Were the past couple of weeks pretty heavy for you? I’ve gotten a lot of reports of the difficulty of the Sun-Saturn-Mercury conjunction, and it was certainly a dreary and sludgy time for me—although sometimes I wonder if I’m relatively sensitive to this stuff, and I recognize that some are even more susceptible than me to the astral currents.
I learned a lot about the Sun from within their conjunction with Saturn, though. Pisces felt like a great place to appreciate the more subtle aspects of the Sun—their brightening quality felt dimmed, the warming quality felt frosted over, and a general faith in a coherent organization and organic unfolding of things felt threatened. In this context, Saturn’s heavier sides had an easier time taking over, making things cold, gloomy, and murky, giving a feeling of isolation and constriction, as if things would inherently be hard. Simultaneously, Saturn’s positive qualities felt like they were out of reach, needing to be reworked and reborn.
A lot of the particularly cold, gloomy, and murky elements of the Sun taking a hit from Saturn are now lifting simply by them separating in the sky, but from another perspective, this was just one ordeal in a series of them through this spring. We have a Venus-Saturn conjunction ahead of us in the couple of weeks, Mercury will start to station retrograde just after the upcoming Full Moon (a partial Lunar Eclipse), and alongside the total Solar Eclipse (happening in a vulnerable conjunction with Chiron), we’ll have a Mars-Saturn conjunction. To boot, this is all happening within the context of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction, which will be exact just a couple of weeks after the Solar Eclipse.
Altogether, it’s a bit like an obstacle course, and any number of these transits could trigger a serious recalibration from us. By the same token, any of them could hit right on the money of where we actually need to focus our attention—the central node that could click everything else into line.
With Mercury having been moving through Pisces since February 22nd, it might be hard to get a clear picture of what each obstacle or target is. Mercury is classified as being in their “fall” in Pisces—the planet that’s most responsible for rational and logical thought slips into a maze of riddles and enchantments. But with Mercury’s ingress into Aries tomorrow night, the 9th, we’ll have an infusion of sharp perception and pointed thought come into play—as well as a good deal of boldness, assertiveness, and quick thinking (and a certain proclivity to argue and a sharp tongue).
This is where Mercury will be taking their retrograde—we have two months of Mercury in Aries, and it’s very much worth checking out where this is falling in your chart. Importantly, Mercury is not alone in Aries—they’re meeting Chiron and the North Node of the Moon here, who are suddenly about to get a lot more attention than they have been for a few weeks.
Chiron and the North Node want to take us on a journey that brings together healing and empowerment, urging us to see challenges as therapeutic and unwinding the narratives and habits that keep us from harnessing our power. There might be a particular teacher, training system, or challenge that you need to undertake as a part of their evolutionary offering, and concentrating on that is likely going to be central to accessing the magic around the Eclipse on April 8th, when the Sun will then come in to catalyze, transform, and centralize Chiron. With Mercury entering Aries, it’s much more likely that we’ll be able to recognize the importance of whatever Chiron and the North Node are working on.
This dynamic will really heat up when the Sun enters Aries on the Equinox, but until then, we’ve got a set of important aspects in Pisces. First up is a conjunction between the Sun and Neptune next week, which can be foggy, sleepy, and turbulent at worst and enchanting, romantic, and mystical at best. That will be exact on the 17th but strong for the five or so days on either side. This aspect is a chance to tune into what a more easy, light, and refined spiritual awareness might feel like in our lives right now. In a way, this can instruct us as to the responsibilities of Saturn—what he needs to maintain, guard against, and put in the work for.
Venus will also make a conjunction with Saturn the following week, exact on the 21st, which can bring heaviness and hardship in matters of love and our broader social and sensual satisfaction. In a conjunction with Saturn, Venus is magnetized towards that which feels serious and trustworthy, and Venus’ exaltation in Pisces can help lift Saturn out of some tendencies to slump, but the whole exchange may nevertheless be arduous and aggravating. Venus enjoys the imaginative, boundless quality of Pisces, but Saturn’s rules and priorities can feel restricting for Venus. All in all, it may be a time in which we rethink our commitments romantically, and that process can be challenging.
Mars will enter Pisces the day after Venus and Saturn make their exact conjunction, which can stir and heat up some of the swirly tendencies of Pisces. I think of Mars in Pisces as either a drunken sailor or martial artist—the blend of the sharp and ethereal happens regardless. If Mars can be guided by an idealistic vision, this can give some tempered, sensitive strength to the situation—but in the absence of some clear ideal, Mars might feel as if their assertive drive is lost in the nebulous waters of Pisces, leading to confusion or indecision. This ingress will also set in around the same time that Mercury is slowing down to take their retrograde, suggesting a Full Moon with strong emotions but a lack of immediate channels for expression.
Mars will also make a conjunction with Saturn, which will be a prominent feature of our Solar Eclipse on the 8th—the conjunction will be exact on the 10th. Since the eclipse is in Aries, a sign ruled by Mars, this conjunction is a major signifier of the entire nature of the eclipse. Since it’s the two malefics together, neither of them with dignity, there could be a strong feeling of things getting tighter, more focused, or more forceful. Saturn might bring some sort of course correction to Mars, and Mars could break some Saturnian structure.
At their best, these two can manifest as a capacity to get a tremendous amount done—there’s a real admirable strength and staying power in characters blessed with their conjunction. But in the swirling waters of Pisces, strong motion without careful coordination and contextual awareness could end up exhausting and dangerous. And although the Sun in Aries can bring quite a lot of clarity, the Sun’s conjunction with the Head of the Dragon might also manifest as an unhelpful and brash headstrong energy.
All in all, having a clear connection to the Piscean dream realm—which is going to be easiest to establish during the Sun-Neptune conjunction over the next couple of weeks—will make the following month or so much easier to navigate. Likewise, we’d do well to hold onto lessons we’ve learned over the past couple of weeks—the specific understanding of moments where we let things get blurry, blustery, and gloomy. May we continue to cultivate clarity, poise, and spacious awareness!
And now, the play-by-play for my wonderful paid subscribers. Until next time, please reach out for a reading if you’d like to think through the coming few weeks!