Revisiting Saturn in Virgo

Saturn's retrograding back into Virgo today at 2:55 p.m. EDT urges us all to revisit (and perhaps relearn) hard lessons about the state of one's health as well as job situation. Saturn spends about two and a half years in a sign, and although we got our feet wet with Saturn in Libra shortly before Halloween 2009, we must now jump back to a sign that concentrates not on relationships, but on purifying oneself and making oneself useful in preparation of entering the world of relating to others.

So I advise you to think back to the fall of 2009 in order to get some sort of road map to guide you for the spring and early summer of 2010 (Saturn goes back into Libra on 7/21). Keep in mind that although Uranus enters Aries for the first time in late May, Saturn will oppose Uranus at 28 degrees of Pisces in late April. This is hardly a fun aspect, since Saturn and Uranus are hardly the best of friends to begin with and oppositions always indicate relationship difficulties and projecting one's own issues onto others. The opposition from Virgo to Pisces emphasizes hard lessons to be learned regarding health and work; even if your own health and job situation couldn't be better, I'm talking about on a mass level here, since outer planets always indicate the collective. The news will be filled with more editorials about the Great Recession, obesity, scandals that concentrate on the major disconnect that makes possible such hypocrisy on the part of those who hold everyone but themselves to exemplary standards, and waking up from the American Dream that has become more of a nightmare for increasing numbers of citizens.

Under a Pesach Moon

As we've moved toward the Full Moon in Libra these past two weeks, things have been more than a little hectic (but mainly in a positive way) for this Pluto Rising astrologer. I am writing this on the fly from my mishpoka's place on Lawn Guyland (aka Wrong Island) before the Seder to wish my slightly increased readership a very Happy Full Moon, exact tonight at 10 something EDT. Whether or not you celebrate Passover, use today and tonight to concentrate on your most important relationships. If you manage to balance your independence (Aries) with diplomacy, (Libra) you as well as your relationship will experience a growth spurt. If you are not romantically involved with anyone, you could focus on improving matters with your boss, your business partner, your landlord, or anyone with whom you have a contractual relationship.

The Jewish calendar is a lunar one, and Passover, which always falls on the Full Moon, marks the spring in Judaic tradition in not just a literal way: although the days are indeed getting longer and warmer in the Northern Hemisphere, this holiday marks the springing as in liberation, of when the Jewish God acted in a particularly Mars-like manner to loose his worshippers from 430 years of slavery in Egypt. A host of troublesome and downright violent plagues were visited upon the Jews' Egyptian oppressors, and the Jews were free to wander the desert for 40 years (almost 10% of their slavery years...was this their Freedom Tax?). The pascal lamb that is featured at the Seder is an apt symbol of sacrifice, rebirth...and also Aries!

Ides of March: Pile-Up in Pisces

We're still in the midst of a major pile-up in Pisces, and I figured I should stop daydreaming for a moment and try to write about this very special stellium (in astrology, this means three or more planets piled up on top of one another). We are in the New Moon period (exact today at 5:01 p.m. EDT), Mercury and Uranus were conjunct earlier this evening, the Sun/Mercury conjunction happened yesterday, and the Sun/Uranus conjunction is yet to come on the 17th (2:51 a.m. EDT). Yes, it sure smells like a Pisces in here!

Pisces is not only the last sign of winter, but the last sign of the zodiac. It is represented by two fish: one looking up toward the light sparkling on the water's surface, the other looking down into the murky depths. Pisces dreams with eyes wide shut (fish lack eyelids) and seems to have bits and pieces of every other sign in its complex, contradictory nature. Pisces rules the feet, and has karmically walked that mile in every other sign's shoes. Pisces can be the most lost of all the signs, and also the most found--and it's not uncommon for someone born under Pisces to vacillate between these two states. The same goes for the Piscean ability to empathize and then suddenly shut off that compassion and be a cold-blooded fish.

And how many types of fish there are: to list just a handful off the top of my head, there are angelfish, goldfish, catfish, koi, bottom feeders, minnows, salmon, sharks. (Shellfish, by the way, fall under the rulership of fellow water sign Cancer, which literally means "crab.")

Pisces is famous for being "psychic," but just as infamous for being self-destructive--in a more passive, victim-of-circumstance way than its fellow water sign Scorpio, who is more apt to go out and find trouble than sit back and wait for it to rain down on its head.

With the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, and Uranus all in Pisces, it may be hard to focus on any one thing, especially if it is "practical." But this is a wonderful window of opportunity to create, invent, come up with new ways to communicate, have visions, and solve long-standing problems in a highly unorthodox, illogical way. This past weekend, about thirteen hours before the Sun/Mercury conjunction, I was fortunate enough to perform as a featured poet at Madame X, a rosy-hued downtown venue, and I believe it was the best performance I ever gave. Pisces is not about performance per se--that's more Leo's specialty--but Pisces has the ability to mirror whatever the audience desires and be a living, breathing fantasy.

Let yourself dream and fantasize without censorship over the next few days. Once Mercury and the Sun join Venus in fiery, headstrong Aries, you will be more likely to "just do it." Yet the seeding process of Pisces is necessary for Aries action.

After all, if you don't know what you want, how will you go after it when the time comes to act upon your truest desire and carpe diem?