Sunrise snail during the Aries New Moon, Portland, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.
The sky is crackling with planets in Aries. But today we get a splash of relief: retrograde Mercury revisits Pisces. With the Aries New Moon and a Sun-Uranus conjunction (exact tomorrow), there is some hot, charged energy in the air – and our psyches. And in the spirit of the equinox, Mercury’s shift offers some balance to our mental experience, chilling it out some.
When Mercury steps out of Aries and into Pisces at about 11:18 pm EDT, you may find some sense and feeling returning to the flash, glam and action the Sun-Uranus conjunction is cooking up in this hot sky. Remember, this contact brings the Sun into the Uranus-Pluto square. While Uranus tends to get a lot of attention as it influences news events around the globe, keeping our personal concerns front and center under the guise of ‘politics’, Pluto is working the deeper material. We’ve had a series of events shepherding us along our inner quests and healing journeys: Mars retrograde in Virgo (recently opposite Chiron and square the lunar nodes); the Sun’s last few days in Pisces; Mercury retrograde. And Mercury now brings some emphasis back to the last seven degrees of Pisces.
If you recall from a post last week, those degrees have some special visioning power, coming at the end of the entire zodiac cycle as they do. And in one sense, Mercury’s return offers kind of a ‘cosmic re-do’ – in case you feel like you need it. One standard caution with any Mercury retrograde is to slow down, think things through carefully, and be patient. Mercury retrograding back into late Pisces (from March 23 to April 16) qualifies that caution to: slow down and let your mind feel – feel the deeper level, not just the ‘push’ level. After all, if you can’t push the river, what makes you think you can push a retrograde Mercury in Pisces?
‘Not pushing’ is not the same as ‘not doing’ or utter passivity. But it’s definitely more about working with what you receive – and being receptive to more than you usually are – rather than striking off in conquest. That moment will come. But with Mars and Mercury both still retrograde, the idea of initiative still applies best to inner inquiry – and taking initiative to listen, give space, understand and envision.
Or to put it another way, working the ‘deeper level’ could be described as being reflective, creative or introspective. It’s the difference between nature rather than the big city, or quiet instead of loud. It’s feeling out the ways you harmonize with another person you’d like to connect with, rather than setting your sights and pursuing them. Pisces, like anything in life, comes with a caveat; it can manifest as a pull toward deception, escapism or addiction. But we get some help in grounding via the Moon’s entrance into Taurus tomorrow at 5:43 pm EDT. A Taurus Moon, especially with Venus and Jupiter there, really urges us to connect with physical senses, tangible objects and practical beauty – things like soil, what grows in it and the acts of tending and planting it.
Even if it’s too soon or cold or wet (or the wrong season) for you to use these days of a newly, barely waxing Moon for actual planting, consider some repotting – literally or figuratively. Retrograde Mars in Virgo, opposite Chiron, wants us to get to the roots of our desire and how it has been compromised; Mercury retrograde in Pisces invites us to revisit the intuitive and logical roots of our ideas so we can apply them; the Taurus Moon suggests that a tangible, physical experience with the roots (or seeds) of plants and the soil that supports them can keep everything real – without limiting your imagination, your desire or the spark of initiative of Sun-Uranus in Aries. It’s all about directing that spark, and that direction is clear.
