Stories of Virgo Season 2026

Harvest Goddess Virgo – Queen of the Earth and of The Heavens

Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

Aug 22, 2026

green grassland during night time
Photo by Luca on Unsplash

“The Virgin with her sheaf belongs to Ceres,” The Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD.

Now it is harvest time in the northern hemisphere, – ‘the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ (From An Ode to Autumn by English poet John Keats.)

The planetary ruler of Virgo is Mercury, planet of siblings and neighbours, communications, media, inquiry, science, commerce, trade and travel. Also the ruler of Gemini. Curious, restless and quicksilver.

Traditional Associations

Dates: August 22/23-September 22/23

Symbol: The Virgin/The Maiden

Element: Earth

Quality: Mutable (Sagittarius and Pisces are also Mutable, suggesting these subjects are capable and versatile; self-willed, absolutely, yet temperamentally inclined to adjust and go with the flow for the greater good.)

Ruling planet: Mercury

House: Sixth, ruling health, habits and routines

Hebrew letter: Yod. The Hand of God. The divine seed, genesis of life, both the egg and the sperm.

Colours: green, white and yellow

Body: The nervous system, digestive system, intestines. Food sensitivities. The Virgo metabolism does better with warm cooked foods than cold raw foods.

Tissue cell salt: Kali Sulph, i.e; potassium sulfate/sulphate. Essential for muscle contraction, helps transport oxygen to cells, and regulates oil in the body.

Lucky Birthstones: Peridot (joy, prosperity), Sapphire (reputed to provide protection against evil, “the wisdom stone”) Lapis Lazuli (Third Eye, intuition)

Flowers: small bright flowers such as the buttercup. Florists suggest Morning Glory, Chrysanthemum, Asters.

Tarot cards: The Hermit and The Empress. The Knight of Pentacles, 8, 9 and 10 of Coins/Pentacles.

Astronomy

Public Domain, Wiki: Credit Till Credner

The zodiac sign of Virgo gets its name from the constellation of Virgo, the largest constellation in the zodiac, and the second largest in the visible sky after the constellation of Hydra. The Virgo constellation is visible from all around the world most visible in the evening sky from mid-March – to late June in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, look for it in the autumn and winter.

Our Sun is just one star in the Milky Way, and the Milky Way is part of a collection of galaxies known as the Local Group. This contains three large spiral galaxies: the Milky Way, Andromeda, and the Triangulum Galaxy and a few dozen dwarf galaxies.

But the Local Group is only one member of the Virgo Cluster; a collection of 1200-2000 galaxies stretching across 15 million light-years of space.

And the Virgo Cluster is part of the Virgo Supercluster.

The mere thought of it is enough to induce existential angst. One may need to lie down awhile in a dark room with a hanky soaked in eau-de-cologne.

It’s a bit of a stretch, seeing the person in the stars of the Virgo constellation. Look at my drawing, joining up the stars, and now we see her. Virgo, The Virgin, the Maiden, semi-recumbent, dangling something in one hand, a sheaf of wheat. This is the star Spica, a blue-white giant. Its name comes from the Latin, meaning an ‘ear of grain’- or a sheaf of wheat.

The star Vindemiatrix, when it reappeared in the early morning sky after a long absence, was once upon a time the signal to start gathering the grapes towards the end of August. More about Vindemiatrix here

green leaves on mountain during sunset
Photo by Luca J on Unsplash

Virgo marks the start of harvest time in the northern hemisphere where Western/ Tropical astrology began. When the earth mother Empress card turns up in a tarot reading, we are looking at Sixth house issues, situations or timings. The Sixth House rules service, duty, health, fertility, fruition, nutrition and hygiene. Food, health, care and compassion go together in the service of the common good.

Shala was an ancient Sumerian (Iraq) goddess of grain -and also compassion. Why link these two things? Food is survival. Famine is suffering. A good harvest was a blessing of the gods. But this is never guaranteed from one year to the next.

An ancient story, yes. But now that we are in the space age, still, there is a mountain on the totally inhospitable planet Venus, Shala Mons, named after this same goddess Shala.

Mary, the mother of Christ, Mater miserichordia, mother of mercy, can be seen as a later reimbodiment of the more ancient story of Shala, the celestial Virgin.

Smith Waite

To the ancient Greeks she was Ceres (as in the word ‘cereal’) or Demeter, the Greco-Roman goddess of the harvest, the mother of Persephone. When lonely Hades, the brother of Zeus, the king of the underworld, abducted Persephone to live with him in the underworld, Demeter went searching, and was enraged to discover from Hekate that Zeus, king of the gods and the brother of Hades, had known all along where Persephone was. Demeter demanded that Zeus bring Persephone home, and when he didn’t, she went on strike. Zeus sent Iris, the rainbow messenger goddess, to invite Demeter to come to Olympus for peace talks. Demeter refused. The harvests failed and the people starved until Zeus finally ordered Hades to send Persephone home.

Hades agreed on one condition. Persephone must not eat anything until she arrived home again to her mother. Hades then gave Persephone a handful of pomegranate seeds for the journey home, saying a few seeds didn’t count as food.

red pomegranate
Photo by Margarita Zueva on Unsplash

And Persephone believed him- or perhaps she knew perfectly well what he was up to, but she had come to love Hades. She ate some on the way home. A deal is a deal, and because she ate the pomegranate seeds, whether knowingly or not, she returns to Hades and her life in the Underworld for four months of the year. Then Demeter mourns. The growing season stops. Winter returns and the land lies fallow.

The Virgo Archetype – Zodiac Personality

All the zodiac signs are examples of archetypes, meaning something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing.

Virgo is The Craftsman, taking pride in doing the job, whatever it is, to the highest standard possible. The Knight of Pentacles, the court card of Virgo says slow and steady wins the race. The major arcana card in the Tarot representing Virgo is The Hermit, denoting our deepest connection to Nature.

The Knight of Pentacles in The Gilded Tarot

Here is an enlarged curiosity and a combination of analytical ability, but also a certain contemplative, humanitarian or even mystical quality. Here is wisdom in maturity, and the value of solitude and self-sufficiency. The Hermit represents the principle of service – he walks alone and yet he has a desire to help all Humanity, shining a light on the path ahead.

Virgo is something of a sage. Rooted in the earth, and yet looking inwards and upwards, moving to its own dance, steering by a quiet inner star.

The Hermit from The Golden Tarot

Virgo, like Gemini, is ruled by agile Mercury, the fastest moving planet of communication. Virgo’s brain is in overdrive most of the time, but while Virgo is practical, analytical and critical…some might say hyper-critical…even forensic, it is also artistically gifted, highly perceptive and intuitive. Much less gets said about this aspect of Virgo, the craftsman, a maker of things exquisite.

They make honest friends although, being discerning, and analytical, they will also have a tendency to analyse you, pointing out not only out your strengths but your mistakes. This can undoubtedly be annoying, though it’s usually free of malice. Well meant. They may also give great advice because of those very same analytical abilities.

These folk are generally neat and well groomed. The word “slob” is not in their vocabulary and they can be incredibly concerned about the impression they give. But at the same time, they are very ready to help others, and maybe sometimes they are even too generous. Others may try to take advantage of Virgo in a way they might not attempt with, say, Aries, Leo or Scorpio.

Of course there is no such thing in reality as THE Virgo personality. Your zodiac sign (sun sign) is your major touchstone but doesn’t claim to represent anything like the full picture in real life– or in your natal chart in astrology.

But the decans can tell us a little more, or may help readers with assessing timing.

The decans, from “deka”, the Greek word for ten are nicknamed the ‘thirty six faces of astrology,’ and were a feature of Egyptian astronomy later adopted by the Greeks and incorporated into Western astrology.

The first ten days of the zodiac sign are the first decan. The second ten days or so are the second decan, and the last ten days are the third decan, though this is not exact, because not every month is the same length.

There is more than one decan system. The older Chaldean system uses the seven planets known to the ancients, those closer planets that are observable to the naked eye, whereas the modern system of triplicities includes the outer planets. Some will disagree if I say there is no right or wrong about this. We can make our own minds up which planetary ruler we find most relatable for each of the decans.

First Decan Virgo

Dates: 23 August-1 September

Planetary decan rulers: Ancient: Sun Modern: Mercury

Tarot card: The Eight of Pentacles: ‘Lord of Prudence,’ art, craft, industry, skill, concentration, application, studiousness, apprenticeship, crafts, heritage, construction

Smith Waite Tarot

This person is deeply absorbed in his work. Yes, one could say but he is working on a production line, but it has meaning and purpose for him.

This decan combines quiet warmth and humour, and a cool mind with a talent for acute observation and incisive analysis; however this is expressed, whether artistically, commercially or scientifically or in administrative tasks. They see more than they say, but the Virgo native has a talent for the spoken and written word; making them great teachers.

‘We reap what we sow,’ goes the saying. This is not always true, nor fair. Every minute of every day, misfortune strikes people who have done absolutely nothing to ‘deserve’ it. Plenty of wrong-doers escape justice. But still, it is broadly true that we can’t reap what was never sown. The first decan Virgo feels this deeply, and they make faithful friends and partners, devoted in their quiet way.

Second Decan Virgo

Dates: 2-11 September

Planetary ruler: Ancient: Venus Modern: Saturn

Tarot card- Nine Pentacles: ‘Lord of Material Gain’ beauty, luxury, self-discipline, hard work that pays off, management, hotels, horticulture, agriculture, viticulture, gardens, vineyards

Smith Waite Tarot

This decan is associated with Venus, planet of love, beauty –and money. A perfectionist; conscientious, devoted, and above all focused, these Virgo natives can turn anything into an art form. Notice the hooded falcon on her wrist. She is not without passion, but she has ‘tamed’ her own wildness – or chaos. Learned to control her own impulses. She has known what it is like to do without, and she has not forgotten. But s/he will not trade away her tomorrows for today’s gratification. This decan is a born manager. But though they have learned how to do without (and at times they have probably had no choice) still, they do crave and appreciate all things beautiful, and they love to pamper their loved ones. S/he has built something of solid worth and none of it came quick or easy.

Third Decan Virgo

Dates: 12-22 September

Planetary ruler: Ancient: Mercury Modern: Venus

Tarot card- Ten of Pentacles: keywords: ‘Lord of Wealth,’ commerce, messages, deliveries, Hermes, home, homeland, ancestry, genetics, inter-generational relationships, inheritance, gifts, legacy, bequests, town planning, art, museums, banks.

Smith Waite Tarot

These people are thinkers, and they are proud. Not vain. It is about dignity and self- respect, and it’s not even about the money, or at least, not for its own sake. These people are careful, even cautious, but they have a winning way with people and can do very well in the public eye, such is their talent for communication; personal, professional, artistic, written and spoken. See the old man surrounded by his family, neighbours and those dogs too. Eco-warrior is not their style. But they do care a great deal about animals, heritage and the environment. Virgo sees themselves as part of a bigger picture, a link in a chain of legacy, and this is for them a treasure beyond price.

In Virgo Season 2026

This year’s super powerful El Nino is unsettling Gaia, the oceans, the Gulf Stream and her harvests, and war is making matters worse, with food security already a great cause for concern in some parts of the world, and with grain shortages and prices projected to rise significantly over this coming winter.

Virgo season 2026 is serious, but anything but neat, orderly or low key.

23 August: The Sun enters Virgo on Sunday…erm, today…as the Moon enters Capricorn with a potentially uncomfortable lunar T- Square including Neptune, Mars and Saturn. On a personal level, this entry into Virgo could be painting a picture of mess, muddle, annoyance. Perhaps someone is not being straight with us.

25 August: Mercury moves into Virgo and this marks the shift in the season and in the mindset. The summer is drawing to a close. We are preparing for planning to return to work, or to school

August 28: The weeks main astrological event is the lunar eclipse at four degrees and 54 minutes of Pisces. Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces, is making a trine to Saturn in Aries, and is in a sign-based sextile with Venus in Libra, which is trying to help out with all the nonsense and challenges.

This Pisces eclipse is also squaring Uranus, and it can only help to be ready for sudden changes, difficulties or surprises next week. The Tarot card corresponding with the timing of this early degree of Pisces is the slightly sad if philosophical Eight of Cups. There is a turning away. It is not a case of looking back in anger. Someone decides it is time to let go, or to leave. Sometimes it can be a cutting of losses. Sometimes a loss due to natural causes.

Smith Waite, Tarot Illuminati, Legacy of The Divine Tarot

31 August: A rather rare trine between Jupiter and Saturn could give us quite a boost. There has not been a trine like this since May 2014.

Happy Birthday, Virgo 2026!

You have likely been navigating problematic territory for quite some time, but events in March, early July and August could require you to draw a line now. Don’t be afraid to say no, Virgo, and to upset an applecart if necessary, because if you do, then be assured, you are not acting in haste. This has been a long time coming. You are the salt of the earth, Virgo, and you have every reason to insist on respectful dealings, or else to walk away. There seems a likely easing of some long term stress, with easier times, positive career or money developments and artistically absorbing pastimes in the later months of 2026.

Thank you for reading.

Until next time 🙂

Solstice, The Sun Card and a Strange True Tarot Tale

Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

I love this old name for the dawn…the Daylight Gate. The earliest recorded use of this name was in 1613, as written by Thomas Potts, court clerk, who officiated as clerk at a number of notorious witch trials.

In just a few days, Sunday 21 June, we will be entering the western Tropical zodiac territory of Cancer the Crab; waking up on the day of the solstice to the longest hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere, and the shortest hours of daylight in the southern hemisphere.

The word ‘sol –stice’ is from the Latin ‘solstitium,’ meaning the ‘sun stands still.’

Public Domain The British Library

We have two official calendars: the astronomical calendar and the meteorological calendar.

The astronomical calendar is based on many thousands of years of observations of natural phenomena used to establish and mark time. This calendar follows the Earth’s rotation around the sun, defining the four seasons by two solstices and two equinoxes. The Earth’s tilt and the sun’s alignment over the equator determine these events, so the two solstices mark the times when the sun passes over the equator, on June 21 and around December 22,and the two equinoxes are on or around March 21 and September 22.

At the summer solstice, the Northern Hemisphere receives sunlight at the most direct angle of the year with the North Pole tilting towards the Sun at its maximum (about 23.5 degrees) resulting in the longest period of sunlight hours. In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the opposite and the Sun is at its lowest point in the sky.

Astronomical timing is variable, depending upon when the Sun reaches its northernmost point from the celestial equator, and this date varies between June 20, 21, and 22.

The meteorological calendar is a more recent invention based on seasonal temperatures, separating the year into four groups of three months, based on the observation that summer is the warmest time of year and winter is the coldest, with transitional seasons in- between. These seasons are always 90 to 92 days long, and always start on the first of the month except for leap year. This definition makes it easier to calculate seasonal statistics for the purposes of weather forecasting.

Midsummer’s Day marks the midpoint of the growing season, halfway between planting and harvest. It is traditionally known as one of four “quarter days” in some cultures. Folks celebrated by feasting, dancing, singing, and lighting bonfires to usher in the hot summer days ahead in places like Stonehenge, where the mighty wild cattle, the aurochs once roamed, and the sabre tooth tiger crouched low, watching and waiting its chances.

Photo by Bernd Feurich on Pexels.com

Every summer solstice in the UK, as many as 10,000 people arrive at Stonehenge for a pagan style summer solstice festival on British shores, complete with druids. The main event is sunrise, when the first rays of the sun strike the gigantic Heel Stone and illuminate the centre of the stone circle, and people are allowed to touch the stones- a rare opportunity, and the only day of the year they are permitted to do so.

The Sun card

The Sun card is the ultimate summer card in the Tarot deck; number 19 in the Major Arcana. This positive card signifies all kinds of good news, starting with sunny weather in the literal sense, and overseas travel, usually to a hot country. It is our moments in the sun. It is the state of childhood. It is good health or recovery from sickness. The Sun card is vitality, just as the sun is life itself. The Sun card can therefore be predicting new life- a birth.

The Sun card, when it is drawn reversed is like the setting sun. It can mean the memories of childhood, nostalgia, beautiful, bittersweet twilight. It may mean sadness or delays or getting less than you hoped for.

The Sun gods can be cruel; Ra, Arinna, Surya, Mithras, Helios, Apollo, Sol – by whatever name we have called the Sun. Every card has its downside, just like every situation in life. The fire of the sun can also be cruel, even savage when ‘reversed.’ We might have drought. We might have wildfires.

The Sun card can signify death as well as life. It may also, in my experience as a reader, refer to a cremation.

Astrologically, The Sun card represents the zodiac sun sign of Leo, where The Chariot represents the time of the summer solstice, entering the western Tropical zodiac season sign of Cancer. Here, I am using the Sun card in its broadest meaning.

Reincarnation and The Sun card

As the sign of the Sun’s highest point in the skies as seen from Earth, the constellation of Cancer the Crab was considered nearest to the highest point of heaven. Greco-Roman philosophers (The Neo-Platonists) called it ‘the Gate of Men.’

Decapoda, the Head of The Crab, Acubens, The Claw, Al Tarf, the Foot.

The stars of Cancer, specifically The Beehive Cluster, were the gateway, the portal in the heavens through which souls descended to Earth to be born.

Thee Beehive Cluster also known as Prasaepe, THE MANGER

The opposite constellation, Capricorn, marked the midwinter solstice, and was the ‘Gate of the Gods,’ where the souls of the departed rose back to heaven, crossing the bridge of The Milky Way under escort from…the stories vary…Hermes/Mercury, Sagittarius, the Celestial Archer, or escorted by the archangels.

But did they later descend again to be reborn, in a cycle of reincarnation?

A true Tarot tale

From The Golden Tarot, Kat Black

I have been asked, do I believe in reincarnation? Everything gets recycled. I don’t disbelieve in it. I don’t know. But so many people do believe in reincarnation. The Hindu and Buddhist philosophies believe in reincarnation, while Easter is the great Christian celebration of Resurrection, signifying the hope of the soul’s eternal life.

Nature is cyclical. The seasons run in cycles and life runs in cycles. The span of our lives seems linear because it represents such a short piece of a curve. And because mostly, we have no memory of having been alive before- and if we have such a memory- how do we judge it, to know it is a memory of a previous existence and not a memory of this one, altered in a dream vision.

Perhaps it is only logical and natural that some will see human life as cyclical too, not only in terms of successive generations, but in terms of the individual persona, spirit or soul as something that is continuously recycled. As Emily Dickinson famously wrote, ‘the mind has many corridors.’

Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com

Many years ago I did a distance Tarot reading by email for a young lady who wanted to know, was her brother OK? This struck me as a strange question. I asked her, what did she want me to investigate that she could not ask him herself?

The lady answered that her brother was dead. He had committed suicide. She did not tell me more, nor did I ask about the circumstances, but these were her questions:

-Where was her brother now?

AND

–Was he OK?

I do not advertise as a psychic medium. Nor did I accept payment for this particular reading. I have, all the same, over the past twenty odd years, done a number of readings which have explored client’s questions about deceased loved ones, when the Tarot has facilitated me in offering feedback which only the client could verify. There been some deeply curious and strange, and equally, deeply moving responses.

Now, looking at this lady’s poor dead brother, wondering what on Earth the Tarot would make of this. I drew the Sun card, the card of sunshine, happiness, innocence, childhood. Birth.

The Sun is life itself. If our planet were closer to the Sun, or further away, there would be no life on Earth. People like to post images of Earth to make the point that we are tiny and insignificant. I think those images from space, the photographs taken by Cassini from Saturn, showing Earth as a teeny white dot make the exact opposite point; illustrating the enormity of the miracle of this ball of rock inhabiting the sweet spot at exactly the ‘right’ distance from the Sun for Life.

Where was he? How was he? Some might say, perfectly reasonably, that the question was nonsensical. That he was gone. That he was nowhere, or that he was in the grave.

But I am not in the business of pooh-poohing people’s questions, and she wasn’t asking anyone else. It was my Tarot she was asking.

It is hard to describe, but as you look deeper into a card, a door opens in the mind, or in the imagination if you wish to classify it as that. The brain wave activity has switched from conscious, intellectual, beta state wavelength to a more meditative alpha state wavelength, or maybe gone even deeper, into delta-wave.

a blue and purple wave on a black background
Photo by A Chosen Soul on Unsplash

I gazed into the Sun card, and it struck me that ‘wherever’ her brother was, or ‘whatever’ he now was, he was like a child again, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep. I received a strong impression- there is no other word for it- that he did not remember the moment of his death. Not at all. Nor did he remember whatever it was that drove him to it.

He was a little boy again. I was struck with a sudden but vivid impression. A small boy, kicking about, splashing in a puddle. Wherever he was, he wasn’t on Earth. He had his back turned to the Earth, but he wasn’t far out in space. Had not crossed the bridge of The Milky Way. The Earth was big and bright behind him. He was neither bored, nor sad nor lonely, simply quietly, happily preoccupied.

Photo by Luna Lovegood on Pexels.com

If her brother had any memories or consciousness surviving death- if that could be possible, then so far as I could detect, this was his afterlife, all trauma forgotten.

It may simply have been telepathy, and I was picking up on the lady’s own memories of her brother. I had never met her

But then, and this too was prompted by The Sun card, I told the lady to expect news coming soon, very close to home. A new baby was on the way. This was probably a birth within the immediate family, and whether it was a boy or girl, the Tarot was suggesting the possibility, however bizarre, that it was the soul of her brother being reborn. And if not, that he could choose to be reborn. He could. When he was ready.

The Sun card said that her brother would be returning, whether or not this new coming baby was her brother returning again (down through the Gates of Men)

I sent off this lady’s email reading, and three weeks later received an email in reply, telling me that her sister had just found out she was expecting a baby. Wouldn’t it be something, she joked, if she was going to be her brother’s auntie this time around?

That baby would be his or her own person. Unique. Not to be burdened or haunted by this previous tragedy. But if nothing else, the Tarot was proven absolutely correct in forecasting the imminent news of a coming birth in the family.

I would like to think the Tarot’s vision offered this lady and her family some kind of comfort, however odd, however peculiar, for a truly terrible grief. Some sorrows are more natural to be borne than others. Not all losses and sorrows are equally terrible.

I lost a new-born son, the day of the summer solstice 1993. But at least it was not violent. My mother tried to comfort me, that he would get another chance at life, would come again. And maybe so. But in the rawness of that moment, I could only say, he won’t be my child, he won’t be returning to me.

Some souls, it is said, wait many centuries before they are ready to get in the queue again. Others wait decades. Others only months. Time means nothing to them. It is when they feel ready. Just that.

The Star Child, Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick

I once had an experience that made me wonder. I was in the kitchen, stirring a pan when suddenly the kitchen changed around me. I was now standing in a very different kitchen with white walls, a stone floor, a high ceiling. It was simple, a few notches above basic, an urban kind of rustic, not rural. There was an open door to my left, with an evening light sunshine streaming in at a low angle, and I knew that the door led down steep stone steps to a small, rather dark cobbled courtyard. I was not anxious, but I was starting to wonder where Pietro was, and when he would be arriving home.

I had the idea that I was in northern Italy. I have never known any such person as ‘Pietro.’

A vision. A day dream? An hallucination? Of course. It could have been anything or nothing. It has only ever happened that one time. But it had a particularity and a familiarity, just in that fraction of an instant. A time slip? Some ancestral memory? I have no Italian heritage that I am aware of.

“There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamed of in your philosophy”-Hamlet, Shakespeare.

Indeed, Mr Shakespeare. There are many documented stories of people claiming that they have lived another life before this one; some so detailed, it almost beggars belief.

You can read some of these Stories here

Thank you for reading.

Till next time 🙂

The New Moon in Aries and The Four of Wands

Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

Apr 17, 2026

Today’s much discussed ultra fiery first New Moon of the astrological new year

is happening at 27 degrees and 28 minutes of Aries. The corresponding Tarot cards include The Emperor, the Queen of Wands, and most specifically at this degree of third decan Aries, the Four of Wands.

The Four of Wands when read as a standalone is talking about achievement, excellence, professional advancement, houses, hotels, entertainment venues, property improvements, organized events, gatherings, weddings and other celebrations. I have also known it to talk specifically about fitting new kitchens, and installing central heating, and you can see why when you look at the image on the right; the Four of Wands from the Legacy of The Divine Tarot. As I am typing this, two big vans are parked across the courtyard outside a new neighbour’s place. The legend on the vans… “All fired up to fit your boiler.”

a large brick tower with a clock on the side of a building
Photo by Craig Curtis on Unsplash

This Aries New Moon is firing up to fit boilers, or replace them. Or smash them.

It’s more about a reboot or a rebuild than a fresh start. There is so much more going on of course at every level. This can serve as nothing more than mood music, when being discussed in such general terms.

Mercury is conjunct Neptune today. A real time astrology transit, just as Donald Trump makes an announcement (media: Mercury) that the Strait of Hormuz (sea: Neptune) is open again, at least until the ceasefire ends 26 April, and though the US naval blockade will remain in place.

Generally speaking, a conjunction of Mercury and Neptune denotes news emerging from a mess, muddle, obfuscation, a situation in which we don’t have the necessary facts upon which to act cleanly. Someone either doesn’t know, or isn’t going to cooperate, in which case the obfuscation is potentially wilful.

We are watching manifold instances of this in public life, dominating the news right now, and the stakes could hardly be higher. Such is realpolitik, always plenty of dirty business. Elected governments and the rule of law, we have been shockingly reminded in many forcible ways since 2020, is bread and circuses for the hoi polloi, and the bottom feeders who are actually doing their own thing at the top, with elected politicians and unelected bureaucrats alike seemingly in their pockets will do very well indeed out of the chaos of Neptune, operating in the fog. Another situation this can describe is when someone, possibly a loved one, is dealing with, or rather is unable or refusing to deal with chaotic situations, health issues or substance abuse issues, drink, drugs, out of control behaviours. No-one can do it all alone. But nor can one rescue someone who refuses to help themselves.

Mercury conjunct Neptune may conjure powerfully haunting dreams, may inspire new ideas, may generate new creative projects, visions, poems, songs. Art. All this. We finally find a way to bottle an essence. The Muses are with us.

People gathered in a pastoral landscape with a flying swan.
Photo by Art Institute of Chicago on Unsplash

We may finally find we have the words to nail something down, to clarify something that has been hovering for some time, or to make a logical decision that cuts through uncertainty. We need this mess sorted out. Not sorting it is becoming a chronic drain on our energy. Do it now. A squeaky wheel is demanding ever more loudly to be oiled. We have reached a point of no return.

Mercury conjunct Neptune may equally describe a situation close to home where we are having difficulty getting a grip on the facts of a matter, and messages may go wrong in translation.

time lapse photography of road
Photo by Sarang Pande on Unsplash

Offsetting this pie- in- the- sky tricky fogginess, though not comfortably, Mars is in conjunction with Saturn until the day after tomorrow, Sunday 19 April BST. Mars the Warrior (action) and Saturn The Old Man (control) are both considered malefic, and a conjunction of these two planetary legends suggests that even close to home, we are likely this week to be needing to take a firm line in sorting out that which is overdue for sorting out.

There is always frustration, maybe heartache when we see a problem, we clearly see what needs to be done, but we cannot it sort out. We do not own the problem. We do not have the agency. But, looking at this conjunction sunny side up, Mars conjunct Saturn, depending where they show up in our own natal chart, may drive the impetus this week, drill down hard on a stubborn problem, help get something tidied up.

Thanks for reading.

Till next time.

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The Ram and The Emperor

Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

·

2 Apr

The Ram and The Emperor

This season of the Ram, Aries 2026, let’s re-introduce the ultimate Tarot card of the concept, principle and physical reality of Masculinity with a capital ‘M’ as represented in the Tarot by The Emperor, the major arcana card that is most closely associated with the zodiac sign of Aries The Ram.

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The Ram, The Hare and a bit of Rune chat.

Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

The Ram, The Hare and a bit of Rune chat.

Johann Bayer, Aries, Uranometria, 1603

The eve of Aries season 2026, the eve of the spring equinox, I looked out in the darkness, looking out of my window just in time to see a hare loping full stretch across the garden below, then disappearing, round the corner of the building. It had come off The Moss behind where we live.

Only once have I seen “mad March hares” fighting just like this picture below, facing off in a field among a herd of pretty nonchalant munching sheep, late one sunny March morning. The fight ended when one of the hares turned tail and fled, and the other went bounding after him.

brown rabbit on green grass field during daytime
Photo by Mathias Elle on Unsplash

There are two hare species in Britain. The mountain hare is native. The brown hare (European hare) is said to have been introduced by the Romans but is now considered native. The hare is symbolic of moonlight, witchcraft and shapeshifting. A harbinger of spring, associated with Easter/Eostre/oestrus it signifies mystery, fertility, intuition, speed, agility and acuteness of the senses.

Considered sacred to the ancient tribes. There is a story that a (brown or mountain?) hare, released from a trap by Queen Boudicca herself, perhaps as an act of orchestrated divination (?) then ran towards the Roman line — a dreadful omen for the tribes, announcing the coming doom of the Iceni…and the conquest of Albion.

This was the moment of sunrise of the day of the spring equinox. The equinox portal of sun and stones, Here, where the sabre-toothed tiger once stalked the mighty wild cattle…the auroch …on the massive meeting/mating ground, or “lek” that is Salisbury Plain, the setting for Watership Down, with animation closely modelled on the actual topography.

Image

The old Norse rune that denotes -or invokes- strength, physical power, stamina and recovery from sickness is URUZ. Named for the auroch.

This may contain: a black and white image of a letter n
By John Nail

The magnificent auroch have long ago gone, finally hunted to extinction about 3000 years ago. A few charred bones remain of ancient roasted banquets. Their descendants live on the domesticated cattle, represented by another strong rune, FEHU, signifying wealth earned through cattle and the hard work of husbandry. The modern word in English FEE, payment, comes from this same rune. The domesticated bull is still an immensely powerful animal. But smaller than the ancient auroch. One may call on Fehu for luck in financial affairs and most particularly in job hunting. This is a rune of earned income rather than bequests and legacies, which are connected with another rune, Othala, the rune of ancestors.

The auroch are long gone. Nothing left of them but cave paintings, runes and the aforementioned bones on Salisbury Plain. The sabre-toothed tiger is an ancient memory few would associate with Britain.

The rabbits abide, and the hares. The great plain abides on Watership Down and everywhere. Beauty abides, and sorrow with the joy. But when it is time for us to go, ready or not, the Black Rabbit has seen it all, and means no harm.

Until next time 🙂

The Decans of Pisces 2026

John Flamsteed

Last time we looked at the ancient story of Pisces, the season of the winter thaw and the spawning of fresh water fishes in the northern hemisphere where this mythos began with the stars as seen from this part of the planet. And we looked at the Pisces Sun sign Archetype. Now let’s take a quick look at the Decans of Pisces, and the astrological weather, so to speak, in Pisces Season 2026.

Western Tropical astrology as we know it today is believed to have originated in what is now modern Iraq, back in 2700-3000 BC/BCE. While the Mesopotamians (Babylon and Sumeria) were developing the signs of the zodiac and the concept of natal astrology, the astrologers in Egypt were developing the system of the decans.

Each of the 12 signs of the zodiac (Wheel of Life) represents 30 degrees of the 360-degree wheel of the zodiac, tracking the course of the Sun over a year. Each sign is subdivided into three parts of ten degrees each. These are the decans from the Greek word “deka” meaning ten. Each zodiac sign contains three decans, aka three blocks of ten days or so, and each decan has a different planetary co-ruler.

The Egyptians used Decans not only to tell time, but also to read the early celestial signs of seasonal changes, not least for guiding the governance of critical agricultural activities. Then the Greek astrologers adopted the decans around the 2nd century BCE, associating each decan with a planetary ruler, pairing them with stories and meanings related to the gods and mythologies in Hellenistic culture. This was codified by Claudius Ptolemy, an Egyptian astrologer of Greek descent, who referenced the decans and their planetary rulers in his work, the Tetrabiblos, in the 2nd century AD/CE, thereby enshrining their place in Western astrology.

The decans are not considered particularly significant by astrologers in general. Or not at the collective level, except for timing purposes. But in terms of a natal chart they do supply further clues, nuance and texture, supplying extra insights in respect of situation, stakes, character and potential destiny.

“If you’ve ever wondered why people born in the same sign seem different, the decans can help answer this puzzle,” – astrologer Rachel Lang.

I have found that using decans in Tarot cards readings may assist in attempting timings in forecasting. If I draw The Moon card or The Hanged Man, we may be looking at developments detected as likely to be occurring in Pisces season. But if I draw the Eight of Cups, we may be able to narrow it down to the first ten days of Pisces Season, i.e; 18/19 – 28/29 February. And so on.

Indian (Vedic) astrology, uses similar but distinct systems… like the nakshatras (lunar mansions), which divide the ecliptic differently.

First Decan Pisces

Pisces- Pisces

Dates: 19 Feb-29 Feb

Planetary rulers: Jupiter/Saturn

Tarot card: Eight of Cups

Smith Waite Centennial deck © U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Card meanings: Walking away, moving on, cutting ones losses, leaving something behind, but not in anger. Reversed: disillusionment, regret

The first decan of any sign is considered the most archetypal or typical. Pisces makes for versatility and adaptability, while Neptune presents a yielding manner or appearance. This Pisces decan is rarely directly confrontational. This doesn’t mean they do not find ways to get their own way. But there is a sense of a push and pull going on here, just as the two fish of Pisces are pictured, joined by a starry cord, while swimming away from one another. On the one hand Jupiter, the original ruler of Pisces, means Pisces thinks big and steps forward. On the other hand, Neptune means Pisces is secretive, swims in circles, or hides in the weeds. Fish may be hunters too, of course, and lie in wait in ambush.

This Pisces native connects with other people on an unconscious level, almost hearing what they are thinking. Maybe they haven’t noticed this about themselves yet, or they take their telepathy for granted, but if this is you, watch out for the signs. Pisces, the sun sign ruler of the Twelfth House, is associated with endings, and all that is mysterious and unknowable. Including ghosts.

While Pisces may seem self-contained…and they are…this Pisces especially, has deep passions and their love life can be tempestuous. Their ideal partner will be lively and communicative with a can-do approach, but the first decan Pisces tends to go on a lot of detours before arriving or settling in their happy place or rightful destination.

They often look younger than their age, but they need to be especially aware of their dietary and other habits in order to protect their health; mood, and the chest, lungs and the feet in particular. Pisces is extra-sensitive to infection, food poisoning (dirty water) and the effects of overindulgence of alcohol or mood- altering drugs.

Second Decan Pisces

Pisces-Cancer

Dates: 1-10 March (approx.)

Planetary ruler: Jupiter/Moon

Tarot card: Nine of Cups

Smith Waite Centennial deck © U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Card Meanings: the wish card, dreams come true, food and drink, the hospitality industry. Reversed: overindulgence, complacency, self-satisfaction

The sub-influence for this decan is Cancer, ruled by The Moon. Cancer is the natural ruler of the fourth house of home, family and security. These Pisces subjects are devoted family members, possibly more inclined than any other sign, excepting Cancer, to stay physically closer to birth family members. They may struggle to loosen parental ties, becoming fully independent, but must do so if they want to progress and develop and become the adult in the room (Saturn in Pisces.)

The zone of the sky from March 1 –10 houses the stars of the water of Aquarius, Eridanus The River, and the westernmost fish of Pisces. These are the faintest, most elusive stars. Now you see them, now you don’t.

These Pisceans blend in anywhere. Sensitive and psychic, like moss, this decan absorbs and retains what is happening around them. The undercurrents too. For the same reason these highly empathic people need to choose their company with special care.

Third Decan Pisces

Pisces-Scorpio

Dates: 11 March-20 March

Planetary rulers: Mars/Pluto

Tarot card– Ten of Cups

Smith Waite Centennial deck © U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

Card Meanings: contentment, completion, arrival, family life, stability, safety and security, team effort, a happy home Reversed: losses, family conflicts, break-ups, unhappiness

The sub-influences for this decan are Scorpio and its rulers, traditional Mars or modern Pluto. Energetic Mars and Scorpio – natural ruler of the eighth house of desire, willpower, drive and determination – bestows extra charisma, and the drive and determination to push forward. This Pisces native has the artistic creativity of Pisces/Neptune with extra sticking power to turn dreams into realities.

Pluto brings depth. Mars brings speed and energy of attack. This Pisces native needs to keep busy, with plenty of energy outlets. Pisces marks the completion of the zodiac wheel. This final decan marks the point at which we move into Aries, the cycle starts over again and Aries too, is ruled by energetic Mars. What these Pisces natives start, they finish.

These Pisces natives, like the other decans, are enormously attuned to their environment, but there is a tendency to stay somewhat more aloof and watchful, while less likely to blend in. They are highly observant, natural detectives, disciplined, well-suited to police work, and like its opposite number Virgo, this Piscean is not only super intuitive…while potentially pretty stubborn…but highly analytical, numerate, with a talent for investigative work. Pisces-Scorpio listens between the lines, homing in on what is not being said.

The Cusps of Pisces

Photo by Worachat Sodsri on Unsplash

Pisces is Pisces. But still, one may be more of an Aquarian Pisces, or more of an Arian Pisces.

Aquarius-Pisces: February 15-21

Aquarius-Pisces: This is a Pisces native with Aquarius tendencies; a person of high principles, quiet, refined, and with strong likes and dislikes. This Pisces native is likely to do a lot of travelling. They have executive capabilities and can earn or make a lot of money, but tend to become bored quite easily. This native as a young adult needs to be careful not to get trapped, committing too soon in a relationship that really doesn’t work well for them, simply out of a fear of being left on their own.

Pisces-Aries: March 17-23

Born on the Pisces-Aries cusp, this native is especially instinctive and brave. This mix of energy combines physical and moral courage with compassion for others which can make this Pisces individual a successful leader. This person is loyal to friends and colleagues and they are also generous, and eager to see others do well.

Famous Pisces subjects

Michelangelo, Copernicus, George 111, Albert Einstein, Neville Chamberlain, Sidney Poitier, Elizabeth Taylor, Yuri Gagarin, Michael Gorbachev, Osama Bin Laden, Steve Irwin, Steve Jobs, President Erdogan of Turkey

Pisces Season 2026

Legacy of The Divine Tarot

Pluto in Aquarius, and Saturn and Neptune, both now in Aries since February 20, are now the evolving biggest picture for the collective, the universal background, the supra-personal continuum, while the year of the Fire Horse only adds to the speed and impetus on the global stage this year in particular.

The Emperor in the Legacy of The Divine Tarot

The Fire Horse denotes action, force and momentum, courage and above all, stamina. Much emphasis is placed on the Fire Horse this year, given the extra powerful Aries conjunction of Neptune and Saturn in Aries signifying a reset to Zero, Spring, fresh new starts. The Individual. The Emperor. The rise of new Empires.

The Fire Horse, if viewed as Aries, symbolizes the power of governance and Heads of States. But…but…the horse may be a lead mare, or a lead stallion, but still, the horse is a herd animal. A herd of horses moves as one. Or a people moves as one.

group of horses
Photo by Mario Steinheil on Unsplash

A few dates to watch for this Pisces Season 2026…

February 27: Look up this evening for a stunning sight if the skies are clear. Jupiter will be right beside the waxing Moon, which will be above Gemini, with its “Twin” stars, Castor and Pollux.

February 27/28: Sun conjunction north node in Pisces, good for clear and productive exchanges.

February 28: Mercury (retrograde in Pisces since 26 February) is conjunct Venus in the second Mercury conjunction this year. The first conjunction was in cerebral Aquarius on January 29. With Mercury retrograde in Venus, we need to think again, to revisit what we first thought – and the emphasis is on thought, given that the first conjunction was in airy Aquarius. Now, other feelings surface that prompts a question to the heart.

March 1: Mercury sextile Juno in Capricorn.

March 2: Mars into Pisces until April 9. May work best for the third decan Pisces native. Read about it here at Cafe Astrology

March 3: Full Moon/Blood Moon/lunar eclipse in Virgo. The Moon will slip into Earth’s shadow in the early hours, turning a reddish colour as viewed across much of the United States. The Sun, Earth, and Moon are lined up perfectly, with Earth in the middle, and rather than going completely dark, the Moon glows red as the sunlight bends through our atmosphere, softly lighting the surface of the Moon just as the same effect gives us red sunrises and sunsets on Earth. No telescope needed.

A blood moon appears in the dark sky.
Photo by Erika Löwe on Unsplash

March 11/12: Jupiter goes direct in Cancer at 15°05′ signalling the end of a four-month retrograde period which began on November 11, 2025, at 25° Cancer. Jupiter will be staying in Cancer until June 30, 2026 and it is exalted in Cancer, the Fourth House of Home and Hearth, kith and kin, homeland and shared heritage. Tarot card is the Three of Cups. Happy times. Get togethers. Old friends. Good for home relationships and a renewed momentum with delayed opportunities in learning, teaching and travel.

March 18-19: New Moon in Pisces at 28 degrees. Beginning anew, powerful memories, dreams, ghosts. Something wistful, perhaps even a little sad. Inspirations, visions, perhaps a time to revisit and look again with a fresh eye at something we used to do, used to love; a cherished project. Memories of kith and kin. Nostalgia or regret. This is not only occurring at a degree in the last decan of Pisces, this New Moon, but in the last decan of the Zodiac.

Tarot card: The Ten of Cups. Mars in Pisces. The meaning and power of legacy.

March 20-April 19: Sun in Aries.

Many Happy Returns, Pisces. Saturn’s new two-year visit in your sector of income, and Mars surging through your sign in early spring, says your energy, passion, time and talent counts or translates in terms of new or added sources of income and reputation. There is what you can afford to share generously and freely, and what you may choose to keep in reserve, costed and protected in ways that honour your time, talent and artistic gifts. From July and August there may be a change in tempo, and likely some happy times around young people, or new pets or other animals During August, the North Node enters your twelfth House of Aquarius, and you find yourself balancing your obligations with a need for quiet time.

Take care, and thank you for reading.

Back soon 🙂

Stories of the Season of Pisces 2026

Chartres Cathedral

The big astrology news is today’s Annular solar eclipse and New Moon happening in Aquarius at 28 degrees and 50 minutes. This also marks the start of Ramadan and the beginning of the Chinese/Asian Lunar New Year of The Fire Horse. The last Fire Horse year was 1966, with coup d’etats in Nigeria, Ghana and Syria, the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China, the first public address from Martin Luther King on Vietnam, space tech, and a truly horrible third space walk in which an astronaut lost 13 pounds, and almost of it was water. The first credit card was issued in Britain, with Barclays bank.

The Tarot card for 28 degrees of Aquarius is the clever, stealthy, diplomatic-or dishonest-Seven of Swords, complemented or opposed by the stamina and fortitude of Leo, the opposite sign of Aquarius, and the Seven of Wands.

Smith Waite Centennial Tarot

Tomorrow we enter the starry territory of Pisces, the Heavenly Fishes as codified in Western/Tropical astrology with a history originating at 36 degrees latitude, first recorded in what was Babylon and is now modern Iraq.

Certain big fish are caught right now between the frying pan and the fire. But the very biggest fish of all will almost certainly escape the net altogether, and not end up in the pan.

It is time once again to go fishing…or diving with Pisces. What are its stars, what do they look like in the night sky, and what’s the ancient story behind it all?

Traditional Associations

Dates: 18/19 Feb to 20/21 March. Variable cusp depending on the leap year cycle

Ruling planets: Jupiter and Neptune (before Neptune’s official discovery in 1846, it was Jupiter)

Zodiac House 12: Endings, Resurrections, the Unknown, enemies, mysteries, all that is hidden.

Element: Water Quality: Mutable – versatility, changeability, the ending of one season and the beginning of another

Energy: Yin -receptive

Key phrase: I believe

Body: Feet, eyes, bladder

Homeopathic cell salt: ferrum phos…iron phosphate for the optimal carrying of oxygen throughout the body. Iron phosphate is not readily bio-available in other forms. Industrially, it is used in steel making and in batteries.

Birth Stone: Aquamarine the water of the sea but also amethyst, ruby, blood-stone and jasper. Aquamarine is the blue variety of beryl where Emerald is a green beryl. The aquamarine, a hexagonal crystal structure sometimes confused with blue topaz, is reputed to enhance foresight and clairvoyance.

Aquamarine via Wiki

Tarot cards: The Moon, The Hanged Man, Knight of Cups, 8, 9,10 Cups.

Meanings: The Moon, Mondays, tides, cycles, ebb and flow, feminine cycles, fertility, instinct, wildlife, walking on the wild side, hunting, fishing, psychics, ghosts, visions, dreams, delusions, madness, contamination, infection, delirium, fever, food poisoning, uncertainty, danger, confusions with documentation, risks in travel.

Astronomy

Wiki

Pisces, the Latin plural of fish, is the 14th largest constellation overall, covering a large V- shaped region in the part of the sky known as The Sea or The Water.

Its stars are faint as seen from Earth —hard to see with the naked eye.

The fishes of Pisces are traditionally depicted as freshwater fish, koi carp, swimming at right angles to each other, one to the north and one to the west, attached by a cord. Its brightest star, Eta Piscium, also known as Alpherg or Kullat Nunu, is a bright giant star (G class) 294 light-years from Earth and has a luminosity 316 times greater that of the sun. Kullat Nunu is its Babylonian name. ‘Nunu’ means ‘fish’ and ‘kullat’ is a bucket.

My Pisces brother (a hobby fisherman in later years) when very small used to cry for his nunu. His blue, blue blanket. He would not go to bed without it, but still, he used to lose it. By the time he outgrew his love affair with the nunu, it was nothing but a small square of fabric no larger than a handkerchief, so often had it been torn, trimmed and mended.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.comcaption…

The vernal equinox currently occurs during Pisces, 19-21 March, the astronomical marker of the start of spring in the northern hemisphere. Pisces is the month that carries away more of the frail and elderly more than any other month, just as we come to the end of winter, while the old saying went a “green winter makes fat the churchyard.” Pisces carried away my own mighty little mother in 2023. Still active and beautiful at 83, she had a fall, followed by pneumonia.

History and Mythology

Own pic

Pisces is the sign of the thaw, the freshwater melt and the first spawning of the freshwater fishes, though depending on latitude and therefore temperature, some species may spawn sooner. Fish may rise again to the top to feed. Frogs and Toads will spawn.

The fish of Pisces are attached by a cord of stars, just as life and death are conjoined and cannot be separated. Pisces is not only the last sign of winter, moving into spring; it is the last sign of the whole zodiac year, the culmination of all the signs that came before it.

Egypt

“It (Pisces) is one of the earliest zodiac signs on record, with the two fish appearing as far back as c. 2300 BC on an Egyptian coffin lid ” -(Wiki) The two fish of the constellation Pisces were the offspring of the Great Fish. In Egyptian mythology, this fish saved the life of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and she placed this fish and its descendants into the heavens as a star constellation.

India

In Hindu mythology Matsya is an manifestation or avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu the Preserver who rescued the first man, Manu from a great deluge. (…and here we are again, back to the great flood stories of Aquarius) The Matsya may be depicted as a giant golden fish or as a merman, the half- fish half humanoid Lord Vishnu. Vishnu is the second god in the Hindu holy trinity (Trimurti) Brahma was the Maker, god of creation and passion, Vishnu, the face of light and preservation, and Shiva, the face of the dark, and destruction.

Via Wiki

Greece

To the ancient Greeks, the fish were the goddess Aphrodite and her son, Eros, who were out walking by the Euphrates one day when a terrible monster rose up out of the water. This monster, Typhon, had been terrorizing the gods of Olympus ever since the war with the Titans. Typhon was a Titan, a son of Gaia, and he hated the gods of Olympus as invaders and upstarts who had overthrown and dispossessed his own, more ancient race of Titans. He was as tall as the heavens and his eyes shot flames. Instead of fingers, he had 100 dragon’s heads sprouting from his hands -for which one could read ‘flames,’ or magma.

Not one of the Olympian gods had the power to destroy Typhon, not alone. All they could do was avoid him or flee for their lives, which they often did by transforming themselves into animals. Aphrodite and Eros now transformed themselves into two fish (koi) and swam away. Ultimately, Zeus imprisoned Typhon beneath Mount Etna, but Typhon is still very much alive down there. This is a threat that never goes away; the threat of a potentially cataclysmic volcanic eruption, not only of Vesuvius in the Bay of Naples, but of Etna.

Rome and Early Christianity

Early Christians used the Fish as a symbol of their faith and called the TWELVE apostles of Christ the Fishers of Men (Pisces as the twelfth sign.) The secret code name for Jesus, Yeshua Ben Joseph- was Ichthys from the Greek meaning fish, it was an acronym Jesus- Christ- God- Son- Saviour.

The so-called Age of Pisces began 1 AD and- depending on your source, will end in 2150 when we enter the so-called Age of Aquarius, though some astrologers say we are already in that Age. More about the disputable astrological ages HERE

The Age of Pisces has seen the rise of the Monotheistic religions, Christianity and Islam. This current, much discussed brand new mini Age of Aquarius, 2024-2043, is supposedly a secular age, all about technology, progress, humanitarian enterprises and collectivism.

But there is so much more in the celestial mix than this. And now with Neptune in Aries, reinforced now by Saturn also in Aries, religion shows no sign of going away. Islam is fast on the rise in the west, Christianity on the wane in the west, with vacuums filled by socio-political ideological transmutations of the religious instinct. Identity politics weaponized for control of the general populace. New inquisitions.

The Pisces Archetype

From The Golden Tarot, by Kat Black

In Tarot, whether the subject of any inquiry is male or female, Pisces is embodied as The Knight of Cups. In Arthurian legend this would be Sir Percival, or in later versions of the legend, Sir Galahad. This knight is a champion of the underdog, a protector, a lover, a bearer of grace. The healing chalice. This card generally translates as good news, a happy situation, recovery from illness, a new friend, an admirer, possibly a marriage proposal, news of a baby on the way, “my cup runneth over”.

Pisces combines imagination with the determination and self-sacrifice of a salmon fighting upriver to spawn, even at the cost of its life. New life must come, says Pisces, even if the death of the self is the price. Paradoxically, there may be a certain passivity, even inertia. This serves Pisces well at times, but may, in some cases, this same passivity may either work as an expression of resilience or may degenerate into the shadow side of Pisces, escapism, avoidance of responsibility, depression, alcohol or other substance misuse.

These individuals are natural artists, writers or musicians. Compassionate and sensitive. But while their steel may be hidden, all the same, it is there. Not much is said about this scaly Pisces steel. They can be tough, even hard in a quiet way. They don’t say much but watch the eyes harden. Cross the line once too often, you are gone. That is it.

Pisces needs variety. Desk-based work, although Pisces can certainly do it, and with considerable efficiency, it is not really their thing. They like to be on their feet, which are ruled by Pisces. They make excellent and approachable team leaders. Passing the buck is not their style. They will take on injustice, taking on those senior to themselves in status. But Pisces, unlike, say Aquarius, acts on an individual basis. Group actions, campaigns or crusades, do not sit naturally with their temperament, except just possibly for early Pisces, born close to the Aquarius cusp.

Later born subjects especially, born close to the Aries cusp 20/21 April, are especially the ‘doers’ of Pisces, and Pisces is brave. Very brave indeed. But these watery denizens need to guard their physical energy. It can be erratic, and their reserves once depleted, are not so easily restored as other signs. If they become prone to headaches at the back of the head, there may be related bladder infections or other issues.

Famous Pisces Sun Sign subjects

Michelangelo, Amerigo Vespucci, Copernicus, Vivaldi, Handel, George Washington, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Albert Einstein, Nat King Cole, Elizabeth Taylor, Nina Simone, Harold Wilson, Yuri Gagarin, Sidney Poitier, Steve Irwin.

Pisces 2026

Pisces planetary co-ruler, Neptune, aka the god Poseidon, The Earth-Shaker, is associated with earthquakes in not only the literal sense, but also the metaphorical sense.

silhouette of man on boat during golden hour
Photo by Inu Etc on Unsplash

We have been navigating fathomless waters of Saturn in Pisces since March 2023. Peculiar times. Borders and boundaries dissolved. Norms overturned. We are are increasingly on edge. The feudal overlords never went away, they just changed the basis of their wealth, and like the gods of Olympus they dwell in another realm, high above the laws that govern the rest of us.

“Can thou draw forth Leviathan with a hook?”

We can draw out fish, or even whales. But not the ever present Leviathan. We are being reminded in the most shocking way, that there has always been, and still is, a realm of power operating beyond all accountability, infiltrating political institutions, operating beyond the law, and that elements within both the political institutions and the law have been, and are actively complicit. The Law is not for them. Only for the little people. Still, they may have their gilded cages well and truly rattled from time to time, and maybe such a time is coming before too long.

‘No man is an island,’ wrote John Donne. We come in to this life alone. We leave alone. We are both the ocean and the land. Islands in archipelagos. But it is for sure, no-one can do it all alone. Or truly wants to. There are bridges. Lighthouses. Signposts. Harbours. There are boats.

Meanwhile Mercury is in Pisces from February 6-April 14. Intuition first, explanations second. Feelings work faster than thinking. Dreams are vivid. We may experience a ghostly visit.

And Venus is in Pisces from February 10 to March 6, 2026.

Pisces is a mutable sign. It deals in nuance, grey areas, entirely at odds with the rallying call to action of today’s New moon and the annular eclipse in Aquarius and the start of the lunar New Year of the Fire Horse. Venus in Pisces is haunted by memories and the longing for something that is difficult to define and hard to satisfy. Venus is exalted in Pisces, devoted, compassionate, exceptionally giving, and capable of sacrifice. We might rely heavily on our intuition with our finances and love life during this cycle, a sharp ear on the slightest hints. We may be sorting through old photographs, gravitating towards poetic, artistic objects, situations and people.

There is a deeply uneasy lull for the time being, but we can feel it building, that big things are stirring, a leviathan churning beneath the surface. Back channels on overdrive, calculating how to manage the public. We are hardwired to recognize injustice. We know that we are looking right at it.

Smith Waite Tarot

Neptune is associated with The Hanged Man in the Tarot deck. Last year at this same time I drew this card together with The Hierophant, and had a feeling about the Pope, that his time was coming very soon. More usually, The Hanged Man is about taking time out. Stepping back to review, to rest, to recalibrate. Sometimes there is immaturity, innocence, naivete, and now someone has a lot of growing up to do, and they had better do it fast.

The Hanged Man is ready to sacrifice something for a greater good, accepting losses as a painful necessity. It is about looking at things from a new and different perspective. Perhaps less comfort, less trust, less complacency. More self-reliance, more rockiness of autonomy.

We are poised between the old social normalities we thought we knew, and that have faded out since 2019, and a new emergent collective normality.

The Sabian symbol for yesterday’s New Moon is the butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Nothing will be all bad, any more than it has ever been all good.

February 22 could be a turning point date in any manner of good ways with Venus trine Jupiter.

Thank you for reading.

Back soon.

Ushered in by a Lion Moon: February, the Fae and the Fires of Imbolc

Today is the Aquarian Full Snow Moon in Leo at 13 degrees, and this is typical of the Tarot. I drew 3 Tarot cards inviting comment about the Full Moon and drew the Strength, the Six of Wands and the Nine of Pentacles. The Strength card, ruled by Jupiter and correlating with the zodiac sun sign of Leo (as does The Sun card) The Six of Wands which correlates with the second decan of Leo at 13 degrees.

A Full Moon of fighting energy, winning energy, scoring victories. The Sun in Leo says, ME, myself and I, with the bombast or the innocence of a child. But the Six of Wands says, the victor may wear the laurel wreath, but he did not do it alone, and the victory did not come quick or easy. It was worked for. Earned. The Six of Wands also talks about transport issues, literally, travel AND the vehicles themselves. MOTs, cars, vans, motorbikes and of courses, horses, and at this coming New Moon we will be entering a year of the Fire Horse.

These cards have “merely” reflected the astrology of this Full Moon but the synchronicity is striking.

The third card, the Nine of Pentacles is ruled by Virgo. The card nicknamed “Luxury”…this comfort has been hard earned through consistent effort. Virgo in turn is ruled by Mercury which is currently in Aquarius. A theme therefore of devotion, duty and attention to detail in tending to “our garden.” Also health matters. A Full Moon In Leo speaks, not only of our inner diva and personal projects, but of a time of great focus upon the wellbeing and happiness of what we love; new things, young things, of children and grandchildren.

The first of February marks the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s also known as Candlemas, the Christian festival of presenting Jesus at the temple. But long before Christianity this time of year marked a more ancient celebration in Gaelic Britain: the rites of spring, and the fire festival of Imbolc.

February

Let’s get with the programme and parade down the street, and go pray for the health of the fields! It’s all about the health of the SOIL.

A close up of small green plants growing in dirt
Photo by Nora Jane Long on Unsplash

The name February comes from the Latin ‘Februarius,’ referring to Februa; a Roman festival of ritual purification. Below, the Roman spa at Bath, UK.

Photo by Rachel Claire on Pexels.com

January and February were two new months added to create the new Gregorian calendar matching it up correctly with the 365 days of the Earth’s journey round the sun.

The Anglo-Saxons called February Sōlmōnath, from sōl , the Old English word for wet sand or mud, alluding to the weather this time of year, and the effects of rain and snow-melt. The romantic Solway Firth between North West England and South West Scotland is actually the massive tidal ‘Mud Way,’ rather than the romantic ‘Sun Way.’

The northern English scholar monk, saint Bede, wrote that February was celebrated as “the month of cakes,” when ritual offerings of savoury cakes and loaves of bread were made to ensure a good year’s harvest.

Imbolc- In the belly of the ewe

In the belly of the ewe is gestating the fiery Aries Ram-Lamb.

The fire festival of Imbolc and Brigid began as a neolithic festival marking the 1/2 way point between the winter solstice (Yule) and the spring equinox (Beltane.)

This half-way point correlates with 15 degrees of Aquarius. And so Imbolc this year astronomically speaking is happening 3-4 February. For more about this look up Maureen Richmond who suggests we could treat 1-4 February as the window for any observance of Imbolc this year.

Imbolc marks the start of spring, celebrating the arrival of the goddess deity Brigid, “The Exalted One,” the harbinger of the first lambs, so vital to the survival of those early communities. The deity Brigid later became conflated by the Church with the Christian figure of Saint Brigid of Kildare.

Brigid From The Sacred Circle Tarot

‘Imbolc’ is thought to mean ‘in the belly.’ It will soon be the time of the first lambing, though the start of the lambing season can vary by up to two weeks in any given year.

Photo by Paul Seling on Pexels.com

Brigid was a protector of women in childbirth, as well as the safe birthing of precious livestock. She was not only a goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann, The Tribe of the Gods, but a triple goddess of healers, poets and smiths.

Via Wiki Riders of the Sidhe, the Tuatha de Dannan

“The Tuatha de Danaan, the people of the (mother) goddess Danu in Celtic mythology; a race inhabiting Ireland before the arrival of the Milesians (the ancestors of the modern Irish). They were said to have been skilled in magic, and the earliest reference to them relates that, after they were banished from heaven because of their knowledge, they descended on Ireland in a cloud of mist. They were thought to have disappeared into the hills when overcome by the Milesians. The Leabhar Gabhála (Book of Invasions), a fictitious history of Ireland from the earliest times, treats them as actual people, and they were so regarded by native historians up to the 17th century. In popular legend they have become associated with the numerous fairies still supposed to inhabit the Irish landscape.“-From The Encylopedia Britannica

Brigid might visit your home at Imbolc. People would make a bed for her, and leave food and drink and items of clothing outside in the hope of receiving her blessings, petitioning her to protect their homes and livestock.

This was a time for feasting and visits to sacred wells, and a time for ritual divination. A St Brigid’s cross is made from rushes and was placed in doorways to protect the home from harm, representing the wheel of the seasons.

By Culnacreann – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3500722

Ingwaz -The Fire Rune

Fire is not gentle. Spring is not gentle. New life is not gentle. It rises up fast and fierce. It has to fight in order to “become”, or it would never break through. Like a space rocket leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. Spring is fierce in its quickening of new shoots. It is initiation. Spring is fire, just as Aries the Ram of the zodiac is a cardinal fire sign, even though we do not enter Aries until late March.

Where Brigid represented an essentially feminine energy concept, the old Norse rune ING/INWAZ or INGUZ, a fire sign rune in particularly associated with masculine principles of fertility, vitality… and also recovery from sickness.

This ancient masculine fire rune represents the power and potential of “The Seed” matched with action. Literally, the name of this rune means “the seed of the god Ing.” When we say we are do-ing, writ-ing …anything at all with -ing at the end of it, we are describing an action, and indirectly, invoking the magical energy of Ingwaz.

The Elder Norse fire rune Ingwaz

The people would light bonfires on the hilltops by night, and by day, they might run cattle through the smoke of lower lying bonfires, asking divine protection for the livestock. We can think too of the comfort and the contained danger of the fire in the ingle-nook.

a fire burning in a fireplace in a dark room
Photo by Scott Greer on Unsplash

With the whole of Pisces season coming up next, we are being given a sneak preview of Aries.

Imbolc was a key moment in weather forecasting. This was the time when The Cailleach —the divine crone of Gaelic tradition—gathered firewood for the rest of the winter. If the Cailleach knew the winter was going to last a good while longer, she’d make sure of good weather during Imbolc, and use it to gather more firewood to top up her stores. Bad weather at Imbolc was regarded as welcome news. It meant the Cailleach wasn’t worried about running out of firewood. She had turned over and gone back to sleep, and the worst of winter was almost over.

Via Pinterest

I am somewhat mixing up these cultures, systems and traditions, but Nature is the common ground and I make no apology for it.

As I mentioned earlier, Imbolc falls at 15 degrees of Aquarius, within the second decan of the fixed Air sign of Aquarius. The fixed signs denote the height of a season. The second decan of Aquarius marks the height of winter, at least symbolically speaking, in the northern hemisphere… and yet already the snowdrops are breaking through.

The Six of Swords in the Tarot deck is a card of recovery and onward progress, taking matters into our own hands, we chart our own course into the unknown, steering the passing of winter’s peak point.

The Gilded Tarot

See the toad in the rushes? The frogs and fishes are, right now, undergoing a alchemy of profound physiological changes, getting ready to spawn. The light is coming back again, galloping faster it seems, by the day. Dark sacred night’…yes, and the night is dark. It is sacred. It brings rest and healing. But when the dark goes on too long, we rouse ourselves to purposeful Action, stirring the Promethean gift of fire.

You and I overcame such odds just to be here, to get born as US and not someone else. Science suggests the statistical odds against you and me getting born as us, and not as someone else were 1 in 400 trillion. Yet here we are. Somehow we broke through. We must have had our reasons. Mighty powerful ones.

Snowdrops of the Snow Moon.

white flowers on brown dried leaves

Back soon.

Thank you for reading.

Happy New Year, 2026, The Doorway of Janus

Well, Happy New Year 2026!

We know fine well, we can see this for ourselves, astrology or no astrology, that 2026 will not be a quiet year, but yet another pivotal year, marking a seismic level shift in the respective status quos of global power in a cycle likely to run some while yet.

2020 opened up a seismic crack in the previous status quo of world affairs. A “thing”-I I saw on the night of 20 January 2020 -I later called it a “djinn” simply for want of a better word- meant that business would never again be as usual, whatever we mean by usual.

But the astrology that is tracking it, that is for sure, is clearly announcing this turbulent geo-political weather will continue at least till 2028. There is no way back to the way things were done in 2019. This will hinge to a fundamental extent upon the events surrounding the Saturn-Neptune conjunction at degrees of Aries 20/21 February. The last time Saturn was so closely conjunct Neptune was 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down and the World Wide Web was launched.

More HERE from astrologer Anne Whitaker.

There are always things we can’t control, at home, in nature and in society. But we weather them by means of our individual competencies, skills, knowledge, know-how, and by community and collaboration.

We are currently in the second decan of Capricorn, associated with the Three of Pentacles or Coins in Tarot.

From The Gilded Tarot

This is a quiet, thoughtful but productive card of arts, crafts, heritage, the art making of making things beautiful. “Form follows function.” A functional object, well made, well able to perform its job, will de facto also be a thing of beauty.

The Three of Coins also denotes part-time work, restoration work and community activities. In this emergent world of Techno-globalism, here is a reminder of the roots of our creative, handy, self-reliant selves, and of exchange and barter with neighbours, my help, time and skills for yours. This is the very basis of social exchange, the cradle of society and of modern industry. It has never gone away, and we may decide to reclaim it more actively. We could say that the artisanal Three of Coins is right at work here in this online writing community, enabled by Techno-globalism.

January and Janus

We say Happy New Year based on the Gregorian calendar, and before that, the Julian calendar, both solar based calendars. One could argue that the new year does not begin today. That this is calendar date was devised as a solution to tackle that timing problem of astronomy we call the leap year, caused by the approximately 23 degree tilt of the planet on its axis as it rotates. It is this axial tilt that gives us the seasons.

Nebula
Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Otherwise, the seasonal events of Nature as observed on the ground would say that the new year starts either just after the winter solstice, or else after the spring equinox. And once upon a time, over centuries, other dates marked the start of the calendar, including March 25 and December 25.

Heron on the nearby frozen pond, January 2024

January was named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having a double-sided head, signifying that we can look both forwards and backwards in space and time.

Likewise Janus was a god of both war and peace, presiding over the beginning and ending of conflict. And as a god of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth, and to journeys and exchange, and through his association with Portunus, another portal god, the guardian of harbours, Janus was also concerned with travelling, trading, and shipping with strong echoes here of the Mercurial Twins of Gemini. Seafarers used to ask the Gemini for protection on voyages.

Solar and Lunar calendars, different New Year dates

Other countries, signifying a quarter of the world’s population of 8.2 billion people, notably China and other countries in the Far East, calculate the date of their new year based on lunar cycles.

This year we will be entering the New Year of The Fire Horse, February 17.

A large paper horse in the shape of a horse
Photo by Frank Ng on Unsplash

Cute, eh? But the Fire Horse is fast and furious. One thinks of The Trojan Horse, or the terrible scenes in “Marco Polo,” when Kublai Khan ordered horses set alight and then stampeded them into enemy cities. All eyes on China, US and Taiwan, nothing new here except for a recent escalation of military threat displays following the signing of a trade deal between the US and Taiwan. Signs and portents etc etc.

Something or nothing. But the Fire Horse rides in so closely coinciding with The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries, February 20, and additionally, Forbes tells us…

“Coincidentally, the Year of the Fire Horse begins and ends with a “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse, in Antarctica in 2026 and in South America and West Africa in 2027.”

This extra fiery Year of The Fire Horse brings great changes, challenges and opportunities. More so even than 2025, a year of the supposedly strategic, stealthy and self contained Wood Snake, and we are still in the year of the Wood Snake for another six weeks or so. The Fire Horse says that works best this year is to trust your first instinct, act on it pronto, going straight from A to B. It will serve better to act rather than to watch and wait. Better to speak plainly, better to be angry than afraid.

We can look back and make up our own minds at what the popular astrology had to say about the Wood Snake Year. It is hard to disagree about the stealth, the shedding of old skins of a few of the 2025 mighty fallen, and the abiding twistiness. https://astrostyle.com/2025-year-of-the-snake-wood-snake/

There is lots else out there already about the incoming year of the Fire Horse.

But we are not there yet. Sol Invictus. This is the solar new year celebration, not the lunar new year celebration, even while I look out of my window facing north east and see the rising waxing gibbous moon (which today is in Gemini AND Mercury, the co ruler of Gemini and Virgo will be moving into Capricorn later today (at 4.10 EST -5 hours behind where I am writing this in Lancashire UK).

Mercury in Capricorn January 1-January 20/21

Mercury will be staying in Capricorn until January 20. This could prove a very productive time for tackling various long overdue jobs, reducing our burdens and our overheads, breaking problems down into steps, drawing up a checklist, and tackling them slowly, methodically….unexciting, for sure. The same perhaps with certain fairly minor but vexatious health matters. But not much feel better than the sheer relief of making up our minds that we ARE going to wade into that pile of shit stuff, and come out the other side knowing we finally have it back under control and firmly back in its box.

No, cat. I said its. You may be a problem cat for all I know, but I don’t mean you.

brown cardboard box on white table
Photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash

We are getting on top of it. Thank you Mercury, for that welcome extra bit of lift when we were so tired. And now we feel ready to take on the world.

We weigh our words, choose them with care, strategically. Our words have weight.

This is the functional application, the power of Mercury in Capricorn, the gutsy and relentless mountain ibex. It just keeps on going. But now it has an added spring in its step. Nil Desperandum as they say.

Happy New Year

May Janus open wonderful new doors for you this coming year.

Back soon.

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