Prayer is sitting in the silence
until it silences us, choosing gratitude
until we are grateful, and praising God
until we ourselves are an act of praise.
Richard Rohr
The Full Moon on September 20, 2021 at 7:54 pm EDT at 28 degrees Pisces
invites us to surrender effort and striving so we can be renewed by the divine energetic current that perpetually guides and enlivens all life.
The Full Moon occurs at the last degree of Pisces, which is also the last degree of the zodiac wheel. It speaks to endings, to coming full circle, to releasing and emptying. Through stilling ourselves we make room to receive something new as we ready for the activity of the next rounding of the wheel in the cycles of life.
Pisces is a water sign. The sign of Cancer is the ocean from which all life is born and Scorpio is the deep, dark water that the sun doesn’t reach. Pisces is the formless cosmic water of becoming, the primordial soup in which all things emerge and return. In its realm, we are all inextricably part of each other and all that ever was or will be. There is no definition - just compassion, connectedness, and the pregnant potential of what will come. We dip into Pisces waters to be renewed, to feel the endlessly creative and generative source that gives rise to all creation, and we remember who we are and what we are made of. We are star children, God’s children, the children of a vast universe of belonging that pulses with beauty, harmony and love.
The Piscean Moon opens a portal that connects us with something beyond the confines of space and time, beyond the confines of how we define and identify ourselves. Unconditional love is quickened. In its waters, the mystic receives intuitive revelation and the artist is inspired to create. Empathy is accentuated and we desire to give selflessly to others. Wounds are cleansed, healing can be found and we can come to a new sense of peace within ourselves. The Piscean potentiality is underscored by the New Moon’s conjunction to its ruler, Neptune.
But to enter the waters of Pisces, we need to shed self-importance, agendas, and our sense of specialness. We simply need to let go and surrender to find renewal in its waters.
Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming
anything. Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything
that isn’t really you, so you can be who
you were meant to be in the first place.
Paul Coehlo
Moving from the Rational to the Imaginal
as the Virgo Impulse of Early September Subsides
The Sun in opposition to the Full Moon is finishing up its annual sojourn in Virgo and readying for the September 22 Fall Equinox when it enters Libra. Since the Virgo New Moon September 6, we have been compelled to organize, plan, and act with exacting precision in tending to daily habits and behaviors. The Virgo emphasis of the last weeks has asked us to zero in on the details and minutiae of mundane living and give focused care to the balance and wellbeing of our physical bodies and immediate surroundings.
There is now a clear shift in focus. Virgo’s ruler, Mercury is quincunx Neptune, which directs our mind away from the logical and towards the imaginal. We are cued to let go of the reins and control of life for a moment in order to sense the greater impulse that enlivens all we have or will ever have.
The Full Moon invitation is akin to the feeling we have when we get into a hot bath at the end of a long day, or decide to take a shower to wash away the dirt of the day. We hit the pause button on the relentless need to get things done. It is a time of cleansing, of purifying, of feeling the water wash away all that clings to us. After, we can re-engage life with greater peace and renewed vigor.
We are to soften the grip of our thinking mind and flex our intuitive muscle to feel the movement of how things want to flow. If we rely too much on our discerning, logical mind we may find ourselves confused, overstimulated, or overwhelmed. We are to attune to and let our feelings guide us. We are to be curious about what our dreams at night want to tell us, curious about the message of the hawk flying overhead or the stoplight that refuses to turn green. The living world is speaking to us in symbols and everyday things. Centering ourselves in our heart, in our feeling center, we may hear the language of the divine and what it is communicating.
We may feel fatigue in the hours leading up to the Full Moon (Moon in exact conjunction to its ruler, Neptune). We are being cued to slow down, to rest, and to seek the silence. In the hours of the Full Moon, we enter a period of detoxification. If we are quiet within ourselves, we may have intuitive clarity about what we are ready to release. It us up to us to decide what activity is best suited to stilling ourselves so we can surrender to what wants to move through us.
May the stars carry your sadness away, May the flowers fill your heart with beauty, May hope forever wipe away your tears, And, above all, may silence make you strong.
Dan George
Being Carried on the Wings of Pegasus
28 degrees of Pisces is considered the “weeping degree” because Scheat resides here.
Scheat is one of four fixed stars that form a prominent rectangle in the Fall Night Sky. This rectangle is known as the Great Square of Pegasus. Scheat is the right shoulder of Pegasus.
Pegasus, the winged horse, figured prominently with the last Full Moon. You can read about the Greek myth and archetypal meaning of Pegasus in the Aquarius Full Moon Newsletter. For millennia, this white and winged horse has been associated with freedom, flight and imagination. These themes continue with the Pisces Full Moon, as we continue to resolve and heal the past and break free from what restrains us.
Scheat’s presence at this Full Moon encourages us to ride on the wings of Pegasus, to feel the freedom of flight and the magic of being able to touch the heavens. There is also a cautionary note with Scheat, this star associated with weeping. For those who direct the flight of Pegasus for their own personal ambitions, they are likely to be thrown off and suffer a fall. 28 degrees Pisces can indicate disillusionment, setbacks, and loss of footing. The New Moon invitation to surrender is further recommended and emphasized here. Welcoming what is present to be felt and opening to where the divine wishes to guide us - rather than appealing to the universe to fulfill our wishes - we can reap the benefits and avoid the confusion and loss that Scheat can sometimes bestow.
To allow oneself to be carried away
by a multitude of conflicting concerns,
to surrender to too many demands,
to commit oneself to too many projects,
to want to help everyone in everything,
is to succumb to the violence of our times.
Thomas Merton
Expanding our Awareness, Being Mindful and Not Taking Ourselves So Seriously
Mercury quincunx Neptune, trine Jupiter and in a T Square with Pluto and Eris
Our rational mind is invited to come into right relationship with our heart and spirit. We may find our logic scrambled if we identify with our cognitive mind at the expense of our intuitive function. (Mercury quincunx Neptune). Our minds are being opened and expanded by intuitive understanding, fostering an expanded perspective where we see more of the forest and less of the trees. (Mercury trine Jupiter).
The T-Square Mercury is making with Pluto (Transformation) and Eris (Discord) can really mess with us if we are not mindful and open to re-imagining our view on things. If we hold onto our ideas and way of perceiving as the gospel truth, we may find ourselves thrown into a web of confusion. The urge to take a strong stand for something we believe in can have us facing off with someone or some circumstance that challenges us with comparable strength of conviction. Rather than continually asserting what we think we know, we will get more mileage from asking questions, being curious about what we can learn, and listening without having a ready-made response to what is being discussed.
Mercury is in dynamic relationship with several planets, meaning that our mind is being activated and guided to find its rightful place alongside the functions of feeling, heart and intuition. The Full Moon invites our rational mind to take a backseat, allowing these other functions of perception to come forward. The more we solely rely on the rational mind to address issues and circumstance, the more we will find ourselves mentally fatigued, stressed and challenged during the Full Moon.
If the mind relaxes its need to be in charge and to be right, we have fantastic capacity for visioning something beyond what we already know. From this, we may feel emboldened by Eris and Pluto’s stimulation of Mercury to go against the river, the current of what those around us are doing, as we are centered and moving from a connection to universal truths and timeless wisdom.
Peace is not something you wish for;
it’s something you make, something you do,
something you are, and something you give away.
John Lennon
As we are Transformed, our Relationships will also Transform
Recap of the last decade until now:
2012-2015 – The square between Pluto in Capricorn (Transformation of Societal Structures) and Uranus in Aries(Change to support Individual Freedom) nurtured a revolutionary activism to dismantle customs and laws not aligned with humanity's evolutionary impulse.
2015-2016 - the square between Saturn (structured reality) and Neptune (the ideal) had us seeing the dissidence between the dream we have for our life compared to what we have been able to manifest. The gap between the two had us feeling anxious about believing in our capacity to make our dreams real.
2020 - The year-long conjunction between Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto heralded the breakdown of the status quo and interrupting our automatic way of living as a means to open up new ways of operating that will better serve the well-being of humanity and the world.
2020 Winter Solstice. - A pioneering vision for the future was seeded with the Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.
2021 - The tension between Saturn (what currently exists) and Uranus (something new) has created a stew where we are all simmering with how to disentangle ourselves from habitual ways of living that are no longer viable so we can initiate and embrace a future that is sustainable. Intuitively we can feel how life will not return to what we previously knew before the pandemic and we are in the in-between time between one way of life and another.
The astrological aspects of 2021 by and large have us reshaping, re-envisioning and remaking ourselves. This includes letting go of behaviors, patterns and beliefs that inhibit growth and movement.
In the Course or Remaking Ourselves, our Relationships will Inevitably Undergo Change
As we are all going through a transformative process to let go of old ways and operating and reshape our hopes and dreams, we may discover we are growing in different directions in relation to someone we love and that shared agreements and shared plans need to be renegotiated.
Planetary dynamics of the Full Moon foreshadow the theme of ‘relationship’ that will shape the autumn months. There is a strong emphasis on Libran themes of relationship, cooperation, and collaboration next month with the Sun and Mars traveling in Libra and Mercury Retrograde in Libra. December features a Venus Retrograde which will have us continuing our contemplation of the shifts needed to strengthen relationships with an eye to examining what we are responsible for and not responsible for. The result of this can be newfound harmony and a deepening of mutual trust with those we love
Venus in a T-square with Saturn and Uranus
Venus engages the Saturn/Uranus dialogue is the predominant influence of 2021
There are three exact squares between Uranus and Saturn in 2021 creating great tension within us as to how we can reconfigure our lives to accommodate something profoundly new and enlivening. Saturn’s urge is to stabilize and reinforce what already exists. Uranus is inclined to blow it up what exists in support of greater freedom and innovation. Uranus seeks a revolutionary approach to life while Saturn wants to stick with what has worked in the past. We can perhaps feel both these impulses within ourselves, as if we are trying straddle two very different approaches to resolve the issues we face.
Venus entering the Saturn/Uranus dialogue brings relationship dynamics to the front burner. The routines and roles set in our relationships that were once comforting have become stagnant. Yet, opening a dialogue to change the structure and nature of a relationship can be scary.
Venus Square Saturn
There is pressure to address and update the agreements that define our relationships. What may have once been tolerable may no longer feel viable. We may have compromised in a way that has cost us. What worked for us in relationship five years ago is different than what what will work moving forward. Relationships need to be reshaped to support who we are becoming. If we are not willing to have an open discussion with someone we love about this, we may gradually find that the glue that holds the relationship together gradually weakens.
Venus oppose Uranus
We want relationships to be alive and fresh. Rather than engage in ways that are habitual, we want to experience new ways of being together. We want our interactions to inspire us more than give us a sense of comfort and familiarity. If we cannot re-ignite the spark in our current relationships, we may attract new people who can provide the enthusiasm and lively engagement we are wanting.
Air Grand Trine with Mars, Saturn, North Node
Air Grand Trines favor networking, the exchange of ideas and collaboration with others. We want to discuss long term goals (North Node) and define concrete steps we can take to realize them (Saturn). Mars, the planet of action, is less inclined to act alone or take decisive action. We are seeking partnership and collaboration and are inclined to engage in an interactive dialogue that has those involved feeling heard and aligned with what is being discussed. While Mars doesn’t have its usual confidence and drive in Libra, its current position helps slow us down so we can listen and be responsive to what others are expressing.
May you be at peace. May your heart
remain open. May you awaken
to the light of your own true nature.
May you be healed. May you be
a source of healing for all beings
Tibetan Buddhist Prayer
Fall Equinox September 22 – 3:30 pm EDT
The Fall Equinox occurs annually when the Sun is on the world axis at O degrees Libra. This is the moment with the length of days and nights are equal. There is a balance in nature between light and dark, between the active and the receptive.
The Sun joins the Air Grand Trine (of Mars, Saturn, and North Node). The Sun conjoined with Mars is emboldened to invite collaboration and the resolution of differences We can see beyond what polarizes one from another so that dialogue ventures beyond ‘my way vs. your way’ and towards resonance and agreement.
The T- Square between Pluto (Transformation), Mercury (Rational Mind), and the Moon (Emotional Wellbeing) emphasizes how we may feel personally challenged by the transformative elements at play in the next months. Our sense of security and habitual way of viewing things may having us feeling out of control. There are deep energies at play that our shifting our beliefs so that we open to a deeper level of truth and wisdom.
We can honor the Fall Equinox by meditating or creating a small ceremony to mark the occasion. Feeling into the energies of the day, we can set an intention for balance and harmony within ourselves and our relationships. The Fall Equinox energies will be felt for several months to come.
Mercury Retrograde September 26 – October 18 in Libra
Every four months, Mercury turns Retrograde and invites us to take a step back and evaluate the actions of the past months and adjust our approach. It can involve giving ourselves a retreat or taking time to get caught up on sleep, paperwork, or phone calls.
With Mercury in Libra, we will be thinking about relationship and steps we might take to have them be more fair, equitable and just. We will be thinking how we can hear and meet another’s needs without having to compromise something essential about ourselves. We may find ourselves getting in contact with old flames or old friends where we explore what worked and didn't work about that relationship as part of the process to looking at how to heal and move into a new way of relating.
It is advisable that we do not break up with someone, get married, or give ultimatums in partnership until Mercury goes direct. We may feel an urgency around making a decision about a relationship, but chances are it is not as urgent as we feel, and contemplating it a few more days will bring greater clarity and calmness around any action we wish to take.
Virtual Astrology Workshop
"The Art of Chart Synthesis"
Four Thursdays
5:45 - 7:00 pm
September 30
October 7
October 14
October 21
Do you understand the basic component of astrology (planets, signs, houses, aspects) and are at the stage where you want a better grasp of how to put it all the pieces together to give a reading? Then, this workshop is designed for you. Each week, we will meet for 75 minutes on a shared screen in Zoom to look at 2-3 charts and discuss how to synthesis all the components and read the chart. The charts that will be used will come from participant suggestions. Space in the workshop will be limited so that everyone can easily ask questions and engage in the discussion.
Click here for detailed information, cost and registration for The Art of Chart Synthesis Workshop,
Fall Reading Special!
One Hour Reading
$110
The reading will provide
A look at the overall momentum of this past year from the Great Conjunction last Winter Solstice, to what was unleashed with the emphasis on Aquarian visioning, to how you have been impacted by the Saturn/Uranus square that is defining 2021
Ample focus to the dynamics of the next few months, and how you can make the most of the upcoming Mercury Retrograde, Fall Eclipse season, and December's Venus Retrograde.
A view of the big movements and opportunities that are prodding us to integrate the movements that opened a new way for us this last year and the needed adjustments in our perception and plans, so that we are well-situated for what the next bend in the road will bring.
Offer ends September 30, 2021
and cannot be combined with any other discounts