Be Water, My Friend/ Body Astrology: Pisces

This is a Pisces season like no other so dive in and swim! The sun enters Pisces on Monday, February 18^th and joins Mercury and Neptune (Pisces’ co-ruling planet) in an exact conjunction in the sign. That’s a boatload of slippery unprocessed feeling and intuition that will be floating up to the surface, most likely wanting a hug. Most likely the feels will be formless and flowing; all encompassing one minute, nowhere to be found the next.

This will definitely be hard to control, channel and focus. But that’s the point. Pisces is asking you to surrender; not as weakness but as a decisive act. The act of surrender can be a proactive choice when coupled with clear intention. No one knew this better than martial artist and philosopher Bruce Lee:

“In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.”

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” –B.L.

We’re being asked to dissolve because we’re at an end. We’re being asked to let go of the rigid shapes and unnecessary armor that protects us from a new beginning.

This Pisces season is prolonged, due to a retrograde Mercury that doesn’t leave the sign until mid-April and 3 weeks of Venus sharing the same space (late March). Pisces wants us to do an incredibly thorough job of cleansing and releasing this coming spring. Even when our consciousness (the sun) moves on to Aries, our hearts (Venus) and minds (Mercury) will still be soaking in Pisces (this could be a very soggy spring).

Next week Body Astrology monthly workshop culminates with our study of Pisces. Margherita and I have spent the past year tracking the sun's journey through the ever-changing rhythms of individuation and coalescence. We've learned so much from each other and everyone we've worked with. I really appreciate Margherita's uncanny abilities to find just the right blends of somatic work, choreography, movement study, and music to animate what could so easily be just a concept. Join us on Wednesday February 20th at Juniper at 7PM for our final meditation on the radical inclusivity and merging principle that is Pisces. PLEASE SIGN UP BEFORE the 20th. And be on the lookout for other Body Astrology workshops that will engage astrology from the lunar and elemental perspectives... and more!

Here are some recommendations and strategies for flowing with the celestial weather of radical healing, gentleness, and imagination.

EMBODIED Pisces

Body parts: feet, lymphatic system, immune system (Vedic).

Key words: 

Permeable: sensitivity, sympathy, empathy, tenderness, dissolve, blend, merge, blur, soft, compassion, peace, confusion (with fusion), gentle, absorbent, osmosis, receptive, borderless, surrender, tolerant, vulnerability, supple

Movement: fluidity, flexibility, adaptability, mutability, formless, timeless, nebulous, slippery, circuitous, meander, elliptical, oblique, flow, dance, lyricism, musicality, tangents

The Unseen: the hidden, the sequestered, shadow, subconscious, imaginary, exiled, avoidant, escapist, evade, everywhere and nowhere, dreams, fog, illusion, delusion, deception, hallucination, intuition, spirit, soul, mystical, transcendent, vague, fantasy, the divine, the sublime, secluded, concealed, isolated, remote, retired

The Whole:  one with everything, alpha and omega, paradox, the “dustbin of the zodiac”, all-encompassing, selfless, sacrificial, healing, unconditional love, holistic, the culmination, the repository, perfection, idealism, romanticism, complete, union, flux, ebb and flow, inhale and exhale, totality, absolute, sickness and health, omnipresent, ubiquitous, infinite

Polarity: Yin.  Absorbent energy that allows things in.

Modality/Element: mutable/water. Pisces is feeling in constant motion. It takes the totality of experience from the last 11 signs and prepares for an absolutely new beginning by dissolving boundaries.

Ruled by: Jupiter and Neptune. The symbol is two fish swimming in two different directions. This represents the paradox of moving in two directions at once, constantly. I also think it represents the water the fish swim in; something so ubiquitous and all-encompassing that effects everything we do…yet we forget it’s there.

Embodied explorations:

Dance to music! Especially non-choreographed or improvisational dance. Pisces rules dance and music. Allow yourself to be guided by the feelings that rhythm and sound inspire!

Allow yourself to be emotionally moved by engaging with or making art. Pisces is about emotional flushing. Whether its (Pisces-ruled) poetry, photography, films or painting, surrender to emotionally powerful experiences to keep the feelings supple and circulating.

Volunteer, serve, and sacrifice. Practice putting yourself (ego) second to remind yourself that you’re part of something bigger. Pisces needs to dissolve the confines of the ego to feel like it can truly merge with something greater than itself. A lazy astrology trope for Pisces is “serve or suffer.” But I find it to be true.

Reflexology and foot care. Go barefoot (somewhere safe and comfortable). Many holistic practices assign the soul to the sole of the foot. Movement specialists have named the soles of the feet “the seat of the nervous system,” and reflexologists believe the entire body is represented there. Whatever you happen to believe, the feet are our foundation and where most of us come into relationship with the earth. Our feet need strengthening, massaging, stretching, cleaning, and love!

Manual therapy and self-massage is great for keeping the lymph moving.

Floatation therapy and hydrotherapy. Hydrate!

Yoga is wonderful for practicing the union of attention, sensation, movement, intention, and breath.

Psychic self-protection practice and building healthy boundaries.

Swimming, baths, or being near water.

Sleep and sacred napping. Keep a dream journal.

Spend time alone in reflection or working consciously with your imagination. Remove yourself from the mundane world.

Practice indirect or felt forms of communication with yourself and others. Intuitive exercises and practices, sound healing, deep listening, somatic practices, all forms of art, music and dance therapies, aromatherapy, vision boards, and collages.

Pisces season can be a magical, heart opening time. It can also be overwhelming and confusing. There are fewer boundaries between our unconscious and conscious selves. Please be mindful when using alcohol, hallucinogenic or psychotropic drugs. We are super sensitive right now.

The Paradox of Interdependence/ Body Astrology: Aquarius

Aquarius season is delivered within hours of a total lunar eclipse in Leo. Yes, we are in the throes of another eclipse season! This eclipse marks the close of a year and a half of eclipses on the Leo-Aquarius axis. It’s been a year and a half of exploring our authority and heart-felt creativity in concert with our responsibility to our communities and our ability to take one for the team. In our personal lives and on the world stage issues of recognition and ego were pit against humble service and our dedication to tradition was challenged by our need to innovate. This last eclipse wraps up these issues and lessons and asks, “how’s all that working for you?”

Wherever you are with it, and however it landed for you, it’s time to move on. Here’s a poem I wrote at the Aquarius eclipse a couple of years ago. I think it’s just as valid for our current eclipse.

Your Horoscope for The Partial Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius, August 2017

This full moon is where you find your line

break. Your page

break. Where you break

with something, someone, somewhere, some

idea from your past

inspired by a picture

you can’t get out

of your head.

You’ll know where needs

breaking.

It’s the place that pinches.

It’s the place that bulges and rips

your stitches.

This picture

that’s big

in all the ways

you cannot be

until it breaks

you.

Aquarius is a challenge to embody because it likes being out of body. It’s hard to bring it into the now because it likes the future. It’s about breaking with the material world and everything we think we know.

It’s about going beyond.

Aquarius is also about circulation and the continual need to swap out the old for the new. Nowhere is this more evident than the circulatory system: the movement of blood and oxygen to the many organizations and “communities” in the body.

The star of circulatory system is the heart but the for the heart to be of any use it needs to work with a complex system of arteries, vessels, and way stations: most importantly the calves. Commonly referred to as the second heart, the system of muscles, veins, and valves in the calf and foot work together to push deoxygenated blood back up to the heart and lungs.

And what joint do you think is responsible for the calf muscle’s ability to pump? Depending on the flexibility and stability of the (humble) ANKLE JOINT we can more or less successfully “talk back” to the heart with our lower leg muscles.

Aquarius wants to show us how the seemingly small or insignificant IS important to the whole. It wants us to know that the health of an entire organism (or group or country) is dependent on everyone doing their unique part.

It’s no coincidence that Leo rules the heart, which is Aquarius’ axial counterpart. Literally and metaphorically speaking, if the heart (the star, the king) and the rest of the body (the masses, the workers) aren’t talking to each other we’re dead. You can refresh your memory about Leo here.

Join Margherita Tisato and I as we prep for Aquarius season by circulating our own unique genius throughout our entire bodies…and beyond.

Body Astrology Aquarius takes place at Juniper at 7PM, Wednesday January 23^rd. Please sign up before the 23^rd to reserve your spot. We are no longer taking walk-ins.

EMBODIED Aquarius

Body parts: ankles, calves, shins, and circulatory system

Key words: 

The Group: the community, society, populace, humanity, democracy, egalitarian, collective, friends, dissemination, universal, fellowship, colleagues, allies, comrades, cooperatives, organizations, members, circulation

The Dissenter: the rebel, the revolutionary, the progressive, dismantle, the original, unique, unusual, non-traditional, eccentric, freedom, liberation, radicalism, alien, unconventional, disruption, breaking up, distinctive, upheaval, deviant

The Ideal: awakening, ideas, perspective, genius, brilliance, experimental, scientific, reform, non-personal, detached, invention, innovation, paradigms, vision, prototype, utopian, breaking through, the aha moment, epiphany, unorthodox, higher mind

The Future:  new, prescient, electric, technological, advancement, potential, harbinger, ahead of its time, pre-cognitive, extrasensory, science-fiction, predictive, divinatory, extra-terrestrial, seminal, frontrunner, game changer, tide turner, breaking with the past, unprecedented, ground breaking, novel, avant garde, the vanguard, unpredictable, change

Polarity: Yang. Energy that moves outward for the purpose of breaking the constraints of time and the material world.

Modality/Element: Fixed Air. In the northern hemisphere this is the dead of winter. This energy stabilizes and concentrates the mental and immaterial realm.

Ruled by: Saturn and Uranus. The symbol is the water bearer. Traditionally, a human pouring water from a vessel.

Embodied explorations:

Stretch, strengthen, and massage your calves and shins. I really enjoy deep squats for checking in with openness in the lower leg.

Open and stabilize the ankle joint. I enjoy balance exercises to reveal where the ankles might be unstable.

Feel how the leg muscles quickly increase heart rate and respiration and practice bringing the heart rate back down through breathing and softening.

Cardio!

Hot baths or saunas. Feel the heart pumping blood throughout the body and under the skin.

Self massage tools like foam rollers, massage balls or dry brushing to stimulate blood flow.

Identify all the things you have in common with the various people in your communities and also note what makes you unique. How can you use your unique abilities for the good of the group?

Explore impulses that encourage experimentation or deviate from the traditional or the expected. How well do you deal with surprise?

When you’re in a creative process, how clearly and with how much detail can you envision what you’d like to create? Can you put those details into words, sounds, movements, feelings or images?

How easy or difficult is it for you to connect with your intuition? Do you feel as if you have other ways of obtaining knowledge outside of your 5 senses? Improvisation games, tarot card practice, astrology exploration and automatic writing are all great ways to tap into other ways of knowing.