International interests seem to be very much on your mind, for your ninth house of foreign people and places is quite lit up for you. You may be planning an exciting trip abroad, or working on a project with others who are based in international countries. Alternatively, you may be preparing for a meeting with immigration officials for a visa, passport, or green card. Or, you may be thinking about your plans to go to college, applying or waiting for an acceptance letter from a university for undergraduate or graduate school; or you may be preparing to take a qualifying exam, like the Bar; or you could be reviewing brochures and making appointments to visit colleges, graduate schools, or other institutions of higher learning to prepare for entry soon. It’s the right time to do this, for your efforts will be productive and gratifying.

The reason for this emphasis is that you experienced a new moon, March 27, in Aries, 8 degrees, just days ago. That new moon lit your ninth house, which, aside from international interests and universities, also covers publishing, Internet, and broadcasting efforts, as well as legal matters. One of these areas will consume your thinking in early April. That new moon received an out-of-sign support from Saturn, so your actions will have long-term effect, and help stabilize these areas so that personal growth can occur. If your birthday falls on July 29, plus or minus four days, you were, and still are, benefitting more than other members of your sign from this new moon.

Next we have a full moon of April 10 will bring a study in high contrast. On one hand, the full moon will enter with Jupiter, the giver of gifts and luck, a wonderful aspect – it’s hard to imagine any aspect more beneficial and joyous than that. You may be traveling a short distance at this time, or working on a writing assignment of any type – a marketing report, a legal brief, an important response to a question, a magazine article. The examples are almost endless. It’s a glorious time to have meetings, to plan for the future, but not to sign anything to cement yet.

However, at the same time, at the full moon, April 10, Uranus will oppose the moon and Jupiter, and conjoin the Sun, a nerve jangling aspect at this full moon. Uranus is called the Great Awakener by astrologers, for this planet tends to bring on news suddenly, arriving like a thunderbolt, without warning. Uranus, associated with truth and rebellion, is known to sweep away all that is no longer relevant to your future and helps you replace what was taken with something better. You seem to be thinking about your international relationship, travel, immigration, the media, a legal matter, or academia.

When news hits, you may be tense and wonder if you can handle what comes up, until a few hours pass. By then you will see that, yes, you can think of a fix. I feel this can have a happy outcome as long as you are alert, for Jupiter is protecting that full moon, and that matters – it can’t be discounted. Uranus will be conjunct the Sun – as a Leo, you are ruled by the Sun – so you may feel this directly, especially if your birthday falls on or very close to August 14. You will also have help from Saturn, in the right place in the sky mathematically, protecting a creative idea, a written document, or a child by bringing stabilizing vibrations. My take on this is that something will come up out of the blue, but you have more than enough positive aspects to help you perceive the situation clearly and make a quick decision to remedy it.

Do not, under any circumstances, sign a contract this month, even if you are pressured do so – resist. You would not want to have Uranus opposition the moon in your contract, which would happen if you sign near the full moon of April 10. The day you sign becomes the permanent birth of your endeavor and will color the experience you have as you go along. If you were born within four days of August 14-16, you are likely to notice the effects of this full moon the most. This contract appears to be very lucrative, too, making it hard to hold off, but talk with your lawyer and find ways to delay the process.

There are other reasons not to sign a contract. Mercury will be retrograde from April 9 to May 3. Mercury retrograde makes us forgetful and prone to rush. We lose things we love (like a smart phone, tablet, or eyeglasses), and we make bad judgement calls. It’s important to be deliberate and to go slowly to make sure you’ve not overlooked anything. On the plus side, we get a chance to go back to earlier projects and make them better. Detectives benefit during these periods, for clues in cold cases often arise during Mercury retrograde. This time, Mercury will retrograde in your tenth house of prestigious career advancement, and halfway through Mercury will retrograde back into your ninth house, the one that you and I discussed earlier, ruling International travel and relationships, the media, courts, and matters related to colleges.

Mercury rules contracts, and it is never wise to sign one when Mercury is out of phase. Later you will have more information that will make you realize you should have put certain safeguards into place, or you might have never signed the document in the first place. You will need to revisit and renegotiate the contract later, with tweaks here and there, assuming you can get all those points covered and approved by the other party after the fact (doubtful).

If you would like to read my essay, “All You Need to Know about Mercury Retrograde,” it is found on my homepage of AstrologyZone.com, on the lower left side of my homepage. If you have my premium app, you can find it on the menu under Life + Love, and then inside that section, under Susan’s Essays. I also have a list of Mercury Retrograde dates, so that you can plan for future initiatives.

According to research statistics, we know that some of my readers are checking their monthly forecasts on their smart phone browsers, but there is a better, easier way to vie my monthly forecasts. Download my free app called “Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone Daily Horoscope” on Apple App Store or Google Play – find it by simply searching Susan Miller. You will recognize my app icon by seeing the deep blue square with white letters: AZ. You will get my entire monthly reports for each of the signs plus a daily horoscope for each of the twelve signs, too on my free app.

If once inside my free app, you decide to you buy a subscription to my premium version for $4.99 for one month, you will get all my essays and articles, all 12 monthly horoscopes too, and best of all, my longer, detailed daily horoscopes. Each Sunday, in place of just a daily horoscope, I show you the week ahead and how to best use the week for maximum productivity and enjoyment. Whether you opt for my free or premium paid app, you will find reading my monthly forecasts a lot easier on your eyes than doing it on your browser. My app was a finalist this past January in the Mobile Excellence Awards for two categories: Best User Experience, and Best Content. It was thrilling to attend the award ceremony in Los Angeles. You might want to try my app.

Going back to your report for April, you will enter into a calmer time, and it might be quite celebratory for your career. The new moon of April 26, in your tenth house of professional honors, awards, and achievement, will be friendly. You may get a promotion or an offer from a competitive firm. Or, if self-employed, you may get a new client or enviable publicity. The luck you have now will be reward for all the hard work you’ve done over months and years.

Mars has been touring this same part of your chart, your prestigious career sector, since last month, March 9, to stay until April 21. During that time, you have been laying the groundwork for what is to happen now when opportunity and reward may come knocking. During the past weeks, you’ve been noticed by VIPs and you likely impressed them. Now comes the payoff time, when you can aim for the position you have your eye on. However, over the past weeks, you likely found that nothing was easy when it came to career advancement because Venus was, and still is, retrograde. Venus is the natural ruler of your solar tenth house of prestigious career developments, so you now understand why you found it hard to make quick progress. Venus went retrograde from March 5 and will go direct on April 15, but reach full power on May 18. (Mercury will reach full power May 20.)

Mars was helping you, but Venus was holding you back, creating obstacles, so if you felt like you were taking two step forward and one step back, you were not imagining things. Fortunately, the new moon April 26 is arriving after Venus has gone direct and in the process of ramping up to her full strength, and Mercury is about to normalize its orbit and go direct on May 3. To say the least, everything is moving in the right direction at month’s end.

This new moon April 26 will be a big help to your career. Neptune, the planet of creativity, ruling film, photography, music, dance, painting, costume design, and all the other creative arts, will send a silvery beam to the new moon, indicating that if you have a creative idea to show, you can get VIPs to sit up and take notice. Neptune is based in your eighth house of other people’s money, ruling sponsorship, venture capital, grants, budgetary approvals, and other sources of funding, so you can get the money you might need to make your idea a reality.

Make your appointments for AFTER April 26 and the days that flow from that date. Mercury will go direct on May 3, and return to full power on May 20. (It takes any retrograde planet several weeks to come up to full speed.)

As you see, you have plenty to occupy your mind this month, the very reason you need time to relax and have fun with friends. The universe agrees and will send Mars to enliven your eleventh house of friends, clubs, and places people gather for a unified purpose. You may find you are invited to parties, a wedding, charity benefits, club events, or maybe a fun trade show. The time Mars moves through Gemini, from April 21 to June 4, will bring in a happy time with friends. If you were thinking of joining a club – professional, social, or a health club – you might want to plan to do it in May, after the new moon, May 25.

You will start to unwind at April’s end and gradually, throughout May, be in the right frame of mind to socialize. Sometimes that takes a little time to let go of work pressures. At the same time, the emphasis on career success is so strong this month that it would be a shame not to attend to opportunities that will come up at month’s end. Keep in mind that by then, you will also have time to see friends and make new ones too.

Venus retrograde until April 15 is not the time to have a first date because in the course of the relationship you are likely to find it lacking in warmth and affection. Venus, left somewhat weak after her retrograde ends April 15 as she builds to former strength, is not an ideal time to date for the first time either. As you and I discussed last month, Venus retrograde is not the time to have plastic surgery, to change your hair style radically, or to have experimental dermatological treatments. Don’t experiment with moisturizing creams, serums, or gadgets for your face – wait until the end of May. Venus also rules products and services that are marketed to women, so if your job is related to women’s interests, you will make greater progress in late April than you ever did in March and will in early April. By month’s end, you’ll see the sky brighten – by May, even more so.

You’ve been busy lately, so you seem ready to bolt out the door for an adventuresome vacation. The new moon of March 27 last month started you thinking, and you will be able to flee town, for you have plenty of planetary energy in your travel sectors. Alternatively, you might have other things on your mind other than actually traveling – a topic centered on a publishing or broadcasting assignment, or a legal matter.

When it comes to your career advancement, you are also getting mixed signals. On one hand, you have had Mars in your tenth house of honors, awards, and achievement since March 9, and will to continue to host Mars there until April 21. This is a sure sign that you should have no trouble getting the attention of VIPs. Clearly, this alone shows you are anxious to move ahead.

However, your timing is not quite right for making career gains for several reasons. First, Venus is the natural ruler of your solar tenth house of professional acclaim, the same area Mars is visiting, but Venus went retrograde on March 5 and won’t go direct until April 15. Mars will remain in this part of your chart until April 21. You will start seeing career progress gradually after April 15, and much more so after May 20, so trust this to be true – keep to your program and know success will come soon.

Adding more complications, Mercury will be retrograde almost all month, from April 9 to May 3, giving you the feeling like you are walking through glue. It is generally not wise to accept a new position during Mercury retrograde. You will notice Mercury’s slowdown as soon as April begins. You will need patience, for Mercury will be moving backward through travel and financial sectors, the very areas that are energized and where your thinking will likely be centered.

The full moon, April 10, will emphasize your commitments and contracts, as well as your plans to travel, this time a short distance. Any contractual deal on your desk this month appears to be a generous one, and you will be tempted to sign immediately. Yet by the full moon, the timing will be even worse than signing earlier. Mercury will be in full speed retrograde, and Venus won’t be vibrant and alert either. Put off signing any papers. Verbal acceptance is considered the same as a written agreement, so delay giving a final answer. Your environment will be too volatile to bring about a good resolve.

Sit tight with career matters until you get to the new moon April 26, a rather lovely demarcation line, for that new moon will help you forge a major career breakthrough, the best of 2017. The compensation package being offered at month’s end will likely be generous, too, particularly in terms of benefits, such as health insurance, commission, bonus, and vacation days, flex time, and so forth.

If you are artistic, this new moon April 26 will help you sell your ideas, for creative Neptune is transiting your house of other people’s money. Further, a supportive Saturn, planet of long-term gain, will bolster this new moon. This says if you have your feet on the ground and come across as realistic, steady, and cognizant of budgetary constraints, you will impress financial types who will be in the process of assessing your experience, ideas, and potential.

Pluto will be powerfully helpful too, beaming from your house of assignments, saying that if you need funding or approvals to launch a project, you may be closer to getting a green light than you assumed. By May 3, you will be home free – Mercury will go direct, and all the work you put into your career will gradually start to bear fruit. By May, Venus will move into fire sign Aries, a brilliant place for Venus to be for Leo, and you’ll be in happily in clover on so many fronts: romance, career, money, and having plain old fun.