The Weekly Nerd

April 12-18 2026

Welcome to The Weekly Nerd, the official newsletter of The Astrology Nerd. Thank you so much for subscribing.

This is the first proper issue. It is still a work in progress, but future issues will probably follow this format. You, my early subscribers, have the honor of receiving this first real issue of The Weekly Nerd in your inbox. Congratulations. You are ahead of the curve.

I hope you enjoy this debut issue.

Transits of the Week

Mars conjunct Neptune - 04/12 at 10:30 PM MST 29° Pisces*

This is like giving Mars a narcotic. The Warrior is all dreamy and confused. He's not sure what's going on or who he's supposed to be fighting. Under this planetary influence, you might have your doctor phone in a prescription, spend time daydreaming, reading, or watching Netflix, or maybe even just sleeping all day. But don't worry. Mars will be back to normal when this transit passes.

Venus sextile Jupiter -04/13 at 01:30 AM MST 16° Taurus

This transit is great for going to a party or attending an informal get-together with friends. Going on dates works well with this transit. You might tell someone you love them. You might spend some money. You might get the opportunity to eat some really good food. Though Jupiter is expansive, you are less likely to overdo it with the sextile.

Mercury sextile Uranus - 04/14 at 10:10 AM MST 29° Pisces

This transit makes it easier to think outside the proverbial box. Problem-solving goes well under this influence. With just a little bit of effort, ideas may come to you seemingly out of nowhere. You can see solutions you wouldn't normally think of. Is your muse speaking to you? Probably. But this is a sextile, not a trine, so you'll need to reach out to them first.

Mars sextile Pluto - 04/16 at 11:56 AM MST 5° Aries

Pluto gives power to warrior Mars. There's an opportunity here to do work that is uncomfortable, frightening, profound, and requiring a laser-like focus. You can dig deep to uncover buried secrets, yours or someone else's. This is an excellent transit for investigation. You'll leave no stone unturned. You only have to work up the nerve to start

Mercury conjunct Neptune - 04/16 at 7:01 PM MST 2° Aries

Neptune does the same to Mercury as he did with Mars. With this transit, your mind is turned to dreaming, imagining, and intuiting. If you have any psychic ability, it might be particularly strong at this time. Even if you're not psychic, you could still pick up on others' thoughts, feelings, and energy. This is a good day to read some fiction, especially fantasy. It is not good for doing any kind of work that requires a clear head and logical and connected thoughts.

Mercury sextile Pluto - 04/18 at 1:34 PM MST 5° Aries

This is a great transit for engaging in deep thoughts. Like with Mars sextile Pluto, it is ideal for conducting investigations. If you have to solve a mystery or bring something hidden out into the light, do so at this time. Unlike with Mercury conjunct Neptune, this transit is actually good for anything requiring deep and focused concentration. As with all sextiles, this won't fall into your lap like with a trine. You'll have to get up and do something to make this work out for you.

Please keep in mind that these are the general transits of the day, applicable to the collective but not necessarily to you as an individual. If any of these are activating planets in your own chart then they will be more relevant to you specifically.

*Degrees shown are for the first planet listed, the one making the aspect. The second one is the planet receiving the aspect.

Weekly Article - Fate Versus Free Will in Astrology

If astrology is real (which I, for one, believe it is) then does that mean our lives are completely fated? Does my malefic Mars in the sixth house plague me with health problems for my whole life? Does a Saturn transit mean I'm going to lose something and there's nothing I can do about it? What about free will? What about choice? Do we really have a choices? Or is it all just an illusion? Let's take a look at that.

Classical astrology (the kind practiced in the Hellenistic period) is often accused of being very fatalistic. In a way, it was because during that era making predictions was the main task of astrology. The field of psychology wasn't a thing yet, so there was no concept of helping a client work with their chart for personal growth.

Personal astrology, that is drawing up horoscopes for individuals, was a new thing. In times past, horoscopes were for kings and emperors. It was used to predict droughts, famines, when the nation might go to war, and other things that had to do with the society as a whole. The idea of casting a chart for a commoner wasn't even thought of him. The king or emperor of a territory would probably have laughed at such a thing.

But in Hellenistic Greece, horoscopes were being calculated for ordinary citizens. This was new. But the idea of astrology being first and foremost a predictor of events persisted. There was even a technique for figuring out a person's length of life. The idea was to not let the native (the person for whom the chart is cast) worry about things they were not going to be around for. At the time, it seemed like a sensible and compassionate thing to do.

Fast forward to today, and modern astrologers, like myself, spend less time making predictions about horrific events and more time counseling their clients about how to work with the energies in there charts to maximize their peace, safety, and happiness. Instead of telling someone their Sun-square-Saturn dooms them to having all of their ambitions thwarted forever, I explain what this aspect means and why it's there. I would acknowledge that it's a difficult aspect that will likely cause more than a bit of disappointment during the laugh, but that that disappointment doesn't have to be forever and usually isn't. I would advise on how to use the Sun-square-Saturn to their advantage and how they can learn what it's trying to teach.

But back to the thorny question of fate versus free will. How much is preordained and how much do we have control over? Or do we have any control? My answer is "yes". To both. It's preordained and we have control. Okay, Shea, well how does that work? Explain yourself, smarty-pants. Okay, I will.

My belief, and that of many other metaphysical practitioners, is that we each come her with something we're supposed to do, supposed to learn. If you believe in past lives, which I do, some of it stems from unfinished business from one or more of those lives. But most of it, I think, comes from something known as a "soul contract". In other words, an agreement we make before we're born as to what we're going to do here on Earth during our stay.

I don't believe that every minute of our lives is mapped out right down to the smallest detail. I do, however, believe that we all are working off of a script of some sort. Not like a completed movie script, but more of a treatment, a broad outline of the story. I think we're each playing a character here in the physical world, a character we created before we were born.

To put in terms that I, and many other nerds, can understand, it's like a playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons. God is the DM, or dungeon master. He/She/It controls the game. We don't know exactly what will happen, but we do know our characters. We have an idea of what our characters would do and not do. Maybe we even have an idea for a character arc (a way our character changes throughout the story). Maybe we share that with the DM. Maybe not. In either case, we are both player and character at the same time.

I think the things that are absolutely fated are things we agreed to beforehand because that is what our souls need to grow. But most things, I believe, are less fated and more played out from that story treatment I mentioned earlier.

If we experience a Saturn transit, especially the conjunction, square, or opposition, then we are, indeed, challenged to let go of something. Saturn helps us to cut loose the dead weight, the parts of our lives that no longer serve us. The problem is that we humans get attached to things and are very reluctant to let them go. Saturn transits help us do this. The sextiles and trines are times we are given an stress-free opportunity to do this on our own. But if we don't, then the hard aspects force the issue.

It's how we respond to what happens in our lives that shows our free will. We can fight and fight and fight during a Saturn transit. That would cause us a lot of unnecessary pain. Or we can choose to let go. Don't fight reality. Accept what's happening. Maybe we have to mourn a loss, and that's okay. But fighting against reality is a battle we always lose.

Besides, we don't actually know that we're fighting against something bad. I'm reminded of the last story in Genesis. It's the story of Joseph, of the many-color-coat fame. Taken by his brothers, sold to slave traders, sold into slavery in Egypt, accused of rape, thrown into prison, and facing execution, it's enough to make anyone fall into despair.

But not Joseph. Whatever horrible thing happened to him, he accepted it. He said something like, "Okay, God, I don't understand this, but I trust you and I'm just going to go with it." Anyone who knows the end of this story, will recall that, from what must have seemed like a miracle, Joseph ended up becoming what was basically the equivalent of what we would call a "prime minister" today. Because of his actions, Jospeh ended up saving his people, the Jewish people, from all starving to death during a famine.

What men intended for evil, God turned around and made it good. So, the next time you're fighting against what's happening to you, especially if it seems unfair, remember Joseph. He did not fight, did not resist, and ended up saving the day.

Are some things fated? Probably. But what's more important is not what happens, but how we react. I like to tell people, "You are important and the world needs you" because I believe that is literally true. Whether you understand it or not, God/The Universe, Source, the Divine, or whatever you call that which is bigger than you, is probably using you as well. To turn evil into good. Just like with Joseph.

Shea (The Astrology Nerd)

Celebrity Birthdays This Week

12th - Saoirse Ronan (32)

13th - Ron Perlman (76)

14th - Anthony Michael Hall (58)

15th - Maisie Williams (29)

16th - Jon Cryer (61)

17th - Sean Bean (67)

18th - David Tennant (54)

To finish things up, here’s a picture of my cat. His name is Salem and I adopted him on Halloween of 2025. He already had that name when I got him, but I liked it so I kept it.

He is a sweet, loving, affectionate, and needy Scorpio kitty. He turned 2 about a week before I got him. He is my sweet boy and I love him so much. 🥰

Astrology Trivia Question

No cheating now. Don’t use the internet.

In what year was Uranus discovered? Hint: It was during the 18th Century and around the time of a couple of revolutions.

Recommended Astrology Book of the Week

Horoscope Symbols by Robert Hand

Horoscope Symbols https://a.co/d/08AMtUQn

This book really helped me advance my knowledge of astrology quickly. It was a game changer. Hand taught me how to see the signs in a way that meant you didn’t have to memorize a bunch of personality traits. All of those are intuitive once you know what each sign is really all about.

And that’s the end of The Weekly Nerd for this week. I hope you enjoyed this first issue. Watch your inbox next Sunday for another one.

Have a wonderful week! And if no one has told you yet today, you are important and the world needs you.

Bye for now.

Shea (The Astrology Nerd)

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©️ 2026 The Astrology Nerd

This publication may be shared but not sold or altered in any way. Written by Shea Ballard. Photos from Canva or Pixabay.