The Pisces New Moon on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 (my mother's 87th Birthday -- Happy Birthday, Bea!) occurs at 2:35pm Pacific, 5:35pm Eastern and 10:35 GMT. It is also Mardi Gras, the last day of celebration before the Roman Catholic season of Lent begins. In ancient times, these were the days of want and scarcity as the winter ended and the last food was rationed before the new crops came in.
The Sabian Symbol for the Moon and Sun at 3*Pisces is: Petrified tree trunks lie broken on desert sand. With the knowledge we have of the collective unconscious, we know that while everything changes -- lives, grows and dies -- all life leave some record of our passage here. We each have the privilege and the responsibility to add to our collective wisdom. This month's New Moon calls us to this work. Don't forget to take the time to meditate, surrendering your ego-stance and letting Spirit speak through your soul. What you think you are here to achieve might not be what your soul was sent here to do. Take time to open to your creative imagination to figure out how you can combine both these goals in service to the world.
This Pisces New Moon joins Neptune in the sky, prompting many
of us to feel like "strangers in a strange land". Neptune and Pisces are the energies that
engender in us a feeling of Oneness with the Source of our Being. The strange land of our current "patriarchal'
reality denies, on so many levels, our soul and that deep Source that religions
and spiritual traditions name God, Goddess, Great Spirit, Allah or the Tao. This narrow vision of reality shuts out the
creative visions that arise out of those feelings of Oneness with the
God-force. But with Neptune home again
in Pisces, the veils between the worlds are dissolving and we'll feel some of
that mystery seeping through the doors of our perception once again.
Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, the sign of completion and return to the Source. It is symbolized by Earth's oceans as well as the cosmic oceans, and symbolizes the collective unconscious of humanity. All our experiences, everything that any of us has "grokked' is there, swimming in the depths. Mermaids and monsters, dreamy blue-green shallows lull us while cold-blooded ancient beings swim through dark, cold places in this watery realm. We can get caught in the most horrific delusions or rise up into the clearest light.
Pisces is the sign of the mystic and the martyr, the artist and the addict. Pisces' two fishes swim in opposite directions, eternally tied together so that the opposites balance each other: good and evil, light and dark, female and male, Sun and Moon, Yin and Yang. It is the realm of the archetypal patterns of life, and the stories of Mother Earth and her children can be found flowing through its currents. In Pisces, we get to experience consciousness itself at work.
Pisces is also the magical cauldron of death and re-birth, a collective sign which bestows great imagination, deep empathy and cosmic consciousness, or the terror of being lost in the vast invisible realms of dissolution, chaos and primal energy without a clear sense of the ego-self. That's what has to dissolve in the Piscean waters -- our small vision of the world with ego at the center. That's why Pisces' lesson is TRUST. Pisces teaches us to let go of our ego standpoint and let Spirit guide us through the currents to the greater Self. And to our divine purpose!
We have quite a line-up of planets and asteroids in Pisces for the New Moon, all seeds to be planted in our collective unconscious for the next cycle of life. Neptune, Moon, Sun, Pallas, Chiron, Mercury and Vesta in Pisces plant the many seeds of imagination, nurturing, self-identity, worldly wisdom, healing, communication and centering. You might want to meditate on how to create a new story for yourself with these energies. What new life arises from this sowing - how can you integrate a new self-awareness?
With the Sun and Chiron meeting on February 24th, there is healing available for long-standing issues, both personally and collectively. But we have to focus our intentions on that healing as well as being open to the grace that is an unexpected gift of spirit. Stephanie Austin put it well, "It reminds us that all healing involves acceptance and forgiveness, for ourselves and others, and ultimately gratitude, even for the toughest times and teachers in our lives." (Mountain Astrologer, Issue #161, Feb/Mar 2012, p. 98).
Both Jupiter in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn sextile this New Moon, providing opportunities to engage in the world in new ways, energizing new ways of thinking and expressing ourselves while becoming good stewards of the Earth. My friend Deborah has 82 people taking her Master Class in organic gardening in Rhode Island. There's a new spirit waking up in people, a spirit that honors Mother Earth. This is the month to work on the trust and hope that Pisces can inspire in us.
Venus in Aries pressures this New Moon to adapt rather than stagnate. The Sabian symbol for Venus at 16* Aries is: A weary wanderer, with a red rose stuck in his hat, stops momentarily to look back at the setting sun. It's time to leave the past behind and continue on our journey, guided by the red rose of love and life. Adaptation is the name of the game as we watch the old world crumble and a new world arise. What do people who have given their allegiance to a dying culture need now? What talents and gifts can we offer them?
Venus moves into a challenging aspect with Mars retrograde, pushing us to question what we really value and to stand up for what we believe in, rather than trying to be a people-pleaser.
"Goodness is not enough. " Goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good." (Stranger, p. 470).
We need to access the deep cold wisdom of the Collective Unconscious during this season of the Sun in Pisces. With it, we can accomplish great good.
Warmest blessings,
Cathy
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