March 14th ~ 21st

Ego says: “Once everything falls into place, I will find peace.” Spirit says: “Find peace and everything will fall into place.” ~ Marianne Williamson

For those who are/were within the totality of the Lunar Eclipse Thursday night into Friday morning, I hope you all had an opportunity to view the Blood Red Moon. This is a phenomenon rarely seen in person. Eclipses serve a turning points in our lives. They open a rift in time and space through which we meet our own destinies. And there is nothing we can do, but obey. 

The Lunar Eclipse in the Mercury sign of Virgo is reminding us of the importance of our own self-care and well-being. In our efforts to fix everyone and everything around us, we hope to put our worries to rest. But it actually works the other way around: When we find peace, then everything else will then fall into place. Following the Lunar Eclipse, Mercury, the ruling planet of Virgo, will make its retrograde station.

In the very early hours (here on the East Coast of the United States) of Saturday, March 15th, Mercury stations at 9º Aries 35’, the same degree as the Solar Eclipse on March 29th. And when it stations direct on April 7th, it will be directly opposite the Lunar Eclipse degree, and conjunct the North Node in Pisces. This is not your ordinary Mercury retrograde. There are layers and layers of significance with both the Mercury and Venus retrogrades, that are reaching back into the dawn of time, and turning our faces within. 

Mercury stationing retrograde in Aries is asking us to just stop, and ask the questions. Some of these are the same as the Venus station, at 10º of Aries: What about my needs? What about my own sanity and well-being? Under the present circumstances, what tools do I have at my disposal to take care of me? What are the things that I’ve been putting up on the shelf (because they weren’t as important as something else), that are precisely what my heart and soul is needing right now? 

With the South Node, and the Lunar Eclipse in Virgo, and Mercury now in Aries, the inclination is to keep going, going, going. Like we need to be busy. We need to take care of business. We need to do stuff that is important. But when we turn the Mercury in Aries energy around and turn it within, it is simply asking: What do I want? 

I have wiring in my brain that calls me lazy, if I’m not doing something. I haven’t been able to get rid of it. But what I can do is I can put in another wiring, I can put in should-less days, so when that voice goes off and says you’re being lazy, I turn to the other wiring in my brain that says, no, this is a should-less day, and I’m doing what I want. ~ Ellen Burstyn

There is no doubt that the denizens of the trickster version of the retrograde Mercury will assail us with the missed trains, the lost emails, the mis-typed blog words, and all the rest of the hubbub that Mercury is supposed to take care of in the outer world. Mercury is temporarily withdrawing its stewardship in these areas, and we are left to our own devices. However, these retrograde phases of Mercury are also extremely essential for our own mental health and well-being. 

As Mercury stations, it will make a minor aspect to unpredictable and inconsistent Uranus. And this is the very description of what the world is feeling like right now. Unreliable. Chaotic. Surprising. However, this same configuration can be about assimilating and processing whatever changes we may be going through. Whether these are changes that have already occurred, changes we are going through now, or changes that are imminent, Mercury’s retrograde phase is going to be about this process of mentally adapting to whatever changes we are going through. And the Lunar Eclipse on Thursday/Friday stands as a reminder of just how important this inner work is for us. It enables us to cope, it allows us to make sense of things within our own minds, it shows us what we need to change in our own minds, and it can even show us solutions where previously we only saw problems. 

Mercury and Venus are weaving in and out of the eclipses, as well the Nodes of the Moon this month and next. We are all finding our place in the scheme of things: mentally, psychologically and physically. When Mercury makes its direct station on April 7th it will be conjunct the True North Node, as well as Saturn. Like a brush with reality, it could very well feel as if the scales are falling from our eyes. There is no room for denial or fantasy when Saturn comes to call. Saturn is a planet of reality. It is also a planet that sets boundaries, and makes commitments. This is when we discover the power of our No, as well as our Oaths. Saturn gives us the strength to follow through and commit to our destiny. 

i thank you God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes. 

(i who have died am alive again today. and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth day of life and love and wings and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) ~ e e cummings 

On March 20th the Sun enters Aries, the first degree, of the first sign of the zodiac, and so the Astrological New Year begins. The chart for the Sun’s ingress into Aries, the first day of Spring, can set the tone not only for the next quarter, but the full year ahead.  This is truly the birth day of the Sun, and the earth, and all that we behold. 

On the day of the Solstice, Neptune is still closely conjunct the North Node, while in the final, anaretic degree of Pisces. On March 30th, Neptune will enter Aries, but for now, from where we stand in this vacuum of uncertainty, we stand here waiting for the other shoe to drop. When major planets, such as Neptune, enter Aries there is the resurgence of raw energy heralding a rebirth in society. But from where we are standing right now, with Neptune in this very last degree of Pisces, we cannot yet see what that will be. 

At this very last degree of Pisces there is a sloughing off, a releasing, and perhaps ennui combined with despair, as we stand at a threshold that could feel so desperately like an ending and withdrawal, over which we seem to have no control. Like water pouring through the cracks of the floor, we have no way to gather it, and hold it. Neptune will return again to this degree later this year. So we are not quite finished. And even though this could feel like an ending, when Neptune finally enters Aries, it is really about new beginnings. 

Neptune conjunct the North Node is neither positive or negative, it’s how we use and approach the energy encapsulated in the North Node veiled in Pisces. Neptune can misdirect. It can lead us astray. We can live the big lie, where the lie is seen as the truth, and the truth the lie, like something out of a dystopian novel. But it can also be when the sacred and the spiritual take the helm. We have choices. We always have choices. And Saturn following up with its own conjunction to the North Node can also help to clean up some of the mess that Neptune is leaving behind. 

When the North Node is in Pisces the spiritual leaders, the spirit of divinity made manifest, is asked to lead the way. And that is true in our own lives as well. Mercury retrograde is asking us to find our own spiritual center deep within our own hearts and minds, and use that to guide us through this liminal time of uncertainty, and through the year ahead. Allow this to be your guide: your higher conscience, your compassion, and allow that to use your voice, your hands, your feet, and your heart and your mind. 

Both Mercury and Venus will be returning to Pisces at the end of this month in order to connect with the North Node. This is the goal. This too is your homework for the month of March, to connect with spirit, that divine spark within. For it is this that will bring clarity as to what you truly, truly want in your heart of hearts, and it is this that will lead the way, even in the midst of uncertainty and change. 

For the Mercury retrograde for your sign, check out this week’s horoscopes:

HOROSCOPES

Image: CrystalWind.ca