Today’s New Moon at 2:59 AM EST feels unusually potent . Or maybe I shouldn’t use that word “potent,” for that feels direct, and thrusting, male, and this feels decidedly female, a continued surrender — a confusing, fusing oceanic spacey Piscean immersion into that which we have all been falling, like Alice down the rabbit hole, ever since Neptune entered that sign (2011).

The just past three-week Mercury RX period —

Today, February 6, 2014, Mercury turns to go RX at 3°, within one degree of Neptune.

— which ended yesterday, February 28, still reverberates, given its fusion with Neptune at the start; and this Neptunian atmosphere has gained new resonance through the continuous beaming of bloodied innocence from Syria and Ukraine and other hotbeds of the world. These images from “far away” thud into us now, they live right here, inside, they are dissolving the boundaries we frantically try to erect and keep between our little cocooned lives and the world’s suffering. But it no longer works. We can no longer shrug them off. That stunned, stilled, limbs-akimbo child is our child, my child.

Unless of course, we’re medicated, a phenomenon — along with images of far away suffering, are beamed through tel-a-lie advertising — which more and more of us resort to, and this too, is a Neptunian phenomenon: escape, delusion, illusion, denial, addiction.

The Death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman throws the Universal Problem of Addiction into High Relief

This 10° 39 Pisces New Moon occurs on the same day as the new month of March, which I also find significant. And, it happens to line up with a beautiful harmonizing sextile/trine relationship to the dominant — and extremely potent, difficult, infrastructure demolishing — energy signature of our time, Uranus/Pluto, being squared during these many long months, by Jupiter in Cancer, at 10° and 13° of their respective signs.

Throughout this long, difficult, even painfully destructive and revolutionary Uranus/Pluto ordeal (2012-2015), the watery planets are smoothing the passage, easing the way, and they do so in a manner that feels decidedly both “good” and “bad.”

Good: those who trust the process, and their own responses, so that they bend into “what happens,” no matter what. They appreciate not only the clamor and clanging of cause and effect, but the wondrous shimmering miracles that emanate where least expected and that change everything in ways that cannot be predicted. For these who do trust the process, and who ask to be able to expand enough to integrate the entire panopoly of these extraordinary times, all bets are off, as to what’s next! They know that they don’t know. And in their very unknowing beats the potent heart of primal aliveness.

Bad: those who fear the process, and their reactions, so that they must resist all change that does not conform with their comfort zones. Did you know that the U.S., which has 5% of the world’s population, consumes 80% of the world’s pharmaceutical narcotics? See the film, American Addict. Here’s the trailer:

Long term, prolonged pain is intolerable for those who demand instant, constant gratification of any and all desires.

While the latter may constitute the majority, more and more of even those who have been buried in fear are waking up. And though figures vary as to what constitutes critical mass, I doubt we need more than 10%.

Besides noting its relevance to the ongoing Uranus/Pluto slicing and dicing of the disappearing “American Dream” — another Neptunian phenomenon, unreal from the start, and yet fitting for a nation born with Neptune near its Midheaven! USA chart — also notice the two bodies this New Moon (Sun/Moon conjunction) is sandwiched between: Neptune, at 5° and Chiron at 13°, both in Pisces (unfortunately, my astrological program does not include Chiron. Take my word for it; it’s only 3° away from the New Moon conjunction).

Hopefully, you’ve caught the flavor of Neptune and Pisces by now. Add Chiron to the mix, and its feature, that of “the wounded healer,” e.g. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, whose extraordinarily deep and compassionate portrayals of wounded beings carried the charge of Chiron.

Len Walleck notes that this month’s New Moon conjuncts the asteroid Alice, which I find interesting in that one of the themes of this time period is plunging into the rabbit hole where nothing makes sense, good sense, clear sense. Think of all the revelations from Snowden and other whistleblowers. Think of the constant stream of info and disinfo about Sandy Hook, 9/11, chemtrails, Fukushima, etc. etc. Who knows what’s real? Neptune says it’s all real, and not real, in some universe or other. The point is, where do we center? How do we find our feet in such a morass? For that you might also look at Len Walleck’s insightful meditation on this New Moon:

Look Here — the Alice-Pisces New Moon

Oh yes, and I almost forgot (a very Neptunian phenomenon in its own right, forgetting . . .)! This week sports not just the turn of Mercury to go direct yesterday, but in the next few days:

Mars and Saturn both turn to go RX on March 2nd — tomorrow! — and I’d say thank goodness, because maybe then the seemingly inexorable chest-beating standoff with possible U.S./Russian war in and over the Ukraine will find a way to reverse itself.

Jupiter turns to go Direct on March 6th, after four months retrograde.

Times when planets change to go either forward or backward, i.e., times when they are stationary, are extremely potent. Each of them will be showing its stuff to an unusual extent this week. Expect the unexpected. Prepare for anything. Expand to fill the largest space possible with love, love, love.

This New Moon lights up the Neptunian phenomenon, that vast frequency field that holds us, like an amniotic fluid, both nourishing, and yet, if we choose to poison our bodies or minds or spirits through serious addiction, thoroughly debilitating.

And remember, we are not out of the shadow of Mercury’s recent retrograde passage until it goes back over the same planet it conjuncted when that retrograde period started on February 6th, which of course, as usual, is Neptune. Yes, they meet again on the Spring Equinox, March 21, as if divinely choreographed.