TRANSCRIPT Episode 115 (March 21, 2022)
Capricorn Last Quarter Moon: Shakeups and Headbutts
Listen and read show notes hereVoiceover: Welcome to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast with your host, astrologer and author, April Elliott Kent.
April: Hello, invisible friend, April here – and the date today is March 21st, 2022. Welcome to Episode 115 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, I’ll be telling you about a fractious aspect between Mars and Uranus, Mercury making a conjunction with Neptune before it moves into Aries for several weeks’ stay, we’ll look at the Capricorn Last Quarter Moon, and I’ll answer a very interesting and, I think, very useful listener question.
Mars square Uranus (March 22)
The week begins with Mars making a square aspect to Uranus on March 22nd at 01:44 PM. Pacific Time at 12° and 6 minutes of Aquarius and Taurus. Mars is the planet that represents physical energy, drive and competition, and aggression. Uranus symbolizes the need to change things up, to gain more freedom and to do things in our own way. This particular combination of planets could be a little bit wild and a little bit unpredictable, so this is a good week to use caution. Be careful when you’re driving; Mars rules mechanical things like cars, and this is not the best time for taking unnecessary risks. It’s not the best time for any kind of confrontation with people, because things can really escalate quickly. So, wait for another week, wait until next week, maybe as Mars is starting to move up on its conjunction with Saturn, so it restrains Mars’ influence a little bit.
This is the last, what we call hard aspect – square or opposition to some extent conjunction – in this particular cycle of Mars and Uranus that began back on January 20th, 2021 when the two came together in a conjunction. Then they met in an opening square on July 3rd, 2021, and an opposition on November 17th, so you can look back at those time frames and see if there’s anything that is unresolved, especially something that has to do with your job or your work. There could be changes coming in the workplace. Sometimes that can be a good thing. Sometimes if you’ve been sort of in a rut or feeling really stale with your work, Uranus can come along and shake things up and that can be very refreshing. But, it’s a question of how much things get shaken up. Instability is definitely the watchword when Mars comes together with Uranus.
I always think the way to work with planets that are in difficult aspect is to see if we can find a way to welcome the energy in. In this case, it’s the spirit of Uranus, which wants to be free, wants to be innovative, wants to do things in a new way. And what I usually tell people, if they have a Uranus aspect going on in their birth chart, for instance, is to change little things in your daily habit. Uranus just likes change, it likes things to be different. If you always have the same thing for breakfast, have something a little different this week. If you always take the same route when you drive to work, try something a little different. Just making these small incremental offerings to Uranus can, I think, be a way of siphoning off some of this intense Mars-Uranus agitation that can otherwise build up this week.
Mercury conjunction with Neptune (March 23)
Next up, Mercury comes together in a conjunction aspect with Neptune on March 23rd at 10:44 AM Pacific Time. This conjunction happens at 23° and 15 minutes of Pisces on the Sabian symbol, 24 Pisces, “An Inhabited Isle”. And what’s interesting about this, is this is the degree of Jupiter and Neptune’s great conjunction in on April 12th. We’ll be talking quite a bit about that next month.
When the Sun made a conjunction to Neptune on March 13th, a new vision was born, we conceived something new, something creative. And now is the time, as Mercury catches up to that point, to articulate the vision. Mercury in Pisces, especially with Neptune, is well-suited to communicating in imaginative, non-linear ways, such as music, poetry, art, dancing. But just as with, say, Mercury retrograde or for that matter, Mercury just having been in Pisces for a while, it doesn’t really lend itself so well to analysis and crunching numbers and making spreadsheets.
So, the Sabian symbol, “An Inhabited Isle” reminds us also that we are all inhabitants of this same isle – earth – and also that our ability to survive on this little island planet depends on having a shared sense of optimism and faith and community. If you think about an island, it’s representing being really cut off from other sources of support or other resources. If you’re living together with people on “An Inhabited isle”, it’s just incumbent on you to make the effort to get along, to rely on each other and to provide support and comfort to one another as well.
The Moon Report
Next up, the Moon report for the week of March 21st. It begins with a Capricorn Last Quarter Moon on March 24th at 10:37 PM Pacific Time. So, that’ll be March 25th, practically everywhere else, at 4° and 33 minutes of Capricorn and Aries. The Last Quarter Moon is the time in the lunar cycle when we take stock, we have one more chance to take action toward our New Moon goals, this time with a little more knowledge and a little more experience. At the First Quarter Moon, we make a leap of faith, we act however impulsively on something that we have conceived at the New Moon, but we don’t have much experience with it yet. By the time we get to the Last Quarter Moon, we have three quarters of a lunar cycle experience, and so, we can sit back and evaluate in light of what we’ve learned in the previous three weeks.
A Capricorn Moon is serious, it’s goal-oriented, and it is patient. It will take its time, step by step, building toward a goal. But the Sun in Aries tends to be a lot more impulsive and a lot more impatient for results. When the two are working together – and even though the aspect between the Sun and the Moon at the Last Quarter is a square, so they’re not necessarily working together smoothly and happily -what’s happening is they are keeping us on task, which is the Moon in Capricorn, but without getting stuck.
This Last Quarter Moon also represents the last critical moment in the lunar phase family, the gestation cycle, that began with the New Moon on December 25th, 2019 at 4° of Capricorn, which actually was a solar eclipse. We had the First Quarter Moon in that phase family in September of 2020, and then the Full Moon in June of 2021. So, if you want to look back, particularly at that eclipse back on Christmas Day 2019, and follow along and see if you can remember what it was that was important to you at that time. It’s so interesting to even think about it because, that’s the “before times.” Just three months later, our whole world would look very different because of the pandemic. So, retrace your steps mentally if you can, and look back to what you were hoping for and what might have been changing in your life around Christmas of 2019. And know that now you have come to the last critical moment in that endeavor, when you’re supposed to look back at everything you’ve been trying to accomplish thinking about how you can fine tune and still ultimately reach your goal.
So, the Moon in Capricorn and the Sun in Aries have a nice connection between them, because they are both connected to Mars in a way. Mars is exalted, or considered especially strong and effective, in the sign of Capricorn, and of course, it’s the ruling planet of Aries. So, the two sort of have something in common. Now, Mars is still a little destabilized by its square with Uranus the two days earlier, but as I said, it is moving in the direction of Saturn, so, that slows down the Aries influence just a little bit. The Sun in Aries of course does not enjoy that too much at all, finds it quite frustrating, but I love that energy of the Sun in Aries that wants to just rush out there and get things done. But the Capricorn Last Quarter Moon is wise and restrained and hopefully can restrain and focus all of that great Aries energy without completely dampening it.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s take a look at the void-of-course Moon periods for this week. As we know, the void-of-course Moon periods are great times for reflection, for sitting with the things that are brought up at the Moon’s last aspect in its sign before it moves on to the next sign. They’re not the best moments for initiating new things, but they’re great times for breaking habits, for reevaluating routines.
So, on March 22nd, the Moon in Scorpio makes a sextile aspect of Pluto at 09:01 AM Pacific Time, and then it is void-of-course, it’s not making any other aspects for about three hours before it moves into Sagittarius at 11:59 AM Pacific Time. A last aspect sextile to Pluto for the Moon is not so bad. It’s a time to reflect and to think about and consider the opportunities that presented themselves during the time that Moon was in Scorpio and about how we might take control of our day to day lives in a new way.
On March 24th, the Moon in Sagittarius will make a square aspect to Mercury at 05:59 AM Pacific Time, then it’s void-of-course, for the rest of the day until it inters Capricorn at 02:54 PM Pacific Time. The Moon and Mercury making an aspect to each other, each in a Jupiter ruled sign, the Moon in Sagittarius, Mercury in Pisces means that this is a great time for considering our big ideas, our enthusiastic plans for the future. It probably says for the last couple of days, we’ve been really stretching ourselves and trying to consider the big picture and expand our horizons, which is all really well and good. But, during this particular day, while the Moon is void-of-course and getting ready to move into the more grounded and pragmatic sign of Capricorn, this is time to sit with those big ideas and not necessarily pick them apart and think about why they won’t work, but rather they really brainstorm around them, make notes, put things in writing, which Mercury likes. In focusing them in that way, we can probably see for ourselves what is really going to work out moving forward, and what is probably better left in the realm of dreams.
On March 26th, the Moon in Capricorn will make a sextile aspect to Mercury at 04:51 PM Pacific Time, then it floats void-of-course for just about an hour before entering Aquarius at 05:55 PM Pacific Time. So, the Moon in Capricorn, pragmatic and grounded, making an invitational sextile aspect to Mercury in Pisces. This is a perfect moment to take the things that you’ve been thinking about and dreaming about the entire time Mercury has been in Pisces, since March 9th, but more specifically in the last few days as the Moon has been in Sagittarius… and now the Moon in Capricorn comes along and says, “You know Mercury, if you want to, I can help you sit down with all of these ideas and put them in a nice, pragmatic, usable form.”
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Mercury enters Aries
Mercury enters Aries on March 27th at 12:44 AM Pacific Time. Mercury will be in Aries through April 10th, and here is where we can blow off the fog that’s been making Mercury in Pisces a little bit of a challenge. If you’ve been waiting for Mercury to get out Pisces before you put together your tax return, Mercury in Aries is probably a little better for that. But you’ll want to have somebody double-check things for you, because Mercury in Aries can be a little impatient, overlook details, maybe cut corners here and there. But if you’ve been stuck trying to get things done or to put things into words, saying something that needs to be said, Mercury in Aries will undoubtedly help you with that, but wait a week or so I would say until we get past this leftover Mars-Uranus vibe that started this week. Because Mercury going into Aries, and Mars connecting with Uranus, can mean that sometimes just trying to speak our minds again can get a little bit out of hand and we might say things that we’ll later regret.
In this week’s listener question, listener Patel writes, “Are Sun sign charts only for those who don’t know their rising sign? Unless one’s Sun is placed in the first house, rising sign charts and sun sign charts almost always place one’s planets in completely different houses. Can they both be right? What does a Sun sign chart indicate as compared to a rising sign chart? As an aside, if you can cast a Sun sign chart, can you cast a Mars sign chart? Would a Mars sign chart indicate when you are most likely to headbutt or be headbutted by coworkers at incendiary office parties?”
April: All my listeners are just wizards with words! Now, Patel, if you do not have an exact birth time for someone, you can’t really get a correct ascendant, which is the degree and sign on the first house cusp, because that degree can change every four minutes. If you can’t get at a correct ascendant, you can’t really calculate the other house cusps, and depending on how far off you are with your birth time, the Moon’s position and aspects and even sign can also be completely off, because the Moon moves really quickly. All of this is why, if you go to an astrologer for a reading, they’re going to get picky and make you jump through some hoops to get the most exact possible birth time. For many of us, there’s a birth certificate languishing in the bottom of a box somewhere that usually has a specific time written on it. Failing that, look for memorabilia, your baby book, your hospital bracelet, an entry in a family Bible, a birth announcement. And if that still doesn’t yield anything, depending on when and where you were born, it can be as simple as just ordering a birth certificate from the local government agency that records these things or from the hospital itself.
Now, these aren’t always available, and in some countries, I have seen birth times that are just rounded to the nearest hour and that isn’t that helpful. So, in these cases, it can be tempting to rely on mother’s memory of such things, but I usually recommend it against it. I figure mom had a lot of things on her mind at that moment, she wasn’t necessarily keeping her eye on the clock.
Anyway, when an astrologer does not have a correct birth time available, there are a few ways we can go. I will rarely do these kinds of readings, honestly. I usually recommend to someone, look, if you just don’t have a birth time at all, I can refer you to someone who does what we call chart rectification, where they come up with a hypothetical birth time based on major events in your life. But when I do find myself in a position of reading for someone without an exact birth time, I will use what’s called a Solar Chart, which is probably, Patel, what you’re thinking of when you’re talking about a Sun sign chart. The way it works is you take the degree of the Sun at Sunrise on the day that the person was born and that becomes the ascendant, and then you put the same degree of each successive sign on the subsequent house cusp. So, if the Sun’s at 19° Leo at sunrise on the day you were born, that makes the ascendant 19 Leo, the cusp of the second house, 19 Virgo, the cusp of the third house, 19 Libra, and so on, all the way around the wheel.
What this tells us is how you experience your environment relative to what is arguably the powerful symbol in the chart, the Sun. When you ask, “How can both be right, a properly calculated chart with a correct ascendant versus a chart with no time at all?” All I will say is, both of those charts will tell you something useful, but the Sun sign chart is extremely limited in what it can show, both in predicting personality traits but especially any kind of timing for predictive methods.
To give you an example, when astrologers write horoscopes for each Sun sign, they basically create a solar chart for each Sun sign, except each house cusp begins at 0°. So you create a chart for all Pisces people, and it begins with zero Pisces on the ascendant, zero Aries on the second house, zero Taurus on the third and so on. And then, you place the transits for the day or the week or the month, whatever period of time you’re writing a horoscope for, in that wheel, and you just repeat that process for each sign. To the extent that a Sun sign horoscope works – and the good ones do, to a limited degree- it’s because the Sun is of absolutely major importance.
As for your question about a Mars sign chart… absolutely! You can create a chart based on the degree, minute and sign of any planet in your chart. So, you can put the degree of Mars, in my chart it’s 22° and 54 minutes of Virgo. You put that on the ascendant, then the second house cusp would have 22° and 54 minutes of Libra and so on. And what that does is place the planets of the birth chart in very different houses than when you use your natural ascendant. But what it reveals is how the planets in your chart relate to and support Mars. So, physical vitality, sexuality, competition, and yes, head butting coworkers at incendiary office parties are all part of the wonderful world of Mars. So, thank you for that great question, Patel, and particularly for your wit.
Supporting the podcast, and donor shout-outs
That is everything I have on my show sheet. Thank you very much for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. And if you like what you’re hearing, I hope that you will follow or subscribe to the show, leave a rating or a review, and most of all, I hope that you’ll spread the word by telling an astrology loving friend about the podcast. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at bigskyastropod.com.
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That is it for this episode. Please join me again, bright and early next Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars.
Voiceover
Thank you for listening. To learn more about April Elliott Kent, visit her website, bigskyastrology.com where you can sign up for her newsletter, read her thoughtful essays, find out more about her books and classes or book a personal astrology reading.
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