Hello, dear lovely friends!
I can't believe it is March, y'all! Seriously. How did this happen? We are well into the first quarter! This March will prove to be an astrological hotbed of movement!
Beware the Ides of March! Just kidding. Or am I? No, on a more serious note, this month is chockful with some important astrological stuff going on. So hang on tight, and be prepared for the loveliness that March brings forth for us all! A lot of transfomration, having to deal with the inner aspects in externalized ways, and also opportunities to really look at all of our closest relationships.
I will touch on a few key planetary movements and astrological happenings going on this month.
Important Dates In March
March 5th, Mars enters Sagittarius
March 8th, New Moon Total Solar Eclipse in Pisces
March 12th, Venus enters Pisces
March 15th, Jupiter Trine Pluto
March 20th, Spring Equinox and Sun enters Aries
March 21st, Mercury enters Aries
March 23rd. Jupiter Square Saturn and Full Moon Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
March 25th, Saturn Retrograde
Mars enters Sagittarius
The word martial comes from Mars, the Roman god of war and relates to all things warlike. Just as you’d think, the planet Mars in astrology is raw, visceral, animalistic, sexual. It shows our fighting side, our assertiveness, our drives, our sheer physical energy and stamina, or the lack or impediment of these things. It especially shows our anger: what makes us angry, what we do with our anger, how we can transmute anger into a powerful tool for action and change in the inner and outer worlds.
Mars typically changes signs several times every year; however, in 2016 Mars will spend an extended amount of time in the signs of Scorpio and Sagittarius. This is largely due to a retrograde period that will last from April 17th to June 29th, with a very long retrograde shadow.
Mars in Scorpio can be uncooperative and a bit vindictive but it is not always difficult. It can make your energies more intense and focused so that you can accomplish tasks more effectively and efficiently. Scorpio’s true Mars energy can be highly motivational! So, we have been feeling these energies since January 4th. As Mars moves into fiery Sagittarius, the vibe changes up.
Mars, which is a very active and assertive planet, is very much at home with risk-taker Sagittarius. Our actions are motivated by our ideals. We are bothered by routine, and quickly becoming restless if we feel confined. We have a love of adventure, and of conquest. We seek to expand our experiences and minds during this transit. Mars is in its pre-retrograde shadow, and will turn retrograde on April 17th.
This planet and this sign are complimentary to one another, as they share an impulsive nature and an eagerness to rush ahead into uncharted territory. Mars in Sagittarius can be the bad boy who pushes boundaries, or the rebel looking for a cause. Which means we'll be able to harness this fiery, fearless energy to make things happen. But it's also possible we'll have so much reckless energy now that we take things too far, or act so impulsively that we make mistakes.
Mars in Sagittarius is a much more externally high spirited placement, compared to the energy of Mars in Scorpio, which can be much more directed, strategic, and militant. Sagittarius is a fire sign and so Mars is at home here, too. After leaving Scorpio, Mars in Sagittarius turns its sights on battles of a higher nature: culture and religion, ideas about God, belief systems in general. Mars in Sagittarius is a strong defender of people’s beliefs, and will defend other’s ideas even as they are vehemently arguing their own. It is quick to spot hypocrisy and quicker to shut it down.
Sagittarius is a sporty, athletic sign and Mars here likes to work up a sweat, preferably while outdoors. The environment and the outdoors are also favorite Sag themes and Mars in Sagittarius can be a champion for nature and animals. All that is well and good on its own.
In short - This combination should bring plenty of excitement into our lives over the next few weeks. Religious zeal, philosophical fighting, legal battles and overseas wars are expressions of this combination. Our best approach to this heated transit is to cool it with logic and a moment's pause before doing anything rash. We will have to look for the message behind the anger and try to work with it, rather than being worked over by it. Keep in mind that while you have been forewarned (and in essence can become forearmed), the less stable people around us will be more likely to get agitated and not handle it well. Just use caution this year, and pay attention to your surroundings. Please remember that while you’re maybe able to handle the stress, watch for the signs in others that would indicate they’re cracking.
New Moon Total Solar Eclipse in Pisces
This March features both a Solar and Lunar Eclipse. The New Moon Solar Eclipse occurs in the sign of Pisces on the 8th. This is a total Solar Eclipse, similar to last year's (on March 20th, 2015), and another will occur next March. We are awakened to the need for a spiritual vision. It's time to revitalize ourselves through experiences that require imagination, compassion, or that simply represent a "break" from the routine.
The New Moon is a time to begin new things, to be spontaneous. An eclipse is a significant event in the heavens. In truth, a solar eclipse is really a new moon on steroids and a lunar eclipse is a full moon on steroids - they have the strength of a new moon or full moon times three. They are here to create positive change, even if the way things play out isn't as comforting as most of us would like. We may be putting something to an end in order to begin anew. Nagging problems from the past need to be dealt with and put behind us. The range of emotions that Pisces registers is extraordinary, and this could be a time when we feel that enormous range.
We have the Sun in Pisces, New Moon, and a Total Solar Eclipse happening in the watery sign of Pisces. Like anything involving this much Pisces, you can also expect “full circle” moments or synchronicities or sly winks from the universe. A deep response to art, especially music. Picking up on unspoken, subliminal messages in the people around you. A need to connect with higher power or universal wisdom. Feeling cleansed or feeling lost. The extreme depth of emotions and heightened sensitivity will run the full spectrum of moods and leave a person overwhelmed.
In Pisces, imaginative undertakings, mystical or spiritual pursuits, inner development, music and drama, going on a retreat, activities involving water. Some people might even experience a fallout of some kind in the wake of the New Moon Solar Eclipse. The Eclipses in our lives bring illumination to varied areas in our lives. It is time to pay attention. Pisces, while ethereal and elusive, brings forth all of the truth to the forefront. Dreams should be potent, highly symbolic and maybe more than a little prophetic. I wrote about what to do during and for Eclipses here.
Venus Enters Pisces
Venus enters Pisces on the 12th, where it will transit until April 5th, stimulating a need to include, forgive, and understand, and a tendency to idealize or glamorize our feelings and relationships.
Venus in the lovely sign of Pisces brings a soft focus to everything. This is a sweet, kind, compassionate influence which can sweep us up on waves of romantic idealism. The definition of Venus as “the planet of love” seems especially reductive when confronted with the timeless ocean that is Pisces. As the last sign of the Zodiac, Pisces carries within it the experience of all the previous eleven archetypes; this sign represents an inclusive mode of consciousness that reconciles all the diversity and contradictions of reality in an undifferentiated, primordial soup.
As you can imagine, the Piscean experience of human bonding is one that carries us beyond the notion of two separate selves colliding. Love, for Pisces, can be everything and its opposite: elusive like a hall of mirrors, seducing as the call of sirens, an orgasmic experience of agony and ecstasy where we blend and merge with the object of our desire, perhaps only to find out that, just like Narcissus, we’ve been gazing at our own reflection all along. Whether you find this enticing or horrifying, the pull into this psychedelic, otherworldly vibe will be particularly intense with Venus drifting into Pisces.
The intoxicating eroticism of this planet/sign combination is famous for blurring out the details that don’t fit into the alluring, ethereal scenarios conjured by Pisces, and the mirroring/ projection dynamics that are commonly associated with this sign can make it hard to tell other people’s wants and needs from ours, with the risk of getting involved into something that doesn’t really resonate with our values. With its all-pervading magic, Venus in Pisces can help us flow around obstacles in our love life, and transcend the circumstances that block us from accessing what we value the most; the odds of sudden u-turns in strained relationships are high, but so is the likelihood of delusions. In the equanimous, oneiric world of Pisces, the line between miracles and wishful thinking can be extraordinarily hard to define.
And still, as much as we’re obviously advised to remain aware of whatever projection or mirroring effect we’re experiencing, swimming with the tide is still the only possible option. When it comes to Pisces, there is no progress without a certain degree of surrender; this might mean surrendering our pride and Ego to a co-creative act that allows us to interact with the cosmic intelligence, being open to forgiveness, letting go when it’s needed, or embracing circumstances that might seem illogical to our rational mind even though our intuition says that we currently needthat certain experience in order to broaden our understanding of Love. Pisces is about faith; sometimes, there is no guarantee that things will go according to our plan, and we simply need to wait and see.
Sometimes, going with the flow is the only key for our (love) life to fall into place. If there’s one thing Venus in Pisces can teach us a lot about, that’s love as its highest potential – a mystical pathway of conscious communion with a higher intelligence within and above us.
Jupiter Trine Pluto
As with the sextile aspect, the trine indicates the potential of releasing a powerful creative energy emerging from a humanistic and spiritual perspective, which will be of positive use to yourself and the world.
During Jupiter trine Pluto you’ll likely feel more powerful, capable and lucky than usual, especially if planets in your chart are triggered. However this won’t happen without effort on your part. Remember the old adage ‘God helps those who help themselves’? Well this certainly applies here. Sitting at home waiting for good fortune to fall in your lap is not going to make the most of this transit, but step out into the world and your way will be smoothly paved.
Synchronicity, that strange phenomenon of happy coincidence where the right person or event comes into your life when you need it, will be more common during Jupiter trine Pluto. Keep an eye out for signs along your way: you hear about the same book or website three times in a short period, you bump into an old friend the day after dreaming about her, that kind of thing. Take these signs seriously and pursue them: they will very likely lead to opportunities.
This trine harmoniously links the qualities of Jupiter – growth, abundance, optimism, vision, faith, freedom, and wisdom – with the Plutonic principles of power, control, elimination, death and rebirth, truth, and transformation. Both Jupiter and Pluto are associated with wealth, and depending on other indications in a birth chart, people who have these planets well placed and in aspect to each other in their chart are often canny investors who can manifest financial abundance.
It also brings together two of the earth signs – Virgo and Capricorn – further highlighting the potential of this aspect to help us to move forward with plans to acquire resources, build financial and material security, and achieve recognition and success.
With Jupiter in Virgo trine Pluto in Capricorn, we have the opportunity to gain some power over a part of our life and potentially transform it for the long-term, through working diligently, eliminating commitments, possessions, fears, or anything else that’s preventing us from growing, up-levelling our skills and knowledge, being of service to the world, doing the right thing, and sincerely speaking our truth. Thankfully, Mercury will have just gone direct in Libra by the time the first trine comes around so this will help boost Jupiter’s strength.
This trine is the closing aspect of the Jupiter-Pluto cycle that began with their conjunction at 28 degrees of Sagittarius (Jupiter was strongly placed in his own sign then) on 12 December 2007. This cycle has passed the “Full Moon” phase – that is, the period where Jupiter opposed Pluto between August 2013 and April 2014 – so we’ve experienced the full manifestation of whatever we seeded in late 2007 and we’re now in the waning half of the cycle. How this closing trine manifests for us depends on what was revealed to us at the opposition. If we realized the potential of this Jupiter-Pluto cycle in a positive way, we can now move forward through sharing our truth and wisdom with others and using our expanded influence to make the world a better place. If we realized at the opposition that we weren’t on the right path or that our vision was misguided, this waning trine could see us letting go of our goals and releasing ourselves from commitments in order to prepare for the seeding of a new empowering vision at the next Jupiter-Pluto conjunction (24 degrees of Capricorn, 5 April 2020).
Something else we should keep in mind with this configuration is the importance of “working” a trine aspect. We can often let the opportunities brought about by trines to slide on by due to laziness or because we think there’ll be better opportunities waiting for us down the track. We do have to work trines, even trines involving lucky Jupiter, in order to make the most of them. The upside is that if we do put in some effort, and it’s backed by the right intentions – in the case of this trine, a desire to move society forward as well as ourselves – then we can enjoy some pretty amazing outcomes!
During Jupiter trine Pluto your faith in yourself will be contagious. When you expect things to work out well others will see no reason why you should fail and this powerful combining of confident expectation will see your success increase exponentially.
Take the time to clarify within yourself where your power lies. There are some things we can change and others that are outside our control. For example Jupiter trine Pluto will not help you force someone to change, but it will support you in transforming your own attitude to the situation and when you approach the person in a loving manner it can give you a boost of inner power that can be very influential. It is about being proactive and not reactive.
As Jupiter rules long-distance travel a trip taken during Jupiter trine Pluto will probably be a very powerful and potentially life-changing experience, as it is likely that you will meet people and encounter experiences that open up new possibilities in your life. Remain alert and open to ideas and perspectives that are outside of your field of experience and perhaps even your comfort zone; these could be keys to something new and exciting. Here I come, Spring Break! Hahaha, no but really, try to pay attention to what energy you are putting out! What possibilities are opening up to you at the present moment?
Jupiter trine Pluto is like a powerful engine headed towards a fantastic destination. Pluto provides the fuel while Jupiter ensures we are heading in the right direction. The only way we can lose here is if we put on the brakes, a real danger as on the same day Jupiter trine Pluto is exact, Venus will square Saturn, an energy that can undermine self-confidence. Whatever you do during Jupiter trine Pluto don’t let fear hold you back from moving forward!
Take advantage of Jupiter trine Pluto by taking steps towards change that you may have been putting off. Actions made during this time will have particular power and you will find that when you step out the universe will come to meet you. Synchronicity and happy coincidences will support even the most small steps you take towards change and with the ambitious energy of Pluto pushing you forward this transit can really take you places.
Are there dreams you have been trying to realize? This is the time to start bringing those things into fruition. It is time to illuminate and shine! You have the potential to really bring forth some amazing magic, and the starting line is this month!
So, this month will be one full of so much energy and having to really deal with our decisions. Not just from an emotional standpoint, but also from a place where we see how we project our ideals in our relationships, how we deal with the excessive energy in a positive manner, and also allow our intentions to really be followed through with decisive action. Be present!
I will cover some of the rest of the month's upcoming aspects, closer to the 20th. I will also do my Astrology post covering Aries - Sun, Moon, and Ascendant information, so don't forget to come back and check it out!
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Stay amazing, my friends!
