October Astrological Insights

October 1st - 4th
Mercury squares Pluto
These first 4 days of October may bring on intense conversations with others. There might be power struggles with others, but the real struggle is inside yourself. Are you speaking up for yourself too dominantly, or not enough? The energy could go either way. It’s important to get in touch with the power of your voice and discover where you land on the scale of overpowering to not enough. Are there things you’ve been holding back saying, but know you need to get it out? The internal power struggle with yourself to hold something in when it would be better to communicate it out becomes REAL the first week of October.  

On the other hand, maybe you speak out too much in ways that are in conflict with the people around you and there’s a lesson in this to really hear what others have to say. When you work this out, you may discover you can find new ways to communicate with each other that benefits both parties and not just one. 

I ask you to take some time and explore both sides of this during the 1st-4th. You may discover new ways of communicating that are much better than the old ways. Any conflicts that arise during this time will help you see this dynamic inside yourself more clearly. 

October 6th - 16th
Sun and Mars join up with each other in Libra
This joining up is called a “conjunction” between 2 planets and indicates the planets have come together in the same sign and degree, thus blending their energies. When the Sun and Mars come together on the 6th through the 16th, you may find your energy levels go up and possibly feeling more capable of accomplishing things you haven’t seemed to be able to have the stamina to get to for a while or lacked the energy or motivation to actually take the steps needed. 

Since this also lines up with the Mercury Retrograde time period (I will mention this later), I would use this energy to finish up old business, tasks, projects and resolve situations involving others that might have gotten previously dropped, but are still lingering out there. 

Ask yourself: What things have you already begun that you’ve struggled to complete? What person(s) do you need to get back in touch with?  The answers to these questions can guide you towards the actions that would be beneficial to take. 

Planetary Retrogrades: 
October begins with 6 planets in retrograde and during the month, 4 of them ( Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto) move out of retrograde, and “go direct”.  This creates big shifts in planetary energies that have been hard to access for months. I see this as an opportunity to move forward in ways that have felt hard to progress for you over the past several months.  

How this works is, retrograding planets indicate an appearance that they are moving backward in the sky. In this sense, they recover the same terrain they had just gone over. Imagine yourself walking forward, then stopping and walking backward. You just covered the same ground twice. This is what retrogrades offer us - an opportunity to go back over things and re-assess, re-work and stay focused on the things that need attention or resolving. When they finally move forward again, you will then have covered the same areas of life 3 times. The amount of time this can end up being depends on the speed of the planets in retrograde. Some move fast, while others move slow and stay in retrograde up to 6 months and can take anywhere from 2 months to 2 years to cover the same territory 3 times. 

Some things in life take much longer to work out than others!

Here’s a list of planets moving out of retrograde this month and what the planets represent in general. The energy described next to each planet may have felt harder to access or like you’ve had to keep re-working at it during the indicated retrograde time, noted below. 

Mercury 9/21/21 - 10/16/21: (see below for more detail)
Jupiter (6/20/21 - 10/17/21): positivity, opportunities, how we grow and expand in life.
Saturn (5/23/21 - 10/11/21): learning life lessons and restructuring things to get you in better alignment with yourself and life
Pluto (4/27/21 - 10/6/21): deep transformation/letting go of the outworn past/birthing something new

Ask yourself: What situations for you seem to be taking their sweet time to get figured out or resolved so you can move towards the new things coming in your life?

Mercury retrograde: 
9/21/21 - 10/16/21
What I find most alive regarding Mercury retrograde is holding an awareness that anything you make a firm decision on during this period, may have to be re-worked again when Mercury goes direct (starting October 17th). Therefore, a clearer thinking process around decision-making becomes more available when Mercury is out of retrograde.

People often find more challenges and issues with communications, electronics, travel, etc… and you may find it takes longer to get from point A to point B, or there’s more back and forth communication before things become clear. Often, I see Mercury retrograde as an offering to surrender, trusting things will work out in the end and taking the unexpected “scenic route”.  What seemed like a detour can bring you to something delightful you wouldn’t have been able to experience otherwise. Let go and allow an alternate way of “getting there” to manifest. 

Mercury retrograde periods can be a good time to finish up old projects that are lingering out there, taking up psychic space, not allowing you to cleanly move forward in life. Spend time with these activities and you will find ease towards completing them.  Clean out closets, garages, workspaces, donate items, etc… In other words, clear out the physical clutter, which will clear out mental clutter and allow you an opportunity to start anew when Mercury goes direct on October 17.