Transcript Ep. 361
Podathon Day #4: Money in the Birth Chart, with Donna Stellhorn!
Hello, invisible friend. April here, and the date today is September 10th, 2026, and this is day four of the 7th Annual Big Sky Astrology Podathon!
Podathon is the week each year during Labor Day week when we bring you five daily episodes, complete with the big astrological news of the week and interviews with some of my very favorite colleagues. 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 year.
But first, a big thank you to those of you who have helped the show over the past year, whether by making a donation, leaving a review, or just by tuning in. How gratifying it is to know that so many of you continue to listen and find value in the show a full seven years after we started. I really appreciate your support.
Because while I do my best to keep expenses down, there are costs associated with producing this weekly show. And I’m a big podcast listener myself. So many of the shows I listen to have turned to advertising in a big way, and for me, that really interferes with my enjoyment of the shows. And I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that some of you feel the same way.
And so once a year, during Labor Day week, I bring you Podathon.
And I’m happy to say that for six years running, this single week of fundraising has paid for the rest of the year’s expenses, and the rest of the year, there’s no talk of fundraising.
So how can you make your donation? You can make a one-time donation in any amount, or you can become a regular monthly contributor. Just go to bigskyastropod.com. And to encourage your contributions, here are some prizes that we are giving away this year.
First, everyone who donates $25 or more, as well as our ongoing monthly Podpal contributors, will be entered in a drawing for a chance to win one of these prizes. Three lucky donors will win a copy of my Followed by a Moonshadow Eclipse Report, a $35 value, and this will cover last month’s eclipses as well to help you put those into context, as well as eclipses for the next two years.
Two lucky listeners will win a personal 60-minute 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 Pacific Time on Monday, September 14th. The drawing will be held on September 15th, and winners will be notified by email.
And if that’s more than you can afford right now, I’m also offering donors of only $10 or more a special bonus. It’s a series of private Zoom calls and YouTube videos for donors only. We tried this for the first time last year, and since then, we’ve had Zoom meetings at every New Moon, and we go in-depth on big planetary transits, Stephanie does a tarot presentation, and also, we look at the New Moon symbolism. It’s just a great time for meeting with each other and going in-depth about that New Moon cycle.
And by the way, I know that not everyone can contribute financially at all. I get it. Here are a few easy, free ways that you can show your love and support for the podcast.
If you like the show, please subscribe or follow the show on the app where you listen to it. This is the very best way you can support the show and help it get noticed by new listeners. You could leave a five-star rating or write a happy review, either on Apple Podcasts or any of the other platforms that allow comments. These can sometimes inspire other people to sample the show. I have done that myself with new podcasts. And you can join the conversation on my website and make a comment at bigskyastropod.com. Just click on whichever episode you want to comment on. And finally, recommend the show to an astrology-loving friend.
However you choose to show your appreciation, please know that I am deeply grateful! And now for today’s episode.
Today’s Astrology
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 Donna Stellhorn, who will talk about money in the birth chart, a fascinating topic, and very popular, of course. But first, let’s take just a moment to look at today’s planetary news.
This is a big day, and if we were doing a regular episode, we would have no problem filling it up practically just talking about today. So these updates are gonna be a little bit abbreviated to make room for our interview. But Venus enters Scorpio on September 10th at 1:06 AM Pacific Time. And also Mercury enters Libra at 9:20 AM.
Uranus turns retrograde at 11:27 AM, and the Virgo New Moon is at 8:26 PM.
This is an important transit for Venus because it will have a retrograde period in Scorpio and Libra between October 3rd and November 13th, and then it will leave Scorpio for Sagittarius on January 7th, 2027. Scorpio is not the easiest terrain for Venus. It’s the sign of its detriment. It doesn’t rest easy here, especially while it’s retrograde. But it is an important time to dig deep and take a close look, not only at your relationships, but how you relate. If you’re like most of us, there’s probably a little room for improvement in there somewhere. We’ll talk about this Venus retrograde in weeks to come.
Mercury, as I said, enters Libra, and it’ll stay in this sign until September 30th, when it joins Venus in Scorpio and has a retrograde period of its own between October 24th and November 13th. Mercury in Libra is a sign that is associated with good manners, but those who have this placement, that I have known well, actually love a good argument.
But they’re scrupulously fair, and when you’ve won the point, they concede without hesitation. What’s important to Mercury in Libra is that the debate be fair, and the opponents equally matched, and that the truth and value of what’s under discussion is fully revealed.
Uranus turns retrograde at 11:27 AM, and will remain retrograde through February 8th, 2027. A transiting planet that is retrograde sometimes appears to behave contrary to its usual mode. And in the case of Uranus, it may seem to toe the line and go along with the crowd, but the key phrase here is, seems to. Retrograde motion is an illusion, and so is this change in character. When a planet is retrograde, we focus its power inward, and we seek our own guidance in its matters.
What are the rules that govern our inner life? When Uranus is retrograde, we’re asked what are the rules that govern our inner life, and which of them do we feel we need to break?
And the Virgo New Moon at 8:27 PM Pacific Time is in a close sextile aspect to mighty Mars in Cancer. This is the New Moon each year for getting focused on how we can be of optimal service in the world. How can we be useful? And the sextile to Mars in Cancer highlights our family members and how we can help them. It’s also a good cycle this year for taking care of small repairs around your house and improving how usable everything is. If lots of little things have been piling up and annoying you on a daily basis, here is the time to take care of at least some of them and improve the flow.
This New Moon begins a lunar phase family cycle, and it will reach its important points at the June 11th, 2027 First Quarter Moon at 20 degrees 19 Virgo, the Full Moon at 20 degrees 59 Virgo on March 10th, 2028, and the Last Quarter Moon on December 8th, 2028 at 17:40 Virgo. So make note of these dates. These are the moments when the power of this New Moon really unfolds.
Interview with Donna Stellhorn: Money in the Birth Chart
So as I said, during this Podathon week, I am bringing you interviews with five of my colleagues, each of whom tells us how they might answer clients’ most asked questions on particular topics. Today’s interview in this series is with the wonderful Donna Stellhorn, who shares her expertise about finding money in your birth chart. I am so excited to share this interview with you!
Donna is an astrologer, feng shui expert, and has written at least 18 books, I think maybe 19 by now, including Feng Shui Form, the best-selling booklet Sage and Smudge, and her book Chinese Astrology: Life, Love, and Luck in 12 Animal Signs that came out in 2025.
She sees clients for both Western and Chinese astrology, and she writes weekly and monthly predictions for astrology.com, horoscope.com, and Conscious Community Magazine. She spoke at the 2018 United Astrology Conference in Chicago and the 2019 NCGR Conference in Baltimore. Donna is on the board of the NCGR San Diego chapter.
For fun, she makes fantastic YouTube videos, and when she wants to be terrified, she does stand-up comedy. She lives in Oceanside, California. And here is our conversation.
I’m here today with wonderful Donna Stellhorn, a fantastic astrologer, a prolific author, and somebody who was in my very first astrology class with me. We had the same fantastic teacher, Diane Rongren, and we had so much fun in that class. We live more or less in the same city, and we don’t get to see each other nearly enough, so I’m delighted to have her here today as a guest.
So what we are talking about on this Podathon are the most common questions that we get asked by clients, or at least the most popular topics that people bring up, and money was number one on that list for me. A lot of people ask about money, and this is something Donna kind of specializes in. That’s why you came to mind as someone to talk to about this today. So thank you very much for joining me.
Donna: I’m so happy to be here. So great to see you.
April: And you. So you specialize, among other things, you specialize in feng shui and in Chinese astrology and all kinds of things, but I equate you in my mind with money astrology, and maybe it’s your Taurus ascendant. I don’t know.
When you first look at a chart, what’s the first thing that tells you how somebody relates to money?
Donna: Well, I look at the 2nd house, and I want to see if there are planets or points in the 2nd house, but most important, what the sign is on the 2nd house and who is ruling that 2nd house. What’s the planet that that 2nd house is going to and saying, “How do I do stuff?”
And so with this, I mean, I call it kind of a personal finance astrology versus financial astrology, which is more about, you know, where the stocks are going and all of that. This is more about how you perceive money, whether you think it’s going to be easy or difficult, how you see yourself, or the directions you take to make money, and how money actually comes into your life, and then also whether it’ll accumulate in your life.
April: So you mentioned the sign on the second house cusp. What is the house system that you most often use?
Donna: I use Placidus, and that’s the one I’ve done the most research with on this. I know that whole sign is extremely popular right now. I find that it’s necessary to really know where your interceptions are, if there’s a critical degree on the house cusp. So for me, Placidus is my favorite.
April: Yeah. I like those quadrant-based house systems myself. I know we started out on using Koch with Diane.
Donna: Yes. Yeah. And, and Koch as house system has value, but I think of it as being a little bit more idealistic or what we hope for, versus I find Placidus more actually what happens. I have not spent a lot of time with, you know, Regiomontanus or any of those other ones.
April: Right. So what’s an example of a common question that you get about money from your clients?
Donna: Well, they mostly wanna know how their money’s going to be in the future, you know? And so, and we start with how money has been for you.
We have some instant ideas about, okay, well, if you have Sagittarius on the second house, everything’s abundant. But that’s not necessarily the case. That Sagittarius will protect you in the area of money, but it most of the time just gives you exactly enough to get by. Because unless that Jupiter is doing something like an aspect with Pluto or a strong aspect with Mars, you may get a little lackadaisical about pursuing the money.
And so the person who has that Sagittarius on the second house, they’re, they’re fretting because, “Oh, I need another $100 for rent,” and they reach in their pocket, “Oh, I forgot I, I put this $100 in there.” And that’s how they make it through. Versus the person maybe who has Capricorn on the second house, who works so hard for their money, and everything is about scraping by. “I’m gonna reuse this Ziploc bag” type of thing. And they hit a point where they look around, they go, “I’m doing so much better than everybody else, but I’m more still worried, so therefore I’m gonna continue to work really hard.” But with Capricorn, I say it’s slow growth wealth. You amass money over time.
April: I think that’s true, and I don’t think I’ve ever looked at a chart of somebody with Capricorn on the second or Saturn in the second that doesn’t have a little bit of a bag lady fear that someday they’re gonna end up living in a box under a freeway overpass.
Donna: Yeah. So they prepare for that. The other one who goes back and forth on the preparation is the Scorpio on the second house, or Pluto in the second. So there’s two ways that manifests. One is they likely have a hidden stash of money somewhere for absolute emergencies, when they have to cut all ties, when they have to run off to Belize or something, they have that stash.
But the other part of the Scorpio or the Pluto is they’re looking for the big score. So they will take a risk and roll the dice. They want something that will set them up for life. They’re willing to take some chances. Now, depending on the placement of the Pluto and the other aspects in their chart, whether they will make it, that’s uncertain.
But the idea here is that they’re willing to take the risk.
April: Mm, that’s interesting. I think of it as much more of a big money kind of symbol, having Scorpio there or Pluto in there, for sure.
Donna: They have the potential, for sure. And they think of it in bigger terms. I had a client who had that, and when she talked about her salary, she would say, “Well, I’m getting, you know, like, $3.50.”
She was talking about $350,000, but she talked about them in dollars, and that’s her, to give it this, you know, like it’s chump change. “I need something bigger. “
April: Wow.
Donna: Yeah.
April: Yeah, that’s something. So you’ll be looking at the second house, and are there other particular houses you really like to look at?
Donna: There are, but before I get to that, there is one, one sign that struggles the most, and that is, uh, Cancer on the second house or Moon in the second house. Because this is the person that no matter how much they have, they worry. This is because every month the Moon grows and shrinks. And so they see it, they get a paycheck, and, “Oh, I have all this money.” Okay, now they had to pay this, and it shrinks, and it shrinks, and it shrinks. And so this is the person who, doesn’t matter how much they’re making, they continue to worry about money.
April: Right. That makes a lot of sense.
Donna: But to answer your question, I see there as being four money houses.
So second house – most important, because that’s your attitudes about money, and everything has to connect somehow to the second house for you to get that money. But then there’s the fifth house. That is money derived from real estate. That’s also your ability to gamble. If you have a money house connection, other money house connections to the fifth house, you’re willing to leverage your investments or do that weird little crypto coin, something like that.
Eighth house is money from investments, passive income sources, money from your spouse, like if you marry well. It is money from your business if you own your own business and you work in that business. But also, you know, any sort of residuals, royalties, and that’s where I put lottery. And that’s different than if you’re going to the casino. That’s gonna be fifth house. That’s more gambling. But the lottery is, I put it in eighth house.
April: Because it’s a huge pool of other people’s money?
Donna: Correct, yes. And then the other house is the 11th house, and that’s money derived from career. And that’s gonna be people who earn some sort of income because they have an employer or they’re in a business, like a doctor, where their name is on the plaque, and so they own the business, but if they left, there would be no business.
So that is where that money comes from. And then we can look and see where you have the, quote-unquote, “nice planets,” that will be the place you gravitate towards. You know, which one you wanna do.
April: Yeah, that makes sense. So what parts of the chart or planets or signs that you’re looking at talk about how you’re supposed to make money? You mentioned this briefly when you were talking about somebody that owns their own business, has their name on the door or whatever, and basically are the business. What are some of the other things? People will come to me very often and be saying, “Well, I’ve been in this career for a long time, and I’m looking at doing something else, but how is that gonna work for me financially?”
Are there particular things that you could tell from looking, say, at the second house, and tell them, are you gonna be better as an employee or an entrepreneur? Should you have multiple income streams?
Donna: Well, I’m gonna look at the whole chart for that to see if they have a better eighth house, a better 11th house, to see whether they should own a business or be an employee.
But to answer your question, there is a little bit of confusion people have between what’s happening with career, how I should be making money, and how I could be making money, which would be more second house.
So additionally, if you have a sign on the second house cup, well, of course you do. You have a sign in the second house ’cause you, you go out, that’s where you think the money could come from.
But if you have planets there, that’s other sources that you may not have tapped into. For example, let’s say a person has Sagittarius on that second house, and, uh, they have Jupiter in the eighth. So they wanna win the lottery, right? They wanna marry well. They want all of this money to come in from some passive sources.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But if they have Mars in that house ruling the sixth house perhaps, and maybe the 10th house, they really should be making their money through work and career. Not waiting for the lottery.
So if you have a planet there, go do that planet. Do that planet, and it will pull from the houses it rules.
April: What are some of the astrological techniques that you personally like to use for timing money decisions? Because people will come to an astrologer and say, “When am I gonna get a job? When am I gonna get a raise? When am I gonna get some money coming in? What, or when should I make a big purchase, like a house?” What are the kinds of things you like to use?
Donna: Well, I do like to see if someone says, “When am I gonna get a job?” Which I’ve been hearing that question a lot.
I mean, we usually see that with a lot of aspects happening at once, right? So we’ll get an aspect to the ruler of the Midheaven as well as Saturn, and the Progressed Moon is doing something.
And the Progressed Moon would be doing something maybe a little bit difficult because now we’re in a new place, and what do we wear, and what’s the learning curve, and am I gonna keep this job? You know, so I don’t necessarily look for good aspects, I look for any aspects.
And if we have a bunch of aspects, well, something clearly is changing, so therefore that gives the timing.
Now, when I’m looking at when you should apply for the job, well, then I’m gonna look at the transit chart and say, what’s the next aspect the Moon’s gonna do? To say, “Okay, not only am I in a good mood at this point, they are too.” So the chances are better that they’re gonna receive what it is I’m doing, and if I can get it to line up nicely with my own chart too, that’s a bonus. And I don’t think that’s an absolute requirement.
April: It’s been really interesting watching people with planets at the very low degrees of signs in the last year and a half with all the outer planets moving into new signs and things like that. And I don’t know about you, I’m finding a lot of people are in a real different position than they’ve been before. Whether it’s the amount of money coming in, or where they’re getting it from, or the location they’re working or that kind of thing.
Donna: You know, we live in an interesting time where we have more pressure and more stress and more opportunities than ever before. So everything is so, uh, bifurcated, so extreme on either side.
You know, I’ve been doing businesses for a long time. You have too. And, you know, a lot of the things that I couldn’t do by myself, now I can. Like, one person, million-dollar businesses are getting more and more easy to do. But it’s also a little bit overwhelming too, to be in the marketplace because there’s so much competition. There’s incredible challenges and incredible opportunities at the same time.
April: And I’m noticing, especially if people are having these big transits happening over their Midheaven, for example, it often seems to be the case that their whole industry is going through something big.
Donna: Yeah. It’s very true. It’s likely if something is crossing your Midheaven, unless you’re very actively pursuing some new position, that your company is changing. There’s something external changing. And so you do want to be thinking about that and be ready for it. And I think really the solution is to think in a very wide sense of all the things you can do. That you have a skill set, you have abilities, and anything you can do to increase that skill set is good.
April: Yeah, for sure. It’s thinking of yourself not as a particular role, but as a person with a particular skill set that can be used in a lot of different careers and a lot of different locations.
So it occurs to me that a lot of the people that I’m hearing from that wanna talk about money, obviously it’s because really it’s not that they don’t have enough coming in. Sometimes they have nothing coming in. So what is some of the advice that you would give them, especially something specific to their own chart?
If they have a particular sign, say, on the second house, what would be a good thing for, say, somebody with Virgo on the second house to do to turn that switch on and get the money flowing again?
Donna: I really would suggest to lean into the positive aspects of the sign or the planet itself. So from Virgo, it is, all right, if you were going in to reorganize a company or to reorganize somebody’s finances, what would you do?
Take it step by step. Step out of the emotion of it and go do the actual Virgo part of it. Put yourself on a schedule. You know, find the smallest things that, anything you’re procrastinating on, break it down to the smallest granular level and start doing that, and get that done. And go into the work rather than doing the worry part of it, of, “I don’t know if I can do step 217.”
Okay, well, let’s deal with that when we get there. You know? The, the same with, say, if you had Saturn in the second house. Like, really do Saturn. Make it so, okay, I’m gonna be austere. I’m gonna write down every purchase to the penny. I’m gonna calculate what kind of fees I’m doing. I’m going to look at these things.
And as you do, the Saturn goes, “Okay, you’re taking charge of this. That’s okay. I’ll loosen things up a little bit. I’ll give you more opportunities.” So now, of course, in a Jupiter standpoint, that could backfire, but what you could utilize a Jupiter for is you go and you start reading the books. What’s the money philosophy that you have?
What’s the money ideas that the big guys have nowadays? What’s the best way to diversify or to expand your skillset? Go into the learning side of that. Maybe even go and say, “Okay, well, I’m gonna go become a financial planner until I’ve got this money thing figured out, so let me go get a certification.”
When it comes to the Moon, the Moon would be, all right, how, how can I bring in family about this? And that might not be your birth family. That could be your spiritual family. That could be the universe, that part of the family that you’re bringing in. You bring them in, and let’s all work on this together.
And let’s, let’s figure out a way how we can get ourselves fed and clothed and housed, but we’ll do it as a family You know, again, like could be the neighbors that you’re doing it with. You, it could be the people at your church or at your yoga group.
April: So we’re talking community, but very close community, that community of the heart.
Donna: Yes. Yes. And so, utilize the chart in the way it’s meant to be utilized rather than just looking at it and saying, “Oh, I have Saturn there, it’s terrible,” or Uranus. Uranus would be that your income’s going to vary or your expenses vary. So if you have a very stable income, then, you know, one day the car goes out, and the next day the refrigerator goes out.
You know, your expenses vary. So vary your income. Get a side business that’s commission. You know, do something where you don’t know what you’re gonna be making, then your expenses stabilize.
April: Right. And a career, for example, that is paid very much through bonuses- Right … or through commission or-
Donna: Yes
April: they’re contractors or something like that.
Donna: Yes. Or even just a little side eBay business where one month you make $20 and the next month you make $2,000, and it’s just something you can’t count on, and you make that a little side business.
April: Very good advice. I like all of that. We haven’t talked at all about Venus. Is there anything you want to say about Venus? Beause it is kind of a ruler of money.
Donna: It is, but Venus in the 2nd house means that you like money and that you are okay with spending it, you’re okay with having it, and it’s going to be the condition of that Venus, you know, the sign that it’s in, the sign on that 2nd house is gonna tell me whether you want to keep it or not, or if you just want the pretty things.
But I should say, Part of Fortune, I get asked about that a lot, in your 2nd house, it means there can be a change of fortune. Part of Fortune means your fortune changes as that point gets hit. And so if you’re not doing well, you have big opportunity when a transit comes and hits the Part of Fortune. But if you are doing like you’re on top of the world, be careful.
April: Interesting. I did start looking at progressions, especially to the Part of Fortune, because they take a little longer than some transits. And I had one of the best years ever in my career the year my Progressed Sun was sitting on the Part of Fortune.
So it is one I remember when we were starting out in astrology. You always had the Part of Fortune sitting there in a chart. And you don’t always these days.
But I never really thought a whole lot about it or paid a ton of attention to it. But that’s a really interesting point. That’s true of so many things in life and in astrology, and it’s all in how you choose to interpret the things in the birth chart very often. And I guess that’s a little bit of the job of the astrologer, is to try to get people thinking in a slightly different way.
Donna: Well, and, with that, you know, if you’re out of work at the moment, then utilize that to work on your tech skills, write the book you’ve been thinking about, start the side business.
Do all of those things that you didn’t have time for instead of utilizing all that time for worry.
April: Great advice. Thank you. And I really think there’s something to that. It’s you’re putting energy out into the universe that stimulates things.
Donna: And I know what I’m saying is hard to do.
I know that because, you know, I have spent times where… well, we all went through the pandemic where we said, “Oh, is the world coming to an end?” But we also, we have still the opportunity to say, “Okay, logically speaking, I’m still okay, and I have time and energy now to do something.”
April: Good advice. Yeah. A good reminder, my friend. Well, thank you very much. I had such a great time talking to you today. I love to talk to you, and I love to talk about money, so this is perfect.
Donna: It is perfect.
April: I think people are gonna really enjoy the conversation. Thank you so much. Tell people where they can find you and what you have coming up soon.
Donna: You can find me on my YouTube channel, so it’s Donna Stellhorn, and then all the links to newsletter and classes and all that are in the description of each video. I’m putting out a lot more videos these days, and so yeah, check me out on YouTube.
April: We’ll also put a link to those things in the episode description for this episode, and people can figure out how to get in touch with you and talk more about their money. Donna, thank you so much.
Donna: Oh, thank you, April. This has been great.
April: I loved this conversation. Donna is so knowledgeable about this topic, and she’s a good friend from my earliest days in astrology, so it’s always fun to catch up. If you are fascinated by what your chart shows about your relationship with money, I hope you found this conversation really helpful!
Wrapping Up
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 joining me for this fourth episode of the 7th Annual Podathon. This weekly podcast is audience-funded, and your generous donations help us keep the podcast coming to you ad-free.
To make your donation, please go to bigskyastropod.com. Anyone who donates $10 or more will receive access to a series of private calls and videos throughout the year. And if you donate $25 or more, you’ll automatically be entered in my drawing for a chance to win one of three Moonshadow eclipse reports, one of two 60-minute readings, or the grand prize of one 90-minute reading.
Thanks for joining me on this 7th Annual Podathon journey. Join me again bright and early tomorrow morning for the final day of Podathon, including my final interview with the lovely Dorothy Oja, who’ll talk all about relationships and your birth chart. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars!
