Red Tent Round Up #4: March New Moon in Pisces
Wise Words from: Beatrice Wood, Ellen Glasgow, Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, Adam Elanbass, Kelly Jones
The concept of the Red Tent is a revived Native American tradition where the community held space for women during menstruation, honouring their physical embodiment of the natural cycles and heightened intuitive capacity at this time.
As many women menstruate with the New Moon, this monthly round-up of material, relevant to the astrology, is intended to be both comforting and thought-provoking for all those embracing the slow, dark depths of this transformational period (pun absolutely intended).
This Red Tent Round-Up will be published monthly, just before the New Moon, with the Sabian Symbol for the degree of the New Moon provided for reflection. The rest is my redistribution of words and works from the Wise Women (and Men!) I am fortunate to have happened upon. Le grá, in love.
“Pisces are the great chameleons of the Zodiac. They often survive through the art of camouflage. Well, doesn’t Water do that? Bodies of water take on the qualities and characteristics of their surroundings, the climate zone, etc.” ― Genevieve Vierling
This New Moon occurs at 20 degrees of Pisces, Sunday (The Sun’s Day) 10th March 2024, 08:59 GMT (Dublin, Ireland).
Pisces Keywords: Faith, Rapture, Self-Sacrifice, Redemption, Compassion, Escapism, Salvation, Wholeness, Devotion
The Sabian Symbol (Dane Rudhyar & Elsie Wheeler) for 20 Pisces:
A TABLE SET FOR AN EVENING MEAL.
An indication that in the end and at the appointed time the individual's needs will be met among those to whom he is linked by a spiritual (or biological) web of energies. The significant element in this scene is not only the meal, but the fact that it is an "evening" meal. To use traditional symbolism, after a long chain of personal existences the Soul returns to its spiritual home at the close of the day-of-manifestation. There it finds that which renews and amply sustains; the happiness of the "beyond of existence" is experienced—if all has gone well. This last symbol of the sequence promises a satisfying or fulfilling end to whatever one has been undertaking. As the life closes, the Soul-consciousness finds NOURISHMENT in the harvest of whatever, during the whole life, has been relevant to the archetypal purpose and destiny of the Soul—one of the myriad of aspects of the divine creative word which began the cycle.
Nostalgic watery Pisces, the sign of saints, sinners, healers and saviours. Those born under the sign are characterized by a dose of whimsy and a dash of idealism, although their actual personalities can be somewhat evasive or hard to discern.
A nostalgic fog, dream-damp and weighty with “just-beyond-reach” wishes, may come over us under this Pisces New Moon. This feels like burdensome weight saturated with the indefinable ineffectualness of Neptune - projects progress like lead balloons through the blurry fog.
Fret not, as Jupiter offers the tangible means by which we transmute this predicament, offering some optimism - and interestingly, the proto-indo-Eurpoean (PIE) root word *op- means “to produce in abundance” - like that nourishing evening meal; a spiritual bounty.
The beloved sign of the two fishes is oft associated with a Christ-like consciousness, and indeed, I have known a Pisces to delight in the bathing of another’s feet, or the practice of reflexology. Some possess an almost literal desire to wash away the sins of those under their care by virtue of their own sweat and tears.
The natural opposite of optimism, and somewhat familiar to the Piscean, is pessimism - the PIE root of which, *ped- means “to walk or stumble; on foot” (interestingly Pisces is associated with the feet in medical astrology). So the symbol of the two fish describes the relentless cycles of optimism and pessimism, the pre-requisite stumbling in service of our self-directed salvation.
Saturn in Pisces, according to Liz Greene, acts like a spiritual midwife, coaching us through the painful tides of life. The Piscean influence wishes to deliver all from pain and to immerse all in pleasure (and we see literal delivery manifest in the Piscean preponderance within midwifery), often at their own expense.
Significantly, Mercury is shifting out of exile into Aries on this New Moon, providing a spark of insight, mental acuity, communicative capacity, and assertive impulse. This may provide a necessary respite from all the ineffabley big feelings and streaming, incommunicable tangents. Look for innovation within langauge.
You will be able to make sense of those big feelings. Nourish the new ideas; erect boundaries where appropriate.
Journal: Write it all out - the crappy version: the things you wish you hadn’t seen, the things you wish you hadn’t said, what you wouldn’t dare utter aloud, and the things you would do if nobody was around. Now, rescript it, with compassion for everyone involved; imagine you are an all-loving God, watching it all unfold, waiting to be asked for your divine creative word. What are those words?
This is a particularly potent New Moon for anyone with planets in mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Scorpio), even more so when on the angles (1st, 4th, 7th and 10th Houses).
THE ARTISTRY ALCOVE
The Artistic Experimentalism of Beatrice Wood
“My life is full of mistakes. They’re like pebbles that make a good road.”
Beatrice Wood
The “Mama of Dada’”, Beatrice Wood, was born 3rd March 1893, in San Francisco, California. Born into wealth, Wood was fortunate to study the arts in New York and Paris prior to WW1, at which point she returned to the US to work as an actress.
“I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men.”
Beatrice Wood
Wood was introduced to Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché in 1916, heralding the brief, but impactful, age of the Dadaism art movement via their performance art and publications The Blind Man and Rongwrong.
Dadaism was sort of a politicised surrealism that rejected the brutal tactical logic and destructive scientific advancements that defined WW1, and the resulting capitalist economy, by subverting societal expectations of art through the nonsensical, irrational and avante-guard expression of the arts.
Encouraged by Duchampe, Wood developed her drawing style, eventually illustrating her own autobiography I Shock Myself - which later inspired the character of Rose in James Cameron’s film Titanic (1997). Could there be anything more Piscean than a colourful life of art and romance, inspiring the artist-heroine of a titanic tragedy of oceanic proportions?
Wood eventually cultivated the earthier signatures of her chart, her Mars in Taurus and Virgo Moon, moving into figure sculpture and ceramics, her “sophisticated primitives”, throuhgout the 1930s and 1940s.
She settled in Ojai, California in 1948, close to her spiritual mentor and friend, reknowned Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti, and was a lifelong member of the Theosophical Society until her death in 1998, aged 105.
Wood’s experimental willingness is so evident in her pottery; some pieces rustic and charming, others elegant and beautifully marbled. An exemplary Piscean, she recalled cycles of great change like the rain meets the river, with grace, humility and humour.
Journal: Can you tel the story of your life, as though it were that of the whispy mountain mist, that condensed in life giving waters, with subsequent streams beating into great grooves channelled through rocky terraines? And what does that final lake or oceanic union look like? Or do you prefer to settle in the rich ground-waters beneath the soil?
RELISHING READS
The Freeman by Ellen Glasgow
Ellen Glasgow (April 22, 1873 – November 21, 1945), of Richmond, Virginia, was born with a chronic heart disease. Isolated due to poor health, she studied philosophy, literature and political theory within the relative safety of her home.
Both Glasgow and her Mother suffered with “nervous invalidism”, a condition which would likely be called chronic and debilitating anxiety in modern parlence. Already we see the sensitive themes of her Piscean moon delicately revealing themselves - a sensitive, inquisitive soul, meek by nature and by Mother, anxious and potentially somewhat agoraphobic, as can be the unfortunate affliction of the Piscean.
She travelled little but wrote voluminously, publishing 20 novels, books of short stories, literary criticisms, and a poetry collection.
Glasgow’s Piscean Moon exhibited itself within her temperament and sheltered home life, however her realistic portrayal of life in the South was direct with the gritty realism of an Aries Mercury, while maintaining the compassionate insight of her sensitive Moon sign.
“Doesn't all experience crumble in the end to mere literary material?”
Ellen Glasgow
Like many Pisceans, Glasgow’s romantic life was one of sacrifice, rejecting the opportunity to marry in favour of brief and spurrious affairs with the one love of her life, “Gerald B”, a married man who’s wife would not divorce him.
Glasgow’s emotional world was doubtlessly frought with despair and longing, however ruler of her emotional Piscean Moon, Jupiter in Leo, provided a sort of sunny fortitude and striving quality to her literary work.
The Freeman just weeps with Piscean compassion as she describes a character grappling with the inevitability of suffering, subverting Hope to a desperate slave and embracing Despair as the path to freedom. The messianic qualities of a bravery born of faith and a salvation through servitude, as described through The Freeman, provide a fascinating glimpse of the depth of associations with the sign of Pisces.
Journal: How do you balance your independence with interdependence? Is this something you consciously create within your career, family life, or creative work?
PODCAST PANORAMA
Grieving is Loving: The Depth & Breadth (Dr. Joanne Cacciatore) of Grief by The Science and Soul of Living Well
Dr. Joanne Cacciatore suffered the greatest loss a woman can experience: the death of her child. She then dedicated her life to education and supports around grieving and loss. This one really hit hard - but it’s a beautiful discussion and applicable for all phases of life, for all we grieve as part of the transcendental (Piscean!) human experience.
A Deep Dive into the New Moon in Pisces by Adam Elanbaas
I’ve studied astrology with Adam Elanbaas (creator of Nightlight Astrology, fabulous courses) and his ability to describe the Piscean energy has (happily) haunted me since listening many Moons ago. Here’s his take on the current New Moon - and his is undeniably inspiring and insightful.
SOUNDSCAPES
Rainbows and Pots of Gold by Stereophonics (You Gotta Go There To Come Back, 2003)
This song is pure nostalgia in sentimental string format. It smells like old beer mats, dusty books and faded polaroids. It’s one of the first song’s I remember having a strong emotional reaction to at the tender age of twelve, wondering what became of that long lost friend. Writer and Producer Kelly Jones has a weepy watery triad of course, with planets in Cancer and Scorpio, complete with Jupiter in Rulership in Pisces.
Pure nostalgia in sentimental string format. Nuff said. Sniff.
I.C.Y.M.I
Here’s last month’s Red Tent for the New Moon in Aquarius…
I finally started my RedBubble shop called Lexophilia (still in its infancy!), where you can get a Selenophile notebook, or other surreal art prints, along with some other interesting words (and patterns coming soon!)
Retreat. Regenerate. Rebirth. Xx
Hello, Hello There!
I’m Sarah Griffin, this is Griff-in-Theory. Irish Vilomah, ex-pharmaceutical scientist, creative and inquisitive spirit, lover of both the macabre and the mystical. This is a space for pondering, so I would love to hear your ponderings in the comments.