Pisces New Moon: February 20
The Sun enters Pisces at 5:34PM ET on Saturday, February 18, plunging us into the final sign of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Pisces is a nocturnal “mute sign” and its significations unfold internally. Jupiter’s quest for knowledge is a personal practice of embodying ideals. Compassion, sacrifice, and unconditional love are the paths Pisces draws us down. From now until the Vernal Equinox on March 20, we’re invited to explore devotion through the realms of artistic engagement and spiritual exploration.
All water signs are intuitive and empathic, and none more so than Pisces. We become moved by subtle forces beneath the surface that can’t be seen but are surely felt. The mutability of Pisces makes it easily swayed. The double fishes ride with the waves and change with the tides. Its supple system is extremely sensitive to its surroundings. It's hard to see underwater. The sonar of Pisces is constantly pinging off millions of little bits to understand its environment and make sense of experience. We can get confused during Pisces season. Our priorities become unclear. Things get murky as it’s difficult to differentiate where “I” end and other people begin. The unfocused energy of Pisces can get folks stranded on strange islands. Yet this softening in the heart can feel like a balm after the intensity of Aquarius season.
Sun Saturn cazimi 2023
The Sun-Saturn cazimi at 27°44 Aquarius on February 16, was an empowering or difficult moment, depending on your experience. Saturn can make or break us, and given enough time it does both. We set our sights on a goal, move towards mastery, and once we’ve achieved it, Saturn destroys our identification with that form. Then it's onto the next one. Not in the way of hurried consumption or vainglorious achievement, but in the manner of the Wheel of Time. All things pass, and we continue to evolve along with it. If we stay clutching to something we become stuck. A cazimi is a peak moment of revelation, but the Sun-Saturn conjunction can destroy identification in a way that feels harsh or disillusioning.
The Sun and Saturn are always in relationship to each other, but sometimes the play between them feels antagonistic. The Sun represents authority and illumination; both traditional rulership and divine intelligence. Saturn, as the shadow of that celebrated light, holds the unpopular position of revealing hidden weaknesses or shortcomings of important figures in our lives. If we have imbued a person, place, or thing with a particular power, then we need them to access that energy. It can be devastating to lose someone, or the idea of who they are, and what they represent in our lives. But Saturn is just pointing out the limitations of our beliefs so we can transcend it. As our spiritual journey evolves, we continue to move through stages.
Similar to Hekate, Saturn is both a portal and guide into the next phase. Saturn helps us to go beyond the intermediary. It creates a bridge between where we are and the true source, which is, of course, divinity. Saturn in Aquarius empowers us from within by forcing us to develop our own ability. In creating the need to connect directly with empowering energy, Saturn propels us down the path of our destiny. This was the final conjunction of Saturn and the Sun in Aquarius until 2051. Hopefully you used the moment well.
After we die we rest. Pisces is connected with the womb of creation from which we emerge and return. It was a banger ending to Aquarius season and we all deserve to chill a little bit. The first weekend of Pisces season invites us to take a beat after the fixed sign fiasco. Although the softening energy feels good, we’re not quite out of Saturn’s woods yet.
News comes our way when the Moon conjoins Mercury in Aquarius as the Sun enters Pisces at 5:34PM ET on Saturday, February 18. This is a good evening for conversation and exploration, especially around what Aquarius season has meant to us. Luna is in a balsamic phase, waning towards newness, so we won’t feel particularly energetic and shouldn't try to do too much. Sunday night could bring difficult discussions when the Moon conjoins Saturn at the cazimi degree on February 19. Whatever occurred on Thursday will get revisited for digestion and deeper understanding at this time.
The New Moon at 01°22 Pisces at 2:06AM ET on February 20, is an opportunity for a fresh start. Pisces is signified by the Moon card in the tarot Major Arcana. In the Rider-Waite-Smith, the depiction is of a New Moon, possibly an eclipse, situated between two pillars. Luna’s face obscures the Sun, representing the nocturnal primacy of emotions over intellect. Although we live in a solar consciousness society, there is equality in the sky. The Moon and Sun share half of the 24 hour period and evenly split the 12 months. Pisces is the last sign before the Vernal Equinox on March 20, when we switch into the solar time of the year of more day than night. Before then, we dip into the psychic waters of Oneness before being reborn at Aries season.
The Moon Tarot Card
The traditional significations of The Moon card are ominous: the darkness we fear, a place where we face danger, and go astray. The braying dogs are harbingers of trouble and the crayfish represents what was once repressed that has now emerged to be witnessed and integrated. But we don’t need to be afraid of the dark if we make time and space for our shadow work. The monsters of the lagoon won’t suddenly arise to drag us down if we’ve already become friends with them in safe and contained environments. It is only the parts of us that we disavow and ignore that come back to destroy us.
Jupiter is ruling this lunation from Aries, where it has been since December 20, 2022. Pisces energy is dissolving, but there is a cardinal initiation towards the new. The gateway of The Moon leads us down unknown paths. The scary part is we can’t see where we’re going. All of Jupiter’s signs teach us faith, and Pisces is about our personal relationship with divinity. Do you want to follow? Do you resist going where you're being led? Its hard to believe things will work out OK after they've been terribly hard.
The easy energy of Pisces season can reveal our inner resistance. We may not want to go with the flow if it forces us to acknowledge there are bigger forces propelling our journey. The purpose of Pisces is to reveal the opening in our hearts that connects us with the entire cosmos. We comprehend the care with which we’ve been directed when we reach that threshold. The New Moon wants us to swim through it, even if we have no idea what form we’ll take on the other side.
The Moon is an agent of rebirth. This lunation in the first degree of Pisces, the sign of rebirth, is an opportunity to set strong spiritual intentions before Saturn enter Pisces on March 7, and begins rearranging things. Jupiter’s transit through Pisces last year expanded our desires and understanding of this area of life. Pay attention to the visions that flow forth now while you still have vast seas and an open mind. This is the last lunation free from Saturn for 3 years. We get an exalted parting kiss from Venus at the final degree of Pisces before departing for Aries minutes later.
Pisces season is a shapeshifter. It shows us that nothing is as firm as we’d like to believe. But that softness is an opportunity to become flexible enough to meet what comes next with the grace of a leaping dolphin. Happy trails.