(Harvest) Full Moon at 28 degrees 13 minutes of Pisces on Monday, September 20, at 4:54pm in Tucson, Arizona.
Use this Full Moon in Pisces (and the next two weeks of the waning lunar cycle that follow) as a moment of miraculous-seeming pause to work on breaking free from overthinking 2021’s jar of formidable pickles. Admitting “I don’t know” with the innocent confidence of a child can humorously be the first step to viable solutions.
Squeezing yoga or a workout into a busy schedule might “efficiently” shorten or cut out savasana, a rest, or a final stretching phase, even though this is arguably “the most important part of your practice”. If we’re ravenous, we’re less likely to pray over or give thanks for the food we’re about to shovel down, let alone afterward. Cutting corners makes us “human”, doesn’t it? Phases of stillness or reverence around mundane happenings might often seem more motivated by guilt or a need to demonstrate one’s “spirituality”. No one wants to be perceived as phony. Rest, however, is deeply practical, as it allows for more complete bodily integration of activity; it might prevent injury, patterns of overactivity, overconsumption, feeling disappointed with perceived results, or the need to addictively repeat painful lessons if full processing was rushed the first (or second or third) time around.
Opposite our Moon in Pisces (the immune system), the Sun hangs in the final degrees of Virgo (the digestive process). The ruler of Virgo is Mercury, planet of communication. Might digestive issues have more to do with poor communicative signaling within the body than anything else? Enzymes, required to break down what we take in, start in the mouth, the saliva. The moments before we eat, whether praying to a Creator, the Earth, or giving thanks to all hands involved in putting food before us, gives the body a chance to fully receive what is presented, use sensory data to prepare to take it in, deconstruct and distribute it as fuel or fortification. A rest phase after strenuous activity gives the cells a chance to incorporate positive changes instead of jumping ill-prepared into the next task. Rest marks the difference between performative actions and presence.
“Careful” Virgo shares a zodiacal axis with “careless” Pisces because organization and preparation (Virgo) create the foundation and space necessary to openly receive or safely explore (Pisces). Rest and presence take us out of short-term instant gratification relationships to what we do or what we consume and allow for deeper feeling. Only then can sensations and nourishment reach all the way to the roots and innermost parts of our cells. It’s an easy step to neglect because it happens in silence. There’s no obvious surface proof that it matters.
Stillness can be confusing and even scary if we equate it to indefinite waiting or delusion. If we’re waiting in a silence rife with fear, second-guessing or walls of expectations might emerge. Barriers of low self-worth erect themselves to prove we’re not ready or deserving of attainment, feelings of inadequacy swell. What we call “waiting” perhaps more often is rather, energetically speaking, a pushing away and rejecting of both ourselves and whatever sought after feeling of presence or connection that would otherwise enter. Isn’t it much easier to distract oneself with perceived busyness than comfortably sit in silence?
The Pisces Full Moon reminds us of the importance of rest, letting go, stopping, preparing to better receive and achieve by listening, feeling, trusting enough to lower defenses. Think “Kindergarten nap time” vibes.
Aspect Details & Self-Work Applications
EVEN NON-PSYCHICS WILL BE FEELING PSYCHIC
{Full Moon in Pisces in a Separating Conjunction to Neptune Retrograde}
Neptune’s cosmic ocean kingdom spans from Namaste to black-out inebriation and every emotional and altered vibrational state in between. With an orbit just over double the average human lifespan, the energy it brings is well beyond the mortal, swimming beyond even future visions to the psychic collective ether of potentiality and creativity.
The Moon has conjoined with Neptune in Pisces monthly since 2012. When Neptune is in a retrograde phase, as it is now, the lunar emphasis highlights dispelling illusion, removing rose-tinted glasses, revealing secrets or areas of self-deception, reframing spiritual beliefs or one’s relationship to altered states, confronting patterns of exhaustion or chronic lethargy; how this happens, however, can sometimes be by amplifying the confusion, fatigue, or overwhelm to a point that inspires seeking a change. The current Full Moon now will be heavily underscoring this energy within the individual subconscious more blatantly than any other time this year. What a chance to use the insights wisely.
Neptune in Pisces’ dissolution of personal boundaries connecting with the Moon (the inner world) will bring up emotions around loss of control in certain areas of life. If we can manage to resist the urge to blindly numb, escape, or hide from the vulnerability or discomfort, we can find encouragement to evolve and move beyond limitations. During this time it will be easier to identify where fears and negative emotions triggered by the temporary Piscean limbo sensation could require change or better management to improve one’s overall feeling of well-being.
COLLECTIVE DADDY ISSUES
{Full Moon in Pisces Sextile to/Sun in Virgo Trine to Pluto Retrograde in Capricorn}
Whenever our pal Pluto is involved with the Moon, things get quite deep and potentially transformational. This time, the sextile aspect is a supportive one, so with a little work, some extraordinary changes are possible. Pluto retrograde in Capricorn has been unearthing lies, corruption, and power imbalances within personal and collective structures, governments, corporations, institutions, leadership styles, ancestral or genetic patterning, whatever we considered to be our essential foundations.
When combined with the Neptunian Piscean Moon, we may have the opportunity to not only feel into the energetic consequences of maintaining faulty systems but potentially realize how we have been unconsciously keeping them going by our choices, evasion of responsibility, poor or contradictory boundaries. Such acknowledgement may be uncomfortable, but the phase may be necessary to level up our relationship to what Piscean energy can do for us. Transcending beyond conscious or unconscious transgressions allow for not only reclaiming personal power but using it to dream up new possibilities for evolving into, creating, and supporting a more inclusive, safe, and free collective picture.
ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER
{Full Moon in Pisces “Opposed” to Mars in Libra}
Oppositions show us areas where we feel two extreme sides of a situation. Instead of needing to feel pulled in two directions or conflicted, there is the possibility of creating balance through acknowledgement of potentially complementary forces at play. The Moon in Pisces, highlighting all the deep feelings mentioned throughout this report, is one side of the see-saw. Mars, the other side, has just entered Venus-ruled Libra.
Mars likes to feel like its driving on a solo racetrack, but with Libran influence, suddenly there’s a feeling of having to share lanes or involve others in areas one might rather exclusively like to control. Mars in Libra is often considered hampered, as the force of one’s personal drive, pure will to act, sexuality, and need to individuate must be expressed in a tempered way that supports mediation, balance, another’s needs or point of view. The knee-jerk reaction to feelings of inhibition may initially be to blame the law; or others, their beliefs and actions within business or personal partnerships, as the source of one’s own feelings of overwhelm or emotional dissatisfaction.
This, however, might be self-deception. You cannot change other people, but you can make personal adjustments within yourself. Instead of condemning others for seeming to restrict your perceived desires, reflect on how you may be holding a receptor site to maintain the picture outside yourself. What is it within you that compulsively attracts the feeling of being at odds with another? Is there truth to it, or is it just a fear-based perception you’re using to block deeper understanding or connection? Where might sharing energy, resources, responsibilities benefit from the support of others? In existing dynamics, how can doing more or less achieve better overall balance?
Observe the actions of those close to you and your reactive feelings. If you took a “monkey see, monkey do” approach (with discernment of course) and tried integrating within yourself a little of what seems so easy for others instead of projecting negative emotions at it, how might that affect the balance?
[Pedantic Note: Some astrologers might not consider this opposition to be a viable aspect, as the tug-of-war is happening by angular degrees rather than opposing signs, but I feel it’s still worthy of mention. The Moon’s square to minor asteroid Eros (desire, passion) in Sagittarius reflects a somewhat similar message to the lunar play with more mainstream Mars.]
Background Aspect Influences
ANIMOTION’S OBSESSION
{Venus in Scorpio}
Venus in Scorpio feels like a persistent, penetrating desire driven by emotions that exist well beneath levels of conscious awareness; transit Scorpionic Venus marks an annual phase of a month of deepening, moving closer to the roots of what we love and value. This often manifests most plainly in personal relationships and spending patterns but anywhere there is a sense of passion, be it in hobbies, work, favored activities, there will be a noticeable effect.
The challenge with deep emotional motivation is that often an aspect of unacknowledged pain can be the underlying driver, or at least a powerful component within the formula; in these instances, Venus in Scorpio may exacerbate toxic tendencies, habits, or relationship patterns “in the name of love”. That “love” may bridge on something closer to an unhealthy obsession or a completely unaware need to recreate patterns of rejection or abandonment inherited or learned earlier in life.
I have yet to meet a human exempt from some form of negative imprint or experience, and the goal isn’t necessarily to live in a bubble, hide in a hole until we’re “perfect”, or give up and shamelessly wallow in filth because we’re hopeless. Depth, intensity, drive, and passion are beautiful and often necessary to accomplish great works, bridge into rare emotional experiences, take risks and face fears, transmute and heal pain. Transit Venus in Scorpio is simply a time to become aware of your desires and emotions and the actions these feelings compel you to seek out or fixate upon.
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
{Venus in Scorpio in a Separating Square from Saturn Retrograde in Aquarius}
As mentioned in my last PLANETARY VIBES IGTV VIDEO, Uranus and Saturn squaring each other colors the backdrop of the entire year, i.e., all 2021 events. Without hindsight, it might be hard to understand how to make sense of it. When a relatively faster planet, like Venus, interacts with these slower planets, we have an opportunity to look at the broad planetary energies reflected within more bite-sized events and trends cropping up in our lives.
Emotion-fueled Venus in Scorpio had been passionately drill, baby, drilling until a square from Saturn Retrograde in Aquarius rocked the boat last week. A square tends to flag challenges or create feelings of roadblocks or “unfair” delays. Saturn governs commitments, limitations, rules, and boundaries, now, within Aquarius, most often exemplified within the collective, friend networks, groups, the Internet, or any technological sphere. How do your recent interactions within these areas make you feel? Can you identify potential areas of improvement?
Saturn squares, which tend to feel frustrating initially, can alert us to areas where we can bring more discipline or structure to whatever we’re doing. There’s a chance to apply more regulation or eliminate wastefulness to our application of passionate fuel. This is a hidden opportunity to address serious patterning limitations within ourselves and our use of creative energy. Are you fruitlessly over-giving or over-spending? Might there be a more productive way to redirect your energy to areas where it might be better received or collectively enhanced?
WHY ROAST WHEN YOU CAN TOAST?
{Venus in Scorpio in an Applying Opposition to Uranus Retrograde in Taurus}
Venus, still coming off the challenging square with Saturn, is now inching closer to a full opposition with Uranus Retrograde in Taurus, which exacts later in the week. Once again, the application of Venusian passion and depth is being called into question, this time by one’s relationship to consistency, routine, habits, personal finances, dietary choices, the world of the five senses, one’s possessions, one’s value of self and material things generally.
Uranus begs change, and Uranus Retrograde in particular begs us to rethink areas of change that we probably staunchly resisted before. The more we ignore it, the greater an eruption it is likely to trigger. You may find, however, that this Uranian involvement might pop the cork on a revelatory way to address the same roadblock frustration that Saturn might have hinted at last week. Are there daily changes you can work to incorporate that not only better support your personal passions but redefine a healthier commitment to collective values you consciously wish to endorse?
Are your passions driving you to connect with more like-minded, supportive networks or ones more likely to drain your resources and emotionally manipulate you by using shared toxicity or fears to make you feel like you “belong”? Are collective or technological restrictions exacerbating addictive tendencies or poor lifestyle habits? Might deeper emotional work or making small, consistent routine adjustments support a healthier relationship to oneself or others? Could it be the time to consider personal investments and risk-taking into new areas that better reflect one’s areas of desired commitment to personal visions or collective causes? Open up to trusting new possibilities.
AGREE TO DISAGREE
{Shadow Zone Mercury in Libra}
Mercury goes retrograde in Libra this Sunday, though you’ll probably feel the transition energy the whole weekend, if not sooner. Planetary retrogrades aren’t like flipping a light switch on or off. They involve the gradual slow down of a planetary force; an apparent “stopping” and “reversal” observed in the sky; and finally, another eventual slow down, “stopping” and redirected movement “forward” through the same patch of sky territory for the third time.
This retrograde is happening once Mercury finishes up moving through the “retrograde shadow zone” of 10-25 degrees Libra this weekend, then it will appear to stop and move back through that same part of Libra for three weeks. Then once again, it will slow to an apparent stop and move forward again through that same part of Libra before continuing on. If you have significant placements in 10-25 Libra, you might feel a more personal connection to this particular retrograde phase.
If, during the next three weeks, you find that a particular relationship, contract, conversation, point of view, agreement or misunderstanding seems to rise from the dead, don’t be surprised. If your sense of “closure” or “resolution” occurred especially between around September 6 and now, Mercury will be revisiting communication or travel-related discourse from that period for closer examination and will, again, for a third time, cross over that terrain just after the retrograde ends. Moan and wail all you like, but it’s an opportunity to get more aligned with your convictions, ability to compromise or negotiate, express yourself, understand other points of view, redefine your personal trajectory with more information, tie up loose ends, and gracefully slam the door on definitively toxic connections based in conscious or unconscious disrespect.
EVERY “LIKE” COUNTS AS A VOTE TO THE ALGORITHMIC DATA GODS PULLING THE STRINGS
{Shadow Zone Mercury in Libra Trine to Jupiter Retrograde in Aquarius}
Under the Piscean Full Moon, Shadow Zone Mercury is making a flowing aspect to Jupiter, a planet which tends to amplify, expand, bring opportunity or simply more of something. With Jupiter currently retrograde in Aquarius, there’s an emphasis on revisiting collective thinking, technology, group decisions or systems of operation, visions, hopes, fears, perceptions of scientific truth. Expect reversals of opinion, facts, even legality around hot topics.
Open yourself to compromising, questioning your own beliefs in, support of, or involvement in group perspectives. Look for additional information you may have missed the first time around. Be open to expanding your horizons, listening without judgment to opinions different than your own, question the influences of certain relationships on your life, the trends, friends or networks you or those close to you choose to be a part of or support with your valuable time and attention. Make it a priority to better understand before chastising. Most importantly, give yourself extra time to work through any difficulty that arises if you need more clarity or balance.
SHARING IS CARING
{Sun in the Final Degrees of Virgo & the Equinox Approaches}
The Sun is finishing up its transit through analytical, detail-oriented, and problem-solver Virgo and preparing to move into Libra. This marks the astrological “change of season” into Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, or the third quarter of the zodiacal year. Virgo season is notorious for bringing up allergies or hints of underlying vulnerabilities in how one manages one’s body, time, home, possessions, communication styles, interactions with others generally. If something might require “fixing,” “improvement,” or “assistance”, Virgo season shines a light on it.
This doesn’t mean one needs to go ape-poop crazy over detoxes, tool kits, and cleaning supplies, but take note of negative patterns or warning signs that repeat with the greatest frequency now. Be aware that these areas might require closer observation or attention to prevent a more difficult or expensive breakdown later. These might be issues that are unlikely to resolve themselves without some form of assistance or new inspiration. Conversely, notice other areas where the process of trying to repeatedly over-fix might be turning molehills into mountains. A new approach may be needed for peace of mind.
With the influence of the Pisces Full Moon, now might be the time to STEP ONE: feel into which of these challenge areas it’s time to surrender more. For now, let go of needing to be the one to handle everything and just reflect. The approaching month of Libra season may prove more auspicious for STEP TWO: either opening up to new ways of management or maintenance, seeking out support of another to share the workload, or finding a specialist to step in and offer guidance. Libra season is a fabulous window for bringing more balance into problem areas, finding necessary legal help or sought after support through personal connections and general sharing.
ALL ABOARD THE CRAZY TRAIN
{Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter Slow Down, Prepare for Stationing Direct}
This is a final note to tie it all together and really emphasize the hint to indulge in some much-needed rest and self-care while you can. At the end of this lunar cycle (i.e., in 2 weeks), we’ll start to really feel the impact of three major planets slowing down and moving from a lengthy retrograde phase into direct motion. Pluto (power, death, merging, manipulation, transformation); Saturn (boundary, limitation, discipline, long-term structure, commitment); and Jupiter (expansion, growth, abundance) are the three forces in question.
While planets are retrograde, it often feels more natural to revisit, test out, slow down, and reassess certain areas of life; it will feel awkward forcing a decision or moving forward with a larger plan or project, as it often seems beset by unusual, even “unlucky” obstacles or delays. However, when a larger planet stations and finally moves direct, the sudden transition can sometimes be jarring and reflective of extreme examples of how a planet’s force is playing out in our lives.
Pluto, the first of the “big heavies” to move direct in October, is quite intense and likely to trigger issues around perceived or real (dis)empowerment and responsibility within intense domains. Saturn’s subsequent station direct might make us feel slammed against a wall to make a decision, particularly one that will knowingly involve others or our reputation, perhaps before we feel ready, fully confident or informed. Finally, Jupiter will compound domino effects by perhaps bringing in a desired opportunity for growth, but perhaps one where we question whether it’s happening at the “right time”.
I do not write these things to be a sensationalist. I acknowledge free will, but I also observe that this planet’s energetic “weather patterns” don’t seem entirely random. Most planets will experience a retrograde phase for the same length of time every year, and this year is no exception. However, knowing that major transition points are on the horizon might encourage one to prepare by honoring the importance of adequate rest BEFORE potentially large changes happen. If there are areas you know you might have to eventually do less, let go of the reins a little, trust, or seek assistance, acknowledge this now. Why wait to burn out before coming to the same conclusion?
