February 19, 11:06 pm PT (Your Time)
Occurring at 1° Pisces, this New Moon invites us into the double-bodied, watery realms of liminal space—time out of time to open to the wisdom that flourishes in the oracular wonder of life and the inner realms of being.
The be here now energy of this lunation is closer to a Balsamic Moon than a New Moon. It’s a reflective and receptive stance you will want to return to again and again as big waves of change hit the shore. Before the next New Moon, Saturn will make an epic shift from Aquarius to Pisces on March 7.
Dreaming of a new world may be met with hard realities, or needed grounding, as the lunar month progresses. Saturn is like that. Feel your way through it. Lead with your heart, and revel in the awe of the changing seasons, inside and out.
Beads of shimmering Patchouli oil linger on Luna’s dark, wet face. Saturn’s new synodic cycle has made an impression on this dewy-eyed lady as she crosses the bridge from Aquarius into Pisces. There’s no escaping reality. Luna knows this. But our Lady of Deep Waters can’t help but be drawn into the vast ocean of creative and spiritual longing as she touches the soul of all things.
The experience of Sacred Space makes possible the "founding of the world.”
- Mircea Eliade from The Sacred and the Profane (Sun and Moon in Pisces)
Still, no matter how far we push the boundaries of reality through the power of imagination, Saturn’s ingress into Pisces during this lunation is likely to provoke a crisis of meaning. Brandishing a critical scythe coercing us into maturity, Saturn’s penchant for feigned appearances knows that not everything is what it appears to be. After all, even reason and logic can be used to support the greatest falsehoods.
Saturn’s 3-year sail through Pisces invites us to change our perspective and adapt our philosophy of life. A willingness to turn things inside out can make the impossible happen, if you can get back up after painstaking failure. Are you ready to persevere and embrace a new worldview that aligns with whom you are becoming?
Co-present with Neptune and an exalted Venus in the powerful 29th degree, the Queen and King of the zodiac form a secret union in the sign of the eternal Fishes. Unseen by their host Jupiter in Aries, their shared universal love and compassion and their co-creative power are all that matters… until the tide turns. Promises made may not be promises kept.
There is a familiarity between Pisces and Aries, as these signs mirror each other across the equinoctial axis. But they also symbolize the exact opposite of one another. What’s bright and right in one sign is dusky and dicey in the other and vice versa. Are you compromising your individuality in your longing for unity?
Leaving the secret lovers behind less than an hour after their sacred union, Venus leaps into the fire of Aries to join Jupiter on February 19, 11:55 pm PT. Venus’s fall from her exalted position into her detriment in Aries marks a moment of disenchantment that is embedded in the entire lunation cycle. Fortunately, Luna’s square to Mars in Gemini soothes disappointments with bold action before the first sigh can escape Aphrodite’s mouth.
Enlightened by an effervescent waterfall, Luna meets Neptune just as Mercury in Aquarius squares Uranus in Taurus on February 21, 2:10 pm PT. Surprising inspiration with Saturnian legs comes straight from the heavens into manifestation. Synchroncity is everywhere if you pay attention.
As Luna makes her way to Aries and Taurus before the first quarter Moon, planetary movements encourage self-expression born from a solid foundation of sovereign truth and beauty. Empathy for the collective is necessary, but you can only be of service when you march to the beat of your own drum.
Consider this…
This is the last New Moon without Saturn co-present through the end of May 2025 (and then some after Saturn returns from a dip into Aries). Use this unencumbered New Moon to revel in Source. Find the sweet spot in numinous experiences yoked to the hard realities that have left an indelible mark on your soul.
The symbol for Pisces, two fishes yoked together swimming in an eternal circle, is apt guidance. In the dance of duality between spirit and matter, there is no beginning, and there is no end.
The beloved poet Mary Oliver, born with Saturn in Pisces, speaks to the essence of this New Moon beautifully. We recommend reading aloud.
Humpbacks
There is, all around us,
this country
of original fire.
You know what I mean.
The sky, after all, stops at nothing, so something
has to be holding
our bodies
in its rich and timeless stables or else
we would fly away.
Off Stellwagen
off the Cape,
the humpbacks rise. Carrying their tonnage
of barnacles and joy
they leap through the water, they nuzzle back under it
like children
at play.
They sing, too.
And not for any reason
you can’t imagine.
Three of them
rise to the surface near the bow of the boat,
then dive
deeply, their huge scarred flukes
tipped to the air.
We wait, not knowing
just where it will happen; suddenly
they smash through the surface, someone begins
shouting for joy and you realize
it is yourself as they surge
upward and you see for the first time
how huge they are, as they breach,
and dive, and breach again
through the shining blue flowers
of the split water and you see them
for some unbelievable
part of a moment against the sky–
like nothing you’ve ever imagined–
like the myth of the fifth morning galloping
out of darkness, pouring
heavenward, spinning; then
they crash back under those black silks
and we all fall back
together into that wet fire, you
know what I mean.
I know a captain who has seen them
playing with seaweed, swimming
through the green islands, tossing
the slippery branches into the air.
I know a whale that will come to the boat whenever
she can, and nudge it gently along the bow
with her long flipper.
I know several lives worth living.
Listen, whatever it is you try
to do with your life, nothing will ever dazzle you
like the dreams of your body,
its spirit
longing to fly while the dead-weight bones
toss their dark mane and hurry
back into the fields of glittering fire
where everything,
even the great whale,
throbs with song.
Such a beautiful post .. So grateful for these precious nuggets of gold embedded within each post. (And reading Mary Oliver’s poem out loud was just so tearfully delightful.) Thank AO for your insightful gifts 💜
Gorgeous, bracing and bright, and I thank you again for such wise, stories and clear guidance