Placements & Degrees!We will soon reach the Autumnal Equinox, 2026 — the Sun's arrival into Libra on September 22nd - kicking off an extraordinarily intense Fall season that is bound to keep us stirred up and seeking to better understand how to connect more meaningfully with those around us and the ‘World At Large’. Both Venus and Mercury will soon retrograde in the sign of Scorpio – the sign of deep truth and fearless investigation. The challenges to making meaningful, honest connections and discovering deeper truths are steep but will offer powerful, transformative breakthroughs. However, Scorpio’s deep desire to maintain control can leave us prone to getting our hand caught in this Fall’s wildly spinning ‘Wheels of Change.’
As the Fall season begins, we begin to feel an instinctual drive to 'clean up' loose ends and focus on future initiatives with a remarkable amount of determination. Once in Libra, the Sun begins to form a Grand Air Trine with Uranus and Pluto, offering a great deal of excitement. But the optimism and sense of freedom may be a bit deceptive — recklessness, haste, or irresponsibility is a trap with a considerable downside. There are increased temptations to simply ride a temporary wave of optimism rather than carefully and methodically consider how to make the most of the freewheeling energy and important communication breakthroughs that are offered by the Grand Air Trine. Autumn's imperative to responsibly prepare for Winter may feel like an inconvenient 'affront'. There is a strong inclination to simply 'do as we please' without fully acknowledging the fact that Summer's over and we have reached the time when preparations for the future must be made.
We enter the Fall season in the middle of waxing lunar cycle that began on September 10th with a Virgo New Moon (8:26 PM PDT 18° Virgo) – a methodical, process-driven New Moon that has encouraged us to maintain humility. At the culmination of this lunar cycle on September 26th at the Aries Full Moon (9:48 AM PDT 3° Aries/Libra), our instincts encourage us to embrace the courage of Aries. But the Aries Full Moon is conjunct an extremely powerful Neptune. Neptune is the planet of delusion and deception but also faith, intuition, and inspiration. We are likely to find ourselves facing uncertainty and self-doubt but still feel determined to find the courage to forge deeper and more meaningful connections to those around us. The Scorpio instincts to maintain some kind of control are riding just beneath the surface.
At the Full Moon, Venus is already slowing down to turn retrograde on October 3. There are intense pressures coming on the heels of a Venus -Pluto square that completed on September 15th. A fate-like sense of destiny and a deeply felt uncertainty has stirred an increasing imperative to somehow share our deepest feelings with those around us and stabilize our connections. During the upcoming retrograde phase, Venus will make two more exact squares to Pluto – on October 19th and December 9th. In Scorpio, Venus is carrying quite a significant 'burden' — a heavy weight that is not particularly well suited to the generally 'amiable disposition' of Venus.
Mars rules the Aries Full Moon from the last degree of Cancer — and also rules Chiron in a tight square to Mars from the last degree of Aries. The Mars-Chiron square puts us on 'the knife's edge', suggesting struggles with effectively balancing aggression and deference. Chiron has moved back into Aries after a short stint in Taurus, where it will eventually return for nearly 7 years. Chiron’s brief dip back into Aries gives us one more opportunity to recognize the importance of courageously defining our individuality while still acknowledging the interconnectedness of all things – the value and importance of what we share with the rest of our world.
Venus opposed Chiron at the Virgo New Moon on September 10, from the cusp of Scorpio to the cusp of Taurus, encouraging humility and at least some degree of empathy and concern for the challenges of others. However, Venus will make two more oppositions to Chiron this fall, from Libra to Aries – on October 27th and November 28th. These oppositions will offer us important lessons about balancing our concern for others with a determined resolve to make sure that our own voice is clearly heard.
The intensity of Venus in Scorpio will be with us throughout the Fall season. Once Venus turns retrograde, we arrive at a time that calls for intense shadow work. It is a time to review our deepest desires and face down our fears of uncertainty and doubt. When Venus is retrograde, the rose-colored glasses come off. We lose much of our capacity to look past the faults and flaws that have always been there. How we respond to the stark picture that we see – without the rosy Venusian glow – is the true challenge of a retrograding Venus. Do we strike out in in fear, bitterness, and anger? Or do we simply look clearly at the picture that we see before us and resolve to face the moment with grace, tolerance, and courage?
Raising the stakes of the retrograde Venus, Mars will arrive in Leo on September 27th. Mercury also shifts signs, following the path of Venus and entering Scorpio at the end of September. Mars forms an opposition to Pluto and a square to Mercury on October 2nd – just one day ahead of the retrograde station of Venus. The Mars-Pluto opposition suggests intense, ego-driven emotional outbursts and the square to Mercury is likely to encourage sharp tongues – but offer little help to clearly communicate productive solutions. Mars trines Neptune just before the opposition to Pluto, injecting an idealistic emotional zeal into the already intense, explosive atmosphere.
The demanding intensity of the need for shadow work only deepens when Mercury turns retrograde in Scorpio on October 24th. But Mercury in Scorpio actually provides improved levels of courage and determination to pursue the depth-work into our deepest fears and the darkest corners of hidden baggage. Once retrograde, Mercury can help us to unwind our fears and begin to effectively face even the most challenging dilemmas. Living comfortably with life’s inevitable fears, uncertainty, and doubt – without escapism, denial, or blindness – is perhaps the most important lesson that we are offered by the sign of Scorpio.
Venus in Scorpio also forms a YOD to Neptune and Uranus which first comes into play ahead of the Aries Full Moon. Venus will make two more ‘passes’, forming two more YODs with Uranus and Neptune in October and December – keeping the demands of this challenging aspect in play throughout the Fall. The YOD demands that we remain open to connection even when Venus in Scorpio would like to withdraw – maintain control and try to hide or obscure the shadow-elements that are being exposed. The YOD also suggests a tendency to second guess ourselves. We may find ourselves overwhelmed by the building pressure without any ability to maintain a clear sense of purpose. In this atmosphere, the distinctly 'fate-like' sense of direction isn't easy to explain to others but we still feel compelled to keep trying to make tangible headway despite the challenges. The involvement of Neptune in the 'equation' keeps our level of confusion or uncertainty somewhat troubling while the involvement of Uranus in Gemini carries the distinct possibility of producing elements of disruptive chaos that don't allow us to clearly communicate our deepest intentions to those around us.
Finally, adding to this Fall’s remarkable intensity, Neptune and Pluto have completed another in a series of important, 'exact' sextiles just ahead of the Autumn Equinox— a series that began in 1950 and will not begin to finally separate until 2032. The extended involvement of Venus, Mercury and Mars with the 'tight' Pluto-Neptune sextile brings our 'personal', individual involvement into focus within the context of the broader cultural and societal shifts and challenges connected to the outer planet connections (the Pluto- Neptune sextile, as well as the Pluto-Uranus trine and the Uranus-Neptune sextile). In other words, we're much more likely to see and feel those wider societal and global shifts in our daily lives with more intensity.
The momentous shifts and challenges that are coming this Fall are both intensely personal as well as deeply connected with the broader societal and cultural transformations that we can see happening all around us. The heavy weight that Scorpio seems to bear in this environment is a mistaken belief that we can control more than just ourselves. What is most important to remember as we ride through this Fall’s intensity is that our individual power rests solely in how we respond.
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