We are thoroughly in Virgo season and school-season, and as we slot ourselves back into routine it is simultaneously being disrupted. My Virgo Saturn does not approve…
If you’re not in the thick of the schooling years yourself, you likely either remember it from your own experiences of school or from your children. The feelings are always the same. It’s bittersweet! We’ve had a long summer together and now we’re welcoming the return to routine even as we groan at the early mornings and missing PE kit, and we’re missing the relaxed days and the sweetness of those little people not hemmed in by academic expectations.
This particular September is hitting hard for me as my eldest is leaving for university, so I thought I would jump out of my usual programming and share some of the personal transits that I’ve been looking through around this event. Anything to alleviate the discomfort!
So let’s start with synastry. Synastry is the practice of putting two charts together and studying how and where they connect with each other – or don’t! It’s common to see overlapping patterns or signs within families, and often repeating aspects that show generational work is being done. With my eldest child, her Pluto (the great transformer) was conjunct or right next to my Moon at the time of her birth. Transformation to my most intimate and physical self! My Ascendant sits exactly conjunct her Moon, in the 4th house of home and foundations, indicating that my presence as her mum is a strong part of the security of her home life, and her Ascendant conjoins my Venus. Karmically, our nodes oppose very closely. All this to say, our synastry chart shows our connection. I could go on – all charts, including synastry charts, are endlessly fascinating and full of useful information – but you get the idea!
So when I looked at the transits to our charts, for the day that she moves in, I expected to see some significant aspects to soem of the sensitive points and placements. And of course, there they were!
Saturn is currently sitting on her Descendant, which itself sits exactly on my Ceres – the asteroid particularly connected to the mother-child relationship. It’s transit here shows long-term challenge, responsibility, commitment and also frustration – Saturn in Aries is not a comfortable transit anyway, when you have the planet of time in the sign of speed. This marks the beginning of a new chapter of my life as a mother, and her life of independence – which will be many wonderful things but also, undoubtedly, hard work and probably also frustrating.
Uranus, that planet of unexpected events, is squaring all of our nodal placements! Whatever is happening here for us is both destined to occur and also completely unpredictable. There is a comfort in knowing that Uranus works to shake us loose from things that have kept us – often unknowingly or unwittingly – trapped. It’s often compared to The Tower card in tarot, the card that represents sudden, dramatic change. This isn’t wrong – but I think there’s more to it than that. Uranus can signal highly exciting events, too – things that might certainly shake us up and loosen our foundations, but also bring fresh air and sparkle into the area of our lives it’s affecting. The key with Uranus is not to hold too tightly at the first hint of change. The harder we grip, the more it hurts to let go.
(I will be trying very hard to take my own advice on moving in day…)
Mars will be at the very end of Cancer – appropriately for everyone currently going through this season of their lives. Mars is the planet of severing and separation – not always in a negative way (he rules over surgery, too, and the righteous anger of protection. When natally in Cancer, Mars will fight to defend and protect the family (in his positive manifestation) but for the purpose of this transit, we see that separating energy applied to the realm of family connections that sits in Cancer energy. Could it be any more apt?! On moving in day, Mars will exactly oppose my daughter’s Moon – a severing from the chart-mother – and my Ascendant – my Self, as I know myself to be.
Ok, so these all look and sound a little heartbreaky, but there are positive transits going on too!
Jupiter, the greater benefic, bestower of blessings, will conjoin my girl’s Venus – the other benefic, doubling the blessing for this day and this time. Jupiter is a teacher, full of wisdom and expansion of all horizons, mental and physical – perfect to bake into a chart signifying the beginning of a new stage of further education. It also exactly sextiles, squares, and trines my own three outer planets, providing support and encouragement to the broader changes that this times signifies for me. Venus trines and sextiles our nodes, adding her support and blessing to this greater life path that we’re travelling.
It’s reassuring to me to see the greater plan unfolding, and to look at the ways I’m being encouraged to move in these times. For example, Venus in my 11th encourages me to reach out to my network of friends who have been here before. Saturn retrograding in my 4th reminds me that I still have work to do at home – and since I am Saturn-ruled, work is a comfort. Jupiter is moving to conjoin my natal Jupiter – big blessings coming! – and since this is all happening on my Solar return, this energy is being set for the next year. There’s no need to hurry through this transit or any other. I have time to adjust, and so does she.
I hope you enjoyed this little sojourn into my current state of mind!! This is the kind of thing I do for myself, friends and family all the time, and for a small number of people who work with me through The Compass. I know my own chart inside out, and the kids’ too of course, and studying transits particularly at big times of change is so helpful. Even if sometimes it just confirms that yep. Big stuff is happening.
