Retrograde of Venus

Green planet, futuristic spacecraft, and zodiac wheel against the Milky Way

For 3 October 2026, the astrological picture is exceptionally concentrated: Venus turns retrograde in Scorpio as the exacting Mercury–Mars–Pluto T-square dominates, with Mars in Leo opposing Pluto in Aquarius and trining Neptune in Aries.

In a Geo-Zenith reading, this creates a powerful planetary network across the Pacific, the western coasts of the Americas, Japan, eastern Australia and Southeast Asia, with secondary lines extending toward western Europe. The central theme is exposure: Mars–Pluto brings buried power struggles, concealed actions and information held beneath the surface toward confrontation, while Mercury in Scorpio gives the configuration a distinctly investigative quality. Most importantly, Venus retrograde in Scorpio turns the search inward and downward, reopening questions of trust, money, relationships, agreements, values and loyalties, bringing back matters that were thought settled and making what has been hidden increasingly difficult to conceal. This is less a moment of something simply being revealed than of a deeper layer being uncovered, examined and reassessed; secrets, motives and power structures may come to light because the configuration itself keeps pushing beneath the surface until the truth of the matter becomes harder to avoid. It may feel that nothing is above board anymore, and cherished stable norms will be shaken to the roots.

The way through is to resist the urge to control what is being uncovered and instead allow truth to surface, however uncomfortable it may initially be. Venus retrograde in Scorpio asks for honest reassessment: release what has outlived its purpose, reclaim what has value, and let what cannot withstand the truth fall away. Hard as it may be, we will see leaders trying to hide what is now obvious while others ruthlessly expose truths. We must hope that no one is going to take aggressive actions that cannot be reversed.

The moon in Aries

Full moon over a mountain lake, village, and star-filled night sky

The Aries Full Moon at 3°37′ on 26 September arrives conjunct Neptune and opposite the Libra Sun, creating a powerful axis between personal impulse and relationship, between what rises from within and what must be negotiated with the world. Neptune makes the illumination less literal and more intuitive: something previously submerged can suddenly become visible, felt rather than explained. This is not simply a Moon demanding action; it is a personal illumination, revealing where instinct, imagination, longing and inner knowing have been gathering beneath the surface. The question is not merely “What do I want?” but “What is trying to emerge through me?”

The surrounding air-sign geometry provides the way through. The Libra Sun, Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius form a Grand Air Trine, while the Aries Moon and Neptune connect into that pattern, creating a kite-like configuration. Uranus opens the mind to new information and unexpected possibilities; Pluto concentrates the deeper transformational force; the Sun gives conscious awareness and relational perspective. Together they create a channel through which the Neptunian Aries energy can be gathered rather than scattered: intuition becomes insight, insight becomes understanding, and understanding can become purposeful movement. This is the funnel — a concentration of energy from the collective and intellectual field into the individual self, where something can finally be recognised, released and given direction.

Podcast Episode: The UN general assembly

a tryout on AI generated speech –

The UN general assembly

The 81st UN General Assembly is arriving at an unusually charged astrological moment. The Sun has just entered 0° Libra, putting negotiation, balance and the question of how competing powers coexist at the centre of the chart, while Mercury is also in Libra. Yet this is not a quiet diplomatic Libra: Saturn and Neptune are retrograde together in early Aries, Uranus is retrograde in Gemini and Pluto retrograde in Aquarius. The symbolism is remarkably close to the actual agenda: a world order being challenged and redesigned, arguments over sovereignty and war, technological transformation, climate, sea-level rise and the future architecture of international institutions. The UN itself is explicitly discussing restoring trust and managing transformation, while Guterres has called for reform of global institutions and greater representation for the developing world.

The planetary picture says less “agreement at any price” than a confrontation between the old order and something genuinely multipolar trying to emerge.

The leaders make the pattern even more interesting. Trump is Gemini, born 14 June 1946; Xi Jinping is Gemini, born 15 June 1953, so both sit directly in the territory activated by Uranus in Gemini: communication, information, trade, technology and sudden changes of direction. Putin is Libra, Macron Sagittarius, and Modi Virgo; their different styles symbolically interact with the present Libra Sun, Virgo-to-Libra transition and Jupiter in Leo. And then there is Canada: Canada is conventionally given a Cancer national chart based on Confederation, while Mark Carney, born 16 March 1965, is Pisces. That Cancer–Pisces combination is particularly striking now because Mars is at 27° Cancer while Neptune is in Aries: Canada/Carney symbolically occupies the water-sign, humanitarian, alliance-building side of the present struggle, while Mars in Cancer brings questions of homeland, security, borders and protection sharply into the diplomatic field. Carney has in fact been actively building deeper Canada–EU relations and multilateral partnerships immediately before UNGA. What we would want from this sky is the constructive expression of Saturn–Neptune in Aries: turning idealism into workable structures rather than allowing ideology, force or illusion to dominate; Uranus in Gemini could bring a breakthrough through information, technology or an unexpected diplomatic channel, while Pluto in Aquarius continues the enormous redistribution of power away from a purely Western-centred system. The strongest practical possibility is therefore not one grand settlement but new alignments and partial agreements: pressure for a diplomatic route over Iran, continued attempts to contain the Ukraine conflict, stronger European–Canadian cooperation, and a larger Global South voice in UN and financial institutions. The actual UN week already reflects this direction, with Canada, Brazil, India, the EU and others forming a “Partners for Multilateralism” initiative. Astrologically, the sky looks like a negotiation point in a much larger restructuring: confrontation remains very real, but so does the possibility that the pressure finally forces countries to begin constructing a different kind of international agreement.

September 2026 equinox

Stonehenge at sunset overlaid with a planetary orbit and solstice diagram

The exact September 2026 equinox occurs on 23 September at 00:05 UTC, or 02:05 CEST. This is the precise moment when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving southward and, astrologically, enters 0° Libra. Day and night are equal, giving the equinox its natural symbolism of balance before darkness begins to outweigh daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. The movement from Virgo into Libra shifts the emphasis from sorting and analysing towards relationship, balance, exchange and consequence. It becomes a collective reset, asking what has become unequal, which relationships or agreements are no longer sustainable, and where a new balance needs to be created rather than simply restored.

The sky around the exact moment is relatively quiet, but several things are active. The waxing Moon is about 91% illuminated in the region of Capricorn and Aquarius, approaching opposition to Jupiter in Leo, making Jupiter prominent in the eastern sky. Venus has just reached its greatest brilliance on 22 September. The September Perseid meteor shower has already ended, so there is no major meteor maximum at the equinox itself. The fixed-star background remains interesting: the Sun at 0° Libra occupies the celestial region associated with Virgo, with Spica as the major nearby stellar reference, while Vega, Deneb and Altair dominate the seasonal sky and Pegasus and Andromeda rise in the east. Algol is also part of this wider stellar picture. Around the equinox, the Russell–McPherron effect can make Earth’s magnetosphere more responsive to solar wind, increasing the possibility of geomagnetic activity and auroras.

Astrologically, however, this equinox does not stand alone. It arrives within a much larger period of restructuring, turning attention towards the consequences of choices already made, particularly around partnerships, commitments, power and the balance between individual freedom and collective needs. Something developing beneath the surface may now become visible through relationships, negotiations, politics or public events. The question is therefore not simply what is fair, but what kind of balance can actually survive the changes underway. What will we accept and what will we no longer stand for, individually and collectively. There is a great wave of change – and there are many personal and public choices – we must choose wisely.

Time for change

I have decided to make a change to the way Astrology Crucible is presented. After some thought, I will no longer be producing the weekly horoscopes for all twelve signs. I know that some readers have enjoyed them, and I am sorry to disappoint anyone who has particularly looked forward to the weekly readings. However, I would rather put the time and attention into the astrology itself, following the larger patterns and events that I believe are more meaningful than producing a new forecast every seven days.

From now on, Astrology Crucible will concentrate on significant astronomical and astrological events: the equinoxes and solstices, New and Full Moons and eclipses, major planetary conjunctions and oppositions, planetary ingresses and retrogrades, important alignments involving Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, significant fixed-star activations, and unusual events involving asteroids, dwarf planets and other bodies where they add something worthwhile. I will also continue to look at the astronomy behind these events, because the actual sky matters as much as the symbolism we attach to it.

This means fewer reports, but deeper ones. Rather than trying to find something to say about every sign every week, I can follow the periods when the heavens are actually doing something interesting and explore what is happening from astronomical, astrological and wider symbolic perspectives. The aim is to make Astrology Crucible a place for understanding the bigger movements of our time, rather than another source of routine weekly predictions. Thank you to everyone who has followed the weekly horoscopes, and I hope you will continue with me as the focus shifts from twelve weekly forecasts to the larger astrology that connects us all.

14 – 20 September 2026

The main planetary picture is this: the Sun is moving through late Virgo, Mercury is in Libra, Venus has just moved into Scorpio, Mars is in Cancer and Jupiter is in Leo. Saturn and Neptune are retrograde in early Aries, Uranus is retrograde in Gemini and Pluto retrograde in Aquarius. This gives a fascinating mixture of practical clearing and deep emotional transformation, while the outer planets are still working backwards through the enormous structural changes of 2026.

The strongest feature at the beginning of the week is Mercury in Libra trining Uranus in Gemini. That is an excellent signature for unexpected information, sudden connections, unusual ideas and seeing a problem from an entirely different angle. But Mercury then moves toward an opposition with Neptune in Aries, so there is also a danger of seeing what is hoped for rather than what is actually there. Venus in Scorpio adds depth and intensity to relationships, money and values, while its developing tension with Pluto can expose what has been hidden underneath apparently settled arrangements.

The Sun also makes a useful sextile to Mars around the middle of the week, giving the new Virgo Moon cycle some practical propulsion. Mars in Cancer makes the action personal: home, family, security, land, belonging and emotional foundations are particularly activated. Jupiter in Leo continues to enlarge questions of creativity, confidence and self-expression.

And there is a beautiful astronomical counterpart. Venus reaches its greatest brilliance around 18 September, making this an unusually conspicuous Venus week in the actual evening sky. The Moon is also moving through the evening sky between 14 and 20 September, providing several close encounters with stars and planets.

So the underlying story for 14–20 September is: the new cycle begins to reveal what it actually wants to become. Information arrives, hidden motivations become harder to ignore, emotional foundations are stirred, and something that was only an intention around the New Moon can begin becoming concrete. It is a transitional week rather than a quiet one, particularly because the following week brings the equinox, when the Sun crosses into Libra and the whole balance of the chart shifts again.

The new moon 10-11 September 2026

Crescent moon and Milky Way above silhouetted mountains and pine trees

The New Moon of comes at a remarkable turning point. At 18° Virgo, it follows the August eclipses and arrives as Uranus changes direction in Gemini, while Venus enters Scorpio and Mercury enters Libra. The emphasis is on clearing, reassessing and reorganising: information, technology, relationships, money, power and the structures through which society operates. It feels less like a single dramatic event than a threshold where several currents suddenly begin moving differently. The old pattern is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain, while the beginnings of another pattern are becoming visible.

Behind this sits the much larger 2026 Saturn–Neptune cycle in Aries, with Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto all in retrograde motion around the New Moon. This gives the period a strong sense of reviewing the foundations of what is being built. Historically, Saturn–Neptune periods have coincided with major changes in political and social structures, particularly when an established order has exhausted itself and something fundamentally different begins to emerge. The important point is not destruction: it is dissolution followed by reconstruction. What no longer works is being exposed so that it can be dismantled rather than endlessly repaired.

That makes the September New Moon an invitation to participate in creating the new rather than waiting for it to appear. The troubling events in the world — wars, political instability, failing institutions, economic tensions and the enormous disruption of AI and information technology — are part of an atmosphere in which old solutions increasingly fail to solve old problems. The days following the New Moon bring Mercury into challenging contact with Neptune and then harmonious contact with Uranus and Pluto: confusion, revelation, new information and transformation.

The message is therefore remarkably simple: clear away what has become obsolete, keep what is still valuable, and use the space created to build something genuinely different. Which will work at every level- personal, familial, in communities and on the world scale – let’s hope we all can find the wisdom to do this. This is not the end of something for the sake of ending it; it is the necessary disassembly that makes a new beginning possible.

7–13 September 2026

The sky has a very clear turning-point quality. The major astrologers are remarkably consistent about the week: 10 September is the pivot, with Venus entering Scorpio, Mercury entering Libra, Uranus stationing retrograde in Gemini, and the Virgo New Moon following immediately afterwards.

Astronomically, the background is equally interesting: Jupiter is moving through Leo, Mars through Cancer, while Saturn and Neptune are in Aries and Pluto in Aquarius, with Saturn, Neptune and Pluto retrograde. Uranus is still in early Gemini but stops on 10 September at about 5° Gemini before beginning its retrograde phase.
The Virgo New Moon at 18°26′, exact in the early hours of 11 September UTC, is the heart of the week. This is not simply the usual “get organised” Virgo interpretation. Virgo is the pattern-recognition principle: taking what is complicated, separating it into its component parts, identifying what actually works and then rebuilding the system.
The New Moon is sextile Mars in Cancer, giving practical force to the reset, while Mercury’s movement from its own sign Virgo into Libra changes the emphasis from analysis to relationship, negotiation and the balancing of competing truths.
Then comes the extraordinary Mercury sequence: Mercury in Libra trines Pluto in Aquarius, opposes Neptune in Aries and finally trines Uranus in Gemini over 12–13 September. That produces an almost perfect symbolic picture of old mental structures being challenged by new information: Pluto exposes, Neptune dissolves, Uranus disrupts and Mercury attempts to make sense of the new landscape. Several astrologers are interpreting this as a week in which assumptions and familiar maps may no longer describe the territory accurately.

The Geo-Zenith interpretation makes this even more interesting. Venus moves from late Libra into Scorpio, shifting collective values from harmony and appearances towards truth, depth and what lies underneath; meanwhile Jupiter in Leo continues to amplify visibility, creativity and the struggle over who gets to define the story. The fixed-star backdrop adds weight: Venus passes through the late-Libra region of Spica and Arcturus, while Uranus at 5° Gemini remains in the wider Aldebaran zone, bringing the familiar Uranian themes of sudden revelation, technological change and breaking established patterns into the picture. Among the dwarf planets, Eris is notable, it remains around 25° Aries, continuing the longer-running challenge to established authority and exclusion, while Pluto’s early-Aquarius position keeps the deeper transformation of collective systems active. Ceres is also moving through the Gemini region astronomically, adding a subtle theme of changing how humanity thinks about nourishment, care and what sustains a system.

Way through: stop trying to preserve the old map; examine what is actually working, discard what no longer fits, and build the next pattern deliberately. Be aware that the whole map is changing

Change is now

Milky Way over mountains with zodiac chart labeling Spica

The week of 31 August to 6 September opens with a striking mixture of consolidation and volatility. Jupiter at about 13° Leo makes an exact trine to retrograde Saturn at 13° Aries on 31 August, a fire trine that can turn vision into structure, while Mars in Cancer squares Saturn on 1 September, bringing the practical consequences of emotional, domestic and environmental pressures sharply into view. At the same time Mars and Uranus are moving through early Gemini territory, with their earlier conjunction still resonating: the nervous system, communications, transport, technology and the movement of information remain highly charged. The Sun moves from Virgo through the first degrees of the sign, Mercury is also in Virgo, Venus moves through late Virgo into Libra, Jupiter remains in Leo, Saturn and Neptune retrograde in Aries, Uranus in Gemini and Pluto retrograde in Aquarius, while the North Node has newly moved into Aquarius and the South Node into Leo.

In Geo-Zenith terms this is the great fire and air pattern meeting Earth and water: Leo wants expression, Aries initiation, Gemini rapid change and Aquarius systemic transformation, but Virgo asks what can actually be repaired, measured and made useful.

Astronomically, the sky reinforces that movement from spectacle towards discernment. Venus is exceptionally bright in the western evening sky and passes within about 2° of Spica, the principal star of Virgo, on 31 August and 1 September, with the closest passage on 2 September. Spica is therefore particularly relevant to the Geo-Zenith reading: traditionally associated with harvest, refinement and the gathering of what has been brought to maturity, it gives this week a very different tone from the fiery Leo eclipse season. The waning Moon moves away from the Pisces eclipse field, reaches Last Quarter on 4 September, and by 6 September begins the next sequence of close encounters with the planets. The deeper message is therefore not another explosion of events but integration: after the extraordinary eclipse and meteor activity of August, the heavens begin asking what remains when the spectacle has passed. Geo-Zenith sees this as a threshold between planetary acceleration and planetary accountability: the future is arriving rapidly, but the work now is to decide which parts of the old system are worth carrying into it.

The way through this configuration is to stop trying to carry the old into the new simply because it is familiar. Emotionally, allow grief, anger and uncertainty to move through without letting them dictate your choices; psychologically, question the patterns, beliefs and loyalties that keep repeating themselves and ask whether they still serve the person you are becoming. Practically, make small deliberate changes in what you buy, build, support, consume and give your time to, because the new is created through repeated action rather than wishful thinking. This is a week for choosing consciously: keep what has life in it, release what has become dead weight, and put your energy where you want the future to grow. Time to act.

The blood moon

Red moon above storm clouds, lightning, mountains, and windblown trees

This lunar eclipse is a remarkable threshold, and the astronomy itself gives it unusual weight. At 06:12 CEST on 28 August, Earth places its shadow across the Full Moon, with about 96 percent of the lunar disc entering the darkest part of Earth’s shadow. In tropical astrology the Moon is at 4°51 Pisces opposite the Sun at 4°51 Virgo, with Mercury close to the Sun and Uranus in Gemini squaring the eclipse axis. Pisces, Virgo and Gemini create a powerful pattern of perception, discernment and information. We are living through an extraordinary flood of information, misinformation, revelations and competing realities, while old explanations are increasingly being challenged. Uranus brings disruption and sudden insight, Pisces asks us to listen beyond the obvious, and Virgo demands that what we perceive is examined carefully.

The eclipsed Moon sits almost exactly upon Fomalhaut, one of the four ancient Royal Stars, associated with the Southern Watcher, vision, spiritual perception and the necessity of distinguishing illumination from illusion. This feels particularly significant now. Human beings are not detached observers of Earth but living systems embedded within its electromagnetic, gravitational and environmental fields, while the planet itself is experiencing extremes of heat, drought, fire and sudden inundation. At the same time, people are questioning old political structures, inherited beliefs and the narrow definitions of what constitutes legitimate knowledge. Pisces represents permeability and sensitivity, Virgo discrimination and Gemini the vast information network through which humanity now communicates. The eclipse therefore asks us not simply to acquire more information, but to become better listeners and more discerning perceivers.

Beyond the visible planets, Pluto in Aquarius continues the transformation of collective power and civilisation, while Haumea brings regeneration, Makemake creation and relationship with the living world, Eris the excluded voice demanding recognition, and distant Gonggong the mythology of water and overturned cosmic order. These long orbital bodies add a remarkable mythological layer to the eclipse. The larger story is one of dissolution and regeneration, ecological consequence, changing power structures and the widening of human perception. This does not require us to abandon science; rather, it asks whether science itself can become sufficiently open to investigate the full range of human experience. We may be approaching a period in which intuition, embodied awareness, subtle perception and forms of consciousness previously dismissed are examined with new seriousness. The eclipse marks the closing of a long Pisces cycle and asks humanity to learn the art of listening: neither believing everything nor dismissing everything, but becoming capable of seeing what is actually there.

After the eclipse

Image from internet – lovely aurora borealis (please tell me who made this)

The eclipse has passed, but the week of 17 to 23 August is not a return to ordinary skies. We are now living in the aftermath of the 12 August Leo solar eclipse, with the newly changed Aquarius–Leo nodal axis still setting the direction and the Sun completing its passage through Leo before entering Virgo on 23 August. Mercury and Jupiter remain together in Leo, carrying forward the great question of the eclipse: what kind of leadership, creativity and collective future are we actually prepared to build? Pluto is retrograde in Aquarius and has now gone out of bounds, adding an unusually powerful, unruly quality to the transformation of collective systems, while Uranus in Gemini continues to break open old assumptions about information, communication and intelligence. The eclipse was the fulcrum; this week begins the process of living with what it revealed. The Perseids are still active until 24 August, although their peak has passed, so Earth is still moving through the debris stream of Swift Tuttle while the sky gradually changes from the darkness of eclipse week towards a waxing Moon.

The physical heavens remain unusually active. A magnetic filament erupted from the Sun on 14 August and launched a CME towards Earth, with models predicting a glancing encounter around 17 August and possible G1 geomagnetic storm conditions; the Met Office likewise expects CME arrival on the 17th, followed from the 18th by coronal hole high speed solar winds. This means the week opens with Earth still inside a disturbed solar environment, with the possibility of auroral activity at northern latitudes as the solar wind changes. Astrologically, the same layering continues: Saturn retrograde in Aries asks us to reconsider what we are building, Neptune retrograde in Aries dissolves old certainties, Pluto retrograde in Aquarius turns the collective transformation inward, and Chiron retrograde in Taurus keeps returning us to the wound of land, resources and physical security. Mars in Cancer brings the question of protection, water, home and nourishment into the foreground. On 17 August Mercury trines Saturn and Venus sextiles Jupiter, offering something the eclipse week lacked: a chance to give the new vision structure, while Venus in Libra seeks cooperation rather than conflict.

Then comes the grounding. The First Quarter Moon arrives on 20 August and passes through Scorpio before moving into Sagittarius, bringing increasing emotional intensity followed by a need to understand the larger picture; on 19–20 August it passes close to Antares, the red heart of Scorpius, while later on 22–23 August it moves through Sagittarius towards the centre of the Milky Way. On 21 August Venus opposes retrograde Saturn, asking what relationships, agreements and values can actually withstand reality, while the Sun approaches the end of Leo and finally enters Virgo on 23 August, bringing the enormous symbolic fire of the eclipse down into practical earthly work. This is the crucial movement now: from revelation to application, from seeing the future to doing something about it. The world may still feel suspended between what is ending and what has not yet fully arrived, but the direction is changing. The eclipse opened the door; this week asks us to walk through it, take stock of what remains, and begin the painstaking work of making the new world habitable.

The Eclipse and the Perseids

Solar eclipse above Earth with visible stars and meteor streaks

This week we should get the most spectacular skies, not only is the sun showing some volatile activity leading to northern lights, We also have the solar eclipse in Leo, and space itself is very interesting right now as we travel through the Perseid stream

The space we are travelling through is itself also worth distinguishing from the Perseid stream. The Solar System is moving through the local interstellar medium, within the very low-density region surrounding the heliosphere; the heliosphere is continually interacting with that external plasma and magnetic environment while the Sun and planets move through it.
At the same time, Earth is travelling around the Sun at about 30 km/s, carrying us through a much more local stream of material: the Perseid meteoroid trail. The Perseids are not a cloud arriving at Earth from Perseus; Earth is crossing the elongated orbital debris stream of Comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle. The comet’s orbit is highly elongated and retrograde, with an inclination of about 113°, so its debris travels through the Solar System in the opposite direction to the planets.
That makes our encounter unusually fast and nearly head-on, producing the Perseids which enter the atmosphere at roughly 59 km/s.
Around 10–16 August 2026, Earth is moving through the densest part of this debris corridor, with the Perseid peak around 12–13 August, precisely alongside the solar eclipse. The stream itself is much broader than the visible meteors suggest at roughly 0.1 AU wide, and Earth takes days to cross it, which is why the shower builds before the peak and continues afterwards.
The apparent trajectory is therefore particularly interesting: the particles are travelling along the ancient orbit of Swift–Tuttle, while Earth cuts across that orbit; from Earth they appear to radiate outward from Perseus, but their actual paths through space are almost parallel to the comet’s retrograde trajectory.
So this week we have three different spatial encounters layered together: the Solar System moving through the local interstellar environment, Earth moving through the Sun’s changing solar-wind and magnetic environment, and Earth physically crossing the ancient Swift–Tuttle debris stream. Then the 12 August eclipse occurs at the centre of that passage, with the darkened sky making the Perseid encounter unusually visible. That is quite an extraordinary piece of celestial geometry for the Geo-Zenith picture.
It goes almost without saying that every single one of us will be affected by this – everyone.