Welcome to Libra Season, Darlings. A time, in the Midwestern part of the Northern Hemisphere, known for changing leaves and pumpkin spice everything. It’s sweater weather! And, I would be remiss not to include: Funeral season. Because I am the purveyor of doom and these are facts—and the fact is that I am mourning the loss of a dear friend and Astrologer who passed just as the Sun tipped its hat into darkness.  

Which is only worth mentioning as it's entirely possible that you too are mourning the loss of someone dear—a beloved friend or family member or a cultural icon such as Melvin Van Peebles or Norm McDonald, two souls recently departed. 

This is the season of Demeter’s tears—Demeter, the Goddess of Agriculture, who each fall commences her time of mourning as her daughter, Persephone, slips into the Underworld for half the year, while the Earth freezes over. And we have only to burrow into winter caves and contemplate the seasons behind, as we prepare for the promise of spring again. 

And the fading among us—those too sick or tired to gather the strength for another season of rebirth and death—will slip into the long goodnight. Libra is the somber season. 

Heightened this year by Mercury’s retrograde through the scales, pronouncing the story of contemplation and reconsideration, making the weight of autumn’s arrival that much heavier. The final harvests have been gathered and as strong is the desire to pull us into the next, the cosmic psychopomp demands we linger at the shores a while longer. 

If there’s a place in our life where we feel stuck between endings, that’s kind of the vibe. Fortunately, the answer is often found in the problem, and clues to your way out may be glimpsed in the Libra new moon. 

As always, read for your rising sun, your sun if you must, or maybe all twelve, just to see what sticks. 

ARIES

Sacrificing yourself for another can’t guarantee a smooth relationship. As hard as we try to repress our desires, eventually they bubble to the surface in unrecognizable disguises. In moments of anxiety, take a deep breath and remind yourself: 1) In every personal relationship, we only have control over half the situation. 2.) In every personal relationship, we have control over half the situation. 

TAURUS

Has your daily grind of myriad commitments been bringing you down? Is life feeling messy and complex? Such is life at times. Take comfort in the knowledge that every knot has a source and can, with enough patience, be untangled. I have no idea if that’s true. Sometimes you need to cut the cords and deal with the mess. 

GEMINI

I will never get over the fact that the same house in astrology rules children, sex, and artistic endeavors. This month, it’s likely that one of those areas is going haywire for you. Perhaps all three. Could it be that a reframe is in order? More sex and less children? More time for creative projects and less children? Or maybe your passions have taken you too inward and putting another human’s interest before your own could be just the thing to pull you out of your head.  

CANCER

In the places where leaves change colors and fall from trees, the alarm of Libra season is seductive enough to send even the most adventurous Sags among us indoors for a spell. It’s the cozy season, crab friend, and there’s a chance that your home is going under renovations. Shift in family dynamics. Unwanted visitors. Questions of ancestry upturned for inspection. Heat up the coffee pot because this is a long conversation. 

LEO

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Are you there now? If not, what’s holding you back? If you’re feeling disconnected from your current settings, take this opportunity to reassess the situation. Is it possible the thing holding you back is actually the thing you need? Or something toxic to address, so you can move on. No, the answers are never easy, but with lion-like perseverance, you’ve got this. 

VIRGO

While there is most definitely a Virgo tendency for organization, that doesn’t mean you’re always always tidy. Anecdotally speaking, I’d say about half of you are total OCD cleaning obsessed and the other half live in a trash pile, anxious thoughts overflowing from compulsive minds. I’m thinking of a famous painter. And a chef I know. Anyway, whether you’re too concerned with the material world or live dangerously outside of it, now’s a great time to examine that relationship. 

LIBRA

Every month someone in the Zodiac wins a pass to “reevaluate and retool your existence.” Congratulations! How’s it feel to be a winner, Libra? I know, this sounds totally dramatic. Because I am dramatic. But, also, there’s a distinct possibility that life right now feels like it’s been smashed asunder by a hot trebuchet—which, for some of us, might feel AWESOME. As for the rest of you, some wisdom from the drunk poet Charles Bukowski:

"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.”

SCORPIO

In the dark corners of my imagination, I fantasize about Libra season being a goth holiday for Scorpios the way December is one long holiday leading up to Christmas for some people. Instead of shopping for gifts and singing joyful songs over peppermint martinis and buckets of eggnog, you’re slow-dancing to Joy Division and watching The Craft on loop whilst painfully unpacking the contents of your subconscious to unleash during the spooky time of year. 

Or so I wish. 

SAGITTARIUS

As I write this, the ever charming and delightful Venus has just popped into your Astrological parlor—a boon to both of you, no doubt. The amorous goddess gets to dry off from the swamps of Scorpio and you get Astrology’s lesser benefic on your side. BTW, ‘lesser benefic.’ That’s an actual astrology term. Kind of insulting, yeah? Seven inner planets. Two are female. And one of those is defined as ‘lesser.’ Anyway, if you’re polite to your guest, this could be the confidence boost needed to manage that drama in your friend sphere. 

CAPRICORN

Hello, surly goat friend. Is that mean? Untrue? It’s possible that right now, this very minute, I caught you in the middle of a roaring belly laugh or bending down to pet a toy sized schnozzle. It’s possible that I’ve been overly gruff in my writings thus far. Blame it on the weight of Libra. Or the slow pull of Saturn stationing direct, since its retrograde journey commenced on May 23rd. Forgive me? As a citizen of the distant planet’s earthly domain, you know the terrain of melancholy better than most... 

Which is to say there’s a message here for both of us: no one likes a public downer. 

AQUARIUS 

In the 1960s, NASA helped fund Dr John C Lily’s research to teach language to dolphins. Lily in turn hired a 23 year old woman named Margarette Howe with zero scientific background to spend ten weeks living in a damp room in his home laboratory with an adolescent dolphin named Peter. Meanwhile, Lily spent hours floating in his sensory deprivation tank high on acid consulting with aliens. Ultimately the project was a flop and Ms Howe went down in history as the woman who made love to dolphins. 

There’s a party happening in your house of Philosophy and Grand Ideas right now. Do us all a favor and take a deep breath and moment of reflection before action, lest you follow the wrong impulse down the dolphin hole.

PISCES

Are you frustrated with the limitation of words to express your innermost feelings? What if you could just look at people at people and they could know exactly what you’re thinking? Like dolphins. They have a sono-pictorial language that allows them to send images to each other. It’s basically built in instagram without the text. But in chirps. Did you know dolphins are capable of holding two separate conversations at once? It’s called dolphinese. If you play it real slow on a tape recorder it sounds eerily human. The astronomer Carl Sagan, original host of Cosmos, was a member of the Order of the Dolphin (with Dr John Lily) and made a big to-do about talking to dolphins. 

The thing is, Pisces, if you keep searching for answers, you’re bound to find them. The trick is finding the answer that matches the question.

CV Henriette is a writer, maker of Cosmic Apothecary, and consulting Astrologer at ART of the ZODIAC. Follow her on Instagram at art_of_the_zodiac.