Find your balance through every zodiac season with our Astrology & Asanas series by yoga instructor, Astrostyle editor (and harmonious Libra) Andrea Rice. Follow along with these postures to connect to the natural rhythms of life, enhance perceptivity and elevate your spirit.
Dreamy Pisces season invites us to dive deep into the emotion ocean as we take time for deep introspection, healing and closure. These Pisces season yoga postures can help us shift our focus inward.
During Pisces season, we are reminded that part of us falls away (like winter) so we can be born again (like spring).
When something in our lives no longer serves us, we have a responsibility to change it or to let it die. This allows us to clear space for what is to come (the new!).
The act of being present is our practice. Acceptance of who and what we (truly) are is how we rewrite our stories. It helps us free ourselves from limiting beliefs of what we THINK we know.
We all hold beliefs about ourselves, whether they are good or bad. We tend to cling to those beliefs because we are afraid of the unknown. In essence, this is a fear of loss—or the perceived “death” of a part of us—which may simply be our protective ego at work. Through a yoga practice, we can move this fear out of our bodies and free ourselves up to evolve.
Illuminate the Shadows with Pisces Season Yoga
Pisces season shifts our focus inward. We can move toward release and deep healing. Ethereal Pisces, a mutable water sign, reminds us that as we prepare for a change in season, another completion of the proverbial circle of life, that all some things must come to an end, one way or another.
By looking to our yoga practice, we can illuminate the shadows. With this light, we can see our outmoded thoughts, beliefs and behavioral patterns. We may be “addicted” to upholding these beliefs, despite them no longer working for us or being deterrents to our progress.
Each zodiac sign is connected with a body part and Pisces governs the feet. The following short yoga sequence is designed to strengthen and stretch the feet to encourage stability, agility and focus. It also opens the heart to embrace the compassionate qualities of Pisces.
For musical inspiration, I recommend Present Tense from Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool.
Under the Sea, Dance with Me: Standing Pose to Dancer’s Pose
- Begin standing tall in Mountain Pose (Tadasana) and shift your weight into one foot.
- Inhale to lift the opposite knee to 90 degrees; pause and stabilize.
- Begin to swing that foot back and catch it in your hand as you slide it into the inside of the elbow.
- Optional: Take the opposite hand behind the back of your head to bind with the other, reaching for the fingertips, to enter a standing Mermaid posture. Breathe and smile, and then gently release the foot from the elbow.
- Maintaining your balance, send the foot behind you a little further to re-grab the inside of it with your hand to enter Dancer’s Pose (Natarajasana). Pause here for a few breaths, then gently release the foot, swinging it in front of you again to 90 degrees, and then lower it down to meet the other.
- To give the feet a bit more strengthening and stretching, inhale the arms overhead and lift to the balls of the feet. Exhale to sit low on your heels, keeping the balls of the feet lifted.
- Inhale back to stand and then switch sides.
Yoga and Astrology “101”
Much like the zodiac wheel, our bodies are always shifting, progressing and changing form. From the “birth” of Aries season to the “death” of Pisces, we too are experiencing a continuous lifecycle. We cannot be “born again” until outmoded parts of ourselves are released. It is only when we stop spinning our wheels and actually witness our patterns that we may become aware enough to break free from them.
Picture yourself like a spiraling galaxy, where at your galactic core is your light, your source, your divinity. It is by moving into that very center of serenity that change and growth can occur. It is where yoga begins. Astrology is a wonderful complement to yoga asana, as both disciplines require self-study. And since the purpose of yoga is to stabilize the fluctuations of the mind, we can more readily look to astrological insight from a place of clearer perspective with acceptance and without any judgment. In other words: Free your mind—and the rest will follow.
Video courtesy of Beth Kessler Photography
Andrea Rice is a writer and editor covering health, wellness, and lifestyle. Her work has also appeared in Yoga Journal, The Wanderlust Journal, mindbodygreen, SONIMA, New York Yoga+Life, and WALTER Magazine, among others. She has also worked as a journalist for The New York Times and INDY Week, and as an editor for Astrostyle. As a yoga and meditation teacher with more than a decade of experience, Andrea has offered yoga, meditation, journaling, creativity and astrology workshops in New York and now in Raleigh, NC, where she currently resides. She has also been a presenter at Wanderlust Festivals in Vermont. Her first book, The Yoga Almanac,was released in March 2020 by New Harbinger Publications. Follow Andrea and The Yoga Almanacon Instagram or visit her website to learn more.
