SPRING CLEANING
on all levels
I've been doing some Spring cleaning lately. This is a more comprehensive project than your basic dusting and scrubbing. I'm talking about a serious clearing of the decks. Every so often, my spouse and I take a feeble stab at what we call "deheapifying", i.e., diminishing the mighty heaps of paper, books, clothing, and bric-a-brac that pervade our house. It doesn't usually make much of a dent, probably because we don't really devote enough time and focus to it to get a momentum going. And you need plenty of momentum to counteract the deep stasis that is the status quo around our place.
In the month leading up to Spring, I try to do something that will make a noticeable difference. With the Sun in Pisces, the twelfth and final sign of the Zodiac, we're approaching the end of one astrological year and the beginning of another. It's time to let go of the debris of the past year and make room for new things to come. In warmer climates than mine (I live in chilly New England) this is the time for gardeners to prepare the ground for planting -- clearing away last year's dead stalks and turning over the soil.
Gardeners and deheapifiers alike find that the act of clearing physical space opens up psychic space in their lives as well. But you don't have to be a gardener or even a pack rat like us to accumulate "heap" in your life. The stasis could be in your relationships, your habits, your mind, your finances, your work. Where are your energetic "dead spots"? What could you let go of to free up some much-needed energy? Accumulating things without cycling some out only serves to trap energy that could be circulating and enlivening your world.
If you missed your chance to do a little space clearing before the Equinox, don't despair. I hereby grant you an astrological extension to the Spring Cleaning season. After all, the shifting energy of the Equinox is still in effect, the current (Aries) month is the time of new beginnings, and the Moon is waning until the 29th -- another letting-go cycle -- so rent that dumpster today!
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WHAT'S GOING AROUND
March 2006
Mercury turned retrograde in Pisces on the 2nd and will not turn around again until the 25th. And hey, y'know, as long as Mercury is in Pisces, it might as well be retrograde too. We'll hardly notice the difference. Absentmindedness, imaginative thinking, disorganization, poetic and whimsical speech are the order of the day. Go with the flow and be sure to write down those poems (and the amazing technicolor dreams you're undoubtedly having).
The ongoing Jupiter-Neptune square peaks on Thursday the 16th, adding an even dreamier factor into the mix. Through mid-April, this configuration brings our highest ideals to the forefront. As I said last month, make sure you're building toward those ideals from the ground up. I wouldn't like to see you landing hard and bruising your tender hopes.
A lunar eclipse occurs on the 14th, lending emotional force to the Pisces-Virgo dichotomy: chaos vs. order, the forest vs. the trees, imagination vs. pragmatism. The solar eclipse in Aries occurs shortly after the Equinox, intensifying that new green Spring openness. The Spring Equinox begins the astrological year (being the entrance of the Sun into Aries, the first sign) and a solar eclipse is just a particularly powerful New Moon, so if you were planning to start something new or make a big change, seize the day (actually more like two weeks).
