TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 59 (12/7/2020)
Title:
059 | A Volcanic Virgo Last Quarter Moon, & Mercury Runs Amok
Jen: Welcome to the Big Sky Astrology podcast, with April Elliott Kent and me, producer and cohost Jen Braun. Hey friends, Jen here. Today is December 7th, 2020. And here with me of course, is my friend, who’s feeling 100% healthy, astrologer April Elliott Kent. Hi, April.
April: Hi Jen. Which we cannot say for you today…
Jen: Unfortunately, no.
April: …I am afraid. You poor thing. You sound just terrible. And you’re such a trouper to be forging ahead with Episode 59 of our podcast.
Jen: Well, you know, I do enjoy doing this. So, I wanted to.
April: And I appreciate that. But I know when you’re not feeling well, everything feels like an effort. So I appreciate it. And I think I speak for the listeners in thanking you for making this terrific effort. And I think I also speak for all our listeners when I say, please take care of yourself! We need you to be well.
Jen: Yes. I plan to be well at some point in the near future. Hopefully, everyone can hear me okay. I’ll boost up the volume on my end.
April: Well, I told you before, it’s sort of like podcasting with Deep Throat. Or do you remember Brenda Vaccaro, the actress from the seventies?
Jen: Who was that?
April: Oh, she was an actress and she had this very husky, cigarettes-and-good-cup-of-coffee voice. You sound just a little bit like that. Like a very ill Brenda Vaccaro…
Jen: Oh boy. We’ll link Brenda Vaccaro in the show notes…
April: We will as well. Oh, my friend. Well, our plan for the day is to work our way through the show sheet. We’ll see how far we get before Jen collapses in the corner. And I will try to do more of the talking than I would normally do.
Jen: Thank you for doing the heavy lifting, pal. I appreciate that.
April: That’s perfectly okay. And you’ve got your fizzy water over there, so…
Jen: I love my fizzy water. It’s true.
April: …we’ll just see how it goes.
Jen: Let’s dive in.
April: Let’s dive in.
Jen: Tell us, what’s coming up first?
April: Oh, my goodness. Well, this is going to be a supreme test here, Jen.
Jen: What?
April: Because you know what we’re starting out with today?
Jen: What are we starting out with?
April: I’ll sing both parts: Moonwatch… Moonwatch… Play it!
Jen: Thank you for singing both parts.
April: Sure. I’ll bet nobody can even tell the difference. You know, people tell me… well, “people.” My neighbor tells me, when she listens to this podcast…
Jen: So, note to self: One person.
April: One person. Okay. So I was exaggerating! She says she can’t tell the difference between our voices. Which, I don’t get that at all.
Jen: How long has she known you?
April: A very long time. She’s known me probably 23 years. And she is saying this. And you’re an alto and I’m demonstrably a soprano. So I don’t quite get that. Anyhow, there is our Moonwatch intro. It’s a little less vibrant today for being done by only one of us. But I know that you’re here with me in spirit, Jen.
Jen: I’m here with you in person too!
April: 2000 miles away, but still, close enough. Well, for our Moonwatch this week, we’re talking about a Last Quarter Moon in Virgo, which takes place on December 7th. A date that will live in infamy, at 04:37 PM, Pacific Time at 16° and 22 minutes of Virgo.
Jen: Did that have something to do with World War 2?
April: It did. Yes. Of course. It was the bombing of Pearl Harbor. A date that will live in infamy
Jen: I just wanted to bring all of our listeners into our circle here.
April: I know. We do have some younger listeners to whom that might be just as ancient history as the Civil War is for us.
Jen: I’ll link that in the show notes too.
April: Thank you. Yes. This is going to be a very link-heavy show notes this week. What Jen is lacking in voice today, she’s making up for it in links in the show notes.
Jen: And in presence. I am here.
April: And presence. The present of your presence.
Jen: I was just going to say, my presence is the present.
April: It is. It is a gift to have you here, my friend.
Jen: Thank you so much.
April: Yes. You’re very welcome. So, the Last Quarter Moon in Virgo, is on a Sabian symbol I like a good deal. It’s called “A Volcano in Eruption.” And the Sabian symbol for the Sun is 17 Sagittarius, “An Easter Sunrise Service.” I very much like that Sabian symbol for Virgo. Because we think of Virgo as this very cerebral sign, but it is an earth sign. And as you will know, if you have ever seriously annoyed a Virgo, they are surprisingly volatile when angry. Some say that the sign is associated with Vulcan, which in myth was the Roman God of fire, a blacksmith. And it is a very physical sign. And when it’s angry, it really works like that volcano, where the pressure builds and builds and builds, and then bam. They don’t have as long a fuse as Taurus. Taurus has a very long fuse. But Virgo, because it’s ruled by Mercury, will build up a little quicker, but then bam. And it’s usually a little surprising and quite intimidating when it happens.
When I take these two symbols together, “The Volcano in Eruption” and “An Easter Sunrise Service,” it gives me a picture of a disaster and a calamity. But from that, something new is born. This Last Quarter Moon also triggers the June 5th, 2020 Lunar Eclipse point.
Jen: Why is that?
April: Because the degree of that Lunar Eclipse on June 5th was about 15° of Sagittarius. So this point at 16° of Virgo is square that point, which is a crisis and conflict aspect. And it says, “Whatever it was that you initiated in June or whatever was emerging in your life and becoming evident at that point – because that would have been a Full Moon – is now at a point where it’s time to resolve it.” So what you’re going to look for is where in your birth chart do we find Virgo? Especially the middle part of Virgo, and the middle part of Sagittarius. And that will give us a little bit of an idea of what’s happening here.
Jen: Yes. And Virgo is very much about the details and Sagittarius is very much about boundlessness.
April: Yes. It’s about the big picture.
Jen: Right. So tell us about that.
April: Well, Sagittarius is the forest and Virgo is the trees. Virgo is very caught up in the minutia. And Sagittarius – that Lunar Eclipse – was about seeing the big picture, grasping that there is a bigger message, a purpose that we’re striving toward that doesn’t necessarily have to do with the little details of the day-to-day work. And now this is the time with the Last Quarter Moon in Virgo, the finishing up has to do with sorting out those details.
Jen: Nice.
April: Does that makes sense?
Jen: It does make sense.
April: Now, I mean, the possible complication here is that at this Last Quarter Moon, the Sun in Sagittarius is approaching its square to Neptune, which happens on the 9th. And then it’s trine to Mars on the 10th.
Jen: Which means what, for us?
April: For us, the non-celestial watchers.
Jen: Yes.
April: The Sun in Sagittarius square Neptune, which happens on December 9th, at 11:41 AM Pacific Time, is about a crisis of self-confidence and a sense of purpose. It’s how confident do we feel in who we are and what we’re putting out into the world in a creative way… or just simply the confidence that it requires to do anything in life. This is represented by the Sun. I was talking to you before we recorded this morning about my occasional existential crises, especially with regard to my career and so forth. I’m born with this aspect of my chart, the Sun square Neptune. And you sort of start to get a sense of confidence in who you are and what your purpose is and what you are about. And then that Neptune undertow comes and just kind of pulls you under and you kind of lose your sense of focus and your sense of confidence and personal power.
So for everybody who isn’t born with this aspect, this is quick, this is two days of the Sun tangling with Neptune. But during this time, it’s very possible that you might find yourself feeling a little less confident than usual. And four days after this, Mercury will square Neptune on these same degrees.
Jen: Mercury is the messenger. So is the messenger getting a message from the Sun?
April: I think what the messenger is doing here: Its purpose is to define who we are and to tell the story of who we are and what we want. And when it is square Neptune, we’re also really floundering and really having to struggle to define ourselves. To not just figure out who we are, but figure out how to define it, how do we express that to the world. Now, on a really basic level, it also means that Mercury functions will tend to be a little less clear. And it’s a little like a Mercury retrograde perhaps with Mercury square Neptune. And that’s on December 13th at 03:03 AM Pacific Time.
Jen: Okay. And I also became aware that Mercury is going to be out-of-bounds on December 12th. He’s going out-of-bounds.
April: You’re out-of-bounds! When did we talk about out-of-bound planets? I think it was an episode we were talking about Venus out-of-bound… “Venus gone wild” or something?
Jen: Yes. I think you’re right. I think that was the episode my parents were on.
April: Hey, why don’t you link it in the show notes?
Jen: Hey, Episode 22.
April: Oh, you’re very good. I was just listening to that the other day and listening to your adorable parents. Your dad is the cutest. His little chuckle…
Jen: They are awesome…
April: Yes. So that’s a good episode for people to revisit because although we were specifically talking about Venus being out-of-bounds at that time, we also go into some detail about what it means for a planet to be out-of-bounds. And the cliff notes version is: It’s a little bit unsupervised. It connects a little bit, I think, in a Uranian way, acting quite uncharacteristic for the planet itself.
Jen: Which in Sagittarius, people may be more opinionated…
April: It’s the last thing we need. Well. I mean, to be honest…
Jen: …people being more sure they’re right.
April: …it is very much like somebody getting on Twitter for instance, and having a real screed about things. Or the spokesman for a company who comes out and says something really off-message. On a plus side, it can mean that it’s a good couple of days to do innovative thinking. So if you’re working on some kind of project where you’ve really been stuck, this might be a time when new ideas will come to you. It’s almost like a Mercury-with-Uranus aspect. But it’s probably better to keep your ideas – your inspiration – kind of to yourself rather than getting out and really blurting it into the world. Because you might find when this period has passed, when the Mercury/Neptune aspect has passed, when Mercury is no longer out-of-bounds, that you can no longer really stand behind what you were saying during this week. Does that make sense?
Jen: It does.
April: Excellent. So Mercury is square Neptune exactly on December 13th. Let’s give that a day, either side, of the 12th through the 14th. And it will be out-of-bounds for a little while through January 4th. So it is a time we need to think a little bit more carefully about what we say before we say it. Which, as you point out, in Sagittarius is not Mercury’s usual style. So we await the week with interest.
Jen: Yes. Yes we do.
April: I sort of like the Sabian symbols for these combinations. The Sun and Mercury will be at 19 Sagittarius, which is “Pelicans Moving Their Habitat” and Neptune is at 19 Pisces, “A Master Instructing His Pupil,” which is one that we’ve been talking about quite a lot in recent weeks. I think of the pelicans, moving their habitat, referring to letting go of parts of ourselves and our stories that are no longer serving us. The expanded version of that symbol is something to do with: Because their habitat has become polluted or there’s a lot of garbage there, they have to move on to a new habitat. And I don’t think with pelicans that it’s so much that they’re bothered by the mess. I think it’s that they need to find new food. It’s like they’ve gone through all that’s nourishing in the current habitat and need to move on. This is my guess about that.
And then with 19 Pisces where Neptune is… you know, we’re still learning from Neptune, who is telling us what the parts are that we need to release and let go of. Well, that’s my thought, anyway,
Jen: I have a thought about this, which is: Both of these Sabian symbols also felt like making preparations, which feels appropriate to me. Because next week we have another eclipse coming, and Saturn and Jupiter are moving into Aquarius a few days after that.
April: Yes.
Jen: So we’re sort of preparing for this incoming new vibe. You know?
April: Yes. Very much so. That’s going to be a really big Solstice as we will explore in our Solstice episode.
Jen: Indeed, we will.
April: We’ll tell you more about that later. So always when you see these hard aspects to Neptune, I think you’re right: It’s about getting a clean slate. It’s washing away what’s no longer helpful or serving us. What’s already dead in our lives needs to now be released and let go of.
Jen: The concept of non-grasping.
April: Yes. Of non-attachment.
Jen: Exactly…
April: We’ll be very Zen this week.
Jen: …a Buddhist concept that I will link in the show notes.
April: I love that idea. Please do.
April: Jen, we also have Venus sextile Pluto this week on December 10th at 03:50 AM. And this will be an opportunity to attract power to oneself, perhaps. Venus is the element of attraction. Pluto is about power. And a sextile is an opportunity, an invitation to align yourself with powerful forces. The Sabian symbol for Venus at this combination is one that we talked about at the New Moon in Scorpio – it’s the same degree. “Crowds Coming Down the Mountain to Listen to One Man.”
Jen: Yes. I remember that.
April: That, to me, also echoes this idea of the opportunity to attract power.
Jen: To get your message heard.
April: Yes. And to be accepted because of the Venus principle.
Jen: Nice.
April: Venus, as I said, is on the degree of the Scorpio New Moon. And so, a wish that we made then is now possibly granted, or at least there is some invitation or contact that we make with someone in the world that is ultimately going to help us achieve what we were hoping to at that New Moon. So that was the Scorpio New Moon on November 14th.
Jen: Did you make a wish then?
April: I don’t think I did. I think I was too busy working. It was on my 12th house, so perhaps I made a wish that I don’t remember.
Jen: You made a wish in your dreams.
April: I think you have to be careful when things are in the 12th house by transit, because there is so much that you’re absorbing and taking in and you’re not necessarily filtering it through your Mercury part of your mind. And it’s easy to let unwholesome ideas or concepts form with the 12th house. So I should have been a lot more on it with the Scorpio New Moon. I think that, as I recall, was not a terrible chart. There weren’t a whole lot of big clashing aspects, like there had been recently in some of our New and Full Moons.
Jen: I think it was a pretty nice chart, actually.
April: Finally, we have the Sun trine Mars on December 10th at 10:02 PM Pacific. And the Sun also conjunct the South Node of the Moon on December 11th. The South Node is an interesting one because this is setting us up for the Solar Eclipse that comes three days later. Because eclipses are a function of the Sun and the Moon connecting with the Lunar Nodes. If an eclipse point is on the North Node of the Moon, we see it as being a harbinger of change that is moving us forward on our evolutionary path.
Jen: Which is what we just had.
April: Right. With the Lunar Eclipse. But now here, with the Solar Eclipse, it’s on the South Node of the Moon and it says “Change that makes us let go of things.” And it’s in Sagittarius, so it’s back to that thing we’ve been talking about ever since the Lunar Nodes moved into Gemini and Sagittarius, which is letting go of the need to know everything and be sure about everything. So we should begin to be feeling that eclipse pretty strongly as the Sun reaches this point on December 11th, even though the exact eclipse is not till the 14th. And we’re going to be talking quite a lot about that in next week’s episode.
The Sabian symbols for this are both very wintery with the Sun and Mars in particular… and a little bit, some of the South Node.
Jen: Tell us.
April: The Sabian symbol for 20° of Sagittarius, which is the Sun and the South Node degree is, “Men Cutting Through Ice.” And the Sabian symbol for 20 Aries, Mars’s point, is “A Young Girl Feeding Birds in Winter,” which we’ve been talking about for the last few weeks.
Jen: Yes. Force feeding the birds.
April: Force feeding the poor little birds. It’s like, “We didn’t ask for your help. We can fend for ourselves.” But the Sun and Mars are both such passionate planets and here they are in fire signs. And I think that what this does is overcome a little bit of that Sun square Neptune that we have earlier in the day on December 9th. And it overcomes it with passion and enthusiasm. So I think that it’s sort of a saving grace after the Sun/Neptune. And the picture that you can get is of heat evaporating water, and turning it into steam. And from steam, you can garner a lot of power. So I see us having this little bit of a crisis of faith on the 9th and then probably going into the 10th with the Venus sextile to Pluto and the Sun trine to Mars, we regain ourselves a little bit.
The wintry Sabian symbols are appropriate; it’s the time of year we’re in here in the Northern hemisphere, anyway. And I was thinking, why are the men cutting through the ice? You live in a wintry place. I could think of ice fishing. Why else would people be cutting through the ice?
Jen: People cut through ice to do an ice sculpture. The St. Paul Winter Festival… we have all these ice sculptures down in one of the parks downtown. Like Groundhog Day!
April: Yes. Bill Murray doing that beautiful ice sculpture. I was also thinking of ice skating, because that’s a blade cutting through ice.
Jen: Does a Zamboni have a blade?
April: You know, it’s an excellent question. I don’t really know the inner workings of a Zamboni. Why don’t we research it and link it in the show notes? It’s just fun to say Zamboni.
Jen: It sure is.
April: Yes.
Jen: So maybe people want to let go through being artistic.
April: Yes. Possibly. And also I think that Blain Bovee talked about this as being a symbol that talks about sort of like cutting to the chase, just really getting to things. And maybe this is a point where we start to see Mars getting a little re-invigorated. You know, it was retrograde for so long, and then it’s only recently turned direct, still moving a little slowly. But maybe the Sun coming along and warming him up will give us all a little more energy to push forward.
So then we have the young girl feeding the birds in winter. And I think both of these two to me, sort of talk about survival in harsh seasons. And the fact that it’s trine, just really gives us kind of a new lease on life, even coming into this Solar Eclipse. Which is not normally what I would think of with a Solar Eclipse conjunct the South Node. But it’s a little bit of the feeling that I’m getting there.
Sagittarius is a fairly uplifting sign, all things being told. It does, again… it sees the big picture. It’s the forest, not the trees. I love the image of Sagittarius being this lovely little wanderer out in the wintry landscape and wearing his little backpack and looking at the stars. I mean, the night sky has been phenomenal the last few nights here, for San Diego; it’s been quite cool at night and very clear. And you get out on a winter’s day and there’s so much night in the winter and so many stars and it’s really beautiful. This is a good time to start thinking about what your journey is going to be. We’re leaving one journey behind, the Sagittarius South Node… and entertaining options for the journey going forward, which is the North Node in Gemini.
Jen: Yes.
April: I like it.
Jen: I like it, too.
April: Well, my friend, that is everything we have on the show sheet for today. Do you think we’ve done it?
Jen: I think we’ve done it. So I’m going to unwrap a cough drop and put it in my mouth.
April: You’ve earned it, my friend. You’ve earned it. Episode 59… in the can!
Well, we thank all of you for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast and sending Jen your virtual cough drops and good wishes…
Jen: Thank you everyone.
April: …for better health. We give you a big hug.
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Jen: Thanks to everyone who gave us financial support during our September Podathon. Each week, we’re thanking you by name. Who do we have this week, pal?
April: This week we are happy to give a Big Sky Astropod shout out to Sarah Friesen and Penn Gregory.
Jen:
April: That’s right. I’m sorry. I forgot you couldn’t really “yay.” So, yay! Yay!
April: My Gemini Moon is coming in very handy today. Anyway, I don’t have the pleasure of knowing much about Penn, who appears to be listening to us from beautiful London. However, Jen, you and I are both familiar with Sara from her amazing illustrations that we enjoy on Instagram.
Jen: Yes. They’re beautiful.
April: Yes, I’m trying to remember what her handle is there. “Sarah Friesen Art” or something…? We’ll link it in the show notes!
Jen: Sure we will!
April: Oh, she’s a fantastic artist. Her stuff is so charming. And thank you Sara – and to Penn – for supporting us during the Podathon. We very much appreciate you both and thank you for listening.
Jen: Thanks so much. If you did not get a chance to support us during our Podathon, you can always go to our website, bigskyastropod.com, and make a financial contribution if you’d like. If you kick in $5 or more, we’ll invite you to our special episodes for the Equinoxes and Solstices. One’s coming up very soon… Why are you laughing?
April: Because I’m thinking we could use some of that five bucks to buy you some cough drops, as things are getting pretty serious over there…
Jen: Yes.
April: Alright friends, that is it for us this week. Please join us again, bright and early next Monday, for that Solar Eclipse. And until then, keep your feet on the ground…
Jen: …and your eyes on the stars.
Thank you for listening. To learn more about April Elliott Kent, please check out her website, www.BigSkyAstrology.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter, read her thought-provoking weekly essays, purchase her books, sign up for a personal astrology reading, and more.
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© 2020 April Elliott Kent & Jennifer Braun
