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societyAug 24, 202623:29pending

Do you have faith in your path? Partial Lunar Eclipse in Pisces

About this episode

Please Note: The video is an edited and shortened version of the deep-dive written post exclusive to Substack. The deep-dive posts are taking a break after this eclipse season for the foreseeable future. There will still be some Lunar-focused writing, but hopefully it will fit in your inbox. This long-form content gets truncated and can only be read in full on Substack. Do let me know what your favourite part is if you want it included in future posts)

Eclipses can catalyse change, heralding karmic, significant beginnings or endings and accelerating our storyline.

This Pisces Eclipse is the third and final in a rare series of three Lunar eclipses in Pisces, a sign that drew our attention in 2025 and 26 when the Total Lunar Eclipse occurred. Slow planets, Saturn and Neptune, crossed the boundary from Pisces to Aries, and then returned, creating a cosmic stitch in the sky.

Saturn was the last planet to perform this dance, returning across the border from the fire of Aries into the otherworldly, intuitive waters of mutable Pisces before making its final return to Aries on 14 February 2026. Neptune had made its final move by only weeks before on 26th January 2026.

The series of three lunar eclipses we are experiencing in Pisces highlights a period which invites us into deeper spiritual reflection, surrender, and transformation. The Pisces-Virgo axis invites us to explore themes of service, spirituality, and the balance between the material and the ethereal.

We are likely to have been exploring questions and themes such as:

* How does being of service to others also reward and feed our soul?

* Are we so spiritual that we are detached from the material world, and if so, how can we ground ourselves in practical, earthly matters?

* How do our dreams impact our waking life?

* What links between the two can you see in your life, and how would you like to see them develop and grow?

Have the last two years affected your life in one, or more of these ways?

Symbolically, within the zodiac year of the northern hemisphere, Pisces season comes at a time of the end of the winter, when the warmth and light of the Sun is beginning to take over from the darkness which is losing its grip. We start to enjoy longer days and look forward to Spring, but we are in transition.

We must prepare for the final release of the end of the entire zodiac cycle, before we can be reborn anew with the rebirth that comes with the Spring Equinox as the sun enters Aries. It is a time to go within, reflect and release so we travel lightly into the new.

The Moon is in Pisces, while the Sun is travelling through Virgo, the sign of the maiden who carries the scythe, reminding us of the loss of innocence and the need for the feminine to own her purpose and feminine powers, while being willing to cut away all that is inauthentic, or is outgrown, as the maiden prepares for harvest and symbolically to undergo the rite of passage of the transition into adulthood.

As the Moon is eclipsed in Pisces, its connection with our Earth is temporarily interrupted. Like a computer being switched off and on again, there is a sense of a reset, a death and rebirth much greater than that we experience with the regular New Moons. Themes of surrender, introspection, and connection to the spiritual realm may be intensified.

Pisces energy is often flowing and ethereal, visualise the ocean, sometimes still, serene, reflective and yet with the power for squalls and dramatic high waves crashing, making it more challenging to engage with the material world.

This eclipse may stir deep emotional waters, disturbing the silt resting on the ocean floor, encouraging us to trust the unseen and offering the opportunity to (re)connect with our higher, or deeper, selves.

For the Pisces Eclipse, the symbolic turning Off and On again of the Moon’s reflective light, it could be that something hidden is being drawn up from the depths, from a familiar old story, or a new one, made visible under the shadowed light of the Moon as it is lit up and symbolically reborn after the light was extinguished.

What will surface for you? What has been whispered through dreams, tides, and silences, waiting to come into form? What might be your own rite of passage?

Full Moons draw our attention towards what has reached maturity. They invite us to pause, gather together the threads of the previous months and recognise how much has changed. Eclipses deepen this process, encouraging us to look beneath the surface and acknowledge what has been quietly unfolding, often beyond the reach of our conscious awareness.

This particular eclipse feels less concerned with the next destination than with the journey itself. Its invitation lies in recognising what has matured, what wisdom has been gathered and what deeper understanding has emerged through lived experience.

Overview - Let’s Look at:

* Journal Prompts

* Pisces - Mutable Waters

* The Nature of a Lunar Eclipse

* The Eclipse Cycle and Moon Family

* The Decan of Pisces I

* The Astrological Conversation

* And Finally…

Journal Prompts

Find a quiet place and connect with your breathing, allow your body to gently settle.

Imagine yourself walking beside the sea in the soft light before dawn, following the shoreline as the tide moves steadily in and out. Notice the rhythm of your footsteps and the changing patterns your footprints leave in the sand.

Allow thoughts, memories and feelings to rise naturally, giving them the same freedom as the waves that continue to reshape the landscape around you.

As you walk, reflect on these questions:

* What has quietly matured since February 2025?

* What wisdom has emerged through experience?

* Which hidden motivations am I beginning to recognise?

* What invisible structures continue to shape my choices?

* What is this season asking of me?

* What is it offering me?

Allow the answers to unfold in their own time, trusting that understanding develops through continued attention, reflection and experience.

Pisces – Mutable Waters and Shifting Tides

Pisces is a feminine or yin water sign, making it receptive and inward-focused, fluid and flowing in nature and deeply connected to the imaginal and spiritual worlds as it softens, embraces, listens, and reflects. There is a sense of oneness with All That Is here.

The Shifting Tides of Pisces are supported by its mutable nature, which makes it adaptable, porous, and gifts it an in-between, liminal quality, both able to dissolve boundaries and to move between realms of spirit and material.

Think for a moment of a baby moving through the birth canal, an unstoppable force of creation bringing it from one form into another. The invisible being made visible, in the days before our access to scans. The process can be both confusing, scary, or painful, while also beautiful and life-affirming.

Jupiter rules Pisces, seeking connection through meaning and faith, bringing wisdom and abundance, while Venus, the exalted ruler of Pisces, connects through beauty, compassion, and her artistic vision.

Pisces is the final sign of the zodiac, carrying within it the accumulated experiences of the signs that have come before. Pisces is associated with dreams, imagination, spirituality, compassion and the invisible threads that connect one experience to another.

As a mutable water sign, Pisces teaches through movement and relationship. Water flows, adapts, fills and connects, while mutable signs respond to life through flexibility and openness to change. Together, they create a landscape that feels fluid, reflective and deeply responsive to the rhythms of both the inner and outer worlds.

Some people might experience Pisces periods as marked by increased awareness of dreams, memories, and intuition. Creative expression often becomes more accessible, while reflection and contemplation begin to feel more nourishing than productivity alone. The desire to understand life through meaning, symbolism and emotional connection becomes more pronounced, encouraging us to pay closer attention to what is emerging beneath the surface of everyday life.

Opposite the Moon in Pisces shines the Sun in Virgo, in the home of Mercury, Lord of our Minds, who is both the domicile and exalted ruler and currently has unpacked their bags and is supervising all in Virgo.

Virgo’s careful discernment and attention to detail balance Pisces’ dreamlike flow. This eclipse tugs on and highlights the polarity between dream and practical details, spirit and craft, and invites us to consider for ourselves: How do we weave the ineffable into our practical? How might we let spirit flow without losing form?

Activities that create space for reflection often feel particularly supportive during a Pisces lunation. Walking, journalling, meditation, music, creative practice and time spent near water all encourage the slower, more receptive pace that Pisces naturally invites.

The Nature of a Lunar Eclipse

A total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes directly between the Sun and Moon, casting its shadow across the Moon. Unlike a normal Full Moon, where the Sun and Moon are in opposite signs, a lunar eclipse adds the weight of the Earth’s shadow, symbolising supercharged moments of culmination, closure, and revelation.

During a partial lunar eclipse, only part of the Moon enters that shadow, at once light, darkness, and shadow coexist.

The symbolism is beautifully aligned with the experience of a Full Moon. The illumination remains present, yet it becomes more nuanced and layered. Awareness is present, however, it develops through shifting perspectives and light, with the shadow as important as what is illuminated. This allows us to recognise experiences, emotions and patterns that may have remained just beyond our field of vision.

Lunar eclipses have long been associated with culmination, release and heightened awareness. They often correspond with periods in which emotions become more accessible and our relationship with a particular situation evolves through reflection and recognition.

They are catalysts for change, bringing significant and karmic endings, revelations, culminations and points of no return. What was once hidden may surface dramatically, often tied to longer cycles, that can help us to identify the themes to expect in our personal lives, by looking at our past. More often, they are a slow process of unstoppable change.

Lunar eclipses highlight the need to release old patterns and beliefs, illuminating what must be let go in order to move forward. They may correspond with emotional and spiritual breakthroughs, bringing unresolved issues to light.

A Full Moon is a time of heightened awareness, but during a lunar eclipse, this effect is amplified and is more likely to have a longer-lasting impact on our lives. We may find that eclipses accelerate events, causing major endings, major beginnings, or shifts that may have been building beneath the surface for some time. Think of tectonic plates imperceptibly shifting, once they have moved, they cannot return.

This is most likely to impact you when the eclipse activates planets in your natal chart, for example, for this Pisces eclipse, if you have natal planets within 2 - 8 degrees of the mutable signs, Pisces, Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius.

This eclipse is the last in a trio of Pisces lunar eclipses, without any balancing solar eclipse in Pisces. This suggests an intensification of the themes of feeling, intuition, our needs for nurturing and collective tides that outweigh logic or clarity. The Moon is drawing our attention, magnifying lunar themes, and possibly holding a message for each of us in the Pisces area of our charts, perhaps asking us to listen to the unconscious, the feminine, and the unseen.

The Eclipse Cycle and Moon Family: Past and Future

This lunar eclipse is part of a Saros cycle, a repeating pattern of eclipses that recur approximately every 18 years. The Saros cycle organises eclipses into families or series that span over a thousand years.

This particular eclipse is the 29th event in its series 138. This Lunar Saros series began in the year 1521 and will continue beyond our own lives until 2982.

You can find an animation showing the visibility and how it travels across the globe as well as the time it will be visible in your location at timeanddate.com

Each Saros cycle brings a thematic recurrence of events and energies. For this eclipse, we can look back 18 years to see what was occurring in our lives in relation to the Pisces-Virgo axis, as similar themes may re-emerge. This also connects to the nodal reversal cycle, when the North and South Nodes were previously in Virgo and Pisces, the opposite of the current nodal placement, 9 years ago, echoing back to patterns and lessons from that time.

Bernadette Brady, in her book Predictive Astrology The Eagle and the Lark categorises both the Leo Eclipse 2 weeks ago and this Pisces Eclipse as 10 South. She offers themes, drawn from the astrology of the original eclipse at the South Pole in 1179.

She reminds us of previous years in this Cycle, when you may look back for recurring themes in the recent past: 1954, 1972, 1990 & 2008.

The themes you might look out for include:

* Breaking out of a hopeless situation to finding options

* A worry lifting

* A solution offered, do not delay accepting

One of the simplest ways to work with either cycle is to keep a note of what begins, ends or is illuminated now and look at how it matches with themes from your past. You might also look at the half cycle, 9 years ago, when the nodes were in opposite signs, for example we are presently experiencing the South Node in Leo, 9 years ago, the South Node was in Aquarius and it was the North Node transiting Leo.

Your observations also become supportive when the Moon Family reaches its First Quarter and Full Moon, revealing how the pattern has been developing and helping to inform your choices then.

If you want to know more about the cycles underlying this eclipse, and the Leo Aquarius axis, which included a look at this Pisces eclipse, our Astrology Collective ASK Astrology offered a workshop this month, with my colleagues and friends Practical Astros ⚕️ and Shawna - Unfolding Astrology. The workshop recording comes with a workbook and additional resources. This is available for purchase, find out more here.

The previous Pisces Workshops will still contain all the information you need on the Pisces Virgo axis

I look at how to layer Saros and Moon families into interpretations more fully in the Asteri Sofia Kairos Eclipse Workshop. Practical Astros ⚕️ has a fabulous offer of a personal reading with your purchase of the recording and workbook.

Celestia Astrology is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber in time to sign up with the discount for the Eclipse Workshop.

In addition to the 18-year Saros cycle, we can also observe shorter lunar cycles, for this Pisces Moon such as the 28-day lunar month, so the Leo New Moon 2 weeks ago, or the 6 months between the Pisces New Moon and Full Moon in the same sign.

There is also a longer Metatonic cycle which links this eclipse back to eclipses in the year 2007, so if 2008 doesn’t resonate with the themes coming up for you now, or even if it does, you may also wish to consider the 19 year cycle.

The Moon Family – Pisces Footprints from 2025

Astrologer Dietrich Pessin’s Moon Family concept from Lunar Shadows III illustrates how lunations can unfold like a story over more than two years. This eclipse belongs to a Pisces Moon Family that began with the New Moon on 28th February 2025 at 9°40’ Pisces and will continue until 26 May 2027.

Because this eclipse belongs to a Moon Family that began in February 2025, it also acts as a milestone within a much longer cycle. Looking back over the previous eighteen months may reveal how a particular theme has matured through repeated experiences, changing circumstances and the gradual accumulation of wisdom.

* New Moon: 28 February 2025, 9° Pisces - A Seeding

* First Quarter Moon: 28 November 2025, 6° Pisces - Action taken

* Full Moon Eclipse: 28 August 2026, 4° Pisces - Fruition

* Last Quarter Moon: 28 May 2027, 7° Pisces - (Dis) Integration and Release

As this Moon Family includes an eclipse, if this Moon Family activates your chart, you may find that the story continues past one family into a second Moon Family. The story may unfold over 5 years and be more significant in your life.

Moon Families encourage us to work with time differently by following the development of a theme across multiple lunations. Each phase reveals another chapter in the same story, allowing us to trace the movement from intention to action, from action to recognition and finally towards integration.

Returning to February 2025 may reveal valuable insights. The questions, hopes and possibilities that were emerging at that time may now look very different, shaped by eighteen months of lived experience and personal growth.

If you have planets or angles (Ascendant, MC, DSC, IC) near 2 - 8 degrees of the mutable signs, Pisces, Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius, and also the Water Signs Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio you may feel this cycle unfolding in deeply personal ways.

Pisces lunations often stir dreams, creativity, sacrifice, and spiritual longings. Also, if Jupiter, the Sun or Moon is your Lord of the Year or your Solar Return Ascendant Ruler.

Do you know what house Pisces and Virgo are in for your Natal (Birth) chart? This will tell you more about what themes might arise. You can book a reading with me, an astrologer or astro coach to explore this further.

I have YouTube videos you can watch to learn how to cast a chart and identify the houses so you can highlight what themes to expect. My Astro Coaching workbook will help you work and co-create with the lunations.

You can purchase it here or download it free when you upgrade your subscription to join Celestia Circle to work more deeply with the Moon Families.

You can also download the Moon Family Workbook for August as a single purchase from my Ko-fi shop if this Eclipse and Moon family activates your chart and you want to work with the unfolding story.

The Decan of Pisces I - The Hidden Path and the Labyrinth

Astrologer Austin Coppock, in 36 Faces, calls the first decan of Pisces the Labyrinth, reflecting the winding, uncertain paths we navigate in search of truth. This speaks to the deep, often confusing journeys of Pisces I, where the structures we assume are real may, in fact, be illusions of our own making, or otherwise not visible.

He writes that here “we come to recognise our imprisonment in our own reality construct” however, the awareness of this brings “the possibility of liberation”….”a world as yet uncorrupted by our assumptions”.

Astrologer Kira Ryberg calls this decan Wandering, emphasising the Piscean theme of drifting through unknown terrain in search of higher meaning. There is a sense of aimlessness here that is both freeing and daunting, requiring trust in the process and in one’s own instincts.

The rulers of the decan guide and support us through these themes. Saturn, as the Chaldean ruler, limits and restricts while providing the underlying structure of the landscape, while Jupiter, as the triplicity ruler, offers expansion and encourages faith in the journey itself.

Together, they create a relationship between form and trust, suggesting that movement through this landscape is supported by an architecture that may not always be immediately visible. This is a journey undertaken alone, sacrifices must be made to seek something far greater, but we must trust the otherworldly riches that await.

The image of invisible structures includes the stories we inherit, the beliefs we carry, the experiences that shape us and the values that guide our choices as they all become part of the unseen framework that influences our direction.

The journey of Pisces I invites us to become more aware of these deeper currents and to recognise how they continue to shape our path.

The Wild Way Water Vole

The Wild Way Oracle Card by Nicola Allan shows a Water Vole embarking on this journey of discovery. The path is hidden in the snow and he carries only his staff, with a cloak and hat to warm him, seeking truth in the depths of mystery.

The Guidebook tells us that:

He has wandered through dreams, memories, and subconscious landscapes, following an instinctual pull toward understanding. He finds himself far into the unknown in search of truth, only to reach an invisible wall. “Who put that there?” he wonders. But as he examines it, he realises this wall was built by his own mind, long ago.

A structure of old beliefs, unconscious fears, and stories long internalised. Brick by brick, he begins dismantling it, uncovering the hidden motivations that once made it necessary. With each piece removed, clarity returns. His journey reminds us that the limitations we perceive in life may not be external forces but rather the subconscious barriers we have built to keep ourselves safe.

The lesson of Pisces I is to identify and dismantle these invisible structures. What beliefs or fears have shaped our reality? What boundaries were once necessary but now confine us? The New Moon invites us to peer beyond the veils and begin the slow work of restructuring our inner world.

We may see an element of rising and falling in our fortunes as we grow and learn. Jupiter corresponds with the Wheel of Fortune tarot Trump card, which reminds us that as the Moon ebbs and flows, fortune too is illusory. It rises and can fall, when you reach the peak, the only way forward is down, and similarly you can only rise from the bottom. When we learn to detach from these transitory rises and falls, is when we begin to understand the deeper truths of Jupiter.

The 8 of Cups and The Hidden Path

The tarot card associated with this decan is the 8 of Cups, a card connected with emotional departure, soul-searching, and the quiet realisation that something must be left behind to continue forward.

In the classic Rider-Waite depiction, a cloaked figure walks away from eight stacked cups in the foreground. They hold a staff, have crossed water and are now ascending toward the mountains beneath a Moonlit sky. Some interpret the image as showing both luminaries in the sky, appearing to bless and light this decision and path, or maybe they suggest this is an eclipse, timely as we are within eclipse season.

The traveller in the card leaves behind what has fulfilled its purpose and continues towards a deeper understanding of what brings meaning and fulfilment. In the same way as when you have crossed water in a boat, you do not carry the boat with you on your onward journey.

This imagery perfectly aligns with The Hidden Path, there is a realisation that we must abandon the comfortable yet limiting structures of the past in order to step into the unknown. Like the Water Vole, the figure in the 8 of Cups understands that their journey is ongoing, and while leaving may be bittersweet, it is also an act of profound self-trust. Here, we are asked to face the unknown as we move out of our comfort zone.

The 8 of Cups asks us to consider: What must be left behind in order to find deeper fulfillment? Sometimes, the next step requires faith in what cannot yet be seen.

Just like the Water Vole discovering his self-constructed walls, the 8 of Cups encourages us to turn away from what is comfortable but stagnant in the search for something deeper. This is a moment of emotional and spiritual departure, but also demonstrates faith in ourselves.

Dreaming the Decans - Lead Me To Awaken

T. Susan Chang, explores this theme further in Dreaming the Decans, writing of Pisces I. She explores how finding our way, using other senses that might be less familiar, feels like an insistent draw. Finding the path in this way, the writer knows it will lead to awakening, but doesn’t know how.

To make your way in darkness denseBe blind, and use another sense.From beaten paths I dare to strayHidden from the light of day.

Do not regret what’s set aside.Release it like the ebbing tide....

I have to go; I cannot stay.Watch me as I walk away.All the winding ways I’ve takenShall lead me - somehow - to awaken.

The Astrological Conversation

Every Full Moon creates a conversation between two opposing signs, and this eclipse unfolds across the axis of Virgo and Pisces.

The Sun in Virgo brings our attention towards the practical realities of everyday life. It concerns itself with skills, routines, health, work and the small acts of care that support stability and wellbeing. The Moon opposite in Pisces widens our perspective, connecting those daily experiences asking questions of meaning, imagination, creativity and spiritual fulfilment.

This eclipse may encourage many people to reflect on the relationship between their daily routines and their deeper values. Questions surrounding work, wellbeing, responsibilities and service may become intertwined with a growing awareness of purpose and meaning. The balance between what we do each day and why we do it becomes an important theme. For many, it may be time to release old stories and be willing to step into new experiences.

The Moon applies to Mercury in Virgo, where Mercury is direct and in its own domicile and Exaltation. Mercury is still within one degree of the Sun, so is regarded by many as still being in a Cazimi, an exalted position of connection where Mercury is thought to have entered the Throne room for a private audience with the King (Sun).

This adds a strong emphasis on renewing and empowering reflection, communication and understanding. Writing, journalling, teaching, organising and meaningful conversations all become valuable ways of integrating recent experiences. The process of putting thoughts into words often creates a deeper understanding of what has been developing over time.

The T Square between the Moon, Sun and Uranus in Gemini introduces movement, which may be unexpected or sudden and new insights into the landscape through ideas, conversations and new perspectives. A piece of information, an unexpected encounter or a sudden insight may encourage a reassessment of familiar assumptions, creating opportunities to see an old situation through fresh eyes.

The Moon may feel the chill of the water as it is isolated from the rulers of Pisces. It is in aversion to Jupiter in Leo, Venus in Libra and decan ruler Saturn in Aries, placing all of the rulers beyond its line of sight and unable to offer any support.

This eclipse also occurs with the Moon in conjunction with the fixed star Formalhaut, one of the four Royal Stars of Persia. Traditionally associated with inspiration, imagination, vision and the pursuit of ideals, Formalhaut strengthens the creative and intuitive qualities already present within the chart. Dreams, images and creative impulses may become important guides, particularly when they continue to return through repetition or emotional resonance.

There is always a warning with the royal stars, with Formalhaut, we must mind the ego and be aware of when inspiration arrives from without. It is always important to acknowledge guides, teaches as well as muses and inspiration as part of your process rather than claim sole authorship.

And finally…

As the third in a series of Pisces eclipses that began in 2024, this eclipse is the final closure of a longer journey of spiritual awakening and surrender. You might view this as an opportunity to reassess or more clearly recognise the themes you have been working with since 2024. When we tap into the intuitive, flowing energy of Pisces, we can find the strength to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Eclipses are a time to surrender and trust, we can best use this time when we notice the omens and symbols around us as the Universe intensifies communication. Keep any rituals very simple, and be intentional about what you are inviting in, as eclipse energy is notoriously unpredictable.

As we reflect on the decan images of the Labyrinth, Wandering and the Hidden Path, they all remind us that growth rarely follows a straight line. Life expands through experience, unexpected encounters, changing tides and our willingness to continue moving towards what calls us forward, even when we have barriers in our own minds.

Perhaps one gift of this eclipse lies in recognising that the path has been there all along, quietly unfolding beneath our feet as we continue to walk it. We just need to trust all of our senses and be prepared to dismantle those barriers that block us.

Travel well, friends.

Sonia

If you are looking for an Astrologer, and you enjoy my style of Astrology, I currently have space to take on new clients. If you would like a personal individual Astrology reading, I set a healing Reiki intention for every client before the reading. You can opt out of this if you prefer when you book at CelestiaAstrology.com.

If you prefer to go deeper and work with the Moons’ cycles and the planets in your personal chart then I also offer Astro Coaching. Contact me through a message here, or book at CelestiaAstrology.com.

References:

AustinCoppock.com The Decans: Images and Applications

Bernadette Brady, Predictive Astrology The Eagle and the Lark

Dietrich Pessin Lunar Families III

KiraRyberg.com The 36 Decans

T Susan Chang Dreaming the Decans

The Wild Way Oracle deck and Guidebook by Astro Artistry@nicallanart on Instagram & Twitter



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Do you have faith in your path? Partial Lunar Eclipse in Pisces

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