Commonsense Almanac By Ben Commons | September 2024
“Life isn’t about finding yourself; life is about creating yourself.” ~George Bernard Shaw
Tips for almanac use: All the aspects can be felt in advance. It is good policy to view these as due dates for various energies and prepare accordingly for your context. It’s akin to bringing an umbrella with you when rain is expected, but it also helps us to not take the weather personally. When we proactively manifest these symbols then the world doesn’t have to do it for us. Choose to be con(with)-siderate(the stars). Reach out to me for personal explorations of these times.
Oh my, September is upon us after quite a month. Honestly, most of September looks gnarly, because if it’s not us, it’s going to be people close to us. I always try to keep these short and optimistic, but both were tough. There is a ton of potential for deep and profound growth though, as can always be found through the difficulty.
The first few weeks are more about distancing ourselves from our own past and inching ever more into the present. This needs carefulness to keep from cross-contamination though. Then there’s a distinct shift towards our lives through relationships and how we show up now. Clarity in communication is, as is fairly usual, a strong theme, but the emphasis is almost more on our internal dialogues. Anyways, let us make the most of it and ritual-up simple-and-mellow style with it all!
Uranus stations retrograde on Sunday the 1st at 8:18 am pacific, starting us off on another review period regarding our growth into the full flowering of our quirkiness. Now we can work on removing restraints on our speed of development, the honoring of our individuality, and the cherishing of our personal gardens of peculiarity. We all want community, but we also need to follow our passions into the nooks to keep ourselves excited about further discoveries. Explore your universe.
Pluto moves back into Capricorn on Sunday the 1st at 5:10 pm pacific, until November 19th. This brings us back for one last, and probably excruciating, deconstruction of our issues with the world. Let’s be honest, the world can be an intimidating place and our lack of control can sponsor paranoid reactions. This is about crafting our own world amidst the collective strangeness. How can we dismantle our reactionary tendencies and focus on our path in life? Focus on your circle of life.
The New Moon is at 11 degrees Virgo on Monday the 2nd at 6:56 pm pacific. This is another lunation that is rich with potentiality if approached with delicacy. The challenge is about feeling disillusioned, tired, and weighed down by the doldrums of life. The goal is to have a peaceful patience and persevere towards our goals. Keep your eye on the prize and watch your step.
Mars squares Neptune on Monday the 2nd at 9:10 pm pacific, challenging our drive and determination. It’s hard to keep pushing without external reassurance and without a clear path. Look for confirmation from within and trust that doing the right thing for you can’t be wrong. But seriously, don’t squander your energy from old societal, familial, or personal narratives. Contemplate your higher truths.
Mars moves into Cancer on Wednesday the 4th at 12:46 pm pacific, until November 3rd. To put it simplistically, this is about aligning our wants and actions with the actual needs of our life. Appropriateness is the keyword here. Are we acting in accordance with our private world? Are we overextending our available energy? Work through the emotions of your situations, but be available to hear and respect others without taking on projections and bogus judgments. It’s another middle-ground balancing act, but we can make it, together.
Mercury squares Uranus on Friday the 6th at 9:21 pm pacific, for round three of ‘how to be our full selves’ while giving the same concession generously. This may find us impatient to see results from our recent revelations, but a steady approach is better. What have we learned about expressing our unadulterated truths since mid-July? Choose now to integrate this new commitment towards radical authenticity.
The Sun opposes Saturn on Saturday the 7th at 9:35 pm pacific, tempting us to measure progress harshly. Ideally, we should be strengthening our resolution to keep going despite whatever setbacks and delays. Acknowledge the improvements in yourself and in others. Don’t measure according to perfection fantasies, this is life not rocket science. Be mindful of self-care and affirm self-support by doing a little ritual. Respect natural timing.
Mercury moves into Virgo on Sunday the 8th at 11:50 pm pacific, until September 26th. This period will focus on improvement in general. Mental well-being practices, physical self-care, and sticking to basics are highly recommended. This is an opportunity for a deep and thorough refresh of mind, but it will require consistent choice-management towards your grand visions. The next season of the Eternal Juggle always brings more conundrums. Let functional simplicity guide us towards greater satisfaction.
Mercury sextiles Mars on Wednesday the 11th at 12:35 pm pacific, offering another chance at resolution. The focus is on clear, concise, and conscious communication. Hopefully we have been working on this all summer and are less prone towards outbursts. Specify what you want and how you feel about situations with calmness, before challenges arise. Speak your mind, nicely.
The Sun squares Jupiter on Thursday the 12th at 3:53 am pacific, pushing us to iron out the details of our grand plans. What choice do we have but to attempt to reconcile the visions with the technicalities, without overthinking things. Be mindful of emotional reactiveness that could distract from the higher potentials. Practice greater ascension.
Venus trines Jupiter on Saturday the 14th at 10:34 pm pacific, giving some much needed relief. The focus is on gratitude for those in our life and everything that brings us enjoyment and comfort. Take the chance to express appreciation for those who are still with us on this long strange trip. Don’t over-indulge, but do unwind and relish every morsel.
The Full Moon is at 25 degrees Pisces on Tuesday the 17th at 7:34 pm pacific. This Lunar Eclipse is another doozy, but, like everything else, ripe if nurtured. There are themes of release, relaxation, relinquishing, and release of the past. It’s time to climb out of the ruts of our storylines and envision new vistas with less baggage on the way there. Practice mindfulness and embrace what flows instead of needing difficulty to confirm that something is working. Craft the specifics of your dreams.
Mercury opposes Saturn on Wednesday the 18th at 1:50 am pacific¸ bringing out the measuring stick once again. The eternal challenge persists of balancing constructive criticism with sympathetic support, both within and without. Be wary of people playing the blame game and projecting their fears and judgments. Stay solid in your lane.
The Sun trines Uranus on Thursday the 19th at 7:04 am pacific, facilitating some earthly exploration. Try something strange in the kitchen, go someplace new, and check in with nature. We all get locked into routines that could use a little shaking up even if it’s just adding something daring to a standard recipe. Uncover and integrate innovations into our standard protocol.
The Sun opposes Neptune on Friday the 20th at 5:17 pm pacific, pushing us to take a break from the tedium and unwind the self from the inside out. What does that mean? Take a short escape if you can, but more practically, be mindful and conscious of being centered in yourself. Trusting your gut as an invaluable resource to balance our oversized frontal lobes. Wash it off.
Mercury squares Jupiter on Saturday the 21st at 1:50 am pacific, contrasting the forest with the trees. We all know the crazy dance between grand perspectives and technical details. We can further integrate the two now if we focus on every small development as part of the grand whole. Every journey begins with a single step, but the steps are in fact the whole expedition. Tread wisely.
The Sun trines Pluto on Saturday the 21st at 11:12 pm pacific¸ asking for the deepest clean one could imagine. This is about cleansing our beings to their core; releasing the burdens the past and lessening our grip on the ‘what-was-messed-up’ stories. Life is messy and at times tragic, but we are best off when we endlessly refresh our lightness of being. Find the sparkle beneath the stains of time.
The Sun moves into Libra on Sunday the 22nd at 5:44 am pacific. Let’s welcome Libra season and the end of a wild summer. This run through has deep themes of releasing the trauma from our past that prevents us from being fully present as co-conspirators of attempted joyful revelry. Projecting former wounds into the now helps nobody. Trust is earned, but those have proven themselves shouldn’t carry the burdens of times gone by. Dance with the Now.
Venus squares Pluto on Sunday the 22nd at 2:15 pm pacific, bringing a disturbingly deep energy up to the surface. This is the urge to purge writ large. However, don’t be overzealous and toss or damage things and relationships best preserved. This is also good for indulging or releasing paranoia around finances and how appreciated we are. Trust the middle ground.
Venus moves into Scorpio on Sunday the 22nd at 7:36 pm pacific, until October 17th. This version will focus on not making problems where there are none. Be careful of neurotic reactions and taking people’s moods personally. Ideally, we could be removing past patterns and interpretations traps and leaving more emotional bandwidth for savoring the sensual nature of physical existence. Feel into things.
Mercury trines Uranus on Tuesday the 24th at 10:27 am pacific, twirling us all around. We will probably be itching for wild newness or possibly frayed at the edges from over-stimulus. Either way, it’s time to let the mind imagine new solutions to old conundrums. Let the mind sparkle, even if we don’t know exactly where it’s going. Think differently.
Mercury opposes Neptune on Wednesday the 25th at 4:07 am pacific, challenging our mental expansion attempts with lack of clarity. The thing is that mystery, although daunting, is wonderous and awesome, if we allow it. Be cautious of committing to anything. Imagine new mental versions of lesser attachment to all the nitty and the gritty. Nurture the mind, relax, and float downstream.
Mercury trines Pluto on Wednesday the 25th at 9:14 pm pacific, tossing more mental dance routines at us. We could indulge in logically reasonable concerns and fears, or we could seek to train our minds further towards clean consciousness and limit the stress chemicals created otherwise. Be your own mind’s teacher.
Mercury moves into Libra on Thursday the 26th at 1:09 am pacific, until October 13th. This will lighten things up after some days of heavy hitters. Give room to mentally explore our emotional status and work towards greater calmness and equilibrium. Basically, we all should be recovering our nerves and reconnecting and sharing with those we love. Talk it out with an open ear.
Mars trines Saturn on Sunday the 29th at 9:06 pm pacific, sponsoring some emotional healing and/or frustration. Ideally, we should be cleansing ancient angers, grievances, and hurts and unburdening our hearts. Otherwise, things could get dangerous, so beware of people who are misaligned now. Let us honor and release the energetic accumulation of life’s teachings while taking the lessons further into our cores.
Mercury conjoins the Sun on Monday the 30th at 2:09 pm pacific, asking us once again to integrate mind and heart. It sounds corny, but the fact remains that most of us are firmly indulgent of being mental. So, let us affirm our sensitivity, vulnerability, and emotionality and cherish it for all the joy it does bring. Let us align the whole fandango to the beat of the heart.
So, yeah, that was a lot. Hopefully, we navigated well and have a fresher vantage of being a newer version of ourselves towards all the tenses; past, present, and future. We could have learned how to better manage our minds, how to connect with our close ties with a renewed being and ways of sharing our stories. But let’s definitely digest and integrate as much as possible because the clock never stops spinning.
Ben Commons
ASTROLOGER | Ben has been studying astrology since 1994 and started doing readings professionally in 2002. He is also a practicing Reiki master, and works with stones for healing. He uses astrology as a strategic tool and calls himself an Astro-strategist..
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