On the Erotic Ecliptic for September 2024

Honoring our bodies as temples of joy

NEON SIGN THAT SAYS "VIRGO SEASON" IN A FIELD OF WHEAT

September 2024 Dates to Note

1^st: URANUS STATIONS RETROGRADE (11:18 am ET), PLUTO RE-ENTERS CAPRICORN (8:10 pm ET)

2^nd: NEW MOON IN VIRGO AT 11 DEGREES (9:56 pm ET)

3^rd: Mars in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces (12:10 am ET)

4th: Mars in Gemini quincunx Pluto in Capricorn (1 :59 pm ET), MARS ENTERS CANCER (3:46 pm ET)

7th :  Mercury in Leo square Uranus in Taurus (12:21 am ET),

8^th: Sun in Virgo opposite Saturn in Pisces (12:35 at ET)

9^th: MERCURY RE-ENTERS VIRGO (2:50 am ET)

12^th: Sun in Virgo square Jupiter in Gemini (6:53 am ET)

15^th: Venus in Libra trine Jupiter in Gemini (1:34 am ET)

16^th: Venus in Libra opposite Chiron in Aries (5:29 pm ET)

17^th: LUNAR ECLIPSE AT 25 DEGREES OF PISCES (10:34 pm ET)

18^th: Mercury in Virgo opposite Saturn in Pisces
19^th: Sun in Virgo trine Uranus in Taurus

20^th: Sun in Virgo opposite Neptune in Pisces

21st: Mercury in Virgo square Jupiter in Gemini

22^nd: Sun in Virgo trine Pluto in Capricorn, SUN ENTERS LIBRA, Venus in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn, VENUS ENTERS SCORPIO

24th: Mercury in Virgo trine Uranus in Taurus

25^th: Mercury in Virgo opposite Neptune in Pisces

26^th: Mercury in Virgo trine Pluto in Capricorn, MERCURY ENTERS LIBRA

30^th: Mars in Cancer trine Saturn in Pisces, Sun in Libra conjunct Mercury

September brings change, then more change, and then a bit more… change. We experience the end of summer not once, but twice — after Labor Day and then again at the Autumnal Equinox on the 22nd, one of the four seasonal hinges of the year.

The first is a kind of constructed change, an American holiday that marks our exit from what is supposed to be a few months of relative leisure — but we all know that the culture of capitalism allows for no authentic rest. How can we ever fully relax when we’re worried about bills, about housing, about going back to a job that we must do but one that lacks meaning? Labor Day is when we’re supposed to honor the sacrifices and activism of organized labor, yet most of us are just out here perusing mattress sales and getting brunch. As ever — that’s what capitalism demands. Yet I wonder… will capitalism in its current form survive the next few months? (This is a shout-out to Pluto’s tour through the final degree of Capricorn.)

The New Moon in Virgo (on the 2nd at 9:56 pm ET) invites us to contemplate a new and deeper relationship with the concept of work and rest — to go back to the roots of Labor Day as a sacred remembrance of the fight for basic rights to live in our bodies without being crushed by machinery in factories, to not be locked in and murdered by bosses as in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire (basic workplace safety), to not force children to go to work (child labor laws) to have weekends off, a minimum wage — things that would not exist if it were not for the organized Labor Movement. All of us whose families have at some point risen from poverty to the middle class (no longer possible for most American families, because of the cruelties of late capitalism and the billionaire class) have done so because of this movement. To me, it’s no accident that we get to celebrate it during Virgo season each year.

This lunation is a real chance for a post-retrograde reset that allows us to direct change rather than getting caught up in the winds of change, blowing us in some direction we hadn’t prepared for. Virgo loves a plan, a to-do list, an agenda item to follow up on. Note that with Mars squaring Neptune and the New Moon opposing Saturn in Pisces, there is a real quality of exhaustion and depletion during these first days of September. This is about our nervous system. The REST part of “rest and digest” should be emphasized now.

In my book Sex and Your Stars: A Sexologist’s Guide to the Erotic Energy of the Zodiac, I describe Virgo season this way (in part):

There is still abundant light, but it is softening, becoming less aggressive and crisp, and even though peak foliage won’t happen until later, we might sense that the leaves are preparing to transition to their next phase. Virgo season brings to mind rows of fields waiting to be harvested later in the fall, and the final touches of cultivation they require. Our days might have more complexity as we assimilate our long, lazy summer into our busy fall schedules. By mid-Virgo season, around September 5, this all usually begins to make sense.

Like a Virgo body, associated with the abdomen, we are focused on digesting the end of the summer season and preparing to give it a new form: the fall. Our sympathetic nervous systems (the part of the nervous system that controls our “fight-or-flght” mechanism) might be more active now as we adapt to new details and duties. If we dont’ find the healthy outlets to process the stress of increased workloads, we can feel frazzled. At the same time, like over-eager teacher’s pets, we might sit at the front of the classes ready to absorb Virgo season’s detailed lessons with our hands raised.

The month delivers its transformational message straight out of the gate as Uranus stations retrograde in Taurus on the morning of the 1st — a final retrograde before it enters Gemini next year. This might feel like taking your finger out of the socket of the Taurus-ruled part of your chart for a few months, so you can better reflect on the shocks you’ve felt there during the last few months — and the entirety of this planet’s journey through Taurus (since 2017).

Later that evening, Pluto retrogrades back to 29 degrees of Capricorn, finishing its very long journey through the sign of structure and systems — and moving us into the final leg of America’s Pluto Return, a topic I’ve written about many times since 2008, when Pluto entered Capricorn and promptly crashed our financial system, as a warning to fix that old American karma by eradicating greed. Occupy Wall Street tried again, in 2011, to get it right. Bernie tried by pushing to overturn Citizen’s United. He continued to try for years by running for president. Biden tried with what would have been a robust answer to all of this with Build Back Better, but was thwarted by Manchin and Sinema and their assorted lobbyists. So, on the precipice of Pluto’s final visit to Capricorn, it’s feeling a like a bit of “same as it ever was” — but something is afoot.

As I write this, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are in the streets demanding a ceasefire, the return of the hostages, the resignation of Benjamin Netanyahu, and preparing for a general strike on the 2nd. A GENERAL STRIKE. Imagine if we could organize that here?

Here in America, Bibi’s fascist counterpart continues to foment unrest by tirelessly lying to his racist base. It is telling, when we think about the labor movement, that Donnie and his little buddy Vladimir Futon have nothing on their schedules on Labor Day, while the Harris/Walz team are barnstorming the country.

These final throes of Plutonian tumult last through November 19th, that is to say — this is what our election season is likely to feel like. I texted with my brilliant colleague

Stephanie Gailing

about whether Pluto’s final dip into Capricorn might suggest an evisceration of power from autocrats like Bibi and Trump, who’ve presided over so much needless death, just to avoid the consequences of their own corruption. Please, Pluto, have your way with them.

Mars enters Cancer on the 4th, the start of a long saga that will show us where the astrology of 2025 may take us. Mars will spend an inordinate amount of time in this cardinal water sign, so we must get comfortable with the urgency of our emotions sooner rather than later. Mars will enter Leo on November 3rd, but after the planet of passion stations retrograde in December, it will reenter Cancer, spending many months there next year. Look to the Cancer region of your chart, sending gentleness there and directing it to any planets you have in Cancer, Capricorn, Aries, or Libra — they’re about to get a bit beaten up.

If you’re craving sweetness (who isn’t?) then look to the 14th and 15th, when Venus in Libra (the sign she rules) trines Jupiter in Gemini. This is fun, flirty, and it all goes down easy. If you could pick only one day this month for date night or a social event — this is the best one. Drink liberally from this cup, as the Lunar Eclipse in Pisces arrives a few days later.

Ready to be washed away? That’s what this eclipse indicates wherever it appears in your chart. There is a sensation of waves reaching over the comfortable and safe part of the shore upon which you might rest your chaise, up to the edge of the beach and over the dunes that are supposed to protect the rest of the land (your ego) from being contaminated by the unruliness of your subconsious. It’s a psyche spillover.

I grew up at the beach. I would often have anxiety dreams about an unexpected and massive wave rising and crashing onto the safety the sand, where my chair or toys or family sat. I would run from the wave and avoid being caught in it or drowning, but I’d watch helplessly as the things/people/creatures I cared for were washed away. Often one of my pets would be there, or a homework assignment, a paper during college, and in my adult life, a manuscript-in-progress.

This eclipse marks the start of a new series of eclipses on the Pisces-Virgo axis. We last experienced this back in 2015/16, when Christofascism/Trumpism began its rise. My sincere and urgent hope is that we will finally wash away the remnants of this craven movement of hatred and cruelty — that the sea will come and take it. Have you noticed how orcas have gotten serious about sinking yachts since Saturn entered Pisces in 2023? I’m looking for some of that energy with this eclipse.

This eclipse is hemmed in by Saturn on one side and Neptune on the other, emphasizing the quality of erosion of old structures that can no longer hold us up. White supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and American hegemony, perhaps. Wherever you have Pisces in your chart, pay attention to what you’re clinging to — what you might be better off letting go of so that the wave doesn’t take you, too.

Libra season arrives on the 22nd, looking extra hot as she comes in while her ruler Venus sultrily slides into Scorpio. The Fall Equinox is one softer moment in a series of harder months, and as long as we can avoid petty jealousies (Venus squares Pluto on the same day) we can find the balance we need to remain grounded during the next few months.

Thanks for bearing with me these last few month as I was knocked out by grief, birthed a book, and have experienced repeated migraines. I am so grateful for my sweet subscribers who know that I put my whole heart into these, so I can’t just quickly scribble something for you - and that’s why, when life gets in the way, these might take a few extra days. Which is to say that sign-by-sign horoscopes for my paid subscribers are coming later this week!