heart garden: September horoscopes
The transition of August to September carries a bittersweet feeling. All the unlived expectations and the excesses bare themselves, to be grieved and or sacrificed at the foot of fall. And despite mourning what I didn’t do and unfortunately did do, this week, I pulled my duvet back out from the closet and found a joy I hadn’t felt in a while since the whirlwind of summer, namely, a coziness and happiness to be in my home.
August, despite being difficult, was full of excitement and fireworks, literal fireworks! It required confronting hard truths, witnessing one’s (over)indulgences, and making companionship with anxiety. It also may have brought out ingenuity and divine timing, as well as sweet memories with friends that will accompany us for a long time. And you may be also feeling the ramping up of activity. Without even trying, your calendar may be filling up.
September brings lots of activity, communication, shapeshifting, and many chances to see what relation means to you. Relation, especially how it shows itself in communication and in conflict.
The first few days/week of September bring general ease and energy. Socializing, reading, gathering information feel sweet and spicy, simultaneously.
However, as we enter the full moon period, around the 9th and 10th of September, information starts getting scrambled. Mercury stations retrograde in Libra. On the full moon, we see the tension between where you’re pulled into creating detail and where you must let go. Where you may even not be seeing clearly or beholden to a sense of fantasy. And where you must allow compassion to flood in. There is an avenue for innovation or experimentation in this full moon. So, allow yourself the unexpected.
After the full moon weekend subsides, we start building into some friction. Venus in Virgo squares Mars in Gemini (September 16/17), and it may be highly flirty, highly gossip-y, and with intense verbal sparring. The Sun is also moving into an opposition with Neptune, so this may be a moment of a lot of anxiety, looming unknown factors, and disassociation. What you see may not be what you are getting. Additionally, Saturn and Uranus have moved into one degree orb of a 90 degree angle. This long-term friction is a familiar story from 2021, and you may get more information about ongoing underlying conflicts at this time.
As the weekend comes to a close, Mercury in its retrograde returns to its opposition with Jupiter. You may revisit some good news or big statements, to flesh out details or revisit the source of that optimism.
The next big date is the 23rd of September, the vernal equinox. The sun enters Libra, conjoins Mercury at 0 degrees Libra, and then Mercury promptly leaves Libra to re-enter Virgo. This date feels like it could hold a lot of information, new ways of dealing with things, such as planting a seed that won’t germinate until later.
As Mercury re-enters Virgo, it begins to approach Venus at the end of the sign. Venus opposes Neptune, and we may begin re-appraising some fears and anxieties in relationships, intimacy, beauty, and connection. I’m especially eying the 24th and 25th as a possible difficult moment, but with the potential for creating great art and reaching new insights.
The tension gets somewhat released in the new moon in Libra on the 26th, as the sun and moon oppose Jupiter, and Venus and Mercury in their conjunction trine Pluto. In the background, Mars trines Saturn. There we get a wind that carries us to our destination. We get to feel catharsis around the confusion that has built up, and experience optimism in our bravery.
updates: I’ve decided to extend my reading hiatus until the end of November. Thank you all for understanding.
I will be participating in the metttafestival with Goethe Institute Tokyo and Tokyo College on October 1-2, 2022.
horoscopes:
read for your rising or sun sign!
Virgo:
There’s a lot of space for collaboration or engagement with others, a way to see your life path merging with others. You may have a jewel or gift that can engage a lively discussion or some career movement.
The planets in Virgo will continue to ask you to figure out what in the world is going on in your relationships. Even if you won’t be able to figure out, because Neptune is making everything muddy and illegible. How are you requiring the world to be defined through your terms, rather than see the nonverbal ways its expressing itself to you?
Libra:
For much of this month, the spotlight is on you and the relationships in your life. Maybe there is something passionate going on, or a conflict that engages you. You can grab ahold of what the blossoming of relation means.
At the same time, there is also a need to dive back into yourself, into your diary, or a retreat space apart from the busy world. This may occur due to a recurrent health issue or a type of sacrifice you have to make. Â Any confusion or deception happening around work or workplaces need to be teased out slowly.
Scorpio:
Mercury’s re-entrance into Virgo on the vernal equinox highlights an ongoing knot that you have been teasing out. The groups and friendships that populate your social sphere must confront a storm cloud that doesn’t easily dissipate. You’ll need to sit gently with the grayness, as it asks you to slow down and suspend disbelief.
Another theme of this month concerns a lot of energy you have towards work and home/self-improvement projects. Whilst you have a lot of energy for it, you’ll also need to hibernate. A bit of solo time, whether a retreat or some nights in, will be helpful for you before you move into the spotlight and into eclipse season, which will engage you as a main plot character.
Sagittarius:
The beginning of Mercury’s retrograde journey occurs in the world of your friendships and collective movements. There may be some overlap with various romantic engagements or collaborations. You will need to make sure you don’t overindulge in this moment, but there is a lot of promise for fun times.
When Mercury re-enters Virgo, you will return to different projects and deadlines that have been set since earlier in the year. It will be hard to sink fully into the work that calls you when there is also a bit of confusion or murkiness around home or family.
Capricorn:
When Mercury re-enters Virgo on the 23rd, it asks you to revisit some journeys, whether intellectual or a literal crossing through space, that you’ve made last month. Perhaps you reached new understandings of yourself, and can, with precise incision, find the wound. But this wound will not heal on its own, just with your acknowledgement. It also requires a gentleness to it. It needs its own sterile space.
September may bring challenges to a cleanliness you need to heal. The wounds of yesteryears and of the present swarm around your head. Know that it doesn’t last forever, and even the worst feelings that take us away from ourselves are still detours back to the heart.
Another factor of this month is a lot of career and work activity. There’s a lot that may call you into the fold and new contacts to be made. Because of the nature of Mercury retrograde in September, you may be doing a lot of prep that will really get to move into the spotlight in October.
Aquarius:
Writing, research, and travel are the horizon of beauty for you this month. You may have a lot of impassioned things to say and a lot of creative and/or sexual energy to burn off that can be channeled into these avenues. However, you may have to exercise some diplomacy even as you want to rush towards the fire.
Planets in your 8th house will bring up the things you share with others, your debts and intimate entanglements. It may feel difficult to keep track of what is yours, what is others, and you may want to clean house. However, this isn’t moment to catalog and demarcate. You’ll have to allow some expenses to be unaccounted for.
Pisces:
You may have lots of gifts to share with others. The bounty that you hold within yourself builds bridges for possible intimacy and debts to be repaid.
On the other hand, you want to come clean about your relationships. There is a way you can draw sharp lines and analyze what is going on, but the issue here is that who you are is still unknown to you, and held under the shadows. How are you putting the responsibility on others to build clarity or a system for your own wandering?
Aries:
One theme of the month is relationships. Because of the amount of energy you have and are bringing to the world, you are also attracting a lot of people into your circle. Whether you want to start a fight club, debate club, or just go on adventures, you will have a lot of chance to see what your stance invites into your life.
Another theme is health or work shifts. You may want to get grounded and get your habits in order. However, there is also a lot to deal with in the mental realm, not just in the physical realm. You may need to take some time to address thoughts and fears run rampant. What are you afraid of in the dark?
Taurus:
September seems like it will be super busy for you! You have a lot to tackle in work, but also a lot to think about what a healthy mindset looks like for you. This time may call you more and more deeper into yourself and solitude.
Another theme is a general investment in your creativity and romance. You may be actively pursuing matters of your own joy, but there is the possibility that the world and audience you are envisioning is still fuzzy. While things are unclear, what type of audience would you like to imagine? A school of fish, an orange cloud?
Gemini:
You are experiencing romance that tears you in so many directions, it inspires you to imagine new worlds, to go into your own dream world, or to build collective worlds. How can you bridge the current of excitement and bravery in the world of your friendships with the creative visions pouring out of you?
Another theme of the month is home. The concept of home, whether it be the building or the familial unit, is up for investigation. However, as much as you want to build it logically or rationally, there are still things looming over you. To loosen your grasp of control and accept a gap in knowing will crack open the fears holding you down.
Cancer:
One theme of the month is home, housing, and family. Because of new currents in your career and work life, it’s introducing new factors in building the home life you want. You could redecorate or extend a peace treaty.
The other big theme is writing or communication. The poetry that lives in your ideals and belief systems need a vessel in which to get out. Can you sit with the confusion or disillusion and find new radical solutions?
Leo:
The biggest theme of the month is your possessions and your material reality. It may feel hard to hold onto things, or that as you try to define yourself, you find the boundaries sloughing away. Money may feel especially slippery, but as long as you watch out for anything/anyone siphoning resources away from you, a momentary defocusing is okay.
Another big theme of the month is sweet communication or weekend trips. You may feel called to jump through portals and go-big-or-go-home, but there is beauty nearby that is calling your attention too.