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.

- link -

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 in Aries: Who Me?

An Eruption of Italy's Stromboli volcano in 1980 taken by Wolfgang Beyer

On March 12th, at 6:27 in the morning (UT/+0), Mars enters Aries.

As an astrologer I’m very happy I’m not required to get up and sound any trumpets about such things as 6:27 in the morning is way to early for brass fanfares. But apart from that, once Mars does enter Aries it’s likely to be a good thing.

Well, at least on some levels.

The ‘good’ here would be how Mars in Aries tends to be a time when people are spunky and filled with energy and a will to get things done.

Of course, Mars in Aries is also a time when people can get so full of themselves that they ignore everybody else. There is that.

So the energy part of Mars in Aries is useful. The willful conviction part? Well, that depends on who you are. I’d like to say that if you’re the shy, meek type Mars in Aries could give you the gusto to go out and be all you could ever want to be. But even if Mars in Aries is known for conquering goals, if your goal is to never (ever!) have to do anything or expose your vulnerabilities, Mars in Aries can just have you doubling up (or down) on that very sort of determination.

Under the best of conditions, Aries is the sign where Mars represents a rise in consciousness. We should size up what needs doing, what we can do about it and go do just that. But for some, Mars in Aries becomes a time of self-consciousness. Or even inflated ego. Which you are (and which those you care about are) depends on the natal chart…and probably where Pluto falls in that chart natally and by current Capricorn transit.

Why Pluto?

Because Mars has two signs of rulership. And any time any planet which has two signs of rulership enters either of their ruling signs, qualities related to both signs get stirred.

The atmosphere of Mars  as photographed by the Viking Orbiter

(photo credit: NASA, 1976)

That’s a whole subject of its own which I’ll explain in a different blog (it’s kind of annoying and kind of illuminating), but for the moment, let’s just stick to the Mars stuff. (It’s sticky enough!) But just to touch on that here, given that the ‘other’ sign Mars is a ruler in is Scorpio, that’s the big clue to why Mars in Aries can be so hard-headed.

Aries is a cardinal sign. Cardinal signs learn through doing. In other words they do, look at the results and decide what they did right, and what they should probably do differently next time.

Scorpio is a fixed sign. Fixed signs would like to understand everything about how the thing works before they dip their toe in even a thimble of the possibility that they might get involved, never mind DO anything.
Therefore, that Mars is a ruler of a primary cardinal sign which is about BEING and DOING and MAKING THINGS HAPPEN…which at it’s emotional (Scorpio) core should be about making things work better for everybody but which often turn into an exercise in wanting to be ‘seen’ a given way or wanting to ‘win’ approval or support or NOT wanting to end up being told you’re wrong about anything…

Yeah, it’s a bit of a contest. And a contest we each will contest in our own sweetly (or not so sweetly) personal way between March 12th, when Mars enters Aries and April 20th, when Mars moves on into Taurus. (Let’s not get me started on the Mars in Taurus stuff yet…that will just lead to a lot of discussion of the May Solar Eclipse in Taurus, and we’re going to be discussing that at length soon enough!)

What seems important to think about here is how March 12th through April 20th is basically five weeks.
It’s an interesting oddity, this Mars orbit we live with. What do I mean by that? Okay…consider this: Mars’ full orbit of the Sun is 687 days (1.88 years) long. And when you divide 687 by 360 (degrees in the zodiac or a circle), you get 1.908333333…(add as many ‘3’s as you like).

What this says is that the mean average movement of Mars through any given degree should take almost two days, meaning thirty degrees (a sign’s worth of degrees) should take sixty days.

But if you look back through an ephemeris, what you’ll find is that apart from the years when Mars is retrograde in Aries (which will next happen in the year 2020) Mars generally does only spend about five weeks in Aries.

Maybe that is a key to why we do so much and get to hopping on things when Mars is in the most basic of cardinal signs?

It’s probably not just that Aries is cardinal which applies here. Aries is not just cardinal, it’s also a fire sign. In fact, it’s the only cardinal fire sign. There are four cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) and each one belongs to a different element. Aries is fire, Cancer is water, Libra is air and Capricorn is earth. This is true of every ‘modality’ – or ‘triplicity’ as cardinal, fixed and mutual are collectively known.

And this is part of the genius of the zodiac – and of understanding life and other human beings as it happens. I’ve heard people say ‘I’m an air sign, I only get along with other air signs,’ to which I say “Really?” Since the modality (the ‘mode of activity’) of a sign is the general description of how someone works, why would whether they put things in airy, theoretical terms trump whether they go for it (the cardinal way of doing things) versus whether they hem and haw and try to make sure there are no other options (as fixed signs will do) or start and stop, learning as they go and changing their plans accordingly as mutable signs do?

After thirty-some years of listening to this ‘I like earth sign people,’ ‘I like water sign people’ and so on, I tend to think that it’s just easier to grasp the nature of elements (earth, air, fire, water) than it is to grasp modalities.

But in the end, modalities probably make and break more relationships - personal and professional. If she’s really a cardinal sign gal and he’s really a fixed sign guy, she’s going to get tired of waiting for him to make up his mind and he’s going to feel like she’s nagging him. If the lawyer is a highly mutable person and their client is a seriously cardinal person, that client is likely to think the lawyer is flakey, no matter what flavor of flake that comes out being.

Yes, we do need to be tolerant of each other, and under Mars in Aries we can either not do that and get all frustrated and impatient (which happens a lot) or we can grow into some personal insight about what individuality really means. About who that “I” person in your head really is, and how it’s foolish to expect anyone to be ‘just like you’ or to know who you are if you haven’t been that person yet.

Mars in Aries is the heart and soul of by our actions we shall be known. That starts with being conscious that we are…and conscious of who we are, both of which are the process and outcome of Mars in Aries. It’s a time for learning more about ourselves through what we do and what happens or what prompts us to get off our duff or open our eyes…and it’s a time when by choosing or not choosing to act, and the quality of our actions we reveal ourselves and our capacities to ourselves – never mind to others!

You’ve heard me talk about the first zodiacal quadrant as being about ‘the self.’ Aries is what starts that off. The sign progression here being Aries, Taurus, Gemini, you can’t respect your Self or have self worth invested in that Self if you have no idea who that Self is, or what they are capable of or willing to do.

And without both of those, who thinks you can make a decent (Gemini) choice about anything?

I’ve also said this before (and yes, I’m going to say it again!)…but it’s also as important to understand what zodiac quadrants don’t contain as what they do contain. The first quadrant is cardinal, fixed and mutable (triplicities repeat in each quadrant)…AND the first quadrant is fire, earth air.

The four elements – the quadruplicities of the zodiac also repeat. The sequence is fire, earth, air, water…right round the wheel. But when you have four elements and only three signs per quadrant, one element is going to get left out.

And in that first quadrant which is all about the Self and learning who and what we are and that we exist and how we feel about ourselves and what we’re able to do if we’re capable of doing anything?

That first quadrant of the zodiac does NOT have water in it. So though we may think (air) fervently. The sheer emotionality and all the instinctual qualities we metaphysically attribute to water don’t show up until Cancer – and Cancer isn’t part of the first and most primary quadrant of the zodiac.

It’s part of the second quadrant (and the right side of the wheel, as opposed to the left). That second quadrant is about interaction. Call it learning to be social and interact with others. Where the first quadrant (and first three signs) embody the idea of the infant through toddler into childhood stages (ages 0-7.5), the second quadrant embodies ages 7.5 through 14. Thus the zodiac defines emotionality as responsive…the whole right side of the wheel (and the signs associated with that right side of the wheel) are reactive and responsive.

And that leaves us with a greater understanding of why Aries – and thus Mars in Aries can be such a self-involved time. You may use that as getting to know yourself. Then again, you could be more egocentric than usual. (Who, YOU? Egocentric?)

At the same time, all signs are part of dualities – you know, the ‘oppositional polarity.’ With Aries, that opposition is Libra, which is not precisely the “you” of it all. No, Aries/Libra is what I do will affect you so that you will respond to me…HOW?

And yes, I’m putting my money on the awareness ticket this time around. At least on the value of the awareness ticket for this Mars-in-Aries quadrille. And why would that be? That would be because as Mars enters Aries, it’s going to be doing so in the company of Photographica, an asteroid which appears to be about ‘the image.’ In Aries, the sign of the physical self, this may be about your looks. It could be about a health problem. It could be a focus on what others think of you or what you want to work on in order to shape what people think of you.

Given that the Moon is going to follow Mars into Aries within less than five hours of the Mars ingress, we can also bet there’s some sort of sensitivity involved. And yes, some cause for sensitivity, whether that’s in-built ego vulnerability, some actual cause for physical concern or a simple desire to change. With Mars changing signs pretty much in the dawn of day after the Pisces New Moon, Eris is still conjunct Pallas too.
But just perhaps of note here is that in the hours between that New Moon and this Mars ingress, Eris and Pallas have changed places. As the New Moon occurred, some ‘dispassionate wisdom’…maybe better put as ‘perspective’ occurred to call our ‘Pallas’ attention to something in such a way which we hadn’t suspected (Eris) and which forced us to choose between the easy and challenging ways forward.

And that isn't always easy - a fact which the following piece of art would seem to show has been something people have been thinking about for a very long time! 

This 1771 painting, "The Combat of Mars and Minerva" by Joseph-Benoit Suvee will seem far more apropos to today's discussion if we remember that Minerva is the alternate name for Athena...also known as Pallas Athena, she who sprung full grown from the thoughtful brow of Zeus (aka Jupiter).

This can be just a little thing. Then again, if your chart aligns with 21 Pisces (the New Moon) or 21 Aries (Pallas-Eris) or even 0 Aries (the Mars ingress), you could be going through a whole period which is at some level about understanding your own capacity. And what you may need to do in spite of the fact you’re not exactly jollied at the prospect of doing it (Pallas/Eris).

There’s more to this period…it’s continuing to evolve. But we’ll get to those factors as they become more likely to be active on the backgammon board of life. (Or Monopoly, if you prefer.)

But right now, we know that as of March 12th (which would still be late on March 11th for those in the western Americas or eastern Pacific Basin) there’s something of a celestial starting gun being sounded at the energetic level.

Ready…set…go where?

Be what?

Good question!
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A New Moon in Pisces

Fish going about their daily lives on Australia's Great Barrier Reef

(photo credit: LCDR Eric Johnson, NOAA, October 2009)

It was at the prompting of one of you fine people out there in Blogland which got me to start backing up posts so that (as he put it) everyone would ‘get a bit of warning’ about astrological events.

That made total sense to me…which among other things, proves that I take requests. I may not do windows, but yes folks – I do take requests!

But in today’s case, there’s a very good and entirely different reason for the Pisces New Moon post to go up a prior to the event. What’s that very fine reason?

That very fine reason concerns the fact that while the New Moon itself will occur on March 11th at 7:52 in the evening UT/+0 time, the Moon’s entering Pisces on the 10th at 6:20 in the morning (again, UT/+0 time) will bring the number of personal planets in Pisces up to five.

And how many personal planets are there, astro-sports fans? Five! (If you answered ‘five, you get a gold star. Just don’t tell the Milky Way I’m handing out stars or I’ll probably get in cosmic trouble!)

So yes…as of early on March 10th, all five personal planets will be in Pisces – which means our sense of vulnerability is going to be up, even if we don’t feel it. And in case we don’t feel it, life is likely to toss things our way which cause us to feel our inner quease.

This doesn’t have to be a big deal. You may simply forget something at the store and get into one of those ‘yelling at myself’ moods. Or you may feel lonely. Or – given that Mercury is still in retrograde – you may be waiting for something to happen and be going through any number of moments about that.

It’s just a sensitive time. Some of us will use this as a cue to take a step back and do something thoughtful, for ourselves…or for someone else.

And some of us will realize that sometimes doing something for someone else is doing something for yourself.

It’s a good time for relaxation, whether that means meditation, gardening, cooking, watching a good movie, reading a book or just catching up on snooze time.

Seeing as Moon passages are often timers for ‘setting off’ physical energy modes, this may be a time when your body (never mind your feelings!) is sensitive too. So you may feel tired. If you’re one of those people who gets sick when you get run down, this is a cue to pace yourself.

Pisces being always a sign of permeability, this is a good time to talk something out with someone quietly – preferably in private. It’s a good time for nurturing relationships and mending fences too, so long as you are willing to own up to anything you may have done which was a no-no.

But there’s a whole other astro-side to this Pisces Moon period prior to the New Moon. And that concerns lunar phase theory. The Moon has eight phases, which gives us a 360 degree cycle divided not into twelve as the zodiac is, but eight:

 
Any time any cycle is close to finished, there’s a sense we get of ‘gosh, it’s almost done.’ Or the vacation’s almost over. Or I’m past mile 24 in the marathon – I’m almost there!

We understand phase theory in life, we just don’t think of it as phase theory.

Part of the zodiacal concept of Pisces – the ‘ocean of emotion’ as one might call it – has to do very much with this ‘I’m almost done’ idea.’ In Pisces we find all the relief, all the fear, all the wistfulness, all the pride in having ‘gotten through it all’ which we associate with the end of the zodiac. Pisces says ‘let go of expectations’ in part because it is the last sign of the zodiac. Yes, we will ‘recycle’ and start out again in Aries, but that’s something new. Aries is always supposed to be the new, the fresh, the innocent, the unknowing…just as Pisces is the old, the experienced, the theoretically wise.

(Yes, it’s all relative.)

As Aries is the spirit of the infant just starting out life, Pisces is the elder who knows life will in due time come to its end.

These qualities are imbued in the signs no matter how old we are, which is why a 92 year old Aries person will still have that touch of the child and the 6 year old Pisces person will already have that intuitive quality we associate with wisdom.

What we make of these things is up to us. But the native ‘qualities’ are always there.

In lunar astrology, the last lunar phase is called the Balsamic phase. Call it the ‘salad phase’ if you want (yes, I have!) but even there…well, if you know about fine Balsamic vinegar you know there is a sweet with the tartness which comes only with age. The keywords for the Balsamic phase are ‘finishing up and letting go’…it’s time to let go and let what will be, become.

In zodiacal terms, the Balsamic phase encompasses the last half of Aquarius and all of Pisces, which is why the ideas associated with the Balsamic phase sound so much like Pisces – and vice versa, yes.

So all of this brings us to think about how as the lunar cycle which began back on February 10th moves through it’s Balsamic phase, it’s also entering Pisces.

This may spell a trying few days for those who are of the distinctly sunshiny types. Instead of raining on your parade, life may sprinkle you with vinegar.

Going into this Moon-in-Pisces time, little mountains may grow out of molehills. But are they real? Or are they being magnified by our internal emotional focus?

The answer might be one and might be the other. Maybe even both. (Don’t you love this game?)

But then…in the middle of it all, we DO get to the New Moon. And that said New Moon is in the middle of all this personal Piscean pondering…specifically at a zodiacal point (21 Pisces) which wrests control from our hands…that puts the ‘Balsamic’ quality from the Pisces vibe into the this New Moon.

And thus the whole New Moon cycle, which is part of the reason I danced this whole verbal fandango. (Like my dance of the solar system?)

As if we needed another 'notification' that things are ending and changing, there's also the fact that this is the last of a series of New Moons at 21 degrees of successive signs.

 A list of New and Full Moons - the lunar aspects 'highlighted' in darker colors indicate eclipses

Next month's New Moon will be at 20 degrees of Aries. And by the time that happens, we will already be in the 6-8 week 'shake out' (or 'break down') period which precedes a solar eclipse. So this month is preparing us to deal with changes we probably know need making, but which we have some (Pisces) resistance to or fear of.

Lore tells us that 21 Pisces is a particularly potent degree. It’s got a little bit of insecurity (which seeks the known) and a little but of planning (which can be clever or cunning, depending), all of which is mixed with what we might call the ‘standard Piscean challenge’ to know reality from the cherished desire which though desired in reality, is really a fantasy.

With me?

Wrap all this up, then stick it in a cosmic container labeled “You Don’t Control the Outcome Here” which comes to us automatically whenever we’re talking about a degree between 20 and 29 of any sign. Ah yes…that 3rd decanate thing. You may have forgotten about it, but (unfortunately) the universe never does.

Ah, life…!

Anyway…on to the modifiers and other tra-la.

With Venus at 17 Pisces (behind the New Moon by degree if in front of it rising through the horoscope) the whole of this March 11 through April 10 lunar cycle…and especially the March 11 (New) through March 27 (Full Moon) period is going to be a test of our ability to interact with others and the world on many levels which could turn out very well for us, but only if we deal with our emotionality.

Venus as photographed by the Hubble Telescope in August of 2010

(photo credit: NASA-ESA)

Now as soon as I say that, I know a bunch of you are going to respond with ‘Okay – I’m going to put my game face on. They’ll never know what I’m thinking or what I’m feeling!’ But that’s not the point at all. In Pisces, and where anything having to do with Pisces is concerned (pssst! – that includes your natal 12 house and whatever house you have Pisces on natally!) …you need to feel your feelings. That’s how you’re going to learn better. In fact, you’re likely to commit mistakes and dig ever deeper holes for yourself in life until you feel your feelings because it’s that very sensitivity, that ability and willingness to feel your fears and feel the ‘ouch’ of it all and feel and own your mistakes…that’s the path to your wholeness AND your greater functionality.

Pisces is known by many names. One of the least graceful is ‘the garbage can of the zodiac,’ which as  Piscean person, I take great umbrage at!

However…as I’ve gone along, I’ve come to understand why people think of it that way. Pisces people and Pisces situations and Piscean places in your chart are the places where you want to just throw up your hands (or maybe just throw up) and throw the whole matter out of your life.

I know a couple of people who did that to me last year, as it happens. Since their Pisces issues remain theirs I doubt their lives are better for it, but since I haven’t heard from either one of them (yet), I’m guessing they haven’t figured out I wasn’t the problem.

We all have assumptions which are just foo-foo. We all do some pretty stupid things in life. We all make mistakes. We all get hurt.

The Pisces challenge is getting past that. With Venus involved in this New Moon conjunction, we have an opportunity to make huge gains in life and as people if we are willing to sort through the vagaries and not just go with the known, the comfortable or the ‘all good.’ Being a Pisces, I’ll put it out there that there’s a marked difference between being vulnerable and being dependent, and that that’s a difference not everyone understands. You don’t have to be best friends or lover or family to be vulnerable; there are plenty of times when admitting you don’t understand or that you aren’t sure about something will open the door to better conversations, better explanations and maybe just that bit of information which will allow you to make a solid decision, yea or nay.

With that said…some of us are people who in our own nature have un-reconciled differences. If your Sun and Moon are in square or inconjunct…or even in a trine which you aren’t using to its positive or fullest (trines can represent 'habitual ruts’), this Pisces lunation may well be a time when you begin to understand that things are not ‘all good’ onboard the Ship of You.

That Mars is at 29 Pisces as this New Moon occurs is an indication of our ‘pressing’ towards goals, towards our ends – or maybe…hopefully…better understandings on many levels. Given that Mars is here conjunct fixed star Scheat (the star we love to hate!), there is a distinct quality of being willing to move on even if or where your choice may not be ‘the popular thing.’

Right is right, right? Is it always going to be popular? No. And that’s the point. There are times and places where we have to compromise and times and places where we need to be able to stand for something bigger than ourselves.

Pisces is a universal sign. That ‘greater than our Self’ quality is very big in Pisces. It’s why this sign (and this lunation cycle) is all about seeing universal truths, not just those which fit you or your family or your group or your whatever. If it don’t work across the board, if it isn’t a universally held value, it isn’t Piscean.

Pisces isn’t about emotional lip-synching and Pisces isn’t about ‘going along to get along.’ But Pisces is also not about being the loner. The guru is honored in Piscean lore because the guru offers their knowledge freely. Because their wisdom is universal.

Fear is one of the great Pisces challenges, which is why so many Pisces situations tempt us to flee. It isn’t necessarily that the ‘thing’ is dangerous or the situation is dangerous – our feelings feel dangerous. It’s easy to walk away from the person or thing or situation which provokes the feeling. But when we do that, the vulnerability remains.

This month is a great opportunity to move past a few of those issues. With Pallas (dispassionate wisdom) conjunct Eris at 21 Aries (in an exact semi-sextile to the New Moon) with Pelion/Lilith on one side and Chaldea/Child on the other, we want to go back to the way things ‘used to be.’ That’s very Chaldea/Child. Getting past denial (Pelion/Lilith) is a big (Pelion) challenge, and surely a lot of us are going to want to insist that ‘they’re the problem, not me.’

 The idea of asteroid Pelion being 'a mountain which has to be climbed,' we will hope our

'mountain' isn't quite as daunting as India's Nanda Devi, which is the 23rd highest mountain

peak on the planet

(photo credit: Anirban C8, May 2008)

 
With all of this happening in Aries, the concept described is that we can fight for the betterment of all or we can deal with changes we don’t understand and probably have never experienced before (Pallas/Eris) shaking up our world.

These Pallas/Eris changes will have started ‘warming up’ in late February. They will test how much we know and how much we’re willing to learn (which expressed in Aries means learning about ourselves). With the arrival of the New Moon this Pallas/Eris energy will be ‘set off,’ and with the semi-sextile from the New Moon there is some sense of irritation OR obligation, take your pick.

Let’s also note that all this happens with Saturn still at 11 Scorpio, the degree it went retrograde at back in February and the degree of the solar eclipse which will show up this coming November.

That’s the…well, let’s call it the “longer dotted line.” And against that we have the ‘shorter dotted line’ which is rapidly carrying us forward to the solar eclipse shift which will happen going into/coming out of this coming May.

The emphasis here is on self worth and how that relates to our values and thus, how we are valued (or get along with) others.

It’s in the works. And as a step in those works, this New Moon leads us into deep emotional waters…so here’s to all things going swimmingly.
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