Your Stars March 2023

Astrologically, March is an eventful month.

Two major planets change signs – Saturn moves into Pisces on the 7th, Pluto into Aquarius on the 23rd – plus the Spring Equinox, the start of the astrological calendar, begins with a New Moon there on March 21st. Add in the fact that all eight planets are still streaming forwards (the ‘luminaries’ of Sun and Moon never go retrograde, natch) and you have a celestial recipe for major changes in the zeitgeist.

Many eyes will be turned to Pluto’s arrival in the skies of Aquarius. Pluto is here for three months this year, but its arrival may offer clues as to what we can expect once the planet settles into its 20 year stay in 2025. Astronomers have been rude to Pluto, demoting it to ‘dwarf planet’ status, but astrologers know that, while only a distant speck, it’s a signifier in world events. As the planet of coercion and darkness – Persephone being abducted into the underworld being its myth – it has a justifiably dread reputation. But this is also the planet of transformation and rebirth, and in the humanitarian sign of Aquarius, its better side may be revealed, beginning with a lot of secrets tumbling out from the last 17 years, its duration in Capricorn.

If you were born with the Sun at the very beginning of your sign – no-one is ‘on the cusp’ by the way, astrology is fastidious about planetary positions – or have other planets there, then here’s a step change in your affairs. For all my readers, I wish a joyous Spring.

Celestial Events

  • March 2 – Mercury into Pisces
  • March 7 – Full Moon in Virgo at 12.40 and Saturn into Pisces at 13. 35
  • March 16 – Venus into Taurus
  • March 19 – Mercury into Aries
  • March 20 – Spring Equinox – Sun into Aries at 21.24
  • March 21 – New Moon in Aries at 17.23
  • March 25 – Mars into Cancer
  • March 26 – British Summer Time at 02.00

Pisces and Pisces rising

Ah Pisces, sign of fishes, fisher folk, seas and oceans. One can only marvel at the ingenuity of sailors from bygone eras, able to navigate halfway round the world on nothing more than a few scraps of canvas and a ship’s biscuit. Two years of Saturn in your skies, beginning March 7, will test your own ingenuity – to improvise, to remain steadfast in storms and doldrums, and come out the other side with something to show for it. So the first item on your birthday list is to renew your sense of purpose and clarify your goals. Saturn supports effort and self-reliance, plus Pisces is the most adaptable of signs. Master & Commander it is then.

You can get off to a business-like start during your birthday season, with communicator Mercury onside and a benign full Moon opposite on March 7. Jupiter, ruler of Pisces, provides a following wind. The giant planet is in your cash zone and keen to add to your coffers over the next few months – and, if you’re not careful, to spend the lot while ashore on leave.

Two other planetary shifts are obliging. Venus in Taurus from the 17th burnishes your creativity and warms your green fingers. Mars has been at odds with you for four months – its pre-Christmas retrograde being especially gnarly. On the 20th the red planet moves into the waters of Cancer for six weeks to warm up your love life. Happy Birthday.

Aries and Aries rising

Transits don’t come sweeter than the zodiac’s two ‘benefics’ in cahoots, and with Jupiter and Venus in your skies as March opens, your first bit of business is enjoyment and attracting supportive people to your side. Good moment for wooing! With a little luck – which Jupiter is there to provide – you can live it up right through to May.

Exhaustion is one hazard, so make your groove funky but relaxed, at least until the Equinox, when you have a new Moon, and an exalted Sun, to recharge your batteries. 2023’s birthday month is purposeful, so while whooping it up at your celebratory banquet, best maintain your ambitions in the wider world. Mercury, the great communicator, is with you from the Equinox to lend you the gift of the gab. Aries likes to lead from the front, so go right ahead and force the pace.

Bumps in the road? Birthdays April 19/20 face a searching question/decision from Saturn before the planet of stark reality moves into Pisces on March 7. Since these same birthdays have a new Moon cum eclipse forthcoming in April, this could be time for a spot of urgent re-invention. March birthdays might cast a wary eye towards the last week of the month when ruler Mars changes sign to remind you that there are people just as feisty as you. Either that or the tumult of the builders arriving!

Let’s hope you have the funds to underwrite your escapades. Fortunately, Venus in you cash zone from the 17th should lend a hand.

Taurus and Taurus rising

Wherever possible, sign off projects from the last two years – this is the last gasp of Saturn squaring you (hurrah) but practical matters (career/property) must be addressed. Saturn’s shift into Pisces on March 7 means you’ll be marching to a different drum for the next two years, negotiating a less pressured environment. It’s time to re-embrace the team and rub shoulders with your compadres over tea and cake, or tequila and tacos if you prefer. The Virgo full Moon of the 7th looks a congenial time to do so.

The first half of March looks otherwise straightforward. Your current solar chart, heavily weighted in Aries and your twelfth house, looks, to put it bluntly, pregnant. Some scheme or intention (or wildflower meadow) is gestating, growing, ready to burst into bloom at your birthday season and beyond, as planets – most importantly Jupiter – cross the border from the Ram to The Bull. Recharge your batteries in preparation.

The first planet to arrive is Venus, your ruler, on the 16th. Those of you drawn to a life or satin cushions and square meals can continue as usual, but here is also a chance to launch a charm offensive with team work, plus remember to flaunt your finest threads and magnetise potential partners.

Gemini and Gemini rising

Last month’s new Moon on February 20th hit the topmost point in your ‘scope. On March 7 Saturn does the same and spends the next three years toing and froing in the zone of achievement and public acclaim. Nothing happens overnight of course, it’s more the success you win through patient, constant application. Best start how you intend to continue.

There are opportunities blowing from another sector of your ‘scope, where Jupiter and Venus occupy your zone of teamwork and network. Work that damn phone and accept any regal invitations you wangle. If you are selected as the captain for your side, the poster girl or boy for your scene, so much the better. Be in it to win it as they say.

Mars has spent a long, long six months in your skies, and there has doubtless been some deep emotional wrangling along the way, especially before Christmas. The red planet departs on the 25th, before which try to soothe any bruised feelings between you and another party. Time to move on.

Cancer and Cancer rising

cancerPlanets in fishy Pisces make life easier for you Crabs – even hard-nosed Saturn, which arrives in Pisces on March 7, becomes more co-operative – handy if you are involved in a property deal for example. Still, best be it a bit cagey with acquaintances around the 17th, when slippery Neptune is involved.

One place you can be sure the Crab will maintain its protective shell is in public. Your professional life is under extraordinary stars throughout March, and becomes supercharged at the Spring Equinox. Jupiter here represents the opportunity to move up in your career, you get to mingle with the bigwigs or to stage your solo show. Present yourself and your works, and milk any applause for all you can get.

Coming to help you through  a pressured spring is Mars. The warrior planet arrives in your skies on the 25th to put some va va voom in your tail feather.

Leo and Leo rising

The shackles of Saturn fall away on the 7th. Not that the last two years are without major triumphs, but you have doubtless not earned them without persistence and leonine fortitude. Currently, your ‘scope is loaded with action from your kindred fire sign of Aries where an exalted Sun, your ruler, is rebooting your inner dynamos. With Venus and Jupiter here in the first part of the month, romance is in the air, even if it’s of the long distance variety. New destinations and new interests  – Jupiter’s thing – may prove insistent.

Venus hits the peak of your ‘scope on March 16 for a three week visit to Taurus. This is the zone where you have a public life, most evidently in your career, but any place you are on display is included. Venus suggests you concentrate on charm and good impressions for the moment. This zone of your chart is under continued emphasis this year, and more detailed strategies will be called for anon – as soon as April in fact – but schmooze comes first.

The weekend of the fourth finds a waxing Moon in your skies; wear a few bright colours.

Virgo and Virgo rising

It’s early days in the three year march of Saturn through your opposing sign of Pisces -beginning March 7 – but you should get onside with it from the outset; after all, responsibility, form-filling, playing the straight arrow – it’s the very stuff of Virgo, n’est-ce pas?

With the Sun and ruler Mercury also in Pisces, you may have to give other people more of your time than you care for. Things may get dizzy around the annual Virgo full Moon of the March 7 – be prepared for a turn in the limelight – and even dizzier when Mercury meets Neptune around the 17th. This being such a slippery planet, all terms and conditions with others need to be made clear, and with Jupiter in your money house, large sums of money may be involved. Beware of snake oil sellers.

To make matters more complicated, Venus promises some very up-close-and-personal action, at least until it moves on at the 16th, when its presence in your kindred earth sign of Taurus renews your enthusiasm, not least for wider horizons, Also working in your favour is Mars moving into Cancer on the 25th, to usher a more communal phase.

Libra and Libra rising

You can dispatch routine work demands with a minimum of fuss, but beware the rumour mill just before the Equinox, when Mercury is mixed up with Neptune. The major emphasis in your horoscope remains your dealings with significant others. Your opposing but complementary sign, Aries, is stuffed with planets, not least Libra’s ruler Venus. The combination of Venus and Jupiter, as March opens, is as sweet as it comes, all silk gowns and ballrooms or kisses at the garden gate – grab what you can.

There are, furthermore, two new Moons in Aries this year, the first at the Spring Equinox, the second, an eclipse, in April, so there seems to be a step change in at least one relationship. Mutual joy and prosperity beckon. Whether you are dealing with an intimate mate, a business partner or a brazen foe, Libran diplomacy is called for. Aries, remember, is a headstrong sign, you have to be a moderator. In your own skies is Ceres, an asteroid linked to capable motherhood and the goddess who rescued Persephone from Hades; an example worth following if can manage it.

Scorpio and Scorpio rising

Weighed down by Saturn for the last two years, for many Scorpios it’s felt like lockdown for far too long. The taskmaster planet’s shift into Pisces, a fellow water sign, allows you to balance what must be done (duty calls and all that) with what you would like to happen. With the Sun also in The Fishes, March is a lighter month. There is still graft, of course – with so many planets in your sixth house you will have to ‘put a shift in’ as footballers say -but there’s a change in the astrological weather.

Venus arrives in opposition on the 16th for a three week spell when partnerships and double acts can prosper, and new faces sought by those in the dating game. Both are key themes later this year. Stay open and remind others that you aren’t as scary as Scorpio’s reputation suggests. From March 25, your ruling planet, Mars, finally shrugs off its six months confinement in your eighth house (did someone say ’emotional turmoil’?) and moves into Cancer and the zone of exploration. It’s time to renew your Quest capital ‘Q’ – and if you have forgotten the password to what said quest might be, it’s time to relocate it.

Sagittarius or Sagittarius rising

SagittariusLooks like you have your hands full. Saturn’s shift to the root of your chart opens two years when sorting out your living arrangements and all the legal and financial matters that go with that, move up your agenda. This won’t happen overnight, natch, but the start of March may prove a telling start to the new era of home and family. Good moment for contracts and trading.

The weightiness of those responsibilities is balanced this month by a parade of planets passing through your fellow fire sign of Aries, a real firecracker of a transit where you realign more personal matters. A lovely time to be out with friends and meet folks who stir your passions, to pick up a winner’s medal in your sport of choice, and to live the dream, as they say. Explore.

Mars has been on opposition for almost six months, and the sometimes troublesome planet finally leaves on the 28th. If you have been on an upper and downer with a significant other across wintertime, best find a conclusion rather than let things fester on.

Capricorn and Capricorn rising

You are overdue some playtime, and Venus in earthy Taurus will be handing out exactly that from the 16th onwards, whether you are looking for love or advancing your latest hobby project, be that romance, miniature railways or Victorian writers. Any billing and cooing comes freighted with possible contretemps between you and your amour (or declared enemy) once Mars arrives in opposition from the 25th.

First, however, comes challenge. Planets in Aries don’t allow for slacking, whether at work or back at Capricorn Acres.

Two new Moons – the first on March 21, the second on April 20 – emphasise change in your domestic arrangements, be it a quick dab with the paintbrush or moving a resident in or out of your beautiful home.

Aquarius and Aquarius rising

Goodbye Saturn Hello Pluto! After two years dogging your steps, the former planet may have a final, crucial decision to force on you before departing from your skies on the 7th. A good time to be signing off contracts. signing on the dotted line. Though you’ll be hearing a lot about Pluto – see introduction – its brief visit to your skies this spring, from the 23rd, is centred only on birthdays on February 20, for whom a few deep secrets may now emerge.

The current emphasis on Aries works in your favour – fire for your air – and makes March above all a convivial month. With so much action at the start of assorted signs, and with Saturn off your back, this feels like fresh start, a moment for grand and idealistic declarations if that’s your thing.

Mars has been in Gemini and romance your fifth house of pleasure for four months, but with a retrograde involved, it surely hasn’t been all pleasure. The red planet moves  on March 25, but not before making peachy aspects to your Sun, the kind that you can use for leisure, a burst of creativity or hot love affairs. Tick required boxes.