This year the Pisces season has been extra-long and more intense than the usual month-long watery spell. Multiple planetary frequencies are calling us into the deep ocean of consciousness. These frequencies require deep listening to your inner world, becoming more deeply resourced in your soul knowing, openness & vulnerability, understanding, valuing & embodying the gifts of being, slowness, rejuvenation, and rest.
This prolonged phase of deepening sensitivity, although perhaps feeling interminable to that in you that wants to ‘get going’, is the perfect preparation for this promising Year of the Fire Horse. Although the Pisces frequencies may seem to be anathema to the spirit of this Chinese archetype, they are just what we need to anchor its gifts. Understanding this play of frequency supports the deepening embodiment of differing rhythms of your evolutionary journey. The current pace of life acting as a foundation for the intensity of late spring & summer, when the Fire Horse quickens.
How would you approach a highly spirited animal? What quality would you bring to that approach? What would be a good connector? What are the qualities that build a relationship of trust? These are questions that may help you understand the deeper meaning of this Pisces season. How it is supporting what you most need to navigate the upcoming fiery energies in April & particularly July.
This Pisces season (along with Jupiter in Cancer) has offered the potential for deeper trust & connection to your own sensitivities & needs. The upcoming New Moon at Pisces reveals what you’ve discovered about that. It reflects your capacity to hone your fire energies with sensitivity, empathy & grace. Now is a good time for reflection on your circumstances, to honour what is emerging whilst also recognising what is lingering beyond its healthy timeframe. Pisces is aware intuitively of what may be scattering your potential alignment or diluting your commitment to new life.
Gratitude for every aspect of your life – even the difficult parts – opens the space to who you are becoming. Pisces knows this more than any other sign, for it allows spaciousness in which birth can occur. There is something in you that has been gestating for a long time. This long Pisces season has been gently nurturing it towards birth. Any pains you feel now are simply labour pains. This Pisces New Moon, almost at the end of the zodiac, highlights this.
Birth occurs in Aries season. The urge to act arises, with the calling to commit. Like The Fool in the tarot, Aries is the innocent adventurer who simply steps up with courage. From the Equinox, 20 March, just after the New Moon, there will be seven planets in fiery Aries, sign of new beginnings. The light of a new season begins to shine.
From then on, movement & action become essential. Mercury stations direct opening the mind to greater clarity on direction that can take shape from 9th then 16th April, when Mercury crosses his retrograde shadow zone, then enters Aries. There is a gathering up of dynamism, that is supported by deeper qualities developed through the long slow period we’ve traversed since last year. This is supported also by outer planet connections. This year the radical shifts to newness are both personal & collective. Who you are being in your life is important to more than just your life. What you are giving energy to matters. Your commitment to be bold in being you is primary.
The New Moon is accompanied by the third conjunction of Rainbow Bridge Chiron & Disrupter Eris at 24 Aries (first two were June & October 2025). This acts like a kick-start and being in Aries, it’s personal. Surprises, sudden change or potentially shocking insights that have been brewing since 2025 come to their final act. There’s a demand that unhealthy yet safe beliefs and behaviours make way for deeper self-worth, initiative & courage. You’re encouraged to cross a bridge & not look back. This brings us back to the Fire Horse year.
Playing with fire can be dangerous. Horses are naturally free-spirited & unpredictable. When approaching a horse, sensitivity is needed; gentle connection is required. When riding a horse, balance is essential, subtle command of your direction is key. A relationship of trust is crucial. Being relaxed yet alert & alive is key.
As the Fire Horse energies soar through late spring & summer, discernment of how you are responding/reacting to circumstances is key. Reflecting on the different forms of fire is supportive as a preparation: a match that can set a fire, a warming fire in a log-burner or a forest fire. Which will you be?
All forms of fire need awareness: a match can easily be blown out, a fire needs feeding and a forest fire calls for boundaries. The fire horse needs a steady hand to guide it. Unrestrained enthusiasm, freedom without soul-led discipline, trusting to luck instead of deep soul direction can cause chaos. Chaos can be fun in the short-term, yet wisdom knows its edge. Sensitivity & clarity with presence, knowing when to forge ahead & when to rest are keys in this period.
As I write I’m aware of the energy of Moon Goddess Artemis. She is vibrantly active & fiery as a protector of the natural world and girls. She’s radical, independent & strong-willed yet she also is drawn to retreat from the world. Her rhythm is of the emerging moon, sensitive to being too far ‘out’, in need of periods of rest & recuperation so that her growth into fullness is supported. Artemis is currently in Aries (until late April) so her energy is particularly pertinent right now. In many ways she carries the Fire Horse energy yet also its balance.
From mid-April this year, Masculine (fire/air) energies predominate. This is when the yang of the Fire Horse truly activates. We need conscious awareness of our Feminine to balance this outwardly active drive.
Yang/Yin rest within each other (the seed of Yin in Yang and vice versa), both predominating at times but always aware of the shifting polarities. As autumn begins in the northern hemisphere, Yin will begin to rise once more. Personal planets Venus then Mars turn retrograde, both stationing in water & earth signs. Whatever you create within the Fire Horse summer will naturally moves towards balance, rest and integration as the activity, fire, & light of summer start to fade. Meanwhile, reflect on what you enjoy, transmute what you don’t, then allow the fire of this coming season to bring you joy.
The Astrology
Planet of the mind, Mercury, retrograde in Pisces 26 February to 20 March, full duration in Pisces 7 February to 15 April
Warrior planet of will & action, Mars, in Pisces 3 March to 10 April
The Lunar North Node of evolutionary direction in Pisces, January 2025 to July 2026
New Moon at 28 Pisces, 01.23GMT 19th March
Venus will retrograde in Scorpio/Libra from 3 October, Mars will retrograde in Virgo/Leo from 10 January 2027.
