by Alison Price
Elements
The emerging elemental shift during September is created as the planets change signs and move from fire to earth.
Virgo
This month three personal planets Mercury, Venus and Mars all enter earthy Virgo. This adjustment inclines towards there being less inspiration and more perspiration brought for all activities as Virgo can get things done.
Equinox
At the equinox on the 22nd the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving south and enters Libra. This is the start of Fall or Autumn for the northern hemisphere and Spring in the southern hemisphere.
Mercury Stations Direct
Early in the month retrograde Mercury turns direct and releases the hesitation this challenging period has brought.
Full Moon
The dreamy Pisces full Moon happens early on in the month and the later new Moon falls in practical Virgo.
by Alison Price
Every year on or around March 21 the Sun enters Aries and we celebrate International Astrology Day. This day is chosen for its special status because it is the time when the Sun commences the annual astrological cycle on its journey through the zodiac.
The Equinoxes
Equinox means equal night and therefore equal day. The day and night are twelve hours long which when added together makes up the usual twenty-four hour day.
The equinoxes occur on the day when the Sun is directly overhead at the equator, or in other words, at zero degrees of celestial latitude. To be specific there is a time in the day that this happens it does not occur at midnight. Each year is different.
There are two equinoxes each year and they are six months apart. The first near March 21st and the second on or around September 21st. The date slowly shifts back and forth over the years as we adjust the calendar for leap year.
The spring or vernal equinox is in March and the autumnal equinox is in September. This naming of the equinoxes is northern hemisphere related and my friends in South Africa, Oz and Middle Earth will experience the opposite seasons.
It is at the vernal equinox when the Sun enters the first sign of the zodiac Aries. The twelve zodiac signs are in sequence as follows: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.
Cardinal Ingresses
The four cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.
An ingress is the term used to define when a planet, or the Sun or Moon, leave one sign and enter the adjacent sign. So you can refer to this event as the Sun’s Aries ingress or simply as the Aries Ingress.
We can cast an ingress chart for the exact time, to the minute and second, of the Sun’s entrance into Aries and this chart and it’s meaning will be in effect for three months until the Cancer ingress or one year until the following Aries ingress.
Cycles
All cycles have a beginning and an end. In this case the new beginning suggests hope and eagerness to start things afresh. The sign of Aries is one for initiating things, starting a venture or turning over a new leaf.
If you have a project that you want to start and get going quickly then do so after International Astrology Day and try not to start before that date. You can certainly plan and work over the strategy required for your actions but wait for the Sun to shine from Aries and use this strong energy.
How to celebrate International Astrology Day
Typically you can celebrate in several ways:
- An astrology group meeting
- Lunch or dinner
- Bake a cake
- Share and discuss the ingress chart
- Other types of get together
- Perhaps you can make some personal affirmations for changes you would like to see flourish in your life.
It is not necessary for everyone to acknowledge this day.
Want more information about your chart?
Receive a PDF copy of your natal chart suitable for use in astrology exploration or, you can get your personalized one hour reading from me.
You may also like:
* * *
by Alison Price
by Alison Price
The Naming of the Modes goes In and Out of Fashion
Back in the seventies, they were referred to as the quadruplicities or qualities and yet nowadays simply as the modes.
Our modern classification is based on ancient ideas for categorization.
It all begins with the sign’s natural relationship with the angles (Ascendant, IC, Descendant and MC) and the seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter).
Even today the seasons officially begin when the Sun enters the four cardinal signs.
Astrology has its roots in the northern hemisphere and references to spring and autumn are northern-centric terminology. South of the equator spring and autumn are reversed as are summer and winter.
Cardinal Signs
The cardinal signs were originally divided into subsets of tropical and equinoctal containing two signs each.
Tropical Signs
Cancer and Capricorn are the signs which begin directly after the solstices.
Where the Sun seemingly turns back towards the equator at the latitude limits of the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
These herald the start of summer and winter.
Equinoctal Signs
The two equinoctal signs are Aries and Libra. For these are the signs that begin at the two equinoxes.
When the Sun crosses the celestial equator going north or south. It is also the point of the solar nodes.
The sign Aries starts at the vernal equinox and Libra begins at the autumnal equinox (where day and night are in balance).
Fixed Signs
The fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius follow after the tropical and equinoctial signs.
These are the signs during the mid-season period of the year.
Here the weather is milder, stable, agreeable and less prone to extremes of heat or cold.
Bicorporeal Signs
Bicorporeal is the old name for mutable signs. Bi means two and corporeal means of the body.
These signs are depicted by symbols of two animals they are known as the dual signs.
Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces are the bicorporeal signs.
The symbol for Gemini is the pair of twins.
For Virgo, it is the image of the maiden (who may be pregnant? Hmm, I’ll have to think about this).
The representation for Sagittarius is the centaur shown with the body of a horse and the head and torso of a man.
The last sign Pisces is the two fish tethered and swimming in opposite directions.
If you are a Mercurial type you may find it interesting to know these older terms but in contemporary astrology, they are probably relegated to the tricky words found in an astrology crossword puzzle.
