Throughout the world and across time, weaving is magic. Weaving makes the world, represents the growth of a child within the womb, and provides protection from forces that may try to harm us.
Weaving is the work of goddesses of fate. The thread of life is spun, woven into a great tapestry, and snipped off when its time is done. Yet spinning and weaving are humble tasks tied to our needs for clothing and shelter, part of the round of every year.
As we shift from summer into autumn (in the Northern hemisphere), we enter Virgo, mutable Earth and sign of the virgin goddess. At this New Moon, we take stock. What has become worn, torn, or tattered? What needs to be mended before the dark cold of winter? What resources can we harvest from fields and woodlands to spin the thread and weave the cloth?
These questions fit this time of year and this New Moon. The Sun and Moon meet at 18º 25’ Virgo, the second decan, a place where both focus on the work to be done. We enter this New Moon ready to plan our work, then work the plan.
We’re through with eclipses for this year. All of this year’s eclipses were intense, bringing global and personal change. The impacts of the two August eclipse still reverberate. Whatever the eclipses of 2026 overturned, we can now take a breath and assess where we are.
The Sun and Moon are focused on the tasks in front of them. They don’t make many aspects, only a sextile to Mars and sesquiquadrate to Pluto.
Mars in Cancer is ruled by the Moon. Perhaps the Virgo Moon’s gentle quiet will keep this emotional Mars calm. Surely, the careful work of the Virgo luminaries will reassure Mars the people will be well supplied for the winter.
It’s intriguing that Mars and Pluto are the ancient and modern rulers of Scorpio, the sign that will usher us into the dark half of the year.
Venus steps into Scorpio herself, about 20 hours before the New Moon. This Venus represents another weaving for this season. She’s already entered the preview time for her autumn retrograde, moving from late Libra to early Scorpio, then back, then forward again.
She reached 22º 51’ Libra on August 31. This is where her retrograde will end, so, we now move through those degrees for the first time.
Check your chart to see which planets and points will be affected by this Venus retrograde. Look for whatever is in late Libra and early Scorpio, but also for anything opposite, square, trine, or sextile those degrees.
Retrogrades take us back, sometimes to something in this present time that needs more attention, and sometimes to a more distant past. With Venus, we can revisit relationships of all kinds. We may encounter old friends or loves in life, in memory, or in dreams.
Venus is also balance, justice, fairness, harmony. How are these represented in our lives now? What needs to be examined?
This Venus retrograde preview began August 31. She stations retrograde October 3 at 08º 29’ Scorpio. The direct station, back at 22º 51’ Libra, will be November 13. The review will end December 15. We’ll walk this path throughout the autumn season.
I mention the dates because there’s more weaving going on.
The last Mercury retrograde for this year occurs in Scorpio, inside the Venus retrograde. Mercury will move between early and late Scorpio from early October through late November. Scorpio is getting a lot of attention.
Mars will also begin a retrograde period that will take us into 2027. Mars will move between late Leo and early Virgo, but enters his preview at the end of October, when Venus and Mercury are both retrograde.
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Let’s return to Venus for a moment. At this New Moon, having just entered Scorpio, she opposes Chiron, the wounded healer, in Taurus. Pluto in Aquarius squares them both.
The beginning of Scorpio is a somber place, associated with loss. This is not the lost of not-having, though, but the loss of unfulfilled desire. The intense longings Venus can have here are difficult to satisfy.
An opposition to Chiron and square to Pluto highlight the challenges for Venus in early Scorpio. From her point of view, Chiron in comfortable Taurus might be chiding her for not appreciating what she already has. Pluto adds to this challenge with the reminder that nothing lasts forever anyway. Not very cheerful.
But this Venus is poised at the beginning of a descent journey that is her retrograde. She will go dark, becoming invisible in the sky for almost 40 days.
In ancient Mesopotamia, this was the journey of the queen Inanna to visit her sister who was queen of the underworld. As we might expect on such a mythic journey, Inanna is killed, then rescued. She returns back to the upper world, land of the living, confirmed in her power and ready to adjust some of her relationships.
Notice that Venus is also in a pattern called the Mystic Rectangle. Venus trines the North Node and sextiles the South. Chiron trines the South Node and sextiles the North. This rectangle of trines and sextiles hides within it the Venus-Chiron opposition, as well as the Nodal opposition.
Here again, as with Pluto, we face the links between our choices, our capacity to confront the depths of the Shadow, and our destiny.
Mercury enters Libra about 9 hours before the New Moon. This Mercury is an engaged and creative thinker and communicator, ready with calming words or persuasive ones as needed. A trine to Uranus links the greater and lesser tricksters at this New Moon. Uranus is especially powerful in his change-agentry because he is stationing.
The Mercury–Uranus connection is one side of a Kite pattern in which Mercury opposes Neptune and trines Pluto. Pluto continues to trine Uranus as both sextile Neptune, which is the shallow triangle we’ve seen for many weeks now.
Mercury can help us think through what the outer planets are up to, and possibly give those thoughts form. If we find ourselves with a lot to sort out, mentally, we can petition Mercury for help in interpreting what the outer planets have in mind for us.
Jupiter still trines Saturn, although the Greater Benefic is pulling away. Saturn in Aries is conflicted, wanting to stay and go at the same time. Jupiter benediction can help us sort this out. Possibilities include waiting patiently to seize the right moment, or channeling the fire of Aries into a really exhaustive review of all preparations.
Imagine the Sun and Moon together at a loom. It’s time to prepare it for a new cloth. Each step must be done carefully, the measurements clear and even. The loom is warped (this is the wrapping of the warp threads up and down along the loom). A shed stick is woven between the warp threads to guide the shuttle.
When all is set, the weaving begins, the shuttle slipping through, one side to the other. The pattern slowly begins to emerge, and grows in complexity and beauty as the steady work continues.
At this New Moon in Virgo, if we enter ready for the careful work that Virgo asks of us, we can hope to create a beautiful cloth.
Title adapted from a image by Anya Chernykh on Unsplash
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