Like the aroma of a pumpkin latte wafting through the autumnal air, beauty, equanimity and civility typically permeate the atmosphere when the Sun enters Venus-ruled Libra. The sign with the scales prizes cooperation, consideration, collaboration and cordiality. 2025’s solar sojourn is going to be different. Hours before the Sun can light up the enchanting Venusian ballroom astrologers call Libra, on September 22nd, Mars will enter Scorpio. Not to give the aggressive planet a bad rap, but this is akin to a dinner guest bringing a weapon to the party. It tends to darken the mood. The Sun’s annual entrance into Libra also marks the start of an entirely new season (fall in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern). As it happens this year, the intensity and passion of Mars in Scorpio is part and parcel of the season’s signature event, a grand water trine. A hint of things to come arrives on the 24th, when the Moon joins Mars in Scorpio and both square Pluto, Scorpio’s ruling planet. The aim of the fixed water sign is regeneration, even at the cost of destruction. On the 25th, the Moon will trine Jupiter in nurturing Cancer, applying a celestial salve to the wounds opened by Mars. This short Scorpio lunar pass showcases important themes of the grand water trine. While astrologers may differ on some technicalities, an overview of the elements that will comprise the grand water trine will be helpful.
In the coming season, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and the North Node will travel through water signs, in addition to lunar transits of water signs. Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune, as well as Uranus and Pluto, will be in retrograde motion at various periods during the broader trine cycle. Scorpio is at the trine’s gravitational center. A key point will occur on November 19th, under a new Scorpio Moon, featuring a stellium of planets in Scorpio, in close orb to Jupiter in Cancer and Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. Themes of emotional honesty, retrospection and purification are strongly suggested under these alignments. Another point of consideration is the sequencing of events.
The influences of Mars and Neptune will color the next two solar cycles. The Libra Sun cycle will start just after Mars’s ingress into Scorpio, and the Scorpio Sun cycle will be preceded by Neptune’s re-entrance into Pisces on October 22nd. Mercury’s first pass through Scorpio will start under October 6th’s full Moon and lasts through October 29th. It includes a Mars conjunction on October 19th. The two are most definitely having a serious conversation. Next, Venus will journey through Scorpio from November 6th through 30th, and her transit closely coincides with Mercury’s coming retrograde, from November 9th to 29th. That will see the Messenger move from 6° Sagittarius 52 ′ back to 20° Scorpio 42 ′. Mercury’s second visit to Scorpio, from November 18th to December 11th, will bring the grand water trine to its conclusion.
All this is not to shortchange the incoming Libra Sun cycle. It abounds with opportunities for inventive, airy insights. They include the Sun’s trines to Uranus and Pluto on September 23rd and Venus’s trines to them on October 14th, as well as her Libra homecoming from October 13th to November 6th. It is to say that we are entering part one of an epic trilogy, and Mercury and Mars are now setting the stage. During this phase, Libra inclinations towards fairness and justice will begin blending with those of Scorpio, for honesty and transformation.