You might think of this week under the header of “transition.” Of course, we’re always in some kind of transition or another. But consider this: Mercury just stationed direct early this morning; we’re entering the final week of Mars retrograde, which has characterized the entire season; and on Thursday, the Sun enters Virgo: the final sign of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

All of those events carry a distinct flavor of transitioning from one mode of interacting and perceiving into another.

The mutable signs — Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces — all come at the end of their respective seasons. They herald a kind of energetic loosening to make way for the next season, and that gets reflected in our consciousness.

In many places, the solar month of Virgo happens to be associated with the end of a lengthy school break, and the need for parents and students to prepare themselves for a significant shift in daily rhythm and focus of activity. This particular transition phase is so deeply imprinted on us as kids, I get the sense many people carry its psychological echo well into adulthood — no matter how their work life is structured, and even if they don’t have children themselves.

Then again, maybe that’s just me. Either way, the Sun’s move from Leo to Virgo is a distinct shift: from an outwardly active, social type of consciousness (think of the Sun beaming out and touching all), to one that’s more focused on the inner life and how we give it form (Mercury being the symbol of thought processes, which are wholly internal until we express them). Eric explored this idea in his 2013 article Threefold Goddess in a Field of Grain:

“An idea becomes real; a potential manifests. The germ of life inside the seed of grain is protected, and when the conditions are right, it emerges and grows. That is the essence of Virgo, where we see so much in the way of intellectual expression yearning for a place to take form. To do this, it’s necessary to honor the life within what we’re doing, and the deeper life within ourselves. This takes patience and care. It requires living in service of that inner light, until it’s fully born.”

This concept presents an interesting tension given the current astrology: although Virgo represents, in part, protection of the “seed of grain” and honoring the inner life, Mercury and Mars stationing direct both facilitate outward, forward motion after a period of stasis, reflection, review or even seeming to lose some ground in life.

Fittingly, there’s a grand trine in the earth signs operating at the time the Sun enters Virgo (which occurs at 12:08 am EDT / 4:08:27 UTC on Aug. 23). It’s made up of the Sun and the hypothetical point Transpluto in Virgo, Uranus in Taurus, and Saturn in Capricorn, all in grounded harmony.

Simplified chart for the Sun entering Virgo, showing (clockwise from top): retrograde Mars, the Moon and Saturn in Capricorn; Transpluto and the Sun in Virgo; Mercury in Leo, newly direct; Uranus in Taurus. View full chart here. View glyph key here. Note: the time for Sun into Virgo in my astrology software is off by a few seconds from the time in the article, which comes from Serennu.com.

While the presence of Transpluto looks like a reminder not to get too narrowly focused mentally on what’s ‘possible’, ‘perfect’ or ‘most pragmatic’, the presence of Uranus and Saturn in the other two earth signs appears to bolster the tangible manifestation power of Virgo.

Here we have intuition, originality, independence and an excitement about making new discoveries, balanced by stability between old and new, and the ability to make changes while living within a clear structure. There’s an indication of being willing to work for what is desired (and to do so meticulously), to make and organize life plans, and to examine your habits and other important facets of daily existence with an eye to their practicality.

Virgo being a mutable sign, it’s possible for these energies to swing either more toward feeling like a fixed sign (stasis, represented by Taurus) or a cardinal sign (initiative, represented by Saturn). Yet the planets in those signs offer the opposite energy: Uranus is partly about jolting things out of a rut, and Saturn is more about containing and maintaining. So the idea here is to keep toggling back and forth between those energies, using the most productive manifestations of each to bring something from within you into the world.

With Mercury beginning to stretch its legs and Mars still a bit frustrated in its retrograde, you may find that small, incremental but solid steps work better than trying to make grand leaps. Remember, Virgo can be a very mental sign; one way to honor the inner process is not to get ahead of it while also not letting it get too caught up in itself. You can do it.

For reference, Mars will station direct in Capricorn next Monday, Aug. 27, at 10:05 am EDT (14:04:52 UTC). Also worth noting: it does so a little more than 24 hours after the Pisces Full Moon on Aug. 26.

That combination looks like a peak in energy that will likely reverberate quite a bit with the themes of manifestation, the work necessary to create and manifest change, and the inner process of transition all of that entails. We’ll have more to say about that later in the week. For now, steady as she goes.