Forecast for April 20-26, 2006 by Ellen Zucker This week's theme is the change from fire to earth energy. In the past month, the Sun cycled through hot, fiery Aries giving us a much needed burst of adrenalin. Aries is both a fire and a cardinal sign. All cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, initiateaction. The combination of fire with cardinality results in a great burst of activity. But unless the energy is channelled, it dissipates very quickly. But Earth provides that channel and grounding. Most of us will welcome the move to calmer, steadfast Earth energy. We received our first introduction this past Tuesday afternoon when the Moon slipped into Capricorn. The Sun will have slipped into Taurus by the timeyou wake up on Thursday morning. We feel optimistic and easy going Thursday as we enjoy the trine between Venus and Jupiter and the Moon advances into its closing quarter. Taurus is a sensual sign. It beckons us to smell the roses and be aware of the beauty of our physical environment - easy to do in the northern hemisphere where it is the height of Spring. Sprucing up your own physical envirnoment is a good way to make use of this energy. So is gardening. Taurus is a fixed earth sign. It is in it for the long haul. While Aries gets the fire started, Taurus grounds it and provides the means to keep it hot. With the combination of grounding earth energy and thewaning lunar cycle, this is a good time to finish up all of those wonderful projects you started month. Next week you will lay down groundwork for longer term projects. But this coming week is better spent tying up loose ends so you can greet the next week's New Moonwith a clean slate. With Moon in Capricorn and Sun newly arrived in Taurus, Thursday is an excellent day to get work done. But with the moon void of course, keep it routine. At 9:56 pm EST, the moon shifts into Aquarius and completes its third quarter square (11:28 pm). The combination of earthy plodding Taurus and forward looking Aquarius is an interesting one. Both are fixed signs and both want to hold their ground. For the next two days, we are asked to balance our needs for grounding and security with our ideals. The trick is not to get so invested (a nice Taurean term) ineither position so that we give up the other. We need both: grounding and vision. Sunday is a nice mellow day with moon in Pisces making a sweet sextile to the Taurus Sun. Sunday's mellow energy carries over into Monday morning, but by evening, tension is in the air as Moon squares Pluto and Sun squares Saturn. No matter how hard your buttons are pushed, cool it. Some fights are not worth it. We step back and gain a more tolerant perspective on Tuesday with Moon in Aries making a nice trine to Saturn. The burst of energy helps us finish out the lunar cycle as we ready for the New Moon on Thursday.