There is fire in the sky this month, and not just any old fire. It’s the kind that kicks everything off.

Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable

Astrology posits three types of fire. There’s the roaring fire of the creative self (Leo), lighting up a room like a hearth. There’s the restless fire of the mind (Sagittarius), inspiring movement — upwards, ever upwards — like an aspirant in search of higher truth.

And then there’s Aries, the most forceful of the three. It has to be; it’s the spark that sets everything off. It’s the first sign of the zodiac, so it has to have enough oomph to ignite the whole wheel.

This month’s Aries wave culminates at the Equinox (3/20), when the Sun joins Venus, Saturn and Neptune.

Hot but mild

With Venus in Aries (3/6-30) for three weeks, there’s a quickening in our emotional lives. We might feel an impulse to initiate, to push, to move. If you have Venus in Aries in your natal chart, you’ll have already noticed that a little conflict — just the right amount — keeps relationships from getting boring.

Complicating things, this month Mars will be in Pisces (3/2) at the same time. So acting upon the Aries impulses won’t be straightforward. Our hearts will be fired up, but our behavior will require subtlety.

Self-motivation will arouse us, but asserting ourselves will require empathy. It’s a nice balance, if we can get it just right.

Everyday altruism

The lunar Eclipse (3/3) lays down a gauntlet. It challenges us to apply practical help (Virgo) from a place of genuine kindness (Pisces).

Together, these two signs form the axis of caretaking. Virgo supplies the pragmatism, and Pisces the ability to feel other people’s suffering.

On the New Moon (3/18) in Pisces (selflessness), set the intention to ponder the meaning of everyday altrusim.

New Year’s Day, astrology-style

The first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere is a milestone every year. And this year, it’s an even bigger deal. The Sun is meeting up with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction (discussed in webinars like this one, and in SkyWatches like last month’s).

Mercury, too, is in the mix. Its direct station on the 20th adds further emphasis to this turning point.

As we cross the solar threshold, each of us in our own way (check your chart for zero Aries) will get tested on how well we’re handling the mind-boggling paradox in the air: How to hold onto our core values when reality structures are melting down all around us.

Where do we get a foothold? How do we know what’s real? In this world of deep fakes, disinformation and social media filters, reality’s sure not what it used to be. We have to take a sounding of our own depths to find it.

A great humbling

Contrary to its stereotype, Neptune doesn’t create illusion. It reveals illusions that are already there. It unmasks us. Stories that we’ve told ourselves all our lives, self-imagery that we’ve taken dead seriously, start to feel just plain silly.

There’s a great humbling going on. It applies to individuals, to societies, to whole empires.

Far-called, our navies melt away;

   On dune and headland sinks the fire:

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

   Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

Rudyard Kipling, 1897

Neptune exposes falsehoods, including the assumptions we hold about our personalities, and about life. This inevitably leads to psychic distress, unless we let go of the masks willingly, gracefully, inspired by a deep sense of commitment (Saturn).

Humbling, not humiliation

Alas, most of us don’t surrender with grace. We resist to the teeth, for fear of humiliation. But the point of the transit is humbling, not humiliation. It’s a spiritual coming to terms.

If the nonsense we tell ourselves seems vapid and pointless, it’s a sign that the transit is working. We’re doing Neptune’s bidding if we let our old self-imagery fall away, like a cheap Halloween mask.

What’s left is that which is fundamentally true about ourselves.

This is what will be our new reality.

Images

street art in Seattle, January 2026

William Blake, Jerusalem

In Humility, Simon Dewey