Photo by Eric.

This is the introduction to today’s Inner Space horoscope. The full edition is on the subscriber pages of Planet Waves Astrology News.

Remember as you move through the next few weeks that Mars retrograde is still working itself out. That event, from the first day of winter through March 10, drew Mars in Leo back like a bow string, and how we are slowly watching Mars proceed forward through this sign. Mars retrograde was for many complex and frustrating, and now we’re in a process of disentangling ourselves from the issues that arose or that we somehow created.

Mars is still moving slowly and, to give you an example, Mars is covering the first little slice of Leo (five degrees, an amount arbitrarily chosen) between early February and mid-April. If you have a planet or angle anywhere early in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius (and many of us do) you’re getting a Mars transit that is unique to your experience of your chart; you’re not accustomed to this energy there. So of you’re having a series of weird experiences that you don’t recognize or don’t know how to process, or experiencing feelings to which you’re not accustomed, you can look to Mars as a way of processing those feelings. The riddle may be something like, “Where did all this anger come from?” or “What do I do with all this drive and determination?” or better still, “I have to find an outlet for all this passion and desire!” Yes we can!

Mars is the ruler of Aries. Sometimes the ruler of a sign and the events in a sign will have some fun correlations. While Mars is doing its one-of-a-kind thing in Leo, there has been lots of interesting stuff in Aries and there is a more to come — the really exciting stuff, in June. You’ve no doubt read something about the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction coming in the first degree of Aries — the Aries Point — in early June. Astrology is the art of “it’s not just a coincidence.” We’ve had the whole [Northern Hemisphere] winter and will have much of the spring to get used to an unusual level of Aries energy. When the next stage takes over, two slow moving planets rarely in Aries making a conjunction in that sign, we will have had some practice. And then we will have Mars newly in Virgo, suggesting the need for awareness and precision in our use of all that Martian passion. And these are passionate times, no doubt. It’s just that a lot of us have been conditioned by notions of purity, and the threat that if we express any lust, desire or saucy form of love at all, everything goes into a tailspin. Or we’ve been told we’re too old for that stuff, but you’ll never hear me agree with that.

On the way to unraveling ourselves, all kinds of weird stuff can indeed come up, and I suggest you let it do so. You who were passive may find yourself being snippy and demanding. You who lacked an opinion or held it in may find yourself fighting for justice and insisting you’re right. You who denied that you had any need or desire or passion may find yourself craving the presence of those fully in their body. Let this work itself out and teach you how to become someone new, someone unfamiliar but who you knew was there all along. Mars is still going by, stoking the fire, stirring the pot and making you go digging for your paints, the first draft of your novel or the phone number of that hottie you met three months ago.

Tonight is the Libra Full Moon in US time zones and overnight in UK and EU zones. This is a potent Full Moon, because it’s within four degrees of a square to Pluto in Capricorn. But we’re taking it in parts: the Sun has already made its square to Pluto, and the Moon will do so later today. Saturn is also close by, in the first degree of Libra. So this event brings together enough early cardinal sign energy to be an Aries Point event. Here’s how I explained it in Friday’s edition of Planet Waves Astrology News:

Libra Full Moon

“If you’ve been reading Planet Waves for at least a week, you’ve heard me mention the Aries Point at least six times. This is the term for the Sun’s position on the first day of Northern Hemisphere spring, which is 00 Aries. The position works like a planet, and is activated when any other planet is there…The Aries Point reaches to the other cardinal signs Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, and let’s say that it covers the early (first 10) degrees of each of those four signs. The term ‘Aries Point’ can be extended to the early degrees of any of the cardinal signs. But we’re going to be a lot more precise than that.

“I sum up the effect of the Aries Point as “the personal is political,” a phrase I spirited from Carol Hanisch of the 1970s radical feminist group Redstockings. When you have activity around these degrees — and we do right now, lots of it — we get historical events that demonstrate that there is no private life that is not determined by some larger public life, and vice versa: what happens in the public sphere is the result of the private values that people inflict on others. We get big stuff like Sept. 11, the Asian tsunami and the passage of health insurance reform — and many other distinct events.”

The Aries Point is not so much a portent of disaster as it is a public meeting place. We tend to bring more fear than creativity to the public realm. That’s a choice we don’t usually see ourselves making, but we actually do make it, on a more or less continuing basis. One little problem we have is that the human emotional system is highly conditioned to respond to fear more so than to creativity. We tend to worry more about what might be taken away than what we might create. Every planetary event we come to is like a leverage point that we can use to get from one side of this equation to the other.

This weekend is the vernal equinox — the Sun enters Aries on Saturday just past noon Eastern Time. Until then the Sun is lingering in the last degree of Pisces, leaving us feeling like we’re in a kind of between-the-worlds state; this is true of any solar sign change but particularly of the Pisces-Aries threshold. Looked at another way, night and day are teetering on the same length; tonight is the last night where it’s dark longer than it is light, until the autumnal equinox in September. So we have that feeling of something in a delicate balance — something, that is, being existence.

Aries Equinox is the moment the Sun crosses the Aries Point. As I’ve described in the current Astrology News, this is an extraordinary spring we are approaching, with many of the unusual events happening in June; but today let’s focus on the equinox chart. If you’re curious about June’s events, check in Cosmic Confidential, where I take up the astrology personally for the 12 signs, or Astrology News, where I take it up as a cultural question.

One interesting thing about this equinox is that the Sun is opposite Saturn. This is one of many oppositions we have in the neighborhood, and it’s a focusing, grounding energy. Saturn offers some encouragement to stay away from needless contention and to explore the useful kind of human engagement. Sun-Saturn is a great time to get a work done — not necessarily in harmony with equinox weather. But we’re in this awesome moment for discipline and also for clear focus on relationships. If you’re into kinkier stuff, you can be in tune with the stars and have some fun with bondage and discipline play.

Now for a new topic, and I do mean new to astrology — Eris. There are currently three major planets in Aries, so the territory is already warm: Sun, Mercury, Venus and Eris. What’s fun is that we will have soon three conjunctions to Eris by personal planets, in order — Mercury, Venus and then finally the Sun.

One thing I am proposing and have written more about in the monthly horoscope intro (coming out to subscribers Tuesday) is that we have a moment of proving for Eris: we get to see what this energy is about. One of the ways you can test a new planet is by checking with other planets are in conjunction and seeing what results you get.

Recently I added the keyword “truthteller” to Eris — from that true-to-life episode wherein Stephen Colbert took on Bush at the White House Correspondent’s dinner; and then he took on the press; and then the public; all about the lies associated with the Bush administration. That aspect: Mercury conjunct Eris. The beauty of that move was its precision and its amazing quality — and its success. When asked later how he got away with it, Colbert said that he knew he had good material. I reckon he knew he had an incomparable opportunity and let the Lord speak through him and his writing team.

So here we have this image of Mercury-Eris as one who tells the truth but who doesn’t mess around. It’s not about rabble rousing: there is Chiron-like precision to this aspect. Now we can test out that theory when Mercury goes past Eris on March 28. Before that happens, Venus gets there. That would be on March 24, which will be another theme; I will cover that in a couple of days, closer to the event.

The Sun is conjunct Eris on April 11. So if you’re curious about Eris, note those dates and let’s see what we learn.

This spring is all about Aries. While we still have a lot of action in Pisces as of today, by June two key planets have moved into Aries — Uranus for the first time in more than 75 years; and Jupiter for the first time in more than a decade.

We see and feel and partake in the world changing with that astrology — the subject of my lead article in this morning’s subscriber edition, called, “Cosmic Equinox or the Anti-Sixties?”

Thanks for checking in. See you over at Planet Waves.

Two posts below, I described the Pisces New Moon (and provided a little picture of the chart). The day has arrived, of a spectacular four-way conjunction between the Moon, the Sun, Mercury and Uranus in Pisces. This combines the idea power of Mercury and Uranus with the creative, soul force of Pisces and the momentum of a solar-lunar event. The New Moon is exact at 5:01 pm EDT, 2:01 PDT and 21:01 UTC.

As Len pointed out in the Planet Waves blog, this glorious New Moon is square the Galactic Center. In other words, today’s event happens in late Pisces and the GC is in late Sagittarius. Whatever you might say about this, contact with the core of our galaxy adds a level of depth and significance to this event, which will stretch our capacities and is suggesting we notice that there is more to life than running a maze. We think there’s more and we say there’s more — but how often do we live like there’s more?

We are arriving at the end of a seven-year spell of Uranus in Pisces. This means events featuring Uranus in Pisces are numbered, and the number is low. As of today (if my quick calculations are correct), there are just 281 days left of Uranus in Pisces. The transition of Uranus into Aries begins in the spring, when Uranus makes a brief visit; then it comes back to Pisces for a spell before moving onto Aries for good, or at least for seven years.

So I suggest you appreciate these highly imaginative, easygoing Uranus in Pisces events while they last. The Uranus in Aries phase is going to be a bit more stunning in its impact. Pisces is a sign that acts slowly. Aries is a sign that acts quickly.

Whether in Pisces or not, any event with Uranus so prominent is going to come with some surprises. Surprises mean change, in little bits or big bits. People — you know, everyone but you — don’t like change. You love the stuff; everyone else freaks out when the least little thing is different; when the hot dog guy moves his cart 10 feet, you see that look of panic on people’s faces.

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Monday's Pisces New Moon, set for New York.

This weekend’s astrology brings us lots of Aquarius and Pisces — heading into a spectacular Pisces New Moon on Monday.

Today and Saturday the Moon is in Aquarius. Lots of planets are in both of those signs, as shown in the chart detail to the left, which is for the exact moment of the New Moon on Monday. Between now and then, the Moon will make a series of conjunctions to all of those planets (in Aquarius and Pisces), which can feel like a change of mood every six hours. The days approaching any New Moon can feel like something rapidly coming to closure and can arrive with an odd sort of psychic pressure; it’s easier if you’re aware what’s happening.

The New Moon chart is pretty spectacular by itself — a kind of breakthrough. The New Moon is really an alignment of four planets — Moon, Sun, Mercury and Uranus –  with Jupiter close behind. This is a lunation that looks like it’s either a fabulous creative breakthrough, but for those who are not quite in tune with creative energy, it could be a bit stressful. Therefore, stay on the creative side of the equation and let your imagination run free.

We are in the last few days before Mars stations direct. The actual station is March 10, on Wednesday. Mars is hovering within a tiny range of 3 arc minutes all week; it will move those three retrograde till Wednesday and then direct after Wednesday. It happens to be in the first degree of Leo. It’s rare for a planetary station to occur in the first degree of a sign, but this is a marvelous synchronicity. Mars will actually be covering the entire sign of Leo in direct motion, from the first degree to the last, between now and June.

The first and last Sabian symbols of a sign tell us something about that sign. For Leo, the first is, “Blood rushes to a man’s head as his vital energies are mobilized under the spur of ambition.” The last is, “An unsealed letter.” We move from an image of raw vital force, to the image of a deep inner secret being revealed.

Anyway, the days surrounding a major planetary station like this one can be weird, and carry a kind of uncertainty that we’re not used to. Imagine how it feels to be a ball thrown in the air; you’re going up, and you’re going to come down, and then there is that moment between where you just seem to stop in mid air, nothing holding you there except for inertia.

With Mars, think of this as relating to desire.