New Moon in Pisces. 3.10.24.
A red-haired sea goddess holds the ocean around her like a blue evening gown, her hair blowing in the wind against the backdrop of a clear purple sky.
Happy Full Moon in Pisces, friends.
Early this morning, at about 5am ET, we marked a New Moon at 20 degrees of Pisces. 🌚
Leaning into the fluid, watery, go with the flow energy of Pisces, I’m feeling called to step out of the usual structure of these Practical Woo energy updates and just share, stream-of-consciousness (a total Pisces keyword), some of the things I’m meditating and reflecting on with the New Moon in Pisces. (Don't worry, there are still tarot/journal prompts at the end. 😇)
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Ruled by Neptune, watery Pisces isn’t just about feel-all-the-feels emotions and having a good cry. It has a deep connection to consciousness, i.e. the water we humans swim in. Pisces energy is linked with Oneness, Source, Unity, and merging with the larger whole. Its favorite party trick is dissolving the boundaries that keep us in the illusion of separateness (which is why it’s also connected with empathy, intuition, and psychic abilities).
At its highest vibration, Pisces energy is a state of awareness humans are most easily able to experience when we meditate or engage in other spiritual practices. (In true Piscean fashion, I call my morning meditation/spiritual healing practice At-Onement because of how it feels when I’m in that energy.) Which brings me to the first thing I’m reflecting on with this New Moon.
Integrating our left and right brains.
While all the zodiacal archetypes are related to aspects of consciousness, I particularly think of Pisces and Virgo (which sits opposite Pisces on the zodiac wheel) as linked with the right and left hemispheres of the brain, respectively. Pisces, which is attuned to unity and the larger whole vs its parts, is classic right-brain—the part of the brain that handles holistic thinking, sees the big picture, and is associated with imagination as well as intuition (i.e. the things we know but can’t explain logically why we know). Meanwhile, Mercury-ruled Virgo is emblematic of rational, analytical left-brain consciousness. It excels at discriminating, separating, analyzing, and breaking down the component parts—like the which-of-these-isn’t-like-the-others exercises we used to do in Scholastic Magazine as kids. (My Mercury in Virgo loved those.)
As psychologist and consciousness scholar Ian McGilchrist spends 600+ pages breaking down in The Master and His Emissary—a nerd-heaven deep-dive into not just how the human brain works but the havoc that’s come from most of us in the western world functioning with a “divided brain”—post-enlightenment western society has essentially put left-brain functioning on a pedestal, while we’ve devalued and pushed aside our right brain gifts. (This is a problem because, tl;dr: the right brain is supposed to be in charge (i.e. be “the master”) since it has the big picture. The left brain, which is great at executing but lacks holistic awareness, is better as the “emissary.”) The result? Social structures, laws, and policies based on zero sum, siloed, me-vs.you, I-win-you-lose thinking. You get the gist.
The dawning of a new consciousness.
Amidst this backdrop, many of us can feel that humanity is approaching a new structure or era of consciousness—one that transcends the limitations of our logical left brains running the show. Scholars and philosophers of consciousness over the years have attempted to put a variety of labels on what’s emerging; one school of thought that resonates deeply for me, led by philosophers such as Jean Gebser and Ken Wilber, calls the emerging structure of consciousness “integral” (in contrast to a prior era that’s been defined by “mental” consciousness—which was necessary to the evolution of consciousness but has come to hold humanity back).
Whatever you call it, the shift in consciousness that we’re being invited to move into feels very much like the integration of Pisces and Virgo. It’s a way of being in the world that transcends the either/or of left brain vs. right brain and instead leans into right-and-left-brain fusion. Which takes us to the next thing I’m thinking a lot about with this Pisces New Moon.
Walking the mystical path with earthly feet.
Another dimension of the emerging shift in consciousness we’re moving into—which is also encompassed by the Pisces-Virgo polarity—is the integration of spiritual awareness and practical, earthly consciousness. The grounded understanding that we are spiritual beings having a human experience—simultaneously attuned to both the spiritual and early realities of life on Earth.
Some traditions, including many indigenous cultures who’ve historically taken this type of integrated awareness for granted, call this type of consciousness “dreaming while awake” (a wonderfully Piscean rabbit hole that will really cook your noodle if you want to go down it). Rudolph Steiner, the father of Theosophy (among many other things), called this type of dual-awareness—which he predicted in the early 20th century would be the future of human consciousness—“etheric clairvoyance,” i.e. attunement to the spiritual without needing to be in an “altered” or trance state.
My own belief in the power of this integrated way of being of the world—as someone who’s both a lawyer/public policy professional and an astrologer/energy healer; who regularly shows up to meetings in Washington D.C. with crystals in my bra and tarot cards in my laptop case; and who deploys intuition just as frequently in my law/policy work as I do in my astrological practice—is why I call these energy updates Practical Woo. Intending no shade to anyone who lives at either extreme (and as someone who can relate to both), it can be challenging to be in the world as either the full-on mystic who spends her life in trance or as the full-on left-brainer cut off from her spiritual self.
At our best as humans, we strive for and hopefully find a way to balance, and integrate, heaven and earth.
Differentiated unity.
This brings me to the third dimension of the emerging shift in consciousness I’m thinking a lot about with this Piscean New Moon, which brings in yet another layer of the Pisces-Virgo polarity. And that’s the integration of duality consciousness (embodied by Virgo) and unity consciousness (embodied by Pisces).
Some call this form of dual-awareness “differentiated unity”—i.e. the simultaneous awareness of ourselves as individual human beings and that, like Buddha at the hot dog stand, we are one with everything. There’s great power in holding both levels of awareness at once—a mode of perception that poet William Blake called “double vision.”
All three of the layers of the emerging shift in consciousness I’m reflecting on are, of course, inter-connected (just as Pisces would have it). Each feeds and reinforces the other. And while I’m deeply imperfect just like all humans, the more I’ve consciously striven in my own life towards each of these dimensions of integration, the more I’ve come to believe that as humans, we’re at our best when we at least seek these types of integration—both interpersonally and when it comes to decision-making that impacts the collective.
Interestingly, each of these dimensions of integration is embodied in the Pisces glyph, a line connecting two curved edges ♓️—which in esoteric astrology speaks to the link between our lower/earthy self and Higher/spiritual Self. It’s also linked to the symbol sacred geometry calls a mandorla, which looks like two overlapping circles. The idea being, at our most integrated, we embrace the paradox and see the world through the almond-shaped part where the circles overlap—as a being that knows it’s both an individual and part of The All.
Setting intentions for the Pisces/Virgo eclipse series.
Which brings me to the fourth and final thing I’m reflecting on with this New Moon. And that’s the lunar calendar (itself a wonderful integration of celestial Pisces and practical, earthly Virgo). In looking ahead to the date of the Full Moon in Pisces we’ll mark six months from now in September 2024 (which is what we’re planting seeds for now with this New Moon), I was reminded that that lunation is no ordinary Full Moon—it’s an eclipse. Specifically, it’s the first in the Pisces/Virgo eclipse series that will run Sept. 2024-Feb. 2027.
While Saturn’s trip through Pisces (which started last summer and will last until February 2026) has already seen Neptune doing its damndest to break down our mental blocks, limiting beliefs, siloed structures of consciousness, and boxes we allow ourselves to get stuck in, readying us to integrate these seeming dualities, I read the 2024-2027 Pisces-Virgo eclipse series as auguring a major leveling-up in that process—like a super-charged portal for catalyzing these shifts in collective consciousness. (Of note, many in the consciousness community talk about 2027 as a turning point in this shift.)
Which brings us back to today’s New Moon. With all the above as food for our left and right brains to chew on (ideally in collaboration), I’ve put together a set of prompts reflecting just a few of the types of intentions this New Moon in Pisces may be inviting us to ponder (though please don’t let my list limit where the above ramblings might take you).
I’m sending you all good wishes, big love, and many blessings in this New Moon week. And as always, take what resonates, and leave the rest. <3
XOXO,
Rebecca
Hand-drawn-looking image of a young girl with long flowing blackish hair and a green skirt bearing fish scales; she is holding a fish bowl with two goldfish and the astrological Pisces glyph is to the right of her feet.
New Moon in Pisces prompts.
Here are the tarot/journal prompts that I crafted to try to give my left and right brain something to work with around this New Moon. As always, feel free to follow your inner guidance to work only with the ones that resonate:
What intentions do I want to set now for deepening my connection to (and trust of) my intuition over the next 6 months—and for bringing it more fully into my everyday life?
What new structures/routines/discipline am I feeling called to bring to my meditation and/or other spiritual practices for the next chapter?
What practices/teachers/spiritual teachings am I feeling called to explore that will support me in transcending old ways of thinking and being in the world?
What practices or intentions do I want to seed now to support myself in remembering that I’m a spiritual being having a human experience in my everyday life—outside my meditation or other spiritual practices?
What limiting beliefs, societal/organizational structures, or outdated self-concepts am I ready to transcend?
What would I do (or be) if I understood myself as limitless?
Two blue-green-turquoise fish look at each other face to face against a dark blue cosmic looking backdrop, evoking the astrological image for Pisces.
New Moon in Pisces affirmations.
If you’re someone who likes working with affirmations or mantras, here are a few to consider around this Pisces New Moon (or for working with whenever to lean in to the levels of integration my above ramblings describe). As with all else, take only what resonates and leave the rest.
I am a spiritual being having a human experience.
I am a vehicle for the embodied expression of my Higher Self.
I trust my intuition.
I embrace the integration of my left and right brain.
I anchor the center of my consciousness in my heart chakra.
I am a fragment of The All.
