The Energy of Autumn 2025 | Growing into New Skin
What echoes do you hear as the year draws to a close? The nights grow longer, the days shorten. In the quiet darkness, a hollowness expands—space opens for reverberation to grow. The chambers we’ve built become apparent as our echoes return to haunt us.
Until now, each new moon this year has seeded growth in harmony with its own tone. In both the Tropical and Draconic (or soul’s) zodiacs, the new moon signs have aligned. Like a seasonal reboot, we've been shedding skins and welcoming new, unfamiliar growth. The world feels different—and so do we. But as autumn arrives, the growth spurt softens. There’s time now to reflect, to settle into the new skin we’ve been growing into.
What makes life powerful?
This is the perennial question of our darkening season.
The answers lie in who we need—and how we need others. Some of us lean sensitively into the dance of trust, navigating the resonant tension between relational poles. Some dive into the depths of intimacy, where psychic agreements carry both the power to empower and to undo. Others seek fire in the dark—asking grand questions, sparking debate, and pushing the edges of expansion through friction, perspective, and faith.
As we approach year’s end, the numerological 9 year finds its wise, universal stride. Finally, our lived path catches up to the higher themes this tone was always guiding us toward. Wisdom that’s been seeping in quietly now clicks into place. We’re not just ending a calendar year—we’re closing out a full 9-year cycle.
From the seed year (2017), through challenge and support (2018), breakthroughs (2019), and grounding a foundation (2020); from pivotal change and elevation (2021), into rhythm and responsibility (2022), spiritual refinement (2023), and powerful maneuvering (2024)—we’ve arrived at the culmination. The 9 year asks: What becomes myth? What becomes collective memory? What experience turns into teaching?
Under the influence of the Chinese Snake, this isn’t a season for shouting wisdom or storming castles. There’s something more subtle, philosophical, and sensual at work. This animal whispers through contemplation, artistry, and quiet renewal. Tune in to your sixth sense. See the full picture form in the periphery. Write, paint, design—create something that says a thousand words through how it feels. Change perception through elegant, precise acts. Behave wisely. Dream strategically. Let your philosophies bend time and gently summon new timelines into being.
The power of this autumn doesn’t lie in force. It lies in showing the way.
This season, channel the Snake’s quiet intuition and piercing observation. Approach the essence of power in our darkening days with an uncanny sensitivity to what lies beyond the visible. Attune to the 9 year's wisdom—why we need each other in universal, humane ways. Create. Guide. Subtly shape the unseen currents. Introduce new philosophies into the collective psyche.
Live into skin that is new, but wisdom that is aged.
Refine a vision of the future that could be—as we barrel toward the beginning of a new 9-year cycle.
Month numbers 9, 1, 11, & 3 in a 9 year
Autumn Numerology in the Snake year
In a 9 numerological year, every month is reduced to its core number, which holds a unique vibrational quality. For instance, July is the 7th month of the year. When you add this month’s number (7) to the universal 9 of the year, you get 16. By reducing 16 to a single digit (1 + 6), you return to 7. This process reveals the magic of the 9—an energy that symbolizes both nothing and everything, representing wisdom in its purest form.
Now, let’s explore the numerological vibration of the autumn months to gain insight into the collective energy we might experience. While each of us has a personal month number in numerology, this reflection observes the universal qualities of these months.
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If there were ever a perfect blend of energy to save the world, this is it—the 9 year meets the 9 month. The only caveat I have in declaring this a month of grand, sweeping acts of compassion, transformative solutions, and inspiring shifts in humanity is that the Snake Year carries an introverted tone.
What this may look like instead are subtle, mystical, and spiritual revelations that spark change in quiet yet profound ways. Don’t underestimate the power of a single butterfly’s wing or the ripple effect that can turn into a tsunami. A seemingly small, personal shift could have a universal, world-changing impact. Keep an eye out for those humble, seemingly inconsequential moments that, in their quiet way, are capable of shifting the course of humanity.
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What’s new in the old? What wisdom is actively settling into your bones? A 1 month in a 9 year shows us that we can always continue to see things anew, uncover a new layer that makes us feel like a novice in a mastered realm. Stay open. Stay curious, stay focused on manifesting your wisdom in new ways.
1 also has a vibration of taking action. October will be the autumn month most likely to bring our fighting spirit to the surface. With the Earth in Aries for much of this month, we will also feel stable in our ability to assert and be bold. What is it you need to get done? What fight needs your power? What beauty needs activation?
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A vibrational change is in store this month. Elevate your wisdom so that you walk your talk, live your beliefs, and manifest your desires. Unpredictable, rapid change is possible under the 11. In a 9 year, this will sit atop lived experience and universalized understandings. Dream big for the globe, for humanity, for the myth of the time. What could be? Make it so. Believe in vibrations that alter life and what’s possible.
Maybe technological breakthroughs will happen that decentralize where once a consolidation of power existed. ‘Good for all’ is the key vibratory influence that could change the game. Be open to portal energy, upgrades, updates, wild card energy, and game changing liberations. With Pluto, co-ruler of Scorpio Season (which spans the majority of this month), in Aquarius, expect shifts in power that bring hope back to the collective sphere.
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We end the year with an extra dose of fun, expression, and sociability. Breakthroughs should be celebrated, community gathered, and color shared. This feels to me like something opens in the world, something connects through wisdom that’s worthy of sharing and and enjoying.
3 loves to play, experiment, and create a buzz. Under the eye of 9, and the snake year, Celebration feels collective, global even, but subtle at the same time. A piece of art that unites the world in joy, an insight that opens the collective heart, something light yet wise that mends philosophical trenches. After an 11 month, anything feels possible, and the expression of the 3 takes advantage of the runway, adding color to the year’s sensual wisdom.
The Justice, Death & Temperance
TAROT SYMBOLISM FOR THE Autumn SOLAR SEASONS
The Fields Tarot
LIBRA SEASON (SEPTEMBER 22 - OCTOBER 22) | JUSTICE
Having crossed a threshold, we return from the self-refining fire of the previous season into a new kind of reckoning. Libra Season marks the halfway point of the zodiacal year—a horizon opposite the Spring Equinox, where bold impulses once propelled us forward. Now, the mirror turns. What we’ve set in motion reveals its impact. Context sharpens. The choices we made, whether in alignment or not, begin to echo back.
Libra offers us a tuning fork for the soul. It asks us to listen closely—to feel into the relational field and perceive what has been harmonized and what remains out of tune. Justice, the tarot archetype of the season, presides with clarity and grace. Not as punishment, but as the quiet, unwavering voice of balance. Karma arrives not to condemn, but to illuminate.
Through empathic awareness, we begin to deconstruct the past, making subtle yet meaningful adjustments. This is not the forceful will of spring—it is the elegant correction of a dancer finding rhythm with their partner. Justice reminds us that resonance is a living art, and attunement is always possible. When we truly listen, we find the middle path: not passive, not dominant, but aligned. In this place, life becomes less about control and more about communion. Peace, balance, and grace emerge—not as static ideals, but as moving truths we practice, step by step.
SCOPRIO SEASON (OCTOBER 22 - NOVEMBER 21) | DEATH
After attuning to the relational field of Libra, we descend beneath the surface with Scorpio Season—a plunge into the shadowed realms where truth is rarely spoken, yet deeply felt. In the tarot, Death is the card that governs this terrain. Not an end, but a profound transformation. A composting of what no longer serves.
This season calls us to witness the psyche’s hidden contracts—the unspoken agreements we've made with power, control, intimacy, and vulnerability. We read between the lines. We trace the subterranean currents of desire, fear, and entanglement—especially in the shared spaces of resources, emotion, and trust.
Death invites us to the underworld not to punish, but to purify. We transmute what has grown toxic. We reclaim lost energy, clear clogged emotional channels, and resurrect vitality that’s been trapped beneath layers of denial or protection. This is soul work. Alchemical work. The kind that asks us to enter the muck we’d rather avoid and come out changed.
Here, we learn to surrender—not in defeat, but in devotion to something larger. We allow an old version of self to die so that something more integrated, more empowered, can emerge. Scorpio teaches us to embody what we claim to believe. To match our inner truths with outer action. And as we do, the once-scattered puzzle pieces begin to fit. A deeper current of life begins to pulse. And on the other side of mystery, we find not just survival, but renewal.
SAGITTARIUS SEASON (NOVEMBER 21 - DECEMBER 21) | TEMPERANCE
Emerging from the underworld journey of Scorpio Season, we find our inner flame burning brighter—illumined by what we’ve faced in the dark. Sagittarius Season arrives with momentum and vision, lifting us toward meaning, truth, and a more expansive horizon. At first glance, its associated tarot card, Temperance, may seem at odds with Sagittarius’s bold, adventurous nature. But look closer, and you’ll find it reveals the deeper mastery this sign holds.
Temperance speaks to the art of balance—not passive neutrality, but the active alchemy of holding opposing forces and forging something stronger in between. Sagittarius thrives in this crucible. It seeks perspective not to escape friction, but to move through it with purpose. Like a sword tempered in fire and ice—shaped by both extremes—Sagittarius uses contrast to refine its truth.
This is the season where we learn the subtle strength of synthesis. Debate and dialogue, vision and humility, passion and restraint—Temperance teaches us to hold them all. Sagittarius doesn’t begin on the middle path, but it matures into one: learning to translate complexity with clarity, to elevate perspectives without alienating, to share truth without judgment.
Through myth, story, and meaningful arcs, Sagittarius Season bridges worlds. It reminds us that every idea, belief, or experience has a place within a greater narrative. And in doing so, it tempers our wisdom—softening dogma, expanding our scope, and calling us to be guides rather than gurus. This is a time to seek not just truth, but the grace to carry it with compassion.
Elements of the seasons
Autumn with the Celtic & Qigong seasons
Refining with Wisdom in Autumn
Throughout human history, many systems have emerged to track the seasons and the subtle energies that influence us. While I primarily use Western Astrology, I also follow a few other seasonal frameworks that add depth and dimension to how I navigate the year.
The Celtic Wheel of the Year is one such system I adore—an eightfold rhythm that pulses through the year with associated directions, elements, animals, deities, and myth. I’m also fond of Chinese Qigong, which I practice in alignment with its seasonal correspondences—linking directions and elements to organ systems, emotions, and rhythms of health.
I often tune into Indian Ayurveda and its seasonal wisdom as well, but I’m less studied in that tradition, so I won’t offer seasonal insights from its lens at this time.
The Celtic Wheel of the Year
Though the Celtic Wheel includes eight distinct seasons, I like to begin with the four solar-based quarters and how they work in tandem with the directions. In this system, the cardinal points (equinoxes and solstices) are seen as midpoints of the seasons, while modern Western culture considers them to be the season’s beginning. Neither is more correct—it’s simply a matter of the system’s logic and values.
The Celtic approach is very earth-based, associating the north with cold and dark. Their winter spans from Samhain (November 1) through Yule (Winter Solstice), encompassing the quarter of the year with the least light. It’s not just about temperature, but the quality of light and how that affects the land, growth, and rest cycles.
By contrast, modern autumn—from the Autumn Equinox to the Winter Solstice—is based more on temperature shifts and the visual cues of harvest and decay. You could say the Celtic model is more feminine and organic, rooted in Earth’s cycles, while the modern model is more yang, shaped by human activities and experience.
The Celtic year begins with Samhain, the first cross-quarter day, when the darkness begins to grow toward its peak. Even though Samhain falls in what modern calendars call autumn, it’s considered the start of winter in the Celtic year.
As we arrive at the Autumn Equinox (Western astrology’s start of fall), we are at the midpoint of autumn in the Celtic Wheel. The corresponding season is Mabon, which extends until November 1 and sits in the west of the wheel, aligned with the element of water. This is the season when the masculine yields to the feminine, integration becomes possible, and the harvest reaches its final stages. The Earth prepares to rest.
Mabon is a spiral inward, symbolized by the infinity sign. It’s a time of integration and wisdom, and is represented by the Salmon of Knowledge, who gains insight from eating hazelnuts that fall into the sacred well. This is a season of preservation—winemaking, herb drying, and energetic storing.
Then comes Samhain, beginning November 1, which corresponds to the northwest direction and ushers in Celtic winter. The light wanes. The veil thins. We meet the Crone, the Witch, and the ancient feminine mystery. The element shifts to earth, inviting us to ground, endure, and descend deeper into our matter and being.
Samhain is associated with the dark moon, dormancy, and the potential that lives underground. It’s a time to speak to the earth, our bodies, and our ancestral tree of life. Rituals like feasting, storytelling, divination, and ancestral gratitude letters invite connection with our lineage and inner roots.
So this autumn, walk deeper into your femininity—first through the fluid wisdom of water in Mabon, then the enduring nourishment of earth in Samhain. Let yourself remember and release, integrate and surrender, gather and feast. Allow the subtle magic of life to rise and infuse your days.
QiGong and the metal season
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, I’ve explored different seasonal rhythms over the years. Some divide the year into five parts (with summer split in two), while others use a four-season model with Earth as a transitional phase. After experimenting, I’ve found that I personally align more with the older rhythm, which, like the Celtic calendar, tracks the seasons by light quality, not just weather.
Let me first say: I use this system primarily for Qigong and basic health rhythms, not as a trained TCM practitioner. For deeper guidance, I recommend Mimi Kuo-Deemer’s excellent book Qigong and the Tai Chi Axis.
The traditional five-element model I first worked with placed:
Fire in Summer
Earth during late summer (Virgo season)
Metal in Autumn
Water in Winter
Wood in Spring
But in the older seasonal rhythm (which I now use), Earth doesn’t have its own full season. Instead, it arises for 17 days between each season to support integration and transition. Here’s how the four primary seasons fall:
Autumn: Begins ~August 7 (15° Leo) → Ends ~November 6 (15° Scorpio)
Winter (Water): November 6 → February 3 (15° Aquarius)
Spring (Wood): February 3 → May 5 (15° Taurus)
Summer (Fire): May 5 → August 7
This rhythm more accurately reflects what I feel in my body and practice.
Right now, our astrological autumn (Libra through Sagittarius season) overlaps with the Qigong Metal season—a time of refinement, letting go, and breath. The associated organ is the lungs, and the emotion is grief. Just as trees drop their leaves, we’re invited to release—to cut, edit, and simplify. This is a season of elegance and breath awareness, helping us to slow down and exhale.
Notice how you breathe this autumn—do you hold your breath, sigh often, or breathe deeply? Pay attention to where you’re refining and what you’re preparing to let go of.
The Transition to Winter: Earth → Water
From October 20 to November 6, the Earth element arises as we near the next seasonal shift. Earth governs the stomach and spleen and brings up questions of balance, stability, and rhythm. You may feel the pressure of loose ends and to-do lists or sense that something is about to change. Earth is here to support the center of your life—your digestion, your steadiness, your humanity.
Cultivate humility, sincerity, and compassion during this time. These qualities help counter the worry and overthinking that may arise while processing the Metal season’s lessons.
On November 6, we fully enter Qigong winter and the Water element. Water governs the kidneys and bladder, and it connects to stamina, fear, and essence. This is the season of reserves and perseverance—of continuing even when the road ahead is unclear. It asks us to trust, conserve, and flow steadily into the dark.
As you move from Metal → Earth → Water over the course of astrological autumn, the rhythm teaches this:
Let go.
Stabilize.
Persevere.
Refine what matters. Anchor what sustains. Flow forward into mystery—not with certainty, but with wisdom.
