How do we connect The Weather Inside to What’s Happening Out There? 

I view astrology as an oracular practice, utilizing our visionary imagination, full of deep creative potential and possibilities for transformation work. 

Astrology is a collective mapping—it is about making meaning together and responding as a community to the interplay of different energies, throughout the Wheel of the Year’s cycles of renewal and seasonal change. If we release the idea of astral bodies causing or affecting human events, we can consider this space as an important reflection site: storage containers for processing and linking information we want to hold onto collectively. 

Divination is like fishing. Sometimes we catch a fish that’s good to eat. And other times, we want to throw our catch back into the ocean. Before you read, I’m giving you formal permission to cast away anything that does not resonate or feel true to you. 

For extra nutritional benefit, please read your Rising Sign in addition to your Sun Sign. The Big Picture meditations are based upon my scrying into the charts for the Full and New Moons of the month in Whole Sign Houses. They were written with the intention of aiding you in your own spiritual detective work. Cast a line out to the stars and see what you hook!

A NOTE ON PLANET PRONOUNS & GENDER

I view astral bodies in the terms of Prince’s lines from "I Would Die 4 U": “I'm not a woman / I’m not a man / I am something that you'll never understand.” Very often in astrology writing, you’ll find gendered language used to describe planetary energy, with most of the planets being seen as male-identified, except for the Moon and Venus. In my column, I will be using they/their, or using their names without specific reference to pronoun. Think of Björk’s “Venus As A Boy” and let the energy take on whatever gendered shapes come through. Go with the vision you have, but also hold space for it to transform.

The Full Moon on March 1 at 11 degrees Virgo

March begins with a Full Moon in Virgo, opposite an energetic pile-up in Pisces, including the Sun, Neptune, Mercury, Venus and the asteroid Chiron in posse formation. 

What about the specifics of our emotional environments and the way our bodies feel in different spaces deserves an accounting manager—somebody who can list out all the complaints, the ills, the hurts, the wounds received, the fucked-up shit, and make observations about patterns? 

This moon goes into the DEETZ. Every time such a thing happened. What it felt like. What it made you think of. What the big picture is. Who else is linked in your processing. 

Standing opposite is a different picture. In this Year of the Dog, imagine resting your body on top of a pile of other bodies, and the collective healing hum of those bodies, the way this warmth radiates throughout you and makes you feel belonging. 

Pay attention to and note how information can flow between bodies, without mouths opening. 

What would it feel like to walk into a movie theater (Neptune is linked to cinema) and collectively press Play on a new movie, one that’s healing for the audience involved, one that tells that story you’ve always been craving to see projected on The Big Screen?

Neptune and Mercury oppose this Moon, but is there a way to have the Moon hand over the details or scenario, then let Mercury and Neptune get to work on the screenplay?

The New Moon at 26 Degrees Pisces on March 17th

Have you ever gone back and watched the first episode of a TV show that has become a Thing Now?

For example, go back and watch the first episode of The Simpsons. The characters aren’t themselves yet. The lines can feel a little shaky in hindsight. The group energy of the show hasn’t quite settled in yet—it’s still alchemizing. 

With the Spring Equinox on 3/20 arriving three days after the New Moon, the wheel of the year begins anew. And I would say it’s a seasonally appropriate time to call “ACTION!”: a Martial shout-out for rolling camera into Aries. 

With this particular New Moon Episode, you might find you’re on a set that’s become a hostile environment, with a lot of cross-fire going back and forth. 

Mercury and Venus conjoined in Aries—Venus’ most challenging sign to direct from—get squared by Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. Picture an episode where fiery and passionate speech is made by young people against an old guard that may be refusing to give up Power, backed as they are by tremendous material wealth and resources. 

But the revolution is on the Mercury/Venus side. Uranus is in their sign!

Who are you rooting for? 

Kurt Vonnegut coined the word “karass” in his novel Cat’s Cradle to describe a network or a group of people who are spiritually linked and serve a common purpose. They might not know each other, or they might hang out all the time. And they definitely don’t always see The Big Picture together. In the film world, this plot device has been called the “web of life” or a “network narrative”, where character’s lives appear fatefully woven together, even though they rarely participate directly in each other’s action lines.

But when things go down, these lives are revealed as deeply intertwined.

How well do you get along with your co-stars, the most visible members of your Karass? Who will be making exciting guest appearances and perhaps rocking the boat this Aries season? Pore over all the headshots of the background actors. Do you have a stunt double? Take a look around and get to know everybody at the craft services table. Then march forward into Spring, having gotten into the details of who will be joining you on your next episode. 

March 31: Full Moon the sequel, but this time at 10 degrees Libra

Venus conjoins Uranus this time, challenging Pluto in Capricorn. With a Mercury retrograde combust the Sun, squared by Saturn and Mars in Capricorn, it does not appear as if words are going to win this long and hard battle for the truth. We may even be faced with recycled speech—speech that gets us nowhere, or walks us around in tense loops. 

It may be time in this marathon Full Moon sequel to grab a water cup, handed over to you by your sponsors. 

And what if we were to send a water cup over to the other side? Not a truce exactly, but an acknowledgement of the other emotions governing the situation? 

Let the Full Moon in Libra hold the space for Justice. If you work with altars or sacred space, place those two water cups here, and ask the Moon to work with you on balancing them. Scry into these cups and see into where these emotions are coming from in both parties. What’s at the root? 

What ingredients would you add to either or both cups as medicine? What healing potion would you concoct for your “enemy”? But I am going to ask you to drink it yourself so beware of what you put into your opponent’s cup. Swallow theirs and then yours. Now: what are you Full with? 

When both waters are within you, you might try doing some automatic writing by moonlight. Try alternating between your left and right hand. What do you find coming up in your net?

THE SCOPES

Aries // Aries Rising

You, Aries—with that revolutionary Uranian noise blaring in the background—you need to tell us what in this culture may need to die out, and give it a proper funeral. Picture yourself standing over the grave of an energy you feel is no longer in highest good playing out in the collective right now. Have no violent words for these energies on their way out. Sing them a song. Wish them on their way, with a graceful goodbye gesture. Or a fist pump! It’s the end of the road, the end of the season for these collective boogey-men. Put up your STOP sign… or sneeze them out of your nostrils! Achoo! Goddess bless you, Aries! Next month, tell us what’s been growing over those imaginary graves you planted. 

Taurus // Taurus Rising

Taurus is known to be stubborn. You know when you have a problem but can be terribly stubborn about asking for help? It’s as if the act of asking for help admits to some inner deficiency or flaw. Rip up that picture! Look around you, go through the people you know, and notice who else seems be struggling with the same problems or issues. Sometimes it’s easier to seek out help or find resources when there’s an arm linked with yours. Maybe you could even start a secret society for fellow strugglers. What would your meeting structure look like? What kinds of energies might you call in as allies? Make sure there are plenty of good snacks at the meeting—after all, Taurus, you also know how to provide comfort. 

Gemini // Gemini Rising

Everybody’s heard of Spring Cleaning. For Marie Kondo, it’s a life long-passion, business, and now a TV show.  But seriously: take a look around your house. Picture it like in Beauty and the Beast and imagine what different objects or furnishings are saying to you. Who wants out the door? Who thinks somebody else might appreciate them more? Tell your belongings to speak now or forever hold their peace. The next step is finding a new home for what wants to be used or recycled. If you get stuck going back and forth with something—as Gemini is wont to do—phone a friend for a second opinion. Maybe while they’re talking, some object from their room will interrupt to ask to live at your house. Ask the Universe/The Force/Dog to send you something new that will give you a clue about your next creative direction. 

Cancer // Cancer Rising

Cancer, we don’t give you enough leadership credit. Cancer, we also don’t compliment you enough on how well you look in a bathing suit, even though you are the initiating sign of the Summer. Picture now the interior of your shell as a map others can read to get to where they need to be going or that helps them to process something. What if there was a way to make creative use of the feelings you’ve been storing this Winter in a manner that services the people around you and your environment? Imagine it as a beach read, but one that is not superficial or easy-breezy in tone. While on vacation, you may see others soaking up your words while you dive headfirst into the next rollicking wave of emotion. 

Leo // Leo Rising

Leo, you’re fond of starring roles. What if I asked you to star in a movie where you played your own ancestor? Look down at your feet. Are you wearing shoes? What time period have you taken us back to? Imagine that entering a different time period is just like walking in a different direction. If you’re having trouble getting there, find something that belonged to somebody who came before you and use it like your very own pair of ruby slippers—shoes that take you between the worlds. What still connects from those old pictures? What is gone—but not forgotten, since we have you here to tell the tale? Give us your time traveler’s bedtime story, one that will have us shaking in our boots, down to our very soles. But for you, let it feel like a fresh new step, as if you are the first person ever to have walked on the Moon. 

Virgo // Virgo Rising

“The Devil made me do it.” Virgo, I’m giving you full permission to take this line and stick it in your back pocket. What will you do after hosting this first Full Moon Event? It’s gone off quite seamlessly, and we have your careful emails to thank for it! The Very Important Planets feel completely attended to—I assure you—and now you are free to look away from counting the ticket sales. What beats now are calling out to you, asking you to return to a strange netherworld? Somewhere there’s a rave happening, an all-night dance party that sinks its teeth firmly into the Underworld’s fleshless bones. Maybe you will find out that the best parties are actually in Berlin or Leipzig, or places we have yet to detect on our underground sonar. Last night a DJ saved your life? That DJ could also be you. 

Libra // Libra Rising

Libra, I want you to join your Cancer brethren and sistren in public outcry. But maybe that doesn’t have to look like going to the streets with protest signs. Picture a more Libran happening: Everybody is sitting down on a yoga mat in comfy clothing, working in pairs. Face your partner and connect your palms together, moving your connected hands slowly from side to side. Continue this parallel play miming, until you’re coordinated enough to perform two sides of the same mirror. Next, begin to speak aloud what’s been happening with you. Are there movements or gestures you could perform for your partner that can represent these energies? After you’ve come up with something, have your partner act it out back to you. Then switch roles. At the end of the exercise, be sure to give your partner a cheers! 

Scorpio // Scorpio Rising

Scorpio, You Sexy Thing, you. Listen to the Hot Chocolate song again: “I believe in miracles / where you from / You sexy thing, sexy thing you!” Make the revolution sexsea this Pisces season. Watch Black Panther again. It doesn’t matter that Black History Month just ended. We are just at the beginning with these stories. “People over the world / Join hands / Start a love train, love train.” That’s another song, Scorpio, that I’d recommend you take your orders from during this movement. Scorpio, we’re counting on you to get people groovin’ on that train. Whatever you gotta do, flash that stick-on chest hair/gold chain combo. We know you have the moves necessary to make it happen. Use your mojo wand for the highest good, please.

Sagittarius // Sagittarius Rising

Have you joined Taurus’ club meetings yet? Why is it so difficult for you to show up to groups consistently? Go smoke your clove cigarette outside and then get back into the meeting. It’s okay when you go on sabbatical. It’s alright when you disappear. We do rely on you to shoot your arrow, like a game of hide and seek, but it takes others a while to catch up to you! You’re leaving trails behind for others to get there! 

Thank you, Sagittarius, for traveling! But home is a place I want you to return to, even if it looks like a Winnebago on the run from the law. “I fought the law and the law won,” you say? Maybe that’s a past life story you’ve been riding on repeat. Smash that broken record and toss it out the rearview window. Wave farewell to that stretch of highway you’ve already covered, Easy Rider. 

Capricorn // Capricorn Rising

This is the point in the Zodiac where I’m talking to myself: I, Capricorn. CAPRICORN! Get positively Shakespearean this month, and hold out a skull, but instead of (alas!) poor Yorick, picture your own skull until it is speaking the monologue and you STFU. Listen to this version of you, a rotting pile of corpse flesh who's seen it all and knows what’s coming for you. Doesn’t this ancestral you make some of your current dramas seem petty in hindsight? Capricorn, wouldn’t you agree with me that it’s a total fiction that dead men tell no tales? Capricorn, why don’t we acknowledge our mediumship abilities right now? Do you think we get to the top by ourselves? I’ll give away one of our secrets here. Capricorn gets many of its hot tips from dead people. Our Earthy goat form is anchored by a fish tale that swims freely in the seas of the Underworld. Just remember to tip the ferry person at the River Styx nightclub—or else you won’t be allowed such easy passage next time!

Aquarius // Aquarius Rising

Aquarius! Aquarius! How often have I sung your name while listening to the Hair soundtrack and wishing it were all true and we’d just get on with it? Isn’t this partially your responsibility? Give us the Age of Aquarius report card! Have we been meeting our Aquarian goals? I’m not sure we’ll be able to handle it, but give it to us anyway. BUT WHAT IF we got rid of grades entirely? Couldn’t that be an Age of Aquarius thing? How then would you write your progress report? As you’re writing, “grading” or shading, coloring in your report, I want you to keep mind the Aquarian challenge posed by Cheryl Barnes in Hair’s “Easy to Be Hard”. What about those people who have amazing social vision or consciousness but neglect and/or treat poorly the people around them? As Cheryl sings: “Especially people who care about strangers / Who care about evil and social injustice / Do you only care about the bleeding crowd / How about a needing friend, I need a friend...” Think of an armchair activist you know, and ask them if they called their grandma on their birthday or drove their friends to the airport this year. All of this is important data for collecting.

Pisces // Pisces Rising

Pisces, we’re counting on you to share with us your Pisces Playbook. As our guide to this season, we’re looking to you to tell us how it is. Having taken your first breath during this sacred passage of year, what have you tuned into about its inner workings? Anoint yourself as One Who Knows and Is Needed and we’ll be on the lookout for your road signs. Here’s an exercise for journal reflection: Since you were born, how has climate change affected the Pisces season?  What tweaks have been made to its symbolism? What did this season feel like in the places you have lived, and what does it feel like now? Ask elders for their recollections of historic Pisces—go back as far as you can. Maybe you’ll find your Pisces Field Report being passed around in the classroom, others asking to make photo copies. Let them. We need your info!