunctions have been super idealistic. In Aries, however, neither is particularly favored; in fact, Venus is quite tired here. Thus, while it is always lovely to have higher and lower octaves unite, these two aren’t totally sure what their mission is here, just yet. And it could take some time before they settle in and figure it out. The universal love they were striving for in Pisces simply has no place in Aries, which is a sign that is known for being more than a little self-centered. So, maybe the time has come for everyone to stop putting the needs of the collective ahead of themselves for a little while? Or maybe it’s time to get really clear about spiritual goals that are actually sustainable, and don’t involve simply bleeding out energetically for others all the time. No worries if it still feels unclear, we have 14 more iterations of this conjunction between now and 2039 to figure it all out. 

Sunday, May 4, 2025 - Pluto turns retrograde (11:27 a.m. at 3°49’ Aquarius)

Having wreaked havoc upon us all of last week (and possibly this week as well, since  a stationed Pluto is a turbulent Pluto), our Lord of the Underworld turns retrograde this morning, just shy of 4° Aquarius. This is the first time that Pluto’s retrograde cycle won’t carry him back into Capricorn - this whole shebang goes down in Aquarius, so the lesson is more contained than it has been for several years now. And what is that lesson? Glad you asked! Pluto is our greatest agent of transformation; thus, when he retrogrades, we are asked to push pause on all of the changes we’ve been making, and to enter into a period of reflection about those changes. What’s working? What isn’t? Have we become more authentic versions of ourselves? Have we allowed our shadow to dominate? Are we rightly oriented to our own personal power? Have we become tyrannical or, worse, are we entirely too liberal in our thinking? In Aquarius, we are meant to consider these questions against the backdrop of communal responsibility and technological breakthroughs. Pluto operates on a large scale, so expect to see these themes play out on the world stage. But, if you have planets in range of the affected degrees (he will backtrack down to 1° Aquarius between now and mid-October), you can bet that they’ll manifest in your lived reality as well. You have 5+ months to see how it goes - Pluto turns direct on October 13, 2025.

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