This is an official Astrofuckery Alert. Further to my last post exhorting us all to do nothing under this lunar peak may I introduce today's cautionary tale.

Neptune is the planetary ruler of Pisces, currently planted therein and casting his significant haze over errything right now. And here we be. Craving escapism. Dreamscape gone batshit crazy. Enmeshed in drama. Mired in self harming delusion. Intuition on fire. Seeing through the matrix to the inconvenient truth. Visionary and vulgar all at once.

If you have found yourself feeling more than a little blue or indeed crying buckets over the last little while, you can thank almost all our major planetary players in water signs. Oh my giddy aunt there is a lot of emotion coursing about us and through us right now. Hand me the bloody tissues. No, just give me the whole box please.

Monday meditation brought to you by the starlings that live in UK nature sanctuary Minsmere. This is hands down my favourite natural phenomenon, one I have been lucky enough to witness with my own eyes many moons ago, way out west as the sun was setting over open plains.

Aaaaaand everyone back in your corners. The weekend's Mars Venus stoush coinciding with the quarter moon delivered a veritable shitfight. Trouble in paradise shitting questionable magic all over your relationships, darklings? Hardly surprising when these two are operating at cross purposes.

Post eclipsia can be overwhelming at the very best of times. So much fast paced change, all those heartquakes and headphoons and a finish line that resembles virtually nothing familiar. Tis a lot to choke down, let alone to do so underwater. Cue Pisces season to switch us from stewing to marination.

Last weekend as vital part of the post eclipsia change of state, the sun claimed his place in enchanted Piscean waters. He was joining Mercury, Chiron still weeping, our lady of love Venus and chief shaman and ruler of Pisces, Neptune in deliciously deep blue. Here may we submerge ourselves gracefully (or artlessly if that's all you have left) into the everloving waters of possibility and highest potential.

Post eclipsia feels often manifest as a deep desire to run for the hills or the coast or whatever new land you would hit first if you just started swimming. The stomach churning wild ride that is eclipse season is always equal parts lifechanging and crazymaking. Turned up to 11 if you have much Leo or Aquarius in your chart. What you will know for sure: life looks vastly different than it did three short weeks ago.

This is what it looks like mere moments before The Unexpected wallops you with a post eclipse backhander. Bless. I have no fuqing idea what's coming.

When it comes to spirit animals, Miss Piggy has a place in my pantheon. As she rightly articulated this week - and I respectfully paraphrase - we fight to hold on and oh my giddy aunt how hard we fight to simply let go. Held fast as we are in the syrupy thick of the dark moon, we are now painfully brutally aware of all that eclipse season has excised from our lives.

Reset button anyone?

If your last month / eclipse experience has resembled a steaming pile of revolution, the wishing moon on the horizon is the antidote to your malaise. The fresh air of the Aquarius new moon is a partial solar eclipse, partner of the Leo harbinger and finale to Eclipse-A-Tron, as well as the lunar new year. This is a powerful portal in which to craft your brave new world.

We have officially entered the balsamic phase or the deepest dark of the moon. How well you dance through your darkness is the scene setter (and greatest determinant, in this witch's opinion) of how effective your new moon will be. And this next new moon in a few days - a solar eclipse and the lunar new year - is a Very Big Deal and the mightiest this year.

Oh that bridge of sighs between eclipses. Herewith the pointy end of this mad season, as we round the final bend and descend into the dark of the moon. We are not there yet, not nearly. These dark days are the eclipse slingshot drawing back, taut and shaking.

The Apothekerrie also caters for our beloved familiars. I was inspired by my Stella to create a soothing flower essence blend just for pooches. Happy Dog Drops are a remedy for anxiety, panic and fear. They are especially good for those pupsters who suffer from separation anxiety, quiver in terror during thunder and storms or have experienced traumatic early lives.

Hands up / rack off anyone whose life was not turned upside down over the last three weeks or so when our cosmic trickster Mercury was retrograde. This time around it was an emotional doozy, especially for those with key planets in Taurus and Aries (your mercurial tales of woe welcome below) or those anywhere nearby, which between them constitutes a great many of us.

It is accepted lore that whatever you focus on expands, in an effort to reward your vision and meet the direction of your attention. At the new moon we traditionally cast in the direction of our dearest dreams, taking care to be mindful of what we wish for.

The key to it all is our unwavering attention.

But first, the dark moon and the deep dreaming that accompanies her solitude. Today is the day for foolproof relinquishing, permanent banishing and unhurried inspiration as your wisdom bubbles up from the depths of the dark cauldron. Ever a moment for watching not acting - within and without - and sweet overdue rest. If it feels like you're pushing the proverbial uphill, it is only because you are fighting a biological imperative to lay in wait for the rush of energy that accompanies this night's new moon. Until then, stillness is the name of the game. A dark moon done well is its own reward.