Pisces New Moon Rides the Lightning

Do Androids Dream of Electric Cows?

This New MOON in PISCES (March 6 2019 at 8:04am PT) is a work of art. It manages to combine a PISCES stellium amplified by JUPITER, the kick off of a MERCURY retrograde, and last but far from least, URANUS taking up residence in the sign of TAURUS for nearly the next decade. It's quite a week, and definitely not one in which to make any assumptions. Tread carefully.

PISCES is a lovely sign that is not known for its sharp clarity.

MERCURY retrogrades are interesting times, not known for their ease.

URANUS is an outer planet changing signs, not known for its subtlety.

If you are feeling strange, and can't get your words out right, you're right on track.

MERCURY retrogrades are all unique, based on the sign(s) MERCURY travels backward through, though they are reasonably well known to often be tricky, slippery, confusing times in terms of communication and transactions, and also known to be times when mechanical and technical things tend to show their weakness.

BACK-UP YOUR COMPUTER. CHECK YOUR OIL. (ADD TO THIS LIST YOURSELF.)

Usually, the times to be the most careful are the station degrees, at the beginning and end of the retrograde (in this case the station retrograde is from March 3-8, and then the station direct is from March 25-April 2), yet this is no normal Mercury retrograde. What's up is down and what's down is up.

Let's back up a little bit and look at MERCURY'S function. The quicksilver God's jobs are orientation, navigation, and communication, like a compass and computer enabling us to identify where we are, what are the prevailing currents, customs, and languages so that we may adapt and succeed in our endeavors. Each moment is a time slice, unique to any other moment. Your birth chart is a time slice as is this moment that I'm writing/you're reading this. MERCURY is always doing its best to help us figure out what's unique to each moment which helps us know what our best plan of action is.

PISCES is the archetype that rules the paradisiacal place from which we came, tended lovingly by God, and to which we will return (at least in between incarnations and then after we get off of the wheel of reincarnation). It and its modern ruler NEPTUNE, are all about merging and being one with all of existence. That's pretty much the opposite of what MERCURY is trying to do. This is why GEMINI/MERCURY and PISCES/NEPTUNE are a natural square.

So things start to get very interesting when these two archetypes are blended.

It is this mix that produces some of the best art, music, and poetry. It also can produce some deep escapism and confusion about what is real and what is not.

Have you ever found yourself driving on a very foggy night? So foggy that all you can do is drive very slowly and follow the white lines on the road? Any attempts at using penetrating high beams actually make it worse? That's where we're headed for the rest of the month.

The best solution is to slow way down, put on your favorite music (might I suggest some Grateful Dead) and enjoy the ride. Surrender is a keyword for NEPTUNE, and it definitely applies to the next month. Keep a good sense of humor and allow extra time for any travel. If you can avoid any significant purchases or negotiations for the next month, that would be ideal. If you must, the days to really avoid these things are:

March 3-8, March 14-16, March 24-April 2. Especially that last run while MERCURY is stationing direct AND conjunct NEPTUNE.

How to enjoy this month: take up watercoloring, listen to Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Ravel. Tom Petty, Prince, and Joni Mitchell as they all have a strong PISCES signature in their natal charts.

(For more Pisces music, check out my most recent PISCES themed radio show. The next one will also feature PISCES artists).

This astrology is incredibly psychic, visionary and intuitive, though I'll remind you not to take all of your visions to be doctrine this month, take them all with a grain of salt and just enjoy the ride.

Two beloved emissaries from the magical PISCES realm are; Dr. Seuss, born with a PISCES SUN, and author Tom Robbins, born with a PISCES MOON. who famously quipped, "The function of the artist, is to create what life does not."

Some reading of either or both of these fine gentlemen's work is a great way to tune into these times.

Whatever you decide to do, remember to take it easy. This is not an energy that will respond well to being pushed. Retreat, restore, and enjoy the weird dreams that are already accompanying this time. It's going to get even weirder. It's a great time to connect with nature and go native, to allow your bohemian urges to express themselves.

However....... the biggest news of this New MOON by far is change God URANUS has now entered TAURUS for good, until 2026. It first entered last May for about 6 months only to return for a last leg in ARIES at the end of 2018 until now. Steady, predictable TAUREANS are in for some exciting times that challenge their comfort zones. And by TAURUS, I mean the TAURUS part of everyone. We all have everything in us somewhere, it's just a matter of location and dosage.

FAST and SLOW, here we go! URANUS is known for its hyperflux speed, ever on the tracks to the future. TAURUS is known for its 'slow and steady wins the race' approach to life. Both are powerful in their essence, and they (and we) are about to live this encounter for quite some time. Hurry up to slow down?

You may feel a lot of electricity in your body with this planetary shift.

When the zodiac was developed, based on the 7 visible planets ,SATURN was assigned rulership of both CAPRICORN and AQUARIUS. URANUS is an outer (invisible) planet that didn't join the astro party until 1781 and was given rulership of AQUARIUS by modern astrologers. However it is that you view URANUS, it is one of the slow-moving, "generational planets" and when outer planets change signs, things happen in the world. When URANUS entered ARIES in 2011, within a day or so we had the Fukushima earthquake in Japan, and when URANUS entered TAURUS last May, the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii suddenly erupted at an unprecedented strength, in places it hadn't before.

Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii, 2018

This combination is very interesting. URANUS into TAURUS signals the beginning of a new era, one that will absolutely bring more earth changes. (TAURUS/earth + URANUS/change = earth changes). It feels like it's time to buckle our seatbelts, especially in view of the CAPRICORN convergence that take us right through 2020.

This heavy dose of PISCES NEPTUNE, to me feels like 2 things.

One, do you remember what an Etch a Sketch is? It's a toy where you can draw into an impressionable, magnetic, fluid.

When you're all done, you just shake it, and it erases everything you drew, and you can start anew. This PISCES MERCURY RETROGRADE period feels like that. Let's collectively shake out the last 8 years of URANUS in ARIES and have a clean screen to start our new URANUS in TAURUS drawing.

The second metaphor is anesthesia. NEPTUNE rules drugs and all NEPTUNIANS are always trying to numb the pain of life, which sometimes comes through spirituality and sometimes comes through substances, Let's just be aware of how strong that influence is right now and choose our poisons wisely. This is a portal period, and we will be more sensitive to everything.

"I call architecture frozen music." wrote Wolfgang von Goethe who was born with a MOON and JUPITER in PISCES. That kind of visionary thinking is in keeping with this NEPTUNE soaked time.