It’s not unusual that in Pisces season I become so overwhelmed by grief and the pain of the world and the complexity of it all–how everything is connected to everything else and you can’t properly talk about one thing without talking about all the other things–that it becomes nearly impossible to speak let alone to write.
My mother passed away this winter. Hence my extended break from writing. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully understand what it means to exist in the world without my mother. It feels like some kind of existential breach. (I wasn’t going to say these things to you, but how else am I to begin speaking again if I don’t say that?)
I know I’m not the only one suffering not only collective grief but personal grief as well.
There is so much to grieve is there not?
War. Pandemic. Climate Collapse. The terrifying trajectory of this runaway train called human history. The dreams we once had for a life that is no longer. The seemingly impossible-to-bridge gulf that has emerged between so many of us.
I grieve not just this war, but war.
I grieve not just for the people of Ukraine.
But for those of Yemen. And Palestine. And Libya, Myanmar, Afghanistan.
And all those who’ve suffered war and its many devastating aftermaths.
For war doesn’t end when it ends but its impacts ripple forth through the collective and down the generations.
Our history is drenched in blood.
The planet Venus has been besieged, caught between the malefics, Mars (War) and Saturn (Austerity), since February 16th. Besiegement is a technical astrological term; if only astrology weren’t so literal. What we love and value, and where we find peace (all ruled by Venus), has been trapped, caught, since mid-February. By March 28th, Venus breaks free only to encounter a square to the nodes on March 30th, followed by Mars and Saturn square the Nodes on April 5th and 11th respectively.
The February 16 Full Moon in Leo was also square the nodes, and my thoughts leading up to that moment were that this is a significant choice point: our evolution calls us toward Taurus and its ruler Venus: patience, peace, diplomacy, embodiment. But the magnetic pull of history and habit, fear and trauma draw us toward the Scorpio south node: crisis, attack, vengeance, energetic and psychic entanglements and enmeshment.
The Venusian besiegement stacked the deck. Peace may look easy, but it aint. We might consider how we respond in our own lives when we feel attacked. Which is not to say we are responsible for war. But we do contribute to the field. We do contribute to humanity and its course by every thought we think and action we take. So how can we deescalate and find peace in our personal relationships? Or within our own psyche. (I for one know war is sometimes waged within my own mind and heart.)
It’s a choice we make again and again every day and every moment. Especially this year, with the eclipses amplifying Taurus and Scorpio. And especially over the next couple weeks with repeating squares to the nodes.
As we transition from winter to spring and Aries rears its glorious head, passions will rise and we may find ourselves activated even while still drowning in grief (Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury remain in Pisces afterall). Aries is the sign of war, there’s no point euphemizing it. The question isn’t to war or not to war. It’s: how do I direct this intense surge of energy rushing through me? What do I do with this anger and aggression that sometimes takes me over?
As an Aries, the only way I know how is spiritual: to again and again work to bind my will and energy to the spiritual, to my soul, to my higher/truer self, to my work here as a soul on planet Earth. Through such alignment, the raw vitality of Aries can be channeled toward our heart’s desires. It is truly our will, energy, drive, and passion. Let us not suppress that for fear of ourselves.
Pisces longs for love and unity. In its connection to the great oceanic depths, it knows compassion, and in its compassion, it knows grief and the pain of all the creatures in all the realms. The paradox of opening one’s heart is it must necessarily be met with great pain, for the heart knows what is true, and love is true but so is suffering. Pisces, at its best, understands that each emotion must be moved through; that pain needs witness before ecstasy is on the table.
But when the pain is too great--and the pain may be ours, or, especially in Pisces season, everyone else’s, for Pisces knows no bounds and the pain of the world is an ocean, permeating any boundaries we might attempt to install--Pisces may seek to escape amid fantasy and delusion or alcohol and weed, for they may serve as simulacrum to the relief Pisces might find should it open itself to grief and universal love alike. But that is too much to bear for many of us, the broken hearted.
Pisces can grasp grand spiritual truths like all is love and we are all interconnected, but when it tries to apply its mystical intuition to more mundane affairs, confusion abounds. There is a fine line between psychic imprint and delusion, and between going along to get along and mass formation.
And it’s perhaps in part due to the Piscean fog of war and haze of misinformation that so many supposed lovers of peace seem now ravenous for for the fight, vying for a no fly zone, willing to align their hearts and resources with a nation at war, with little regard for the complexity on the ground.
As has been so characteristic of these past years, our thought and speech is shunted into narrow frames of you’re with us or against us, of black and white, and good and evil: you’ll be painted an enemy sympathizer if you dare point out the expansion of Nato or the actual Nazis in Ukraine, facts that have been exaggerated by Russian propaganda, but facts nonetheless.
I’m not saying I understand the whole situation or know what ought to be done. But how many people do? Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves and each other to weigh in on everything? To have an opinion? I don’t know what Zelensky should do, or how Europe should respond. But the knee-jerk response to align with someone else's war seems spirituality risky. What exactly are you entangling yourself with there?
What I do know is that I stand for peace. I am not against this war. I am against war, period. Nevermind war crimes: war is a crime. The vast majority of humans want peace. The vast majority of humans are victims, not perpetrators of war. As usual, mere humans are casualties of a few men playing power games.
I'm for deescalation, dialogue, disarmament, and demilitarization. I'm for the people of Ukraine. And I'm for the Russian people too (this demonization of Russian culture and ordinary Russian people as if they were responsible is tragic). I believe in the possibility of peace. Not because it would be easy to come by or even to imagine, but because if there is any possibility in peace at all it will require our belief in its possibility. Even if it takes many generations, even if it’s gruelling and near impossible, even if it's two steps forward and one back, isn’t peace something worth working towards? Aligning with? Praying for? Isn't it worth imagining and believing in a future in which war is history?
An overabundance of Pisces can lead us feeling helpless, and who doesn’t feel helpless in the face of war? This feeling may trick us into reactivity; into doing something, anything. But the true gift of Pisces is to be peace, to be love, to be compassion. Our way of being does have an effect on the world. Our prayers mean something. Our love matters. And even as we slip into spring, Pisces still holds water: with Mercury (‘till March 27), Neptune, and Jupiter there, and an important Neptune–Jupiter conjunction on April 12th which holds the potential for unity, love, and peace, even amid conflict and injustice.
A Preview of the Weeks to Come
Note that transits are often felt in the days before the date they go exact (the date listed)
March 20: Equinox: Sun into Aries! Spring! Transition from winter and Pisces slumber, restful dreaming into energy, drive, initiative.
March 20: Mercury conjunct Jupiter: wisdom, guidance, mentorship, teachings, gifts, beneficence.
March 22: Mars square Uranus: can be shocking, sudden, violent, activated, unpredictable. Channel this toward activism (worker’s rights, labour organizing, bodily rights and freedoms), or align with the out of the ordinary. Avoid unnecessary risk. Expect plans to change.
March 23: Mercury conjunct Neptune: can be confusion, delusion, addiction and/or universal love and compassion, and the mystical.
March 28: Venus conjunct Saturn can be austerity, solitude, solemnity. Can also be longstanding relationships, old friends, important commitments. This conjunction also signifies the end of Venus’ besiegement: pleasure may be more accessible after this.
March 27: Mercury into Aries
March 31: New Moon in Aries (conjunct Chiron and Mercury, and with Venus, Saturn, Mars square the nodes). Initiates the themes that will unfold over the next couple weeks (and half year), but especially the themes of Chiron, Mars, Saturn, below. The squares to the nodes (Venus [relationships, values, resources] on March 30, Mars [will, drive, passion] on April 5, Saturn [commitment, effort, plans] on April 11) urge us to align with Taurean values: peace, sustainability, Earth, workers, self-sufficiency, autonomy.
April 1-2 (tied to New Moon): Sun conjunct Chiron (April 1) and Mercury (April 2) in Aries: possibly triggering but also holds potential for healing: agency, autonomy, self governance, empowerment, standing up for oneself or others, the right to exist. Healing the wounds of war and of the masculine. Potential for spiritual warrior and divine masculine energy. The heart of the matter (Sun-Mercury), insight, the glimpse of truth that makes it all make sense.
April 4 (tied to New Moon): Mars conjunct Saturn: either the imposition of, or the overcoming of limits, blocks, walls, restrictions. Control, authority, austerity, contraction or hardening, a block or wall, social restrictions, lockdowns, limitations on the collective, social order, coming to a standstill, the end of something and beginning of something else. (This aspect last occurred two years ago and has been tied to the pandemic lockdowns). Channel toward serious work, a long term project, aligning discipline and will, passion and purpose for the sake of humanity (Aquarius).
April 5: Venus into Pisces
April 10: Mercury square Pluto: news, insight, information, communication about corruption, conspiracy, that which had been hidden or is taboo.
April 10: Mercury into Taurus
April 12: Jupiter conjunct Neptune (in effect in the weeks as well as days before and after this date; echoed by Venus conjunct both at the end of the month): a heightening of love and compassion and/or delusion and mass formation. Can be wisdom, mysticism, prayer, spirituality, spiritual Truth, deep feelings. Can be grief, the pain of humanity. Deeply creative, poetic, musical. Can also feel confusing or overwhelming. This transit is best met by being love, peace, compassion, creativity, flow. This transit occurs once in about 12 years.
April 16th: Full Moon in Libra square Pluto: culmination of the past two weeks and half year. Themes of justice, legal battles, truth to power, the fight for peace and harmony and justice, transformation, revelations of the corrupt underbelly of social structures. A revealing. Something shady coming to light. A change in the course of things.
The Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Pisces is significant and colours the energy for this entire next month. This is our hope. To lean into the compassionate depths of Pisces. To seek Guidance and wisdom. To join together in love. To unite for peace. To find nourishment in music, dance, and poetry.
With Aries active at the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if we find ourselves in the streets, in the name of peace. But what will lead us there? There may be something shocking along the way that galvanizes humanity, that shakes our hearts, and draws us out of our solitude and slumber.
There is so much in the world we have no power over. There is so much that is out of our hands. But what we can do is love one another. What we can do is take care of one another. What we can do is create peace and love in our own tiny sphere, and because all our tiny spheres overlap, the little piece of peace we make makes more peace in the world.
The truest things are often the simplest. And also the most difficult.