Monday night we experience the Aries New Moon, the latest of a series of conjunctions in the energetic first sign of the zodiac. Late last week was the Venus-Sun conjunction; Sunday Mercury passed by the Uranus-Eris conjunction; and now the Moon and the Sun will form their first conjunction of the astrological year.
We’re now at the Vernal Point: the Sun is about to enter the first sign of the zodiac, Aries; that’s at 6:29 am EDT (10:29 UTC). The change of seasons comes with a surge of energy, enough that every critter, flower and tree experiences it.
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This is our Monday Morning letter. It’s what we send to help you get your week started off right. In this letter we include my weekly horoscope (on Thursdays we send you a longer article and one of the monthly horoscopes).
This is an extraordinary week. There are two conjunctions, both distinctive, though on Friday we experience the extremely rare conjunction of Uranus and Eris. That began last year; with outer planets, there are usually three meetings (a visual illusion related to the Earth’s orbit of the Sun). Friday is the third and last Uranus-Eris meeting; the two begin to separate and will not form another conjunction until April 28, 2106.
First, a comment about Tuesday’s alignment of the Sun, Pallas and Chiron in Pisces. This is rare and beautiful for a few reasons. For Pallas, the goddess of strategy, wisdom and protection, it’s the last conjunction to Chiron in Pisces. Chiron is associated with healing, with standing apart, and with the long struggle to focus one’s strength.
On Tuesday, the Sun aligns with these two points, which is saying: pay attention to this! It’s a peak moment for Chiron in Pisces, now in its last full year. This grouping says that unusual wisdom is available, which can help you heal what ails you, be it physical, spiritual or both. Astrology describes what’s available, and this most certainly is.
Well, it’s been an exciting weekend, hasn’t it?
Venus is now retrograde, which shifts the emotional momentum of our moment in one gesture. The retrograde lasts through April 15. And at the same time the Moon is heading into full phase; the Virgo Full Moon happens March 12, a week from now, but this one is going to gather energy and go off like a clap of thunder.
Today’s eclipse in Pisces was what you might call a watershed moment: a point of transition from one phase of your life to another. This one put us under considerable pressure to wrap up old business and make way for new experiences.
Ruy Queiroz caught the Feb. 26 eclipse in Sao Paulo, one of the world’s major financial centers and the most populous city in Brazil.
Eclipses have lasting effects, and this one is not over. The Sun is still moving toward Neptune in Pisces, which will be inspiring if you can stay above the confusion.
To work with Neptune you must keep your confidence and clarity of mind, while still honoring your creativity and intuition. You can do it; it will help to take one thing at a time.
While this eclipse is pulsing through the water of Pisces in circular waves, another event is happening in Aries: Mars passing through the Uranus-Eris conjunction. This is radical astrology, it’s bold and it’s also asking for careful and reasoned thought.
Remember, the Sun is conjunct Neptune at the moment, which can be idealistic or foggy. Mars is mixing it up with electrical Uranus and rebellious Eris. So you’ll want to think before you act, even if you want to make some kind of sudden move. The problem with Neptune is that it can either conceal information, or make you think something is a great idea when it might not be. Hence, discernment is necessary. Real-time tests are necessary, before you go all-in.
One relevant example is that, often, people will smoke a little pot and think something is a great idea. It may be, it may not be, but you need to think it through in the morning, and maybe test it out in real life. Mars-Uranus-Eris can indeed spark inspired ideas; it’s just not guaranteed.
Painting by Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966).
Over the weekend, the Sun changed signs from Aquarius to Pisces. I’ve said before that the real ‘opposite’ signs are the ones next to one another. With this move, the Sun has left the energy field of fixed and focused mental patterns, and entered the environment of flexibility, feeling and flow.
Think of mathematics on one side and music on the other. They are related in many ways, but are distinct entities here on the cosmic physical plane.
Pisces is here to draw you into your inner life, even as the world appears to be in a state of benighted mayhem.
Two transitions are in the planets at the moment: the Sun is in the last few degrees of Aquarius, set to ingress Pisces Saturday morning; that is followed by a solar eclipse in Pisces about a week later. When there’s an eclipse on the horizon, every event or development becomes a step on the way into its vortex.
Inner planets have been on the move lately. Venus and Mars recently ingressed Aries, focusing new attention on that sign. They’re making an interesting pattern, which I’ll get to in a moment.