MONDAY - Mercury into Pisces, Venus square Juno
TUESDAY - Sun sextiles Pluto
WEDNESDAY - Sun squares Galactic Center, Mars sextiles Chiron
THURSDAY - Venus sextiles Pluto
FRIDAY - Venus squares Galactic Center
SATURDAY - Sun enters Aries (new astrological solar year, vernal equinox)
SUNDAY - Venus enters Aries, Mars trines Saturn
This is a BIG impactful week as we ready ourselves for Aries/the New Year and the promises of Saturday's New Moon in Pisces begin to roll in!
We have multiple opportunistic sextiles, just enough frustrating/testing squares to get some wind beneath our wings and three of our four inner planets change signs, including Mercury, ruler of our North Node path forward. The end of the week's switch (Sun/Venus) from loosey-goosey Pisces to red-hot Aries will surely be FELT BY ALL OF US!
Someone recently told me that when I write about problems/challenges she almost always experiences whatever I write about, but when I write about opportunities they just don't happen to/for her. She thinks she is jinxed.
She isn't.
Because she is on the lookout for problems - she unconsciously searches my posts for dragons (which is why I attract so many people with strong Virgo!), for roadblocks, for reasons to delay. And, of course I write about alot of dragons.
I see them first and easiest, too (hard to miss the breathing fire in your face part).
Sextiles (opportunities) can be harder to spot. Even literally when looking at a chart - you have to train yourself to see them.
Like the more challenging aspects (squares and oppositions and often conjunctions) they usually require some kind of movement - a shift in our emotions, thinking, actions.
But instead of jumping out of the way of a moving train we need to jump on to the moving train.
And it is easier to stand there and
let the train pass us by, than it would be for us to stand there, and let
the train run us over. See what I mean.
So we notice the challenges (that train is heading straight for me!) more than the opportunities (that train is headed straight for the BEACH!).
This final week with the Sun in Pisces, still feels kind of like things are 'wrapping up' to me, although the Moon is waxing. After the weekend's Equinox/New Year - it will be all systems GO though the end of the month. We should feel this build-up as we move through this powerful week, filled with subtle (because, well, Pisces) opportunities for power, healing and greater abundance.
Let's unpack the week. We'll add in the Moons with some dailies!
MONDAY - Venus at 22 degrees Pisces squares Juno at 22 degrees Sagittarius, Mercury moves into Pisces until April 3rd.
Venus (relationships, love, money, values, self-esteem) reaches her exact Piscean/Sag square to Juno (partnerships, contracts, marriage, agreements, family structures) - this could be a time when what we want clashes with a partnership/the hopes of someone else. With Mercury changing signs at the same time, maybe we need to give something a voice (gently) instead of assuming someone else knows what we want/are thinking. Maybe the sensitivity of Pisces is clashing with the bombastic tendencies of Sagittarius. Or maybe someone's Piscean excesses - addiction, escape, illusion - are causing tension/frustration for a committed relationship/partnership - draining hopes and optimism.
This is a mutable square, so we are making changes/turning corners/facing dragons in preparation of the new energies to come.
What isn't working? What needs to change? This week has multiple aspects indicating a greater need for balance and fairness, how might this apply here?
This is also the day Mercury leaves high-minded Aquarius for silky smooth Pisces. Unlike the last two years, when she/he stationed retrograde in Pisces, this year is a fast trip, which is probably good news because Mars in Gemini has been making me feel like Mercury is already retrograde! But maybe I just have too many Gemini-ruled machines ready to break down!
Mercury rules our thinking, our communication, our ideas.
He/she is considered in her fall/detriment in Pisces (because he rules Pisces polarity sign of Virgo), because Virgo's Mercury likes things clear and concise. She wants B to follow A and is sure things would move more efficiently if everyone would just dot their i's and cross their t's. Pisces (ruled by Neptune/Jupiter and ruler of our collective 12th house) is the space where rules/boundaries are more fluid. B might follow A. But just as easily A could drift right on past B.
It is the space of imagination, universal love, our dreams,
spirituality, our connection to each other through the ethereal realms
and our emotions, the ways we escape, the things we do last, the things we put away, addictions, delusions, hospitals, prisons, addicts, victims, saviors, martyrs. You can see how fast-moving Mercury could be a bit out-of-whack here.
So maybe our thinking slows down a bit. Our words drift off course. We started to say this and now we are saying that. The words that were so clear and crisp in airy Aquarius, don't come as easily because maybe we start feeling their impact on the other person now. Or maybe we start feeling like one of those old anti-drug commercials but instead of eggs - it is our brain frying on the sidewalk.
Details will be fuzzy. Our thinking might be, too. Also nostalgic. This is great for our imagination, but when things get too "lala" it's time to ground yourself with some earth, sit by a tree, walk barefoot outdoors, meditate, etc.
With Pisces ruling of the last house of the zodiac maybe a conversation comes to a slow/dissolving end now.
Our natal Pisces house - what house has Pisces on the cusp in your natal chart? - a space we are naturally inclined to more dreamy, Piscean ways - suddenly WAKES UP. Our attention goes there. This is wonderful energy for artists, poets, musicians, meditation, spirituality, healing. With Mercury (ruler of Gemini) in this universal space our words can cast even more powerful S-P-E-L-L-S - keep this in mind.
And if you haven't done your New Moon
intentions - there is still time - do them now, just before the Moon goes void at 11:40PM EDT.
This is maybe not such wonderful energy for to-do lists and more practical concerns. So start, double checking communications. Re-read important papers. Give other people a break when their language isn't as concise as you would like it to be. Especially when they just can't decide. Mercury in Pisces takes in so much universal information from the world that it becomes hard to take a singular stance.
Our thinking becomes more intuitive.
Cold facts are not so cold and hard decisions can go limp. Lies might be
spoken and take on a life of their own. That whole "alternative facts"
thing applies. It is the time to let our mental defenses down and just feel it. Or to guard against this very thing - depending on the situation!
We don't have to understand everything or figure everything out. Pisces dissolves. Pisces feels. Pisces is a water sign and heals through wetness - blood, sweat and tears (I would avoid the blood though if possible).
If we want/need to cry, and even if it turns into one of those big old
ugly cries that has our eyes all scrunched up two days later and
people asking us what the hell is the matter - it's time to cry. You
will probably not need me to tell you this though .....
If you really need to knuckle down mentally over the next couple weeks, it could be best to give Neptune his due with some creative time - meditate, color, paint, etc - first.
On TUESDAY, the Sun at 26 degrees Pisces sextiles Pluto at 26 degrees Capricorn. They met back on January 14, 2021 (this was the day Trump was impeached by the House for the second time). We were, all of us, past the death, past the point in the game we'd always died before. Results came in. A new cycle, around how we handle power, ended and began.
Now the Sun/Pluto's annual story has moved on and we reach the time of their opportunistic sextile. This is power through compassion. Through our intuition. Through forgiveness/transcendence. Osmosis. We are able to influence things from behind the scenes. The power we once had (or our ancestors did) is available to us, especially for those with placements at 26 degrees. This is subtle, but effective/impactful. This is about how we increase our power/chances for success. Sextiles with Pluto encourage mergers, intimacy, financial opportunities. Going deep and seeing what is behind the curtain.
This is Neptune/Capricorn - building the dream. OR releasing the old/tired structures standing in the way.
On WEDNESDAY, Mars at 8 degrees Gemini sextiles Chiron at 8 degrees Aries. At the same time, the Sun, powered up by yesterday's meeting with Pluto is squaring (tension/frustration) the Galactic Center (our homing signal/seat of creation).
Mars/Chiron here is about healing actions/conversations. Wounds around our ability to stand up for ourselves/take care of ourselves are healed by doing just that. Use that Gemini humor/keep things light. With Mars in Gemini there may be multiple situations/multiple ways through this or maybe we are called to choose/decide. This might not be some big thing, we will just say what we need to say and move on.
Twice a year the Sun squares the Galactic Center - once from Virgo and once from Pisces. Squares are tension/frustration - a kind of testing. Mutable signs ready us for the new season ahead. Mutable squares test that readiness as we approach the fall and spring equinoxes. These are powerful lessons around our ability to adapt/change and our ability to bring things into a greater balance/equality. Powered up from yesterday's sextile with Pluto, the Sun (as us) is now challenged to stay flexible, spring ahead/fall back into our star-selves by remembering where we came from and how there is really only one of us here.
On THURSDAY, Venus in Pisces (following the Sun) sextiles Pluto at 26 degrees Cappy. What we want becomes more intense. Our relationships/finances/values/self-esteem can be strengthed.
Capricorn is about ownership. We own it AND we own it (take responsibility for it).
Venus is Pisces is gentle/attracts. So, this isn't about going into battle to SEIZE
the land. That's the old way of thinking about ownership. We attract it
now by tending to it, by desiring it, by being alluring and calling it
to us.
This is the real opportunity now.
And remember to own it we have to OWN IT (take responsibility for it).
We have given too much power away to too many naked emperors. Worked
too many farms for somebody else. Tended too many gardens whose flowers
went into other people's bouquets.
Let's take some kind of action, symbolic totally works, to claim
ownership of what we want this week. Then be prepared to step into our
responsibility and work like hell for it.
THURSDAY - now it's Venus's turn to square the Galactic Center - we don't always get this in preparation for the Equinox, so this challenge/frustration/time of testing is a GIFT. Again this is about balance/equality. Venus, exalted in powerful Pisces, is the civilizing influence of beauty, pleasure, our innate longing for love and
connection. She is the key to recovering our true humanity. The power nature of the exalted Venus (no limits) speaks of the nature of love overcoming the tension between opposites. She permits/allows union despite differences. We'll see what the Moon's aspects this day add to a more complete picture when we get closer.
SATURDAY/SUNDAY - first the Sun and then Venus, cross 0 degree Aries (the Aries point, first degree of the zodiac, first degree of everything), leaving free-floating Pisces for the fresh start of passionate, angry, "let's get going" Aries. The Sun's move into Aries begins a new astrological year. A time of balance/the powers of both day and night equally available to us. We'll talk about the New Year in a big post!
Following the Sun's annual gift of a New Year, Venus moves in to smooth our path forward. She shifts from her exaltation, to the sign of her detriment (Aries being the polarity sign of Venus ruled Libra),
but, Aries Suns and ascendants (first house Aries) become more attractive - both able to attract what they want and easier on the eye. Everyone's Aries house becomes more attractive, too.
In Aries, Venus functions best when she puts herself first. In Aries, Venus will be thinking, "what's best for me?". In Aries, Venus is a WARRIOR (and love is a battlefield ... cue Pat Benatar). Something to keep in mind as we give ourselves permission to go after what we want (always that fly in the ointment) is the impulsive nature of Aries. If Venus was always in Aries our relationships would last 15 minutes and the things we bought/valued would very quickly fall out of favor and we'd be on to the next thing. Maybe not such a good long-haul energetic, but as a transit, ie transitory, Venus in Aries can get on with the business of getting us what we want in a very effective manner.
At the same time, Mars at 10 degrees Gemini, is trining (brakes off) Saturn in Aquarius. We've been waiting for this one since Mars got into Gemini. Interesting (and important) that it happens after Gemini ruler Mercury gets into compassionate and illusive Pisces. Here is where our words, conversations, ideas, our teachings, curiosities, signed contracts, community actions are in smooth flow with the new rules/authority/the future. Excellent aspect to get something accomplished.
Back with some dailies and a big-picture New Year post!
xo all
photo by the talented Catrin Welz-Stein
