Seeing Our Shadow

We are living a powerful lunation, no doubt about it. But, although there are more than enough reasons to fear the future, not only do I replace fear with faith but I am more optimistic than ever. Of course, if we focus our attention to the chaos blasted through the news, we quickly grow tired. There is a feeling of “been there, done that” and we seem to be recreating conditions that already failed in the past. There is a collective feeling of being on a ship with everyone else, navigating mined waters, and with lunatics at the helm. We are heading towards a shipwreck and we know it. A sure sign of madness, people say, is doing the same things expecting a different result.

That said, we can also feel a difference behind all that “sameness”. There is a sense of desperation from people and institutions living in (and from) the paradigms of the past, seeking some form of power over others. It is as if they could sense that the end of a world is near, their world! Even though they are currently in control, their decisions seem erratic, focused only on short-term gains and at the expense of the welfare of those who put them in such control. This is a dangerous combination when Pluto is in the reformist phase of Aquarius.¹ However, as you will see, there is also a lot of energy for those of us moving in the positive direction of evolutionary growth, i.e., towards the new civilization of the Aquarian Age.

Neptune in Pisces 30°

As we saw in the new-moon article, which I encourage you to read for context, if you haven’t done so, we are living the entire lunar month with a very strong conjunction between the North Node and Neptune, the latter transiting through the final degree of Pisces, its anaretic degree. When in such a degree, all the sign’s archetypes (including the so-called “shadow” ones) are enhanced and influence the planet’s behavior. Neptune in Pisces 30° brings out the most Piscean characteristics possible; we should remember that Neptune rules Pisces and thus have similar archetypes.

Moreover, Pisces 30° is not only the last degree of Pisces, it is also the final degree of the zodiac. Its Sabian symbol speaks of the latent transformation available to men who visualize their future as a change in consciousness (a “rebirth”). Neptune is ending the cycle it began in 1861 and will enter Aries on March 30 for the first time since then. It will return later in the year, on October 22, for a final three-month encore in Pisces, but by then the North Node will be too far to form a conjunction. So, after being in its sign since 2011, this eclipse is its last chance to make evident the Piscean messages.

We also mentioned in the last article that Mercury would transit quickly through Pisces, making many aspects with other planets to deliver the Neptunian message loud and clear. The North Node, symbolizing what we could call “life experiences”, made sure the message was delivered in the form of actual events. Unfortunately, many of them have revolved around the shadow aspects of Neptune and Pisces, such as misinformation and betrayal. But Pisces is, first and foremost, the sign of compassion and universal love, so there will be plenty of opportunities to work on those virtues. Heather Ensworth quoted the wonderful Islamic mystic Rumi, who said: Your task is not to seek for Love but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Surreal Times

Surrealism was an avant-garde movement in art and literature that relied on the irrational juxtaposition of images or concepts to release the creative potential of the subconscious. With that definition in mind, we can say that we are living through truly surreal times. Case in point, AfD, the far-right party in Germany, is led by Alice Weidel, granddaughter of Hans Weidel, a prominent Nazi judge appointed directly by Adolf Hitler to sentence Third Reich opponents. Yet, despite the anti-diversity stance of her party, Alice is openly lesbian and her partner is Sarah Bossard, a Swiss national born in Sri Lanka.

But nothing may be more surreal than witnessing the United States on the same side as Russia, an anti-democratic oligarchy ruled by a ruthless dictator. The most obvious example was the disastrous meeting in the Oval Office when Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, was ambushed by Trump and his vice-president, Vance. This was followed by voting against a UN resolution declaring Russia as Ukraine’s attacker and requesting the immediate withdrawal of its troops. In addition, Trump submissively repeats Kremlin’s propaganda, and denies access to intelligence and weapons to Ukraine. Furthermore, he has threatened to leave NATO, the military alliance (and treaty), built basically to defend Europe, which is organized around the US military!

Neptune represents the opposite process to what Saturn symbolizes. As the great differentiator, Saturn erects walls to separate “inside” from “outside”, gives form to the amorphous and structure to the chaotic. Neptune is the great equalizer, dissolving the walls and structures erected by Saturn. Alliances are envisioned by Jupiter but are cemented by Saturn as treaties, so it stands to reason that Neptune would work to sabotage such treaties. This is why Neptune and Pisces are also related to treason in their shadow aspect. It is not an exaggeration to say that Europe feels betrayed by its longtime partner. Of course, the same can be said of Canada and Mexico, who have been on a “tariff roller-coaster” despite having a no-tariff treaty (that word again) with the US.

On Eclipses

Eclipses happen when the sun is “near” the nodal axis at the time of a new or full moon, which places the sun, the moon and Earth on roughly the same plane.² For a solar eclipse to occur, the sun must be within 17°25′ of either lunar node at the time of a new moon. In a solar eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun, so her shadow is seen on Earth. The conjunction at the new moon is the seed-moment for the lunar month, the symbolic fecundation of Moon by Sun prior to her trip around the zodiac. During a solar eclipse, we get to experience such seed-moment first hand, viewing the fecundation through a keyhole like a Peeping Tom, so to speak.

Conversely, a lunar eclipse will occur when the sun is within 11°38′ of either lunar node at the time of a full moon. This time, Earth is positioned between the sun and the moon so Earth’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface. The full-moon opposition always shows the culmination of the waxing phases, the maturation of what was potentiality at the new moon. During a lunar eclipse, such display is interrupted so we can observe not only what we have done with the original seed but also our own shadow. Collectively, we are indeed living the shadow aspects of humanity, as we discussed earlier. A full moon can be a moment of gaining consciousness but a lunar eclipse is a moment of true revelations. Just as we get to see our planet’s shadow, a lunar eclipse is a great moment to confront our own shadow. In fact, the lunar eclipse can serve as “seed” for such effort, to be completed in the waning phases. And this time with the aid of a reflective Mercury retrograde.

Lunar Eclipse in Virgo

The total lunar eclipse in Virgo will occur on March 13, 2025 at 11:54 p.m. in California, or on March 14 at 12:54 a.m. in Mexico City, or 7:54 a.m. in Central Europe. Sun will be at Pisces 23°57′ and Moon at Virgo 23°57′, as shown in the chart below.

The Piscean energies will continue to dominate as Sun moves through the final degrees of the zodiac. Two days before the eclipse, on March 12, Sun will have been in conjunction with Saturn, perhaps activating blockages in maritime commerce, given the current political climate. Personally, there will be energy to give form to our dreams and aspirations. Once again, we are encouraged to keep a dream journal. As you can see in the chart, the North Node is at Pisces 27°23′, only 3°27′ from Sun (thus the eclipse); their conjunction will be exact three days later, on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day). And Sun will be exactly conjunct Neptune two days later, on March 19, a few hours before the vernal equinox.

Pisces and Virgo

At a lunation’s Full Moon phase, a phase of consciousness, we see in Moon the polar opposite of Sun’s energies. The polarity is reflected on the moon for us to see, quite literally, as a blurred mirror, an emotional mirror, of the sun’s radiance. In this case, the mirror is in the Virgo phase. I encourage you to read the Virgo page for this is a misunderstood sign. At the most superficial level, it will be like looking through a critical and resourceful lens. At the highest level, it will encourage us to consecrate ourselves to the good of the most encompassing collective possible, up to humanity as a whole.

With that in mind, notice that Moon opposes not only Sun but also Saturn (Pisces 22°19′) and Neptune (Pisces 29°23′); the oppositions are shown in blue. Moon in conjunction with the South Node will enable us to use our past (even karmic) as a tool to see our shadow, gaining consciousness on how to confront our personal Virgo crisis and develop true tolerance, in the sense of an all-inclusive mind. The stellium in Pisces of Sun, Saturn and Neptune, next to the North Node, is likely to bring events with strong Neptune in Pisces characteristics. Physically, we can expect more flooding like that in Argentina. Migration may be seen as flow of people instead of water and could also experience some “flooding”. Furthermore, at seven degrees of separation (7°04′), Saturn and Neptune are already acting in unison. If Saturn erects borders and Neptune dissolves them, we can expect physical borders between nations to shift when conjunct, as it has happened in the past. They will be in a conjunction the rest of 2025 and the first trimester of 2026.

Slow Personal Planets

When considering each planetary process as a psychic function, the speed of the planet’s motion is a strong indicator of the rate of flow of psychic energy (Jung’s “libido”) through the specific function. A “stationary” planet, moving at less than 10% of its average speed, presents some doggedness in regards to the planet’s function. Otherwise, we can characterize a planet as slow or fast moving at a particular time by looking at the speed relative to its average one.

At the time of the eclipse, the outer planets, from Saturn to Pluto, are fast moving; in fact, Saturn and Neptune are exceeding their average speed by 77%; rushing towards an initial entrance in Aries. On the other hand, the personal planets, Mercury, Venus and Mars, are barely moving at less than 50% of their average speed. Thus, while the transpersonal planets move quickly to tighten their Minor Grand Trine, symbolizing the “upgrade” in consciousness mentioned in the article about astrological trends for 2025, at a personal level we may be feeling somewhat lethargic, adding to the overall Piscean heaviness.

Inferior Conjunctions

Mercury, which readily communicated the Piscean energies during the waxing phases, will start to move retrograde the day after the eclipse, suggesting a time to reflect on the recent actions. Meanwhile, Venus has been retrograde since the new moon, inciting us to review our values system and our relationships. It is said that we apply many verbs with the prefix re-, signifying “again” or “back”, to our relationships; so we review, reexamine and reorient them, along with remembering (and perhaps rekindling) old ones.

During their retrograde motions, Mercury and Venus have their inferior conjunctions with Sun. Any planet closer than about 14° to the sun will disappear from view, so Venus will disappear as the evening “star” on March 13 and reappear as the morning star on April 1, after being conjunct with Sun on March 22. We spoke at length in a previous article of the mythology behind such conjunction, the journey of Inanna to the underworld, which speaks of a perhaps-required transformation in our relationships. Incidentally, Venus will once more move in the forward direction on April 12 so, while we began to reflect on our relationships with Venus in Aries, perhaps from a rather selfish point of view, the span of retrograde motion ends in Pisces, so we may finish our reflections with compassion in our hearts and fairness in our minds.

The Action Begins

The combination of Mars accelerating in the forward direction, after eleven weeks of moving retrograde, and with Sun about to enter Aries on March 20 (more about that shortly), followed by Neptune ten days later, will feel like weight has been lifted. In the chart, Mars (Cancer 18°54′) forms a Mystic Triangle configuration with the opposition of Sun and Moon. In that configuration, you may recall, the third planet (Mars) serves as a creative and productive alternate path, so to speak, to become conscious of what the polarity of the opposition means. The lunar eclipse can be seen as an opportunity to understand our individual reactions to the collective crises symbolized by the stellium in Pisces. Mars in Cancer will interject issues around the defense of our “home”, and even of our individuality. In the shadow aspect, it will lead to nationalism and egoism. The Sabian symbol for Cancer 19°, where Mars is located, has the image of a priest performing a marriage ceremony, precisely speaking of a third party that sanctions the interplay of two persons or, in this case, of the polarity of crises: Virgo and Pisces.

The confrontation of Mars and Pluto, which we termed a test of wills, will resume as Mars moves towards its third and final opposition with Pluto on April 26. We have mentioned how a similar triple opposition was active at the beginning of WWII. This time, the first opposition was on November 3, two days before the election of President Trump’s plutocracy—yes, making reference to Pluto, the Greek god of wealth and the underworld. When we talked about the new moon in Pisces, we mentioned that Mars and Pluto were within a degree of an exact quindecile aspect (165°), which indicates an obsessive and compulsive energy that demands immediate attention. Such aspect is partly responsible for the intense power struggles between the wills of powerful individuals and the Will of humanity that we are witnessing all over the world. It seems reasonable to expect powerful events along these lines around the lunar eclipse.

Sabian Symbols

The symbol for Pisces 24° (Sun) has the image: “An inhabited island”, an image of collaboration among the islanders and with nature in order to be self-sustained. However, at the same time each individual has his own function within the community, his own dharma. Directly across the zodiac, Virgo 24° (Moon) has the image: “Mary and her little lamb”, a clear symbol of innocence and purity. Remember that purity has nothing to do with moral issues and simply implies being free of impurities, which is everything not belonging to our essence or our dharma.

The question of our individual dharma and how it fits within the collective Will is central to the Virgo–Pisces axis. The stellium in Pisces is making sure we know that there is an urgent collective need to grow, evolutionary speaking. The lunation began with the image of an aviator flying through clouds, which we took to mean, on one level, the chaos we hear and see around us and, on the other, our faith in the future; defining faith as trust in the existence of meaning behind life’s constant chaos. Now, half a lunar month later, we are told to help our faith by working on our dharma with the open mind of an innocent girl, always taking into account the Piscean archetypes of compassion and universal love.

Vernal Equinox

I just want to say a few words about the vernal equinox, the beginning of the astrological year marked by the entrance of Sun in Aries, located at the leftmost position in an Aries chart as shown below.

As we said, just hours before the equinox, Sun will have been conjunct with Neptune; it will do the same with Venus on March 22, and with Mercury on the 24th. The Aries season, while Sun is in the sign, always feels fresh, its energies invite action, in contrast to the previous month. The Last Quarter phase, also on March 22, will find Sun already in Aries so the remaining waning phases will serve as preparation for the solar eclipse of March 29.

Mercury and Venus, both retrograde, form Minor Grand Trines with Pluto and Moon, so the days around the equinox might be a good time to reflect on what we have done and on our relationships with others. Sun forms a similar configuration which will give depth to our emotional nature. Indeed, at Sagittarius 6°21′, Moon will play a big role at the equinox. It not only forms the three Minor Grand Trines mentioned above, it also forms an opposition with Jupiter (a great time to write poetry!) as well as two important sesquiquadrates with Mars and Chiron, themselves linked by a square aspect. The introspection will have a healing effect on ourselves.

Wrapping Up…

March may be the loudest month of this year, in terms of chaos intensity. We are having many déjà vus, going as back as the US Civil War, WWII, or the previous Trump administration. They foretell the death of the old paradigms, just as we see our life flash before our eyes prior to dying.

The oligarchies of the world have a profound love of power, be that economical or political; they love to have power over others. Rather than the love of power, we are encouraged to believe in, and work for, the power of love.

The total lunar eclipse will be seen in North and Central America, as well as the western coasts of South America. Enjoy the view!

Always Love. 🌹🙏💖

1. As we have seen, when in the phase of Aquarius, Pluto often fosters big social changes, either through reform or revolution. It just entered Aquarius last November 19 and will remain in the sign about 20 years. In the last period of Pluto in Aquarius, from 1777 to 1798, the French Revolution (1789–1799) took place, not a kind time for those in power. It also saw the end of the US Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and the start of the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). which was not lead by an ideology like the other two; it was an uprising of self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule. In the time before, from 1532 to 1553, the Protestant Reformation gained traction as King Henry VIII founded the Church of England (1534) and Copernicus published, shortly before his death in 1543, his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, where he argues a heliocentric model of the solar system. Both went against the powerful Catholic Church. ↩︎
2. Recall that two planes intersecting form a line. The nodal axis is the intersection of two orbital planes: Earth’s orbit around the sun, called the ecliptic, and the moon’s orbit around Earth, tilted 5°09′ with respect to the ecliptic. The nodal axis and the moon’s orbit cross in two points, the lunar nodes. The node crossed by the moon to enter the northern ecliptical hemisphere is called the North Node. Conversely, the South Node is where the moon crosses the nodal axis southward bound. ↩︎