New Moon In Pisces
The Sun and the Moon embrace each other in the sign of the fishes on Feb 20, 2023 at 7:05am here in the UK at 1°21', while Venus at 29°57' bids farewell to the sign of their exaltation.
New moons are generally seen as times when seeds of possibility can be planted to bloom when their time has come.
Tomorrow's new moon in particular heralds a shift in the heavens as Saturn departs their domicile in Aquarius for the mystic sea of Pisces.
Saturn is often associated with water & sea-trades, and given that Saturn delights in the sign of the sea-goat (Capricorn) and in the sign of the water-bearer (Aquarius), one can certainly make a case that Saturn does more than simply tread water in Pisces.
I have many thoughts on this planetary ingress--particularly as this configuration is in my natal chart. One thing Saturn in Pisces can do is challenge us to take the castles in the air that we imagine and build them on the ground.
To prepare for this, make a list of outrageous dreams as well as mundane ones. Take a moment to decide the areas in life where you would like to see dreams come true. Then write about the steps you will take to reach those dreams.
As I've mentioned before, I love Caroline Casey's mantra that "imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow." Where can you be visionary about your life and the world you live in? What steps can you take both individually as well as in community to lay those train tracks?
One thing I find curious is that the dodecatemoria, or twelfth parts of the new moon (where we look at smaller slices of the zodiac within each sign) fall in Pisces at roughly 16°. This is the same degree that we have been seeing the past several full moons since the Aries Full Moon last October.
The next couple full moons will also take place at 16° suggesting a hidden connection to places in our lives that have been experiencing culminations of one kind or another between early October and early April. Can you spot a pattern in your life?
The new moon, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter are all in the terms of Venus, so perhaps we can lean into the Venusian expression of these planetary energies. With Mercury, that might be writing beautiful words; with Mars, that might be finding nobility through sacrifice; and with Jupiter, there may be a way to initiate learning and synthesis in a pleasurable way.
In Dr Ali A Olomi's Patreon podcast, Head on History, the Moon is described as tempering the effects of the Sun, and indeed, all the planets, as the Moon translates the light of all before any influence can reach the Earth. The Sun and Moon together are described as describing one aspect of our relationship to time, and discipline is seen as the creation and implementation of desirable habits over time.
But discipline can be looked at another way. The Latin roots of the word are 'discipulus' which means 'student', 'disciplina' which means "instruction, knowledge" and 'discere' which is "to learn".
The American psychiatrist and author, Dr Dan Siegal, talks about how 'discipline' shouldn't be viewed as meting out punishment, but opportunities to learn. So what if we approached the conjunctio of the Sun and Moon as times to "reset" our connection to being open to ourselves and how we learn? Could we refresh our understanding of the habits we are developing through a cyclical revisiting of the patterns we would like to create?
Thoughts to ponder as we welcome this stepping-off point into the next spirals of our collective and individual adventures.
Wishing you all the blessings of the new moon!