Guardian Angel—Saturn in Pisces—Virgo Full Moon—March 7th.
We would like otherworldly visitations to come as distinct voices with clear instructions, but they may only give small signs in dreams or as sudden hunches, insights that cannot be denied. They feel more as if they emerge from inside and steer you from within like an inner guardian angel. And most amazing, it has never forgotten you, althrough you may have spent most of your life ignoring it —James Hillman.
Two planets change sign this month, signifying a new design in our collective and personal story line. Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23rd, and today, we enter a liminal space of Saturn/Neptune energy that lasts till 2028. Saturn’s co-presence with Neptune (2023–26) is a significant celestial event that will shape our lives over the next few years with an astrological reset in March 2026 as these two planets meet in Aries and will journey together until the spring of 2028.
For the first time in 30 years, Saturn plunges into the transcendent waters of Pisces, and tonight, an ethereal full moon in Virgo pulls at the tides, an augury for the deepening and development of our inner life.
Pisces is the last world-weary sign of the zodiac, and Saturn represents boundaries, structure, endings of those things no longer needed. This is a once in a 30 year invitation to dive deep, retrieve pearls of sorrow, rusted remnants of guilt, sharp shards of anger that have lain too long in the depths of our psyche.
Old structures will collapse like sandcastles washed away by the tide as Saturn moves through Neptune’s sign. We may discover our muse, our daimon, the duende that prompts a new iteration of creativity, we may sense a prompt from our guardian angel that elucidates our faith.
As Saturn moves through Pisces, ego-boundaries, rugged individuality, even our sense of identity may be infused by a force beneath awareness as we soften our defensiveness, as we remedy the dull ache of estrangement from our heart.
Pisces is boundaryless, and already there are hints in fashion, art and literature that presage Saturn’s sea odyssey, as dividing lines blur in the sea-mists. In his new book, IntraConnected, Dan Siegel speaks to what indigenous people and contemplative teachings have taught about the oneness of things, to a “deep honouring and respect for what makes us different while at the same time, we’re connecting to what is our intraconnected shared fabric.”
As refugees in threadbare clothing risk their lives in flimsy boats, and millions of homeless people seek rough shelter in the aftermath of floods or earthquakes, Neptune reflects a facet of the collective consciousness that calls for some kind of sacrifice accompanied by boundless compassion. Saturn calls for realism and practicalities.
War-god Mars confronts the full moon in a square tonight; an aspect that is often associated with irritability, even anger, as tensions surface in our relationships. The sharp sword of Mars slices and wounds, often quite literally, with cuts and accidents, and in Mercury-ruled Gemini, with words that land painfully. Lunar symbolism encompasses women’s issues, and this lunation mirrors rampant misogyny, violence and cruelty that is directed against women, and on a more subtle level, the violence we inflict upon ourselves, our bodies. If we choose to embrace the symbolism of this full moon, we could use the heated energy of Mars like a poultice, to draw deeply on our courage as we reach out and repair a rupture in a relationship, sending life-affirming Love energy to all living things. The square also carries the ambiguous energy of the Mars/Neptune square which has been active since October. This is the third and final square which has a slippery, scattered quality, that chaperones Saturn’s entry into Neptune’s sign.
Virgo moves us to engage in practical ways with the world around us, to be present and willing to do what we must to serve others as the collective consciousness pulsates with profound sadness, amplified as melancholic Saturn swims through watery Pisces.
Tonight, the symbolism of the Virgo archetype is strong medicine if we align ourselves with what must be healed within ourselves. The Sabian symbol for this full moon is a volcano in eruption: catharsis. Release of emotional blocks. As we reconnect with the essential life force within us, as we tend to our own vulnerable places, we may be able to soften our eyes, attune to the invisible as we move between the sacred and the mundane. As James Hillman once said, “to see the angel in the malady requires an eye for the invisible, a certain blinding of one eye and an opening of the other to elsewhere.”
May we feel the presence of the guardian angel who has never forgotten us. And prepare to swim.
Please get in touch if you would like a private astrology session: ingrid@trueheartwork.com
There’s a different quality to the light as the Sun moves through the sign of Virgo today. Now, as fields of gold are harvested and the last of the summer fruit hangs heavy on stooping branches, we may get a sense of Virgo’s connection with the slow, careful rhythm of the earth, the perfectly timed arrival of a cluster of black berries or the profusion of jasmine that bedecks the fence at the same time every year.
It was Carl Jung who coined the term, “introvert” in the 1920s. His either-or-markers for our personality traits seem simplistic and one-dimensional in the context of astrology. The light and shadows of our birth chart depict the nuanced complexity and the challenges of our human experience. Jung’s radiantly “extroverted” Leo Sun in wide conjunction with Uranus in the 7th house would have glowed in the spotlight, but his Taurus Moon conjunct Pluto in the 4th house may have preferred soft lamplight or the dappled shade of the forest.
On August 24th, the relational planets, Venus and Mars, merge their essence, emphasising our human need for consistency in our close bonds with those we care for. They are conjunct on August 24th (at 4° Virgo, an echo of their last meeting at 19° Virgo in September, 2017) breathing soul, vital breath, into those bonds that fulfil our deep desire to belong, to be seen and to be deeply listened to. Author Elizabeth Gilbert who has a Moon in Virgo, describes the cadence of lasting love so beautifully, “to be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow— this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” The older astrologers say that Venus is in her “fall” in Virgo. An outmoded and rather demeaning term that obscures the luminosity of this vibrant goddess as she appears in sensual, earthy Virgo. She’s anything but “fallen”. She rises strong, bringing the magic of the alchemist to her relationships, the sensitivity of the healer, the receptivity, the fresh uncalculatingly freshness of the Virgin to those who delight in her company. Venus in Virgo is the Earth Goddess who looks her best in dappled light, and as she joins Mars in Virgo this month, we hone our innate capacity for empathic connection, we cultivate and nurture enduring friendships, we mend bonds that may be frayed or broken, and gently place ourselves in just the right lighting.