The Sun starts the Pisces birthday month on February 19 Feb 2016 at 00:33:40 am EST. Pisces is a time of longing and expectancy. The days in the northern hemisphere where astrology was born, Pisces comes just before the beginning of spring. Food was scarce but the light is increasing so you knew better times are coming. So between fasting and stimulating sunlight through leafless trees, there is a euphoria, or maybe an anxiety, about what is coming yet all the time yearning for its arrival. That is the overall tone of the month.
Like all full moons, the one happening February 22 is full of feeling. It is across the Virgo-Pisces axis, so in essence, it is about what you should be dedicating your energy to: the big picture or the smallest details. Ideally you want to be able to see the purpose in the everyday routine and understand how the whole is related to its parts. But balancing this one is tough because it tangles with Mars. Hot stuff! Much energy to push but it finds obstacles in its way. Channel any frustration you feel into productive action and you can bring revolutionary zeal to any endeavor.
On February 25 and 26, Mercury connects favourably with Saturn then Uranus. These days are good for any kind of mental work. There is an opportunity to write or speak about something new and unusual yet with practical applications. Harnessing brilliance is possible if you put in the effort.
The Sun conjoins with Neptune on Feb 28. This could be quite a spacey day. Best use is to find a way to open up spiritually to something higher rather than yearn for the world to be somehow more ideal that it is, or perhaps can be. Meditate or write poetry or find a quiet corner where you can just be.
Venus connects favourably with Saturn on February 29 followed by Uranus on March 2. Opportunities abound for productive interchanges. Take some social risks regarding new business matters within your reach and/or enjoy finding new dimensions to the people and things around you. Why not go to some cultural event with a friend or more?
Sharp or maybe fighting words are in the air on March 5 when Mercury clashes with Mars. An argument or at least a passionate struggle between reason and passion is indicated. If anger goes to your head, write an angry letter (don’t send it) and get the rage out of your system.
Mercury enters Pisces on March 5. That yearning quality of Pisces is applied to the thinking function for the rest of the month, maybe just engendering hopeful thoughts or downright fantasies. But nothing is pushed here. To stay clear, find healthy things to contemplate and imagine.
Mars enters Sagittarius later the same day. The challenge while Mars is in this sign is to appropriately act in accordance with your beliefs. Can you advance towards what you perceive to be the correct course without being hypocritical or trampling on the truths of others? To move forward, be the bigger person and find ways to affirm the best in both yourself and the others around you.
March 6-11 is an intense time. The solar light engages with the darkness in different ways.
The Sun clashes with Saturn first on the 6th setting the stage. Personal independence and liberty based on what feels right must come to terms with limitations imposed by established belief systems. Put a lot of play in your response to the things that frustrate you at this time. Remember creativity needs limitations for its optimum development so let your obstacles engender creative responses to get around, under, above or through them.
On the same day, the Sun then goes on to connect favourably with that prince of the underworld Pluto. It’s an opportunity for deepening. Put some energy into keeping wise to your own true motivations so that you are not being manipulated by them and you can act on the best of them. Go deep and batten down the hatches for what is to come.
On March 8, two things of note happen. The Sun opposes Jupiter and the Sun is eclipsed by the Moon.
When planets oppose each other, they appear to us to be in opposite hemispheres. There’s a tug of war. Jupiter is the judging principle; the Sun is individual identity. There could be a lot of blaming, shaming and the finger wagging. Who truly has the moral high gound is the question. Best case is to establish balance between them. Worst case is over reach: personal inflation to the point that correction by others is required. It isn’t nice when the balloon pops.
And then the eclipse! Eclipses have very bad reputations in astrology. Trauma and drama is promised so it is said when the Sun is swallowed by darkness in a day sky. I think while they are happening, it’s more drama than trauma, but I’ve seen that they seem to sensitize places on the Zodiac wheel until the next solar eclipse, which will occur approximately 6 months later.
The March 8 Solar Eclipse opposite Jupiter suggests struggles over ideology. Jupiter is not himself being in Virgo. He’s trying to be detail-oriented when it’s completely not his strength. He’s better at understanding things at the 50,000 foot level. In Virgo, he can make the system and its processes the religion and will condemn from that perspective. An eclipsed Sun in Pisces is intense feeling without consciousness: it is animal instinct with the quality of a narcotic. It understands in a completely different way. So of course, it must be wrong to a Jupiter that is currently infatuated with practical applications.
There’s nothing practical about an eclipse. Harmonizing between it and Jupiter is a tall order: you have to balance the them consciously and respect their perspectives equally.
March 8th is simply heavy. Keep your head and stay aware of the virtues that accompany all sides until…
Mercury joins with Neptune on March 11. This is an intensification of Mercury penchant for artistic vision when placed in Pisces. Speaking of practical, this sure isn’t. It can be escapism big time. But why not use it positively? Dream, meditate, let your mind be swept away by something that nurtures you on the soul level. Focusing on anything smaller will only confuse you.
Keeping the permeable sensitive theme, Venus enters Pisces on Mercury’s heels on March 12. Beautiful Venus in Pisces! The harmonious relating principle expanded to include all. While Venus is here, there is a special grace for finding compassion for yourself and for others. A healing power for all relationships is here too. Let your past hurts be washed away by realizing that it is not you that loves but rather it is a greater Love loving through you and it encompasses all.
The struggle between Sagittarius and Pisces flares up with two sets of two planets in conflict on March 14: Mercury goes up against Saturn; Venus has it out with Mars. Mercury and Venus are both in Pisces, motivated by a feeling of where things should go and it is like a watercolor painting. Mars and Saturn are both in Sagittarius, driven towards promoting their truth like a preacher. Together, none of them are being rational: they are struggling with how to discern the biggest picture, which is beyond rational thought. Sagittarius is more religious and Pisces is more mystical. Both have windows on what’s ultimately true and should really respect and work together which looks something like having a healthy spiritual life informed by helpful perspectives and traditions bigger than yourself.
The danger with these clashes between soul and spirit is fanaticism. For all Sagittarius’s expansive virtues, Mars and Saturn placed in this sign can be intolerably singular as to which approach is right approach. But they are right in the fact that one should search for the truth, especially when it’s heavy! Mercury and Venus in Pisces are intensely personal and giving, motivated by a compassionate spirit beyond themselves, but are subject to the kind of delusions formed by believing that because a thing feels right, it therefore must be right.
It’s in the struggle between these two forces that the most positive outcome is found: a discerning higher moral function, equally balanced in compassion and zeal and full of enthusiasm.
March 15 sees Mercury first connect favourably with Pluto. Now is a time for seeing in the dark and being able to persuade others in speech or writing. But being able to take advantage of it requires effort to achieve.
On the same day, Mercury opposes Jupiter. This is not as intense as the solar opposition as the confrontation between these two could be a kind of reconciliation as they rule each other’s sign. Perhaps the precision and inventiveness of Virgo can be added fruitfully to the compassion and depth of Pisces after all. It would definitely beat opinions and judgements indiscriminately flying around.
March 16, the big pay-off comes: Jupiter aligns very favourably with Pluto. Somehow, for all it’s drama, the month’s ups and downs will work out. A systematic approach will particularly reap favourable rewards at this time. It’s a faith informed by the cruel realities of the world and its darker underlying dynamics that can move mountains because it’s grounded in a knowing of what is possible.
And that’s it for the month. The next issue of Skywisdom will coincide with the Sun going into the sign of Aries on March 20.