The Exalted State
Venus in Pisces (March 11, 2024, 2:50 pm PDT through April 4) finds her in the sign of her exaltation, meaning the goddess of love does some of her very best work in this otherworldly sign.
Have you ever known someone who falls profoundly in love and suddenly becomes religious, or at least spiritual? There’s a scene in the Cary Grant version of An Affair to Remember that illustrates this nicely. Grant plays a handsome playboy who meets a lovely nightclub singer, played by Deborah Kerr, on a cruise ship – there’s Neptune for you! Over the course of the voyage, their clever and witty flirting leads to deeper feelings.
The ship comes into a port where Grant’s saintly, aging grandmother lives in an enchanting villa on a hill. He takes Kerr with him to visit his aged relative, who is portrayed as practically a saint. The two women of course bond (a sign that Kerr is indeed special) and eventually we see Kerr and Grant kneeling together prayerfully in the little private chapel on the property. It’s a signal to the audience that their bond is not just flirting, not just play, not just physical attraction – which are Venus’s calling card – but something spiritual, and holy.
Falling in love with someone – love, not just obsession or lust – brings us into an exalted state, one in which one’s best self meets the finest qualities of another. We see the very best of this person, and we become better versions of ourselves. If you see a relationship or marriage of many years in which the couple still hold hands in public and say nice things behind each other’s backs, you’re looking at the sweetest expression of Neptune.
Fresh Start
The Gemini First Quarter Moon (March 16, 9:11 pm PDT) is at 27º03′ Gemini. I love its Sabian symbol, 28 Gemini: A man declared bankrupt, because it implies a fresh start. If you’ve been declared bankrupt, it means your past sins, your past indiscretions, your past bad luck, have been forgiven and you can start over.
In the wake of the March 10 Pisces New Moon, it wouldn’t be surprising to feel stuck in quicksand or finding it a little bit difficult to get out of bed and engage. But the Pisces New Moon cycle, while effective for healing body and soul, doesn’t require staying inside for 28 days. This Gemini First Quarter pulls us out of the quicksand, out of bed, and gets us moving – toward the intentions of the recent Pisces New Moon, but also those of the June 17, 2023 New Moon near this First Quarter degree.
Mercury-ruled Gemini is a connecting sign. If you are asked around this First Quarter Moon to be more sociable than you’ve been lately, say yes! Because in order to figure out the big answers to life, which is a thing that Pisces is really interested in, it’s necessary to first ask some questions, have some new experiences, and cultivate curiosity. In all of those things, Gemini excels.
Just remember that you don’t have to know all of the answers. You just have to ask plenty of questions. And because the First Quarter is the time in the lunar cycle to take some kind of action, that action might be as simple as reading a book, or asking someone the kinds of questions that you have never thought to ask before.
Beyond the Story
The Sun’s annual conjunction with Neptune (March 17, 2024, 4:22 am PDT) may be one of the most appropriate planetary aspects we could possibly see on St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day here in the United States is basically an excuse to go out and get out of your head for a while. And that is, in some ways, what we associate with the Sun’s conjunction with Neptune – or with Mercury’s, which happened last week.
When Mercury and Neptune came together, it was time to examine what we call ourselves. Mercury is a naming planet, and it’s not so much about who we are, but about the story we tell about who we are. The names that we give to animals, to people, are very powerful. They often tell us something about who we are, who we’re supposed to be.
My husband and I have learned this through naming our cats. One, we named Spike, because when we saw him in the animal shelter, he was a tiny little thing and had had mange, and his fur was very spikey. As he got older, his fur became beautiful and sleek, but his personality grew quite spikey! Bodhi turned out to be one of my great spiritual teachers as I nursed her feline diabetes for ten years. Our current cat, Toby, has developed this predilection for biting my husband’s toes – Toe-by! And as for sweet little Violet, she’s very loving with us but very shy and skittish with almost everyone else. Which made me later realize that, of course: she’s a shrinking Violet.
So that is Mercury with Neptune. But the Sun’s conjunction with Neptune gives us the opportunity to, in some ways, submerge our solar self, our ego, our sense of who we are, and instead to reimagine it. The Sun’s aspect with Neptune says, well, do you have to be that? Is that really your story, or a story from the past, one that others gave you years ago that has just sort of lingered?
When the Sun comes together with Neptune, get beyond the name, get beyond your appearance, your upbringing, your everyday life, and ask: Who are you really? That is what the Sun is really trying to discover when it makes this annual pilgrimage to Neptune.
Writing and images © 2017-24 by April Elliott Kent
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