Leaping and earthing -- with her barefeet, this lithe maiden is featured in the photo of the week. 2012 is a leap year, since it's divisible by four. The 29th of February, one week away, is being called a day out of time, and I'm hearing some buzz about experiments in mind melding for a leap of evolution.

Is there a sense that there's more crazy happening around us? Is this some kind of collective shamanic shattering/breakdown, that in its scrambling of the old, will lead to new levels of awareness? On Leap Day, we come to the crossroads point of the waxing Half Moon. This is time for upgrading your outlook, to be able to move with the moment. As we come out of the mystical New Moon, the urgency and restlessness for the new builds -- go with it!

The earthing part and staying in bare feet -- you know that Pisces rules feet, and Sun is in the sign of the Fishes now -- is about bringing heaven down to earth. What grounds you? The realizations of the Pisces New Moon find their way into our daily lives, in practical ways and in the way we're present to others. And it's about balancing all the frenetic energies afoot with grounding practices. The simplest is to walk around in bare naked feet, reading the Earth and attuning to the planet's changing frequency.

For more integrating the mystical awareness into the daily routine, we have a Mars Virgo (in Retrograde) in opposition to Mercury. The messenger Mercury is in Pisces, for a chance to see with forgiving eyes. Could this knowing help break a bad habit, or cut you loose from the blame game with someone? Now and up to the Virgo Full Moon (March 8th), there's some mutable madness, and no change is too small to matter. The little leaps and habits broken show us we've got the ability to change, and that's empowering.

• See more images from Around About for Photo of the Week/Wordless Wednesday.

It's the Dark of the Moon, a purgative window here that Mystic Medusa calls a Cosmic Colonic. If you stay with it, it's looking to be a New Moon for taking the waters, being cleansed, though sometimes the waves feel like crashing ones these days. My sister, a special education teacher, reports her students are off-the-charts stirred up and acting out. I sent her the Hopi Prophecy for this time, a favorite:

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.

Pisces is the sign of soul resolution and release, and now Neptune surfs the waves of Pisces, too. Neptune's realm is the oceanic, all times and all lives merged in an impressionistic collage. It's a fluid time, to see with a mystic or shaman's eyes and this quote that came to me by way of M. Kelley Hunter this morning, "The world is as we dream it." In the dissolving of so much, we make space for a new dream!

In a recent chat with Yogastrology's Diane Booth Gilliam, I told her about experiencing my life flashing before my eyes, in scenes, as if I was watching a movie. So much is upsurging, to be integrated or released -- a rush of scenes with all kinds of emotion or beliefs attached.

I asked Diane about integrating or just witnessing all that's washing over, some of it undefined, and possibly karmic left-overs. She said, "So how do we cooperate with the release of karma? Great question. One answer is to practice compassion. Have compassion for your Self in the present moment."

So be kind to yourself and others here at the Balsamic or Dark phase of the Moon, a time to take it easy, keep it simple, rest, dream or potter around. Let it last if you can, into the newness of the crescent. I'll be creating a New Moon collage and spending time in the garden. In the meantime, here's the rest of the conversation with Diane Booth Gilliam of Yogastrology on Neptune Pisces, the Pisces New Moon & the "Ordinarily Sacred." She offers grounding tips and effective practices like Japa (repeating a mantra) as touchstones, as wild waves of change alter us inside and out.

Shiva is known in some traditions as the Lord of the Dance, who dissolves to create anew, moving with the cyclical rhythms of the universe. This vibrant pan-Hindu deity in motion, within a wheel of ages, is a powerful image for the Pisces New Moon this Tuesday (21st) and 22nd for Australians.

I talked by Skype recently to Diane Booth Gilliam of Yogastrology, who told about the auspicious Maha Shivaratri or Great Shiva Night that coincides with the Pisces New Moon. It's an annual jubilation, she says, " a time of deep spiritual practices and great manifestations."

She noted the harmonious aspects of the Sun-Moon to Saturn, as planet of longevity and Jupiter, known in Vedic astrology as the guru planet. Indeed, there's mutable metamorphosis in this Pisces fresh start, to be rearranged and reordered in every way, and the dissolving that makes room for new creation. At the same time, Jupiter and Saturn act as the support team, for discerning what's got staying power, and for consolidating gains.

The double act of Jupiter and Saturn are awesomely placed, for balanced growth in ways that are aligned with your true values. Jupiter expands and showers blessings, and is in the earth sign of Taurus for building it solid. And Saturn (in retrograde) is in the last degree of Libra, in trine to Neptune-Sun-Moon (Pisces), so in the chaotic dissolution, your conscience and ideals light the way. Jupiter Taurus and Saturn, also in a Venus' ruled sign, show how to rely on guiding principles like beauty, truth, fairness, to steer your ship on a choppy sea.

Says Diane, "There are great blessings available to those of us who are ready to step up to what Maha Shivaratri presents to us. It's also said to be a time to ask for a husband if you want one." (It's traditionally about heterosexual partnership.) She continues, "This powerful time of Maha Shivaratri happens once a year, and the night of Shiva begins the night before the New Moon (the 20th) and extends through the day of the 21st."

The Dark of the Moon is a time to retreat in to the vastness of the inner landscape. Make the most of the mystical atmosphere with music, like the baritone of Krisna Das, singing kirtan in Om Namah Sivaya. The video opens with the crescent Moon, one of Shiva's worn symbols, going with his movement through the cyclical waxing and waning of time. Says Diane, "The most profound, truly a sacred mantra is Om Namah Sivaya, which connects us back to Maha Shivaratri because it's about Lord Shiva. It's said to multiply the effect of Maha Shivaratri one thousand times, for bringing goodness, healing and power."

• Notes on New Moon in Pisces
• Pisces New Moon Themes

The waning (diminishing) Moon is time to sift and divest of what's cluttering your physical space, mind or soul. This morning, I noted my man was taking old receipts out of his wallet. And in going through my boxes of books, wanting to lighten the load, I found a longtime favorite, Demetra George's Mysteries of the Dark Moon: The Healing Power of the Dark Goddess.

Here's a primo quote I found through bibliomancy (random book-looking): "The secret teaching of the dark moon is to let go, retreat, surrender, cleanse, heal, distill wisdom essence, mutate, aspire, and wait in the still silence for renewal."

I'm in danger of going overboard with superlatives about this Pisces New Moon (February 21/22), as I am under Neptune's enchantments lately. So I simply offer you these updated notes on the Pisces New Moon. And the companion article, on Themes for Pisces New Moon.

I believe it can be one of miraculous healing and seeing stuck "issues" resolve unexpectedly. I'll personally be welcoming the miracle of masks thawing out and the unraveling of surrender that works where effort fails. It's a New Moon for letting go of the temporal in favor of the eternal, to see beyond the masks we wear, to the shining soul behind it.