Revisiting Pisces: Keep swimming!

Pisces by B.A. Vierling

It’s been two months since I’ve been able to write, because it’s been difficult to get back into this particular current and flow.  Pisces is like that. Also, know that I try my best to be objective as an astrologer, but there is zero Air right now, so I’m jumping in. The oceanic qualities of this sign mean that there are riptides and whirlpools that can suck one under at times.  Whether you have any planets in Pisces or not, we are all living in Piscean times these days and that means a great deal of chaos as storm after collective storm sweeps through and catches us off guard.  

Artist Ivan Kostantinovich

Of the three water signs, Pisces is the most universally oriented.   It becomes confusing to know where you end and the ‘collective sea’ begins.  The loss of ego boundaries is always, always a Pisces dilemma.  Just read all the comments under my article on Pisces.  “I feel lost” is the number one statement of distress.  Yes, lost at sea in the waters of ‘all that is’.  It takes a strong hand at the helm, a good navigator, a solid team, and a strong anchor to keep Pisces traveling well through the seas of life.  That’s but one of many metaphors I find useful.

Keep swimming is what I say now with such an influx of Pisces energy.  Swim with the current as best you can keeping your own inner core intact.  Stay afloat, don’t sink nor drown.  Things will abate in time.  You’ll find yourself again in quiet more pleasurable waters.

One other observation:  we live on a planet of waters.  We have many oceans surrounding our land masses.  So some locations can be peaceful while others are turbulent.  Astro-location is a valid tool in understanding WHERE you are in terms of Latitude/Longitude.  For example, some locations are Venusian while others are Plutonian for each of us.  Pay attention to that as well.  With all the flux of migrations going on due to further places of upheaval and lack of safety, probably few have the luxury of looking at their ‘astro-maps’ before jumping on a dingy in the hopes of surviving in some foreign land.  I think about these things.  Do you?  On the other hand, many now have the luxury of living in far-off beautiful places by water such as Alan Oken, one of the astrologers I’ve always admired.  He lives in Bali now after many years in Sante Fe.  

But on to the general turbulence at hand:

Right now it’s Mars in Sagittarius, following the trail of Saturn’s journey through this sign in the past 2.5 years, in square to everything in Pisces.  Both Pisces and Sagittarius are ruled by Jupiter, which is now in the depths of another water sign, Scorpio.  Fire and water is a volatile combination.  Jupiter in water reflects this.  Mars in fire in square to Neptune (also co-ruler of Pisces) in water also reflects this, but Neptune is joined by the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Chiron adding volume and momentum to the strum and drang reflected in such events as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting carnage.  Guns—Mars in Sagittarius.  Young people as victims and some of their teachers—More Mars in Sagittarius.  With this continues the blindness to the reality of America’s fantasy love of violence (Mars square Neptune in the nation’s inception chart). Here are quotes from a recent Haaretz article:

The troubled teen authorities say killed 17 people at a Florida high school excelled in an air-rifle marksmanship program supported by a grant from the National Rifle Association Foundation. It was part of a multi-million dollar effort by the pro-gun group to support youth shooting clubs.

Nikolas Cruz was wearing a shirt with the logo of the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program when he was arrested. Former cadets told The Associated Press that Cruz was on the varsity marksmanship team that competed against other area schools.

We know in the wake of this shocking massacre his peers have given voice to a renewed wisdom and strength which shames the leaders their parents have elected. These young people are not bamboozled by the rhetoric of politicians hiding behind the 2nd Amendment.  Come on!  This constitutional right was written before AK-15 assault rifles were the norm. It is a sacrosanct amendment I know, yet politicians have mostly sold out to the biggest lobbyists.  We know that arms sales are big business in this country, and the NRA has always said no to all reasonable regulations of these weapons of horrendous destruction in the hands of testosterone fueled and mentally disturbed young men.

 A society whose god is materialism and collective carnage (military conquests) breeds soul-sick individuals without hope or love like Mr. Cruz, and now a President, whose Sun/Uranus conjoins the Nation’s Mars, has the cockamamy ‘idea’ to further arm all teachers and ‘security’.  Sure, let’s pile more on more.  It makes one feel like we’re in the middle of a mad house.  I’m sure all teachers would just love to add in further ballistic training as part of their jobs.

Pisces is about the ending and the beginning of cycles.  Don’t forget that.  It is the great dissolver into chaos before a new ordering appears.  Neptune symbolizes this work on the planet, as does Chiron which is about to leave the sign.  Chiron shows us where we are wounded and the passage ways toward healing.  It reminds us that by acknowledging our wounds, we can begin to heal.  This soul sickness of a nation is now systemic through-out all institutions.

Thank goodness we have the brevity of Saturn in Capricorn to start bringing a strong dose of reality and earth grounding to this water/fire drama.  Pisces likes Capricorn energy.  It is a solid container for the nebulous realms of a sign known for its lack of boundaries.  Earth can give water some shape and form.  As Saturn inches ever closer to Pluto we know reality is going to hit us hard and deep in the next couple of years.  Saturn will strengthen the resolve of Pisces to be a strong swimmer and find the current and flow that carries it forwards rather than back into the maelstrom.

Let’s look at another theme that’s been emerging since Jupiter entered Scorpio:  women’s, men’s and children’s issues around sexuality and predatory behavior.  Jupiter has been in trine to both Neptune and Chiron which mirrors the rising of an enormous wave of mostly female voices saying NO to sexual harassment primarily in the work place.  These voices are now like a chorus reinforcing each individual to have more volume and impact.  This growing consciousness of no longer hoping for, but demanding respect is new.  In a media driven culture where the image is the message, women have always been the eye candy to entertain and sell commodities in a capitol-driven society.  Women are needed for their beauty, their allure, and their sexual magnetism.  These industries can no longer exploit women as they did with the likes of Marilyn Monroe and all the beautiful starlets who followed her.  The intelligence of the beautiful female has had it.  The ‘Me too’ is a chorus which now shouts ‘No More.’  Respect.  Nothing less will do anymore.  Respect!!

Jupiter is bringing all the secrets out like never before as it moves through Scorpio.  Why is this?  Probably because Neptune and Pluto have been preceding it and now give it the power to broadcast its truth.  Pluto is moving through the final decanate of Capricorn while Neptune is barely entering the zenith of Pisces.  These two have been in and out of sextile with each other for a very long time, but are no longer able to maintain that easy alliance.  Pluto is driving us deeper and deeper into collective issues and ills that need purging around the very institutions themselves that govern and rule, while Neptune is doing it’s final dissolution before entering Aries starting in 2025.  These next 7 years are the critical ones.

There is a great article by Palden Jenkins that you can just Google:  “Astrological Cycles in History.”  He’s done a good job of tracking the outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in their on-going cycles with each other.  We know that Neptune and Pluto last came together in a conjunction in 1891 and 1892 at the 7th and 8th degrees of Gemini.  This has been said to herald the Industrial Age.  I find it interesting that we in America now have a Gemini President who further illuminates many of the characteristics of this age which glorifies amoral curiosity and endless mercurial exploration rather than a thoughtful search for greater meaning grounded in a wise philosophy guiding the collective as an exemplar of true leadership.  Twittering is an apt medium for what I call diarrhea of the mind.  Say anything, do anything, create anything without consequences.   The premise is that it will be gone in the blink of an eye and hopefully no one will remember because there are simply too many distractions.

One complete cycle of Neptune/Pluto lasts for 500 years.  Will humanity survive this cycle?  That is a deep question!  By 2061 Neptune will once again be in Gemini, but only in a waxing square to Pluto in Pisces.  Pluto in Pisces should be truly a time of dissolution at core levels.

Is there any hope here?  Finally, women’s voices are being raised against certain systemic practices that have always been taken for granted in places of power.  This probably includes women in power as well, but America is a late-comer compared to Europe and some of the rest of the world in terms of electing women to head government as Presidents and Vice-Presidents.  How many movie/entertainment industries are headed by women?  How many broadcasting companies?  With regards to sexual misconduct, which is nothing new in the White House, I like what a famous presidential historian, Richard Reeves, stated, “What is politics if it’s not seduction?  That’s what they do for a living.”  

So there have been many articles of late commenting on past US Presidents who were involved in sexual scandals or misconduct.  The list includes, Washington, Jefferson, Chester A. Arthur, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jackson, Lincoln, Cleveland, Wilson, Harding, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Bush senior and Bush junior, not to mention Clinton, who got caught with his pants down while in office.  Even Jimmy Carter was chastised  for stating he had experienced ‘feelings of lust.’   Goodness!  America’s mores have always leaned towards the outer expression of its puritanical roots rather than Europe’s acceptance of more lenient mores where consensual consent is acceptable behavior.  America is so hypocritical in its religious/sexual/violent dichotomies.  It often reeks of the sado-masochisitc clinically speaking which would be the polarity of Pisces-Virgo astrologically speaking.

What is new here is the coercion of powerful men to extract sexual favors by those considered weaker and vulnerable, thanks to the inter-net, has been called into accountability.  I call this the Marilyn Monroe syndrome where you don’t get ahead without allowing yourself to be exploited.  This, of course, includes men as well. And let’s not forget children, and all the past child-actors coming forward with their own tales of being shamed.  Before them think Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, the Little Rascals, Elizabeth Taylor…  These are Pisces themes if there ever was one!

That old creed “Oh, you Pisces just love to suffer!’ has to go.  I actually had a Leo woman state that very sentence to me long ago.  Are Pisces intended to be martyrs and slaves?  I don’t think so.  In fact, I know this is not what Pisces are here for.  I learned this long ago where my own feet are concerned.  Remember, the feet are ruled by Pisces.  They support the rest of the body so we humans can stand upright.  When I was a teenager I tried to go with fashion and squeeze my rather wide feet into 4″ stiletto heels with pointed toes.  I remember well developing a very nasty ingrown toenail that had to be surgically removed when I was probably 16 years.  I was hobbling around San Francisco on a much desired trip that I had looked forward to after that.

That taught me a great lesson before I knew anything about astrology.  Wear shoes that are comfortable!!!  Henceforth I have, and I do.  It’s not about how I look, it’s about how I feel.  Sound familiar?  So for all you Pisces out there, here is my current message for you:  comfort is important in life.  You should feel good as you support and serve others.  If you are in pain this is a warning that something is constraining you unnaturally.  To be strong as a Pisces you need to love what you are doing.  This seems so universal in this day and age, but it has been forgotten.  Think about all those women who allowed themselves to suffer unduly because they believed they had to?  And now even the young are saying ‘Enough is enough’.  Why should any young person go to school without protection by the very adults and institutions that tell them they have to?  This is the work of Pisces reinforced by Capricorn and prodded by Mars in Sagittarius.  

Before I end, let’s return to the watery realm where swimming can also be pleasure.  The weightless feeling, the ability to free one’s feet—-ah!  Relaxation is also where Pisces can dwell peacefully, sensually, and without the pull of gravity.  So keep swimming wherever you can.  The immersion into water can also be blissful.  I know, I know….!  I need to write another article on Piscean bliss.  Here’s a photo that gives me hope.  These loving relationships do exist and are alive and well among regular folks like you.