Today, the Sun reaches the middle of earthy Virgo after about two weeks in that sign (since Aug. 22). In doing so, the Sun moves to within 120 degrees of Pluto, in an aspect astrologers call a ‘trine’. Pluto has taken nearly eight years to reach the middle of earthy Capricorn since its second ingress to that particular sign in late 2008.

Trine aspects form between signs that share the same element (fire, earth, air or water). Sharing the same element implies a conductivity that conveys information over the wide separation of 120 degrees almost as efficiently as a conjunction (two objects sharing the same degree of the same sign).

Among other things, the Sun represents consciousness in the way most understand it: awake, alert, present, interactive. Combine that with the fact that the Sun’s subconscious complement (the Moon) is today in Scorpio and it’s a good time to consider the question of Pluto.

The reason having the Moon in Scorpio matters is that Pluto is considered to be the modern co-ruler of Scorpio (along with Mars, the classical ruler of Scorpio). Hence, the astrology implies that you are today in some way connected on both the conscious and subconscious levels to the complex nature of Pluto’s place in astrology. The timing is interesting, to say the least. That’s because the question of Pluto is coming up in the midst of a series of eclipses which have also been subject to question.

Because the Aquarius Full Moon of Aug. 18 took place just barely within Earth’s shadow, there was no readily evident darkening of the Moon. For some, that means there was no lunar eclipse at all. For those who think that way, the current series of eclipses started on Sept. 1 with a Virgo New Moon and annular solar eclipse visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

Because Pluto is not visible to the unaided eye, there are some astrologers who do not consider it a planet at all. Combine that perception with astronomers who ‘demoted’ Pluto from planet to ‘dwarf planet’ shortly before Pluto left Sagittarius to enter Capricorn, and you have an object that amounts to a highly contentious subject. Indeed, the controversy only seems to become more pronounced with the passage of time.

Now that the New Horizons spacecraft has returned close-up photos and other unprecedented information regarding Pluto, its astronomical claim to being a planet has been strengthened. In parallel, the recently concluded continuum of seven consecutive square aspects (separations of 90 degrees) from Uranus in Aries to Pluto in Capricorn, from 2012 to 2015, has only served to bolster Pluto’s legitimacy as an astrological tool.

If there is anything to astrology, today’s aspects imply that it’s time for you to have a say. After all, why not you? You are as much a part of the system we call solar as anybody else. Your life experience is as valid as that of any other. After a weekend of contemplating when the eclipse cycle started for you, it’s only fitting that you continue to claim your place in the cosmic order of things by holding forth on Pluto. Just so you may know what to look for, begin with the concept that Pluto has layers, much like consciousness itself.

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The top layer has to do with Pluto’s name. The names of planets discovered by telescope cannot possibly carry the same weight of meaning as the names of classical planets, which have always been visible to human beings from our first days on Earth. Nonetheless, there is evidence that serendipity does frequently take a hand in what results from the bureaucratic and somewhat arbitrary process of naming discovered planets.

So as a first layer, you have the mythological character of Pluto, ruler of the afterlife’s shadowy realm. Not exactly glee club material, that fellow. Even so, somebody to be reckoned with inevitably.

Which leads to the next layer of Pluto’s meaning: the subject of not only death, but also two other things that are not often considered the material of polite conversation (unless, perhaps, you are a solar Scorpio): sex and taxes. In other words, Pluto manifests not only as mysteries hidden from us, but also in what we often hide from ourselves and others.

Finally, there is at least another layer, which has to do with some of the most profound natural mysteries that take place just out of sight. Two examples might be limestone converted to marble in the depths of the Earth, and a caterpillar turning into a butterfly within a chrysalis or cocoon. In other words, Pluto is something other than merely scary or the subject of denial. Pluto is also related to the miracle of metamorphosis and transformation that takes place every day, albeit in a veiled way.

Based on what’s going on in the sky right now, today would be a good opportunity to for you to unveil Pluto and make your own decisions about it. Keep in mind that you would best draw upon your experiences since late 2008 to do so, but also pay attention to what part of your immediate experience you are either compelled or unable to ignore. Don’t be scared: it’s not as though the Sun — and your consciousness — won’t move on.

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From one day to the next, you move on. You move on to take care of your needs, follow up on your plans, keep your schedule and to deal with what life brings you. You might say the same for the Sun, Moon and planets. Perhaps most of all the celestial objects, the Sun moves with you, marking the passage of time.

That’s because the Sun brings day and light with its presence in the sky. Also, calendars and clocks are synchronized with the Sun because of how the Sun’s height in the sky corresponds to the seasons.

The Sun is additionally a primary point of reference for navigational purposes. Especially on the ocean, where no landmarks are to be found, sailors have long looked to the Sun first to figure out where on Earth they are.

The Sun’s role in astrology is similar to its practical role in your life. For astrologers, the Sun is astrology’s central organizing principle. It is true that the Moon is an indispensable complement to the Sun. So it is that the Sun and Moon are in an astrological class of their own: luminaries. It’s also true that the planets combine with the luminaries to delineate specifics and expand perspective so as to make astrology capable of correlating with life’s complexities.

Nonetheless, it is important to constantly refer back to the Sun and include it so astrology can keep up with life. Now (as we enter Labor Day weekend in the U.S.), is an especially good time to orient yourself astrologically by using the Sun.

You might first use the Sun as both a marker of time and an orienting reference to consider where you are as regards to the eclipses we are in the midst of. Specifically, instead of taking the word of somebody else, you can now evaluate for yourself whether the Sun in opposition to the Aquarius Full Moon back on Aug. 18 constituted a lunar eclipse for you.

Because the Full Moon of Aug. 18 spent less than half an hour just barely inside Earth’s shadow, the darkening of the Moon was not readily perceptible. For that reason (and in spite of the fact that the eclipse was assigned a number by astronomers) some say it did not happen. Now that you have the perspective of having been through yesterday’s Virgo conjunction of the Sun and New Moon for a solar eclipse, you can use the guidelines Eric published on Aug. 18 to decide on your own authority whether your life entered the ‘zone’ between eclipses back then or only yesterday.

Based on his erudition and experience as an astrologer, Eric noted four ‘properties’ that your life tends to take on between eclipses. First, there is what he described as a “concentration of experience.” In other words, more events packed into the same amount of time — in this case, the two-week period between a Full and New Moon (or vice-versa).

Next, those concentrated events also seem to be karmic or even predestined in some way. Third, there is a perception of discontinuity that goes with being in the eclipse zone, in that endings and beginnings are more prevalent than usual. Finally, it is more likely that the discontinuity will correspond with your facing critical transitions and decisions to a greater than normal extent.

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Hopefully, you will have some discretionary time available to you over the next several days. If that is the case for you, consider the benefit of taking some of that time to, in essence, be your own astrologer. After all, it is not all that often the Sun affords such a clearly distinguished opportunity.

If you see fit to take advantage of such a rare opportunity, simply take some time away from your weekend activities to reflect on your life since Aug. 18. Did the properties of being in an eclipse zone start showing up in your life last month, or only since yesterday?

This is not a meaningless exercise. Neither is it a test. Think of it as a chance to validate and affirm your role as an active participant in the system we have named after the Sun — the solar system. Believe your perceptions, and locate yourself accordingly.

Once you have a fix on your location in relation to the Sun and Moon in eclipse, you will have taken a great step — a step up. You will have, in essence, left the ground where your life was marked by days, nights and seasons. You will have elevated your life to include the sky. That is no small thing.

In addition, you will have attained a perspective you can build on. Next week the Sun moves on to locate you in relation to a distant but demonstrably significant object that has a lot in common with the controversial Full Moon of Aug. 18 . That object would be Pluto. Even as you move on yourself, it might be to your advantage to stay tuned.

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Somewhere around the end of WW II, Neptune assumed a separation of about 60 degrees from Pluto. That’s what astrologers call a sextile aspect. Interestingly, and significantly, Neptune and Pluto have held that same geometric relationship on the zodiac (within the degrees of tolerance called ‘orb of aspect’) ever since.

To have any aspect remain functional for about 70 years is exceptional, even for outer planets that appear to move at a snail’s pace from our perspective here in Earth. The primary reason for that long sextile has to do with an exquisite piece of timing.

For 20 years out of each of its 248-year-long trips around the Sun, Pluto actually moves inside of Neptune’s orbit. The last time that happened was from early 1979 to early 1999. As result, during the years approaching, including, and coming out of that two-decade period, Pluto’s perceived orbital speed closely approximated that of Neptune. This time around, the timing of that period resulted in perhaps the longest continual aspect ever consciously known.

Think about it. Most people alive now have spent their entire lifetime with Neptune and Pluto in sextile. You, and nearly everybody else on Earth, have no experience living during any other relationship between those two planets. Hence, the problem. To express that problem in a phrase, you might say that a fish is not aware that it is wet.

If, like a fish, you were to live your entire life in water, you would have no other experience to compare it to. Being wet would have no meaning because being dry would be beyond what you know, or could even imagine. Unlike fish, however, human beings have culture.

Human beings long ago hit upon the idea that the world was understandable. Instead of seeing either chaos or the behavior of deities at the root of events, some influential ancient thinkers surmised that there was a perceptible order to things. It was such an important notion that the late, great Carl Sagan took it as the theme for his 20th-century television series Cosmos. You might even go so far as to say that the concept of organizing principles is the foundation of human culture.

Astrology is undeniably an ancient part of human culture. Additionally, it is indisputable that astrologers assume an underlying order in the cosmos, largely expressed through cycles and the patterns those cycles form in context with each other. We can know that Neptune and Pluto have not always been — nor will they always be — in a sextile aspect. This week we have an event to bring that knowledge home.

The solar eclipse that comes with the Virgo New Moon shortly after 5 am EDT (09:03:02 UTC) on Thursday will be in rather precise geometrical relationship to both Neptune and Pluto.

When the Sun and Moon come together to share exactly the same degree of Virgo, Neptune will be on the other side of the zodiac in Pisces, almost exactly 180 degrees away for an opposition. At the same time Pluto will be in Capricorn, nearly 120 degrees away from the merger of the Sun and Moon for an aspect called a trine. Additionally, there will be a lot of other things going on, like the Mercury retrograde that started earlier today. Even for astrologers, the situation might be perceived as complicated.

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There is a way, however, for you to keep the astrology of this week simple. There is an organizing principle you can apply to make your life understandable. Based on the Neptune-Pluto sextile (which has served as the long-term astrological background for most, if not all, of your life), you can think of yourself as an exceptional fish.

Ordinarily, a fish out of water is a fish in trouble. Not so for you, however. Just as your lifetime has been framed by the extraordinarily long-lived sextile from Neptune to Pluto, your circumstance is implied to be something more than ordinary.

Up to now, most of us have not perceived how we have always been metaphorically ‘wet’, because we have known nothing else. Now, with this eclipse, at least some of us will get a chance to glimpse something else.

Ironically, many of us who get the chance to grasp something beyond the experience of our lives will be those who seem to be going through the biggest changes. Most of those who are secure and comfortable without a care in the world will miss out.

Therefore, if you find yourself gasping and flopping around a bit for the next couple weeks, don’t despair. If there is anything to astrology, you will be among the lucky ones who will exposed to something timeless, even immortal, and as valuable as any experience in your life. As a guideline to getting through to the other side, remember two things.

First, remember how astrology implies that cycles, not linearity, is the underlying order of the universe. By the time of the Full Moon and lunar eclipse of Sept. 16, you will almost certainly be immersed in a ‘wet’ life once again.

Next, remember an ancient wisdom that is probably integral to any culture you might name: it’s not how many breaths you take that counts, it’s how many times your breath is taken away. Don’t be afraid to be breathless. Make this special time count for you.

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Adjoining signs tend to differ. Often the contrast is rather sharp. That’s one reason the Sun, Moon or a planet changing signs is considered to have significance. As contiguous signs go, however, Virgo and Libra exhibit at least the capacity to be relatively simpatico with one another.

Maybe it’s because the rulers of Virgo (Mercury) and Libra (Venus) are the only two planets moving around the Sun inside Earth’s orbit. Another contributing factor could be how the mutable quality of earthy Virgo implies sympathy with the elemental air that distinguishes Libra from other cardinal signs.

Whatever the reason, the border (or cusp, as astrologers call it) between Virgo and Libra tends to feel like a wall less often than is the case with most adjacent signs. Given how there is a lot of activity developing along their boundary right now, the implicit compatibility between Virgo and Libra is a consideration when it comes to interpreting how astrological events will correlate with your inner and outer climate over the next several weeks. In fact, some of those events are about to commence.

Tomorrow, Venus will share the 28th degree of Virgo with Jupiter for an aspect astrologers call a conjunction. Then, on Monday, Venus will conjoin with Mercury in the very last degree of Virgo. Later Monday night (or early the next morning, depending on your time zone) Venus will move on to enter Libra less than 12 hours before Mercury pulls up short of the cusp, and begins its Virgo retrograde on Tuesday.

On Sept. 2, it will be Jupiter’s turn to receive a conjunction from Mercury (Mercury also conjoined Jupiter Aug. 22 in direct motion). Then, one week after its merger with Mercury in Virgo’s penultimate degree, Jupiter will follow Venus into Libra.

That’s a lot of activity taking place during a relatively short period of time, within a very narrow slice of the zodiac. In addition, the flurry of events on the Virgo-Libra cusp will be transpiring in the midst of not only Mercury’s retrograde, but also between eclipses involving the same general neighborhood.

In correspondence with all of the traffic where Virgo and Libra come together, you might well be advised to expect some changes in your external world. For example, any recent meteorological trends in your area of the world would seem to be subject to noticeable revision. The same tendency towards turnaround could also very possibly express in political, economic and social milieus.

As nearly always, the transitions taking place on the outside won’t matter as much as how you handle them on the inside. Given how the Mercury-Venus conjunction coming up will be their third and final meeting this year, you do have some previous experience that will let you know what sort of astrological weather to expect.

The first 2016 conjunction of Mercury and Venus took place in the middle of Taurus back on May 13, during Mercury’s immediately previous retrograde. After that, Venus moved on ahead while Mercury continued to backpedal. The resulting implication was a period of heart (Venus) ahead of mind (Mercury). The next get-together was when Mercury caught up with and passed Venus in the 6th degree of Leo, just over two months later (on July 16). After that, the indication was a period of mind leading the heart.

Now, with their last conjunction of 2016 coming up where Virgo (and Mercury’s direct motion) terminates, indications are that your feelings will once again be out ahead of your intellect. That’s not a bad prospect. In a world that sometimes seems heartless, allowing your heart to lead would make you the sort of leader we could all use more of. All that being said, putting your heart out there means getting involved with risk. Even the most ably compassionate leaders must balance that risk by taking care of themselves.

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Fortunately, Planet Waves in general (and Eric specifically) has your back. With the innovative approach he has taken for his midyear readings (appropriately titled “Balance” — see the inset ad at right for sales links), Eric has formulated an appropriate and supportive way for you to encounter the transitional astrology now starting up.

Just as the subject of adjacent signs is coming to the fore, Eric is providing an antidote of sorts by taking the acknowledged compatibility of opposing signs as his guiding theme.

That way, regardless of whether you find the prevailing astrological climate during the remaining weeks of this season and the beginning of the next to be simpatico for you, there will be an alternative perspective available to keep you from hitting a wall. It’s the sort of parallax view that only a world-class astrologer can provide, at a time when (if there is anything to astrology at all) it is most likely to be useful.

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On the whole, it’s better to learn astrology from experience than just from a book. That’s because you, as the astrologer, are part of the process. Just as modern science has realized, the observer is necessarily and unavoidably part of what is observed.

Even so, the observer’s power to determine the nature of observations is not absolute. There would appear to be an underlying order to the universe which makes events decipherable, if not entirely predictable.

In recent generations, astrologers have come to understand that an observer’s prejudices can actually interfere with understanding the cosmos. It is especially true that human perceptions of good and bad do not apply to events in the sky. As world-renowned astrological authority Robert Hand put it for the October/November 2014 issue of The Mountain Astrologer: “There are no benefics and no malefics.” Even so, some very old biases persist, no matter how errant they may be.

Two planets still often burdened with the malefic (bad guy) label are Mars and Saturn. One way to approach the conjunction of Mars and Saturn in Sagittarius tomorrow is to for you to acknowledge your own involvement in either sustaining or overcoming ancient predilections as regards to those two objects.

You can begin by simply being aware that Mars and Saturn are briefly coming together to share the same degree of Sagittarius. Rather than bring any hand-me-down partiality to the occasion, look to flex the power of your intent by getting involved to affirm life rather than just letting things happen.

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Affirming life is one demonstrable upside to Mars. It has to do with taking action so as to sustain life. Every time you act to take care of your wellbeing in response to challenges from your environment, Mars is manifesting through you.

The same can be said for any initiative aimed at helping another person to breathe easier. Additionally, either desire or decisiveness, followed by effort to attain results, serves to demonstrate what a good guy Mars can be.

Actually, it would be reasonable to say that Mars can evince in many ways, but passivity is not one of them. That’s how it is appropriate for you to reject old stories that many passively accept about Mars, and go on to create some of your own. Saturn can help, especially when in the process of merging its own formidable energies with the red planet.

Among other things, Saturn is about giving things form. While not as bright in the sky or symbolically in your face as Mars often is, the ringed planet is every bit as empowering. Even though that power is commonly realized over time, the structural quality Saturn can be exercised to bring is like a long journey in that it must begin with a single step. Tomorrow’s Sagittarius conjunction from Mars to Saturn would be an excellent time to take that step.

Therefore, even if you are not sure how far you are going or where you will end up, you would be well advised to get consciously and actively involved in some demonstrably supportive and substantial way with life and living tomorrow. Think of it as your chance to start making something more of astrology — and the world — than you have previously been told it can be. Sure beats just being along for another ride to where you would never have chosen to go on your own in the first place.

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