How Saturn Will Judge Us
This week, Saturn quietly slips back into Pisces (Sep. 1, 2025, 1:06 am PDT, through Feb. 13, 2026) for the first time since it stomped into Aries on May 24. In the roughly five months it spends in Pisces, let’s imagine that we’ve returned to a former job on a temporary basis, to clean up some projects that had been assumed finished but have proved to be lingering.
What’s this work that Saturn in Pisces needs you to finish? Saturn wants us to become a stronger, more self-reliant, and better version of ourselves, and his sign gives the specific job description. Saturn’s back step into Pisces is a reminder that whatever we do, professionally or personally, it’s important that we bring a spirit of care, helpfulness, altruism. Our progress in these qualities is how Saturn will judge us. Expect a final exam that tests your capacity for kindness and sacrifice for the greater good.
Everyday Extraordinary
Peer through a microscope at something ordinary. Removed from its larger context, something like pollen or cells taken from your cheek becomes art. You lose the bigger picture as you zoom in, but isn’t it amazing to see its individual components in such detail?
Mercury, the planet of perception, puts on its magnifying glass when it enters Virgo (Sep. 2, 2025, 6:23 am PDT). While it’s in this detail-loving sign (until Sep. 18), we watch carefully, and savor the inconsistencies that make the heart leap at their unexpected beauty. The everyday becomes extraordinary.
Accepting the Story
There’s a story we tell about ourselves, starting from our earliest experiences and encompassing all the milestones up to the present day. The experiences we choose to highlight in that story – and most importantly, the way we frame ourselves as hero, victim, victor, or loser – are up to us.
As Mercury, the storyteller, clashes with Uranus (Sep. 3, 2025, 00:40 am PDT, 1º27 Virgo and Gemini), it’s time to change that story. Mercury is in Virgo, so by all means, proofread the story with care; but resist the urge to tear yourself apart with criticism. We all have flaws, but to be a true protagonist means embracing your strengths, and treating your flaws with compassion.
Bon Vivants
When Mars and Jupiter last came together in a conjunction in Gemini on Aug. 14, 2024, they were two bon vivants with a lot to talk about and many places to go. This week (Sep 4, 2025, 7:59 pm PDT, at 18º Libra and Cancer), they reach the first square aspect in the cycle that began with that conjunction, this time in two cardinal signs that are trying their best to initiate new projects amidst the firestorm of Saturn and Neptune, also in the cardinal sign of Aries.
Last summer’s Mars-Jupiter conjunction marked the beginning of a journey full of new ideas and fresh horizons, and now is not the time to give up on that conversation. But even a bon vivant needs to know when it’s time to go home for the night and get reacquainted with one’s home and family.
Jupiter will find this domestic pause so delicious that it might have a hard time getting moving again. But Mars will grow restless pretty quickly, so trust him to push that comfortable Jupiter, and us, back into the nightlife by week’s end.
Illusion of Freedom
Uranus, the planet of liberty, unpredictability, and rebellion, turns retrograde this week (Sep. 5, 2025, 9:51 pm PDT, 1º27’ Gemini). A transiting planet that’s retrograde sometimes appears to behave contrary to its usual mode – in the case of Uranus, seeming to toe the line and go along with the crowd.
But the key phrase here is “seeming to.” Retrograde motion is an illusion, and so is this reversal of character. When a planet is retrograde, we focus its power inward, seeing our own guidance in its matters. What are the rules that govern our inner life, and which of them do we feel we need to break?
By the time Uranus turns direct again on Feb. 3, 2026, it will have retrograded all the way back to 27º27’ Taurus, territory it last visited in late May. Changes that emerged at that time will be questioned in the coming months. Is there something you gave up then that you now wish you hadn’t? You may be able to reclaim it by the time Uranus turns direct in the new year.
The Flow of Inspiration
One morning, I found myself at 7:30 am Mass for the first time in many years. The service was delayed, and at 7:40 the priest still hadn’t arrived. A modest lay person stepped up and offered to lead what I believe was called (she was soft spoken and the church has a heck of an echo) a Liturgy of the Word. The handful of us present nodded our assent, and she began with the opening responses and the day’s reading.
About ten minutes later, just in time for the gospel, Father showed up, breathless, with apologies for the wait. Ironically, the day’s reading was one he interpreted to mean that the person who preaches the word is not as important as the word itself. And for someone like me, who was just looking to begin my day with some uplifting thoughts in a peaceful environment, that quiet lay person did just fine.
The Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse in Pisces (Sep. 7, 2025, 11:09 am PDT, 15.22 Pisces), a sign of spiritual questing, falls on the Sabian symbol, 16 Pisces: The flow of inspiration. Eclipses famously bring change – and sometimes, change requires that we go with the flow. Often, that flexibility can open the door to inspiration.
At this Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse, you may find yourself needing to stand up and offer service, and it will be your faith and the word that matter, not your authority. Offer words of inspiration humbly, from your heart, and you can be helpful and even inspiring, whether or not you’re an authority.
Writing and images © 2012-2025 by April Elliott Kent
