Mercury conjunct Neptune

Virgo Full Moon

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“Vision of Bernadette at Lourdes”, Church of Saint John the Baptist, Duhill, County Tipperary by Harry Clarke
audio recording of Virgo Full Moon article

Virgo Full Moon

All months are not created equal in astrology. The quality of time tracked by transits can vary significantly from month to month, and sometimes a particular month signals a turning point in reality; a collective threshold that demarcates a radical change in story arcs larger than our individual trajectory. The Full Moon in Virgo on 7 March 2023 heralds a month of seismic shifts within the astrological landscape. Saturn will enter Pisces less than an hour after the Moon in Virgo opposes the Sun in Pisces, while Pluto will enter Aquarius sixteen days later on March 23. The Full Moon in Virgo will support methodical analysis of the potential choices and paths available as we sense the way that the current changes taking shape can lead to both challenges and new opportunities in the months ahead. Yet a rising fog may obscure our ability to gain clarity in the week following the lunation.

The Full Moon in the earthy, mutable home of Mercury can normally support slowing things down and pulling back from action to make careful and pragmatic processing of information. Virgo can be helpful in breaking down issues into smaller concepts, picking apart and separating factors to gain insight into how the details combine in the bigger picture. Yet Mercury will be responsible for the care of the Moon while occupying its fall in Pisces while also moving quickly into its invisible phase of combustion with the Sun. Mercury will also be in the bounds of Venus. These factors increase the imaginative, artistic, creative, and poetic capacities of Mercury more so than its ability to dryly divide and sort through details with linear logic.

The Virgo Full Moon will be closely separating from a flowing trine with Uranus in Taurus and applying toward a disruptive square aspect with Mars in Gemini and opposition with Neptune in Pisces. The innovative and liberating influence of Uranus will be further emphasized by Mercury moving quickly toward a creative sextile aspect with Uranus that it will complete on March 11. The involvement of Uranus accentuates the prudent foresight of Virgo and gaining intuitive insight into circumstances, as well as the experimental nature of Virgo that can ingeniously discover new ways to combine and mix influences and sources of inspiration.

Even more importantly, however, the Virgo Full Moon will bring to a head rushing currents streaming from the Mars retrograde phase in Gemini that began in October 2022. Mars previously formed a square aspect with Neptune on 12 October 2022 and again on 19 November 2022 when retrograde. With Mars and Neptune coming together into a square aspect for the final time in the series, the Virgo Full Moon will amplify the pressure building between them. Neptune does not help Mars gain clarity and can inflate the self-righteousness of Mars, and so their friction may ignite ideological conflicts. Moreover, as Mars approaches an exact square aspect with Neptune on 14 March, the Pisces Sun and Mercury will also align with Neptune, creating an extended period from 14 March through 17 March in which the triple conjunction of Mercury, Neptune and the Sun will clash with Mars. The resulting tension may correlate with disillusionment that brings about an important reorientation to reality. Conflicts during this time will be confusing, requiring an extra dose of discernment to clarify. It will be best to avoid disputes and center attention on creative pursuits in need of imaginative inspiration.

At the same that Mercury will be speeding into conjunctions with Neptune and the Sun, Mars will leave its retrograde shadow zone on 15 March. Thus the Virgo Full Moon will illuminate the final passage of Mars moving forward over the degrees it formerly moved backwards over last November after it stationed retrograde on 30 October. Pay attention to how events in the week following the lunation bring tests and challenges related to storylines from last November, as well as ways in which you can notice newfound strength and courage in pushing through difficulties and achieving results in areas of life that had been previously frustrating.

The Source of the Loue (1864) by Gustave Courbet

Saturn in Pisces

Saturn will leave Aquarius to enter Pisces less than an hour after the Full Moon. The entrance of Saturn into Pisces will be intensified due to the peak of the lunar cycle happening at the same time, as well as the fact that Saturn will have recently returned to visibility as a morning star heralding dawn. Saturn’s ingress into Pisces will usher in a sea change in collective and personal events. Pisces is a boundless and oceanic water sign in which boundaries and containment can often be issues. Saturn will offer a cauldron to tend that can contain the dissolution of the solutio alchemical stage that we will be collectively experiencing in the years ahead with Saturn in Pisces. With Saturn occupying the same water sign as Neptune, old ruling principles and reality constructs will disintegrate as the stirring of Saturn’s cauldron facilitates the coagulation of new, regenerated forms. The force of Saturn’s gravity within the imaginal waters of Pisces can heighten awareness of the ways in which we perceive and shape reality. While Saturn in Pisces can enhance the melding of diverse sources of inspiration into new forms of creative amalgamation, we must also be aware of becoming lost, confused, or sorrowful within the downward spiral of its stirring.

Although Saturn will not move within its traditional orb with Neptune during 2023, coming no closer than twenty degrees away, we will begin to notice an amplification of the balsamic, ending phase of the cycle between Saturn and Neptune due to them occupying Pisces together. The cycle between Saturn and Neptune coming to an end now began in 1989 when revolutions swept across the globe, including Tiananmen Square in China, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the overturning of communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania that led to the end of the U.S.S.R. The three conjunctions between Saturn and Neptune in Capricorn in 1989 also correlated with the invention of the World Wide Web, the first attempts to genetically modify humans, and the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. While the impact of Saturn and Neptune coming together will be especially intensified in 2025 and 2026, due to the nonlinear nature of planetary cycles we will have many themes connected with them becoming stirred up in collective events as they begin moving closer together within the same water.

One of the reasons the Saturn and Neptune cycle is of paramount importance is due to them being the two outermost planets – Saturn has always been significant as the outmost planet we can visibly see in the sky throughout its cycle, whereas Neptune is now considered to be the outermost proper planet now that Pluto has been reclassified as a dwarf planet. In these threshold roles Saturn and Neptune are all about the relationship between the visible and the invisible. They are fundamental to our perception and what we personally and collectively consider to be reality – the visible concrete forms and the multiplicity of invisible influences. The Saturn and Neptune cycle reveals how our collective perception of reality changes across time, and now that we are coming to the end of their cycle there will be a reckoning and a reseeding as we approach the rebirth.

With Saturn entering a water sign, the most obvious correspondence will be literal issues of water becoming increasingly important, including corruption of water issues such as toxic pollution and conflicts around water rights and territories. Saturn has traditional associations with water, wells, and waterside trades and this will be amplified by being in Pisces along with Neptune. Yet on a metaphorical, inner level of symbolism, we can expect to be brought back to watery states through the dissolution and coagulation of the solutio alchemical phase. The solutio phase involves the dissolution of solid, differentiated matter into its original undifferentiated state, known as the prima materia. One of the reasons water is associated with spiritual regeneration is due to the alchemical concept that substances cannot be transformed until reduced to prima materia. While the transit of Saturn through Pisces will ultimately deliver solutions by dissolving obstructions, we can expect to pass through some disorienting and confusing stages of development as we adjust to Saturn and Neptune residing in Pisces together.

Chauvet cave paintings

Jupiter & Chiron in Aries

The Virgo Full Moon is additionally significant for announcing the coming together of Jupiter and Chiron into a conjunction on 12 March at 14°26’ Aries, initiating a new cycle between them. The influence of Jupiter and Chiron in Aries will be brought into the mix of the lunation through forming an antiscia relationship with the Virgo Full Moon. Jupiter and Chiron have a cycle that lasts about thirteen years, with their current cycle beginning in 2009 with three conjunctions in the third decan of Aquarius that were also in close proximity with Neptune.

I’ve previously shared an article about the Jupiter and Chiron cycle written by Brian Clark due to feeling deep resonance with his description of its meaning. Though Jupiter and Chiron have vastly different meanings in astrology, Clark shared how their mythology shares the landscape of Mt. Pelion in Greece where two sanctuaries on either side of the mountain brought Chiron and Zeus together into contrasting sides of the same location. Clark made the insightful point that while the sanctuary of Zeus on the southern side of the slope received the full light of the Sun, Chiron’s cave on the northern side of the mountain was shaded. This connects well with how Chiron opens the door to the shady side of our psyche, tending the threshold of our conscious awareness with the deep well of wisdom found within unconscious depths and ancestral influences. As described by Brian Clark, “Chiron’s gaze was down, to an inner landscape, a cave of night. Yet in that cave was also one of the first mythic mystery schools where disenfranchised and orphaned youth were educated in the skills of healing and combat, learning the wisdom of the wound and the insight of a warrior.”

Clark further illuminated that “as an embodiment of suffering, of pain and mortality, Chiron confronts our compulsion to fix, to overcome and resolve . . . In his cave, the instinct to fix it and feel better is held long enough for the soulful symbols in our symptoms to be appreciated as images of healing.” The capacity to tend soulful material will be further accentuated by the presence of Vesta in Aries alongside Jupiter and Chiron. The sacred focus and inner fire of Vesta can help illuminate the messages and meaning found within whatever symptoms of deeper issues have been stirred up by Jupiter and Chiron. There is also an immense quality of courageous resilience constellated between Vesta, Chiron, and Jupiter in Aries, an indomitable spirt that can persist through the kind of difficulties that lead some to believe that all has been lost. Issues around societal oppression, marginalized identities, refugees and the displaced will become more prominent as Jupiter sparks a new cycle with Chiron. Jupiter’s presence with Chiron offers the hope of forming supportive alliances and envisioning ways of organizing action to address inequities.

9 of Pentacles by Pamela Colman Smith

Virgo 2 Decan

The Virgo Full Moon will illuminate the second decan of Virgo associated with the Nine of Pentacles card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image is saturated in a golden aura, with an elegant woman covered in flowing, golden robes. On her hand sits a hooded falcon, its capacity for swift flight and hyper vision temporarily restrained. Surrounding her are ripening grapevines and a large estate upon which we can imagine numerous marvels of nature and art residing. Since it is a tarot card associated with gains in wealth and creation of beautiful works, it makes sense that the second decan of Virgo is the face of Venus and Saturn. While Venus is like the guiding star of beauty and love that gives us an overarching reason to seek wealth we can share with others, Saturn functions as the force of necessity, discipline, and hard work required to seed, cultivate, and gather a bountiful harvest or shape prima materia into rarefied form.

In Henrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, a “black man” rises in the second decan of Virgo “wearing skins, and the man has wool and holds a satchel; this signifies gain and accumulation of substance and greed.” The Birhat Jakarta has a somewhat similar image, except for the figure being armed with a pen and bow: “a man with a pen in the hand, dark complexion, the head tied round by a cloth, counting gains and expenditure, covered over the body with dense hair and holding a bow.” A similar image was also described by Ibn Ezra, who pictured a man covered in hair with three garments: “one of leather, the second of silk, and the third is a red mantle.” The Picatrix gives a similar image of a man dressed in layers of leather and iron. T. Susan Chang in 36 Secrets made the astute observation that the encasement found within the Nine of Pentacles is similarly found in these traditional images featuring figures covered in hair and different layers of clothing. Chang wrote that the “progression from comfort to protection to display reflects the turning of the mind’s eye from inward to outward, from concern for the self to awareness of the Other.” Chang wrote that the “gain” associated with the second decan of Virgo involves the “differential created by the outer appearance vs the inner reality; the image we put on in order to meet the world. The question is: does that outer glamor connect us to, or separate us from, that which we seek?”

Austin Coppock in 36 Faces ascribed the image of “The Hammer and the Anvil” to the second face of Virgo. Coppock connected the covered traditional images for this decan as relating to the encasing of spirit within matter, a state which “fortifies but also conceals the spirit’s light,” resulting in the “inherent beauty of spirit” becoming “visible only in the clever and gainful manner by which it shapes the world.” Coppock described a theme of continual reshaping and refinement of matter in this decan that results in beautiful products and gains in wealth, yet “conceals the pain and toil utterly necessary for its creation.” Coppock concluded that this face brings alchemical “understanding of the many beautiful and repulsive states the matter attains throughout the Magnum Opus,” while the “residents of this decan oversee the ever-transforming world, guiding and shaping the Great Work on a microcosmic level,” inspecting and keeping track of how efficiently material processes are operating.

On one hand we can consider how the meaning of this decan holds the fact that the ease of comfort afforded by our modern technology conceals the oppression and trauma inflicted on those who must toil in harsh conditions as part of the chain which leads to the final product. On the other hand, we can consider what inner and outer hardships we inflict upon ourselves in order to achieve our conception of perfected form in the world. While there may be necessary trials we must endure to achieve our goals, in other cases we may realize ways to reorder external goals to tend to the quality of our inner life in more fulfilling and satisfying ways.

The Hellenistic text the 36 Airs linked the Moirai to the second face of Virgo. These are the daughters of Necessity, the goddesses of fate: Clotho the spinner of the threads of life, Lachesis the measurer of fateful threads, and Atropos who cuts the threads. In Plato’s Myth of Er, the Moriai not only ascribe ones destiny but also the guardian daimon who can bring guidance in accordance with one’s intrinsic virtue and authentic character. As the Moirai are central to the incarnation of our primal spirit within our material bodies, this connects back to how Austin Coppock described the second decan of Virgo as a place where “spirt has enclosed itself in a dense body here in order to gain control over gross layers of the physical plane and to oversee its processes with a keen eye.”

The presence of the Moirai with the Full Moon in Virgo demands questioning whether we are exerting ourselves in the true work of our destiny or if we are instead putting ourselves through difficulties so that we may merely get by and survive in our materialistic culture. With Saturn entering a new sign, imagine where you would like to be with your life and work by the end of its passage through Pisces in 2026. Let the light of the Virgo Full Moon illuminate the smaller steps you can take now that will lead toward your larger vision.

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References

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

Chang, T. Susan. (2021). 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Anima Mundi Press.

Clark, Brian. (2022). The Jupiter-Chiron Cycle: Weaving the Ways of Wisdom.

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

Aries New Moon: At the Crossroads with Chiron

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Wood, sinew, horn (bovine, elk) bow circa 1500

New Moon in Aries

These days you don’t need astrology to tell you we have arrived at a collective crossroads. With the COVID 19 pandemic causing seclusion in quarantine around the world, with businesses and schools closed and public gatherings banned, the need to sustain drastic measures for containment has brought us betwixt and between, forced to accept indefinite timelines for when public activities now classified as “nonessential” may resume. There’s a pervasive, mysterious unknown pulsing throughout personal and societal spheres for how to handle the simultaneous threats to health and economy. Crossroads have ancient connection with liminal states and being at the intersection between different worlds. Divinities traditionally honored at the crossroads include Hekate and Hermes, deities who bridge the underworld of death with the upperworld of life, psychopomps who know the ways of divination and can light our way through dark nights of the soul.

The Aries New Moon is at the crossroads of the lunar nodes with Chiron and Lilith waiting to greet us at its intersection. The New Moon is applying tightly toward a conjunction with both Chiron and Black Moon Lilith in Aries, while forming a square aspect with the lunar nodes. Chiron is the wise mentor of the heroic who also teaches the medicinal alchemy found within the interconnected spirit of our material world. While there are different forms of Lilith across different ancient cultures, there are common features of her that resonate with Chiron: the experience of being in exile and the essential sacredness discovered when making home in the wild, dwelling in the outskirts of civilization. Together they are seeding the fiery Aries New Moon with a call to claim our authentic integrity and resolutely reforge a meaningful vision to embody within the darkness.

The lunar nodes demarcate the intersection of the orbital arcs of the Sun and Moon, the crossroads where our material forms encounter our yearnings of soul. The lunar nodes mark the places of eclipses as well as dynamic points of change within the monthly motion of the Moon. When the Moon forms a square aspect with its own nodes, it has reached the furthest point north or south it will travel in latitude before heading back in the opposite direction toward the ecliptic. The Aries New Moon is at the southern bending, dredging up subconscious material that needs to be faced without avoidance or denial. With the New Moon squaring the nodes, we are more likely to feel unsure of which direction to follow, oscillating back and forth between choices associated with both ends of the nodes.

Old astrological text conjures images of dragons as the nodes, with the north node symbolizing the head and the south node the tail. While the north node consumes with desire, absorbs new material, and seeks new plots for your story, the south node makes sacred through sacrificing, harvesting, releasing, re-channeling, and retelling. Similarly, Black Moon Lilith is another aspect of the Moon’s orbit connected with a mythic figure who has been demonized and feared. As it connects with the Moon’s farthest point in orbit away from us and our conscious awareness, so does it bring forth the parts of our multiplicity that have been cast off into our unconscious. Altogether it’s a lot of shadowy material for Chiron to distill in his alembic, yet the medicine he will extract from it will be exactly what we need.

The Aries New Moon being at the southern bending also means it is forming an exact square aspect with the Capricorn Solar Eclipse on December 25, 2019 that was conjoining the South Node of the Moon. As a result, the New Moon will stir up personal and collective material originating from the time of the eclipse- while this clearly connects with accounts of the coronavirus becoming known in Wuhan, China at the end of December, there likely are more uniquely personal issues with roots in the weeks surrounding the eclipse that will need to be dealt with.

Since Jupiter in Capricorn was closely conjoining the Capricorn Solar Eclipse, and Jupiter is presently engaged in a volatile conjunction with Mars and Pluto, a lot of the current issues experiencing dissolution and intensification are signified by Jupiter. For example, Judith Hill in her book Eclipses and You listed numerous significations that become activated when Jupiter is within a degree of a solar eclipse: stocks and speculation, the air travel industry, schools, colleges, senators and congress, conferences, bail-outs, philanthropy, and charity.

RISDM 56-039-41

Hatakeyama Shigetada Carrying a Horse (1822) by Katsushika Hokusai

Mars in Capricorn rules the New Moon from its place of exaltation and pinnacle expression. Mars has been operating recently from a place of extreme potency as it has moved through conjunctions with Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn- indeed, Mars is separating by less than one degree from Pluto and two degrees from Jupiter during the New Moon. In the chart for the Aries Equinox that sets the tone for the year ahead, Mars is asserting its powerful influence over the events of the forthcoming year as it is applying tightly to a conjunction with Jupiter and Pluto. Mars in Capricorn has extreme stamina, perseverance, resilience, and ambition that needs to be directed wisely. Its present primacy correlates with the disruptive current events that have been causing destruction to societal institutions and separation in personal lives, yet its exalted proximity with Jupiter and Pluto brings ample reserves of fortitude and willpower to carry us through the COVID 19 calamity.

As the Aries New Moon waxes into its first visible light, it will form a catalyzing square aspect with the conjunction forming between Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn. Jupiter and Pluto will form their first of three conjunctions during 2020 on April 4 as the Moon continues to increase in light a few days before the Full Moon in Libra on April 7 (the other two conjunctions of Jupiter and Pluto will be on June 30 and November 12). When Jupiter combines with Pluto, new knowledge and growth opportunities come from eruptions and catharsis that can expand vision beyond previous restrictions. Yet the buoyant expansiveness of Jupiter must come to terms with the death and decay of Pluto, and as Pluto pulls Jupiter into its depth of darkness it will expose hypocrisies and injustices we will need to sustain focus on to remedy.

It’s important to keep in mind that we are approaching only the first of three conjunctions between Jupiter and Pluto this year, and that the first test that comes from outer planet alignments tends to be the harshest. As numerous social structures are rupturing, there will be some we will have to let go of and witness being torn down. Fortunately, the combination of Jupiter and Pluto with Mars in Capricorn contains the visionary drive necessary for regenerating, rebuilding, and reforging new dreams, goals, and forms to take the place of whatever will be falling apart. However, the obsessive determination kindled by Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn can be all consuming, and so it will be vital to allow their ruler Saturn to temper any excess or inflation emanating from their combination.

The recent ingress of Saturn into Aquarius marks one of the biggest changes of the year, as Saturn changing signs redistributes enormous gravity, pressure, and weight to a new area of life. There is cause for hope with Saturn in Aquarius, as Saturn in its fixed and airy home can promote not only effective scientific responses to the coronavirus, but also distribution of thoroughly researched plans for protection and visionary reordering of institutions to deal with its devastating impact on individual lives. Just as Aquarius traditionally signifies quarries where minerals are dug up, so will Saturn in Aquarius be able to excavate needed knowledge and resources from places that have been hidden up until now.

As the Moon waxes toward fullness, Mars will be steadily approaching a conjunction with Saturn that will finally culminate on March 31. Mars and Saturn together can signify difficult experiences that feel harrowing and require working hard with persistent commitment to address hardships. However, we can also constructively weld the passionate, fiery energy of Mars to the disciplined and determined scrutinizing of Saturn. The restraint of Saturn can temper the inflamed aggressiveness of Mars, making it possible to direct the dynamic boldness of Mars with a serious  and contemplative focus.

By the time of the upcoming Libra Full Moon on April 7, Mars will have moved through a conjunction with Saturn in Aquarius and will be forming an exact square aspect with Uranus in Taurus. Mars plowing through catalyzing aspects with Saturn and Uranus will provoke confrontations within institutional structures over how to respond to the pandemic that will stir up larger ideological conflicts that will be shaping societal changes in the years ahead. It’s likely that the present intensity surrounding COVID 19 will continue to build to a crescendo around the time of the Libra Full Moon as Mars completes its aspects with Saturn and Uranus, before it begins to wane. As Mars will be impacted by the restriction of Saturn and the shattering liberation of Uranus, their volatile combination can reveal how structure and containment can lead to a freeing of creativity and a forging of stronger community in the face of adversity.

lunacy 100 aspects of the moon

Lunacy – Unrolling Letters from One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1889) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

In contrast to the agitating aspects between Mars with Jupiter and Pluto, Venus in Taurus is forming a flowing and stabilizing trine aspect with Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn. Venus is shining bright as an Evening Star and is likewise the bright blessing involved in the dynamics of the Aries New Moon. Venus in Taurus correlates with the steadying presence of artistic expression that has been bringing people together who would otherwise be isolated within quarantine. Whether through singing together from balconies or utilizing technology to stream art, song, and storytelling, the unifying comfort brought through shared creativity has been pleasing to Venus in Taurus. Venus is also engaged in a square aspect with Ceres in Aquarius during the New Moon, emphasizing that the capacity of Venus in Taurus to find stability in whatever resources are available needs our focus rather than panicking over fear of lack and hoarding resources from those who need it.

During the first week of April when Mars will be stirring up tension between Saturn and Uranus and Jupiter will be uniting with Pluto, Venus will also be experiencing a major change. On April 1, Venus will go out of bounds in northern declination and then on April 3, Venus will enter Gemini as it visually forms a conjunction with the Pleiades in the night sky. Venus will remain out of bounds for two months, and due to Venus stationing retrograde on May 12, Venus will also be remaining in Gemini until August 7. Venus will be untethered, freedom seeking, and creatively curious as the Moon waxes full in her airy home of Libra on April 7. It will be ideal to make space and time for creative experimentation and exploration once Venus enters Gemini.

Meanwhile, Mercury in Pisces is entering its period of being at maximum elongation as a Morning Star, meaning that it will be picking up speed to play its fleet footed messenger role with full aplomb. Mercury is retracing the degrees it previously moved retrograde in Pisces and will cross the degree where it previously stationed retrograde on March 29. Typically this is the phase of Mercury during which to put into practice whatever innovations were developed during its previous retrograde phase, however world events have taken such a dramatically different turn that it truly feels like we are operating within a different climate now. Mercury in Pisces can bring guidance through intuition and sensing the emotional needs of others.

During the first week of April, Mercury will form a conjunction with Neptune in Pisces on April 3 during the same time that Venus enters Gemini, Jupiter conjoins Pluto, and Mars forms a square aspect with Uranus. Mercury’s union with Neptune can be productive for those involved in musical, artistic, imaginative, poetic, and other forms of creative work, but can otherwise cast a mist over communication that will require making an effort to gain as much clarity as possible.

wands02

2 of Wands by Pamela Colman Smith

Aries 1 Decan

The Aries New Moon will emerge within the first face of Aries associated with the Two of Wands card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image involves a conquering figure holding a globe in one hand as he gazes from a protective castle into an expansive terrain. It is the body of water that appears to have secured his focus in this moment, and the presence of the globe seems to imply a moment of reflection regarding expanding his influence or dominion. The grandiose ambition and confident assertion present in the image is fitting considering that Mars rules the first decan of Aries, giving Mars both domicile and face rulership over the Aries New Moon.

Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the symbol of “The Axe” to the first decan of Aries, which has a long association with furiously martial figures who dominate enemies and assure victory in battle. For example, the Liber Hermetis ascribed an image of a man “standing on feet like claws,” while “holding above his head a double-sided axe with both hands.” Coppock deepened the symbolism of the axe through linking it to the splitting and separation from “the One” of ancient wisdom traditions, a severing necessary for creation and growth. Coppock linked this separation to “building a distinct and individual life . . . the individual yang struggling out of the collective yin” which he compared to both the cutting of the umbilical cord between child and mother and the cutting of trees to build homes in the wilderness.

While the martial ambition found in this face and pictured in the Two of Wands card can be linked with empire builders who wish to amass power for themselves, its primordial fire is also what brings the inspiration and foresight required to throw off the shackles of empire and insist on liberation. Chiron is tending the celestial fire of the Aries New Moon so that we may seek counsel with our ancestors, sustain patient compassion amid strife and separation, and kindle courage to enter the fray of the unknown with creative vibrancy and a flexible consciousness ready to respond and bring nurturing support wherever it is needed. Liz Greene in The Astrological World of Jung’s Liber Novus shared the following passage from Carl Jung’s Black Book that gets to the heart of the ancient potency found in the first face of Aries:

“He [Phanes] is foresight. He is the end of fear. He is the sprouting seed, the opening bud . . . He is the spring and the desert. He is the safe haven and the stormy night. He is the certainty in desperation. He is the solid in dissolution. He is the liberation from imprisonment. He is counsel and strength in advancement. He is the friend of man, the light emanating from man, the bright glow that man beholds on his path.”

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References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the history, astrology, and magic of the decans. Three Hands Press.

Greene, Liz. (2018). The Astrological World of Jung’s Liber Novus: Daimons, Gods, and the Planetary Journey. Routledge.

Hill, Judith. (2013). Eclipses and You: How to Align with Life’s Hidden Tides. Stellium Press.

 

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces

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rene magrite fair captive

The Fair Captive by Rene Magritte

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces

“All I have is a voice / To undo the folded lie, / The romantic lie in the brain / Of the sensual man-in-the-street / And the lie of Authority / Whose buildings grope the sky: / There is no such thing as the State / And no one exists alone; / Hunger allows no choice / To the citizen or the police; / We must love one another or die.

Defenseless under the night / Our world in stupor lies; / Yet, dotted everywhere, / Ironic points of light / Flash out wherever the Just / Exchange their messages: / May I, composed like them / Of Eros and of dust, / Beleaguered by the same / Negation and despair, / Show an affirming flame.”

—from September 1, 1939 by W.H. Auden (born with Mercury in Pisces conjoining Saturn in Pisces)

The twinkling light of Mercury initiates us into the regenerative, retrograde phase of its cycle in sunset.  In Greek mythology sunset is the realm of the Hesperides, divine daughters of primordial Night and Darkness who tend a garden and grove bearing the golden apples of Gaia. Charming nymphs who delight in singing songs of the numinous, the Hesperides have granted the gifts necessary for heroes to complete their quests, such as lending Perseus the winged sandals of Hermes. Yet in their company resides an ever wakeful dragon symbolizing the potent fertility of chthonic chaos pulsating under our perceptions of reality. The otherworldly sunset realm of the Hesperides is located in the farthest reaches of the West, at the outermost reaches of the encircling Oceanus from which the fixed stars and Helios rise and set each day.

As Mercury stations retrograde at the final degree of Pisces on 5 March 2019, its Evening Star light will still be visible as the sun sets, transfiguring the sky in changing colors. Whenever planets station in astrology, their archetype dominates the astrological landscape in the surrounding week. Many astrologers focus upon rational analysis and linear logic amongst the many significations of Mercury, yet there is a type of excessively linear Mercury that is more of a dominant cultural construct than the reality of magical and shamanic processes that Mercury also tends. The work of Peter Kingsley is interesting in this context, as he has argued against what he calls a misguided academic approach to the history of logic in Western civilization, since the figures who gave birth to logic such as Parmenides and Empedocles were actually involved in deeply mystical and irrational processes.

In the case of Mercury stationing retrograde, it’s the influence of the underworld, psychopomp side of Mercury that claims prominence due to it disappearing at sunset into its invisible phase in the days following its stationing. Though periods of Mercury retrograde provoke alarm amongst astrologers, it is in fact an essential aspect of Mercury necessary for the natural expression of the Star of Hermes. While breakdowns and disintegration of all things mercurial can happen during Mercury retrograde, it simultaneously brings the opportunity for necessary shedding, cleansing, purification, and reorientation.

The numinous realm of the Hesperides bearing otherworldly gifts as well as a dangerous dragon to face connects well with the particular Mercury retrograde phase occurring in March 2019 as it begins on the same day as the ingress of Uranus in Taurus. The Sun is setting in conjunction with ethereal Neptune as Mercury stations, and its retrograde phase will be taking us into the disillusionment and revelations at the heart of the square aspect between Neptune and Jupiter in Sagittarius that is another one of the most important astrological aspects of 2019. The other major astrological aspect of 2019, the coming together of Saturn, Pluto, and the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn (while also conjoining the South Nodes of Saturn and Pluto), will also be interfacing closely with Mercury’s retrograde phase in Pisces through a harmonizing sextile aspect. We will be pulled to release and rebirth deeply personal patterns as well as disentangle ourselves from the dominant constructs of power enforced through societal institutions and hierarchies.

Here are some key dates:

  • February 19: Mercury conjunct Neptune at 15°35′ Pisces first time
  • February 22: Mercury in Pisces square Jupiter in Sagittarius (21°06′) first time
  • February 26: Mercury at maximum elongation as Evening Star
  • March 5: Mercury stations retrograde at 29°38′ Pisces
  • March 6: New Moon in Pisces as Mercury descends at sunset into invisible phase and Uranus enters Taurus
  • March 14: Mercury conjunct Sun in Pisces at 24°11′
  • March 15: Mercury square Jupiter (23°19′) second time
  • March 20: Full Moon in Libra on Aries Equinox
  • March 23: Mercury retrograde reemerges as Morning Star
  • March 24: Mercury conjunct Neptune at 16°49′ Pisces second time
  • March 26: Venus enters Pisces
  • March 28: Mercury stations direct at 16°05′ Pisces
  • April 2: Mercury conjunct Neptune at 17°08′ third time
  • April 5: New Moon in Aries
  • April 10: Jupiter stations retrograde in Sagittarius
  • April 11: Mercury square Jupiter (24°20′) third time with Mercury at maximum elongation as Morning Star

rosmerta and mercury

Rosmerta and Mercury

Pisces is the fall of Mercury and the exaltation of Venus, and as this is given great prominence within Indian astrology its interesting that Mercury is stationing retrograde in both tropical as well as sidereal Pisces. On the other side of Mercury’s retrograde when it is stationing direct, Venus will enter her exaltation of Pisces. Thus we can imagine Mercury clearing, cleaning, and preparing the watery, nocturnal temple of Jupiter for the arrival of the goddess, Venus, at the end of its retrograde. In fact, Mercury will be stationing retrograde near the exaltation degree of Venus (27º) and then stationing direct near the fall degree of Mercury (15º).

Moreover, the date of March 5 when Mercury stations retrograde is the traditional date of Navigium Isidis, an ancient Roman festival honoring the great goddess Isis and involving an elaborate procession.  Fittingly for the meaning of Mercury retrograde in Pisces, the procession of Isis also served as a prayer for the protection and safety of seafarers. Whether or not you have an oceanic voyage planned during March, we will all be embarking one way or another on a metaphorical sea crossing into realms of imagination and fantasy that will make clarified objectivity difficult to sustain. Yet within the tidal forces of Mercury we can dislodge ourselves from stuck, fixated perspectives into a more enlivening perceptual presence.

While there is mystery involving a definitive answer to the question of why Mercury has its fall in Pisces, there are many reasons that have been deduced that would take up too much space to explore here. One aspect to remember is that the categories of exaltation and fall are status symbols in a way, something one receives from others. There is often something of the unconventional found with Mercury in Pisces that goes against the established, favored doctrines of society. For example, the brilliantly unorthodox writers Maya Angelou, Stephane Mallarme, Langston Hughes, Charles Baudelaire, and James Joyce were born with Mercury in Pisces, as well as empirical scientists who shattered dogmatic worldview such as Nicolas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Charles Darwin. There is also a quality of having to not only fall into the suffering of the material world with Mercury in Pisces, but furthermore needing to traverse underworld experiences as part of retrieving soulful insight to share with others.

Vitally, Mercury in Pisces is ruled by the uplifting influence of Jupiter, and thus during the forthcoming Mercury retrograde its extremely significant that Jupiter is in its fiery home of Sagittarius and receiving Mercury through a catalyzing square aspect.  These connections bring the potential to uncover a deeper realization of personal truth within whatever difficult, disorientating, disintegrative, and disillusioning experiences may occur during the month of March.  The more we can let go of dogmatic beliefs we have been clinging to for whatever reason, the more we can open ourselves to the dissolution needed for essential rebirth that Mercury retrograde in Pisces can bring.

Magritte__Le_Baiser-3

Le Baiser by Rene Magritte

“We move up a spine of earth / That bridges the river and the canal. / And where a dying white log, finger-like, / Floating off the bank, claws at the slope, / We stumble, and we laugh. / We slow beneath the moon’s eye; / Near the shine of the river’s blood face, / The canal’s veil of underbrush sweats frost, / And this ancient watery scar retains / The motionless tears of men with troubled spirits. / For like the whole earth, / This land of mine is soaked….”

— from Take this River  by Henry Dumas

The day after Mercury stations retrograde we will experience both the ingress of Uranus into Taurus as well as a New Moon in Pisces conjoining Neptune. While the Pisces New Moon seeds meaning for the coming month, the entrance of Uranus into Taurus is seeding meaning for the next eight years. There is in addition the compelling symbolism that just as the waxing sliver of crescent lunar light emerges the following day, the Pisces Moon will be uniting with Mercury retrograde at the same time Mercury is descending into the darkness of its invisible phase at sunset. Thus we will be experiencing the waxing, increasing light of the lunar cycle at the exact time the light of Mercury wanes and descends into the darkness of its underworld phase.

Marsilio Ficino in Three Books on Life wrote that as the Moon “receives a life-giving power” from the Sun each time it forms a union, “she receives from Mercury in the same place [Mercury is always near the Sun] a force which blends her moistures,” since Mercury has “the virtue of his own transformation into all other planets and by virtue of his many revolutions.” On March 6 and 7, we will have a syzygy seeding of the Pisces Moon with potent imaginal influences from Neptune, followed by an alchemical mixing by a psychopomp Mercury. There is incredible imagination and fantasy within these aspects that will be able to be utilized in any field involving creativity. It also means that we will need to apply extra attention to detail, such as repeatedly reviewing steps in any process for miscues. While intuitive capacities will be heightened with Mercury retrograde in Pisces, we can also overlook a small detail that leads us astray.

It will be worth being willing to wander in March, bringing the possibility of becoming temporarily lost. Sometimes we have to become lost or pursue the wrong direction at first in order to ultimately arrive at the place we need to be. With Uranus entering Taurus, there will be dramatic developments within personal narratives, with some people having to cope with unexpected shocks shattering their former reality. Moreover, with all of this happening at the same time that Pluto, Saturn, and the South Node of the Moon will be getting closer together, there will be immense breakdowns and power struggles erupting within societal structures to contend with.  The influence of these Capricorn placements also means new ideas and remedies may be found amongst old traditions and ancient lineages. The tricks and subterfuges that come with Mercury retrograde can tease us into bending perception enough to receive the necessary guidance or change in direction.

Georgia O'Keefe music - pink and blue

Georgia O’Keeffe (1918) Music – Pink and Blue No. 1

The week of March 6 through March 13 beckons us into a cavernous depth of disintegration, a period that Gary Caton likened to the Nigredo phase of alchemy in his book Hermetica Tryptycha. During this week we may feel forced to release attachments to connections that previously brought security, or we may choose to consciously breakdown old material. The underlying meaning is to align ourselves with a process of separating elements in order to ultimately synthesize a new understanding by the end of the retrograde period. Interestingly, during the first week of Mercury retrograde it will form an exact sextile aspect with the transiting South Node of the Moon in Capricorn, and a trine aspect with the transiting North Node of the Moon in Cancer. The interface with the lunar nodes increases the likelihood that the circumstances we will be facing and needing to alter will guide us into a vital change of heart or shift in what we feel is most important to focus on going forward.

Making it all more disorienting is the strong influence from outer, transpersonal planets. On the one hand there is the serious gravity of Pluto with Saturn and the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn that is demanding a stripping away of the inessential and honoring the honing of what endures across time. While the Capricorn emphasis prods us to persevere with dedication toward developing goals, there is also a heavy karmic aspect of having to face the shadow side of ambition and its effects. In addition, there is also the earth shaking volatility of Uranus entering Taurus that can dramatically amplify feelings of disruption, destruction, and revelation, requiring a rearranging of beliefs and expectations in order to accept and receive whatever rapid developments are unleashed.

Yet on a core level Mercury’s retrograde is most of all centered around the last quarter square phase between Jupiter in Sagittarius with Neptune in Pisces. The current stage of the Jupiter and Neptune cycle is about clearing or clarifying outdated, misleading beliefs while simultaneously receiving intimations of the course to follow into the future. As part of this process we will have to withstand external emotional dynamics at times, as Mercury retrograde in the mutable and watery Pisces can correlate with amorphous personal boundaries that are more susceptible to emotional influences. Yet the sensitivity of Mercury in Pisces to surrounding emotions can be utilized as a gift for discerning the underlying feelings behind what is spoken, as well as the meaning behind what is unspoken.

During the first week of Mercury retrograde make sure to pay attention to the symbolism of dream images, the oracular appearances of animals and other signs within daily travels, and any other omens giving guidance into the regenerative change underway. This is a period to listen to the voice of your inner senses and unconscious messages with a willingness to begin aligning external changes with internal promptings. Whenever awareness brings realization of illusions that have been influencing you, instead of being upset over uprooting a delusive pattern, embrace the opportunity to clear out or compost whatever you have outgrown in order to help fertilize the new vision to come.

pegasus and bellerophon

Odilon Redon (1888) Pegasus and Bellerophon

Chthonic Cazimi

The heliacal setting of a star corresponds to its death and its passage into the underworld. Remember, the word synodic, or “union,” is derived from sunodos, and also means “sexual union.” The protected space at the heart of the Sun is the sanctum sanctorum, the innermost holy chamber of the mystery initiations. Here, the union of a planet or star with the Sun represents the seminal impregnation and regeneration. The rebirth occurs at the heliacal rise, as the planet emerges from the womb of the solar rays.

— Demetra George, Ancient Astrology, Vol 1

A new cycle of Mercury will be seeded by its conjunction with the Pisces Sun on March 14. This is the inferior conjunction of Mercury when the Star of Hermes is purified and regenerated while aligned in orbit between Earth and the Sun by zodiacal degree. Though the full meaning of the coming cycle of Mercury remains unclear at this point, one can experience clarifying reflection and reception of key insight on the day Mercury is within one degree of conjunction with the Sun. This particular inferior conjunction of Mercury retrograde in Pisces is especially potent as Mercury is applying closely to a square aspect with Jupiter in Sagittarius. As a result, Jupiter is receiving Mercury in the sacred heart of the Pisces Sun into its fiery home of Sagittarius, inciting a vision of future meaning to manifest. Thus Mercury will be seated upon the throne of the Sun with all of the resources of inspirational and expansive Jupiter at its disposal.

There is also a stellar influence to the inferior conjunction, as the solar seeding of Mercury will occur at 24°11′ Pisces near the fixed star Markab in the Pegasus constellation. Markab is the alpha star of Pegasus located in the wings of the horse, also known as being the saddle of the Winged Horse. Bernadette Brady described Markab as representing solidity and reliability,  “a point of steadiness or the power to maintain stability under pressure,” something we need if we wish to ride a soaring Pegasus. Brady noted the symbolism of Markab can be positive in the sense of having the leadership skills to handle crises, as well as negative when becoming overly stubborn and refusing to consider alternative perspectives. It’s a fitting star to be aligned with this moment of Mercury’s retrograde when we can recenter in the seat of the sun, riding the inspirational forces of Jupiter.

The Pegasus constellation has also been connected with inspirational intellect and strident, groundbreaking initiative.  The ambitious striving of Pegasus and the potential of both insightful breakthroughs as well as falls from lofty heights is found within the mythology of the Winged Horse. There is a duality of light and shadow with Pegasus:  on the one hand Pegasus is felt as a fount of inspiration and the seat of heroes, while on the other hand Pegasus was born from violence and betrayal and tied not only to the slaying of monsters but the monstrous egotistical hubris that could overcome those who rode Pegasus.  We find here the binding in which there is no good without evil, no heroes without monsters, and the concept that the path forward for our growth necessitates encountering the darker elements of self.

The link between the inferior conjunction of Mercury with Pegasus suggests the flights of vision and invention we wish to launch must simultaneously involve a purification and purging of excessive pride and the corruption that can come with ambitious striving. Interestingly, the sabian symbol for the degree of the inferior conjunction compellingly aligns with all of its surrounding astrological aspects: a religious organization succeeds in overcoming the corrupting influence of perverted practices and materialized ideals. Dane Rudhyar gave the following elaboration that fits extremely well for the solar seeding and purification of Mercury:

(PISCES 25°) KEYNOTE: The power of the Soul to intervene in the personal life and to induce necessary catharses.

Every man is a Church that has the Soul as its god, but most men forget the Soul and live according to dogmatic rules and habits which not only have become empty of inner meaning, but very often have been perverted by the demands of the senses and the emotional nature, and by the ego with its rationalizing intellect. A purging or catharsis is needed to restore not only fresh and creative spontaneity, but even more the contact with the Soul and the God-ordained dharma.

— Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: the cycle of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases.

Astro-Errante-1961 Remedios Varo

Astro Errante by Remedios Varo

Full Moon Equinox

In the week of March 15 through March 22, while Mercury retrograde has been purified and reseeded by its union with the Sun, it remains invisible and so we will still be immersed in a process of discovering and exploring the new forms of meaning and understanding taking shape. An incredibly illuminating part of this process will occur on March 20, the Spring Equinox in the northern hemisphere, when the Sun will ingress into Aries and a Full Moon in Libra will culminate. Considered to be the astrological new year, the Aries ingress this year is extra potent due to the moon waxing full on the same day.  With Mercury simultaneously retrograde and on the cusp of reemerging into visibility as a Morning Star, we will feel like new shoots of green are ready to burst forth from within, cracking open whatever has previously been constraining. Let yourself receive whatever vision of potential dreams and goals arise without restriction or repression.

The challenge during this phase of the Mercury retrograde is that we may sense new vision and meaning without having everything fully in place in order to successfully manifest and embody the change within the reality of our current circumstances. It’s also likely that we may not have all the information we need to make a final decision at this time, in part due to Mercury still being retrograde but also due to it applying closely to another conjunction with Neptune. If major decisions have to be made this week, do your best to repeatedly review the details and listen closely to your intuition regarding whether or not it feels like the direction to pursue. If major decisions can be put off for another week, let things settle and reformulate before you make a final judgment. This week can be best used for brainstorming and creative exploration and experimentation.

Magritte_Wonders-of-Nature

Wonders of Nature by Rene Magritte

The Trident and the Caduceus

All truths wait in all things, / They neither hasten their own delivery nor resist it, / They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon, / The insignificant is as big to me as any, / What is less or more than a touch?

Logic and sermons never convince, / The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.

Only what proves itself to every man and woman is so, / Only what nobody denies is so.

A minute and a drop of me settle my brain; / I believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps, / And a compend of compends is the meat of a man or woman, / And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other, / And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific, / And until every one shall delight us, and we them.

— from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (published with Uranus in Taurus)

After Mercury retrograde reemerges in light as a Morning Star in the liminal moistness of dawn, heralding the return of sunrise, it will form its second conjunction with Neptune in Pisces on March 24.  At this point Mercury will be visible again, and in correspondence we should gain greater clarity regarding whatever changes have been taking shape over the past month. However, Mercury will be enveloped with the fogginess of being in close proximity with the otherworldly Neptune for an extended period of time: after it finally stations direct on March 28 at 16°05′ Pisces, it will not be until April 2 that Mercury will complete its final conjunction with Neptune at 17°08′ Pisces.

As a result, with Mercury stationing direct in conjunction with Neptune the feeling of waking up from the dream of Mercury retrograde may feel more like a waking dream. Whenever Mercury stations, we need to be as fully alert as possible to the details of our daily work and responsibility. With Mercury united with Neptune, there is an added feature of extrasensory perception and symbolic awareness that will be capable of picking up additional messages in unexpected places. It will be helpful to engage in whatever sorts of reflective practices can help you ground in the reality of your circumstances so as to not become swept too far away by fantasy. This can be a dreamy time of poetic inspiration, artistic expression, and fertile creativity, just don’t let feelings of blissful revelry distract you from taking care of a necessary responsibility.

Indeed, Mercury is stationing not only in union with Neptune, but also in range of a harmonizing sextile with Saturn in Capricorn. While we will need to handle our daily responsibilities, there is also potential playfulness within these aspects that can be a soothing remedy for any overworking from Saturn. Saturn is in its nocturnal, earthy home of the Sea Goat, and so this is an ideal time for the Mer-goat to dip its tail into the water to dissolve the stress of old expectations. As Mercury begins to move forward again while engaging both Neptune and Saturn, we can reorder our priorities so that our dedication and work is being guided more towards whatever brings intrinsic happiness and joy.

At the same time Mercury is stationing direct, Venus will enter her exaltation of Pisces on March 26. Venus will then pursue a union with Neptune that will culminate on April 10, the same day that Jupiter stations retrograde in Sagittarius. Amazingly, this is also the same time that Mercury will be reaching maximum elongation as a Morning Star and completing its final square aspect with Jupiter on April 11. As outlined by Gary Caton in Hermetica Triptycha, this is the rubedo alchemical stage of Mercury’s cycle in which we are challenged to fully bring the meaning we retrieved during the retrograde phase into our daily life. With the interplay between Venus and Neptune as well as Mercury and Jupiter, there is enormous potential at this time for heart opening and expanding beyond previous constraints. However, breaking out of old shells and embracing a more enlivened presence is not always easy, and we will likely need to navigate volatility as we engage in our own inner process of volatile change.

Ultimately, it will be worthwhile to persist in following the new vision rather than retreating back to the comfort of the previous status quo. In the legendary words of Devo, “Twist away the gates of steel / Unlock the secret voice / Give in to ancient noise / Take a chance on a brand new dance / Twist away the gates of steel.”

the black pegasus

Odilon Redon

References

Brady, Bernadette. (2008). Star and Planet Combinations. Wessex Astrologer.

Caton, Gary. (2017). Hermetica Triptycha: The Mercury Elemental Year. Rubedo Press.

Ficino, Marsilio. (1998). Three Books on Life: A Critical Edition and Translation with Introduction and Notes by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Tempe: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies.

George, Demetra. (2019). Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice: a Manual of Traditional Techniques. Rubedo Press.

Rudhyar, Dane.  (1958).  The Jupiter-Neptune Cycle.  Horoscope Magazine.

Rudhyar, Dane. (1973). An Astrological Mandala: the cycle of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases.

 

Virgo Full Moon: Torch of Regulus

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Astraea

Astraea

Full Moon in Virgo

Around the hollow of her right flank a great stream of the primordially-generated Soul gushes forth in abundance, totally ensouling light, fire, ether, worlds.

In the left flank of Hekate exists the source of virtue, which remains entirely within and does not give up its virginity.

The Chaldean Oracles translated by Ruth Majercik, fragments 51 & 52

The Full Moon in Virgo on February 19 dramatically illuminates the ingress of the Sun into Pisces and is conjoining the fixed star Regulus, the heart of the lion, at zero degrees of Virgo. Due to precession of the equinoxes with the tropical zodiac, the fixed star Regulus entered tropical Virgo at the end of 2011, seen by many as ushering humanity into a new era in 2012 and beyond. Known as the heart of the lion in the Leo constellation, Regulus is one of the four royal stars of Persia that has anchored the zodiac and seasons for ages. In ancient Egypt when the Leo constellation rose at summer solstice with the flooding of the Nile, Regulus as the heart of the lion  served as the fierce protector and guardian of the revivifying water essential to civilization. Across astrological traditions, Regulus has been associated with leadership and power, the type of fiery strength that can achieve success and victory against all odds. According to Bernadette Brady, the nemesis of Regulus is revenge, meaning its ambitious qualities need to be balanced by restraining from seeking retribution and vengeance if we wish to secure the success it can bring.

In Indian astrology, the nakshatra of Regulus where the full moon will ripen is Magha, the seat or throne of the king that has been linked with splendor, regality, prosperity, power, and the will force needed to achieve important endeavors and victories. Dennis Harness described the shadow side of Magha in connection with the extreme ambition that resides here, such as “arrogance” and “prejudice,” over attachment to “material prosperity” and “identification with class status,” as well as “divine restlessness or chronic discontent” for falling short of high aspirations and perfectionist standards. Harness further described the danger of constant courting of external approval at expense of the essential self.

Magha’s ruling deities are the ancestor spirits Pitris, making the nakshatra associated with gifts and benefits brought by ancestors, as well as loyalty to spiritual lineages. Harness described Pitris as “the great Fathers of Humanity, who function as guardian angels giving protection in the event of major calamities on earth.” Interestingly Ketu is the ruler of Magha, since transiting Venus, Saturn, and Pluto are near the South Node of the Moon at the time of the Virgo Full Moon. Thus the Virgo Full Moon can amplify our capacity to receive support from lineages, a potential also signified by the grouping of Venus, Saturn, Pluto and the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn.

Regulus is also central to the tenth lunar mansion Al-Jabhah, or “The Brow,” described in the Picatrix as the head of a lion. It is considered a starry place of recovery, healing, aid, improvement, strength, power, and success according to Christopher Warnock in his book on the mansions of the moon. Warnock described the sound of a mighty lion roar reverberating throughout this lunar mansion, signifying a return to power and strength following a period of sadness or depression.

In light of these connections between the Virgo Full Moon and Regulus, it is significant that the moon reaching peak light is separating from a trine with Uranus in Aries and applying to a trine with Mars in Taurus. There is incredible empowerment and assertion within these aspects which are further intriguing to consider with the shift of Regulus into the more humble, service oriented sign of Virgo. The starry power of Regulus may be applied to our discernment and choices, fueling desire for the strength of our authentic integrity to serve the greater good rather than feeding the flames of glamor, fame, and self recognition. In spite of the flooding of social media in recent years with selfies and self promotion, perhaps part of the meaning to be found with Regulus in tropical Virgo is to be a powerful support for others, to take leadership on behalf of one’s community, and to achieve goals without the need for proclamations or receiving external praise.

The Sea of Time and Space (Vision of the Circle of the Life of Man) by William Blake (London 1757 - London 1827)

The Sea of Time and Space by William Blake

Mercury in Pisces rules the Full Moon while conjoining Neptune in Pisces, making it the most imaginative, otherworldly, nebulous, and abstractly poetic lunation in Virgo imaginable.  Mercury is in its new Evening Star phase following its celestial cazimi in Aquarius, revitalized and freshened, visible in the twilight of sunset to help us digest and discern meaning from our daily experiences. Since Mercury is beginning to separate from its conjunction with Neptune at the time of the Full Moon, our ruminating thoughts will be more far ranging within imaginal spaces than normal, making our fantasies more potentially fruitful for new visions and ideas to cultivate.

Yet while Mercury in Pisces is separating from a conjunction with fantastical Neptune in Pisces, it is applying toward a sextile aspect with the hard reality and consolidating nature of Saturn in Capricorn. Part of this meaning can be applied to the reality that while Mercury is at the beginning of a strong phase within its synodic cycle, its recent union with Neptune also means that it has entered into the shadow of its upcoming Mercury retrograde phase in Pisces that will dominate the month of March. In fact, Mercury will remain in Pisces until April 17 and since Mercury will ultimately station direct at the end of March in a conjunction with Neptune, we will be returning for an extended period of Mercury conjoining Neptune again from March 20 through April 7.

Knowing a Mercury retrograde in Pisces will be starting on March 5, keep in mind that the imaginative visions and ideas you may receive at the Virgo Full Moon are likely to undergo many changes and shifts from now through April. Mercury’s applying sextile toward Saturn in Capricorn means we need to ground developing plans in the light of the full moon into secure structures that will both protect developing ideas as well as provide the needed flexibility for mutation in form over the next month. Mercury will also be in range of a sextile aspect with Venus in Capricorn for the rest of February which will never perfect due to the ultimate stationing of Mercury. We can have a rich exploration of aesthetics, playing around with different forms of style with regarding to developing plans, keeping in mind that some of the ideas we experiment with will not turn out to be fruitful.

Significantly, as Mercury in Pisces moves away from its union with Neptune it begins to move toward being received by a square aspect from Jupiter in Sagittarius. Just as the union of Mercury and Neptune in Pisces is the first of three that Mercury will experience due to its impending retrograde, so is the square aspect between Mercury and Jupiter the first of three. Mercury as a result will be artfully weaving us into the heart of the dynamic square aspect between Neptune in Pisces and Jupiter in Sagittarius from now through the middle of April. Thus begins a time to open awareness to how your dreams and fantasies inform your perceptions, how the state of your beliefs impact what you receive as well as achieve in the world. The Full Moon in Virgo is illuminating an initial glimpse into the depths of your inner world, bringing the possibility of self realization and reordering how we use our inner visions to manifest what we truly wish to create and manifest. There may be some disillusionment and waking up to self defeating patterns as part of this process, yet the upcoming Mercury retrograde may then be used to shed those same patterns.

darkness

Darkness by Thomas Danaher

Venus in Capricorn is separating from a conjunction with Saturn and is applying toward a union with Pluto and the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn in the following week. Venus will conjoin Pluto on February 22 and the South Node of the Moon on February 25. Continuing to herald the sun as a Morning Star, Venus will be bringing us into fully feeling the ramifications of however the triple lineup of Saturn, Pluto, and Ketu in Capricorn is impacting us. On collective levels we can clearly see these effects in global power struggles and uprisings of conservative, nationalistic, and totalitarian politics, yet on an individual levels the type of intensified honing and consolidation demanded by these transits may feel exhausting.

As Venus moves through Saturn, Pluto, and Ketu, she is not calling for excess or the grandiose, but instead to strip away the inessential, find wisdom in elders and ancestral lineages, and to diligently and thoroughly build sturdy, substantial foundational elements of life with patient discipline open to the fluctuations of fortune. Moreover, after moving across Pluto and the South Node of the Moon, Venus will then move on to square Uranus at the final degree of Aries at the end of February. This occurs just before Uranus enters Taurus on March 6 and comes under the rulership of Venus. Altogether, Venus is leading us through an important process for the rest of February in which we will have to face restraining elements within our life, yet by embracing the necessity and making modifications as needed, we will begin preparing personal space for the disruptive and liberating impact of Uranus in Taurus coming in March.

Chiron, Themis and Hebe

Chiron in Aries

The Virgo Full Moon also heralds the arrival of Chiron into Aries, where it will remain until 2027. Chiron is not only at the “Aries point” of zero degrees, it is also forming a quincunx aspect with the Virgo Full Moon. There’s something perfect about the quincunx between the lunation and Chiron, as the Full Moon’s union with Regulus points toward Chiron’s capacity for cultivating heroic qualities. Yet the quincunx aspect brings up the uncomfortable feelings that can come up when the gentle gaze of Chiron prods us to break out of comfortable routines in order to embrace a more courageous, essential expression.

The Full Moon is illuminating our first impressions of what Chiron has in store for us in Aries, the zodiacal terrain in which Chiron orbits as far away from us as it gets toward the orbit of Uranus. As Chiron’s orbit bridges the realms of Saturn and Uranus, in Aries his medicine incites us to follow the emancipatory influence of Uranus and its corresponding breakthrough experiences and reception of revelatory insight. Chiron in Aries wants you to be engaged and active, willing to assert your own integrity rather than succumb to conditioning influences which corrupt your authenticity. This is easier said than done, but fittingly for Chiron’s return to Aries our global society now has an abundance of teaching available on holistic medicine and healing practices to be accessed at our fingertips, as well as to be utilized on the heroic path Chiron is calling us to follow. It is no coincidence that Carl Jung, who promoted the concept of individuation, was born with Chiron in Aries.

 

8 of Pentacles by Pamela Colman Smith

Virgo 1 Decan

The Full Moon in Virgo arises in the first decan of Virgo associated with the Eight of Pentacles card illustrated above on the left by Pamela Colman Smith. The Virgo Full Moon will peak in light just after the ingress of the Sun into the first decan of Pisces, associated with the Eight of Cups card illustrated above on the right by Pamela Colman Smith. In the image of the Eight of Pentacles we see an artist and craftsman fully engrossed in the moment with his art, concentrating with full attention to one direct focus in the moment. This image evokes the importance of taking things step by step, one task at a time, completing each aspect of the process with loving care and attention. In contrast, within the image of the Eight of Cups we find a figure retreating into a watery, island realm of caves and seclusion ideal for contemplation. Their staff planted in earth, their red cape and boots signify the flowing vitality they may contact within a cultivated space of sacred meditation and ritual.

In the confluence of these images, we may also discover the power the Virgo Full Moon may harvest from its proximity to Regulus: strength in cultivating protected space to focus with loving attention on our sacred arts.  Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Tree Bearing Fruit” to this face, noting the prevalence of images associated with “fruitful works” developed through “humble observation of, and careful tending to, the created world” in ancient texts. Coppock wrote that the first face of Virgo inmates us “into the mysteries of incarnation . . . the prudence of postponing delight until the fruit is ripe.” While Coppock noted the first decan of Virgo involves “humility” at a core level, “it results in works of surprising glory.”

The Sun in the first face of Pisces is the ruler of the first face of Virgo, opening us to a Pisces season which will be extremely memorable due the retrograde movement of Mercury that will strike to the heart of the square aspect between Jupiter and Neptune. The vision of a potential “great work” received within the Virgo Full Moon conjoining Regulus is to be remembered, but expectations for the path toward manifestation to be smooth and easy need to be released. With Uranus on the cusp of entering Taurus, with the coming Mercury retrograde mixing up the depths of Jupiter and Neptune, there will be an ample abundance of imagination and creativity to draw from in any work. Let the creative process flow through you and allow its currents to guide you, letting go of attachment for needing to control things to happen in a certain way at a certain time. Nature and Spirit have their own plan in mind.

References

Brady, Bernadette. (2008). Star and Planet Combinations. Wessex Astrologer.

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

de Fouw, Hart & Svoboda, Robert. (1996). Light on Life: Introduction to the Astrology of  India. Lotus Press.

Harness, Dennis. (1999). The Nakshatras: the Lunar Mansions of Vedic Astrology. Lotus Press.

Majercik, Ruth. (1989). The Chaldean Oracles. Brill Academic Pub.

Warnock, Christopher. (2010). The Mansions of the Moon: a Lunar Zodiac for Astrology & Magic. Renaissance Astrology.

 

Solar Eclipse Equinox

/ grayastrology / 8 Comments

pegasus and bellerophon

Pegasus and Bellerophon (1888 charcoal) by Odilon Redon

  • Saturn stations retrograde in Sagittarius on March 14, 2015 at 4°56′
  • 7th and final first quarter square between Pluto and Uranus on March 17, 2015
  • Mercury conjunct Neptune in Pisces on March 18, 2015 at 8°1′
  • Solar Eclipse in Pisces at 29°27′ on March 20, 2015
  • Aries Equinox on March 20 happens thirteen hours after the Solar Eclipse

Feared by our ancient ancestors for corresponding with increased chaos, Solar Eclipses occur when there is a New Moon close to zodiac degree with the South or North Node of the Moon.  On March 20, 2015 we will experience the synchronicity of a Solar Eclipse at the final degree of Pisces happening roughly thirteen hours before the Sun enters Aries and we celebrate the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, the Fall Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.  This Pisces Solar Eclipse is about ten degrees away from the South Node of the Moon in Aries, a point on our ecliptic we associate with our past karma, our unconscious, and release as it marks the descending arc of the Moon across the ecliptic, whereas the North Node of the Moon symbolizes an arising point of conscious intake and evolution as it marks the ascending arc of the Moon across the ecliptic.  In a solar eclipse, the Moon crosses between us and the Sun by zodiac degree and aligned with one of it’s own nodes, magically from our perspective appears as the same size as the Sun and blackens solar light for the length of its transit.

As a result, Dane Rudhyar and other astrologers have associated solar eclipses as a moment in which our karmic past cloaks the solar light of our present, and our unconscious aspects normally hidden can become more viscerally felt in our conscious awareness.  Since this solar eclipse is occurring at the end of Pisces, conjunct the transiting South Node of the Moon, it accentuates our capacity to gain greater awareness for what has been brewing in our unconscious, and to release or resolve old karmic issues.  Taking the time to reflect upon the house of your birth chart where the solar eclipse will occur at the end of Pisces, as well as the aspects it makes with planets and other components of your birth chart will help prepare you for how your life could be impacted.  Solar Eclipses often mark a pivotal shift that can feel chaotic, but in the unsettling loss of past attachments and security we can find an opportunity to create new growth for ourselves in the areas of our life signified by the aspects made by the eclipse in our birth chart.

Further forcing us to confront ourselves at our deepest core is the seventh and final square between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn that hits a few days before the solar eclipse.  Since June of 2012 we have experienced a sequence of seven exact squares between Uranus and Pluto, and with the final one occurring earlier in the week the Equinox Eclipse initiates a settling into the first quarter aspect between Uranus and Pluto for good.  By now you should know what necessity has demanded you release, end, confront, and initiate (especially connected to how 7 – 15° of Aries and Capricorn impacts your chart), so the less you can resist and the more you can open to the flow of change occurring will help you find your place in the dismantling of systems that has coincided in our collective during these transits.  On a personal level, the Uranus and Pluto square has been eliminating all of our attachments that have been blocking our ultimate growth, and so the upcoming solar eclipse (as well as the lunar eclipse on April 4, 2015) is bringing us awareness of what past attachments we have still been clinging to in one way or another in our subconscious that now need to be released as the final lesson associated with these seven squares.

The seventh square between Uranus and Pluto has associations with the seventh (crown) chakra and the seventh planet, Saturn.  Indeed, Saturn in Sagittarius stationed retrograde on March 14 and so has our undivided attention as Pluto and Uranus square and the solar eclipse ushers in the Equinox.  A connection between Saturn stationing retrograde in Sagittarius and the seventh chakra is that an activity of the crown chakra is to derive meaning through our underlying belief system.  Saturn stationing and then continuing retrograde in Sagittarius will draw us into analyzing our belief systems, calling everything into question as part of a re-structuring of our consciousness.  With a solar eclipse occurring at the same time in the final degree of Pisces, we will want to be open to listening to messages expressing eternal meaning, and guides that connect us with the archetypal field that constantly seeds, activates, and regenerates new patterns.  As the solar eclipse may make us aware of our karmic past, we thereby gain an opportunity to break away from our past restrictive patterns and liberate ourselves from old unconscious complexes that no longer serve our direction.

white-pegasus

White Pegasus (1908) by Odilon Redon

Marc Edmund Jones wrote that the sabian symbol for 30 degrees of Pisces where the solar eclipse occurs is The Great Stone Face, and highlighted the importance of using discernment to embody self-integrity when manifesting ideals and aligning with eternal reality, as the “individual selects the image within himself to which he would shape himself outwardly, and this he comes to resemble” (p. 329).  Dane Rudhyar updated and elucidated this Pisces 30 symbol by calling it A majestic rock  formation resembling a face is idealized by a boy who takes it as his ideal of greatness, and as he grows up, begins to look like it.  Rudhyar said this symbol brings “realization of the power of archetypes as factors conditioning life processes,” and that this self-transformational “power can be developed through visualization, when the emotions and the will are poured into the visualized mental image” (p. 288).  Rudhyar emphasized that this zodiac degree represents the latent power of the seed, and so through focusing on “clearly visualized ideals” we gain the capacity to shape and mold our future growth and life (p. 288).

Marc Edmund Jones also warned that the negative side to the sabian symbol for 30 degrees of Pisces is “wholly inarticulate and ineffectual self-realization” (p. 329).  To me, this caution links to the importance of becoming aware of as much of our shadow and hidden unconscious forces as possible during this time of the final square between Uranus and Pluto and the solar eclipse at the Equinox.  If we are going to visualize an ideal for ourselves we wish to become more alike, to be most effective we will need to embrace our shadow and rejected parts of ourselves in our process.  When we repress our shadow, it ultimately gains enough strength to completely overwhelm us.  Yet through the willingness to acknowledge and accept our shadow, we can mitigate it’s capacity to overshadow our conscious efforts toward our ideal.  For example, if the Pisces solar eclipse is occurring in the 10th house of our birth chart and we realize that we have been projecting criticism at others for egotistically self-promoting themselves, we can see how there is in actuality an ambition shadow impacting us.  As a way to work with this shadow of ambition, we could open ourselves to our need to more assertively self-promote ourselves within our ideal career path.  This will not only make ourselves more successful, but in the end will also enable us to work more harmoniously with other peers in our career path.

The fixed star Scheat is located around 29°22′ Pisces and is closely aligned with the solar eclipse on March 20.  Scheat is a deep yellow star in the leg of the Pegasus constellation, and like the winged horse was associated by ancient astrologers like Ptolemy with Mars and Mercury, and with swiftness by Manilius.  In the more modern tradition of fixed star interpretation by the likes of Vivian Robson and Reinhold Ebertin that can often veer toward extremely negative labeling of star signification, Scheat was given a malefic label of being associated with catastrophes and misfortune.  Yet Reinhold Ebertin in his Fixed Stars and their Interpretation also gave a positive potential to Scheat signifying “mental creativity,” with the cautionary note that this positive effect is only for “some people,” meaning those who “are ready to receive such an inflow,” giving examples of Goethe having Jupiter conjunct Scheat and Rudolf Steiner and Victor Hugo having Mercury conjunct Scheat (p. 82).

pegasus-and-the-hydra

Pegasus and the Hydra (1907) by Odilon Redon

This double edged combination of ambitious striving for insightful breakthroughs, with potential for a fall from the lofty heights momentarily reached, also connects to meaning associated with both the Pegasus of the star constellation and the Pegasus of myth, and could serve as a symbolic guide to the solar eclipse at the final degree of Pisces.  There is an indivisible duality of light and shadow with Pegasus:  on the one hand Pegasus is felt as a fount of inspiration and the seat of heroes, while on the other hand Pegasus was born from violence and betrayal and tied not only to the slaying of monsters but the monstrous egotistical hubris that could overcome those who rode Pegasus.  Pegasus sprung from the blood spilled by Perseus severing the head of Medusa, and Pegasus further has the complicated lineage of being born from Poseidon and Medusa, when in some versions Medusa was the victim of being raped by Poseidon in a temple of Athena, and in others Athena turned Medusa into a hideous monster after she fell for the seductive advances of Poseidon.  In addition, figures of myth such as Bellerophon who experienced the adoration of being acclaimed as a great heroic slayer of monsters by riding Pegasus to victory in battle later became so overcome by hubris that they were forced into catastrophic falls of misfortune.  In the case of Bellerophon, after believing his glory meant he deserved to be one of the Gods and fly to Mount Olympus, he was struck back down to Earth violently by Zeus.  There is a binding in which there is no good without evil, no heroes without monsters, and as Carl Jung and others have written, within our same Source of Creation from which emanates the “Good,” so also emanates the “Evil.”

In part, this type of Pegasus shadow complex connects with the huge buildup of planets that have been aspecting the South Node of the Moon in Aries leading up to the final square between Pluto and Uranus and the Pisces Solar Eclipse.  We have had Venus conjunct the South Node then Uranus and then Eris in Aries, and more recently we have had Mars conjunct the South Node, Uranus, and now Eris at the time of the solar eclipse.  When we also integrate the other planetary nodes besides the Moon’s, we can see that the South Nodes of Jupiter and Pluto are now conjunct the transiting Ceres in Capricorn, all in square to the transiting conjunction of Mars and Eris in Aries.  The solar eclipse at thirty degrees of Pisces is also in square to both the North Node of Jupiter (at 30° of Gemini) and the South Node of Mars (at 30° of Sagittarius).  This extremely complicated mix of transits and aspects to planetary nodes can be synthesized through the concept that our current moment of world civilization sits within a past of extraordinary oppression, violence, and strife that impacts all of us on a traumatic level in our unconscious, in more of a consciously traumatic manner for those who have experienced horrific terrors firsthand.  We cannot imagine these difficult, sometimes hidden shadows of our psyche away by thinking we can focus only on the “good” such as “white light” that will make the dark go away.  Instead the path forward for our growth is acknowledging and working with these darker elements of our Self in a manner that helps us work toward our conscious goals instead of undermining, blocking, or limiting our endeavors.

the-young-poet

The Young Poet by Gustave Moreau

Yet poetic inspiration and creative inventiveness is also available in even the most difficult of times, and so through discernment in our daily choices we can strive towards our ideals without the pitfalls of hubris.  In classical astrology, the entire system is set up in part through the opposition of the Mutable sign domicile rulers being Mercury and Jupiter, as Jupiter rules Pisces and Sagittarius, and Mercury rules their opposite signs of Gemini and Sagittarius.  Fusing and synthesizing the archetypal polarity of Pisces and Virgo, for example, through the contrast between Mercury and Jupiter can be illuminating.  Sagittarius can have a shadow of a know-it-all, while Pisces can have a shadow of a godhead-  in both cases these classical signs of Jupiter can be overtaken by the archetypes when working with them with the negative consequence of becoming self-absorbed or overly egotistical in the process.  There is something in the ability of the Mercury-ruled signs of Gemini and Virgo to act as an evolutionary polarity to Sagittarius and Pisces and help ground us in the soulfulness of our immediate environment and relationships in the moment.

In modern astrology, Neptune is viewed as a ruler of Pisces, and there is amazing synchronicity that on March 18 during the Dark Moon in Pisces prior to the Solar Eclipse, Mercury will be exactly conjunct Neptune at eight degrees of Pisces.  Mercury can be our guide of soul once again during this week by activating it’s Hermetic gift of integrating the dualities of upper world and under world, light and dark, masculine and feminine, and what other dualities you can imagine.  Mercury can help us logically and linearly organize mental concepts to help us navigate our world while at the same time functioning as a more magical, nonlinear guide to the deepest core of our soul.  Mercury conjunct Neptune in Pisces is the Poet who follows the flight of the winged horse Pegasus, a companion of the Muses and a source of inspiration in times of immense challenge.  When we open to the modern signification of Neptune connecting us to our collective unconscious, we realize that through Mercury at the clearing time of the Dark Moon before the Solar Eclipse, there is profound insight into how we have been impacted by the collective unconscious to unveil.

In the film Bright Star by Jane Campion about the life of the poet John Keats and his love for Fanny Brawne who became a Muse for his writing, there is a scene in which John Keats is speaking to Fanny about his philosophy of poetry in a way that crystallizes how the Mercury conjunction with Neptune in Pisces can help us now:

A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving into a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore but to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out, it is a experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept the mystery.

— from the film Bright Star (2009)

In addition to Mercury becoming conjunct Neptune on March 18, another helpful guide to prepare us for the Pisces solar eclipse and new Equinox is the ingress of Venus into Taurus on March 17.  Venus is at home in Taurus, and at this time of year the North Node of Venus is also at the beginning of Taurus.  As a result Venus will be activating her own evolutionary direction and in Taurus this means going within, following the wisdom in our bodily senses and centering within to discover how our inner values need a re-formulation to align to a greater extent with the inner and outer changes occurring in our life.

cups10

10 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

The Pisces III decan where the solar eclipse occurs is ruled by Mars and associated with the 10 of Cups in tarot.  In the image above illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, we find a union of lovers enjoying the wealth of a mutually created home and family that emotionally fulfills them.  In 36 Faces, Austin Coppock analyzed this final decan of the zodiac as being about “the attainment of the heart’s desire, the reunion with the beloved,” and “the quest for true and perfect love” (p. 259).  Yet Coppock revealed the passionate depth and duality of this Mars-ruled decan by also noting it signifies a “mad quest for an ideal” that has an “unwillingness to accept anything but what is utterly right” and “a place of martyrdom, of being willing to sacrifice everything” (p. 258).  The lesson for those traversing the third decan of Pisces is thus to realize their propensity for dramatic sacrifice for their ideal love, and to learn to discern their true love from illusion:

This face thus contains heights of agony and ecstasy.  The pain of betrayal results from investing in the wrong ideal, mistaking the face of the beloved. The eagerness to enact the romantic quest can lead one to overlook whether the situation in fact warrants it. If those who roam this decan are to be spared repeated disappointments, they must learn to discriminate.  Yet even the most discriminating will see some dreams shatter, some sacrifices rendered vain . . . The third face of Pisces, the last of the decans, looks always to the end, the ultimate meaning of the entire cycle.  Moros [daimon of doom] whispers that it is pointless, and that the wheel of incarnation is merely a cruel carnival ride.  In argument, Elpis [daimon of hope] points to beauty, love and the real possibility of happy endings.  (p. 259-260)

At the end of Pisces, experiencing a solar eclipse at the final degree of the zodiac half a day before the initiation of the Equinox, we can simultaneously experience the hope of our most cherished ideal manifesting and the fear that we are doomed to be disappointed or disillusioned in the end.  The vital point to realize is that our hope is not misplaced when we have connected with ourselves on a soul level and have done the inner work necessary to realize our true desires.  Yes, Pisces can symbolize falling victim to an illusion, yet Pisces also symbolizes the reality that we can experience the complete bliss of our own personal happy ending.  This week it is as important as ever to follow the popularized mantra of Joseph Campbell to follow your bliss.

nigredo

Nigredo (1984) by Anselm Kiefer

From now on we will finally be settling into the First Quarter square phase between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, with no more dipping back into their waxing Crescent phase square.  The first quarter square phase in the tradition of Dane Rudhyar’s lunation cycle is a crisis of action in which we must establish a form to house the vision that came in at the new phase conjunction, in this case the Uranus and Pluto conjunction in Virgo that occurred in 1965 and 1966.   For example, in collective events there is an obvious connection in the United States between the Civil Rights movement that struggled to assert and initiate progress at the conjunction of Uranus and Pluto in Virgo, with the current struggle to rectify inequities in the criminal justice system in the United States based upon perceived differences in race or ethnicity.  This is a struggle to address aspects of the vision that came in at the conjunction that have not securely taken form, and we can also sense the unconscious shadow of past struggles and violence coloring the atmosphere with passionate emotions and drama.  Although the new Equinox is symbolically a time of balance and new beginnings, collectively we have clearly been undergoing a dark night of the soul.

On a personal level, this time of darkness has resonance with the concept of Nigredo worked into the resurrected alchemy of Carl Jung and other modern thinkers.  The Nigredo, blackening phase is an extreme sense of despair that is necessary for our ultimate personal development and individuation, for it brings our painful shadow aspects into greater realization.  In the system of evolutionary astrology developed by Jeff Green, Uranus correlates with Jung’s concept of individuation and symbolizes our liberation from all external and internal conditioning that led to our past personal identity, so we can open to the evolutionary growth of our soul.  In this way the first quarter square from Pluto to Uranus has forced us to lose some of the attachments that previously brought us our most secure sense of identity, whether that be a particular relationship, job, or personal image.  The important thing is that we need take action now- we are only at the beginning of the first quarter phase between Pluto and Uranus, so instead of withdrawing or resisting out of fear over not being sure we know which direction to follow or identity to take on, take whatever steps are possible to establish a new form for yourself in whatever way that you can.  As Saturn moves retrograde over the next four months or so, eventually stationing direct in the beginning of August 2015 at the end of Scorpio, uses this Saturnine pull within to sharpen your sense of direction and aim while making concrete steps forward at the same time.  The new path will not be set in stone at this time, but it does require some tending and trail blazing.

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AriesEquinoxWRIGC2

References

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

Ebertin, Reinhold. (1971). Fixed Stars and their Interpretation. Ebertin-Verlag.

Jones, Marc Edmund. (1969). The Sabian Symbols in Astrology. Sabian.

Judith, Anodea. (2004). Eastern Body Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self. Celestial Arts.

Rudhyar, Dane. (1974). An Astrological Mandala: the cycle of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases. Vintage.