TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 183 | Cancer Solstice, Jupiter and Saturn: Better Driving Through Sextiles! (June 19, 2023)
Listen and read show notes hereApril: Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is June 19th, 2023. Welcome to Episode 183 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast.
This week, the Sun enters Cancer and reaches its Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and its Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Jupiter makes a friendly aspect to Saturn, and I answer a Listener Question about how to integrate the astrology you hear in podcasts like this one into your daily life.
Jupiter sextile Saturn (June 19, 2023, 8:53 am PDT)
The week begins with Jupiter’s sextile aspect to Saturn on June 19th at 8:53 am PDT. They come together at 7°12’ Taurus and Pisces. This is the first major aspect that Jupiter and Saturn have made since they made that beautiful conjunction at the Winter Solstice, December 21st, 2020. They came together at 0°29’ minutes Aquarius, and of course, that is the degree that Pluto has been at between about March 23rd until it backed into Capricorn by retrograde on June 11th. This has been an opportunity to begin to take the promise of that Jupiter and Saturn conjunction in Aquarius and to distill it down to its essence. What is really true about the sign of Aquarius? What does it mean for us as a society, as people trying to live together in communities?
At the time of that conjunction, I think a lot of astrologers – I know I certainly was one of them 0 felt so hopeful that a new spirit of togetherness was beginning to emerge. And I think now as Pluto is starting to inch into Aquarius – it’ll be back there at the beginning of next year – we’re really looking at the potential difficulties of that vision, of that dream.
Jupiter-Saturn aspects in general are about how we calibrate the urge to expand with the need to be cautious and deliberate. A good metaphor for Jupiter and Saturn trying to interact with each other is driving a car. And, when they’re together in a conjunction, we have one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake, so it’s really hard to move forward at all.
But the aspect they make this week, a sextile, is an aspect about learning and coordination and opportunities. This marks the first moment in this new Jupiter-Saturn cycle that began in late 2020 where we begin to see the potential of the combination. When two planets are together in a conjunction, there’s very little objectivity, and it’s not until we get to especially the sextile, the opening major aspect after the conjunction, that we begin to understand the landscape a little bit better and some ways to work with it. I’ll put a link in the show notes to an episode that we recorded at the end of 2020 where we talked about that conjunction, and it might be nice for you to go back and review that and get a sense of where we are now relative to where we were then.
I think there was so much powerful promise in that Jupiter Saturn combination. It was so beautiful in the sky, we felt it was so hopeful in that sign of Aquarius coming at the end of what of course had been a really difficult year with the beginning of the pandemic and a bunch of really unprecedented situations that we were coping with as a society. And there was so much potential in that, with the sign of Aquarius potentially being about how we all come together to do great work. And I’m not sure that we’ve really done a great job with that since then, but in order to receive that promise, I think, we need to make some pretty serious changes and to learn to work together more cooperatively, which I think suits the symbolism of the sextile aspect quite well.
So, at this Jupiter- Saturn aspect, we are driving with one foot on the gas and then one foot on the brake and coordinating back and forth between the two.
Sun enters Cancer (June 21, 2023, 7:58 am PDT)
On June 21st at 7:58 am PDT, the Sun enters Cancer. This marks the Summer Solstice and the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. This Solstice marks the moment when the Sun has reached its highest position in the sky, and it’s the longest day of the year with the shortest night, that’s in the Northern Hemisphere. And of course, the opposite is true in the Southern Hemisphere where this marks the beginning of Winter and the shortest day and the longest night. But either way, the Cancer Solstice represents an incubation time. It’s a time when we refine the projects that we began, say, at the Aries Equinox, which is a time of initiation, breaking ground, planting things and moving forward. So, we take what began at that time and then what we gathered resources for while the Sun was in Taurus. And then, while the Sun has been in Gemini, it’s the time of cross pollination, of gathering information, of sharing information and creating a network. Now, it’s time to sit on the nest and wait for it to hatch.
Here in the United States when I was growing up, the Cancer Solstice came at the time when we were probably about three weeks into our Summer vacation. And in the first few weeks we ran wild, we went crazy, so many of the things that we had been wanting to do when we spent all those months sitting in a classroom and coming home doing our homework, so we felt very free and we really enjoyed that Sun in Gemini season, a flitting from place to place and thing to thing.
And then, you would hit this point in late June coming towards 4th of July and things would begin to slow down. The weather got much warmer, at least where I grew up, and you didn’t want to move as quickly and you spent a lot more time just lying around, not doing a whole lot to be honest. And this is the energy of the Sun going into Cancer.
Then what happens eventually, later in this Cancer season is that, we begin to get bored after so long of sitting and doing nothing. I remember we had this little bird making a nest on our front porch, and I remember looking at her just sitting there so patiently day after day, and I would come and go and just never really saw her move. And I remember being very struck by that and thinking, “Wow, it really takes a lot to get these eggs ready to hatch”. That’s a little bit what it’s like, I think when we get about three weeks into Cancer season and we start to get bored. And that is setting the stage then for the Sun moving into Leo where we are ready to take some kind of creative action.
But for now, it is slow down time, when we spend a little more time with family and with close friends and patiently wait for the arrival of whatever it is that we’re hatching.
Mercury sextile Mars (June 21, 2023, 8:23 am PDT)
Also, on June 21st at 8:23 am PDT, Mercury makes a sextile aspect to Mars. Now, much like the Mercury sextile to Venus last week, this is a fairly light and, in many ways, minor aspect, but it does present a time when we can put our ideas into dramatic and creative action. It’s also a time to get a better understanding of what our bodies need, because Mercury is the planet of understanding, and Mars represents our physical selves.
It’s also a time to try to better understand what motivates our anger, competition, frustration. And if these things are coming out in our relationships with others, maybe especially neighbors and siblings who are represented by Mercury, this can be a good time to try to find ways to talk it out.
Sun sextile North Node (June 23, 2023, 8:55 am PDT)
On June 23rd at 8:55 am PDT, the Sun makes a sextile to the North Node of the Moon at 1°56’ Cancer and Taurus. The Sabian symbol for the Sun at this sextile is 2° Cancer, A man on a magic carpet hovers over a large area of land. It reminds me of an experience I’ve often had when I’m on an airplane and we are beginning to descend, but we’re probably 20 minutes out from landing, and if you’re flying over the outskirts of an urban area, especially over farmland, you can look down and see these beautiful plots of land, they’re all laid out in a neat grid and look kind of like a quilt. I always find it really inspiring and it really does feel to me as if I’m on kind of a magic carpet hovering over this large expanse of land.
Now, the Sun is of course, freshly into its Cancer season, so maybe we are more inclined to sit still and think and review and try to get perspective on the year so far. I mean, we’re halfway through 2023 as extraordinary as that is to think about. But the Sabian symbol for the North Node is 2 Taurus, An electrical storm. This represents something that’s gonna shake up that quiet, languid, Sun in Cancer season.
In the Midwest, we had these exciting lightning storms and often tornadoes as well at this time of year. And it’s an interesting tension really in this combination about, on the one hand, just kind of hovering high above and looking down at the world, and then this electrical storm that kind of wakes us up and brings us down to earth.
A sextile aspect represents an opportunity, an invitation or a thought maybe that comes to mind. And my teacher used to like to say that a sextile was like a cross between a square and trine, so that if you did the work represented by a square, you could get the benefits that are symbolized by a trine.
But the key with a sextile is, we have to take some kind of action. So, that’s why it feels more like an offer or an invitation, and maybe you take it and maybe you don’t. And if you don’t, nothing terrible happens, but in this case, especially when we’re talking about the North Node, which is a symbol of growth, if we don’t take the opportunity represented by the sextile, it’s harder to move forward in that positive direction. So, what is the nature of the invitation? It’s of the nature of the Sun in Cancer. So, I think the invitation is used this season of reflection, of quiet, of hovering to try to get more perspective on what might be available to us.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
And now for the Moon Report for the week of June 19th. And it’s a really quiet week for the Moon, because we have no major Lunation. The First Quarter Moon in Libra comes next Monday, June 26th, so I’ll be covering it on that episode. So, the real focus of this week is on the Sun, of course, moving into Cancer and that Solstice, which is such an important moment of the year. Our Moon work this week will be confined to the Void-of-Course Moon periods, one of which is very long.
The first Void-of-Course Moon period is on June 20th when the Moon in Cancer makes an opposition to Pluto at 2:43 pm PDT, it’s Void of Course then for 21 minutes before it enters Leo at 3:04 pm. This is the first time the Moon in Cancer has made an opposition to Pluto since March 3rd. We may have thought that we have sorted out the tension between these two in those many, many months that Pluto was at its latest degrees, and so it often initiated Void-of-Course Moon periods. But the tension between these two is the tenderness of Cancer, of being safe at home in familiar situations versus Pluto in Capricorn, which can represent the harshness of the outside world.
This is a time to go back and visit some emotional patterns that we might have thought we had worked through and gotten past. And it basically comes down to, how can I feel safe? Can I ever really be completely safe? How do I build up my emotional structure to such a degree that I feel safe even in an unsafe world?”
On June 22nd, the Moon in Leo squares Uranus at 10:00 am PDT. This kicks off a Void-of-Course Moon period that lasts for 17 and a half hours. It enters Virgo on June 23rd then, at 3:35 am. I think what this combination comes down to for me as it’s happening during the Crescent Moon Phase when we tend to get really interested in something in particular that we want to pursue. For example, I will occasionally be working with a student or a client who’s gotten very interested in astrology, they’re very engrossed and passionate and preoccupied by it, but they feel a little bit uncomfortable sharing that passion with people close to them because a lot of people don’t appreciate astrology and actually really, really dislike it and think it’s silly.
So, this is what comes to mind when I’m looking at this Moon square Uranus at the Crescent Phase, and I’m thinking, am I willing to risk being embarrassed or feeling uncomfortable in order to pursue something that I’m very passionate about? And this 17-and-a-half-hour period is about getting ourselves in the proper mindset for that. So, maybe on that day, you find yourself talking to a friend or a relative and they say, “What are you up to lately?” You say, “I’m spending hours every day studying astrology” and just putting it out there and maybe feeling a little uncomfortable about it. But it’s not about standing up for astrology, it’s about standing up for your right to pursue what really interests you and is engrossing.
And finally, on June 25th, the Moon in Virgo trines Pluto, at 3:24 pm PDT, it’s Void of Course for just a little over a half an hour, another kind of fleeting Void-of-Course period, before it enters Libra at 3:57 pm. Here is this fleeting half hour period where it might be worth reviewing how our desire for perfection has served us since Pluto was last at this degree back in mid-March. It’s a trine aspect which usually brings with it some kind of sense of satisfaction, perhaps even completion. And I think it really is worth thinking about, especially with the Moon still in this Crescent Phase, which is very consumed and almost a little bit obsessive, and the Moon in Virgo can get really hung up on perfection. So, to extend the previous metaphor, think of a student, let’s say, an astrology student who has really become proficient with the symbols and the language would really like to maybe start doing readings for people, but they’re really preoccupied with doing it perfectly and feeling there’s always more they need to know before they’re ready to do this work.
And believe me, I have a lot of respect for people who want to do astrology well, who study it conscientiously, who really are careful in the way they prepare for a reading and talk with a client. I mean, that’s what I would hope to see in my students. But I also see students who get held back because they feel they will never know enough and they’re not perfect. And what I try to remind them is, “Think less about being perfect and more about being helpful”, and that I think is a benefit and a promise of this Void-of-Course Moon in Virgo trine Pluto.
Listener Question: In this week’s Listener Question, Listener Edna asks, “I listen to your podcast every week and I love your take on things, but what’s a good method of integrating the astrological weather I hear about in your podcast and other sources as well as my own studies of my transits and progressions into my daily life?”
April: First of all, Edna, thank you so much for listening to the podcast and I’m really happy that you find it inspiring. Your question is a good one. I think I’ve mentioned on another episode a long time ago that I don’t necessarily track my own astrology on a daily or even weekly basis. I’m kind of reminded of the story about how the cobbler’s children had no shoes. But I do track the Lunar Cycle a little bit and I note the position of the New Moons in my birth chart, and of course, always, I am paying attention to the Eclipses.
Some listeners tell me that they break out their calendar and they make notes on it based on what I’ve covered on the podcast, which is very flattering. I was just writing in my newsletter that I happened to look at one of my social media posts about cleaning up my office, at nearly the very moment I was talking about doing that. I had completely forgotten about this post, which I had written a week earlier. So, it was enjoyable really to see that manifest in my own life.
It actually can be really helpful to track these things, I think especially, if you are studying astrology seriously. My colleague, Stephanie, keeps a journal where she combines tarot and astrology, and she has found that so helpful, because she can go back and see what similar transits have brought her way. That’s a really nice way to work with these planetary cycles and to do a little field research with them.
There are also personal astrology planners. I’m thinking of the Honeycomb Collective Journal that will list the transiting aspects for the day as well as the aspects the planets are making to your birth chart. So, if you like looking at things with that level of detail, maybe you have some Virgo planets, something like that can be a very nice resource.
For me, the question always is about how much space the astrology of a single day should take up in our minds. I think the key as you try to incorporate your astrology learnings into your daily life has to do with perspective and with practicality. If you’re looking at the Moon making an aspect to a planet, whether it’s another planet in the sky or a planet in your birth chart, it’s important to remember, this is a very fleeting event. It only lasts an hour or two, but something that involves a slower planet is a bit more consequential.
Look at this week’s Jupiter-Saturn sextile. It’s very important. It’s the first major aspect between these two planets since the end of 2020, so it’s an important thing to pay attention to. But it’s also important if it’s connecting with important points in your chart. If we consider an orb of a couple of degrees from the exact aspect, that could be something that is felt in your chart and in your life for three or four weeks. So, it can be a time when you’re really trying to get a handle on this cycle of expansion and contraction.
Now, all of that having been said, I do love to watch the Moon, and I find the Moon is really my portal into integrating the skies into my daily life. The Lunar Phases in particular are so obvious. If I walk outside in the evening to take out the trash or something, I’ll often pause there in the driveway and look up the sky and note the location of the Moon, think about where the Sun is, and then I’m thinking about the Moon’s Phase, and each of those Phases has such a vibrant symbolism.
I also do pay attention sometimes to the sign that the Moon is in if I happen to think about it. And I find it really does give us some insight into the mood and pace of a particular day. At each New Moon, I publish a free Working with the Moon workbook to walk people through this Lunar Cycle and the signs of the Moon and the Void of Course Moon periods. If you’re interested in getting that, just sign up for my mailing list at bigskyastrology.com/subscribe and you’ll receive an email that includes the latest workbook for the New Moon in Gemini Cycle and walks you through all of the other Phases. That’s new at each New Moon, and it’s completely free to subscribers. So, I offer that to you as what I think is a really nice resource.
So, since the Moon is the thing that moves by far the most quickly day to day, I think, if you’re really interested in bringing the skies down to earth and walking their rhythm in your daily life, I can’t think of a better place to start.
When I teach classes, I always really stress the importance of knowing the cycles of the planets, so that you instinctively know how much weight you should give to a particular transit or progression in your chart. Not that much tends to change all that dramatically from day to day, but there are those days when big things happen.
And while I’m not sure I’d embrace using astrology day to day to, say, plan your schedule, it sure can help put the big days and the big happenings into perspective. And even on those quieter days, there can be something comforting for me about watching the Moon and walking with her to maintain this sense of soulfulness and the sacred in my daily life.
Edna, I hope that’s been helpful. I really do appreciate the question.
Now, if you, invisible friend, have a question you would like me to answer on a future episode, please leave a message of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast, or you can email me at april@bigskyastrology.com. Be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.
Donor Thanks
Well, that is everything on my show sheet, so I’m going to wrap this one up. Thank you for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, be sure to subscribe or follow in your app of choice, leave a rating or review, and I hope you’ll help spread the word by telling an astrology loving friend about the podcast. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at bigskyastropod.com.
Thank you so much to everyone who’s shown support for the podcast over the past year. In each episode, I’m thanking some of my financial donors by name. This week, I’m giving a Big Sky Astrology Podcast shout out to Charlotte Benzinger and Priscilla Orta-Wenner.
April: Priscilla and Charlotte, thank you so much for listening to the podcast and for supporting the show with your donations. If you would like to support the show, please, go to bigskyastropod.com. You can make a one-time donation or become a regular monthly pod pal. If you donate $5 or more, I’ll send you my bonus episode for the Cancer Solstice.
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!
© 2023 April Elliott Kent
