Today the Virgo Moon makes a conjunction to Mars on its way to the Full Moon overnight Wednesday into Thursday (at 4:39 am EST). The Sun, moving a little slower, is almost in position to oppose the Moon from Pisces. Since the Moon is like a big receiver and amplifier for the energy it picks up from the other planets it contacts, we can expect the Virgo-Pisces axis – the “axis of practical imagination” — to feel especially alive over the next couple days.
What is “practical imagination” like? Eric described it in a January subscriber issue like this: “Virgo expresses the technical side of nearly anything, based on its tendency toward integrated or applied knowledge. Pisces expresses the imaginative side of the psyche, which can often inspire the more practical modes of expression.”
The two modes have to work together for any real innovation to occur. If all you see in any situation that needs a new solution are the facts, it may be hard to envision a way to go beyond ‘what is’ in order to create ‘what can be’. At the same time, if you’re so caught up in fantasy that you can’t see the facts of the reality you’re starting from, it can be hard to take any meaningful first steps.
Most people are oriented more toward one end of that polarity than the other – either the creativity or the practicality. But to get anything done, whether you’re an artist, a scientific researcher or simply trying to figure out your own psyche, you have to engage the side of that polarity you’re less comfortable with.
Despite the inherent tension and edginess that generally comes with Full Moons, the Virgo Full Moon may actually be a way to exercise your practical imagination. For one, oppositions – which Full Moons are – respond well to negotiation. That is, first you work one end of the polarity, then you work the other, and so on until you come to some form of resolution. It’s an active process and it requires listening fully to each side. This sounds like an external exercise – which it may be, if you find yourself in this kind of oppositional situation with another person. But remember that we each embody our astrology within ourselves. If you feel polarized toward another, do an internal check to see if you’re also polarized toward some aspect of yourself. Chances are that other person is a stand-in for something within asking to be recognized and resolved.
This is where Mars retrograde may actually be useful, along with all of the Pisces and Taurus energy in the sky right now. As Eric wrote in that January issue linked to above, “Mars retrograde in Virgo is a reminder to check the facts, to check your logic and to test your perceptions against some other metric.” Chances are, if you have been reading along for the five-plus weeks Mars has been retrograde so far, you have been using this transit to move forward with some sort of therapeutic, healing or inner-investigation process of some kind. If you have, and you’re feeling the Full Moon tension at full strength, you likely have new insights to work with. If you’re seeing your antagonist ‘out there’, take a moment to check your facts and perceptions.
As mentioned, Pisces and Taurus are offering some fluidity to the situation and some grounding as well. Venus in Taurus is aspecting Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, lending access to higher octaves of love, spiritual healing and creativity. It’s a little extra boost to the ‘imagination’ part of the equation. Venus is also conjunct Jupiter in Taurus. That pair expands our ability to be present and grounded in our senses, but it doesn’t get us stuck in seeing the limitations of practicality. Rather, Venus-Jupiter in Taurus opens us to beauty, to perceiving our world viscerally, and to moving toward our truest goal.
By all means, this is not to suggest this Full Moon will be any less charged than others. Rather, know there is some tremendous support in bridging the Virgo-Pisces polarity right now. The caution to beware of combining alcohol and heavy machinery (courtesy of a square from centaur Pholus in Sagittarius, a reactive influence) still holds. This is ‘practical imagination’ during a Full Moon we’re talking about, after all – not fantastic abandon.
If you enjoyed reading the subscriber issue linked to in this post, “Scratch Some Virgo, Find Some Pisces,” consider subscribing to our premium service if you are not currently. You can try it for a month free here.
susyc — love this one. i hope to have time to come back to it later tonight. funny how sometimes those poetry “exercises” that seem so arbitrary can tap into something deeper.
Each stanza was based on a line from Rumi. I used one in stanzas 1-2. The lines for the 3rd stanza was “not a treasury where gold is stored,” and the one for the 4th was “Nightbirds may think daybreak a kind of darkness.” The first one was “I rock in a boat of myself,” and the second one was “There’s a bankruptcy that’s pure gain.” Each stanza was written last night as part of four ‘exquisite corpses’ in a poetry writing group last night.
Feeling the building tension of the Full Moon when I usually welcome it as a flower in full bloom. My chart is littered with “red” lines of oppositions, squares and some conjunctions. No easy transits this time. Time to light a candle for light, breathe for air, and do a mala of a mantrum or two.
Thanks, PW, for the reassurance that Venus et al are there to help and bridge the tension into practical imagination and creativity.
Thanks, SusyC, for another great poem.
JannKinz
Two of my best friends are in crisis mode. Three really, one is having cancer surgery (stomach) as I type, the other his wife, and another friend is caring for both of her parents, one of whom is in his final days (hours?) in a nursing home. I’m not sure if I’m either end of the full moon opposition or part of both ends. The friend having surgery is a Pisces, the friend with the dying dad is a Virgo. The Full Moon is across my ascendant – descendant. The friend whose caring for her parents I support through correspondence from a distance, the other couple I babysit their kitty. They support me through 12th and 6th house experiences as I grapple with emotions vs. what must be done from a practical standpoint. Is it I who help them or is it they who help me, or are we all one? As with all full moons, but especially this one, the answer is in the details.
susyc. . your poem is quite lovely. Quiet lovely in fact and quite Piscean in my opinion. Thank you so much for sharing it with us here.
be
I rock, I rock in the boat
of myself, I look up
at the sky, I close my eyes
and feel myself floating
floating as I did as a child
just before sleep—a sensation
possibly from minute movements of
cranio-sacral
anatomy but to me, a child,
journeys through a vast
universe of enchantment
uncharted but somehow safe.
There’s a bankruptcy that’s pure gain
a bankruptcy that empties you out
that peels the top
layers off
intestines that adds
pain to the gain
and blood is the
cost but then.
What do I see, what do I see
What do I see now I
didn’t see before?
A labyrinth, a puzzle, a path
to walk that begins in the
shape of a question mark
and ends in one too
What would life be without questions, I love the
questions more than the
answers
Questions are safer
Darkness, a place to hide, a
place to rest, a place to be without presence, without
shape, only awareness of heat,
cold, touch, taste, smell—bells
ring in the night, bells mix
their sound to make a new sound
a sound to follow in the darkness
where for a nightingale daylight
brings grief.
And thanks for the picture of the marvellous ‘coloured’ moon, by the wonderful Anthony.
This blog is just so spot on! “Rather, Venus-Jupiter in Taurus opens us to beauty, to perceiving our world viscerally, and to moving toward our truest goal”. The penny finally dropped this morning – and after many painful days – nay weeks, a false perception went crashing to the floor. Thank you for this.