TRANSCRIPT Ep. 121 | Venus Enters Aries: Coloring Outside the Lines (May 2, 2022)
Welcome to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast, with your host, Astrologer and Author, April Elliott Kent.
April: Hello, invisible friends, April here, and the date today is May 2nd, 2022. Welcome to Episode 121 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This is a week between Eclipses. We had that big Solar Eclipse on April 30th at 10° of Taurus. And we’re leading up to next week’s Lunar Eclipse, at 25° of Scorpio on May 16th. But this week, we are in between the two. And I think that we’re kind of feeling both Eclipses. I talked a lot about the Solar Eclipse in Episode 120, and we’ll of course talk a lot more about the Lunar Eclipse next week. But just know that this week, if you’re feeling a little bit unsettled, it’s not unusual for a week between Eclipses. The Sun makes its annual conjunction with Uranus this week too, which is very scintillating. And we have Venus changing sign and a First Quarter Moon in Leo. So, let’s get to it.
Venus enters Aries (May 2, 9:10 am PDT)
The week begins with Venus entering the sign of Aries on May 2nd at 09:10 AM Pacific Time. It’ll be in this sign through May 28th. It’s a little bit of a contradictory sign for Venus to be in. Venus is a planet of pleasure, of leisure, of enjoying a language pace, and just enjoying the things that we like to do with the people we like to do them with. It’s pretty easygoing planet. But Aries is not exactly an easygoing sign. It’s a sign that’s naturally ruled by Mars. So, we’re asking Venus to do her work in a sign that is sort of diametrically opposed to what she’s all about. She’s in a sign that just makes it really hard for her to slow down and enjoy the pleasures of the world.
But all is not lost because Venus’ sign, as it transits through the Zodiac, tells us about what we’ll really enjoy. And what Aries enjoys more than anything, is to be in motion. And think back to when you were a kid, say it was the weekend and you’d been sitting in class all week long, and the feeling on Saturday morning of jumping up and going out and getting on your bike and rushing around the neighborhood with your friends and how exhilarating that can feel, just being in motion. If there is anything that has been a source of frustration for you in recent weeks, where you’ve been feeling as if, oh, you’re just stuck and there’s no way you can push through the blockage, I think that you will find as Venus enters Aries that you will rise to those challenges and find a way to just get unstuck by moving forward. Sometimes when we’re stuck, it’s because we’re afraid that things are going to go wrong if we act. And Aries is a sign of great courage and it will encourage us to get out and just do it.
Jupiter sextile Pluto (May 3, 3:33 pm PDT)
Jupiter is sextile Pluto this week on May 3rd at 03:33 PM Pacific Time at 28° and 35 minutes of Pisces and Capricorn. This is the first major aspect between these two planets since Jupiter and Pluto made a series of three conjunctions back in 2020. At the time, I can remember many astrologers talking about and writing about a connection between Jupiter and Pluto and the pandemic. I remember my friend and colleague Dana Gerhardt of mooncircles.com wrote a really good article about this. I’ll go hunt that up and link it in the show notes for you, but that was the coming together of Jupiter and Pluto.
And now the opening sextile aspect between the two is a little bit like a Crescent Moon phase. That’s a time in the Lunar Cycle where we begin to see a little bit of light in the night sky. It is a time of discovery, of finally enough time having lapsed after a new beginning to start to see the shape of things to come.
The Sabian symbols for this combination are two that we’ve seen quite a lot lately. Jupiter is on the Sabian symbol, 29 Pisces, “A Prism” and Pluto is on 29 Capricorn, “A Woman Reading Tea Leaves”. And both of those to me are about seeing things in a particular way or a new light. The prism, as the Sun strikes it, sends out all kinds of different colors of light in different directions. And the “Woman Reading Tea Leaves” of course, is looking in a very focused way at a particular pattern and finding meaning in it.
The nature of the sextile is one really of discovery in this case. How can our Jupiter impulses towards adventure and new experiences open the way to deeper understanding of ourselves and others and of the direction that we would like to go in our lives?
There’s a tension between Jupiter and Pluto, and the tension is that, Jupiter believes all things are possible, and Pluto believes that you don’t really have a lot of control over anything. To the extent that you’re able to give yourself over to a Jupiter sense of adventure without having such a particular investment in how it’s going to turn out and exactly how that is going to look, this can be an interesting aspect.
Mars sextile Uranus (May 4, 8:47 am PDT)
Next up, Mars sextile Uranus on May 4th at 08:47 AM Pacific Time at 14°45′ Pisces and Taurus. These two came together in a conjunction back in January of 2021, and they’re just now at their closing sextile before they make their next conjunction on August 1st, 2022. So, we’re kind of wrapping up a cycle of Mars with Uranus, and there’s still an opportunity in the cycle to finish up some work that we began back in January of last year.
Mars is in Pisces, and it’s an interesting sign for Mars because Mars’ nature is to be very straightforward, unhesitating, and determined to get done what it wants to get done. But you put it in a sign like Pisces, and well, Pisces doesn’t really tend to work that way. Pisces likes to take its time and follow its intuition and flow and go with the way things feel right. So, things get done when Mars is in Pisces, but they get done in their own way, and that way is not necessarily from A to Z in a straight line.
So, Mars is in this sextile aspect to Uranus. Uranus is a planet that values spontaneity and freedom. It has been in Taurus since 2008, and it has been operating in a sign that is a little more fixed and staid and does tend to want to stay on track. But there’s a lot of tension there, because Uranus is much more apt to play out in a really kind of wild way, just kind of out of the blue. We’re going along, doing things in a really measured way, and then suddenly one day we just can’t take it anymore, and bam, Uranus lets loose. Mars in Pisces making this sextile aspect to Uranus, is sort of contributing to that, is saying our Mars selves are operating in a looser, less formal way while Mars is in Pisces. And that makes it a little bit easier to release some of the tension that can come with being too focused and on too straight of a path, because that is something that’s really triggering Uranus in Taurus and making us explode. So, in a way, this is kind of nice. Mars is supporting Uranus and is saying, “Yes, you’re right. We really don’t have to be quite so regimented in the way we’re doing things.”
The Sabian symbol for this Mars at 15 Pisces is actually “An Officer Preparing to Drill His Men”. But I can just imagine how a Mars in Pisces general would drill his men- he’d be, “Hey, do whatever feels right for you!” So that contributes really nicely to this Uranian urge to color outside the lines. Here is an opportunity at this sextile to loosen up our drive and our dogmatic sense that in order to get anything done, we have to do it according to very specific rules and guidelines. Because Mars in Pisces doesn’t really work well that way, and definitely not in combination with Uranus.
Sun conjunct Uranus (May 5, 12:21 am PDT)
The Sun makes its annual conjunction with Uranus on May 5th, just after midnight here on the west coast at 12:21 AM Pacific Time on 14° and 47 Taurus. The Sabian symbol is 15 Taurus, “A Man Muffled Up with A Rakish Silk Hat”. This annual conjunction resets the Sun Uranus cycle, which is about how we can be more truly ourselves. The Sun is the symbol of who we are at a very fundamental level. The ego in the sense of the ego being about the boundary between who you are and who people are, what makes you, you. And Uranus is kind of the opposite of that. Uranus is about breaking through anything that it sees as an artificial barrier, including the barriers of ego. But if we get too far from our sense of self, then we can get really lost. And this is when people start to feel really ungrounded and really drift into a place where they can be very unsettled.
I like the Sabian symbol for this, “The Man Muffled Up” – with a muffler on his neck – “With A Rakish Silk Hat”. This is a man, I imagine, who has a really good sense of who he is. He is fashionable. He has got his lovely muffler and his very fashionable silk hat. So, he knows who he is – and who he is, is a little bit different than everybody else. And to me, that’s the combination of the Sun with Uranus: we are who we are, and that makes us different than everybody else. This is a moment in the Sun-Uranus cycle to appreciate that.
Now, what’s difficult about it sometimes is it also can make us feel a little bit lonely and estranged from other people. We may find ourselves at the Sun-Uranus conjunction trying to find our people, our natural peer group, and feeling as if it’s a little difficult to do. Or if we do find people that we want to hang around with, it makes us feel a little bit estranged from who we are as an individual. On a practical level, I would say a couple of days, either side of the exact aspect, so say between May 3rd and the 7th, it’s particularly important to be grounded, and this is true doubly so because we’re in this week between eclipses. As I said, and the Solar Eclipse was very close to Uranus, so it very much had that buzzing, high energy feeling to it. And that really reaches its peak, I think this week at this Sun-Uranus conjunction.
Because this combination comes together in Taurus, which is an earth sign, I think it’s a really wonderful idea to get out and dig your toes into the earth. Doing a little gardening, maybe would be fantastic if that’s something you do. Getting out in a beautiful, natural setting so that you can enjoy all of the elements of nature, will be really grounding to this Uranian energy in Taurus.
Sun sextile Mars (May 7, 2:48 am PDT)
On May 7th, the Sun makes a sextile aspect to Mars at 02:48 AM Pacific Time at 16°49’ Taurus and Pisces. The Sabian symbol for the Sun is 17 Taurus, “A Battle Between the Swords and the Torches” – the sharks and the jets! The Sabian symbol for Mars, the 17 Pisces, “An Easter Promenade”. And in both of these, we have people coming together out in a public place, but is it going to be a street fight or is it going to be a parade?
This is the question with the Sun and Mars. The Sun and Mars are both very high-energy, fiery planets, even though in this case, they’re in an Earth sign and a Water sign – but definitely the adrenaline can get going and we can be ready for action and ready to defend our sense of who we are and our egos, that’s the Sun. So, this could easily go in the direction of a kind of a confrontation between you and somebody else in your life. But this is a sextile, and the sextile gives an opportunity for these two planets to play nice together and to the Sun’s sense of pageantry and drama, bring it together with Mars and a wonderful fiery display. We could very easily have a parade with this one.
I always think when two planets are in a sextile aspect, they really want to be friends, and the Sun and Mars have a lot to offer each other. I always think that in the solar system, the Sun is the hero of the story, the major protagonist, and Mars is kind of his personal bodyguard or his watchdog that is really going to protect him from anybody that tries to put him in danger. So, Mars can be very helpful to the Sun and the Sun could be helpful to Mars because it can give Mars a sense of there being a reason for what it’s doing. The Sun has a vision coming from two days before when it was in a conjunction with Uranus and maybe got really inspired about something. And now is the time for putting Mars to work in the service of achieving this vision.
Leo First Quarter Moon (May 8, 5:21 pm PDT)
And now, the Moon Report for the week of May 2nd. It begins with a Leo First Quarter Moon on May 8th at 05:21 PM Pacific Time, 18°23’ Leo and Taurus. That’s the Moon in Leo and the Sun in Taurus. How hopeful and festive, the symbols for these degrees! The Sabian symbol for the Moon is 19 Leo, “A Houseboat Party”, and the symbol for the sun at 19 Taurus is, “A New Continent Rises Out Of The Ocean”.
But there is a really strong aspect in this chart between the Moon, the Sun, Saturn and Uranus. The Moon and the Sun, of course, are square each other – that’s what happens at a First Quarter Moon, and the Sun is in a conjunction with Uranus, so the Moon is square Uranus as well. And the Moon is opposite Saturn. So, there’s extreme tension here between doing what we think is the right thing to do, and doing the thing that feels really right to us. That’s the tension that the Moon is in between Saturn and Uranus. So, maybe this is about feeling a little bit lonely at the “Houseboat Party”. And this is, again, this enormous tension between the Saturn and Uranus that can produce the kind of energy that can raise “A New Continent Out of the Ocean”.
So, it’s a dynamic First Quarter Moon, and that’s how we like our Quarter moons, because they are the ones for moving forward, for getting things done, for getting unstuck. And this is getting unstuck against something pretty significant that you’ve been feeling has been holding you in place ever since last year, because it’s connected with Saturn and Uranus, who last year were making these series of hard square aspects to each other and making us feel more and more stuck and more and more desperate to do anything to get out of that sense of confinement.
So, this First Quarter Moon with the Sun still being in the conjunction with Uranus and saying, how can I be more authentically who I am? And those being in tension with Saturn, because they are also squaring Saturn. And there will be voices from outside of us that say, “Who do you think you are, doing that?” And then the Moon in Leo also wants to be noticed and wants to be itself, it’s opposed Saturn. So, everywhere we turn when we’re trying to be a more authentic version of ourselves, there is some naysaying voice that implies that that’s not something we’re going to be able to do. So, the question is, well, is that true or is it not? Can we push past these barriers represented by Saturn and really become a more authentic version of who we want to be?
Void-of-Course Moon Periods
Let’s take a look at the void-of-course Moon periods for this week. The Moon is void-of-course once it’s made the last major aspect it will make in its sign, until it moves into the next sign. And these are times to reflect, to think about the events of the previous two days, what they have shown to us, how we’re feeling about them.
On May 2nd, the Moon in Taurus makes the sextile to Venus at 03:13 AM Pacific Time and then its void-of-course for a little over a half an hour. It’s pretty short period for many of us early in the morning, so we won’t necessarily do a lot consciously with this void-of-course Moon period. The Moon moves into Gemini at 03:46 AM Pacific Time.
Then, on May 4th, the Moon in Gemini makes a square aspect to Jupiter, 01:37 PM Pacific Time, is void-of-course then for about two and a half hours that afternoon, and enters Cancer at 04:05 PM Pacific Time. But what aspects do Jupiter do is reveal the excesses of that Moon sign. So, the Moon in Gemini can be a little bit scattered. It has its attention all over the place because it’s very curious and wants to see everything that’s going on, as its square Jupiter, it just means, that’s gone into overdrive. And we can spend that two and a half hours maybe pulling back, sitting in a little bit of contemplation, maybe doing our 10 minutes of meditation for the day or whatever we like to do, take a walk, that would be perfect. Because, we’re sort of tipping over into that land of not knowing whether we’re coming or going because our minds are so scattered. The Moon goes into Cancer at 04:05 PM and that is a much more emotionally centering sign.
Then on May 7th, that Cancer Moon makes a trine to Jupiter at 03:25 AM Pacific Time, void-of-course for about an hour and a half, again in the early hours of the morning here on the west coast. And then enters Leo 04:50 AM Pacific Time. So, if you are, say, on east coast, and this is happening in the morning as you’re getting ready to start your day, or if you are in Europe and this would be in the afternoon for you or the late morning, then I think that this is a nice aspect, for the lack of a better term, doe counting your blessings. The Moon is very strong in Cancer. It has a deep appreciation of things like its home and its family and pets, the things it’s emotionally connected to. And the trine to Jupiter is just nice. You know, during the void-of-course Moon times is a nice time to stop and contemplate the matters related to those two planets, and the Moon with Jupiter just really could hardly be lovelier and say, “Count your blessings. Feel good about what you have”. Then the Moon enters Leo at 04:50 AM and that begins a two-and-a-half day period of being in the Leo space of wanting more and more fun and heart opening experiences.
Mini-Lesson: Eclipses in aspect to planets in your birth chart
Well, in Episode 120, I gave you a quick overview of eclipses and an idea of their influence in the houses of your birth chart. And in today’s mini lesson, I thought we would take a look at eclipses making aspects to natal planets. The April 30th, Solar Eclipse was at 10°28′ minutes of Taurus. And astrologers really vary on the idea of orb and how many degrees off from exact an aspect can be and still have an influence. I use a 4° orb for eclipses.
So, the first thing that you will do is look for any planets in your birth chart or the ascendant or the Midheaven or the nodes that are within 4° at that point. So, between about 6 and 14° of Taurus, because that’s where you’re going to find conjunction from the Eclipse. Then, I would look for planet between 6 and 14° of the opposite sign. So, in this case, that would be between 6 and 14° of Scorpio, because those planets got oppositions from the April 30th Eclipse.
Finally, look for planets between 6 and 14° of the other fixed signs, Leo and Aquarius, because those planets got squares from that eclipse. You can repeat the same process with the May 15th, May 16th, Total Lunar Eclipse at 25° and 18 minutes of Scorpio. Planets between 21 and 29° of Scorpio will be getting a conjunction from this eclipse, planets between 21 and 29° of Taurus are getting an opposition and planets between 21 and 29° of Leo and Aquarius are getting squares.
Now, I’m sometimes asked why I don’t include other aspects like trines or sextiles when I work with eclipses. And it’s because to me, the job of eclipses seems to be turning points and crisis and trines and sextiles do not normally bring crisis. So, I like to keep the aspects minimal and the orbs at 4° or less. Because, what this does is make the really important messages of the eclipses really pop out.
Here are a few thoughts about eclipses in aspect to planets in the birth chart. When eclipses are in an aspect to the natal Sun, and you’re being asked to take more of a starring role in your own life, and this can be uncomfortable if you’re a person who’s very modest or who is used to relying on other people to take the lead. And there can also sometimes be big transitions involving important men or authority figures in your life. So, we might see issues with a boss or issues with dad or people in your life to whom you’ve given some authority to influence your decisions. That gets called into question when there are eclipses to the Sun. This one is really about standing up and taking charge and being the main driving force of our own lives.
Eclipses in aspect to the natal Moon can often find us in a place where it’s a perceived received threat to either your security, your safety, your comfort, your privacy. Maybe you’ve moved in with somebody and you see aspects to the Moon from eclipses because it’s a big adjustment and you’re losing some of your privacy, for sure. It is a crisis to have to learn live day to day with somebody, or for that matter without somebody. You’ll also see big transitions involving one’s home, family or maternal figures.
Eclipses in aspect to Mercury call for a change in how you define yourself. And it could be hard to parse this out sometimes from eclipses to the Sunm because those two move really close together. So, we often have an eclipse to the Sun and an eclipse to Mercury pretty close together or in the same year, at least. But, they’re actually quite different.
Eclipses aspecting the Sun say you’re coming to grips with who you are, but eclipses to Mercury say, “This is who I’m going to tell the world I am. This is how I define myself”. You might take on a new role or a new title. I’ve seen people literally change their name when they have an eclipse in aspect to Mercury.
Eclipses in aspect to Venus usually brings some kind of crisis in a close relationship. There may be some kind of a threat to your sense of security or your self-esteem. There can be big financial developments, either positive or negative. If you’ve been very poor and then you’re extremely wealthy because you’ve won the lottery, believe me, that’s a crisis. It is a crisis many of us would like to experience. But that said, it is still a crisis and it can throw you for a loop.
When eclipses are in aspect to Mars, there is a crisis around feeling that you need to defend or guard or protect yourself. And there can be the feeling that someone is attacking you. I’ve also seen people have to battle illnesses when they have eclipses to Mars, because that is a situation where you’re protecting yourself. This can be an important time for developments in the workplace. It can be a time of important sexual transitions, because it is a sexual symbol.
Eclipses aspecting Jupiter are when you’re called upon to start moving in a new direction or takes some new leap of faith. The problem comes when sometimes you bite off a little more than you can comfortably chew, with an eclipse aspecting Jupiter. These can also be times of transition in either education or travel, sometimes religion as well.
Eclipses in aspect to Saturn usually signify that you’ve outgrown some part of your life or that you need to re right the rules and the structures of your life. When eclipses aspect Saturn, you are called to take responsibility for making your life look the way you want it to look accepting responsibility, in other words, saying, “I know there is something I can do within this situation to improve my circumstances”. This is very empowering, but it is almost never what people wanna hear. And if I’m speaking with somebody who’s going through a really bad time and I talk to them in Saturn language, they can get pretty cranky with me, but I try to assure them, “No, this is the most of liberating of planets”. Because, if you take charge of your life, then you are the one in control instead of waiting for somebody else to make things better for you.
Eclipses in aspect to Uranus tend to bring some kind of crisis around friendships of trying to find our people, of feeling like a misfit. And it can be a hard time building friendships and feeling like you fit in.
Eclipses in aspect to Neptune can be when blind spots are revealed. Disillusionment is very possible if you have been fooling yourself in any area of your life, and most of us do. I knew one person who found out during an eclipse to her Neptune, that her husband had a separate credit card and was getting the statement sent to a post office. And you know, that’s an extreme example, but basically if you have had a blind spot, these eclipses will often reveal them.
Eclipses in aspect of Pluto are about a crisis around feeling that you are not in control, confronting really dark feelings like rage and jealousy and fear and grappling with all issues related to power, are really common when eclipses are aspect in Pluto. They tend to be quite psychological in nature, these eclipses. And I find that people are really, really afraid of them, but the main battle seems to usually be in our own psyche, and it is around these issues of “How much can I control in my life?”
If you have an eclipse right on your Ascendant or right on your Descendant degree, this is usually really important eclipse, obviously for relationships. There’s generally the sense that one partner or the other has a need for a little more independence. There can also be a change in appearance or moving to a new place with eclipses aspecting the ascendant. Because the ascendant is kind of the welcome mat for your chart. So, when there is pressure there, the welcome mat changes to a new location.
Eclipses in aspect to the Midheaven often brings some kind of career transition, a change in status, a change in direction. And the Midheaven can also bring changes in marital status as well. So, of course you can compare eEclipse points to asteroids or anything else you use in your chart, Chiron, whatever. I would suggest sticking to the conjunctions, squares and oppositions within 4° of orb.
Discount offer for Moonshadow Eclipse Report
This seems like a pretty good time to plug my Moonshadow Eclipse Report, because I’m going to give a discount to podcast listeners! What you do is go to order the report at my website, or you can just go to eclipseastrology.com, which will take you to the exact page. At checkout, use the discount code podcasteclipse121 at checkout. We’ll write this in the show notes. Make sure you hit “Apply” and make sure that the discount has been taken off of your total, and then you get a discount of $5 that is good through May 14th.
If you have a burning question about astrology that you would like me to answer in a future episode, leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast. Or, just send me an email April(at)bigskyastrology.com. And please be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.
Donor thanks
Well, that is everything I have on this very long show sheet, so, I’m going to wrap this one up. Thanks for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, please be sure to follow or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. I hope that you’ll help spread the word about the show by telling an astrology loving friend. And 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.
© 2022 April Elliott Kent
