Mercury Direct & Pisces New Moon - Feb 28

Pisces, the sometimes weird and deeply feeling sign of dreams and fantasy is brought to our attention for a moment as the Sun and Moon come to their annual conjunction here. Pisces can be hard to figure out, confusing and mysterious even to it's natives. It's changeable and even capricious to delight of the highly mutable and frustrating to everyone else who just wants them to come down to earth and pick up the phone.

It's changeability and slipperiness is highlighted by the stationary direct motion of Mercury and the stationary Retrograde change up with Mars and Saturn. As I have said before the most noticeable moments in a retrograde phase are when they make aspects to your birth chart and when they slow down and stop before moving forwards or reverse. Even more powerful, aggravating or delightful are when the planets make aspect to your birth chart as they stop in the stationary period. This means that they will aspect you for not only a day or so (depending on the planet) but several days or even weeks with the outer planets like Saturn and Neptune.

Having three planets go stationary at the same time is a bit rare and that it occurs at a new moon is a sign of major shifts and changes in our worlds. Luckily for us the New Moon is very nicely angled to Jupiter in Cancer and Pluto in Capricorn. The aspect to Jupiter is a sign of abundance, goodwill, optimism and high spirits although it can also lead to excess and overkill, something to keep in mind as pisces, ruled by Jupiter, can get out of hand and overdo things especially regarding alcohol or relationships with poor boundaries. The aspect to Pluto is a sign of regeneration, evolution and perhaps potentiation for those with Pluto aspecting their natal chart at the moment.

More tricky than these two benevolent aspects is that the New Moon will be very close to Neptune the planet of fog and confusion, considered to be the modern ruler of Pisces by some 'new-age' astrologers. They certainly do share some commonality and both represent fantasy, dreams, visions and spiritual ideals. This is well and good but Neptune and the other outer planets, Uranus & Pluto, are powerful, disruptive and require very special handling and a certain sense of sobriety.

 Considering Jupiter is in a close Trine to the New Moon this will be especially important to consider. Are you dealing with reality? Are you bringing your dreams to earth? Are you letting the important bits slip through your fingers? Keep at attention in this time and make the most of the spiritual themes or feelings of goodwill that may come up.

Mercury going Direct is something that people get excited about but just because it's starting to go direct doesn't mean we are out of the woods yet, especially with this potentially confusing and inspiriting New Moon. Bear in mind that the tricks and reversals and mechanical fuckery of God of thieves and magicians is still in effect and that it doesn't just "switch off" like a lightswitch. These things are like seasons and they come and go on their own time. Give it a new days at least.

 Not only is Mercury going to need a few days before he is up  to speed but Mars and Saturn are going Retrograde as well. my report on Mars retro is here.

Take time to feel things out and listen to intuition. Make sure the call you are hearing isn't that of a siren who lures sailors to their misfortune.  I, myself, will be careful about making any sudden leaps of faith and major moves. Give it time no matter how excited and inspired you may feel about your life, relationships or projects.

How does the New Moon effect me? 

 How does the New Moon effect me? 
Where are things going to be inspiring, dreamy, defying boundary and definition? Where might things be too good to be true? Or truly good? Where are we initiating a new cycle with the compassionate and deeply feeling part of ourselves?  What part of life is going well but perhaps requiring more focus and realistic awareness?
 
Where this New Moon occurs in your chart will reveal what area of life will be effected, changed or challenged. For this you will need to look to your RISING sign.  If you don't know your rising sign you can calculate with the free rising sign calculator at Cafe Astrology. : Rising sign calculator. 

As always, this is an exceedingly brief look at what is going on for each rising sign and does not take into account a variety of factors that signify other evens in your life that can mitigate, exaggerate and modify these themes. (Email me to set up a consultation to get the real inside scoop on the astrological activity in your life at Ian @ pantheonastrology.com)

Pisces : 1st House: Identity, self-assertion, selfishness, personal demands, the Face and outer appearance. 

Aries : 12th House: Hidden issues, self-undoing, secret or private issues, retreat, cooperation, hospitalization, retirement, completing old issues, subconscious drives and issues which harm our conscious will. 

Taurus : 11th House: Groups, friends and Acquaintances, networks, cliques, Hopes, dreams, gains, personal and shared goals.

Gemini : 10th House Career, profession, position in society, public standing, reputation, authority figures, bosses, fathers, awards, responsibilities, desire for achievement.

Cancer : 9th House: Travel, education, philosophy, teachers, foreigners, legal issues, courthouses, broadcasting and publishing. 

 

Leo :  8th House: intimacy, sexuality, psychological and occult matters, shared resources, inheritance, credit, loans, personal power of regeneration. 

Virgo : 7th House: marriage, partnership, close friends, rivals, open enemies and all important one-on-one interactions.

Libra :  6th House: health & illness of physical body, work, service, routines, habits, co-workers, hired workers and staff.

Scorpio :  5th House: Love affairs, dating, games, fun, play fullness, entertainment and entertaining, performance arts, creativity, pregnancy and children.   

Sagittarius : 4th House : Home & family, houses, real  estate, rentals, renovations and relocating,  roommates and all who live in the home.

 

Capricorn : 3rd house: The Mind, writing and communications, siblings and neighbors, errands and movement within your local area, plans, media.

Aquarius: 2nd House: Self worth, money, wealth and finances, personal assets and values.   

Mars Retrograde

A new Moon in Pisces approaches and just about 24hrs later Mars, Mercury and Saturn will go stationary direct, apropos of the Piscean tendency to changeability and indecisiveness.  Many will take a sigh of relief to know that Mercury is going direct and as many will face-palm the fact that Mars is going retrograde.

While this can indeed be a frustrating time you need not worry as all retrograde cycles are natural rhythms of nature and can come with silver lining. Venus retro can be times when we revisit friends or get a deal on some new shoes. Mercury retro can be times when we find something lost or overdue paperwork is finished up. Mars Retro can be times when get off the fence or start going back to the gym. It might seem like it's taking forever to get in shape but at least you are returning.

Remember, It's not the retrograde motion that signifies problems as much as planets in detrimental signs making aspects to your natal planets. Even then it's not enough to signify a major crisis.

Retrograde Periods
Planetary retro periods are sometimes considered "weak" or alternatively "strong" but with a sense of reversal or mischief, depending on the sources. It seems both can be true and that the essence of it all requires some flexibility of awareness on our part, a flexibility that is difficult to pin down with simple terminology.

Retro periods can certainly feel "weak" at times and this feeling can be the impetus for us to overcome the feeling and act out to change the circumstance or feeling we are living with.

 In example, with Venus retrograde we can feel unloved or alienated. This in turn can be a time where we act out to reverse the feeling by dating someone who we have previously been with or falling for someone very different, inappropriate or unavailable. Eventually we realize this person isn't good for us or that we broke up with them for a reason that is still impossible to ignore and the "weak" period is now "strong" and takes up all of our attention and energy.

by the way, Weak and strong don't necessarily mean good and bad. It's about activity and our investment of awareness. Was it 'good' when you started dating that douchebag and felt attractive and powerful or was it 'good' when you broke up with him when he threw your phone into a bar-b-que for texting your ex-boyfriend?

Anyways, remember that all this terminology can get in the way very easily and it never replaces experiential understanding.

Mars Retro

So, what can we expect from Mars retro periods? Well, as Venus is love and beauty, Mars is war and willpower so expect that  our ability or willingness to assert ourselves or take action may seem subdued, wrongly expressed or require special handling.  Likewise, this may be a time when we express what has been subdued in the past or when we finally feel the bravado to express our vitality with a sense of openness.

At times some of us may feel like we can't or shouldn't assert ourselves, take action or stand up for something or we may simply not be aware that our own needs are being dominated by another. Eventually a line is crossed and we take up arms and sometimes  overreact or come on too strong in order to balance things out. In the wake of our outburst we might burn bridges, cause rifts, or disruptions that require backstopping to fix.

Other times we may simply not fight at all.  'Fighting' can mean getting out of bed at 7am to work out or telling the neighbors to turn down their music so you can sleep and not go into work all grumpy and take it out on your boss,  get fired and then, in despair, get drunk and drive your car through a sacks 5th avenue window that jumped out in front of you from nowhere.

Sublimation = Eruption. This sublimation then sudden eruption is another Mars retro thing to watch out for. Sometimes we keep anger wound up within our gutty-works and it comes out through the seams, sometimes bursting open altogether, and then it's a 45min trip back to Ikea to get a brand new new beanbag. or bönaväska, or whatever.

The key to it all: we fight the wrong people, the right people for the wrong reason or fight for our rights the wrong way.  But not if we maintain a sense of awareness of this time and stay present even when other people are inappropriately trying to pop our beanbags.

Timeframe 

Mars will be moving through the sign of Libra, it's detriment, meaning it's negative qualities of this time will tend to be more problematic when it aspects our planets particularly those within the sign of Cancer and Capricorn. The negative traits in libra can be indecision or passivity when activity is required or passive aggressiveness  in social situations.

Mars, already slowing down, will stop in it's stationary period around March 1st and will begin moving  backwards through the sign of Libra until May 20th. Although Mars goes direct in late may it will stay in Libra until July 27th when he bursts out of the delicate and peaceful sign of Libra into his home territory of Scorpio. This ingress into the sign he rules will begin a new phase when the Martial types (those with predominance of Aries or Scorpio) will finally feel like they are making headway with their ambitions and can operate with the fullness of their intensity and enthusiasm without the problematic blowback of Mars retro in Libra.