Starcodes Sept 1, 2023

Labor Day is the industrious Virgo holiday which celebrates our hard work by giving us one last long summer’s weekend to play. We have two major patterns at odds with each other this weekend, strong Virgo energy encouraging us to forge ahead, and 6 planets retrograde asking us to slow down.

The Sun, retrograde Mercury, and asteroid Pallas Athena all in competent Virgo bring the sorting season- time to sort the seeds of our lives, decide what we want to compost, consume now, or save for future plantings. Take on this metaphor; sort out closet, freezers, our political slate and personal habits. Compost what’s no longer needed and create room for future sprouts.

Virgo brings a thoughtful, intelligent mood but also one where we can get stuck in our heads or be hard on ourselves. Virgo also naturally brings compassion, but we can also get anxious, and then irritated, if we feel the object of our compassion is not doing their end of the work and taking care of themselves. Consciously keep heart and mind connected.

The retrogrades ask us to instead slow down, catch up with the past, review, and savor our friendships Uranus just turned retrograde last week, Jupiter retrogrades this week just as Venus turns direct, Mercury is retrograde in its own sign and so acts like a super Merc-retrograde until Sept 15. Saturn, Neptune and Pluto are taking long retrograde vacations. All these swirling planetary energies can act like a passing storm and leave us discombobulated. Life can roll with small mishaps or unexpected demands which we need to juggle. So take another week to catch up and reorganize rather than forge ahead, as momentum won’t really build until the last few weeks of September.

Retrograde doesn’t mean deficient, a planet that appears to back up against the zodiacal belt sends us back to finish unfinished business and encourages us to heal and repair the past, get on better foundations for the future. The personal planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars are the ones we notice most obviously when they are retrograde, they affect our daily life and events in our neighborhood.

Mercury retrogrades for three weeks, three times a year and is the most obvious because it’s the planet of movement, and things just don’t move like normal. They go sideways. But sometimes with oddly helpful patterns. Look for small mishaps that save us, a car that breaks down just before the storm so we stay safe. Small delays that could actually save us or offer an opportunity to make new…