If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world, not some mystical mumbo-jumbo psycho-babble word salad. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT, aka GMT). Location for all mundante charts is set for the Great Pyramid at Giza; the choice being strictly arbitrary in any case. Also please be aware that, while I never change a forecast once it's published, I do post errata to acknowledge typographical errors and the like.

PLEASE NOTE: This month’s forecast incorporates elements of (and refers to) my complete 2016 World Forecast Highlights (38 8-1/2 x 11" illustrated pages); focused, amplified and elaborated with details for the month as appropriate. The full version of my 2016 World Forecast Highlights is available in hard copy by mail ($75) or as a PDF document by email ($50). Orders may be phoned in (toll-free from anywhere in North America to 800-527-8761), and charged to any major credit card. Orders may also be placed direct from your own PayPal account page to rnolle@astropro.com – or by using the AstroPro PayPal order page.

"Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change."
-- Thomas Hardy
 

September’s forecast has its roots in August. But of course, you already knew that, if you read page 36 in the full version of my 2016 World Forecast Highlights (published last year):

"September 1 brings the second solar (new moon) eclipse of 2016, an annular eclipse at 9° 21’ Virgo – opposing Neptune, in a T-Square to the Mars-Saturn conjunction. The customary seven-day either way shock window applies in this case, marking out August 25-September 8 as the period of vulnerability for strong storms and seismic activity this time around. But there will be more to this eclipse than the geophysical, thanks to the involvement of the T-Square to Mars and Saturn – with Mars at one of the sensitive Mars Max points. Conflict at the national and international level is intensified at times like this. Military brinksmanship is a recurring theme throughout much of 2016, and certainly in late August and early September. It’s too early for another World War, but there won’t be world peace either." (Check your chart, as always!)

Incidentally, the passage just cited comes just a couple pages before the one where I call the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential elections. But surely you read that in my 2016 forecast last year! Be that as it may, the headlines since the eclipse window opened on August 25 have clearly run true to the forecast so far. Lots of powerful storms with high winds and heavy rain here in the US, the hurricanes in Hawaii and the southeastern US coast, and the typhoons in Japan, for example; plus eruptions of Popo and Colima in Mexico – and lots more to come in the rest of this geocosmic stress window, I’m sure; as well as the August 27-September 2 solar/geomagnetic storms associated with Mercury’sretrograde station. (Electrical devices and infrastructure are vulnerable under this kind of barrage, including computers, satellites and networks – and the human nervous system, if you’re one of the susceptibles.

On the earthquake front, the devastation caused by the 6.2 quake in Central Italy has grabbed the world’s attention, and it fell outside either of the two seismic risk windows in my August forecast. But the month’s strongest quake by far, the 7.5 in the South Georgia Islands on the 19th, was right on target for the August 18 partial penumbral lunar eclipse. The strongest quake so far in the August 25-September 8 eclipse shock window has been the 6.7 temblor in Papua New Guinea on August 31. There’s plenty of fertile seismic territory yet to traverse as we go through the September 1 solar eclipse shock window.

Mother Nature is not the only disturbance in the force during this month’s solar eclipse shock window. As mentioned earlier, this eclipse squares the Mars-Saturn conjunction and opposes Neptune – all of this at a time when the Mars Max cycle is winding down. (To simplify calculation, I recently redefined the beginning and end dates for Mars Max, to coincide with the waxing and waning Sun-Mars squares respectively. For details, see my feature article on 9/11 and Mars Max in the September, 2016 issue of Dell Horoscope, "the world’s leading astrology magazine".)

This simplification extends the end date for the 2016 Mars Max cycle from September 1 to September 13. So we still have nearly two weeks left of the enhanced murder and mayhem so characteristic of Mars Max – just a little bit more of the rash of fires, crashes, clashes and explosions to survive. So stay alert, steer clear of trouble and danger as best you can. Don’t expect a quick end to the awful drone of drones and tanks, bombs and missiles, mass murders, terror attacks and military conflict just yet. But we are in the winding down phase of this gruesome trend. I’m not issuing a Pollyanna call for whirled peas, mind you. Humans are a belligerent species even in the best of times. But it’s preferable to see less rather than more belligerence, and that’s what the end of Mars Max signifies, by and large. (Barring those few remaining harsh Mars alignments described on page 18 in the full version of my 2016 World Forecast Highlights: the October 19 Mars-Pluto conjunction and October 29 Mars-Uranus square, for example.)

Once Mars Max is behind us, comes another locus for geophysical disturbances; namely the full moon penumbral lunar eclipse of September 16, at 24° 15’ Pisces, the final eclipse of the year. As described on page 36 in the full version of my 2016 World Forecast Highlights, this eclipse too is "once more in a T-Square with Mars. Expect the usual surge in strong storms and seismic activity during the September 13-19 shock window; and expect more of the international tensions and saber-rattling associated with the September 1 solar eclipse."

The single most important celestial configuration of the month is the third and final Saturn-Neptune waning square of the current 2015-2106 series of these quadratures from Sagittarius to Pisces. (The first was on November 25, 2015; followed by the one on June 18 2016. This last pass in the current series is exact on September 10 at 10° 25’ Sagittarius-Pisces. If these degrees (or their opposites in Gemini and Virgo) happened to be prominent in the sky when you were born, you should check your chart! Bear in mind that the Saturn-Neptune square has been within a few degrees of exact on and off since May this year, and won’t break this orb until mid-October. This is not an ephemeral transit, in other words. And there won’t be another square between Saturn and Neptune until 2033.

See pages 2-9 in the full version of my 2016 World Forecast Highlights for a fuller exposition of the current Saturn-Neptune square, and its historical context dating back to the onset of the Dark Ages. For now, here’s the nub of it.

Saturn’s waning square to Neptune, from Sagittarius to Pisces (like the one in 545 CE in the Justinian’s T-Square train) is the next major turning point associated with 2016. This one was last exact in the fall of 2015, and lingers within a few degrees of exact from late 2015 into early 2016, and from spring into fall of 2016. Saturn’s waxing square to Neptune happens on a 35-year cycle, more or less. It’s a configuration that points to a disenchantment with traditional articles of faith, be they religious, political, social, cultural, etc. Scandals associated with fraud (financial, moral) and betrayal are woven into the fabric of this development. Strong institutions more and more lose their hold on the loyalty of the people, who feel they have been betrayed one time too many. This growing global disenchantment has already made its mark on the news of the world since late 2015, and will only increase throughout 2016. (The British Brexit referendum and the Trump and Sanders insurgencies in the US political parties are an excellent representation of this trend.)

While global in scope, this will have great impact on the outcome of the 2016 US Elections in particular, occurring as they do under the auspices of the Saturn-Neptune square. It’s also a sign that financial institutions and economic engines are in a fragile state. Oil and banking are two focal points for this, but they’re far from being the whole enchilada. Mining and manufacturing generally lead the list of vulnerable sectors. The global economy stands at the brink of recovery this year, but it’s not a firm footing – more like a teetering. Two steps forward, one step back: that’s the pattern this year. By and large, 2016 will be a good year to cash out, take your profits safely off to the sidelines, and let the turbulence pass you by. Definitely a stock picker’s market, not fit for index players. Nervous? Take your money and go home!

It’s time to recognize that most of 2016 will feature a lot of political and geopolitical conflict, a kind of crescendo to the Uranus-Pluto square cycle that began with the Arab Spring raising the specter of war both civil and international. February brings the start of a new Mars Max cycle, to fan the flames of five years of conflict. While this kind of conflict is a story in its own right, it combines with the Saturn-Neptune square to shake political and economic confidence, making markets and other financial institutions quake and swoon. Collapse? No. But fall, yes. If your own financial horizon is long term, there are good buying opportunities to be had, as the sellers crowd the exits. If your horizon is short term, then you want to sell before you get caught in the stampede for the exits.

Last among the longer-trend celestial cycles at work this month is the Mercury Max cycle that began on August 16 and concludes on September 28. It’s a cycle that includes the infamous Mercury retrograde of astrological legend (in effect August 30-September 22 this time around). It has absolutely nothing to do with the so-called “Mercury Shadow” and/or “Mercury Storm” fantasies of astrological tradition. Rather, Mercury Max is based on the actual, astronomically observable Earth-Sun-Mercury system. For more on this, see pages 18-25 in the full version of my 2016 World Forecast Highlights; or my free online article on Mercury Max.

For the present, it’s enough to remember that Mercury Max places a premium on curiosity, organization, communication and transportation – all the threads by which people are connected and enlightened. Stay sharp and focused, keep your eye on the ball, and you’ll excel and prosper under Mercury Max. Anything less will land you in the ditch, so to speak. You can fill in the blanks here, but just remember this: have your backups and backup plans ready, and follow through on everything rather than assuming it all runs well once started.

Bear in mind that Mercury Max tends to be a period of unusual solar storms (Coronal Mass Ejections, M and X class X-Ray flares, etc.), and corresponding strong geomagnetic storms (Kp 5 and higher). This is most pronounced from three days before to three days after the major turning points in the Mercury Max cycle: the beginning (August 16), the retrograde station (August 30), the inferior Sun-Mercury conjunction (September 12), the direct station (September 22, and the end (September 28).

You’ll know that Mercury Max is hitting these peaks when auroras, radio blackouts, and infrastructure outages make the news. There’s also a storm and seismic connection: dump Gigawatts of extra solar energy into Earth’s magnetosphere and atmosphere, and it really stirs things up – especially when this coincides with eclipses, SuperMoons and the like, as it does this time around on September 1 and 16.

Incidentally, if you’re traveling during Mercury Max – and especially during the several periods outline above – be sure to allow extra time and options for delays and cancellations. Weather, labor actions and system failures can complicate things at times like this, but they won’t stop you if you plan ahead. (Remember: failing to plan is planning to fail.)

Acknowledgments

All mundane astrological charts as well as eclipse and astro-locality maps are set for the Universal Time (UT) of the event, and calculated and produced using Esoteric Technologies’ Solar Fire Gold Version 7.0.8. Charts are set for the location of the Great Pyramid - a purely arbitrary choice, since location is irrelevant to these charts. Unless sotherwise noted, sky map images are screen captures from the Pocket Universe or Star Rover apps for iPhone, or produced by Starry Night for Windows; storm tracks are screen captures from The Weather Channel app for iPhone; and earthquake maps are screen captures from the QuakeFeed ör Quake Alerts app for iPhone.

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)

Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer consultations/orders (AmEx/Discover/MasterCard/Visa) 800-527-8761 data/fax 480-753-6261 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA www.astropro.com