Virgo Horoscope for October 2023

This is a time to stretch your wings, Virgo, and perhaps in some totally new directions than the ones you have been pursuing. The prior month with the retrograde of Mercury, your ruler, has been a time of introspection and questioning nearly everything including aspects of your own identity. It is also possible that the alignment between what you do out in the world and your private principles and values has been called into question. Your fundamental beliefs are shifting. Novel ways of seeing and assessing the world around you continue to illuminate your meditations to the extent that you feel like acting on them. The New Moon and Solar Eclipse of October 14th is powerful, focusing on the resources that you need to make things happen and the courage to make needed changes. Transformation is in the air. If facets of early childhood wounding arise it is for the healing of such issues, which can yield when you are able to give them loving attention. What is at stake is nothing less than your authenticity in the face of what life throws at you, as you leave one stage of development behind and morph another.


The following was written by our guest columnist Alea Balzer. You can write her at alea.balzer@gmail.com


October begins in the wake of the New Moon in your sign on September 14th, since the 30-day lunation cycle initiated then, related to matters of identity and life goals, still has two weeks to run, happening over the first half of the current month. The very recent Aries Full Moon may have illuminated how matters of shared resources, debts, and intimacy are related to what was seeded then. A highlighted presence of the Uranian wildcard is also a component of this lunar cycle, in Taurus – your fellow earth sign and your sector of higher mind – which continues to evolve throughout the first half of the month. This connects highly personal adjustments in your identity and ambitions to paradigm shifts emerging through the classroom of life; an exploration of your beliefs and worldview free from past knee-jerk commitments may be available to you spanning new intellectual, spiritual, and physical horizons, and this could inspire fresh plans in support of your health and happiness.

All inner planets are direct this month, including your planetary ruler, Mercury, now out of its retrograde shadow and covering new ground in Virgo. The first three days of October might require one eye on the fine print and one eye on your more diffuse shared dreams and visions. This is due to Mercury’s opposition to Neptune in your Pisces sector of partnership. This period could have you feeling less mentally astute, possibly bringing up fantasy or uncertainty around relationships or individual and shared goals.

Topics of reciprocity and self-determination could be further activated by Mars' conjunction with the South Lunar Node in Libra, active from the 1st to the 5th, as he applies to a square with Pluto in Capricorn that lasts a few days longer. These transits can amplify patterns from the past or stimulate less conscious aspects of yourself that require attention, connecting transformation related to children, self-expression, or pleasure with your resources and values. A trine from Mercury to Pluto over the 3rd to the 4th suggests you may be reconsidering dynamics where you have withheld personal enjoyment or creative pursuits for more pressing financial realities or ambitions.

Mercury enters Libra for a brief stay on the 4th as the intensity builds in your sector of values, finances, skills, and self-esteem. This will culminate mid-month.

Venus escapes her retrograde shadow for the first time since late July on the 7th, immediately encountering Saturn by opposition as it moves into your sign the following day. Perhaps Venus' retrograde stimulated a process of inner exploration that equipped you with insight into yearnings you had filed away or inspiration that now seeks outward expression. As a consequence, one-on-one partnerships could require restructuring or even reach their limit as you prioritize personal passions and your own self-discovery. Specificity about what you need and diplomacy within relational dialogues will likely aid such a process.

That said, the influence of a square between Mars in Libra to Pluto in Capricorn, active from the 5th to the 9th, could infuse an element of volatility into your relational field. Pluto is a major player this month as it slows in the early going and turns direct on the 10th. In the final degrees of your fifth sector of romance and joy, while also influencing your sixth of day-to-day environment and health habits, the Lord of death, birth, and metamorphosis offers catharsis through engaging with desires or issues you have restrained or by exposing the shadows of pleasures taken to excess. You can benefit by acknowledging your changes and by directing the potency on offer into your passions, be they creative, romantic, or constructive.

Mars enters its home sign of Scorpio on the 11th, lending his drive to your sphere of mental process and local environment for the next month and a half. Communication and learning activities will likely be energized, and you may feel empowered to communicate desires, share creative work, or advocate for yourself. Opening up may bring the heat back to committed relationships or enliven collaborations, as indicated by a trine to Saturn in your relationship sector.

The Libra Solar Eclipse on the 14th opens a new six-month cycle of change, growth, and rebalancing in your sphere of personal resources, values, and finances, that will also play out in your Aries sector of shared assets, intimacy, and personal transformation. With Venus stewarding the eclipse from Virgo, while Mercury is co-present in Libra, this eclipse is closely connected to your personal growth and embodiment related to what you love, value, and how you perceive the world. Being a lunar cycle, this relates to your feelings—bringing up self-worth and security, as well as memories and conditioning around money and possessions. This new series of eclipses may see you exploring the "mine/ours" tension—the energetic and material realities of being deeply enmeshed with others alongside individual needs for self-sufficiency and autonomy.

The major reset in the Libra area of your chart is followed by Mercury moving through the heart of the Sun the evening of the 19th to early morning the 20th, depending on your location. A square from the Sun and Mercury to Pluto is also active from the 19th to the 21st. These transits suggest you are being called to prioritize those things that light up your mind and heart. This period may align with a feeling of rejuvenation, insight, or news related to your finances and skill set, as well as topics of children, artistry, and life enjoyment. Creativity is a fundamental part of being human—perhaps you are considering how your inner critic has stifled self-expression or are simply changing your mind about things you enjoy.

Further focus is pulled to topics of the mind and communication on the 21st as Mercury enters Scorpio, closely followed by the Sun on the 23rd. Both planets form a trine to Saturn in Pisces, suggesting your vitality could be diverted to shared strategies and long-term goals within business or intimate partnerships.

The final eclipse of the year takes place on the 28th with a Taurus Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse. As the cycle of eclipses across the Taurus-Scorpio axis concludes, it may be insightful to reflect on the evolution of topics related to your search for truth, teaching and learning, or foreign lands, as well as your mind and local environment. The conjunction of Mercury with Mars in Scorpio, as both planets form an opposition to Jupiter in Taurus, heightens the intensity of this lunation. This may align with an expanded sense of philosophical understanding, or possible ideological conflicts or a crisis of faith involving teachers, institutions, spiritual paths. While Mars and Mercury aligned in Scorpio may have you ruminating on how to take control of a situation or obsessing about a loss or change, this transit also offers you a sharp mind and the courage to put your ideas into action.

Taurus is related to abundance, sensual enjoyment, and security in the material world. As Venus also rules this eclipse from your sign, you might consider that you have everything you require to accomplish what you need to do right now. Jupiter's presence in Taurus promises the generative growth of beginnings that are built into whatever is drawing to an end. This may coincide with an emerging sense of discernment in beliefs and principles that are distinctly your own and will inform your evolving life path.