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.

Vesta enters Capricorn - September 17th

Vesta is one of the big four asteroids in astrology, sometimes called the Asteroid Goddesses. She is concerned with many things, as is any archetype, among them: The sacred day-to-day work we do in the world; emotional care; the hearth and home, particularly the qualities that make a house a home; feminine sexuality that is active rather than passive; the self-sufficient feminine; sacred sexuality; sex work, especially as a healing art; and the projected ideal of the Sacred (Light) Feminine.

Vesta will be in Capricorn’s mountainous territory until December 1st. There, she teaches us how to express our inner emotional needs in ways that help us reach our long-term goals, as well as how the parts of ourselves experienced as feminine can balance emotional self-care with striving towards the future we wish to build. There will be questions that come up around whether we bring too much of our work home with us, or not enough; and whether we can do the work necessary to be in tune with the deep inner needs and meet them as human beings who have to live a complicated life. Spend time with these questions if they feel familiar; there is warmth to be gained from tending this hearth.

This transit will affect you most strongly if Vesta is conjoined your Sun, Moon, Ascendant, or another personal planet in your birth chart; if you are a woman or femme-of-center person for whom self-sufficiency is part of the fiber of your life’s construction; or if sexuality is part of your work in the world. The latter might find they have higher libido than usual during this transit.

Mars square Uranus - September 18th

Fighting the good fight gives you reason to fight.

You may want to fight. You may be spoiling for a fight. And when the just cause comes into view, you may find yourself eager to champion it, to make yourself into a righteous warrior.

Yet one person’s righteous cause is another person’s tragedy, and so serious questions must be asked of yourself if this is really the thing you need to be fighting for. Justice without mercy is cruel, and justice without discretion is a drunk waving around a sword in a crowded bar.

This Mars in Aquarius story is about asking yourself what future you wish to fight for and fighting for it. But this week may fill you with a passion to fight for what you believe that blocks from view the importance of slowing your roll to make sure you’re charging toward the correct battles.

Whatever revolution you start this week, if you bring out the guillotines make sure that you’re prepared for the outcome.

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 a cantankerous sort in general.

Mercury Cazimi in Virgo - September 20th

Cazimi means “in the heart of the Sun.” On September 20th, Mercury will make its superior conjunction with the Sun in the sign Mercury calls home. The moment of Mercury’s superior conjunction—9:52pm on the East Coast of the United States—is traditionally an excellent moment for matters of the intellect; of communication, organization, and analysis; and to engage fully with the details.

Yet all is not well for the swift-moving messenger planet. Coming up on an opposition with Chiron and square to Saturn, they are beset by troubles, obstructions, aches and pains. Therefore the evening of the 20th is good to engage in troublesome works of organization and analysis that you expect frustration from, that they may be tackled from a position of both strength and full knowledge of the difficulties.

Your unread emails, for example. Just don’t expect to get everything done perfectly.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Gemini or Virgo, or in close aspect with Mercury in your natal chart, or if you are a writer, lecturer, analyst, accountant, or otherwise focused on communication or the details.

Mercury and the Sun enter Libra - September 21st and 22nd

Playing out a similar story in quick succession, Mercury races ahead of the Sun to enter Libra shortly before midnight on September 21st. The Sun follows on the 22nd, marking the Fall Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, when night and day are of equal length. From then on, the nights grow longer than the days until the wheel turns again on the Winter Solstice.

Mercury and the Sun play out similar stories in Libra but each according to their nature. They will both oppose Chiron within hours of entering Libra and square Saturn within days. Libra wants to partner, make nice, befriend and connect; the entry into this territory will make that difficult at first, particularly as Libra’s ruler Venus is in one of its least comfortable signs.

Therefore both intellect and self-will will be trying their best to focus more on connecting with the Other, but not succeeding as much as they’d like for the few days following the changing of signs.

When you want to partner and connect, understand that the one you wish to connect with may have other plans in mind, and do your best not to take it too personally. Things will get easier in this regard once the squares to Saturn are past, though there is still much to be done.

Mercury remains in Libra until October 9th; the Sun until October 23rd.

The transit of Mercury will affect most those in Mercury categories listed above. The transit of the Sun will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Leo, or if you were born on the New Moon or at dawn; or if you are a performer or other creative.

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Venus in Scorpio - September 9th

What Love wants and what it needs can be very different.

Love wants kindness. Love wants everyone to get along. Love wants harmony and beauty and things to go smoothly. Love is defined by these things, among others.

But one cannot love another effectively if one is not willing to be radically, nakedly honest. Love requires Truth, and Truth can sting. Love requires vulnerability, and vulnerability can lead to pain.

Scorpio is the sign of going into the deep, dark places that scare us and dealing with what we find. This is why Scorpio is the sign of the Healer—because that is what it takes to heal. This is why magical works of finding hidden treasure belong to Scorpio.

Scorpio is foreign territory to Venus. She cannot be who she usually is there. But if she plays her cards right.. If she embraces the great unknown and allows herself to be naked down to her sinew... She might find herself transformed there.

Venus will be in the sign of Scorpio, fittingly, until Halloween, her stay lengthened by a retrograde in October. She will make a brief foray back home into Libra during November, then be back in Scorpio from December 2nd until January 7th. It will be a long period of needing to know what Love can be when she gets comfortable being uncomfortable.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Taurus or Libra, or in tight aspect with Venus in your birth chart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Mars in Aquarius - September 10

Our ideas of masculinity, as a society, are stuck in the past.

Outdated contexts, social constructions that are falling apart at the seams, ideals based on a vision of what used to be that has little to do with how it actually was and less to do with how it is today.

Aquarius is the outsider, the rebel, the one who does not fit in. It conceives of the future before it comes; it drags us towards the potential for what may be.

Mars is the planet of will, of passion, of drive... Of war, of strife, of anger... Of strength and athleticism... Of the ways that we construct masculinity, within ourselves and as a society. It is not maltreated in Aquarius, but it does not easily find a home there either, wandering as it does, a stranger in a strange land.

Therefore the challenge upon us all, as Mars traverses this unfamiliar landscape from September 10th to November 15th, retracing some of its steps from this summer, is to ask ourselves what future we wish to fight for, what masculine ideal exists beyond the confines of society, what passion can take us beyond the bounds of the present day.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Aries or Scorpio, or in tight aspect with Mars in your birth chart; or if masculinity and/or passionate will are important parts of your life.

Jupiter sextile Pluto - September 12th

Like the turning of the seasons, a gradual, subtle pattern of life comes into sharp focus this week.

This is the third of three Jupiter-Pluto sextiles, the previous two having taken place in January and April of this year.

Jupiter represents the human desire to understand the grand themes of the world, whether via philosophy or religion or educating the higher mind. He is buoyant in outlook, his eyes toward the horizons. He's a likeable ol' chap.

Pluto is the underworld principle―resonant with (but not ruling!) the sign of Scorpio, he too takes us to the dark depths most would rather avoid. Taboos of sexuality, chthonic powers and drives, volcanic eruptions arising from the unconscious. As you might assume, he's pretty intense.

Together in a supportive aspect, we find ourselves dealing with themes of occult philosophy, tantra in its original and Western senses, incredible heroism in the face of personal demons, and views towards foreigners that lose sight of nuance. It is a theme to this year's politics, certainly, but also to the personal journeys we undergo. History, after all, is fractal.

Look back to themes and symbols that came up for you around mid-January and mid-April of this year; if you spot a pattern, it should return this week.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Sagittarius or Pisces, or in tight aspect with Jupiter in your birth chart; or if you are an occultist, priest, or educator.

Venus opposed Uranus, sextile Saturn - September 12th

The ongoing trine between Uranus and Saturn has been a theme of the past couple of years. It is an especially strong one this August and September.

There is a tendency for sudden shocks to existing establishments, and sudden establishing of things whose existence is shocking. Things break into pieces and reform as stronger versions of what they were or something else entirely, or they just break into millions of pieces and those pieces are composted into fertilizer for growing the next big thing.

Venus, in the territory of necessary truths, interacts with this pattern as soon as she enters Scorpio on Sunday, but brings it forth throughout the week. Sometimes Venus likes you to see her coming, sometimes she likes you to see her going. Therefore this aspect and its impact on Love, relations, and aesthetics may not make itself known until the 13th or 14th, but it will make itself known somehow.

This is an amazing time to surprise your partner with something unexpected for the two of you to do together―a night on the town, a poem you wrote about them, a fetish you've been waiting to reveal... Something new and exciting. And I recommend you do so. Astrology lets you pick your poison and turn it into medicine. Shake things up in a fun way and Uranus is more likely to have your back.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Taurus or Libra, or conjoined Venus in your birth chart.

Mercury opposed Neptune - September 13th

Mercury retrograde has a lot of stereotypes.

It gets overhyped in a lot of ways, but certain patterns do emerge. Among them are afflictions such as delays, mishaps, and plain old weirdness around communication, transportation, short-distance travel, and technology.

These sorts of effects are also known to happen when transiting Mercury is in hard aspect to Neptune, as they are the first half of this week. The emphasis in this context tends more towards the "plain old weirdness" side of things, so I wouldn't over-fret. You might just find yourself talking to an old friend and running out of time because you spent too long discussing your grandparents' respective taste in ice cube trays, for example.

I wouldn't back up my hard drive on Thursday, though.

This transit will affect you most if your Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in Gemini or Virgo, or in tight aspect with Mercury in your birth chart, or if you are a writer, tech worker, or lecturer.

The Week Above - September 16th-23rd 2018