TRANSCRIPT Ep. 364 | Venus turns Retrograde: Repair Work! (9.28.26)
Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is September 28th, 2026. Welcome to Episode 364 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, the Sun makes an electric trine to Uranus. Mindsets are penetrating and a little bleak as Mercury enters Scorpio and aspects Mars and Pluto. A trine between Mars and Neptune provides a momentary softening of the Mars-Pluto edge. Venus enters a dark retrograde period. Mars opposes Pluto, prompting power struggles between the individual and the collective. A Cancer Last Quarter Moon invites disapproval. And a stifling Sun opposition to Saturn.
And as you might imagine in such a busy week, there will be no listener question, but that feature will return next week!
Sun trine Uranus (Sep. 28, 2026, 9:22 am PDT)
The Sun trines Uranus on Monday, September 28th at 9:22 AM Pacific Time, at 5 degrees, 33 minutes Libra and Gemini. The Sabian symbol for the Sun is 6 Libra, The ideals of a man abundantly crystallized.
The Sun in Libra crystallizes its ideals, or more specifically, its personality through interactions with other people. That’s not to say that it agrees with other people all the time, and in fact, in my experience, Libra tends to disagree; but it does that in an attempt to achieve balance, which is to say it doesn’t always get to behave truly as it would like, but rather in a way that balances out what someone else likes.
But as the Sun makes a trine aspect to Uranus, there’s an opening for Libra to just be itself. Uranus in Gemini may introduce an idea or a phrase that the Sun in Libra finds clarifying. “Have you ever thought of yourself this way?” asks Uranus. “You don’t have to constantly look over your shoulder to see what everyone else is doing so that you can do the opposite.” Enjoy this day of just being what and who you imagine yourself to be without referring to others.
Mercury enters Scorpio (Sep. 30, 2026, 4:44 am PDT)
On Wednesday, September 30th, at 4:44 AM Pacific Time, Mercury, the planet of ideas, thoughts, concepts, and communication, enters Scorpio and steps straight into a T-square: squares to both Mars in Leo and Pluto in Aquarius. This is not a polite Mercury. It is a ruthless Mercury with penetrating insight and no diplomacy whatsoever on noting whatever it sees.
Forget about small talk. Mercury in Scorpio gets straight to the point, especially at a T-square like this one with such contentious companions as Mars and Pluto.
Mercury square Mars (Oct. 2, 2026, 2:14 am PDT)
Mercury square to Mars is on Friday, October 2nd at 2:14 AM Pacific Time, and it’s an aspect that speaks its mind. And in particular, it does not suffer fools gladly, and it doesn’t particularly like somebody who expresses themselves very loudly or very dramatically, which is sometimes something that Mars in Leo can do.
But that’s not always a bad thing. Look at the Sabian symbol for 3 Leo, the degree of Mars at this aspect, A woman having her hair bobbed. Back in 1925 when Elsie Wheeler channeled these symbols, having one’s hair cut short would have been a radical act for a woman. It shouted, “You don’t own me or my hair.” Amelia Earhart was born with the Sun at this degree, and she was a radical figure, a woman aviator at a time when this was highly unusual.
Mercury, on the other hand, is at 3 Scorpio, a house-raising, which is a symbol we might be inclined to approve of. It sounds very Amish, like a barn-raising where the community gets together to create something practical for somebody.
But here we see the square, the conflict between Mercury and Mars. Someone who is independent and radical probably doesn’t find it that easy or that interesting, frankly, to work together in a community setting. There can be arguments, and there can be harsh words that can’t be taken back.
Mercury square Pluto (Oct. 2, 2026, 1:43 pm PDT)
On the same day, Friday, October 2nd, Mercury squares Pluto at 1:43 PM Pacific Time, and this ups the ante, as aspects to Pluto almost always do.
This isn’t just arguments or impulsive, angry words like we might see coming from Mars. Pluto can bring particularly ugly messages. We could encounter jealousy or contempt or trolls that make us see our lives in the worst possible terms. The laser beam of Mercury in Scorpio can be turned within so that we discover that a lot of what we believed about ourselves or others is flat-out wrong.
Pluto in Aquarius becomes the voice of the collective, mirroring us back to ourselves, and its impartiality can be even colder than Mercury in Scorpio at its harshest.
On the upside, Mercury in an aspect to Pluto hones its keenness and its ability to look deep and to see under the surface.
Mars trine Neptune (Oct. 2, 2026, 3:18 pm PDT)
Mars trines Neptune on Friday, October 2nd at 3:18 PM Pacific Time at 2 degrees 48 minutes Leo and Aries. After Mars gets that square from Mercury, and as it heads for its opposition to Pluto on Saturday, it makes this trine to Neptune, which could have one of a couple of effects. One is confusion, but the other effect is kindness.
Here’s a day when you may want to volunteer for some good deed or other, or donate a little cash to someone who looks like they’re in need. Neptune says, “I care,” and Mars says, “And I am going to do something about it.” It’s a helpful aspect to have the day before Mars opposes Pluto, a sort of resetting of Mars’ strident side, especially in willful Leo.
Venus stations retrograde (Oct. 3, 2026, 12:16 am PDT)
On Saturday, October 3rd, Venus stations retrograde at 12:16 AM Pacific Time at 8 degrees, 29 minutes Scorpio, on the Sabian symbol 9 Scorpio, Dental work. And it’s a degree that urges us to go deep and do the repair work that’s needed, even if it hurts. And when Venus is involved, it’s work connected to relationships, to money, and the way we feel about ourselves Venus is retrograde for about a month and a half every 18 months or so.
Today it stations retrograde, and it will back into Libra on October 25th. It goes all the way back to 22 degrees 51 minutes Libra, where it will station direct on November 13. It reenters Scorpio on December 4th, and then it will leave this sign altogether on January 7th. Venus’s retrograde cycle repeats in the same sign every eight years.
It slips about two degrees each time. Venus was previously retrograde in Scorpio back in October and November 2018 at 10 degrees 50 minutes Scorpio to 25 degrees 14 Libra. So that would be an interesting timeframe to look back on to see if you find connections between that time and now, especially connected to relationships and money.
You can also look back to the same time of year in 2010, 2002, 1994, and all the way back to October November 1986 if you really want to tear this particular Venus tapestry apart.
Here’s a reminder that I’m sure I give at every retrograde time. Retrograde motion is an optical illusion. Nothing is actually moving backward. We’re just moving at a different speed than the retrograde planet. So a retrograde time is when we get the opportunity to get into sync with that planet and the things that it rules and what it’s trying to tell us. This is a time to recover and to heal. But as Venus in Scorpio suggests, especially on this Sabian symbol, don’t expect the healing to come without a little pain.
Looking inside yourself at what’s really going on, at why your relationships with other people may have been feeling difficult, why you’re not making as much money as you’d like. This isn’t easy work, but it is important. Pay particular attention to Venus’s retrograde return to its home sign of Libra between October 25th and December 4th That’s an opportunity to reconnect with somebody or a community on the basis of what you have learned while Venus has been in Scorpio.
Mars opposed Pluto (Oct. 3, 2026, 3:39 am PDT)
Mars opposes Pluto on Saturday, October 3rd at 3:39 AM Pacific Time at 3 degrees, 6 minutes Leo and Aquarius. Here is the week’s pointiest aspect. This is the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. A hard aspect between Mars and Pluto can be like breaking a bone when you have pushed too hard against something that doesn’t yield.
Mars and Pluto came together in a conjunction at this same degree of Aquarius back on January 27th with the strength of an impending solar eclipse behind it, and all the certainty of Aquarius, which is always pretty sure it knows exactly what it’s doing. There was a square between them on May 25th with Mars in stubborn, equally opinionated Taurus.
And now the opposition, which opens up the space between them a little and maybe offers a little perspective. What is it that proud Mars in Leo is trying to accomplish that Pluto in Aquarius doesn’t understand or appreciate? What is it about the collective, about community, that Pluto in Aquarius is trying to get across but is a little bit threatening to Mars in Leo?
Recently, aspects from planets in Leo to that Pluto have brought a little clarity about the unpleasant side of Pluto in Aquarius, a totalitarian approach to those who step outside the ideological lines. And Mars in Leo does not recognize any lines that would keep him from being who he is and roaring about what he wants.
As always, with an opposition, neither side is right. The idea is to find understanding and compromise between them. We’re still pretty early in the transit of Pluto through Aquarius. That’s gonna be another 20-year-or-so transit, and we’re probably doing a little bit of a clumsy job of trying to figure out how to harness and manage this new power, and this Mars aspect to Pluto brings the two of them into a peak of energy.
Look for some power struggles in your life for a few days either side of this exact aspect, especially with Mercury aspecting both of these planets.
Cancer Last Quarter Moon (Oct. 3, 2026, 6:25 am PDT)
And now it’s time for the Moon Report, and we begin, as always, with the week’s major lunation. This week, that is the Cancer Last Quarter Moon on Saturday, October 3rd at 6:25 AM Pacific Time, at 10 degrees, 21 minutes Libra and Cancer. This is a Last Quarter Moon that carries the Mars-Pluto opposition as well, so it feels like time in this lunar cycle to push toward our Virgo New Moon plans from back on September 10th.
But this will not be a gentle push. This is one that pits your primary relationship against maybe what your family finds acceptable, or your sense of justice against what your family and your closest community find acceptable, or your sense of fairness. You get the idea. Libra, as I said before, is not a sweet, pink, frothy sign. It’s symbolized by the scales made of metal. Break that metal and it can cut somebody up.
The Moon is at 11 Cancer on the Sabian symbol, A clown making grimaces. The Sun is at 11 Libra, A professor peering over his glasses. I know that expression. I have had professors peer over their figurative glasses at me a few times, and it was always with an expression that said, really? Is that what you meant to write, meant to say? And sometimes, yes, it damn well was exactly what I meant to say. Although other times, yeah, I could have thought it through a little bit better.
The Moon, meanwhile, is on 11 Cancer, A clown making grimaces. Cancer is a sign I associate with humor, actually, and even with clowns. Think of Robin Williams, a Sun sign Cancerian with Mars also in Cancer, and Uranus actually on this degree. His comedic presence was quite shocking when he first came on the scene, because he was quite a bit unlike anybody else that had been seen before.
So here is the Moon at this symbol about making faces, experimenting with different expressions to see what effect they might have on others, and the Sun as the disapproving professor. At this Last Quarter, we’re trying to get a response from the world, and the response that we’re getting is disapproval. The question is this: Will we let that stop us?
Lunar Phase Family Cycle
This is the Last Quarter in a Lunar Phase Family Cycle that began with the New Moon on July 5th, 2024, at 14 degrees, 23 minutes Cancer. And this is, as always, a good time to look back at that particular New Moon, at that general timeframe, July 2024, and see if you can remember the things that were important to you at that New Moon, the wishes that you made, your intentions around that time. Look to the house of your chart where 14 degrees Cancer lies, and that will tell you a lot about the area of life that you are wanting to do some work in. And how has that work been going? That’s what the Lunar Phase Family Cycle tells us.
The First Quarter in this cycle was on April 4th, 2025, at 15 degrees Cancer. The First Quarter is a time to make an initial action in the direction of those New Moon hopes and wishes. The First Quarter is a little bit tricky because it’s action that we take that’s based on actually not knowing a lot yet about what it is that we’re doing. The important thing with the First Quarter is just take an action, any action.
Then the Full Moon in this cycle was on January 3rd of this year, and it was at 13 degrees Cancer. That is when we might have started to get a fuller picture of the things that we began at the New Moon. And now we’re at the Last Quarter at 10 degrees, 21 Cancer, and this is the time, as I said, for a final push in the direction of that long ago New Moon and what it is we wanted to accomplish in the Cancer area of our lives.
And this is a Last Quarter with a lot of power behind it with that Mars opposition to Pluto. So, it is a time when we can really make our push count and really begin to bring whatever it was that we imagined at that New Moon in Cancer back in July 2024, what it was that we were planting at that time.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. On Monday, September 28th, the Moon in Aries opposes Mercury in Libra at 2:50 AM Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for four hours and 50 minutes, and then enters Taurus at 7:40 AM. The Moon making an opposition aspect to another planet as it goes void of course can often bring us awareness, and the Moon in Aries wants what it wants when it wants it, quick, now, in a hurry.
Mercury in Libra, it feels more like weighing out all the options to make a decision, and this is a vacillation that can drive the Moon in Aries up the wall. A perfect example of this is a couple trying to decide what to watch on Netflix. “What do you wanna watch?” “I don’t know. What do you wanna watch?” “I’m not really sure.” “Do you wanna watch a scary movie, a romance, a documentary?” An hour later, the couple is still flipping through trailers, and no decision has been made.
Now, balance is always the key when we’re dealing with Libra and Aries. Use this Void-of-Course Moon to develop a habit of considering your options and other people’s attention spans. If the decision is relatively unimportant, just do it.
On Tuesday, September 29th, the Moon in Taurus squares Jupiter in Leo at 4:36 PM Pacific Time. It’s a good long Void-of-Course. It’s 17 hours and 50 minutes before the Moon enters Gemini on Wednesday, September 30th at 10:26 AM.
The Moon in Taurus and Jupiter in Leo both kind of like the finer things in life. Overindulgence in pleasurable activities can occur, causing sugar-induced stomach aches, hangovers, maxed-out credit cards. This is another situation where balance is important. Although a square aspect doesn’t necessarily lead us there, it’s a little more of a battle over which indulgences we will choose. Use this Void-of-Course Moon period to establish a habit of enjoying pleasure responsibly.
On Thursday, October 1st, the Moon in Gemini sextiles Jupiter in Leo at 7:42 PM Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for 17 hours and 12 minutes, and then enters Cancer on Friday, October 2nd at 12:54 PM. The Moon in Gemini loves variety. It wants to move around. It enjoys great conversation, and that all sounds like fun to Jupiter in Leo, who supports it all 110%. For many, the weekend unofficially begins on Thursday, so consider meeting up with a buddy and checking out a happy hour. Bonus points if the venue offers karaoke or a trivia night or live music. Use this Void-of-Course Moon period to get in the habit of trying out something new and fun while supporting local, independently-owned businesses.
And on Saturday, October 3rd, the Moon squares Saturn at 8:08 AM Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for one day, seven hours, 46 minutes, and then enters Leo on Sunday, October 4th at 3:54 PM. And this is one of those instances where the Moon is squaring a planet as it goes void of course, and it flavors this whole Void-of-Course Moon period with a sense of conflict or something that has to be overcome. The Moon in Cancer needs a softer approach, and Saturn in Aries doesn’t have the patience or time to do this level of coddling. If strong boundaries are not present, then feelings can get hurt. Try to use this Void-of-Course Moon period to get in the habit of creating healthier boundaries and structuring life in a way that allows growth and security.
Sun opposed Saturn (Oct. 4, 2026, 5:29 am PDT)
The Sun opposes Saturn on Sunday, October 4th at 5:29 AM Pacific Time at 11 degrees 18 minutes Libra and Aries. The Sun makes four hard aspects to Saturn in a year, major aspects, a conjunction, two squares, and this one, an opposition. The Sun and Saturn in any aspect have the potential to make us stronger and more disciplined, more determined.
But when they are in these hard aspects, the process doesn’t come easily. We’re presented with some hard circumstances that we have to overcome, and if we pass that test, we gain strength.
The Sun in Libra carefully considers its options, and Saturn in Aries demands fast, decisive action. Neither is right, neither is wrong, but the Sun in Libra has to contend with Aries’ desire for speed, for that willingness to just take an impulsive leap, and that isn’t comfortable generally for Libra.
And I would argue it’s not the best thing for Libra either, except for when the deliberations have dragged on and on, or when Libra chronically has a difficult time making decisions. And then the discipline of Saturn in Aries serves as kind of a shove that can help the Sun in Libra own its decisions and take the actions that feel right
No Listener Question this week
Well, this is a very busy week in the sky, and sadly, there was not time for a listener question. But the next two weeks are much lighter, so be sure to send your questions for me to answer on a future episode. Leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/ bigskyastrologypodcast, or just email it to me at April (at) bigskyastrology (dot) com, and be sure to put “podcast question” in the subject line
Donor Thanks
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That is it for this episode. Join me again bright and early next Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars!
Writing and images © 2017-26 by April Elliott Kent
For more on this week’s planetary news, read my column!
