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Astrological forecast for Sun in Pisces
Feb 19 through Mar 20
by our reluctant shaman
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"We must become the change we want to see in the world." - Mohandas K. Gandhi
The only thing that never changes is change itself. The planets are always moving and so is all of life, even when we're feeling stuck. The pace of human activity is moving exponentially higher but not necessarily for the better. If we want to make things better, we'll need to take Gandhi's message to heart, otherwise things are likely to spiral out of control between now and 2012. Unless I'm missing something major, our birthright as humans is to make improvements to our lives, and not to allow things to go sliding off into chaos.
Mahatma (the "Great Soul") Gandhi frequently broke the colonial laws of South Africa and India as well as the laws of the Hindu caste system because he correctly saw them as unjust and inhuman. He answered to a higher law, the Law of Correspondences, and his non-violent movement helped to set his people free and gain India's independence. His fearlessness has inspired millions of people to become agents for positive change, and the word "change" is certainly in the air these days, no?
The Law of Correspondences also rules the art and craft of astrology. It simply states: "As above, so below. As within, so without. As the Universe, so the Soul." The first statement ("As above, so below") tells of how we can be moving with the flow of the Universe - the planets - instead of being pushed around by them. Ideally, "above" and "below" is a two-way street, and by opening up a dialogue with the planets - our higher selves - we get to know when the best opportunities for change will be. The middle statement ("As within, so without") plugs into the Law of Attraction, and the final statement ("As the Universe, so the Soul") can easily define anyone's spiritual path; anyone who is serious about finding their place in the Universe and/or those of us with a ceaseless wonder of why we're alive at all at this time.
Because the veil is very thin these days, the Law of Correspondences can easily be extrapolated to linear time. In other words, what is happening with the planets (the above) throughout February and March, correlates directly to what has been happening over the past couple of years, and what will be happening well into the next few years. In other, other words, "as within" (February/March 2008), "so without" (2006 - 2011).
Both Mercury and Mars are moving direct again as the Sun enters Pisces, but their retrograde shadows are telling us how this relatively short time-frame fits in with the larger picture. February and March are the weeks to reflect on what has been happening during the past month (Mercury) and the past three months (Mars), but also the past couple of years and the next few. First, Mercury's retrograde shadow with a review for context.
The Winged Messenger Mercury moved direct over Wounded Healer Chiron and spiritual Neptune (January 17 - 23), and then shifted retrograde back over them in reverse order (February 2 - 7). Mercury stops to move direct at the total Lunar eclipse of February 20 (10:31 PM EST), and this Lunar spectacle is showing us exactly who/what has been "causing" all the weirdness that has been happening over the past couple of years, and who/what will be "the cause" of what will be playing out over the next few years. The Good Professor Saturn is less than four degrees away from the Moon at the moment of exact eclipse, with the Moon Herself emerging from the Earth's shadow on the 20 th . Within these retrograde and eclipse "shadows" - both literal and symbolic - are some essential clues as to why this is such a pivotal time.
Saturn is showcased at the eclipse of February 20 to ask us specifically what we've been learning over the past two years during Saturn's oppositions to specifically Neptune, but also to Chiron. Mercury moving over (and back and forth) Neptune and Chiron has only enhanced the questions about what we've been doing in the immediate here-and-now (February - March) for healing our wounded (Chiron) spiritual selves (Neptune) over the past two years. This line of questioning relates to who is really in control (Saturn) of our spiritual selves (Neptune) - our true selves - and is encapsulated in Danielle's posting of February 13: "Who's Driving the Bus?/Are You In Your Power?" Check it out for further clues about this energetic.
Mercury will be moving direct again over Chiron and Neptune from March 5 to March 9, signaling a wonderful opportunity to assimilate all the information received so far via our planetary connection with the Spirit world, Mercury. The first weeks of March are especially relevant for spiritual healing work as Mercury's third and final transits of Chiron and Neptune are bracketing the New Moon on March 7. To put this New Moon into a timely perspective, during the total Lunar eclipse of February 20 (a Full Moon on steroids), Saturn's role as the Good Professor can be realized (to be made real) for learning the lessons he was teaching us over the past two years; how to take responsibility (Saturn) for our own spiritual selves (Neptune).
The New Moon of March 7 synchronistically spotlights the challenges and opportunities of the next few years, with the Sun and Moon on top of Prometheus (Uranus), which Saturn will be opposing off and on until 2011. If we're properly utilizing the spiritual wisdom Saturn has taught us over the past two years at this New Moon, Saturn will begin teaching us how to take responsibility for creating an inventive future into the next few years.
If we haven't been tuning into this shifting energetic already, Saturn will begin to show us how to become agents for positive change, and how to create and/or to utilize innovative technologies to promote sustainable living - the biggest challenge we humans are currently facing. Creating innovative change, with new soft and hard technologies, is what Prometheus is all about for the aware among us while Saturn opposes Prometheus, the first of four exact oppositions happens November 4. Conversely, the shadow energetic of the Saturn/Prometheus oppositions will be "the cause" of misguided authority figures (a debilitated Saturn) to stifle and inhibit the necessary changes (a chained Prometheus) from happening. By exercising our birthright of free-will, we can become the door with which we walk through and allow others to follow, or else become the doormat that others will walk over.
The choice is ours whether we want to grow and evolve at this mini/micro pivotal time of early 2008, within the much larger macro/global pivotal juncture between 2006 and 2011. Do we live in fear of change, or do we make the changes happen? We have the perfect opportunity right here and right now to, as Gandhi put it "become the change we want to see in the world." All we really need to do is strip Mercury, Saturn, Chiron, Neptune, and Prometheus down to their core meanings of taking responsibility (Saturn) for our own individual spiritually healing paths (Chiron/Neptune), and if we don't like where our journeys are leading us (Mercury), we can always change (Prometheus) our lives in order to make the changes real. And thanks to a timely retrograde Mercury and blessed lunar cycles, the time to do this is... now.
Speaking of Chiron, the Good Professor Saturn has been increasingly breaking away from a series of at least eighteen exact oppositions with Chiron, dating back as far as 1986. On the one hand, the Saturn/Chiron oppositions have gifted humanity with perhaps every healing tool and technique we'll ever need, and it has been no accident that this global energetic started just a year before the Harmonic Convergence. On the other hand, a long succession of short-sighted global authority figures (a debilitated Saturn) have been slow to move on healing (a wounded Chiron) our own home planet, even though the evidence for global warming was well known to the sciences twenty-plus years ago. Come to think of it, the first time I heard the New Age "coming Earth changes" alarm was back around 1986, as Saturn's symmetrically round 30 year orbit was beginning to oppose the "fastest" part of Chiron's 51 year elliptical orbit.
There are clues in there somewhere and everywhere. Which came first, the holistic/New Age thinking of the "coming Earth changes," or the actual science behind global warming? Such Earth changes were outlined as far back as the heyday of the Concord Transcendentalists (Thoreau for one), so all bets are off as to when the important policy makers will start to "get" the messages. Spiritual/global healing, science/technological break-throughs, a better understanding of quantum physics and the nature of dark and black matter that comprises 96% of our known Universe - it's all connected. This continuous merging of science with alternative spirituality might just signal the birth of a new Renaissance, which the upcoming Saturn/Prometheus oppositions are urging us to co-create. Again, the choice is ours whether we want to be moving correctly with this exciting energetic, or get run over by it.
The Mars retrograde shadow has had a much different energetic to it, but it's all very much connected with the above. A direct Mars (in Gemini) had exactly opposed Pluto (in Sagittarius) this past September 21 - just two days before the Equinox - the essence of honoring balance. As a prime example of how this was playing out in the world, a few weeks after the first exact Mars/Pluto opposition the Hollywood "entertainment" industry - the world of illusions as represented by a wounded and foggy Neptune at the conclusion of the Saturn/Neptune oppositions - was basically forced to shut down as a result of the writer's guild strike. Reruns, the epitome of the review process, were aired to fill in for the lack of no new content, as were recycled bits of (delusional) "reality" programming. Writers are ruled by Gemini (where Mars currently is), and Gemini's ruling planet Mercury. The strike started during a Mercury retrograde in late October and was settled during this current Mercury retrograde, with Mars back in Gemini (writers), as the Plutonian wealth of Hollywood's illusion factory was starting to shrink beyond sustainability.
(BTW, Gandhi was born during a Mars/Pluto opposition.)
Mars will be moving (direct) into his third and final opposition with Pluto, synchronistically at the New Moon of March 7. However, the energetics of this upcoming Mars/Pluto opposition will have changed slightly as Pluto has since moved into Capricorn, with Mars retracing his steps in early Cancer. This shifting of the Mars/Pluto opposition from the Gemini/Sagittarius axis to the polarity of Cancer/Capricorn might be too subtle to notice at first, and is certainly too difficult to forecast accurately. For instance, either the US home (Cancer) mortgage crisis will get much worse, or the financial (Pluto) industry will wake up and realize that millions of people out of their homes isn't a good idea for the global economy, as the Main Street/Wall Street connection is inextricably linked with world markets everywhere.
For what it's worth, the Justice card of the tarot is up for this month, symbolizing the balance needed to deal with these various opposition and retrograde shadow energetics. For instance, we need to find the balance between our individual wills (Mars) and the collective well-being that Pluto threatens to blow up or otherwise transform. I personally think we can attribute the increase in random multiple shootings on this Mars/Pluto opposition over the past few months, as I'd be willing to wager that the already unbalanced gunmen responsible for these senseless acts had a sensitive natal planet or two where this Mars/Pluto opposition has been.
"Balance" is the primary keyword for the sign Libra, but because personal and global equilibrium might be in short supply this month, it would be a good idea to know what Libra's ruling planet Venus will be doing in real-time transits as the Sun moves through Pisces. After all, Venus is the only interpersonal planet not in a retrograde shadow this month, and such beneficial clarity is always welcome.
Venus represents the things we need and value most in life, the sanity that comes with love, beauty, hope, harmony, cooperation, and finding where the balance is. And it's almost as if Venus is going to become a cosmic vacuum cleaner and/or spiritual therapist as this month unfolds. Venus moved into Aquarius on February 17, and overtakes Mercury (still deep in it's retrograde shadow) on February 26. Venus overtaking Mercury the last week of February can be imagined as a kind and gentle psychotherapist (as well as a cosmic cleaning lady) coaxing us back to the real issues at hand - evoking Her healing energies of balance. Plus, we get an extra day (the 29 th ) for this providential style of cleansing therapy.
Venus moves on to pass over real-time Chiron and Neptune on March 2 and March 6, just in time for the New Moon of March 7. Meanwhile, Mercury is picking up steam and will be making these same transits of Chiron and Neptune just a few days behind Venus. In other words, Venus will help us to honor and value whatever spiritual (Neptune) healing work (Chiron) that was being done during the February eclipses, and over the past two years. And Mercury, trailing Venus directly not too far behind, can allow our intellects to review the connections made between what we've been going through the past month (Mercury retrograde), the past two years (Saturn/Neptune) and the past twenty-one years (Saturn/Chiron). If you are a twenty-something person, this wonderful healing energetic is coming at you in trumps, so please make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
In the meantime, Venus' main ally the Moon quickly passes over Pluto, Jupiter, Chiron, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, the North Node, and the asteroid Vesta, all in the first week of March before setting into Her "New" status with the Sun on March 7. Less than two hours after the exact New Moon, Lady Luna conjoins with Prometheus (Uranus), thereby connecting all the dots. The Moon passing over the North Node (our collective karmic "destiny") and Vesta (Goddess of the Hearth Fire) adds a flavor to this New Moon by telling us that the effort begins at home (Vesta) - with our own lives first - before we can become the change (Prometheus) we need to see in the world (North Node). Change always comes from within.
This New Moon would therefore be an ideal time to perform a ritual of some sort for honoring the past, by realizing (to make real) that the past is where it truly belongs - gone. We always need to be doing this here-and-now work in order to face the future with a clean slate, and the New Moon of March 7 conjoined with a prominent Prometheus is the perfect time to say that the past is truly gone, and the future is now.
Usually, a New Moon is a good time to intentionally make a wish that will come to fruition at the Full Moon two weeks later. The Full Moon that accompanies the New Moon of March 7 is on Friday March 21, Good Friday in the Christian tradition, Purim for the Jews, and it's also the day after the Spring equinox when the Sun enters Aries - the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. For certain Earth-based traditions, the equinox (Eostar/Ostara) signals the birth of the New Year. This Full Moon at 2° Libra (balance) is part of a Grand Cross, an astrological (potentially tense) configuration with the Sun and Moon opposition (Full Moon) both 90° away from the waning Mars/Pluto opposition.
Hmmm... a Grand Cross on Good Friday, the 1,975 th anniversary of the day Jesus was said to have been crucified on a cross. The cross can simply be seen as an ultimate torture device, but of more relevance is the symbolism of the specific place where the vertical and horizontal meet - the place in our hearts where Spirit is made manifest on the physical plane. If you can imagine Mars and Pluto on opposite ends of the horizontal piece of a cross, and the Sun and Moon on opposite ends of the vertical member, you can get a picture of the significance of the March 21 Full Moon.
And if we can then superimpose the concept of sacrifice onto the inherent nature of this Full Moon so close to the equinox, we can more fully appreciate just what can be at stake within the February/March micro as it fits in with the 2006 - 2011 macro - the micro "below" as it synergizes with the macro "above" - in our hearts where the spiritual meets the physical.
Jesus (like Gandhi), as the embodiment of the Christ Consciousness, was certainly no stranger to the concepts of change and fearlessness, so the Full Moon of March 21 can be (safely!) ritualized in a symbolic death and rebirth experience - an end to one way of living and the beginning of a new way of life - ever moving forward fearlessly of the change that such an experience represents. The Sabian symbol for 2° Libra concurs in a weird and wonderful way: "The transmutation of the fruits of the past experiences into the seed-realizations of the forever creative spirit." To paraphrase, within the decaying fruit of the past (the concluded Saturn/Neptune oppositions), lies the seeds of future innovative potentials (the upcoming Saturn/Prometheus oppositions). These seeds of ours can grow into anything we want them to, but only if we become the change we want to see in the world.
So, what do we need to sacrifice? Are we willing to sacrifice anything at all? If nothing immediately comes to mind, how about sacrificing our fears, or at least our fear of change?
(The Sabian symbols from Dane Rudhyar's "An Astrological Mandala")
See the Aquarius Forecast here
See the Capricorn Forecast here
See the Sagittarius Forecast here
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