On February 18, 2020, today, at a few minutes before midnight, the Sun enters Pisces, and at the same instant, the first Decan of that sign — which Austin Coppock titled “The Labyrinth” — will begin. It’s going to be time to walk a long and winding road from the edge to the center and back again — but a road that leads you roughly to the same place that you began: 100,000 steps to reach a state of centeredness that’s only fifteen feet as the crow flies from where you are right now; and a 100,000 more steps to end up right where you started.

Seems appropriate that I spent six hours on the road yesterday before writing this column, no?

Let’s look at the Planetary Placements, and then the horoscopes by rising sign.

Planetary Placements

The Ascendant is in Scorpio, a fixed sign — it’s likely that the next ten days will end as they began, with matters more or less the same coming out as going in. This is a time of stability — even as huge things seem to be changing every day, and titanic forces appear to be shredding the normal order to ribbons and threads, the reality is that not much is going to change: the same people are still running things, the same policies and programs are in effect, and events small and large are the continuation of what was already in motion. However, Scorpio, ruled by Mars, is also a sign of intensity, of secrets revealed, and of deep sensuality. With Mars in Capricorn, a sign of wild pragmatism, that’s likely to play out in difficult ways: we are likely to find ourselves picking fights over small matters which are not likely to be resolved, missing the big picture for the extraneous detail that becomes the hill we die on.

The Sun is in the Fifth House, in Pisces — the pleasures of the heart and body and mind are likely to plumb the depths of the human experience these next ten days. The Decan called the labyrinth is a place of structure, in which we wander without seeing the structure in which we are bound. Daedalus constructed the labyrinth for the Minotaur, but we also wander its featureless corridors, wondering where to turn without knowing how or where to exit. We’re unlikely to find the way out or the way in, this time around — but we may come to know the shape of the labyrinth as a whole, or at least our current sector of it, more clearly.

Co-present with the Sun are Mercury and Neptune, both in the middle Decan of Pisces, called by Austin Coppock, “The Net” — The herald-messenger is recently retrograde in the sign they dislike the most, and there are worldwide troubles with communication, travel, and electronics being stirred up. However, for most of my readers, these troubles are stories in the news rather than personal experiences: cruise ships turned into quarantined hospital wards, flights in and out of China canceled, factories closed, new computers delayed. It’s not exactly personal, you see? We’re all still having fun, playing games about elections and thinking about how pandemics play out on global scales. However, in company with Neptune, the divine messenger promises messiness that extends beyond usual boundaries — shipment difficulties extending well into the December holiday season, production lines delayed, sick passengers unable to go home… and yet, coronavirus-bearing patients still slip through holes in the net. This is no wall of defense, but rather a porous barrier, and all manner of things are floating through it thanks to Neptune’s unbounded influence.

We find Venus in Aries, a place of her detriment. The energy here is the fun-loving hippie chick in the ROTC mess-hall (ROTC is where/how the US trains a large percentage of military officers in college, without sending them to the military academies). She may win over allies in this place, of course, like any charming woman could… but she’s starting at a place of disadvantage, and with a lengthy list of chores to do while she’s here. That’s the rub, really — there’s work to do and it’s kind of messy, traditionally masculine and rough work to do — and Venus has shown up in sandals, short-shorts, and a fresh manicure. It’s going to be hard to get work done in the next ten days, and we’re neither dressed nor prepared for the chores ahead.

In the house of relationships, we find Uranus, bringing disruption and upheaval to normally-comforting and comfortable areas of our lives. Here in Taurus until July of 2025, the magical revolutionary sends hosts of upstart issues to trouble the waters and muddy the meadows of our most comfortable realms. We’ll be better for it once it’s done — but getting there is going to be a struggle.

In Cancer in the Ninth House, the head of the dragon called the North Node lurks in the early degrees of the sign. In early May, the node representing the hunger and devouring force of the dragon will move into Gemini, awakening in us a hunger for new nutrients and new resources. For now, he broods in the Decan called “The Mother and Child” arousing the gnawing need in us for parental comfort and the learning of the higher wisdoms of humanity that rarely come from any source but our own parents. Guess whose house I’m sheltering in as I write this? Your first two guesses don’t count.

Much of the rest of the chart is empty, until we come to the stellium of planets in Capricorn, in the Third House of extended family and neighborhood. Here we find the warrior Mars, the Part of Fortune, the South Node, and the Moon, all in the first Decan called “the Headless Body” ruled by Jupiter who is in the middle Decan called “The Pyramid”, and then Pluto and Saturn occupy “The Throne” in the last Decan. The first part of this Capricorn pile-up indicates a more aggressive effort to party hearty, with methods that are both more forceful, and more forced, than normal: the sausage fest where no one s having a good time. Everyone is too bound into structures and strictures right now, and forgiveness is a commodity in short supply with the current systemic bulk pressing down on us; finally, both toxicity and limitation occupy the current leadership posts, on both a macro and micro scale. We’re not getting what we need… but neither is anyone else. Alas.

The Moon is in the tropical 22nd Mansion, “Fortune of the Sacrificers”, while sidereally she is in “The Beam”, the 20th Mansion. The first promises liberation, and freedom from constraint, while the second indicates pursuit of prey or the targeting of quarry. On the surface, then, we are likely to see our close friends try to disentangle themselves from various messes — but in a more private way, they’re doing so because they have a new goal that they feel is worth their time.

Let’s unpack how this plays out in horoscopes.

Rising Sign Horoscopes

Scorpio: Your friends and family all seem in the dumps,
while you enjoy a platter of pleasures;
but work brings a wreath of creative slumps,
and lovers expect dramatic gestures.

Sagittarius: local taxes demand some accounting,
all your fun’s confined to home and quarter —
creative work seems forced, somewhat daunting,
with unkempt finance ’round each supporter.

Capricorn: Entangled with siblings in common weal,
netting small profits from pyramid schemes —
managing kingdoms is no way to heal
the furrows that cut through your partner’s dreams

Aquarius: You put affairs in some sort of order,
and hid from the crowds by working alone.
Children and spouse poke holes in this border;
skip pliant comfort for wild unknown.

Pisces: Boundless pleasures (but you have to request!);
else friends remain mired in routine goop —
artistic work is an unwelcome guest
while you play host to a ravenous group.

Aries: Your inner queen gets to wear her gold crown,
Just as manure hits the public fan.
Solo work’s best while your job-site turns brown;
after, bring more wipes for cleaning off your clan.

Taurus: Comfort your partner through troublesome days
and siblings who bite more than they can chew —
Friends are an ocean (don’t drown in their praise);
but choose your trips after careful review.

Gemini: Ancestral matters affect your career:
history’s ocean might drown out your speech.
You get less pie than your nominal peer,
but some big job goals may now be in reach.

Cancer: There is still more you’re required to learn
though kin groan under their inheritance:
Go see those distant shores for which you yearn,
or claim your crown with a warrior’s dance.

Leo: Are you stuck? Advance another’s banner:
a house-mate you may secretly admire,
an old lover with skills like a planner,
an artist crowned with a wreath of fire.

Virgo: Treat your friends as extensions of your soul,
lovers as islands in your heart’s ocean,
tour guides like menders who’re knitting you whole,
siblings like saints deserving devotion.

Libra: Rising fortunes require more working,
bringing oppression to places you live.
Better futures, in shadows still lurking,
ask you to let the past loose, and forgive.

Colophon

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces as the basis of some of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.

Any errors in these columns are my own.

If you want to read some of my other astrologically-oriented poetry, To the Mansions of the Moon is a collection of hymns to the angels of the Mansions mentioned in these columns. For the Behenian Stars is a collection of hymns to the first/brightest sixteen stars. The Sun’s Paces are hymns to the thirty-six Hellenistic-era deities and ascended souls of the Greco-Egyptian Decans-calendar. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.