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Alchemist Tag

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

 

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In Modesty Blaze—Sun in Virgo

Everyone shines, given the right lighting—Susan Cain

 

5a1a5baa84aaeca8c9b0182c57b70afdThere’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.

Where Virgo resides in our birth chart, this is where we hone our craft, where we polish and perfect. Virgo carries an imprint of self-containment and reticence, emphasised by the glyph for the sign of the Virgin which seems to curl modestly inwards. As the light softens in the North and grows brighter in the South, those shy souls who live quietly amongst cacophonous babble of self-aggrandisement and over-share that pervades our culture may feel the need to be introspective. For those of us who were shy and awkward as children, and have emerged as reclusive adults, we may prefer the undemanding company of a good book to cocktails at a trendy pop-up. We may feel more sensitive, more easily affronted by the blustering self-help guru who claims to be able to fix a floundering relationship in just eight minutes, or the “expert” who brandishes unexamined opinions on YouTube.

As a quiet procession of Virgo planets draws us inwards, we may feel the need to clear the clutter in our lives, quite literally “spring-clean” our homes, attend to our body by walking in nature, preparing lighter, easier to digest, meals. The Sun’s passage through Virgo highlights that part of zodiac where we must refine our skills without the compulsion to be seen or validated. We may take little steps. We may need time and gentleness to mop up the mess, attend to the details, mend what is broken or ailing in our lives. Another often overlooked aspect of the Virgo archetype is the Alchemist, the Healer, the Midwife, the Medicine Woman, the Sangoma.e00eee854266bfde589a7a8a920160ff

Virgo is attuned to the silent cycles of the natural world. This is where we celebrate those quiet miracles, those very ordinary, often unacknowledged acts of service simply stitched into the fabric of our daily lives. We may meet this archetype in those who serve, those who take care of the details, those who mop up the mess. The driver of the bus who patiently explains to a breathless Spanish visitor the best route to take to the park. The volunteer at the animal shelter or food bank. The young man who drives an ambulance by night as a way of giving back.

 

Virgo 18It 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.

 

“Introverts are drawn to the inner world of thought and feeling,” Jung is purported to have said, “extroverts to the external life of people and activities.”

 

Self-proclaimed consummate introvert, Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, writes “Introversion—along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness— is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Introverts living in the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man’s world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.” Susan Cain Virgo

 

Susan Cain’s birth chart suggests that she has enough “extrovert” fire in her belly to become a successful author, public speaker, and Harvard Law school graduate, thanks to an assertive and competitive Mars in Aries and very possibly a Moon in Sagittarius. Her Pisces Sun conjuncts Chiron, Venus and Mercury are in Pisces, suggesting a deeply sensitive, intuitive way of self-expression and relating.

Venus demurely slipped into Virgo on August 21st, to be followed by The Sun (August 23rd) and Mercury (August 29th) and a Virgo New Moon (August 30th).

 

Virgo 10On 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.

“The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamp-lit desk. Use your natural powers—of persistence, concentration, and insight—to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems. make art, think deeply.”  Susan Cain.

If you’d like to know more about your own birth chart, please connect with me by email: ingrid@trueheartwork.comVirgo 26

 

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