“The function of tragedy is to force us to acknowledge what is of value.” Dr. Zach Bush on YouTube
You probably think Astrology is always this exciting. We have had event after event stirring our collective consciousness, and September is no exception. When we look past 2025, however, the heavens quiet down and the outer planets cool off. We are living in exceptional times of great change, transformation and enlightenment, as we close out over 2000 years of patriarchal domination and humanity moves into its next stage of evolution.
September will bring us more shifts of energy, more intensification, more surprises and unexpected developments as the outer planets apply pressure. So let’s begin by taking another look at Pluto because on September 1st, it retrogrades back into Capricorn and we get a final opportunity to exercise our discernment.
The Outer Planets at Work
Back in January of 2020 Saturn caught up with Pluto and kicked off a period of deconstruction. Saturn is a hard task master who not only wants to educate us and mature us, but to bring us face to face with reality. We have accepted the collective assumptions of a paradigm that was born out of patriarchal dominance, fortified by religion and cemented in the “Age of Enlightenment” by the ascension of science and a misunderstanding of Darwin’s theory of evolution.
For the past 2500+ years we have been steeped in the energies of the Age of Pisces. While this is a deeply spiritual energy, it is also the energy of illusion, fantasy, delusion and disillusionment. Neptune has been hanging out in its own domicile, at 29 Pisces, the final degree where it carries the most power, and the final degree of the Zodiac, a sign of big endings. Neptune is on the threshold of Aries, the beginning of a whole new cycle. It is helping to intensify our illusions, while Saturn is giving us a dose of reality, and Pluto is plowing the soil of our past, in preparation for a new cycle of growth. Neptune enters Aries on March 30, 2025 and we will get a taste of the possibilities of the future. Like Pluto’s passage from Capricorn into Aquarius, Neptune will move back and forth between signs, easing us into a new consciousness and a new Age.
Ultimately, Neptune is loosening our grip on our beliefs and preparing us for the realization that Humanity is One. We are a family with great spiritual potential, but first we must take a good look at how we are treating each other, open our hearts to compassion, another Neptunian quality, and summon up the will to do better.
Since both Neptune and Pluto move slowly – a few degrees annually – they remain in a certain dynamic relationship for years. At the present, these two planets are sextile at the final degrees of their signs. Both will burst into new signs within months of each other. Pluto returns to Aquarius in December, with the promise of rebirth.
And now Uranus, the fastest-moving transpersonal planet, is within 2 degrees of sextile to Neptune and trine to Pluto, lending its electric energy to hasten the process. Sextiles are aspects of activation. A trine brings harmony. All three outer planets hold a supportive resonance for our awakening. It’s a remarkable synchronicity.
Uranus turns retrograde on the morning of the Virgo New Moon. Any planet exerts more focused energy when it is stationary. We can expect this lunar cycle to bring more surprises, more upsets of apple carts, more insights, more awakened minds, and a jubilant, independent spirit. The Democracy movement will gain momentum, as the spirit of freedom infuses our consciousness. On January 30, 2025 Uranus turns direct and will enter Gemini on July 7th, moving back and forth from Taurus until 2026, maintaining its sextile to Neptune and trine to Pluto.
The Saturn/Pluto Conjunction Chart
Let’s look back a moment to the big event that changed our reality. Shortly after Saturn and Pluto made their conjunction on January 12, 2020, we were shocked into change. We needed a wake-up call. Nothing like a pandemic to give us pause! The virus swept around our world, and 6,908,541 people died. Probably more deaths went undocumented. While that may seem like a small percentage of 8 billion, statistically it was the most deadly virus in history when it comes to fatality. We were all forced into a shutdown. Schools closed, people stayed home from work. We were given a timeout.
The pandemic froze us in fear and loss, but it also gave us an opportunity to step off the profit-driven hamster wheel, and just Be. We were caught up in the belief that economics is king, our value depending upon our productivity and how much wealth we can acquire. The pandemic gave us time to step back and look at how frantic and stressful our lives were. We came to prefer a more leisurely pace. We rediscovered the simple pleasures of family life, enjoying time to read the newspaper over a cup of morning coffee, playing with our children, making love in the afternoon. We began to ask ourselves what kind of life we really wanted. What really mattered?
That brings us to the chart for the Saturn/Pluto conjunction. Six planets occupied the USA 2nd House, the house of values. All were in the sign of Capricorn and within three degrees of one another. The Sun at 21:56, Ceres, Pluto and Saturn at 22+ and Mercury, the messenger of the gods, at 23+. It was time to remember our values, what really gave us satisfaction. We were alerted to profound and impending change, reminded that the Earth was participating in this transformation.
This stellium was completed by the centaur Chariklo, the consort of Chiron, at 24+ Capricorn. Her presence assured us a positive outcome. We were held in the healing arms of the Divine Feminine. Mercury was sounding the alarm, asking us to reflect on the message. The Sun, our spiritual source, was shining its spotlight on this conjunction. Saturn and Pluto had joined forces to deconstruct our social norms and lay the ground for a rebirth.
You might recall that Pluto made its return to its natal position, also in the 2nd House, in February of 2022, announcing the end of one fateful cycle and the beginning of another. Pluto posed a poignant question: Can we preserve our freedom and save Democracy? Saturn was conjunct Pluto as it approached its return and brought this theme into focus. How we vote in November will determine the answer.
Jupiter/Saturn Conjunction
Jupiter was at 9 degrees of Capricorn at the Pluto/Saturn conjunction, but caught up with Saturn on December 21, 2020 at 0 degrees of Aquarius. This was another message from the heavens, indicating that we are moving into a new age and a restructuring of our social contract. The power will shift to the people.
As Pluto dips back into Capricorn, reminding us of what we do not want, Jupiter is within 3 degrees of an activating sextile with Saturn. In June Jupiter activated Saturn in their first sextile and by July the political landscape had shifted dramatically. Kamala Harris brought a message of hope for the future and we responded. More women, blacks and youth registered to vote. After 8 years of rancor and despair, we had reason to rejoice.
Jupiter and Saturn are the forces behind our social institutions. Jupiter is expansive, visionary, idealistic. Saturn is contractive, limiting, resistant. Isn’t it interesting that that these two energies have manifested in the two ideologies of our political institutions. Liberal and Conservative. Jupiter and Saturn.
You’re probably wondering why I’m dredging up the past. First of all to frame our experience within a bigger picture. Second to suggest that this New Moon can bring us a rich harvest of wisdom if we take time to reflect and exercise our discernment.
New Moon in Virgo
At the New Moon on September 2nd, the Luminaries come together at 11:04 Virgo in the USA 9th House. This is the house of higher thought, of philosophy, of beliefs elevated to truth. This is the home of Sagittarius – the USA Ascendant sign. Ruled by Jupiter, this is the sign of forward thinking, invention and expanded vision.
I want to add that this is the second of four Super Moons, meaning that the Moon is closest to the Earth and therefore reflecting more light of Spirit. The Moon in a nation’s chart addresses the collective subconscious and the emotional bodies of the whole population. It represents the changing essence of our experience.
Sun and Moon lie between two of the USA natal dwarf planets, Orcus and Varuna. Orcus is about keeping oaths, walking our talk. It also asks us to explore our shadow and bring it into the light. In our nation’s chart this refers to our collective shadow, the unresolved issues of the past. Pluto has been our ally here digging up the hidden secrets, the corrupt actions and intentions, the dirty laundry of politics. It also concerns the audacious shady behavior in plain sight.
Varuna on the other hand is the higher octave of Saturn, the one who has mastered the ego, is self-realized and autonomous. It’s also about our image in the world. We have been showing humanity our dark side. We’re certainly not the only country doing that, but we citizens are the keepers of Democracy. Democracy is a messy experiment, but the essential prerequisite for an Aquarian based future. We are in search of a way to live together in peace, but we must be free to think, to envision, to experiment. We are seeking to prove that a government of the people, for the people and by the people can function, despite our diversity.
That’s where our values come in. Yes, we can function if we keep our oath to the values and spirit of our founders. They didn’t get everything right, but they had a vision of a free, happy people living in harmony and enjoying the right to be themselves. And we must embrace the fact that democracy extends that freedom and right to all. Diversity is our strength and we must learn to trust it and celebrate our rich melting pot .
The New Moon is square our Ascendant, asking us to remember who we are and think about who we might become, to exercise our vision, tighten up our faith, reflect on questions of identity both individual and collective. And use our discernment to preserve what is valuable and discard what is not.
Mercury turned direct on August 28th but remains in its retrograde shadow until September 11th, when it will sextile Mars and combine energies to activate our minds. This is a great time for reflection.
The sign of Virgo is associated with the harvest. This is when we reap the benefits of our hard labor and receive the bounty. Virgo is on an axis with Pisces and the New Moon is five degrees away from opposition to Saturn. We may come face to face with our illusions, or obstacles in our path. Pisces is about letting go and trusting the flow while Virgo is about paying attention and harvesting the gems of wisdom. But Virgo, as well as the dwarf planet Ceres currently in our 1st House, are literally tied to the quality of our food.
You may wonder who Dr. Zach Bush is, the author of the above quote. A friend suggested I check out his message so I found a YouTube interview in which he discusses the compromised quality of our soil, and thus our food, and the resulting decline of health. We are being poisoned into extinction. The statistics are shocking.
Here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BBi6HFNOmE
Dr. Bush is one of a growing number of medical doctors who are questioning the quality of our healthcare. He realized after a few years of practice, that he wasn’t healing anyone, just addressing their symptoms. He began to probe holistic medicine, and then nutrition, where he found what he believes is the source of the proliferating number of babies born on the spectrum, of our growing infertility, of the rising rates of cancer and autoimmune disease. And he’s fun to listen to.
Sedna
This dwarf planet beyond the Kuiper Belt all the way out in the Ort Cloud, is the new limit of our Solar System. Her discovery revealed the vast expanse not only of our solar neighborhood, but our consciousness. We are discovering a whole new family of planets called dwarfs, that carry spiritual powers beyond our ego consciousness. Sedna therefore is the new boundary of consciousness, providing a vast territory yet to be explored.
Alan Clay suggests that Sedna keeps us on our spiritual path. He also claims she is connected to AI. I have deep reservations about this new technology because, like nuclear fusion, it poses a devastating threat in the wrong hands. I see Sedna as the next goal of human evolution, a state of enlightenment. Maybe AI will facilitate that. Who knows?
At the New Moon, Sedna is at 1 degree of Gemini, one of the many planets beginning a journey through a new sign. Sedna is quincunx Haumea. Sedna is also sextile Neptune which is quincunx Haumea. This aspect creates a Finger of God, pointing to our regeneration and rebirth. Sedna is also trine Pluto which is square Haumea. In short, Sedna is intimately connected to all three transpersonal planets, adding her creative energy to their resonance.
Haumea made its final ingress into Scorpio in April of 2023 and has formed a T-Square with Pluto and Eris over the past several years, assuring us of a rebirth to follow this period of chaos and deconstruction.
Conclusion
I have suggested that this Virgo cycle is a great time for reflection and discernment. We are approaching our second eclipse season that begins at the Full Moon in Pisces, only two weeks away. As we know, eclipses bring up shadow issues and intensify whatever is going on. We can get a head start by setting aside time to review the past few years, release our fears, harvest the gems of our experience and strengthen our faith by connecting with our Higher Selves.
Venus is conjunct Black Moon Lilith and the South Node at this New Moon. Can we bring love to the pain of our past? Have compassion for the one we were when we suffered grief, alienation, abandonment, betrayal? Can we forgive ourselves for our poor decisions? Can we let go of the story of our lives and let it evolve beyond our limitations? Can we take full responsibility for what we have created? If not yet, can we begin the search for our agency?
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