The 2021 Spring Equinox is just around the corner and things are heating up!
March is here and it's time to pull out all the stops!
Every planet, including Mercury, is finally direct, creating a great big forward momentum till April 27th. The question is where to? You'll have some big decisions to make in the first ten days of March. Come March 12th, Mercury’s done thinking and rethinking and you’re ready for something new. The Pisces New Moon of March 13th is just the ticket, bringing a chance for the dreamiest fresh start.
The whole middle of March is practically dripping with honey but is any of this real? The Vernal Equinox arrives on March 20th (09:37 GMT), just when Mars goes 'out of bounds' in Gemini and things could start to get a little heated. Venus, a major player all month, is drawing attention to our ailing relationships and economy all month and all the damage that has been done. By the Libra Full Moon of March 28th it is painfully clear just how much has changed since the first lockdown. As Neptune begins to separate from the Lunar Nodes this month, we begin waking up from a long reverie.
March is a big fat crossroads - a month of crucial choices with lots of energy to spare. As we approach that fork in the road, it’s time to nourish our dreams, face facts and let the healing begin.
This post is about the key astrological events of March 2021. Check out the March 2021 horoscope for your star sign. It’s all happening this month!
Spring Equinox March 20th 2021: Bring it On!
Spring 2021 arrives on 20th March at 09:37 GMT. That's when the Sun enters Aries and with it comes a wilful trend. No more putting up with nonsense. No more being herded around. Time to take the initiative!
The Sun and Venus ring in Spring 2021 together, unleashing tons of pent up desire for plain enjoyment and human interaction.
Venus travels close to the Sun all month long, highlighting our thinning relationships, our suffering economy and our presently lacklustre way of life. She follows the Sun into Aries on the 21st, and it’s time to take these matters in hand. Instant gratification may be high on the agenda this Spring.
Another reason why Spring Equinox 2021 is special is that the red planet goes out of bounds on March 21st. And with it goes any left over tolerance for limitations to our freedoms.
Boris may have given June 21st as Britain’s official opening day but, with Mars going rogue from March 21st, nobody’s gonna have much regard for the rules. People may start taking liberties.
With Mars out of bounds, there’s an "I want it and I'll have it" vibe in the springtime air. Suddenly every man and woman is the exception to the rule - a new trend that will take us all the way to the May-June eclipses.
This Spring is a time of great acceleration and confidence. We may have no idea where we are going but it’s time to push full speed ahead!
Mars in Gemini Out of Bounds: Witty Wilfulness
What’s special about Spring 2021 is that Mars, ruler of Aries, is stepping out of bounds from March 21st till May 24th. A planet goes ‘out of bounds’ when it travels outside the Sun’s regular ‘bandwidth’. That’s the highest and lowest declination of the Sun (23⁰26'22 north or south of the equator), which is reached at the solstices. When a planet steps outside this roughly 47⁰ ecliptic strip, it operates on a whole other level, outside normal wavelengths. This can make for some fiercely innovative, solution-oriented and freedom-loving times. Or it can render the planet unsociable and out of control, basically AWOL.
Mars out of bounds can be a little angry and uncouth - a law onto itself not fit for polite society. But it can also be incredibly innovative, liberating and invigorating, a time of pioneering fresh solutions, carving new paths and setting new trends.
A freewheeling Mars from March 21 to May 24 gives you the courage for bold and daring undertakings. But he can also cause random accidents and arguments if you fail to direct the energy constructively. Thankfully, we also have Saturn trine Mars on March 22nd, giving it a more sturdy container.
Now, Mars goes out of bounds in the sign of Gemini in March. There he is hungry for information and movement, his wit sharp as a knife!
We’re in for a whole lot of telling it like it is and going where one bally well likes.
Freedom of speech and movement are the hallmark of a Gemini Mars out of bounds, having to have the last word, refusing to be hemmed in!
Sounds unpleasant, but this is just the kind of unruly behaviour we need... Yes! Time to argue, speak up, ask difficult questions! With the Dragon’s Head, i.e. the North Node in Gemini right now, the world needs some sharp debate and verbal discord. Ditch your script, look around and examine the facts.
As Mars meets the Dragon’s Head on March 26th, it’s sure to make a heck of a lot of noise - just the thing to break up this constant media hypnotic drone.
Others are sure to pull you out of yourself as Mars approaches the North Node. And by March 24th-26th, a triple aspect between Mars, the Nodes and Mercury brings heated exchanges. Words may well hurt more than sticks and stones but it’s a risk you may have to take.
Mercury Exits Shadow: Firing on All Cylinders
So Mars is in Gemini but what is Mercury up to? The first ten days of March are marked by Mercury finally getting back up to speed as we head to March 12th. Phew, what was that! Having caused not a little havoc at his station-direct in the last week of February, Mercury’s now back on his merry way. And very merry it is, especially by March 5th, when Mercury meets Jupiter in Aquarius for the final time this year.
March 5th is a great day to reach out to others or sign off on a project, purchase or agreement. With Venus sextile Uranus on March 3rd and Mars entering Gemini on the 4th, early March is sure to generate excitement!
By March 12th, Mercury is well out of his retrograde shadow, having cleared enough RAM space for new thoughts to be processed in your head.
Done and dusted, Mercury enters Pisces on the 15th and you’ve had enough trying to work things out the rational way. Time to use your imagination!
The Lunar Nodes in March: a Major Crossroads
On that same day that Mercury and Jupiter meet, March 5th, the Sun squares the Lunar Nodes, marking the half way point between the eclipses. Whatever choice you make on or around March 5th it’s decisive. And there is a lot riding on it. By March 9th, it’s Venus’ turn to square the Lunar Nodes, following close on the Sun’s footsteps, and this will reveal what’s truly important to you.
All in all March 5th-9th is an important crossroads. You’re half way through the eclipses and making decisions that will prove crucial down the road.
Are you going to play it safe and fall back on familiar ground? Or will you dare to face your discomfort and push forward? Whichever choice you make will come to inform the new beginning you make on the upcoming New Moon.
Pisces New Moon March 13: Dreamy Seedlings...
By mid-March (10th-20th) you’re deep in Pisces’ dreamy territory. Venus, the Sun, Neptune and (soon) Mercury in Pisces generate the most illusory, romantic New Moon of the year. The Pisces New Moon of March 13th is the time to nurture your finest dreams. Don’t be surprised if things get a little wet mid-March - literally or metaphorically.
March 11th-14th brings a super-romantic soft reset. If you have creative work to do - or if you crave unconditional love and spiritual sustenance - the March 13th Pisces New Moon calls you to make a start. Plant your most sublime seeds, water them and you’ll see them bear fruit this September.
You can feel your yearnings call you as soon as March 10th-11th, as the Sun meets Neptune, a highly sentimental aspect. That’s when you can clearly see the dream in your imagination’s eye. Venus closely follows the Sun, joining Neptune on March 14th - a super romantic and syrupy moment. These rose coloured glasses could not get any rosier mid-month...
Still, no-nonsense Pluto offers some depth and grip to all that mush, sextile to Sun/Venus on March 16th-18th, giving said dream some hardy survivability. Just make a start.
Neptune’s Lullaby: To Hypnotise a Dragon...
The world is still steeped in a dreamy reverie for most of March 2021.
Neptune is keeping the Great Dragon under a vast hypnotic spell ever since mid to late 2020 - and all of us alongside with it.
This pocket of unreality is thanks to Neptune square the Lunar Nodes. that is, the Great Dragon's Head and Tail. The surrealism that’s swallowed up the world in the past many months reached maximum intensity over Christmas and January of 2021. That’s when Neptune and the Nodes closed in on each other but we’ll finally begin to snap out of it as March gives way to April. And with the advent of Spring, some sense of normality - even if it is a 'new normal' - will begin to return to the world.
The haze begins to fade just in time for Spring 2021 to get into full swing - and especially after the sensitive Libra Full Moon of March 28th.
Libra Full Moon March 28: Time to Heal
The last ten days of March pack a real punch, especially as we approach the first Full Moon of Spring, in Libra, on March 28th. This is a prickly moment of intense vulnerability, but also a moment of immense energy and support - a time of rebuilding, as we begin the journey toward recovery.
The Libra Full Moon brings a moment of painful clarity as to how our society and our economy has suffered as a result of these lockdowns.
Libra is ruled by Venus, the glue that holds society together. In here we find all our human relationships, the economy, our culture, beauty, arts and enjoyment, luxury and pleasure.
And, by the end of March, the Venusian glue that holds us all together has already become unbearably thin...
The Libra Full Moon arrives right opposite Chiron, Venus and the Sun - Venus’ superior conjunction with the Sun in Aries having taken place two days earlier on the 26th.
This is the fruition for everything that has happened since Venus last went retrograde in Gemini in Spring-Summer 2020.
A full year after the first lockdown, we’ve been reduced to floating heads on a screen, never touching, barely being civil, our only socialisation queuing up with suspicion, our only retail therapy browsing the toilet-roll aisle. And by March 28th it will be gingerly clear how all that has taken its toll. Time to take action to prop things up! (And no amount of fudging the issue - thanks to Mercury getting fiddled with by Neptune - is going to make it go away.)
With the centaur Chiron closely tied into this lunation too, March 28th-29h is sure to bring all kinds of hurts and vulnerabilities to light, placing the focus squarely on our currently rather Spartan lifestyle.
It’s time to face facts, take a long hard look at all the pain that has been caused, and start the healing process.
Embrace what arises by month’s end and commit to it fully! With Mars, Saturn and the North Node trine this Full Moon, the steps you put in place at the end of March will have long term positive, healing and restructuring effects, setting a good foundation for the future.
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Fun with Sabian Symbols
Each zodiac degree comes with its own little symbolic image (or "Sabian Symbol" and it’s fun to see what the imagery of this Venusian Full Moon invokes.
1. The present Venus cycle, seeded 3 June 2020 at the 14th degree of Gemini talks about communication between people via “invisible nerve channels” thereby “bridging physical space” to “transcend the limitations of bodily existence”. Zoom in a nutshell?
2. Said Venus cycle culminates this March 26th on the 6th degree of Aries. And there we find an “emotional desire for concrete and stabilised existence as a person.” No more talking heads, please!
3. Finally, the Libra Full Moon at the 9th degree of Libra speaks of a need to “ground” ourselves in “past achievements” and “return to source during a confused search for new value in a chaotic society.” You don’t say.
With Saturn and the Lunar Nodes holding that March Libra Full Moon in their thrall, this need for a return to secure values, and for a more concrete, non-virtual existence alongside more stable relationships lies at the core of what’s going down by the end of this month.
Not to mention the huge propping up of our economy by government funds.
(All Symbols taken from Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala, New York, Vintage Books, May 1974 Edition - check the relevant degrees as given, pp. 53, 56, 98 and 177)