Week of Sept 14 to Sept 20
This is a tough week, the kind astrology calls initiatory. The undertone is Eris. Most people have never heard of her, since she's one of the more recently discovered bodies astrologers work with. She's a dwarf planet past Pluto, named for a Greek goddess most describe as the goddess of discord and chaos, though that undersells her. The popular myth has her born of Zeus and Hera's toxic marriage, crashing a wedding she wasn't invited to and tossing a golden apple marked “to the fairest” into a crowd of goddesses, setting off the chain of events that leads to the Trojan War. But an older version has her born of Nyx, goddess of Night, with no father at all, which in myth signals a much older kind of goddess, one born straight from the primordial void everything else comes from. That makes her closer to Joan of Arc or Wonder Woman than to a party crasher, a warrior for truth rather than a troublemaker. She has occupied Aries since 1927 and stays until 2044, the generational undertone behind a century of Aries themes: standing up for yourself, refusing to shrink, saying the thing everyone else has agreed not to say.
She's triggered twice this week. On Friday, the Sun in Virgo forms a quincunx to Eris in Aries, an awkward 150-degree angle that doesn't share an element or mode with anything nearby, so it shows up as an itch rather than a fight, a comment you almost let slide, a boundary you keep meaning to set. By Sunday it's louder: Mars in Cancer squares Eris in Aries directly, and since Mars rules Aries, this is Eris speaking his native language, Cancer wanting to keep the peace, Eris wanting the truth said anyway. Whatever surfaced quietly on Friday is likely to come out loud by Sunday, so the real choice is whether you name it yourself or let it surface on its own.
One more thread matters this week. On Tuesday, Venus in Scorpio squares Pluto Rx in Aquarius, just over two weeks before she stations retrograde on October 3rd. She's already in her pre-retrograde shadow, so this square is the opening beat of the retrograde itself, not a one-off. It's also the first of three Venus-Pluto squares this year, a second on October 19, a third in early December. What it stirs up goes beyond one relationship: shame, the shadow material blocking real self-love, old stories about your worth, and how you relate to money. Whatever comes up now previews the terrain Venus retrograde is about to walk you through, and this week's Eris backdrop means it's going to ask for honesty as much as reflection.
Venus retrograde is going to be powerful this round, especially as she descends through Scorpio and then Libra, and these are the questions worth sitting with as she makes that descent, whether you work them on your own or want somewhere to take them further:
• Where have you given yourself away in relationship?
• Where are you blocking emotional intimacy?
• Where do you have the power to move into the shadow so you can reemerge more whole?
If you want a real container for that work, this fall's ten-week immersion, Descend and Return to Love, with my friend Meg Striepe, a PhD psychologist, follows Venus's exact path through Scorpio and Libra and is built to hold whatever these questions bring up. The intro call falls September 20th at 6pm Eastern, the same evening Mars exactly squares Eris, so whatever surfaces that day doesn't have to stay private, bring it into the room with us. The immersion itself begins October 4th, right as Venus's retrograde begins.
With Love,
Kris
This Week's Transits
Monday, September 14
The Sun in Virgo sextiles Mars in Cancer
The Sun in Virgo lends steady, workable clarity to whatever the Mars in Cancer wants to protect or nurture. This is a day for aligning effort with instinct, letting daily discipline serve the deeper commitments the soul is quietly guarding.
Tuesday, September 15
Venus in Scorpio squares Pluto Rx in Aquarius \ Neptune Rx in Aries sextiles Pluto Rx in Aquarius
Venus in Scorpio squaring Pluto Rx in Aquarius surfaces the places where intimacy and collective belonging pull against each other, asking what old bonds might need renegotiating rather than simply enduring.
Underneath that friction runs something larger: Neptune Rx in Aries sextile Pluto Rx in Aquarius, a slow-motion handshake between two planets that move so gradually they mark entire eras rather than single days. Neptune here is spiritual imagination wearing Aries' armor, personal, urgent, willing to act on a vision before it's fully proven. Pluto in Aquarius is collective power in its most impersonal form, the systems, technologies, and shared structures that shape how millions of people live at once. When these two meet in an easy sextile, personal revelation and collective transformation start working together, so a private spiritual insight gained today carries real potential to ripple outward into something structural. This is the second exact pass of a rare thirteen-part sextile that opened on July 25th and will keep recurring, on and off, through February 2032, so today's alignment is best understood as one early note in a long piece of music that keeps unfolding for years.
Thursday, September 17
Chiron Rx enters Aries
Chiron's retrograde return to Aries closes a loop that opened back in June, bringing the healing journey back to its point of origin. Whatever courage or self-trust was left unfinished during that earlier pass gets one more direct pass at integration.
Friday, September 18
Mercury in Libra opposes Saturn Rx in Aries \ The Sun in Virgo quincunx Eris in Aries
Mercury in Libra opposing Saturn Rx in Aries can feel like every attempt at diplomacy runs into a wall of hard truth. The soul's work here is learning that fairness and honesty can travel together, even when they arrive in the same conversation. The same day, the Sun in Virgo quincunx Eris in Aries is the first real trigger of the week's building Eris theme, a small but real adjustment asking that quiet discontent be named plainly rather than swallowed for the sake of politeness. It's an early tremor ahead of Sunday's Mars-Eris square, the week's actual peak.
Sunday, September 20
Mars in Cancer squares Eris in Aries
This is the week's peak. Mars is Aries' ruling planet, so this square is Eris speaking to a planet in her native tongue, and the friction lands hard: Cancer wants to protect the peace, Eris wants the truth named even if it disturbs that peace. Given how much other Aries weight is active right now, Saturn, Neptune, and Chiron all making their way through the same sign this year, this Mars-Eris square is best read as the week's culmination, the moment all that built-up Aries pressure finally has to move.
