New Moon in Pisces 2020
This New Moon will be exact on February 23rd, 2020 at 10:32 a.m. ET
Art by Element Octothorpe
This New Moon in Pisces is a potent time for seeding big dreams, although not necessarily big realities. Conjunct a retrograde Mercury, co-present with Neptune, ruled by an over-confident Jupiter, inspired by Uranus and a somewhat drained Mars, this lunation provides a lot of inspiration but perhaps not so much energy or practicality at this moment. It looks excellent for imagination, but less so for implementation.
I'm reminded of how in architecture school we would begin a design project by coming up with many different ideas and iterations. In that initial phase, one could forget about the practical requirements for how the thing would be built, if the cost would be realistic, and so forth. This is the phase of the imagination unleashed and unbound by physical constraints.
However, that is only the beginning. If the design process ended there we would all be in trouble, as our world would literally be crumbling around us due to lack of foresight and reasonable engineering. On the other hand, if we skip that phase and head straight to the practical stuff, our built environment quickly becomes bland, predictable and unimaginative.
Jodorowsky’s Dune is another great analogy for the energy of this New Moon. Alejandro Jodorowsky, one of my all-time favorite humans, dreamt up and planned out an epic film version of Frank Herbert's novel Dune. He assembled an all-star team that included Mick Jagger, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, Pink Floyd and H.R. Giger. In order to stay true to Jodo's artistic ideals, the film would have been 14 hours long and significantly over budget. While it would have been an amazing work of art, no studio would fund the film. However, an astounding number of his ideas for that project wound up surfacing in other movies produced by the studios that turned Jodo down in the following decades, proving the project was not lacking in merit, but perhaps contained too much merit for one Hollywood project.
Both examples are apt metaphors for this New Moon in Pisces. Begin the creative, imaginative phase of a project. Think of wild and unusual solutions to life’s challenges. Let no force of gravity restrain your dreams. Make lots of sketches and tiny, inexpensive models. But fully understand that these dreams will need to be reviewed and edited many times over the next year or more to ever be real, existing things. You will most likely need to pare down your vision and let go of many elements you loved about your original conception to make it real, or find ways to incorporate pieces of the dream into several different projects.
This New Moon also happens to coincide with the first major aspect between the Sun and Mars since they began their two-year cycle with the conjunction at 9 degrees of Virgo on September 2nd, 2019. If you are using the worksheets I provided in my article on Mars' cycle, now is the time to check in with the intentions you set back then. Also, it's not too late to start working with the cycle now. Mars' cycle relates to the Hero's Journey. In my article, I wrote of this lunation's sextile between the Sun and Mars:
"The hero is roused to action, not in the world of things or people, but in the realm of imagination and fantasy. While perhaps experiencing a lack of physical energy and mental clarity, they rethink tradition, dreaming of new structures inspired by the changing landscape, meanwhile letting go of something previously desired."
Horoscopes
Aries Rising
This New Moon is the time for setting intentions around mental health, dream-analysis, lucid dreaming, meditation, solitude and finding healthy ways to transcend the stresses and limitations of life. Use this time to brainstorm your loftiest goals for these topics. Dream as if you had five lifetimes of a super-hero version of yourself to accomplish it all. In one version you might have the lucid dreaming skills of Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception. In another you might be shaman. In another, a Buddha. In another, you're the next Carl Jung or a hermit living in a cottage in the woods. Visualise each vivid detail of your fantasies, take leisurely strolls through the terrain of your dreams. Then, eventually, return to earth. Over the next six months, revisit, review and refine these fantasies into something possible to achieve in your lifetime. Pick the best parts of your various visions and put them together in an actionable manner, such as committing to a daily meditation practice or dream journaling. Watch out for any impulses to take on more than you can realistically handle at work or to turn to drink or drugs to ease stress.
Taurus Rising
This New Moon is the time to set intentions around your friend groups and community. While this is not the best time to begin practical actions in this area of life, it’s a potent time for brainstorming your ideal visions of them. In fact, I would invite you to dream far outside of what you think is possible. For example, you might dream that you and your community of psychic friends bring the world to a perpetual state of peaceful abundance by beaming telepathic rainbow lasers of goodwill into the auras of the one percent, after which your a capella group wins a Grammy for your best selling album of Enya covers. Craft your broadest vision for this area of life, with the grounded understanding that whatever you come up with will need a bit of revision and editing before it can be implemented. This process should help you hone in more clearly on what you truly want from your community and widen your conception of what is possible just enough so you can upgrade your goals beyond their previous limitations. On a more mundane level, take care to distinguish the difference between your dreams and reality in this area of life until Mercury leaves Pisces in mid April, as you could easily mistake your imagination for reality during this time.
Gemini Rising
This New Moon is the time for setting intentions around your career, public role and reputation. Dream up limitless visions of your ideal career and flesh out these visions in vivid detail. Walk around in these dreams and feel yourself in these roles. You could imagine yourself as a world-famous medium whose messages from the deceased lead to universal peace and equality. Or you could imagine yourself as an Oscar-winning movie star who gives generously to the world’s poor and initiates important environmental innovations. You could be Neo in the Matrix. Allow nothing to inhibit your visions. Then return to Earth. These dreams you’ve crafted will hold important information about what is truly important to you and what you’d like to do in your life. However, you’ll need to spend some time over the next six months revising and reworking your many visions into a realistically actionable plan. Watch for a tendency to mistake your career dreams for reality while Mercury is in Pisces, until mid April. You’ll want to take extra precautions during this time to ensure that you accurately understand what is going on and double check all of your work not only in your career but also at home and maybe everywhere else too since Mercury rules your chart.
Cancer Rising
This New Moon is the time for setting intentions around your belief system, foreign travels, and higher education. While it is not the best time for making practical plans, buying plane tickets, applying for grad school or moving to a religious commune, it IS the best time for dreaming bigly about where you’d like to go, what you’d like to learn, and how you’d like to walk your spiritual or philosophical path in your lifetime. Let nothing restrict your fantasizing around these topics. You might imagine swimming with dolphins in Hawaii, spending the summer in the fjords of Norway, or going for the Amazonian medicine trip everyone is raging about these days. You might imagine earning a PhD in molecular biology, comparative religious studies, or theatrical costume design. You might want to spend a year in a Buddhist monastery or engaged in humanitarian service like Mother Theresa. Let every image that stirs your heart shine in great detail upon your mental movie screen and immerse yourself completely in their narratives. And then let the credits roll, turn the lights on, and return to reality. All those dreams hold important information about where you’d truly like to go in your life, but they will need to be honed into one realistically actionable goal over the next six months. On a practical level, be extra careful in your real-world endeavors in these areas of life, as well as your everyday communications and schedule until Mercury leaves Pisces in mid-April.
Leo Rising
This is the time to set intentions around shared resources, debt, inheritance, and death. Sounds like fun, right! I think, with some creativity, it could be. While Mercury’s retrograde in this area of your chart indicates this will not be the best time to begin to initiate actions around these topics, this is a great time to re-imagine your highest ideals regarding them, which can inform your actions later on when Mercury is in better condition. This lunation encourages dreams larger than reality, so go with the flow and picture as many wildly positive outcomes as you can. You could imagine winning the lottery, or your partner getting a huge pay raise. You could envision paying off all of your debt by the end of the year. Or you could imagine a community center or park flourishing so well that it transforms your neighborhood into a place where everyone thrives. You could visualize beginning or enhancing a practice to honor your ancestors. You could even set high goals for how you would like to pass away— an example that comes to mind is I’ve read of many Buddhist masters choosing the time of their death, then ‘jumping’ out of their bodies, which miraculously do not decompose, and then a rainbow appears in the sky. After a good amount of time spent on these visions over the next two weeks or so, work on reworking your visions into something realistic and actionable. In the meantime, you’ll want to take extra care when dealing with all of the topics mentioned above, including your own money and your community, to ensure that you are seeing those matters clearly. Mercury’s condition will make mistakes and misunderstandings in these areas more likely than usual until he leaves Pisces in mid-April.
Virgo Rising
This is the time to set intentions around close friendships, romantic partners and business partners. While this is not the best time to take new actions in this area of life, it is excellent for brainstorming, drafting and revising your wildest visions of how you’d like your various partnerships to look and feel. No need to restrict your dreaming to what is realistic or possible for this stage. Rather, let your imagination run free and wild. You could imagine connections so close that you and your partner can communicate via your own language, or by music or telepathy. You might imagine creative partnerships with people driven toward the same goals and motivated by similar world-views and beliefs as yourself, which propel all involved into worldly success. Do your dream drafting over the next couple of weeks, with plans to continually revisit and revise throughout Mercury’s extended stay in Pisces. You’ll want to whittle these big dreams down to a realistic and manageable plan over the next six months. Take extra care to avoid projecting these lovely visions (or your worst nightmares) onto your friends, lovers and business partners while Mercury is in Pisces, through mid-April, as the potential for misunderstandings is higher than usual at this time.
Libra Rising
This New Moon is the time to set intentions around your physical health, household chores, work tasks, service, pets and houseplants. While this would not be the best time to initiate new actions around these areas of life, it is a great time to craft your highest visions of what they could be. There are no limits at this stage of imagining, so go wild. You might envision yourself as a person with shiny bodybuilder abs, glowing skin and lustrous hair, who hasn’t farted once in ten years. You could imagine a life so abundant that you can afford to pay servants a fabulous living wage that not only enables you to never touch a dirty dish but also enriches the lives of the families of all who work for you. Or you could imagine dedicating your life to spiritual service to others, becoming a monk or nun. Or you could be dreaming of owning a gorgeously intelligent bengal cat who travels with you to exotic locations and goes for hikes on a leash like a dog. Maybe you’d like to sustain yourself on a permaculture garden that you build in your backyard. Let your dreams grow without inhibition for a couple of weeks, then work on revising them into something realistic and actionable once Mercury has left Pisces in mid-April. In the meantime, take extra care to ensure that you are seeing things clearly regarding health, service, pets, etc., as the same dreamy state of mind that can aid your brainstorming can also incline you to misinterpret things or miss important details in the real world.
Scorpio Rising
This New Moon is the time to set intentions around your creativity, fun times and children if you have them. While it is not the best time to take new actions in these areas of life, it is an excellent time to craft your wildest visions of what they could be for you. Do not let anything restrict you during this stage of deep and uninhibited brainstorming. You could imagine writing, directing and starring in an award-winning film that awakens the world to the reality that we are all one, causing the president to weep, apologize sincerely, and resign from office. Or you might imagine that your indigo children are able to remember their past lives as remote viewers working for the CIA in such detail that you learn valuable information that enables you to save the world from destruction. Or perhaps you imagine a night of dreamy dancing with your attractive yoga posse when suddenly, you lock eyes with a gorgeous stranger across the room and you both just know this is it as the two of you commence an epic romantic dance sequence in the center of the space with all of your friends watching and dancing with sparkling compersion in a circle around you. Allow yourself to dream like this for the next couple of weeks, then start to refine and edit your visions into something more realistically actionable. The spirit of the visions will help you to aim higher and closer to what you truly desire than you otherwise might. In the meantime, take extra care to view creative projects, hobbies and children with clarity, as Mercury’s condition will make this unusually difficult until mid-April.
Sagittarius Rising
This New Moon is the time for setting intentions for your home and family life. While this is not the best time to initiate new projects or actions in these areas, it is an excellent time to do a great deal of creative brainstorming on these topics. During the next couple of weeks, allow yourself to dream of your highest ideals for home and family without any limitations whatsoever. You might imagine living in a castle made of clouds in the sky with a family of colorful Care Bears. You might dream of a hobbit hole where you spend your days eating your fill and dreamily enjoying the weather. You might imagine yourself living in Atlantis with your family of beautiful mer-people. Or maybe you live on the actual earth but in a home of spiritually minded chosen family that is protected by the good relations you’ve cultivated with benefic spirits on your land. Allow yourself to dream like this for the next couple of weeks, then start to refine and edit your visions into something more realistically actionable. The spirit of the visions will help you to aim higher and closer to what you truly desire than you otherwise might. In the meantime, take care that you approach your actual home and family, as well as your partners, close friends and career, with extra care to avoid the misunderstandings that are likely to occur when such a dreamy state prevails.
Capricorn Rising
This New Moon is the time for setting intentions around your daily schedule, your communications, your commute, and your siblings. While this is not the best time for taking new actions in these areas of life, it is a great time to brainstorm your highest visions of what these things could be for you. In this phase, allow yourself to dream without any limitations whatsoever. You might imagine a completely open and flexible schedule that allows you to do whatever you feel at any given moment. Or you might imagine developing telepathic skills so you can communicate without words. You could envision getting wherever you need to go by teleportation, or by gondola, or flight. Or you could imagine such a lovely and intimate connection with your siblings that you are always there for each other without ever needing to ask for help. Allow yourself to dream like this for the next couple of weeks, then start to refine and edit your visions into something more realistically actionable. The spirit of the visions will help you to aim higher and closer to what you truly desire than you otherwise might. In the meantime, be extra careful in your actual communications, schedule, commute, and sibling interactions. Mercury’s retrograde in the part of your chart that governs these topics makes it more likely for miscommunications and misperceptions to occur than usual.
Aquarius Rising
This New Moon is the time to set intentions for your finances, possessions, and what you value. While it is not the best time to take new actions in these areas of life, it is a great time for brainstorming your highest visions of them. During this phase, let no aspect of reality inhibit your fantasizing. You might imagine having infinite resources and owning a home in every desirable location in the world. You might imagine a life where you own nothing, like a monk, but are generously provided for by unseen forces. You might imagine buying the world’s oceans so they can be cleaned and restored to health and abundance. Allow yourself to dream like this for the next couple of weeks, then start to refine and edit your visions into something more realistically actionable. The spirit of these visions will help you to aim higher and closer to what you truly desire than you otherwise might. In the meantime, take extra caution with your finances, possessions and values in your actual waking life. Mercury’s retrograde in the part of your chart that governs these topics makes it more likely for misunderstandings and mistakes to occur than is usually the case.
Pisces Rising
This New Moon is the time to set intentions around how you present yourself to the world, your appearance and your personality. While it is not the best time to take new actions in these areas of life, it is a great time for brainstorming your highest visions of them. During this phase, let no aspect of reality inhibit your fantasizing. You might imagine yourself as a famous actor or singer, with an air of unmistakable glamour about you. You could see yourself as God’s favorite saintly figure who generously serves the spiritual needs of the masses while expecting nothing in return. You might envision yourself as the world’s most desirable lover, known by all for your unearthly beauty and kindest heart. Allow yourself to dream like this for the next couple of weeks, then start to refine and edit your visions into something more realistically actionable. The spirit of these visions will help you to aim higher and closer to what you truly desire than you otherwise might. In the meantime, take extra care in how you present yourself and communicate to others in your waking life. Mercury’s retrograde in the part of your chart that governs these topics makes it more likely for misunderstandings and mistakes to occur than is usually the case.