Over this first week of September, two outer planets (Saturn and Uranus) are on step-back tracks, and two personal planets (Mercury and Mars) take a sharp-turn corner. One way or another, watch for Mercury/Uranus (September 3) and Mas/Jupiter (September 4) to get this fresh sprint week up and rolling with no time wasted. These transits precede the total lunar eclipse in Pisces of September 7. Consider them as setting up the game board.

 

Saturn retrograde revisits Pisces, September 1:

Saturn, the task master planet, spends 2.5 years in transit through a sign. From 2023 through the end of March 2025, Saturn toured Pisces. While in transit through this sign, Saturn worked to dissolve the walls and barriers of the reality that has been standing in the way of tomorrow’s progress, growth, and gain. The experience of loss, confusion, and disillusionment is a signature of Saturn in Pisces. The transit operates on two fronts. While the elusive and/or disintegration end tends to consume the most attention, Saturn in Pisces also serves to bring what is already on brew to the forefront. This building track can be subtle in nature. It can be recognized, vaguely sensed, or go completely unnoticed. What surfaces from/during the dissolving process is slated to overtake as the lead priority or concern of the day.

At the end of March, Saturn began a short, introductory visit to Aries. This transit has added fresh fuel or a new element to the mix. Primarily the transit is experienced as a fresh challenge, hurdle, delay, or restriction. In mid-July, Saturn in Aries began a retrograde tour. From September 1 to February 13, 2026, Saturn revisits Pisces. Consider this transit as a final sweep of the room to ensure nothing important/essential has been overlooked. Saturn will stay especially focused on this sweep up/tie up of loose ends while the retrograde cycle continues (through the end of November). At the same time, it is also a gestating and incubating influence.

To the plus, you may feel this Saturn retrograde transit as somewhat of a reprieve from recent pressure. On the other hand, you can’t force what isn’t coming naturally or push forward on what simply doesn’t exist. More time is needed to sort out confusion and uncertainty, to navigate your way through recent losses or through circumstances that make you feel exposed, fragile, or vulnerable. Under this transit, it is better to allow, to go with the flow. There is more in the works behind the curtain than meets the eye. Saturn and Neptune are travelling partners for the rest of this year and through the first quarter of 2026. On February 20, 2026, Saturn will move into a new phase with Neptune and assume the front runner position. Until then, the duo will continue to work on their karmic completion agenda, on finishing stages and touches.

 

Mercury transits Virgo, September 2 – 18:

Well timed for this back to work/school time of year, Mercury transits Virgo, one of its two home signs, from September 2 to 18. Along with the sun in Virgo, Mercury helps you to get better organized and better focused on the tasks at hand. September 12, Mercury/Jupiter and Sun/Jupiter (both sextile aspects) wrap up the week with a sense of being on an upswing, that a lot has been accomplished, gained, or set into place, and/or that things seem to be moving along a good and productive track.

On September 13, the sun/Mercury (superior conjunction) begin a two-month interactive cycle (social interface, creative/relationship development). Expect to keep a busy dialogue going with yourself. For the second half of the month, Mercury and Venus are in each other’s signs. Mercury enters Libra on September 18 (to October 6). Venus enters Virgo on September 19 (to October 13). When two planets are in each other’s sign, it is called “mutual reception”. When in mutual reception, the planets work in good harmony, they are effective collaborators.

Mercury is an important transit to watch as it is the ruler of transiting south node (karmic; the past) and because it is a key player of the September eclipses (by transit and by rulership. Eclipses occur in proximity to either end of the nodes.) September 11 to 13, Mercury moves from a wrap up track to a next phase.

September 17, 18, Mercury is operating at optimum (grand trine with Pluto & Uranus in the element of air; the opposition to Saturn produces a kite configuration). Put good effort forward, stay goal oriented, and you are meet with good timing and better than average results. One thing leads to another like a natural fit. Watch for an instant connection or rapport. Conversations, plans, and circumstances hit a smooth run.

To repeat, key Mercury dates (setting wheels in motion): September 2, 3, 11 -13, 17, 18.

 

Uranus stations retrograde, September 5:

Uranus spends 7 years in transit through a sign. From July through November, Uranus provides a first/brief sampling of its tour of Gemini. The transit sparks, mobilizes, accelerates, and sets trends, especially for all Gemini matters: conversation and communication (opinions, media, social climates, etc.) transport, trade & commerce (currency trading, etc.), and relating (friends, neighbours, siblings, extended family.)

All retrograde cycles serve the individuation process. Uranus turns retrograde on September 5. Along with outer planets Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto also on retrograde tours, an opportunity is set to shift away from autopilot and to observe with greater objectivity and detachment, to be less influenced by opinions or expectations. While on the backtrack cycle, Uranus straddles two signs: Gemini to Nov 9; Taurus to February 4. Uranus will exit Taurus on April 25, 2026, and begin its seven-year transit through Gemini. (“The seven-year itch” is an expression that fits the Uranus transit well.)

When attention shifts off the chatter or distraction, instinct and intuition can transmit with greater clarity. The potential gift of Uranus on a retrograde tour is that of gaining fresh insight into your inner dialogue, your present circumstances, and your evaluation process.

 

September 7: Total Lunar Eclipse in Pisces

Eclipses serve as catalysts that will typically fast track circumstances and evolution. A sense of fate or destiny can accompany the action track. They dial up the karmic potency of synchronicities, circumstances, personal milestones, and relationship thresholds. They often incorporate an element of surprise/the unexpected. A lunar eclipse exposes something that was already on brew but that has escaped full view, marking an illumination peak and a turning point of significance for the matter at hand. A solar eclipse is a more potent new moon, marking a significant endings-and-beginnings threshold.

You may find the total lunar eclipse on September 7 colours in a missing blank or exposes something of significance – perhaps it is news, a piece of information, a potential or a person that has been overlooked or hidden from view (or full view). This news or piece of information can single out a particular individual, perhaps someone close to you that is in need of assistance (i.e. medical, financial, moral support). It could be someone who has dropped the ball, hasn’t kept up their end of the bargain, or that has caused a loss, disappointment, or fallout for you.

While a loss can be difficult, it can place you at the start of a better opportunity or pathway forward. As with all eclipses, they hold potency over a duration of time – before and after the actual date they occur. This lunar eclipse has been activated through most of August and will continue to unfold over the next month or so (watch September 12, 13, 16 – 20).

Looking on the bright side, this eclipse is infused with ample potential. It could produce a saving grace moment. You could make a positive turnaround on a matter that has challenged you for awhile. Win/win is the ideal to aim for. If that doesn’t happen/isn’t possible, there still is a significant benefit. When the potential fails to meet expectations or reward, a broader, more well-informed perspective is gained. This points you toward a more fruitful direction, allowing for more well directed action on what is in your best and better interests. (That lemonade can be a thirst quencher.)

If you are born on or near September 7, December 7, March 6, June 6, (or have natal planets positioned between 10 to 18 of the mutable signs of Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces or Gemini) you are likely to feel the fullest effect of the eclipse.

 

September 21: Partial Solar Eclipse in Virgo

The solar eclipse in Virgo (September 21) happens at the very last degree of Virgo. The last degree of any sign is a culmination point. The 29^th (anaretic) degree of any sign places the action on the cusp of a shift of momentum. It is considered a degree of fate. If what has been built previously is well aligned with the soul’s intended evolution and/or with present circumstances, then this culminating degree can produce fruition. If not well built, it can signal a collapse, (a disintegration of old patterns, relationships, and/or circumstances that impede growth and evolution).

As stated in a previous paragraph, all eclipses will intensify and accelerate the karmic nature of circumstances. Although it is a partial rather than a total solar eclipse, this 29th degree could produce a double-up impact regarding the unfolding of fate and destiny. To remind you, an eclipse will be of impact/hold activation potency if it makes direct contact to your natal chart, otherwise you will see it work indirectly. Those born at the very end of the mutual signs (Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces and Gemini) can be the most affected (birthdates: Sept 20/21, Dec 20/21, Feb 17/18, March 19/20).

Saturn retrograde in Pisces opposes the solar eclipse (see chart above). This suggests that there is a residue of something long standing or unfinished (doubt, uncertainty, confusion) that needs more work, more uncovering, resolving, repair, and healing. This experiential track will keep the focus on exploring and eliminating options and potentials that don’t hold enough life force to make it to the next level, or that only hold a short shelf life. (A short detour away from the main karmic agenda is also a potential for this eclipse.) More time (through the first quarter of next year) is needed to more fully process, integrate, and surpass. Similar to the lunar eclipse, the focus can be on a key person, a contract (karmic or actual) or a health issue. (Physical or cognitive, a loved one could be in deteriorating health. Solar eclipses often accelerate the transition of a loved one, or the death of a public figure.) The life of one born under an eclipse is marked for a special destiny (a karmic fruition, turning point, or breakthrough). Those born under this solar eclipse are reincarnating with a very specific agenda – to resume and advance the unfinished priorties of past lives.

 

September 22: Libra Equinox; Mars enters Scorpio:

The Libra Equinox (11:19am PDT) follows just one day after the solar eclipse and just a few hours after Mars exits Libra for Scorpio. This cluster launches a next stage for exploring new relationship ground, for the setting of new personal goals, and regarding how you interface with the world around you. Primarily, the springboard is set for fresh self examination, for learning more about your expectations, what you have set up for yourself, and where you might be falling short of your goals for improvement or personal healing, health and wellbeing.

Mars, the action planet, tours Scorpio from September 22 to November 4. While navigating through this sign, Mars will confront whatever limitation (inner or outer conflict) stands in the way of desired progress. This is not a quitter transit. It is one of staying on it, with it until the objective is met, the answer is uncovered, or the potential or possibility is completely extinguished (or obliterated).

This transit’s main agenda is empowerment. On the plus side, Mars in Scorpio has a great instinct for strategic moves, for zeroing in on exactly what is needed or is advantageous. Under this transit you may note that your observational skill and wits sharpen. As such, you can feel that you get a better fix on the complexity of a situation, that you get clued in faster. Mars in Scorpio can prompt a deep dive into soul searching and into the questioning of motives (yours or theirs). Obsession can be a primary fuel source. The dark side of this transit can see you grapple with Scorpio themes, i.e. betrayal, abandonment, trust issues, compulsive tendencies, intimacy, sexual involvement, or addictions, etc.

At the start of the month (September 4) Mars turned a corner with Jupiter (Mars in Libra square Jupiter in Cancer). That transit marked a next stage or step regarding your personal and interpersonal needs, involvements, and interests (also highlights financial concerns, safety, safeguards, self-care). On September 24, Mars turns a corner with Pluto (Mars in Scorpio square Pluto in Aquarius). Now that the past couple of weeks have set the shift of seasons into action, your attention will shift to what’s next on the to-do list. Even though a Mars/Pluto square off can dial up the intensity, you may feel this transit as a natural moving on/moving forward track.