A Turning Point in the Sky

September is a turning-point month for many of us.

Especially as we move into this second half of the month, following the recent New Moon in Leo, there is a sense of something beginning to shift.

For some, this turning point may be felt through relationships. For others, through work, career or business. For others still, through family, home, health, creativity or some other deeply personal area of life.

As always, the particular areas of life activated by current transits have everything to do with where these signs and planets sit within your own birth chart. But even without looking at an individual chart, we can feel into the larger themes of the cosmic cycles and the energies moving through the collective field.

And as a reminder, this is Vedic Astrology, which follows the Sidereal - or fixed star - system ~ the science of light.

Each New Moon sets an energetic stage for the month ahead.

The New Moon in Sidereal Leo, in Purva Phalguni Nakshatra, brought a distinctly Venusian quality into the field — one concerned with pleasure, beauty, intimacy, creativity and the things that make life feel worth living.

The symbol of Purva Phalguni is a bed.

There is an invitation here about rest, pleasure, sensuality and allowing ourselves to receive rather than continually striving toward the next thing.

Purva Phalguni reminds us that life is not only about what we accomplish. There is also the question of what we are able to enjoy, savour, create and share.

Its colours are rich — bright pinks and reds — carrying something of that luscious, warm, embodied quality of living.

And Venus herself becomes particularly important as we move through September.

Venus in Libra, Swati Nakshatra

Venus — the planet of beauty, art, relationship, sensual pleasure and values — entered Sidereal Libra on September 11 and remains there until October 23.

Libra is Venus's own sign, giving her a particularly strong voice here.

Swati is the Star associated with wind and the power of creation, specifically by allowing Spirit to scatter and bring each of our unique medicines and messages to those ready to receive.

This can bring our attention toward relationship and reciprocity — how we meet one another, how we give and receive, where we compromise, where we accommodate too much, and where greater balance is asking to be restored.

Venus also speaks to our relationship with beauty and creativity, as well as to our material resources and finances.

Depending on where Libra falls within your own birth chart, this transit may illuminate very different areas of life. For some, it may bring renewed attention to intimate relationships; for others, creative expression, business, money or questions around value and self-worth.

It can be a lovely time to ask:

What do I truly value?

Where is my life in balance — and where is it not?

And what am I ready to allow myself to receive?

There is something particularly beautiful about beginning here — with Venus — because I think so much of what this next chapter is asking of us is not about doing more.

It is much more about coming into an honest relationship with how we embody and act from a place of LOVE.

When in doubt, we can always ask: what would love do?

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Venus retrogrades only every 18 months, and from October 3 to November 13 she travels her next 44-day retrograde phase, spending much of that time in her own sign of Libra.

This creates a potent period for reflecting on our relationships and all our relations.

People from the past can sometimes resurface during Venus retrograde — some bringing an opportunity for closure, others perhaps rekindling a spark.

Existing partnerships may find themselves exploring new ways of relating and reconnecting.

Conversations around shared finances, values, intimacy and reciprocity may also come to the surface.

Traditionally, Venus retrograde offers a window for reflection — an invitation to spend a little time looking into still waters.

A time to contemplate:

How do I show up in my relations with others?

When I relate, am I speaking from the mind or the heart?

How do I relate with Nature?

Can I honestly see my patterns?

A Particularly Auspicious Window

September 15 - October 3

There is a beautiful configuration unfolding in the sky right now.

Jupiter exalted in Cancer — Higher Wisdom

Mercury exalted in Virgo — Clear Communication

Venus in her own sign of Libra — Authentic Relating

Together, these planets create a supportive window for listening carefully, communicating clearly and paying attention to what we know to be true.

Sometimes insight arrives through a conversation.

A dream.

A sudden knowing.

A creative spark.

A feeling in the body.

Or simply seeing something we have been looking at for a long time in a different way.

There is strong support right now for bringing intuition and discernment together — for taking what we sense inwardly and finding a way to give it language, form and meaningful expression.

This is a good time to listen, write, create, have the conversation, make the plan, or simply get quiet enough to notice the clearing, deepening all our relations.