PISCES NEW MOON / SOLAR ECLIPSE - 26 February 2017

Exact at 2.58pm GMT, 9.58am EDT.

This is a very powerful New Moon indeed and is also a Solar Eclipse, which gives it far more significance than your average New Moon. Eclipse season is a time of shifts and transformation, when we are made very aware of what needs to change and generally get a pretty big prod in the right direction! There is a sense of fate or destiny involved and wherever the New Moon falls in our chart will show the area of life that will experience the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. This New Moon is activating the South Node in Pisces, which represents the past, the familiar, patterns and traits that we need to examine and transmute in order to move forward and evolve. We are getting to the end of the 18 month span of the Nodes being in the Virgo/Pisces axis, and so we may have to examine where we still have our head buried in the sand, in fantasy land, refusing to face ourselves realistically. The Pisces South Node points to where we have personal and collective blind spots, or are only looking at life and ourselves through rose tinted spectacles, refusing to see what is really going on. On both a personal and collective level it can show where we are deluded, or refusing to face our shadow. And we all have shadows, every one of us!

The Virgo North Node, however, asks us to be willing to face reality and do the necessary work on ourselves and to face our personal and collective shadow. Virgo encourages us to point the finger squarely at ourselves and recognise that the change that is needed on both a personal and global level starts with us taking a long, hard look at ourselves and recognising that what is happening on the outer is merely a reflection of our inner world. If ever there was a time to do some shadow diving, this is it! Pisces South Node can make it so easy to see ourselves as the victim, while Virgo North Node asks that we use the art of discernment and discrimination to recognise where we are deluded and to see the part we have played in creating our own reality. Virgo symbolises the need for self-improvement and can help us to see and eliminate any old mental, spiritual or physical patterns of behaviour that may be blocking our spiritual development. As Pisces represents the collective unconscious, the work we do on ourselves not only impacts us personally, but also benefits the whole of humanity.

Pisces is the very last sign in the zodiac and ultimately represents the capacity for unity, transcendence and oneness. In its highest form it represents an innocence, purity and unconditional love that is a reflection of the love of God, the Divine, the Creator or whatever you want to call it. Pisces is an incredibly compassionate and empathetic sign that has the capacity to help us to connect to one another in such a beautiful way, whereby we are relating to the divine within each other; our true spirit, or essence. This New Moon invites us to turn within, to meditate, pray, create and do whatever we can to connect to the higher part of ourselves. Pisces season is sleepy time; the time to reflect, contemplate life and existence, listen to the whispers of our soul and pay attention to what our dreams are telling us. We are reminded that we are all connected and that what happens to one happens to all. With Pisces this isn’t an abstract concept; it is reality. The intentions we set during this New Moon should come from the heart, not from the head. They should stem from a genuine desire for a deeper connection to all that is and to understand our personal and collective blind spots and send healing out into the world. Pisces reminds us that it’s not all about us.

While Pisces is a very gentle and compassionate sign, we also have quite a volatile combination of planets forming during this New Moon which could stir things up considerably and make us feel quite reactionary! We have Uranus, Mars and Eris forming a conjunction in Aries, opposite Jupiter in Libra and loosely squaring Pluto in Capricorn. It is this same Cardinal T-square that has been with us since the beginning of the year, stirring up the desire to make change both personally and collectively. It is a call to action! Now Mars has joined the party, and combined with Uranus, the Great Awakener and revolutionary and Eris, the goddess of strife, chaos and discord, he brings the possibility of a big shake up of the status quo, a desire to fight for the truth and even sudden outbursts of violence. A strong desire to be utterly ourselves could create conflict in our relationships, but could also help instigate necessary growth and help us move through any “stuckness” that we may be experiencing. It will certainly help get things out into the open and break out of unhealthy patterns! One thing to bear in mind is that this is happening during a Pisces New Moon, which is quiet, inward, sleepy time of the month. This could mean that the conflict and desire for change could be more internal than external.

However, it could also manifest as sudden outbursts of rage, a strong urge to stand up and be counted, bold and brave revolutionary action and an instinctual impulse to make change on a personal and collective level. Joan of Arc just popped into my head as an example of the mixture between the revolutionary warrior energy of Mars and Uranus and the gentle compassion of Pisces. Fierce compassion and martyrdom! We are invited to bravely face our personal and collective shadow and release ourselves from old, outworn ways of operating and archaic patriarchal conditioning that simply isn’t working for us anymore. However, as this old order is passing away and the feminine is rising to balance it out, it seems that things might have to get worse to get better. We are currently being confronted with all the distortion and exaggerated problems that the dualistic, patriarchal way of thinking and operating has brought us. All of the extremes of, guilt, shame, misuse of power, anger, misogyny, prejudice and hate is rising to the surface in no uncertain terms and we are not allowed to bury our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist anymore! At least we can see it all now. It’s not hidden.

This Moon invites us to recognise where it lies within ourselves and to be brave spiritual warriors and face our own shadows rather than projecting them onto others and putting the blame outside of ourselves. The inner work we all do now can have such an amazing impact on the collective. It is so easy to deny or hide from our own shortcomings, and we all have our blind spots, but we are being asked to shine the light of awareness on ourselves and recognise what work needs doing. This is an eclipse, remember, so whatever happens now will have more of a long term impact on our lives. This is the last eclipse in Virgo and Pisces, as the nodes are shifting into Leo and Aquarius in May, so this really is a good chance to see, once and for all, how we sabotage ourselves and refuse to see ourselves clearly. With this Eclipse we have a chance to shift forward into a new level of consciousness and it definitely helps if we are open, receptive and willing to look at ourselves honestly and without filters. We could potentially feel quite sensitive and a bit vulnerable during this time of shifts and change, so it is important to treat ourselves and others with sensitivity,tenderness, kindness and unconditional love. This is the gift of Pisces.

Much love

Amy

xoxo

Photo: Maria Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc