October 2020 Forecast

There’s no way around it; October is going to be a tough month. How much or how little it will affect you depends upon your own personal birth chart. Here’s a big picture glance at the weeks ahead.

Oct 1 – Full Moon in Aries

October starts out with a bang—a Full Harvest Moon at 9 degrees of Aries which may be big and beautiful in our night sky, but fairly intense as the Moon squares Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto and is conjunct Mars. Yikes. That’s a lot of concentrated tension being brought to a Full Moon which already is associated with heightened emotions.

Oct 2 – Venus enters Virgo

Venus, the planet of relationships and beauty (among other things) leaves dramatic and expressive Leo and heads into sanitized Virgo (how appropriate). Venus isn’t a fan of being in Virgo—Virgo is much too concerned with being perfect and keeping score, while Venus just wants to be everyone’s friend. Although having a sterilized approach to relating isn’t exactly the worst idea just now, relationships can suffer a bit under this influence.

Oct 4 – Pluto turns direct

Pluto, the god of the underworld, turns direct after being retrograde for the last five months. That inner work you’ve been doing around power, control and transformation can be put to use. On a more global, mundane level, Pluto will be turning in direction to face Saturn. It’s almost like they have this brief last look at each other before Saturn starts resuming his normal motion forward towards the end of the month and starts separating more than three degrees from Pluto. We will likely feel this last moment sharply as we did at the beginning of the year.

Oct 7 – Mercury enters storm and opposes Uranus

All right folks, here’s the first of the potential big surprises or unexpected stories we’ll hear as Mercury slows down into its storm period moving less than 40 minutes of arc per day. The planet also opposes Uranus who has quite the shock-and-awe reputation. Nervous tension will likely be high, but we may not be getting the whole story as Mercury travels at this slower speed. I would also be weary of technological mishaps.

Oct 9 – Mars square Pluto

Power struggles and confrontations are likely during this second Mars-Pluto square of 2020. Face-offs, firestorms and even violence are possible during this time.

Oct 13 – Sun opposition Mars & Mercury retrograde

The annual Sun-Mars opposition happens the same day as Mercury officially turns retrograde. Mars, still fired up from its struggle with Pluto will be highly competitive and confrontational. Let’s not forget that Mars is still retrograde and its energy is blocked. And Mercury in the sign of Scorpio, can be particularly nasty opening old wounds and rehashing old conflicts with that trademark Scorpio sting.

Oct 15 – Sun square Pluto

The difficult combative energy continues here with a Sun-Pluto square which challenges authority and incites ego conflicts.

Oct 16 – New Moon at 23 degrees of Libra

Does some sort of relief come with a New Moon? After all, New Moons are about fresh starts. While a double hit of Libra in theory should be more diplomatic and cordial, those attempts at balancing the scales feel slightly futile given the difficult aspects to the Moon. Just like the Full Moon earlier in the month, this New Moon in Libra gets hammered by an opposition to Mars and a square to Pluto and Saturn. Essentially, the new start this New Moon brings feels fraught with tension and discord despite best efforts.

Oct 18 – Sun square Saturn & Venus opposition Neptune

Fear and restrictions may dominate with the Sun-Saturn square (a repeat of April’s challenges). Venus also opposes Neptune this same day which can cause disappointments from a relating and even financial perspective.

Oct 19 – Mercury opposition Uranus & Mars square Jupiter

Mercury opposes Uranus for the second time as it moves backwards in the sky. Unexpected news and events can be quite disruptive, and with a Mars-Jupiter square, you may expect the unexpected to be blown sky-high. (The last time we had the Mars-Jupiter square, we saw the Beirut explosion.)

Oct 22 – Sun enters Scorpio

The Sun leaves behind Libra and enters the intense sign of Scorpio. The phrase “still waters run deep” was made for Scorpio. Its magnetic and seductive charm, its all in or all out personality, its don’t eff with me bottom line changes the underlying current for the next four weeks. Whatever house Scorpio rules in your chart will be illuminated for the next month. So, get in touch with it. Dig deep. Get a little dark. (I believe I’ve already suggested some serial killer and true crime podcasts in my last blog entry.) Go with it.

Oct 25 – Sun conjunct Mercury

Here’s the halfway point of our Mercury retrograde period as Mercury aligns with the Sun highlighting communications but keep in mind we may not have the whole story despite the chatter.

Oct 27 – Mercury and Venus enter Libra

Mercury retrogrades back into the sign of Libra for two weeks before re-entering the sign of Scorpio. This isn’t really a good news story because it has to encounter another square from Saturn in early November. But it is what it is. The better news this day is Venus’s entrance one of its favourite signs—Libra. Relationships, beauty and art share a collective sigh of relief as they can express themselves for the sake of self-expression in Libra as opposed to the rules and demands of Virgo. That said, Venus will be dealing with a number of difficult squares to Saturn and Pluto as well as an opposition to Mars over the next few weeks. Until that time, bask in the glow of Libra charm.

Oct 31 – A very Uranian Halloween

Halloween is truly spooky this year! Not only does it fall under a Full Moon this year (eerie enough!) but it is a Moon almost exactly conjunct Uranus with a Sun-Uranus opposition as well. If you have fixed signs at around 8 degrees (give or take a couple of degrees on either side), get ready to rumble as this set-up can be unpredictable at best. I think there will be more tricks than treats with this set-up. Who knows what the restrictions around Halloween will even be this year… but this set-up doesn’t exactly bode well for rule-followers.