Mercury in Pisces

An open air market in Guadelajara, Mexico

(photo credit: Christian Frausto Bernal, June 2006)

Most of our past two months has reflected – among other things – an incisive sort of mental clarity about what we were doing, regardless of how well things were going.

And no, they didn’t always go the way we wanted them to. But that just leads us to a different and inevitable Aquarian sort of question…would we have learned as much if we hadn’t met up with those challenges?

No, not about others, about our Self. Life isn’t about ‘them’ – it’s about how well or not well we develop ourselves with regards to, and in interaction with others. With the world. With our aspirations, hopes and dreams.

…All of which brings us back to that most ultimate of considerations: how do we feel about it all? How do we feel about what’s been going on? Some things have gone right for us – notably when and where we have stuck to our guns in determining what we thought was right, necessary and needed.

That all began back in January…and it began under Venus retrograde in Capricorn, meaning the underlying lack of satisfaction felt like it was generated by some worldly function or process even if metaphysically the issue was something we needed to learn about our relationship to our Self…and whether we’ve invested enough in, or structured our life so as to cover all the necessary bases in our effort to…become.

Yes, it’s becoming a becoming sort of time…provided we are willing to become that which we have actually come to be. 

The reason to bring Mercury in Aquarius up is because the hours before Mercury moves into Pisces (on March 17th at 10:25 p.m. UT/+0 time) this extended Aquarian period will be ‘pushing’ to understand and ‘gather in’ all which may apply to our cause or ideas…and then some sort of electricity fades into softness.

That feeling of ‘softness’ or pliability is typical of Pisces. It can also be highly deceptive – literally or figuratively, so don’t get too comfortable and don’t assume you know the truth of everything you might be thinking now, and going forward into early April.

That idea of ‘deception’ is a rather well known factor with Pisces with the basic thing to understand being that Pisces ‘deceives’ either out of fear or compassion… and that said fear or compassion is about us. No, it’s not about them – if they’re our feelings, its our fear or compassion…and thus our experience of Pisces, the central (fishy) debate of which is about where being vulnerable enough to connect, feel and experience the faith of trust becomes a detriment, vulnerability and liability perhaps in terms of others, but first and last in Self.

Pisces, last sign of the zodiac, tests our level of emotional liability. Through Piscean experiences we are surrendered to our own psyche with the sign on our 12 house natal cusp (which may not be Pisces) being the indicator of where or in what area of life we will tend to meet up with Piscean experiences.

So first we wrap up some Aquarian sort of ‘thinking’ going into Mercury’s Pisces ingress. Then when Mercury crosses over the degree (3 Pisces) it went retrograde at back on February 6th on March 20th.

And after that happens…several matters we have been waiting to ‘finalize’ or get information on come back into play.

Are our mental blanks sufficiently filled in that we can move on now? That’s the first question, though with the Sun having moved into Aries by this time, it seems obvious that we have to do something.

But do we? Is it better to take action or better to wait long enough until we are sure we are fully conscious and cognizant (that being the Sun in Aries requirement) of how others feel?

That’s the required understanding here – the innate acceptance that we are people. We’re mortal and vulnerable and flawed, each and every one of us. Part of this entire Aquarius-Pisces cycle has been about divisions and part of it has been about commonalities. We all know the universal maxims – so why is it we can’t get things into alignment?

No, it isn’t them, its us. Each and every living last one of us…and the accent here is on ‘living’ even though discussions may center on death, loss and the lamentable distance we all have to travel on our way to living up to our better selves as opposed to greatly egocentric standards…standards we would surely feel better about if others were with us instead of against us.

Or ignoring us.

Or not listening to us.

Although…with Mercury entering Pisces as Neptune is positioned at 5 degrees of Pisces (conjunct fixed star Deneb), asteroids Arachne, Pandora, royal star Fomalhaut and Hebe, emblem of helping or helpfulness… what we have is a recipe for either doubt or illusion.

And that 'recipe' is made up of many factors, the variables of which are likely to be many and variously worthwhile as imaged by the Sabian symbol for zero Pisces: IN A CROWDED MARKETPLACE, FARMERS AND MIDDLEMEN DISPLAY A GREAT VARIETY OF PRODUCTS. In notes on this degree, astrologer Marc Edmund Jones referred to it as a 'commingling and interchange' which by both benefit and flaw reveals the positives and negatives - the "health" (as he puts it) of a community.

Which is valid. But considering how zero Pisces is the earliest of all Pisces degrees indicates an inception, a beginning, something new - or at least seen in a new light.

A feeling light, that would be. And the feelings are ours, complicated thought they probably are. The same 'great variety' we might choose from in the marketplace within our psyches becomes the many factors which go into how I feel about...

It's that moment, the moment when we perceive the 'marketplace' within that Pisces becomes operative. And from there the only question is whether we are willing to feel and endure the full breadth of whatever our loves, regrets, points of confusion and inspirations may be.

Those who will feel will learn. They may not like all they come to understand, but with acceptance, that deep intuitive understanding we think of as wisdom begins  materializing. We can't start it, we can't stop it, we can only absorb, bear witness and through feeling all that such experiences entail, evolve our most human and mortal essence.

As for those who won't feel, their keyword is 'denial'...the one word which recalls Pisces most painful detriments, those many things which have earned this sign the nickname 'trash bin of the zodiac.'

It's not so nice a name and I'm sure a lot of Piscean people have been offended (and secretly hurt) by that reference, never realizing that anyone who would use it is referring to their own willingness to throw away some part of their own humanity.

That's offensive, yes. But it's not offensive in the way most people think of offensive. The idea that we we would reject our Self simply because that Self has been hurt or isn't pretty...that's the height of rejecting mortality.

Humans are not perfect. We grow through having  vulnerabilities which force us to grapple with our feelings, becoming more of our Self in the process.

Pisces is not to be equated with weakness. Our modern world is full of exhortations to reject our emotional shadow.

And in that lies the reason why life is becoming ever more difficult. That which we are that we reject, deny or project onto others comes back to haunt us.

The chief indicator here is the Mercury/Neptune connection. Though this combination can indicate altruism of a very high order (and if you have a choice, that’s the way to go), Neptune-Mercury contacts more often than not include some level of deception - and not the kind where someone lies to us, no.

This is where we choose to lie to ourselves because whether the issue is what we want of/for others or what life is requiring of us, the truth of where our feelings come from would tear us up.

Royal star Fomalhaut, surrounded by its dust disk as photographed by

the Herschel Space Observatory.

(photo credit: ESA)

In other words, Pisces avoids, eludes and evades not because it doesn’t care…but because we care about so very much - and this isn't the Mercury in Aquarius caring about the idea and whether we understand someone. This is the Mercury in Pisces 'I feel you'...this is where we care about how we feel about having to understand that thing we never wanted to think about.

This is where life presents us with something either so awesome or so terrible (and sometimes, strangely, both) that we find ourselves feeling our Self yearning.

We’ll sometimes think something important in that 'passing fancy' way. And then we'll walk away and feel ourselves knowing how it’s not 'the thing' or what was being said but how we feel about it which counts. That's what's endowing whatever with its importance (or lack thereof).

It's us, not them...which is a pretty stunning thought considering the clarified convictions we will arrive at this transit embedded in.

We think we know 'them' and 'that' as surely as we think we know the facts, we know how we feel about those facts and we're the person with the plan.

Wrong. In fact, the more you think you 'know' them or what something is 'about,' the more likely you are to be proven wrong now unless you have been able to accept your intuition as fact and act on same with an equal willingness to be right or wrong.

And make no mistake - Pisces will test us emotionally. So though we may well want to know who others 'are' and where they stand now, they're unlikely to be any more sure of why they are as they are than we are about ourselves over these weeks ahead...which is only going to heighten everyone's confusion.

But that's the other Piscean point: Pisces asks us to accept what happens. It's about having sufficient faith to accept ourselves and others in equal heartfelt measure, giving because we can and receiving because we earn our right to be valued in kind. Pisces tests us in regards to others, or through what happens to others because of our needs, not theirs.

It’s part of our life-long search to feel valid. Not validated – that’s a worldly term - valid. We want to feel valid. And when we think about that idea in light of Pisces being the twelfth and final sign of the zodiac, then we come to what may be the biggest lie of them all: that life is individual.

It isn’t: we’re all in the same life, we’re all living in the same time and we’re all we’ve got – individually and collectively.

What a precious lot we are, too.

During Mercury’s passage through Pisces we will think well and ill of ourselves and others not to confuse us, but in order to get us to let go of thinking life is all about us – the great key to inspiration, faith and emotional salvation during the weeks ahead. Without that we will tend to be fearful and feel terribly rejected even though we’re not.

We’re just being who we are. We’re just finding our way in a world filled with other people finding their way. If we accept that, as we accept that our emotional walls will fall away and leave us free.

Of course then we’ll just start feeling exposed – which is the Piscean way. Whatever we do, whatever we settle on now, life proceeds apace as long as we proceed with what we’re doing with a light hand and willingness to listen.

With Mars still in retrograde and pre-eclipse ‘breaking down’ effects slowly but steadily making it plainer and plainer where in our lives we’ve based our choices or priorities not on universal strengths but rather our inability to escape some sort of inner doubt, Mercury in Pisces is something akin to a suggestion which feels in part like a dream…and in part like a decree, which at times will annoy us – and at other times bother us a good deal.

The choice to react or not – that’s about us. And what it is what it is will also be part of what we feel ourselves learning about during the next three weeks.

This can be an extremely creative time. Then again, it can be a disappointing, even frightening time.

The trick is knowing which is real…and that nothing is yet settled.

Not yet.

And that's the final Piscean thought here - one about how Pisces teaches endurance through forcing us to tolerate whatever affects us most uncontrollably.

It is in the learning that those things aren't about someone else but only about us that we confront our individuality - and thus the intrinsic 'aloneness' of being born. Once we can own both the fear of that mortality and our love of life...once we can own feelings and feel those feelings while not being enslaved by those feelings - then we find our heart and that compassion for Self which in turn allows us to care ever more deeply for others and where they come from.

It's not an easy lesson - which is another thing we need to be sensitive to. We can't learn everything all at once. Nor should we expect ourselves to do so. And that we know we can't do, we should understand in - or learn about through others.

It's all and always either about what we give or are given, which now...in keeping with the Mercurial thought and talk mantra...becomes what we are given to know, feel and share our experiences of. 
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