August was all about getting ahead in your career, and even if you didn’t try too hard to find a new position or get a promotion, your aspects were so dazzling that you likely impressed top level VIPs quite effortlessly, just by displaying day-to-day solidly good judgment and a fine work ethic. By contrast, September will be a highly social month just made for mixing and mingling, and making the acquaintance of new people who may have influence on your life.

Eclipse season is in full swing this month, and the two eclipses, a new moon solar eclipse of September 1, and a full moon lunar eclipse of September 16, will cut across your social sectors. Eclipses often bring dramatic, intense events, like three new moons or full moons rolled into one. They repeat every 19 years to the same sign and degree, so you experienced these two eclipses back on September 1 and 16, 1997. All the other planets have since moved into other signs and placements, of course, but if you can think of the major themes that emerged at that time, in 1997, you will get a clue of what is next to come.

As the month opens, September 1, you have the solar eclipse in Virgo – that means the Sun and the new moon will be in Virgo, along with Mercury conjunct good-fortune Jupiter. All these heavenly bodies will be crowded together in Virgo in your solar eleventh house of friendship, clubs/groups, and charities. This means that in September, your friends, acquaintances, and new people you will meet will hold the key to your personal growth.

The fact that this eclipse is in Virgo puts Mercury in the lead as the dominant planet, for Mercury rules Virgo. Having the planet of happiness, growth, expansion, and financial success – Jupiter – conjunct Mercury is extraordinary. Watch the events that happen on or near September 1 for they are laden with meaning and will point to your future course.

You may go to an A-list party or wedding, or decide to become very active in a club you belong to. Or, you may be working on a charity event or humanitarian project, or you may be with friends, perhaps at a party, or you may be going to a trade show where you’ll see many people in your industry. Even if you don’t have one big event that you are looking forward to, you will be socializing up a storm.

Since August 2015, you have hosted Jupiter, the giver of gifts and luck, in your house of friendship, so you were being urged to be out and about, making new friends. If you were busy with your career, you will get a second chance now to expand your circle. Jupiter now is packing his bags to go on to his next sign on September 9, so clearly, you will get one more chance to do something important with (or for) friends, or to make your mark in a humanitarian or charitable effort. Of course, you will always make new friends, but this month is special in some way – your actions have weight and gravitas, and any new person you meet will play a larger role than you would expect.

This eclipse of September 1, although beautifully aspected to Jupiter, will receive difficult vibrations from your ruler, Mars, along with Saturn in your second house of income. If you are going to a social event – or if a friend asks you to be a member of her wedding in a few weeks or months – you may feel conflicted, for to accept, you know money will run out of your account at a rapid rate. With Saturn in your financial house too, it appears you’ve been working hard to hold the line on money, and now, almost all your efforts to be frugal seem to be going out the window.

Even so, Pluto, your other ruler, will be divinely angled to this new moon solar eclipse, suggesting that it might be worth spending the money and getting involved. It appears you may have to drive a short distance to participate in the event you have in mind. The people you meet will be fascinating, successful types, possibly from the publishing or broadcasting fields; or from medicine, the bio-sciences, and related technical fields; or people involved in purveying food or examining the way food is grown to be most nutritious and least harmful.

Neptune will be positioned opposite the Sun and new moon on this eclipse September 1, so it appears that whatever is coming up would be beautifully romantic, elegant, or done in an especially artistic, poetic, lyrical way. If you are giving a benefit or a party, the atmosphere you create will enchant guests.

If your birthday falls on November 1, plus or minus five days, this eclipse will speak directly to you, and you will benefit from the kindness of friends. If you have Scorpio rising 9 degrees, plus or minus five degrees, you too will benefit. Lastly, if you have your natal chart, and you have a planet in Virgo, Taurus, Capricorn, Pisces, Cancer, or Scorpio at 9 degrees (plus or minus five degrees), you too will notice a strong, positive effect from this eclipse.

The second eclipse will be a full moon lunar eclipse on September 16, in Pisces, 24 degrees. It will crystallize the truth of a current love relationship, or bring a final decision from you concerning a child, a pregnancy, or a creative project. Mars will again act up, and because Mars is still in your second house of earned income, again you will have a meditation about upcoming expenses and how best to manage your money.

It appears your social life is costing you quite a bit this month. Still, this full moon on September 16 might bring on a fateful meeting of a new romantic partner, or if attached, news of a much wanted pregnancy or adoption. Or, if you have children, you may make a decision on how to help your child, with special lessons, for example, but again, you will be concerned about the costs.

Also think back to what was happening this year, on or near the last solar eclipse March 8 of this year, when the solar eclipse appeared in Pisces. All eclipses in the same family of signs are united in theme, and each eclipse will advance the discussion to a new level. (The eclipses this month will be in the Virgo-Pisces family, which is found 180 degrees apart on the same axis. You can expect only one more eclipse in this series, on February 26, 2017.)

If your birthday falls on November 17, plus or minus five days, you will feel the eclipse more than your Scorpio friends born at other points in the month. The same is true if you have Scorpio rising at 24 degrees (plus or minus five degrees) or if you have a natal planet in Scorpio, Pisces, Cancer, Virgo, Taurus, or Gemini at 24 degrees, plus or minus five degrees.

Having two eclipses in September qualifies this month as an intense month filled with activity, but there’s more! This month, Jupiter will move to Libra on September 9, to remain in that sign thirteen months until October 10, 2017. Once Jupiter moves into your twelfth house at that time, you will be highly creative and productive when working alone in solitude. You may work on your thesis or research project, write a novel or screenplay, prepare for a big acting role, or write lyrics to songs that become blockbusters and bring you award.

Scorpio loves solitude, so you should do exceptionally well under this trend. (Libra does not like to work alone much of the time, so last year had to be isolating for Libra, but now your Libra friends will wear the crown of most favored sign, and as such, come out into the spotlight, as you will too, once you get to October 2017. That may seem far away now, but it will be here before you know it.

You are in preparation for assuming that crown in October 2017 to November 2018, but to make that twelve-month period as big as can be, you have to do deep thinking now to decide what you’d like to see happen in that year. What would make you happy? What are you willing to do to grasp that dream? Once Jupiter enters Scorpio, you will enjoy your Emerald Year, as I call it, and you will be given many opportunities – many more than you can imagine! If you live to age 96, you will only get eight such Jupiter-in-Scorpio years in a lifetime, so the year coming up in late 2017 is THAT special.

Mercury will be retrograde from August 30 to September 22, and will be sliding backward in your house of friendship. You might love this impending retrograde period because you may run into one or more friends that you’ve not seen in many years. In fact, you might want to reconnect and find more things to do together in the future.

While Mercury retrogrades, it’s best not to sign important papers, nor to purchase any electronics, machines, or appliances. Mercury rules the moving parts of machines and other mechanical things, and when retrograde, parts wear out, and we spend time on the phone calling repair people. Sometimes it does not pay to repair the product, and in that case, you might have to buy a new item – if so, try to wait until after September 22.

In a month that seems to have everything, we also have the luckiest two days of 2016,September 25-26. (Usually the luckiest day is only one day, but this aspect falls in such a way as to bridge two days. This is fortunate, for that means one day is a Sunday, and the other a Monday.) Each year these luminaries meet in a different part of the chart. This time the Sun and Jupiter are meeting in Libra, in your most confidential area of your chart, so a private meeting for your career would be perfect.

The Sun rules your tenth house of professional honors, awards, and achievement, and Jupiter rules your salary, and on September 26, the two are joined in a unified purpose. This is the reason you might want to schedule that private professional meeting. You need not change jobs – you may get a more impressive title and more responsibility at your present job if you are happy there.

The new moon (not an eclipse) will arrive September 30, and it is a near-perfect new moon, my favorite of the year. This new moon (it is not an eclipse) will be filled with sugar and spice. Remarkably, it will be conjunct Jupiter and the Sun, making it chock-full of opportunity and happiness. This new moon will arrive in the partnership sign of Libra, so it’s made for engagement, marriage, or taking on an expert at work in a collaboration or formal business partnership.

Think of a new moon as threshold that you walk through to an entirely new road that can shape your life in the way you want it to be.  This would also be the ideal new moon for working with a partner on a creative project, in the way a screenwriter would have a writing partner, or an art director would work with a photographer. Collaboration and commitment will be wonderful on September 30.

Also near month’s end, Venus will move into Scorpio, the perfect place for you. The first half of the month has plenty of social and romantic news, and the month ends with Venus favoring you as she tours Scorpio on September 24, until October 18. Mercury will turn direct on September 22, so once Venus enters Scorpio, you can shop for stylish new clothes and find various ways to improve your appearance.

Before I go, I want to urge you to be sure to see the essay I wrote on All You Need to Know about Mercury Retrograde, free on the home page of AstrologyZone.com or on Susan Miller’s Astrology Zone Daily Horoscope app, the premium version (by subscription, $4.99 for one month, for a year, $49.95). Apple App Store and Google Play are my retailers for my app, and they take 30 percent, and they deserve that profit.

Also while you are reading up on the phenomena of this month, please also read How to Deal with Eclipses, again free on my homepage of AstrologyZone.com or on my premium app under Learn Astrology. Phunware, my developer, recently updated my premium version of the app with new navigation and new features, including video, last May. I think you will enjoy all the additions we made!

As a Scorpio, you generally like to spend a great deal of time alone, for you like to reflect in the privacy of your home about all that has gone on around you that week. Pluto, your ruler, teaches you to focus your energy on a single goal and not to scatter your thinking or actions. For this reason, you will like the coming trend that will begin this month, when Jupiter will takes its monumental move into Libra for the first time since mid-2004 to mid-2005. You are preparing for your Emerald Year, the best year of your life, to start in October 2017. That may be far off now, but you will need the time to think about what you hope to achieve from October 2017 to November 2018, a period of thirteen months.

With a year this important and rare due to come soon, it is vital that you prepare by thinking back about the five or six events in your life that made you the happiest. Don’t spend too much time on this question – write down the first ones that come to mind. You are entering a new cycle, so begin by deciding which elements of your life you would like to retain and which relationships and current obligations you would like to delete or distance yourself from.

Think about your goals. Are there any you have outgrown and are no longer interested in pursuing? Add new goals to your list. The more you prepare, the better your Emerald Year will be. Mercury will be retrograde from the start of the month until September 22, so with cancellations and postponements coming up, your schedule will open up, and you will have more time to plan to arrange your life in a way that will be more satisfying.

This month will also hold two eclipses. Although you are not the most social sign of the zodiac, the September 1 eclipse may draw you out to a beautiful and quite luxurious event, such as a wedding or other celebration. This will be a new moon solar eclipse in Virgo and will light your eleventh house of friendships / events / new people and contacts. New moons open up new paths, so you may make an important contact, one that may grow into a close friendship. Saturn and your ruler, Mars, will be at hard angles to this eclipse, so you may be concerned about the cost of participating in this event. Still, you may go anyway – this seems to be a major event in your timeline that you’ll long remember. Jupiter will conjoin Mercury, suggesting the host will spare no expense to treat guests like royalty, and you will meet many stylish, successful people and be stimulated by conversations.

The second eclipse, September 16, will be a full moon lunar eclipse and may bring a love relationship to fullness within a week of this cosmic event. At that point, you will be setting your priorities, including what you’d like to see happen next in your relationship. If you have been unhappy for some time, you may now break up. If you are happy, you may decide to get engaged, and if you are already in a happy marriage or committed established relationship, you can now grow closer.

Why would an eclipse either cause a breakup or commitment? Eclipses tend to push feelings to either end of the spectrum. Or you may choose to have a baby (if that is a dream), for it would be an ideal time to conceive. At the September 16 eclipse, you may draw up special plans for a child you have now. At eclipse time, there is no room for a middle course – everything becomes black or white, to help you see and decide what is truly important to you.

As the month ends, you may decide to travel to treat yourself to fresh air in a pretty setting, to give yourself some distance from a month packed with change and activity. The new moon at month’s end September 30 will be a lovely lunation and will give you a chance to take a restful vacation in a secluded area. You’ll want to go to enjoy a bit of luxury in accommodations, to a place near water, perhaps in an island setting. Your financial crunch will ease – the meeting of the Sun and Jupiter on September 26 will likely bring a professional breakthrough that finds you so gleeful, you’ll be tempted to dance on the tables.