Every year, the new moon in Pisces is considered important as it announces the new year, and the chart for the new moon or Chaitra Shukla Pratipada is used to predict the coming year for each country, with the chart cast at the location of the country’s capital at the New Moon.

The Pisces new moon this year happens in the Nakshatra of Uttara Bhadrapada. Pisces is the last sign of the Zodiac, and is also connected with Moksha or self-realisation, but before we attain Moksha there are many things we need to resolve! Interestingly, Uttara Bhadrapada’s primary motivation is Kama or desire. Desire is not necessarily a bad thing – without desire, there is no moving forward. But we have to be aware what we desire and in which direction we want to move forward. We have to learn how to view things correctly in order to know our direction.

Swami Sitaramanda of Sivananda Yoga taught us the other day that we have to differentiate between what is permanent and what is impermanent. What is permanent – that does not depend on people’s situations, likes or dislikes, mood, or state of mind – is the Truth. Like the Sun rises from the east every morning – that is true to any location in the world. So by seeking the Truth, we can inch towards Moksha. We will experience many desires along the way, and this is obviously why we are reborn, but we also have to understand which way we are going to.

This new moon indicates the start of the Chaitra or Spring Navaratri. Navaratri means “nine nights”. For nine days from this new moon, nine forms of the Goddess will offer us protection and dispel our ignorance. So it is good to spend those nine days in awareness. Ignorance is the problem why we cannot see the truth properly so we have to keep on learning and seek the truth. Om Shanti.