On February 23rd at 11:30am EST the moon will have completed her journey around the sun, coming back to be reborn at 4 degrees of Pisces.
At this point, the moon has completed a full journey around the zodiac, a journey which began on January 24th at the new moon in Aquarius. Now the Sun has transversed one complete sign, and this new moon occurs under the auspices of another zodiacal sign: Pisces.
For those unfamiliar, new moons indicate new beginnings in astrology. Having gone through the whole zodiac throughout the previous month and accumulated all kinds of energies from the other planets and signs, this is her opportunity to cleanse herself and be washed clean by the energies of the sun. In her life cycle, she has just passed away as a crone, and is now reborn as a maiden, to begin the cycle all over again.
And as the moon begins her new cycle, so too do we all begin a new cycle afresh as well.
New moons are famed for being excellent times to set new intentions and goals. Magically speaking, the obscured, geminating moon can be likened to a fallow field – an empty bed rife with possibility and potential. The seeds and intentions planted at the last new moon have culminated, their fruit has ripened, and the leftovers have fertilized the soil, making it ready for new seeds and intentions to come again. As such, they make excellent opportunities to set new intentions and plant new seeds in the fertile soil of your own subconscious.
This is the general rubric for new moons, but each year a new moon occurs within each of the twelve different signs. And each year, the configurations of other planets, especially the moon’s sign ruler, make it unique and one-of-a-kind. Let’s go through and see what will make this one special.
New moon in Pisces
This month, the new moon occurs in the fertile, watery, mutable sign of Pisces.
Pisces is by far the most mystical of signs of the zodiac. The final sign of the twelve, she is above all representative of endings and liminal spaces. Pisceans therefore naturally live their lives with one foot in the other side, where the boundary between self and other begins to wane. They are the most apt to tap into non-dual states of awareness, and least likely to hold on to fixed labels or be appreciative of borders and boundaries.
Pisces is the nighttime, yin home of Jupiter. While Neptune and Pisces share some surface-level similarities, it is Jupiter who traditionally ruled this sign. Jupiter is the spiritual teacher, the guru, the lord of wisdom. He expands boundaries, pushes us out of our comfort zone, and provides us with tremendous abundance - both spiritual and financial.
In Sagittarius, his yang home, this takes form of a proselytizer, someone who believes they have found the truth and is ready to share it with the rest of the world. In Pisces, it takes the form of a mystic, someone who has expanded truly beyond herself until there is no individual self at all – just the whole. Though the Piscean individual may experience many ups and downs in their life, all her experiences will help her realize her true self that rests in the totality of all that is – not her individualized, current-day ego.
I could spend an entire book analyzing Jupiter, his role as the spiritual teacher, and Pisces’ place in all this. But suffice it to say for now that you can certainly expect some non-dual, boundary-crossing (in a good way) experiences and synchronicities to surface for you – the kind that help you to realize that we are all connected, and that separation is ultimately an illusion. This is an excellent time to begin some excavation regarding what you can do in your life to begin reaching mystical states and expanding your own consciousness: consider if there are things you can do or practices you can take up, to help you return to your own true awareness in that absolute reality in which Pisces constantly rests.
Because of the watery nature of this sign, many of the lessons of this new moon come to us through our emotions. The lessons and the events which you must confront or accept will involve interpersonal or intrapersonal excavation. How you relate to others and how you relate to yourself will come into greater clarity, and the way your emotional body reacts to the events and circumstances in your life will become more crystallized for you.
The moon forms several major aspects to other planets this month, so you will definitely be feeling more intense energy than usual for a new moon. This time the astrologically effects should manifest in the emotional realm, and you may find yourself having some mood swings or feeling like you’re on a rollercoaster and you clear the way for the new intentions you are setting.
This month the moon conjoins a retrograding Mercury in Pisces shortly after the new moon event. Last month I said it would be a great time for communicating and sharing your process with other people, this time not so much: since Mercury is very debilitated during this period, you will be more likely to stick your foot in your mouth than anything. You’ll be much better off staying more inward and reflective, using this as a time to enter into your process on your own.
We have another Capricorn stellium this time, with Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter all forming superior sextiles to the Moon.
The sextile to Mars is separating, but you can still expect more energy and passion which may at times get overwhelming – think moon swings again, as I mentioned above. Since mars is especially powerful in Capricorn, you may be more prone to use the intense emotions that come up for you constructively.
As Saturn is the lord of death and endings, he may gently nudge you (a la sextile) to release patterns and relationships that are not serving you. Non-attachment is one of his biggest lessons, and that will especially come to the fore in the mutable water sign of Pisces.
Jupiter will provide emotional buoyancy, and the fact that the moon aspects him positively and he is her currently zodiacal ruler with help to crystallize what comes up for you more fully – the new moon will not pass you by, and chances are that you will gain some kind of profound insight or forward momentum from this new moon, especially since profound spiritual experiences are the domain of Jupiter.
Water sign dominant people, with major planetary configurations in Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces, will feel this moon very strongly. For them it will be more of a positive experience, as they can traverse emotional realms and handle emotional intensity more easily than the rest of us. I recommend really using this as an opportunity to explore tricky interpersonal or intrapersonal situations in your life and find clarity on how to move forward with them – your natural emotional intelligence will be heightened during this period.
Sagittarius, Virgo, and Gemini dominant people will find this moon to be a little more difficult. Gemini may feel the need to run from emotional exploration, since such things cannot be as easily processed by the rational mind, especially since Virgo’s ruler Mercury is currently in detriment in Pisces. Virgo, like Gemini, may feel easily overwhelmed by emotion, and have difficulty coming to any sort of resolution or closure with what comes up for them. Sagittarius may find emotional confrontation and depth-exploration to be more difficult, and it may feel like sandpaper against their optimistic, self-confident nature.
To these three signs I would recommend having a moonstone on or around you for the new moon and the days following it. Chanting or doing ritual to the moon will also help to integrate this energy more easily and help you find clarity on where to go from here. And the age-old trick of just sitting and being with your emotions, no matter how irksome or painful, will be sure to be better than running from them or suppressing them.
Check your own natal chart to see which house this new moon falls in. The house placement will determine the area of life in which outside events related to this new moon will arise most strongly. This is easy to do with whole-sign houses so long as you know your rising sign: just count however many number of signs from your rising sign to Pisces, and that’s the house in which it will fall. Taurus rising will have the new moon in their 3rd, house, Sagittarius rising in the 10th, etc.