Monday’s Pisces New Moon (20 Feb @ 6:05pm AEDT) contains within it the seeds of another watershed astrological year. After the heavy-handed Saturnian lessons of the last three years, this lunation cycle carries the planet of time and material reality, of limits, structures, boundaries and maturity into the deep waters of Pisces and opens a door to a new stage in our development.
With the New Moon at the first degree of the last of the zodiac signs, the oceanic, liminal realm of feeling and consciousness where we psychically integrate experiences and form embryonic new realities, the feeling of this lunar month is one of closing chapters and preparations for shifts into new territory. Venus, planet of pleasure and sensuality sits at the last, critical degree of her exaltation in Pisces on the New Moon and moves into her exile in Aries 50 minutes later. This could indicate some challenges in relation to Venusian topics - relationships, money, creativity, self-worth etc - but far-from-home planets are also compelled to find out-of-the-box solutions and in Aries, Venus is well situated to cut away anything joyless, harmful, ugly, undermining or extraneous that’s taking up space in our lives that would be better allocated to the new dream we’ll begin constructing soon. Pisces is both the feminine sign of Jupiter and the exaltation rulership of Venus and with the two benefics ruling from Aries during this cycle, there’s a strong emphasis on courageous self-assertion and bold actions that accord with our personal values. Such actions enhance confidence and self-worth and expand our horizons and as Jupiter finally leaves its shadow on 16 Feb also, the feeling of movement beyond the scope of what seemed possible six months ago is further emphasised.
This lunation cycle builds towards the Virgo Full Moon on March 7, which is immediately followed by Saturn’s entry into 0 Pisces an hour later at 12:34am AEDT on March 8. After five years of rulership in its own signs, this Saturnian shift into the imaginal waters of Pisces could feel strange and unsettling, momentous, melancholy, challenging and beautiful. Look back to 1993-1996 for a glimpse of the personal themes that could resurface for further development over the next 2.5 years. But for now as the Sun focuses our attention on Piscean themes, we might consider the worlds we want to inhabit moving forward and how we might make them manifest. Pisces is associated with the watery, dream-realm of undifferentiated possibility, the cosmic ocean from which all life emerges and returns in an endless flow of creative potential, and reminds me of Jill Bolte Taylor’s description of right brain consciousness (My Stroke of Insight, TED 2008) through which our minds perceive the energetic unity of the world without border, boundary or differentiation. It’s intuitive, mystical, meditative, sensitive, imaginative, emotional, romantic, sensory and imagistic, and the realm of fantasy, illusion, confusion, delusion, euphoria, altered states, unity, altruism, self-sacrifice, spirituality, compassion, forgiveness and healing.
Perhaps the world’s most famous Pisces, the genius theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, brought a Piscean kind of “whole world view” and mysticism to his explorations of the cosmic order. “I believe in intuitions and inspirations” he said in 1929. “I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Einstein’s scientifically imaginal genius was also deeply entwined with a deep spiritual conviction, which he described as ‘cosmic religion’, and a ‘passionate interest in social justice’. “We exist for our fellowmen…” he wrote in 1931, “for all those unknown to us personally with whose destinies we are bound up by the tie of sympathy.” At this moment, devastating destruction, grief and trauma in Turkiye and Syria, literally beyond the comprehension of those of us safely in our homes far away, reminds us of the crucial importance of care for our fellows. Please consider donating to search and rescue at AKUT or Red Cross to help where you can dear friends 🙏🏼🫀🩸
In the face of all that is overwhelmingly painful and unjust, Einstein surmised in 1931 that the “most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Such spiritual, ethical and creative themes will almost certainly be highlighted as Saturn moves through the ocean of Pisces. The planet of outsiders, eccentrics, marginalised groups, scientists and astrologers is also associated with seafaring, which may be why it seems to do so well in Piscean waters. Although melancholy invariably accompanies Saturnian transits through Pisces, it’s the kind that inspires epically imaginative, spiritually poetic and sweeping acts of creation that help us to process and make sense of events that seem beyond comprehension.
And so, on this cloud-studded, dusky seascape of a New Moon, we might conjure a little of Einstein’s wonder for the small miracles of our lives, which take place within extraordinary contexts far beyond the scope of our understanding, and tune into the mysteries of feeling and imagination, compassion and possibility, intuition and complexity, and the mind-altering and incredible beauty of it all. Much love to @b_o_w_o_ng whose text message ‘Ps I just swam with dolphins’ arrived during a magical reading by my astrologer friends and intergalactic spiritual aid workers @moonraysastrology @la.zodiac.reel @kimsastrohealing @kathleenschildmeyer @maggie torn. The divinatory space felt like swimming with dolphins. When I was painting this picture with my precious six year old niece (thanks @colettelafontaine @simon_bergagna) and lamenting that no matter what I did the poor girl in this picture looked scared and sad, when she should be looking happy, without hesitation she replied “I’d be scared,” then after a beat “but I’d also think it was beautiful and
A M A Z I N G !!!”
It seems a pretty apt metaphor for the moment. 🌞🌙🫀🙏🏼🌊🐬
This lunation cycle carries us up to the beginning of the astrological year with the Aries New Moon on March 22, a super-charged manifestation moment in any year but in keeping with the epic astrology of March, this one is E X T R A. Stay tuned for an astrological magic workshop I’ll be running to creatively harness powerful intentions then beautiful friends 🌟🔥♥️
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