Campus professor Liwei Lin holds the robot, which is able to pick up and distribute pollen and nectar when flown into flowers. Adam Lau/Berkeley Engineering | Courtesy
UC Berkeley engineers have created the world’s smallest wireless flying robot, which is capable of changing directions mid-air and hitting small targets.
On March 28, members and alumni of campus’s mechanical engineering department published a paper describing the results and details of its fully functioning, bee-inspired flying robot, which is the world’s smallest in its category at 9.4 millimeters.
The project began in 2019 when campus engineers learned that they could use alternating magnetic fields to create flight. Wanting to tackle the challenge of creating a miniaturized, flying robot that could utilize this technology, they eventually experimented with robots of different sizes — using a model that measured at 26.7 millimeters, then 20 millimeters and now the current 9.4 millimeter model.
The design of this micro robot consists of a 3D-printed propeller and balance ring with two magnets of opposite attraction attached to it. Given its incredibly small size, the greatest challenge lay in the power source of the robot and the electronics required to control it, according to Liwei Lin, co-author and campus professor of mechanical engineering.
By using an external magnetic field, this solved both problems: using an alternating current magnetic field, the two magnets repel each other so fast that the propeller-like robot is able to create lift and resist the force of gravity, causing it to fly. Further manipulating the strength of the magnetic field can allow the pilot to direct the robot’s flight path with incredible accuracy.
Co-author and campus Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, Wei Yue, said there are a number of potential applications in which he would like to see the robot deployed — first and foremost, artificial pollination.
By flying the robot into flowers, it would be able to pick up and distribute pollen and nectar. It could also be used to fly through debris in the aftermath of catastrophic events, giving it a potential use in search and rescue missions.
Yue added that the robot could be used for certain medical operations, such as endoscopies and gastrointestinal procedures.
“If there is some company that would like to adopt this technology, we are happy to discuss and collaborate,” said co-author Fanping Sui. “We are happy to realize and deploy our product into real applications.”
Currently, the robot is not equipped with cameras or other devices that can pinpoint its exact position. However, Yue said its magnetic field propulsion has left room for the integration of technologies such as ultrasound transducers or microcameras to indicate its position, which he regards as a “future direction” for the robot.
Lin said the next steps for the team are to further the miniaturization of the robot and increase the range from which it can be flown.
“I think the next target could be something about one millimeter in terms of size,” Lin said. “By reducing the size, theoretically, we also require smaller magnetic fields to drive, and such that potentially we can move the robot to (be controlled from) a little bit longer distance.”
In 1865 — a year before the German marine biologist Ernst Haeckel coined the word ecology, the year Emily Dickinson composed her stunning pre-ecological poem about how life-forms come into being — the German physicist Rudolf Clausius coined the word entropy to describe the undoing of being. The thermodynamic collapse of physical systems into increasing levels of disorder and uncertainty. The dissolution of cohesion along the arrow of time. Inescapable. Irreversible. Perpetually inclining us toward, in poet Mary Ruefle’s perfect phrase, “the end of time, which is also the end of poetry (and wheat and evil and insects and love).” Perpetually ensuring, in poet Edna St. Vincent Millay’s perfect phrase, that “lovers and thinkers” become “one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.”
This transformation of order into disorder, of constancy into discontinuity, is how we register change and tell one moment from the next. Without entropy, the universe would be a vast eternal stillness — a frozen fixity in which never and forever are one. Without entropy, there would be no time — at least not for us, creatures of time.
Clausius built on the Greek word for transformation, tropē, because he believed that leaning on ancient languages to name new scientific concepts made them available to all living tongues, belonging to all people for all time. It pleased him, too, that entropy looked like energy — its twin in the making and unmaking of the universe. Energy, the giver of life. Entropy, the taker away. The frayer of every cell that animates our bodies with being. The extinguisher of every star that unlooses its thermal energy into the cold sublime of spacetime as it runs out of fuel, warming up the orbiting planets with its dying breath. We are only alive because our Sun is burning out. Without entropy, there would be no us.
W.H. Auden
The child of a physicist, W.H. Auden (February 21, 1907–September 29, 1973) had no illusion about the entropic nature of reality — a science-lensed lucidity he wove into his poetic search for truth, for meaning, for a way to live with our human fragility, with our twin capacities for terror and tenderness inside an impartial universe he knew to be impervious to our plans and pleas. The child of two world wars, he had no illusion about how our humanity comes unwoven by its own pull but is also the enchanted loom that makes life worth living.
Just as Auden was reaching the peak of his poetic powers, the world’s deadliest war broke out, brutal and incomprehensible. It may be that art is simply what we call our most constructive coping mechanism for the incomprehension of life and mortality, and so Auden coped through his art. He looked at the stars and saw “ironic points of light” above a world “defenseless under the night”; he looked at himself and saw a creature “composed like them of Eros and of dust, beleaguered by the same negation and despair.”
“September 1, 1939” became a generation’s life-raft for “the waves of anger and fear” subsuming the unexamined certainties of yore, splashing awake the “euphoric dream” of a final and permanent triumph over evil. But the war went on, and in the protracted post-traumatic reckoning with its aftermath — this gasping ellipsis in the narrative of humanity — Auden revised his understanding of the world, of life, of our human imperative, and so he revised his poem.
In what may be the single most poignant one-word alteration in the history of our species, he changed the final line of the penultimate stanza to reflect his war-annealed recognition that entropy dominates all. The original version read: “We must love one another or die” — an impassioned plea for compassion as a moral imperative, the withholding of which assures the destruction of life. But the plea had gone unanswered and eighty million lives had gone unsaved. Auden came to feel that his reach for poetic truth had been rendered “a damned lie,” later lamenting that however our ideals and idealisms may play out, “we must die anyway.”
A decade of disquiet after the end of the war, he changed the line to read: “We must love one another and die.”
But there was a private reckoning beneath the public one — this, after all, is the history of humanity, of our science and our art. Auden was working out the world in the arena where we so often wrestle with the vastest, austerest, most abstract and universal questions about how reality works — the fleshy, feeling concreteness of personal love.
In the summer of 1939, just before the world came unworlded, Auden met the young aspiring poet Chester Kallman and fell in love, fell hard, fell dizzily into the strangeness of spending “the eleven happiest weeks” of his life amid a world haunted by death. Over the next two years, as the war peaked, this passionate love became a lifeline of sanity and survival. But Auden, already well into his thirties, kept longing for a stable and continuous relationship of mutual fidelity — the closest thing to a marriage their epoch allowed — and Kallman, barely twenty, kept wounding him with the scattered and discontinuous affections of self-discovery.
Throughout the cycles of heartache, Auden refused to withdraw his love — a stubborn and devoted love, opposing the forces of dissolution and disorder, outlasting the fraying of passion and the abrasions of romantic disappointment, until it buoyed their bond over to the other side of the tumult, to the stable shore of lifelong friendship.
For the remainder of his life, Auden summered with Kallman in Europe. They spent twenty New York winters as roommates in a second-floor apartment at 77 St. Marks Place in the East Village, later marked with a stone plaque emblazoned with lines from Auden’s ode to the foolish, fierce devotion that had prevailed over the lazy entropy of romantic passion to salvage from its wreckage the lasting friendship, the mutual cherishment and understanding that had bound them together in the first place.
Wystan and Chester, 1940s.
“The More Loving One” — the second verse of which became the epigraph of Figuring, and which appears in Auden’s indispensable Collected Poems (public library) — is a poem both profoundly personal and profoundly universal, radiating a reminder that no matter the heartbreak, no matter the entropic undoing of everything we love and are, we are survivors. It is at once a childish fantasy chalked on the blackboard of consciousness — we do not, after all, survive ourselves — and a blazing manifesto for being, for the measure of maturity, for the only adequate attitude with which to go on living with the incremental loss that is life itself.
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell, But on earth indifference is the least We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am Of stars that do not give a damn, I cannot, now I see them, say I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty sky And feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time.
The Fool is a joyous and exciting card – combining both perfect trust and self reliance.As the very first card in the Tarot deck, it marks the moment upon which we embark on a new phase in our spiritual journey.When we explore new terrain, we are bound sometimes to encounter danger or challenge. The Fool’s energy gives us the power and self-confidence to move through challenges with an open heart, to recognise friends and to gather experiences to us as the true treasures that they are.Innocence is a devalued quality these days. We forget that to approach life with eyes that are new each morning reveals to us more of life’s mystery than anything else. We cannot substitute the sheer growth permitted by trust and innocence with cynicism nor prior knowledge.So, on a day ruled by the Fool, we need to lift our hearts upwards and open them to the richness and beauty of life. We need to regard ourselves as travelling through a land of wonderment and joy. We need to encourage excitement and exhilaration, and to look constantly for that which is new and bright and hopeful in every step we take.We also need to trust to the life process, and to remember that, by and large, the gods have no need of our suffering, and every need of our joy, laughter and celebration.
Affirmation: “I tread the path of life with joy in my heart and a smile on my lips.”
New Thinkin • Apr 2, 2025 David Jaher is author of The Witch of Lime Street: Seance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World. Here he describes an episode in American history in which Scientific American magazine held a contest that pitted the great escape artist, Harry Houdini, against the provocative Spiritualist medium and Boston socialite, Margery Crandon. These two individuals were among the most famous in the western world during the 1920s. A number of psychical researchers were involved in the investigation of Mrs. Crandon’s mediumship. This case, in part, inspired J. B. Rhine to develop scientific parapsychology in a new direction. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He is Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science. (Recorded on March 19, 2019)
Hank Moody July 28, 2015 Vince Vaughn’s Frank imparts some wisdom on a bereaved son. Stellar writing from Nic Pizzolatto.
“Sometimes, a thing happens, splits your life. There’s a before and after. I got like five of them at this point. And this is your first. But if you use it right, the bad thing, you use it right, and it makes you better. Stronger. It gives you something most people don’t have. Bad as this is, wrong as it is… this hurt… it can make you a better man. That’s what pain does. It shows you what was on the inside. And inside of you is pure gold. And I know that. Your father knew that, too. Pure, solid gold. That’s what you got.”
–Vince Vaughn as Frank Semyon in Season 2 of True Detective
nndmtube Sep 10, 2012 In The Alchemical Dream, a film produced by Sacred Mysteries and directed by Sheldon Rochlin, visionary author and counterculture luminary Terence McKenna relates some of the curious history of European alchemy, and the attempted creation of a religious utopia based on alchemical principles. Dressed as the famed Hermetic magician John Dee, McKenna strolls wistfully through the crumbling ruins and sweeping castle vistas of Eastern Europe discussing the lost secrets of alchemy. He gives us a tour of the last remaining alchemical laboratory in Heidelberg, and tells a fascinating story of political intrigue and bohemian experimentation in the 16th century.
The simplest tensegrity structure (a T3-prism). Each of three compression members (green) is symmetric with the other two, and symmetric from end to end. Each end is connected to three cables (red), which provide tension and precisely define the position of that end in the same way as the three cables in the Skylon define the bottom end of its tapered pillar.
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Animation A similar structure but with four compression members.
Tensegrity, tensional integrity or floating compression is a structural principle based on a system of isolated components under compression inside a network of continuous tension, and arranged in such a way that the compressed members (usually bars or struts) do not touch each other while the prestressed tensioned members (usually cables or tendons) delineate the system spatially.[1]
Tensegrity structures are found in both nature and human-made objects: in the human body, the bones are held in compression while the connective tissues are held in tension, and the same principles have been applied to furniture and architectural design and beyond.
Tensegrity is characterized by several foundational principles that define its unique properties:
Continuous tension: Fundamental to tensegrity, the tension elements—typically cables or tendons—form a continuous network that encases the entire structure. This allows for the even distribution of mechanical stresses and maintains the structural form, contributing to the overall stability and flexibility of the system.
Discontinuous compression: The compression components, such as struts or rods, are distinct in that they do not make direct contact with each other but are instead suspended within the tension network. This eliminates the need for rigid connections, enhancing the structural efficiency and resilience of the system.
Pre-stressed: A key aspect of tensegrity structures is their pre-stressed state, in which tension elements are tightened during the assembly process. Pre-stressing contributes significantly to the structural stiffness and stability, ensuring that all elements are either in tension or compression at all times.
Self-equilibration: Tensegrity structures are self-equilibrating and so automatically distribute internal stresses across the structure. This allows them to adapt to varying loads without losing structural integrity.
Minimalism and efficiency: Tensegrity systems employ a minimalist design philosophy, utilizing the minimum amount of materials to achieve maximum structural strength.
Scalability and modularity: The design principles of tensegrity allow for scalability and modular construction. Tensegrity structures to be easily adapted or expanded in size and complexity according to specific requirements.
Because of these patterns, no structural member experiences a bending moment and there are no shear stresses within the system. This can produce exceptionally strong and rigid structures for their mass and for the cross section of the components.
These principles collectively enable tensegrity structures to achieve a balance of strength, resilience, and flexibility, making the concept widely applicable across disciplines including architecture, robotics, and biomechanics.
A conceptual building block of tensegrity is seen in the 1951 Skylon. Six cables, three at each end, hold the tower in position. The three cables connected to the bottom “define” its location. The other three cables are simply keeping it vertical.
A three-rod tensegrity structure (shown above in a spinning drawing of a T3-Prism) builds on this simpler structure: the ends of each green rod look like the top and bottom of the Skylon. As long as the angle between any two cables is smaller than 180°, the position of the rod is well defined. While three cables are the minimum required for stability, additional cables can be attached to each node for aesthetic purposes and for redundancy. For example, Kenneth Snelson‘s Needle Tower uses a repeated pattern built using nodes that are connected to 5 cables each.
Eleanor Heartney points out visual transparency as an important aesthetic quality of these structures.[3] Korkmaz et al. has argued that lightweight tensegrity structures are suitable for adaptive architecture.[4][5]
Applications
Architecture
Tensegrities saw increased application in architecture beginning in the 1960s, when Maciej Gintowt and Maciej Krasiński designed Spodek arena complex (in Katowice, Poland), as one of the first major structures to employ the principle of tensegrity. The roof uses an inclined surface held in check by a system of cables holding up its circumference. Tensegrity principles were also used in David Geiger‘s Seoul Olympic Gymnastics Arena (for the 1988 Summer Olympics), and the Georgia Dome (for the 1996 Summer Olympics). Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays major league baseball team, also has a dome roof supported by a large tensegrity structure.
On 4 October 2009, the Kurilpa Bridge opened across the Brisbane River in Queensland, Australia. A multiple-mast, cable-stay structure based on the principles of tensegrity, it is currently the world’s largest tensegrity bridge.
Robotics
NASA‘s Super Ball Bot is an early prototype to land on another planet without an airbag, and then be mobile to explore. The tensegrity structure provides structural compliance absorbing landing impact forces and motion is applied by changing cable lengths, 2014.
Since the early 2000s, tensegrities have also attracted the interest of roboticists due to their potential to design lightweight and resilient robots. Numerous researches have investigated tensegrity rovers,[6] bio-mimicking robots,[7][8][9] and modular soft robots.[10] The most famous tensegrity robot is the Super Ball Bot,[11] a rover for space exploration using a 6-bar tensegrity structure, currently under developments at NASA Ames.
Anatomy
Biotensegrity, a term coined by Stephen Levin, is an extended theoretical application of tensegrity principles to biological structures.[12] Biological structures such as muscles, bones, fascia, ligaments and tendons, or rigid and elastic cell membranes, are made strong by the unison of tensioned and compressed parts. The musculoskeletal system consists of a continuous network of muscles and connective tissues,[13] while the bones provide discontinuous compressive support, whilst the nervous system maintains tension in vivo through electrical stimulus. Levin claims that the human spine, is also a tensegrity structure although there is no support for this theory from a structural perspective.[14]
Biochemistry
Donald E. Ingber has developed a theory of tensegrity to describe numerous phenomena observed in molecular biology.[15] For instance, the expressed shapes of cells, whether it be their reactions to applied pressure, interactions with substrates, etc., all can be mathematically modelled by representing the cell’s cytoskeleton as a tensegrity. Furthermore, geometric patterns found throughout nature (the helix of DNA, the geodesic dome of a volvox, Buckminsterfullerene, and more) may also be understood based on applying the principles of tensegrity to the spontaneous self-assembly of compounds, proteins,[16] and even organs. This view is supported by how the tension-compression interactions of tensegrity minimize material needed to maintain stability and achieve structural resiliency, although the comparison with inert materials within a biological framework has no widely accepted premise within physiological science.[17] Therefore, natural selection pressures would likely favor biological systems organized in a tensegrity manner.
As Ingber explains:
The tension-bearing members in these structures – whether Fuller’s domes or Snelson’s sculptures – map out the shortest paths between adjacent members (and are therefore, by definition, arranged geodesically). Tensional forces naturally transmit themselves over the shortest distance between two points, so the members of a tensegrity structure are precisely positioned to best withstand stress. For this reason, tensegrity structures offer a maximum amount of strength.[15]
In embryology, Richard Gordon proposed that embryonic differentiation waves are propagated by an ‘organelle of differentiation’[18] where the cytoskeleton is assembled in a bistable tensegrity structure at the apical end of cells called the ‘cell state splitter’.[19]
Origins and art history
Kenneth Snelson’s 1948 X-Module Design as embodied in a two-module column[20]
The origins of tensegrity are not universally agreed upon.[21] Many traditional structures, such as skin-on-frame kayaks and shōji, use tension and compression elements in a similar fashion.
Russian artist Viatcheslav Koleichuk claimed that the idea of tensegrity was invented first by Kārlis Johansons (in Russian as German as Karl Ioganson) (lv), a Soviet avant-garde artist of Latvian descent, who contributed some works to the main exhibition of Russian constructivism in 1921.[22] Koleichuk’s claim was backed up by Maria Gough for one of the works at the 1921 constructivist exhibition.[23] Snelson has acknowledged the constructivists as an influence for his work (query?).[24] French engineer David Georges Emmerich has also noted how Kārlis Johansons’s work (and industrial design ideas) seemed to foresee tensegrity concepts.[25]
In fact, some scientific paper proves this fact, showing the images of the first Simplex structures (made with 3 bars and 9 tendons) developed by Ioganson.[26]
In 1948, artist Kenneth Snelson produced his innovative “X-Piece” after artistic explorations at Black Mountain College (where Buckminster Fuller was lecturing) and elsewhere. Some years later, the term “tensegrity” was coined by Fuller, who is best known for his geodesic domes. Throughout his career, Fuller had experimented with incorporating tensile components in his work, such as in the framing of his dymaxion houses.[27]
Snelson’s 1948 innovation spurred Fuller to immediately commission a mast from Snelson. In 1949, Fuller developed a tensegrity-icosahedron based on the technology, and he and his students quickly developed further structures and applied the technology to building domes. After a hiatus, Snelson also went on to produce a plethora of sculptures based on tensegrity concepts. His main body of work began in 1959 when a pivotal exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art took place. At the MOMA exhibition, Fuller had shown the mast and some of his other work.[28] At this exhibition, Snelson, after a discussion with Fuller and the exhibition organizers regarding credit for the mast, also displayed some work in a vitrine.[29]
Snelson’s best-known piece is his 26.5-meter-high (87-foot) Needle Tower of 1968.[30]
Tulpamancy is the practice of training the imagination to cultivate friendly dialogues with invisible companions, or “tulpas,” which are considered to be sentient and relatively independent thought-forms.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
Origin:The concept of “tulpa” originates in Tibetan Buddhism, referring to a materialized being or thought-form created through spiritual practice and intense concentration.
Modern Interpretation:Modern practitioners, who call themselves “tulpamancers,” use the term to describe a type of willed imaginary friend that they consider to be sentient and relatively independent.
Psychological Focus:Modern tulpamancy is predominantly viewed as a psychological rather than a paranormal concept.
Training the Imagination:The practice involves rigorous training of the imagination to create and interact with these thought-forms.
Autonomous Agency:Tulpas are understood to share the mind and body of the person who created them, but to have their own autonomous free will and agency.
Online Community:Tulpamancy has gained some online attention as a subculture, with people sharing their experiences and methods.
Not a Mental Illness:There is no evidence to suggest that tulpamancy is related to the development of psychopathology.
Fascism can be defined in many different ways, but typically, the oppressive ideology has characteristics rooted in white identity and violence against marginalized people, such as Black and Brown people, immigrants, and those in the LGBTQ+ community. Vice describes eco-fascism as an ideology “which blames the demise of the environment on overpopulation, immigration, and over-industrialization, problems that followers think could be partly remedied through the mass murder of refugees in Western countries.”
Teen Vogue talked to two experts — anti-racism educator and climate activist Hilary Moore and iconic progressive author Naomi Klein — to help you identify eco-fascist myths and how to call them out.
“Very often, if you have somebody on the far right become an environmentalist, [their ideology] slots itself into a hypernationalist, white supremacist worldview, so it fuels the calls to harden borders at the softer end, [and] at the harder end, it can express itself through the idea that climate change is a divine purging,” Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything, told Teen Vogue. “[Eco-fascism] argues [climate change] is God’s will, that there are too many people anyway, so there’s going to be a great purge and perhaps that’s all for the best. It’s environmentalism through genocide.”
While it’s true human consumption harms the environment, eco-fascists place the blame exclusively on the marginalized. Because consumerism produces massive amounts of garbage, eco-fascists incorrectly blame poor people (of color) for using plastic bags and other cheap, disposable products — often without pointing to the damage done by major polluting corporations, like those in the fossil fuel industry. The young man accused of killing 22 people in El Paso, Texas, last summer included eco-fascist ideas in his manifesto, revealing that his targeting of a Walmart frequented by Mexican immigrants wasn’t a coincidence. The young man accused of carrying out a horrific mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, last spring allegedly shared similar beliefs.
“If you look at where there continues to be the highest levels of population growth, it’s the poorest parts of the world with the lowest carbon footprints,” Klein added. “But when [that conversation] immediately moves the discussion to overpopulation, we’re changing the subject from unsustainable overconsumption by the rich to the procreation habits of the poor, and that’s a very political decision.”
Eco-fascism is not exclusive to the right. Eco-fascist myths have appeared in the narratives around the COVID-19 pandemic. Klein explained that the messaging behind viral videos of wild animals reentering environments — such as doctored videos of dolphins swimming in Venetian canals — can lead to a dangerous narrative insinuating “humans are the virus,” setting a tone of genocidal language.
“This is time to be really vigilant about any idea that this pandemic is weeding out people who needed to be weeded out anyway,” added Klein. “These are fascist logistics.”
“If we aren’t skillful in how we talk about the environment and what our demands are, we can be either ineffective or support racism and racist ideologies,” she told Teen Vogue. “If we get really muddy and murky with how we talk about [the climate], then it makes it really difficult to have engaged, informed, and principled discussions.”
Moore’s book explains how environmental protection measures can be weaponized against Indigenous people, using conservation as a tool to displace (and ultimately erase) tribes from their native land. This specific anti-Indigenous violence — alongside colonizers’ pillaging of Native land and resources — fueled the genocide of Indigenous people that allowed for the creation of the modern United States. We also see this dynamic today in pipeline resistance movements, such as among the Wet’suwet’en tribe in British Columbia and the Sioux tribe in Standing Rock, North Dakota.
“If there are calls for clean water, or even protecting an animal in a habitat, often there might be a clue with how racist groups describe what the harm is to that environment,” Moore emphasized. “Who is causing the harm? How are they talked about? Is it an oppressed group? Is it a racialized group or ethinic group that is being characterized as the harm or the cause?”
Additionally, Moore encouraged teens to identify eco-fascist arguments by asking what solutions are being proposed to combat climate change.
“Does it include excluding people or pushing people out, or more military, or more policing, or more surveillance?” she asked. “Does it involve closing borders and denying people the ability to flee to safety or stay in their homes?”
Asked for advice on how teens can fight eco-fascism, Moore named the value of political education, particularly the importance of “calling things what they are” to those who they’re in community with or have a relationship with. (It’s important to note that she discouraged teens from arguing with literal fascists, but instead stressed the value of community in building political consciousness.)
“Have a real, honest conversation,” she said. “Stay in connection while you figure some politics out. Let’s keep our people close. We know in this political moment, we need each other, so let’s practice needing each other.”
Once we can identify eco-fascism, we can not only start to understand what’s really causing climate change, but also move toward practical, effective solutions that include all of our communities. To expand off the proposed Green New Deal, for example, Indigenous activists and organizers have proposed the Red Deal, which takes a more radical approach to climate justice, calling to divest from fossil fuel consumption, center Indigenous people, abolish incarceration, and label public lands as stolen lands.
“If humans are the virus, then pandemic is the cure,” Klein said. “I think capitalism is the virus. We humans are still here.”
What a month March was! April 2025 picks up where the deep Pisces waters left off, with both Mercury and Venus going direct in the sign, followed by a rare Saturn-North Node conjunction at nearly the same degree.
Everything is happening between 25-27° of Pisces – forming a very tight stellium at the very end of the zodiac belt!
Something is brewing, shrouded in Piscean mist. But you can bet that beyond the haze, things are getting real. Saturn will make sure that whatever emerges is rooted in karmic truth.
But let’s take a look at the most important transits of the month:
April 3rd, 2025 – Mercury Conjunct North Node
On April 3rd, 2025, Mercury retrograde conjuncts the North Node at 27° Pisces.
Pay attention to any messages rising from the unconscious. Dreams, flashes of intuition, sudden memories – these are not random – they made their way to your consciousness for a reason. They carry an important message for you.
April 7th, 2025 – Mercury Goes Direct
On April 7th, 2025, Mercury goes direct at 26° Pisces. This station is SUPER interesting because Mercury is conjunct Venus, the North Node, AND Saturn! Talk about big revelations.
Mercury – now direct – has all the information it needs. The puzzle is coming together. There’s a new vision emerging from the fog – one that is grounded, purposeful, and aligned with your soul’s growth.
April 7th, 2025 – Venus Conjunct Saturn
But wait, there’s more to the Pisces saga. On April 7th, 2025, Venus is conjunct Saturn at 25° Pisces.
Venus is still retrograde – but she’s now ready to make soul-aligned vows. Venus now knows that in order to build a better tomorrow, she needs to make that commitment first.
The commitment comes first – not the other way around.
April 12th, 2025 – Sun Conjunct Chiron
On April 12th, 2025, the Sun is conjunct Chiron at 22° Aries. Sun conjunct Chiron is that time of the year when the Sun (our core consciousness) meets our inner teacher (Chiron).
Chiron’s role is to guide us toward the highest version of the Self – beyond ego, beyond the illusion of separation.
And the way Chiron works its magic is rarely comfortable. Our ego might get a bit bruised. Sun conjunct Chiron is a transit when old wounds of abandonment and insignificance resurface.
But if we dig deeper, we’ll find that these triggers hold the keys to healing and self-acceptance. And this newfound wholeness, in turn, will help us unlock our greatest potential.
April 12th, 2025 – Venus Goes Direct
On April 12th, 2025, Venus goes direct at 24° Pisces. What a heroine’s journey this has been!
Venus has taken us to the depths of the underworld (or more thematic for Pisces, the bottom of the ocean) to help us rediscover what really matters to us.
To see beyond false desires, beyond instant gratification, beyond what we think we want, and reconnect with what we really want. Now we know, and we’re ready to move to the next level (Venus conjunct Saturn).
April 12th, 2025 – Full Moon In Libra
On April 12th, 2025, we have a Full Moon at 23° Libra. The Full Moon is tightly opposite Chiron (at 23° Aries), square Mars (at 27° Cancer), and trine Jupiter (at 17° Gemini).
The Full Moon in Libra brings to light early wounds of abandonment (Chiron) and the walls and defense mechanisms we might have built as a form of self-protection (Mars in Cancer).
Perhaps in the process we’ve become the man or lady in the tower, guarding our hearts, sabotaging our relationships, rejecting others before they can reject us first.
But there is hope (Jupiter in Gemini). If we open up a little, if we show our vulnerabilities, we can create real connections.
April 16th, 2025 – Mercury Enters Aries
On April 16th, 2025, Mercury enters Aries.
This is not the usual bold, headstrong Mercury we typically associate with Aries. Why? Because soon after the ingress, Mercury conjuncts Neptune at 0° Aries.
Mercury still has that Aries drive and confidence, however this time it is animated by a higher inspiration; it doesn’t come across as blunt or impulsive, but visionary.
What’s very interesting about this ingress is that this is the second time Mercury meets Neptune.
The first time the 2 met was a few weeks ago, at 29°59’ Pisces – the very last degree of the zodiac – and now they meet again at 0° Aries, the very first degree of the zodiac.
Does this feel like divine orchestration? Surely is. After meeting to close a chapter, Mercury and Neptune now come together to start a new one. This is significant!
Pay attention to any inspirations, ideas, longings, or opportunities that come your way. This might be much bigger than you think – not necessarily right away, but down the line.
April 18th, 2025 – Mars Enters Leo
On April 18th, 2025, Mars leaves Cancer and enters Leo.
It feels like Mars has spent an eternity in Cancer, pushing us to confront our defense mechanisms – those subtle, sometimes insidious ways we protect ourselves when our sense of security is threatened.
We may have found ourselves retreating into our shells, lashing out, or – a Mars in Cancer classic – resorting to passive-aggressive tactics to manage the emotional ebb and flow of Cancer’s watery terrain, which – let’s be honest – isn’t always easy to navigate in a clear, direct way.
But now we’ve learned a thing or two about navigating our emotions – about honoring them in a way that feels authentic.
Now it’s time for a new Mars chapter. And Mars in Leo is a totally different one. In Leo, Mars is ready to roll!
Perhaps not right away – it still has to clear an intense opposition to Pluto over the next 10 days or so – but eventually Mars in Leo will bring us the energy, drive, and courage to help us pursue what matters.
April 19th, 2025 – Sun Enters Taurus
On April 19th, 2025, the Sun enters Taurus. Happy birthday to all the Tauruses out there!
Taurus season is that time of the year when we slow down and reconnect with the beauty of nature. In the Northern Hemisphere, the flowers are blooming and the earth feels alive again. In the Southern Hemisphere, the crisp air and changing leaves remind us to savor the richness of the present moment.
No matter where you are, this is a time to ground yourself and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us.
April 21st, 2025 – Saturn Conjunct North Node
On April 21st, 2025, Saturn is conjunct the North Node at 26° Pisces.
This is the highlight transit of the month – and one of the most important of the year – for the simple reason that it happens rather rarely, about once a decade.
So when these 2 karmic forces meet, it’s quite a big deal. Even more so now, since the Saturn-North Node conjunction is also tied into the larger Pisces stellium – so this one will feel deeply personal and fated.
A dedicated report about the Saturn-North Node conjunction will follow closer to the date.
April 27th, 2025 – New Moon In Taurus
On April 27th, 2025, we have a New Moon at 7° Taurus.
This is an intense New Moon because it squares the Mars-Pluto opposition (3-4° Leo/Aquarius). This marks the culmination of the Mars-Pluto opposition transit – the peak of a series of 3 exact oppositions over the past months.
The New Moon signals a new beginning. The foundations of our life (Taurus) will be tested. The question is – are these foundations a real, authentic expression of who we truly are?
Because if not, then it’s time for change. And much better to do it willingly – because what needs to happen will happen regardless. As Jung famously said, “what is not made conscious will be experienced as fate.”
Something you’ve been resisting – perhaps because it felt safe, or because it was too uncomfortable to question – is now up for renewal. Chances are, given the prolonged Mars-Pluto tension in recent months, there’s at least a part of you that knows that something needs to change.
But this New Moon doesn’t have to feel like the Tower card in Tarot. We can use the tremendous force of Mars and Pluto to make the necessary changes deliberately. It will take courage – but on the other side is major relief and forward momentum.
P.S. If you think the astrology of April is intense… wait until May. That’s when Saturn joins Neptune in Aries, sealing the deal on a major energetic shift. A dedicated report will be released closer to that date.
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