September is an important turning point annually, and this year it is bristling with transits. If you think of transits as messages from the Cosmos — each one whispered in our ear by the planet in question — September is a month of urgent whispers. Knowing when they’re coming, we can get ready to give them the attention they deserve.
There are two eclipses: the New Moon (solar eclipse) is on the 12th, and the Full Moon (lunar eclipse) is on the 27th. There are three planetary stations – of Venus, Mercury and Pluto — early in the month, in the middle and at the end of the month. And there is the Equinox, on the 23rd, a sacred portal in the Wheel of the Year.
Hole in the heart
September begins with a conjunction of Venus and Mars in Leo. Venus has been stoking the fires of 
the party sign since early June; by now we should know quite well how to squeeze pleasure out of whatever part of our natal chart is signified by 14-29º Leo.(1)
Everybody’s favorite transit, Venus normally signifies good times in a particular part of our life(2) . When she’s in Leo, we attract not only heart engagement, but applause. If we’re attuned to the transit, our creativity is enhanced in the area designated by her house placement, and we draw an audience.
This is a lovely thing in and of itself; but the length of Venus’ tenure in this zone suggests she had a deeper motive this time round.(3) She wanted to bring out the inner child: the part of us 
that wants to know we are beloved just for being who we are.
If there is a hole in the heart in this department – and who doesn’t have unfinished business here? – it has probably become obvious during the weeks of Venus’ retrograde (July 25 – September 6).
The transit is not about bemoaning that our parents didn’t come to our piano recitals. It’s been an invitation to bestow upon ourselves all that missing appreciation.
Self-celebration
Venus has been coaching us in healthy self-love. There is such a thing as appropriate self-centeredness. This transit has been showing us how to distinguish between wholesome self-regard and its unwholesome cousin, which is based on the fear of being unlovable.
At the conjunction as the month begins, make a pledge to the inner child that, from now on, we will come through for her. We will celebrate her birthday, arrive with roses at her piano recital, champion all her creative efforts.
This can be immensely liberating. It means we stop waiting, once and for all, for the parents to show up in the audience.
At the Venus station on the 6th follow up with a ritual that celebrates your pledge with an action. It 
can be by dressing up and going out for the evening, by dancing in your living room, or by putting a little dish of honey (Venus) on your altar.
The point is to focus the spotlight on the self (an act most of us are conditioned to feel ambivalent about, especially if we are female). We’re allowing ourselves to feel a wholesome pride in our talents, foibles and uniqueness. We’re taking back — from other people — the responsibility for recognizing us.
Other transits
At the solar eclipse on the 12th, we are to plant the seed for the four weeks ahead. Processes naturally get their start at this moment (11:42 pm PDT). In general, when the Moon is New every month, everything on Earth – plants, animals, molecules, everything except the blinkered human mind – knows that something is beginning.
When we add our awareness to the occasion, marking it with conscious intention, we get to have a hand in what’s being begun. This is what white magic is all about. We throw out into the Universe a picture of what we want to see in the unfolding cycle. When it’s an eclipse, the power of the spell is all the stronger. So is the blossoming of that intention two weeks later, at the lunar eclipse (9/27 7:52 pm PDT).
Jupiter opposes Neptune for a few days in the middle of the month. Exact on the 16th and 17th, this transit is a meditation on what it means to serve: to humbly dedicate the self to something bigger than the self. It should come as a challenge to our beliefs as they are. Our ideologies are now being asked to address a soul-longing.
Known to the ancient Celts as Mabon, the Autumnal Equinox is the Wiccan Thanksgiving. It is harvest time in the temperate zones; in the air is a hint of the Dark Time ahead.
The day after the Equinox, for a couple of days Mars squares Saturn. This is a transit of self-correction, where we get to see exactly where what we’re doing doesn’t work.
Those who complain about Mars-Saturn transits are forgetting how unpleasant the consequences are of self-promotion that isn’t corrected. Sooner or later, unconscious bravado elicits unmistakable karmic blowback. Consider the sordid fate of Hemingway-wannabe,
Walter Palmer.
Notes
1 This is an unusually long time for Venus to stay in one sign. It’s because she went retrograde (which she does less often than any other planet), going back over the degrees in late Leo that she had recently covered.
2 The part of your life in question is designated by the house(s) Venus is passing through. Consult your chart. Find out where these lessons are taking place.
3 Venus transits a given part of our chart roughly once a year.
