Diary of a Pluto Transit

AstrologyZone September 2011 Capricorn Monthly Horoscope by Susan Miller.

As the month begins, the universe will be strongly on your side. The new moon that appeared on August 28 will act like a little godmother, granting you almost every wish during the first half of the month. Rarely have you had cosmic support on this massive level, so at the start of September, until September 10, you are likely to be quite pleased with developments.

It would be a shame not to use these aspects to the hilt. Think about what you desire most, dear Capricorn. What new goal would you like to start working on? Also, what ongoing project or relationship needs to show progress? In early September, you will be able to move mountains.

The reason I am so enthusiastic about your prospects in early September is that the new moon of August 28 opened a portal of opportunity that will last ten days and be unusually friendly. Not all new moons are ideal for you, but this one was one of your best of 2011. Its energy will be strongest at the start of September and gradually dim a little more with each passing day.

The new moon in Virgo came flanked with the Sun and gentle Venus, and received a beautiful beam from Jupiter in Taurus, and Pluto in Capricorn. Both Jupiter and Pluto are financial planets, so you’ll be able to make money with something that comes up. With Jupiter in your fifth house, a creative idea you develop now could grow into a blockbuster. Remember – initiate early in September for best results. This month the start is very different from the end. Besides, the initiations you make in the first 10 days will have the power to affect your whole year ahead, until next September – it is that powerful.

The Sun, new moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Pluto will all be in earth signs like yours and form a perfect triangle in the night sky, considered the most harmonious aspect possible! Planets in earth signs will demand you be practical and realistic, so avoid all blue-sky thinking and keep financial considerations and time constraints in mind. If you keep your feet firmly planted on the ground, you should do well. Here are some of the ways you can direct your energies.

First, foreign travel and international relationships will be incredibly lucky and productive for you now. You may forge a new relationship with someone at a distance or in a country abroad, or you may go on an important journey, for any reason, business or pleasure. If you are artistic or write for a living, for example, you may pick up a new client overseas or in a city in your country, far from yours, and in that latter case you may not have to travel at all to see the benefits.

Citizenship matters can work out very well. If you hope to get a passport, green card, or visa, now is the time to assertively fill out paperwork and push this idea through to conclusion. If you are called to do jury duty this month, the same aspects could find you inspired by the courts and justice system and give you unusual insight into the process. If you have to take legal action in a dispute, see your lawyer in early September and get the ball rolling. There is not a moment to waste. Rarely have you been this favored!

The ninth house is mainly an analytical, factual, and intellectual house, where one either takes in information, through study in an institution of higher study (such as college) or where you disperse information, such as in the media as a writer, journalist, editor would, for example, or as a professor would do. This is why the ninth house is associated with colleges and universities, college exams, and qualifying tests of all kinds, as well as with the media, including broadcasting and publishing. All these areas glitter for you now.

(You might ask, why is travel considered part of the ninth house of information and learning? The ancient astrologers wisely felt that foreign, distant travel was a form of education.)

If you have any goals related to any of these areas, be sure to get things scheduled early in September, when you will do so well.

I wrote about the August 28 new moon in your forecast last month, so if you would like to check more of what I said, you can always access the previous month’s forecast on Astrology Zone by clicking the link. You will find that link below my Summary and Dates to Note. Just keep scrolling down (later) and you will see it by the time you finish this month’s report. We recently made the link bigger to make it easier for you to see.

If your birthday falls on December 26 plus or minus five days, you are particularly well positioned to take advantage of this new moon. (If your rising sign is five degrees of Capricorn or within five degrees of that, you are sitting pretty, as you would be if you have planets near five degrees of an earth (Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn) or water sign (Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio).

Two of your best days, no matter when your birthday happens to fall, for all these activities above, that I mentioned so far, will be September 1 and 2, when the Sun and Jupiter will cooperate with one another. A creative idea could be sold on one of these two days, and if so, you’d get generous funding! Be sure to talk over those ideas!

Another magical day for ninth house activities related to the courts, academia, contracts, travel, international relations, the media) will be September 14, thanks to Mercury in perfect angle to fortunate Jupiter. Your creative expressions will again get star billing, so if you’re creative, don’t hide your ideas – show them to anyone who wants to listen!

You may be traveling mid-month, near September 12, or in the days plus or minus five days, a great idea, thanks to the full moon in Pisces, 19 degrees at that time. If you go away, it seems that you will go with a partner to a place not too far away. A trip that you take within 500 miles from your home base would be ideal.

Plan a romantic weekend and go September 10-11. Or, you may decide to go on a business trip, September 12-15, and if so, bring along your agent, business partner, publicist, or someone else you collaborate with. It would be very successful and you’d get a quick answer back, too.

The place where the full moon September 12 will appear, your third house, is also associated with communications, so you may be ready to change your Facebook page or debut a new look for your Website. You maybe polishing up your thesis or manuscript, or you may be ready to finish and ship an advertising campaign. If so, you’ve chosen the best time to do so!

You may alternatively be thinking about your sibling for any number of reasons, and if so, you may be discussing something important to you both, and settling decisions and actions in place at this time.

If your birthday falls on January 9 plus or minus five days, you will feel the positive benefits of this full moon, September 12, quite directly, within four days of this date.

Pluto will go direct on September 16, and this could be a very positive turning point for you, for Pluto is in Capricorn and has been retrograde since April. Pluto is the planet of transformation and also has financial associations. If you found that you could not make the progress you had hoped to make lately, you will find things improve enormously from this point on. Circle the two days before and after September 16 for a gratifying piece of news that finally, life is bringing answers and opportunities – no more waiting!

It is true that once Mars enters your financial eighth house from September 18 to November 11, your spending will rise, but you may have planned for that. Or, if you are building your own business, during this phase you may be meeting with banks and venture capitalists. If so, as you will see in my next paragraphs that the types you will encounter may be very tough, and you’ll have to be just as tough. I will explain.

We now come to the topic of the last week of September, sure to be a difficult time for every sign. It starts with September 25, when Uranus will oppose the Sun, setting up some sort of clash between your home life and career. Something you never expected is likely to come up, so don’t be on vacation at this time – you will need to take care of an urgent situation. Money is likely to form part of the discussion, for the Sun rules your eighth house of credit, taxes, funding, and the like.

Two days later will be the new moon, September 27, which will ask you to present a plan for your career and for your financial future. You will have the Sun, new moon, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn in your tenth house, so it is very possible that you’ll be offered a very prestigious position. Whether you like it or not depends on what the position entails and how you will be compensated. Listen to all higher ups have to say and ask a lot of questions.

With Saturn, your ruler, in this house since late 2009, you have been undergoing vast shifts in your professional life, and it seems clear that the type of work you do is steadily evolving and changing gradually into something new and different. Staying still, and doing the very same thing you’ve always done, does not seem possible anymore – you’ll need to step to a new beat. This may mean getting more education, or it may mean having the courage to move into a different role in your industry, one that you aren’t used to being in, but that would help you meet the needs of the marketplace, and therefore be better paid.

The problem with this new moon on September 27 is that the new moon, Sun, and Mercury will be in hard angle to Pluto and Uranus, so you will find yourself at odds with an authority figure, either at home or at work, or both. Financial talks are not likely to go smoothly. You may feel the offer is unfair for what you would be expected to do. Or, it may be that your prospective employer will suddenly change the job description in the middle of the talks, leaving you flabbergasted.

Capricorn is always attracted to high level positions, for you are ambitious and like to see continual career progress, but something about the offer or the changes in your present job seem to be off, and chance are, you will be shocked. This news seems to be presented at a time you least expected it to come up. You may have to compromise if you want to keep the offer, or you may simply feel you have to walk away. Only you can decide that.

It is alternatively possible that something will occur in your family or in regard to a domestic or housing matter that could cause you to wonder if you should consider taking any new position now – the timing may be unfortunate.

Certainly there have been radical shifts going on within your home lately, and more seem to be coming up near September 25-30. You won’t fully sort out those domestic issues until the full moon next month, October 11, plus or minus four days. You may be in for a tense time at the end of the month (September 25-30) that extends until this full moon in mid-October. You can handle this, of course – it’s not the first time you’ve seen something like this come up. With so many earth sign planets, you will take the practical, conservative route, and no one will fault you for that.

Romantically, you are in a serious frame of mind. If you have been dating a while, with Saturn conjunct Venus, you will want to see that your love life is progressing toward a closer attachment. At the same time, with such heavy demands on you at home and work, you will need your partner to be part of the solution, not create a larger problem. You need an understanding significant other now, and if this person is not supportive, you will feel that one of the elements in your life has to give – it may be your partner. (Hopefully he or she will not push you to the point of no return.)

The first part of the month will be your best, while Venus tours fellow earth sign Capricorn, September 1-13. Not only will this be a good time to find and enjoy love, it would also be ideal for treating yourself to a new hairstyle or spa treatment. Women Capricorns may want to pick up new makeup colors for the coming season and Capricorns of both genders will enjoy shopping for new things to wear.

One of your best days of all within that period, for love, fun, and luxury, fashion, and beauty will be when Venus in Virgo contacts Mars in Cancer in a most loving way possible, during the weekend of September 10-11. That weekend is due to be pure magic for you.

Your best days for romance: September 1, 2, 6, 7, 10-12, 14, 15, 16, and 22.’

Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone is my go-to website for horoscopes. She offers in depth horoscopes for every sign and one of the things I love the most about her besides her astrological insight is the compassion that comes across in her writing. She’s wonderful!

I’ll be posting only the Capricorn horoscope every month but if you’re not a Capricorn you can visit her site at AstrologyZone.com

August 2011 Capricorn Monthly Horoscope by Susan Miller

‘You certainly have experienced massive changes in your life over the past two years, including shifts in one or more of the following: a key relationship, your health, living arrangements, and your work or work environment. Chances are, you will welcome the news that August will be a peaceful, quiet month. Use this month to follow your favorite activities and most interesting projects, for you need not worry that you’ll be blown off course at a moment’s notice. You can be quite productive, with the caveat that you focus on unfinished business. It’s not the time to start anything new.

The solar eclipse of July 1 in Cancer (9 degrees) last month may have brought developments in regard to your closest romantic or business relationship if your birthday falls on or within five days of December 30. You may have also felt this eclipse if you have planets or a rising sign in Cancer, Aries, Libra, or Capricorn (4-14 degrees). If you have this birthday or these signs prominent in your chart, and did not notice news last month, radical news may reach you when Mars travels over the same part of the sky as the eclipse traveled on August 16-17. Watch those dates for news.

Now, as August opens – no matter what day your birthday happens to fall – you will notice the pace of activity around you slowing down. Mercury, the planet of communication and commerce, is about to take a nap, for Mercury will be retrograde almost all month, from August 2 to 26.

Talks you are in now will be delayed, and as you go along, you may change your mind about a certain course of action you were thinking of taking. Higher ups will be hard to reach for answers and approvals, but even so, let nature take its course, and don’t press for answers just yet. Nothing will be settled until after Mercury goes direct August 26. It would be wise to wait a little longer, at least to August 28, the brilliant new moon in Virgo. This will be a new moon that is so special that I feel it will be one of the most brilliant diamonds of the year for you – a cosmic gift. It is always wise not to come to close to the start and finish days of any Mercury retrograde period. This month you will have the time to wait, and because you will lose nothing by hanging back, you can occupy yourself in other ways.

If you make a deal while Mercury is still out of phase, you will only have to renegotiate the deal later, if you would even want to do so – chances are you will be so turned off by the way things go you’ll probably want to cut your losses and throw in the towel. Conditions around you will change dramatically and morph into something different, but this won’t be apparent yet. In fact, it would be easy for you to think that everything is the same, and quite stable. They are not. Only later you will see that few of the criteria you would have used to make a decision will hold true later, and if you make a deal, you will later regret having been so hasty.

Make sure you don’t lose any items in August – label everything with your business card, even your laptop. Be very deliberate about where you place things, as you can get easily distracted this month. You should not buy anything expensive either, but especially not electronic items, as Mercury rules electronics, as well as all machines with moving parts.

The first half of the month you will be very involved with finances. The new moon that occurred just a few days ago on July 30 will be strong for almost two weeks and will light your eighth house of other people’s money. You might want to look at your insurance needs to see that you are covered, and to examine your phone bill with the representative to make sure you are on the right plan. It is a good time to pay attention to ongoing financial matters but not to start new ones.

You may be planning to open talks about the terms of a new contract, or the division of property in a divorce. You may be ready to apply for a loan, line of credit, scholarship, mortgage, or refinancing plan. Normally it would be a good time to do so.

The problem is, Mercury will be retrograde while in the same financial house that you and I are speaking about. This means you will have one of three outcomes: 1) You will not reach accord in a deal, or 2) you will find out later about errors made in the documents you signed, or 3) that you realize by information you get later that you made a bad deal. No matter how you look at it, the deal would not be in your favor. It would be a bad time to make application or sign.

Sometimes however, you have no choice but to sign and move forward. In those cases you have to do your best to be alert for errors, but even so things can slip through. Here is what happened to me during a Mercury retrograde. My rental apartment was changing from rental to condo, and the landlord was giving the tenants a good deal. I signed my mortgage agreement with my bank for my condo several weeks prior to the official closing on my condo, at the time while Mercury was retrograde, but I had no choice. My landlord wanted each tenant to have a mortgage in place far in advance of the closing date (which thankfully, was when Mercury was no longer retrograde). If I didn’t sign, I would have to move out immediately.

I did sign, but two months later the bank called to say they made a large $20,000 error in my mortgage, and could I please send over a check to cover for that amount? I told the bank I didn’t have an extra $20,000 just languishing in my bank account – I couldn’t do it, so now what could we do? They said, “Okay, this was our fault, so we will simply tack an extra $1,000 to your mortgage payment each month for 20 months.” This news horrified me, but I had to agree to it. At the time, I was a single mother, no child support, and paying for my children’s colleges by myself. I was new to paying mortgage and common charges, and those were higher than my previous rent, in the same apartment. The news of this bank error made me terrified. I got through this nightmarish period, but just thinking about it still sends shudders through me. Banks do make mistakes – even big, established, good-name banks.

Mercury retrograde will always come and bite, sooner or later. My daughter signed her lease on her apartment in LA during a Mercury retrograde, thinking, “It’s only a renewal of my present lease.” The landlord suddenly sold her building and told her she had to move out within a month. This happened when she was only four months into the lease. She might have negotiated more time, but did move out quickly anyway. It was very expensive to move, but my sweet Diana fortunately found a new place she loved. This is how it goes. It would be best to wait until after August 28 or even longer to sign, and if you can’t, keep your antenna up.

On Facebook (“Susan Miller Astrology Zone”) and Twitter (my name is @astrologyzone) I will invite you to offer examples of things you experience during a Mercury retrograde period, and you can read all the posts!

One possibly tough day for your relationship (business or romantic), dear Capricorn, will be August 11, when Pluto in Capricorn will oppose Mars in Cancer. On this day you and your partner may clash intensely, and you may be incensed by what you hear from your partner. See how you feel. This is not a day to choose to find accord with an adversary or a partner / collaborator. Lie low and see what happens. Try not to overreact, but it will be hard not to want to do so!

Financial considerations will come up again, this time for finalization, at the full moon, August 13, plus or minus five days. Check facts and figures carefully before you write any large check. Neptune will be in the vicinity of that full moon and could cloud important information. The part of your chart that will be lit will be your second house of earned income, so you may buy something expensive, or send in a large check you knew would be due at this time. Another way things could work out is if your boss promised you a raise some time ago – if so, you may get it near August 13, the full moon. (As you see, Mercury retrograde periods can be a bonus at times too.)

Once you get to August 18, you will have a super day for money. You may be able to sell a creative idea to a client. You may need an agent to help you, as Mars is in your seventh house, giving a collaborator a dominant role in your life now.

If you have your calendar out, looking earlier in the month, I also like the very first day of the month, August 1, when Venus and Uranus will trade signals – it’s a great day for hearing very good news about money. You may want to put a star on that day.

The whole tenor of the month will improve enormously once the Sun moves into Virgo on August 23. Virgo is an earth sign like yours that blends so beautifully with your Capricorn Sun. Your mood will brighten, and you’ll be happy not to have to deal with financial matters anymore.

The new moon August 28 is the date to keep your eye on, for it will be simply sensational for you. You will have a chance to travel from this day forth, continuing for two weeks, so if you would like a vacation, this would be the time to go. Because your ninth house is being lit, you may be traveling abroad, or to a distant city within your own country. With Venus in Virgo too, from August 21 to September 15, you will have a successful, happy trip (even if you go for business).

Keep in mind Mercury will change gears on August 26, two days prior, so this new moon will give you an open road to do as you like. It really would be a great time for a vacation.

Alternatively you may hear about a publishing or broadcasting project that you will want to get started on. If so, there will be something special about this one. Academic pursuits will shine too, so if you are preparing to start a new semester at college or graduate school, you will enjoy the classes you take, and something about these classes will help you in the future.

I am excited about this new moon because the new moon will arrive with Venus and the Sun in Virgo (5 degrees Virgo) and send a lovely beam to Jupiter in your fifth house of creativity and love, and well as to Pluto in Capricorn, in your first house of personality and identity. What a marvelous new moon this will be for you, one of the best of 2011! This moon will open your mind to all kinds of new ideas and concepts, and also stimulate your creativity in a way that will allow you to make very individual expressions of your artistic nature.

The ninth house, where this new moon will fall, also rules philosophy, theology, religion, so the end of August would be an ideal time to go on a retreat or study the work of great philosophers. This is the area of the chart where we think about the mysteries of life and our place in the world. You may want to spend a little time thinking about what life means to you, and how you can best make your own contribution. With such a friendly, encouraging new moon, one that will get you to think in large terms, you may be changed by the thoughts that come to you.

If you were born on December 28, plus or minus five days, you will benefit most from the energy of this beautiful new moon. Also, if you know your chart, see if you have any planets within five degrees of 5 degrees Virgo, Cancer, Capricorn, Taurus, or Scorpio – if so, you will benefit too.

Romantically, I love August 18, when Jupiter, in your house of true love, will signal Mars in your house of partner / marriage. If your long-time partner has gotten on your nerves earlier this month (possible, around August 9 or 11), this day will be your divine make-up day, when everything will start to go magically right again. I am so happy to have this to report! It could be quite romantic!

Things will only keep getting better. From August 21 to September 15, Venus will tour fellow earth sign Virgo, a perfect sign for you to host Venus! Things will improve more August 26, when Mercury goes direct, especially if you hope to start a relationship with someone new – after that, you’d enjoy better communication and get off on the right foot. You already know I adore the new moon, August 28.

The month ends with Venus in Virgo, in perfect angle to good luck Jupiter in Taurus, August 30. Taking a vacation in late month would be a wonderful way to fan the fires of love. If you can travel, plan your adventure to a distant city, but if you cannot, at the very least on this lovely day, August 30, do something together – a great dinner, a long walk under the honeysuckle – and celebrate your love for each other.

If you have no one special, on August 30 do for yourself – a salon massage or other spa treatment. The world will look very, very bright at the end of August, dear Capricorn, and you will enjoy every minute of what’s to come next month.’