The New Moon is always a dark Moon. Obscured, unseen, she waits in the shadows. This is the moment of maximum yin, which means yang is potentiated.
There is a moment you can catch sometimes at the ocean, the moment the tide turns. It’s easiest to catch in a quieter place, without crashing waves or screaming gulls.
Let’s say the tide has been coming in. Suddenly, there is a pause like a held breath. All is still. Then before you realize what is happening, the water moves again, but outward now. The tide has turned.
Sunday morning, the New Moon in Pisces arrives. Pisces is mutable Water, the last sign of the zodiac, the place from which all we have gathered is dispersed, the place where we let it all go before we begin anew.
The New Moon is accompanied by Mercury retrograde, on their way to union with the Sun. Also present is Neptune, modern ruler of Pisces. Our focus is on our inner tides and how we are affected by the tides around us. If we pay attention, we may catch the moment when our tide pauses, then turns in a new direction.
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The very diffuse waters of Pisces are as likely to appear as mist and fog. Perhaps we’ll find ourselves in a landscape in which water moves across the land so the boundary between earth, water, and sky is indistinct. Light shifts, refracting, glinting on silver water.
Our ordinary senses are easily confused in such landscapes. Sound is muffled. Shifting mists reveal a tree, a clump of grass, the outline of a deer, the flash of a fox, and hides them again. We’re not sure.
We might be tempted to find a fallen log, relatively dry, and sit still until the fog lifts. We could do this, but other aspects in the New Moon chart suggest we won’t.
The New Moon at 4° Pisces forms sextiles to Mars at 4° Capricorn and Uranus at 3° Taurus, who trine each other.
Mars is exalted in Capricorn and ready to act. Here, Mars is focused, determined, and relentless. Uranus is the change agent, ready to surprise us with unexpected opportunities and challenges.
So it turns out we are here in the mist sitting on a fallen log for a reason. We came here as part of a larger adventure. We’re on a quest. We probably didn’t plan to wind up exactly here, unable to see much. But we got here following––something. A map. A clue. A dream.
We won’t give up. We don’t plan to stay here long. We’re waiting for a sign. Uranus will provide the sign. Mars is our response, the action we take.
Actions have consequences. This is all karma is, and means: Karma is the consequence of choices and actions. Chiron and Lilith, together at 3° Aries, square Mars.
We can picture two different kinds of adventurers sitting on that log.
One is untried, new, and not as clever as they think they are. This first one is likely to act rashly, the choice triggered by past wounding, the result reopening the old pain.
The second has been to this rodeo before and has the scars to prove it. This one has also learned at least a bit about self control, how healing works, and what not to do. This one chooses wisely.
Each of us is probably somewhere between these two. We don’t like to see ourselves as the proud young warrior with a chip on their shoulder. We also realize we’re not the wise sage either. How do we navigate this misty landscape?
There will be clues in your birth chart. Where does this New Moon fall? In which House? Do you have planets and points at or around 4°? The Water signs (Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio) and the mutable signs (Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius) will be affected most strongly. But given the exquisite sensitivity of a Pisces New Moon accompanied by Mercury retrograde, we’re all going to feel this one.
There are also clues in what’s come up for us since Mercury turned retrograde. What have you been dreaming? What memories, people, places, karma from the past has resurfaced? Where are you struggling to stay focused?
These clues point us to areas of our lives, or personal issues, concerns, or interests.
We are searching for the source. We are looking for the deep well from which living water comes. We want to find our wellspring.
As the Sun moved through Aquarius, we looked at our values, our principles, our vision for the future. Now we’re in Pisces season and it’s time to nourish our castles in the air with the waters of emotion and of soul.
If this all sounds mystical and confusing, welcome to Pisces. We might not be comfortable at all in this territory, preferring the logical, the direct, and the pragmatic. Yet here we are, in a field that is numinous and unclear. Somehow, we must move forward.
Each will find their own way. I would offer this advice:
Follow the illogical logic of dreams. Entertain the idea that magic is real. Share the food you have, even if it’s not much. Take the time to open the snare and free the captured bird, even if you are worried about being late.
Take the advice that resonates in your heart, even if the giver looks old and crazy. Don’t accept the ride from the driver who can’t look at you straight, even if the coach is clean and warm and has a crest on the door.
At this New Moon, we need to do a thing. We won’t know what the thing is until it shows up. It will be unexpected. Choose the thing that thrills you to your core, makes your heart sign, and brings a smile to your face, even if it is the unlikeliest thing of all.
This will allow you to touch your source, your deep well, the spring that feeds your soul.
The astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title,
adapted from the cave and waterfall by Joshua Sortino,
and the following images:
cherry trees by bantersnaps, and
blue eggs in nest by Samuel Isaac
John O Hempstead
Pure poetry. Thank you!
RisingMoon
Thank you, John 🙂