Dreaming With Our Eyes Open
Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.
Mind unbending
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 9, 2022, 5:32 pm PST), 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.
Pay attention
Easing into the relaxing hot tub of Pisces season doesn’t mean we get a free pass from making any effort at all. The First Quarter Moon in Gemini (March 10, 2022, 2:45 am PST) issues this challenge to dreamy, imaginative Pisces: pay attention.
The Sun in Pisces on this day is on the Sabian symbol 20 Pisces, A table set for an evening meal – an ideal scenario for Pisces, who loves to settle in for a long, languid dinner with many courses, a glass of wine, and lots of conversation.
But the First Quarter Moon is on 20 Gemini, A cafeteria. Eating on the go, and choosing from a wide variety of dishes, appeal to Gemini’s love of novelty and movement.
And that’s the underlying tension of this Gemini First Quarter Moon. The Sun in Pisces favors luxuriating in the present moment, savoring it like good wine or a delicious dream; but the Gemini Moon instructs us to keep moving and stay curious. If you’ve ever sat bouncing your knee with nervous energy while the rest of your dinner party wraps up an interminable meal, you know what this particular First Quarter can feel like.
This First Quarter Moon marks the first critical chapter in the Lunar Phase Family cycle that began with the June 10, 2021, New Moon/Solar Eclipse. The Sun and Moon were square Neptune at that volatile eclipse; at this First Quarter, the Sun is conjoined and the Moon once again square Neptune. Communication may feel like struggling in quicksand; whatever we say, especially anything connected to last June, seems to meet with determined misunderstanding.
It can be frustrated to feel you’re not being heard. But it’s also possible that someone in your life has been trying to tell you something for the past nine months – and you may think you’ve been listening, but maybe you haven’t been hearing.
The Green Flash
This week, the Sun makes its annual conjunction with Neptune (March 13, 2022, 4:43 am PDT) at 22°52’ of Pisces, on the Sabian symbol “Spiritist Phenomena”. What are you trying to materialize in your life?
If any part of our inner sky can manifest what we want, it’s the powerful, willful Sun. But when the Sun joins together with Neptune, it has to work overtime to burn through the fog and mist and make itself seen.
But this is a magical planetary combination as well – as magical as a green flash at sunset.
A couple of times each year, we make a pilgrimage to the central coast of California and stay at our favorite ocean front hotel. Most evenings, just before sunset, we take a bottle of wine and some crackers and sit outside looking out over the ocean, trying to catch a glimpse of the fabled green flash. Now, I have never seen this phenomenon, but apparently you can see it shortly after sunset or just before sunrise, when the Sun is almost entirely below the horizon. Just for a second or two, there’s a flash of green around what’s left of the Sun before it slips underwater.
How like the Sun sinking into Neptune, is the Sun setting over the ocean in a brilliant flash.
This week, look for those bursts of inspiration and moments of clarity that are as much a part of Neptune as its fogginess. As the Sun comes together with Neptune, we realize that to see the truth, to find the part of us that’s eternal, we have to let go of the idea that we’re separate from everything and everyone else. It is a fast little transit, just a couple of days. But it’s the moment each year when our ego and our will need to take a little bit of a vacation – maybe sit and look out over the ocean, watching for the green flash.
Writing and collages © 2019-2024 April Elliott Kent
Hear more about this week’s planetary happenings on my podcast!
