A Pisces New Moon: Sensitivity, Focused

Ruby Falls, inside Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN

(photo credit: Jtesla16, March 2009)

A New Moon will occur on March 1st at 8:01 a.m. (UT/+0). It will be at 10 Pisces, a degree which gives us the symbol of MEN TRAVELING A NARROW PATH, SEEKING ILLUMINATION. Astrologer Marc Edmund Jones refers to this symbol as ‘the capacity inherent in every individual to seek at whatever cost entrance to a transcendent realm of reality’ …to which the ever-philosophic Dane Rudhyar adds the Zen injunction to ‘walk on.’ 

Since this reference is to a New Moon, all of this refers to something which comes from the less hard-and-fast fact-bound side of life. Call it instinct, call it that grappling we all do inside our Self in light of what we know or know needs to be done.

How we feel about that – that’s the Pisces quality,  Pisces being first and foremost where we feel ourselves feeling. Wherever Pisces falls in your natal chart, by house that is where you will encounter not necessarily the reality of weakness…but an occasional (or more than occasional) feeling of weakness?

Yes, that is guaranteed…and though we all dislike the emotional whirlpools life tosses us into, we learn more (and sometimes better) for such experiences.

It’s part of why water (emotionality) is considered by many the strongest of the four (western) metaphysical elements…not to mention that people are feeling beings. Even those who seem hard or seem cold are feeling people.

They probably just can’t afford to feel vulnerable. In other words, the cold or hard or callous soul we confront in life isn’t showing strength, they’re showing us all the strength they can muster so that we shouldn’t know how afraid they are of feeling vulnerable.

And yet…if you think about the order of the zodiac and how it all leads to Pisces, that very sort of vulnerability would seem to be the ‘object’ at the end of the road. Where Scorpio tests our emotions through situations and what we might call ‘our relationship to relationships’ personal or platonic, intimate or impersonal, Pisces tests our emotions against our notion of emotionality in ways which bring ultimately bring about knowing not just what we feel about anything – but why we feel that way.

And what we feel about feeling that way.

And what we feel about others feeling the same way we do…or differently – and why we feel that.

Pisces teaches that knowing how we feel creates a willingness to feel ourselves being one sweet soul in a boundless sea of human experience who is equal  to the whole through the willingness to feel even as we realize the reality of our individuality and all the mortality and vulnerability which goes with living life.

Reaching that inner illumination…that’s our goal – one which asks whether we are willing to walk within ‘narrow’ confines, whether that means requiring certain ‘standards’ of ourselves or focusing on our sensitivities, whether we even know how to be compassionate in our own cause. Ours now is a growing understanding; the probing nuances of Mercury in Aquarius remain with us, carrying us through to where on March 4th we finally…at very long last, arrive at the point where cycles begun in late December (as Venus went retrograde on December 21st) complete and reveal their purpose.

That’s just a couple of days from now. The Moon will be in Aries by then, setting off aspects of life which harder to predict and which require a 'lighter touch' in managing. But such is the moment. We need to know our mind at the same time that we need to be willing to listen. Life is asking us to go beyond old expectations and anticipations, which in a world of other people overly preoccupied with their goals can be a problem...and then again can afford us exactly the space we need in which to operate.

In its association with Uranus, this New Moon signals change and changing times as well as many a shift of position, alteration of 'circumstance,' endings and beginnings of relationships and perspectives on life - and through any (or all of that), long-term opportunities to grow our life and advance our cause with, and through others.

A deal of thrust will emerge between the mid-afternoon of March 2nd (UT/+0) and late on March 4th (UT/+0), with the focus being on whether we are on the 'doing' or 'receiving' end of things and our motivations for whatever it is we are involved in. Here, immediate and eventual results depend on whether we are leading others along a path (i.e., using them) or walking our own path among equals in this life.

Where we are doing what we should, we proceed. Where we are doing things at the expense/disregard of others...or where we are involved in something other than what we purely think of as our purpose, something happens. It could be as simple as a distraction, a postponement or an interruption.

Then again, life may need to throw us off course in order to get us to get ourselves back on track. It all depends.

The 2014 Pisces New Moon at 10 Pisces (glyph chart)

March 1, 2014 - 8:01 a.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel/location not specific 

That Venus clears the point of its December-January brings us to the point of reckoning with all we did back then and how we did it. We all made errors even as things in the world seemed to make making those errors inevitable.

The point wasn’t what we did or didn’t do. It was getting us to this moment, this time, this place where in the light of much else we can consider what it all means…and from here look back at (Mars’ station as a ‘turning around to look’) and see who we were then and just how we have changed since then.

And what that means about our capacity to grow, for good, bad and unknown. That Mars will go retrograde at 27 Libra in tandem with the New Moon’s setting up our next four weeks of activity says that whatever starts or ‘takes a turn’ now, whatever is ‘new’ – how at a personal level that speaks to the emotional thread we will be following throughout the next several weeks.

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Mars, Saturn, Vesta Station/Retrograde

 + Eclipse Effects Begin 

We’re likely to find going forward that assertion isn’t the path to success, comprehension is – specifically that which allows us to comprehend how things…and others (Mars in Libra) work. Or how they aren’t (or haven’t) worked. Between Mars’ station and this Pisces New Moon we may now ‘turn away’ from one phase of (Mars) effort to a next.

In this text chart of the 2014 Pisces New Moon (cast as an Aries chart to take location and time

zone out of the equation because of limits imposed by writing on the internet) Sun-Uranus

is a semi-sextile, the aspect most known as feeling like an offense or ego bruise - even an

ego attack or an attack on the validity of one's being. By itself, a Pisces Sun/Aries Uranus

speaks to personal feelings/things being taken personally...or a wrestling with feelings

of weakness or intolerance of feelings/unwillingness-or-inability to feel compassion. Presented

in conjunction with Dionysus, there is a definite strain on emotionalism which is

likely to erupt either physically or in self-sacrifice (and maybe both) with the astrological

origin being the Uranus square Jupiter (in Cancer) suggesting some sort of ingrained idea

which is more about habit (or longevity - perhaps of tradition) than necessity. Ultimately

the question presented her concerns the nature of what is "sacred": is the priority who we

are or the world and times in which we are born?

Or even ‘turn into’ something which means more to us personally.

In short, whether we are turning towards or away from something, someone or some idea reflective of Mercury’s February 28th station in Aquarius…the fact we are doing it means what it means something vital to us.

THAT’s the point. We cannot expect everyone will feel the same way as we do, and we cannot expect that everyone will understand exactly why we feel as we do.

What we can get to…and get across right now is the importance of human emotionality. For some that will be insight into something like market appeal in business while others may experience an upsurge…even a crisis of (Pisces/Aquarius) conscience.

There’s a good deal of energy available at this time; how we tap into it is the central question. Given that Libra and Pisces are both worldly signs, the combination of New Moon and Mars station is likely to trigger events in the world and which affect our lives with the basic question being whether we have come into this time to be active or reactive.

Neither is right, neither is wrong. Each simply has its own plus and minuses. Those who are more active (more ‘Mars-like,’ we might say) will do best where they are able to temper personal emotions in an effort to be more inclusive where those who feel more ‘on the line’ emotionally will need to summon internal fortitude.

We’re all human. We all have work to do on ourselves and that which life is moving us towards and into is where we will do that work. As much of it will be initiated, engendered, required, requested or earned by others as by ourselves; it’s up to us to see the value on both sides and to neither sell ourselves short nor insist on having our own way.

That’s the bottom line on the Sabian Symbol we started out with: this ‘illumination’ we’re seeking is coming from Pisces. It’s feeling. It’s emotional.

It’s needed. In fact, with solar eclipse effects having begun (as of February 28th) anyone who believes the great maxim that unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should and that all things happen when they should’ there is every reason to believe this New Moon is indeed the start of something new.

Not necessarily in the world…but in ours? Yes. It would seem we’re all our own ‘work in progress’ at the moment. We’re at a place where we don’t know what is going to come or become of us…we’re know what we’re doing but not feeling entirely secure about how it’s all going to work.

That’s what we’re working towards…and why this feels like a critical time. These days we’re going through may have the same number of minutes in them as any other day does, but they feel more vital and important because we’re encountering something which provokes us.

This is our life…our life’s time. Whatever it means that you care and whatever it is you care about, whether that’s in the fervency of the moment or not, that you feel what you feel now will make an impression on you.

That impression is likely to stay with you for the whole of this lunation – at least. If you take it to heart, in time…as the stations and effects surrounding this New Moon slowly give rise to new orders…that impression well lead you to an even greater insight. Or an opportunity which teaches you how or why having faith in that which is correct and not merely pleasant ultimately provides the richest rewards.

This is a moment of letting go – mostly of what we thought would be there forever. Acceptance of that is the only simple answer, one which lies beyond our sensitivities of ego, illusion and focus.

Are we willing to own our beliefs through who we are in this world, this life...this skin we inhabit?
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Mars, Saturn, Vesta Station/Retrograde / Eclipse Effects Begin

A Christmas Tree at Home

(photo credit: Yatharth, December 2010)

Twice a year I begin talking about solar eclipse effects. And every time I begin this conversation, I wonder if its going to matter to anyone.

It always does – mightily and hugely - and yet I still go through my chat with Self when the appointed two-months-out-from-the-eclipse date rolls around.

In this case, the solar eclipse in question will occur on April 29th (UT/+0) at 8 Taurus, a degree which if nothing else tells us this incoming eclipse is going to feel very person to those it most affects.

As for who those people are, anyone with a Sun, Moon or any prime (horizontal or vertical) axis point between 3 and 13 degrees of Taurus, Scorpio, Aquarius or Leo had best pay attention. Something about the way you actually ‘process’ life (your Sun) or about work through life’s days and ups and downs (your Moon)…or who you think you are in your own mind (the vertical Midheaven/Nadir axis)…or something about what you’re doing, how you’re doing it or who-where-why you’re doing it – that’s about to get re-energized.

And in the process of getting re-energized, it…and you…will be in some vital way, remade.

Also – for those of you who would ask ‘what if the eclipse orb (above) hits something else?’ Then I suggest you find out what that attribute is on the psychological level…AND that you acquaint yourself with a list of things (items, professions…even countries) that symbol connects to.

All that is about to change. Solar eclipses bring out whatever is ‘hidden’ under “normal” (day to day) conditions. Known for thousands of years as part of the cosmic, karmic, energetic means by which life promotes cyclic changes of an inexorable sort of type, solar eclipses (as opposed to lunar eclipses) indicate a change of life circumstance which manifests through bringing out whatever has been missed, avoided or denied full voice. (That last, by the way, is why solar eclipses are associated with the fall (and rise) of kingdoms, societies, terms of rulership, etc.)

The two months which precede a solar eclipse are typified by a ‘breaking down’ of whatever needs changing in order for us to move ahead in our life – which unbeknownst to us may have been designed to be a whole other thing than we thought it was. Yes, sometimes solar eclipses also herald rewards and achievements. But with that thing we have ‘always wanted’ always comes something unexpected.

Whatever happens in the weeks and months ahead, remember this: with the bad (or from the hard time) will come good – though not right away. With the good (or the reward) will also come a cost as well. That cost may be levied up front…or it may reveal itself as the ‘shadow’ of something we didn’t suspect would or could happen.

The hard part to swallow here comes when we recognize that in order to get us to and through whatever change is coming, those metaphysical ‘girders’ (if you will) have to get shaken… then loosened… then finally knocked out of place.

Solar eclipses are not gentle. Even when they’re wonderful, they represent a period when surprises feel like shocks and when delights come with down sides – some of which we ignore or dance by at our own eventual cost. If your chart is getting hit directly by April’s eclipse there is every chance your values and sense of security is going to get a going over, so expect cooing and crying…whether it’s yours or not.

Since the degree being eclipsed here involves specific types of security which have to do with emotional rather than physical defensiveness, this would be a time which examines involvement and involvements as well as various forms of isolation, elitism, rejection (or marginalization) and the difference between ineptitude and unwillingness.

We’re all about to learn a lot about ourselves, most of all. And much of that will be learned through or with the help of others. The lessons – ultimately – are about what we value…but how we get to that lesson, its implications and utilization?

That we cannot do alone and will not do in short order. When April 29th arrives the eclipse isn’t over - we merely ‘shift’ from the ‘breaking down’ to the ‘learning better and rebuilding’ phase…a phase which lasts about three years and which comes with a bit of a twist right towards the end.

With all of that in mind, there are also four stations marking the onset of solar eclipse effects. One of them – Mercury’s station/direct at 18 Aquarius – we talked about in a separate post.

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Mercury Direct at 18 Aquarius

To be exact here, as this post hits the internet (on February 27, 2014), Mercury’s station/direct is still in tomorrow’s future. But meanwhile, as of today Ceres will go retrograde (or will have gone retrograde, depending on when you read this).

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Saturn, Sedna, Ceres, Jupiter:
Manifest Gearing in Motion

(If you haven’t checked in here recently, you may want to catch up. Knowing the lay of the mental and emotional landscape means beaucoup at the moment.)

As of February 27th, a lot of projects and attempts to deal with commitments are needing to be attended to. Sorting the ‘merely finished for now’ from the ‘I’m actually done with that’ is part of this process – and it’s a necessary part of the process, though haste isn’t suggested.

Part of our challenges from here through the end of April come from how we deal with the difference between being just plain headstrong as opposed to properly determined on a personal level. As Mercury goes direct on the 28th and February slides into March, much of what we encounter and deal with in our own right will center on such questions.

March 1st is the date when our planetary neighbor, Mars, goes retrograde. Mars retrogrades deserve their reputation as particularly trying (sometimes frustrating) times – but they don’t have to be. All you have to remember is that the object is to be who you are, and to own what comes of that. With Mars being sort of the standardized symbol of assertion and assertiveness, action, heat (emotional, physical or chemical) and thought we’re sorry to say it ego, self-centeredness and any kind of obsession which focuses on the Self to the exclusion of others…“normal” Mars dynamics are outward. We do what we need to do to get what we want from life and all that. We go after our goals. We assert our opinion.

Under Mars retrograde, that ‘other’ feels like it’s missing because we’re being called to pay attention to our Self. This can be the physical self – and particularly as Mars is going retrograde in Libra, there is every chance this March 1st through May 20th, our actions…or the lack thereof…is going to be being called into question – most of all by us.

This isn’t about guilt. This is about better understanding ourselves in the grand scheme of things so we have a better sense of consequence when it comes to whether we do something or ask that question or pay attention to what that person over there is saying…or screaming…or not.

And yes, I say that last part (the screaming, in particular) for a reason. Mars retrograde can feel oppressive. Mars retrograde in Libra is going to bring out a lot of errors, maladaptions, loneliness and all those unpleasantries we either didn’t think of as possibilities…or which we didn’t want to know about.

Situated at the equator of Mars, Valles Marineris is a canyon system some 4500 kilometers long, 200 kilometers wide and 11 kilometers deep, meaning it's about seven times as 'grand' as Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona (USA). 

(photo credit: Nasa, JPL, Caltech, USGS)

As I say that, there is an entirely different route through this next several months of Mars retrograde which some of us will take. For some this will be a time all about increased dialogue, and some of that will be difficult. Why? Because Mars retrograde is about self development. Astrologically, Mars is a personal planet – which means by astro-definition this is an element native to our basic personality. It’s inside of us. It can’t get under our skin because it already started there.

And the truth is that Mars (through its rulership of “I Am” sign Aries) is related to ego. The same sort of energy which is assertiveness is a form of being personally present. And that present tense ‘being-ness’ is all about ego.

So no matter what sign Mars retrogrades in, it feels personal. In this case the retrograde begins at 27 degrees of Libra and ends at 9 Libra.

That means Mars moves…what, a whole 18 degrees in the space of about two-and-a-half months?

(I pause to take a breath, thinking of how to break this to us all gently…)

Mars orbits once around the Sun in 687 days…which to spare you fetching out calendar or calculator equals 1.88 years. Thinking about this in terms of averages, this would suggest…because 687 (days) divided by 360 (degrees in a cycle, circle or the zodiac) equals 1.908…we would think Mars would move one degree very two days, give or take.

And that’s what normally happens. But now we have a two-and-a-half-month (81 day long) period where Mars is only going to move eighteen degrees?

That’s a ratio which comes out to about 1/9th the ‘normal’ amount. (Yes, I’m rounding a tad, but still…) Considering that metaphysics translates motion as any form of ‘getting somewhere,’ specific to Mars as a symbol of action or activity, there would seem to be very little happening.

So will things be slow? Will we feel…bottled up or unable to get out of our own way? Or is this about doing something slowly so that sufficient care is taken?

Whatever this kind of energy means in your life, the implication isn't 'rapid.' This is Mars in something of a metaphysical metamorphic energy state, which is helpful for those of us who are coal willingly poised on the edge of becoming diamonds...facing only whatever our process of ultimate purification is.

The months ahead will pit us against our Self, purging many of unmerited vulnerabilities masquerading as vanity.

And yet, that’s all on the outside. Remember, retrogrades are about apparent movement. They’re about how things ‘look’ from here on Earth – not how they are in the overall realm of existence. The fact that relative speeds should cause us to ‘go back through’ some issues – that’s real. But so is the fact that in reality, Mars is moving along as it always has even if from the ‘Earthly’ …which is to say mundane human and everyday…perspective, Mars appears to be hardly moving at all – and when it does move, it seems to be doubling back on its steps.

So shall we. The real question is why we will do that, how we will do that, how well we will do that, and how we will deal with what has been found. Plus – seeing as this retrograde has Mars in Libra, much of the effect here is either real-time or effectively about how we connect to others…how we are connected to them, what connects us…whether that works or is viable…whether we need to make some effort or make changes to get to our goals…

…all that stuff and all those many things. The details of life and the details of how our lives intersect, intertwine, compliment, confront, question, learn from and – most of all reflect – will be being bestirred within. Relationship matters will be of great import whether you do or don’t have a relationship – and despite any specific relationship nature. Friend, enemy, guru, lover, authority and authoritarian, buddy, chum and huckster, we’re all alike under the Mars in Libra guise in the sense that we’re all equally human.

The photo here is of the May 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse at 0 Gemini taken 100km

north of Tokyo in Takenezawa (Tochigi Prefecture) by Carl Drinkwater

It’s that being thing which gets us. The details of that living challenge (whatever form it takes in your life) are individual and far too many to imagine. Through confrontations (or lack of same) with others, we experience our Self in a very personal and thoughtfully revealing way. Somehow…maybe at long, long last we’re find ourselves approaching the place where we’re willing to be confronted with the essence of understanding and a window on consequences, be they personal or otherwise. Far more through that we can’t predict and couldn’t (or wouldn’t want to) control we see and experience how cause and effect manifest in a subtly dynamic way which has escaped us until now.

Or maybe it’s not so subtle. Thinking back to last November’s solar eclipse (and the several eclipses prior to that) it’s hard to remember any marker for the onset of eclipse effects to be so heavily weighted as this one.

Maybe that means this is an important time for you. Or one which is critical to some greater flow of time. Whatever is going on, since there are all these planetary (and asteroid) stations clustered right at this ‘two months to go’ marker, that seems something we can take as a workable mental calendar.

Then again, Mars retrograde was never defined as a frolicsome sort of time. So we shouldn’t be surprised if the weeks…and yes, months ahead or filled with meaningful moments of many types.

Inside, we are likely to be moved by whatever happens going forward...and to, in time, move forward based on what we either do now (Mars) or realize now (Mercury in Aquarius) …or we may come to  whole new understanding – or way to understand - ‘about’ how things do or don’t work.

And how when we get stalled along the way through life, how it’s not always about failure. Sometimes it’s so that we have more time to observe, learn, become aware, hone abilities…and in general, enable greater success in the process.

What we are going through now…and that which we will go through in a very focused or focal way over the next several months – it has portent. It’s important. It’s one of those times when life itself is flexing enough that we just might get helped by moving ahead with something extraordinary (to us, at least)…and we can see it.

Everyone around the world smells the danger and feels the potential. We are all longing to individualize at the same time that, in finding a more productive and ‘fitting’ place in life, we become theoretically secured.

Saturn going retrograde on March 2nd at 4:20 in the afternoon UT/+0 time represents all our  challenges and needs. That Saturn is going retrograde just a day behind Mars implies a good deal of effort, at least some degree of risk and the positives involved in bringing skills to bear on ‘cutting edge’ questions.

By reputation, Mars is ‘hot’ and Saturn is ‘cold.’ Together, they represent the chilling thrust, the unstoppable conviction, the deadly accuracy of necessity and the bravery to do the impossible.

Great achievements and great disasters loom ahead. We will expect some now…and some to be seeded now. After going retrograde now, Saturn will return to the degree and minute of its station in late October – within days of Mercury going direct after another retrograde (this one in Libra, where Mars is now) as  October’s solar eclipse goes off.

This is a connection which can be counted on. Life has laid out a path and bridge for us…but whether we will tread it, where it will lead us to and whether we’re willing to let go of some of our hard ‘shells’ depended on so diligently coming into this time…that’s up to us. The Sabian Symbol for the upcoming eclipse at 8 Taurus reads 'A FULLY DECORATED CHRISTMAS TREE,' an image which astrologer Marc Edmund Jones typified as 'the ability to create inner happiness in dark times.'

For some of us that will merely be about making ourselves better. For others, that will involve the bringing forth from spirit, Self, mind, heart and abilities that which creates inner happiness - hopefully for many - when things are sincerely trying.

These days are the first steps along a path which will teach us much about this precept...in whatever way it applies to you in your life...over the next two months as eclipse effects unfold. Then we will or won't do something because or in spite of all we've come to be aware of.

That will take us the next three years, during which time much else will cross our path, refining, exploring, tempering and exploding whatever it is that the current 'hard core' (martian-saturnine) has now laid in our experiential path.

One last thought here...the 'main players' in this drama apart from Sun and Moon are very much clustered all together.

Two identical detail clips from the Aries wheel (location non-specific) chart for Mars' station, one (upper left)

shown in text and the other (lower right) using glyphs. 

Eclipses being a physical (astronomical) function of an alignment of Sun, Moon and Earth, the astrological version only varies by substituting the lunar Nodes (i.e., the nodes of the moon) for Earth. And if you think of it that way, then that Saturn, Ceres, Vesta, the North Node and Mars are all clustered together is very much a  'thematic' imaging of the eclipse.

And that's how this eclipse season is starting out?

However you feel about what you're thinking about, facing and doing going forward, the image above is one which speaks to what it will take now to move forward - and the fact that we cannot do so without knowing, learning or learning better about what it means to be 'bridging' the Libra-Scorpio energetic...that which is always about who we are to ourselves because of who we are with others.

Nothing is 'about' them. It's about our experience of our Self in the light of their existence...and how when things are really working that's enough to contend with, grow from, be inspired by and survive with.

And when things aren't working? Then no matter how much we have, gain or get, we don't feel like we're really living.
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Sun in Pisces

The Aquarium of Monaco

(photo: public domain, Dec 2011)

Arriving at a Sun-into-Pisces ingress looking ahead at a one-two-three lineup of Mercury, Mars and Saturn on-station dates (to be followed days later by Jupiter’s station) is worth a bit of contemplation. Knowing all that’s going to happen under Pisces (a sign which manifests as sensitivities of all types) sounds like a recipe. 

The only question is for what. So to the basics here: the Sun makes its 2014 Pisces ingress on February 18th at 6:01 in the evening, UT/+0 time. The Mercury in Aquarius (against Sun in Pisces) part of the above was posted on last week, so here’s the path to that…

(link) Transmission Transition:

Mercury backs into Aquarius

…beyond which lies the ‘distilled’ sort of clarity which is so Mercury in Aquarius…the helpful and annoying of it, the equipped to solve one problem while raising another habit mental delving tends to set off.

All of which will now be operating on us in terms of our (retrograde) personal outlook and/or life, manifesting in the doing of what we do with more intensity…and yet more fluctuation and need for flexibility. From now until Mercury’s February 28th station/direct moment we’re all up for grabs with others and ourselves when it comes to Mars in Libra questions of connection/connectivity, relationship and honesty of all kinds – particularly that which reflects how honest we’ve all been with our Self  about what things really are (and are not) and how that affects (or doesn’t affect) others.

Where we go wrong, life will promote a very ‘emotional time.’ And while that may be good or bad in the moment, the reality of what such a period could mean is not in the…percussion (the tapping into the moment)…but in a repercussion which will ‘hit home’ either as a concept or need or a series of interconnected concepts and needs, the operands of which will become active as Mars goes retrograde on March 1st.

(Actually…given station allowances, make that February 27th as timed by a UT/+0 zone clock.)

During this time, more than a few of us will be going through poignant internal moments. Then as Mars turns retrograde and Saturn is on station we’ll begin considering repercussions.

And debts.

And mistakes, dangers, opportunities and costs physical, emotional, spiritual as well as financial.

But yes, money counts too. Saturn/Mars is often a signature of business; this is a primary time for those who have done their homework to undertake some core or challenging effort. Yet whether we’re doing something or not, with the Sun in Pisces – the ultimate signature of that sort of personal  vulnerability which converts into a strength when our faith in investing in our effort goes beyond the harness or limitation of ego…

…life is going to be asking us questions. It’s just that kind of time. Our fears, our hopes, those trials of soul which test our ability to absorb emotional exposure… we’re all about this time. We’re ‘doing’ it. We’re ‘being’ it.  

And for those who resist, there’s always the ‘being overwhelmed’ by life – that maximal Pisces experience.

 The Sun's Pisces ingress 2014 (text chart)

February 18 - 6:01 p.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel, location not specific

The positive here is the opportunity to let down our guard…the ability to (maybe for once) stop fearing long enough to allow belief to become our strength. Given how this year’s Sun traverse of Pisces is so prominently marked by planetary stations…and that all those stations happen as the Sun moves into Pisces second and most emotional decanate (degrees 10 through 19)…it’s a time to be stirred.

No, not like coffee – like feeling entities. Sun in Pisces is all about our feeling ourselves grow softer in the presence of that which our Self recognizes as moving. Mars in Libra, at its most altruistic, is about the will to be inspired – or inspiring.

That Saturn will go retrograde in a third decan degree of Scorpio (23 Scorpio, to be exact) tells us this isn’t just about us. Or what we like, prefer, have thought through the doing of before.

This is where Saturn sternly parts the curtains showing us what we would have liked to have known before now. Or that which we didn’t want to see. Or that we would rather not know.

Or that we would rather not have to do.

No matter the course ahead, there is one thing to take heart in: it isn’t just about you. Who we are now will reveal our humanity – our true beauty to others. Whether we’re grappling with it, reveling in it, have wasted it or or in the process of discovering we exist, we are at our most preciously mortal now.

And if we have the courage, we can let us see us.

Maybe even like us.

Maybe even respect us for being who we are.

The Sun won’t move on into Aries until March 20th (UT/+0). That means that between now and then, everything which happens – which means with every transit to your natal chart and with every mundane ripple of energy finally reaching Terra Earth from wherever it was generated ‘out there’ by some unique object moving through space and time under unique conditions….

The Sun as photographed in x-ray from the SOHO solar observatory

(photo credit: NASA, JPL - April 2010)

…it’s all about us as part of the incalculable vastness. It is all us and we are part of it. We are in relationship with our world as surely as it is in relationship to our existence as part of that world.

That’s the essential connection, that thing which Mars’ station in ‘like attracts like’ and ‘cause/effect’ Libra tells us is equally about who we are and the quality/qualities of what we are ‘putting out there’ as it is about the ‘idea of the thing.’

Through equally Libran interactions and Saturnine, sometimes hard-to-take moments, reactions, efforts and realizations will we now be validated.

And feel…way down deep…what really matters about who we are – the individual, the soul, the person. What will happens now will be hard to describe, but you’ll know its real. It’ll tap at your awareness in that way which if someone catches you doing it you’ll say ‘oh, nothing…’ with a shrug or quirk of sheepish grin.

This is a time when we sort through instinctive, non-verbal sorts of Piscean deep-water feelings.

We are going to be being who we are intrinsically.

Instinctively.

What we learn from doing that? That’s all about who we are – and yes, we will take note, whether we choose to face realities or not. Where under Scorpio rejection is experienced as an opinion, under Pisces its more akin to denial, flippancy or avoidance.

And it isn’t ‘them,’ it’s you. And yes, you may live to kick yourself in the psychic derriere about something you do now or something you have done prior to now…which just says so much about the relative length of legs, the hardness of heads and the human tendency to cling to self-validation the more insecure we really are.

Those of us who use this time purposefully and productively are still likely to find things challenging, if simply because things aren’t likely to be all ‘smooth sailing.’ Sun in Pisces asks for faith the kind of faith which allows us to persevere through being part of our environment. Linked with fears of failure, Pisces – and 12th house chart experiences - typically teach us not to think things are only ‘about’ us and how we are not only entitled to our feelings, we’re required to own them, use them, feel them and be responsible for all they cause us to do, not do and be.

Or, of course, not be.

Once Mars and Saturn go retrograde, Jupiter going direct in Cancer will tend to mark moments when things or acts or decisions get ‘called out’ or noticed, responded to for wherever reason. That which we have started prior to now may ‘take effect’ or become ‘concreted’ or ‘real’ to others (a common manifestation of Jupiter and Saturn in combination, particularly as that applies to your career or business as a genre).

And from there on out, Sun in Pisces becomes a streaming of various exercises in how to make do and make more of things – a strange combination of being careful and throwing caution to the wind which is common with Pisces, the sign of two connected fish swimming in opposite directions. As the emblem of that very feeling vitality which so often, despite all the ‘rules’ causes us to laugh or sing or dance just to feel ourselves existing, Pisces teaches that even if it’s for a moment, those moments when we give ourselves permission to feel are our the jewels with which our life – hopefully – is ultimately spangled.

Nothing is likely to go wrong now when and where we hold to simple truths. The clarity of what we know…even if its wrong or in error can carry us forward and through providing we are openly willing to own the ‘I was wrong’ or ‘I didn’t know that,’ part. In fact, in time such moments (as memories) will remind us either that it is through the 'giving in' to the temptation to 'just' be who we are to the exclusionary point which stunts our life. By becoming humble not to others but as a gesture to that Self which deserves the best we can be for our own sake, so we will over the next few weeks replenish inner reserves which as we refill them will actually cause us to recognize just how empty we've been.

And thus will we learn that something was done or learned or taken incorrectly - and how that's affected something else. Or someone else.

 The Sun's Pisces ingress 2014 (glyph chart)

February 18 - 6:01 p.m. (UT/+0) - Aries Wheel, location not specific

It's not any actual incident which really counts now - or going forward: it's how we feel about hurting or not hurting, harming, being harmed and even just being unrealistic.

The more that life causes you to question yourself through how you feel about being who you are...the more you stand to learn and gain. But that process isn't gentle as so many of us project our dreams, hopes and wishes...and we pay the price for having done that (or not caring that someone else has done that) under the Sun in Pisces.

We want people to share our hope instead of being content with their having hope. We feel small simply because the whole or the task or the possibility is too big. On one hand we want help, on the other we just want to be left to do 'our thing.' We want freedom but don't like or want to feel alone.

Sun in Pisces promotes our sensitivity to being sensitive. It's a process which uses how we feel to cause us to understand what we feel about life.

The process isn't subtle. But then, neither is the realization of who we really are.
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