Pisces New Moon on February 24th

by Barbara Hand Clow

The January 25-26 Aquarius solar eclipse in late January inspired many of us to reach for our highest potential, to assess our personal contributions in light of high ideals. With the New Moon in Pisces, now it is time to just be, to go into contemplation about the meaning of life. Normally, we do this during the whole winter season, but this Winter Solstice season has been very peculiar because so many planets have been in Aquarius. On the Solstice, the lunar North Node, Venus, Chiron, and Neptune were in Aquarius, and then on January 5, Jupiter went into Aquarius. The Aquarius solar Eclipse in 6 Aquarius had five luminaries in Aquarius with the lunar North Node. We are besotted with Aquarian forces this winter, which is forcing great transformations while the light increases during Day Six of the Galactic Underworld. [See The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind.]

Because of this strong Aquarian influence, many people feel ungrounded, too airy, and lost; they don't know who they are anymore. How about you? Have you been noticing all the people stumbling around who look like they have no idea who they are, especially in cities? Some guys look like they mixed up their blood pressure medication with their Cialus.

Considering this Pisces New Moon, the lunar North Node, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Chiron, Neptune, Sun/Moon are bunched together in Aquarius; this means that the disorientation will continue this month. It will intensify even more during the March 10-11 Virgo Full Moon, when the Full Moon occurs right on the axis of Saturn opposite Uranus, while the North Node, Jupiter, Chiron, Neptune, and Mars are still in Aquarius. As I pointed out in the reading for the solar eclipse in Aquarius, this heavy Aquarian influence is ideal for Barack Obama, since it supports his intentions to get the US back on track after eight bizarre and horrendous years. During the Virgo Full Moon, we will experience spiritual resolutions for deep problems. The intense Aquarian aspects will inspire people to reach for great heights while the Saturn/Uranus opposition tears up old systems. There are many old forms and energies that need to be cleared away now, and this lunar phase will be very intense for everyone on the planet. So, how can we just be?

For this reading, I want to imagine how each one of us can stay on a track in the middle of so much change. Amidst the great transformations during the end of the Mayan Calendar, many people simply feel totally crazy during this Aquarian domination. Yet, this is exactly what we need in order to stretch to new levels. How can we do that if we feel like we've lost our identity? How can we create new systems in the middle of so much decay and loss? Well, the most fascinating thing about this lunation is that it suggests we are being called to question why we've allowed money to become energy-and the dominant connector of our species. What would our use of energy be like if we simply exchanged our energy directly, from one to another? Is that the shift we need in order to alter our energy technologies? Seems to me, the first step within such a monetized collective drama would be to contemplate our own personal relationship with money. Is money your identity in any form? Do you like money more than love? Since money is merely a system for an energetic exchange, then what does it have to do with your own pure, personal energy amidst these great changes? Why did homes become commodities instead of places where we live and love? How can you mortgage life and love by not paying off the mortgage on your home?

The Winter Solstice is meant to be the time when we reflect on what we've been creating during the year, to identify how our works are part of the greater whole. This solstice is the time to assess whether we are contributing to the evolution of our planet, to go within to seek the full meaning of our lives. Yet this year, the introspection process has been almost subverted by all the Aquarian energy, which continues with this lunation. The '09 Spring Equinox arrives in less than a month, so somehow we must identify how what we've been creating affects the greater whole. Review your '08 Spring Equinox intentions one more time. This period of reflection is important, because when the Spring Equinox arrives, suddenly we will have fresh power for new creations. Without creating clarity, we can't use clear intentions to create the new things we will want and need this year.

Since we have only one month left and the New Moon is in Pisces, it is time to remember what it feels like to just be. Can you remember what it was like to live your life in trust, while the changes just rolled along? Constant change is the essence of nature. During the National and Planetary Underworlds of the last 5,125 years, we have retarded nature by transforming energy into time and money. All the cycles that are winding up now are jettisoning this retardation of nature! You can flip out off the switch of this distortion and just be.

The New Moon in 7 Pisces sextiles Pluto in Capricorn, which is creating deep structural changes that are pushing individuals and systems to be more honest and practical. The great changes in governmental and financial systems that are inspired by Pluto in Capricorn are so huge and energized that it is impossible to comprehend what is really going on. For example, the unquantifiable amount of funny money in the banks reflects the energy potential of the evolutionary leap that has now taken off. It is a great, free-floating mass of unused potential, like the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.

The old tried-and-true ways for getting along are melting away, which forces people to spend most of their time just coping with basic needs. Yet, the New Moon in Pisces is the time to bliss out, go cosmic, and merge with all-that-is before the Aries forward-march takes over. The sextile to the New Moon from Pluto in Capricorn is the perfect grounder for this yearly spiritual high, because it can show you how to ground these potent spiritual forces in practical and deep ways. Back in the thirteenth century, Meister Eckhart said, "God is at home, it is we who have gone out for a walk." This lunation could be titled "Spirituality 101", since we all need to get back to the basics that so many of us have lost. Yes, the world is falling apart from one point of view-yet, as it happens, we are coming together in more complex and advanced forms.

This lunation has the potential to meld us into a new species: humans who create a peaceful world by refusing to live by killing and greed. Ironically, after what I have just said about too much Aquarius, North Node-Jupiter-Mercury-Mars in the middle degrees of Aquarius are the perfect teachers for this emerging evolutionary agenda. Jupiter in Aquarius inspires us to create a world in which each one of us feels capable of doing things we've never imagined before. What have you secretly imagined that you are truly capable of since the last quarter Moon on February 17? Mars was conjunct Jupiter on the lunar North Node at this time; did you have had visions of your true purpose through the end of the Mayan Calendar? With Mercury so close to Jupiter during this New Moon, these revelations could become cascading peak revelations. Mars is still close to Jupiter/Mercury, which gives you the strength to follow up on things you have discovered-meaningful things that you can no longer deny.

Venus in Aries is closely sextile to Jupiter/Mercury/Mars in Aquarius. This enables you to feel balanced and comfortable with radical new ideas and thoughts that you never imagined would come to you. Watch out for these significant nuances, and look to see if they are expressions of the things you've been creating since the last Spring Equinox. This consideration is really important, because when the 2009 Spring Equinox arrives, things that you choose to create will be like small creatures within giant waves sweeping the planet. Right now may be your last chance to see yourself as separate from the whole, an experience we all needed in order to identify our own skills and gifts. This is ending now, and we are preparing to all be co-creators of the New Earth.

Venus goes retrograde at 15 Aries on March 6, which means the process of balance and harmony in our lives is about to go deeper, to move inside. Venus will turn direct at 29 Pisces on April 17 and it will make it back to 15 Aries on May 20, so this deepening process will flow all during the spring. Venus retrograde helps us align our actions with our hearts; its Arian potency helps to clarify what we want and how to get it. Venus rules the attraction principal, so this period is a great time to see that what happens to you is actually what you are calling to yourself. Instead of getting all spun out by the rapid changes, keep on going deep inside to find your source, your wellspring. Knowing who you are is always the quest of the New Moon in Pisces, and Venus retrograde in Aries during and after this lunation is a great reflective anchor, a great inner attractor.

Chiron is still very close to Neptune in Aquarius, as it has been since early 2008-the signature aspect that is forcing humankind to heal itself and become spiritual during the end of the Mayan Calendar. Chiron and Neptune travel closely together through February 2011, exactly when the Ninth Underworld, the Universal Underworld, begins a new period of time acceleration. This pairing of the Wounded Healer and Spirit is inexorably forcing our species to heal, to go beyond war, and to become loving beings. During this New Moon, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius help us to imagine a better future; they inspire us to find ways to get there. Yet, I will repeat again, this is too much Aquarius! Too much! So, use the power of Venus in Aries and its retrograde deepening phase to stay grounded and on track. When the energy is too much, take a walk, eat a good dinner, have great sex, enjoy great music. Or get practical and use Saturn in Virgo opposite Uranus to completely reconstitute some outmoded system in your life or in the world. The changing world will go on regardless of what you do, so remember that your dog likes to go out for a walk.

Last but not least, Saturn closely opposes Uranus; the second opposition was February 5, and we are starting to see how it is working out. We will get big revelations about these themes during the Full Moon in Virgo on March 10-11. The previous Saturn/Uranus oppositions were in 1965-66, when Saturn was in Pisces, and Uranus was in Virgo. Anti-war, anti-poverty, and anti-racist movements were huge, and great strides toward more freedom and creativity were made; yet, these strides were not finished or integrated. Now with Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces, the real meaning of the earlier struggles is coming out; for example, some resolution of racism in America with the election of a very spiritual man who is also black. We are seeing the fruition of many of the sixties ideals; but because Uranus is in soft Pisces, the changes may not be so revolutionary, and they will be more profound. Saturn in Virgo is very supportive and easy with the radical changes that must occur, so the shift may be more peaceful and totally effective. We shall see very soon how smooth it will be, and already riots over food and unemployment are spreading around the globe.

Actually, Uranus in Pisces is another tool we can use to help us handle this Aquarian craziness. Spanning 2003 through March 2011, Uranus in Pisces is another force that is grooming us for the Universal Underworld's time acceleration. It is pushing us to discover how to change by means of spiritual evolution instead of by normal everyday changes and reformulations. That is, Uranus in Pisces is teaching us that we create reality with thought, and so we must change how we think. Uranus in Pisces is asking us to become more multidimensional-to use energy and intelligence in other realms to solve our seemingly insurmountable problems here. Actually, as things have been flowing together this winter, I have been reminded of my childhood meditation-the "Jello Meditation." When the Jello was settling in the molds, I would sit and watch it solidify. I decided that was how the world would change someday: the world would become spongy red and green lenses that tasted yummy and helped our bones grow.

This memory brings me finally to Exopolitics and re-entering the Universe, since Uranus in Pisces encourages us to end separation and merge into greater realities. So, the way to just be until the Spring Equinox is to allow your inner spiritual integration to set easily-like Jello-and to let go of worry about mundane things for just a little while and taste the sweetness of life. Well, good luck, since so many planets are in Aquarius. Considering the chart cast for Washington, DC, look at the fifth house, the house of creativity! You might as well settle down and just be because the transformations going on in Washington are going to be exponential this month. Remember to tune into the Spring Equinox on March 20 when I plan to envision specific collective shifts for this year-which is Day Six of the Galactic Underworld.

For more, visit: Hand Clow 2012: Astroflash