The days are getting longer here in Bremen. Nowadays, when I wake up, there is light in the sky. The sun pulls me out of bed like a golden cord.

It is still a diffident sun, breaking out bright in the late morning and then hiding away all afternoon. Bremen is a place that washes itself from one season to the next, and now it’s soaking away all the hard edges of winter. Next week, I will be leaving here again, going back to DC to help my dad. There, the spring will be a little further along.

I am excited about the coming of spring. My partner and I both grew up in the tropics, and we are a little sun-starved by this time of year. The spring equinox will arrive on March 20, at 7:45 am EDST. This is the fleeting moment in which day and night are in balance.

When I lived in Quito, I lived near the equator. They called it “La Mitad del Mundo,” the middle of the world. There, the sunlight was always pure, absolute, clear, and resolved. If you walked east in the morning, the sun’s rays were almost solid. When you stopped walking, you stood in an old and heavy temple of light.

Here in Bremen, the sun is only one half of the equation, and can never be too bold. What is constant is movement, as this Northern land rushes towards each season in turn. Here, I become aware of my own shifts and passages, the patterns I weave as I travel from one phase of the year to the next.

Here, light and darkness are always striving with each other. The sun fights to return from its winterlands, and then, six months later, the night fights to reclaim all of its lost ground. Each wins in turn. In the myths of the people, this is codified as the struggle between good and evil. The darkness is branded as evil because of the sharpness of the cold, the scanty plant-life, the naked trees, the need to preserve and conserve.

The struggle between good and evil has been redrawn many times, in many ways. At one time, it was Balder and Loki, and then it was God and the Devil. Same tune, different song. Is there any such thing as evil? Nature provides no models for this. There is some useful purpose for everything that exists. But the idea of evil has an old root, and there have been millions of people branded and hunted as embodiments of the darkness.

It’s impossible to be an astrologer and believe in evil. There is no planet, sign or aspect that flashes warning lights. You can look at Hitler’s chart and see the artist, and you can look at George W’s chart and see the guy who loves little kids and fireworks.

However, in astrology, Jupiter and Saturn often do find themselves playing the parts of good and evil. That’s because Jupiter is like everybody’s rich uncle, offering presents on all sides. It’s a celebration when Jupiter, the planet of expansion and largesse, comes to town. In contrast, Saturn is the planet of limitation, restriction and discipline. It skulks into town and shuts down all the bars, establishes curfews, and builds the jail. How could anyone appreciate this planet?

But it’s like breathing. The rib cage expands, contracts, expands, contracts. Jupiter is the taking in of new air, with all the heady world promise that accompanies each breath. Saturn is the expelling of the old air, the moment when you say, “This is over. I don’t want this any more.”

At this moment in the world, there’s a lot of Saturn energy. It’s time to contract, to breathe out, to get rid of the old air, to take a more careful and disciplined approach. There’s no longer a sense of plenty. That’s because Pluto is now moving through Saturn’s sign, Capricorn, after spending the last thirteen years in Jupiter’s sign, Sagittarius. And it’s painful. It feels suddenly like we’re all living in winter, scrabbling for the remains of a once-abundant harvest.

In March, there will be a hard aspect between Jupiter and Saturn, so the contrast will be especially strong. Jupiter is in the idealistic air sign Aquarius, while Saturn is in the methodical earth sign Virgo. Jupiter in Aquarius urges us to expand on a social level, to be creative and inventive in imagining the future. Saturn in Virgo keeps reminding us of all the things that currently need healing, fixing, and mending.

A hard Jupiter/Saturn aspect can make it easier to find scapegoats, and this will be something to watch out for next month. It’s very easy to project either side of this aspect onto your ideological enemies. The last time there was an inconjunct between Jupiter in Aquarius and Saturn in Virgo, it was 1950. The fear of Communism was epidemic, and the Korean War was just beginning. And these planets were also inconjunct in these signs in 1890, when the US Calvary massacred the people of the Sioux Nation at Wounded Knee.

With an air/earth conflict, we always have to be aware of how high sentiments translate. What’s really going on? At the same time, we also have to look at the old routines, the ruts we’ve dug for ourselves. What changes are we resisting?

Jupiter in Aquarius can give wonderful, inventive plans to improve the world, either through social redistribution or through technology. But idealism is a mental game that can be carried too far. Jupiter in Aquarius needs the Saturn-in-Virgo attention to details.

Saturn in Virgo is good for mending whatever is broken, especially when it comes to the basic necessities of life. But it can also mean being fixated on the small and immediate, and ignoring the larger meanings behind each act. Saturn in Virgo needs the Jupiter-in-Aquarius inventiveness and creativity.

While Jupiter and Saturn are flinging challenges at each other, the full moon of March (on the 10th) brings some very electric energy, as the sun joins Uranus, the planet of change, ruler of Aquarius. This gets Jupiter in Aquarius even more excited, and ever expansive ideas may be floated.

In the US, we’ve already seen a combination of Aquarian big thinking and Virgoan attention to the small details of jobs, housing, energy and food. President Obama continually applies to the larger community, in an Aquarian way, at the same time he haggles over the perfect fix-it scheme, in a very Virgoan way. So he does seem to be bringing these two together.

The full moon restates these themes in many ways. The large Aquarian influence includes some karmic factors, but at the same time, the moon will be with Saturn in Virgo. So no matter how many big voices will be heard, no matter how creative and excitable everyone gets, the small voices will also have a say. If we accept the need for both the good intentions of Aquarius and the mundane actions of Virgo, we don’t need to make anyone else our enemy, and we can solve our clear and practical problems.

Our challenge in March will be to use the best of what Jupiter and Saturn are offering us. In other words, breathe in and breathe out, and then do it again.

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