We are still very much inside the eclipse windows, and the air is getting thick and soupy. The Pisces lunar eclipse at 15° Pisces is still reverberating through the collective and now the Sun and Mercury move across the South Node at 18° Virgo. Mercury cazimi at 20° Virgo on September 12 is the midpoint. Midpoints in astrology are similar to reaching the peak of a hill that you are climbing. It’s exactly halfway between whatever planets and asteroids are activated. Both Sun and Mercury sextile Jupiter at 19° Cancer, and Mercury closes his time in Virgo with an opposition to Saturn retrograde at 28° Pisces on September 17. At the same time Venus in Leo, Mars in Libra, and Chiron retrograde in Aries all align around 26°, forming a tense triad across fire and air. Pluto remains out of bounds in Aquarius until November 23, turning the volume higher on everything.
The Virgo and Pisces polarity is running the show. Virgo at its lower end is obsessive, petty, and cutting. Pisces at its lower end is escapist, dishonest, and unclear. At their higher expression Virgo is integrity, craft, and discernment while Pisces is compassion, surrender, and trust in a bigger order. This week tests where you live on that spectrum.
The South Node in Virgo is the audit. As the Sun and Mercury cross 18° to 20° Virgo September 10–12, inefficiency and error come into view. You see what is functional and what is not. The sextile to Jupiter at 19° Cancer pulls it into the realm of family, safety, and belonging. Mercury cazimi at 20° Virgo on September 12 delivers the clear insight, the sharp message, the fact that cannot be ignored.
Venus in Leo at 26° trines Chiron retrograde in Aries at 26° on September 15. Mars in Libra at 26° opposes Chiron at 26° Aries and sextiles Venus at 26° Leo on September 16. This is the triangle that defines the week. Venus in Leo holds pride, dignity, and self-worth. Mars in Libra seeks balance, partnership, and negotiation. Chiron in Aries makes the wound raw, especially around personal identity and the right to stand as oneself. Together these aspects force tension into the open. On the surface it can look like alliances and unity. In reality it is pride clashing with pain, loyalty tested, and fractures exposed.
Mercury at 28° Virgo opposes Saturn retrograde at 28° Pisces on September 17. Virgo seeks truth, clarity, and facts. Saturn in Pisces obscures them, clouds the story, and makes it harder to see what is real. This aspect shows up as a fog, silence, and information being managed rather than revealed. It brings frustration, heavy words, and the sense that you are not being told the whole picture.
**How this hits you personally depends on where Virgo and Pisces fall in your chart. The Sun, Mercury, and the South Node moving through 18°–20° Virgo show you the house where an audit is happening. If this is your 6th house, work, health, and routines are under the microscope. If it is your 10th, your career path and public role face correction. If it is your 4th, family and living situations are in focus. If it is your 9th, foreign people and places, higher education, and belief systems are up for review. Wherever it lands, this is where you are asked to examine the details, refine what is working, simplify what is not, and look at how your efforts can genuinely be of service to others.
The Pisces side holds the counterweight. Saturn retrograde at 28° Pisces obscures and clouds the house it sits in. If this is your 1st, it can feel like a personal fog. If your 7th, it may blur a relationship dynamic. If your 11th, friends and networks are the stage. If your 3rd, the weight is on local communities, communication, siblings, and daily information flow. Saturn makes the weight obvious but not always the solution. The work is patience, waiting out the fog until the clarity lands.
And for anyone with planets or points at 26° of the fire or air signs, the Venus–Mars–Chiron triangle is personal. Leo, Libra, Aries, and Aquarius placements will feel the push. Old wounds resurface, pride and partnership collide, and choices about self-respect come to the front. That is where the tension in the sky hits home.**
Pluto out of bounds in Aquarius is still the backdrop. It is power pushed past limits, institutions stretched past their guardrails, and politics reaching extremes. It heightens intensity and makes every fracture sharper.
The news reflects it here at home. Civil unrest spreads, government institutions look weaker, and public trust continues to erode. Streets fill with protest, anger, and grief. Leadership appears fractured. The divide is no longer hidden. It is visible, raw, and dangerous. The transit chart reads like a history book. Virgo demands competence and accountability. Pisces blurs the story and hides what does not hold. And Pluto is finger painting in ashes because it will be damned if its push for evolution is ignored. It intensifies until we either break or grow, and more often it is a mixture of both.
The eclipse window makes everything more volatile. Virgo strips down and insists on correction. Pisces dissolves illusions. Pluto pushes it all to extremes. This week is a pressure point where precision matters and where distraction cannot hold forever.
That which is false shows cracks. That which is sloppy appears weak. What is honest and aligned endures.
What’s Next?
Mars square Jupiter was exact on September 8 at 18° Libra and 18° Cancer. Mars in Libra is conflict through alliances, Jupiter in Cancer blows it up emotionally and ties it to protection of home, family, and country. The astrology rings true for this transit. Thousands marched in Washington, D.C. against the federal takeover of the police. ICE raided a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, detaining workers. The Supreme Court handed DHS a win in Perdomo v. Noem, keeping immigration crackdowns alive in Los Angeles.
This square is still active in orb all week, and the pattern is clear. Mars in Libra makes the confrontation public, Jupiter in Cancer inflates the stakes, and everything escalates fast. In the next article I’ll break down the charts for September 8, track how Mars and Jupiter set off those events, and show how this square keeps pushing through the rest of the month.