Full Moon in Pisces: balance mundane and sacred

On 20 September the Full Moon rises at 28 degrees Pisces as Mercury trines Jupiter. This is a fantastic energy for speaking what is on your heart and also favours deep listening and connection. Opening up to someone and letting yourself be vulnerable can allow you to draw closer to one another. However we must choose wisely who we confide in, remembering that not everyone will respond to us with gentleness, compassion and respect.

This is especially true as Mercury is also heading into a square with Pluto, exact on 22 September. Mercury in Pluto can tend us towards obsessively and paranoid thinking, which can lead to conscious or unconscious betrayals of ourselves and others. This transit can also cause us to speak with the sting of a Scorpion so if anger arises take time out and come back to the conversation when you have cooled down.

Like all Full Moons in Pisces, this one will focus our attention on the polarity between Virgo and Pisces. Understanding the six polarities in astrology is crucial to maintaining balance in one’s life. Each gives a unique insight into the complex dynamics of the human psyche and helps us to see where adjustments may need to be made. In the case of the Virgo/Pisces axis an imbalance is fairly easy to recognise and address.

If the Virgo archetype is over emphasised you may be bogged down in the daily grind. Every moment is taken up with little chores and you’ve lost touch with the sacred, miraculous qualities that make life rich. The danger here is that your craving for the Piscean themes of transcendence and oneness may be misdirected into escapist tendencies. A glass of wine or a few hours sprawled in front of the television take the place of an enriching spiritual practice.

Astrologer Clare Martin writes: “If this spectrum polarises on the Virgo side, then there will be a strong need for control over the daily routines of life, in an effort to keep chaos at bay. And yet, if the qualities of Pisces are not integrated, they will emerge from the unconscious and the Virgo individual will feel increasingly overwhelmed, and will tend to attract more and more disruption into their lives and feel more and more out of control.”

On the other hand, with an over-abundance of Pisces energy your life may lack practical grounding. Although capable of seeing the greater purpose you may find it difficult to take care of the details, such that you are unable to meet your daily commitments. You may be overwhelmed by emotional situations and have difficulty seeing where your responsibility for others begins and ends. However a craving for the qualities of Virgo may have you seeking out friends and lovers who are strong in this archetype.

This Full Moon in Pisces is asking us to look closely at out lives to see whether any adjustments need to be made. Do you need to honour the realm of Pisces by taking time out in your day for meditation, ritual or silent reverie? Or are there practical tasks you’ve been neglecting that need your attention?

Observe yourself and make sure that what you believe is true and not just a story you are telling yourself. The analytical qualities of Virgo will come in useful here! At the same time be careful that perfectionism does not get in the way of transcendence: you don’t have to meditate like a monk to gain clarity from this practice, nor must you perform a complicated series of steps to enjoy moving your body. Expressing your divine creative nature does not require any kind of expertise, no matter what Virgo might tell you!

Like all Full Moons this is a time of completion when we gather in the harvest of intentions set during the previous New Moon. This is why it’s so important to manifest our lives consciously; what we think has a powerful affect on our lives. Take time during this Full Moon in Pisces to check in with yourself. When you say (or think) the words ‘I am…’ how do you end the sentence? Are these true statements of who you are?

And who are you really? This Full Moon in Pisces reminds us that we are all a part of the divine, a wondrous manifestation of a magical universe, each of us a unique individual that is nevertheless part of a vast, beautiful, interdependent whole.

You may like to work with this idea by integrating an awareness of the Moon Phases into your daily meditation practice. You can read more about this in my article Moon phase meditations: your emotional rhythms.

How will the Full Moon in Pisces affect you?

Whether this Full Moon in Pisces affects you on the conscious level depends very much on whether it activates your personal natal chart. Those with planets and points between 26 and 30 degrees of the Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) will probably feel this Full Moon in Pisces more than others. Look also to see in which house the transiting Sun and Moon fall as this will tell you the area of life that is likely to be most affected.

To get started applying this transit to your own life, grab a free birth chart at astro.com and download my free ebook The Language of Astrology.

Your experience of Full Moon in Pisces

Every Full Moon in Pisces will be different based on the positions of the other transiting planets as well as those in your natal chart. Do you incorporate the Moon phases into your spiritual practice? Please share your thoughts and experiences below so that we can all learn from each other.