The Pisces New Moon, which was exact Sunday morning, is a chart whose message comes in several main layers. One is the presentation, which you might think of as the press release. The other is what’s really going on with you.

One is the crust; the other is the deeper substance, which may seem a bit unfathomable, like a vast undersea world.

The surface layer is related to Venus in Aries square Jupiter in Capricorn. This is a kind of public relations position, very common in our era (we might think of “social media” as a PR campaign, where everyone serves as their own representative).

This is an aspect that speaks loudly. Jupiter is involved, and Venus in Aries wants to be seen and noticed.

The deeper layer is what you’re really feeling, which is much more ambiguous. This involves Mercury retrograde aligning with the New Moon in Pisces. This is bubbling with questions, and with a sense of inner contradiction. You may be experiencing emotions that you don’t understand, or that seem to drag you back into the past.

Past material may be trying to surface, only to be censored by the Venus-Jupiter public affairs department. The questions and insecurities you may be feeling don’t lend themselves to being revealed.

The theme of the week may seem to be “what do I reveal to others about my real feelings?” Yet the actual theme is about what you admit to yourself. It’s one thing to put on a face for the world; it’s another to put on a face in the mirror.

Retrograde Mercury has been conjunct Nessus, a deeply influential centaur (Chiron-like planet), all weekend. This may have arrived with questions about how you feel about certain past transgressions and mistreatment.

You may have discovered some unresolved feelings, and potentially some anger. Rather than pushing this back down, let it come to the surface. Alternately, you may be figuring out what you want, only to discover that there is something blocking you. Now is the time to carefully address those blockages. They may not be made of what you think they are made of.

And Then There’s Mars

In Thursday’s edition (A Proper Introduction to Salacia), I described the pattern early in the cardinal signs. This involves Chiron and Salacia in Aries, and Pholus and Quaoar in Capricorn. While this has enough material for a weekend astrology seminar, I will do my best to relate it in a couple of paragraphs.

The grand summary is the relationship between family matters — hangups, substance abuse patterns, lies told to children, and the many injuries inflicted on sexuality — and what we are witnessing in our wider society. You might say society is a “big family” and that it’s based on what happened in all of our little families.

That, as Alice Miller has cautioned, is worse than we may imagine, because small indignities go such a long way toward eroding self-confidence, self-respect, and the ability to trust.

Write that on the mirror, or the wall: self-confidence, self-respect, and the ability to trust.

Note that the issues are likely to arise when you feel desire. Slowly, you can learn how to separate desire from anxiety. In many ways, this is a question of honesty.

Mars is hovering around the lunar South Node, in Capricorn, close to this whole scenario.

This is asking a question: is what you thought you wanted in the past still true for you today? This is an important review to conduct every now and then, preferably often. Update your files. Wanting is the primary factor driving existence on the material plane.

Make sure what you think you want is really what you want, and if it’s not, stop, and ask yourself what is true for you today. Ask yourself every day, many times a day.

What do I really want?