Jupiter retrograde

For four months every year, as the Earth travels between Jupiter and the Sun, Jupiter appears to go backwards through the Zodiac while we overtake it. During that time, because Jupiter represents expansion and abundance, any project that we have been focussed on may slow its growth. Circumstances tend to be less fluid, possibilities for forward movement disappear, and we can get the feeling that our life is grinding to a halt. But after four months, Jupiter will again move forward for the following nine months - this cycle is approximately thirteen months long. So, rather than worrying about end results, the best way to deal with the slowing down is to use that time for regrouping, and re-thinking what we really want to achieve with our project. (You might like to check out this website: www.selfgrowth.com/
articles/Raffel1.html - about Active Waiting.)

This year, the time of retrograde Jupiter is from early March to early July. This is our opportunity to draw breath in, ready to breathe out again when it moves direct. All this is taking place in Scorpio this year, so it’s a good time to check the original creative premise of your project, or relationship, and the real feelings of those involved, because people’s lives, and therefore priorities, may have changed since you started. So use these next four months to re-examine your priorities in growth areas, experiment with different attitudes, and re-organise the groundwork where necessary, ready for the next thrust into the world in July/August. (You will notice this most in the areas of your life represented, in your chart, by the Houses that contain Scorpio (where Jupiter is), and Sagittarius (that Jupiter rules).)

New Moon in Pisces

In this New Moon chart, the Sun and Moon are at 9 degrees Pisces, dispersing specific focus in order to recognise the wider field in which creation exists, and of which it is made. They are about to move over Uranus, the principle of freedom, and the energy of sudden changes. We may suddenly experience feelings we didn’t know we had, and events we were not prepared for and (squaring Mars in Gemini) we may find ourselves saying things without thinking first. If you find yourself doing this, just know that we are all having these impulses, so don’t take too personally the words others may throw at you. Remember also to check if someone else is reacting upset from something they thought you meant! (All this is emphasised by Neptune, who rules Pisces, being squared by Jupiter in Scorpio.)

The best use of this energetic situation is to practise looking consciously at life, perhaps allowing a sense of being a camera (Uranus in Pisces) and filming it as you go along – not trying to remember it, but observing the moment. Helpful attitudes are enquiry, surprise, wonder. Uranus with the New Moon gives us the opportunity to have the experience of feeling for others, while at the same time feeling detached enough to see clearly. Uranus give us what I call a periscope on life, where you can be in among the emotional grass roots, with an additional view of yourself in the situation to guide your responses. This is a month to practise feeling universal, while acknowledging your individual view.

Mercury retrograde

From 2 to 25 March, Mercury, who represents our thinking and communication, will be retrograde. The recommendation is to slow down when driving or moving about because we are all less likely to be paying attention. And when trying to explain something, it will pay to take time. It’s not that we lose our minds, but rather that there is more to consider with each thought. Be prepared to discover that people may not be thinking what you thought they were thinking; that things may not be the way they seem at first. Because of this, we tend to be somewhat preoccupied while Mercury retrogrades, and, as it is in Pisces, our thoughts are particularly open to emotional colouring from any source. Dreams, imaginings, inventions, creations. Fields, fertile for pondering this coming month, include art and music-making, individual and world meditation, problem-solving and planning using intuition rather than logic. It is a time for expanding our sense of global connectedness on emotional and mental levels. A time for listening inside for the still peaceful centre that links us to all creation. After 25 March we will be more ready to communicate these ideas and put them to the test.

Mercury in Pisces square Pluto in Sagittarius

This month, our minds are open to the influence of whichever is the most powerful emotion in any situation. Pluto is insisting on the biggest picture possible, and the square from Mercury is the battle between empathy and vision. We may have trouble understanding the bigger picture, jumping completely into the pit with whoever we feel empathy for. As every counsellor knows, as well as needing empathy, you need a goodly amount of yourself up on the bank, if you are to help someone down in the pit.

The most difficult situations often turn out to be polar opposites (the pole is down the pit), and they can always be reconciled from the view of a third point, which is on a different level than the pole – up on the bank. When you are in a state of conflict with anything or any one, or any principle or world situation, you are on the same level as what you are against. Look to see what it is that you are really identifying with (your end), and exactly what you are against (the other end). Here is a fun way to make a difference:

a. When you are angry at a person or situation, try describing them in dispassionate words.

b. Then check to see if there is any single part of that description that could possibly be something you could use in your life, in order to balance up a bit.

c. Decide to do that extra thing, not as much as made you angry, but a small amount that you can encompass.

d. As you make that adjustment in your life, the third point comes into being, bringing understanding.

For example:

a. I can get angry about people ‘not pulling their weight’!

b. What they are actually doing is what they feel like doing, while disregarding other people’s desires.

c. I tend to focus on work, and it might serve me to balance this by considering what I fancy doing for fun, so I decide to give myself an entire day just doing what I want that isn’t ‘work’.

d. It’s a great day! And I realise that ‘those people’ I was angry about might well be living more authentically than I was. And anyway, I’m not interested in them enough to feel angry any more!

It is as though by edging towards the other end of the pole, you upset the balance of the conflict. This movement awakens the fulcrum, which is in touch with the balance of the universe. It is the point from which you reach the understanding of the pole you were on just before. Understanding generally makes biased behaviour redundant. This is a good month for inner work, and (as Mercury squares Pluto in the New Moon chart) this would be an appropriate exercise.

Mercury sextile Venus in Capricorn

This month, love is the guiding factor. In the New Moon chart, Mercury sextiles Venus in Capricorn, so you will find that issues can be balanced around the fulcrum of love. That is to say, love is the most important consideration in any situation: what it is, how to express it, why it is missing. There is no way to experience love in your life unless you are prepared, and able, to give it, and you cannot truly give it without loving yourself first.

Loving the self seems so hard to do, but you can start by recognising that all that you really want inside can come from your Higher/Greater Self, and opening your heart towards that direction. As you focus on imagining the beneficence and sweetness that comes from that centre Self, you strengthen the bridge that links the layers of your being, enabling the flow between them. Gradually you become able to realise that this centre Self is loving you so tenderly, and so much. And as you focus on receiving that love, you become expanded enough to feel yourself giving the love that you are receiving. That’s when you really love yourself, your smaller everyday self. And from there, it is natural to love others.

In our receptivity to human suffering, while Mercury is in Pisces, we need to allow that each person’s own spirit connection will ultimately take care of their path, and respect that path even if we don’t understand it. Our responsibility is to follow our own path, supporting those around us to follow theirs, and not interfering in their process for doing that. Accepting and respecting another’s process, while remaining available to en-courage them, is relating in harmony with the natural flow of love.

Saturn in Leo trine North Node

In a general sense, all circumstances and situations allow us to see the different aspects of ourselves, as we react to them. Sometimes we surprise ourselves. We might expect to feel weak in the face of hard events, but they can be the ones that show us our strength and kindness. Whereas times of abundance that we might expect to show our generosity, can be the times we are most self centred. These are not discoveries to judge. We are getting to know ourselves through the experience of relating to our world - which is perhaps the point of the Moon’s Nodes at present – from the Libra South Node to the Aries North Node.

_____________________

Meditation for this New Moon in Pisces

Respectfully acknowledge the concerns of your life at present,
and then

relax.

Listen to your breath rise and fall
like waves on the beach,

like the wings of a great bird
slowly lifting and lowering in flight.

Allow your heart to be the centre
of this movement

as all concerns drift away below you.

Your heart expands
with each breath,
filling with the love of the source.

Look down at your concerns
spread out beneath you

Feel your heart as a channel for the love to flow freely over all your life

and all your family and friends

and all that is.

Come back to earth gently,
with love in your heart, and bow
respectfully to your concerns.

_____________________

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