When the Sun travels to the equator on or about the 21st of March, a chart is erected for that moment. From the chart, the same planets are cast onto a map, in this case a map of the USA. The map is used to gain insight into the type of weather conditions that will dominate the season across the USA.

The ingress of the Sun into the zodiac sign Aries is the official beginning of spring. The earth has turned enough to allow a natural warming of the northern latitudes. The ingress chart is used mainly to determine temperature for the season; however, much more information is gleaned from a deeper analysis of this chart. The information is the overview for the season. More information is found in the weekly new, full and quarter Moon charts.

The first planet indicator is Pluto IC (4th house cusp) that falls across the Rocky Mtns. and Arizona. Saturn is not far away from the Pluto line; it is the brown line at the MC (midheaven) also across the Rockies. The Pluto and Saturn lines extend into Canada, in the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Saturn lends itself to grim, cloudy weather with Pluto intensifying the events. These can be dreadfully stormy events with a capital S. Read more in the National Highlights. Saturn is known usually for colder temps and the obscuring of the Sun. Pluto lends itself to increasing the intensity of Saturn´s influence.

Moving to the right, the next two planets are Mercury and Sun. They are fairly close to each other and indicate generally fair and windy activity for this section of the country. Tornado action is usually more to the east of the two lines and I think the winds will become strong and swoop down across the plains states where the next planet, Mars is in full force from Louisiana up through the heartland, into western Ontario, Canada.

Mars on the IC (4th house cusp) through mid-America is noted for hot, dry and windy conditions. However, in this part of the country, the aggressive quality of Mars guarantees tornados and hailstorms will be destructive. (Mars square the horizon) Much of Ontario, Canada receives the action of Mars as well. The remaining visible planets on the map, Jupiter, Moon and Neptune are offshore in the Atlantic.

Carolyn Egan © March 10, 2003