Time to renew our spirit and envision a more beautiful world during Pisces season
Dear Reader,
As the Sun passes through Pisces from February 18th to March 20th, we’re transitioning from winter to spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The light and warmth of the Sun are growing stronger every day, early blooms are poking their heads out, and birds are beginning to sing again.
I’m writing to you from my mom and her husband’s balcony on one of the warmer, spring-like days we’ve been blessed with. They put up a bird house a few years ago, and lo and behold, there’s a couple of adorable blue tits nesting again now. I just love seeing their cute little faces so much.
What are you noticing in your surroundings?
How are you experiencing this time of year?
Guided by the Sun in Pisces
Pisces season marks the ending of winter and of the dark half of the year. While nighttime is still overshadowing daytime, as the Sun keeps climbing higher and higher in the sky every day, the days will soon outshine the nights. There’s a longing in Pisces to rise out of the dark of winter and emerge into the light of spring-to-be; a stirring of hope for the future.
Pisces, the Fish, is a mutable water sign belonging to Jupiter. It invites us to open our hearts and deepen compassion for ourselves and one another. Being highly attuned to suffering as well as bliss, Pisces teaches us not to abandon ourselves when we’re in pain and to extend ourselves in service to others.
As the dreamer and mystic of the zodiac, Pisces connects us to what is intangible, invisible, and otherworldly. It gives us permission to immerse ourselves in what we hold beautiful and inspiring, to trust our inner guidance, and to follow our intuition. It reminds us of the potency of our creativity and imagination and helps us find poetic visions of the future.
Are you a child of Pisces season, having been born during this time of year? Do you have placements in Pisces other than the Sun?
If so, how does it inform your way of being in the world?
What makes this Pisces season special
The middle of fall coincides with the middle of Scorpio season, when the Sun moves through the sign of the Scorpion (October 23rd – November 21st). Scorpio is a fixed water sign, ruled by Mars, planet of passion, and signifies a season of letting ourselves fall into the hidden depths of our inner life. It gives us permission to feel what’s difficult and intense and the courage to go to the places that scare us.
This year’s Pisces season highlights that there is a lot of planetary activity between the end of Pisces and the beginning of Aries — the threshold from archetypal winter to archetypal spring and the gateway to the beginning of the zodiac.
The Saturn/Neptune era
This is the last time in our lifetime that the Sun is copresent (in the same sign) with Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. Neptune has been in Pisces since 2011, Saturn joined in March 2023. They’re traveling close together all year, dipping into Aries during the spring and summer, retrograding back into Pisces in the fall, and conjoining at 0 degrees of Aries — the first degree of the zodiac — in February of next year, signifying the birth of a new era.
Saturn and Neptune are copresent from March 2023 to April 2028, signifying an era of dissolution (Neptune) of structures (Saturn) and the loss (Saturn) of ideals (Neptune). This is a time when we’re being asked to reimagine (Neptune) reality (Saturn), to deepen (Saturn) our faith in what is yet unknown (Neptune), and to commit (Saturn) to the dreams we believe in with all our heart (Neptune). Whatever we’re pouring ourselves into now will be the oceanic womb (Pisces) from which a new reality is being born (Aries).
Venus and Mercury retrogrades
The threshold between Pisces and Aries is further emphasised by both Venus and Mercury retrograding from early Aries to late Pisces this spring; Venus from March 2nd to April 13th, Mercury from March 15th to April 7th, though the full influence of their retrogrades extends about two weeks on either side for Mercury and about five weeks for Venus. We’re invited to review and renew our values and relationships (Venus) as well as our thoughts and communications (Mercury), including our relationship to ourselves (Aries) and our communication with spirit (Pisces).
Eclipse season
We’re also finishing an eclipse cycle across the Aries/Libra axis and beginning a new eclipse cycle across the Virgo/Pisces axis, with eclipses stirring up what is ripe for renewal and ready for release. This current eclipse season — a period of accelerated change — features the first eclipse in Virgo at 23 degrees on March 14th (we already had the first eclipse in Pisces last September) and the last eclipse in Aries at 9 degrees on March 29th. If you have placements near those degrees, the eclipse will be more personal for you.
Pisces season and YOU
Even if you don’t have placements in Pisces, you still have Pisces somewhere in your birth chart — we all do. For more insight into where the Pisces part of the story is playing out in your life, find the house in your birth chart that contains the sign of the Fish. The areas of life signified by your Pisces house are where you’re invited to dream big, tap into the realm of infinite possibilities, and feel your way through.
Are you ready to let go of winter?
What inspires and renews your faith?
What spiritual or creative practices help you recharge?
What fills your heart with hope?
What makes life feel magical to you?
What are your dreams for the next seven generations?
You can take the questions in this newsletter on your walk or into your journal, your dreamtime, or any other kind of creative or contemplative practice, either solo or with others. I hope they tickle you and help you move gently into spring.
Some medicine for this time of year
One of my personal wishes for this year is to nourish my meditation practice. I started meditating in my late twenties, during my first Saturn return, but I haven’t had a consistent practice for a while. And I miss it. I miss being held by a regular sitting practice, and I miss the actual practice of being with what is.
If you also want to meditate this Pisces season, my teacher Susan Piver — who was born with Pisces rising and the Moon in Pisces — is offering a free month in her virtual meditation community The Open Heart Project Sangha. I’m especially fond of the live meditations, which are offered daily by different teachers. You can find all the details and sign up here. I warmly recommend it.
Until next time...
I look forward to writing to you again at the time of the Spring Equinox and the beginning of Aries season, when the new year bursts forth. This year, the Aries Equinox falls on March 20th at 10:02 am Central European Time (convert to your local time). It’s an auspicious moment to divine, meditate, or make art.
In the meantime, I’m wishing you a gentle passage from winter to spring wherever you are!