Problems. I don’t know a person who doesn’t have them. In astrology, problem-solving is associated with the sign of Virgo, and some problems are simpler to tackle than others. For instance, when I tell my friend, Marian, who has Venus in Virgo in her First House, that our new King sized bed is like trying to fit a King mackerel in a sardine box, in seconds she’s strategised a new floor plan. Then there are problems that resemble an unsolvable Rubik’s cube — where that same walk we take down Logic Lane takes a turn for the worse at the bend of Spiritual Impasse, to arrive at the Point Of No Return.  We can’t find a solution. We ask why and move ten steps back. We’ve stumbled upon the Virgo Zen koan of problem solving: Asking why something is happening, or constantly looking for answers, only keeps us in our mind.

It’s the shadow of Virgo: analyzing, fretting, nit-picking an issue till we’re in knots but the opposite sign, Pisces, calls for surrender, imagination, acceptance. In the book Sacred Contracts Carolyn Myss says that when Thomas Edison needed to solve a problem with one of his inventions he would sit in a rocking chair with a question in mind holding a ball in each hand. Rocking in his chair, when a ball would hit the floor signalling he had started to doze off, it would awaken him. At that moment, he would remember what he had been visualizing or dreaming and often it held a clue to what he was working on. Thomas Edison somehow knew solutions for certain types of problems won’t necessarily arrive in a linear way.

The Sun will soon move into Aries at Spring Equinox on March 21, triggering the difficult Uranus-Pluto square and cardinal cross that is exact from mid to end of April. In astrological shorthand, many are experiencing an impasse and a call to action to tackle the kind of problems that are toughest to crack. This Virgo Full Moon is a preparatory pause button in our consciousness, a time to seek integrative solutions in a non-linear way, to allow the chaos of our lives to open us up and guide us to new self-awareness. For those who ask, What do I need to work on in myself? What will help my life, work, relationships run better, more efficient, smoothly? Virgo Full Moon will probably present a few practical solutions in real world ways.  But for other life issues, Rubik’s cube level ones –stubborn, unyielding Uranus-Pluto type problems that we’ve gone over a hundred times in our head, problems that we’ve relentlessly worked to improve, and exhausted our resources to solve — those require a stronger and yet gentler approach: an innovative shift in consciousness, a turning of the perceptual prism in a new and slightly more imaginative, surrendered way.

My Rubik’s cube is insomnia. Virgo and Pisces fall in my Sixth and Twelfth Houses, respectively. Sleep routines, stress reduction techniques, herbs, vitamins and essential oils, you name it, I’ve tried it. We try and control so much of the world through the Ego Mind, but health difficulties are a real lesson in learning to look at your self in a holistic way. Yet my mind scavenges for answers, always like searching for a needle in a haystack, and I often reach the end of my rope. This happened last night when still awake at 4 AM, talking to my husband on the phone several time zones away, he suggested I do the one thing I hadn’t yet fully embraced: accomplish what I need to do during the day, at night. Maybe, he sagely suggested, the body-mind already knows what it needs to do to reconnect, you just need to allow it to happen.

Right now, while the Sun is still in imaginative Pisces, and Mercury soon follows, we have a window for glimpsing new perceptions, startling new ways of seeing. The Full Moon alights at 26′ Virgo-Pisces on Sunday, March 16, 10 AM PDT. Where does this Full Moon fall in your chart? The buzz of the problem-solving Virgo Moon can help you to identify sources of uneasy dissatisfaction in these areas so you can make improvements in your health, work-life, routines and daily habits.  But for the problems that require a more creative approach, take a clue from Edison. Don’t overthink it. Go easy. Let it percolate on the back burner while you’re sleeping, bathing, relaxing. In moments of calculated inattention, let the answers find you.