Pisces New Moon Meditation for 2004:

Revelation and Rest: The Elemental Joy of Water

By Jean Hinson Lall

Pisces, the last of the Water signs, brings the cycle of the year to completion and offers both revelation and rest. Water, which replenishes and refreshes the world, also displays divine truth. George MacDonald (1824-1904), the Scottish writer and clergyman, insisted on the holy, imaginative truth of water which has nothing to do with chemistry: "There is no water in oxygen, no water in hydrogen: it comes bubbling fresh from the imagination of the living God, rushing from under the great white throne of the glacier. The very thought of it makes one gasp with an elemental joy no metaphysician can analyze. The water itself, that dances, and sings, and slakes the wonderful thirst – symbol and picture of that draught for which the woman of Samaria made her prayer to Jesus – this lovely thing itself, whose very wetness is a delight to every inch of the human body in its embrace – this live thing which, if I might, I would have running through my room, yea, babbling along my table – this water is its own self its own truth, and is therein a truth of God."

At this New Moon, as Sun and Moon clasp hands and plunge into the sign of the Fishes, we too are invited to descend from the clear air of the Aquarian heights and swim back toward the source of all that we are and all that we know. Aquarius, the Water-Bearer, carried the year’s distilled experience and wisdom in his jar; Pisces will pour out the contents for the healing and restoration of the world.

Piscean waters are the processes of renewal ever flowing throughout the world and our own being. A sudden rain washes debris off the roof and flushes the dusty pavement; a poem or piece of music bathes the nerves and refreshes the soul; the lymphatic system launders our organs and replenishes our blood; the ritual and rest of the Sabbath restore our communion with Heaven and our fellow creatures. Humble, rhythmical processes of nature belong here, as do religious rituals and festivals which represent a "time out" from the daily routine.

Reflection, meditation and refuge, and the places that shelter them, belong to Pisces. Here we shed the ego that helps us negotiate daily life in a competitive society; we let down our defenses and allow boundaries to melt away. Here is the home of the solitary scholar, the diviner, the poet, and the mystic; here, too, dwell the refugee and the psychiatric patient, deprived of their rightful boundaries and in need of protection and restoration. In this space of withdrawal from the ordinary world, paradoxically, the distance between oneself and the divine, oneself and other people, oneself and nature can be bridged. The veil between this world and other worlds grows thinner and finally dissolves altogether.

Piscean water empties itself, gives itself up to the other, becoming one with what it loves. Marguerite Porete (c. 1250-1310), a Christian mystic, wrote of the "unencumbered soul" who "loses her name in the One in whom she is melted and dissolved through Himself and in Himself. Thus she is like a body of water which flows from the sea, which has some name . . . . And when this water or river returns into the sea, it loses its course and its name with which it flowed in many countries in accomplishing its task. Now it is in the sea where it rests and thus has lost all labour. Likewise it is with this soul."

Not only mystical love but poetry, art and music are nourished in this place of self-emptying rest. In Pisces human powers give way to the power of God and the power of imagination, which itself has the capacity to renew the world and the heart.

This New Moon, the Sun and Moon are less than two degrees from an exact conjunction with Uranus, planet of Heavenly surprises. It might be good to have some buckets ready to catch new images and ideas over the next few days. Mercury remains in Aquarius, along with Neptune, so the interplay between Aquarian and Piscean principles is strong; it’s a time when we can be both mystical and intellectual, both poetic and rational. Mars and Jupiter in Earth signs, together with Venus in Aries approaching a trine with Pluto, are eager to start constructive and restorative projects, while Saturn in Cancer offers a steadying (trine) influence to Sun and Moon. Rejoice and refresh yourself in the waters of Pisces! At the Full Moon we’ll explore the mystery of Water’s alchemical marriage with Earth.

Sources:

George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons. Johannesen, 1997.

Marguerite Porete, Mirror of Simple Souls

© 2004 Jean Lall
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