12 Mar Like a Circle in a Spiral ~ March 13th-19th, 2017

This is the last week of Sun’s journey through Pisces and is thus the finale of the story of the zodiac. Everything has once again, come full circle.

Round, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel

If you are in the northern hemisphere, then I’m sure you can already feel the energy of spring percolating under the earth, ready to burst into bloom! But no matter how imminent this refreshing revolution may be, there is still one more week where the strange psychedelic Sun in Pisces will urge you to remain attuned to oceanic consciousness, where the eternal can be perceived.

Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own

The end of the astrological year is a time to reflect deeply upon all the cycles and processes in your life. What loops are you caught on? Where are you spiraling up and where are you spiraling down? Observe the conditions of your life without judgement for now.

This is not a week for frenzied action and voracious self-help reading. This is a week to honor another circle completed, another winter survived. Thus, no matter what you may have planned, allow yourself plenty of time for contemplation and repose.

Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone

Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream

Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream

After the climactic healing crisis of last Sunday’s Full Moon in Virgo, the Moon’s waning motion will now begin to calm much of the emotional intensity. At the beginning of the week, Mercury will make a dramatic shift from Pisces into Aries, brightening your mental agility with a raw power that foretells of spring!

Also this week, Venus retrograde in Aries and Mars in Taurus remain locked in mutual reception in debilitated signs. Thus, there may be many frustrations and setbacks which compel you to respond with Piscean compassion and patience. You will be especially aware of the cycles of repetition in your life, the feedback loops that your habits and your proclivities have you spinning upon.

Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind

The 1960’s pop song, Windmills of Your Mind, (most beautifully rendered by the tremendous Dusty Springfield) is a perfect illumination of these last dwindling days of Pisces. Your whole life can be seen in a simultaneous vision with waves of memory rippling out into fantasy, intermingling with dreams of the future.

Listening to this song does indeed create the effect of many dimensions of existence. Dusty Springfield’s voice is especially haunting and melancholy, beckoning the listener into the universal heartache over lost moments of love. The wheel within the wheel of the pop sensationalism is that its lyrics represent the Romantic criticism of the classic literary figure of Don Quixote.  (Talk about things coming full circle…)

As far as any scholar can tell, references to windmills of the mind in the English language began in the 17th Century when the first translation of Miguel Cervantes’ classic novel, Don Quixote, was published. The saying refers to the most famous chapter in the whole novel, entitled:

OF THE GOOD FORTUNE WHICH THE VALIANT DON QUIXOTE HAD IN THE TERRIBLE AND UNDREAMT-OF ADVENTURE OF THE WINDMILLS, WITH OTHER OCCURRENCES WORTHY TO BE FITLY RECORDED

In this chapter, Don Quixote fantasizes that the windmills on the horizon are in fact giants.

“At this point they came in sight of thirty forty windmills that there are on plain, and as soon as Don Quixote saw them he said to his squire,

“Fortune is arranging matters for us better than we could have shaped our desires ourselves, for look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay…’ “

Thus, windmills of the mind was once a way of calling somebody crazy, comparing them to the delusional, Don Quixote who mistakes windmills for giants.

But this synesthetic pop song from the ‘60’s is not about a lunatic. It is about a philosophical Romantic.

Lovers walking along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand

Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?

There are many ways to read and interpret the figure of Don Quixote. But the philosophical and literary tradition of English Romanticism read Don Quixote in their own way, highlighting the novel’s affinities for their philosophical values, which held that imagination, genius, and passion were superior to reason.

The great poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said that Don Quixote “personified the two elements of human nature: Soul and sense, poetry and prose.”

It is clear that Windmills of Your Mind from the psychedelic ‘60’s inherited the ideals of English Romanticism. Thus, windmills of the mind, is a term of endearment, exalting the quixotic, melancholic and imaginative mind that experiences fantasy transposed over reality and dreams transposed over waking life.

Windmills of Your Mind imparts Romantic ideals, using poetry to describe a superlative spectrum of reality: the imagination!

As the images unwind, like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

In this last week of Pisces, be at ease with the ever spinning reels of images. There is much wisdom to be gained in quietly allowing things to come full circle.

Monday/Tuesday: You Were Suddenly Aware

When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware

That the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair!

On Monday, Mercury moves out of Pisces and into the sign of Aries, brightening your mind with the raw power of unfurling leaves and blooming flowers. There will be a great sensation of awakening and your mental agility will be greatly enhanced. Many ideas that had become lost upon the seafoam over the last few weeks will now return to you, ready to be actualized!

On Tuesday, the Sun will conjoin Chiron in Pisces, bringing the full pang of melancholy about the past to the surface. You may feel disoriented by a lack of perspective on the pains you have endured, but if you can acknowledge that you have felt this way before, you can much more quickly recover your senses.

On days like this, so long as you remain calm, you can see the wounding in your life as a cycle of predictable patterns. Once aware of these patterns, it becomes much simpler to avoid them.

Wednesday/Thursday: Words That Jangle in Your Head

Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head

Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?

The middle of the week has no major planetary aspects, but on Wednesday the waning Moon will enter Scorpio, opposing Mars in Taurus for a fleeting moment. The Moon in its fall in a hard aspect to Mars in detriment may make you feel quite moody and reactionary. If you feel insulted, you may feel pushed to take some kind remedial action against whatever you deem antagonistic. Yet, due to Mars’ placement in Taurus, this action is likely to be far more effort than it is worth. Try not to allow other people to aggravate you.

The Moon’s travels through Scorpio in general are highly favorable times to do divination, delve deeply into matters, and find the hidden motives within others. Thus, you would be better engaged in deep psychological work during the middle of the week rather than getting into conflicts.

Friday/Saturday/Sunday: The Fragment of A Song

Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song

Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?

On Friday, the Sun in Pisces will square Saturn in Sagittarius. Here the great tension between dreams and cold hard facts emerges. You can be sure that Saturn believes that the windmills of your mind are a sign of insanity. And while some of your cherished ideals may become damaged by this confrontation, this is a good day to discover new strength in your integrity and your character.

If you are a dreamy and romantic person, Saturn will remind you over the weekend that dreams do not equate to being a mature or effective person. If you are devoted to romantic ideals, then you must learn to be efficient, disciplined, and trustworthy in order to make any impact on the world.

In Saturn’s eyes, art is a useless self-indulgence without the willingness to master necessary skills.

On Saturday, Mercury in Aries will conjunct retrograde Venus in Aries. A perfect day to talk to an old lover about what went wrong between you, mending a misunderstanding. This is also a beautiful time to write a fragment of a memoir.

Confessions of love and affection may flow more easily than usual. This is a day where conversation can be much more meaningful and even with Venus in retrograde, her influence over Mercury is still one of sweetening. So if you need to speak to someone using only the most honeyed words, Saturday is the day.

On Sunday, sigh and be grateful for another cycle of time completed. Tomorrow is another day, another sign, another season, and another astrological year!