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Episode 14 | Retrograde Minds, Cazimi Hearts, Can’t Lose

by April February 23, 2020 Episodes , Podcast
BSA podcast episode 14

Big Sky Astrology Podcast for Feb. 24, 2020
014 | Retrograde Minds, Cazimi Hearts, Can’t Lose

Is Mercury retrograde in Pisces making you fuzzy-headed and tongue-tied? Come and sit next to April & Jen, whose struggles to stay in a lane – any lane – this week will make you feel right at home. What this episode lacks in a major lunation and a Moonwatch theme, it makes up for with an overworked Aries Moon and a vintage movie intermission jingle that your mind will be singing all week long. Plus: a Sun/Mars/Node traffic jam, Venus faces off with Pluto, planetary rulerships, and a discussion of final dispositors that proves what we already knew: it all comes back to Saturn in the end.

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Read a full transcript of this episode

Episode links:

02:30 – Mercury is still retrograde in Pisces! Are people born during times of Mercury retrograde less affected by it?

04:29 – If your Mars in Capricorn wants to get stuff done while Mercury is being retrograde-y, try starting your day with a list of your three “Most Important Tasks”.

04:55 – Learn why April loves the numbers 5 and 8!

05:33 – Mercury joins up with the Sun (cazimi!) in an inferior conjunction on Feb. 25th at 7 degrees Pisces. Head over to Episode 8 for a refresher on the hazards of Mercury drinking the Sun’s Kool-Aid.

07:48 –When two planets come together, they begin a new cyclical dance. April and Jen talk about lunar cycles every week, of course, but the whole cosmos tangos to a similar rhythm.

10:33 – ** Moonwatch**! There are no major lunations this week, but keep an eye on the Moon as it moves through Aries (Feb. 25-27). Also, the Moon in Gemini opens a window on March 1 and airs things out a little bit.

13:41 – Thanks to April’s imaginative coda to last week’s stimulating conversation about her backyard gopher civilization, Jen now pictures the enterprising rodents sporting powdered wigs and brocade finery.

14:00 – The Sun sextiles Mars on Feb. 24, offering an opportunity to express yourself more fully and fearlessly. The Sun’s trine to the North Node, with Mars on the South Node (Feb. 25), asks: What’s holding you back from growth? Time to let that go, maybe.

16:59 – If you’re feeling self-critical and – oops! – lapse into negative self-talk, remember Jen’s household rule: Say three good things about yourself!

17:40 – Two meaningful quotes on anger that Jen likes: “I sat with my anger long enough, until she told me her name was grief” (unknown). And a second one, ascribed to Liza Palmer, “Angry is sad’s bodyguard.” And the Byron Katie book Jen recommends is Loving What Is.

18:32 – Early in the week, Mars passes over the degree of the Dec. 25 Solar Eclipse at 4 degrees Capricorn. April explains how fast-moving planets can act as “activation points” for prior eclipses. (Check out Episode 5, “Unboxing Eclipses,” to hear more about that Solar Eclipse, and eclipses in general.)

20:02 – Venus squares Pluto on Feb. 28th, when something that was conceived in mid-December (listen to Episode 3 for details) now demands action. Consider this the first intermission in a Venus/Pluto 4-act play – hum along as we go out to the lobby for a treat!

23:57 – Through the sorcery of planetary rulerships, Jen demonstrates that all the current transiting planets ultimately answer to either Saturn or Neptune. April makes the case for using traditional rulers instead and helps Jen understand what “final dispositors” are. (Aha! So THAT’S why Jen feels uber-Virgo sometimes!) And take a look at this free rulership handout that April created just for you! Yes, YOU!

26:05 – To hear mutual reception explained using a valiant but doomed house-sitting analogy, lend your ears to Episode 4.

26:39 – A quick rundown of which planets rules which signs.

28:00 – We were well into this rulership chit-chat before we thought to mention it was prompted by a listener question. Might have been good to have led with that. (We blame Mercury.) Which reminds us: Do you have a question that you’d like to ask April and Jen? Add it as a comment to this post! (Hint: Your question is more likely to be read if it’s a general question that applies to everyone. 😊)

29:01 – April’s pal Christopher Renstrom’s website on ruling planets is here.

29:45 – If you’re enjoying the show, please take a sec to give us a 5-star rating, and/or subscribe, and/or toss us a dollar or ten to help keep the show going. Those befrocked Victorian gals are, yes, April and Jen. In some past life, where we were wan and sober sisters. And April wore brooches. And Jen snuck pants under her skirt.

Length: 31:25

 

 

 

 

 

5 comments to " Episode 14 | Retrograde Minds, Cazimi Hearts, Can’t Lose "

  • Reply
    sea
    February 25, 2020 AT 10:00AM

    I think, even in this retro fog, that you gals are great. Seriously. I look forward to Moon Day now (technically Tiw’s day in Australia). I love to hear smart women re-claim the helm in the art and science of Astro-wisdom. Your insights and sharings are truly helpful as I strut and fret upon this Life stage.
    I must admit, however, during this “retro” phase I find it difficult to keep up with all the pace faced information you pack into 20 or so minutes. Hence the wonders of re-play. Phew!

    I do have a question slash request. Could you talk about natal chard yods? I have a few but figure many listeners might also. Particularly the heavyweights (Neptune, Pluto and moon). The yod seems a bit of a mystery in terms of Astro-gnosis. But perhaps this is not so?
    Being a yod-bearer, I think the “yod of God” is perhaps a misnomer…..

    • Reply
      April
      February 27, 2020 AT 6:02PM

      Thank you so much, Sea! You’re right, we pack a lot into 30 minutes. 😀 I’ll ask Jen to add a closer look at yods for a future ep… our goal eventually is to add some mini-episodes on specific topics and that would be a great one! As for yods as “the Finger of God,” the old joke among astrologers is that it refers to a very specific finger. ;D Thanks for listening and for commenting!

  • Reply
    Dora Babali
    February 27, 2020 AT 10:32AM

    Thank you for the great episode! I do have a question though, about the final dispositor of a chart . . I found the idea really intriguing as it sheds completely new light in reading a natal chart and making a whole lot of sense in completely new ways but . . When I tried to put the idea into practice, I found that it didn’t really work when using traditional rulerships (which I also favour btw). So, for example, if we have a chart with the sun in cancer -> moon in aquarius -> saturn in leo -> sun in cancer, we end up in a closed circle where none of the planets are in their ruling signs. Otoh, using modern rulers, we’d have cancer sun -> aqua moon -> scorpio uranus -> taurus mars -> taurus venus, which confirms the idea of everything getting back to the one planet in its rulership. So that’s left me in a conundrum: I love my traditional rulers but I ‘m intrigued with the dispositor idea and the two of them don’t seem to mesh that well! Any ideas??

    • Reply
      April
      February 27, 2020 AT 8:52PM

      Thanks so much for listening, Dora, and for your good question! What I should have said was that IF there is a final dispositor, it will be a planet that is the only one in the sign it rules and there are no planets in mutual reception (each planet in the sign ruled by the other, e.g., Mercury in Sagittarius ruled by Jupiter in Gemini). But as you point out, it is possible to have a planet that’s the only one in its rulership and is not a final dispositor.

      In the chart you used as an example (I filled in the details by looking at an ephemeris), you end up with Uranus in Scorpio ruled by Mars in Taurus ruled by Venus in Taurus, plus Pluto in Libra also ruled by Venus in Taurus. Uranus and Pluto don’t rule anything, so that completes that dispositor “tree.” Then you get into the aforementioned loop of Sun in Cancer > Moon in Aquarius > Saturn in Leo. Off that group, you get Moon in Aquarius ruling Mercury in Cancer, ruler of Jupiter in Gemini, ruler of Neptune in Sag, and that closes off all the dispositor trees. So you have Venus ruling part of the chart, the Moon ruling another part, and then triumvirate of Sun/Moon/Saturn in their own closed little loop.

      Now at this point, one certainly could throw in the towel and go to modern rulerships, which aren’t going to work every time either, most likely. Or you could go further down the road of traditional rulerships and evaluate based on face, term, etc. Or, you could take the less elegant but possibly quite useful outcome above and see what you can glean from it: Most areas of life are under the influence of the Moon and Venus. But while Venus has final say over Mars, Uranus, and Pluto, the Moon – which Mercury, Jupiter, and Neptune consider their Queen – in fact has to negotiate with the Sun and Saturn for final say.

      I hope that helps! Thanks again for listening, and for the chance to expand a bit on the idea of dispositors. 🙂 – April

      • Reply
        D
        March 1, 2020 AT 1:53AM

        Dear April, I’m truly grateful for your thoughtful, as well as thought provoking response to my question, I am beyond words about this and have been thinking it through ever since you posted it . . Having a sag asc means that I like a central unifying theme, a target to focus on, so to speak, but having neptune there as well obviously muddies the waters . . So many things made sense in your response, for example the sun/moon/saturn closed circuit -and btw, can I say that adhering to Saturn (hello tradition) is the thing that turns any further movement back on itself into an endless loop. It’s like the planet and all it stands for is thwarting any further movement, which, as it seems, can only come about as a kind of break through (hello Uranus!). So now I”m wondering whether, at the end of the day, isn’t it all simply a matter of choice : keep to tradition and short-circuit or break free and find a way onwards. . Since both are part of the Aquarius’ body of ideas, both of them seem legit and basically a matter of focus, of directing that lunar energy into one or the other. Ok, I know I have, perhaps, turned this technical thing into a much broader philosophical question but, once again, it has been immensely helpful to me to examine and explore these thoughts, so thank you for spurring it all forth! I’ll be looking forward to your next podcast and all the new things I am discovering through your discussions there! Dora

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