New Moon in Aries
March 24
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
- Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”
What a last few weeks this has been. First: I hope you and yours are well, safely ensconced in homes with all the comfort food and coffee or tea that you could possibly require.
Second: This pandemic has really brought out the rise and grind capitalist nature of our industry, hasn’t it?
You do not have to be good.
Usually, when writing about new moons - especially for writers - I would focus on how this is a great time, full of energy, to start new projects. That may be the case for you. But it also may not. This moon comes with a built-in emergency exit from that call to productivity, and that is the fact that Chiron, the wounded healer, is sitting right there with the sun and the moon saying, Be still. Pay attention to what hurts. Sink into your body. Honor what you need - and what you want.
A global crisis is not a time to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting, lamenting the fact that you didn’t send that pitch, haven’t started that revision. Let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Treat your body kindly; it’s your vessel. Speak to yourself with gratitude, patience, and respect, as you would a friend. Let yourself love and crave; let your mind wander.
Your worth is not in your productivity. Creative output requires creative input. If you don’t rest, burnout is a guarantee.
Listen to how this new moon is calling you. Consider this new moon - the first of the zodiacal new year here in Aries season, fresh off the vernal equinox - an opportunity to start inhabiting your relationship to your own creative energy and expectations of that energy in new ways. This energy calls for bold confrontation, for setting out on a new path. Let that new path emerge.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Saturn in Aquarius
March 21, 2020-July 1, 2020 (when it will retrograde back into Capricorn); then again, for the next few years, on December 17, 2020
We honor the new moon in the wake of the great taskmaster, Saturn, shifting signs for the first time in years: from empire-building Capricorn to community-minded, innovative Aquarius. Saturn, the lord of winter, rules both of these signs, which are so oriented toward building structures that will last. But in Aquarius, there is a shift, a focus: let’s break down the structures that don’t serve us. Let’s build a new life, in our own image.
How will this long transit - that we will be discussing for years to come - invite you to examine and reshape your structures, commitments, and relationship to time in varying parts of life? Here’s a quick guide to where your focus may be:
For Aries Risings… communities, friendships, and humanitarian efforts
For Taurus Risings… career, public image, identification/reaching of long-term goals
For Gemini Risings… publishing, higher education, beliefs/philosophy, long-term journeys
For Cancer Risings… shared resources, taxes, inheritance, death (metaphorical)
For Leo Risings… committed partnerships, including business partnerships that involve contracts (agents, editors)
For Virgo Risings… everyday work life, routines around individual health/wellness
For Libra Risings… creative energy and playfulness, also children
For Scorpio Risings… home, roots, lineage, family
For Sagittarius Risings… daily routine, everyday writing, short-term journeys, relationships with siblings and neighbors
For Capricorn Risings… material resources and financial income, sense of self-worth
For Aquarius Risings… relationship to yourself and your identity, the public nature of your work as it is associated with you as a person
For Pisces Risings… spirituality, the subconscious, working behind-the-scenes on projects
A note for those of you born with Saturn in Aquarius in the early 1990s: This marks the beginning moment where themes will start emerging for your Saturn Return. Some astrologers consider the entire 2.5 years that Saturn is in a sign to be a person’s Saturn Return; generally, I focus on the weeks surrounding the point where this transiting Saturn exactly reconnects with your natal Saturn as the real crucible where themes come to a head.
But the transit’s long years do hold much thematic work for you around your relationship to responsibility, structure, time management, and career, if you’re willing to engage. Saturn Returns don’t happen to us; they are an inextricable part of the growing up process, challenging you to take responsibility and accept the consequences for your choices. Saturn is the taskmaster of the zodiac, sometimes called Father Time, said to govern our karma - ever keeping us grounded. Lean in to what this period brings up for you. Every day is not going to be a crisis, but every day is an opportunity for you to do that hard internal work of spinning straw into gold.
Mark Your Calendar
March 30
Mercury in Pisces clears its retrograde shadow
Finally, at last, the planet of communication, ideas, and travel clears its retrograde shadow. Technology issues and two-ships-in-the-night conversations get clear. However, Mercury is still in Pisces, where it’s more about dreamy metaphor than concrete narrative, so be extra direct in your communication with people, especially as it’s more likely to be over the phone/text.
Mars enters Aquarius
We get a slight reprieve in the heavy urge to work work work as the planet of action shifts from Capricorn, where it is powerfully driven to accomplish, into Aquarius, where it feels lighter and easier on the mind even as it is driven toward intellectual action.
March 31
Mars in Aquarius conjunct Saturn in Aquarius
Powerful energy that could go a number of ways. Some folks may feel extra-inspired to get things done, as active Mars and taskmaster Saturn meet, no doubt helping all of us get clear on our next steps. However, Mars and Saturn are also really tough planets to work with, and this day may tend toward the depressive end of the scale for some. Honor what your body needs; the work will still be there. There’s a lot of activity in the sky to hook into, when you’re ready for it.
April 3
Venus enters Gemini
We all might find ourselves a little unsettled with the being at home, as Venus shifts from Taurus, which so loves a good comfort food situation, shifts to Gemini, where it requires mental activity, exciting group conversations, new intellectual stimulation. This is a high input/output energy situation. Schedule your group chats in advance.
April 4
Jupiter in Capricorn conjunct Pluto in Capricorn
A potent day where our ideas and beliefs are thrown into the fire of transformation. How will they emerge? A good day for journaling, introspection, and sitting with long-term projects that may be in need of some fresh energy.
Next time - a post for paid subscribers only - we will be discussing:
