TRANSCRIPT EPISODE 136
Listen and read show notes hereWelcome to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast, with your host, Astrologer and Author, April Elliott Kent.
April: Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is August 15th, 2022. Welcome to Episode 136 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, Mercury’s aspects to Uranus and Neptune; Venus and Jupiter, the two most fortunate planets come together in a very happy aspect; the Taurus Last Quarter Moon brings more stressful aspects; and Mars enters Gemini for a long visit. Then I answer a listener question about astrology’s usefulness and how it describes one’s purpose.
Listener reviews!
But first, today, I wanted to share a couple of lovely reviews that the podcast has received lately. VinoGirl78 writes on Apple Podcasts, “Great show, great astrology and fantastic human. I have loved astrology since I discovered my mom’s copy of Linda Goodman’s ‘Sun Signs’ in my early teens. Now in my forties, I still check in weekly and monthly with the planetary happenings and recently discovered April Elliott Kent. I enjoy her soothing narration, thoughtful interpretations of the weekly transits and audience questions on her weekly podcast. Give it a try. I also want to recommend her Solar Return Reports available through her website. I had some technical issues and her customer service was amazing.”
Well, thank you for that VIenoGirl78! And I have to give a shout out to Stephanie who assists me with the reports, so I don’t know which one of us it was that helped you, but Stephanie is a peach. VinoGirl78 continues, “As astrology’s popularity has risen in the past few years, so have the apps and podcasts and to have an actual person on the other end replying to my email and helping me, felt very special.” That’s terrific. Thank you so much, VinoGirl78!
Also on Apple Podcasts, PJO60609 writes, “I spend most of my Monday mornings listening to three astrology podcasts, including this one. April’s interpretations not only help assuage fears, global transits are scary. April focuses on what we can do, and so it’s always an uplifting take. But also, is funny and easy to understand.” That is so lovely. Thank you!
And finally, Carrie JLA writes, “I can’t say it enough times, I love this podcast! I love your website. I signed up recently for weekly emails and I love them too. Thank you so much for sharing all of your talents and insights. Listening is like learning a new language and I love every second of it. Thank you for the happiness and joy you’re bringing to the planet.”
Well, I’m blushing. It is so wonderful to hear all of this lovely feedback. And thank you to VinoGirl78, PJO60609, Carrie JLA, and everyone else who has left such beautiful reviews for the show!
Mercury trine Uranus (Aug. 16, 2022, 10:46 am PDT)
This week begins with Mercury making a trine aspect to Uranus on August 16th at 10:46 AM Pacific Time, at 18°53’ Virgo and Taurus. Mercury coming together with Uranus is always a combination that speaks of inspiration and mental breakthroughs. This is especially true when the aspect is a trine. Mercury is about the way we’re taking in and processing and then releasing information back into the wild. And Uranus is a planet that breaks through boundaries and expectations. And in the case of Mercury with Uranus, can help us see things in a new and unexpected way. So, that’s the great part of this combination.
Now, it can be a little bit difficult even when these two are in a good aspect with each other, like a trine, it can be a little hard to focus and to follow through on things when Mercury is connecting with Uranus. Uranus is a planet that is sort of like riding a bucking bronco and we’re just barely hanging on and trying to stay in the saddle. So when we have Mercury connecting with Uranus while it’s exciting, and it opens us up to see things in a new way, it can also be just a little bit difficult to buckle down and concentrate and take one task at a time
Venus trine Jupiter (Aug. 18, 2022, 1:03 am PDT)
On August 18th at 1:03 AM Pacific Time, Venus makes a trine aspect to Jupiter. And if this isn’t a party, I don’t know what it is. Anytime we have Venus together with Jupiter, it’s good times. It’s pretty recent that we had Venus square Jupiter, I know, when Venus was in Cancer, probably last month. But having the trine to Jupiter is kind of the best of all possible worlds. In traditional astrology, Venus was known as the lesser benefic and Jupiter was the greater benefic. And it just basically meant that, wherever these planets were showing up in your birth chart or any chart you were looking at, good things were bound to follow. The problem with the square between the two as we talked about last month is we can tend to overdo it a little bit when these two come together, because Venus is what we like and what we want and Jupiter says “More, more, more”.
But Venus making a trine aspect to Jupiter as we have it here, says that all of the things associated with Venus – pleasure, satisfaction, the loving endeavors, things that we like, basically, with Venus- when they connect with Jupiter, it’s more of the same and it’s a little easier probably to get the things that we want. Now, what is always important to keep in mind is, we may know what we want, but that isn’t necessarily always the same as knowing what’s good for us.
Here’s a way to think about it. Imagine you’re a little kid and you get to go to the fair and it’s exciting because it’s only once a year you get to go to the county fair. And you eat so much cotton candy, so much popcorn, so many hot dogs, and you see all of the exciting performances and it’s very stimulating. And on the way home, you kind of fall asleep in the back of the car, and for the rest of the evening and maybe part of the next day, you actually don’t feel that good – because you’ve had a dizzying array of foods and sensations and it can be a little too much and a little overwhelming. So, that can be the effect of Venus coming together with Jupiter.
That said, it’s a very nice aspect. And we haven’t been having a whole lot of really nice aspects lately. So, I’m going to say, you know what? Let’s just enjoy this one. And if we get a little bit of a stomachache from all the cotton candy, so be it!
Taurus Last Quarter Moon (Aug. 18, 9:36 pm PDT)
And now it’s time for the Moon Report for the week of August 15th. It begins with the Taurus Last Quarter Moon on August 18th at 9:36 PM Pacific Time, so August 19th most other places. It’s at 26°12’ Taurus and Leo. This is a very powerful Last Quarter Moon. It has the Moon together with Mars in a Grand Earth Trine with Mercury in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn. This combines the inherent motivational effect of the Last Quarter Moon, which is just saying, “It is time to act.” This is one of the moments in the Lunar Cycle where we feel compelled to take action. But it brings that together with a Grand Trine, which can really help us get where we’re trying to go in a much smoother fashion because that’s the nature of the trine.
We even see this in the Sabian symbols. The Moon is on 27 Taurus, An Old Indian Woman Selling Beads, which has that sort of practical dimension to it, doing what we need to do for survival. And, the Moon’s in a conjunction with Mars, even, about doing what we have to do. And the Sun is on 27 Leo, Daybreak. The Sun is now passed its opposition with Saturn, and strength and confidence begin to return just like the Sun breaking at the beginning of a new day.
Void-of-Course Moon periods for the week of Aug. 15
Let’s take a look at the void-of-course Moon periods for this week. On August 16, the Moon in Aries makes a square aspect to Pluto at 1:18 PM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for about six hours and then enters Taurus at 07:22 PM. So this is a void-of-course period that comes in the middle of the afternoon here on the West Coast. On the East Coast of the United States, it’s sort of late afternoon going into early evening. And in Europe, you’re probably sleeping through this one if you’re fortunate.
Moon square Pluto, we’ve talked many times about the Moon making aspects to Pluto as it goes void-of-course, and that generally this has to do with changing our unconscious behaviors, our habits, our rituals. The square comes in a little bit of a tough way. It is in response to something from outside us that makes us feel as if the way we’ve been doing things isn’t the best way to be doing them. And since the Moon is in Aries, it’s probably, “Oh, you need to slow down and not be so impulsive and not just do what you want to do for you, you have to think of other people too.” It’s that kind of dynamic, very likely. So, there is some truth to that, usually. I mean, we don’t always see the effects of our behaviors or our habits on other people, and, this is a void-of-course period that invites us to kind of sit with that for six hours and think about the ways in which you might need to modify your behaviors and your habits, your kneejerk reactions to things in order to get along a little bit better and be a little bit more considerate perhaps of others.
On August 19, the Moon in Taurus makes a conjunction with Mars at 4:06 AM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for one hour before the Moon goes into Gemini at 5:06 AM. This is happening in the early morning on the East Coast and very early morning on the West Coast, but hitting kind of in the middle of the morning into the early afternoon in Europe. The Moon ending its travels through Taurus on a conjunction with Mars is energizing, okay, I will give it that. But another way to think of the Moon coming together with Mars is to think of a tea kettle that is reaching boiling and it is making that little high pitch scream that it makes. That can be the Moon with Mars because Mars overheats, and the Moon is the emotional nature. So, our emotions can get maybe over excited, overheated and how we respond to that. I’ve said many times, Taurus is a sign with a long fuse, but when it blows, whew! – watch out! So, this is a moment when that temper can tend to get the best of us, and we might hear Taurus blow.
On August 21, the Moon in Gemini makes a sextile to the Sun 3:06 PM Pacific Time, it’s then void-of-course for a little under two and a half hours, before entering Cancer at 5:29 PM. This is a nice combination. The Moon in Gemini likes to take in information, it wants to correspond, it wants to communicate, and when it’s sextile Sun, there are nice opportunities to do that in a way that forms alliances. I love sextiles between the Sun and the Moon because they , we tend to find our allies by doing the things that come naturally to us, which is what the Moon suggests. So, if you have an opportunity on that afternoon into that early evening, depending on where you are, take any invitations to go out maybe for a drink after work, to have coffee, something that gives you an enjoyable opportunity to get to know somebody a little bit better, at the very least, it could give you some interesting ideas for some things that you’ve been wanting to do.
Mars enters Gemini (Aug. 20, 2022, 0:56 am PDT)
On August 20th at 12:56 AM Pacific Time, Mars enters Gemini, and it will be there for a long time, it will be there between August 20th and March 25th, 2023. Mars is usually only in a sign for a couple of months, but as we see when it goes into its retrograde periods, as it will this Fall – it’s retrograde from October 30th, 2022 through January 12th, 2023 – that dramatically increases the amount of time that it’s in a sign. We saw that in late 2020, when Mars was in Aries and making that protracted, difficult retrograde in Aries.
Now, Mars being in Gemini, what’s it about? Mars is about the way we are going to get things done and it’s about the kinds of things that are going to aggravate us and the kinds of matters that will tend to make us feel as if we are in a battle and that we need to defend ourselves.
So, let’s begin with the way that Mars in Gemini wants to get things done. First of all, it likes to multitask. It is a sign that wants to be reading something while it has the television on, while it is texting with somebody. In a funny way, Gemini is actually more effective often when it’s multitasking, because otherwise if it’s forced to focus on just one thing at a time its mind starts to get really restless and it’s hard to focus. So, Mars being in Gemini says: Actually, while multitasking might not always be the best approach to things, because we may not give full attention to any one of them. But I think while Mars is in Gemini, the opposite is actually true.
I also think this is a moment in the Mars cycle to collect information. So it’s less about initiating a new project as it might be with Mars in any of the Cardinal signs. It’s more about, “I’m in the information gathering phase.” So let’s say you’ve been thinking about starting a business, this would be the time to actually start learning about that, collecting information, finding out what you have to do in your area, in your county or your state to legally set up a business, and what is the infrastructure you’re going to need for that. So, it’s listening to podcast, it’s reading books, it’s gathering all the information you can about the thing that you think you want to start.
And then, once Mars goes into Cancer, as it will do in Spring of 2023, that might be a better time to actually get the thing going, to actually initiate it, because Cancer is a Cardinal sign and they are initiators. But we can tell by the fact that Mars is in Gemini and going to have that long retrograde period, again between October 30th and then January 12th, 2023. And Mars being retrograde is also about this process of going back, retracing our steps, revisiting, figuring out what we may have overlooked. Figuring out what we know from, say, past jobs that we’ve had – Mars is very much a job planet – and what have we done in the past, which is the retrograde part and what can we take from what we learned through that into our new project. Mars takes a couple of years to go through the Zodiac, and so, when it goes through a new sign, it’s good to look at the house of your birth chart that contains that sign that Mars is going to be in, the house or houses of your chart that contain Gemini. Because they’re going to say where you are a little bit more motivated to get things done, where it may be a little harder for you to get things done because of the retrograde and the kinds of things again, that can annoy you or gored you into anger.
With Gemini it’s things like, “Oh, that person said this thing to me, or wrote something about the, on the internet”, or whatever it is.” It’s about language, because it’s Gemini. It can also be that if you have been having some tensions with siblings or with neighbors who are people that are represented by Gemini in a chart that you may have some flare ups in those relationships, disagreements or quarrels or bickering or whatever it might be. So, those are just a couple of things to keep in mind as Mars is going through Gemini.
Mercury opposed Neptune (Aug. 21, 2022, 0:40 am PDT)
On August 21st at 12:40 AM Pacific Time, Mercury makes an opposition to Neptune at 24°43’ Virgo and Pisces. And this is an aspect that goes pretty quickly, really maybe about one day, either side, August 20th through the 22nd, we feel the influence of this aspect. Mercury is about the rational mind and Neptune is more about the imaginative side of our thinking. So, this aspect to me is very much about getting those two balanced out and working together. It can be an outstanding day for making music or listening to music. It can be a really good day for any kind of imaginative writing, poetry, songwriting, fiction. It can be a really good day for communicating in a nonverbal way. So, if you have been having some strains in communicating with somebody close to you, this might be a day that instead of trying to get through to each other with words, that instead you share something lovely together and communicate in that way. So, an image I get is perhaps going to a place with a beautiful view and just sitting there and, you know, enjoying it quietly together or listening to some music together, going to a concert or something of that nature on that day.
I find that in trying to get two such different planets harmonizing together, you have to be kind of intentional about it in advance. So, I’ve used the analogy before of a Teeter totter and Mercury is on one side of this teeter totter and Neptune’s on the other. So, you have to find a way to get that in balance, so it’s not too much Mercury, which is talking, talking, talking, and it’s not too much Neptune, which is just completely gazing off into space and out to lunch, but instead, finding some way to combine the two.
Listener Question: Astrology, Purpose, and Helpfulness
In this week’s listener question, listener, Kellie asks, “I’m interested in your thoughts on purpose in the birth chart. Do we have a purpose? How does the chart help us understand this? And, it would be nice to hear your perspective on how is astrology helpful?”
Well, thank you for those questions, Kellie. Do we have a purpose? Well, if you ask a dozen astrologers, you’re going to get a dozen answers on that one. I believe that we do have a purpose, but I also think this is a matter of belief. In astrology, I think the entire birth chart is a testimonial to purpose. But if I really had to distill it down to just a couple of points in the chart, I would probably point first to the Sun and then possibly to the nodal axis, the North and the South Node. If we look at the story of your life as just that, a narrative, then the plot line really centers around the Sun. The Sun in your birth chart describes how you are the hero of the story, the sign it’s in is the costume that you wear, the house that is in talks about what drives you, and the planets that are aspected by the Sun describe the tools that you use to fulfill your purpose.
Now, the Lunar Nodes, which mark the point where the earth’s journey around the Sun intersects with the Moon’s path around the earth, are often presented in astrology as points of destiny. They describe the lifelong journey away from the familiar, which is symbolized by the South Node and toward the growth and excitement of the North Node. This to me is the central plot line: How are you growing? And then the Sun, and his merry band of planets, describes the particular story of that growth.
Now as for how astrology is helpful. Well, it tells your story, it gives you perspective on setbacks and victories and it lets you know what time it is in your life. When Saturn is a major presence in your transits or your progressions or in your Solar Return Chart, we know that this is a time for you to take authority over your life in a new way. When it’s Jupiter, we know that it’s time to expand your influence, to take chances, but you know, try not to bite off more than you can chew – and so on.
As I said in a recent episode, I don’t think it makes sense to follow your astrology, your transits or whatever every day. I like it as a map of the big picture of these matters of personal growth and understanding. But you know, that is my chart talking, Kellie, with the Sun and several other planets in the 9th House, with Sagittarius rising. I resonate with big questions. So, naturally that’s what I find helpful in astrology. Someone with a more pragmatic focus in her chart say a lot of planets in the 2nd House or in earth signs, might find the more practical and prescriptive elements of astrology more helpful, like determining timing for doing particular things, just as an example. And so, I’ll say that, I find astrology very useful personally in matters related to what I see as my journey toward growth, and what you find useful about it will be very much related to your own birth chart.
I hope that helps, Kellie. And if anyone else out there has a burning question about astrology that you would like me to answer, please leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast, or send an email to me april@bigskyastrology.com and be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.
Donor Thanks
That is everything I have on my show sheet, so I’m going to wrap this one up. Thank you so much for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like, what you’re hearing, be sure to subscribe or follow the show in your app of choice. Ratings and reviews are always welcome, and I would love it if you would help spread the word by telling an astrology loving friend. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at bigskyastropod.com.
Thanks, especially to everyone who has shown financial support for the podcast over the past year. It makes all the difference in being able to bring this to you each week. So, in every episode I’m thanking some of you by name. This week, let’s give a Big Sky Astrology Podcast shout out to Connie Cameron and Anastasia Molnar!
April: Connie and Anastasia, thank you so much for listening to the podcast and for supporting the show with your donations. If you enjoy the show and would like to make a donation of your own, please go to bigskyastropod.com and follow the link.
That’s it for this episode. Join me again, bright and early next Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars.