The Equinox, Michaelmas, and the Upcoming Eclipse
A forecast for the Month ahead, with reference to the rest of the fall
Growing up in Texas, I was relatively plant and season-blind. There’s a joke that Texas has summer and not-summer, but I can blame plant-blindness on growing up in Suburbia and lots of male-only contexts. Spending the past couple of years descending into fall in Switzerland (and this one in New England) has been initially dizzying - an overwhelming number of colors, new plants, and quick shifts, all without names. Astrology always helped me tune into the subtle magic of what was going on, but experiencing fall in these new contexts has also helped me learn about Astrology. Virgo season was once just another long stretch of heat, the start of the school year, and an abstract idea of harvest; in these other climates, I see its other Mercurial qualities: the rich display of plants to be appreciated, understood, and collected, the confounding changes in weather asking us to try on new layers and appreciate the last days of bare skin, and the fine discernment and dextrous work needed to navigate all of these changes.
We just have a few more days of the Sun being in Virgo—on the 23rd, we’ll have our Fall Equinox. Still, Mercury is now direct and picking up speed as they journey back through Virgo, accelerating this Mercurial aspect of Virgo. After taking a good step backward—a long contemplation on a particular part of your chart—Mercury is jetting into a series of significant aspects, 2-3 day long conversations with other planets: another trine to Jupiter, exact on Monday the 25th, a trine to Uranus, exact on Saturday the 30th, an opposition to Neptune, exact on Monday the 2nd, and a trine to Pluto, exact on Tuesday the 3rd. The mental clip of learning and adaptation will be faster, and although our fingers and minds might feel more adept, there will be some big energies to comb through to integrate into the weave. Mercury will enter Libra on October 4th, during which time they’ll still be moving quickly but not making as many significant aspects—they’ll be more behind the scenes, supporting other planets.
Each of these planets that Mercury will aspect is retrograde, although they will also start sequentially turning direct, about one per month into the new year: Pluto on October 22nd, Saturn on November 4th, Neptune on December 6th, Jupiter on December 31st, and Uranus on January 27th. Aside from Mercury turning retrograde on December 13th, we won’t have any new retrogrades this year—we’re just working through the ones currently in motion.
A couple of other significant events are on the horizon. The first is the Solar Eclipse on the 14th, the next new moon. Both this eclipse (a ring of fire) and the Solar Eclipse on April 8th (total) will be visible from Central Texas. Perhaps the six months between will bring even more attention to Texas (and the United States in general). If you’re around, it might feel great to do something significant to honor them. Since eclipses are associated with Dragons, you might do something to honor or feed this inner/outer Dragon—and getting out of harm’s way might also be a good idea.
The Chandra Symbol for this eclipse is striking. LIBRA 22: An ancient glass vial perfectly preserved. Since this eclipse is happening around the South Node, the quality of this being a gift from the past is potent. It could be a great time to connect to a sense of heritage or the notion that you are also an ancient being. Of late, I’ve appreciated stripping back a sense of exceptionalism regarding modernity, even as I like the idea of the evolution of consciousness. We still engage in so many of the ancient ways. How old is bread? Glass? How old are the species of trees we reside with? How long ago was the land formed? The gifts circulating back through this eclipse portal might be connected with these ancient spirits.
Just before this eclipse, on October 11th, Mars will enter Scorpio, which is a particularly strong placement for him. Although lots of people know Mars as the ruler of Aries, he is also the traditional ruler of Scorpio, which is considered more of a “nighttime” form of his. This placement emphasizes Mars’ quality of sharpness rather than the raw impact of Aries. It’s pointed and poisonous, and it’s up to us to find the right spot to place these needle-stingers. This is also where Mars will make his conjunction with the Sun, which happens every 26 months. That won’t happen till Friday, November 17th—the other big event on the horizon for this fall—but it will be a drawn-out affair. Currently, Mars is at the end of his cycle, and this cycle being renewed in Scorpio while the North Node is in Aries brings Mars to center stage. Until Mars enters Scorpio, he’s in a weakened position in Libra. The Libran energy can constrict Mars, disarming instinct and forcing strong action to be weighed and discussed before it is undertaken. Interestingly, the Full Moon in Aries, which also highlights Mars as the ruler of Aries, is on Friday, September 29th—Michaelmas.
Another thing I’ve learned to appreciate about the fall season in the past few years has to do with Michaelmas, which is central to anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner understood that at the end of the 19th century, Michael had become the Archangel in charge of Earth’s evolution. Celebrated on the 29th of September (and November 8th in Eastern Orthodox traditions), Michael is associated with this moment when the overflowing abundance and warmth of summer starts to fade. Likewise, Steiner thought that the spiritual world was taking a step back from humanity, encouraging us to self-generate love out of freedom, not unlike adolescents who need to take responsibility for their own lives. Eventually, if this goes right, humanity will become something like angels.
Michael presents another way of relating to Dragons than other traditions. In the Revelation of St. John, he slays a seven-headed dragon. Most of the time, I’m lukewarm at best on the Book of Revelation and the Christian moral mythology it encodes—I favor a Gnostic interpretation of the Bible, which recognizes the heavy fingerprints of the state and patriarchy in the development of scripture and stamping out of feminine mystery traditions. Regardless, I find this notion about Michael and humanity’s next stage of evolution inspiring, as long as I can choose what the seven heads of the dragon mean to me. Since the number seven is also associated with the traditional planets, perhaps we might take a stab at naming where we miss the mark in each of those archetypal realms and fighting to transform those heads of the dragon. If I read the stars right, we’ll be in that alchemical battle through the spring, and it will be a particularly raw and bloody one.
A final note before we get to next month’s play-by-play for paid subscribers: on October 6th, Olivia Pepper and I will start another cohort of Charting the Artist’s Way, which integrates Astrology with this classic course for creative and spiritual recovery. The first rendition was fantastic: we found the two mutually supportive. We found that embodied Star Poetics enriched our creative experiments, and tracking what was going on astrologically, in the collective and in our own charts, made the sometimes-daunting course flow more smoothly. It will be an excellent course if you feel ready for a guided encounter with all seven (or twelve) heads of your personal dragon—more info at starpoetry.net.
Now, the play-by-play for my lovely patrons…