TRANSCRIPT EPISODE 138
Listen and read show notes hereApril: Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is August 29th, 2022. Welcome to Episode 138 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, Mars and Jupiter invite us to go to the well to find inspiration. Mercury opposes Jupiter, Venus, enters Virgo, and the Sagittarius First Quarter Moon says it’s time to launch off on an adventure. Plus, a listener question about good times to do things and how to take advantage of them.
But first, a big announcement! Coming up next week, September 5th through 9th, I’m bringing you the Third Annual Podathon, with daily episodes, amazing guest astrologers and prizes my friends, so many prizes! Make a note to check your podcast feed every day next week for a new, mooncentric episode!
Mars sextile Jupiter (Sep. 1, 2022, 4:52 am PDT)
The week begins with Mars making a sextile aspect to Jupiter on September 1st at 4:52 AM Pacific Time, at 6°49’ Gemini and Aries. Mars is on the Sabian symbol, 7 Gemini, An Old Fashioned Well. And Jupiter is on the Sabian symbol, 7 Aries, A Man Successfully Expressing Himself In Two Realms At Once. Already, I’m feeling a compatibility between those two images, because if Gemini loves anything, it’s expressing himself in two realms at once. So, even though Jupiter is the one that’s on 7° Aries and on that symbol, it just means that it is supporting that natural Gemini tendency to want to go in multiple directions at the same time. That doesn’t work well for every sign, but Gemini can actually pull it off a lot of the time.
I like that symbol, An Old Fashioned Well, for 7° of Gemini. And what it’s saying is, this is a week when we have to go to the well – in other words, the well of inspiration. So, Mars is about our fighting nature and about our desire to take on a task and really go with it, or in the case of Gemini, a couple of tasks and really go for it. But this will mean going a little deeper perhaps than we generally think of with Gemini, because we’re being asked to expand our efforts. That’s what happens when Mars comes together with Jupiter: Jupiter expands and makes things bigger and says, “Do more.” That means we have to tap our reserves, our physical energy, because Mars is a very physical planet, and of course also with mental energy because it’s in Gemini, which is a mental sign. So, we have a chance this week to expand our efforts if we can go a little deeper and look for inspiration.
This can mean, since we’re getting close to a Mercury retrograde season and we’re already in Mercury’s retrograde shadow, this might mean going back to old projects. Or, if you keep a journal or a collection of emails that you’ve exchanged with someone about a particular subject, this might be a really good time for reviewing those; those are your reserves, and you might find inspiration from them. And then, you have the opportunity, sextile being an opportunity aspect – you’re not being forced into anything here. But there’s an opportunity or an invitation that might come your way that requires you to up your game a little bit, and that will mean dipping into your reserves.
Mercury opposed Jupiter (Sep. 2, 2022, 6:49 pm PDT)
On September 2nd at 6:49 PM Pacific Time, Mercury makes an opposition to Jupiter at 6°39’ Libra and Aries. Whenever I see Mercury and Jupiter together, it reminds me of the old saying, “Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” With Jupiter, we’re always trying to formulate a long-range vision. “The sky’s the limit. What’s the most we can hope for?,” is what Jupiter urges us to think about. Mercury is more concerned with the present moment, maybe “What am I doing this hour, this day, this week, maybe this month?” It’s about the logistics of that. So you need both, you need the dream, you need the long range, vision of Jupiter. But, if we only have that vision and we’re not taking care of what’s important day to day, we can’t really reach that goal. So, Mercury is a little bit the logistics planet. If Jupiter formulates this idea, then Mercury is one that kind of breaks it down. And so it’s, “Okay, what’s our plan for doing this? What are we going to do this week, next week, this quarter, this year towards that goal?” And then pulls together all of the resources that are needed to make that happen.
Mercury at this aspect is on the Sabian symbol, 7 Libra, A Woman Feeding Chicks. It is about that process of the day to day taking care of the things, tending the things that need us to tend to them and to give equal parts of our energy and attention to a wide range of topics. What do we need in the realm of financial resources to reach this big Jupitarian goal we have in mind? And Mercury will write that down. What are the resources we currently have on hand and how are we going to make up the shortfall? How do we want things to look next month, as opposed to five years from now? So, having the two working together should hopefully help us lay a functional logistical groundwork for launching ourselves off onto the great adventure that’s represented by Jupiter.
Sagittarius First Quarter Moon (Sep. 3, 11:08 am PDT)
And now for the Moon Report for the week of August 29th. And it begins with a Sagittarius First Quarter Moon on September 3rd at 11:08 AM Pacific Time, at 11°13’ Sagittarius with the Sun at the same degree of Virgo. So speaking of the large vision that we just talked about with Mercury in opposition to Jupiter, the Sagittarius First Quarter Moon is one of the most potent Lunar Phases of the entire year, really, for taking that leap of faith towards the adventure it craves.
In particular, this First Quarter Moon is action packed and motivating. The Sun is in Virgo and it is square the Moon of course, and Mars in Gemini, which is also opposed the Moon. So we’ve got what we call a T-square configuration. So, as we know, we have a T-square usually when we have three planets of the same modality, in this case, it’s the mutable modality, the Sun is in Virgo, the Moon is in Sagittarius and Mars is in Gemini, the other mutable sign is Pisces. And we do have Neptune in Pisces, but it’s not close enough to these earlier degrees of the mutable signs to really fit into this configuration.
So, as I like to say when we have a T-square, the exit point, the point of relief, if we start to get a little too stressed out by the energy of a T-square – because T-squares generate an enormous amount of energy, and when they take place in mutable signs, it’s very scattered unfocused energy, and that can get tiring, especially on a mental level. So, if we find ourselves getting tired or overwhelmed, the relief point, the exit point is in doing things related to Pisces. So, this can be time for extra rest or for meditation or for ritual or prayer.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun at this First Quarter Moon is 12 Virgo, A Bride With Her Veil Snatched Away. Interestingly enough, this was the Sabian symbol for the Sun in Elsie Wheeler’s chart. Elsie Wheeler was the psychic who intuited the Sabian symbols, so it’s a very special degree to those who follow her work. But that always to me suggests when the veil is snatched away, it seems to be about having our illusions snatched away and we’re seeing things a little more clearly. This First Quarter is the first action point in the Lunar Gestation Cycle that began at the December 3rd, 2021 New Moon in Sagittarius. So the way the Lunar Gestation Cycle works is you have a New Moon at a particular degree, nine months later you’ll have a First Quarter Moon at a similar degree, nine months after that you’ll have the Full Moon at a similar degree, and nine months after that you have the Last Quarter Moon at a similar degree.
This says that in the larger two and a half year cycle that begins at every New Moon, this First Quarter is when we are actually beginning to take some kind of intuitive, trusting, belief-driven action towards something that we may have envisioned at that Sagittarius New Moon back at the end of 2021. So, review what you were thinking about at that time. If you do any kind of New Moon intentions or rituals, think back to what they were, because now is the time to act on them. We often think of a New Moon when we set intentions and do rituals towards something that we would like to see happen in a particular area of our chart. I think we sometimes forget that, well, it’s fine to set intentions, but to make things happen, you actually have to take action toward making them happen. And this is especially true in the realm of Sagittarius, which has lots of great ideas, but without other factors being present can have a hard time actually settling down to just one and making something of it. So, here is our opening, here’s our opportunity when we are being urged, just do something, just act, just take a trusting action toward a great adventure that is taking you in a direction you’ve never gone before.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. On August 28th, the Moon in Virgo makes a trine aspect of Pluto at 8:08 PM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for a good long time, almost seven hours, and enters Libra on August 29th at 2:45 AM. When we have these Moon signs that are ending on an aspect to Pluto, and especially in the evening, when many of us are getting ready to go to bed, it is very important to do that with the right mindset. The void-of-course Moon periods are really good for changing our emotional patterns or direction. This is a little harder to do in the middle of the night, but like I’ve suggested before, before you go to sleep, just put the request out there, say “Bring me some kind of inspiration in my dream life about how I can more effectively change my daily routines, my goals, especially related to my health,” – which is a Virgo concern – “or ways in which I can be of the best possible service in the work that I do, or just in the way I live my life.”
Then on August 31st, the Moon in Libra makes a square aspect of Pluto at 3:43 AM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for about six and a half hours before entering Scorpio at 10:11 AM Pacific Time. This is a little bit of a rockier void-of-course because it begins with the Moon making a square aspect to Pluto, when we’re kind of jarred out of our usual routines or our usual way of looking at things and our feelings are challenged. The Moon being in Libra means that perhaps there’s an interaction with another person that really makes us look at ourselves more deeply and see things that perhaps we’re not that proud of, or it can just be that we are confronted with someone who is trying to make us feel less about ourselves, and our job is to just say, “No, I’m not going to play along with that. I’m fine as I am.” But it’s a square, so it’s always a little bit bumpy there early on the morning of the 31st.
On September 2nd, the Moon in Scorpio makes a square aspect to Venus 10:22 AM, at which point it goes void-of-course, and it’s void-of-course for about five and a half hours before entering Sagittarius at 03:39 PM Pacific Time. Venus is still in Leo at this point at the time of this void-of-course Moon. Venus in Leo says “We are taking pleasure in things that are of the nature of Leo, of playing, of creating, of doing things that celebrate who we are and feeling really good about ourselves.” But the Moon in Scorpio is not that supportive of those things, generally speaking. And it might be a moment in this Lunar Cycle where we are feeling a little bit down on ourselves or about, “Are we good enough? Are we worthy enough?” Venus in Leo likes to be acknowledged and noticed, but do we deserve that? Have we been our very best self? So, these are the kinds of feelings that might be coming up. It’s void-of-course for five and a half hours before it goes into Sagittarius. And this is all happening kind of in the middle of the day or into the early evening, depending on where you are. So, this can be a time when in the course of doing whatever you’re doing that day, you may come up against some interactions that don’t go that smoothly or leave you feeling, not that great about yourself. Or, you might be embodying the Moon in Scorpio that is a little bit annoyed with somebody in your area that is demanding what it seems is more than their share of the attention or wants more than they have earned.
And then, on September 4th, the Moon in Sagittarius makes a trine to Venus at 6:51 PM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for only 15 minutes, and then it enters Capricorn at 07:03 PM. So, of course, we get the square from the Moon to Venus for five and a half hours and then the trine, we only get 15 minutes with that. So, that is just the way it works sometimes.
The Moon in Sagittarius is a lot more optimistic, a lot more life affirming than that Moon in Scorpio can tend to be. And so, it is really in harmony with the Venus in Leo. As Venus is getting ready to leave her sign, and so she gets this lovely final hurrah of the Moon making a trine. And, this is a moment on September 4th, I think this is a Sunday evening, where you can have a really nice time relaxing and enjoying some social time with family or friends around some nice food, having some laughs, enjoying some music, and this is really lovely evening for that.
Venus enters Virgo (Sep. 4, 2022, 9:05 pm PDT)
Then on September 4th, Venus enters Virgo at 9:05 PM Pacific Time. Venus will be in Virgo through September 29th. Venus is the sacred goddess, and when she is in Virgo, this is the time of tending the eternal flame. What is it that you are devoted to? What is it that you really want to serve and give your very best effort toward? Those are the things to tend and take pleasure in while Venus is in Virgo. Generally speaking, we say that the sign Venus in says, this is what’s going to bring us pleasure. This is what’s going on make us happy in the coming weeks.
So, what is Virgo about? Virgo is about creating a daily routine that is pleasurable. If you wake up every morning thinking, “Ugh, I’ve got to live this life today”, well, that’s not going to make Venus very happy. Because, Venus says, “You know what? You have a party every now and again, you go on a vacation even less often. Mainly what you’re doing is spending time in the everyday world, in the world of your job, your household, the body that you live in, so that’s why it’s so important to take pleasure in these areas of your life, create beauty in them and relaxation.” So when Venus is in Virgo, this can be eating foods that make you feel really good in your body. It can be about organizing your home in such a way that it’s much easier to move through your day and get the things done that are really important to you. It’s about maybe going to the Container Store and buying a bunch of really fun boxes to help you organize your closet, because then every time you open it, you feel really good and really happy. Venus does like us to spend some money very often. And, when it’s in Virgo, it says, “Well, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to really have a better quality of life.” So, this is finding the ways, and this goes back to that first aspect we talked about this week, Mars with Jupiter and going back to the well.
Virgo wants us to take a look at what we already have on hand and see what we can do with it to beautify our life, our surroundings, our environment. Virgo is also a sign that dearly loves the outdoors and very much loves animals. So, see if in the coming weeks through September 29th, you have more opportunities to get out and enjoy the fresh air, tend your garden, or just go to a park on a regular basis. Take walks around your neighborhood, something that gets you outside and enjoying the natural world and spending a little time with the delightful pets and other animals in your life. So, this can be enjoying your own pets, maybe buying them little toys or a new bed or something like that. It can be enjoying and doting on a friend’s pets. It can be, going to your local public park that might have an area where people are playing with their dogs. You can hear, there are lots of different ways to do this. Venus just says, celebrate the beautiful little animals that help keep us healthy. So, these are often domesticated animals because they’re living with us day to day. They keep us cheerful. They give us a sense of purpose because we’re caring for them and they do so many wonderful things for us.
Listener Question: Advantageous Days
This week’s listener question comes from listener Carmine who asks, “Mr. Chris Brennan once mentioned a photo of him taken when Venus crossed his Ascendant, which proved quite worthwhile for his media presence. A different commentator related gambling success while the Sun was conjunct his Jupiter and the part of fortune was in his second house, conjunct his Natal Ascendant. In addition, every planet has its exact degree of exaltation. What transits or exact degrees of exaltation do you find most worthy of marking on your calendar? And besides putting it all on red, what might you advise to make the most of them?”
Well, Carmine, as I’ve said before, I don’t pay a lot of attention to my own transits. I will say that I did have a sensational career opportunity that came my way once on the very day that transiting Jupiter came together with the transiting North Node, exactly on the Midheaven in my chart. And the Midheaven of course is the career point. Now, I don’t tend to win things and I am not generally all that lucky when it comes to things like money, honestly. I’ve got Jupiter in my second house, but it’s very close to Saturn, and Saturn always wins. But you know, your question has got me thinking, I should be paying more attention to Venus transits and at least parlay them into a really nice photo or something that I can use for my headshot.
Now, my husband tends to be a little luckier than I am. I remember one time we were in New Zealand on vacation and the hotel where we were staying automatically entered us in this pool that they had going for the Melbourne Cup Race, and we won the prize. I don’t remember what it was. It might have been a hundred dollars or something. But on that day, transiting Jupiter, which by the way rules horses, was in a pretty close conjunction with my husband’s Natal Moon and trine his Natal Mars, which rules his fifth house, a house of gambling. But, weirdly, transiting Saturn was exactly on his Natal Sun that day, which I would’ve thought would have been a lot less lucky.
Carmine, I will link in the show notes to the blog post that you referred to. It was Adam Elenbaas of Nightlight Astrology, who talked about a gambling success he had had. It would make sense to have something nice come your way on a day that Jupiter comes together with your Natal Sun or the transiting Sun with your Natal Jupiter. I should clarify that in your question you said that he mentioned the part of fortune by transit being in his 2nd House, conjunct his Ascendant. And in case this confuses anybody, this suggests that Adam would be using the Whole Sign house system, because otherwise a conjunction to the Ascendant would be in either the 1st or the 12th houses.
I will say that the year my Progressed Sun was trine my Natal Jupiter, everything went my way. It was just this amazing year. But that is literally a once in a lifetime progression, so I won’t be marking that one on my calendar anytime soon. But it does make me believe that there is maybe a little luck in my poor old Saturn ruled Jupiter. And I’ll be interested to see what comes my way when transiting Pluto moves onto that Jupiter next spring.
Now, as for how people might make the most of these kinds of lucky transits, sure, look for Jupiter transiting over an angle of your chart or aspecting your Sun or Venus or transiting Sun or Venus connecting with Jupiter. Jupiter transits are probably a couple of weeks long when they’re aspecting something in your birth chart, while the Sun in Venus move more quickly, so it’s pretty much just one or two days of an influence. But, within those transiting periods, I would look for time of day when Jupiter or even Venus has come up to the Ascendant or the Midheaven, maybe the descendant and then act. So, if you’re wanting to apply for a job or a grant or scholarship, a lecture position at a conference, a time to approach an important person with a request or for a favor, or yes, put it all on red – anything where you’d like a little boost of fortune on your side, these might be good uses for such a series of days or moments. At the very least look at any days in the year when you have Jupiter or the Sun for that matter, or Venus crossing the ascendant of your chart. These seem to be really obvious moments that even someone like me, who doesn’t intend to pay too much attention to my transits might go ahead and mark on my calendar.
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Donor Thanks
That is everything 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 on your app of choice. Ratings and reviews are of course welcome, and I would love it if you’d help me spread the word about the show by telling a friend. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at bigskyastropod.com.
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That’s it for this episode. Join me again bright and early next Podathon Monday! And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars.
© 2022 by April Elliott Kent
