TRANSCRIPT Ep. 359 | Podathon Day #2: Career in Your Chart, with Samuel Reynolds!

TRANSCRIPT Ep 359 | Podathon Day #2: Career in Your Chart, with Samuel Reynolds! (9.8.26)

Hello, invisible friend. April here. The date today is September 8th, 2026, and welcome to episode 359 and day two of the seventh annual Big Sky Astrology Podathon.

Labor Day week each year is when we bring you Podathon, five daily episodes complete with the big astrological news of the week and interviews with some of my favorite colleagues. You are going to love these. Of course, this is also the week when I make my appeal for donations, which help me cover the costs of producing the podcast for the entire year.

But first, I really do wanna take a moment to say thank you to those of you who have supported the show over the past year, whether by making a donation, leaving a review, or to be honest, just by tuning in. I’m gratified to know that so many of you continue to find value in the show seven years after we started.

I really appreciate your support. But while I do my best to run a tight ship, there are costs associated with producing this weekly show, and I would rather turn to my listeners to help cover these costs rather than taking on advertising. I’m a big podcast listener, and so many of the shows I listen to have turned to an advertising-heavy model that really interferes with the flow of the shows and my enjoyment of them.

And I’m going to assume that many of you probably feel the same way. And so once a year, during Labor Day week, I give you Podathon. And then the rest of the year, we don’t have to talk about fundraising. So how can you donate? You can make a one-time donation in any amount or become a regular monthly contributor.

Just go to bigskyastropod.com. And to encourage your contributions, here are this year’s fantastic giveaways. First, everyone who donates $25 or more, as well as our ongoing monthly Pod Pal contributors, will be automatically entered in a drawing for a chance to win one of these prizes. Three lucky donors will win a copy of my personal Followed by a Moon Shadow Eclipse Report.

It’s a $35 value, and it can help you put last month’s eclipses into perspective. Two lucky listeners will win a 60-minute personal astrology reading with me. That’s a $195 value. And one grand prize winner will win a 90-minute reading with me, a $245 value. To be entered in the drawing, you need to make your $25 donation at bigskyastropod.com no later than midnight [00:04:00] Pacific Time on Monday, September 14th.

The drawing will be held on September 15th, and the winners will be notified by email. And if that level of donation is out of reach for you right now, I’m also offering donors of only $10 or more a special bonus, a series of private videos for donors only. This is something we tried for the first time last year, and since then, we’ve had Zoom meetings at every new moon, going in-depth on big planetary transits and the new moon symbolism, and just having fun meeting with each other.

And by the way, I do realize that not everyone can contribute financially. Here are a few easy, free ways you can show your love and support for the podcast. Number one, if you like [00:05:00] the show, please subscribe or follow it on your app of choice. This is actually the very best way you can support the show, by helping it get noticed by new listeners.

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And you could also just recommend the show to an astrology-loving friend. However you show your appreciation, please know I am deeply grateful. And now for today’s episode.

In this week’s special daily episodes, I’m interviewing some of my colleagues about topics my clients ask about most. Today’s interview is with Samuel Reynolds, who shares thoughts with me about how to handle questions related to career, a very common topic among my clients. But first, let’s take a moment to look at today’s planetary news.

It’s a quiet day astrologically, with the Moon in glorious Leo and making a couple of aspects. A nice stabilizing trine to Saturn at 8:04 AM Pacific Time, and a very upbeat conjunction with Jupiter at 11:36 AM. Moon in Leo days, especially when the Moon is well-aspected like this, are days for enjoying ourselves.

For some of us, this might mean diving into a creative project, maybe sneaking out for a movie matinee. For others, maybe it’s lunch with work mates or a visit with grandchildren. Most people I know are pretty busy working hard, and they need a day now and then just for having fun, doing exactly what they want to do.

This is that kind of day, so enjoy it.

Interview with Samuel Reynolds

As you know, during this Podathon week, I’m bringing you interviews with five of my colleagues, each of whom will tell us how they might answer some of my clients’ most-asked questions on particular topics. Today’s interview in this series is with astrologer Samuel Reynolds, who will tell us how he approaches questions related to career, and particularly the transits and timelines to look for when you’re seeking a change in your career.

Samuel was formerly an astrological skeptic. Then he had a life-changing visit to an astrologer, and he has spent more than 30 years since then studying astrology. Now Samuel consults and teaches astrology full-time. He serves as president of the newly established International Coalition of Astrology Educators.com and was the co-recipient of the International Society for Astrological Research’s 2022 Community Service Award.

His co-founding of NORWAC’s Diversity Scholarship has helped launch or develop the careers of many historically marginalized astrologers. You can reach out to Samuel at unlockastrology.com. And here is our conversation

We’re talking today with Samuel Reynolds, who is one of my favorite astrologers- Oh, thank you … and the first person who came to mind for me to talk with you all today about the role of astrology in career, and in looking at the best career for you, what’s coming up in your career, how career is different than a job, and all these kinds of things.

Sam is a guy that’s very grounded in reality, and he tells it like it is, and I thought he would be the perfect person. And I find out, too, he has Mars in Capricorn, which is fantastic for somebody who is gonna be talking about career. So, let’s get into it. Each year, during my Podathon in September, I treat myself to interviewing some of my colleagues, and treat my listeners to this as well.

So what we’re talking about this week on the Podathon are the topics I hear about most from clients, and career is definitely one of them. So Sam, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.

Samuel: Thank you for having me, April.

April: So let’s talk a little bit about career. I shared with you a few of the questions I tend to get from people about career when I’m reading for them.

When you’re first looking at a chart and somebody is asking you about career, what are the first things you’re gonna look for?

Samuel: Well, it’s interesting. I mean, in general, people are asking about what I call the “ance”s: romance, finance or how to advance. And when I say advance, that often relates to health, but that also relates to how to advance in the world, specifically related to career.

But when I think about career, I first think about purpose. It’s not so much that I look at a chart and it says, “You’re a butcher, baker or candlestick maker.” It’s more so often revealing what becomes the thing that is most important for you as your, quote-unquote, vocation or action in the world, and what might suit that.

So for instance, there may be someone who, speaking of Mars, may have strong Martian overtones, whether that’s an angular Mars, meaning it’s at the first, fourth, seventh or tenth, Aries or Scorpio on the Midheaven, uh, as a particular point Or strong aspects related to Mars and other parts of the chart, especially to one of the luminaries, the Sun or the Moon or other points.

And that person may be strongly interested in being protective or a protector, and that could take them in a couple different directions. Just not even a couple, various directions. I’ve seen that active for someone who got involved in ACS for child services, or someone who became, or at one point they served as military police and went into law enforcement, or they become an enforcer in some other way.

So I always wanna start off with, like, what becomes the general overtones of purpose that match with the aspect related to vocation. And then with vocation, we can also think job. Vocation is not, as you mentioned, the same as job, because vocation comes from the Latin vocare, which means calling. So, you could have a calling, and how you’re established in your community or your society could be very different than how you operate related to what makes money or how you make money.

Right. But what I think about is how people feel a sense of alignment related to a sense of purpose. And it’s nice when the job is related to the vocation, but that’s not always possible.

One example I can give for that is that let’s say someone has a strong 9th house sensibility in terms of whether the Sun or Moon or other planets that are strong there. That can be several different kinds of vocations or jobs.

I mean, it could be preacher, it could be, you know, academic. It could be lawyer. It could be also travel. It could be travel agent, right? All these particular things could be there. Or astrologer, right? All those things could be suggested by that. And one thing I think about from where, you know, and how I grew up, there were a lot of preachers who didn’t necessarily – which I thought was a good thing – rely just on their congregations for income, and so they often were also barbers.

That was how they made their money, but they would tell you their vocation was more being the preacher. You know, literally reflective of a calling.

I can use myself as an example. I do have a strong 9th house, and I have my Sun, my Mercury, my Lot of Fortune, and my Neptune all in that place. And just to tell you, I’ve been a preacher. I’ve been a professor in academia. My first and only full-time job was in publishing, and so I was doing PR in publishing, so that’s also 9th house. And now I’m an astrologer. So those are different career paths but all relate to a similar calling of wanting to convey something to people, relay to people.

So I always talk with clients first about what becomes reflective of their sense of purpose.

April: I think that that’s true, and I have always said when I’m talking to people about career, we don’t start with the conventional symbols that we associate with career. We don’t necessarily start with the Midheaven, the 10th house, Saturn. I start with the Sun. What is it you’re trying to be? What’s the thing that lights up your life? Because if that’s in no way connected with your vocation, how can we really call it a vocation?

Samuel: Very good point

April: It really is about the calling. My father was a farmer, and he was a small independent farmer at a time that it was very difficult to make a living that way. And my mother used to say he did things to feed his farming habit. So in the off-seasons, he did logging, and he helped people fix machinery and things like that. If you ask him what he is, uh, he would say, “I’m a farmer.” But it wasn’t always how he made his living.

Samuel: Right. So. And there are other things we can look at.

In fact, you and I were talking about the floating Midheaven of the Whole Sign House system. And the Whole Sign House system, for those who are not familiar with it, is that we use, starting from the Ascendant, the whole sign for each house. So if you’re a Cancer rising, let’s say it’s 16 degrees Cancer rising, we would use as the first house the whole sign of Cancer.

And then we would go around the whole chart starting from the first house to the 12th to Gemini in the 12th, and that would be it. But what happens with that system is that the Midheaven floats. It can float even as far as going toward the eighth house, ninth house, 10th house, which is normally where it is in most quadrant house systems, to even the 11th or 12th.

That’s annoying for those of us who want the Midheaven in a certain point. But the Midheaven takes on a different significance in that system, and it takes on the significance of being one’s vocation or reflective of vocation. As versus the 10th house becomes more reflective of career or job.

Okay. And so there’s a distinction that’s made between what becomes your vocation and what becomes your job, and we could say the difference is… The analogy I like to give is imagine, because most neighborhoods have a Big Mama, even if she’s not literally big, right? But a Big Mama who is the generous communal community matriarch of the community, and who gives out all the best candy, who dolls up and gets the house ready for all the holidays, and everyone just loves her.

She may have that, we could say, as a calling, but maybe she works at a law firm, right? And that’s her job. But, you know, let’s say, you know, God forbid, she passes away and people just know her as Big Mama. Maybe some people know her name, but that’s how she becomes known or established in terms of reputation.

But in terms of what became her work or job, how she earned her money, that’s the distinction we can make, in terms of that floating. So the Midheaven becomes one particular significator, but I also draw in on the Sun, ’cause I usually will talk about Sun, Moon, and Rising as giving the basic architecture of what we’re talking about related to what’s happening in terms of what this person is trying to fulfill.

And then we can go on to the, you know, the ruler of the Ascendant, and then also there’s the Part of Spirit. If you wanna go more into the weeds, the Part of Fortune. Yeah, well, what’s the difference? The Part of Spirit becomes more about one’s intention. It’s where, if you’re a free will advocate and person, how you might assert some aspect of your free will or aspect of intention.

Whereas the Lot of Fortune is more about the things that have just come into your orbit. And when I say things that come in your orbit, more the fiscal and physical elements of your life, things often beyond your control. It’s not necessarily where you just find your fortune, and it’s where you experience the things, you know, like when Hamlet says, “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

That’s pretty much what we’re talking about. So these are some of the markers we can look at, but we wanna, I think, get the basic composition of, like, what is this soul seeking to achieve, and how. When they come to an astrologer, that’s usually the question. How and when, right? How might they actually achieve it, and when?

And one chart, if I can, I’d like to share and describe for listeners and even some viewers, Jeffrey Dahmer. You’re like, “Oh my God, why are we talking about a serial murderer?” And just for those who wanna look up the chart, he was born May 21st, 1960, 4:34 PM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a Libra Rising with a Sun in Gemini, in zero degrees Gemini. He’s born on the first day or so of Gemini, with a Moon in Aries.

Now, his Sun and Mercury happen to be in the section of the chart we call the ninth house. So this is someone who could have a talent for acquiring knowledge, and I mentioned the ninth house. He obviously wasn’t a preacher, but someone who could benefit from learning things and being…and using aspects of curiosity. Now, he had some challenges to that, but that’s the, the idea.

But what’s striking about him is his Moon is in Aries directly opposite to his Ascendant, and his Mars was in Aries. So the Mars is the ruler of that Moon. You’re like, “Okay, so what?” Well, his Midheaven is at 23 degrees Cancer, so that’s also harking back to the Moon, the Moon ruling that Midheaven, and the Moon, like I said, is directly opposite to the Ascendant.

What this can convey is a person who can be strongly attached to other people and wanting to do that in some kind of lunar fashion, helping, wanting to be of support, and he was a medic in the military.

April: Oh, was he?

Samuel: He was. Didn’t do necessarily well as a medic, but he… When I say he didn’t do well, I think it was with a certain lack of conviction. He spent a lot of time drunk and high unfortunately. And he has, you know, for those who know a little more astrology, he has a challenging aspect between his Moon and Saturn. His Saturn’s in Capricorn. And so that can also speak to some problems he had with his father, which he did have. The father left the home early in his life, which I think was very disorienting for him.

Pretty much his mom also abandoned him, and he was… he spent a lot of time alone as a teenager. You’re like, “Well, why is that important related to his career and purpose or, you know, his trajectory?” Well, I would say one of the things that was a missed opportunity for Jeffrey- Was to have gone into medicine ’cause that Mars ruling that Moon, there is a way in which he could have been, and I don’t think he would’ve necessarily been a surgeon, but dealing with something Martian like being a phlebotomist or some way drawing blood and, or even acupuncture. Dealing with something Martian, needles, being able to poke people, would’ve been more of a positive expression.

How it came out, though, is that, and this is a trigger warning for those who are easily triggered or who don’t know as much about his story, is that that Moon became a way of fixating on lovers. He was gay, and he would draw in young men, usually men of color, to his home, and then he would kill them and then keep parts of them. And so it was a way in which he didn’t want them ever to leave him. That’s also the idea of the Moon, and he wanted to be able to keep them with him, and he was seriously afflicted with the fear of abandonment. So rather than finding the positive expression of it, he ended up cutting up lovers.

I wanted to use him as an example because it’s ways in which we can start thinking about our purpose and using our sense of consciousness and the astrologer’s sense of expertise to help direct us toward how we can be on a path that’s more affirming and life-affirming than taking away from what we can do.

Because this is a person that, as you say, lacked guidance. When he was a young person, he didn’t have someone necessarily to even try to help him find a positive direction for who he was and what his impulses were moving forward. So that’s a really good point with that.

April: Yeah, the Mars thing, you’ll often hear that if it’s angular in the chart or if it’s very strong in the chart, that it definitely is something that can point towards taking things apart, and that’s why we associate it with surgery or dental work or something like that where you’re in there and really kind of taking things apart. So that’s fascinating.

And I think about that a lot because I think there’s some people, for instance, who are very high-minded or idealistic, for instance, as part of the composition of their chart, and there are multiple indicators for that from having planets strongly in Aquarius to Neptune being influential.

And let’s say here with Jeffrey Dahmer, and I’m not… I’m just referencing, I’m not saying he’s an example of this. But let’s say he had a Sun square Neptune. He doesn’t, but let’s say he did, and he said, “Well, I’m gonna go into law.” What kind of law? “Corporate law.” I would say you would need to kind of think through this because it’s gonna be in conflict with some measure of your idealism. If you’re gonna be a corporate lawyer, there’s not necessarily a lot of room for idealism in it in a strict sense.

So I always think about as you’re, you know, looking to go along a trajectory, what also fuels, I won’t say happiness, but fulfillment. Fulfillment related to your talent. People, I guess, during the ’80s and ’90s quoting Joseph Campbell started going more into, like, “Follow your bliss.”

I’m more of the mind of, like, follow your talent, and I think in thinking about your talent, though, you also have to think about what do you need also as a person. So for me, and I think maybe this is true for you, I can get bored easily, and I also need a certain amount of independence. So one of the reasons why I didn’t become an academic is I didn’t feel that sense of independence, and I also could get bored, so there’s always…

You know, I just didn’t wanna keep teaching, like, African American Studies 101 for the balance of my career. You know, astrology, there’s always more to learn. I mean, we got 3,000 years from multiple cultures, and there’s always something kinda new to get into, and I keep a good measure of my independence.

Now, sometimes that can be challenging ’cause you don’t have an institution to buttress you, but you can have that. That’s another thing to consider.

I’m looking at Bill Clinton’s chart. He’s born August 19th, 1946, 8:51 AM, in Hope Arkansas, the Man from Hope. And one of the things I’m gonna say, he’s a Libra rising, and he has his Sun in Leo with Pluto, Mercury, Saturn in Leo, and he has Mars conjoined to his Ascendant, Neptune, Venus, and Chiron, and Jupiter in Libra.

And you might recall or see from what I’m talking about, at least seven of… eight of his planets are in what we call the eastern or left side of the chart. This is a person who needs to be more self-directed. I also usually say this is a person who does better in situations where they’re not micromanaged, and if they are working for someone else, they can, you know, operate on a long leash, meaning that there’s not someone always looking over their shoulder.

Well, he became President of the United States. He also was a governor of a state, and he was more of an independent, relatively independent lawyer before that. And so this is someone who needed to be able to work on his own timetable. Now, let’s say this person came to me and said, “Well, I’m thinking about going to the military,” at 18, as an example.

And I would ask, “Are you planning on becoming an officer?” And one thing to understand, especially with Mars rising, you may be drawn toward service, the military, and some way in which you’re doing Martian things, but you’re not gonna be someone who always likes to take orders, or you may question orders, which is not something one does.

No, no one’s asking you to, to think for yourself. So if you can do that, and you’re prepared for that, then this can be a track of service for you, at least for a time.

April: And I think that gives them something to consider as they’re thinking about moving along with their career or life path.

Samuel: Yeah, that’s a really good way to put it because you look at his chart and you can see, while he does have that strong emphasis up there of Saturn and Pluto together in a fixed sign in Leo, and that Mars rising pretty much, and that, that could show an interest in that kind of work or that kind of environment.

But your point is such a good one. It’s why we’re saying you have to kind of look at a lot more of the chart than just Saturn or the Midheaven. To say, what is, what’s the bigger picture of what’s motivating this person? And as you were saying in that scenario, expanding it out a little more.

April: And saying, okay, but thinking ahead, and it’s better probably at the beginning of that kind of career to be thinking, “If I wanna be an officer, there’s a particular path I need to take almost from the beginning.” So that would be really helpful.

Exactly. And just for parity, if someone has a lot of planets on the western side of the chart, which is the right side of the chart, this is someone who enjoys bouncing things off with other people, whether that be a partner or working in collaboration or working with clients. It doesn’t mean you’re necessarily, you just have to work for other people, but more so work with other people.

And they may be more into the idea of a job for the sake of working with people. Now, I’m gonna go political for a little bit, not, you know, in terms of Democrat or Republican, but one thing that’s been interesting are billionaire tech folks saying, like, “Well, thanks to AI, you won’t necessarily have to have a job anymore working with people.”

And I think that is missing out on something that we astrologers know, especially if you’re gonna be more Western Hemisphere emphasis. There’s a lot of people who enjoy going to their jobs because of the people there that they work with. And so work is not necessarily the chore that people make it out…you know, tech folk are making it out to be, thinking that AI becomes this wonderful replacement for human relationship.

And I think that’s also another thing to talk about. What’s your relationship to people in terms of working with a career? We can see Bill likes people. He’s a Libra rising with Venus in Libra.

You know, Mars and Neptune, even though, yes, he can be assertive, maybe even sometimes aggressive, there is definitely this way in which he wants to connect with people, and he has a very strong 11th house. His Saturn, as April mentioned, his Saturn, his Mercury, his Pluto, and his Sun are all in the 11th house.

So thinking about the idea of community, aspects of service, the broader aspects of what I would call social conscience was important to him. Or is important. As opposed to, like you say, I mean, there’s the Moon over there in the Western hemisphere of the chart.

April: I always think the Moon, in terms of career, does talk about the people we connect with and the people we serve specifically. And especially if you have a Moon that’s got a lot of difficult aspects, you’ll often, especially earlier in your career, connect with people that really push those buttons so that you have to work through that and figure it out. So the Moon in Taurus, we can look and say, “Wow, what a beautiful, strong, exalted Moon.” But it’s making a lot of squares to Leo stuff, a lot of quincunxes to the Libra.

Samuel: Yeah, I mean, it’s not a bad Moon, but it has its challenges as well, and it says as you’re working with people, these are the kinds of issues you’re gonna run up against. So on the one hand, a very strong Eastern hemisphere where it’s like, “I like people, but I’d rather do things on my own.” And this brings up an issue of character development.

Now, this is public record and public because those of us who have grew up when Clinton was president, I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been documented. In terms of character development, one thing an astrologer could have said to him when he was 18 is kinda like, “Be mindful of self-indulgence,” especially with that Moon in Taurus, where he may have the inclination to feel like he’s entitled to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it, and being attached, especially with the strong Venus, to Venusian things, whether that’s romancing or just self-indulgence, sensual pleasures. We’ll just put it that way. All those particular things, and overeating and over-indulging.

And those are things to consider. I at least consider them and talk about it related to career because it can help you, and this is what I was saying about, you know, the book I’m writing, which I call Consider Your Movement, in terms of dealing with the strategy of formulating and having a life plan.

I don’t talk as much about karma. You said I’m pretty straightforward, down to earth. I talk about character, going back to the idea of character from the Western tradition rather than karma. And what character means are the things that we do on a recurrent basis that, that help us along and help others or delay us or hinder us.

So for instance, I’ll pick on myself. I have a Sun-Jupiter square. The good aspect of that Sun-Jupiter square is wanting to do a lot. The bad aspect of it is aspiring to do more than one can possibly do. And so kind of like scattershot approach. Uh, and so someone could’ve said to you, like, “Well, what are you gonna focus in on? How are you gonna learn to specialize in something?” And I have a Jupiter in Virgo, uh, with a Sun at the anaretic degree of Scorpio. So it becomes a way to start thinking about, how do you fine-tune your knowledge and your expertise? I like that.

April: So we were talking a little bit before the interview, because we were talking about your book and about some other work that you’ve done, and you were talking about life passages in particular, you know? And I was just wondering, if you’re talking with somebody… I mean, to us it sounds so simple, as somebody’s coming up on a Saturn return or they’re having a, maybe a Saturn-Uranus aspect or something that’s crossing their Midheaven. And to us, that gives a very particular picture of what could be going on with their career. But what are the kinds of tools that you think you really rely on in things like transits or progressions or the lots or whatever it is that you like to use, that really is helpful in guiding that discussion about what’s coming up for somebody in their career? Because a lot of times people feel something big is coming, but they can’t quite articulate it. Let me give you my top three.

I have more that I use, but my top three are profections, which we use, and this is why I’m more whole sign, where we use a particular sign for each year of life, starting from, you can start from the Ascendant, you can start from the Midheaven, you can start from what we call the sect light, whether you’re born during the day, which is the Sun, or if you’re born at night, the Moon, and then the Lot of Fortune in zodiacal order from the year of life.

For instance, I’m 58. I would be in a, what we call an 11th sign profection, starting from the Ascendant or from the Midheaven or wherever. So I do find that gives a big picture of what’s happening related to the life. And you can do it from the Midheaven, which is gonna be more about your reputation and your career.

So that’s one. The solar return is more specific toward a particular year, and that gives some of the big picture elements for what you’re dealing with in a year. So it could be that it’s not always about career, but career is always affected by any other thing that’s happening, like health, or if you’re going toward a divorce, or if you’re going toward marriage or whatever. It’s good to know what is happening in tandem, and solar returns give that.

But one of my favorites, modern favorites, are progressions, and definitely between the Sun and the Moon, the progressed Sun and the progressed Moon. And that really does provide a window in a lot of ways in terms of the stage of life.

And one fascinating thing is that if someone is going toward a degree change related to their Sun or Midheaven, because they operate on the same timeframe of degrees and movement. And just for those who don’t know, the Sun and Midheaven operate on roughly a one-degree shift for every year of life, starting from when you were born.

So if it’s 60 years later, it’s gonna be 60 days later, which is gonna be roughly about 60 degrees for the Midheaven or for the Sun. And that can signify a big shift or refocus in what happens in the life. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you shift careers completely, but maybe a particular focus.

Let me give an example I like to give. Let’s say you’ve been in nursing, and you’ve been a traveling nurse for, let’s say, for 30 years, uh, but you’re about to go toward a degree change with your Midheaven or your Sun. It may be like, “You know what? I’m tired of traveling around. I’m, I’m still gonna stay a nurse, but maybe I’ll become a surgical nurse,” or, “I’m going to actually get a job at a hospital and stay there.”

That’s a shift in that I can say, “This is where you’re, you’re going.” I had a client just the other day who retired from tech and being in tech, and now they’re looking to do more related to life insurance. Well, not just life insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, all kinds of aspects of insurance. But, you know, and they’re strongly Aquarian, and they had a strong 9th house sensibility.

And I was like, “Okay, well, even though you’re interested…” And they were Gemini rising. “Even though you’re interested in these things, I can see you really are interested in promulgating an idea.” And he’s like, “Yeah, I’m more… wanna talk to people about…” dealing with a healthier lifestyle, and the insurance becomes a way of buttressing that.

And I’m like, “Okay, yeah, that’s exactly what your chart would augur.” And that’s the shift that they’re making, and that is also confirmed. They’re in a balsamic phase, so that makes sense with… Balsamic phase, by the way, is going toward a new moon by progression. And so there’s a shedding phase, there’s a cocoon phase, there’s a way in which they’re preparing for the next cycle.

And so they actually have the New Moon phase about three years from now. So it’s gonna be like you’re on this trajectory, and your current idea of what you wanna do is going to shift, but more by method than by intention. And to be clear, when I say by method, how you may do things, how you’re conceiving of it may change, but the fact that you wanna do it may stay the same.

And I gave him an example even from my life, which is I came into being an astrologer during my, my balsamic phase. And I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna have this fancy Fifth Avenue office,” which I did. And I thought it’s gonna be about having classes, like, at the Learning Annex and whatever. Well, that was the intention, but I ended up working more from home and doing more through social media and, you know, uh, virtually.

April: I just want to mention our colleague, Kelly Surtees, I remember did a wonderful workshop on the progressed lunar phases that I would encourage people to look up on her website. She might have an article or something or-

Samuel: She does YouTube. She also has talked about it on The Astrology Podcast if anyone wants to find that as well.

April: Yeah. It’s wonderful. Well, Sam, thank you. And is there anything else that you’d like to add as we’re wrapping up?

Samuel: Well, you and I probably could talk for hours, so we’re not going to do that. But I have enjoyed speaking with you and sharing a little bit, and I hope that your listeners have a better idea related to it.

Because I think sometimes people come to an astrologer with the expectation that we’re gonna tell them, “You’re a candlestick maker,” right? Or, or, “You’re a baker.” And I don’t think that’s my job. I don’t think that’s the job of the astrologer, to say, like, “Well, you’re this.” I think what we can say is that, “This is what you need. Here are some ideas I’m thinking about.”

But you may have something that you’re working with, especially when you’re younger. And I do wanna say to younger people, those in their 20s rather than those who are younger people in their 60s. I would say that some measure of your time is to experiment. You know, one of the phrases I have come to hate as I’ve gotten older is, “Youth is wasted on the young.”

And I’ve come to really hate it ’cause I’m like, “No, it’s not. That’s part of the point.” Yeah, you might, quote-unquote, in retrospect think that you’re wasting time, but experiment, learn. But also pay attention to yourself. And one of the things that you and I have talked about is to be reflective related to these cycles, rather than thinking it’s determinative.

April: Right. Wonderful. Thank you. Sam, tell people where they can find you, and is there anything big that you have coming up in the next few months?

Samuel: Yeah. So people can find me at unlockastrology.com. That’s all one word. And then they can write me if they want to write me, unlockastrology@gmail.com. And the big thing that I have coming up is that I am going to be at the United Astrology Conference with April. We’re not appearing together- … but we’re at the same conference. And that is in September, early September, in Chicago, Illinois. Yeah, very excited about that. That’s kind of the, the big thing.

April: Wonderful. We will link to your particular, uh, lectures in the show notes so people can catch up with you there if they find themselves in Chicago and think they just need a little bit of Sam.

Samuel: Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much.

April: What a great conversation. I hope that you enjoyed this interview and hearing from Sam. I always love to hear what he has to say. He’s very thoughtful and he’s very concise. And if you’re planning a career change or trying to figure out what you wanna be when you grow up, hopefully this discussion will give you some insights on how to look at that in your birth chart.

Closing

Well, that is everything on my show sheet, so I’m gonna wrap this one up. Thank you for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast, and for joining me for the second episode of the seventh annual Podathon. This weekly podcast is audience-funded, and your generous donations help me keep the podcast coming to you ad-free.

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