Leo Horoscope for April 2017

This is a complex month for you Leo. With one part of yourself you will want to be charging ahead with significant priorities on both professional and educational/travel arenas. With other parts of yourself a more conservative approach will be what seems to be indicated, so that you will be faced with a continual and potentially confusing series of choices. In order to navigate this morass most successfully you will be well advised to check with a level of deep intuition within yourself, and this includes getting a better idea of what you most actively want. The retrogrades of both Venus and Mercury as different phases of the month continue to unfold will drive a deeper level of introspection that deserves recognition as this timing evolves. Taking everything as it comes, in acceptance, is essential now, so that it is best to pay the closest possible attention to your own internal knowing, reflecting what inner guidance has to offer.

The following was written by this month's guest columnist and AstroGraph team member Leslie Benson and edited by Henry Seltzer. To learn more about Leslie's work, visit Astrology for Awakening.

April is a month for you of balancing expansion with contraction. You may be feeling ready to break free of limiting thinking or beliefs, and open yourself to the infinite possibilities of the Universe. As the process of this month unfolds you may want to listen carefully to your heart. There could be some level of volatility as you expand your awareness, so that staying connected to your feeling center can help you from getting spun out into unhelpful mind chatter or old stories. The recent Aries New Moon of March 27th began this month’s lunar cycle, and is inviting you to balance and link the expansion of your awareness in with your creative endeavors. You may be finding new ways to channel illuminations and epiphanies through your body and your mind. With Venus in retrograde, it’s likely these fresh energies will show up more in your internal landscape and in terms of how well you know, experience and value yourself. As these things make themselves known to you, it may be a good idea to find practical ways to fully adopt and integrate them into your experience. There’s a way that the principle of structure, perhaps a daily practice, a healing container, or scheduling your time out carefully, can create a stable foundation for the brilliance of your evolving beliefs to be harnessed and utilized. You may wish to take advantage of the times when you are feeling energetically resourced to tend to places within you that cling to limiting beliefs or are afraid in some way. If you expand too quickly, or without pausing to integrate, you may run the risk of “upper-limiting” and crash into deep contraction or fear.

Mercury also heads into retrograde on the 9th, which signals a time to pause and slow down for reflection. Your contributions to the world could also be up for a reevaluation this month, and there could be some course corrections to make with yourself and with others in terms of your public presentation, as this comes into greater alignment with your soul’s intent, and life’s purpose. You may also bump up against some issues with authority that remain within you, or power struggle dynamics. There is a new framework presenting itself to you around your sense of personal power. Your goal may be to find harmony in relating to others as a win-win so that everyone can get their needs met.

Wounding in the realms of intimacy could also crop up this month, especially around the timing of the Libra Full Moon of April 10th. This could also show up around shared financial ventures, either in romantic partnership, or in business relationships. You could experience feelings of resentment or anger in regard to these irruptions of prior wounding. If you do feel yourself becoming reactive, it may be wise to pause to ask your anger what is truly needing to be recognized and expressed. Are you upset with others? With yourself? Both? Whatever arises is always about something deeper and older than the current situation. It may be helpful to ask yourself what your contribution to the relational dynamics are, and take responsibility for them. Be kind to yourself in this process, as there may be some confronting places inside of yourself to encounter. You may harness the gifts of this configuration by approaching your inner world as if it were a committee with many different voices and needs. When you act as a mediator in helping all of your parts of self express their actual needs and get them met, you will be more able to reduce the outer manifestations of any conflict or challenging situations. Overall this month can offer you some amazing potentials to liberate your mind and spirit, once you are able to balance reactivity with stability through dedication to self-love and self-discipline.