Although a shake-up month, March has a lovely balancing period towards the end. With two eclipses, Mercury shifting forward, and the after-effects of Saturn opposite Neptune, it’s no wonder there’s a bit of turmoil. It’s like being up in a plane and encountering turbulence mid-flight. The autumn equinox later in the month signals that a safe landing is assured, despite the rugged weather.
Most of you will have received my ‘eclipse alert bulletin’ informing you of the lunar eclipse on 4 March. I had quite a few feedback emails reporting various eclipse insights, not to mention Mercury retrograde bloopers! Lunar eclipses intensify the feminine energy, usually through bringing information from the depths of our unconscious or through the heights of our psychic antennae. If the information has trouble getting through to our conscious mind we can become anxious or panicky. And when the information does get through, our perceptions are forever changed. Essentially the 4 March eclipse was a consciousness-raising whopper around the benefits of feminine wisdom in our world, giving strength to an ability in both men & women to more fully embrace the intelligence of intuitive inner knowing. Being in Virgo the lunar eclipse brought us into body wisdom. How open do our life force channels feel? Is our libido flowing or is it getting blocked in contracted muscles or aching bones?
On Monday 19 March there will be a partial solar eclipse accompanying the New Moon in Pisces. Solar eclipses activate the masculine principle. This particular eclipse is in alignment with Pluto, the god of the underworld. It seems there’s more unconscious material wanting to surface at this next eclipse, this time from Pluto’s underworld realm. When the masculine combines with Pluto, we are challenged to become courageous warriors of truth. Pisces is the zodiac sign most associated with confusion, illusion and deception, and Pluto is the planet most associated with recognising and naming what’s ‘crap’ (to put it as Pluto would!). Afterall, being the god of the underworld, Pluto has a clear view of everything we try to push under the carpet in the name of keeping up appearances. It’ll be interesting to see what Pluto unearths for each of us on the 19th! Usually our ‘crap’ gets revealed through drama & crisis, the drama often being our attempts at diverting attention from what we’d rather keep hidden. Or sometimes it simply takes a ‘drama’ for what’s been hidden, or gestating, to be raised to the surface. This is the drama of birthing, of labour pains. There is always wealth to be found in whatever Pluto drags up from the depths - so keep your eye out for the gold sparkling in the dross.
If this all sounds a bit heavy or burdensome, be heartened by the knowledge that the autumn equinox on the 21st is the balancing point when a new astrological year begins as the Sun enters zero degrees Aries. Each year we have two equinoxes - autumn and spring - and at both of these times day and night are at equal length. This is a powerful symbol of a balanced masculine and feminine dynamic, and on 21 March this is especially something to look forward to after the intense agitating energies of the feminine lunar eclipse and the masculine solar eclipse. Let’s declare 21 March a day of unified masculine & feminine! Our courageous masculine sides will be strengthened from facing the dragons of the dark and claiming golden treasures, and our intuitive feminine sides will be emboldened by greater acceptance of symbolic, creative body wisdom. Equinoxes are cosmic wedding days - opportunities to combine our inner masculine and feminine, but also opportunities to celebrate the external manifestations of this inner balance through acceptance, and integration of, difference in our relationships.
Go ahead and crack open the champagne on the 21st, but don’t let the celebration be shortlived by slipping back into old habits of pushing unpleasant issues under the carpet, or acting as if difficult experiences aren’t happening when they are. I say this because transiting Mars gets into an encounter with Neptune from the 23rd to the 30th. Perhaps this is the universe’s way of immediately challenging us to put what we’ve learnt from the eclipses into action. Will we be able to maintain the ability to discern truth from illusion by using a combination of masculine courage and feminine body wisdom? Will we be able to acknowledge and validate all of what happens in each of our moments, or will we once again slip into only giving attention to the bits that look good on the surface? On the 31st Pluto gives us a wave goodbye as he turns and heads retrograde back into the underworld. But let us not rest on our laurels because he’ll be scouting around down there looking for more dross to flash in our faces if we go into denial again. Finally, Mercury on the 28th comes back to the place in the zodiac where it first went retrograde in February. What a relief - things should run more smoothly from then on.