EPISODE 103
Sagittarius Solar Eclipse: Closed Eyes, Full Stomach, Can’t Stay Awake! (Nov. 22, 2021)
Listen and read the show notes here.Jen: Welcome to the Big Sky Astrology podcast, with April Elliott Kent and me, producer and cohost Jen Braun. Hey friends, Jen here. Today is November 22nd, 2021. And, here with me – as we celebrate our second Podiversary – is my friend, astrologer April Elliott Kent. Happy podiversary, April!
April: Happy podiversary, Jen!
Jen: Thank you so much.
April: Which anniversary is that? Should we be giving each other paper, or… what’s the gift?
Jen: I think it’s cotton.
April: Cotton? The look, the feel of cotton.
Jen: The first year is paper, the second year is cotton.
April: Well, you sent me some socks for my birthday. Does that count?
Jen: That’s true. Yes.
April: I don’t know what else I can send you that would be cotton. But, consider this virtual cotton for out second podiversary.
Jen: Thank you. Maybe we should get our Big Sky Astrology Podcast T-shirts up and going. Huh?
April: Not a bad idea. That’s very good. Two long years, my friend, and it just feels like the blink of an eye.
Jen: I know. I can’t believe it’s been two years.
April: We were looking at some things on the show sheet today that were happening pretty much when we recorded two years ago. So, we’re now to that point where we’re just kind of going in astrological circles…
Jen: We’re looking at you, Neptune!
April: That is right. We are. We are. So, we have a lot to cover today, as we always do, doing these two-week episodes that we do. And, how do we want to begin for week one?
Jen: Before we dive in April, why don’t you let the folks know what’s going on with show notes these days?
April: Right. Well, Apple Podcasts changed the design of their app a couple of months ago or so. And, ever since we’ve been struggling because our epic show notes that we write for each episode, which Jen does a beautiful job on, and we used to post them with the episodes in Apple Podcast, but now they don’t all fit. So, we just want to let you know that we do publish the full version of the show notes on our website, bigskyastropod.com. Just go to that page, access this episode, and you’ll get all of the show notes in their full glory and the links and everything else. And, this actually a good moment to remind our Spotify listeners of the problem that happened right at the beginning of our Podathon where mysteriously on that Monday, our show disappeared from Spotify. So, if you do listen to us on Spotify and you have not re-followed us, make sure you do that, and then our new episodes will automatically show up in your podcast feed.
Jen: That’s a good reminder.
April: We are nothing if not helpy…
Jen: That’s true… and healthy!
April: And bursting with love!
April: Jen, what do we have coming up first this week?
Jen: We begin as we always do with week one, the week of November 22nd through the 28th. Our friend Mercury’s making some moves. And he is busting into Sagittarius on November 24th at 07:36 AM Pacific Time. Tell us what this means, April.
April: I just pictured the Kool-aid guy on those commercials as he comes to bursting through the wall.
Jen: Imaginary sponsor, Kool-aid!
April: Yes.
April: And, here’s Mercury bursting into Sagittarius. Oh, Mercury!
Jen: Saying, “Hey, Sagittarius!”
April: “Here I am”. He’s always up to something, Mercury.
Jen: Yes.
April: We know. Mercury is in its detriment in Sagittarius. That means, it’s in a sign that’s the opposite of the sign it does best in, which is Gemini. So, since Sagittarius is opposite that, Mercury is there. We will struggle while Mercury is in Sagittarius to put large concepts into words. And, the analogy I often use for this one is that it’s like a funnel, and Sagittarius is the big side, and Mercury is the tiny little aperture that all these big Sagittarian dreams and ideas have to filter down through. So, you can get a little bit of a jam in the print queue when Mercury is in Sagittarius. Because, suddenly, you may have all these ideas, all the little arrows in the Sagittarius quiver that are longing to be expressed and mere words don’t quite accommodate that.
So, while Mercury is in Sagittarius, go ahead and think big. But, this also says, beware of making promises that you can’t keep. Because, you’re being optimistic. It’s like, they say there are people who are time optimists and time realists.
Jen: No. I haven’t heard that.
April: Yes. So, people who are always late, for instance, are time optimists. They always think they have more time to do something than they actually realistically do.
Jen: Okay.
April: That’s a little how Mercury in Sagittarius or Pisces can behave. It’s very optimistic and thinks, “Oh, I can add one more thing to this. I can get it all done. I have time”. But, if you sit down and you say, “Okay, how much time does it actually take to do each of those steps?” – and you quickly see that you don’t quite have the time you think you do. So, be aware of time optimism, excessive time optimism while Mercury is in Sagittarius.
Jen: You know what that made me think of?
April: What?
Jen: You… teaching a class and doing Podathon in September.
April: I know.
April: Hello? I have Mercury in the ninth house opposed Jupiter. I know a little about this! But I’m always on time.
Jen: Yes, you are. I have to say.
April: Oh, my goodness.
Jen: How long will Mercury be in Sagittarius?
April: It looks like December 13th, it will move into Capricorn, and then we will all be time realists bordering on time pessimists.
Jen: And, that will be right around the time Venus is in Capricorn about to turn retrograde. We’ll cover all that next time.
April: We absolutely will, Jen. But for now, do you know what time it is?
Jen: I forgot my watch. What time is it?
April: It’s time for Moonwatch.
Jen: Moonwatch.
April: Play it!
April: Yes, dear friends, it’s Moonwatch. And what a Moonwatch it will be. We’re going to tell you all about this week’s Virgo Last Quarter Moon, but first, we bring you this word from non-imaginary sponsors, The Witches Are Watching Podcast.
April: Woo… oooo… I am trying to be spooky. How’s that working?
Jen: It sounds a little bit like Casper the ghost.
April: Yes?
Jen: Yes.
April: Well, that’s about my speed, because as we firmly established in our last episode, I am not a big creepy movie person. But what I like about the Witches Are Watching Podcast is that Julie and Karen aren’t just talking about horror movies, they’re talking about how horror films and TV connect as road maps to explore psyches. And, I’m all about that. I’m all about that eighth house, Scorpionic kind of stuff. With story as their guide, they use archetypes and themes to uncover the shadows lurking in our subconscious and share ways to bring them to light. Some of the titles they’ve covered are “Beetlejuice”, which we both loved, and “American Werewolf In London”, “The Silence Of The Lambs”, “Hannibal, The Series”, “Get Out”, “The Witch”, and more to come.
Jen: “The Witches Are Watching” has also produced many episodes in which they create tarot spreads inspired by the themes and archetypes of the movies from the main episodes. Ever wonder what the wisdom of Pennywise, The Lost Boys or Beetlejuice might offer you? They have spreads to find out.
April: So, if you like horror – even if you don’t like horror – if you love conversations about the shadow, the psyche, feminism, if you enjoy tarot, or if you’re like me and you just love to hear two friends chatting about something they’re passionate about … that’s the whole story of our podcasting lives, Jen …
Jen: Yes.
April: … You really should have a listen to The Witches Are Watching Podcast. You can follow them wherever you listen to podcasts like this one, and you can find their social media and email links at their website, thewitchesarewatching.com.
Jen: I love their logo.
April: Oh gosh, I love it. And, I loved their theme music. It’s creepy in a really good way.
Jen: Totally.
April: Yes.
Jen: And, if you’re interested in underwriting a future Moonwatch segment, we would love to talk to you about it. How should folks get in touch with us, April?
April: Just email me, April(at)bigskyastrology.com. That’s a fantastic place to start.
Jen: Great. And, thanks to Julia and Karen for sponsoring Moonwatch. We really appreciate it, and I do love that a podcast is sponsoring a podcast.
April: I know. It’s great.
Jen: Absolutely.
April: Well, back to the Moonwatch already progress. This Virgo Last Quarter Moon, again, on November 27th at 04:28 AM Pacific Time is at 5°, 28 minutes of Virgo and Sagittarius, on the Sabian symbols, “A Merry Go Round” and “A Game Of Cricket”.
Jen: Those are both very playful.
April: They are kind of playful, aren’t they? And, Sagittarius is very sporty. The Sun is in Sagittarius at this Last Quarter Moon and we have the game of cricket. And, I think I probably shared with you one time when we were in New Zealand and we were driving around in the countryside and came upon a cricket game?
Jen: Yes.
April: And I still have this lovely image of the beautiful green pitch and the cricket players in their lovely white costumes and so forth.
Jen: That’s very charming.
April: And then the Moon is on 6, Virgo, “A Merry Go Round”. Which is a charming image, but there is also this sense of going round and round and round in circles, which can be a little frustrating. And the Last Quarter Moon often does talk about things that are a little frustrating or things we’ve been trying to work through, and now we’ve got to the point where we really are trying to sort something out.
The Last Quarter Moon is the part in the lunar cycle where something that was begun at the New Moon has reached its fruition at the Full Moon, and now we’re examining it, analyzing it and trying to figure out how to bring it to completion in the best possible way and clear the decks for the next New Moon or the next big project that we’re going to be working on. The Last Quarter Moon always has this sense of looking back over our shoulders, of evaluating our progress. It’s a little bit of the nature of Capricorn in a lot of ways. But, in Virgo, we tend toward being a little bit hard on ourselves for the things that we’ve done, not as well as we would like to, and to really fret over the minutiae of things that have gone wrong.
And, I think Sagittarius is a healthy antidote to that because Sagittarius really doesn’t fret about the minutia. It’s very big-picture oriented. But Virgo says, “Well, yes, but if you don’t take care of the details, then you can’t get to the big places that Sagittarius and visions get into.” So, it’s finding a little bit of a balance maybe between Virgo attention to detail, and then just getting on that merry go round of self-flagellation and picking on ourselves for what hasn’t gone right.
Jen: So, be gentle with yourselves.
April: Indeed. And what is happening the very next day, Jen?
Jen: The next day, the Sun joins up with Mercury on November 28th, at 08:39 PM Pacific Time. This happens at 7° and 10 minutes of Sagittarius. Because Mercury is now in direct motion, this means that it’s a superior conjunction. It just means that Mercury is on the other side of the Sun from earth. Right?
April: Yes. Sun conjunct Mercury. Whenever we have a planet conjunct the Sun, the danger is that it is not really visible to the naked eye. Mercury’s always close enough to the Sun that it’s hard to ever get a real clear look at it. So, our warning always with Mercury conjunct the Sun is to be careful against thinking that is a little too subjective or even self-serving, and only hearing the things that we want to hear because they validate our own point of view. And, I think this is particularly true with these two in Sagittarius, because Sagittarius has very strong beliefs. That’s something that we always run across at Thanksgiving time. I know we’ve probably talked about it the last two Thanksgivings is when we do get together with family and people have polarized points of view about things, it can get a little bit touchy, especially with this Last Quarter Moon also just before the Sun/Mercury conjunction.
What do we have coming up for week two, Jen?
Jen: Week two begins Monday, November 29th and goes through December 5th. December, April!
April: Oh, my gosh!
Jen: How?
April: I don’t know. We’re recording this just barely into November, so we’re living very much of the future here. And it’s crazy to think of it. It really is.
Jen: Well, Mars trines Neptune on November 29th at 06:10 AM Pacific Time at 20°, 24 minutes of Scorpio and Pisces. What will this mean for us all?
April: They’re such different planets, aren’t they?
Jen: Yes.
April: Mars is just about leaping into things and defending things and going after what we want and Neptune feels much softer. And, to have Mars trine Neptune means, “Okay, they’re very different, but they’re somehow working together this week”. If we take the meaning of Mars as being about acting or defending, we could say that this is a week of acting on behalf of others, which is a very Piscean concept or acting on faith, doing something that may be rationally makes very little sense, but your heart tells you it’s the right thing to do. And when Mars is trying Neptune, you might be more inclined to go in that direction. You may not know exactly where you’re headed, but that’s kind of okay. I’d say, it’s also a good week to get a little bit of extra rest. Neptune is always a little bit of an energy leak, so when it’s connecting with Mars, it’s the vital physical energy of Mars losing a little bit of oomph in Neptune. So, take it a little easy, have some baths, take it easy on yourself.
Jen: What’s coming up next, pal?
April: We have a sextile, one of our favorite aspects, between the Sun and Saturn on November 30th at 03:14 PM Pacific Time. That’s at 8° and 57 minutes of Sagittarius and Aquarius. I liked this aspect to showing that there was a spirit of adventure that leads to opportunities, which is the sextile for future success, that’s Saturn in Aquarius. What do you think of that?
Jen: I like it, because the adventure is the Sagittarius, then.
April: Yes. The Sun in Sagittarius. I think there’s a nice compatibility between Sagittarius and Aquarius. You know?
Jen: Say more.
April: They’re both kind of interested in the future. Aquarius is far off in the future, but Sagittarius, it likes to expand its mind and its experiences. It likes to have an adventure. So, I don’t know, it seems to go with Aquarius pretty well, I think.
Jen: That makes sense.
April: Again, the sextile is always an optional aspect. It says, if these opportunities present themselves during this week, an opportunity to have some kind of adventure to do something new, you can go ahead and do it, or you can not do it. Terrible things will not happen if you don’t take advantage of these opportunities, but if you do, they can lead to something really fun. That, you may not even fully see the results of for some time because the sextile is to Saturn and that usually takes some time to express itself.
Jen: Yes. And, what you just said actually made me think of how Aquarius is an air sign, Sagittarius is a fire sign. And air and fire signs generally go together pretty well. And, if folks want to hear more about the elements, they can go back and listen to… I want to say it’s Episode 34. Although I will link it in the show notes.
April: Wow, Jen! Yes, the one where we had the little mini lesson, I think on the elements and… yes.
Jen: Yes. I might have the episode number wrong, but I will link it. We’ll see if I’m right.
April: Oh, Jen. Well, next Neptune turns direct on December 1st at 05:23 AM Pacific Time, at 20° and 24 of Pisces. And this is the one we were talking about…. I don’t know if it might’ve been our very first episode that we were talking about Thanksgiving and Neptune was turning direct. Is that right?
Jen: Yes. I think that is absolutely right.
April: Wow! Neptune turned retrograde on June 25th. You know, it’s been a number of months since it went into hiding as it were into the planet relocation program. And, now it’s turning direct…
Jen: And mysterious.
April: Who knows what back it’s been doing there, but you and I have certainly been feeling very Neptunian. Yes.
Jen: For the whole two years!
April: Pretty much. Pretty much. Yes.
Jen: That is the truth.
April: So, Neptune turning direct again, you know, with the outer planets, we tend to not notice the retrograde periods all that much, except on the days that they’re changing direction. I just listened to an excellent lecture by Jackie Slevin. I think it was for NCGR. If people want to look it up, especially if people who are NCGR members, and it was about people being born on the day that a planet is stationing to turn either direct or retrograde. And, it was really fascinating. She gave some wonderful examples of people. And what it does is really accentuate the nature of the planet in the birth chart.
Jen: Interesting.
April: Really super amps it. So, that’s kind of how we experience the large planets when they’re stationing to turn either retrograde or direct. So, expect a super boost of Neptune around November, say 29th to December 3rd, going into the New Moon.
Jen: And, do you want to tell folks what NCGR is?
April: NCGR is the National Council for Geocosmic Research. It’s an international astrological association. They have a lot of member chapters as well throughout the United States, and in fact around the world, they’re very focused on education – on astrological education – and they have, if you’re a member, an annual member, they have webinars every week by people all over the world on a variety of fascinating topics, and you can go back and listen to all the past ones. And they have an excellent journal. It’s a worthwhile organization. If people are thinking about getting involved with astrology at that level, I’d recommend that.
Jen: Perfect.
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Jen: What do we have next?
April: Oh, Jen. Do you know time it is?
Jen: I do know what time it is.
April: It’s time for Moonwatch…
Jen: Moonwatch…
April: Play it again!
April: Oh, we enjoy our double Moonwatches so much more than we really should, Jen.
Jen: Absolutely.
April: This is an exciting one, Jen, this is a Sagittarius New Moon, which is where we started this whole exercise two years ago.
Jen: Yes, it sure is.
April: Sagittarius New Moon.
Jen: That was a great idea.
April: I think so. It was a really good chart and we’re still enjoying doing it. So, there you go.
Jen: Totally.
April: So, Sagittarius New Moon, this one is a solar eclipse. Here, on the west coast, it’s on December 3rd at 11:43 PM Pacific Time. Everywhere else of course, pretty much, it’s December 4th, and it’s at 12° and 22 minutes of Sagittarius. It is the last eclipse in Gemini and Sagittarius until October 2029. So, I think we’ve wrung every bit of meaning and change that we can from Gemini and Sagittarius at this point. After this one, we’ll be full time into eclipses in Taurus and Scorpio through next year.
Jen: Does that give this eclipse extra emphasis, do you think?
April: I think it’s like a final exam, maybe.
Jen: It has, like, a last chance feeling to it, maybe.
April: Yes. Eclipses, I think at the end of a couple of signs, tend to feel a little less jarring. It’s the first ones in the series that sort of takes us aback, like that lunar eclipse we just had a couple of weeks ago. Because, it’s like breaking fresh ground that hasn’t been touched in nine years. Once, we get to the end of a pair of signs, we pretty much know what it’s been about for us. We’ve seen whatever changes are going to be unfolding in those areas of our lives. And this is just kind of clean up and looking back and figuring out how we have done. We did have a lunar eclipse near this point on June 5th, 2020 at around 15° of Sagittarius. This is kind of the response to that call, if you will, that we can look back to June of last year, 18 months ago or whatever it’s been near enough. That’s kind of where this particular journey began for us or it’s reaching its peak now.
It’s interesting to look at past years that eclipses have been at the same point because it tells us this the particular sensitive little area of our charts that have been getting pinged.
Jen: That’s nice that you didn’t say, “Beaten up”.
April: No, see, I was trying to be very careful. I don’t feel beaten up by these. Sagittarius doesn’t so much work that way.
Jen: I don’t either.
April: But we had a lunar eclipse in June of 2012 at 14 Sagittarius. We had a solar eclipse on December 4th, 2002 at 11°, 58 minutes of Sagittarius, so the same day as this one, that’s a significant date to look back at. Then, a lunar eclipse in June of 93 at almost 14 Sagittarius. And, another solar eclipse on December 4th, 1983 at 11°, 47 minutes Sagittarius. All of those dates I think are interesting and instructive to look at. But, if we even just think back to December 4th, 2002 and 1983, those are important dates that are very similar to this eclipse. So, if you have something in your birth chart that’s within say 4° of 12° of Sagittarius or the other mutable signs, which is Gemini, Virgo and Pisces, then this is probably a pretty important eclipse for you and you can really tell by going back to those previous dates. But, just know too that the exact same thing will not happen that happened back then, but similar areas of your chart and similar planets in your chart are being affected, so the themes are somewhat related.
Jen: That makes a lot of sense.
April: That’s this eclipse. And again, as always, you can go back to Episode Five, “Unboxing Eclipses”. We go into great detail about eclipses in the houses of the chart, and I think in aspect of the planets. Correct?
Jen: Correct. Yes.
April: Yes.
Jen: I always think of Sagittarius as broadening your horizons, whether it’s horizons of the mind or actual physical horizons with travel and whatnot. And it made me think about possibly how this might set us up for 2022, and we could think big picture about what we want to do next year.
April: Yes. I think that’s a really good way to look at it. Jupiter of course, the ruling planet, Sagittarius will be going into Pisces for good.
Jen: Yes. At the end of 2021.
April: And, Jupiter is very alive in 2022. And I think, knock wood, we’re getting towards the end of at least the worst of the pandemic. And I think a lot of people are going to be feeling like they want to get outside and travel. People are already traveling more. And of course, with this eclipse, we can start to feel the eclipses a month or so in advance. And, in the new is here in the beginning of November, it’s a lot of news about lots of flights being canceled and disruptions in the supply chain and lots of things that are related to how the world is all connected, including globally. And, that is something that we have been exploring all through the time that the eclipses have been in Sagittarius and Gemini. That’s part of the thing.
Yes, definitely setting us up for a year where we’re peaking out a little bit from our little burrows and figuring out what we want to do moving forward, what’s up for the future? It feels a little bit brighter maybe than it has for a while.
Jen: I hope so. I guess we’ll see.
April: Well, my friend that is everything we have on the show sheet for this week. Have we done it?
Jen: We’ve done two years. Two years!
April: And now, we’re going to be juniors. We’ve been sophomores.
Jen: I guess we have. Because, we’re moving into our third year together.
April: That’s right. Now, in Minneapolis, you say soph-o-more or soph-omore?
Jen: Soph-omore.
April: Yes. We do too.
Jen: Okay.
April: But we’re going to be going up to the big leagues. We’re going to be juniors!
Jen: We’re getting out of JV and moving into varsity!
April: Exactly! Yes. As we are moving forward into this third podcasting year…
Jen: The varsity team has your back!
April: That’s right. Yes… bright eyes, something, something can’t lose. Bright eyes, full hearts?
Jen: I was going to say, “Closed eyes, full hearts, can’t lose…” But that’s not right. “Clear eyes full heart can’t lose”.
April: Yes. Or, “Closed eyes, full stomach, can’t stay awake”.
April: Oh, on that happy note…
Jen: Too much pie!
April: Too much pie, too much turkey. Well, thanks to all of you for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing here, be sure to follow us, rate and review, and we hope that you help us spread the word. Tell an astrology loving friend. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each and every episode at our website, bigskyastropod.com.
Jen: We’re so grateful to everyone who showed support during our recent Podathon. Of course, each week we thank some of you by name. Who do we have this episode, April?
April: This week, we’re giving a Big Sky Astrology Podcast shout out to Laurie Schaeffer, Carla Eno and non-imaginary sponsor, Shellie Crow.
Jen: Yay!
April: Woo-hoo!
April: Laurie, Carla, and Shellie, we appreciate you so much. And we thank you for listening to the podcast and for supporting us with your donations.
Jen: Thank you so much to you three. As a small independent podcast, your donations mean the world to us. Now, if you missed the Podathon and would like to support the show, please go to our website, bigskyastropod.com. And, if you donate $5 or more, you’ll gain access to our upcoming Capricorn Solstice episode in a few weeks. And of course, you’ll also get our entertaining bingo card.
April: Entertaining for us, anyway. Well, that is it for us this episode. Join us again, bright and early in two weeks’ time. And, until then, keep your feet on the ground…
Jen: …and your eyes on the stars!
Thank you for listening! To learn more about April Elliott Kent, please check out her website, www.BigSkyAstrology.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter, read her thought-provoking weekly essays, purchase her books, sign up for a personal astrology reading, and more.
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© 2021 April Elliott Kent & Jen Braun
