Cosmic Forecast March 2024
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Illustration by Jess Stanley
March is the riverbank where we move from the waters of Pisces into the wide green pasture of Aries. It’s the month that marks the end of one astrological year and the beginning of the next. This new year isn’t a milestone most of us celebrate–it’s a transition that happens outside of our modern calendar. It’s a chance to experience time differently, to step into a current that moves a little slower than the one we usually swim in. Astrology helps us connect with the days and months, but it also allows us to listen to conversations that are decades, centuries, and eons long. The stars and planets we look up at today are the same ones our ancient ancestors looked to for guidance and order in a reality that was just as chaotic and uncertain as our own. The astrological new year transition from Pisces into Aries is as old as Babylon.
Pisces is the sign that rules our elder years and the realms of the ancestors. Its symbol of the twinned fish calls back to our roots as single-celled organisms in prehistoric seas and the mythological cosmic ocean. It reminds us that our bodies are stardust, that we are not individuals plotting our own courses through the universe, but nodes in a vast, complex network of beings and natural phenomena. We are all connected. Moving through Pisces season might feel murky and strange, it might feel too heavy to bear.
For many of us, the invitation of Pisces to slow down, to prioritize contemplation, to deepen our spiritual practices, to meditate and create feels too different, too unfamiliar, in relation to how we typically spend our time. Pisces work—like creative work—does not always look “productive.” Yet, we know that a garden grows carrots and kale without ever looking productive. That geese make their way North around this time, at their own pace. That the Earth, despite all our desperate rushing, still takes 365 days to go around the Sun.
The Sun, Mercury, Mars, and Venus make their way through Pisces, coming into conjunction with Saturn and Neptune along the way. When the month begins, Mercury will already be conjunct (overlapping) Saturn and the Sun in the sign. This transit might feel like falling into a dark pool, dropping a stone into a well. Saturn is the ruler of structured time, the Sun is the metronome of our lives, and Mercury moves faster than all of it. What we’re invited to look at is what our natural pace really is: do we need to be running around, busy, active like a bee or a bird (some of us truly do!) or do we need to move more like a bear in the woods, smelling the air, pacing our territory? What pace feels best in your body? What pace feels like too much?
Venus dips her toes into Pisces on the 11th. The planet traditionally rules an earth sign, Taurus, and an air sign, Libra. But the goddess Venus was born from sea foam, so there’s a part of her that will always be amphibian. During Venus’ transit of the sign, Venus leads us towards our creativity and invites us to find the seams where our body and our creativity meet. If you’re an artist of any kind, a dreamer, a shaper, a parent, a gardener, this transit might just feel like a watershed of ideas that come from your everyday routines. The better your body feels during this time, the more you pay attention to it and nourish it, the more vivid your inspiration will be.
When Mars enters the sign on the 22nd, Pisces will touch the parts of your life where you want more and more, the parts where you hope for glory, and the parts where you want to make your mark. Even as the Sun tilts into fire sign Aries, Mar’s domicile—home sign—Pisces draws the fiery energy back underwater (think of the deep-sea thermal vents where we believe life on earth originated). This transit will help you figure out which of your ambitions are most authentic, which ones deserve your heart. What you choose to do with your life is like a sacred marriage: hopefully you can choose experiences you deeply love that can hold all that you are, exactly as you are and grow with you.
As the Sun and Mercury make their way into Aries at month’s end, the energy begins to feel crisp and vibrant. The fog of March will slowly fade as the personal planets scatter into Aries in April. The final days of the month see Jupiter coming into conjunction with Uranus in Taurus and the Sun trine Pluto in Aquarius. These transits reactivate the seismic transformation, change, and uncertainty we’ve dealt with around the intense Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter transits over the last year. Uranus in Taurus—the sign of abundance, bodily autonomy, comfort, and reliability—has really challenged all that it stands for, its revolutionizing energy butting up against Taurus’ desire for simplicity and predictability.
Emotional overwhelm, empathy exhaustion, melancholy, and even despair might seep in this month as Pisces blows open our energetic boundaries and asks us to embrace our softness. This month, it’s important to take care of yourself and take care of your community. It’s important to accept everything that washes up on the shores of your heart. To fight when there is no hope left is true bravery. The wisdom we gain through the Piscean transits will give us the spiritual strength to continue on our quest. In Aries season, we’ll have the tools to go beyond what we think is possible for our communities and the resources we need to fight for that vision.
Keagan (she/her) is a writer, tarot reader, and astrologer. Find her on Instagram @moonsingemini to book a reading. Subscribe to her monthly tarotscope newsletter here.
Jess (She/Her) is a multidisciplinary artist and illustrator based in Vancouver BC. Her main area of focus is the connection we share with the world around us, from environmental protection to the supernatural and spooky. She’s inspired by folklore and mythology and the way it weaves through our existence. One of her main goals is to make art accessible for all and to prove that anyone can be creative, regardless of skill level or age. She enjoys engaging with the community and bringing awareness to important issues such as the climate emergency and water protection. Follow her on Instagram @jessstanley.art and www.jessstanley.ca.
