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 three 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.

Chat Roulette

You probably heard it here first.

Chat Roulette made the big time; after being kicked around the blogs and networks, it got into the hands of Jon Stewart. The video you’re about to watch no doubt took a week or more to put together; you don’t put that much talent in one place without a lot of brainstorming, scripting and business: my personal favorite of JS ever, and I am a fan.

Here you go, from The Daily Show.

As of Friday morning, five planets are in Pisces: Mercury, Jupiter, Sun, Uranus and Venus, vibrating with the slow Moon in Scorpio. At the same time, Chiron is still focusing the energy of Neptune in Aquarius, fully harmonious with Pisces. Taken together, this is more intuitive, passionate, emotional energy than the biopsychic systems of humans are usually accustomed to.

Aries Rising

It takes awareness to focus one’s mind in the midst of this, and what is coming through is not going to be of the rational bent: it’s Pisces stuff, which humanity often experiences as more than it can understand. Take the ocean, for example. You have some people who are careless and jump in not knowing how to swim, or the direction of the current.

Some go for the speedboat. There are others for whom the ocean means the Filet-o-Fish sandwich, some who attempt to conquer with the ocean liner, others who dump garbage and sewage in, others for whom it’s about sushi and oysters. Relatively few approach the ocean with actual respect; with the knowledge that when your feet are in the sea, you’re one breath from the edge, in practice and not in theory. We lack the knowledge that the ocean is the immune system of the planet, and when it is healthy, we are healthy.

Pisces is the cosmic source, the most watery water sign, the sign that embraces all, contains every trace element, swallows all differentiation, and provides a great deal in the way of direct knowledge and nourishment and much that seems like mist and taken for granted rainwater.

Pisces to human consciousness represents the headwaters of creation; the mouth of the river of creation; the River of Night and the ocean on which creation floats and into which it will someday dissolve. Pisces is too complex and too multifaceted to grasp in one thought, so it has to be taken in facets, and often appears in the mind of the beholder as what is already there. In other words, what Pisces presents is particularly the mystery itself — the mystery of perception and that which lurks right behind the drama of creation.

It is where seawater meets blood; when healthy, both have a similar pH range.

Pisces is “the sign before the first sign.” In the most microscopic terms, it is the ocean of amniotic fluid in which the protozoa – fish – proto-human – human is gestated. It is the consciousness before one’s name is known. It represents (what from our perspective is) the mystery of the creation and the desire that leads to creation: the desire to create. Pisces includes and embraces every creative, sexual and spiritual impulse, as humanity surfs down the generations and the aeons on these waves of impulse — this, however roughly or passionately, however consciously or not.

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The Moon is in the water sign Scorpio, trine a vast alignment of planets in Pisces — Mercury, the Sun, Jupiter, Venus and Uranus.

This is adding an emotional quality to the air, but it’s energy that’s moving: trines open the gates, and what this is opening the gate to is quite a bit of Pisces energy pouring through the Scorpio Moon — thankfully Scorpio is a fixed sign and can handle the somewhat unstable, unpredictable energy of Pisces. We are still feeling the vibes of yesterday’s Venus conjunct Uranus, which brought all kinds of fun surprises in the door; you may have even surprised yourself a few times. However, clearly the necessity of the moment is focusing and grounding this emotional energy. Pluto in Capricorn is the constant reminder of this.

In the background, Mars is in the last week of retrograde motion. The station direct is March 10, after a tense, 12-week retrograde. This began Dec. 20 and ends next week, but the real effects spread from mid-autumn 2009 to late spring 2010. Mars is connected to the sign Aries, and in June the sky moves into some spectacular astrology in that particular sign — the rare conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus. Stay tuned for more details — and there are lots in the sign reports of Cosmic Confidential.

The Moon is in early Libra, reminding us of the best things in life. Libra’s symbol is a scale. You could say it’s the scales of justice. You could also say it’s the image of what it takes to keep the universe in balance. The implication of scales, however, is that things can go out of balance as well, or that at times, one side of an equation can push itself out and be emphasized — and this is part of the balancing process. Libra has the quality of equilibrium, but it also has the quality of excess in one direction, compensated by excess in the other.

In other sky news, Mercury has joined an a gathering of planets in Pisces: Jupiter, Sun, Venus and Uranus.

Mars is taking its time drawing its 11-week retrograde to an end; this began around the winter solstice and ends on March 10.

Now that the Friday edition of Planet Waves is on its way to subscribers, I can get back to audio coverage of the NCGR conference. (This will update about four times a day, so check back regularly.) NCGR stands for National Council for Geocosmic Research; that’s a fancy way of saying a bunch of astrologers get together every couple of years and share notes, teach classes and workshops, and several hundred punters come from around the country and listen to what we have to say.

This is one of the main ways people learn astrology — at these hotel conferences put on by different organizations. It’s one of the pre-internet methods, another being reading books, classes in the dining room, and mail correspondence courses. So this kind of event is a bit of a throwback to the days before the iPhone.

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