TRANSCRIPT Episode 151 | Aquarius First Quarter Moon: Cobblestones and Roadblocks! (10.31.22)
April: Hello, invisible friend, April here – and the date today is October 31st, 2022. Welcome to Episode 151 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. Happy Halloween to everybody who is celebrating that festive day today!
This is a very light astrological week, and since we are between the October 25th Solar Eclipse and the November 8th Lunar Eclipse, what I decided to do this week is give you a brief Moon Report and then we’ll include the eclipse information from Episodes 120 and 121 about the eclipses in Natal Houses and in aspect to your Natal Planets.
First Quarter Moon in Aquarius (Oct. 31, 2022, 11:37 pm PDT)
We begin with the Moon Report for the week of October 31st. It begins with the First Quarter Moon on October 31st at 11:37 PM Pacific Time, at 8°49’ Aquarius and Scorpio. This brings last week’s Solar Eclipse to its first action point. That was an Eclipse that brought some of us to our knees trying to figure out what’s most important to us and how to clear out the things that are getting in the way of having or enjoying those things. At this Aquarius First Quarter Moon, it’s easier I think, to disconnect from our emotional intensity so that we can better formulate an action plan for the future.
This is the First Quarter Moon in a Lunar Phase Family that began back in January with the New Moon in Aquarius on January 31st. That New Moon was in a conjunction with Saturn and it promised that the road ahead into our distant Aquarian dreams and wishes would be paved with hard cobble stones and numerous roadblocks.
At this First Quarter, the Sun and Moon are each within about 10° of aspecting Saturn, so there’s still that feeling of having to push pretty hard to get through the roadblocks, but we also know that Saturn always rewards hard work and perseverance, and also that if we really want something enough to work that hard for it, we can be certain that it’s something that’s really meaningful to us.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. And now that Jupiter is backed into Pisces and is sitting at 29°, it’s setting the tone for more of our Void-of-Course Moon periods instead of Pluto – though they are shorter void-of-course Moon periods, Jupiter is a planet that moves ahead in a spirit of optimism in contrast to Pluto, which is a little more brooding in nature.
On October 31st, the Moon in Capricorn makes a sextile aspect to Jupiter at 8:14 AM Pacific Time. It’s void-of-course for only about a half an hour before it enters Aquarius at 8:43 AM. Jupiter wants big things, especially when it’s in Pisces. This is a combination that thinks big, so this is a time of big visions as Jupiter is finishing up the very end of its transit in this sign and the Moon in Capricorn at this void-of-course Moon period is really good at coming up with a plan to realize those big visions. Now, granted, a half an hour is not a lot of time to work with, but maybe we can sit down for 15 minutes or so with the morning coffee and make a to-do list, an outline, or even just a simple sketch of one big project that we’d like to accomplish maybe during these last couple of months that Jupiter is finishing up in Pisces, writing things down. That physical act can be a way of making our imaginings real and concrete.
On November 2nd, the Moon in Aquarius makes a trine to Mars at 4:08 AM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for about seven and a half hours before it enters Pisces at 11:46 AM. This longer void-of-course Moon period, right on the heels of Halloween’s First Quarter Moon, brings together the Moon and Mars in Air signs. Mars retrograde is going to make forward motion a lot more challenging over the next couple of months. I talked about that quite a lot in Episode 150. But, this particular void-of-course Moon period is great for brainstorming because that’s what the Air signs are really good at. Add these ideas to that very practical groundwork that Moon in Capricorn sketch from Halloween morning.
Then, on November 4th, the Moon in Pisces comes together in a conjunction with Jupiter at 3:05 PM Pacific Time, for just about one hour before it enters Aries at 4:07 PM. No more Capricorn business meetings or Air sign brainstorming. This is just a little mid-afternoon. void-of-course nap period for the Moon in Pisces to dream big Jupiterian dreams.
Venus opposed Uranus (Nov. 5, 2022, 3:22 pm PDT)
On November 5th at 03:22 PM Pacific Time, Venus in Scorpio makes an opposition to Uranus. The Sabian symbol for Venus at 17°3’ Scorpio is 18 Scorpio, Woods rich in autumn coloring. And the Sabian symbol for Uranus at 18 Taurus, A woman holding a bag out of a window. So, taken together with these lovely Sabian symbols, this combination really evokes the beauty of the Autumnal season, the season of endings here in the Northern Hemisphere. And that picture of a woman holding a bag out of a window always makes me think that she’s shaking something out of the bag, some dirt or trash or whatever it is. It’s a season of releasing and letting go.
Venus coming into aspect with Uranus is one of those times when we experience a little bit of a jolt, often in the case of the opposition, it’s a jolt of awareness, about a relationship that we’ve been in or about our values or about our financial situation. These are times when suddenly, which is of the nature of Uranus, we see things a little more clearly in these areas and it’s a little easier to see what is really beautiful that we’re connected to, and what it is that we can let go of.
Mini-lessons: Eclipses by house and in aspect to natal planets
During last spring’s Eclipse season, I included two mini-lessons about eclipses. In Episode 120, I gave interpretations of eclipses in the houses of the horoscope. And in Episode 121, I covered eclipses in aspect to natal planets. And as I said at the beginning, since it’s a very quiet week in the sky otherwise, I thought this would be a great opportunity to replay those lessons for you and to combine them and have them all together in one place. Here they are:
Eclipses in astrology, as I’ve said, signify change and crisis, and crisis is a scary word because we mostly have negative connotations with it. When we think about crisis, we think of the worst moments of our lives. But a crisis just means that you have taken a particular path as far as you can and now it’s time to go in another direction, you’re at a turning point. It’s like the moment in a novel or a film where the plot thickens and the action changes. It is a moment of tension in your narrative.
Now, the thing is, some of the very best experiences of your life can also be crises. If you talk to somebody who’s just gotten married or had their first child or someone who’s just experienced any enormous success, then you will be talking to a person who’s in crisis. Their whole life has changed and the old rules no longer apply, and they have to find a new way of rewriting the rules of their lives.
I’ll tell you just briefly what I think about the difference between Solar and Lunar Eclipses. Solar Eclipses occur at least twice each year. It’s when we have a new Moon within a particular proximity of the Lunar Nodes. The Lunar Nodes mark the point where the Earth’s path around the Sun intersects with the Moon’s path around the Earth. Solar Eclipses can only happen at a New Moon.
Coming up to a Solar Eclipse, especially in the week before the Eclipse, we tend to experience them, and I find we experience them in quite a physical way. We might feel a little bit off balance, a little bit charged up. To me, as I said, they’re very much of the nature of Uranus where things are really highly charged. I think Solar Eclipses are a time when because it’s the Moon that is occulting the Sun, so the Moon’s shadow, those Lunar qualities like intuition and emotionalism overwhelm the Solar self, and the Solar self is the part that has a good sense of who we are relative to other people. It symbolizes our sanity, our sense of who we are and what that means. So, just for a brief time around the time of a Solar Eclipse, we get a little bit outside of our usual self, our usual sense of self can get a little overwhelmed by these feelings and all of this intuition.
Now, at Lunar Eclipses, what’s happening is the Earth is casting a shadow on the Moon, and this is often a time when we will react to emotional challenges by trying to hold onto something physical and real.
Now, let’s take a quick look at Eclipses moving through the Houses of the chart. I work with Houses with Eclipses really as pairs. Because, if you’re having a Solar Eclipse in one House, this one’s in my 6th House for example, I know that the Lunar Eclipse that is going to accompany that Eclipse is usually going to be in the opposite sign, and so therefore the opposite House. So, I know for me the 6th and 12th Houses are probably being impacted by these Eclipses. They’re working as a team.
Eclipses in Natal houses
If this Eclipse point is falling in the 1st House of your chart or the 7th House of your chart, we know that this is an important time for addressing any imbalances between yourself and others in order to achieve harmony in your relationships. These are often Eclipses when people are in a transitional period in a relationship, they’re getting engaged or they’re getting married, breaking up, moving out, it’s a very action-oriented pair of houses.
Another thing to realize about Eclipses is they move backwards. That is their natural pattern. So, we could say that Eclipses take us on a kind of a backward journey relative to other things moving through the birth chart, and to me that’s a really revealing part of Eclipse work.
Anyway, after the Eclipses have been in the 1st and 7th Houses, they then will shift back to the 12th and the 6th Houses, I call this the axis of Mastery and Healing. It’s generally when we’re adjusting to new realities because if you’ve just had eclipses in the 1st and 7th Houses, probably you’ve just experienced some significant external changes in your life. So, when eclipses go into the 12th and 6th Houses, it’s time to adjust to that. Sometimes you’re taking time out to rest or you’re having to develop new habits. Then, in the next year, about a year and a half, depending on what House system you’re using, the eclipses are going to move into the 11th and 5th Houses, which is the axis of self-expression and collaboration with others. It’s a time to indulge your own creative passions and it can also lead you to changes in your friendships, to lead you to better and more authentic friendships.
If you’re going through a lot of changes and you need to be doing some things that are true to you because that’s the 5th house, not everyone’s gonna go along on that journey with you.
Next, eclipses move back into the 10th and the 4th Houses, that’s another really important axis. It’s about location in the world where you are located, the place where you live and the direction you want to go in, which is symbolized by the 10th House. This is the time we align with our inner compass, and if we put ourselves in the right place, the right city, the right neighborhood amongst the right people, then we’re in a better position to point ourselves toward the path with heart, the thing that we really want to do out in the world, our career path.
Next, eclipses go into the 9th and the 3rd Houses, the axis of exploration and communication and understanding. So, this is the time to learn more, to question what you know, to share what you know with others and to break out of your comfort zone and to second guess yourself a little bit and be sure you’re not just relying on past knowledge or preconceptions. It’s often an important eclipse Cycle for people to continue their education or to learn a new skill.
And then, eclipses in the 8th and 2nd Houses, that’s the axis of possessions and values. It’s about what I have versus what we share together, which is the 8th House. So, this is a cycle for learning to respect who you are and what you have, and it’s also about building trust with other people, that’s the 8th House part, and sharing what you have with other people as well.
The 2nd House symbolizes confidence in yourself and the 8th House is confidence in other people and other person in particular, and the confidence they have in themselves and with you. So, if you think of the 8th House, just realize it’s the House of intimacy, but that intimacy is built on lots of things. It really takes time to get to know somebody and really have it proven to you that that person is trustworthy.
Eclipses in aspect to Natal planets
I thought we would take a look at eclipses making aspects to your Natal Planets. The October 25th Solar eclipse was at 2° of Scorpio, so you’ll especially be looking at aspects to planets in your chart around 2° of the Fixed signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius, but we’ll use an orb of 4°. So, if you back up to 28° of the Cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn through 6° of the Fixed signs, those are the planets that are most likely to really feel the influence of that Solar Eclipse.
The November 8th Lunar Eclipse is at 16° of Taurus, so we’re looking at an orb between 12° and 20° of the Fixed signs, particularly Taurus. Astrologers really vary on the idea of orb and how many degrees all from exact an aspect can be and still have an influence. I use a 4° orb for eclipses.
Now, I’m sometimes asked why I don’t include other aspects like trines or sextiles when I work with eclipses. And it’s because, to me, the job of eclipses seems to be turning points and crisis, and trines and sextiles do not normally bring crisis. So, I like to keep the aspects minimal and the orbs at 4° or less because what this does is make the really important messages of the eclipses really pop out.
Here are a few thoughts about eclipses in aspect to planets in the birth chart. When eclipses are in aspect to the Natal Sun, and you’re being asked to take more of a starring role in your own life, and this can be uncomfortable if you’re a person who’s very modest or who is used to on other people to take the lead, and there can also sometimes be big transitions involving important men or authority figures in your life, so we might see issues with a boss or issues with dad or people in your life to whom you’ve given some authority to influence your decisions. That gets called into question when there were eclipses to the Sun. This one is really about standing up and taking charge and being the main driving force of our own lives.
Eclipses in aspect to the Natal Moon, can often find us in a place where there is a perceived threat to either your security, your safety, your comfort, your privacy. Maybe you’ve moved in with somebody and you see aspects to the Moon from eclipses because it’s a big adjustment and you’re losing some of your privacy for sure. It is a crisis to have to learn to live day to day with somebody or for that matter without somebody. You’ll also see big transitions involving one’s home, family or maternal figures. Eclipses in aspect to Mercury call for a change in how you define yourself, and it could be hard to parse this out sometimes from an eclipse to the Sun, because those two move really close together. So, we often have an eclipse to the Sun and an eclipse to Mercury pretty close together or in the same year at least, but they’re actually quite different.
Eclipses aspecting the Sun say, “You’re coming to grips with who you are.” But, eclipses to Mercury say that “This is who I’m going to tell the world I am. This is how I define myself.” You might take on a new role or a new title. I’ve seen people literally change their name when they have an eclipse in aspect to Mercury.
Eclipses in aspect to Venus usually bring some kind of crisis in a close relationship. There may be some kind of a threat to your sense of security or your self-esteem. There could be big financial developments, either positive or negative. If you’ve been very poor and then you’re extremely wealthy because you’ve won the lottery, believe me, that’s a crisis. It is a crisis many of us would like to experience, but that said, it is still a crisis and it can throw you for a loop.
When eclipses are in aspect to Mars, there is a crisis around feeling that you need to defend or guard or protect yourself and there can be the feeling that someone is attacking you. I’ve also seen people have to battle illnesses when they have eclipses to Mars, because that is a situation where you’re protecting yourself. This can be an important time for developments in the workplace, it can be a time of important sexual transitions, because it is a sexual symbol.
Eclipses aspecting Jupiter are when you’re called upon to start moving in a new direction or take some new leap of faith. The problem comes when sometimes you bite off a little more than you can comfortably chew with an eclipse aspecting Jupiter. These can also be times of transition in either education or travel, sometimes religion as well.
Eclipses in aspect to Saturn usually signify that you’ve outgrown some part of your life or that you need to rewrite the rules and the structures of your life. When eclipses aspect Saturn, you are called to take responsibility for making your life look the way you want it to look. Accepting responsibility, in other words saying, “I know there is something I can do within this situation to improve my circumstances.” This is very empowering, but it is almost never what people want to hear. And, if I’m speaking with somebody who’s going through a really bad time and I talk to them in Saturn language, they can get pretty cranky with me, but I try to assure them, “No, this is the most liberating of planets, because if you take charge of your life, then you are the one in control instead of waiting for somebody else to make things better for you.”
Eclipses in aspect to Uranus tend to bring some kind of crisis around friendships of trying to find our people, of feeling like a misfit, and it can be a hard time building friendships and feeling like you fit in.
Eclipses in aspect to Neptune can be when blind spots are revealed. Disillusionment is very possible if you have been fooling yourself in any area of your life, and most of us do. I knew one person who found out during any eclipse to her Neptune that her husband had a separate credit card and was getting the statements sent to a post office. And, you know that’s an extreme example, but basically, if you have had a blind spot, these eclipses will often reveal them.
Eclipses in aspect to Pluto are about a crisis around feeling that you are not in control. Confronting really dark feelings like rage and jealousy and fear and grappling with all issues related to power, are really common when eclipses are aspecting Pluto. They tend to be quite psychological in nature, these eclipses. I find that people are really, really afraid of them, but I find that the main battle seems to usually be in our own psyche and it is around these issues of “How much can I control in my life?”
If you have any eclipse right on your Ascendant or right on your Descendant degree, this is usually a really important eclipse, obviously, for relationships. There’s generally the sense that one partner or the other has a need for a little more independence. There can also be a change in appearance or moving to a new place with eclipses aspecting the ascendant, because we get to give the Ascendant as kind of the welcome mat for your chart. So, when there is pressure there, the welcome mat changes to a new location.
Eclipses in aspect to the Midheaven, often bring some kind of career transition, a change in status, a change in direction. And the Midheaven can also bring changes in marital status as well.
So, of course you can compare eclipse points to asteroids or anything else you use in your chart. I would suggest sticking to the conjunctions, squares and oppositions within 4° of orb.
Donor thanks
Well, that’s everything I have on my show sheet, so I’m going to wind this one up. Thank you for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, please 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’d help spread the word by telling an astrology loving friend about the show. 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 Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars.
© 2022 April Elliott Kent