In the classic book by Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and its 360 Symbolic Phases, Rudhyar offers this interpretation for 15° of Pisces:
In social life, as well as occultism, conflict is always to be expected; one must prepare for it. At the close of the great cycle—in the zodiac, the sign Pisces—a deep-seated struggle is inevitable at least to some extent. It can be a struggle against the ghosts of the unfulfilled past, the “unlived life,” or a confrontation with accumulated and often eluded karma… Individual rashness cannot be tolerated. Even a deliberate sacrifice must play a well-conceived part—like the sacrifice of an important piece in a game of chess… The entire scene deals in various ways with the process of integration of the individual into a social Whole…
The new moon in Pisces arrives on March 6th, 8:04am PST, clocking in at 15°. Conjuncting the sun halfway through the cycle of Pisces (for there are 30° in a whole sign), this is a moment to pause. We’ve been living through some heady days, my darlings. The sun, moon, Neptune and Mercury have all been gathering in Pisces, filling the sky, our lungs, our minds, with dreamfog. Pisces is the sign that contains all other signs, for she is the 12th and final sign of the zodiac cycle. Humanitarian, compassionate, indirect, intuitive, creative, and a little confused, Pisces energy imbues the world with the desire to merge, whether or not that is wise is another matter entirely.
We can see from the Rudhyar quote that at this point in the Pisces transformational cycle, we are getting a glimpse of the finish line. We have moved through yet another cycle of being, from Aries through Pisces, and are now asked to start doing some integrative work. Gathering memory, ghost, emotion, medicine, all in one basket, and parsing through what you have collected over the course of the year is required now. It is in this way that we can indeed start to weave in threads from the past year, into the never-ending tapestries that drape around our hearts.
New moons are always a time of reset. The moon is dark and so there is no possibility of working outside at night for any practical purpose. Like the dark moon, we too must darken our lights, and turn inward. Here is the space where we begin to connect to ourselves. When the moon trembles fuller to her waxing crescent, we can make clear our intentions and, like pinning the bud of a flower to the moon, watch our intentions bloom into this new cycle.
Major themes of this new moon in Pisces include integration of both the wound and the cure, finding strength in our own vulnerability, and walking that line between dream and reality. On this new moon, read poetry, write poetry, listen to music, recite lyrics, take baths with salted water, and sit in contemplation.
There is so much change swirling around us at the moment. On March 5th, Mercury stations retrograde at 29° Pisces, kicking off our first retrograde of the 2019. Mercury will slide back over degrees 29 – 16, which stimulates the reappearance of conversations, information, decisions, investments of time and resources, arguments you’ve had with your partner(s) or roommates, struggles, lost pieces of paper, emails, texts, travel plans, any and all of which were experienced from the period of February 20th – March 4th. As Mercury touches back over those degrees, this period of time returns to our conscious life, and we are given a chance to revisit these matters or may be haunted by them.
Mercury retrograde is indeed a frustrating time, as Mercury’s perceived lack of forward motion stalls everything from travel plans to tech operations, sales, communications, can all go awry. With that said, I believe this is more than just a nuisance. It is a cosmic invitation to reassess what you have just lived through. It is an opportunity to check in, make sure you have every piece of info you need. We mustn’t forget though, that this is Pisces season. Details and logic are less important than intuition, emotion, and compassion. This is a time to return to a place of inner stillness, to reconnect with your inner child, and to find grace in the fact that right now, time is less linear than usual. Pisces is comfortable here, and asks you to consider the power of not knowing.
I’m interested in degrees today. Typically, the most significant degrees of a sign are the 0° and the 29°, the beginning and the end. Looking at the chart of the new moon, I see a few important things, and that is that Mercury is stationing retrograde at the anaretic, or last degree, the 29th degree, of Pisces. The anaretic degree is unique, as it is the last moment of the sign, and the planet at the 29th degree is getting ready to move on. It makes the expression of the planet’s energy less stable than it needs to be, as it is gathering all its belongings from Pisces and lurching forward into Aries. But! Not so fast—Mercury is reeled back in to Pisces, and passes back over this unstable degree for a while longer. Mercury stays retrograde through March 28th.
Looking at the chart of the moment, we also see that Uranus sits at Taurus at 0°, freshly situated in the fixed earth sign of the zodiac for the first time since 1934. 1934!!! Uranus spends about 7 years in each sign, and none of us reading this have ever experienced Uranus’s transit through Taurus. This signals a fresh narrative around all things Uranian—technology and its many inventive uses, ideas of utopia, futurity, instability, change, progress, genius inspiration that has the power to bring us to new heights as well as devastating reveals of truth. With Uranus in Taurus, this energy gets directed to things pertaining to nature, the earth, health, consumption, money, investments, resources (both natural and monetary), as well as art and beauty.
Uranus’s time in Aries for the past 7 years was a time where we rushed headlong into our new forms of technological self-expression, bringing in the now-established culture of online influencers who promote their individuality (Aries) via tech platforms (Uranus) to create buzz. It has been an avalanche of Snapchat filters, an explosion of apps, and a flocking to new forms of tech like VR which seek to bring us to the future.
Uranus in Taurus will provide a bit of a check to this use of technology, as Taurus reminds us of the body, and of the earth. We’ll be receiving new information about how tech impacts the earth, and envisioning new uses of technology to help the earth, rather than ignoring it for our own personal gain. Keep your eyes and ears out for things like this. Uranus in Taurus also brings to mind great changes in the physical earth, as Uranian energy is transformative. The effects of climate change are being registered as glaringly apocalyptic every day now, and to me, this is very Uranus in Taurus. The instability of the earth at this time will need to be addressed, as well as our role in that equation.
Last but not least, we see Chiron hanging out at 0° Aries, having just shifted into this sign a few weeks ago. Chiron, the asteroid of karmic wound and simultaneous healing, is in a new sign, and is encouraging us to tackle our healing head on, rather than feel our pain in a subterranean sense.
These planets at the 29th and 0 degree bring to mind that we are being asked to enter into a new narrative with ourselves, our communities, our pain, and the world at large. We are being asked to simultaneously start fresh (Uranus, Chiron, and new moon energy), as well as find ways to integrate old information into that newness (Mercury retrograde).
On the new moon, we see the sun and moon conjunct Neptune, imbuing our ego consciousness and our emotional consciousness with fantasy, fog, and confusion. There is so much feeling being brought to our attention. Rather than feeling pressure to absorb it or categorize it, I advise you to merely sit with it. Do be wary of things seeming a bit unreal, confused, or dreamy, as Mercury retrograde PLUS all of this Neptunian energy can get the best of us.
Channel confusion through art, meditation, and alternative healing modalities like yoga, to move through this phase.
Mercury retrograde conjuncts Chiron, though that conjunction is waning as Mercury moves away from the asteroid of heartache, but still, there is a chance here that old narratives of pain and failure are being brought up. If this happens, let those memories breathe and try to set them free. It is so hard, I know, but planetary contacts to Chiron are an invitation to work with the healing aspect of the asteroid, rather than wallow in the depths of our deepest wound.
The new moon makes energetic contact with the malefics, Mars, Saturn, and Pluto, throughout the day, giving us the strength, bravery, and strategic know-how to work through this dreamy time. The Pisces new moon is the beginning of a cycle while will culminate in September, with the Pisces full moon. The seeds you plant now, the intentions you set, the dreams you acknowledge, will bloom over this period. Leaning on these hard planets can help give guidance and solidity in an otherwise ethereal moment in time.
There is always so much to talk about, but I will stop here for now. I wish you all a blessed new moon in Pisces, and encourage you to keep dreaming, just like Pisces wants you to.
with love,
Celestial Hermit
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In the classic book by Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and its 360 Symbolic Phases, Rudhyar offers this interpretation for 15° of Pisces: In social life, as well as occultism, conflict is always to be expected; one must prepare for it. At the close of the great cycle—in the zodiac, the […] -
In the classic book by Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and its 360 Symbolic Phases, Rudhyar offers this interpretation for 15° of Pisces: In social life, as well as occultism, conflict is always to be expected; one must prepare for it. At the close of the great cycle—in the zodiac, the […] -
In the classic book by Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and its 360 Symbolic Phases, Rudhyar offers this interpretation for 15° of Pisces: In social life, as well as occultism, conflict is always to be expected; one must prepare for it. At the close of the great cycle—in the zodiac, the […] -
In cultivating astrological self-awareness, one cannot help but encounter the fact, again and again, that energy is cyclical. Phases of life emerge, crest, and break like waves, and as we ride them we feel those resultant low troughs, the peaks of joy or bewilderment, and repeat in perpetuity.
January 5th, 2019 brings us the first New Moon of the year, the New Moon in Capricorn. This New Moon is highly significant as it is accompanied by a solar eclipse, one which initiates a new cycle of Cancer/Capricorns eclipses that last for the next year and a half. The end of the month will conclude the Leo/Aquarius eclipse cycle that we’ve been working through since August 18th, 2016. This is truly a moment of closing one book and opening another, and with purposeful Capricorn leading the way, I have no doubt this will be a period of deep learning, discovery, and manifestation.
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In the classic book by Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and its 360 Symbolic Phases, Rudhyar offers this interpretation for 15° of Pisces: In social life, as well as occultism, conflict is always to be expected; one must prepare for it. At the close of the great cycle—in the zodiac, the […]
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