This Month’s Astrology

Sun in Pisces conjunct Neptune

At the start of the month we have the Sun, Neptune, Eros, Psyche and the retrograding Mercury all in Pisces, generally describing an emotionally and psychically fluid period of time. And not just in terms of our own inner experience but also because Pisces heightens our psychic and emotional sensitivity to others and the general collective environment. So, in many ways our experience of this month is determined by how well we respond to all aspects of our emotional reality and, by how well we manage the psychic interface between ourselves and the environment.

The latter includes managing our own anxiety levels and that which we pick up from the huge amount of collective anxiety at the moment.

The Sun joining Neptune, which peaks on the eighth and ninth, represents both a spiritually gifted time but also a tricky time for us, in that it exaggerates this very same psychic and emotional sensitivity.

Tips for Handling Anxiety
It is totally understandable to be feeling some degree of anxiety, given the threats to our environmental and physical health, but is also important to understand the anxiety that is arising within us because of the various demands of our healing processes and the need for significant change.

If we tune into the Saturn Pluto process of deconstruction and reconstruction happening inside us, we would be feeling that the psychological foundation of our individuality is currently unstable, cracking on some edges and is at times wobbling. This is downright scary! When parts of our security systems and our ego structures are being shown to be redundant and invalid, what do we do while we’re waiting for new structures to emerge?

Similarly, the Chiron/Black Moon healing and purification process is both pushing up old fears and anxieties from the past, while frightening the pants off the psychically sensitive, and gifted, little one inside each of us, by dredging up the psychic emotional debris of wounded and toxic masculinity, and the terrifying distortions to the dark feminine, in our family systems. This is horrifying stuff from the child’s perspective, as is the very stuff that had most of us anaesthetising ourselves during our childhoods, out of sheer terror and shock.

Now, from the rational mind’s perspective this might sound over dramatic and exaggerated, but if you are ever in a position to speak to the little one inside, either by using inner child dialoguing, voice dialogue or psychodrama, you will find out more of the truth of things about his or her experience at the moment.

The reason I am pointing this out, is that the better we can attend to our inner healing processes and to the needs of the vulnerable child, it is not only going to the lower our inner levels of anxiety but will put us in a far better position to handle the collective anxiety around us.

Some things that you can do to look after yourself psychically at times like this are:

• Regular meditation, particularly meditations that help support our healing processes while releasing psychic emotional material.
• Reassure your inner child through regular attention and conversations using the above dialoguing practices.
• Use any psychic protection technique that works for you, whether it be white light visualisations, taking flower essences, Aurasoma etc, but do it regularly.
• Get good quality bodywork from sensitive and emotionally skilful practitioners.
• The Chiron and/or Golden Kali meditations (found on the website here) or any similar, especially those from the work of Sally Kempton in her book awakening Shakti, working with Kali and Durga (reflected astrologically in the Black Moon)

As it increases our internal psychic and emotional fluidity, it supports the flushing of old baggage, while softening the edges on our fears and resistances. Basically, it allows us to let go more easily, and to trust more fully energies that are beyond our rational control.

Jupiter joining Pluto in Capricorn  

This speaks of a reprieve from the hard-core Saturn/Pluto processes, with Jupiter bringing more obvious grace and positive flow to the transformative processes of this time (it is not as though there isn’t any grace associated with Saturn; it is just less obvious and is often not gift wrapped!)

Jupiter also enhances our ability to trust, to let go more easily but also to see more of the positive possibilities stemming from the deep change of this last 18 months. For most of you, I dare say, in the midst of the multiple challenges of this period, have also been getting flashes of insight, new visions and possibilities for the near future, as a consequence of the deconstruction of old internal blockages, negative beliefs systems and other hurdles to more inspired, and expansive forward movement.

Pluto also speaks of increasing one’s empowerment, allowing the individual to make a deeper impact on life, to harness their gifts to facilitate deep and positive change, and as agents of transformation. It’s important here to acknowledge though, that were not speaking of egocentric empowerment (although obviously some individuals will seek to use this for selfish personal gain) but the kind of empowerment that comes when we are more in sync with a deeper knowledge and intelligence that is beyond the personal.

Subsequently, Jupiter furthers this power enormously, support us to take inspired leaps in owning our authentic power and, makes sure that we learn from any crashes in the early trial and error stages of new advancement.

For those of you who have been working for many years to be able to make a difference in the lives of others and in our communities, this is tremendous news and heralds a period of experiencing the fruits of such long labour. Jupiter and Pluto conjunctions are not only one of the best transits for our own personal transformation but for becoming agents of transformation on whatever scale in our individual worlds.

The wise old patriarch leaves his home territory of Capricorn to enter the more cerebral realms of Aquarius on March 23, gets to 2° of that sign in May and then backs into Capricorn on July 2nd. During that retrograde period he will slow right down in September for a final 3° conjunction with Pluto, while turning around to head towards his final exit of Capricorn on December 18th.

Traditionally, Aquarius is a second home for Saturn, as he is seen as a co-ruler of that sign along with the far more radical Uranus. During his transit of Aquarius, which apart from this next three months, will colour most of 2021 and 2022, he will persistently remind the sometimes airhead Aquarian of his earthier roots, as well as the necessity of being able to ground his prodigious intellect and turn its gifts into physical manifestation in the world.

So, we will get a taste of that between now and July.

As he makes the transmission this month, he will trine the fierce Kali in Virgo, while sextiling Medusa in late Pisces. Traditionally the dark goddesses and Saturn are old adversaries but that is from a very limited perspective on what Saturn energy is essentially about. A truly balanced Saturn, like his higher octave Shiva, is not antagonistic to the wisdom and intelligence and power sacred feminine; quite the opposite, as his own depth of wisdom and knowledge meets well with the same inherent in the so-called dark goddesses.

While he will challenge the distortions to the goddess within each of us, as they will do the same to him by challenging the old and limited patriarchy, the meeting is also support for giving form to the transformative and truth wielding aspects of the goddess.
In the last week of the month Saturn also trines the healing goddess Hygeia in early Gemini, offering the same degree of solid and grounded support to express this kundalini goddess of healing within each of us.

What an intense alchemy this is!

I wrote a significant piece about the Chiron black moon conjunction last month and you’ll find that in my blog, so I won’t repeat myself here. (go to https://danielsowelu.com/tectonic-change/ )

Medusa joining the two represents both an awesome opportunity for healing and reclaiming this largely maligned expression of the sacred feminine. At the same time, from underneath her enraged mask, this goddess contributes her prodigious Shakti to the healing, purificatory and transformative actions of the wounded healer and the great mother.

My regular readers will be aware of my attempts to describe the authentic Medusa underneath the rightfully and understandably enraged mask that she traditionally carries.
On one level, that mask is to demonstrate what happens when we deny the intelligence, wisdom and sacred power of the deep feminine, and then implore the patriarch to use that mask as justification for rejecting, suppressing and controlling the feminine. To add further insult to injury, to use that justification to dump the patriarch’s toxic shadow on to this initially beautiful goddess.
On other levels, that mask is designed to protect the sacred mysteries of the feminine, to scare off the uninitiated, and to protect her practitioners and temples from desecration. Inside each of us then, she is a protector of the same mysteries as well as our personal vulnerabilites within.
As a carrier then, of ancestral, cultural and past life forms of shame, rage, pain and toxicity, a joining with Chiron and the Black Moon catalyses that ancient trauma to be released. So those of us who are sensitive to this inner territory can expect some major impurities to arise at this time, with opportunities to release more of this toxic and self-sabotaging material.

Medusa is not without humour though, or joy, which will surprise some people. I have the feeling of an ecstatic dance as she joins two parts of ourselves that are not afraid of the depths, of facing the deepest shadows and, of harnessing the deepest sacred and healing power within us.

Mars conjunct Pallas Athena in Capricorn 

For many people there’s been a bit of a funk period after the intensity of the eclipses and the Saturn Pluto peak, and generally speaking it’s been slow going with getting more traction and forward movement for us.

However, some astrologers are suggesting that the warrior deity Mars going into Capricorn will be a circuit breaker in terms of getting things happening. While this is true to a certain extent, as soon as Mars entered the sign it squared Medusa, Chiron and the Black Moon in the last weeks of February, a horrible start to this 6 weeks transit.  (Which is why there was some particularly violent and shocking experiences around domestic violence in Australia at the time, episodes that shocked the nation and, has galvanised the authorities to have to do more in dealing with what feels an epidemic in this country, one that hasn’t been handled well in the past.)

Despite such an inauspicious start though, Mars is joining Pallas Athena, who is one of the feminine warrior archetypes amongst the asteroid goddesses. While she can share some degree of the warlike qualities of Mars, she combines that raw energy with intelligence, refinement, concentration and one pointedness, making her incredibly effective as she uses her spear symbolism to project her intelligence and wisdom into a predominantly male world.

Their joining in the earth energies of Capricorn slow their expressiveness somewhat but enhances the material manifestation of their mutual drive and creative punch. Basically, this will support all of us to be able to get s..t done! And, this will be needed in the early weeks of the month as Mercury is still in retrograde motion until the 10th and, with the Sun joining Neptune producing a temporary loss of drive, as we hit the realms of hypersensitivity that the latter two represent.

In the second half of the month however, the drive to achieve, create and projects our energies will get even stronger, as Pallas and Mars join exactly on the 20th with Jupiter, one of the best three-way combinations for working towards achieving any goal you have in your life. Mars provides the raw grunt, refined and honed by the energies of Pallas, while Jupiter brings his expansive qualities coupled with some good old fashioned good luck and synchronistic flow.

Normally with such a combination you need to put out warnings about arrogance, overreach, taking on too much or having exaggerated and unrealistic expectations, but Capricorn tends to keep the whole combination more grounded and practical.

Now, as if that isn’t impressive enough, the three then go on to join Pluto, (last 10 days) adding that much deeper source of primal energy and potency. This combination will set the scenario for April becoming an even more potent month for achievement in general.

This is obviously a difficult time for the goddess of love, with squares to Pluto often setting up power struggles in relationship, while squares to Saturn create difficulties to intimacy on every level. Our urge to love fully and passionately in Aries meets the reserve inherent in the patriarch, and some tough lessons from the authentic and wise old teacher.

Internally, this can represent anything from colliding with old conditioning and control mechanisms, all the way to meeting resistances to real transformation in our love life.

Oppositions to Juno the goddess of marriage from Venus, highlights the polarity, and confusion at times, between the need for relationship freedom expressed by Venus in Aries and, the more pro-relationship stability represented by Juno (Who is very much at home in the sign of Libra!). Juno herself is squaring Jupiter and Pluto, representing some good possibilities for easier transformation around our beliefs, patterning and experience influencing long term, committed relationships.

This T-square creates quite a pressure cooker around our relating but nevertheless the archetypes involved direct us to some important learning and insights into our relationship dynamics, with the possibility of some real change, alongside the un-comfortability and tension of this.

This tension will lessen when Venus joins Uranus in Taurus on the ninth, with the possibilities of some real breakthroughs, or simply deciding that you’ve had enough, and you need to go off on your own for a while and do something different!