Hey star-gazers! This is your weekly astrological forecast for the week of September 18–24, 2022.
The astrological headline this week is the fall equinox.
The Sun’s ingress into the sign of Libra, coupled with some major celestial markers for our two inferior and major personal planets, Venus and Mercury, are contributing to some important changes this week.
The overarching energy for the days ahead is all about emotional stock-taking, intellectual wisdom and, with Mercury’s inferior conjunction to the Sun taking place this week, the start of a new cycle, which we’ll cover off momentarily.
That’s why this week is pure Court Card energy — the Queen of Cups, who embodies the very essence of mature, inner wisdom and emotional fortitude — and the Page of Swords. The latter speaks of waxing Mercurial energy — fresh, new, and poised to start something exciting.
—
We enter this week with the Moon wrapping up its tour through the sign of Castor and Pollux, about to enter Cancer where it picks up dignity for a few days. In the watery sign of its rulership, we may find ourselves craving PSLs, cups of tea or cozy blankets.
We may also find ourselves taking comfort in old memories and nostalgic reminiscences, especially as the Moon pings retrograde Neptune by trine, potentially bringing hope and comfort to any blasts from our past making an appearance this retrograde season.
***A NEW MERCURY CYCLE BEGINS***
This week retrograde Mercury will make it all the way back to 28 degrees of Virgo, which means that it will conjunct the Sun upon its exit from Libra.
The conjunction with the Sun is, of course, the birth of Mercury’s new synodic cycle, which will take us through the balance of the year.
Mercury will enter its next pre-retrograde shadow on December 12, 2022. It will turn retrograde on December 28, and then direct again on January 18, 2023.
This retrograde will take place fully in the sign of Capricorn — the domicile of Saturn and an astrological sign associated with hard work, diligence, practicality, singularity of focus and the building of foundations.
As we kick off this new Mercury cycle, Mercury will pass through the signs of Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius, collecting, synthesizing and sifting through the information that it gathers along the way. The themes of balance, depth, transformation and expansion will all come to bear on the December retrograde, so, as you complete this current Mercury retrograde, consider where you may need to build stable foundations in the areas of your chart ruled by Mercury as we close out this calendar year.
***MARS, VENUS AND URANUS — A TALE OF ACTION AND RESISTANCE***
Next, Mars and Venus start the week still within orb of a square, albeit Venus is separating, easing some of the pressure you might have felt last week from Mars poking you to take immediate, if not impulsive action.
Venus will perfect its trine to Uranus in Taurus by Tuesday, September 20 — a signature that it’s been under since its ingress into Virgo, but which was likely gaining intensity over the last couple of weeks.
Venus is now invisible in the sky, under the Sun’s beams, so this is going to be a much more interior-focused Venus — one that’s encouraging us to engage in deep contemplation and undergo our own kind of metamorphosis.
This can be a time where we need to approach our relationships with more tenderness, respect and care, since this phase can correspond to a period of potential burn-out, secrecy, diminished personal autonomy and agency, and a lack of assertive energies.
As Venus prepares to reemerge as the evening star later in October, this Venus will be less zesty and possessed of greater wisdom, maturity and prudence in the waning phase of her hemicycle. That’s the Queen of Cups through and through. This said, it won’t return to visibility in the sky until early December, so try to avoid significant relationship moves, if you can — new relationships, engagements and marriages, in particular. (But hey, if you already put the deposit down and sent out the invitations, just ignore ever having read this!)
This week, Venus may be more reticent to act on any impulsive pressures from Uranus in one of its home signs.
Though Uranus may be continuing its shake-up of the topics that Taurus rules in our charts — and related to its more universal associations with values, property, possessions and monetary earnings — Uranus’ irrational push to drastic action may be held at bay by a Venus that’s feeling less action-oriented as Mars’ influence weakens.
And, of course, that underworld descent has us potentially taking stock of relationships that might have been initiated earlier this year when Venus began her new cycle in our lives.
The other potential that I like about the trine Venus is forming with Uranus is the heightened potential for a burst of creative inspiration, invention, innovation or a desire to seek emotional freedom through some expression of Venusian beauty.
This week we may be well-served answering the call of this transit by singing, dancing, paining, writing, taking in some art, visiting a museum or simply expressing ourselves through the medium that most calls us. You may find it profoundly liberating.
On a more internal level, given that we are winding up the Sun’s transit through Virgo where metaphorical harvests are the name of the game, we are entering a period of stock-taking and evaluation and, in our individual natal charts, we could see the area where Venus is located and the signs that it rules experience a quiet buzz as Venus contemplates the next phase of her journey beginning in late October.
***A VENUS-NEPTUNE OPPOSITION CAN OBSCURE OUR VISION***
Venus will also oppose retrograde Neptune on Saturday, September 24. It will apply to a conjunction with retrograde Mercury and is co-present the Moon in the wee hours of the morning.
Since the Moon’s transit is brief and it will have moved significantly by the time most of us are awake (if you’re on the eastern seaboard like me), I don’t think it will do much more than amplify the revisioning exercise that this Venus and retrograde Mercury seem to be doing, but I do think that the opposition from retrograde Neptune could throw a bit of a diluting wrench into any efforts at clear, strategic thought.
Neptune can and does make thing fuzzy and so I’ll issue the oft-quoted flag around Neptune oppositions leading to a temporary lack of clarity, disenchantment or blurred thinking, but let’s not overlook some of Neptune’s other significations, including deceptions, disappearances and disloyalty and, as Venus is the natural significator of relationships, let’s be on our guards not to get swept up by anything or anyone that seems especially tantalizing.
A general caution always issued under various planetary retrogrades is that any relationships initiated under them — particularly Venus retrogrades — could have their challenges when planets go direct — this is often because we can see clearer or simply see things differently when planets are moving forward in the sky.
With Neptune opposing the planet of relationships, I think this flag is equally valid, since it could potentially lead to blinding via rose-coloured glasses where we think the object of our affection is especially enticing.
Alternatively, it could lead us to build up lofty hopes and aspirations for an ideal in a relationship, overinflating our sense of how things ought to be.
Those in longer-term relationships may find this transit, although brief, punctuated by a disappointment in this arena, recognizing that something you might have conceived of isn’t quite reality.
Finally, the other tug-of-war that this opposition may introduce is a brief pull between Neptune’s siren song of daydreamy imagination and a Venus toned down by a double-dose of pragmatism. And, with the Sun about to change signs and invite in the numinous darkness in this second-half of the astrological year, this energy could cause some friction because the overarching solar path isn’t oriented towards boundless possibility as it is in the vernal energies of the spring, but rather, now, taking stock of the past few months in order to consolidate for what lies ahead.
***A POTENT START TO THE NEW MERCURY CYCLE***
Since we’re on the topic of the Sun, let’s talk about the equinox because the Sun’s ingress into the sign of Libra is within minutes of an exact conjunction to Mercury, making the start to this new Mercury cycle especially powerful in my view.
Mercury’s new cycle begins at almost exactly zero degrees of one of the cardinal points of the chart — in fact, at 14 minutes in the wee hours of September 23. This makes it a significant point of initiation.
This phase of Mercury’s now-waxing hemicycle is known as the Promethean phase. If this calls to mind ideas of independence, the stealing of fire, courage and bravery, then you’re not far off since this is a Mercury that’s bounding into the world, intent on accumulating knowledge and information.
During this phase, which begins from Mercury’s inferior conjunction on September 23, to its superior conjunction on November 8, Mercury has an inquisitive, youthful energy, not unlike the qualities of the sign of Aries, where it desires adventure and newness, sees little risk aversion, and is exploring all the possibilities of crafting something fresh in our lives.
This is the phase where Mercury will begin a new chapter in its journey, taking the information and skills it acquired during its last three-month transit up to the September 9 retrograde, into this next one. As this Mercury retrograde began in the sign of Libra, when Mercury stations direct again, it could wear the mantle of more moderating influences.
This Mercury cycle, tinged with Venusian flair, could be concerned with perspective, reason, balance and harmony. Given that there’s a constructive energy to this three-month cycle, these principles may be especially important as Mercury winds its way through signs concerned with depth, transformation, expansion and ultimately hard work.
***SEPTEMBER 25 NEW MOON PRESENTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANNELING INNER FIRE***
Finally, let’s quickly scan the New Moon, which is occurring in the sign of Libra.
Though this is technically occurring on Monday, September 25, and therefore I’d usually cover it in next week’s forecast, I want to mention it briefly in this forecast, since it can help you plan any New Moon rituals and intention-setting and time those activities accordingly.
This is a decent New Moon, unafflicted by the malefics, opposing retrograde Jupiter and, though the ruler of this New Moon, Venus, doesn’t have a direct sightline on the New Moon in order to strengthen its effects, it’s not a bad Moon under which to initiate some Libra-tinged intentions for the month ahead.
Given that the planet of expansion, Jupiter, is in opposition and retrograde, this may also be a weaker Moon for seeing outward-oriented intentions manifest, even with Jupiter being in the fiery sign of Aries.
Instead, I’d posit that this signature is more concerned with stoking our inner fire, calling upon us to channel inner wisdom, faith and courage in new ventures — especially ventures where we may need to fly solo in the pioneering spirit of Aries-like independence.
For this New Moon, I’d suggest taking a look at your natal charts and seeing where it will fall. Though these lunar cycles are brief, they are about the inner work and shifts to our interior landscape needed to better align our mental and emotional baseline with our broader solar path.
—
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. If you found any of this helpful, don’t forget to like and follow and make sure to come back next Friday for another week-ahead forecast!
Also, if you’re beginning your astro planning for 2023, then you should know that I’ve started releasing some 2023 forecast videos and the first two out right now are about Saturn in Pisces — one is on the global trends we can expect and the other is rising sign previews — so make sure you check those out!
Subscribe to my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxsUEdv-0iFl3zLpjCc0T1w
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeclecticoccultista/
*DISCLAIMER: All astrological forecasts are for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. Any decisions that you might make as a result of reading this or any other astrological blog entry are YOURS ALONE and the creator of this blog will not be held responsible! For any legal issues, see a lawyer; for medical ones, consult a physician. None of the information in this blog constitutes actionable advice from a licensed professional. Once again, this forecast is for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!
Comments