Highlights for March 15-22, 2021: Daydreaming

Daydreaming

Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.

Dreaming with my eyes open

It was a little chilly in San Diego, so I built a fire and plopped down on the couch to write this column. After scribbling a couple of lines on two different sheets of paper, then wadding them up and tossing them in the fire, I sat for a little while and stared vacantly out the window. I enjoyed watching the trees, the sunlight shifting in and out of cloud of cover. Thinking of nothing much. Letting my mind unbend in long, relaxing yoga poses.

I’d been trying to write about Mercury entering Pisces (March 15, 2021, 3:26 pm PDT), and of course this is pretty much how Mercury works in that drifting, imaginative sign. In Aquarius, the previous sign, Mercury is vigorous and clear-eyed; it might simply document what it saw, or be so laser-focused on a task that it overlooks the scenery altogether. But Mercury in Pisces works a bit like daydreaming: What you’re looking at is not really what you’re seeing. When I gaze off into the distance, my mind is a million miles and often many years away. I’m reviewing memories. I’m imagining the future. I’m dreaming with my eyes open. That’s how the planet of perception works, often, when it’s in Pisces.

Venus arising

The Sun and Venus have been traveling close together for awhile, and Venus has been drowned out by the overwhelming power of the Sun. Soon, Venus will move past the Sun, eventually becoming visible in the evening sky. She will overtake the Sun and gain speed until eventually, in late December, she’ll have moved so far ahead that she’ll have to turn retrograde.

This week, the Sun (on March 16, 2021, 11:25 am PDT) and Venus (March 18, 2021, 10:19 am PDT) both sextile Pluto. The Sun and Venus make the aspect from 26.23 and 26.25 Pisces, respectively, on the Sabian Symbol, A Harvest Moon. Time to clear the fields for the equinox, to behold the empty slate and prepare to plant something new.

Spring and Venus are connected to the myth of Persephone, who was abducted by Hades (Pluto), god of the underworld. Her mother, Demeter, was distraught and in her grief, punished the world by denying fertility and making the harvests fail. Eventually, Zeus engineered a solution by which Persephone would spend half the year underground with Hades and the other half above ground. This moment, just before the conjunction of the Sun and Venus (on March 25), is when Persephone is getting ready to arise and reunite with her mother.

Let’s think of the Sun and Venus sextile Pluto as a bargain to be made. We may spend part of each year in shorter, darker, fallow days, but we also enjoy daylight and the abundance of nature in the other half.

Building a garden

The Sun enters Aries (called the Aries Ingress) on March 20 (2:37 am PDT), heralding the equinox and the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Venus follows the Sun into Aries the next day. Aries always likes to start something new, so let’s say that we decide to plant a garden (Venus!) to celebrate spring. The Sun says, “Great! I’ll bring warmth and light.” Venus says, “Lovely! I’ll choose the plants.” The Sun and Venus approach aspects to Mars in Gemini, so the birds and bees say, “Yes! What you plant, we’ll be happy to pollinate.”

It’s a stroke of good luck that they’re all happily-aspected to Saturn, God’s own project manager. Saturn rolls out a big sheet of paper, sketches a design, then pulls out the plow and gets to work.

In your birth chart, the house placement of the first degree of Aries, called the Aries Point, shows where you’re a pioneer, an initiator, and entirely fearless. At the Sun’s Aries Ingress, start something new in this area of your life; the other planets are eager to help you make it grow.

The only way to fail

At last year’s Cancer solstice, a solar eclipse at 0° Cancer may have found you conceiving a new endeavor. Perhaps you got a taste, then, or what could unfold along the path and what could, within a year and a half from now, grow into a full-fledged success.

Whether it actually will be depends, in no small measure, on what you do at this First Quarter Moon at 1°12′ Cancer (March 21, 2021, 7:40 am PDT), at nearly the same point as that eclipse. You must take a bold action in the direction of that dream, even if you feel unsure and nervous.

You do have support. The Sun and Venus are fresh off their ingress to bold, initiating Aries. The First Quarter Moon sextiles Uranus, planet of innovation, and trines Mercury in Pisces – you’ve got the inspiration. And best of all, Mars trines Saturn the same day. Mars in Gemini is especially energizing for projects involving communication, transportation, or networking; that’s the direction energy currently flows best. And Saturn in Aquarius nails down a concrete plan and organizes the resources you need to help you.

And so, if you’re feeling a strong itch to take an important step forward, know that the universe has got your back. You may not succeed in all the ways you hope – but the only way you can fail right now is to do nothing at all.