New Moon in Aries & Saturn into Aquarius: Astrology of 3/18 – 3/24

First, sending lots of love to anyone and everyone reading this. It’s apparent that there is a lot of anxiety in the air, and many people are experiencing direct consequences of the coronavirus crisis whether sick or not, such as staying indoors and social distancing, having to transition to working from home, or experiencing an inability to continue working. A few days ago I posted an article on the blog about the astrology of the coronavirus, which you can read here. I drew correlations to the conjunctions of Saturn and Pluto, and Jupiter and Pluto, primarily.

This forecast is going to be a long read because there are a lot of events this week, including a New Moon in Aries and the ingress of Saturn into the sign of Aquarius!

The major lineup of planets in Capricorn aren’t joking around right now (unless you have some moments for dry, dark humor… in which case, there’s that.). We’ve got the South Node of the Moon, Mars, Athena, Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn all in this disciplined, dry, cold sign. Alone, Mars and Jupiter adding extra oomph to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction is like intensified contractions. 

I already work from home/remotely, but this week I moved house and find it pretty overwhelming. I distinctly had a moment of looking at my old room, objects still strewn about the room, and thinking, “None of this is going to go away magically, or without my effort.” And I watch myself picking my body up to go through the necessary motions of the moving process, with a little screaming compartment of my consciousness that is throwing an absolute fit! As I get deeper into the work, this screaming part of myself settles down, and so far has only been consoled by doing the work and chipping away at the process demanded of me at this time. In the scheme of things, moving house isn’t so bad, I (and I know I’m not alone) just happen to not like it. I thought this not-so-charming vignette into my inner life may be metaphorical for some of the energetics of this time period. Some of the people I’ve spoken to recently are in their power right now, because they’re the people who stay calm in crisis and know what to do. Even so, I’m sure many of us generally prefer ‘the good times’. But when life is difficult, we have to respond. And that can be a little bit of a grind. I’m curious if our emotional baselines will directly improve as we respond to what life is asking of us right now. It is also important to nourish ourselves and utilize any tools we have for regulating our nervous systems.

On another personal note, most of my mindset and coping tools have emerged from crisis and difficult times in my life, not from when things were mostly going good. I know this is true for many other people. Crisis and challenge are always opportunities to rise to the occasion. If you believe everything happens for a reason, now is a great time to contemplate what life is shaping out of you right now. It could be the world situation, or maybe something in your personal life too, that’s really putting you to the test.

Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the vibe may feel like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive these weekly forecasts to your inbox, sign up for my mailing list here.

Here’s our week, after a few announcements!

Announcements 

🌟 Magic of the Spheres podcast is currently on hiatus and coming back VERY SOON, but there are over 40 episodes about astrology, spirituality, personal development and other topics published! Tune in on your podcast app of choice.

Reading Special Until March 21: I’m offering mini-consults on the signature of planets squaring the nodes. Due to the somewhat technical distinction of the reading, this reading is ideal for astro-enthusiasts, students of astrology, professional astrologers, and anyone who is already familiar with their own chart and astrology basics, who is interested in receiving more perspective on this very dynamic and potentially transformative chart signature! Read more about this offering and book here.

Here’s our week!

March 19, 2020

Sun in 29 Pisces sextile Saturn in 29 Capricorn: 4:49 PM PDT

• The ethereal, emotional, impressionable vibe that Pisces Season brings makes a passing contact with Saturn in the last degree of Capricorn, as both make their way out of their signs. It’s difficult to speak of this in isolation from the fact that much of the globe is united (Pisces oneness) over a shared problem and preparing for and handling that problem (speaking of coronavirus here). This can have the effect of creating a deeper sense of community and all-being-in-this-together-ness, but we may also feel some level of responsibility for managing our individual responses and realities. Merging with the collective is great if we are seeing the divine in everyone and sending love and having proper boundaries. Merging with the fear of the collective, not so great.
• There may be areas of our lives or situations where faith, forgiveness, love, are the balm to feeling tunneled, narrowed, or like we are experiencing some crisis of faith. Whenever we have anxiety about the unknown, this is in a sense a crisis of faith. The light is shining here, and we can see our thoughts and concerns more vividly. The question then is what kind of love to we actively apply to the situation? How do we hold it?

Sun enters Aries: 8:50 PM PDT

• The ingress of the Sun into Aries from Pisces is often a marked experience (every year) of feeling like we’ve burst through something. Like a plant sprouting its way to the surface and through a layer of snow, we may feel a surge of energy in places we have felt wintery and sleepy. Remember this pattern is fairly predictable! A lot of people feel guilty for feeling tired or more lethargic in the winter, as though spring is never going to come. It’s good to rest when it’s time to rest, and it will make us ready for spring when it comes. And it is here now! There may be a marked increase in feeling empowered to take action or expend energy, and we can feel burgeoning sensations of something fresh and newly alive within us.

March 20, 2020

Mars in 22 Capricorn conjunct Jupiter in 22 Capricorn: 4:35 AM PDT

• Mars here may be energizing ours (and many’s) active response to preparing for difficult times. Certainly the feature of people stocking up on resources is earthy (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) astrology (Uranus in Taurus included), but one of Capricorn’s M.O.’s is preparing for the worst. As a character flaw this can relate to cynicism in the mask of being ‘realistic’. It’s safe to say that all of us are being tasked with the development of courage and practical action right now. Regardless of our philosophical opinion on what is happening, masses of people are literally being mobilized toward crisis-response, which makes our day-to-day playing field different than it normally is.
• In a time like this it is very important to have courage in the form of faith, optimism, and hope. This doesn’t mean checking out of real-life obligations or precautions. But having some personal or shared morale of good spirit goes a long way. Do still make time for pleasure, enjoyment, and fun. Have some space to go in your consciousness that is free from being glued to problem-solving and worries.

March 21, 2020

Saturn enters Aquarius: 8:58 PM PDT

A brief timeline: Saturn will retrograde on May 10, 2020 and re-enter Capricorn on July 1, 2020. Saturn will station direct September 28, 2020 and then re-enter Aquarius December 16, 2020. We’ll have a little over three months of Saturn in Aquarius now, and by mid-December Saturn will be in Aquarius for good until it changes signs again in March of 2023.

Saturn in Aquarius babes, your Saturn return begins now! Saturn returns occurs approximately between the ages of 27-30, 56-59, and 87-90.

“Social distancing” came early for this transit. Saturn in Aquarius can relate to a certain coolness and distance around social matters. At the moment, community-building and gathering happens to be calling for certain innovations like moving in-person events online. But when this current issue passes, we will experience Saturn in Aquarius in other ways as well – like innovating how we connect and network, and getting more clear about what our standards are within community.

• Saturn in Aquarius brings ‘the work’ to our friendships, communities, and social networks. Discovering what it takes at a practical level to feel a sense of community or communal belonging will be highlighted. The same way one might work on developing financial savvy, money mindset, or how to cultivate romantic partnership, we will likely be working on our friendships and community building. If we don’t invest any energy into this area of life or haven’t historically, there may be some crises cropping up in this area of life. If we have invested energy unskillfully, there may also be troubles (for example, being in communities we don’t really resonate with or have been working too hard to ‘fit in’ with). On the plus side, these conflicts may call us to attention or to task.
• In the business world (archetypally business and Saturn are very connected), failure is normalized as an okay step along the road. Business people are encouraged to fail, and fail again, and get back up and keep trying. I remember reading about a businessman who taught his children to share their failures of the day at the dinner table, to be celebrated and learned from. Being able to handle and learn from failure is a Saturnian skill. So is being able to let it go, forgive ourselves and the situation, and try again. As this applies to Aquarian areas of life, the areas we may be receiving harder or more direct feedback (of things working or not working, succeeding or failing) can relate to some of the following:
• A) Did we successfully get our message across and signal who we are? Does our signaling (of who we are, what we’re into, what kind of vibe we’re running) communicate effectively in the field? Are we receiving the kind of social response we intended? As a personal example, I used to wear all black just because I liked it, but I got too much feedback that I looked “goth”, which wasn’t my intention, so I added in more color to stop receiving that feedback. In a resting state, I’m also very contemplative and may tend toward serious facial expressions. I’ve consciously made the choice to smile more and animate my face more because I never intended to signal constant seriousness, I’m just often a calm person. If I want people to leave me alone or not talk to me, I can turn the serious face back on. For you, it can be getting clear about what kinds of messaging you are signaling off by your behavior and communication, and if you are liking the results you are getting, and if not, what changes might you make to receive different results? We can experiment. 🙂
• B) Have you built a social network that’s got your back? Have you invested time and energy into your friendships and connections, and are there areas that you have neglected? Perhaps there are certain moods or situations you tend to hide from everyone else. Maybe you only show some faces to your friends. Developing a greater foundation of intimacy with your social circles may involve having space in those connections for different roles to be played, than what is already happening.
• C) Are you tapped into any networks that support mutual thriving? Do you have colleagues and associates whose success is your success, and vice versa? Do you yourself feel safe rising together (or is it a zero sum game where one’s success is at another’s detriment)?
• D) Have you invested time and energy into following what excites you and electrifies you and finding ways to integrate these things into your daily life? Have you discovered what makes you unique, and what special/unique gifts you specifically have to offer the world, and have you watered those seeds diligently?
• In regards to those points and questions above, it’s not too late to start. Saturn is genius in Aquarius. We gain cool, detached awareness of how things work and learn essentially how to engineer solutions. If we have a problem or impasse in our lives, now is the time to think tank on it and collect knowledge/guidance that will help us materialize enhanced realities or solutions to problems in our lives.
• Some situations in our lives may call for new knowledge or tools, but there may also be places where we are needing to decondition from old ways of thinking and doing things. We may be in a phase of rebuilding in the next few years, which requires that we take down some old structures. Consider what your toolkit is for breaking habits, and integrating paradigm shifts in your life. How have you successfully changed your mind? How might you now?
• Take note of any responsibility and/or capacity you feel to be aware of groupthink or what the collective is thinking/feeling, while yourself having the capacity to think and feel for yourself. This may be important.

March 22, 2020

Mercury in 4 Pisces sextile Uranus in 4 Taurus: 6:19 AM PDT

Venus in 18 Taurus sextile Neptune in 18 Pisces: 8:08 PM PDT

(Image: Cupid and Psyche by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope)

• Amidst this week’s more martial transits (the Sun entering the Mars-ruled sign of Aries, and Mars forming a stellium with Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn), this transit is a contrast. Venus in sensual and indulgent Taurus harmonizing with dreamy and ethereal Neptune in Pisces speaks to a heightened sensitivity around pleasure and connection.
• I made an Instagram story on this the other day, speaking to the way that when something, a circumstance, or a person sparks our hopes, dreams, wishes, and longings, it is hard to step back from that particular image, but important to – important to take some ownership of the sensations opening up within us and to see them as the portal that they are. Of course we want to have and to claim that particular idealized circumstance that has sparked our longing, because we see it as permission to feel the sublime. But often times we will really need to take ownership of the sensations emerging within us and then have some openness as to where those sensations are opening us to – and it may or not be the realization of circumstance we had originally wished for. We’re myopic when we insist that our most sublime feelings have to come from particular circumstances we’ve identified as the ticket.

Mars in 24 Capricorn conjunct Pluto in 24 Capricorn: 10:20 PM PDT

(Image: Nick Alm)

• The pressure has been building – a lot of folks, including ourselves, have been under pressure! We may have attached it to particular circumstances that we’ve felt weighing down on us, but energetically this transit would have also accomplished to correlate with an inner-sense of psychological pressure regardless. Pluto correlates with the underworld and the volcanic forces of cataclysm and catharsis within us, our libido and our deepest drives and motivations, and Mars activates and emphasizes what it touches. Mars-Pluto contacts invite us to more courageously face the unknown impulses and forces within us – to be more curious about why we feel frustrated when we don’t know why we are, or why something so potentially small or irrelevant has got us all heated up and activated. Sometimes simply there is a lot more animal in us than we’ve been paying attention to, perhaps. 
• In the sign of Capricorn, these two planets may want to break through restricted and conditioned forms of movement and behavior. We may be more inclined or curious toward what we have labeled taboo within us or what we don’t allow in ourselves. This is a good time for experiencing catharsis and breakthrough, perhaps in a way that de-escalates the further building of pressure and allows for new connections and channels of energy to be formed.
• Pay special attention to the militant forces within you whose agenda is strictly enforced at all costs. It’s possible that you have very intentionally set these standards and nobly abide by them. But it’s also possible that your psyche is protecting you from something that is no longer a threat to you, but your inner-soldier has stayed put in their assigned post. This can be a good time to go within and explore some of our own edges, to feel into our most fiercely defended boundaries and ask those parts of ourselves what their agenda is.
• At its noblest, Mars protects what is sacred. So let’s say we have a very guarded heart. We could judge that about ourselves, right? We could also feel into why our heart has chosen to be guarded – what is so powerful and sacred about our heart that it needed such protection? It’s not bad to have defenses. It’s just freeing to deepen our capacity to willingly raise and lower the guard, rather than being frozen in our defenses.

March 24, 2020

New Moon in 4 Aries: 2:28 AM PDT

(Image: Zendaya as Joan of Arc)

The Sun and Moon are conjunct Chiron and Black Moon Lilith in Aries, and these Aries placements square the nodal axis of the Moon (the lunar nodes are in Cancer and Capricorn). Additionally the Sun and Moon sextile Saturn in Aquarius at the time of this lunation.

• A New Moon in Aries can symbolize beginnings (in ourselves and in our circumstances) that correlate with themes around leadership, courage, self-assertion, self-initiating, and the discovery of who we ARE. The character flaws most associated with Aries include selfishness and lacking sensitivity to others and/or social cues. It is interesting how one who takes on the mantle of embodying themselves will simultaneously inspire others and result in some kind of leadership, as well as upset or irritate others who don’t vibe with it. When we assert our own agenda in a situation (which can be a noble thing to do), the way may part for us or we may be met with resistance.
• The task within Aries experience then is to develop a stronger read on what is noble and true. How do we create more good in the world by being ourselves to the fullest, and how does this self-embodiment enhance our capacity to serve and to be generous?
• Relative to the impasse that the square to the nodes represents, there may be some element during this lunar cycle of learning how to take charge from a place of necessity, and not necessarily because we just felt like it. For example, most people don’t actually want to be responding to a global pandemic. Its safe to say most people wouldn’t choose that. But how do we choose to SHOW UP in situations of necessity?
• Beyond the coronavirus situation, we are all still also living out our varied personal stories. There may be situations in our lives that call us to the task of figuring out what the right thing for us to do is, how we want to respond. Perhaps we sense something important is missing in the environment around us, and we are the ones who are best resourced to provide that missing piece.
• When we differ from the crowd, stand out or doing something new in any way, the environment around us will test us, naturally. There will be some collision of personal vision and limitations within time-space-reality. Being lit within with the fire of our dream and vision gives us the energy to take on the challenge, no? Really, talk to anyone who successfully built something in the world from scratch and they will tell you all the obstacles they faced! And chances are, those obstacles also shaped them in return.
• Consider this lunation how you allow yourself to grow in response to obstacles that you face. What’s a low vibe response, to be honest? — Beating and punching the wall, being angry at the wall, feeling like the wall is just the enemy. What’s better? — Developing curiosity and understanding around the nature of that wall, why it exists, and what kind of creative development it calls forth for you. That way when you discover a doorway, you can lead others through it, too.

Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! I really appreciate you being here with me as I know that if you connect to this writing we have likemindedness and that is so special. Please share this article with a friend who you think would resonate!

Please let me know what you think in the comments – truly I want to know so leave a note! I love you and you are soul family to me, thank you for finding your way to these words and resonating with them in whatever ways you have.

If you enjoy these forecasts and would like more personalized guidance re your personal astrology, I would love to read your natal chart and transits for you! If you would like me to explore the themes in your chart, book a reading with me here. 

I meditate on charts before the reading and combine my knowledge of astrology with my clairvoyant abilities to offer you some insights about themes you are working with in this life based on prior lives, and what is the evolutionary purpose of this lifetime. I recorded an episode on my podcast recently titled Befriending your Intuition and Clairvoyance if you’d like to learn more about my relationship with clairvoyance along with tips for increasing yours!

I can work with your specific questions and shed light on ongoing issues or patterns you would like to shift, as well! Book with me here.

I’m also becoming increasingly expressive on instagram, so go find me there @sabrinamonarch and say hello! I’m posting content there that I don’t share anywhere else and I love interacting with you there as well as on twitter @sabrina_monarch.

With love,

Sabrina Monarch

Sabrina Monarch is a soul-centered Evolutionary Astrologer who publishes weekly astrological forecasts, works with clients and teaches. She is a novelist and has a M.A. in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies.