Galactic Greetings All!

Last week alongside the Virgo ingress, I released my first ever 8-hour long workshop, Chart Calculations for the Apocalypse, which provides full instruction for learning how to calculate an astrological chart by hand. Up until maybe 40 years ago, every chart was hand drawn. For those of us who have learned astrology on a device, learning to calculate a chart by hand can cultivate deeper reverence for our craft, but also breed a better understanding for the fantastic celestial mechanics captured within the image of a birth chart. I initially designed this workshop for students who desire support passing their NCGR Level I exam, but wanted to make it accessible to anyone who is curious to learn. So far, it’s been incredibly well received and I’m super grateful for the amazing feedback!

We are still in meticulous, crafty Virgo season. So while I’m over here nerding out on math, I’m curious, what are you currently nerding on?

Timing with Transits launches next week on 9/8, so this month I’m dividing up the monthly reports a little differently and we’ll see how it goes! If you’re interested in enhancing your astrological toolkit with forecasting systems such as transits, eclipses and profections, there’s still time to sign up!

Astrology Watch

Mars opposite Neptune, 9/2

Venus conjunct Vesta, 9/3

Mercury trine Saturn, 9/4

Venus square Pluto, 9/5

Virgo New Moon, 9/6

Mercury opposite Chiron, 9/8

Venus enters Scorpio, 9/10

Mars opposite Neptune, 9/2

As a 3H Mars in Virgo native, I’d like to share an anecdote about this transit with a tale from my own desk. In my early days of writing astrology forecasts, I used to approach my computer, determined to bust out all of my writing in one day. After a certain point, the words jumbled together and nothing made sense anymore. I’d become so focused on perfection that I’d rewrite the same sentence over and over again…

Mars in Virgo is incredibly meticulous, with a critical editing eye and an ability to measure to the 1000th of an inch. Neptune is here to offer a dose of creative inspiration. It’s amazing what taking a break can do for the brain. I eventually learned that hitting a wall was an invitation to go run an errand or ride my bike. By checking out momentarily, my brain would return refreshed, inspired and sometimes even with new material to interject.

Neptune offers narrow-focused Mars a psilocybin mushroom, to put the tools down for a moment and go have a colorful adventure. Mars’ opposition to Neptune arrives just in time for a long weekend. Pursue the magical offshoot calling you. Take an actual break. Especially if you are a creative person who is always kinda-sorta “on,” Neptune is here to divinely inspire your artistic process! Toss the to-do list and heed the call of wonder. Get lost on purpose and take all the lifts offered to you!

Venus conjunct Vesta, 9/3

Lending an aesthetic eye, Venus in Libra encourages us to beautify our social and environmental spaces with her alignment to Vesta. Following in the glitter-cloud wake of the Mars-Neptune opposition, Vesta can help us to ground the whimsical imagery of the mind’s eye (or a pinterest board) into reality within the home. Vesta indeed represents the foundational home and hearth, as well as the divine flame of the spirit – but she is also a priestess of sacred sexuality. Today would be an auspicious day to connect with your lover and see what ignites! As we are in in the air element, intellectual sparks are bound to fly.

Mercury trine Saturn, 9/4

I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely LOVING these Libra trines to Saturn in Aquarius – serving up optimal air assets like concentration and focus, discernment and clarity, the synergy of a collaborative mindset and the patience to understand where someone else is coming from. Following in Venus’ delicate footsteps, a charming Mercury in Libra joins skeptical Saturn in a harmonious trine to finalize the blueprint. If you’ve been feeling indecisive lately, this aspect will help you chisel down your options. Pick a solution and make it the right choice. And trust it! This alignment is ideal for communicating with clarity, signing important documents (before Mercury retrograde at the end of the month!), focused writing or putting a significant dent in a book!

Venus square Pluto, 9/5

Finding raw beauty in the very things we fear are ugly about ourselves…

The older I get, the more I realize how each and every one of us has our own cross to bear. Many of us stash it in the shadowy box under the bed, fearing that if possessed in the wrong hands, ruin would descend upon our houses. Love is confronting. True love is honest. Venus’s square to Pluto tests the flimsiness of superficial connection, begging to know, is my shadow just as loveable? In its authentically wild messiness? The materia of our shadow is not usually revealed point blank, which is why it often emerges within a complex web of external invocations whose job is the shroud the jealousy, the insecurities, the fears of abandonment… and control.

Our job is to lean into vulnerability. Venus in Libra is ready to open up and share stories. There is a beautiful alchemy which occurs when we are given the space to process verbally – and writing is a powerful outlet as well – and share. We are not alone in our struggle. Venus-Pluto aspects are beautiful for intimacy, creating space for provoking and trust-building dialogue. We are reminded that there is not a one-size-fits-all standard of beauty. In fact, its our complexities which make us mysteriously gorgeous on a soul level.

Venus also forms a trine with Jupiter for some double-benefic action, boosting our confidence in our truth and reminding us that there’s always a way through.

New Moon, 9/6, 14°38 Virgo

Our work is meant to evolve.

The Virgo New Moon brings a dose of freshness and renewed commitment to our craft. The mutable earth sign’s reflexive impulse to innovate, elevate and enhance compels us to make keys shifts in the way we work. The New Moon forms an exact trine to Uranus, the lightning bolt of creative genius. Something is ready to radically shift in our crafting or working rituals, making way for ease and brilliance.

If the panorama has showed us anything, it’s that grinding is unsustainable. We are free to no longer show up for the things that no longer capture our interest – or perhaps there’s a more interesting way to participate in the ritual at hand, with finesse, with a brainy dose of Mercurial mischief brew. Our craft is ready for a flash of inspiration.

Ruler of Virgo, Mercury, has just finished finalizing new blueprints with Saturn in Aquarius, offering gifts of clarity, insight and “measure twice, cut once” certainty. As both the luminaries and their ruler point to the Saturn-Uranus square in a roundabout way, the evolving framework around how we work, socialize and structure our society are bound to show up loudly under the Virgo new moon. How can we both adapt toward and innovate the terrain?

Mercury also heads into an opposition with Chiron, activating a simultenous desire to remedy, heal and learn from past mistakes. Additionally, Mars perfects a trine with Pluto today, lending determination, willpower, focus, mountains of energy. Let’s do this!!!

For an extended forecast for your Sun sign and Rising sign, join me on Patreon via the Moonrise tier where I provide a secret New Moon forecast video every month!

Mercury opposite Chiron, 9/8

While the messenger deity makes a quick pass with Chiron, the divinely gifted outcast on 9/8, pay attention! Mercury will eventually station DIRECT conjunct Chiron on October 18th, which will bring intense focus to our Chiron or Mercury retrograde story. Mercury in Libra strives to see both sides of every story, adequately weighing the pros and cons. Simultaneously Mercury in Libra is ultra-conscientious of how language affects others. We are working on our communication skills in a big way this time around – the art of negotiation, cooperation and civil problem-solving. And yet, Chiron reminds us that our methods are not going to look like everyone else’s. And that what’s triggering for me may not be triggering for you. How can we learn to hold space respectfully for the diversity of experiences within the same realm? Chiron reminds us that we are human, and that we are all works in progress.

Venus enters Scorpio, 9/10

Magnetic, sensual, psychic, tantric…

Leaving her cushy Libra domicile, Venus vanishes into the thick of Scorpio, the sign of her detriment. As sticky as it might sound, our relationship planet has a TON of love to give in Scorpio. Passionately enveloping, Venus in Scorpio wants it all – or nothing. To hell with surface level, half-assed connections. While Venus is in Scorpio, loyalties may be vetted -or- we may simply prefer to spend time with those who we KNOW we could trust with our lives. Venus in Scorpio takes us into the fall season, where intimate bonding will keep us warm through the winter. We know deep in our veins, that life has quite literally depended on it.

Profoundly magnetic, Venus in Scorpio is a time of rekindling connection after solitary Venus in Virgo and flighty Libra. We’re ready for the intense eye gaze, the tantric full body connection and the psychic intuiting. Less focused on dialogue, Venus in Scorpio just wants to slip effortlessly between the sheets.

Stay tuned, because more layers of Venus in Scorpio will be revealed when we discuss Mars in Libra next time!

Big Blessings,

Catherine