Intensity Buffers

Communication planet Mercury has just nicely settled into Pisces (late on March 12) after an extended stay in highly-cerebral Aquarius since January 4, including a retrograde period from January 21 to February 11. That extended stay in Aquarius pretty much blistered our brains with an overload of flash-bang Uranian insights since the beginning of the year.

Whether you found the Mercury in Aquarius transit of 2015 simply intense or downright traumatic, it was definitely one for the history books. The house or houses where Aquarius lies in your natal chart was the fertile territory for mental rewiring, information downloads, and the intense "new era" crossover being experienced throughout the first months of 2015.

We are required to change our thinking in certain ways in order to be successful moving forward into the new era. The at-times overbearing challenges of the Mercury transit and retrograde through Aquarius pertained directly to that process.

Now, Mercury has glided into surreal-and-dreamy Pisces, where it will stay until breaking new ground in Aries March 30 (7:44 p.m. CST). This transit of Mercury through Pisces gives us a much-needed mental rest, allowing our minds to just drift for a while. We're bobbing along in a more passive and surrendered mental state (what else can we do but surrender at this point?) with the universe bringing us information and bits of necessary perspective in oddly serendipitous ways.

During the Mercury in Pisces transit, we will start to see the spiritual connections and the threads that link us to others through time and space, in struggle and in love, but the universe has a mind (and a timing) of its own. We're in a more transcendant mental space now, surrendering certain worries and concerns that dogged us relentlessly during Mercury in Aquarius, and this is a sweet relief.

Pisces is considered a sign of Mercury's detriment, being a sign opposite one it naturally rules (Virgo), and this is generally considered a challenging placement. It can be difficult to communicate our perceptions clearly or in a concise way with Mercury in Pisces. It can be difficult to know what our perceptions even are, exactly. Pisces is a sign of dreams, ghosts, illusions, going-with-the-flow, spiritual guidance, and otherworldly connections - all things that are diffuse, boundary-less, and hard to define in Mercurial terms. There can be some confusion, forgetfulness, and brain fog associated with Mercury in Pisces, attuned as it is to the otherworldly as much (or more so) than to the concrete, physical world.

However, the softened definitions and rosy hues of Pisces are just what our over-taxed synapses need following the Mercury in Aquarius transit. Even the more challenging aspects of Mercury in Pisces should be fairly welcome at this point.

With Mercury transiting Pisces until the end of the month, our dreams and "the other side" will be communicating with us more vividly than usual. We may need more unconscious processing time (ie. sleep) than usual. Drifting away from intensive conversation or social media connection could be just what our tired brains require. Allow for more unstructured time, less scheduling, fewer details, and a lighter mental load until the end of the month.

Mercury in Pisces squares Saturn in Sagittarius tomorrow morning (3:41 a.m.) before forming conjunctions to Neptune (March 18 at 2:49 a.m.) and then wounded healer Chiron in Pisces (March 24 at 7:15 a.m.). These Mercury aspects all occur in the morning, indicating again that there is a lot going on, a lot being processed, as we slumber. Some disrupted sleep patterns can be expected over the next couple weeks as we move through a roller coaster of an eclipse season...

We have a second intensity buffer on its way this week with Venus entering home-sweet-home Taurus on March 17 (4:15 a.m.) for a transit that lasts until April 11. This adds some much-needed Earth Mama energy and loveliness to the proceedings. Basic, simple, natural, healing, nourishing.

Venus has been transiting the sign of its detriment, warrior-esque Aries, while triggering the Uranus-Pluto square, so coming home to Taurus provides some much needed calm, grounding, and relaxation. It has been quite a triggered and sometimes-hostile transit of Venus through hot-blooded Aries (February 20 - March 17) as we battled our way into new relationship territory, and the ingress into earth sign Taurus allows us to move out of "high alert," particularly in relationships and with money matters. Things start to settle out a little on the other side of the Uranus-Pluto square March 16, and Venus in Taurus leads the way.

Venus and Mars came together in a conjunction at 1 degree Aries on February 21, 2015, propelling relationships into white-hot "new era" territory, like it or not. This was then taken up a few notches as both Venus and Mars in Aries activated the Uranus-Pluto square, creating relationship turmoil, upheaval, and re-positioning particularly between March 4 and March 11. More can be read on those aspects here: Just a Little "Intensity Heads Up"

We can expect further upheaval, changes, and developments along "new-era relationship re-positioning" lines as we move to the Libra Full Moon total lunar eclipse on April 4, followed by both the Sun and Mercury in Aries triggering the Uranus-Pluto square April 5 - 7. More will be shaken out there, new directions will be taken, and much of the current positioning in relationships and social scenes will likely be temporary. Expect things to be rocking and rolling on the relationship/social fronts during the first 10 days of April.