March arrives promising. And it is promising lots. For a start it is promising not to be an anxious and restrictive January and February. The violence and emotional overload of the first two months of 2021, are behind us. It is indicated that brighter days are ahead. As usual in these cases, when a lot is being promised, the delivery will always lack something, or it might just contain a bit of disappointment, some loss or dejection, maybe discouragement, regret and delusion. March will definitely serve a good dose of a wet, foggy and murky landscape, and will provide ample opportunities for confusion and disillusionment.

March is also the month of come and go; of sociability, wanting to be outside with others, gather information, talking, shopping, exchanging ideas and things, healing and fleeting. The heavenly planets are are all going forward and moving fast. The clocks will also go forward, near the end of the month, as they do every year. The sense of movement and change will accelerate. This will lead to a moderate sense of nostalgia, loss and grieving. But not everything will be lost, and not everything will be for real. So our heart will have to be our guide. She is represented in the spread by the Queen of Cups: The ruler energy of love and selfless service, nurturing, giving and taking. And indeed she is the authority, she dominates, she commands that everything that has meaning can be restored back to us, no matter where we find ourselves in this particular moment. The ocean is endless. The power of love is endless. Indeed here we have a Queen of Cups who is a mermaid – a magician, an alchemist, a healer, a double bodied creature.

In March we are in Pisces – and a fit and restless Mars will be active in Gemini. The Sun, Venus, Mercury and the moon will be in Pisces, and at some point in the month will all meet up with Neptune. Expect dissolution and delusion on many fronts, from identity, pleasure and decision making, to everything that needs to resolve. Disclosure will bring delusion. Expect healing and substances to play a part in the story. Every element of fantasy and make believe can come out of the woodwork now. We see a person wounded on the beach being kissed and cared for by the Queen of Cups. Either of the two, or both, is us. Or perhaps someone we know and we care about could be either of the two characters. The picture is totally unrealistic. But the sentiment it conveys is true. The Cups will always represent emotions. In this, the Gregory Scott deck, we have a Queen who’s otherworldly, a fantasy, and the card itself looks more like The Lovers or the Two of Cups. A very powerful image of love. Love as salvation. What could we possibly be saved from is suggested by the cards on either side.

To start off we have the Devil. It is a glass trap. The bell jar of desperation. We might find ourselves in self afflicted enclosure, real or imaginary. The Devil card is often scary and overly elaborate with the feminine and masculine bound by chains to a grotesque and overpowering figure. Normally strong colours dominate. Here, it is straightforward, dull, grey and devoid of much poetry. It’s a pragmatic representation of what the Devil card means for us in today’s world: Addiction and Self harm. The chains of addiction that we can break, if only, because they are self inflicted. This is the gaol of our own making, in which we are trapped together with the tools of our attachment. And because it is linked to habit, repetition and daily routines, it is the more ingrained, stubborn, persistent, almost invisible and for this reason all the more difficult to transcend. Something embodied in us as behaviour and attachment that doesn’t do us any good, and needs to let go. By no means it has to necessarily be drink, it can be our fridge, our bed, our phone, our credit cads or whatever else we use to numb daily unpleasantness. Now more than ever, whether we find ourselves physically and emotionally restricted in our movements, because of lockdowns, social distancing, or working ever harder than before under challenging or repressive conditions, and resorting to substances for support, we have become disempowered.

Finally the 5 of Cups that represents grieving and loss appears as the outcome. But it doesn’t have to be that way. March is a healing and enlighten month. We can accept failure or defeat but not everything is lost. We still have the two filled glasses and we are capable of more, no matter in what state we are. The Shipwrecked man on the shore will be saved. The message is acknowledgement and letting go. Allowing the emotions to heal us. Accepting help from others and offering it to others when ever we can. They say Pisces is the sign that represents higher love. It is a Jupiter ruled sign and for this it is benevolent and abundant. Therefore, don’t be fooled (and for better or for worse, there will be a lot of fake in March) by distinctions and descriptions. In Pisces where everything dissolves there is no higher and lower love. Love is love. All love is great love. It’s fantastic to love and be loved in every way. Everything else can be worked through it. The great challenges of March will be to understand and accept who we are and where we are truly this point in time, without judgement, fear or resentment but with compassion and an open heart. Nothing else really matters, and nothing else stands in our way.

Flavia