The 2021 Pisces Full Moon reaches its maximum phase at 4:54p PDT on Monday, 20th September 2021 (28.23°). This is a powerful Full Moon in that Pisces is a deeply sensitive and emotional sign. Representative of “All That Is”, Pisces reminds us of the interconnection of everyone and everything. If something doesn’t affect all of us immediately and deeply, it may affect one or two of us directly only to ripple out into the world gradually, slowly, gently…
The 12th and final sign of the Zodiac cycle, Pisces is a mutable water sign – water in its most fluid, changeable, and change-enabling form. Water is emotional and spiritual energy – it can flood and overwhelm us, but it can also wash away what hurts us and/or no longer serves us well. With its fluidity, it can change us by bringing change to us, but only if we’re willing to see the changes it’s bringing, and only if we’re willing to do the work to bring those changes into manifestation.
The mention of work comes from the fact that the Pisces Full Moon is reflecting the light of the Virgo 5 Sun. Virgo is the day-to-day, the pragmatic steps which make our everyday lives functional. I call these two signs – Virgo and Pisces – the “Axis of Service” because Virgo, being mutable earth, is the balance to Pisces mutable water, with both signs having a fundamental focus on service. Pisces gives Virgo emotional and spiritual awareness of its interconnection to everyone and everything around it, helping Virgo understand that its mundane work has (or can have) a far larger purpose and impact than simply making its own individual life work; Virgo gives Pisces more substance and structure to actually bring its idealistic and imaginative visions into practical reality.
Both of these signs do their work by serving others in some way. Through Virgo, it’s often through our everyday efforts which in most cases is the day-to-day work we do which may be service to others, but it’s actually more service to ourselves, often providing our service/labor/work in exchange for the financial, material, or physical resources to help us make our personal everyday lives functional. Pisces, on the other hand, often serves others with what we’ve been conditioned to believe is a greater purpose which is often driven by religious, spiritual, or socially moral beliefs – service such as philanthropy, charity, or some sort of missionary work is usually a Pisces-like expression of service.
The challenge with this axis is that on the Virgo side, we often push through physical or psychological pain in order to manage the day-to-day operations of our lives through service to others. On the Pisces side, we tend to use service to others as a way to hide, avoid, or deny our own emotional or spiritual pain or deficiency. Through this 2021 Pisces Full Moon, we will be experiencing a heightened awareness of the latter.
The first thing to understand is that this isn’t about taking responsibility for other people’s action or inaction. It is about you taking responsibility for your own action or inaction in providing service to those you claim to serve. Yet too many of us engage in one of two deeply avoidant behaviors to avoid doing our own internal emotional and/or psychological work, which in turn affects our ability to be successful in serving others effectively out in the world.
- Expecting or demanding that others to do physical or interpersonal service or labor work for us we don’t want to do or we believe is beneath us is some way (due to real or implied institutional or societal position or status), or it can show up as a sense of entitlement, expecting or demanding that others accommodate our personal emotional or psychological needs simply by our request (due to real or implied social or relational position or status).
- Sacrificing our psychological, emotional, and/or physical well-being in order to “be of service” to others. Often, those of us who are focused on serving others to an extreme because we can use serving others as we reason to avoid or escape serving ourselves. In other words, we do not value ourselves so we choose to give other people and their needs more value than our own.
Both of these behaviors are born of unhealthy and/or possibly delusional self-perception, which is detrimental to genuine service.
The second thing to understand is that much of what we do in service to others is actually in service to ourselves in some way. However, this aspect of service often shows up as flawed expressions of service is because we’ve been conditioned to believe it comes from a perspective of either or, not from a perspective of mutual benefit. The erroneous belief is that an act of “service” that benefits one party requires a detriment or a sacrifice by the other – that something cannot be given without an expectation of direct return or exchange. This is another deeply avoidant behavior, one in which we’re often avoiding our belief in lack rather than abundance, and avoiding our belief in competition where we must fight for and/or protect what we believe is ours rather than choosing to practice a belief in community where there is enough for everyone and everything will be provided for us when and how we need it most.
From a human evolution perspective, these are catastrophic flaws in our values and beliefs. Instead of admitting we need psychological and/or emotional help and asking for that support and assistance, we tend to project both our needs, our work, our delusions, and our denials onto others. This is where many of us are getting into trouble now.
By projecting your emotional and spiritual pain and illness onto others, you don’t have to admit you are the one who refuses to ask for help or do your internal work. This 2021 Pisces Full Moon is a call for you to face the emotional and spiritual challenges you’re experiencing by doing the internal work to heal yourself and/or by seeking the assistance and support which enables you to do that internal work for yourself.
To that point, some of you will recognize that you cannot proceed without assistance. There’s nothing wrong with asking for assistance. However, for many of you, this may be very uncomfortable or seem wrong in some way because you’re used to being the ones helping others… or at least believing you’re helping others. Yet as long as you refuse to acknowledge your own emotional, psychological, and spiritual pain, you may find yourself projecting that pain onto others or performing acts of service to hide your own internal wounds. This withholding and avoidance can also begin to create physical pain or ill physical health because there’s no proper outlet for releasing the emotional-psychological-spiritual pain.
Another part of this dynamic that is especially important right now is recognizing how our societal hierarchies challenge the inclusivity that could be the driving force of our service efforts. In the day-to-day of life (Virgo), recognize how the people who are most expected to serve others are treated. Also notice how they are often guilted or shamed into providing service to others, either by being told they are lazy, incompetent, or unskilled. In contrast, look at how those who are “helping” other through philanthropy and charity are viewed (Pisces) – often as magnanimous, giving, selfless people. Also notice how those “helpers” view the people they are helping as lesser people in one or more ways – how the “givers” need to see themselves as superior to those who benefit from their philanthropy or charity. There is a resource hierarchy in place, but also societal and social hierarchies in place. These exchanges are not equal in either or both resource and psychological + emotional energy. They reinforce a belief that we are not all equal – that we are not all One.
This 2021 Pisces Full Moon highlights how we’ve forgotten how we are all interconnected, how we’ve forgotten that we’re all from the same Universal source, how we’ve forgotten that we are all worthy and deserving of kindness and love. We’ve become so focused on the day-to-day, the material and financial, the physical and social appearances, the busy-ness of it all, we’ve lost ourselves – individually and collectively – in façades of service, in the pretense that we’re doing what we do “for others”, when we’re really doing it for ourselves and each other.
Pisces fundamentally recognizes that we are all One, and that is why this 2021 Pisces Full Moon holds such wonderful potential for clearing these erroneous beliefs about service and healing the wounds they’ve created for so long. We are stronger together than we could ever be alone, but the oft-missing part of that sentiment is that we each must show up in our individual strength – in confidence in what we have to contribute in collaboration with the greater whole – in order to be effective as the collective whole of humanity and all beings on this planet.
The thing about genuine service is it not only benefits you or others – it also benefits all of us. It’s a mutual benefit, not one person taking advantage of another. It’s an inclusive privilege, not an exclusive one.
Numerologically speaking, this 2021 Pisces Full Moon is occurring on a 7 Universal Day of reflection, thought, and possibility in all points west of Europe. It’s occurring on an 8 Universal Day of power, influence, and manifestation in Europe and all points east of it. In a 5 Universal Month and a 5 Universal Year of change both expected and unexpected and calls to adapt to those changes, you may notice geographically how people in some regions are still approaching the challenges intellectually, while others are approaching them through active practice. The dialogues we’re having right now debate and bring new perspectives to the how we practice the concepts of service in relation to power – how we use communications to influence others, how we take action to bring our beliefs and communications into manifestation, how we recognize our old thoughts and beliefs may no longer be serving us well both collectively and individually, how we begin to recognize that what we’ve been led to believe is service may have been anything but. In fact, it’s more likely that what we’ve believed to be service has actually been either exploitation and/or servitude.
This numerological influence dovetails nicely with the abundance of retrograde energy continuing from the astrological side which means all of the information we need is being revealed and given to us now. With Pallas Athena, Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris all currently retrograde, this 2021 Pisces Full Moon is a call to notice how communications may not be aligned with behaviors (a.k.a. – people aren’t doing what they say they’re doing). It’s also a call to take in that information and assess your own position for yourself and your own personal journey. Retrogrades are feedback energy, and this 2021 Pisces Full Moon is a time to receive and accept the feedback you’re receiving, recognize the opportunities being presented to you (some for a second time), then to decide how you want to proceed in your work.
Here are the astrological transits within 3° orb during the maximum phase of the 2021 Pisces Full Moon. These will give you deeper insights into the energy dynamics in play at this time.
T-SQUARE: Libra Mercury square Capricorn Pluto Retrograde square Aries Eris Retrograde (23-24°) – One-on-one conversations may reveal pent-up anger and frustration, and some of the anger and frustration may be due to the fact that one of the people in the dialogue is doing all the talking, expecting the other one to listen. Both the one-sided talk and the frustration and/or anger reveal a need for the structure(s) being utilized to transform. This dynamic is not only happening on an interpersonal level, but also a collective, societal level. It may be time to allow the slate to be cleared for a new way of communicating ourselves to each other to emerge.
Libra Mercury trine Aquarius Jupiter Retrograde (28°) – There’s a growing awareness of the shift in human consciousness and evolution, and that shift is expanding. It’s a good time to see if the people you’re in dialogue with are seeing, hearing, or feeling the shift as well. Exchanges of ideas and information in your one-on-one interactions with others can accelerate the expansion of consciousness.
Sagittarius Juno square Pisces Pallas Athena Retrograde (14-15°) – Personal commitments to intellectual growth and expansion through first-hand experience challenge the accepted norms of religious and spiritual practice. As people begin to have experiences different to what they’ve believed (or been led to believe) for most or all of their lives, they begin to recognize how they chose to become part of a pattern of groupthink rather than thinking for their individual selves and coming into community with others through their free will. Genuine inclusivity – an acceptance of all peoples in all ways – now becomes a possibility in their life experience, and their patterns of exclusivity begin to break.
Sagittarius Juno quincunx Taurus Uranus Retrograde (14°) – Those same personal commitments to intellectual growth and expansion through first-hand experience mentioned in the last transit are also incompatible with the lifestyle resource status quo we’ve lived by for centuries… and as those resource values begin to change and shift, it forces us to redefine what it means to have what we “need”. Are our needs really just wants in disguise?
Pisces Pallas Athena sextile Taurus Uranus Retrograde (14-15°) – We begin realizing that much of what we believe we need in order to live or survive has been imposed on us as result of collectively-accepted beliefs and ideals (and delusions). A new way of thinking about lifestyle resources is now beginning to emerge, generating a thorough reassessment of our belief systems as well as our personal and collective values and lifestyle priorities. The status quo is evolving now.
Aries Chiron Retrograde sextile Gemini Ceres (11°) – By valuing your own knowledge and intellect, you begin to heal yourself. Recognize what you have within you to communicate and share has value, and others will respond to you differently as you begin to actually share it. Whether that sharing is one person at a time or to a group, the more you recognize you have a mind for something unique, the more your self-identity will clarify and strengthen.
Aquarius Saturn Retrograde trine Gemini Black Moon Lilith (7°) – The more determined you may be to keep things the way they’ve always been, the more frustrated you may be finding yourself as you realize things are evolving anyway. The only constant in the Universe is change, and the only way to keep up with the changes is to open your mind to learning why the changes are happening. Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you don’t know or understand. It’s okay to admit you don’t know something in order to learn and understand it.
Virgo 5 Sun semi-sextile Scorpio Vesta (28-0°) – Recognizing changes need to be made in how service is perceived and delivered in order to make all of our lives healthier and more functional in the day-to-day of life leads to a determined effort to dive deeper into our emotional and spiritual truths to find deeper meaning in what we need to do every day. We’re individually and collectively seeking deeper truths to align our everyday practices with.
Scorpio Venus opposite Taurus Uranus Retrograde (11-14°) – The deeper and more emotionally vulnerable our one-on-one connections become, the clearer it becomes our lifestyle values must evolve. The practical substance of our lives must change to match the emotional and spiritual substance of our lives.
Scorpio Venus quincunx Aries Chiron Retrograde (11°) – Through genuine, emotionally and intellectually vulnerable dialogue that you may discover you’re hurting yourself rather than healing others. The deep dive to get below surface appearances you’ve been eager to make with others may not be for them, but for you. This could be a catalyst for your own personal transformation, and would likely transform your relationship with the other person in the process.
The energy of this 2021 Pisces Full Moon will be felt from 17th September through 23rd September. Make the most of this one-week Full Moon period by allowing yourself to examine the ways you serve others, how others serve you, and how you may be able to serve in a different capacity with a new perspective or mindset which is more inclusive. After all, we are all interconnected. The beauty of this Full Moon helps us recognize that our interconnection can, indeed, make us feel more connected if we choose to place our focus and intention in coming together.
Thanks for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…
~ Light, Love, and Blessings,
Grace
