Stone, ashes, fighting fish, & suits of armor
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Big stone heads
Ask my husband what destination is number one on my travel wishlist. Go ahead, ask him. “Easter Island,” I hear him calling out to you from the next room, “Because of the big stone heads.” And now he’s kind of shrugging, because to him…big stone heads? Whatever.
But I just love them. So you can imagine my delight at Mercury’s position as it turns retrograde (March 5, 10:19 am PST) at 29.38 Pisces, on the Sabian Symbol The Great Stone Face. I’ve got a chatty Gemini Moon and a bouncy, Tiggerish Sagittarius Ascendant, but it’s ruled by Jupiter in Aquarius, in a conjunction with Saturn; in new situations, I can suddenly turn to stone and lose the ability to speak. It’s one of the great frustrations of my life. So when you meet a stone-faced person, just remember what my colleague Blain Bovee writes in connection with this symbol: “Impassive demeanours are often most alive, inwardly, to communication.”
It’s a great symbol for a retrograde Mercury, which is our thrice-yearly signal to turn inward for a bit. Don’t blurt opinions impulsively, or give your word prematurely, or offer your heart too readily. Wait and watch, like Patience on a monument.
“She never told her love,But let concealment, like a worm i’ the bud,Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,And with a green and yellow melancholyShe sat like Patience on a monument,Smiling at grief.” – Twelfth Night, Wm. Shakespeare
Ashes and electricity
The Pisces New Moon falls very appropriately on the day that many Christians observe Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, the season of repentance, sacrifice, and purification, all nouns with a certain resonance with Pisces. It’s a busy day astrologically, too, kicked off by Uranus, the great awakener, entering Taurus just after midnight (March 6, 0:35 am PST), followed by the New Moon in the morning (March 6, 8:04 am PST) and the annual Sun/Neptune conjunction (March 6, 5:01 pm PST) in the late afternoon,
I’ve written a dreamy little essay about the Pisces New Moon that also touches on this Uranus business, so I will refer you there for a deeper look. But I’ll point out that Uranus entered Taurus for the first time back on May 15, 2018, also on the day of a New Moon. (This is a planet that really likes to make an entrance.) If any planets in your chart are in the first few degrees of fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), this ingress of Uranus into a new sign carries particular, electrifying power. Uranus demands change and brings up issues around belonging. Ask: Who are your people? Where have you outgrown your life? Likely, back in May, these questions at least occurred to you. Over the next few months, you’ll begin the process of answering them.
“If you hate your life, you haven’t seen enough of it. If you hate your life, it’s because your life is too small and doesn’t fit you.” ― Augusten Burroughs
A fighting fish and a suit of armor
One day, a fish was swimming along happily in a brook when he spied the menacing shadow of a crow flying overhead. “Mr. Crow,” he called out. “Please don’t eat me!” And the crow hovered lower. The fish begins to panic: “Please, please, don’t eat me!” After they’d traveling together for some hours, the fish called up, “Okay, if you’re going to eat me, just get it over with!” But the crow chuckled, and finally replied, “Never fear, my friend. I’m here to make sure nothing eats you. And thanks to you, I’ve seen more of this beautiful river than I ever have before.”
Fresh from its rendezvous with Neptune, the Sun in Pisces makes a friendly sextile to Saturn in Capricorn on March 8 (11:10 pm PST, so March 9 most everywhere else). If you’ve got Pisces planets, I hope you’ve got some good, strong Capricorn folks to act as your escorts in life. They needn’t have been born with the Sun in Capricorn; any planet there, or just a good, strong Saturn, will do the trick. And if those Capricorn planets should happen to be yours, be thankful; they’re the best suit of armor that a vulnerable little fish could ask for. And they, in turn, benefit from the fluid, exploratory nature of the fishes.
After that sextile to protective Saturn, our fishy friends could be feeling quite brave. As Mars in stalwart Taurus sextiles Neptune (March 10, 9:21 am), gentle souls are galvanized into organized and productive action—or, failing that, are escorted by strong, methodical bulls along the banks of the river.
Even if Pisces isn’t particularly well-represented in your birth chart, everyone has a Neptune, with all its gentle dreams and wild inspiration. Opportunities abound this week to walk with them, safeguard them, and help them find practical expression. It’s a good week for those who wish to make real life more magical, and magic a reality.
Just keep your counsel, ask questions, and say yes to offers of help.
“I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us”
― The Secret Garden
© 2019 April Elliott Kent
