Eclipse season officially ends this month, as the Full Moon in Pisces on the 6th closes out this lunar cycle. Everyone breathe a deep sigh of relief… and take a moment to check out where you’ve landed. Eclipses can bring intense revelations, as well as alarming distortions. In our relationships, we often reach a time when we can’t go any further down a particular path, when we know something must change. As this influence wanes, all the faster planets will be moving through Virgo, bringing us an opportunity to think more carefully about what we need now. In our romantic lives, Virgo love offers support for anything that will help us get better at what we’re here to do. Its influence is humble, careful, and persistent. Virgo is how we can see the best of what’s possible in this world and the entirety of what’s damaged, and hold between these visions a path toward the best possible version of this present moment.
Adding to the compassionate and idealistic tone of the month, each planet as it moves through Virgo will be opposing Neptune in Pisces; Neptune is the planet of all that is mysterious in our hearts. These multiple transits to Neptune give the month a distinct flavor: face your illusions, and learn how to make something useful from them. What problems can you solve through compassion? Through imagination? What stories about your life — “I’m always abandoned” or “I have to give to others to deserve love” — are you ready to rewrite? Where are you sacrificing yourself unnecessarily? How can you re-enchant your world? How do you move from longing to having? How important is it to know what’s “right” or what’s “real?” What other ways could you judge how to act? Tap into your intuition, compassion, and intelligence this month. Combining these forces will help you understand the way forward — alone, each of them only offers one piece of the puzzle.
As always, the astro-literate are advised to read their Venus and Moon signs first, and then their Sun and rising. I’m available for readings to help you answer these and any other questions by looking at your unique birth chart. I’ve also got a live, remote Astrology 101 class beginning this month! Learn more here.
Aries
This is a month to focus and be present. The eclipses clarified some big themes in your life, and it’s time to look more closely at what you’ve learned. Where do you need to be more careful? Where might you need to let go of control? You may want to slow down this month, or you may not. What matters is that you learn from what happened over the last month. Treat your recent history like a book you need to reread to tease out what it all meant. You’ll know you’ve found the answers when your gut unclenches and you start to see everything a little differently.
Think carefully about: What have you been neglecting? How can you get more precise and focused about what you need?
Offer compassion to: What you can’t figure out yet. Your hidden desires and motives. Where you get confused. Where you sabotage yourself. Your tendency to ignore your own quiet voices.
Trust your intuition on: September 24th.
Taurus
It may take you a long time to integrate the messages and lessons of the past month. That’s okay — you may have a slower pace when it comes to change, but you’re also far more thorough. You savor and examine every detail before letting go. Your one assignment for this time is to stay connected. Don’t wall off your heart right now, even if you’re feeling grief or rage or numbness. Call up the friend who can help you laugh instead of crying. Or the friend who helps you cry when you’d rather just keep your head down and keep doing what needs to be done. Most important, recognize this is a month of recognizing the ways you’re connected to all of us. What you do to care for yourself isn’t separate or opposite from the ways you show up for everyone else. Learn who to receive as well as give. Learn to be part of a network of mutual care.
Think carefully about: What is unique about you? What do you bring to the world that no one else can imitate? How can you share yourself bravely with those you love? What happens when you let yourself be vulnerable with someone you love?
Offer compassion to: Everyone struggling against oppression right now. The limitations of what you can do to support them. Your bravery and vision as you find ways to connect to people and actions that make a difference. Ways you may feel isolated or left out.
Trust your intuition on: September 29th.
Gemini
This is a delicate time for you, when it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the weight of the past and the future. Breathe into your full self in this moment. Remember that you are a work in progress, and that this progress can be as slow as you need it to be. Let your intimacies hold a soft nest for you right now, and get whatever distance you need from stressful patterns. Don’t return that text right away if it gives you a headache just thinking about it. Build in a little bit of a buffer as you sort through what’s happening for you this month. You could gain a lot of clarity if you’re patient enough.
Think carefully about: How are you recovering from your past? How have you shifted old family patterns? How are you remembering what made you who you are? What intimacies let you heal and create a stronger sense of family?
Offer compassion to: Your desire to be more popular and accomplished. Wanting validation. How you may struggle to be seen as a real adult. Wanting a clear sense of purpose, and no distractions to keep you from your path.
Trust your intuition on: September 19th.
Cancer
You get to get bigger right now. You get to unite your mind and heart. You get to show up as someone with a lot to teach to others — people you love dearly, are just getting to know, and even those you’ve never met. Channel your strongest voice right now. Trust what you know. Fill in the gaps of what you don’t know. Let all your relationships feel light right now — find the humor in even the trickiest situations. Align yourself with the bigger perspective, and appreciate how hard your loved ones are trying.
Think carefully about: Getting a wider perspective. What’s another angle on your situation? How do you find a wider vision? Whose opinion haven’t you considered? How can you circulate more? How do you see things differently even just from getting up and talking a walk? What do you have to say that you haven’t found words for yet?
Offer compassion to: All the lives you don’t get to lead. The other selves you could have been, had circumstances been different. Your restlessness. Your desire to make a bigger impact.
Trust your intuition on: September 6th.
Leo
Dearest Leo, let yourself be slow and languorous right now, like someone who’s just had a deep tissue massage. Last month’s eclipses broke you wide open, and you’re still a little tender and maybe a bit raw. Focus right now on love that offers room for both celebration and deep grief. Let love seep into your body like you’re a plant absorbing water. Face what you need to face with deep respect for the internal processes set in motion last month — processes that are far from over. It can be hard to trust that something new is being born in the chaos of the unknown, but hold onto your faith in what comes next.
Think carefully about: Do you have what you need to thrive right now? Do you feel you can ask for what you want? Where can you access a sense of stability, abundance, and support? How can you sense your own worth more clearly, and act accordingly?
Offer compassion to: Anything that’s ending right now. Relationships you’re still grieving. The inevitability of change. Your desire to hold on. The limited perspective that doesn’t see yet what’s being reborn.
Trust your intuition on: September 5th.
Virgo
If you have a long list of things you’d like to change about yourself, this is a time that will underline all of those items and help you think long and hard about how important each one is. If you look carefully enough, you’ll probably find that most of the problems aren’t your own problems, but problems you’ve inherited from parents who didn’t know how to love themselves enough, or from a culture that hates and fears all kinds of difference. Once you’ve tossed all the items that are just baggage that doesn’t belong to you, pay close attention to what’s left. Are you selling yourself short somehow? Hiding in the shadows when you could be center stage? Giving too much and never asking for help? Not showing up with full integrity? Criticizing when you mean to offer care? Instead of focusing on what’s wrong and how to fix it, spend this month deeply envisioning the person you’d like to become, and how your relationships can help you do this — not to mention how your relationships might transform when you actually feel as powerful and loved as you really are.
Think carefully about: Do you have enough resources, or are you constantly experiencing scarcity? How can you better shore up your foundations? Are your actions in line with who you’d like to be, or are you playing out patterns you’re ready to release? What old forms of your identity would you like to shed? Where do you most want to direct your creativity and determination?
Offer compassion to: Everything you’re not. Your imperfections, the lessons you haven’t learned, your tendency to compare yourself to others, your anxieties that healthy partnership would require you to become someone totally different.
Trust your intuition on: September 19th.
Libra
This month gets to be dreamy and sweet and mostly unstructured, though a little bit of routine will be good for you. This is a beautiful time to let go of expectations or definitions that aren’t working for you anymore, and to full let go of grudges you’re ready to stop holding. There is a beautiful energy for release, compassion, and retreat running through your days right now. Remember that over-defining the future is usually a waste of energy, and let connections unfold organically right now, staying as patient as you can be through the uncertainty. Tend to your own needs first, and then see what energy you have left over for someone else.
Think carefully about: Where do you get to retreat? When have you done enough? What helps you sink deeply into your core and regenerate? How can time alone help strengthen your relationships? What gets to stay private and mysterious?
Offer compassion to: Everything that is still in process and not yet resolved. All the details of your day that require you show up for them. All the ways your body needs you to care for it and love it.
Trust your intuition on: September 29th.
Scorpio
You are so much more powerful than you think right now. Even if you’re a shy guy, try to speak up about what matters to you most. You could have a major impact on something you might otherwise have just given up on. Lead with your idealism, your sense of what’s possible and what ought to be. Your desires may outpace what the world can offer, but even in that longing you can find the inspiration and motivation to persevere. Appreciate the attention that will come your way, even if it’s not all that you would wish for.
Think carefully about: What are your biggest dreams for humanity? What would a better world look like? What visions do you already share with others, and where can you begin to strategize a plan forward? Who is your crew, and how can y’all hold each other right now?
Offer compassion to: Your vulnerability. The part of you that wants to be the center of attention, especially if you dread being the center of attention. Your longing for more affection, sweetness, and laughter. What blocks you from seeking out or lingering in those places.
Trust your intuition on: September 24th.
Sagittarius
This is a month when you get to hush up every friend who thinks they know what’s best for you, and lay down some real truth about what you’ve got to do. You’re getting your priorities clear, and this means insisting that your core relationships support what you’re here to do. Beware the risk of falling a little too deep into old patterns as you try to claim this new future — whatever still hurts from the past may pop up and try to swerve you from your course. Remember how much you’ve learned in the last few years. Remember that having feelings doesn’t mean you’re falling apart. Make decisions from a place of pragmatism, and be gentle to yourself through any strong emotions.
Think carefully about: What matters most to you? How can you dedicate your life to serving that ideal? What skills do you already have, and where do you need to learn and practice more? Are you ready to be an authority on your own life and experience?
Offer compassion to: All the ways you’re still hurting from your past. Whatever ways your family failed you. Anything that feels difficult about your home. Your need to nest, to find a safe spot in the world.
Trust your intuition on: September 27th.
Capricorn
While last month’s eclipses are still echoing, this is generally an easier time for you. You’ll be a little more grounded and level-headed than those around you. Feel free to offer them some clarity and support, but not at the expense of combing through the things your own heart and mind are waiting to tell you. Use your social energy to sink deeper into what’s coming up in your own relationships right now — talk things through with your friends instead of only focusing on their problems. Open up and let yourself trust that you have the skills to be clear and to balance whatever’s gotten out of balance. Don’t use your natural composure as an excuse to bury your own pain where no one can help you heal it. Above all, this month rewards reaching out and opening up.
Think carefully about: Where are there connections you haven’t noticed? How far away from your daily life do you need to get for a fresh perspective? What happens when you step into a teaching or mentoring role? Is there somewhere you need to go right now? Do you need an adventure to restore your faith in life?
Offer compassion to: Your tendency to skim the surfaces of social connections. Relying on gossip and rumors instead of dropping into deeper connection. Paying too much attention to what others might think or say.
Trust your intuition on: September 13th.
Aquarius
This is a transformative month! Last month set the stage for a year of renewal and rapid change in your life, and this month asks you to deepen into that work. Right now, opportunities for pleasure, joy, and growth will feel most exciting when you approach them with enough trust (in yourself, your partner, the world) that you can let go of being in control. Whether this means feeling safe enough to surrender your agency during sex or resourced enough to move away from a toxic housemate, this is a month that rewards risks — as long as you don’t take them blindly. The goal is to move towards what’s scary but not actually dangerous.
Think carefully about: What do you need to let go of right now? What kinds of release would feel good? How can you make peace with whatever’s ending and prepare yourself for what will come next? What can you learn through letting feelings flow through you instead of bottling them up or stopping to analyze them?
Offer compassion to: Your desire to hoard love like you might run out of it. Feast or famine patterns around intimacy. Relying too much on the structure of a relationship and not the energy within. All the ways you’re scared you won’t have enough.
Trust your intuition on: September 17th.
Pisces
You’re getting smarter this month, and you may feel some growing pains. Whoever you’re teaming up with — romantic, sexual, platonic, and creative partners — will be teaching you a lot about your shadow side right now. Pay attention! Have you been confused about something, and then acting confusing? Where have your wires got crossed? This is a highly sensitive and intuitive month for you, so while the urge to talk it all out and reach clarity may be very strong, you’re still sorting through all sorts of inner urges and longings that are hard to name. You may need to slow down and let everything soak in before knowing which decisions to make. Whatever you do, let your gut guide you in making smarter choices and clearing up anything that’s become stressful.
Think carefully about: What do your most trusted friends think about your actions right now? Who holds up the mirrors that help you see yourself more clearly — who can name your worst flaws while loving you unconditionally? What can you learn from people who love you enough to want to help you? What kind of help do you want right now? How does longing for a certain kind of love distract you from what you actually have?
Offer compassion to: All the ways you give yourself away, and don’t make yourself your first priority. Your tendency to be unrealistic, to hope for the best and ignore what’s really happening. Needing to hide from the world when you wish you could face it fiercely. Your sensitivity.
Trust your intuition on: September 6th.
Sagittarius here. This feels so spot on and weirdly specific to exactly what is happening in my home/family/life right now.
Unrelated, my four year old is after my life/sleep lately. Needless to say, I’ve been up since 3am. Naturally, I’ve used that time to stress myself out with the internet. However, this horoscope gave me a little peace, so thank you.
Also a Sagittarius, and also feeling like this is weirdly spot on. I’ve just moved to do a study abroad semester, so all this stuff about home and nesting is weirdly accurate!
I am so enamored with this column. It’s my monthly trip to the oracle!
Is it okay if I also consult my Midheaven sign? I have been obsessed with this amazing new discovery, the Midheaven – I’m very new to astrology – and since I’ve been intensely focused on my new career this summer, it makes sense to me to feed this obsession. I mean, Scorpio is such a badass sign and I feel thrilled to have this side of me affirmed and brought into the light via the Midheaven! And it’s been such a good fit for August, fine-tuning the reading/prognosis.
“Offer compassion to: Your anxieties that healthy partnership would require you to become someone totally different.”
Ooooooffff.
That hit me. Phew.
Trying not to read her sign…
This column makes me cry and gives me hope and is exactly what I need to hear. Especially this month. <3
I hope my horoscope is right I need my heart and my head to become aligned. I’m a cancer, and I’ve struggling for months now, I’ve been so all over the spectrum emotionally, and a lot of it that my heart is crying for things that I know is all wrong for me, and my head is super rational and I’ve been feeling like a ping pong ball. And my compassion for myself has been really negative, which is effecting my compassion for others. I just need everything to come together again.
Hi @corinadross
One of these days, we definitely need to do coffee together. Strange question for you… is it possible for someone to have two signs? In a way, I feel like being a Trans woman, I was born two different times, so I’ve relied on both Leo and Gemini for guidance.
As always, I find these readings so timely. For Cancer, I definitely feel like I’ve been trying extra hard lately to seek validation from others. I’m in-between jobs again, living at home at age 31, and just feel like an absolute failure at times. I don’t really see a path forward or real purpose to my wandering, but at least the gender identity component is finally out of the way.
For Leo, I had a my very first facial and massage last Wednesday. Hands down the most relaxing, wonderful ever. It made me realize that relaxation has been sorely missing for far too long. Especially with the bankruptcy I started last month, I am finding the more self-love, and more time I spend with my body the better. It’s scary, because I don’t know what is coming next – for both my career and for my financial situation.
Stability and support are definitely things I’ve been seeking a lot lately. I’m noticing that the “support” groups for trans people in my community are not a very supporting place to be, and am instead increasingly relying on my friends.
Hi Saga,
Thanks for sharing about where you’re at right now! And yeah, I love that you’re using two different signs for your birth and your transition re-birth. Good luck with all the transitions right now, and I hope you find a lot more support in this time!
“Right now, opportunities for pleasure, joy, and growth will feel most exciting when you approach them with enough trust (in yourself, your partner, the world) that you can let go of being in control.”
Mmmmmkay… but that’s hard for me! *SIGH*
I liked this to say “Me too!” and “You’ve got this!”
Also thanks Beth for all the Instagram pictures from Wales. You’ve convinced me to travel there someday.