A truly wonderful month lies ahead of us, filled with opportunities for success, romance, and personal growth. While October will certainly feel like a slow month, it will give us an opportunity to reflect on our progress thus far and better assess how we’d like to complete our 2021 story.

The astrology of October picks up quickly with the arrival of the new moon on October 6. This lunation is aligned with Mars (also in Libra), adding passion, energy, and courage to our relationships and agreements. Mars has been fueling this zodiac sign since mid-September and while we will collectively see a focus on all relationships at this time, conflicts could come up, especially if we are stuck in an indecisive or passive-aggressive pattern. The best use of this energy is to align with people who are mirrors to us, aiding our goals and cooperating at our sides. Flying solo will get you nowhere fast now.

September’s forecast puts the brakes on for a bit. Both the Sun and Mars are in stable Virgo. Virgo gets things done, but at its own pace. What is really causing the slowdown is we have five planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in retrograde motion with Mercury joining them at the end of the month. These planets won’t station direct until mid-October and this is not a time to make any big shifts that haven’t been fully thought out. Take a big step back and look at your options. Think of how any weighty decision might affect you by the end of the year and several years down the line. Set any reactive feelings aside as best as you can and look at the big picture.

As we begin the month of August, we have Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto in retrograde. Midway through the month, Uranus will join in too, giving us four planets in retrograde. With all of these cosmic bodies in retrograde, we may find ourselves taking a trip down memory lane or feeling like we need to revisit the past in some way before we can move ahead.

As we welcome the new month of July, we may still feel lingering energy from the Eclipses, plus this month also brings a few cosmic alignments of its own that encourage us to push past some fears and find a new sense of motivation and confidence.

In a certain way, the astrology of June is a continuation of significant events that took place last month. We begin the month right in the middle of eclipse season and just a few days after Mercury started its second retrograde period of the year. For these two reasons, June has the flavor of change, but it also comes with the need for revising, readjusting, and slowing down.