Mercury stations direct and Mars stations retrograde and with a powerful Solar Eclipse in Scorpio, it's time to go undercover...
Eclipse season is here with a powerful Solar Eclipse New Moon in Scorpio on October 25th - and with no less than four planets changing direction (Mercury on the 2nd, Pluto on the 8th and Saturn on the 23rd go direct - plus Mars goes retrograde on the 30th), we're entering a remarkable journey that will take us all the way into next spring. And that's not even mentioning Jupiter who dips back into Pisces for one last hurrah on October 28th. A smouldering Aries Full Moon completes the picture on the 9th as does Venus and the Sun walking hand in hand all month, so it’s time to make our final descend, as befits the season, into the depths of darkness to see what treasures we will find there.
Mercury Direct 2nd October: The Penny Drops!
October enters with Mercury stationing direct at 24:11 Virgo on October 2nd at 10:07 BST, right on the back of a rather indulgent note thanks to Venus opposite Jupiter. Keep your options - and your mind - wide open. There’s going to be tons of information pouring through over the next few days.
Mercury might be direct but his retrograde will cast a longer shadow all the way to October 20th.
We have three weeks to sort out the wheat from the chaff once we’ve readjusted to normality.
Time to correct any mistakes, put our best foot forward and answer any left over questions with things that may have been plaguing us all the way since the last week of August. Clarity awaits!
Mercury turns direct right on cue for the waxing quarter Capricorn Moon on Monday the 3rd, a major motivator to get a move on and get things done! Don't rush though, as Mercury's station is bound to be a little disorienting. You're about to enter a highly productive week.
Pluto Direct 8th October: It's Gonna Blow!
On Saturday the 8th it's Pluto's turn to go direct and you can cut the tension with a knife!
Pluto's stations are intense with all kinds of basic instincts flaring up and earth-shattering realisations.
Pluto has been retrograde all the way since April 29th and we have all been in deep transmutation-mode, trying to process the course-altering changes that are shaping our lives. That's all replete with personal fears, obsessions and brutal realisations that we may be simply too terrified to own up to all bubbling under the surface. Well, that dark bundle of joy hits the light of day this weekend, bringing all that shadowy material to the surface for us to tackle. Tuck in!
What’s more, Pluto won’t stop till he drills straight through the rubble of what used to be our world and into Aquarius next March (though he won’t settle there till 2024-25) so we have quite a transformational journey ahead of us.
Mercury helps us make heads or tails of the whole thing as he trines Pluto on Friday the 7th - his final of three hits - asking us to dig deeper to get to the truth. With a Sun-Chiron opposition also on the 7th, that entire weekend 7th-9th October promises some exquisite levels of intensity, leaving our most vulnerable spots dangerously exposed…
Aries Full Moon 9th October: Let it Boil Over
And this brings us nicely to this month’s Aries Full Moon at 21:54BST on Sunday October 9th at 16:32 degrees. This Full Moon is conjunct uncouth Chiron and opposite a refined Venus and Sun in Libra, all in a grand trine with clever and sociable Mars in Gemini and Saturn in Aquarius.
This is a moment of great healing, allowing us to step into our authenticity, even if it's off the beaten track.
Anger, hurt and vulnerability are sure to bubble up to the surface at this Full Moon - like an ugly boil - stemming from an injured sense of personal agency, potency and self-determination. Juxtaposed with a social veneer that hides all kinds of broken social contracts, agreements and relationships in its sheen, this may make everyone extra prickly at this time. But the wound, as the Sufi Poet Rumi reminds us, is where the light comes in. We cannot heal what we do not feel.
This is a raw and hugely mobilising moment! It’s time to clearly see and appreciate our hot buttons - our most hurt, raging and vulnerable spots - so we can do something about them.
The Sabian Symbol* for this lunation is two dignified spinsters sitting in silence. It signifies a contracting of energy, a kind of empowerment by turning a natural lack of potency into an inward strength and poise that allows someone to function in the world. Talk about a fitting symbol of gracefully wearing your vulnerabilities on your sleeve!
This Aries Full Moon lies at the apex of a very dynamic configuration (a kite) with Mars and Saturn offering two solid pillars of support. Whether it is through communication and social media, or through a sense of community and connection, it opens a gateway to take strategic action and turn any righteous anger and indignity into a pioneering new way forward.
Mars Square Neptune 12th October: Smoking Gun…
Mars, ruler of Aries, is square to Neptune at this Full Moon - exact on Wednesday the 12th - and shady business is afoot. Unless you’re selflessly dedicated to a pure goal - high art, true love, spiritual discipline or real philanthropy and service to humanity (as opposed to tax-evasion), Mars-Neptune’s lower vibrations of deceit, sabotage and dodgy manipulation for selfish ends could come to the fore…
The way to work with this vibe is to “sacri-fice” your energy in some way - to make it sacred - by dedicating it to something above and beyond - something that truly inspires you - with no thought of personal gain.
As Mars-Neptune will stick around for a while, repeating again on November 19th and March 14 next year, ask yourself in the coming months: Why am I really doing this? What do I want to achieve? What are my. motives? Also, crucially: What are his or her or their true motives?
Mars is the ruler of this Full Moon and he’s already counting his shadowy steps toward his retrograde at this point, which begins on the 30th. This means we’re all treading uncertain ground and what transpires may well turn it into a battleground before the year is out.
Sun-Venus Trine Saturn 12th-14th October: Make it Official!
Also on the 12th, the Sun trines stationary Saturn, giving everything an authoritative air and highly established stamp of approval. This paves the way for yet greater forward momentum in ten days' time. In the same air of officiousness, Mercury direct, having re-entered Libra on the 11th, now opposes Jupiter for the third time on the 12th, delivering important legal, political and other official verdicts. Last is Venus to perfect her trine to Saturn on Friday the 14th, completing the rigorously official and established energies being consolidated this week with a graceful smile.
This is an excellent time to consolidate your efforts, make love official or catch up with good friends, as well as for securing various contracts, relationships and agreements that are meant to last.
It is also a good time to assess the bigger picture of your life and try to understand some of the finer details, people and connections that you can put into place to reach for your vision. With Mars-Neptune however, there is an element of theatricality and illusion that imbues everything right now, so keep a keen eye (or ear) out!
Sun-Mars (waxing) Trine Monday October 17th: Hoist Your Sails
The Sun trines Mars on Monday the 17th, delivering on the Full Moon’s promise, and turning all lights green for action!
This is a moment of great energy and dynamism when you’ll find it easy to just get things done. Do so while the going is good and the winds are fair.
Mars will soon turn retrograde and this boost of energy won’t last. These fair winds will keep blowing past Wednesday the 19th, when Venus also trines Mars in Gemini, creating a sexy, highly emotionally charged atmosphere for love and parties, but also excellent for all kinds of great offensives and initiatives. Get going while the going is good!
Sun-Venus Square Pluto 19th-20th October: Winner Takes All
A waning quarter Cancer Moon opposite Pluto on the 17th completes the picture, just as Venus and the Sun square Pluto on Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th, making this an all-or-nothing situation. It’s important to face any fears head on and not take ‘no’ for an answer. This is a journey of empowerment, even if it is against the odds.
Mercury also chooses this moment to step out of the shadows and poke at our wounds, opposing Chiron and furnishing us with healing and insightful information, even if it feels a little disquieting.
Time to embrace it all, light and dark! Especially as we are heading toward a most transformative Solar Eclipse in Scorpio, ruled by both Mars and Pluto!
Venus-Sun Superior Conjunction 22nd October: What And Whom Do You Love?
Venus is next to hit her high note, setting the stage for the upcoming eclipse. On Saturday October 22nd, Venus and the Sun finally meet at the very last, critical degree of Libra. This is the culmination of a cycle that started with Venus retrograde back in January this year.
That Venusian seed was planted in the heart of darkness, on January 9th 2022. It was a harsh seed of maturity and self sufficiency, of learning to stand alone naked in the dark, of digging deeper to find an inner sense of value and meaning without the usual accoutrements supplied by the outside world.
A transformative journey that began last winter is now bearing fruit.
The Sun-Venus conjunction on October 22nd reveals the fruit these harsh experiences have produced as well as illuminating what is of greatest value to us - personally and as a civilisation. It shines a light on our relationships, contracts and agreements - personal and global.
This is reflected in the Sabian Symbol* for this conjunction: three mounds of knowledge on a philosopher’s head. Wisdom seems to be the message here. With the last degree of Libra being highlighted, there’s an urgency to distill all our experience, and all the values we have built upon, into a deeper comprehension of the kinds of agreements, contracts, balances and counterbalances that allow us to coexist in this world.
There is a manic element to this conjunction and this is carried over into the forthcoming eclipse - an inability to ‘get it’, an urgency to grasp and redress any imbalance before it’s too late.
Pluto’s square to the Sun and Venus only heightens this feeling for, wherever Pluto is involved, it feels as if our survival is at stake.
Saturn Direct and Scorpio Season October 23rd: One Final Push!
The level of intensity on October 22nd-25th is palpable —no less because Saturn, the old devil, also chooses just that moment to station direct, on Sunday the 23rd.
What's more, this time, Saturn in Aquarius won’t stop pushing forward til he breaks through into a whole new sign next March, Pisces!
So this winter represents one final push for the establishment of new and authoritative social norms.
Saturn’s station is bound to feel heavy and serious, with, perhaps, obligations and restrictions, rules and regulations coming to the fore, but also renewed efforts to build a better community for ourselves and our ideals.
Saturn has been retrograde since June 4th, when things started loosening up for the summer in the northern hemisphere, giving us time to process all the structural changes taking place in our lives. With Saturn direct once more from the 23rd, it’s time to get our heads back in the game and come up with realistic ways to better shape this world.
Saturn goes into forward gear on October 23rd, just as the Sun and Venus enter Scorpio hand-in-hand, kicking off Scorpio season in style. Happy birthday Scorpio! This is an important birthday year for you, setting foundations for the future.
Fading Saturn-Uranus Square: Breaking Free At Last...
Let’s not forget that Saturn and Uranus are also sailing close this month, revisiting some of the challenges of 2021 - but this time from a far less restrictive, embattled perspective. Uranus has already made a break for freedom, through sheer resistance, and it may feel like the most fearful and oppressive vibes are over - although echoes of the previous year will still be around to ensure our awakening.
Remember, above all, the Saturn-Uranus square is a breakthrough in consciousness, even as our society and our financial systems also begin to break down in the process.
As Saturn turns direct on the 23rd and the square begins to fade, we can feel a definitive switch in perspective. An intense revolutionary vibe is now well underway, with conservative elements going one way and radical elements free to go another without constantly butting heads. Still, it’s early days and things are sure to develop very quickly as autumn unfolds, especially as we head toward the eclipses in two quintessentially financial signs, Scorpio and Taurus.
Partial Solar Eclipse New Moon in Scorpio 25th October: A Cesspit of Dangerous Liaisons...
The first eclipse of the season arrives on Tuesday October 25th at 11:48BST and it’s a Partial Solar Eclipse in Scorpio at exactly 2 degrees. This eclipse is visible in Europe and south-east Asia, reaching maximum effect over parts of Russia (and Kazakhstan), where a lot of our global attention is right now. This is sure to open the door for new and dramatic developments. The eclipse looks as if someone’s trying to crush the sun (although we’ll only see a little ‘bite’ of it missing in most of Europe). With Scorpio hosting the event, it is sure to be a forceful, inexorable energy, opening a portal for transformation to unfold over the months and years to come.
This is a South Node eclipse, which should see rewards and retributions - all kinds of chickens coming home to roost. Venus is also right there, conjunct the Sun and Moon, combust and fallen from grace (in her sign of detriment).
This brings relationships to the fore, but relationships that have been disgraced in some way and put under great strain, asking us to dig deeper to understand what is of real value in salvaging here.
Venus will soon emerge as the Evening Star, her most peaceful, graceful and beautiful self. Whatever crisis this solar eclipse precipitates, some form of gentle cooperation, even in such dire straits, seems key.
The Sabian Symbol* for this Eclipse is a house-raising party in a small village enlists the neighbours’ cooperation. There is a collaborative feel to this (Venus), perhaps precipitated by some sort of crisis (Scorpio).
The family of eclipses to which this eclipse belongs to seems to also highlight relationships. It is forceful in nature, with unexpected, manic developments in the relationship arena forcing collaborative efforts (I am following Bernadette Brady’s work on Saros cycles here in her Predictive Astrology: The Eagle and the Lark (San Francisco CA: Wiser Books 1999)).
A wide square between Sun, Moon, Venus and Pluto is still operative, with Mercury edging in, doubling up on the intense, transformative, matter-of-life-and-death Scorpio energy. So, whatever happens, it is sure to alter the landscape, and a deep part of us, in irrevocable ways.
Mercury is quite busy following the eclipse, trine Mars and square Pluto on Thursday the 27th - both Scorpio rulers - then entering Scorpio itself on Saturday the 29th. It looks like there are some tricky matters to discuss, difficult conversations to have, forceful points to make - in a language that’s about to get much more candid. The daggers are out!
The best use of this eclipse energy is to think of it as a detox, a sewage drainage, a portal into the darkest, most secretive and corrosive parts of our world to see naked truths, draw out poisons and make a fresh start.
This is a solar eclipse after all. So let’s not be afraid to peek beneath the veil and let that embolden us into making a new and more empowered choice.
Jupiter back into Pisces October 28th: Return to the Source
Three days after the Scorpio solar eclipse, on October 28th, Jupiter backtracks into Pisces, his home turf, to finish what he started in the first part of the year. Jupiter has already spent barely five months in Pisces, in a speedy journey that began just before last New Year’s Eve and ended on May 11th, after Jupiter met Neptune during the spring. Whatever was left unfinished from that period, January-May, now must be completed by December 20th.
Jupiter in Pisces is sure to pull on our heart strings once more, as Pisces is the bleeding heart of the zodiac, and allow us to feel everything ten times more deeply. He’s sure to give us some spiritual rocket fuel as well, and tons of creative inspiration to help us envision the next stage of our journey.
Now’s the time to reach deep within ourselves emotionally, and reach as high as we can spiritually to see what kind of energetic fuel we can muster.
Jupiter in Pisces offers some protection against the vicissitudes of life - more so when we call upon these wonderful energies in prayer, meditation and benevolent feelings of all kinds.
Mars Stations Retrograde Sunday October 30th: Hall of Mirrors
Mars, ruler of both lunations, has the last word this month, stationing retrograde on Sunday 30th at 13:25 UT/GMT at 25:36 Gemini just in time for Halloween… Bring out the fake gore! Especially if it’s all in good humour and tongue in cheek…
And so we enter a hall of mirrors this Halloween, bracing up for a long journey of bickering, trickery and misdirection.
Great intellectual stamina is required here, alongside a ninja-like ability to evade flying daggers filled with lies and discern fact from fiction.
There is a discontented, disruptive and rebellious side to Mars retrograde and, in Gemini, we could see rogue (Mars) voices (Gemini), riots (Mars) on the streets (Gemini) and even civil war (sibling against sibling). But there is no need to go down such destructive paths. Ask yourself: whom would it benefit to act out like that? Take a breath. There is a better way.
The deeper meaning of this energy is a call to turn inward to better understand our own motivations and desires.
When the going gets tough the tough get going, and a retrograde Mars certainly asks us to dig much deeper inside ourselves to find the motivation to carry on and do what we need to get there, even in the face of lies, division, distraction and misdirection.
The Sabian Symbol for Mars' stationing degree is frost-covered trees against winter skies. This is a rather monastic image of repudiation and withdrawal - not war-like at all. Much like the tree-sap protects a tree during frost in winter, we’re called to remove all the superficial elements of our existence so we can focus on the bare essentials. When you cut out all the noise only the truth remains.
*Sabian Symbols taken from Dane Rudhyar’s An Astrological Mandala (NY: Vintage Books 1974)
Check out what all this means for your zodiac sign in your October 2022 Horoscope!
Image by Isi Parente from Unsplash
Article by YourAstroGenes
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