The highly energized month of March features two eclipses, the first being a total lunar eclipse of the Virgo Full Moon on March 13 at 11:54 pm US/Pacific. Visible high in the sky in nearly all of the Americas, the Moon, which should be shining so bright and full, slips into the shadow of the Earth from about 9:00 pm US/Pacific and does not fully emerge until 3:00 am US/Pacific on March 14. The second eclipse is a partial solar eclipse in the spontaneous sign of Aries on March 29 at 3:57 a.m. US/Pacific. It is visible over the extreme northeast of North America, Greenland, far northwest Africa, and a good swath of western Europe and Russia.
While eclipses can sometimes potentiate events that unfold over six months to a year, the dramatic transits throughout March mean we might have some immediately apparent eclipse-related events. The symbolism of the obscuration of the lights in the sky—the Sun and the Moon—points to things hidden and things revealed. There is a profound tension between what has gone on for so long that we take it for granted and some shocking disruptions emerging from the future.
The transits of March have a strange anti-hero quality, suggesting a kind of cynicism, despair, or spiritual near-sightedness that can cause us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This is how the psychologist James Hillman once described the results of reducing or shrinking ourselves down to some random extra cast member of someone else’s script. This month can help us break out of limiting views or stories into a much richer, deeper, and authentic context for our lives.
This eclipsed lunation will reveal all that we could take for granted, something often symbolized by the Moon. The Moon represents the web of life, the infinite number of relationships we depend on, but whose complexity and existence may not be in our awareness. The Moon will be closely opposing Saturn, symbolic of the past and current life structures, and closely trining Uranus, symbolic of the unseen future and disruptions to life as usual. Our usual way of processing information and understanding events in our lives will be challenged to expand and evolve; for some, this could be a jarring experience. For others, it could confirm an intuition we have held for some time but wasn’t entirely clear until now. However, hold all clarity lightly, as so much more will be revealed this year.
Most of us will be called to especially notice how Saturn operates in our lives, in his power to create through limitations and provide discernment and intellectual clarity. The Skeptic philosophy of ancient Greece differs from most skepticism of today. In ancient Greece, the Skeptics did not draw any conclusions about evidence and observations to open up the periphery vision and extend the possibility of knowing even more. When we jump to conclusions, we tend to stop gathering information and to filter out anything that contradicts those conclusions. Today’s idea of skepticism frequently views the world through a rigid, fixed viewpoint, destroying or suppressing any contradicting information or views. This is an impoverished and brittle expression of Saturn’s highly creative function.
The disciplined openness that characterizes the original Skeptic could be of great service to us through March and into April. The entanglement of this eclipse with the world-transforming transit of Saturn conjunct Neptune (March 2024 to May 2027) warns us of getting caught up in the reactivity that permeates the month of March, and indeed all of 2025, and potentially working against our interests. We could respond to disruptions or challenges by bringing the background into the foreground.
What are the dynamics at play?
What are the roles independent of who is playing the role?
What is the larger context?
It could be confusing to focus on individuals and personalities rather than the scenario we are all enacting. If we keep going in the direction we are headed, that is where we will end up, and our direction is significantly influenced by the context we imagine ourselves to be in.
The love, connection, and harmony of Venus also traverses the world-transforming transit of Saturn conjunct Neptune in her regular retrograde period of roughly every 18 months. She appeared to reverse direction against the zodiac backdrop on March 1 and will continue to move backward until April 12. This influences calls us to define what we want to bring forth, regardless of the apparent circumstances surrounding us. It could be very helpful to connect with deeper sources of imagination and put the protagonists—the stories, people, higher ideals, and values—in a good and fitting place. In other words, try not to make the antagonists, or whatever we don’t want, the central character of our story.
Taking the time to commit to what we most care about—and being very clear about that, which could require some soul-searching—will be key to picking our way through a year filled with transition. Getting a firm grip on the most positive and creative aspects of the planet Saturn is again strongly indicated. Venus conjoins Saturn on January 18, April 7, and April 24, bringing forth serious commitments, ending inappropriate relationships, and a maturation process around our sense of love, duty, and relatedness.
It may feel dangerous to declare what we truly want, especially to those we depend on. If we have patterns of relationships that revolve around treating love as war, where our loved ones, colleagues, finances, or friends are treated as an obstacle to our happiness, contentment, or desires, this Venus retrograde strongly supports changing that attitude. We might approach competing needs or desires from a place of commonalities. Define what you want to achieve together and partner in that goal. Understanding each other’s differences will be key, not imagined or irrelevant differences, but the naked, unadorned truth.
Understanding the Other usually requires that we not take their needs personally, as if they are an undue burden or a personal affront. What if it’s not about you? Differentiating ourselves from others is key to any negotiations that arise at this time. If we have any tendency to hide our true desires, it will get complicated quickly. We must be nakedly honest with ourselves, too.
Venus Conjunct Neptune
Idealism and the defeat of idealism seem unavoidable. The one variable may be the grace we can offer ourselves and others as layers of confusion, misunderstanding, or not-seeing peel away. The harmonies of Venus will conjoin the oceanic depths of Neptune on February 1, March 27, and May 2, emphasizing the need for enough imagination, vitality, and love of life in our soul-searching.
While the overall picture of Venus’s retrograde transit of Saturn-Neptune seems to point to disappointment, look out for being disappointed about the wrong things. We could quickly release illusions to make space for the true and the beautiful to grow. Venus’s interactions with Neptune and her ongoing sextile with the raw power of Pluto (exact February 7, March 21, May 6) remind us that there are larger forces in the cosmos with which we can align. For all who have a strong connection to the Goddess in all her myriad forms, this is a month to practice that connection for keeping our hearts open and supple, to stave off unhelpful rigidity or brittleness.
The divine unity of Neptune enters the initiatory sign of Aries on March 30 for the first time in 150 years, offering us a chance to plant seeds of imagination, seeds of divinity. It is the beginning of a new 165-year cycle of the imaginal realm’s incarnation on Earth, another sign of the significance of this month. Aries suggests that we not lose our individuality within some unidentifiable mass but contemplate how unity reflects diversity, not homogeneity—the divine wears multiple faces, with countless manifestations. The Goddess gives birth to so many various forms.
Venus Retrograde Key Dates
⚉ Venus enters retrograde shadow at 24° Pisces on January 27, 2025
⚉ Venus stations retrograde at 10° Aries on March 1, 2025
⚉ Venus stations direct at 24° Pisces on April 12, 2025
⚉ Venus leaves retrograde shadow at 10° Aries on May 16, 2025
Working with diversity and individuality within a container of shared purposes strongly supports any renegotiations we must make. But we still have to expect confusion, misunderstanding, and communication challenges this month. We will see trickster Mercury in his first retrograde period of the year, following nearly the same path as Venus’s retrograde through Aries and Pisces. Once again, laying claim to Saturn’s positive persistence and desire for clarity will assist us. The incongruence between word and deed will become very noticeable as we proceed through March, and the incongruence may be our own. Obsessing over others’ plans, goals, and choices will create a disadvantage as we may play into those plans and goals rather than seeing the full range of choices available to us.
A large part of seeing clearly will involve consistent care of our nervous systems and avoiding overstimulation. With so many powerful currents of history flowing through the intersection of March 2025, slowing down even slower than we think we need to is a good approach. Turning off screens, turning to herbal allies we know will help soothe us, practicing pranayama or yogic breathing, and using methods of resetting the vagus nerve can provide essential filters on our awareness that steady us inside the creative, present moment.
Similarly, by looking closely at context, we can find a good place for ourselves if we step outside of familiar stories that presume to know precisely what will happen next. We could step into witnessing awareness. If we think we know everything, we are likely locked in some past challenging experience or some highly anticipated future difficulty. It’s a sign that we may not be present, here and now. The present moment always involves the creative energy of uncertainty. The present moment has dynamism that the repetition of old stories and scripts, the predictable goodies and baddies of our life, just does not. The Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke reminds us of the magic in our language, our presence, and our attention:
“I know that nothing has ever been real without my beholding it.
All becoming has needed me.
My looking ripens things
and they come toward me, to meet and be met.”
Mercury Retrograde Key Dates
⚉ Mercury enters retrograde shadow at 26° Pisces on February 28, 2025
⚉ Mercury stations retrograde at 9°Aries on March 14, 2025
⚉ Mercury stations direct at 26° Pisces on April 7, 2025
⚉ Mercury leaves retrograde shadow at 9° Aries on April 26, 2025
Total Lunar Eclipse:
Full Moon in Virgo by Moon Sign
The Moon represents the materia of the anima mundi or Soul of the World, symbolic of the sacred body and its interwoven interdependence with all of nature. She describes our deepest vulnerabilities and profound capacity to connect with others. Full Moons amplify energy and emotions, and this one makes visible the things we have taken for granted and invites us to slow down and expand our awareness of the contexts we imagine ourselves to be in.
Let’s see how the Virgo Full Moon impacts your own Moon placement!
Aries Moon
The eclipse of the Virgo Full Moon brings collaboration into focus, Aries Moon, and questions many assumptions you have held about working together with others. Bringing your best self to the table may not involve dimming your light; it may be more a matter of allowing the moonlight in so we can see the other stars.
Taurus Moon
The powerful energy of the Virgo Full Moon under eclipse is your call to reimagine how you intertwine with social networks, friends, and professional groups. Under consideration is how these influence your sense of self and identity and how you approach pleasures and your creative works. It’s as if the pressure is on to recognize or re-source a deeper identity than you’ve previously inhabited, Taurus Moon, which arises out of the present moment.
Gemini Moon
The eclipse of the Virgo Full Moon can provide a powerful glimpse of your more secret or hidden motivations, Gemini Moon. Whether you keep your motivations hidden from yourself or others is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is absolute honesty in assessing what ends your actions serve because how we approach something reflects the outcome we seek. You might ask yourself, why take this specific course of action and not another route?
Cancer Moon
To gather the benefit of the potency of this eclipsed Virgo Full Moon, you might give yourself quiet moments of contemplation. Retreat into the protective crab shell of your Cancer Moon, make yourself as comfortable as possible, and allow any mud to settle out of your emotional waters. Clarity about whatever is on your heart can emerge from the stillness.
Leo Moon
This quote from the Irish wit and playwright, Oscar Wilde, sums up the eclipse of the Virgo Full Moon for the person born under a Leo Moon: “Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” Your foresight may cause you to feel a bit precarious, but you could serve as a lighthouse, guiding others to safety through a dangerous passage.
Virgo Moon
This is your Full Moon of 2025, Virgo Moon, and you are receiving an eclipse! The delicacy of diplomacy figures into this lunation, as you may find yourself quickly on the defensive or feeling very exposed and vulnerable. Be wary of taking others’ thoughts and feelings on as if they are your own. Empathy can be an excellent ally for discerning what is genuine, but remain faithful to your feelings and perspective.
Libra Moon
This lunation provides a space to touch into the experience of gratitude, Libra Moon. There is an expansion of understanding available to you through the eclipsed Virgo Full Moon when you deliberately evaluate all the many things you already have. Among the things any of us may take for granted are the most mundane of blessings and the most sublime. Gratitude offers some clarity in how it softens the heart.
Scorpio Moon
If you’re trying to cope with a sense of abandonment, sudden loss, depression, or loneliness, the eclipsed Virgo Full Moon beckons you to simple spiritual practices. What is straightforward can bring the most relief, Scorpio Moon, and regardless of your present state of mind, such practice will support your journey through 2025.
Sagittarius Moon
You may find your competitive nature stirred in the eclipsed light of the Virgo Full Moon. The experience of exclusion, being overlooked, or being placed second best may feature prominently, or you may be innocently working hard to win without realizing how much you are stepping on others. Although this lunation may bring some kind of setback, Sag Moon, if you remain in integrity and continue to show up with your best self, you might be surprised at the gains realized by the end of May.
Capricorn Moon
You might be especially beset with communications woes under the eclipsed Virgo Moon. Try to find patience for misunderstandings to get cleared up. You might have feelings of urgency or instability that cause an overreaction that undermines your position, Capricorn Moon. Seeking support for discussing things with confidantes or allies can help you weather the uncertainty and exercise good judgment in your choices and actions.
Aquarius Moon
You may find your escapist tendencies activated by the events of the eclipsed Full Moon in Virgo and want to check out from “reality,” which may feel too much. Unfortunately, fleeing from what is right now doesn’t seem very helpful, Aquarius Moon, and reaching out to allies and taking good care of your nervous system could give you a needed boost.
Pisces Moon
There is a lot of action in your sector of the sky, Pisces Moon, for the next month or so. The eclipse of the Virgo Full Moon invites you to lean into the most positive aspects of Saturn, to take hold of your rudder and set sail into the wind. Discerning who is foe and friend may grab your attention for a time, but don’t let paranoia close your heart or cloud your mind.
