War and Peace

Image by John Bell

Astro Notes for Libra Season (September 22-October 23, 2026)

Everyone looks forward to Libra season, right? 

Libra is the Venus-ruled sign of peace, love, and harmony. Its season comes with beautiful Autumn days (in the northern hemisphere), leaves turning golden, and a lovely balance of day and night. It’s a time of year that reliably brings a sense of grace, calm, and poise.

Right?

Hahahahahaha.

Forgive my black humor, but this year’s Libra season is a little horror show, where once-banished ghouls crawl out from the underworld and turn our idyllic autumnal countryside into a bloody personal battlefield.  

OK, I’m being dramatic, but I have my reasons. 

Libra season this year is dominated by a Venus retrograde journey that begins October 4 and ends November 13. In my experience, Venus retrogrades are often emotionally arduous because they confront us so personally about matters of the heart. 

What do I really value now? What is my true heart’s desire? Who do I really love? Where have I compromised the truth of my heart for security or approval? 

These can be tough questions to answer at any time. And this Venus retrograde is taking place in Scorpio, the most intense, unrelentingly honest sign of the zodiac. Venus retrograde in Scorpio is a truth-seeking missile aimed at the most private corners of our hearts, demanding honest disclosure of our secret desires. 

Unnerved yet? Just a little?

Wait, there’s more. 

On the very day Venus turns retrograde, Mars (the God of War) forms an exact opposition with Pluto (the God of Hell). As you might guess, this meeting is always a riot. This dynamic is intensified and made more personal through a T-square with Venus and Mercury. Yes that’s right: newly retrograde Venus in Scorpio is simultaneously in a tense stand-off with the forces of defiant aggression and uncompromising power. 

What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, and meanwhile, the mild-mannered Sun in Libra (which could have played the role of peace-broker) is being opposed by Saturn in Aries (sorry, no).

Why oh why did I schedule my dental repair work for this weekend? (True story.)

I honestly don’t know why I’ve adopted this tone of cynical humor for these Notes. (Can you tell I’m secretly relishing it? I guess my Venus retrograde journey has already begun…)

If I put on my evolutionary astrologer hat, however, there is in fact a discernible meaning to the madness. 

The universe is not simply being sadistic. Every transit, no matter how brutal it may seem on the surface, serves a purpose. 

During the last two years, we’ve experienced three once-in-a-lifetime astrological sequences that unambiguously signify our passage into a fundamentally new archetypal landscape: the unprecedented concentration of major planetary sign changes from November 2024 to July 2025 — like a forceful push out of a cosmic birth canal into a new era; the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune at 0 degrees of Aries in February this year, a profound symbol of global new beginnings that last occurred about 6,000 years ago; and the rare and auspicious ‘Barbault’s Basket’ in July, hailed by some as ‘the most beautiful configuration of the 21st century.’ 

We may have very mixed feelings about the new reality we’ve entered, but there’s no turning back. We’ve already crossed the threshold. 

Now we’re entering a period of assimilation, in which the relational patterns and emotional contracts that belong to our old identity need to surface to consciousness. It’s like we’re playing catch-up on a personal level with the recent onslaught of global change. Before we can move forward into this new archetypal landscape, we’re being asked to look honestly at something much closer to home: the desires, relationships, loyalties, and compromises of the heart that may no longer belong to the person we are becoming.

This Libra season may therefore be less about maintaining the peace than discovering the conditions under which real relationship is possible. Although this task may involve a severe emotional test, there is something profoundly liberating about finally admitting what our heart knows to be true. If we’re courageous enough to risk exposing the truth of our heart, we stand to gain a degree of personal fulfillment and freedom that simply wasn’t available to us before. Indeed, we may finally find our personal lives coming into alignment with both our deepest aspirations and the evolutionary codes of the emerging era. 

That may just be a prize worth getting a little bloodied for. 

After the Apocalypse, the Laundry

Astro Notes for Virgo Season (August 22-September 22, 2026)

For the last 18 months, I’ve been telling an astrological story of humanity’s emergence into a fundamentally new (and more Aquarian) era. Since late 2024, there has been a series of exceedingly rare outer-planet transits that unmistakably delineate this passage as a historic collective transition.

The breakthrough phase is largely complete. Our task now is to learn how to actually live in the new world, with all its promise and perils.   

Enter Virgo season.

Virgo is primarily concerned with making things work better. It looks at any given situation with a discerning, analytical eye, figures out precisely what’s not working, then goes ahead and implements a solution.

It’s the archetype of the Fix-It Guy or Gal, who likes nothing better than to be helpful (in an unassuming way).

Our new supersonic jet of the emerging Aquarian age has achieved liftoff.

Yet it’s far from clear whether it will break the sound barrier or crash before gaining altitude.

With Virgo season, the Fix-it Guy is here to inspect the machinery and make some crucial adjustments.

And the inspection and repairs are taking place amid considerable turbulence.

Virgo season began in the middle of an eclipse window. There was a total solar eclipse in Leo on August 12 and there will be a deep partial lunar eclipse in Pisces on August 27 or 28, depending on your timezone.

Eclipse windows can feel disorienting, like being tumbled about in rough surf.

I often think too much is made of the nuanced meaning of particular eclipses. It’s true that not all eclipses are the same. Whether an eclipse is solar or lunar, total, partial, or annular, and whether it occurs near the South Node or North Node, does bring a different inflection to the experience.

But if you’ve been dumped by massive surf and you’re struggling to figure out which way is up, you may not be that interested in labeling the type of wave that knocked you over.

Sometimes the most useful thing to understand about an eclipse window is this: Shit happens.

In this regard, I’m in complete agreement with the good people at Good Planet Chat Show (whoever they may be):

https://youtube.com/shorts/50OSVO52S70?si=hydvGl80nB9IElBF

With that said, this particular lunar eclipse does have a recognizable signature. Lunar eclipses (occurring at the time of the Full Moon) tend to bring things to culmination, often lifting shadow material to the surface or stirring long-buried emotions. In Pisces, something may be swelling up from the depths of our emotional unconscious for release, and we may feel it well before we understand it.

Immediately following the lunar eclipse, Virgo’s discerning eye turns toward the technological and informational revolution symbolized by Uranus in Gemini. On August 28, both the Sun and Mercury in Virgo form an exact square with Uranus in Gemini.

Uranus in Gemini is associated with breakthrough developments in information, communication, and learning, and the technologies that support them. The most obvious current manifestation is the rapid integration of AI into almost every sphere of human life. Although this technology has introduced incredible new capacities and many potentially beneficial applications, most of us are highly aware of the costs: information overload, fragmentation of attention, digital addiction, loss of social skills and human connection, and so on (and so on).

The systems panel on our supersonic jet is flashing warning lights, and Virgo is here to help. What’s not working in our new technological world? What practical solutions can make it better?

Yet Virgo’s situational assessment is not all critical. On August 30, Jupiter in Leo forms a trine with Saturn in Aries. When Jupiter, the planet of expansion and faith, aligns harmoniously with Saturn, the planet of realism and structure, we may find ourselves in touch with a welcome sense of grounded optimism, perhaps in relation to a new structure capable of supporting sustainable growth.

With the trine occurring between planets in fire signs, this might involve taking a bold action step toward a more inspiring future, accompanied by genuine excitement and enthusiasm.

And after the intensity of the eclipse window has largely subsided, the New Moon in Virgo on September 10 may be when we feel encouraged to begin creating small functional forms that embody the codes of the emerging era.

Virgo’s intelligence is concrete and practical. Rather than dwelling on narratives of doom or visions of utopia, Virgo asks us to engage in small, humble experiments that make things work a little better than they did before.

The world is always balanced precariously on the brink of ruin or glory. And, as Virgo reminds us, it can always be improved by what we do next.

Break of Dawn

Astro Notes for Leo Season (July 22-August 22, 2026)

It’s Leo Season, the time of year when the archetype of the Sun – the Self – takes center stage. 

Every culture has recognized something sacred about the Sun. 

Whether as Ra, Helios, Apollo, Surya, or simply the golden light that greets us each morning, humanity has long understood that the Sun is not merely an object in the sky, but the visible heart of the living cosmos. 

Leo season is a wonderful time to renew this ancient relationship. Get up early and watch the sunrise. Bring the Sun into your heart. Offer gratitude. Become a Sun worshipper. Remember that in a very real sense, our bodies are woven from sunlight. We are, in truth, offspring of the Sun. 

I’m a little late writing these Notes, because, in the spirit of Leo season, I took a King’s indulgence last week to celebrate and unwind. I had just helped convene a remarkable gathering of thirty leaders working at the intersection of consciousness and technology, exploring how humanity might cultivate a wiser relationship with AI. The gathering coincided with the extraordinary ‘Barbault’s Basket’ alignment (see last month’s Notes), and what unfolded was suitably spectacular. After months of disciplined preparation, a week of Leonine R&R felt entirely appropriate. 

Leo season invites us to follow the Sun’s lead and let our light shine brightly. It asks us to dare a little, to expand beyond our usual shape, to fully express the gifts we are here to bring. Leo is an attractive, confident, winning energy. At the heart of its wisdom is a simple truth: As we let our light shine, we give permission for others to do the same. 

This year’s Leo season is supercharged with significance. 

Firstly, we are still surfing the tsunami of evolutionary potential unleashed by the Barbault Basket configuration in mid-July. If, for some of us, the promise of that alignment has remained largely theoretical, Leo season may be when it begins to manifest in concrete form. 

The Full Moon in Aquarius on July 29 brought the Sun and the Moon into direct relationship with the Basket configuration. When the luminaries activate an outer planet transit, that’s often when the archetypal becomes personal. 

Chart of the Aquarian Full Moon (July 29, 2026), showing the activation of the Barbault Basket configuration.

Secondly, not only is the Sun moving through Leo this season but so too is Jupiter. Jupiter is still at the beginning of its year-long transit through the sign of the Lion, having entered Leo on June 30. On July 29, the day of the Aquarian Full Moon, the Sun formed an exact conjunction with Jupiter at 6 degrees of Leo. Astrologers call this a Jupiter cazimi. A cazimi is said to re-vitalize the planet that meets the heart of the Sun, allowing that planetary archetype to express itself with unusual strength and purity.  We thus have a newly empowered Jupiter moving through Leo during Leo season. 

Jupiter is itself a symbol of royalty – the King of the Gods – just as Leo, the Lion, is King of the Beasts. Jupiter enlarges, expands, and blesses whatever it touches. Together, these archetypes offer exceptional support for expanding into a bolder version of ourselves: a cosmic green light to share our gifts with the world on a bigger stage than we’ve experienced before. 

But wait — is that more of a yellow light (proceed with caution)?

Because there’s a deeper dynamic taking place between opposing signs Leo and Aquarius. 

The Aquarian Full Moon on July 29 involved an opposition between the Sun and Jupiter in Leo and the Moon and Pluto in Aquarius. 

And just a few days earlier, on July 26, the Lunar Nodes changed signs, with the North Node entering Aquarius and the South Node moving into Leo. For about the next eighteen months, this Leo–Aquarius polarity will become one of the principal evolutionary classrooms for humanity.

The Lunar Nodes represent humanity’s evolutionary axis, with the North Node pointing toward the qualities we are collectively learning to embody, and the South Node revealing the patterns we are learning to hold more lightly. 

This sets up a fascinating paradox. At the very moment Jupiter and the Sun are amplifying Leo's confidence and radiance, the evolutionary current has begun flowing toward Aquarius, which asks us to participate in something larger than ourselves. The North Node in Aquarius is a reminder that our individuality finds its highest expression not in personal glorification, but in contribution to the greater whole. We are being asked to shine — but not for ourselves alone. 

How do we reconcile these seemingly opposite impulses? How do we shine brilliantly without becoming self-important? How do we serve the whole without sacrificing our unique individuality?

One contemporary teacher who has beautifully articulated this paradox is A.H. Almaas, founder of the Diamond Approach. Almaas’s concept of the Pearl Beyond Price describes a state of unique, individualized consciousness that is not separate from the whole. It’s a deceptively simple idea with profound implications. 

Our individualized consciousness, in its unique personal essence, is not ‘ego.’ The ego, from this perspective, is merely an imitation of the Pearl, the true individual. We don’t need a “healthy ego” to function effectively in the world. We need a realized Pearl, or personal essence. 

From an astrological point of view, the Pearl can be seen as the mature synthesis of the Leo and Aquarian archetypes: a uniquely realized individual whose very individuality is an expression of the whole. 

I believe it is the development of something like the Pearl that is being called for at this time. We are being encouraged to express our unique gifts as fully as possible, in joyful service to something much greater than ourselves. 

This developmental task is no longer merely personal. It is also becoming civilizational. It may be no accident that these transits are taking place alongside the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence. 

If AI continues to develop within a paradigm of separation and competition, it will inevitably accelerate the metacrisis. It will allow us to optimize outcomes for certain parts of the system with ever greater intelligence while further undermining the integrity of the whole.  

Yet this very predicament may serve a profound evolutionary function: to catalyze the emergence of a planetary wisdom culture — not as an ethical or spiritual ideal, but as a survival necessity. 

So, please, gather your courage, answer the call, and let your light shine as never before — in service to the planetary awakening that is becoming not just our highest possibility, but our deepest necessity. Our collective dark night has not yet passed. But for those paying attention, it is also the break of dawn.