Venus and Neptune, and Mars
. . . and Pluto

This last few days, before the new moon, Venus in Aquarius has been approaching Neptune, and both are trine to Mars in Gemini - a smooth expressive aspect. We have been experiencing an energy condition that, if you tuned in to it, felt quietly expanded and still. It’s like having a sense of knowing something without being able to put it into words. Pluto is a growing part of this pattern, giving an intensity to the feeling, as we push through into a much greater awareness. When we relax our minds, and accept for periods of time that words are not essential, we realise that much of our understanding, communication, appreciation, is not verbally expressible. When we try to pin it down, or share it with someone else, we have to condense it into something that can be interpreted in words. We have to reduce the delicacy and extension of our experience into something logical and sequential, not only finding words but forming grammatical sentence structures. There is one major problem with doing this – our tendency to lose touch with the original enormity that was able, so briefly, to inspire us.

. . . plus Mercury/Uranus, and Jupiter

Venus is the energy of attraction which represents our relating with each other and the world around us, and Neptune is about dissolving all boundaries and definitions. These two planets are still very close in the New Moon chart of 29 March. It is as though, this coming month, we are being offered an experience of togetherness as the total human life-wave, an unconscious identification with humanity as a whole. Although we can share love and compassion, it is very likely that we will notice this closeness through any suffering, in our family, our friends, or the media news. (Jupiter in Scorpio is in a square relationship with Venus/Neptune.)

We may try to put words to that experience, to write about it, talk about it, do something about it (Mars in Gemini trine Venus/Neptune), but there is likely to be difficulty finding words that do justice to what we feel (Mercury in Pisces trine Jupiter – our minds awash with emotion). However, there will be opportunities to reach inspired solutions to the problems we face, as Mercury connects to Uranus’ flashes of genius. The way to receive these flashes of understanding is to find a gap between emotional outbursts on the one hand, and emotional cut-off on the other, where we ignore the problem as if we could separate ourselves off from the world around us. Between those two states is a space where we can see what’s going on, and the way through and out of difficulty becomes obvious. When we stop focussing on our own reactions, we are free to observe the multi-level life being lived, and the bigger picture will emerge on its own. Nothing can change until we accept the way it is, and our acceptance is the key that allows everything to grow naturally into its next phase, and even creates opportunities to help the process.

Sun/Moon in Aries (total eclipse) trine Saturn in Leo + Chiron

Having said all the above, this New Moon is an eclipse of the Sun in Aries. We have entered that time of the year when action itself is the motivating force, and the blocking of the Sun’s light by the dark side of the Moon suggests that we could be unconsciously much more pushy this month. This is the feeling that we must DO something, regardless! However, Saturn is trine the Sun/Moon, keeping the actions steady, suggesting caution, even if only for the sake of our personal safety.

When tempted to act fast, remember to check the others involved with you, how they are feeling, and what might be more fitting in the circumstances. This will allow you to reframe your impulse before you do damage, and save yourself much regret. As long as we act from a sense of social responsibility rather than ‘being right’, those actions taken will be beneficial to everyone (Chiron in Aquarius supportively sextile Sun/Moon).

Love – a discussion from last New Moon in Pisces

Love is still very much a focus this month, and I want to share with you two of the responses I received to the Pisces New Moon missive. I had said:

‘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.’

One response was e-mailed: ‘I go along with the Conversations with God, when it is said that we can only get to know ourselves through relationship. I do feel sad that there are hundreds of us who can't love ourselves; this statement that we can't love others until we love ourselves, is somehow discouraging and I am sure many give up trying because, as for me, it seemed an impossible task. . . . Some of us need to love someone, to express ourselves and our love, before we can truly see that it is a one-ness, not a love for another but through another.’ Another response was by phone: ‘We do need to honour the fact that love is hard to do – and it’s through committing to our Higher Self (as in meditation) so it can speak to our souls, that we experience what love truly is.’

These are both lovely expressions of people’s experience. I would like to add to the above discussion, by trying out an image: imagine that love is an energy that flows everywhere throughout life, and that we can tune our inner equipment to many frequencies including the loving one. Tuned to the frequency of love, we feel loved and loving, and naturally love anything we are conscious of at the time, including ourself. If we are not tuned to that frequency, then in that moment we do not feel loving energy, so we cannot feel loved, even when someone else is loving us.

Loving energy is everywhere, so if you are excluding yourself or anyone else, the feeling you have is not the universal loving energy, it is a personal feeling with definition, desire, and conditions. This is probably the best our personality can do, but we are so much more than personality, and reaching for that loving frequency inside stretches us into universality. There are many ways of tuning in to it: through contemplating and appreciating nature, children, music, through dance, companionship, service, . . . So tune in, using whatever works for you and, through your loving consciousness, the world will be a better place!

Jupiter in Scorpio square Venus/Neptune

Perhaps this month is about becoming more aware of being a bridge between the extremes of human experience: from the depths to the heights, from the bodily physical to the expanded spiritual, from the individual one to the universal One. Judgement and self-criticism do not lift or expand our experience of life, but rank with revenge and jealousy towards the heavy, contracted, extreme of human expression. We can only link our human extremes by admitting to having them, and accepting ourselves with them, as wonderful bridges for the consciousness of light as earth.

This month, let life talk to you. The stars don’t need words, trees relate silently, animals have no problem communicating. We only minimise them when we put words in their mouths, or think we know their experience! We may be able to understand better, if we allow our own experience to speak directly through poetry, dance, music and art. So, let life talk to you, and respond without words.

Meditation for this
New Moon in Aries

Feel your feet on the ground and, at the same time, the top of your head.

Move inside your body, feeling the energy of your spine straight and tall.

Feel that straight energy reach deep into the core of the Earth

and through your head into the starry expanse.

Light a flame in your heart

sending out a horizontal ring of light around you with each heart beat.

Feel the rings expand, pulsing out from your heart

reaching into the far spaces of the universe.

Breathe, conscious only of the breath in,

and then the breath out,

holding the space around you steady

and know that all you reach out to is also yourSelf

. . . . .

at last, let the pulsing rings fade, as the light of your heart

fills the space immediately around you.

Notice again your feet on the ground, and the top of your head,

and the flow of energy between them.

As you come back into your daily life, remember

you are surrounded by your greater Self

in all you meet.