Hi Friends,
Hold on to your britches! This month is supercharged with cosmic activity including two significant planets changing signs. This year might have started off slow but the momentum gets a major boost in March thanks to Saturn and Pluto moving into Pisces and Aquarius. In fact, there will be six planets changing signs in March, that’s a significant energy shift. As the month starts off Mercury will enter imaginative Pisces, and then switches signs once again in the middle of the month. A few days later Saturn, the planet of responsibility, structure, limitations, and karma, changes signs and also enters Pisces. This will end its two plus year journey through Aquarius, this very grown-up planet will make its way through deeply spiritual Pisces and force us to pay attention to our intuition and the mystical side of life.
At the same time Saturn enters Pisces, the Virgo Full Moon will light up our awareness with what’s not working or needs to change in our lives. This lunation can bring to light an issue related to a job, health matter, or daily routine that needs improvement. By mid-month Venus switches signs as well, bringing her attention the comfort–seeking Taurus realm. The cosmic energy starts to really increase as we get closer to the Spring Equinox (Northern Hemisphere). This is the beginning of the astrological year as the Sun enters the first sign of the zodiac, Aries.
This year it’s even more significant as the New Moon in Aries will also occur at the same time as the spring ingress. Talk about new beginnings or fresh starts…wow! But wait, there’s more!! A few days later powerful Pluto enters Aquarius. Pluto represents the principle of transformation and the evolutionary forces of life and death expressed through the primordial instincts that completely alters consciousness. It’s associated with the collective shadow and mass movements, the will to power and the underworld, whether geological, political, social or spiritual. Its purifying action brings about regeneration through the destruction of outmoded forms with both positive and negative consequences.
Towards the end of the month Mars finally enters Cancer after a six month visit through Gemini. During the last six months or so this transit has been causing us to rethink our motivation because of its retrograde mode from October 2022 to January 2023. Now that Mars is finally entering Cancer we will be dealing with matters related to emotions, family dynamics, home life, and stability. Mars in Cancer will provide us an opportunity to blend the fiery planet’s initiative with Cancerian concerns for preservation. We’ll want to spend this time frame carefully building things that honor and acknowledge our connection to the past and traditional values.
The month kicks off with Mercury entering Pisces on March 2nd. When the planet of reason moves into the watery sign of compassion, traditional methods of making decisions go out the door. In Pisces, the mental activity of Mercury moves into a completely different realm — the world of fantasy and dreams. Whatever your own method of mental reasoning is, you will undoubtedly encounter people who do not have their feet on the ground during this period. They won’t care about being practical or working toward goals. They’ll just be floating from one experience to another.
On March 7th, the Full Moon will highlight the perfectionist sign of Virgo. With the Virgo-Pisces service axis activated, this Full Moon presses us to find a balance between day-to-day functions and routines, physical health, and the need for order (Virgo) and vision, spiritual health, disorder, and the infinite (Pisces). Virgo rules the tools and techniques we use to deal with day-to-day life, while Pisces rules the tools we employ to manage our spiritual selves.
Some sort of crisis (which can be a crisis of consciousness) or sudden awareness of a lack in our lives provides us with a golden opportunity to explore our emotional needs within the context of the house polarity where the Full Moon occurs in our natal charts. This Full Moon urges us to strike a balance between work and service, practicality and impracticality, criticism and acceptance.
However, these new feelings and revelations are emotional ones, as there is a sense of emotions bursting forth into our consciousness. It’s time to express ourselves and to let things out of our systems. Over the next two weeks, we will discover what this means for us. This Full Moon occurs around the same time that Saturn leaves Aquarius and enters Pisces. It harmonizes with Uranus and forms a somewhat wide alignment to Mars.
About an hour or so after the Full Moon Saturn enters Pisces. When the practical and responsible Saturn enters the otherworldly mystical sign of Pisces, neither one comprehends the other. Pisces is about compassion. Saturn is cold and authoritarian. Somehow, they have to work things out. Saturn lends his business orientation to the rose colored glasses of Pisces and actually ends up with his feet on the ground…in a field of flowers, of course. Pisces needs to come down out of the sky sometimes and Saturn needs to ease up on its need to control. Put those two things together and you’ll figure out what your lesson is for Saturn in Pisces. It just may have something to do with bringing your dream into reality.
Another thing to be taken more seriously will be our spirituality. We are likely to want a more practical use for our beliefs, so spiritual practices that we can incorporate into day-to-day life will rise in popularity. Tai chi, yoga, and meditation will become important, as science starts to understand their benefits to everyday health, wellness, and happiness. We may also see an increase in people turning to divination methods and dream analysis to try to make practical sense of their lives and to aid in decision-making.
Pisces rules the entertainment industry, and it’s likely that during the next two years, with Saturn transiting this sign, we will see an increase in safeguards and protections as a sense of collective responsibility grows. On a personal level, Saturn’s transit through Pisces provides a very helpful grounding for turbulent emotions. Common sense can prevail in even the most difficult of circumstances, and for anyone feeling lost or at sea, this influence will be a safe port in a storm of change.
On March 16th our senses come alive as Venus enters her home sign of Taurus. Venus will transit Taurus from March 16 to April 11, 2023. With Venus in this sign she is naturally very sensual, content, and possessive. We seek security and value those things that are long-lasting. Our appetite for pleasure is strong.
The sign of Taurus values the here and now and the world of the five senses. Tangible and physical expressions of love and romance figure strongly during the Venus-in-Taurus cycle. Holding on to someone or something we love is our tendency under this influence. The shadow side of this is excessive possessiveness and treating our partners as objects that we own or want to own.
On the financial side, Venus in Taurus looks for high-quality, solid, practical, and long-lasting items. Holding on to our possessions is more likely now. With art, tastes, and pleasures, we prefer things that are earthy, natural, and grounded. We can be somewhat indulgent at this time. Uncertainty bothers us more than usual–we favor stability over excitement in love and pleasure.
Our minds enter the fiery realm of Aries on March 19th when Mercury enters this sign. Mercury rules our thought process. It represents the speed with which we comprehend ideas and concepts, so when Mercury moves into the blazing sign of Aries, it marks a period of high-energy and frantic ideas flying around. Mercury also rules the nervous system. The sign it is in describes how fast or slow we want to carry the message from one place to another. Mercury in Aries moves impulsively from one fire to another. It’s like going to the Indy 500…and you’re the driver. During this period, you can expect lots of projects, lots of people wanting you to do more, and lots of work at a very fast pace.
The following day the Sun enters Aries as well. We will certainly feel a dynamic shift now. Aries is a cardinal fire sign that springs upon us in a burst of exuberant energy – it is the doer, the initiator, the aggressor. The Sun is the source of all life in our universe. Without it, none of us would be here. It represents the desire to live, the craving to exist, the will to “make something of ourselves”. When you combine that urge with the fire of Aries, there’s going to be a lot of physical activity going on.
When the Sun transits Aries our enthusiasm is spontaneous and careless. We are motivated by the desire to conquer. We are more impulsive, and have the urge to initiate. Aries is a sign that bounces back quickly–there is little shame with Aries. It is brave and pioneering, and somewhat innocent. We are direct and rather uncomplicated in our needs, but we can also be short-sighted and lack the desire to plan ahead. On March 21st the New Moon in Aries continues to super charge our motivation. This Spring Equinox (Northern Hemisphere) marks a major turning point in our consciousness. The New Moon in Aries is a good time to commit to personal goals that express the positive energies of the sign of the Ram. It’s time to take action – try something new and innovative, and go at it with gusto and confidence; be assertive without being abrasive; take charge of our lives; start a brand new project, and discover our own personal courage.
This is a strong cycle under which to re-evaluate our relationship with ourselves. With this potent Aries energy, we have the chance to make important changes in our lives. It’s time to make some solid yet realistic plans and to set the stage for reaping the rewards from our new beginnings, as little or big as they may be, in approximately two weeks’ time after the Full Moon occurs.
A very significant shift occurs on March 23rd when powerful Pluto enters the humanitarian sign of Aquarius. This transit will occur for a few months this year (March 23, 2023, to June 11, 2023) before Pluto retrogrades back into Capricorn the rest of 2023. It will return to Aquarius on January 20, 2024 and remain there until March 8, 2043. Pluto in Aquarius is a significant transit for humanity; it’s a huge wakeup call of consciousness. While Pluto is in Aquarius, we will take social structures and politics especially seriously, and we seek major reform in these areas. Unusual, intense, or dramatic happenings are possible with friends and networks.
During this long-term cycle, we are likely to confront issues of control and power related to individuality, equality, friendships, and group associations. We can be on a quest to distinguish ourselves for our progressiveness, scientific minds, ideals, humanitarianism, or unique qualities. It’s also a time when we seek to change and overhaul society through science, inventions, and the mind/ideas.
Lastly, our passion rises as Mars enters the sensitive sign of Cancer on March 25th. Mars is all about being assertive, forceful, competitive, and active. It’s the force that puts us in motion and gets us what we want. When that energy moves into the sign of Cancer, an intuitive sign that runs on emotion, we may not have a clue what it is we are trying to get, but we’re darn well going to get it! It’s sort of like punching your way out of a gunny sack.
By nature, Cancer is not all that assertive, but this is a combination that can give us tremendous energy to build our own nest and move toward what we feel we need. Don’t be surprised to find yourself spending a lot of time cleaning and fixing and building things around the house.
Even so, for the next several weeks tempers may flare over issues of feeling uncared for. The Cancerian inclinations lean heavily toward taking care of others. When Mars enters this zone, it shifts into “how about a little appreciation around here?” Suddenly “Family Feud” is more than just a game. As we sulk in the corner, recovering from our injured feelings, we’ll get to see first-hand what it means to jump into the fray and struggle for authority. By the end of its time in Cancer, the forcefulness of Mars will begin to mellow and we will emerge a little stronger and a little more confidant. And with any luck, we’ll emerge a little more caring too.
March 2023 Video Horoscopes
Have a great month!
Joseph P. Anthony
