During a Silent Hour: Sun enters Pisces

Maybe there’s something about this timing that actually works in our favor. Pisces is the last sign in our Northern Hemisphere winter. As this season loosens its grip, nature begins offering signs of the transition — though it’s never a straight shot. One day the sap is flowing in the maple trees; the next a snowstorm howls through to re-freeze things (at least, here in Maine). How apropos of Pisces, with its two fish swimming in opposite directions?

Yet overall, the trajectory is clear: approaching the Aries equinox (spring in this part of the world) and the impulse to “Begin anew!”

It helps to have a vision for what you are beginning, and a sense of what you are serving. It can be useful to process what has not been cleared, completed, or brought forth fully during the preceding eleven signs. Both sides of that coin describe Pisces: it is an incredibly creative, intuitive, visionary, compassionate, and service-oriented sign, and also the so-called “dustbin of the zodiac.”

Bearing all that in mind, I was struck by something in the chart for the Sun’s Pisces arrival: the Moon conjunct Mercury at 11 Aquarius, precise to the arc minute.

My first thought: “It looks like a message coming through.” The Moon — object of intuition, emotion, and the subconscious — teaming up with Mercury, the planet of intellect, thought processes, and communication. They meet just at the moment the Sun (consciousness) arrives in possibly the most intuitive, subtle, and creative sign.

This planetary combination accompanying the Sun’s entrance to Pisces feels very supportive of Piscean themes: something new sparking up our inner cleanup of the prior year’s detritus, in the service of feeling into a vision that will guide the “invention” of our new twelve-month cycle when the equinox arrives. 

I don’t often check the Sabian symbols for astrological events (the Sabians are a series of channeled symbols and themes, one for each zodiac degree; I use Dane Rudhyar’s version). But today I did. And I smiled at the symbol for 11 Aquarius:

“During a silent hour, a man receives a new inspiration which may change his life.”

Keynote: “The need to rely on inner inspiration and guidance at the start of new developments.”

Pisces is a sensitive, psychic, introspective sign. I would expect such a symbol and description to accompany one of its degrees, rather than an Aquarian degree. But that’s not quite how the Sabians work. And here we have it making complete sense, thanks to synchronicity.

Within the next five weeks, Saturn will be leaving Aquarius for Pisces, and Pluto will be entering Aquarius (a temporary visit before entering for the long haul, but still one to watch). The ground of Aquarius and Pisces — whatever zone of your life they fall in — is being prepared for growth and changes. Saturn and Pluto are some intense energies shifting their tone and zone of expression, and I will be exploring them soon.

In the short term, if you find yourself able to carve out some time Saturday afternoon or evening for a “silent hour,” you may wish to journal or otherwise capture creatively any subtle ideas, feelings, messages, or sensations that come through.