Happy New Moon in Pisces! This is the time of year when we plant our seeds for new beginnings regarding compassion, spirit, release, forgiveness, art, and divine inspiration. The new moon is exact on 3/11/2013 at 3:51 pm EDT and 21 degrees Pisces.

If you’ve been paying attention to the astrology over the last month and a half, you’ll know that we’ve been in an overly saturated period of doing Pisces. One by one the inner planets have joined Neptune and Chiron in the last zodiac sign, making for a quiet and reflective time — although some may argue that this stellium has been more of a morass than enlightenment. If you’ve been sinking rather than swimming, time to pray for a life raft. With so much Pisces about, miracles do happen.

As I’ve mentioned previously in an article about Neptune, Pisces is the least linear and action oriented signs of the zodiac. So if you’re used to forward movement, think of this time and especially this new moon as a forced time out. Pisces is an invitation to look deeply within, to experience the liminal and the numinous, to think about sacrifice and the sacred. It is Lent after all. Oh and Mercury is retrograde in Pisces too. Hope you’ve been enjoying the ride.

Looking at the chart of the new moon, we see seven planets in Pisces. This is quite rare and doubly rare when you consider that the last time both Neptune and Chiron were in Pisces together it was the late 1520s, early 1530s. If you know your history, you’ll remember that this was the era of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Interesting that as Chiron and Neptune conjoin together in Pisces, we’re seeing the biggest threat to Catholicism in 500 years, except this time the institution, with Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries, threatens to collapse on itself. The Pope has willingly resigned — an act that has no parallel — and years of sexual abuse scandals expose a cancerous core to public eyes. As I write this the papal conclave meets to elect a new pontiff. One can wonder how all these Pisces planets may affect their choice.

I like to say to my clients that there are two types of God in astrology. There’s the Jupiter/Sagittarius/9th House man with the long white beard and then there’s the Neptune/Pisces/12th House variety of God as all encompassing force of love. So here we have a nice little Jupiter in Gemini closing square to all these Pisces planets reminding us that the two versions don’t exactly mesh well. All this Pisces energy is eroding our belief structures and if you’ve used this stellium to your advantage, you’ve worked to release the dualistic thinking and dogma that has gotten you in trouble in the past.

The last 5-6 weeks have been a strange trip indeed as life seemed more waking dream than anything representing reality. But the trip is almost over as Mars prepares to cross the cardinal axis and into Aries. In the chart above, Mars is at 29 degrees Pisces. There’s a deep sense of reflection with this new moon. What have you learned? Has it gotten any easier to surrender over the last few weeks? Or have you thrashed about like a drowning man? Reflect on this time as it has served a purpose, which is to reunite spirit with matter and to bring renewal in an era that has witnessed some of the most challenging events of our lives. Hope you’ve rested up because there will be a marked shift once the planets leave Pisces for hard driving Aries.