The Week Above is a weekly astrological "weather report" detailing the major planetary configurations for the week ahead. All times given are in Eastern Time. There will be references to your birth chart and your Sun, Moon, and Rising signs throughout. If you aren't sure of what that means, check out Astrodienst for free online chart drawings, and Cups & Crowns for the basics of how to understand a drawn chart.

If you enjoy my writing and find it valuable, consider supporting me on Patreon. Future posts will feature horoscopes for your sign if certain goals are met.

Pluto stations Direct - September 30th

I’m jumping ahead at the start because this transit will color the entire week.

The retrogrades of the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto [and depending on your definition Jupiter and Saturn]) don't display nearly the difference from direct motion you see with retrogrades of the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars). What's worth paying attention to with the outers is when they station direct or retrograde.

A planetary station is when that planet appears to stop moving one way and start moving the other way relative to our view on Earth. But first it slows way down. You can think of a station, particularly of an outer planet, as that planet digging a groove into a specific part of the zodiac. Like a vehicle putting on the brakes on a dirt road, it tends to leave a mark, and it tends to shake things up inside the vehicle.

Therefore for the next two weeks, expect shakings of the earth both literal and symbolic (mostly symbolic); sudden emergings of things deeply buried in the psyche, the culture, the Capitol; dramatic intensity in the realms of sex, soul healing, psychotherapy, and other healing modalities; and revelations of truths both difficult and necessary.

It is a good time to try out new fetishes, investigate secrets that must be brought to light, and confess things to your therapist you've never admitted to them before.

Check your chart using the tools I mentioned up top—this transit will affect you most if you have planets or points at 13-23 degrees of any sign, but especially 15-21 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn; or if your life involves dealing with that which is kept hidden in the dark—therapists, healers, investigators, exterminators, or plumbers.

Chiron returns to Pisces - September 25th

Chiron is often considered the wounded healer archetype. He shows us where our wounds are and how we may heal others through those wounds.

But Chiron is more than that. Chiron is the centaur who was master of everything, and as such Chiron the celestial body shows us where our mastery may lie. Not only to heal—for we are not all healers—but to master whatever it is we are called to accomplish in this lifetime.

Chiron is retrograding back into Pisces, where he will remain until February 18th when he enters Aries. After that, it will be 41 years until he returns to the Fishes’ deep sea grotto.

Since February of 2011, Chiron has been showing us how to heal from a place of deep compassion and the associated risks of self-sacrifice. He has been showing us how we may master psychic, intuitive, and depth emotional arts. He has been bringing up painful memories in whatever part of your chart belongs to Pisces. And he is about to leave a parting gift there, something to remember him by, some healing or bit of mastery you may not understand at first but ties into the themes of these past 8 years in terms of universal compassion, empathy, addiction, ego dissolution, self-sacrifice, and all the pain that comes from mastering them and mastery that comes from feeling those pains.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun or Moon is in Pisces, or if your rising sign is Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, or Sagittarius. Be sure to look at your chart using the tools at the top of the post to see where Pisces is in your natal chart—whatever house Pisces governs is the area of your life most likely impacted by this transit.

Mars conjoins the South Node of the Moon - September 25-26th

It is difficult to speak your truth when your throat is parched.

It is a challenge to fight for justice when you have no fight in you.

It is also a challenge to fight for justice when you want to fight for fighting’s sake.

The South Node is an odd one. Some sources say it sucks all badness out of Mars when they conjoin, leaving its fire pure. Other sources say it makes Mars even more Mars-y—aggressive, belligerent, horny, accident-prone, all too excess and without much restraint.

Personal experience says it can go one of either two ways for those easily influenced by Mars: You either want to set everything on fire, or you’re completely burnt out.

Fortunately you don’t have to do much guesswork in this age of constant digital records: Look back to June 8th and July 20th of this year. Similar themes as came up close to those days will return again this week.

You know what you learned from whatever happened then? Review those lessons. You’ll be given a chance to apply what you’ve learned very soon.

You can return to focusing on the ideal you wish to fight for afterwards.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Aries or Scorpio, or in close aspect with Mars in your birth chart, or if you are an athlete, activist, or just someone who enjoys a good fight or argument.

Juno enters Gemini - September 26th

Juno is one of the big four Goddess Asteroids astrologers use. Juno, wife of Jupiter, was known in myth primarily for just that, though she also had functions as a head of state.

It was, to put it delicately, a complicated marriage however, and this is reflected in the significations of her asteroid.

Juno shows us how we partner with others in the long term. Not necessarily marriage, though that is part of it, but long-term committed partnerships in general. Best friends and business partners can fall under her purview as well. But Juno emphasizes the struggles and difficulties that come from being in long-term partnership with another human being. The fights, the arguments, the reconciliations, exile and return. She shows us how our partnerships can aggravate us, and what we must do to alleviate those woes.

This is not to give Juno a bad rap, however. If you don’t deal with the difficult stuff, your partnerships will never stand the test of time. And Juno shows us how to make our partnerships stand the test of time. When you made those vows, did you mean it? Did you really mean it? Of course you did. Now let’s find the strength it takes to make that work for you.

Juno’s transit through Gemini lasts until October 24th—she’s going retrograde in the next month and will return to Taurus then. In the meantime she helps show us how essential communication is in partnerships, how necessary it is to acknowledge our self-contradicting feelings and behavior, and that our version of the truth may not necessarily be our partner’s version of the truth. She asks us to keep our word to our partners, honor our vows, and own up to the consequences when we don’t.

And just to reiterate: If you are not romantically entangled, consider this as applying to your connection with your bff or anyone else you’re some kind of pair with. Partnerships take many forms, and they all require working on the communication sometimes.