The Astrology Of September 2023: Getting Ready
As Venus is retrograde for a month and a half about every year and a half it’s not so uncommon for Mercury to also turn retrograde while she is also backwards moving in the sky. In this case both are speaking to the dynamic loops through time of their synodic cycle, and if we were able to look up and take note of their novel motions throughout our lives we might begin to more easily correlate what the ongoing processes mean for us internally and externally, privately, personally as well as in the world. Certainly, the double retrogradation of two inner planets lends to an extensive rethinking, re-evaluation process across multiple spectrums and within adjacent yet separate layers of our lives.
(above image Anna Rachel Green)
Gerrit Van Honthorst
Venus has been by definition attracted to what she normally isn’t and not as attracted to what she normally is, and it is within this process of desire deviation in which we develop new tastes and our preferences become more nuanced via the integration of augmentation. This entails some being turned off to certain stimuli which might normally turn us on in which we wander off into unfamiliar aesthetics and find ourselves enjoying odd things with which we deform our hearts and then must shape them in such a way that they fit back into our bodies. As this has been happening in Leo it occurs throughout the height of summer’s brightness, filled with flash and heat and activity where flesh is more exposed and there is opportunity for outward expression and exterior resonance. Baring it all or at least most or some of ourselves entails uncovering and revealing that which in Aquarian winter remains under wraps, and so what is being reconsidered from a value and aesthetic critique perspective is that which is exhibited, put into the light and allowed to be on display. Authentic desires, true love, resonant relationships, warm hearts, pleasurable generosity, satisfying honesty, crowd pleasing glamour, celebrated aesthetic, creative recognition, exhibitionist attention, all run through with a kind of wait a minute, hmmm, actually, hold up requirement of adjusting what might be askew so that you can get things how you like again, even if that means something different than before. Confidence might have wavered, surface skimming might have become intolerable, simple sparkles and bedazzled fluff and puff might have found itself out on the table for an objective look and seemed inadequate, but for the meanwhile it was what there was to work with so if you were going to wear it you had to figure out how to rock it right, which took some finesse which could have worked surprisingly well at times and at others obviously fell short. Depending on how this hit your chart it could have been in the background or up in your face, as transits are delivered differently nativity to nativity.
Philip Guston
As of August 23rd Mercury joins in on the reversal business but in his rulership of Virgo which to a large degree mitigates the more messy effects of his retrograde expression. Astrologers remind people that during Mercury retrogrades the story gets reviewed, proof checked and edited rather than tampered with and disturbed, the rub being that if you are in a narrative where lines and erased and sentences reorganized while you live it and end up swapping paragraphs in real time it is not so much a straight forward experience. We go back and fix things that got fucked up upon the first pass. This is especially true this time as Mars marched through this detailed and operational area to begin with putting tactical action through logistical specificity upon which Mercury now analyzes with a fine tooth comb and adjusts accordingly with the ability to be more neutral and not so emotionally invested or attached. Mars despite being the yangiest of the planets is still of the night sect and runs off intuitions and subjective sensory understanding, feeling his way through the sorting out of procedures and responding in the moment to the critical stimuli. Like an emergency surgeon he did what he had to do to get the patient through the trauma and sewed back up ton live another day, but now more cool headed Mercury takes his time to review the manuscript and attend to the data within free of any rush, able to accomplish high fidelity accuracy. The Sun joined Mercury in Virgo on the same day, so how things are wired, how well they run, utility, assistance, and technical or practical efficiency is holding our attention.
Silman Mansour
As neither Venus nor Mercury quite made it to conjoining Mars before turning retrograde there are likely things that didn’t quite come together this summer despite the efforts we put in, and instead alternative things took place than what we had wanted or thought were going to result in energy expended. Although, with Jupiter and Mars as well as outer planets Pluto and Uranus all aspecting from earth signs real, substantial, material and long term developments are taking place, and of course Venus as well as Mercury will in not too long make it past their retrograde shadows and eventually catch up with Mars around the circle of the sky down the line. Mercury moves past his retrograde station degree on September 30th and Venus on October 7th, so we can expect what we want and think to begin progressing in the plot once more leading up to the rapid reshuffling of the next set of eclipses. Mercury catches up with Mars by the end of October and Venus in February upon Pluto returned to Aquarius which highlights the episodic closing of epochal chapters, Pluto in Capricorn from 2008 until present and Pluto in Aquarius present to 2044. Pluto steps back and forth over the Saturnian ruled threshold of old regimes and new networks until well into 2024, highlighting a particular division in the zodiac which has gotten an incredible amount of emphasis since 2020. We are still in the process of entering this Air period properly and proceeding into a whole new world with new power dynamics and proliferated with new kinds of wealth, fear, unknowns, aliens and obsessions, and the inner planet’s dance upon the crossover of everything old and predictable to everything new and hypothetical adjacent to the overwhelming and ominousness incarnate brings our personal lives and experiences into the world weave. The short is yes major change is taking place and we are going through an adjustment period as we acclimate to what it actually takes to live new and different lives and understand what resonates with us in our hearts as we continue through an otherwise alienating period of human history.
Alexander Francois Desportes
Last forecast I described how Venus’ retrograde holds significance across many dimensions as she rules Jupiter in Taurus who in turn rules Saturn in Pisces so the re-evaluation of central energetic desire resonance plays into understanding of what is valuable in reality and how we plan and methodologically work with our sensory experience of substance which feeds into how we structure the flow state of our existence and strategize around that which we cannot control while fully immersed in the atmospherics of life and living. Saturn’s current retrograde retraces March 30th 2023 to April 8th 2023, so elements of the spring are mirrored over the surface of the water through the fall and new construction continues by the new year just as Pluto enters Aquarius, another signal of things progressing at this eventual later date in which now we release our grips and practice patience. There is an opportunity for zen style mastery rather than drowning in a backwater here and with the Virgo program still very on for the time being we might as well go back and cross T’s dot I’s and so forth so our machinations are smooth and tuned before we are thrown into the new and find ourselves caught up with ourselves abruptly. The oncoming Aries eclipses will tend to call “Action!” with a clap of the board so scheduled or overdo maintenance now will lead to effectiveness and capability later.
James Campbell
By the time September strikes retrograde Venus will also be ruling Mars in Libra, so rewound, reverse and reconsidered hearts will be responsible for relationship action and dealing with diplomacy problems. Sounds awkward and Mars even opposes Chiron along the way, so critical response in effort to bring about equilibrium needs to come to face inadequacy in autonomy and independent action. Venus as well as Mercury will luckily be direct by then so things will be more straight forward, and the Sun newly in Libra towards the end of the month brings our eyes to harmony and fairness as well as we are motivated towards relational issues. These will likely be pivotal points as a foreshadowing sequence to what the South Node has in store for Libra. Mars intends to carve out more energetic space to act autonomously and is playing along relational lines to what Venus has realized about her authentic desires over the summer but the cuts, slices, separations and other alterations he makes to relational balances relate to what the South Node will throw in realities rubbish bin during the Libra eclipse mid October when Mars himself ends up in more severe and fight or flight Scorpio. Pluto in Aquarius reveals the dark side of progressive politics and the South Node in Libra does something about not feeling like being so diplomatic and socially just as its effecting our abilities to take action effectively, so we can expect more backlash against the liberal collectivism of the past few years in the mundane level and coming to choose autonomy over relational concerns throughout our personal affairs. The Aries Full Moon at the conclusion of September is not an eclipse but will still highlight this shift in priority underway as we’ll be feeling go time for our independence significantly. The Virgo New Moon two weeks prior on the 14th quietly brings subjective and objective attention to getting things just so for the purpose of doing things, following through and finishing what was started later as coins slide into their slots and games go live. If we sort out our shit and untangle our trip-lines and get stuff tuned up and prepped we will be rewarded later when the tides come in and conditions allow for any voyage that is waiting to fall into focus with fate. If we will strike when the iron is hot we must make sure our striker is on hand and at ready as well as our iron being able to get up to the proper temperature.
Grażyna Rigali
For now, move into the trine between retrograde Mercury in Virgo and Jupiter about to turn retrograde in Taurus while the Moon passes over Jupiter and participates in the trine on September 4th to harmonize both the microscopic and telescopic perspectives on practical matters, real coherence, sober understanding and what materials we have to work with and how we can improve upon their quality and craft a future with mounting momentum. We are playing a long game of situatedness to articulate ourselves into a life we enjoy living and immersing in a world that has a an atmosphere profound enough to build mystical integrity and spiritual dimensionality within. No matter how technocratic the entropic decline of society as we know it and oncoming of decentralizing power struggles we invite and others we fear is we still live in a world that includes situations, people, aesthetics, elements, substances and energies which either nourish or deplete us and we can take responsibility for which environs we absorb reality within so as to be digesting with every sense available to us through whole osmosis the occurrences that benefit our beings, as both specific individuals as well as participants in the all.
Reginald Marsh
NOTES
Current Saturn RX retrace: 3/30—4/8
9/4/23
-Mercury RX trine Jupiter: analytical corrections in the detailed and specific processes and operational sequences harmonized with coherence of material realistic substance, understanding of plan and methodology, and solid, stable wisdom and slowly growing philosophical momentum
-Jupiter stations RX: shift from expansion to coherence
-Moon conjunct Jupiter: need for substance understanding and physical knowing
9/6
-Mercury inferior cazimi 7:08am: acute moment of detailed remembrance, lost thing found, detail revealed
Vladimir Kush
9/3
-Venus direct station: conclusion of re-evaluation process in authentic expression, honest truth in desire, exhibition of aesthetic. Values have been augmented and integrated, pleasure may proceed
-exits shadow October 7th
914
New Moon Virgo: contemplation and sed sowing of detailed attention to useful and efficient process and operation
9/15
Mercury station direct: conclusion of editing, correction and re-thinking period
9/17
Venus square Jupiter: authentic desire, energetic heart attraction and central exhibition of aesthetic in tension with coherence of substance and methodological material philosophy: commercial value versus understanding of real craft, surface beauty versus practical worth
Iggy Rodriguez
9/23
Sun ingress Libra: attention and focus of relationships, relational balance, diplomacy, harmony and equilibrium
9/24
Venus sextile Mars: surface beauty, authentic desire, central value, personal aesthetic love of attention collaborating with relational tactics and critical response in mediation
Mars opposite Chiron: relational tactics needing to balance with awkwardness and unease in autonomous action
Grażyna Rigali
9/29
Full Moon Aries: culmination and blossoming of narrative cycle of need for autonomy, independence, activity, capability