There is a New Moon every month, but we only (typically) get a New Moon in any specific zodiac sign once a year. In March we get a Pisces New Moon, and, as with all astrological events, this one has some uniqueness to its energy!
What is special about this New Moon?
The New Moon occurs when the Moon and the Sun are right on top of each other in the sky (from our perspective on Earth – of course the Sun and Moon aren’t actually on top of each other!). When a New Moon occurs, we can’t see the Moon – the Sun is so bright that it overwhelms the Moon (the only exception to this is eclipses…. but we will talk about that in a few weeks when we enter eclipse season!). Therefore, during this Pisces New Moon, the Moon will not be visible, and the night sky will be very dark. Only the stars will be visible.
Physically, as well as metaphorically, the New Moon indicates a time of darkness. A time when our physical eyes don’t allow us to see much, and we are encouraged to turn our eyes inward and self-reflect. Slowing down and turning inward often results in realizations that we want to take action on, and as a result, New Moons are also times associated with completing cycles in our lives and beginning new cycles. These cycles could be related to relationships, careers, behaviors, etc. Because of the importance of this periodic self-reflection to ensure we are changing anything in our life that is ripe for change, there are a plethora of New Moon meditations and rituals to help facilitate ending cycles that we are spiritually finished with, and starting new cycles of growth.
As mentioned, a New Moon occurs every month. How often are each of us really closing down major cycles in our lives and starting new ones? Certainly not monthly! So how do we know the relative importance of each New Moon, and the area of our life we should be contemplating change? There are two things that help us determine this:
- An individual’s birth chart
- The other planet’s positionis at the time of the New Moon.
An individual’s birth chart
Each person usually only gets one New Moon in a particular area of life each year. For example, you will only get one New Moon per year in the area of love and partnerships. One New Moon in the area of career. One New Moon in the area of Self. So to fully get the most out of each month’s New Moon, it is helpful to know your individual birth chart to see the areas of life where you personally can contemplate beginnings/endings.
The other planets’ positions
Of course, the Sun and the Moon are just the two most visible points in the sky – there are other bodies moving around us constantly – Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc, are always somewhere in the sky, whether we can see them with the naked eye or not! And they affect the quality and energy of each New Moon as well.
What makes this month’s New Moon in Pisces unique, is that it occurs with both the Sun and Moon sandwiched between Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. This means that this New Moon will have generally Piscean themes, but will be heavily impacted by both Saturn’s and Neptune’s energies as well.
Saturn is the planet of Time. It encourages long-term thinking, delayed gratification, working in a disciplined way toward your goals, and setting strong boundaries around your work and life to help you reach those goals.
Neptune helps us recognize the Universal one-ness of all things. From Neptune’s lens, too much focus on our own individual goals and lives isn’t useful; Neptune encourages us to let go of our ego and bask in the fact that all beings are interconnected. From Neptune’s perspective, ambiguity is better than firm boundaries, and fuzziness is better than clarity.
The energies of these two planets are very different – almost opposed to each other!
So with planetary encouragement to focus on boundaries but also to ignore boundaries, to focus on the long term but also to focus on the present moment, what will this Pisces New Moon look like for each of us? Neptune has an edge in this interaction, because the Sun, Moon, Saturn, and Neptune are all in Neptune’s sign of Pisces. So the Neptunian energy of floating in blissful nebulousness will feel most natural during this New Moon. However, Saturn will be right there to prevent us from completely basking in the present moment and will be encouraging us to set some goals and diligently start working toward them.
Therefore, this New Moon energy will be very focused around long-term thinking vs short-term thinking. We will find ourselves saying “yes, but” frequently.
“Yes, I really like my friends, but I don’t feel like I can be authentically myself with them.”
“Yes, I am happy by myself, but I would really like a partner I love and depend on.”
“Yes, my job is going well, but I don’t enjoy it and wish I could do something more meaningful to me.”
As we create New Moon meditations and rituals for this Pisces New Moon, these questions of balance are the best ones to be asking ourselves.
We can’t focus for too long only on happiness and bliss in the current moment (Neptune), but we also can’t only focus on the long-term such that we are perpetually miserable in the short-term. What do we want this balance to look like for ourselves individually? With the hugely personal “planets”, the Sun and Moon, located in Pisces between Saturn and Neptune, we have to understand that there is no one correct answer – there is only the answer that we determine is right for us.
What in our lives feels dissonant or out of balance? We can never achieve perfect balance, but how do we want to move our existing balance points to be more aligned with our souls? This New Moon, borrowing energy from both Saturn and Neptune, offers us a unique set of energies to help us move our lives towards greater balance.
If you are looking for a New Moon meditation specifically for this New Moon, I have one on my YouTube channel!
Photo by Kevin Butz on Unsplash
