Autumn With The Personal Planets
MERCURY, VENUS & MARS
Mind, Heart, and Will in autumn
MERCURY (the Messenger, the Trickster)
The Heart Interpreted & New Mental Mysteries
I follow planets as if they are characters on a journey. This adds depth to how they are intertwined in our lives.
Mercury’s Trickster’s Journey tackles paradox, meaning, and interpretation. In Autumn, it finishes a synodic journey that started in Leo. On November 20th, that journey will conclude as the first of many water sign journeys ignites when Mercury and Earth meet in Scorpio’s deep well of mystery and psyche.
Mercury’s Trickster Journey Through Autumn (2025)
From Insight to Echo, from Loop to Laughter, from Doubt to DialogueWe open the season with Mercury more than halfway through its current journey. It has already seen an error around heart-intelligence, played with contradictions, waded into ambiguity, been challenged around new concepts, created disruption, and formed new containers to hold incoming insights.
Autumn arrives, and with it, Mercury’s Leo-led stage-lit journey lands in the elegance of Libra. Its path of heart-lit intellect, courageous curiosity, and creative self-expression becomes more subtle and sensitive. Former missteps or misunderstandings now begin to sparkle with potential.
Insight as Light / Trick Becomes Tool. What once tripped us up now shows us the way. A past misjudgment, a mental spiral, a missed signal—they now shine like breadcrumbs, guiding us toward relational balance and creative justice. Mercury in Libra brings mental elegance, but it’s not just harmony for harmony’s sake. It’s discernment made beautiful. This is the clever Trickster repurposed: mistakes become metaphors, confusion becomes code.
On October 6th, Mercury slips into Scorpio, and the spiral deepens. We enter the undercurrents of the psyche: Echo System / Story Becomes Soundtrack. Old thought-loops hum just beneath our awareness. These aren’t new dramas—they’re familiar frequencies. But this time, we notice the soundtrack. We ask: Whose voice is narrating this story? And why does it sound so familiar?
On October 14th we step even deeper: Strange Synchronicity / Meaning Emerges. The unexpected encounter, the odd message, the déjà vu dream—they all conspire. We’re being spoken to, but in the Trickster’s language of symbols, accidents, and double meanings. Clarity won’t come through analysis, but through attentiveness. What seems strange may actually be sacred.
By October 29th, Mercury lights a match in Sagittarius, and the mind seeks meaning beyond the veil. We arrive at the Integration of Mind / Final Trick. A once-scattered idea finds coherence. The riddle we’ve been trying to solve completes its loop, not with a solution, but with a shift in how we’re holding the question.
On November 9th, Mercury stations retrograde. The message isn't finished. It needs to return through the terrain it just passed. And then the Trickster laughs as it clears the final hurdles. The final stage: Witness Self / Comedian as Oracle shows us the whole cosmic setup—and how seriously we’ve taken it. If you can laugh with compassion at your own contradictions, if you can witness the full arc of confusion and still say, “Wow, what a story,” then you’ve met Mercury in the high hills of fire.
By November 18th, Mercury is back in Scorpio, now entering the crystallization of its Trickster’s tale.
Fool’s Wisdom / Edgewalker. That thing you thought was a mistake? It may have been the doorway all along.
At the same time, a new error is seen. One that will likely be ignored for some days before Mercury’s curiosity gets the best of us. We seed a new Trickster’s Journey on November 20th in Scorpio. The deep well waters transfix our mind’s eye. In the last days of November, we are in a haze in Mercury’s post-retrograde hangover, after stationing direct on November 29th. We incubate a new concept and liberate from an old one at the same time.
Split Tongue / Doubt & Echo. What contradiction now demands greater honesty? What double meaning asks to be sung as a single truth?
Decoding the Game / Reality. You begin to spot the rules behind the chaos. A pattern emerges in the ambiguity.
Between December 5-11, in the liminal space of post-retrograde shadow, we cross a new threshold, tuning into impulsive curiosities and taking left turns.
New Language / Curiosity Awakens. You’re not meant to land here with an answer, but with a better question. And that question becomes your new compass.
On December 11th, Mercury returns to Sagittarius, climbing out of its post-retrograde shadow by December 19th. It’s now fully embodied on a new path.
Mirror Chamber / Dialogue Deepens. The conversation shifts again. Someone says something offhand, and it opens a door inside you. You’re no longer speaking just to be heard—you’re listening to hear the shape of your own psyche. This is not surface dialogue. It’s the kind that transforms your perspectives around mind and connection.
Mercury’s Season in Summary
This is a Mercury season of metaphorical combustion and reconstruction. We are invited to:
Reclaim old errors as illuminated tools.
Rewrite inherited stories that keep looping.
Decode the oddities for their hidden messages.
Laugh from a place of knowing.
Rest in the doubt as it reveals deeper truths.
Begin again, this time with a fresher, more curious mind.
This is Mercury as Trickster, Teacher, and Translator. And the mind, if you let it, becomes not just sharp—but luminous.
VENUS (the Lover; the Claimed Voice)
Becoming the Chosen One & Meeting the Beast
Venus’s Heronine’s Journey tackles themes of autonomy—how we come to reclaim our voice, our worth, and true relational beauty.
Venus’s Heroine’s Journey through Autumn, continues from her Aries Earth synod, which began in early spring. This is a journey full of courage, confrontation, and the flowering of self-worth through trials of perception, desire, and relationship.
Venus’s Heroine’s Journey Through Autumn (2025)
Autumn brings a mythic journey where our inner Heroine begins not lost, but summoned—to cultivate strength—before entering the shadowed valley of confrontation, and finally arriving at a moment of fierce clarity and truth-telling. We have already departed from rose-colored glasses as it concerns our independence and personal needs. We’ve gained access to a more ordinary world out of our feminine depths. We’ve been through the dark forest where things unfamiliar felt like predators seeing easy prey.
Below is a narrative of Venus’s Heroine’s Journey Through Autumn, with archetypal stages woven through her transit from Virgo to Sagittarius, seeded from her Aries Earth synod (an origin of courage, self-trust, and independent desire).
From Summoned Strength to Sovereign Truth
An Aries-sourced journey through Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius
When autumn opens, Venus is already in motion—feet on the path, heart attuned to the call. She begins in Virgo, not as a wanderer in the woods, but as a woman summoned to purpose. The Aries Earth synod still burns in her bones, reminding her: Your desire is not a distraction. It’s a direction.
This is the Chosen One stage. Not chosen by fate, but by calling. Not special because of circumstance, but because she chooses to answer. Venus in Virgo doesn’t just want love or expression—she wants to become skillful in her love. This is a time of sharpening: what strengths, gifts, or instincts are being refined in you now? Where are you being asked to take your expression seriously—not as performance, but as offering?
On October 13th, Venus moves into Libra, a sign of beauty, balance, and the sacred art of relating. But the Heroine’s path begins to wobble—she moves back and forth between the known and the shadow. From October 13 to November 6, she moves between two thresholds:
Chosen One: Where strengths still wish to be cultivated—especially relational skills, the power to harmonize without disappearing, the ability to discern beauty from illusion.
Meeting the Beast: Where shadows begin to emerge—often through mirrored encounters. What parts of yourself have you tried to exile in order to be loved? What shows up in the other that challenges your self-image?
This is a volatile and pivotal part of the journey. One moment you feel empowered, the next, exposed. You see your patterns reflected back at you in intimate ways. Venus asks, Can you hold your center while facing the shadow?
On November 6th, Venus enters Scorpio and the descent deepens. She’s no longer moving between stages—she’s all-in. Fully in the Meeting the Beast phase. But now the Beast is familiar. This part of the journey is not just about recognizing the shadow—it’s about learning to love it.
This might be an old wound that keeps repeating, a truth about desire that you’ve avoided, or a power dynamic that reveals hidden shame. Venus in Scorpio doesn't turn away. She says: To integrate what I love, I must embrace what I fear. This is shadow work through the lens of tenderness, erotic honesty, and fiercely compassionate boundaries.
On November 30th, Venus enters Sagittarius and the tone shifts—but the lesson continues. We’re still in the Meeting the Beast stage, but now it’s animated with fire. The Heroine wants to break free, but knows she must do so consciously. The Beast now wears the mask of ideology, freedom, or overcompensation. It tempts her to run rather than reckon.
Then, on December 8th, the stage changes. We arrive at Overcoming the Stepmother. This is the threshold of confrontation—not with a villain, but with a system, belief, or inner critic that has tried to suppress her voice.
This is where the Heroine finds her sword—not to wound, but to cut through illusion. She claims her truth. She names what is no longer acceptable. She draws boundaries not from rage, but from devotion to her wholeness. The "stepmother" may be an actual authority, a cultural voice, or an internalized ideal. Either way, Venus now speaks not just from her heart, but from her spine.
Venus’s Season in Summary
This autumn, Venus guides us through a journey of embodied worth and courageous self-expression, seeded in the raw independence of Aries, but tested through the trials of relational depth and inner confrontation.
We are invited to:
Awaken and hone strengths that have long been latent
Dance between empowerment and self-revelation
Face the shadows that intimacy and longing expose
And finally, speak a truth that sets us free
Venus’s autumn path is not linear—it spirals through refinement, rupture, and reclamation. But by the end of it, the Heroine doesn’t just shine—she radiates from a place of hard-won truth.
MARS (the Warrior; the Guard)
Veering Off Track & Finding Alignment
Mars’s Hero’s Journey tackles themes of individuation—how we come to find our victorious self and place in the greater world.
Mars’s Hero’s Journey through Autumn, seeded from an Earth synod in Cancer, brings a deeply emotional origin into a season of fire, power, and difficult choices. Mars, the warrior archetype, doesn’t rush forward this time. He must navigate loyalty, seduction, inner conflict, and the slow, humbling arc of power and reconciliation. This isn’t just about action—it’s about right action, forged through inner integrity.
To identify Mars in you, think about the actions you take in the world. Mars is who we are in the mode of a verb, directing us to move, act, and conquer.
Mars’ Hero’s Journey Through Autumn (2025)
From Seduction to Strength, From Power to Paradox
Seeded from Cancer’s Heart, Shaped in Fire and Stone, Mars is well into its current journey. It has answered its call to action, a call about creating the right foundations in life. It has found inspiration and guidance, made different decisions that redirected the course its been on, and been through the road of trials where new skills were gained and demons slayed. As the leaves begin to turn, Mars crosses into Scorpio—and the battlefield becomes intimate. This is no wide-sweeping war. This is the war within. The Hero enters the Temptation & Allies/Enemies stage.
Here, the line between loyalty and seduction blurs. The pull of old patterns, unresolved desire, or obsessive focus can pull the Hero off-course. But the real test is this: What feels like destiny—but is actually distraction? Who claims to be an ally—but shadows your power?
This is the place where Mars must feel into his emotional undercurrent. The Earth synod in Cancer still echoes beneath every move—reminding him that strength isn’t domination, but devotion. The hero’s heart must remain tethered to its origin, even as intensity rises.
On November 4th, Mars enters Sagittarius, and the temptation continues—but in new form. No longer just about power dynamics or hidden passions, now the distraction takes the shape of ideals, exaggerations, or false freedoms. The Hero is tempted to leap before looking, to preach before integrating. He may confuse movement with momentum.
But the real story is still unfolding.
By the time the Sun also enters Sagittarius, Mars shifts into the Atonement / Confronting Power stage. Now the Hero must face what he’s become. No more projection. No more blame. This is the confrontation with inner authority—the reckoning with the shadow of his own agency. What have I done in the name of power that now needs reconciliation? What did I avoid that now demands responsibility?
Atonement isn’t punishment. It’s alignment. It’s the moment the Hero stops fighting ghosts and begins listening to truth. Often this shows up as a humble act—asking forgiveness, stepping down, or finally stepping up in a new way. Courage shifts from charge to choice.
Then, on December 15th, Mars enters Capricorn—but instead of progressing, he returns to the Temptation stage. This is not regression—it’s retesting. What has truly been integrated? Can the Hero now act with clarity in systems of power, pressure, and ambition?
Temptation here is subtle: the lure of proving oneself, the climb without soul, the strategy without heart. But this is the gift of the Cancer-seeded Mars journey—it keeps reminding him that impact without care is hollow.
This final phase of temptation asks: Can you honor your power while remaining true to your origin story?
Mars’s Season in Summary
This autumn, Mars guides us through a fiery spiral of confrontation, temptation, and eventual reckoning. We are asked to:
Refine our sense of loyalty—not through obedience, but discernment
Recognize where we are pulled off-course by unconscious desire, righteous distraction, or the illusion of control
Reconcile with the parts of ourselves that wield power in unexamined ways
Recommit to right action, rooted in our emotional truth
This is not Mars as the reckless warrior—but as the conscious Hero. The one who knows when to fight, when to feel, and when to yield. The one who no longer confuses reaction with courage.
IN SUMMARY
The Council of Autumn
A Spiral of Mind, Heart, and Will
Where the Trickster, the Heroine, and the Hero meet in falling light
Mercury, the Trickster, arrives first, lantern in hand and grin slightly askew.
“I’ve been decoding your echoes,” they say. “The ones that play in your head when no one is speaking. I watched you swing between thoughts, between truths, between selves—and now, you’re ready. Ready to name what you actually know. Ready to spell something real.”
Mercury begins in the Mirror Chamber, where words distort and reflect, but moves toward the Final Trick, and then the Witness Self, where laughter becomes medicine. By season’s end, they whisper,
“The spell is yours to cast. The paradox is yours to hold. Speak with clarity, and reality will reshape itself.”
Venus, the Heroine, stands barefoot in the changing leaves, her gaze fierce and gentle all at once.
“I have remembered my strength,” she says. “Not because it was handed to me, but because I walked into the shadow to find it.”
She began autumn in the Chosen One stage, sharpening her gifts with sacred intention. She then entered the dance of projection and revelation, moving into Meeting the Beast—not to slay it, but to see herself in its eyes. By December, she lifts her voice in the Overcoming the Stepmother stage, claiming the power to say:
“No more.”
“This is my voice.”
“This is my boundary.”
“This is my love.”
Mars, the Hero, arrives late, as he often does—smeared with ash and grit, eyes like coals that have seen their own reflection.
“I have fought the wrong enemies,” he admits. “And followed illusions that wore the mask of purpose. But the fight refined me. The doubt was sacred.”
He began the season in Temptation, where loyalty and distraction tangled like smoke. He moved into Atonement, confronting his own use of power—where it wounded, where it held, where it broke open the truth. And just when he thought the trial had passed, he was sent back—again to Temptation—this time in Capricorn, to test his integrity in the realm of responsibility, ambition, and real-world consequence.
He speaks now with quieter force:
“I will not win at the cost of my soul.”
“I will not act without listening.”
“I will not build what I would not live inside.”
The Integration: A Spiral Teaching
Together, these three archetypes—Mind, Heart, and Will—offer us a collective lesson:
Mercury teaches us to think not in binaries, but in spirals.
Venus teaches us that love is strongest where it is rooted in wholeness.
Mars teaches us that action without self-reckoning is just noise.
This autumn is not a time of conclusions. It is a season of refinement, of facing the mirror, the beast, the blade—and learning to wield each with wisdom.
This is where we become more honest.
This is where we stop pretending.
This is where we say: I know who I am becoming—because I’ve met what I feared.
And the leaves keep falling.
And the wind keeps turning.
And the spiral continues.
