The Pisces Path - Devotion to the Divine

by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #130 - March 2, 2007

Planetary Alignments

• The Sun entered Pisces waters February 18th at 5:09pm PST (1:09am GMT) and stays in the numinous zone until March 20th at 5:08pm PDT (1:08am GMT), when Aries announces the moment of the Spring Equinox.
• The Virgo Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse is March 3rd at 3:18pm PST (11:18pm GMT). The Moon is at 13° Virgo and the Sun is at 13° Pisces.
• The Pisces New Moon/Solar Eclipse is March 18th at 6:43pm PDT (March 19th 2:43am GMT) at 28° Pisces.
• Mercury went retrograde February 13th, and goes direct March 7that 8:45pm PST (March 8th 4:43am GMT)
• Saturn went retrograde in Leo December 5th, and will remain retrograde until April 19th, 2007. Where are you in your process of re-evaluation of your limits, responsibilities, desires and life direction?

Another phase of our life is ending. New beginnings are in the air.

Pisces - The Last Water and Mutable Sign

Pisces is the last of the flowing, ever-changing mutable signs.

Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) are the most adaptable and live in a constant state of flux. The mutable signs must learn how to align with the natural rhythms of the planet and the cosmos, and gracefully shift with the evolutionary unfoldment of the Universe. They teach us how to discover and live by Divine laws, and to surrender our will to Divine Will.

As the last of the three water signs, Pisces must learn how to experience the emotions at their highest level of expression. The path of the water signs is not to escape emotional energy, in futile attempts to avoid being overpowered or controlled by emotional currents. Their path is to use the connecting and integrative power of the emotional body, to ground the Divine in our physical bodies. This interactive process between soul, body and Spirit, transforms hurtful and sabotaging programs into the substance of ecstatic devotion to the Divine. The actual feeling of universal love in our bodies is the cause and the effect of ecstatic consciousness. Feeling good at this Divine level requires engaging our emotional body, by loving our experience of the Infinite with all our heart.

Where is My Pisces?

Like all the signs, not everyone has planets in Pisces, but the Fish archetype is part of everyone's birth chart. There are three ways to identify where and how Piscean energy plays out in our lives:

1. Locating the house or houses that contain planets in Pisces, or have Pisces on the cusp, helps us identify the arena in life where we confront our Pisces issues and display our Pisces traits.
2. The house location of our natal Neptune (ruler of Pisces), indicates how and where we play out our quest for Divine connection.
3. The 12th house is the house or territory ruled by Neptune and associated with Pisces. Any planets in our 12th house are conditioned by Piscean energy.

The above three ways all help us understand, how and where our inner Pisces faces challenges aimed at awakening our consciousness to Divine oneness.

The Pisces Evolutionary Journey

Immature (needs to learn)	Mature
Escapism	Divine Connection
Giving up	Surrender
Emotional dramas	Devotion to the Divine
Out of the body	Embodied ecstasy
Addicted to substances	Addicted to the Divine
Emotional neediness	Emotions integrate Spirit and body
Driven to satisfy physical pleasures	Satisfaction of Infinite experience
Debilitating emotional entanglements	Oneness without being attached
Codependence with attachment	Interconnectedness with detachment
Anguish in apparent separation	Bliss in union with the Infinite
Feel helpless and powerless	Partnership with Infinite in co-creation
Temporary addictive highs	Mystical illumination
Victimized	Surrender to Divine Will
Loneliness, abandonment	God/Goddess is our lover
Conflicted mind and emotions	Inner peace, harmony and stillness
Asleep/unavailable to Spirit	Awake, available for Divine Connection
Fantasies, illusions	Authentic experience of non-physical reality
Illusion of duality	Reality of oneness and Divinity of all
Avoidance of pain and death	Embrace the mystery of life and death
Delusions confuse	Enjoying the elegant cosmic mystery

Understanding Pisces and the Piscean Mind

Pisces and Neptune represent the final phase of our human journey, when we release attachment to the physical world and awaken to expanded Universal consciousness, and enjoy the oneness of all existence.

Aquarius and Uranus represent our final involvement in collective activities. We want to offer a legacy and leave the world a better place than we found it. We are concerned with restructuring and reorganizing political, social and economic institutions and systems.

Aquarius and Pisces are similar in that they both have access to the universal mind. However, what they do with this connection is very different. Aquarius is a mental air sign and Pisces is an emotional water sign. Those with planets in Pisces can be less grounded, more utopian, mystical and etheric.

When the connection with the Infinite becomes conscious, both Aquarius and Pisces can perceive reality from a higher perspective. We realize that things are not the way they appear to be. Learning to trust this expanded awareness and our intuition, makes it possible to not let appearances delude and distract us.

With conscious access to the universal mind, Aquarius becomes less distracted, and more able to bring in innovative ideas. Aquarius loves to receive the knowledge and truth that facilitates our role as agents of change. Pisces has a deep urge to float away and disappear. Pisces wants to escape and merge into oneness.

Pisces consciousness holds the pure cosmic space. Pisces teaches us that there is a place where we can go beyond duality and separation. Our choice is simply to go there and experience the peace, stillness, silence and oneness or not. Pisces does not impose this reality upon our psyches. We must choose to enter the realm of peace. We must train ourselves to go there. We must cultivate our connection with the cosmos. At every moment we can choose where we focus our attention. The more we opt to be attentive to the neutral space within our minds, the more the attributes of peace, harmony, and oneness permeate our being.

The Piscean Path

Without awareness of the Infinite, the immature Pisces experiences anguish in its apparent state of separation from Source. The unconscious Pisces feels helplessness, powerlessness and victimized, because it does not know how to establish the cosmic connection it so deeply desires.

The Pisces archetype introduces us to a direct experience of Spirit. Pisces reality exists beyond beliefs, rational thought, dogma, institutions, intermediaries and external authorities. Pisces exists in the realm that IS, WAS, and ALWAYS WILL BE. There is no discussion, only being, feeling, perceiving and inclusion of every experience in the moment.

In the Pisces phase of our evolutionary journey, we move beyond our physical plane activity. Our focus is on disentangling from material desires, earthly attachments and identification with beliefs and groups. Our goal is to move our consciousness toward union with the Infinite. To merge our identity with Spirit, we must relinquish ego control trips and personality defined concerns.

The Piscean path is to expand our consciousness, transcend our personal identity, move into universal experiences, and become one with the Divine. With awareness of the Infinite, Pisces prepares us for the last phase of our journey, when we detach from the material world and our bodies, and our soul returns Home.

The Symbology of the Piscean Path

Pisces is represented by two fish swimming in unison, the tail of one in the mouth of the other. In an unconscious state, the two fish devolve into the storm and stress of duality. In the state of pure consciousness, the two joining fish express the integration and balancing of polarities. Opposites cease to exist as positive and negative impulses and fuse with each other. As polarization ends, cosmic oneness and quietude prevail once again. Wholeness and unity bring calm to the ocean of life, and the terrible world ocean is superseded by cosmic stability and peace.

Pisces/Neptune/12th House

This territory is transcendental. We have to RELAX and LET GO, to experience the ease of existence available when we connect with the non-physical dimension of reality. Beyond form, we experience the stillness, silence and peace of pure consciousness. We move beyond personality-centered awareness. Our final liberation from the limits of physical reality happens at the time of our physical death.

However, while still in the human form, Pisces opens the space for us to find internal spiritual connection and freedom. The Pisces archetype makes it possible to experience the omnipresence of Spirit, achieve a state of enlightenment, and enjoy mystical illumination. Our Pisces path symbolizes the end goal of our spiritual journey, where we are aware of ourselves observing existence with lucid clarity, and enjoying a feeling of oneness with all life.

Pisces and Neptune territory deals with subjective, non-physical reality of our inner world - mysticism, spirituality, meditation, dreams, dream states, visions, prayer, internal solitude, the unconscious and trance states. Pisces and Neptune territory also includes hospitals, old age and convalescent homes, prisons and mental institutions.

Pisces and Neptune introduce us to the realms of both the dark night of the soul and enlightenment. The lower end inner experiences include delusions, loss of memory and discriminatory faculties, psychosis and hallucinations. The more advanced stages of consciousness invoke experiences of surrender, ecstasy, and self-realization.

Pisces lessons and challenges fall in the areas of addiction, grief, codependency, victimization, loneliness, abandonment, and powerlessness. The solutions encompass meditation, visualization, Jungian analysis, shamanic journeying, past life regression, transpersonal therapies, prayer, spiritual practices, contemplative practices, solitude and all kinds of retreats.(1)

Our Inward Journey

When Pisces and Neptune are active in our lives, our attention is turned inward. We want to withdraw, spend time away from the madding crowd, and be absorbed in our inner world.

Our Neptune periods are times of important personal work. Our superficial identity dissolves. Our life is reoriented as we prepare for the emergence of an expanded sense of self, and a more intimate relationship with our soul and the Infinite.

The ease of our Pisces journey depends upon loosening the grip of our rational outer-oriented modality, and our ability to appreciate the necessity of our inner exploration. It is Pisces' job to teach us to trust and give value to our inner journey. Pisces teaches that inner connection is critical on a daily basis, and that there are times in our lives when immersion in our inward journey takes us far away from our normal outer life.

When Piscean and Neptunian influences are active in our birth chart, and are activated by transits of planets, we can experience ecstatic states, feel detached from the material world, and long for union with God. Even for the great masters, spiritual awakening is a gradual process that occurs over the course of many years of devoted spiritual practice, discipline, meditation and prayer. Those who experience spontaneous kundalini awakenings, must also integrate these experiences into their being. There is no such thing as instant enlightenment. Enlightenment is a path, not an event. Over time we learn to surrender our will to Divine Will and to merge our ego into soul and universal consciousness.

Awareness or Escapism

Under the influence of the Pisces archetype, our psychic abilities open and we attune to higher sensitivity levels. Our level of consciousness determines whether we suffer from episodes of delusional grandeur, profound disorientation and confusion, OR experience spiritual awakenings.

The slippery area for Pisces, is between using inner work to become more conscious, and employing some of the same techniques as escape mechanisms. Meditation and spiritual practices can be used as avoidance mechanisms, to circumvent the painful process of examining what prevents us from achieving higher states of awareness, and operating from this consciousness in our daily lives.

Out-of-the-body experiences bypass our conflicted mental and emotional states. However, when we re-enter our physical form and daily life, the grief, anger and fear remain encoded in our cells. Only full in-the-body meditation can transform us at the cellular level.

Pisces' goal is not to escape physical reality, but to transcend our limited, egotistical perspective that blinds us from our oneness. Pisces and Neptune help us achieve an awakened state of mind and heart, where we express ourselves and relate to each other with compassion, kindness and service.

Virgo Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse - March 3^rd

At every full moon we feel pushed and pulled in opposite directions, until we integrate the two energies and achieve a synthesis. Virgo/Earth and Pisces/the Water of Spirit are perhaps the most difficult energies to integrate.

During a lunar eclipse, the Moon does not reflect the light of the Sun. When the Sun and the Moon are directly opposite each other, with the Earth in between, the Moon is in the shadow of the Earth. At the time of a lunar eclipse, our unconscious becomes more conscious. We become aware of our deep, dark secrets, and are able to identify our hidden motivations and fears.

With Uranus (the Awakener) conjunct the Sun and opposite the Moon, this full moon/eclipse promises surprises and an awakening dynamic that can expand our consciousness. The exact conjunction of the Sun and Uranus occurs March 5th, offering an optimistic and mind-expanding dynamic, to expand our horizons and perspectives.

The trick, of course, is that we need to be available to experience higher energies. We need to take care of our bodies so that they can hold higher frequencies. Listen to your body and let it tell you what it needs. It may need more rest, quiet meditation or relaxing activity in nature. Allow yourself to be receptive without expectations. It is not possible to out guess Uranus.

The awakening effect initiated by this eclipse will continue throughout the year. Because of their retrograde motion, Jupiter and Uranus will be squaring each other for most of 2007. Their exact squares are on January 22nd, May 10th and October 9th. The archetypes of expansion (Jupiter) and change (Uranus) interact to facilitate breakthroughs in all areas of our lives.

The Virgo/Pisces Polarity

At this lunar eclipse, we get in touch with both the spiritual potential and the sabotaging traps, that get in the way of the highest expression of Virgo and Pisces.

Pisces sabotaging shadow is devolution into victimization, addiction, fantasy and codependence.

The spiritual potential of Pisces is a personal, devotional experience, of the presence of the Divine within ourselves, in everyone and everywhere. The illusion of separation is dispelled, and the unity and interconnectedness of all existence becomes a living reality. In this state of Divine awareness, true compassion is possible.

Unconscious Virgo gets trapped in pettiness, self-criticism, mental torment and martyrdom.

Through discernment, purification and selfless-service, Virgo prepares its physical form and mind to embody the presence of the Divine.

Between June 22nd, 2006 and December 17th, 2007, the North Node of the Moon is in Pisces. The South Node is directly opposite in Virgo. Finding ways to integrate the Pisces/Virgo energies and realities is our collective assignment at this time. The Virgo-Pisces pair must reconcile with each other, in order to find peace within and harmony without. Our challenge is to evolve into an expanded consciousness of our soul and the Divine within, and then to use this expanded awareness to reach a higher state of evolution, and service in physical reality. Pisces ability to trust, be non-judgmental, compassionate and experience universal consciousness, makes our earthly tasks much more manageable and meaningful.

Reconciling Earth and Spirit

Reconciling physical and non-physical realities is one of our most difficult human assignments. Saturn and Virgo (and the other Earth signs, Taurus and Capricorn) operate in physical reality. Their job is to figure out how to make things work in the material plane. Accountability, responsibility and accomplishment are their domain. The domain of Neptune and Pisces is the non-material world of Spirit and soul. Their mode of being is to surrender to and flow with the cosmic current. (The Saturn-Neptune opposition is relevant.)

Actually, integration of physical and non-physical realities wouldn't have to be that difficult, if we were conscious of the dimension of Spirit and universal laws. However, for most of us, this is not at all the case. Most human beings are not cognizant of universal energies and how the unseen world operates. We act as though we are in control, and ignore how natural and universal laws determine the rules and the playing field of physical reality.

Our connection with the Divine, represented by Neptune, is too often expressed through its dysfunctions - fantasy, illusion, deception and denial. Our cloudy vision, and mentally contrived ideologies about the Divine, at best camouflage our lack of connection. The fact is, most of us experience separation from the higher universal power. As a result, we operate from a sense of either omnipotence or powerlessness, or some other inadequate expression of limited ego.

In the physical world, our relationship with the Divine is through subtle inner perceptual awareness, which must be cultivated through meditation, and nurtured in a devotional state of silence, stillness and gratitude. Workable compatibility, and authentic merging of Earth and Spirit energies, is available only at higher levels of consciousness and competency. There is simply no faking it. If we fake it, we are phonies. The only way to make it is to wake-up and stay awake.

Pisces Solar Eclipse/New Moon - March 18^th

This is the last of seven new moons in a row to occur in the last degrees of the sign. Beginning with the solar eclipse at 29° Virgo September 22nd, 2006, this extraordinary series of new moons competes with the solar eclipse at 28° Pisces March 18th. The last degrees of a sign invite us to integrate the highest expression of that sign, before moving on. We are reminded of how learning the lessons of one zodiac energy sets the stage for a more conscious unfoldment of the next set of zodiac lessons.

Occurring two days before the spring equinox, the Pisces New Moon signals a new beginning, and a new way of life. A solar eclipse serves to expose and interrupt old programming and ways of thinking. With our limited ego tempered for a day, we are able to see how fear, judgment, resentments and the need to control prevent us from experiencing divinity in the world, each other and ourselves. We are invited to let go of anything that closes our mind and heart to our personal experience of the Infinite.

The Pisces archetype represents the universal heart, where unconditional love, acceptance and forgiveness are the natural state of being. The Pisces New Moon/Solar Eclipse opens the space for a spiritual awakening, where we can perceive reality beyond the illusion of duality, where we can connect with love beyond fear, where we can transcend the veil of separation, and experience the inherent unity and divinity of all expressions of being.

This new moon invites us to spend time with ourselves, and to enter our inner space where we can experience that indeed we are not alone, and that our oneness with all Creation delivers us into ecstatic contentment.

Piscean Touchstone

Merging with the Divine does not create a mess. Merging with the Divine creates peace and contentment.

Kundalini Yoga Meditation - Devotion to the Divine

Devotion to the Divine is the focal point of all paths involving chanting Divine mantras. The inspirational mantras and uplifting music in the Kundalini Yoga and Meditation path, offer us a transformational technology to integrate Infinite vibrations into our psyche. Creating cleansing, healing, and states of peace and bliss, the Divine sounds become our friends and even our lovers.

To embody higher states of consciousness, Yogi Bhajan taught us to first prepare our body, mind and emotions with Kundalini Yoga. The set Preparatory Exercises for Lungs, Magnetic Field and Deep Meditation on page 122 in Transitions to a Heart-Centered World, 2nd Edition is a great set to do so. The first exercise pulls us into a deep inner space.

Sit in easy pose. Stretch the arms above the head with the palms together, thumbs interlaced. If you have a hard time maintaining the stretch, you can interlace all but the forefingers which remain pointing straight up. Arch the spine up and back, as far as possible. Maintain a firm foundation in the lower chakras, by slightly pulling in the navel and sitting on the sit bones. Through puckered lips, inhale and exhale long and deep through the mouth. Whistle on both the inhale and the exhale. If you cannot whistle, attempt to do so to create the necessary force to activate the sound current inside the head. Listen to the sound of the breath and the whistle deep inside your head. Continue for 5 minutes.

To end, inhale deeply, hold the breath, stretch up as far as you can, listen inside. Exhale. Repeat this inhale, exhale sequence one more time. Then sit quietly and look and listen inside your head. Deeply look and listen. Do not get distracted. Go deep inside.

After you have connected with your inner space, feel one quality of this space - peace, stillness, silence, calmness. Feel this quality in your body. Enjoy this feeling. Stay with the feeling, the pleasure and the satisfaction for a few minutes. This is full body meditation.

Continue with the other exercises in the set. After each exercise, LET GO and simply be present to your inner space and the sensations in your body. Enjoy what you experience.

At the end of the set, deeply relax on your back and enjoy the letting go and the deep relaxation.

To fully engage the emotional body, pick a devotional chant and chant for 11 minutes. I recommend the Gurudass recordings, Circle of Light and Longing to Belong. Each contains a series of exquisitely chanted mantras.

References and Footnotes

"Virgo Full Moon, Pisces New Moon", Austin, Stephanie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #131, Feb/March 2007, pp.103-104.

"Fundamentals of Vedic Astrology", Behari, Bepin, Lotus Press, 2003.

"Astrology and Spiritual Awakening", Bogart, Gregory C., Dawn Mountain Press, Berkeley, 1994.

"Archetypes of the Zodiac", Burt, Kathleen, Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, 2002.

"Neptune: Where More than Two Worlds Touch", Forrest, Jodie, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #119, Feb/March 2005, pp.57-66.

"Spiritual Astrology", Spiller, Jan and McCoy, Karen, Simon and Schuster, 1985 and 1988.

1. Bogart, p. 50.

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