March’s Cosmic Weather Begins With a Bang—and Ends With a Boom—as We Emerge From Our Cocoon

Where February’s cosmic weather was mixed, yet somewhat manageable, the astrological forecast for March is action-packed! This month is a turning point, with a total of five planets shifting signs, moving the collective focus and energies forward into new territory, where the potent dynamics of 2020 will continue to unfold. March hosts many major planetary aspects every week, some occurring in a string of daily developments that are sure to pop like a chain of firecrackers! It’s appropriate for the month that holds the Spring Equinox/Aries Season, and the Aries new moon. The conversations and confrontations that impetuous Venus in Aries began last month are cracking us open to bold changes, growing pains, and the energy of rebirth and renewal. Get ready to emerge from hibernation and blossom out of the soul’s cocoon of Winter. It’s time to take the deep contemplations of Pisces season out into the big world, with a clearer sense of self, purpose, and direction!
Wondering about your purpose and direction?

March 3: Venus is square Saturn
March opens with a bang as Venus in Aries has one more major stop on her fiery tour through the Ram’s sign, and that’s to have a hard conversation with formidable Saturn in Capricorn. This first major planetary aspect of the month potentially symbolizes conflict and difficulty between the matters of love and duty, as Venus, the planet of affection and connection is entangled in a hard square with stern Saturn. Aries, the sign of cardinal fire, and Capricorn, the sign of cardinal earth, are both strong signs that seek power and control over their domain, often indicating issues with fighting for autonomy working at cross purposes with our commitments now. 

At a personal level, we may be straining against the reigns of confining dynamics in our relationships, and collectively, we may feel the squeeze of oppressive forces threatening to overpower our sense of freedom and spirit. It will be an intense passage as we navigate through some confrontations and readjustments to our lives that may be prominent this week. These adjustments are a continuation of what was revealed late February when Venus in Aries formed hard aspects with expansive Jupiter, and uncompromising Pluto, both in stoic Capricorn. Those with prominent cardinal placements in their charts especially will be asking some tough questions as well as examining how to balance honoring individuality with upholding structure, discipline, and order in their lives.

March 4: Mercury Rx enters Aquarius, is sextile Venus, and Venus enters Taurus
Communications continue to be challenged and unpredictable as Mercury backs up into objective Aquarius today, for a second pass, offering a new plot twist this retrograde season. The messenger planet’s tricks and disconnects continue, but now we are perhaps revisiting some projects, travel plans, or conversations that we began between January 16 and February 3, and are seeing dimensions of these in a new light. Some do-overs may be in order, but these are necessary to catch so that they don’t trip us up later. The devil is in the details!

Shortly after re-entering Aquarius, Mercury forms a supportive sextile aspect with Venus in passionate Aries, which bodes well for the conflicts and struggles that yesterday’s powerful square with sober Saturn in Capricorn catalyzed. It may indicate that we revisit a conversation with a loved one, seeing the nuance of a relationship matter with the benefit of some reflection, and hindsight. This could rekindle the flames of romance, or at very least help us to land on a note of understanding in our most dear and significant relationships. Venus is in her most individual and uncompromising position in the sign of the Rams, so the flavor of the conversations will likely be potent, in that we need to reassert individuality, but with Aquarius’ airy objectivity prevailing, the conversation is likely to be constructive. 

By the evening, the fiery, impulsive, and angsty mood to our connections may cool, ground, and settle, as conflicts begin to resolve when Venus enters her bountiful, fertile, and earthy home sign of Taurus. Whew! The passions that have been kicked up recently may begin to calm down, and a sense of patience and pleasure-seeking takes over. The wars we needed to fight with Venus in Aries are over, for now, and the season for affection, beauty, and revelry returns! During Venus in Taurus season, active until April 3, it’s a good opportunity to return to our creative and romantic pursuits and also honor self-care. After a long, tough winter, we approach the Spring Equinox as we begin to re-emerge, feeling beautiful and luxurious… ready to bloom!

March 8: The sun is conjunct Neptune, and Venus is conjunct Uranus
With the sun illuminating dreamy Pisces, and Mercury still retrograde, it has been a season of daydreams and imaginal wandering, but today’s melding of the star of clarity and perception with the planet of illusion, escapism, and transcendence, brings this mystical mood to a peak. The opportunity for creativity, meditation, and musical exploration today is potentially very fruitful, so channeling this aspect into our dreams, vision boards and expressive projects will yield some vivid, soulful breakthroughs. Though the potential to get lost in our ideals, and to avoid our necessary realities becomes particularly disorienting today with this conjunction, it may be that we need to take a break from the pressing duties and responsibilities that have been bearing us down and see our lives from a transcendent perspective for a moment.

Today’s meditative, creative reverie is amplified as Venus’ fruitful forces meld with Uranus’ radicality in abundant Taurus. It’s a time for unexpected romantic connections, new ideas on how to revive the relationships we are in, and to explore the beauty and awe of the natural world around us. This day of imaginative and revolutionary double conjunction is sure to restore a sense of wonder and hope for us all.

March 9: Full moon in Virgo, and Mercury goes direct
The moon comes into polarity with the sun in Pisces today, forming the Virgo full moon. This is the culmination and peak of the lunar season, when the moon’s magnetism illuminates the sign of nature, healing, order, and analysis. The house that Virgo rules in your birth chart and the area of life this corresponds to has been renewed, with its topics having gone through a massive shift and change over the last six months. In Greek mythology, Virgo is aligned to Demeter, the goddess of the harvest and the fruits of the earth, so we may be reaping the bounty now of all of the hard work and effort we have sown.

We may also feel that this new growth and development picks up momentum today as Virgo’s ruler, Mercury, goes direct. We can expect a surge of energy and clearer communications as we go forward from here deeper into the month. We are still in the shadow period until March 29, when Mercury passes beyond the zone it first went retrograde in, yet we may feel that we are making progress as we advance, clicking the pieces of the puzzle together to see the full picture… at last.

March 11: The sun is sextile Jupiter
The sun in soulful Pisces comes into a supportive sextile with benevolent Jupiter in dependable Capricorn today, giving an uplifting, compassionate mood to the mid-month cosmic weather. The sun rules over our perceptions, which are potentially more finely attuned to intuition and empathic currents now, working in harmony with the themes of slow, sustainable spiritual growth this year. The feeling is one of optimism, mingling with idealism, but this blend of emotive, receptive water and pragmatic earth is a tempered one, helping us harness and materialize our ideals in a useful, concrete manner. 

March 14: Mars is sextile Neptune, and the sun is sextile Pluto
Mars, the planet of drive and confrontation comes into a collaborative sextile aspect with Neptune, the planet of illusion and transcendence today, creating an interesting blend of harnessed drive and universal vision. Mars helps to channel what is illusory, and otherworldly, into an inspired plan of action. It could be that this drive and ability to confront has us looking at the ways we have not been realistic, yet at the same time gives us a push, an opportunity to materialize the impossible. Later in the day, the sun in Pisces forms a sextile with Pluto in Capricorn, hinting that the deep, meditative inquiry of the season is working in harmony with massive subterranean forces of growth, in our psychic awareness, and our society at large.

March 16: Mercury re-enters Pisces
A few days after the profound insight and activation of March 14, Mercury re-enters mystic and compassionate Pisces a third time, this time moving direct, slowly leaving the retrograde shadow behind. Mercury in Pisces takes us deep into soulful and spiritual inquiry, exploring the themes of healing and creativity in our conversations and ideas, yet it is important to keep our bearings and stay as clear as we can now. Pisces is classically ruled by Jupiter, and in modern times has a tie to nebulous Neptune, so this passage is best spent delving into honing our intuition and exploring our visions and dream states. 

Mercury typically likes to carry our attention from topic to topic, like a bee cross-pollinating flowers—yet in receptive Pisces, this action will happen more on the inner plane. Jupiter’s signs seek the truth, so it’s a great time to take one more dive back into the inner ocean of our soul for treasures of insight and new awareness we may have missed the last time around. For those who are willing to go deep, this can be a fruitful time if we manage our expectations and not worry about being too practical now.

March 19: Spring Equinox, and the sun is sextile Saturn
The sun forms its last aspect today before changing signs, coming into a supportive sextile with Saturn in its last days in Capricorn. Both the planet of awareness, energy, and perception, and the planet of structure, duty, and order connect in the very last degree of each sign. It shows a turning point, some resolution in the final hour between compassionate awareness and authoritative structure. 

Later in the evening, the sun crosses the threshold of seasons, leaving Pisces’ soulful, oceanic waters behind for the fiery exuberance of Spring, and the primal sign of Aries. The sun intensifies, becoming exalted in the Ram’s sign, adding heat, passion, and impulsivity to the cosmic mood! It creates a time of amplifying energies of wanting to break out of the reflective interiority of Pisces season, emerging from this soul cocoon with a renewed zeal for life. This is effectively the astrological new year, a rebirth of the sun, renewing hope and creating an opportunity to set fiery new intentions for the season!

March 20: Mars is conjunct Jupiter
On the first day of Aries season, powerfully exalted Mars melds with expansive Jupiter in constructive Capricorn, potentially creating an opportunity for tremendous growth, initiative, and momentum. Jupiter potently amplifies Mars’ energies, and the efforts of our hard work can breakthrough and materialize now. This aspect can, however, can also be explosive, with Mars’ fire igniting Jupiter’s enthusiasm, which could indicate taking a huge risk, or an opportunity to boldly establish leadership. It may be that we find ourselves in an advantageous position to advocate for personal authority now, and with both planetary energies somewhat tempered and grounded in the Sea-goat’s reserved sign, this initiative is likely to be channeled and harnessed into a concrete direction. Jupiter as a planet is associated with teachers, kings, and esteemed leaders, and Mars is associated with warriors, so it could indicate a bold tactical move to gain power and new territory. The integrity and morality of the intentions behind this tremendous power should be questioned, however, as new powers come with new responsibility… and consequences.

March 21: Saturn enters Aquarius
The next day, Saturn enters objective and intellectual Aquarius, after over two years in earthy Capricorn. This elemental shift of the planet of discipline, structure, and perseverance takes the long-term focus personally and collectively out of the matters of restructuring the material value systems of our society, and into challenging the concepts and conventions that these have built on. Aquarius as a sign is innately contrarian, taking apart the laws and ideas that we tend to take for granted, to examine if they are worth upholding. 

Saturn rules both Capricorn and Aquarius in classical astrology, so Saturn continues to operate from a very powerful position in its fixed air sign, which may lessen the burdens we have been carrying for the last few years if only to shift these to another area of our lives. It’s like carrying a heavy bag in one hand for so long and it’s time to trade hands, to let the other side rest. Capricorn and Aquarius are adjacent signs, so examining where they fall in our birth chart will teach us about how Saturn’s story of trial and tests will continue working in our lives. We will have a taste of these new themes until July 1 this year, before Saturn retrogrades back into Capricorn until December 16.

March 22: Mercury is sextile Uranus, Venus is sextile Neptune, and Mars is conjunct Pluto
On the heels of Saturn’s momentous shift, Mercury in empathic Pisces forms a supportive and collaborative sextile aspect with Uranus in grounded Taurus, opening up surprising new pathways of communication. After Mercury’s long retrograde passage, we are emerging out of its shadow period with fresh insight and a new perspective, that we can apply in an adaptive way to the profound changes of our times. There may be an unexpected conversation today that helps us feel our way through a material challenge.

This window of radical and innovative conversation is supported by a potentially magical and ethereal mood as Venus in abundant Taurus forms a harmonious sextile with illusory Neptune in Pisces. This is potentially a sign of universal love, that crosses time, space, and boundaries to form enduring connections. Venus in Taurus is all about sensual, embodied pleasures, and Neptune in Pisces is all about transcendent and compassionate states, and together they hold potential for great creative and romantic connections. Love will always find a way, could be the message available to us now, if we tune into our senses, and let out intuition guide us.

By the evening, Mars and Pluto merge in magnetic Capricorn, and subterranean shifts in power and transformation can be felt as shockwaves underneath the events of the day. We get a sense that a huge change is just around the corner and that every action we take now must be done so with sober awareness, as there will be lasting implications for worse, or for better.

March 24: New moon in Aries
The new moon of Aries season is a smoldering crucible, kindling profound change in the dark at the end of the lunar cycle, and in the still point before the next. The full moon in Virgo this month spoke of the harvest we are collecting now, whereas the Aries new moon shows the area of life where the harvest field has been burned down, bare and fallow, awaiting the next cycle of growth. New moon times are when we contemplate what may next be in store for us—yet are best spent not beginning anything new yet per se, and allowing ourselves to rest and renew. With the momentous energy of Spring upon us, it may be a time to purify, simplify, and pare down to the essentials in life to make space for the new to unfold. Over the next 6 months, we will gradually come to understand what the Aries new moon is about to teach us, and what new fruits we will harvest later in the year.

March 27-28: Venus is trine Jupiter and Pluto
Venus, the planet of love, affection, and attraction is in one of her most auspicious and magical placements in earthy Taurus, from where she bestows rich blessings for creativity and romance this season. Her earth trine aspect with expansive Jupiter in Capricorn speaks to an opportunity for great ease, support, and understanding in our relationships. In synastry, a trine between Venus and Jupiter indicates a powerful, optimistic connection between people, that is enduring and energizing. For the collective, this trine gives us a boost and sets us up to feel optimistic and hopeful. Venus is associated with luxury and wealth, and Jupiter is associated with luck, so don’t feel surprised if a little bounty comes your way this week! The following day, Venus forms a trine with Pluto in Capricorn, hinting that whatever we begin today will lead in a transformative direction with love and creativity this year. 

March 30-31: Mars enters Aquarius, and is conjunct Saturn
March started with a bang and now ends with a boom, which begins with Mars’ shift out of authoritative Capricorn, and into intellectual and contrarian Aquarius. It turns the energies of drive and initiative away from the foundations we have built with Mars’ earthly power, and now into the airy currents of social growth and evolution. This sign shift for Mars in and of itself would not necessarily feel so dire if it wasn’t to conjoin stern and stoic Saturn, the ruler of Aquarius, the very next day. In classical astrology, Mars and Saturn are the two planets that teach us our biggest lessons in life, by ruling over and delivering our greatest tests and trials. Dealing with major transits from one of these “malefic” planets is likely to be profound—but dealing with both together is a whole other level of intensity. 

The positive side is that drive and courage may come together with discipline and structure, to move great mountains and effect personal and societal change. The challenging side is that it may indicate a breaking down of the law, order, and agreements, that were becoming corrupt, to make way for reform that could cause some chaos until a new system can organize. Personally, we may be hitting a wall in our lives, that is causing us to face reality, and organize a new plan. For the collective, we are marching in a new global direction that needs to be inclusive and sustainable in order to endure.

Art by Lori Menna