Tarot, The Moon & The New Moon in Pisces: A Bath Ritual to Release Winter
- Meredyth
- Feb 23
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 20
We'll welcome a New Moon in Pisces this Thursday, February 27th at 4:44 PM PST.
This New Moon marks a transition—a time to slowly uncoil from winter’s embrace and prepare for the first whispers of spring.
Each year, each season, and each person moves through time differently. For me, 2025 has been fast-paced, yet my energy lingers in winter’s slowness. I crave the longer, brighter days ahead, yet I’m not quite ready to emerge.
With this in mind, I invite you to a bath ritual inspired by the wisdom of Tarot, the Moon, and the Knight of Cups—designed to help you gently release winter and embrace the coming shift into spring.
The Moon and Pisces
On February 19th, we entered Pisces season, associated with The Moon in Tarot.
Represented by two fish, Pisces is a water sign whose most notable characteristics are: creativity, imagination, and sensitivity.
The Moon card represents the subconscious, intuition, dreams, and inner visions.
Both The Moon and Pisces invite us to dive deep—embracing emotions, dreams, and the magic of poetry and imagination.
Just as the actual Moon reflects the Sun’s light, The Moon in Tarot teaches us to observe how our subconscious reflects through dreams and creativity.
The Knight of Cups – Leading with the Heart
The Knights are the movers of the Tarot. Knights want to bring something into the world.
You are likely familiar with your own sun sign in the Zodiac based on what sign the Sun was in on your birthday. You also have a moon sign, based on, you guessed it, where the Moon was when you were born.
Sun signs are linked to an outward personality. Moon signs govern emotions, intuition, and inner visions.
Just as The Moon card represents the sun sign of Pisces, the Knight of Cups is the Moon card for Pisces.
The Knight of Cups is a seeker of emotional truth. He is on a quest to bring his creative, emotional inner life into the world; and, though his helmet and heels have wings, he is careful not to spill a drop from his chalice. His horse is in motion, but it’s a slow-paced walk, not a canter.
His elements—water (emotion) and air (intellect)—remind us that the heart and the head rarely move in sync. The heart is romantic, poetic, and creative. The head is pragmatic, critical, and often fearful.
If you've ever hoped for a romance to succeed, a creative effort to be recognized, or a joyful, loving emotion to endure, then you understand how difficult it is to reconcile that deep desire with life's practical realities.
This New Moon asks us to trust our feelings and honor our creative stirrings—even when logic tries to resist.
The Knight of Cups can be your ally in this quest.
Winter’s Last Embrace: The Otkaz
As I said, everyone is different and every year is different, but for me, 2025 has opened slowly.
Whenever I hear messages in January like, “Start the New Year with a bang!” my inner clock hits the snooze button and thinks, “Wake me when it’s Spring.” January 1st is the winter solstice, so no wonder!
Spring is when the new year of the Zodiac calendar begins. It’s when the pagan wheel of the year starts anew. We’re not there yet.
We’re in the sun sign of Pisces and it’s a New Moon in Pisces. Our tarot card for this sun sign, The Moon, is all about finding comfort in uncertainty and our tarot card for this moon sign is the emotionally courageous Knight of Cups.
The Knight of Cups invites us to Subjugate the head to serve the truth of the heart. That means moving slowly. It means making time for creativity and rest.
It’s a time to prepare for spring, by coiling our energy inward in an embrace of these final winter days.
There’s a word for this coiling energy — Otkaz.
It comes from the work of a Russian and Soviet theatre director, Vsevolod Meyerhold.
Meyerhold created a system for training actors based on his principles of biomechanics (only distantly related to the present scientific use of the term).
The Otkaz is the preparation for action. It is followed by the Pocil, which is the action with meaning, which is followed by the Stoika, the end of the action.
When we get up to stand from a chair, in the otkaz we lean slightly back, coiling the center and leaning forward in the chair seat to stand.
Both the season and the mechanism ‘Spring’ express a burst of energy. In nature, we get an explosion of color and life overnight. In machining, a coil can release energy in one direction by contracting in the opposite direction.
This New Moon bath ritual is designed to embody the Otkaz—the sacred moment of gathering energy before the leap into spring.
To Begin:
Our New Moon in Pisces will take place on Thursday, February 27th, at 4:44 PM PST.
You can enjoy this ritual at any time, but if you want to get technical, you should wait until we’re in the New Moon phase.
We’re preparing for the new year of the Zodiac calendar. We’re coiling inward so we can spring forward in March. It’s time to get a little excited…
Apparently, something I get excited about is foreign vocabulary words! This one is in German —
Vorfreude: The joyful intense anticipation that comes from imagining future pleasures.
This is the feeling we want to foster for this New Moon.
What can you imagine, no limits, that makes you feel anticipatory excitement?
Remember as a kid the feeling that you might burst out of your skin for an otter-pop? I do!
1) To start this ritual, I invite you to paint/draw/write about whatever gives you that Vorfreude vibe.
If you’ve already done the work of goal setting and/or New Year’s resolutions, you can revisit your ideas and add some colorful anticipation to imagining them fulfilled. If you made a start on your vision board, but haven’t yet assembled it, you are still right on time.
Gather a pen, paper, magazines, art supplies and allow your creative Pisces juices to flow.
As you create, be aware that when we are in the energy of The Moon, we are allowed to be wild and afraid. The primal forces of the dog and wolf, the very nature of our subconscious is both powerful and unpredictable. The critic, the ego, hates anything unpredictable.
For some of you, just the image of messy art supplies and an unpolished watercolor is enough to send you running. For others, this assignment may be a dream. Whatever your immediate reaction is, try and stay out of judgment and just go for it. If it helps, set a timer for 20 minutes and let the critic know you’re not available for any input before the timer goes off.
2) Next, time for some bath magic!
Gather your sea salts, candles, essential oils, and anything that will help you relax and draw yourself a hot bath. I’m deliberately not including a list of specific ingredients for this bath, you get to listen to the creative fish of your inner Pisces and follow their requests.
As you concoct your bath, allow the visions that your artist-self wanted to create to guide you. If it is more romance you crave, add rose petals and charge your rose crystal in the water. If it is greater success in your career, add cinnamon and thyme.
Herbalists and spiritualists alike can tell you which herbs or crystals can help with which intentions, but ultimately it is your connection to the ingredients you choose that will support your manifestation practice.
Imagine the dreamy Knight of Cups from the Light Seer’s deck romancing your creative soul to soak just under the surface of your rational mind.
3) Now, go ahead and sink into those warm waters.
Mimic the mermaid-like figure in The Moon card. Know that the other side of winter is almost here, and to support yourself in bursting through to all that you anticipate in spring and beyond, you must coil, you must otkaz.
When your toes and fingers are pruned and your water has cooled, you’ll know you are done. As you step out of the water, pay attention to the quality of your movement. Notice how your body bends inwards to support you standing up and drying off.
Closing Thoughts – The Final Cycle
This New Moon prepares us for the completion of the Zodiac year. Whatever intentions you set now will carry you into Aries season on March 20th—the true astrological New Year.
I send you creativity, peace, and anticipation for all that’s to come.
🌙✨ Happy New Moon!
“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes it visible. The Moon develops creativity as chemicals develop photographic images.” --Norma Jean Harris
Comments