As expected, 2023 has been a year of massive shifts, a trend that will continue in 2024. Luckily, instead of rushing to the finish line, we will be inspired to slow down and embrace reflection, allowing us to catch our breath.  December kicks off with the sun shining in Sagittarius, a future-oriented sign whose influence has us asking all sorts of philosophical questions. What have we learned from the materialistic decadence of the past that can help us create a more functional and inclusive future for all? With Pluto shifting to Aquarius almost for good on January 20, deeply meaningful themes are on our minds.

This month is a time to anchor ourselves amidst the intensity, to find space to process all that’s happened since the planet plunged into turmoil last month. This won’t be the easiest mission to tackle, and it will require some self-discipline. The year has been filled with non-stop change, from Saturn’s move into Pisces, Pluto’s pivot between Capricorn and Aquarius, Venus retrograde and October’s eclipse season.

For those of you who are unaware, The Tower tarot card in a spread symbolizes sudden change, upheaval, and awakening. It’s a card to pay attention to and to heed its warning.  My coven has a mantra that we use when one of us receives this card during divination, “Let the Tower fall.” You can’t stop the inevitable, you can delay it, but then that just creates even more mayhem. So this month I say to all of you, “Let the tower fall.”

As if the summer hadn’t been transformative enough with retrograde season, October continues to bring us potent alignments. This October will be a powerful cosmic month and a time of growth, revelation, and change with two potent eclipses that are sure to create major shifts in our lives. Eclipses are the way we experience accelerated change, however, at a deeper level, they are our biggest opportunities for self-actualization. Being catalysts for spiritual transformation and evolution, eclipses bring both endings and beginnings that shape our perspectives. Therefore, the best medicine for October is to embrace surrender and acceptance. Practicing self-care and rituals remains our go-to practice, but we must remember that eclipses are not meant to be harnessed for manifestation practices, they are more about honoring our process of deep transformation.

Sagittarius season is months away, but September truly feels like that special moment in which we are pulling the bow string as far back as possible before shooting the arrow forward. With a total of seven planets in retrograde motion as we enter September, we could still have more questions than answers. There is a “push-and-pull” dynamic that brings the need to slow down so we can sink into a mindset of reassessment. This contradiction of energies is mainly brought by Venus starting to move forward in Leo on September 3, while Mercury is retrograde in Virgo until mid-September. One thing to remember about the month of September is that the sun is in mutable earth sign Virgo, which helps us tie up loose ends and transition from Summer to Autumn.

The next Mercury retrograde of this year begins today, August 23 and ends on September 15, 2023.  With Mercury joining this cosmic slowdown, we now have 5 planets in retrograde motion. Uranus will join the party on August 28 and while Venus will be turning direct on September 3, Jupiter will orbit retrograde the next day. But let’s concentrate on the matter at hand.