Happy Pisces Full Moon! Happy lunar eclipse! This is the time of the year when we turn the spotlight on themes of compassion, forgiveness, and letting go. Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac and so there’s a push to let go and reconnect to the cosmic waters from which we all came. The full moon will be exact on September 16, 2106 at 3:05 pm EDT, 24 degrees Pisces/Virgo. That’s 12:05 pm Los Angeles, 8:05 pm London, and 5:05 pm Sydney on September 17. (Click here for the full moon chart.)
If solar eclipses set us off on a new journey, then lunar eclipses brings the story into sharp focus. In fact, the solar eclipse in Virgo on September 1 opened up a narrative that has been driven by themes of health, healing, purity, commitment, service, and work — a narrative that will continue to unfold over the duration of the six month eclipse cycle. The lunar eclipse in Pisces, however, brings it to a crisis. The narrative now has a plot. So, what’s the story before us?
First, let’s look at the signs of Pisces and Virgo, the setting for our story. The two signs are ultimately about the pull between heaven and earth. Virgo is pragmatic, concerned with the mundane details of life, hands-in-the-earth service. Pisces, however, is concerned with the mystical and esoteric, meditation and prayer. Pisces is spiritual service to Virgo’s earthly. Built into this lunar eclipse is a story around the pull between what we can touch and know objectively and the subjective unknown.
Let’s take a moment to let this sink in some more. How do you know you’re alive? Yes, there are all these machines that can measure your heart rate, brain waves. You can take a quick breath in and out, over and over. But how do you really prove you’re alive? After all, this could all be a dream, a convincing hallucination. What you experience is so subjective that there’s no metric to quantify emotion and intuition. You can tell me your dreams, but you can’t prove them. Therein lies the tension between Virgo and Pisces.
When we look at the chart of the eclipse, the beating heart is its tight conjunction to Chiron. I spoke about Chiron a fair bit over the past couple of days, but Chiron reveals a knot in the chart, a raw nerve that is highly symbolic of a reoccurring story in your life. When Chiron is in Pisces, the knot is existential, highly emotional, spiritual. In short, the lunar eclipse is dragging up your stuff, making you feel vulnerable, exposed. But, like a lance to a wound, we need this eclipse. We need to drain out the poison so real healing can happen. For all of Virgo’s pills and tonics, what if true healing comes at the level of the soul?
So, this eclipse is going to bring something up for you, a knot that you will pick at and hopefully unravel over coming months. If it hurts, if you’re crying, it’s because there’s something that demands your attention. Chances are it’s much deeper than you think. It could be a trauma that you’ve never fully dealt with, a loss you never grieved for. It could be something deep in your unconscious, something that reappears as a figment or a projection. It could be a festering need for forgiveness and redemption.
Chiron in Pisces asks, what are your wounds? A square to Mars in the chart creates a sense of urgency and action. How are your beliefs impacting your reality? Are you losing faith? In the end, everything points back to Libra, especially Jupiter’s recent arrival in Libra. There is opportunity for us in peace, in cooperation, in relationship. For all the pain you are feeling, it’s time for balance. It’s time for a new season.
Let the waters of Pisces wash over you so you can begin again.
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