This week we embark on the adventure of a new season, when the Sun ingresses Aries on Tuesday. This is followed by the Aries New Moon conjunct Uranus on Thursday; together these events are a fitting commencement to a season that moves at the pace of a good hockey game. Spring 2012 (autumn in the Southern Hemisphere) includes eclipses, the Venus transit of the Sun and the final approach to the Uranus-Pluto square.
Before we get there, the Sun is in Pisces for a couple of more days. Mercury is currently retrograde (apparent backwards motion) in early Aries, and will soon be ingressing Pisces, where it will be between March 23 and April 16, extending some of the Pisces Sun energy by proxy from a planet very close to the Sun.
Though they may not know it (or think of it that way), everyone likes the feeling of Pisces — whether it comes in the form of an erotic pleasure, visiting the seaside, film, music, photography, artwork, cannabis or a few drinks. Pisces in its most life-affirming expression is the sign of the finer things, most of which cannot be paid for — they are the result of human love. It takes more than paint to make a painting, and an open heart to appreciate the pleasure of the ocean.
Mercury’s retrograde in Pisces (it arrives on Thursday) will carry the theme of what it’s like to think in a ‘Piscean way’ — which is a blend of intuition and logic, of an idea and its application — that makes all of these art forms, or modes of pleasure, possible.
Pisces goes deeper than this of course, but even in its most worldly forms, its energy always evokes an invitation to something beyond the world. We now have that something deeper with us for a while, in the form of Chiron and Neptune, both recently arrived in Pisces and at the start of long journeys there. This puts us in an era (not quite an age) of Pisces, which is a realm of deep water and deep feelings. Neptune adds a dimension of creativity and mysticism; Chiron adds healing focus, and focus on any level.
Chiron adds a practical dimension to Pisces — what you might think of as a tool to gather the energy and put it to use. It’s an expression of the ability or the potential to use Pisces qualities without getting lost or addicted to them. And Chiron in Pisces offers a healing dimension where we need it the most. It’s true that many people feel lost at sea, and many others struggle spiritually; others are dealing with the toxic side of what Pisces is about, including escapism, deception, addiction and obsession with image.
Healing is always a blend of method and miracle. Yet both are informed by the desire to have life be better. That of course does not end with healing — it begins there. Where we go is into a vision for ourselves. Visioning can be challenging because it involves ‘seeing’ what is ‘not there’. That is indeed the skill of an artist or composer, but as most of those people will tell you, sometimes they see what they’re about to create, and most of the time they feel their way there.
The last degree of Pisces offers us an image, from the Sabian symbols that we introduced in Thursday’s post. The symbol — the last for Pisces, and for the entire cycle of the zodiac — is: “A majestic rock formation resembling a face is idealized by a boy who takes it as his ideal of greatness, and as he grows up, begins to look like it.”
This is a reminder that you can have some external help in finding, or even envisioning, your vision for yourself. While the people around you may be busy solving their ‘problems’ (or persistently making new ones, so they have something to solve) you can look to examples of what is possible. It is that vision that will get you beyond your problems. Remember that a vision is not something in its final form — it’s the nascent form, where you can experiment with what you want. It’s possible to see a vision of yourself in something that you may think is much greater than you are, and do that beautifully human thing of grow into whatever that is.
One last thing; when Neptune went into Pisces, a water pipe broke under the house we are renting and a mysterious leak started under the kitchen sink. The owner seems to have the pipe fixed (so far) but that leak under the sink eludes us. The used hot tub we got also has a leak. Dave bought a new heating element pipe (that was what was leaking) and replaced the old one only to find yet another leak. These watery leakings seem to be Neptune related.
Just as the Merc Rx failures are related; so far the following have died under this Merc Rx:
our printer
our digital camera
our van tires had tread coming off them
our heating element in the automatic coffee pot died so it doesn’t work
Merc Rx costs me BIG money almost every time. This time is no exception. :::sigh:::
At least with the leaks, two of the three are not costing us up front (though the property manager says he will push for a rent increase to offset the costs [and raise his percentage cut of the rent]; this means we may have to move….again).
Talk about problems. Meh. When is 2012 supposed to “get better” than 2011?
“Of course it is the spiritual gift of Pisces to see things as they could be, not so much as they will be, but none the less it is what is possible.”
Do I know that! I have often been unhappy because I saw that “what could be” so clearly that I acted as though it was actually in being. When the reality hit me, it was painful. Now I check that “what could be” with “what is reasonably possible” and go from there.
Great stuff, PW folks, thanks!
Thank you PW for this article: a vision, and growing in it, and the fact that a vision can get us beyond our problems, is so right for this exact moment (of course!).
And thanks to Michele for the beautiful song.
Thank you PW. And in Piscean echo to Be – as I flow through this moment I reside in the past, present and future – I have always felt like I am a bridge, I feel I am that moreso just now. Somehow different however – this is a bridge that isn’t forgotten or too far out of the way to be noticed. This bridge is here now; and we are both It and those crossing it.
Lovely.
(Thank you for reminding me of this, Be “Of course it is the spiritual gift of Pisces to see things as they could be, not so much as they will be, but none the less it is what is possible.” It’s so important to remember that this sight is indeed a Gift.)
Yup – know how you feel dear Amanda. But I’m trying to deal with my problems in a different way – I can’t stop the anxiety and worry about them – but it’s as if there’s a lot of good energy out there – so I’m trying to keep moving, putting out loads of feelers, contacting lots of people, using the Internet, in my quest for another job. i feel that if i move towards it, ‘it’ will move towards me (whatever ‘it’ is). It’s like we feel we should find the answers to our problems when it’s more about opening up to other possibilities about which we as yet know nothing. Don’t know if this helps at all.
yes huffy — re: that excerpt you quoted: i’m not so sure which side of the equation i’m on. seems i’m pretty fixated on coming up with all the problems, & could definitely use a hand with envisioning.
Me too, beautiful song Michele!! Thanks for posting it.
Thank you PW. As always you have delivered a timely reminder of why “many people feel lost at sea” and the need for patience to envision the vision. Does anyone know when the sun is conjunct Uranus? I am hoping it will help clarify the vision.
Michele, I enjoyed that, thanks!
I really loved this article today. As a composer, I get it too. I think I’m one of the more rare people that makes counterpoint a huge part of my music, logically building on motives and themes to a catharsis or “clarity point” as I like to call it. Counterpoint is like observing nature: walking on the earth one is connected to a root – but it undulates. The wind and random sounds of birds or children running in the far distance, the Sun and strands of cloud formations coming and going: this all has tone, structure, and frequency – it’s like moving through a fugue.
thanks, i got that. just wasn’t sure what you meant by “the Sun is in Pisces for a couple of more days”. guess it’s semantics, today + tomorrow = coupla days. yep, it’s a monday!
At about the same time early Tuesday — in EDT and GMT — the Sun >> Aries and Moon >> Pisces; so that is “tonight” in the Mountain and Pacific zones. The time of the Sun’s Aries ingress is 1:14 am EDT on Tuesday.
ok key word – ingress. another stupid question – how does pisces stay then? what’s the word for that one?
um, i’m confused – doesn’t the sun go into aries tonight, and the moon into pisces?
This is an excellant piece PW; so glad I got a chance to read it early. I’ve always thought of the period of Pisces as the end of a cycle, that is, when I think of Pisces in the abstract. In the reality experience of Pisces, I probably don’t think of it at all. But this year the transitional quality of Pisces has become most apparent, probably due to Chiron’s presence, and even Neptune has a way of clearing out the pressing points of reality we always have in our heads and lets us “see” something that has escaped notice.
Yes, it’s true. . .the people around me, all my friends, have been busy solving their problems. They have had huge problems too. As I didn’t have a huge problem myself (how odd!), it occurred to me, in a new way, how important my friends were to my own sense of permanence. I have been able to “walk a mile in their shoes” during this Pisces period and instead of being just understandably sympathetic, I ‘felt’ their experiences too and in some instances could give real help and support. This Pisces period gave me a physical and profound sense of being part of the “one” in the We Are All One mantra.
It is the transitional quality of Pisces though, that is the real ‘ahah’ consciousness lifter for me. It is the ‘vision’ as you say, of what is ending. . the to-be-gotten-through period that leads to the next phase of life, and that vision is not shrouded in gloom and doom provided by the ‘now’ moment, but is quite clearly seen free of the fear of change. Of course it is the spiritual gift of Pisces to see things as they could be, not so much as they will be, but none the less it is what is possible. Pisces; it IS a beautiful thing, and it can be felt even without the drugs, film or errotic pleasure. Not that those things aren’t viable ways to get there, but these planets in Pisces (along with trans. Saturn opposed my natal Saturn!) is all I needed to transcend the bad stuff of life in the now. Thanks again for Today’s Astrology, and love the picture you chose too.
be
“These words” means the whole blog, of course…
“This is a reminder that you can have some external help in finding, or even envisioning, your vision for yourself. While the people around you may be busy solving their ‘problems’ (or persistently making new ones, so they have something to solve) you can look to examples of what is possible”. Yes, this is where I’m at right now. Not an easy place to be, cos one always wants to find something solid, to be reassured that there will always be enough money to put bread on the table. But I’m given strength and courage by these words. Thank you.
Just heard this for the first time. Felt like the perfect companion for the writing above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2e7VMqJKt4&NR=1&feature=endscreen