New Moon in Pisces

The New Moon in Pisces on February 27 pulls us under the waves to encounter the source of the whirlpool warping reality. Ever since Saturn entered Pisces in March 2023, the dissolving influence of Neptune occupying the same sign has been eroding the boundaries and limits of the systems upholding the previous reality. The downward spiral of their tidal force has been disorienting, upending what was previously considered to be normal. Ever since Saturn entered Pisces in March 2023, we have known that March 2025 would mark a threshold of their dizzying orchestrations reaching a prolonged crescendo that would reshape reality in the years of 2025 and 2026. The Pisces New Moon opens the door to a strange space and time that will require resilient focus and determination while navigating the rushing currents. By the end of the lunar cycle, a great sea serpent will surface from the depths to stain the Moon red at the Total Lunar Eclipse in Virgo on March 14, unleashing a flood of Saturn and Neptune.

The cyclical alignments of Saturn and Neptune have consistently transmuted notions of collective reality, as they are the threshold guardians between the material and immaterial, the visible and invisible, the real and ideal. Their combination produces an archetypal field full of tricks and illusory distractions, time periods necessitating cunning strategies and indomitable courage in forging purpose while maintaining moral integrity. While Saturn uniting with Neptune increases the potential for turning inner visions into the reality of manifested form, we also become vulnerable to being swept along by the “manifest destiny” of those in power. The term “manifest destiny” was first published in relation to the idea that the United States had a God-given right to continually expand and consume during a previous time that Saturn and Neptune had come to the end of their cycle, in 1845. Combined with the technocratic dystopia of Pluto in Aquarius, we are presently witnessing a rapid reshaping of societal systems reflecting fractions of the many sides of Saturn and Neptune, such as the weird alliances taking shape between religious fundamentalists and technological kingpins.

The waves of uncertainty discharged by Saturn and Neptune can bring out the worst sides of humanity. Time and time again throughout history we’ve witnessed rises in their associated uncertainty correlating with rises in bigotry and authoritarianism. Yet, as Richard Tarnas wrote in Cosmos and Psyche, Saturn and Neptune periods can also be “the most likely to call forth genuine nobility of spirit and profundity of vision . . . [with] the courage to face a hard and often tragic reality without illusion and still remain true to the ideals and dreams of a better world.” The contraction and consolidation of Saturn within the imaginal water of Pisces has required willful preservation of our dreams and ideals while navigating the dissolving and disillusioning influence of Neptune occupying the same sign. As the New Moon in Pisces rests in between the stationing direct of Mars on 23 February and the stationing retrograde of Venus on 1 March, there are additional planetary cycles on top of Saturn and Neptune catalyzing a questioning of old ideals and desires and a reevaluation of life direction. While we may need to let go of old dreams washing away in the tides of Saturn and Neptune, underneath the waves there will also be new vibrant visions waiting to be discovered.

The New Moon in Pisces brings opportunities to find your center and cultivate faith in the unknown. Within the blatant manipulation of news cycles intended to throw you off-center and into paralyzing states of overwhelm, the true meaning of Saturn and Neptune can awaken deeper awareness of what truly matters with your priorities and commitments. Rather than floundering in Plato’s allegory of the cave, deceived by the distortions of illusory shadows, seek the piercing light of eternal truth while embodying love. Finding your center and focusing on your purpose will be more important than ever, as the New Moon in Pisces will usher in a critical time period of crises and change that will require active participation in creating the life you desire. The bold courage and vision of Jupiter and Mars testifies to the potency of the Pisces New Moon for taking a stand on behalf of the world you wish to create and protect, as the Moon is being received by a generative square aspect with Jupiter in Gemini and applying to a flowing trine aspect with Mars in Cancer.

The invigorating trine between the Pisces New Moon and Mars in Cancer is especially important due to Mars having recently stationed direct on 23 February. When Mars stationed retrograde on 6 December 2024 there was extra potency due to Mars engaging in a prolonged opposition with Pluto in Aquarius that exacerbated collective and personal power conflicts, and since that time we’ve undergone a fiery martial process of volatility, adversity, and radical change. Since Mars stationed direct less than a week before the Pisces New Moon, the red planet will possess an intensified presence that could provoke anger and conflict or increased motivation to fight to protect what matters. With the retrograde phase finally over, the burning intensity of Mars will cut through the fog to clarify whatever issues need to be faced and work needs to be done, while also putting you in touch with the flames of inner drives and desires that have emerged from the retrograde process and are now ready to fuel your next phase of action.

Yet we need to proceed with caution and wield the flaming sword of Mars wisely in the lunar cycle to come, as the star of Ares is in an extreme condition capable of amplifying strife. Mars is at an extreme not only due to Mars stationing direct, but also due to Mars being out of bounds in northern declination. Mars has been out of bounds since the beginning of 2025, possessing an unrestrained expression that has set off wildfires and excessively violent conflicts. At the same time, the extreme condition of Mars in Cancer can also supply unyielding courage to the intentions we set within the darkness of the New Moon in Pisces. Combined with the close contact between the Pisces New Moon with Jupiter in Gemini, there will be support for bravely embarking upon bold new directions. While forward momentum will be possible in March, however, we will need to keep in mind that Venus stationing retrograde on March 1 and Mercury stationing retrograde on March 15 signal that reversals and changes in direction could occur in the month ahead.

Mercury will be a key part of navigating the stormy seas of March, as at the time of the Pisces New Moon the star of Hermes will be separating from a conjunction with Saturn in Pisces and a sextile with Uranus in Taurus, while quickly moving toward a conjunction with the North Node of the Moon and Neptune in Pisces. Mercury will form a conjunction with the North Node on 1 March, followed by a conjunction with Neptune on 2 March at 28º57′ Pisces. While Mercury in Pisces is not known for excelling in dry analysis, its mutual reception with Jupiter in Gemini can lend us a larger vision capable of imagining potential that goes beyond the constraints of present circumstances. The imaginal intuition of Mercury in Pisces can help envision longterm plans and strategies for how to work with the fertile chaos of the coming months, steering us toward where we ultimately wish to go in our lives over the course of the next year of Saturn and Neptune being in close proximity to one another. As Mercury weaves in between Saturn and Neptune, use its intuitive sense of surrounding dynamics to feel into the next moves to make, trusting that your inner authority can guide you through a period of time in which external sources of authority will be unreliable.

Mercury in Pisces is also important due to the New Moon in Pisces demarcating the entrance of Mercury into its “retrograde shadow zone” of degrees that Mercury will return to over the course of its retrograde phase in March and April. On 28 February Mercury in Pisces will transit 26º50′ Pisces, the degree and minute of Pisces where Mercury will later station direct on 7 April after stationing retrograde on 15 March in Aries. This means that the conjunction between Mercury and Neptune on 2 March is unusually important because it will be the first of three conjunctions between them: the second will be on 29 March at 29º59′ Pisces, later in the same day as a Solar Eclipse in Aries, and only one day before the grand entrance of Neptune into Aries. The third and final will be on 17 April in the first degree of Aries, an extremely powerful conjunction that will assist in our adjustment to the new reality of Neptune in Aries. Although the alignment of Mercury and Neptune will be difficult in terms of delusions and illusions streaming through current events, their combination can open perception to deeper dimensions of reality and new sources of creative inspiration while also forging greater stability through inner faith.

Less than a week after the Pisces New Moon, Mercury will leap from the deep waters of Pisces into the enlivening flames of Aries on 3 March, injecting fiery focus in attending to whatever work needs to be completed. Mercury in Aries will from a sextile with Pluto in Aquarius on 5 March as the waxing Moon in Gemini moves from a harmonious sextile with Mercury into a conjunction with Jupiter, making it a particularly powerful day to generate additional momentum. The greatest influence on Mercury, however, will be Venus retrograde in Aries, as Venus will slowly move backwards as Mercury moves forward into a conjunction with Venus retrograde on 11 March at the same time that Mercury is beginning to slow down to station retrograde on 15 March. Due to the possible reversals and unexpected change that could come in the middle of March with the Total Lunar Eclipse in Virgo and Mercury stationing retrograde, it will be wise to make as much forward progress on projects as possible in the first week of March, keeping in mind that there may be certain aspects that the impending phase of Mercury retrograde will require you to return to and rework.

Although all of the aforementioned astrology is important in relation to the New Moon in Pisces, the real star of the show will be Venus. Venus will beckon us into a labyrinthine maze of twists and turns that will bring about a reevaluation of desire over the course of March as we traverse its spiraling path. Venus will station retrograde on 1 March at 10°50′ Aries, initiating us into a forty-two day period in which the star of Aphrodite will backtrack through the zodiac until stationing direct on 12 April at 24º37′ Pisces. Venus is in process of moving closer and closer to us in orbit, and though she is no longer in her brightest Evening Star phase, she will still possess a dazzling brilliance in the dark sky of the Pisces New Moon. The intensified presence of the star of Aphrodite will dramatically magnify the potential for the New Moon in Pisces to place us into deeper contact with the old ideals and desires being washed away by Saturn and Neptune, while also feeling more into whatever processes of inner transmutation is being initiated by her stationing.

Centrally, Venus retrograde brings an end to Venus being visible at night and initiates her phase of being visible before sunrise. Venus will descend from visibility in between two powerful eclipses in March, disappearing into an invisible and liminal passage of rebirth following the Total Lunar eclipse in Virgo on 14 March, and ultimately reemerging into visibility in her Morning Star phase in which she will bring her light to the pre-dawn sky at the end of March, while also occupying her exaltation of Pisces. The first half of Venus retrograde before the regenerative conjunction between Venus and the Sun on 22 March will be the most intense in terms of digging up the roots of desires and purging and purifying material that will bring about a reseeding of desire as Venus returns to visibility and stations direct in April. Due to Mercury also stationing retrograde in March, two eclipses occurring in March, Neptune leaving Pisces to enter Aries in March, and Venus moving back and forth through multiple conjunctions with Saturn and Neptune over the course of her retrograde motion, the potential of the upcoming Venus retrograde in Aries and Pisces to bring about breakthrough change is off the charts.

As a general principle, Venus retrograde periods invite us to depart from the usual into exploring the unusual, shedding old desires while coming into relationship with neglected parts of ourselves and new desires emerging from within. During Venus retrograde, the nature of Venus shifts from seeking social harmony into a transitional space of social norms loosening to allow for deep reevaluation of inner values as well as how we are seeking to fulfill our changing values. Because of the additional influences of eclipses, Mercury retrograde, the North Node of the Moon, and the Saturn and Neptune cycle upon Venus, we can be certain that we will need to confront and lay to rest old issues from the past while simultaneously embracing pivotal turning points in storylines. While emotions and desires can become messy and paradoxical during Venus retrograde, they are a necessary disorder that becomes part of a process of reordering passions. Due to the huge collective change additionally signaled by the Saturn and Neptune cycle, Venus retrograde will also play a significant role in attuning us with the larger societal breakdowns and changes and finding the role and purpose we will take on in working to create the change we wish to see happen.

The strangely magical quality of time brought by Venus retrograde periods corresponds with the fact that Venus shifts retrograde five times every eight years, tracing a five pointed star within the circle of the zodiac like the five petaled form of the rose. Similar to the high level of structure involved in sacred ritual, Venus retrograde periods are so highly structured that every eight years we experience a Venus retrograde period in the same area of the zodiac (a few degrees away each time) at the same general time (a few days away each time). While you can trace personal and historical patterns related to Venus retrograde in Aries all the way back to the beginning of the twentieth century, it’s only been the last two in 2017 and 2009 that involved Venus retrograde in Aries and Pisces. In 2009, Venus stationed retrograde at 15º27′ Aries on March 6 and stationed direct at 29º12′ Pisces on April 17. In 2017, Venus stationed retrograde at 13º09′ Aries on March 4 and stationed direct at 26º54′ Pisces on April 15. Reflecting upon patterns and personal themes from those previous two periods may add insight into the ways you can tell things are already beginning to change.

It’s compelling that while Venus retrograde periods in general have a propensity to give birth to protest movements and resistance to oppressive power structures, Venus retrograde in Aries periods in particular have an especially strong historical connection with civil disobedience and protests on behalf of women’s rights, civil rights, transgender rights, and ending wars and resisting the military industrial complex. When you factor in the additional connection between periods of Saturn and Neptune conjunctions with massive revolutions and civil disobedience by people spurred on by economic struggles and hardships, and the fact that another massive transfer of wealth is being orchestrated that will make the already gross financial inequities even more extreme, it leads to a likely scenario of Venus retrograde combined with Mercury retrograde, eclipses, and the Saturn Neptune cycle activating increased waves of protest movements and resistance on behalf of protecting the human rights and material well-being of the people.

Pisces 1 Decan

The New Moon is in the first decan of Pisces associated with the Eight of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image contains a figure retreating into a watery, island realm of caves and seclusion ideal for contemplation. With their staff planted in the earth, the red cape and boots of the figure symbolize the inner vitality they may utilize in discerning deeper understanding for their reality. T. Susan Chang in her book 36 Secrets wrote that the Eight of Cups teaches us how to face our fears of the unknown, bringing “realization in the realm of emotions” that reveals when “it’s time to move on.” The first decan of Pisces is the face of Saturn, a symbolism that aligns perfectly with the image of a hermit turning away from the accepted and familiar in order to receive new visions of depth and penetrating insight. Within the triplicity rulership scheme it is also the face of Jupiter, bringing a devotional quality to the soul searching enacted here that can nurture new perspectives by facing uncertainties and abandoning past assumptions. T. Susan Chang made the insightful point that within the “amniotic darkness” of the Eight of Cups, we can “let go of the fear that anything could happen, and open up to wonder and to awe: indeed, anything could happen!“

In Henrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, a “well-dressed man” emerges in the first decan of Pisces who is “carrying a burden on his back.” Agrippa mentions that this decan signifies “journeys, changing one’s place, and an attentiveness for seeking substance, and nourishment.” There is a subtle emphasis in this wording upon the “seeking” of substance rather than possession. Like in the image of the Eight of Cups, there is also a necessity for travel and change, journeying away from the familiar into the unfamiliar in search of what is being sought. Indeed, the Brihat Jataka gave the image of “a man decked with ornaments, holding in hand sacrificial vessels, pearls, gems, and conchshells and crossing the ocean in a boat in search of jewels for his wife.” Yet, the Yavanajātaka described an image of a completed journey: “a woman with a beautiful body whose eyes are expansive and long. Her body is adorned with silk and gold. She stands by the Great Sea, which she has crossed in a boat for the sake of a heap of jewels.”

Austin Coppock ascribed the image of “The Labyrinth” to the first face of Pisces in 36 Faces, writing that it signifies “a quest to map invisible walls of reality,” “the subtle structures which guide human life,” as well as the realization that our own unconscious is a primal progenitor of our current reality. Coppock wrote that the first decan of Pisces holds “the convergence point of perception and reality,” a place where we “recognize our imprisonment in our own reality construct” as well as “the possibility of liberation” from moving beyond our former boundaries into “a world as yet uncorrupted by our assumptions.” Coppock wrote “liberation is achieved here through insight alone,” as the discovery that our soul can be the designer and builder of our reality is the realization that can “transforms the structure itself from a prison to a palace.” Yet Coppock also warned of the dangers of becoming lost within the labyrinth found within this decan, writing that “much depends upon if the seeker knows what is sought.”

The link between the primal, fertile potency of the unconscious with the first face of Pisces is interesting considering that the Hellenistic text The 36 Airs linked the first decan of Pisces with the Titan Okeanos. More of a primal sea divinity than Poseidon, Okeanos was the great river encircling the world where the Sun rose from at dawn and returned to at sunset. Yet in keeping with the fecund nature of Pisces, the binding quality of Okeanos is also incredibly fertile. Okeanos and his divine wife Tethys, goddess of the sea, gave birth to the three thousand river gods and the innumerable Oceanid nymphs, creating aquatic life forms that bring divine purification and nourishment to our human realm. Carl Kerenyi wrote that Okeanos “possessed inexhaustible powers of begetting,” with the “rivers, springs and fountains – indeed, the whole sea – issue[ing] from his broad, mighty stream.”

Fitting for a decan that can place us in contact with the creator of our reality structure, it has also been suggested based upon lines from Homer that there may be an alternative tradition in which Okeanos and Tethys are the primeval parents of the gods rather than Gaia and Uranus. Kerenyi wrote that “ever since the time when everything originated from [Okeanos] he has continued to flow to the outermost edge of the earth, flowing back upon himself in a circle.” Kerenyi wrote that when the new order of Zeus was established, only Okeanos “was permitted to remain in his former place- which is really not a place, but only a flux, a boundary and barrier between the world and the Beyond.” Okeanos inhabiting the nexus between the known world and the Otherworld makes him a fitting divinity for the first decan of Pisces. 

Like the threshold space of Okeanos that binds our world and borders the otherworld, the New Moon in Pisces will lead us into an extremely liminal period of time in-between the past and the future on a much larger scale of time than normal. The borderland of Okeanos is a place where ancient heroes like Odysseus went at crucial stages of their journey to receive oracular guidance from ancestors and prophetic otherworldly beings. Like the obscuration of fog and illusion lifting from the perception of Odysseus that made him realize he had finally returned to his homeland from his epic wandering, may the New Moon in Pisces arouse memories and clarify perception of what you are seeking and where you are going, unveiling a sweeping vista of the purposeful creative direction to follow in the months ahead.

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I recently conducted an interview with Arielle Guttman, author of Venus Star Rising, in which we explored the sacred geometry of the Venus cycle, a thorough overview of Venus retrograde in general, as well as specific focus on the meaning of the upcoming Venus retrograde in Aries and Pisces you can watch here:

References

Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. (2021). Three Occult Books of Philosophy. Translated by Eric Purdue. Inner Traditions.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Kerenyi, Carl. (1951). The Gods of the Greeks. Thames and Hudson. 

Tarnas, Richard. (2007). Cosmos and Psyche. Plume.