Have you ever laid down on the shore and let the waves come crashing down over you? It’s almost as if you could seemingly become one with the ocean, slowly drifting out into the sea, and then dipping over the horizon. This is the Piscean realm, “liquid, flowing symbol of the unutterable mystery that binds us all together. The Pisces New Moon invites us to explore the tides of our own minds. We live our lives on the presumption that the world exists out there somewhere, but the Fishes ask us to take a slightly different perspective, one where the world exists in our own imaginations. This mutable water sign holds the archetypes of the mystic, the dreamer, and the poet.
I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.
Vincent Van Gogh
It is in this letting go of the world around us that allows our own creative juices to flow. We as humans try so hard to bend the waves to our own will, instead of letting the water wash over us. We hold on so tight to what we believe that we can sometimes completely miss what is actually happening. Things can be real, but not true. We must learn how to untangle from the closed fist of the heart and dig into the depths of our souls for a bit of courage in order to become who we truly are. The key to this is the understanding that courage comes before confidence, that we are all beginners in this life, and that mistakes aren’t failures. They are simply lessons that the Universe is here to teach you, an imperfect human’s stumbling block on this journey we call life.
House of Troubles
Pisces rules over the twelfth house, the one traditionally seen as one of misfortune, of sickness, poverty, and imprisonment. We have two options when faced with these types of themes in our lives: We can escape from our problems by running away or numbing ourselves, or we can sit with those ugly feelings and let them wash over us, essentially cleansing them from our bodies. Researchers are now saying that crying floods our systems with oxytocin and endorphins, those yummy chemicals that help to ease our pain. Yet I find myself presented with yet a third option, one where escape could actually be considered a good thing. That is through the act of meditation, of emptying the mind into a state of formless presence, of peace.
For Pisces meditation looks less like sitting in the lotus position with your hands in mudra, and more like “spacing out,” of creating space between our thoughts and the realities of the outside world. We have to learn how to give ourselves some serious mental breaks, and not ones that may be detrimental to our health. I too have coped with life’s grievances by ordering a double at the bar, and it only served to get me further away from any resolution. We can avoid our lives, or we can live them. We can imprison ourselves with our own vices, or we can surrender to the fact that we had very little control to begin with.
A Reading for the Collective
What do I need to focus on during this lunar cycle?
We humans reserve the most criticism, the harshest judgements, for ourselves. We often (please let this not just be me) say things to ourselves that we would never utter to another person. It’s in our programming, and encouraged by our culture, but we have this grand ability to change our own minds. In Hawaii they practice a forgiveness ritual called Ho’oponopono. This involves apologizing, asking for forgiveness, expressing gratitude, and then moving into love. The Five of Cups Reversed invites us to let go of our past, for what has happened, has happened and there is no changing that. The only thing left to do is to move forward.
What do I need to release?
If we all find ourselves screaming into the void, than who is listening? The Five of Wands invites us to stop and take a moment to hear what other people have to say, even if you agree with them, and especially if you don’t. We come from a lot of varying backgrounds and have experienced probably even more events that link us together rather than tear us apart. We humans tend to focus on the “bad,” because that is our reptilian brain trying to protect us. There very well could, however, be some benefits to engaging with others who may see things a bit differently. We could actually be learning more about ourselves.
What is the next step to consider?
Before we make any sudden movements, we must plan accordingly. The Two of Wands is the encouragement we need to move forward with all of our crazy ideas. With all twos of the tarot you have a choice: you can stick with what you know or you can risk it all to make your own dreams come true. This is not about reaching the end goal, but locating the next step on your own path. It could very well take you further than you ever intended it to go.
Mad love, Jenna
deck credit: Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, drawn in 1909 by Pamela Colman Smith under direction of Arthur Edward Waite
