New Moon in Pisces: Perspective

Earth from space (and a neat essay)

New Moon in Pisces
March 11, 2013
1:51 pm EDT

Remember how I pledged not to use the word "intense" for a while? Well, I need it for Monday's New Moon in Pisces, which is, yes, intense.

The potential challenges of this much Pisces in the sky, accompanied by Mercury and Saturn retrogrades, include feeling lost in a fog, not knowing what's real, drifting, losing all sense of boundaries, spiritual emergency, falling into overwhelming emotion or addiction, feeling wounded and wounded again.

OK, that's what to look out for––those are the patterns, behaviors, complexes and whatever we intend to let go of during this New Moon.

Now let's go on to the completely amazing opportunities this Pisces rebirth can offer.

One of the first things to greet me this morning online was a post from Upworthy with a link to the trailer for a film called Continuum, about the Overview effect, or what happens to our brains when we see the Earth from space.

This 20-minute film clip features images and interviews with astronauts and philosophers and others about what it means to realize we live on Spaceship Earth, heartbreakingly beautiful, miraculously strong, and breathtakingly fragile.

When we really feel our way into that sense of the Earth as a living community within the huge community of space, we've achieved the perspective of the Pisces New Moon.

We're not alone. We never were.

This New Moon happens within a conclave of Piscean planets. The Sun and Moon are flanked by Mars and Venus. Mercury and Chiron are conjunct nearby, and Neptune rests in the Piscean doorway. ALL of the personal planets are in Pisces. Our focus is RIGHT THERE.

There are no oppositions at this New Moon. We are one Earth, one people, one cosmos.

There are some interesting squares: Jupiter in Gemini squares the Mercury–Chiron conjunction, pushing us to expand our thinking in healing ways. Look out the spaceship window, embrace the new perspective.

Vesta in Gemini, goddess of home and hearth, squares Venus in Pisces. Ceres in Gemini, fierce protective mother, squares the New Moon. The Earth is our Mother, they tell us. See how beautiful she is, how she nurtures and cares for us.

There are lovely flowing aspects: Saturn in Scorpio trines the Mercury–Chiron conjunction, as Pluto sextiles them both. When we really see how we're all together in this life, then transformation flows easily––we simply can't go back to seeing things the old way.

The North Node, our path in this life, sextiles the New Moon. We are offered rebirth, realignment, renewal.

There's a yod, a finger of fate, from Saturn and Pluto pointed at Jupiter: This is important, it says. There's a lot at stake here. How we think, how we feel, how we act all work together synergistically to co-create our experience of life. Pay attention!

Last but not least, Jupiter sextiles revolutionary Uranus is Aries: This New Moon opens the door to a time of change. Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus will soon leave Pisces for bright and passionate Aries. The Spring Equinox is coming.

New Moons are time to make wishes and set intentions. Check your birth chart. Where does 21 Pisces fall? Which planets and points will be touched? These will help you tailor your wishes to your circumstances.

For all of us, everywhere, I will be including wishes that we open our hearts. This life, this Earth, are precious gifts. At this Pisces New Moon, hands are reaching out to us in many dimensions to say, we're all in this together. This is a New Moon for compassion, and for awakening.
    

Balsamic Moon: Luere Means "to Wash"

doing the washing

Balsamic Moon
March 8, 2013
2:57 am EST

The Balsamic Moon, the final half-square between the Sun and Moon before they meet, ushers in the last, focused time for releasing what we're done with. If we're not quite done, but know we should be, it's time to let go anyway.

The Latin word luere, meaning to wash, connects us to where we are: dissolve, ablution, dilute, alluvium, deluge ... all these Neptunian words tell us it's time for a change.

The goal is to clear the foundations for a new, strong, creative, valued structure to rise up. At this Moon, we see Saturn in Scorpio (deep structure, facing the Shadow) flowing energy in trine with Mercury (thought, communication, reflection) and Venus (creativity, values, relationships) in Pisces, the universal solvent.

At the same time, Jupiter squares Chiron––whatever the issue is, we can't miss it, and the support for healing is right there. Vesta, goddess of home and hearth, squares the Sun and Venus, so perhaps issues of home and family are at stake. Alongside Vesta is Lilith, also square the Sun, bringing the voice of the fierce feminine.

Letting go of stuff is hard. We don't like it. With all the Pisces energy around and Mercury retrograde, it's a bit tricky to know exactly what we need to let go of, and why.

This Balsamic Moon is in Aquarius, which offers a cool head, perspective, and an extra dose of intuitive power.

Oracles are very powerful now, all kinds of oracles. Here's a Tarot spread my friend Arwen created that suits this Balsamic Moon time perfectly. Finding this excellent quote:

When the wind of change is blowing, some people build walls, the others windmills. 
~Chinese Proverb

She designed a three-card spread in which the middle card is the Wind of Change coming into our lives, the card to the left is the Wall and the card to the right is the Windmill.

In other words, what needs to change? How are we holding ourselves back? And where is the opportunity to move?

So of course I tried it, using Joanna Powell Colbert's beautiful Gaian Tarot.

Well ... the Winds of Change card was ... The Tree, Joanna's version of the Hanged Man. Could there be a more perfect evocation of this Piscean ocean energy we're in? I swear, this is the card that came, I did not stack the deck!

The Wall in my readings was, interestingly, Justice. Of course Justice is a good thing, and a very positive card in many spreads and locations, but it wasn't difficult for me to see that holding on to a need for things to be fair can be a problem. Some issues for the past can never be resolved (another luere word). Sometimes we––ok, I––need to let go of that burning desire for justice.

The opportunity card? It was the Wheel, the card that says, what goes around, comes around ... the card of change with a capital "C" except it's not change we're in control of, it's change we accept and ride with.

This reading had personal meaning for me, and also felt like something many could relate to: We're in a time of flux and might feel stuck, or at least not fully in control of what's happening. We want things to be fair! We want justice to be done and will hold our position forever until that happens! Except of course that leaves us stuck in the past ... so, it's time to let go, let the wheel of time roll on, and see what comes in the next turning.

I'm getting out the wash basin and my sweetest smelling soap––maybe that will make all this dissolving just a bit easier.
    

Synchronicity Stew: Mercury–Saturn Trine

the rose chafer ... Jung's synchronicity messenger

Waning Moon Cycle

Moon–Pluto conjunction:
March 6, 2:15 pm EST
Mercury–Saturn trine:
March 7, 2:26 pm EST
Balsamic Moon in Aquarius:
March 8, 2:17 am EST

What do anesthesia, dreams, learning Photoshop and Van Allen Belts have in common? If you're as deep into the Piscean ocean as I've been, you've already spun out half a dozen science fiction plots with all those elements.

In fact (if we can use such a hard word in these Neptunian times), they're ways synchronicity has entered my life recently.

We're still wending our way through the waning Moon phase, in the cycle that initiated with the intense Aquarius New Moon on February 10 and entered its waning period with the amazing Full Moon in Virgo of February 25.  I write this in part as a memo to me, because I'm uncoupled from linear time these days––those Moon events seem liked hours ago and eons ago, simultaneously.

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes, synchronicity.

This afternoon (Wednesday) brings the Capricorn Moon into an up close and personal conjunction with Pluto. Maybe that's why the invitation to Michele Grace Lessirard's New Moon teleclass tonight is about women and money––and why today is a get-'er-done kind of day.

Tomorrow brings a flowing trine between Mercury and Saturn, both retrograde. I mentioned this trine in my post about Mercury retrograde, and suggested we might see issues of emotional power, visionary depth, and the power of dreams surfacing.

I'm seeing a big increase in the flow of synchronicity, in my personal life and the world around me.

Have you noticed the Weather Channel named our current new winter storm "Saturn"? The other name for the storm is "Snowquester" and today it shut down the federal government in Washington, D.C.––which some will see as redundant.

Just the other day, U.S. scientists announced the discovery of a new belt of powerful electrons in the Van Allen Belt, the doughnut-shaped loops of radiation that surround the Earth. It appears that this "new" belt may always have been there, detected now because space probes are now more sensitive.

NASA image of the Van Allen Belt

What could be more Piscean than radiation in space surrounding the Earth, now seen in a new way due to increased sensitivity?

To add another bit of Neptunian fog, the Van Allen Belt radiation is the key element used by conspiracy theorists claiming the Moon landing never happened.

In my life, I had a medical treatment, then in an anesthesia and narcotics-assisted recovery nap, had a dream about a new tarot deck I had designed and created. This past week, as I began playing around with image ideas, I discovered that creativeLIVE was offering a weeks' worth of free broadcasts on Photoshop techniques. I watched when I could, and learned tons of new ways to manipulate images––how Neptunian is that?

And, yes, it's been an intense couple of weeks emotionally, something we can expect to continue right through the coming New Moon in Pisces. Remember the waning phase is ideal of letting things go. So, feel it, understand it, let it move through you, rinse and repeat ... it's that kind of phase.

If you are or have been in the path of this huge, diffuse and wet (all Pisces qualities) winter storm barreling through the U.S. Midwest and East, I hope you're safe, warm and dry. I'd love to hear how synchronicity is entering your life these days!