The Cosmic Story: April 2022

 

The Cosmic Story for April 2022

April Showers Bring May Flowers 

 

 

The Power of Beauty

This old rhyme may seem like a stereotype, but I like it because rain showers are so magical. How can they not give rise to the concrete magic of beautiful flowers in May?

I’ve just returned from my first trip to Hawaii – to both Maui and Kauai – and it was moist and juicy – almost too much so, since both tropical storms and winds, and strong tides kept us out of the water. But the colors! – the blues and greens, golds and oranges – filled our eyes, whalesong/birdsong filled our ears and soft, warm winds caressed our skins. Hawaii opened me to my senses.

 

Virgo Full Moon setting over Maui before Sunrise.

               Sunset off Maui

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hawaii was certainly a precursor of Spring in New England. All that beauty – the colors, the water and wind, and the green fertile Earth – belongs to the Goddess of April, whom the ancient Romans worshiped as Venus or Aphrodite of the Greeks.

After the lushness of Hawaii, I ended up with friends in Las Vegas, where one day the humidity was 19% – and where we went out into the desert to Tacopa for the hot springs on the first weekend to hit 90*+ The heat and the harshness of the desert has its own beauty, but it isn’t the beauty of April showers.

So now back in Rhode Island, I find today’s rain showers to be quite a gift. What a wondrous, magical world we live in. The sky showers water down upon us like blessings. Rain is a blessing and an awesome delivery system. The sky brings us water – it brings us life. What would the western deserts give for a few of these April showers!

Going to other places in the world, seeing Nature in her different aspects, helps remind me to bless and thank the April showers that come to us here in the Northeast as the Sun begins to warm the Earth. (My part of the country has gotten cloudier with climate change, so it’s easy to be annoyed at clouds and rain. But the reality is that it’s such a blessing in a world where our waters are often scarce and polluted.)

Without a doubt, the showers bring us new life, the new green appearing on limbs and branches, in the rich soil and in the seas and lakes, ponds and streams. Our animal relations also bring new life into the world in Spring, and sounds and sights of new life delight our senses. And that new life is always Beautiful – whether a newborn human or animal baby, or a sprout pushing its way up in the soil, ready to grow and blossom and become. 

 

Beauty is such an intrinsic part of new life and new beginnings. The potential in new beginnings is vast, and perhaps it is the best time to experience its true beauty, because we sometimes lose sight of it as time goes on, working hard to achieve some of those potentials.

Venus, the Goddess of Beauty, attracts our love and connection so that we feel invested in this new beautiful creation. Go out into Nature as she Awakens from her winter’s sleep, and let the sights and sounds and feel of Nature awaken your senses (Venus, Goddess of Sensuality). Let your delight in the new life awakening around you see the beauty and value it. Honor it. Live it. If we begin to value Beauty now in Spring, we will embody it throughout the coming year. 

 

 

Nature wants to teach us how to live on her beautiful home. The more consciously and sacredly we engage with the energies of Spring, the easier it will be to align ourselves to Mother Earth’s biosphere and to our own innate Wisdom. 

 

 

April’s energy is all about awakening in Beauty! “Behold there is beauty all around us!... Awaken, Rejoice and Sing.” (Abby Spinner)

Thanks to what I experienced in Hawaii, I already feel April & May on the way!

Venus as the Goddess of April

The Romans¹ – (I thought I’d look into Roman practices, since so much of our modern culture has its roots there) – saw April as the month of Conception, of new beginnings, of that initial spark of life that defines the wild Aries fire.

It is said that April was named for the open season,

Because spring opens all things and

The sharp frost-bound cold gives way,

The soil thaws and is easily worked.

Venus lays claim to this month.

This most deserving goddess governs the entire world.

This queen rules a kingdom second to none.

Ovid

And the new life that appears – be it a human baby, an animal baby, or new plant life – appears in Beauty! Beauty is the initial state of life. All new life is delicate, beautiful and delightful. That’s the essence of April and her goddess.

For the Romans, Venus was an earthy goddess, the divine Creatrix, Nature incarnate. She was and still is the source of female mystery and energy, the power to conceive and bare life – whether physical or creative.

Throughout seas and mountains and sweeping torrents, and the leafy dwellings of birds and lush green plains, the Goddess Venus strikes soft love into the breasts of all creatures. She causes them to be lustful and reproduce. ~Lucretius~

Life is supposed to be desirable to us. That’s why the Goddess of Love rules here – we are seduced by and we seduce each other by the heady rush of Life! Our patriarchal religions have cut us off from our body’s pleasures, calling them sins. The reality is that these ‘sins’ are our natural response to life and if we didn’t repress them, they wouldn’t overwhelm us – especially if we don’t overdo things. Our beliefs that the Earth, women and our bodies are somehow evil have led to our mechanistic age, where we live in our heads and ‘work out’ our bodies – but somehow don’t live in them.

So April is a time to embody yourself again. April is a sensuous month, a time when breezes softly blow and the Sun warms the Earth, awakening the colors, scents and sounds of life. It is a time to be open and receptive to the sensual flow of Nature. Let yourself indulge in your senses and adorn yourself (another aspect of Aphrodite/Venus) in beauty. April, and later May, is a time to let our senses drink in the world.

It wouldn’t hurt us to honor this tradition of indulging our senses – not in the unconscious, addictive way of our society, but by actually using our senses to understand life. In our technological society, we need to awaken our bodies again from the collective sleep we’ve been in. We can do it by opening our senses and exploring our world. If we don’t feed our senses in Spring, our senses won’t be awake enough to alert us to the dangers and ugliness in our world. By paying attention to the beauty of new life returning to the world, our senses will come alive and we will walk through the world in beauty, even as we recognize and name the ugliness that is evil. (EVIL is LIVE spelled backwards – evil wants to annihilate LIFE.)

For the Romans, Venus ruled over it all. As the goddess of sexuality, beauty, love and wisdom, Venus ruled over the fertility of the Earth and women. The Romans held festivals during April to Venus, honoring female sexuality. (They recognized women’s powers!) They also honored the Magna Mater (Cybele, the Great Mother) during early April and later the goddess Ceres, the Mother Goddess who welcomes her daughter Persephone back from the underworld. At the end of April the Romans held 4 agricultural festivals sacred to Mother Earth.

So let’s celebrate Venus this April as the Sun moves through both Aries and then Taurus. It is during April that the mystical planet Neptune and the philosophical planet Jupiter meet up in Pisces. With Venus watching over them to bring Beauty and Love to the meeting.

The Astrology of April

March ended with the Aries New Moon which was conjunct Chiron. The Cosmos asked us to consider who we are. Are we are wounded and still struggling with collective expectations (Chiron as Wounded Healer) or are we conscious about what we learned in the initiations those wounds offered us (Chiron as Mentor)? This is the year we are being asked to resolve our individual traumas and stand up together to face the traumas shaping our world.

After watching Putin invade Ukraine, the world is faced with the choice to stand up for our values, or be shown to be hypocrites by doing nothing. Both the world and each of us have that choice to stand up. The energies of this month are going to sweep us away – either to stand together to heal the world or to tumble into fear and darkness. Many decades ago I had a vision of unicorns holding back the giant waves, keeping the land safe. Perhaps some of you are unicorns.

 

 

The giant wave is also the upcoming conjunction of Neptune and Jupiter in Pisces, which calls us to acknowledge our connection. We are not alone – we are in this together. This strong conjunction is gathering energy and as we see the results of the dominator culture of patriarchy in the Ukraine, we are offered the choice to embrace our higher Self as our identity and get on with the work of imagining and making a better world.

So let’s start with the energy of Aries. Aries is action-oriented original FIRE – think wildfire. Aries fire is the spark of creation, of conception. Life gets switched on. Beginnings, births, new life, getting the electric shock that starts the process of life. 

 

The wonderful thing about Aries is that its energy is instinctive. It’s the energy that sparks life after all, so this energy shoots out in all directions, searching for what is new so it can fill it with the spark of life.

That’s also why the energy of Aries is immediate. It’s the energy of Be Here Now! Do you know an Aries? They always want to be doing something. They can’t stand around, waiting. They instinctively listen to the energies around them and fearlessly jump into life.

That’s the Aries gift – that fearless involvement in Life. On April 12^th, Neptune/Jupiter will conjoin in Pisces, while the Sun is in Aries. The Aries Sun is the juice that powers this conjunction. So let’s finally talk about next week’s Jupiter conjunction with Neptune in Pisces, the sign they’re very compatible with.

Back a few centuries ago, the ancients only recognized the 7 planets they could see in the night sky. And so they assigned each planet two signs to ‘rule’, whose energies were compatible with the planet’s energy. Jupiter has rulership over the signs of Sagittarius and Pisces. Once Neptune was discovered in 1846, it was assigned to the sign of Pisces since Neptune was the King of the Seas. So we say that both Neptune and Jupiter rule Pisces.

The Jupiter/Neptune Conjunction of April 12, 2022

So both the rulers of Pisces are about to connect in the depths of the world ocean – or the Collective Unconscious. Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac and is referred to as the primeval ocean where we return to Source. As the Collective Unconscious, it is the World Soul, the place where all of humanity’s experiences, knowledge, fears, hopes and wisdom reside. It is where the rejected parts of our society and our individual consciousness get dumped, like the trash islands in the Pacific. 

 

 

Mythologically, Neptune is in his own watery realm and Jupiter is more comfortable on high Olympus, so we’ll give a bit more power to Neptune’s ability to transcend dimensions and realities. He’s slippery – the Old Man of the Sea who shapeshifts until you hold on long enough for him to settle into his true form. (Alot like working with the Unconscious and with the imaginal.) Watch how people are reacting to life now. Are they being sucked into delusions and fanaticism or are they navigating their life nimbly and with grace. Stay open to revelations and visions – which means take time to meditate, especially in Nature.

 

 

Jupiter in Pisces brings an expansion of spiritual insight and the creative imagination, as well as the ability to go on the quest to discover our spiritual source. Jupiter/Zeus is the god of the lightning bolt, ready to bring his power of expansion into this ocean. So you can see how rip-tides might develop. Or tidal waves – which can create a radical shift in collective consciousness. With Vesta, Juno, Saturn and Mars (until April 14^th when it goes into Pisces) in Aquarius to anchor it in, it’s very possible that our collective consciousness (Aquarius) will shift because of this powerful conjunction. We’ll see some signs of it as Venus connects with Neptune on April 27^th and with Jupiter on April 30^th, right after the Venus-ruled Taurus Solar Eclipse. Or again when Mars conjuncts Neptune on May 17-18 in Pisces and Jupiter on May 29^th in Aries. These two planets can activate some response.

 

This important astrological event occurs next Tuesday April 12th at 7:47 am PDT/ 10:47 am EDT.   The Jupiter/Neptune conjunction occurs at 24* Pisces.  The Sabian symbol for 24* Pisces is:

On A Small Island Surrounded By The Vast Expanse Of The Sea, People Are Seen Living In Close Interaction. 

Having just returned from a very similar island, I would say that this image speaks to community, unity and co-operation.  What wonderful gifts this conjunction brings to us. 

There’s an old belief that when lightning strikes water, it forms the pearl of great price. Which is Love. So the Goddess is here as well, especially since the planet Venus will be in the sign of Pisces after April 5^th, where she is honored – Venus in Pisces is said to be exulted. So she’s very powerful here, in the ocean of her birth. Venus connects us to the imaginal realm as well as the spiritual realms and multi-dimensions. She is the Connector. This month is a great time to connect with your inner artist and mystic. Venus will lead the way with love.

It all connects – love, imagination, our Unity, Source. Rumi says,

Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul on fire.

                    The Universe turns differently when Fire Loves Water!

It’s a great time to take back our imaginations, which our media has colonized and stunted. We are all living in very harsh patriarchal ‘stories’ about what we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to be. It’s time to drop those outworn stories and decide what you want to believe about life. Create a story with you at the center – loved, fulfilled, compassionate, wise, satisfied, open, generous, complete. Let’s all create stories of a better life and a better world.

We need to deepen our imaginations together. What collective values do we need to cultivate and call upon so we can create a better world? Some people want to take us back to the repressive values of the past. But if this tidal wave creates a radical shift in consciousness, it will be to reconnect with the Earth and with our bodies, not with repressive religious fears.

Before we can truly enter the Age of Aquarius, when humanity will grow up into conscious beings, we need to finally embody the Piscean ideals of love, connection, compassion and the willingness to sacrifice (to make sacred) for the common good. We need to leave behind the idea of our separateness and the ideal of rugged individualism which has separated us from each other and from Mother Earth.

The Truth of Life here on Earth is that we are all one, and we’re all in this together. We need to celebrate this truth by living it.

On April 19-20^th, the Sun enters the sign of Taurus. Taurus is a fixed earth sign, the sign of Venus’ Garden home. It is Mother Earth and her Bull. It is fertility and abundant life. Taurus takes Aries’ fire and shapes it into something of value – a body, a home, a business, the mountains, trees, plants and flowers. Taurus populates the Earth with living spirit.

More on Taurus in May.

Some quick astrological notes:

Mercury moves into Aries on March 27, into Taurus on April 10^th, and into Gemini on April 29^th.

April 29^th is also the day Pluto goes retrograde, beginning the process of integrating the U.S. Pluto return that first occurred on February 22^nd. Pluto will retrograde back to it on July 12^th and going forward, for the third time on December 29^th. Let’s see what America, and the world looks like then. Will the revolutionary energy of freedom spread throughout the world, just as it spread throughout America in 1776? 

 

 

The Libra Full Moon occurs between Passover and Easter on Saturday, April 16^th. The Full Moon squares Pluto in Capricorn and involves Eris in Aries conjunct the Sun. Libra rules justice and equality. It’s another reminder that our country and our psyches need to drop the dead weight of old expectations and embrace a new world and style of life. Conspicuous consumption has polluted the Earth and benefited the wealthy. What has it done for the rest of us lately? Not much.

This Full Moon reminds us that the revolution is upon us – not only in Ukraine but in the U.S. as well. Will freedom ring? Or will our very own American Taliban impose old repressive rules on us? (There’s a lunar eclipse on the US election day this year so it will be wild. Despite wide-spread voting restrictions, people need to vote to change the system.) This Full Moon is just 4 days after the Neptune/Jupiter conjunction, so we’ll still be feeling the rip-tides of it.

Coming as it does between Passover and Easter, let’s all pray that the old repressive beliefs die out so that new life can thrive.

Saturn also squares the lunar nodes, pushing at our collective mind to wake up – not be ‘woke’ but to wake up to what the world needs and reconnect with Earth’s biosphere. We are at a crossroads and it’s choice time.

The month ends with a Taurus Solar Eclipse on April 30^th, but I’ll talk about that in May’s newsletter.

May you be overwhelmed with Beauty this month,

Cathy

¹Bernstein, Frances, Classical Living: Reconnecting with the Rituals of Ancient Rome, (New York: Harper-Collins, 2000).

The Cosmic Story for March

 

The Cosmic Story for March 2022

March & Mars

Did you know that March is named for the Roman god Mars? 

 

 

Mars didn’t become the Roman version of the god of war until Augustus became emperor. The Roman Mars was originally a god of nature and wild things, a god of fertility and abundance, of male sexuality and vegetation. He was a Green Man. Mars was concerned with family and community, like the wolves who raised the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. He was a great example of archetypal masculinity.

So for the ancient Romans, March was a time to plant seeds – not go to war. Mars’ generative nature and his ‘seeds’ brought forth new life each year. For us, planting these seeds can be literal, as all you gardeners are doing now, or creative seeds of thoughts, ideas, inspirations. With the Pisces New Moon in the beginning of March, we have an ideal time to plant and water the seeds for the coming year.

In March, we begin to come out of our wintry inner world and start to use all that energy we stored up, like seeds, in our winter rest. March is the transitional time between Winter and Spring, with Spring Equinox (in the northern hemisphere) occurring on March 20, 2022 this year.

March is a time when our passion and energy begin to focus on our new plans for the year. Many cultures (and astrology) see Spring Equinox as the beginning of the new year, as the Sun moves above the equator once again, bringing more light and warmth to the northern hemisphere. (While the southern hemisphere is preparing for autumn.)

Just as the sap is once again rising in trees, stimulating growth in nature, our Mars nature is rising up within us, now that we’ve purified and released the past. With this uprush of male energy, we begin to look outward for it to express itself. But instead of war (again!) which the old patriarchs use to control us, let this Mars energy be more playful and creative – make love, have fun, play and laugh. This is the way to shake off the dormant energies of the winter months. Light and new life are coming back!

America’s Birth Chart: the first Pluto return & Mars

 U.S. 4th of July 1776 Chart

 

Mars in the sky now is also very prominent, aligning in the morning sky with Morning Star Venus and Pluto at 28* Capricorn, the degree of America’s Pluto. The U.S. has just had our first Pluto return on February 20-22, 2022 so perhaps this is why we feel like we’re living in revolutionary times. When a country has its Pluto return (many other countries have had a few – the U.S. is a young country), there is usually an evolution and transformation in society concerning whatever sign their Pluto occupies.

Just to recap: the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto along with Eris, speak to our collective evolution, a collective realization of a higher perspective on life than we get from our subjective perceptions. These are the planetary energies that work on our collective transformation. Since 2020 and until 2025 and beyond, these outer planets will be re-shaping how we perceive life and our world. Knowing how they’ll affect us can help us navigate these shifting waters.

Besides this Pluto return, the U.S. is also having a 5th Chiron return as well as a third and final Neptune opposition to its natal Neptune this year.

In the U.S. July 4, 1776 chart, we declared our independence the last time Pluto was in Capricorn, the sign of corporations, government, finances as well as the ‘ignored’ Council of Grandmothers. Our founding fathers used the model of the Iroquois Nations – 6 tribes that banded together in peace – to base our constitution on. The only thing they didn’t include was the Council of Grandmothers (duh! White males), which was the real power in these tribes. The Grandmothers decided who could lead and if and when the tribes could go to war. The Wise Women of the tribes held the Sovereignty for the land. Perhaps we need to institute this Council in the U.S. in the coming years.

Pluto strips us to the bone. It gets us back to essentials. We are back in the evolutionary energies of the American Revolution. What are we willing to stand up for? Can we look at our past, at all the death and destruction America has created at home and in the world, and can we see the Truth and then go forward with the lesson learned? Can we be free if others are not free? Can we sit back and ignore the call to evolve?

With our Pluto return, America is being held accountable for its past as we come to understand just what a corporate state we live in. We were founded by a corporation – The East India Trading Company. The rich allowed immigration because they needed people to tame the land and work for them. From the very beginning, our government was designed for the rich, white landholders (and slave owners) who broke away from England.

The irony is one of their rallying cries was Taxation without representation is tyranny! According to many reports, today our representatives do not listen to their constituent's concerns – rather they listen to their wealthy donors, ie lobbyists. Perhaps we need to re-examine where we’ve come from so we can change course and evolve our government into a true democracy. And perhaps have a tax revolt!

With the U.S.’s Chiron in Aries, Americans seem to have an identity crisis. (Aries’ Chironic wound is “who am I?”) Americans for the most part don’t have a deep, centered sense of self-worth because we’ve been sold on the idea that money is what gives us that worth. I believe we’re all orphans, uprooted from our ancestral homes and still not rooted in the true magic and power of the American landscape as our Native American relations are. Perhaps it’s time to grow up and take responsibility for our lives instead of waiting to be told what to do with them. There’s a lot of people, especially women, learning self-love these past two years, quitting jobs that don’t serve them, standing up for their rights. Covid seems to have helped with that.

The U.S. has Neptune in Virgo in its birth chart and we’ve been experiencing a Neptune in Pisces opposition to it all last year and this year. America’s Neptune in Virgo energizes the need to manage and care for Nature and her resources. It called for us to work to manage these resources well to make a good life for the people. In many ways we have a wonderful life compared to the rest of the world, but at what cost? Unfortunately, instead of being stewards of this beautiful and blessed land, we’ve allowed corporations and the wealthy, and our own conspicuous consumption, to vandalize our collective commons, poisoning our land, our water, our air, our food and our social interactions.

Oppositions bring things to a head, like a Full Moon. They force us to confront what we don’t want to see. Of course, a Neptune opposition and Neptune in Pisces also bring dis-orienting conditions and delusions to the masses, as well as pandemics! We see this negative manifestation in all the dis-information as well as censorship on our social media, our fear and anxiety over Covid, as well as our inability to listen to each other, as we are caught up in the illusions and delusions in our own heads. But Pisces is the sign of our shared life, and so we can be certain that there are ways to resolve our conflicting opinions in a peaceful way.

Neptune can also open our spiritual awareness, especially in its own sign of Pisces, symbolizing the great oceanic womb of life and the Collective Unconscious. As the English mystic Julian of Norwich said, ‘All manner of things will be well.” Hopefully, this Neptune transit will open our creative imaginations to help us see what needs to be done to fulfill this original vision of life in America. A vision that our native relations still hold to. Neptune generates that greater vision, the ability to see the whole of life and its possibilities, and perhaps we’re ready to learn from their earth wisdom.

On April 12, 2022 both the rulers of Pisces, Jupiter and Neptune, will meet up opposite the U.S. Neptune, hopefully engendering our spiritual imagination as a country. We have to remember, though, that there are many right-wing Christians who believe we are living in the End Times and they are pushing to get it started. Unfortunately, they hold a lot of political power in the United States. That’s why we have to take that story away from them and find the Wisdom to transform the mess patriarchy has made of our planet. It’s time to clean up our own home before we get to go out to explore other planets.

Astrology of March

So back to Mars. Mars connecting with Pluto is always a powerful and dangerous time, one that patriarchy usually uses to dominate others. It’s interesting that Putin has invaded Ukraine at America’s Pluto return, as if testing the U.S. during these disruptive times. But it is inadvertently showing us that the original American ideals of freedom and democracy have blossomed around the world. And that people are willing to stand up for their rights and life against dictators. We Americans can probably learn a lesson from the Ukrainians about standing up for our rights.

I wonder how most Americans feel about so many of our representatives praising Russia and Putin and picking on the President as he uses diplomacy to get our democratic partners to stand up to this useless war. Perhaps we need to see this as part of the American shadow – that so many of our wealthy business people and the ‘ruling elite’, do not want us to be a true democracy, because they would lose power.

Perhaps this is a moment when the world decides that war is never the answer. And that we the people of the world want PEACE, regardless of what our leaders want.

Mars and Venus in Capricorn joined together at the Leo Full Moon on February 16^th and they’ve been traveling together as they join Pluto and the Moon this weekend. While Mars is strong in Capricorn, Venus has just completed her retrograde in Capricorn, beginning her new Venus Star Point as a Morning Star. So she is also powerful. I see this as signaling a time when the feminine and masculine energies of humanity are re-balanced. Under patriarchy, the masculine energies have dominated and used the feminine energies. This new balance gives them equal sway, although the correct balance is that the feminine intuits what needs to be done and the masculine makes it so. Feminine, imaginal consciousness is the foundation of life, while masculine, logical consciousness helps us to focus our intentions. They are different but equal. The heart leads and the head helps shape what is needed.

 

 

The balancing of feminine and masculine energies is an important initiation for all of us this month. It’s time to match our doing with our being. At it’s highest spiritual expression, we need to embody the Christ and the Sophia/Wisdom. That doesn’t mean that we have to be ‘saints’. It means that we have to start living as ‘spiritual beings having a human experience.’ It’s a call to be innovative, creative, courageous, loving and just. It’s a call to help our communities – family, friends, neighbors, country, world – in whatever way our talents take us. It’s a call to discover our inner freedom from patriarchy and our outer courage to leave it behind.

Once Venus and Mars pass by Pluto, re-birthed with new energy and power, they will meet again on March 6^th as they enter Aquarius, on the degree of the Winter Solstice 2020 alignment of Jupiter and Saturn. They want to speak to the collective consciousness of our planet. About a change in power dynamics.

 

This is another instance of Aquarian energy entering the mainstream. We are definitely in a deep cultural transformation from the old – patriarchy – to a new world of societal freedom and democracy. The old order is crumbling, and so the old patriarchs are fighting to stay in power. But the future is with us and they will ultimately die out. Now is a great time to undermine their power and purpose.

Pisces New Moon & Virgo Full Moon

We have an interesting tension of opposites this month. While March begins in the feminine, receptive, watery sign of Pisces, it ends in the wild fires of Aries, bursting with new life. As we release last year’s outworn energy back to Source (Pisces), we leave ourselves open to this next year’s energy growing within us (Aries).

Something new is coming.

On March 2^nd’s Pisces New Moon, both the rulers of Pisces, Neptune and Jupiter, as well as the Sun and the Moon (and after March 10^th, Mercury), are together in Pisces, creating a deeper connection to what’s going on in our collective unconsciousness – a longing for peace, a desire for balance, a need for love and caring, as well as a fear of death, a denial of responsibility, an anger at feeling powerless. Pisces encompasses all the multiple dimensions of Life itself, the mystery of life that we get born into. The lesson of Pisces is to surrender to Source. The initiation of Pisces is to see beyond suffering to the Truth of Life.

Meanwhile, the old patriarchal consciousness is still creating war, death, famine and plague in the world. It’s still all about the money. Instead of It’s all about life. None of our leaders are asking us to sacrifice some of our comforts to help create a better world. They worry about the cost of heating oil instead of asking us to turn down the heat and use less – less heat, less gas, less electricity, less water.

Why DON’T they ask? Because we’d do it and they’d be out of power. So we need to do it anyway. Why wait for them to ask?

If we dive deeply enough into the Piscean ocean, we can emerge with a new identity – one connected to the Self/Soul. A consciousness of our spiritual purpose, to know ourselves and to know that we are one world, interconnected and whole. What happens to Ukraine happens to us. So what are they carrying for us? A fierce desire for freedom from oppression perhaps?

 

 

When Neptune and Jupiter meet on April 14^th, let the Aries Sun power our courage to open ourselves to these entwined energies of the water of life (Neptune) and the power of heaven (Jupiter). Let there be an end to our petty illusions and delusions so that we see the Truth of Life. If we do, we can embody our spiritual reality and we can become the cupbearers (like Aquarius) who pour out the visions of the possible future.

Pisces New Moon

The Pisces New Moon occurs on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 at 5:35 pm GMT/

12:35 pm EST/ 9:35 am PST/.

 

 

The Sabian symbol for the New Moon at 13* Pisces is: An ancient sword, used in many battles, is displayed in a museum. The sword often symbolizes will power and focus, and this powerful symbol speaks to our need to use our will power to achieve our spiritual purpose. Now more than ever, it is time for each of us to pick up our ancient swords, not to kill or dominate, but to defend and protect. It’s time to develop our spiritual will.

 

 

Jupiter is closely conjunct this Pisces New Moon, expanding the possibilities that originate in our seeds. Uranus in Taurus supports these efforts, offers us opportunities to reform our behaviors and beliefs, opens us to Earth’s organic genius and opens our intuition and insight into our potentials. So please use the magic!

Just before this New Moon, Mercury and Saturn meet up in Aquarius. The Sabian symbol for 20* Aquarius is: A white dove circles and descends bearing a message. This is a symbol of peace and love, for doves are sacred to Aphrodite/Venus/Mary. So our collective Mind is focused on peace (and blessings and prayers to Ukrainians for bearing the burden of teaching us this!). May the Holy Spirit of Life protect and defend them and all people who are living in war. It’s time for this to stop!

Virgo Full Moon

The Pisces/Virgo Full Moon occurs on Friday, March 18 at 7:18 am GMT/ 3:18 am EDT / 12:18 am PDT. 

 

 

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 28* Pisces is: Populist leader electrifies a political meeting and brings them to their feet. This is definitely a rallying cry for people power. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is a perfect example of this. Instead of running away from his country where he is the prime target of Putin’s invasion, he is staying and fighting for his country.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 28* Virgo is: Bald-headed man dominates a meeting of national figures. Here’s the exact opposite of the Sun degree symbol. Perhaps this is a reminder not to allow leaders to get too powerful. To have no hair on the head seems to indicate someone with secrets – since hair represents involuntary thoughts. It also indicates that there’s no intuitive connection to the outer world. This guy is in it for his own power. Even though Putin isn’t bald, he comes across as bald sometimes. He is definitely an example of this thug.

This Full Moon has both Jupiter and Neptune conjunct the Sun and opposite the Moon, adding a spiritual, imaginal dimension to this. Perhaps we’ll be called to stop our inner bald headed man from taking power! And with Mercury in Pisces in a helpful relationship with Uranus in Taurus, once again our intuitive brain is open to receive new information that can quell his domination.

Saturn in Aquarius squares the lunar nodes in Taurus (north node) and Scorpio (south node). Our collective consciousness is getting squeezed by the traumas of war and betrayal as well as by the need to listen to Nature if we’re going to heal ourselves and our planet.

Venus and Mars, the rulers of the lunar nodes, are in Aquarius now, squaring Uranus in Taurus. It’s time to be wild and free. It’s time to band together and start creating a new society, connected with Mother Earth’s creative genius. It’s time to start living the future.

Spring Equinox 2022

Spring Equinox occurs on March 20, 2022 at 7:35am GMT/ 11:35 am EDT/ 8:35 am PDT. 

 

 

This equinox chart’s most intense energy comes from two squares.  There is a square between Pluto in Capricorn and the Libra Moon.  This is a powerful call to stand up for equality, freedom and justice.  With Venus and Mars in Aquarius squaring Uranus in Taurus, we find another call to take a stand on freedom and equality.

 So this is the quest for us this Spring.  Can we take a stand for our values?  Can we stand up for peace over war, for equality over domination, for harmony over antagonism?

Spring Equinox Blesssings!

Cathy

Mysteries, Yes

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds
will never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers. 

Let me keep company always with those who say
"Look!" and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Evidence)