Dear Readers,
Because it was 73 degrees in Seattle today and I finished my tax prep this week, I pushed aside my other responsibilities and spent the afternoon beginning the process of reimagining and renovating my vegetable garden beds. As I was detangling the pea vine support apparatus, I happened to look up and see the moon directly overhead in the bluest sky this year. Oh hello Luna… She’s a first quarter Gemini Moon, almost exactly at the first quarter. With a Gemini Moon in my own birth chart, this Moon feels particularly friendly. Every month when she enters Gemini, a part of my nervous system unwinds. It feels like she’s come home—my version anyway. I stood there for a few moments, tools forgotten, gazing up at her. She’ll move into her “real” home in Cancer around 1am tonight, but for now, she’s playing my song.
It’s a neat way to track the energy of the signs if you can feel the shift. Air sign Gemini is ruled by busy Mercury, both the messenger and communicator of the gods. His winged sandals and helmet clue us in to his speed, one of the characteristic traits of the Gemini mind as it flits from one curiosity to another like a bee gathering pollen. Cancer, on the other hand is a water sign connected with intuition and the emotions. It’s the sign of the mother, and of home and family. From the extraverted outward-focused, hyper-stimulated mental energy of Gemini today, we move to the slower, more inward-focused, security-oriented, and nurturing energy of Cancer tomorrow.
In the wee hours of the renowned astrological holiday known as St Patrick’s Day, the Sun and Neptune come together at 27 Pisces. This is when the gods paint the heavens a deep green and just for good measure add a faint emerald hue to the starlight—but only in eclipse season. Don’t try to make sense of that sentence or anything else tomorrow, but do take note of dreams. There’s a boundlessness and boundaryless feeling here including access to the subconscious mind. This can be a magical time for meditation, prayer, imaginative creative pursuits, inspiration and compassionate listening. The challenges are the usual when we’re so open—escapism and overwhelm. We’ve all likely been feeling this transit for a couple days already, and it will linger in the air for a couple more. Patience with self and others during this time as we drift a little would be kind.
Over the next week and a half, we have a lot to consider astrologically—and probably personally as well. I’ve often thought about writing something regarding how to “use” astrological information, such as I focus on in this Substack, not in an instructive way, because that makes no sense to me. Some of us might like crackling contentious energy and some undone by it. Like how the Moon in Gemini feels comforting to me, but to a Cancer Moon, that same energy might be exhausting and they might just want to SLOW EVERYTHING DOWN dammit. So, what to do with all of this?
I think of the current layout of the planets in the sky (and thus in the chart) as a window into the forces at play in the Universe. Certain energies are active. How we respond to them is unique. The way I imagine it, the connections made by the planets (and the asteroids, fixed stars etc), give us an understanding of how the different flavors of energy are interacting with each other at any given moment. When I write about my favorite Moon in Gemini for example, I note how the energy of the Moon (nurturing, body-oriented, security-focused) combined with Gemini’s Mercurial energy feeds me. I’m nourished by good mind-bending conversation, but I’m not great at self-care. (Note to self after my digging and rock moving today: Practice being gentle with my body tomorrow.)
I don’t think any of these forces necessarily “mean” anything, as in one-to-one correspondences, and thus, expecting anything particular to ensue because the Moon is in Gemini doesn’t make sense. But being curious while present in our bodies in time gives us an opportunity to notice the energies of the moment both internally and externally, and allows us to respond to them consciously, in our own unique way.
Here’s what’s on the near horizon and the energies in play. One of my astrology “games” is to notice how the transits show up in the world around me (and inside my head—only that’s often not as much fun). See what you notice…
On March 19 the Sun moves into Aries... the sign of “I am”, the first sign of the zodiac, the day of the March Equinox and first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. One of my teachers with a huge number of planets in Aries calls it the “Ready, Fire, Aim” sign. Aries is pioneering, spontaneous, impatient and courageous. Aries embodied looks like making choices that align with my I am-ness and in the direction of what I believe to be most meaningful. It’s a competitive risk-taking energy ruled by Mars, the god of war. We’re all honorary Aries’s between March 19 and April 19. Maybe you’ll feel the fire too.
Also on March 19, Mercury starts giving us clues about his upcoming retrograde. The trickster planet stations retrograde in Aries on April 1 (not a joke) and will retrace his steps back to this point in the chart. It’s often referred to as the shadow and if we’re paying attention, themes that appear during the retrograde period are likely to start pinging our attention during these couple weeks.
On March 22 we have a Venus-Saturn conjunction. We’ll be feeling it from roughly Monday through next Saturday. This transit has a reputation for being challenging. Venus is the goddess of love and beauty. She’s exalted in Pisces, like she’s on a pedestal with handsome princes feeding her peeled grapes while being serenaded by a string quartet. She represents the feminine principles of attraction and receptivity, whereas Saturn represents the principle of contraction. He's the god of time and necessity, interested in maturity and responsibility. When we put the two of them together, we find commitment in relationships, but also worry and constraint around pleasure and enjoyment. Saturnian responsibilities might seem to take up all the air in the room while necessary or essential concerns take center stage. Sobriety around our values will likely be up and we might have to do some Spring pruning if there’s more competition for our time and attention than we have to give. This transit is notorious for bringing up rejection and heartbreak, and compassion might be harder to access, but then again, with Venus exalted here, perhaps there’s enough love to crack open our hearts despite or in defiance of Saturn’s weighty constraints.
Also on March 22, Mars moves into Pisces: I think of this placement as the spiritual warrior roused to fight by compassion for the suffering; a devotional energy. The usual martial sense of urgency can be slowed and softened here. Think of a warrior rushing into the sea, sword raised, only to be slowed or stopped in his tracks by the current and waves. And in that pause and the humility of not being in control, there’s room for forgiveness and the release of past hurt.
Finally, on March 24-25 straddling the midnight PDT Full Moon in Aries, we have the first eclipse of the season. It begins at 9:53pm PDT. The full astronomical details about visibility are here: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2024-march-25 .
What will it bring? A perfect opportunity to be present with the energy and curious… Truly, if you’ve been reading Mercurial Musings for a while, you’ve heard me talk about eclipses as wild card energy before. This is a South Node eclipse so it’s likely to bring up stuff from the past. It’s at 5 degrees of Libra, the sign most linked to relationships—ruled by an exalted Venus, and where Saturn is exalted. So, we have lots of Venus and Saturn energy highlighted just after the Venus-Saturn conjunction. At the time of the eclipse, Venus and Jupiter will be in mutual reception, meaning they’re in each other’s signs. Additionally, they’re sextile to each other, they’re in a cooperative type of harmony, happy to work together. Like all lunar eclipses, it’s a Full Moon, suggesting a harvest of past experience. With the Sun in Aries and Moon in Libra (the sign of the scales) there’s a balance sought between relationship to self and relationship to other, which is perhaps the essence of right relationship. To me, all of this suggests a process of harvesting hard earned wisdom and maturity gained from experience in relationships, aesthetics, music, art or beauty to bring our lives more closely into balance and integrity with our deeper sense of I am-ness.
While an eclipse takes place over a short duration of time, it is a process. During a lunar eclipse the moon moves into the shadow of the earth, darkening its face, and moves out the other side. Similarly, eclipse energy is usually about a process for us as well.
May we all find balance and harmony in all of our relationships such that it lead to greater peace in the world.
Now that we’re in eclipse season and the wild astrology of April is warming up, we’re all in the throes of big change. 2024 through 2026 promise to be big years astrologically, and if you’d like to know how all of this is likely to land in relation to you, I’d be delighted to serve as your guide to the star map known as your birth chart. Email me for details: camelliablossoms@gmail.com or…
As always, thank you for reading,
Cami