TRANSCRIPT Ep. 355 | The Sun enters Virgo: Back to School!

TRANSCRIPT Ep 355 | The Sun enters Virgo: Back to School!

Hello Invisible Friend, April here, and the date today is August 17th, 2026. Welcome to Episode 355 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast.

This week begins with Mars square Neptune, and the conflict between anger and compassion. Mercury trines Saturn with mental discipline and seriousness. Venus sextiles Jupiter, bringing the usual opportunity for collaboration and individual expression. An emotionally charged Scorpio First Quarter Moon; and relationships and finances get a realistic review as Venus opposes Saturn. The Sun enters its practical and analytical Virgo season. And in this week’s mini-lesson, I revisit a Listener Question from last year about how to use eclipses from the past to instruct us, rather than terrify us!

Mars square Neptune (Aug. 17, 2026, 2:52 am PDT)
Mercury trine Saturn (Aug. 17, 2026, 8:27 am PDT)
Venus sextile Jupiter (Aug. 17, 2026, 9:15 am PDT)

Monday, August 17th, gets the week off to a busy start, with aspects from Mars and Neptune, Mercury and Saturn, and Venus and Jupiter all on this day.

Mars squares Neptune on Monday, August 17th at 2:52 am Pacific Time. It’s Mars’ first major aspect since it entered Cancer, and it’s one of only two major aspects it will make in this sign. Mars is a little quieter in Cancer than in some other signs, but it’s still Mars, which means it has a cranky side. See its Sabian symbol at this aspect: 4 Cancer, A cat arguing with a mouse. The mouse is pretty outflanked here, but still, the cat feels the need to argue its point. Neptune is on 4 Aries, Two lovers strolling through a secluded walk. And wherever Neptune is connected to partnership and love, there is certain sense of wearing rose-colored glasses.

It’s the conflict between the two, the square aspect, that really captures my attention. Mars has a beef, and it prefers to handle things like this quietly, but it does hold a grudge. And Neptune in Aries will fight back with a smoke screen. It’s not the best day for any kind of argument that will clear the air, just two sides making a point that the other side doesn’t really get at all.

Mercury trines Saturn on this day at 8:27 am Pacific Time at 14 degrees, 20 minutes Leo and Aries. As I’ve said before, Mercury in Leo is expressive and creative, but it can find it hard to listen to other points of view. The trine to Saturn delivers truth bluntly, with a firm hand, but somehow it does it in a way that Mercury in Leo can appreciate. They’re both in fire signs, and they speak the same temperamental language. Leo has a better chance of seeing the light when it is Aries that’s delivering the message.

From the Mercury-Saturn perspective, this is a really good aspect for buckling down and dealing with communication and logistics in a ruthlessly efficient way. Saturn in Aries goes through whatever is extraneous in Mercury in Leo’s prose and calendar, and it just hacks away at it. And in the end, we can end up sounding better organized and get the really necessary things done.

And just a little bit later on this day, at 9:15 am Pacific Time, Venus in Libra sextiles Jupiter in Leo. Libra is another sign that handles anything in Leo really well, with just the right amount of honest admiration. And this is one of the nicer Venus-Jupiter aspects. “How lovely you are,” says Venus in Libra, and Jupiter in Leo stands up a little straighter and says, “Tell me more.” It’s a mutual admiration society of sorts, between the planet of love and money and the planet of everything beneficial.

But Venus in Libra, although it truly likes Jupiter in Leo, is a lot shrewder than it’s given credit for. It has measured the benefits of praising Jupiter in Leo and found that it was worth doing. Don’t be afraid today to dress up in your nicest clothes and use your sweetest language in order to get what you want from someone who is in a position to give it to you.

Scorpio First Quarter Moon (Aug. 19, 2026, 7:46 pm)

And now it’s time for the Moon Report. And we begin, as always, with the week’s major lunation. This week, it is the Scorpio First Quarter Moon on Wednesday, August 19th at 7:46 p.m. Pacific time, at 27 degrees and 7 minutes Scorpio and Leo. So, what has happened in your life since that solar eclipse that was on August 12th? There was a lot of drama and ego and noise with that one. And that made it kind of hard to see what the point of it actually was.

Now, the Scorpio First Quarter Moon points the way to what should be done about the New Moon drama. We let ourselves experience the deep, uncomfortable emotions that are finally surfacing. The ways in which we have found it easier to attack others than looking closely at our own problems. This is a phase for being a little patient with others and gentle as you turn the X-ray beam of Scorpio toward yourself. Dig deep to get to the root of the problems.

Remember, a First Quarter phase is for taking action, even if we don’t exactly know just yet what ultimately needs to happen. If you were caught up in a conflagration at the Leo New Moon, it might have been especially hard to see what you were starting, like looking up at the Sun and being unable to see anything but its glare. The Scorpio First Quarter is a quieter phase. The only action that needs to be taken most likely is to look deep within and acknowledge your own frailties.

Lunar Phase Family Cycle

This is the First Quarter in a lunar phase family cycle that began on November 19th, 2025 at 28 degrees 11 minutes Scorpio. It’s now followed nine months later by a First Quarter Moon on August 19th at 27º07’ Scorpio.

This is the time when we need to look back at what we were conceiving at that New Moon in November of last year. Look to the Scorpio house of your chart and think, “What was it that I was trying to imagine into being?” Now is the time to take that first step in the direction of those New Moon goals.

Nine months from now, we’ll have a Full Moon on May 20th, 2027, and that is at 29 degrees 13 minutes Scorpio. That is a time when everything is illuminated and it seems much clearer what was behind that New Moon in November 2025. And nine months after that, there’s a Last Quarter Moon on February 17th, 2028, at 28 degrees and 10 minutes Scorpio.

How does this story end? How does it wrap up? What do we perceive, at the Last Quarter Moon, was really the point of the whole cycle? What is it that we were trying to learn or to resolve, and how well are we doing with that?

Void-of-Course Moon periods

Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. On Monday, August 17th, the Moon in Libra sextiles the Sun at 4:30 am Pacific time. It’s Void-of-Course for 10 hours and 16 minutes and enters Scorpio at 2:46 p.m. Pacific time.

There is an opportunity when the Moon sextiles another planet as it’s going Void-of-Course. The opportunity here is the Moon in Libra can help to balance the Leo Sun’s razzle dazzle. Self-expression could come really easily during this transit. Romantic gestures could go over well with the object of your affection. Use this Void-of-Course Moon period to tackle creative and romantic endeavors that will brighten someone’s day and give you a sense of well-deserved pride.

On Wednesday, August 19th, the Moon in Scorpio squares the Sun at 7:46 pm Pacific time. Then it’s Void-of-Course for 5 hours and 44 minutes, then enters Sagittarius on Thursday, August 20th at 1:30 a.m. This is the Scorpio First Quarter Moon with the Moon square the Sun. Potent emotions could be rising to the surface, and expressing those emotions could get pretty loud. Instead of blasting those closest to you with vitriol, work those strong emotions out with exercise that involves water, like swimming or yoga, or maybe spend some time in a sauna. Use this Void-of-Course Moon period to get in the habit of sweating out your grievances.

And on Saturday, August 22^nd, the Moon in Sagittarius trines the Sun at 1:31 pm Pacific time. It’s Void-of-Course for 28 minutes and then enters Capricorn at 1:59 p.m. When the Moon trines another planet as it goes Void-of-Course, we can expect a little bit of a gift or a reward. With the Moon and Sun at the very ends of their signs at 29 degrees Sagittarius and Leo, don’t be surprised if you experience a case of what my cats might call “the zoomies,” where you have a lot of energy. This is an invitation to go outside and have some good old-fashioned summer fun, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Use this Void-of-Course Moon period, although it’s pretty brief, to institute a habit of taking a pause in your day to soak up some rays and appreciate the beauty of the great outdoors.

Venus opposed Saturn (Aug. 21, 5:43 am PDT)

On Friday, August 21st at 5:43 a.m. Pacific Time, Venus in Leo opposes Saturn in Aries. The strategy that worked so well for Venus in Libra when it was interacting with Jupiter in Leo doesn’t get the same response from Saturn in Aries. Being sweet and smelling good doesn’t work as well with Saturn, let alone Saturn in Aries.

While Venus is giving Saturn all the reasons it should get what it wants, Saturn is asking the hard questions, like, “Is being charming a good enough reason to get a job, a raise, a date?” Saturn in Aries does not like the feeling of being gotten around, and Venus will have to bust out the more mechanical side of its brain and its approach in order to break through.

Venus rules relationship and it rules money, and this could be a time when both of those experience a little bit of a feeling of blockage. That maybe we are trying to earn some money, and we keep getting nowhere with that. Or when we would like to move a relationship forward and instead, as it says in the Sabian symbol for Venus at this aspect, 15 Libra, we experience “circular paths,” like we’re running around and around in circles and not really getting anywhere.

So if you find yourself on this Friday having that sense of not really getting where you want to go with your money, with your relationships, and that you’re going round and round in circles, know that Saturn does tend to reward hard work. So if we are doing the work we need to do, even if it feels frustrating and even if it feels as if, “Gosh, haven’t I done this already again and again,” go ahead and do the work that you know you need to do and don’t focus too much on the reward that you’ll get for it. Because I think that it will come, but with Saturn it usually is delayed a bit.

Sun enters Virgo (Aug. 22, 7:19 pm PDT)

The Sun enters Virgo on Saturday, August 22nd at 7:19 p.m. Pacific Time, and it will be in this sign until September 22nd.

I really love Virgo season. In fact, I really like Virgo, period. I find it a very cool and restful, sensitive sign. But I live in Southern California where Virgo season is more blisteringly hot and humid and uncomfortable than it tends to be in my imagination. I find it’s a bit of hard work just getting through late August to late September. It’s like a person who was born with the Sun in Virgo but has several hot, noisy planets in Leo. But back in the days when I was in school, well, those were perfect Virgo times for stocking up on school supplies and buying the right clothes and adjusting to a new school schedule.

Everything in the academic realm felt fresh and new and really not difficult at all – at least until you got your syllabuses for your classes and you could see what lay ahead: the papers and the projects and the final chapters in your textbooks that looked absolutely baffling.

Virgo season is when we gear up for new challenges, and we figure out step by step how we are going to manage them. We begin with the outer trappings of a new project, new supplies, new clothes, and then we have to settle down and adjust to the reality of it and dig in to really understand it and to do the work.

Mini-Lesson: Listener Question revisit – scary eclipse repeats

In this week’s mini-lesson, I’m going to revisit a listener question from February when listener Holly wrote, “Dear April, I’ve heard you talk about eclipses and how it’s a good idea to go back and look at times when other eclipses were in that part of your chart and what happened then to get a sense of what an upcoming eclipse will mean for you. The eclipse coming up on February 17th at 28 degrees Aquarius is very close to one that happened in February 2018, and that was a really difficult time for me, so now I’m feeling anxious about this upcoming eclipse. Should I be thinking of this differently?”

And this was a really wonderful question, and it really may be speaking now to people with planets around 20 degrees of Leo, where the most recent solar eclipse was, and who might be looking back to previous times in this eclipse cycle.

For example, looking back to August 11th, 2018, or August 11th, 1999, August 10th, 1980. Those are all among the years when we had eclipses at this same point. And you might be looking back to those periods of time and think, oh no, that’s when that really terrible thing happened or that terrible thing happened, and you might feel a little bit concerned or a little bit apprehensive.

So, it’s not just about eclipses that we can see these troubling repeating patterns. All planets have cycles, and astrologers will often encourage you to look at previous moments in that cycle for insight. If you are having an opposition, say, between transiting Uranus and natal Uranus when you’re about 42 years old or so, we will take you back to your first Uranus square to natal Uranus in your early 20s for some ideas about how this played out for you previously and how it might show up for you in the present.

So, you can be right that looking back at earlier eclipses in the same part of your chart can be incredibly informative. Eclipses usually activate similar themes because they’re returning to the same degree and house as they were previously. But I like to share this quote from Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” In other words, an eclipse doesn’t necessarily repeat an experience; it revisits the topic that’s related to that house and sign.

So, those other eclipses may have coincided with really difficult times in your life, but that doesn’t mean that the most recent eclipse was going to recreate that difficulty. It does suggest that something related to the same area of life is coming back into focus, often to be completed or clarified or approached with more awareness than before.

We can think of eclipses less like reruns of past ones and more like sequels. We have familiar characters at play, but you are not exactly the same person that you were nine years ago. You’ve lived through whatever that earlier eclipse set in motion, and that experience, as well as eight years of life, has really changed you. You have more information now, more skills, more perspective, and that matters a lot in how an eclipse will play out.

Also, eclipses don’t usually create something out of nowhere unless we’re very young. Eclipses tend to uncover what’s been developing beneath the surface. They tell us you’ve gone as far as you can go in a certain direction and now it’s time to change direction. If that 2018 eclipse, for example, cracked something open in you and in your life, this one may be about understanding what that opening led to or deciding what no longer needs to continue in your life. So instead of asking is this going to be as hard as last time, which is a very natural question, a better question might be, “What have I learned since then and how can I respond differently now?” That shift from trying to predict what’s going to happen to participating with the eclipse is one of the healthiest ways to work with eclipses.

They’re not punishment and they’re not exactly predictions either. They are moments of awareness, and what we do with that awareness makes all the difference.

I hope that you are all having good fortune and good insights with this recent eclipse. As I record this, the solar eclipse is tomorrow, and then in a couple of weeks we have a lunar eclipse, and I hope that we can learn from all of it.

If you have a burning question about astrology that you would like me to answer on a future episode of the podcast, leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com / bigskyastrologypodcast or send me an email at april at bigskyastrology.com, and be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject.

Donor Thanks and the Upcoming Podathon!

Well, that is everything on my show sheet, so I’m going to wrap this one up. Thank you for listening to the Big Sky Astrology Podcast.

If you like what you’re hearing, please be sure to subscribe or follow the show in your app of choice. Leave a rating or a review and I hope that you’ll help 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.

Thank you so much to everyone who has shown support for the podcast, and especially during last September’s Podathon! On each episode, I’m thanking some of my financial donors by name. This week, let’s give a Big Sky Astrology Podcast shout-out to Katie Serda!

Katie, thank you so much for listening to the podcast and for supporting the show with your donations.

If you would like to support the show and receive access to my bonus video episodes for donors only – we usually have them about once a month around the New Moon – please go to bigskyastropod.com and make a contribution of ten dollars or more to get access to those videos. You can also make a one-time donation in any amount or become an ongoing monthly contributor.

Now we do have our seventh annual Podathon coming up on Labor Day week, so I hope that you will tune in to that because we have five fantastic guests! I asked these astrologers to talk about some of the topics that I hear about most from my clients. So on Monday we’ll be hearing from Linea Van Horn about moving house. On Tuesday, we will listen to Sam Reynolds as he tells us about some of the things that show up in a chart when someone is getting ready to change career or that talk about their natal career. On Wednesday, we will have Kira Sutherland talking to us about health and medical astrology. On Thursday, Donna Stellhorn will be talking to us about money in the birth chart – she’s a whiz at this topic. And on Friday, we will hear from Dorothy Oja about the astrology of relationships.

So mark that on your calendar, and I hope that you will all tune in and join us for those episodes!

Well, that is it for this episode, so join me again bright and early next Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars!