Mars Ex-Dec
The eclipse season, with its intense emotions and events, is now over until next January. Eclipse days can bring unexpected or untrustworthy results. Mars remains at extreme declination (until the end of the month) which amplifies aggressive, angry, irrational behaviors, and self-sabotage, as well as fires, cutting, violence and extreme heat. Both Venus and Mars change signs this month creating potential relationship issues as Venus enters secretive Scorpio on September 10th, while Mars enters indifferent Aquarius on September 12th (both in fixed signs – stubborn and determined), creating tensions between women and men, between diplomacy and impulsive action, between advocates for peace and those itching for war.
Mercury Aspects
Mercury is no longer retrograde (after August 20th) and will break out of its shadow degrees (those it retraced while retrograde) on August 3rd and will remain direct until shortly after the midterm elections. However, Mercury will oppose Neptune for a week in mid-September, which could bring new confusions, illusions and lies. The only other retrogrades remaining all month will be the outer planets – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Since all the personal planets are direct this month, we can expect some forward movement now on projects, although inner reflection will continue as we try to make sense of these chaotic times and our own personal behaviors, including where we may have “over-reacted” during these past 2 months.
From Sept. 6th until the New Moon on Sept. 9th Mercury trines Saturn in Capricorn as it stations (appears to stop before turning direct), urging thoughtful decision-making. Let’s hope some reasonable new ideas surface. Then Mercury will conjunct the Sun from September 10th through the end of the month, enhancing mental reasoning for all, but especially for Virgos from September 6th to the 21st and Libras from the 22nd.
The US National Chart
As we enter September, transiting Saturn at its station (where it has an especially strong impact) opposes the Venus/Jupiter conjunction in the US National chart’s 7th house of “open enemies”. This suggests that our usual national character, which is generally friendly toward others, is being impeded by the opposition from a stern Saturn dragging against our democracy through the Fall of 2018. This doesn’t bode well for personal relationships, our relations with allies and autocrats alike, or between partisan members of Congress.
National Politics
Opposite sides are digging in, standing their ground. White Supremacists are holding rallies, celebrating their brand of racism and hate. Democrats are trying to slow down the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court while Republicans refuse to make his records available and have scheduled his confirmation for September without proper vetting as an obvious power play to protect the President. Trump’s lawyers are resisting an interview with Mueller, while plotting to impeach Rosenstein and stop the Russian Investigation. The Republicans voted down much-needed protection money for our election system in the face of Russian hacking because they want Russia’s continued support to win elections for Republicans. We already know that the “arrangement” with Kim Yong Un has turned sour as the North Koreans continue to build missiles that can reach the USA mainland. We still have no idea what Trump promised Putin in Helsinki or whether that will eventually bite us where it hurts, and the trade war with China is beginning to escalate into tit-for-tat tariffs that will make Chinese goods increasingly more expensive for the American consumer.
Meanwhile our long-standing mutually-supportive relationships with Canada, the UK and the EU are in tatters, while Saudi Arabia plays us for fools by getting us to overlook its repression of Arabian women activists and to join in its campaign to obliterate Iran, one of Israel’s goals as well. Stubborn Saturn in the US 1st house “of the people” also indicates resistance which is mounting against the increasingly unethical and diabolical fight to dehumanize immigrants of color due to Trump supporter’s “White Extinction Anxiety” as the Whites of America are losing majority rule.
Saturn trine Uranus
Simultaneously in late August-early September 2018 transiting Saturn is trine transiting Uranus. This highlights the role of discipline and organization, the task of accomplishing positive change through patience and long hard work, bringing to mind Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump administration’s ties with Russia. Perhaps this signifies that the Russian Investigation findings will surface by Labor Day, as some have projected.
Fall Equinox
September 22nd marks the Fall Equinox. Three slow-moving T-squares (tension and obstruction) to Saturn, Uranus and the Nodes/Mars reveal an uptight world suffering from the inability to cooperate, compromise or find meaningful solutions to its many problems. Such tensions in the heavens can often trigger seismic disturbances as well. Despite the tensions, the DC Equinox chart reveals a Grand Trine/Kite and Mystic Rectangle (positive consciousness growth) anchored by the Moon’s Nodes (destiny) which signals favorable potential, notwithstanding extreme rigidity. A shift in consciousness is needed as the world’s economy becomes shaky, thanks to an arrogant and inflexible USA and its rather arbitrary tariffs.