April Horoscope 2026

Holding a Mirror to the Mirror

Hello to the inquiring minds of the Inglenook readers. I am bringing you an offering as your Transformation Features Writer. Just as in my last reading, I was drawn first to my box of magnetic words, a toy from the early 2000s used to make poetry or silly phrases on fridge surfaces. There’s an old adage of tarot that a true tarot set is gifted to you, not purchased. I don’t ascribe to the definitive nature of this sentiment, as I think all things are malleable by thought. However, when I look over at my little pile of tools, seven out of nine of my tools were gifted to me, and that includes this box of magnetic words. When it was handed to me, I felt a vibration in my fingers, a sign of an energetic connection between us, and that I needed to pay attention.

For this month, I asked my poetry box, “What is the theme of this divination?”

The word that emerged was “beautiful.”

April’s message is about beauty, and next I turned to my Sapphomanteion book to ask, “What about beauty are we exploring today?”

I roll my six-sided die three times to find my passage: 6-2-6 “close to me now as I pray.” This passage soaked into me easily. I interpreted it as:

Today, we are talking about wanting to be beautiful. Beauty, of course, can mean a variety of things, but I felt without a doubt that this was about physical beauty, about our bodies, aging, cosmetics, trends, and the politics of desire.

With that established, it was time to pull some Enochian cards—my tarot cards based on the angel-magick system of Enochian magick.

First, I asked: Where do we need to grow in our relationship with beauty?

This card depicts angels tending to the care of a growing tree, and upright, it aligns with a nurturing energy and fulfillment of care, but this card was pulled inverted, representing: “Worry, trouble, lack of growth, a sense of emptiness or incompleteness, lack of proper control, lack of guidance.”

I was urged by this card to ask: What guidance are we lacking?

The Vault looks like a visually scary card, but it is actually a card of overcoming the fear of death. The Vault represents a ritual of coming to terms with death by “burying” oneself and emerging from the ritual enlightened and grounded—in more ways than one.

Inverted, this card represents: “Desire for personal safety, rest, selfishness, a chance to progress spiritually is missed.”

There is an opportunity for growth, ritual, and profound journey-altering progress that we are missing because of our collective relationship to beauty. The collective is continually asked do something scary, do something hard, for the sake of our growth, but we choose not to, we choose comfort and deny ourselves the room to grow.

The capitalist beauty industry is one reliant on making us feel less than in every possible way—not young enough, not light enough, not thin enough, not tough enough, not curvy enough, not pretty enough, not passing enough, not strong enough. It harms us, and yet there is a kind of safety in choosing to rely on and devote oneself to beauty. Beauty is a social signifier, and aligning with the social movements keeps you accepted and safe, or at least that is what we are convinced of and reinforce in ourselves.

This is not a message of “don’t wear makeup, or you are not spiritual enough.” That’s reductive, a judgment, and ultimately unhelpful.

What the cards want is a pause and an investigation of your relationship to beauty. Too often, we trudge forward day by day, not questioning what we absorb, what has been forced onto us, and how we move through the world.

What does spiritually informed and guided beauty look like?

Here is a list of questions for your personal investigation. How you decide to move with beauty after this reflection is up to you. It’s your reality. Before engaging in such questions, set your intention and name a protection. This is vulnerable work.

Here is a suggested protection: I am safe and secure, always, as I move forward with discernment to release and transform all that does not serve my journey and my highest good. Through questioning all things and integrating with clarity, I grow in wisdom and am fortified not to be swayed by forces that seek my extraction and harm.

Suggested Questions:

• What lessons or ideas about beauty and appeal did I absorb as a child?
• What am I being told are the standards of beauty and appeal today?
• How do I define my beauty and attractiveness ideals.
  • How do those ideas and standards sit with me? What do I think about them? Where do I agree or disagree? Where do these ideas and standards come from?
• Where do I seek my standards of beauty and appeal?
• Who do I define in my life as beautiful or attractive that I personally know?
• Who do I define in my life as beautiful or attractive that I do not personally know?
• Who or what defines beauty and attractiveness for me?
  • Where do these examples come from? What patterns do they share? How did I come to choose them as my informers? What direct impact do these people have on my life? What impact do I have on their lives?
• When was I first defined by my physicality, whether deemed worthy or unworthy?
• When was I most recently defined by my physicality, whether deemed worthy or unworthy?
  • What points of memories, thoughts, and experiences connect these two moments in my life together? What is the timeline of my relationship to beauty and attractiveness, and how have I changed or not changed?
• Where can I look for definitions of beauty and attractiveness outside of systematic methods constructed to make me consume?
• When I consume for the purpose of beauty or attractiveness, what do I need to make it an act of self-love and not self-criticism or fear?
• List all the ways you are beautiful and attractive physically.
• List all the ways you are beautiful and attractive expansively.

Be gentle and loving to yourself in this work. You are not defined by society, but you also have to live through a societal experience. This is a balancing act that takes lifelong work, grace, forgiveness, and so much self-love and care.

You are worthy.

In Love and Abundance,
Malachi
The Magick Artist

Malachi Lily, also known as The Magick Artist, is Inglenook's Transformation Features Writer, with over a decade of experience in the art of divination.