Outside, it thunders, and the rain falls in steady sheets along the window. Here in Buenos Aires, we’re staying with one of my lover’s colleagues, a fellow counselor in an international school. I’m all by myself in her house today, surrounded by bits and pieces of her many years of travel.

We’ve been in this city five days. My lover has been attending a conference, and I’ve spent the days walking, walking, walking, mostly in the rain. The streets were full of people moving fast, a current that swept me along. I developed the rhythm of the city, where you move fluidly, always alert, occasionally swerving or pausing so as not to hit another moving body.

In the cemetery at Recoleta, the cats were huddled under the stone arches. After my quick sloshing jaunt across town, my pace suddenly changed when I entered this city of the dead. Still, these are very urban ghosts. There’s one tree-lined avenue when you enter the cemetery, and the rest is all stone, cement and tile. It’s a warren of narrow streets with miniature houses, each house beautifully crafted with mourning angels and intricate stonework on the outside, but inhabited only by a wisp of history.

I went down one narrow alley to see the Duarte mausoleum, where Eva Peron now lies. A brightly colored photo of her was attached to the iron scrollwork, but it was fast dissolving in the rain. There were plastic flowers twined through the grating. It made me realize that I hadn’t seen many flowers.

I passed a guide who was telling a lurid story of a prominent lady who had been accidentally buried alive in one of these stone houses. At the corner, I came to an imposing bust of a man in military uniform. His mausoleum was heavily fenced, as if to keep the rats out. His name was Julio Argentino Roca, and he was first a general, then several times a president of Argentina. His claim to fame was “pacifying the pampas”- that is, getting rid of the indigenous people in the undulating grassy plains of Argentina.

I wander among the stonework, admiring the work of the artists, taking pictures of the angels and the cats, thinking about the people who ran this city and who traded high office back and forth among themselves for hundreds of years.

Earlier in the week, an elderly cab driver told me that he prefers military rule to democracy, because democracy is always corrupt. I told him that democracy is a tool, and nobody has really learned how to use it yet. In spite of everything, I guess I’m still an idealist. I don’t think anyone will ever build a stone house for my bones, but if they do, perhaps that’s what they’ll put on it.

In Argentina’s mundane chart – set for May 25, 1810 - there’s an opposition between Jupiter, the planet of growth, and Uranus, the planet of change. This definitely describes the sudden economic ups and downs of this country, as well as the hot potato that was the presidency a few years back.

Jupiter is expansive and optimistic, but it also represents the status quo of power and privilege, and in the Argentine birthchart, it’s in the most conservative sign Taurus. Taurus also rules cattle, central to the economy. Opposing Jupiter is Uranus, the rebel planet, quick to overturn the status quo and try out something new. In the Argentina chart, it’s in the sensual sign Scorpio, which brings to mind another symbol of Argentina: the tango.

So this could be a place where the bull and the tango dancer are always at odds. The bull charges, but the tango dancer feints. The bull stands stolidly, while the tango dancer moves quickly and in unexpected directions. The bull represents the implacable power of nature, while the tango dancer symbolizes the deep emotion that is unleashed in art. The bull represents what we have, but the tango dancer represents what we desire. Aren’t we all caught between these two?

The whole world will be experiencing a Jupiter/Uranus conflict for the next few months. We’re all feeling the tension between the status quo and the forces of change.

In April 2007, Jupiter turns retrograde, and it does this very close to a hard aspect to Uranus. This indicates a pretty shaky world economy during the next few months, as well as some swift rises and falls among the mighty. Jupiter is in the most expansive sign, Sagittarius, and this encourages spending, especially in the service of passionate beliefs. This is certainly what’s happening in the US, as the spending for the Iraq invasion keeps ballooning. But when Jupiter stops moving and goes retrograde (on April 5), will it be like a pin sticking into that balloon?

It’s a fiery month in general, with five planets in fire signs at the April new moon (on the 17th). There will be conflict, excitement, and valiant attempts at new beginnings. But there’s also a strong watery influence, with Mars, Uranus and the north node all in Pisces.

The north node points us to the most essential spiritual lesson of the moment. And the north node in Pisces is about letting go, releasing, trusting, believing. This is not about the holy wars of Jupiter in Sagittarius, but about attaining a state of empathy with every other sentient being. It’s not ego-centered belief, but soul-centered belief.

And Uranus, the planet of change, is in service to the north node right now. And so things will happen fast, and they could get quite chaotic. Pisces is a chaotic sign, a sign of dissolution which moves us towards a greater unity.

One of the challenges of April will be to integrate fire and water. We’ll need to find creative ways to improve things, so that they don’t have to dissolve into their elements and be reformed. How can we do this? This is where all of April’s fire will help us. Fire gives courage, conviction and will, and we will need these things. Can we believe in ourselves, and yet not hold ourselves separate from each other? Can we stay in touch with both the fire of our individuality, and the water of our universality? These are the challenges of April.

I look out the window to see if it’s still raining. It is, and the water drips down my hostess’ bird-of-paradise bush. I admire the pointy brilliance of the flowers. They manage to burn even in the rain.

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