New Moon Eclipse in Pisces

This is on the 20th March, 9:30 am (GMT). It's a total solar eclipse – symbolic of a supercharged new beginning – and it takes place at the very last degree of Pisces, the final degree of the whole zodiac, symbolic of the very end of a cycle. So it's beginnings and endings again. Death and rebirth. It's a scenario very reminiscent of the new moon in Aquarius last month – a reiteration of that theme.

But that was the prelude. This, coming just after the final Uranus-Pluto square on the 16th March, is about life in the aftermath zone. Uranus (shock, upheaval, revolution) and Pluto (death, rebirth, transformation) are only a few seconds past their exact square in the chart of this new moon, so although the square will be loosening from now on, we are looking at a month colored by the high intensity and pressure of the final square.

It's like after a big earthquake - the aftershocks keep rolling through for a while. The shocks may be interior ones, or they may be in your external life – or both! But we are looking at unsettled situations that remain in flux for the next month, amid a sustained pressure for radical change. The dust won't really settle till mid-April.

Here's a link to hexagram 51 from the I Ching – all about shock, and how it wakes us up.

If you're feeling almost insane with the internal and external pressure, hang in there. Pay attention to the wake-up calls and revelations you're being hit with – and they're coming thick and fast these days, right? Don't tune out. Keep working to shoot yourself clear of your old patterns. We don't get this kind of opportunity for deep, systemic change – really ever. Ever. Many of us will never have it again.

Think about the last few years – the years of the Uranus-Pluto square (2012-2015). What can you never go back to? Where are you standing now, after the hurricane has dismantled your old life? What are you moving toward?

(NYC post Hurricane Sandy)

We have a big stellium in Pisces right now, and dreamy longing, blurred vision, regret and addiction to the past will be cheap and easy fixes for the next month. Let's not indulge in that stuff too much, tempting though it may be! It's one thing to process and release old pain – another thing entirely to wallow in it.

Try to keep the focus on where you're headed, not on what you've lost. There's no going back. But what's ahead of us could be very interesting...

The sun hits zero degrees Aries – the Aries Point, the start of the zodiac –  around 10:45 pm (GMT) on the 20th. And suddenly it's spring! Anything could happen. We'll have Jupiter in Leo beneficially aspecting Uranus in Aries for a good while – all through the summer. All kinds of happy accidents and sudden windfalls are possible. So keep the faith, keep moving forward... even if things feel kinda hopeless and stuck right now. Remember life can turn on a dime.

Mercury in Pisces is just past exact conjunction with Neptune right now – this is a dreamy, poetic, otherworldly mental influence. He will move to conjunct Chiron in Pisces on the 24th March, and this can be about painful but necessary thought and communication. It can be great for dissolving old mental habits and conditioning - but it can also be the hangover to end all hangovers.

It's a brief influence anyway – Mercury moves fast. He will enter Aries on the 31st March, and this should be clarifying, as far as our mental processes and communications are concerned. The Piscean veils of insinuation, illusion and doubt fall away and we'll be able to see and communicate the obvious with blunt simplicity. (And with Mercury moving into the Uranus-Pluto square during the second week of April – well it looks like the obvious is damn well going to get communicated. Like it or not!)

Venus entered Taurus on the 17th March, and this is a stabilizing, grounding influence, especially in relational and money matters – something has been decided at the root level, even though it might not entirely feel that way yet. Stick to your values, whatever happens. Hold to what makes you feel happy, satisfied and secure in a deep-down way.

Mars will enter Taurus on the 31st March, and that should further stabilize and ground our energy and will, and help us to stick to our guns. With Mars and Venus in calm, steady Taurus – the explosive relational issues we've been dealing with over the past few months should start to settle.

We'll have a very fraught full moon eclipse in Libra on the 4th April, and this looks like a point of closure for those issues to me. It will probably come as a relief on some level, but Jesus - it doesn't look fun. Aaargh. I'll write about it closer to the time.

Anyway, nothing to do (ever) but keep moving forward. May the force be with us all.

Some dreamy Pisces songs for ya:

A "checking out & moving on" song:

And here is some cheese! Hair metal & power ballads will pull us through, if nothing else can!

Full Moon in Virgo

This is tonight, the 5th March 2015, around 6 pm GMT.

We have an intense month ahead, as we head into the final Uranus-Pluto square on the 16th March. Things are shifting fast. The skies now are about accelerated relational dynamics and power shifts. Bedrock changes involving how we relate and what we value are afoot. Alliances are being formed and broken at astonishing speed, and people are waking up to how unfulfilling and insufficient their lives are within their old realities. Everything is pressing for radical change right now.

This full moon in Virgo shines a clear, analytical light on what has to change in our lives, and what practical steps we have to take to get to where we want to be. Virgo is about order, efficiency, clarity and detail work. It's about being practical and systematic, paying attention to the small stuff and not getting bogged down in emotional chaos or delusion.

This kind of grounded clarity is helpful, as the changes hitting us now can be overwhelming and painful. There are a lot of things we can't take with us, going forward. Bad relationships, addictions, romantic illusions, mouldering old gender roles and expectations, victim-saviour dynamics, the excuses we make for continuing down paths we know are no good for us – all that stuff has to go.

And regret for all we're having to leave behind will likely pull at us this full moon. The sun in Pisces will be conjunct Chiron (exact on the 8th March), and this describes deep wounding - an existential kind of hurt. And the sun and moon will be squaring Saturn, which is an emotionally constraining influence. Overall the mood is likely to be pretty serious and subdued.

It doesn't matter – we have to keep moving forward.

Letting go of what you've invested your time, energy and love in is very hard, yeah. But when a thing is done it's done – there is really no going back. You can't let what is unviable or unsound drain you any further.

It's like the image above for the tarot 8 of cups – the pilgrim in the picture is leaving an emotional arrangement he has painstakingly constructed, because it no longer satisfies him. He's walking off into darkness and rough terrain alone, and the situation is not particularly happy or light, but there's a feeling of necessity about it. He has to find something more meaningful, even if it means facing hardship and loneliness.

This full moon should help you to discriminate between what you can work with going forward, and what you must leave behind – and to take the necessary practical steps, however crummy you might feel about it all. Venus is hitting the Uranus-Pluto square right now, reinforcing this theme of detaching from our stuck old patterns, especially as regards relationships, money, possessions and values.

It's a great time for a clear-out. This could be as mundane as clearing out your garage or bringing your old clothes to Goodwill...or it could involve getting clear of untenable relationship dynamics and old psychological conditioning, or a bad job, or habits that undermine your health, or whatever you know is a drain on your energy and resources. The important thing is to let go of what is no longer fulfilling and clear a space in your life for something new to happen. It's not fun, but it's necessary.

If you stay stuck in your old patterns out of regret, addiction or fear of change, you miss out on the great opportunity of this time – the potential for amazing new things to happen. But if you clear some space in your life and refuse to let it be filled by the same old shit, something new is bound to come along.

The 'something new' part involves a grand trine between Jupiter in Leo and Venus, Mars and Uranus in Aries. This is fiery, exciting influence, full of the potential for sudden windfalls, happy accidents, inspiration, new alliances, magic and opportunity. Saturn in Sagittarius is also involved, which grounds the energy and makes it easier to materialize whatever opportunities or inspirations come your way. This is luck you can work with.

It's really nice to have this happy, energetic, lucky stuff going on – because the weeks ahead are so tense. We are moving at warp speed toward the final Uranus-Pluto square on the 16th, and radical change is the name of the game. Anything could happen.

A lot of that 'anything' is potentially violent and shocking, especially with Mars currently conjunct the south node and moving to conjunct Uranus in Aries on the 11th March. So please be careful. Drive defensively and avoid crazy people if you can.

And don't take your guns to town, son...

If you start feeling all pent-up and enraged, it's a good idea to get in some physical exercise.

Mercury leaves Aquarius  for Pisces on the 13th March - this should soften up our mental processes and communications, which have been all zinged up and electric under Mercury in Aquarius. Nice influence for artists and musicians – very intuitive and poetic. But it also means our thinking might be a bit underwater at a time when we need to keep our wits about us.

On the 14th March, Saturn begins his retrograde. It will take him back through the early degrees of Sagittarius and into Scorpio for a final revision period (15th June – 18th September) of the dark, thorny issues we've dealt with over the past two years during his tenure in Scorpio. This is kind of a drag – kind of dispiriting and exhausting. Just when we're itching to move forward and solidify the changes in our lives, we have this dark undertow dragging us back through territory we thought we'd finished with. Specifically, it's a retreading of ground we covered between mid-December of 2014 and now – any Scorpionic issues you were dealing with then will likely come up for revision. (Scorpio issues involve sex, death, power, shared resources, debts, the shadow).

Oh well. June to September of this year will be the last time Saturn is in Scorpio for nearly 30 years, so you might as well use it to make good and sure that you have really gotten the garbage out of your life and psyche. Anything rotten or unsound you are still clinging to: an addiction, a relationship, an ideology, a fantasy, etc...Well hopefully you have been trying to extricate yourself from what you know is no good for you. But maybe it hasn't been as easy to get clear of as you thought it would be. There is still some work to be done here – and messy and dark as it is, we'll have to do it if we want to move forward.

Hard-ass Saturn is telling us here: surface change is just not good enough. It's easy to declare you're finished with something but then go on to repeat the same pattern in a different form, like a dry drunk. Really getting free involves psychological work  - digging down to the deep roots of a behaviour, and cutting them out so it can't regrow in another form.

Anyway, it looks like a pain in the ass, but it has to be done. Come September, it will really be time to move on from whatever this is about for you, and for good.

On the 16th March we have the 7th and final exact square between Uranus (shock, revolution) and Pluto (death, rebirth, transformation). It's a big deal. I wrote a lot about it in my last post, so won't re-hash it.

But suffice it to say, the weeks ahead are full of drama and intensity. Try to stay balanced amid the shifts – things are very pressurised right now. Take a step back if you feel yourself getting overwhelmed.

Virgo is about health and service, so a full moon in Virgo is a good time to focus on those things. Try to eat right, exercise and get enough sleep...and if you find yourself overly focused on your own issues, shift the focus onto what you can do for others. Those strategies can help to ease the tension.