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TRANSCRIPT Ep. 148 | Mars Meets Neptune: Pencils Down!

TRANSCRIPT EPISODE 148 | Mars Meets Neptune: Pencils Down! (Oct. 10, 2022)

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April: Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is October 10th, 2022. Welcome to Episode 148 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, Mercury re-enters Libra and opposes Jupiter, the Sun and Venus make trines to Saturn, and Mars makes the first of three square aspects to Neptune. Plus, I answer a listener question about how to reconcile the sign on the ascendant of the chart with planets that are very different in style.

Mercury enters Libra (Oct. 10, 2022, 4:51 pm PDT)

The week begins with Mercury entering the sign of Libra on October 10th at 4:51 PM Pacific Time. Mercury was recently in Libra between August 25th and September 23rd, then, during its retrograde period, between September 9th and October 2nd, it re-entered Virgo… and now it’s coming back into Libra. Mercury is the planet of ideas and communication. And, during the time that Mercury was retrograde, you might have come up with some new ideas or rediscovered some old ones that you decided you want to delve into a little more deeply. As Mercury enters Libra, it’s time to share those thoughts and ideas with the rest of the world. While Mercury was in Virgo, we tried to figure out how to improve things to make them better. The downside of anything in Virgo is that we can always imagine a way in which it can be improved. And when something then enters Libra, it’s like that moment when you’re taking an exam and the proctor says, “Okay, put your pencils down.” Whatever the state of the idea, we have to trust at this time that it is good enough, it is ready to take out to the marketplace and to share with others.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t make some adjustments along the way. If we take an idea and share it with the world and the feedback that we get is, “You really need to rethink this,” it’s very possible that we might need to make some adjustments in response to that. But that’s what the process of Libra is about. It’s about running it past other people, seeing if they are detecting blind spots, which despite our very best efforts to make things better, sometimes we just overlook what’s right in front of our face.

Sun (Oct. 11, 2022, 6:06 pm PDT) and Venus (Oct. 13, 2022, at 11:21 pm PDT) trine Saturn

On October 11th at 6:06 PM Pacific Time, the Sun in Libra makes a trine aspect to Saturn in Aquarius. Two days later on October 13th at 11:21 PM, Venus will also make a trine to Saturn, so I’m sort of grouping them together here to talk about them. These aspects come on the heels of last week’s Sun and Venus oppositions to Jupiter, and any time planets make any kind of aspect with Jupiter, even if it’s a so-called difficult aspect like an opposition, it activates the Jupiter principle, which means we feel more inclined to take chances, to open our horizons to new things, to new adventures. And now that Sun and Venus are making trines to Saturn… Saturn of course, has a very different spirit than Jupiter. Jupiter is about opening up to all possibilities, and Saturn is about building boundaries and containment. It sounds like a bummer, but Saturn is also the planet that imposes discipline and strategy so that the things that we imagined while the Sun and Venus were connecting with Jupiter, the things that opened up, the new possibilities that occur to us, now is the opportunity to make them a reality. We can have tons of great ideas, we can dream big dreams all day long, but until Saturn comes on the scene, we don’t necessarily find the discipline and resources that we need to make something happen.

Now, the Sun and Venus talk about slightly different things that we’re trying to make reality. The Sun symbolizes a process of becoming more fully ourselves, and during its Libra season, this usually has to do with how we’re relating with others and what that’s showing us about ourselves. Venus is really about the process I think, of completing ourselves. One way we try to do that is with relationships with other people who may possess some of the qualities or attributes that we lack. And so, being in relationship with them, we feel more complete, and hopefully we learn from them how to develop those same qualities in ourselves. We learn to complete ourselves through being in relationship with others, and in doing so, we value ourselves more, which is also a Venus concept.

So, as the Sun is making a trine to Saturn, it says through your works, through going for something that is substantial and that will require a lot of effort in achieving that, you will know something new about yourself and you will have grown. And that’s true whether or not you actually succeed in the exact thing that you attempt. And with Venus connecting with Saturn, it can be a relationship that deepens and that we decide to make a commitment to over the long haul. And it can also mean that something that makes us happy, that brings us pleasure and satisfaction might become something that we take a little more seriously. There are a lot of different ways this can play out, but basically during this week as the Sun and Venus are making this lovely aspect to Saturn, we are called to dedicate ourselves, to commit and to work hard at something important to us that if we do, just the process of making that commitment brings us to a better understanding of ourselves and to feel more complete than before.

Mars square Neptune (Oct. 11, 2022, at 10:47 pm PDT)

Also, on October 11th at 10:47 PM Pacific Time, Mars in Gemini makes the first of three square aspects to Neptune. The second square is on November 19th, as Mars is retrograde in Gemini, and then, after it’s turned direct again, it will make the final square to Neptune on March 14th, 2023. The square aspect represents tension of two forces that are very different and want very different things being forced to work together. But, even without the presence of a square aspect, we know that Mars and Neptune are very different planets with really different personalities. Mars governs the impulse to act, and while it’s in the sign of Gemini, it’s wanting to act in Gemini realms such as speaking or other kind of communication or learning or moving aroundm or to scatter its energies in many directions, but always, Mars wants to act. When it’s connected with a planet like say Saturn, that action tends to be focused and directed in a really productive way.

But Neptune is a little more experiential, and if anything, it compounds the more troublesome qualities of Mars in Gemini, which can lend confusion to the proceedings. And in this case, I actually think a square is useful. I think anytime we have squares to Neptune, they represent the ways in which we are fighting the Neptune tendency towards fogginess or confusion. So, when we see a planet fighting with Neptune, it is fighting to clarify what it really wants to do. But there is no question as many of us have found since Mars went into Gemini and especially while Mercury was retrograde, it can also be exhausting, it can feel overwhelming, because Mars is so excitable and it builds up so much energy that it’s taxing – and in this case, it’s taxing to the mind. It feels as if, I think for many of us, that we’re juggling so many balls in the air at the same time and we’re having this feeling of going around and around and never really finishing anything or ever really getting any place.

So, on the one hand, Mars is opening up many possibilities and many ideas in Gemini, which is great, but as it goes into these squares with Neptune, it’s really asking us to do a couple different things. One, is to step outside our rigorous ideas of time. Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury, it’s a little more chronologically oriented. It may not meet all its goals in a timely fashion, but it has a sense that there is such a thing as timeliness, and it doesn’t object to things like schedules and calendars, again, it might not abide by them exactly, but it has an appreciation for them. Neptune doesn’t work in quite that same way. Neptune’s job is to release us in many ways from the tyranny of time and schedules. Neptune says, “You can do anything you want to do, but it means giving up your idea of time”.

I’ve probably mentioned this before on the podcast because it’s something I’ve observed so many times. The people in my life who have many planets in Pisces or flowing aspects with Neptune in their birth charts are really good at fitting so much into every single day. Because, while a Mercury ruled person might look at their schedule for the day and say, “Oh, I have this to do and then this at this time and this at this time and quickly overwhelming, and I don’t know how I’m going to get it all done”, Neptune looks at it and goes, “Eh, I’m sure I can fit in a coffee date with a friend. I’m sure I can fit in one more errand between this meeting and that meeting.” So, Neptune’s helpful in this way, and it’s one way in which it can be a little bit helpful to this Mars in Gemini as long as we fight the cloudiness and confusion and overwhelm that can come with feeling as if there’s not enough time.

That said, Mars can be a little distracted while it’s in Gemini and especially in combination with Neptune. So, it’s a good idea around the date of the exact square, or maybe a couple of days either side. So, let’s say, between October 9th and October 13th, say, to be especially careful when we’re doing things like driving, when the aspect is exact, the negative qualities can emerge. So, being a little bit careful, especially behind the wheel, this week is not a bad idea at all.

Mercury opposed Jupiter (Oct. 12, 2022, 12:24 am PDT)

On October 12th at 12:24 AM Pacific Time, Mercury makes an opposition to Jupiter. This is the last of three oppositions between Mercury and Jupiter. The first was on September 2nd, the second was on September 18th. Mercury opposed Jupiter is about seeing both the forest and the trees. It is important to have big dreams, as Jupiter has been encouraging us to do, especially in Aries. But it’s just as important to attend to the minutia that can help us make those big dreams a reality, to make even one of those dreams a reality, so it falls to the Mercury side of this opposition to stop our Jupiter in its tracks to examine: I have this wonderful big idea, but if I really stop and think about the individual steps it’s going to take to make this thing happen, what does that look like? And it may be perfectly doable, but it’s still a good time to sit down with a pen and a piece of paper or a spreadsheet or whatever you like to use and say, “It would begin like this, and then this would be the next step, and then we need this and this and this and all the resources and skills and any other resources that we’re going to need to make this happen.”

So, this usually necessarily means narrowing it down to one thing, which as I just talked about with Mars being in Gemini and square Neptune, is not so easy right now. We want to do everything all at once. That Mars in Gemini is ruling Jupiter because Jupiter is in Aries right now – which is ruled by Mars. We’re trying to do a lot. Everything seems like the thing that we want to do right now. And Mercury is being helpful by standing across from Jupiter in opposition and saying, what is the one thing that you felt excited about all the way back at the beginning of last month when there was the first Mercury-Jupiter opposition on September 2nd? Because, if you’re still interested in it now, that’s the one to pursue. Let’s come up with a game plan and a checklist or two and figure out where we begin, where it’s going to end up, and all of the steps in between.

Moon Report – no major lunation

And now for the Moon Report for the week of October 10th. And it’s a little bit of a quiet Moon week. We don’t have a major lunation because the Last Quarter Moon is going to fall next week on October 17th.

Void-of-Course Moon periods

So, let’s talk about the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. The first is on October 10th as the Moon in Aries makes a square to Pluto at 7:02 AM Pacific Time. It’s void-of-course for seven hours, and enters Taurus at 2:04 PM. As we’ve talked about before, when the Moon’s last aspect in its sign is a hard aspect to Pluto, we have a tendency to look back, especially over the last couple of days and think, “Have I done all of the things I was supposed to do in the way I was supposed to do them? Are there things that I wish I hadn’t done?” And there can be a little bit of a tendency to really come down hard on ourselves. Maybe we’ve been a little bit rash, a little bit impulsive, acted before thinking, and as we sit for seven hours with this square to Pluto in very practical Capricorn, we might be a little hard on ourselves and say, “Ah, yes, maybe I should have slowed down and taken my time and then I wouldn’t have this mess to deal with.”

I think my best piece of advice for these void-of-course periods is that beating up on ourselves for what we have or haven’t done in the past is completely useless. All we can do is try to learn from it, and we can look during this seven-hour period at our Aries side, our reckless side. And it can also be instructive during this time of the longer transit of Jupiter moving through Aries when we have a tendency to have pie in the sky dreams and to go off after them without really thinking it through. It’s a void-of-course period for practicing patience with ourselves and with others.

On October 12th, the Moon in Taurus will make a trine to Pluto at 02:42 PM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for about seven and a half hours and then enters Gemini at 10:08 PM. A trine to Pluto sounds a lot nicer, doesn’t it? And it’s because the Moon, as it’s going through Taurus, tends to do things in a more deliberative fashion, to pay attention to the practicalities behind whatever it is that we want to do, and you can see how this gets along a lot better with Pluto in Capricorn. To put it in a really succinct way, Pluto in Capricorn has been about learning to be grownups, how to be the authorities over our own lives, and that requires some self-discipline and accepting the realities of getting things done in the world. They’re both very earthy, Taurus and Capricorn, and so, they understand each other, and this has been a two-day period when it’s easier for us to go along with that bigger Pluto game plan.

Finally, on October 14th, the Moon in Gemini ends on a conjunction with Mars at 9:11 PM Pacific Time. It’s void-of-course for exactly 12 hours, a very long void period, before it enters Cancer on October 15th at 9:11 AM. The Moon in Gemini in a conjunction with Mars in Gemini accentuates those confused, overwhelmed, jangly, aggravated feelings I was talking about with Mars square Neptune. While Mars is completing its long, protracted journey through Gemini, these times of the month, as the Moon is in a conjunction with Mars, tend to be a little more emotionally trying. We’re more emotionally caught up in that sense of too many options and going in too many directions at one time. So, we’ll sleep through a lot of this void-of-course period, at least here in the United States. And then, as the Moon enters Cancer the next morning, October 15th, just going into noontime on the East Coast of the United States, the Moon enters Cancer, gets a little more out of our heads and into our hearts and our gut and our instincts. It’s not grounding in the sense that an earth sign would be, but at least it tones down that hyperkinetic quality of so much Gemini, so much air.

Listener Question

In this week’s listener question, listener Lara writes, “How can a strong appearance in your rising sign coexist with a softer Moon? I have Leo rising and a Pisces Moon, and everybody thinks I’m less vulnerable than I am.”

Lara, that is such a great question. And it’s not just the Moon that can suffer from this kind of disconnect with the Ascendant.

Let’s begin by examining what the Ascendant is in the chart. Technically, it marks the point where the earth’s horizon meets the ecliptic. In a chart calculated in Placidus, Koch, or Porphyry house systems and other what we call Quadrant Based House Systems, as well as in the Equal House System, this point is the cusp of the first house. In other words, the cusp on the leftmost side of the chart at what would be on a clock, the nine o’clock position. In the Whole Sign House System, the 1st House begins at 0° of the Ascendant sign, and the Ascendant point falls somewhere usually in the 1st House.

So, what does the Ascendant mean? The Ascendant is very time- and location-sensitive. A new degree of the zodiac is rising on the Ascendant roughly every four minutes. Now, that can vary depending on the sign, but because it is so time sensitive, it is arguably the most individual point in the chart, and it’s the reason that we need to work with a very exact birth time when we calculate someone’s chart.

The way the ascendant is interpreted is as the point of personality of how others see you. And that’s not wrong, but I like to expand that out a little more. The Ascendant, I think, is our instinctive way of coping with what the environment sends our way. It’s kind of like a bag of tricks that we developed from a very early age because we found that these particular coping mechanisms helped keep us safe. The First House of the chart symbolizes the way we cope with what’s new and exciting in our environment, but also possibly threatening. I also think it’s valid to interpret it as the way we interact with the world on a surface level.

Here’s an example I’ve used with clients. If we go to the supermarket, we don’t need to share our deepest needs and longings and motivations with the checkout clerk. The Ascendant might show the way we handle these kinds of casual interactions. If you have Sagittarius Rising, maybe you’re really friendly, crack a joke with the clerk. Whereas, if you have Scorpio Rising, you might just say as little as possible.

Now, this is modified as everything in the chart is modified by other factors. The planet that rules the sign on your Ascendant can make a really big difference. Also, if you have planets in the First House, that can modify things a great deal. And of course, as you point out, Lara, sometimes the Ascendant writes a check that one of our natal planets is just unwilling to cash!

A Leo Ascendant deals with the world by being very warm but quite dignified and it can roar if people get too close. We think of Leo as very friendly, and it can be, but you need to show it that respect. And while a Leo or Leo Rising, Leo Moon might be nice to you, it’s not a good idea to presume that you have an intimacy with them that they have not granted. So, in the case of the Ascendant, this is a formidable personality, but it is mostly an act. And in your specific case, the Sun, which is the ruler of that Leo Ascendant, gives another important piece of the puzzle. You have the Sun in Taurus, and Taurus doesn’t love to play the queen, it wants to downplay any sense of personal importance or drama or pretense.

Now, as for your Moon, the Moon is where we are most private and most emotionally vulnerable. Where the Moon is concerned, the job of the Ascendant is to keep away anybody who’s going to hurt us emotionally. The Moon in Pisces, as you point out, is very sensitive, very vulnerable, it needs a lot of protection. So yes, with Leo Rising, people are going to generally believe that you’re very strong and that if they get tough with you, you can take it, and in that respect, your Ascendant is doing its job. Leo is like any cat. It has evolved over time to never show weakness or pain, because those are qualities that make vulnerable to predators.

So, let’s say someone says something rude to you that’s of the nature of your Ascendant, something like, “You always want to be the center of attention. You’re so full of yourself”, and the Leo Ascendant roars back – but inside, this little Moon feels very hurt and misunderstood. But that is how your Ascendant is designed to work. It cannot project sensitivity easily. That’s not how a Leo Ascendant keeps you safe in the world. The answer is not to make your Ascendent more like your Pisces Moon, and the Moon in Pisces is never gonna be like that Leo Ascendant, but how can we get them working in tandem or helping each other?

So, it’s tough because you are wanting people to realize you are only human, you have feelings like anyone else. But Leo on the Ascendant is like being the queen, and you’re not meant to show your emotions, really. Wearing your heart on your sleeve, in other words, making your Ascendant more like your Moon, is not going to do that vulnerable side of you any favors. But on the other hand, Leo, on the Ascendant is like having a lion standing guard outside the door of your chart. If you do it right, nothing much is going to get past that Ascendant, and your Moon in Pisces will be well protected.

The problem, I suspect having looked at your chart, is less with the Ascendant in Leo and maybe a little more the fact that the Sun, which rules Leo is in the 10th House, your light shines in a very public way, which your Moon doesn’t necessarily love, and not only that, but Mars is opposing your Moon. Criticism in particular will be very hurtful to your Moon, and the Leo Ascendant, honestly doesn’t like it much either, but Leo is a strong Ascendant, and the Sun being in Taurus gives it this solid sense of confidence as well. It’s an Ascendant that is perfectly designed to guard that sensitive Moon in Pisces. By strengthening the Ascendant as much as you can by making it dignified and strong, you are protecting the Moon. So, don’t try to tone down the Leo Ascendant, instead, feed the lion.

I hope that helps, Lara!

If you have a burning question about astrology that you’d like me to answer on a future episode, please leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast or send an email to me at April(at)bigskyastrology(dot)com and be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.

Donor Thanks

Well, that is everything I have on my show sheet, so I’m going to wrap this one up for now. Thanks so much for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, please do 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 sharing the show with a friend.

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That is 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.

© 2022 by April Elliott Kent

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