Aries Solar Eclipse: Ignition
- Liv Woodford
- Mar 13
- 13 min read
Updated: Mar 29
Your past is not your potential.
In any hour you can choose
to liberate the future.
Marilyn Ferguson
·
The Partial Solar Eclipse on March 29, 2025 at 9 Aries opens the door to a new era – one we have felt coming but haven’t yet been able to touch or define.
Many of us have felt like we are in a holding pattern and the eclipse now marks the point where we begin to disembark from the life we have known and move towards the flame of the new paradigm that has been lit. All of 2025, but especially around this eclipse, we will see big and permanent endings as humanity closes out a cycle (Neptune and Saturn in Pisces). The Aries eclipse is the first of a series of astrological influences that will catapult us into transformative change and awaken a pioneering spirit that will give shape to the new era.
The eclipse provides us with the inner strength to adapt to the changes.. Moving from our center, we are to act from authenticity and self-trust. We are being pushed to take a leap in the faith we have of ourself to meet what is now arriving. We have been healing issues of trust (Chiron in Aries 2018 - 2026) and rather than looking outside to appointed leaders, institutions or best practices, we are to find our confidence to trust in our instincts to navigate the great uncertainty and great possibility that accompany change. Prior experience or accumulated knowledge may be insufficient in helping us discern the best way forward as events and changes pick up speed. In other words, we are to trust our gut and go, to not overthink or stew on things, but to keep moving forward and just do things as we feel the impulse.
You are reading this post after the exact moment of the eclipse. This is okay, because it is over the next day that we can finally access what is newly open to us that wasn’t before. And this access will only build and take shape over the next weeks and months as it roots itself in our life and our culture.
Aries is the start of the zodiac. Planets and eclipses that happen here announce the beginning of cycles. The eclipse is the initiatory point not only for what will be birthed this year, but heralds what will be birthed in a new 30 year cycle (when Saturn comes to Aries the end of May) and a new 162 year cycle (when Neptune arrives in Aries the day after the eclipse). It is the first time Saturn and Neptune have been together in Aries since 500 AD, which tells us that what is beginning is unlike any other beginning we have experienced in our lifetime. There is a new confidence rising within us coupled by a rising clarity about what matters most to us and what we will dedicate ourself to seeing through. We may be surprised in the coming weeks and months by some things we have cherished that no longer hold our gaze or interest and by what is arising to take its place. And perhaps equally as surprised by the fighting and pioneering spirit that comes alive in us to meet the new day.
Eclipse Ruler: Mars square Chiron
Kite Pattern: Uranus at apex with Mars, Saturn, North Node, Venus, Neptune and oppose Vesta
From Water to Fire
Mercury Retrograde conjunct the Eclipse
Venus Retrograde conjunct Neptune and the North Node.
Neptune in last hours of Pisces and its arrival at 0 Aries.
The house where 9 Aries resides in our natal chart points to the area of life we can expect a radical, surprising and enlivening new beginning. It also marks the point where we need to create closure and say goodbye to certain ways of operating. Those of us with planets between 7 and 11 degrees of cardinal signs (Libra, Capricorn, Aries, Cancer), may experience the invitation of this eclipse with added intensity.
The Solar Eclipse occurs on a New Moon that is conjoined the nodal axis. The New Moon is an optimal time each month to set an intention for what we will initiate and grow for the coming month. Both the New Moon in Aries and the Solar Eclipse further amplify the New Moon so that it becomes a moment for a seismic shift that carries us in a new direction.
As soon as you trust yourself,
you will know how to live.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Stay True to Ourself
Eclipse Ruler: Mars -
Mars in Cancer reminds us to stay true to our humanity - that we to stay connected to our feelings and honor our needs. We have recently emerged from a journey with the Mars Retrograde that slowed us down from moving forward so we could identify and give attention to ways we can reinvigorate ways we daily nurture ourself.
We are to be better aware of when we feel emotionally frozen or overwhelmed and to have practices in place for how to effectively meet and respond to so that we can integrate the changes and stay moving forward. It is now all about moving forward while also being mindful to tend to our needs so that we do not get depleted, discouraged or disconnected from ourselves.
Old fears may surface with the eclipse (Mars square Chiron). We may recognize how we they no longer have the hold they used to. We can better put into place practices that call forth our courage and inner strength as a way to dissipate the fear. As the Eclipse ruler, Mars emphasizes that we are to first and foremost trust ourselves and counsels that it is through honoring our personal needs that this trust will grow and deepen. Otherwise, the high Aries energy that will characterize the rest of this year can propel us into dynamic action that cannot be sustained. If we are to go the distance, and not exhaust ourself, than we are to moderate our energy and let the wisdom and messages that arise form our body help inform our pace and where to best put our attention.
We have What it Takes
Kite Pattern: Uranus at apex sextile Mars, Saturn, North Node, Venus, Neptune and oppose Vesta
We are ready for change. Uranus is breaking up rigidity and illusions we have been living under. It is as if we have been sleepwalking or numb and the changes happening are waking us up! Somewhere within, we recognize that we did not incarnate to create a stable and predictable life that we can control. As comfortable as that may be, we recognize that deep within we long to tend the fires of transformative change (Vesta in Scorpio oppose Uranus) so that we become enlivened and that are passion is ignited– so we can grow and expand and create and explore and evolve.
All planets involved in the Kite are in water signs, except Uranus. Uranus, the planet of change, is in Taurus, an earth sign. Earth represents stability, resources, finances. Uranus in Taurus says that the stability we have created is either holding us back or is not sustainable and that we are to be willing to let go of what we has been created in order to find a new way. The Kite pattern lets us know that we have it within us to find that way.
Water Cleanses, Fire Initiates
Multiple planets in both Pisces (Water) and in Aries (Fire)
It is a time of closure and release as some aspects of our life are being washed away. We are to do the work to release old wounds, let go of dreams that will not bear fruit, end relationships that keep us tied to the past, or disengage from activities or circumstances that have outlived their purpose. It is much like shedding old skins, so that the new can emerge. In recent months, my newsletters have repeatedly spoken of endings and beginnings and the Eclipse is the moment where the new life begins to reveal itself. In many ways, we have not been able to envision the future because it will not resemble what we know or how we have lived. And now, it is dawning, and with this we can begin to feel, intuit, smell it...though it may be some time before we see the shape it takes for us.
With so many planets in water, the ignition of the powerful fire energy is slower to take off. We may be feeling especially sensitive and emotional, tired or confused. We are feeling connected with everything around us, seen and unseen. Powerful insights are possible. We are truly straddling to worlds, two ways of living and step by step cutting ourself loose from old patterns, habits and lifestyle choices that will not remain once we have walked through the door that has just opened into our future. It is still vital that we take time to grieve, release, and psychologically integrate what is leaving our life.
Moving from Water to Fire. The last few years have been marked by Pisces, encouraging us to develop sensitivity, compassion and trust in the divine. The fire energy of Aries that is being ignited, is markedly different. It calls us to undertake the hero's journey; to exercise boldness and initiative; too be fearless and unapologetic; and, to o act on impulse without deliberation, diplomacy or seeking agreement from others. We are to push away the shore of what we know and set a course to explore, pioneer and discover. 2025 is the crossover year, where we are experiencing the impulse of both water and fire. Yet, with the eclipse, the fire is being fed and is growing.
Moving from Pisces to Aries, is like leaving the womb (Pisces) and being newly born (Aries). The umbilical cord is cut, separating us from Mother. An individual life and quest beings. Part of what will mark the coming era is a feeling that we can ‘just do things’ without paying attention to norms or to rules. The DOGE is an example of this energy that is sweeping in. Rather than bowing to alliances, allegiances, laws, treaties and documents that have symbolized things we hold sacred, these things will be perceived as something that was made up, and there will be an impulse to make up something else in its place. What was made up will be perceived as not real, or as a fiction. What is real is the action that one wishes to take. Dynamic and spontaneous action taken by those that trust themselves and the vision that is alive in them will reshape the world order and the norms of society.
Mercury Retrograde began its Retrograde at the same place in the sky as the Eclipse: 9 Aries! Mercury, represents our mind, and our capacity to perceive, shape an idea, and communicate a thought. Mercury arrived at this place in the sky, stalled out and moved backward, effectively announcing that before we can understand, shape and articulate the new beginning, there is some reflection, review and contemplation needed.
Mercury Retrograde has returned to 0 Aries, the starting point of all ideas and creations. And yet Mercury, just like Venus which began her retrograde in Aries, will soon slip back into Pisces to focus on how to release what we have outworn and release what we cannot bring with us into the new life. With Mercury at 0 Aries and in Retrograde, mental shifts in our perception can open our minds to new possibilities, thus assisting us in shedding the old paradigm. Our world is changing rapidly, and our mind is undergoing a process to shake off the cobwebs of automatic thinking and to come present to who we are and what is possible.
With Mars Retrograde until April 7, we are cued to not rush forward to act on our impulses or make big declarations, but to stay marinating on thoughts and possibilities so they can more fully be developed. On April 25, Mercury and the Moon will both arrive back at 9 Aries, and we will have greater clarity about the journey we are ready to take. We will begin to define, speak about what the eclipse opened in us and ignited in the collective.
In Pisces: Saturn, Venus and the North Node are moving together towards the 29 degree point currently occupied by Neptune. It is the point of definitive endings. With so many planets arriving at the end point, the end of a cycle, we can expect powerful removals. We can expect historic announcements about what is closing out coming from corporations or governments. Institutions or of leaders may fall. Cultural norms or shared ideals may disappear as if overnight.
We can look to our lives to recognize and release what is ending and not a match for what we will need moving forward. We can look at how to lighten our load whether of outworn beliefs or grudges, commitments that drain us, ideals that have not panned out, or behaviors that compromise our integrity. To round the corner, it is best to be light on our feet and able to flex and move quickly, if needed.
There can be closures or dramatic changes in regards to finances and relationships (Venus conjunct Saturn, North Node). We may be confused, exhausted or in overwhelm. Rather than try to hold on to we have or control the movement forward, we can invest in trusting ourselves. In this way, we can trust the small voice within to know when to shift, when to rest, when to advance, when to listen and when to act.
A New 165 Year Era Beings
Neptune enters Aries March 30, 2025
Neptune move into Aries first time in 165 yrs the day after the Aries Eclipse. This is big stuff! Neptune represents the collective dream. The last 16 years in Pisces marked a time where the collective dream – whether we call it the American Dream or the Democratic Dream, or the Dream of a World Economic Order has expired. So, on March 30 begins the dawn of the new 165-year collective dream.
We can expect seismic shifts in our collective ideals, ideologies, and the way we perceive the divine. The cultural imagination will be fueled and the innovative and creative spirit will take flight. There will be dissatisfaction or disillusionment with the ways we have previously held religious and societal ideals. There will be radical shifts in how we collectively understand spiritual living, and the relationship between the human and the divine.
The next 16 years will give rise to Spiritual (Neptune) Warriors (Aries) that will usher in the new era. There will be a propensity to fight, even give one's life, for one's ideals. We will see messiahs and martyrs. Some will be delusional and others truly inspired. Great leaders will emerge. The next couple years may give rise to tyrannical leadership as well as people in masses rising up to eradicate the source of their oppression (Saturn joining Neptune in Aries, beginning the end of May).
Spiritual ambition can give rise to the grandiosity which gives way to sacrificing or becoming a martyr for a cause. What gives me hope for the world that will be reshaped and redefined in the coming years is that all the outer planets (Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn) form a minor grand trine in the first degrees of a sign for the next two years. This indicates tremendous creativity, innovation which will lead to powerful advances in technology, in human development, and breakthroughs in medicine, in the arts, and in the field of communications. For whatever difficulties we may face, there will be an equal measure of innovation and imagination to create solutions and find a way through. For each of us, we will be opening to new perspectives and have fresh awakenings around who we really are and what we are to do with our lives. We are being instilled with the hope for a future that will help us realize who we can become (Venus conjunct Neptune).
Final Thoughts
As with all new eras, Aries is present to make sure they start up.
The Eclipse heralds a new era ushered as the outer planets shift into new zodiac signs over the next couple months - beginning with both Saturn and Neptune entering Aries. Pluto has already entered Aquarius, helping provide the vision and big picture thinking.
The eclipse is awakening the warrior sprit within us to engage this new era that promises radical new shifts in how we live and understand our life. Deep within humanity there has been a desire for deep change and now that the time has arrived, we can expect it to accompanied by instability, volatility and uncertainty. It is less being thrust upon us and more that we have collectively called it forth. The next few years we need to invest less in trying to stabilize our personal or collective life, look for ways to return to something that worked for us some time before, or dig in our heels and resist the changes. Instead, we are to listen for the adventure that calls us and give ourselves fully to the exploration of the new world and the role we are to play within it.
It is beneficial to open to and embrace the fire element. The water element that invited us to develop and deepen our compassion, empathy, and relationship with the spiritual is falling to the wayside by the end of 2025. What we developed around this in recent years will serve us as we me forward, but we must now turn to growing and developing the fire within us.
It may benefit us to light a candle or a backyard fire and mediate on the fire. When the fire is first lit, watch how it is explosive, fast acting and comes alive with great energy. Watch how it leaps and jumps, how it moves unexpectedly. Then, we can contemplate what we can do to sustain that fire and not have it go out. Feel the warmth of the fire, and how it connects us to our heart and in some way to our courage. Let the fire inspire us!
This new era calls us all to be heroes - to pioneer a new world and fight for what matters most to us. And like the hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell, we can expect that our quest will carry us into unchartered territory where we will encounter not just challenges but also allies. Even the greatest hero does not accomplish anything alone and the people we meet along the way may be kindred spirits that awaken new connections of support and empowerment.
And perhaps the key to the whole hero’s journey is that we undertake it so that we can bring something back to the larger community that it didn't have before. We may initially undertake the journey in response to a call we feel to do something for ourselves, but ultimately success comes if we are doing it to serve something larger than ourselves, and that we seek to be a small part of a movement to create a better world for our children and the ones that will come after us.
Astrology 202: Transits
Four Mondays
7:00 - 8:15 pm EDT
April 14 - May 5, 2025
Do you have a working understanding of the basics of astrology (planets, signs, houses and aspects) and would like to explore techniques that will give insight into how to interpret Transits, planetary influences that can illuminate challenges we will meet now or in the future. Class size is limited to encourage an engaging exploration of how planetary cycles, eclipses and retrogrades can activate a person's innate potential and catalyze change.
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