Tuesday September 1st begins a new calendar month, but the zodiacal month comes to a glorious head with the Full Moon in Pisces. My natal Moon is in Pisces, actually at the exact degree of this Full Moon. I know Pisces well, not only from my Moon, but also my Sun/Mars/Neptune stellium in the 12th House in Virgo.
The 12th House is associated with Pisces and like the sign, represents the unseen reality. Neptune, modern ruler of Pisces, was discovered when Spiritualism was waxing in the 19th century provoking interest in mediums, fortune tellers, the great mysteries beyond the grave. What’s on the other side? What wonders lie in the unknown?
As a child, I lay in the dark trying to feel what it was like to be dead. For years I tried to cross that barrier in my imagination (I also have a Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in the 8th House) but I was never able to penetrate beyond eternal consciousness, and thus concluded there was no death. No wonder with all the Piscean/Neptunian influence on my natal map.
I’ve written about Neptune and Pisces. I don’t want to repeat myself. Instead I want to focus on the Moon’s function of uniting archetypal energies within our personal consciousness. I’ll explain what I mean, but first want to speak of synodic cycles. Planets orbit the Sun and throughout their cycles form different relationships with the source of light, life and Spirit. A synodic Cycle is one complete revolution of relationship between a planet and the Sun. And the tone of the relationship is set by the sign in which the cycle begins.
At the last New Moon, Mercury caught up with the Sun, marking the half-way mark in its Cancer cycle. Venus began her 19 month Gemini Cycle on June 3rd and Mars is approaching the apex of its Libra Cycle from its polar opposite Aries. I realized that the Moon in Pisces is an opportunity to bring all these energies together. After all, the personal planets represent different aspects of our inner world, where reality takes place, and the Moon has visited each planet every month.
So what has Mercury showed us about home? What does home mean to us? Where are we most at home? Where do we get nurturing? And give it? Where do we feel safe and protected? Mercury is asking us to consider these questions thoroughly. The USA Sun is in Cancer. I’ve written much about it. How safe do we feel in this home? This country? And if the answer is “not very” or “not at all,” then why not? What can we do about that?
Mercury is helping us get in touch with our inner child as well, showing us our conditioning. The rift in our society reveals the widening gap between conditioned thinking and open curiosity. It’s very important right now to examine your thinking and ask where you got your ideas – from Mom and Dad, or a teacher, or childhood peers? From church or TV? From books, from gossip?
Then ask if the idea serves you, and how? Does it help you grow or does it keep you stuck? Is it still true? Was it ever true? We all picked up erroneous ideas about ourselves, and life in general, from thoughtless feedback in our childhood or adolescence. We all build identities on a house of cards – ideas constructed upon one another that create the structure of who we think we are.
Mercury is in Virgo right now. Virgo is the Virgin of the Harvest. Symbolically the Virgo archetype is reflective, discerning, contemplative. Often she is seen as a maiden with a shaft of wheat. Her task is to separate the wheat from the chaff by analyzing the details. Mercury loves Virgo because this is where he gets to use discernment to make things better. Mercury loves to process thoughts and beliefs and to write them down, to sort them out, to gain intellectual clarity.
Venus is in Cancer reinforcing the themes of the Mercury cycle. Her cycle began in Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury. Gemini is the sign of the Twins, the natural polarities that occur in nature and within our psyches. Venus is asking us to look at both sides through the eyes of our heart. I recently heard a moving speech by Pete Carroll on racism. He asked all coaches everywhere to speak up as well and later that day I heard another coach say, “We’ve been loving this country since the beginning but this country doesn’t love us. We’ve been afraid for 200 years and they’re afraid?” We can never be a true United States, never a great nation, until we heal racism. It’s as stupid as hating your left arm because it isn’t the right one! This is one of our major challenges and we must make progress as we head for our Pluto return.
I wrote about Mars last time, but I may not have mentioned that his cycle began in Libra, the “scales of justice” which are way out of balance. We are being asked to look at injustice in our society and imbalance within our own psyches. Venus rules Libra and relatedness. What is the relationship between the polarities within our psyches? Have we balanced Yin and Yang? Venus crosses over into Leo on September 7th bringing the focus back to our heart, where we find the courage to speak up and express our truth. Mars turns retrograde in his own sign of Aries on September 9th. Both of these are fire signs. What is Venus’ heart’s desire and how can Mars fulfill it?
We begin September with a Full Moon in Pisces, the sign of our Oneness within the All. Pisces blurs the boundaries, lets things flow into one another, expands our consciousness into imaginal realms and mystical unknowns. It’s hard to know what is true when Pisces is activated. Illusions abound. Luckily the Sun is in Virgo in the 9th house of the USA chart. With the personal planets informing us, we have the elements to create a better dream, a better way to live together.
Pisces is a water sign. Our emotions will be stirred. Bask in the full moonlight and let it touch your intuition. Let it draw forth your hope for the future and warm your heart. Let it show you what could be. Uranus is sextile the Full Moon, sending flashes of insight and luring us out of the ordinary, the restricted, the status quo. Uranus whispers of freedom.
The stage is set for illumination. You can see how perfectly the heavens are supporting us right now. Saturn has been teaching us patience, while Pluto is breaking up the structures that hold us in place, clearing the path for a rebirth. The personal planets are speaking to us of balance and providing the perfect context for dreaming up a better future. Pisces is about faith. Allow your faith to grow. Feed it with mystical wonder and love. Take this opportunity to reflect on the year so far and marvel, as I do, at the perfection of it all. That may be hard to see, especially if you are suffering loss, if you fear for the future. This Moon is here right on time to strengthen our faith and remind us of the perfection that lays beyond the veil.
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