How have you been feeling over the past couple of weeks? Hope this missive finds you sleeping more than usual, finding some time to gaze at the clouds, and fortified with the spirit of a deep, life-changing epiphany or two. The intensity of eclipse season has been a lot, and I hope you’ve found some tools to help ground within the fog.
I’ve been doing a lot of guided meditations and taking a lot of baths and slow walks around my neighborhood, taking in the golden glow of the late-summer flowers as medicine. This kind of rest has been very, very needed - more than I even knew. (For that reason, this week’s forecast is written-post only, no audio. Thanks for understanding!)
This week, the untethering quality of the Eclipse Portal continues, culminating with a Solar Eclipse in Virgo on Sunday. During this eclipse, the sun and moon are directly opposite Saturn. So even though it’s a new moon solar eclipse, we will experience certain qualities of a full moon, with Saturn in Pisces reflecting the moon-eclipsed-sun across the sky.
This opposition highlights the polarity of the Pisces/Virgo axis in a powerful way- especially since Saturn sits at the last degree of Pisces and the sun/moon are in the final degree of Virgo. The final (29th) degree of any Zodiac sign is known as the “anaretic degree”, a powerful degree that indicates a sense of urgency, pressure, or unfinished business related to the sign it’s completing. This energy can feel unstable or heightened, like the planet is squeezing out the final lessons of that sign before moving on. In transits, when a planet hits 29, events can peak or crystallize quickly, sometimes with a “last chance” quality.
Virgo vs. Pisces, Kronos vs. Rhea
To me, Saturn at the last degree Pisces opposite the Solar eclipse at the last degree of Virgo deeply evokes the Greek myth of Kronos (aka Saturn) and his sister/wife Rhea —the mother and father of Zeus (aka Jupiter).
With solar eclipses, there is already a mother/father dynamic going on, even without Saturn being in the picture. In Hermetic symbolism, during a Solar Eclipse the moon (symbolizing the mother/the unconscious) is eclipsing the sun (representing the father/the conscious will). For a brief time, father sun is overshadowed by mother moon, our outer world is shadowed by our inner world, and instinct, memory, and emotion overtake conscious clarity and willpower.
In this particular eclipse, another astrological daddy-figure is involved, with Saturn/Chronos sitting across from the moon, mirroring her as she overtakes the sun.
In Greek myth, Kronos (often spelled Cronus or Chronos, the root of “chronological”) was the youngest of the Titans, the children of Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos/Uranus (Sky). Ouranos, fearing his children, imprisoned them within Gaia’s body, causing her great pain. Gaia forged a sickle of flint and urged her children to rise against their father. Only Kronos dared to do so.
When Ouranos descended to lie with Gaia, Kronos ambushed him. With the sickle, he castrated his father, casting the genitals into the sea (from which Aphrodite later arose). This violent act severed sky from earth, making room for the world of gods and mortals to unfold.
Kronos then became ruler of the cosmos, taking his sister Rhea as queen. Rhea stands as a counterpoint to Kronos’ devouring presence. Her name is tied to the Greek ῥέω rheo, meaning “to flow”, and she embodies the unbroken, cyclical stream of life, time, fertility, and continuity.
A tale of ancestral karma, Kronos had been warned by Gaia and Ouranos that one of his children would overthrow him, just as he had overthrown his father. Terrified of this fate, he devoured each of his newborn children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. This act - devouring his own children - is a vivid allegory of time consuming all it creates. Every generation, every life, is swallowed back into the jaws of chronology. Saturn-time.
However, when Rhea bore her sixth child (Zeus) she refused to see him swallowed. She hid him in a cave on Crete, entrusting him to nymphs and sacred animals, and gave Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling cloths instead. Kronos swallowed the stone, believing it was the infant. Zeus grew in secret in the cave, nourished by goat’s milk and honey, until he was strong enough to challenge his father.
As opposed to the structure of chronological Saturnian or even solar time, Rhea embodies maternal, lunar time: the streaming continuity of life and generation, the fertile current that resists being devoured. When she hides Zeus to save him from Kronos, she introduces the idea that time is not only destructive but also renewing, flowing forward in cycles that allow rebirth and change.
It’s a matter of time….
Eclipse seasons always have a certain way of deeply messing with time. With the moon eclipsing the sun and being opposed by Saturn, I’ve been thinking a lot about this fact. It’s interesting- paradoxical, almost- that Saturn is in Pisces and the moon is overcoming the sun in Virgo.
Pisces is associated with Rhea’s moon (the moon is exalted in Pisces, and Pisces rules the tides of the sea), and Saturn here can feel like trying to put cardboard a box around a flowing river. On the other hand, Virgo is associated with discernment, categorization, and structure, but the eclipsing moon here is a reminder to ditch the spreadsheets and mental checkboxes for a deeper, more embodied form of knowing.
Kronos/Saturn is the embodiment of quantitative time, filled withconstraint, binding, measuring, ending. On Sunday’s eclipse, he is shining across the sky from the moon’s qualitative, flowing time. Oppositions, like full moons, always indicate seeming opposites that need to be integrated, reconciled into a singular truth. The polarity of this eclipse reminds us to find the bones that are emerging within the primordial goo… and ALSO to remember that bones themselves are made of living tissue that can subtly bend and move.
It’s all too easy to believe these days that time is running out, that we must devour what we can before it’s too late. But the moon’s emphasis in this solar eclipse, as well as the sign of Pisces, reminds us that how we view time is up to us- and that it makes a big difference in how we think, feel, and act. Rhea time, mother time, is available to us too, where time is flowing, circular, and fertile with possibility.
The eclipse is the grand finale to eclipse season, following a week of several other powerful transits:
Human Design: The sun is in Gate 6 (Friction) until Sunday, when both it and the moon enter 46 (Determination of the Self) for the solar eclipse.
On Thursday of this week, Mercury leaves it’s throne in Virgo and enters Libra, initiating a Grand Air Trine between Mercury, Uranus, and Pluto.
On Friday, Venus enters Virgo, turning attention toward what is practical, healing, and worth refining in relationships and daily life.
Let’s get into our place in the wheel….
This Week in the Wheel of the Year:
MEDICINE WHEEL Direction: WEST
WUXING Element: EARTH
PAGAN Season: LAMMAS > Next week is MABON (Fall Equinox)
ZODIAC Season: VIRGO (August 22-September 22) > Next week s LIBRA season
I’CHING Hexagram/HUMAN DESIGN Gate:
Wednesday, September 10- Monday, September 15:
Gate 47: Mountain over Lake “Oppression (Confining)” aka the Gate of REALIZATION
Tuesday, September 16- Saturday, Sept. 20:
Gate 6: Thunder over Mountain “Conflict (Friction)” aka the Gate of FRICTION
Sunday, September 21-Friday Sept. 26:
Gate 46: Earth over Wind “Pushing Upward (Determination)” aka the Gate of DETERMINATION OF THE SELF or SERENDIPITY
MOON Phase: New Moon Partial Solar Eclipse in Virgo- GATE 46 (Determination of the Self/Serendipity)
PLANETARY DANCES:
Thursday, Sept 18: Mercury Enters Libra
AND a Grand trine between Uranus, Mercury & Pluto
Friday, Sept. 19: Venus Enters Virgo
Sunday, Sept 21: SOLAR ECLIPSE IN VIRGO
Venus enters Virgo, Mercury enters Libra and a Grand Air Trine
This week Venus moves into Virgo and Mercury moves into Libra. These ingresses sharpen the contrast between embodiment and refinement, dialogue and balance.Venus in Virgo will bring a discerning love of what is practical and healing in the body, while Mercury in Libra seeks harmony in thought and relationship.
The simultaneous grand trine between Mercury, Uranus, and Pluto delivers an undertow of mental and evolutionary clarity: Mercury carries relational intelligence, Uranus sparks liberating insight, and Pluto grounds it all in deep transformation. Together they create a rare window where letting go of bodily heaviness and old scripts could open into breakthrough conversations, surprising realignments, and a new kind of embodied determination that feels lighter, freer, and more future-facing.
Sun in Gate 6 (Friction) for most of the week
In the Human Design Mandala, the sun transits Gate 6 from Tuesday-Saturday. Gate 6 in the Solar Plexus center is called the Gate of Friction, a place where intimacy and conflict meet and where closeness gets tested by sparks that can either burn bridges or forge stronger bonds.
This gate is all about the emotional negotiations that happen every time two (or more) people move closer together. Sometimes it looks like tension, sometimes like passion, and either way it is a refining type of fire. In the days leading to the eclipse in Gate 46, the lesson of Gate 6 is: you cannot arrive at delight in your body if you are still locked in unresolved emotional battles. Friction is not the end point, it is the preparation.
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In the I’Ching: Hexagram 6 (Conflict) The I Ching calls this hexagram “Conflict” or “Contention.” It teaches that not every battle is worth fighting. Wisdom often lies in knowing when to step back, when to hold, and when to allow time to settle the storm. This perspective is essential before moving into Gate 46’s theme of embodiment and right place, right time. If the body is clenched in conflict, it cannot open to serendipity. Peaceful timing depends on having made peace within.
Gene Key 6: Conflict to Peace In the Gene Keys, Gate 6 begins at the Shadow of Conflict. At this frequency, life feels like a fight, whether against others or against yourself. The Gift is Diplomacy, the ability to soften tension and find the path that honors both sides. At the highest octave, the Siddhi is Peace, a state where conflict no longer exists because unity has been remembered. Before stepping into the eclipse in Gate 46, this is the preparation: to release the fight so the body can carry joy rather than armor.
The Bridge to Gate 46 This week leading up to the eclipse, Gate 6 asks you to acknowledge where you are in conflict, within or without, and to choose peace. Only then can you step into the eclipse energy of Gate 46, where incarnation becomes lighter and more serendipitous. Gate 6 has the potential to clear the emotional air, and gate 46 invites you into the body as temple. Together they tell a story of moving from tension to delight, from emotional storms to embodied ease.
Sunday’s Solar Eclipse in Virgo, Gate 46
During Sunday’s eclipse, the Moon will partially block the Sun, as both luminaries are meeting up in the last gate of Virgo season. They will be in the part of the Human Design Mandala known as Gate 46: “Love of the Body” or “Determination of the Self”. In the ancient I’Ching, Gate 46 is known as “Pushing Upward” or “Determination”.
This reminds us that real growth arises when you’re aligned, without forcing anything, like a flower blooming in it’s own time. By releasing outdated narratives around Virgo themes of service, this eclipse could clear out the urge to push/achieve/know it all, and replace that with a receptive flow that trusts our own embodied wisdom.
Gate 46 is about love of the body, being in the right place at the right time, and trusting your incarnation. When the Moon eclipses the Sun here, it creates a reset point around how we live in our bodies and how we show up in the physical world.It can feel like old patterns of seriousness, struggle, or disconnection from the body are being cleared out so that a new relationship with embodiment can emerge. The invitation is to let go of forcing direction and instead discover a lighter way of being present, where joy and serendipity guide the path.
In the Gene Keys, Gate 46 carries the Shadow of Seriousness, which manifests in two polarized ways: Frivolousness, where life is treated superficially and its deeper meaning avoided, or Frigidity, where the heart hardens and refuses to engage with life’s playful flow. Both extremes stem from a disconnection from embodiment and the sacredness of presence. As this Shadow is embraced and transmuted, it reveals the Gift of Delight. This is the capacity to fully inhabit the body and savor the wonder of existence in each moment. At its highest frequency, the Siddhi of Ecstasy blossoms, where life itself becomes a divine embrace and every breath a direct communion with the eternal.
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The luminaries sit at the South Node on this eclipse, giving it a different flavor than September 7th’s Lunar Eclipse, which was near the North Node in Pisces. South Node eclipses are about release, karmic reckoning, and clearing what is overripe. They draw us back into old patterns so we can see what’s ready to be shed. Unlike North Node eclipses, which push us toward new growth, South Node eclipses strip away what no longer belongs and asks you to trust the composting process.
This eclipse will also sit directly across the sky from Saturn, who is retrograding in Pisces at 29 degrees, and is currently in Gate 25 - the Gate of Spirit of the Self.
Through the lens of the Gene Keys, this Saturn-Eclipse opposition create an axis, which is the sacredness of being in a body (46) opposite the discipline of trusting spirit (25). The Eclipse in Gate 46 resets how we relate to form. Saturn in Gate 25 insists on responsibility in how we hold spirit, innocence, and universal love. The invitation isn’t to choose one or the other, but to integrate them, living in our bodies with more lightness and joy while holding a mature trust in the larger flow of life.
Gate 46 brings the theme in the Gene Keys of moving from Seriousness to Delight to Ecstasy. At the shadow level, life can feel heavy and the body can feel like a burden. The eclipse could clear that weight, opening the possibility of rediscovering joy in being embodied, and reminding us that incarnation itself can be a source of deep vitality and even bliss.
Across the sky, Saturn in Gate 25 embodies the spectrum of Constriction → Acceptance → Universal Love. Gate 25 is the gate of the Spring Equinox, a time of innocent lambs being born, and Saturn here tests our capacity to keep that innocence intact in a responsible way, through a grounded acceptance of life’s complexity. The pressure to hold innocence with responsibility can feel constricting, but its purpose is to grow a deeper faith and integrity in how we meet the world.
Summary: This week’s Astro-HD energetics
The Eclipse Reset (Gate 46, South Node) You may feel an unmistakable pull to let go of old stories about your body, health, and direction. This can show up as physical tiredness, the body asking you to slow down, or sudden clarity about what no longer fits. The eclipse presses a reset button on embodiment. Anything that feels heavy, dutiful, or joyless in how you live in your form is up for release.
Saturn’s Opposition (Gate 25) Saturn in Pisces holds the counterpoint to Gate 46: Gate 25 is all about innocence, faith, and universal love. The opposition can feel like tension between trusting spirit and trusting the body. You may be tested on whether you collapse into old cynicism or step into a more mature acceptance of life as it is. The discipline here is to ground universal love in your daily embodied choices.
Venus in Virgo & Mercury in Libra Venus shifting into Virgo can bring a sharper eye for what’s practical and healing in relationships, routines, and the body. Mercury’s move into Libra tilts conversations toward fairness, balance, and aesthetics. Together they emphasize refinement in both connection and self-care. You may find yourself wanting to clear clutter in your schedule, your habits, or even your relationship to make space for more harmony.
Grand Trine: Mercury, Uranus, Pluto Mercury in Libra links with Uranus in Gemini and Pluto in Aquarius in a grand trine, opening up breakthrough conversations, fresh ideas, and sudden insights that feel stabilizing rather than destabilizing. It’s a flow aspect, so look for moments when a single conversation or piece of news shifts your perspective in a liberating way.
How it could show up for you this week:
Feeling more aware of your body’s signals and needing to honor them.
Letting go of an old health habit, mindset, or relationship dynamic that feels heavy.
Being confronted with a choice: either control through rigidity or trust through acceptance.
Wanting to refine your space, diet, or relationships with practical changes.
Having a breakthrough conversation or idea that reframes the way forward.
Have a beautiful, restful week ahead, friends. Next Monday, the day after the eclipse, we welcome Libra season and the fall equinox. I’ll see you next week for tips on celebrating this important time in the wheel of the year.
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Such a good read 💗 the Saturn retrograde in Pisces (Spirit of the Self) strongly resinates with me at this moment, and that Gate happens to be my personality sun gate 💀 definitely contemplating shedding old skins about the way I view and treat my body in the past and presently , how I speak about how I feel and how to release the heaviness and be lighter and more buoyant in the way I move and perceive. I’m also realizing that I’m not in a state of gratitude and appreciation when I see the world right now. My perception has been heavy lately and what you’ve shared here helps me put words to it and encapsulate it and gives me some idea on what to listen to in my reflections and internal dialogue this week
Such a good read 💗 the Saturn retrograde in Pisces (Spirit of the Self) strongly resinates with me at this moment, and that Gate happens to be my personality sun gate 💀 definitely contemplating shedding old skins about the way I view and treat my body in the past and presently , how I speak about how I feel and how to release the heaviness and be lighter and more buoyant in the way I move and perceive. I’m also realizing that I’m not in a state of gratitude and appreciation when I see the world right now. My perception has been heavy lately and what you’ve shared here helps me put words to it and encapsulate it and gives me some idea on what to listen to in my reflections and internal dialogue this week