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TRANSCRIPT Ep. 185 | Capricorn Full Moon, and Mercury Outside the Box!

TRANSCRIPT Ep. 185 | Capricorn Full Moon, and Mercury Outside the Box!

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Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is July 3rd, 2023. Welcome to Episode 185 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, a Full Moon in Capricorn is supported by the deliberate pace of Jupiter in Taurus. Mercury in aspect to Uranus and Neptune indicates brilliant thinking and expressing ourselves poetically and imaginatively. And I answer a listener question about how long a transiting planet has influence over your birth chart.

Capricorn Full Moon (July 3, 2023, 4:39 am PDT)

The week begins with the Moon report, beginning with a Capricorn Full Moon on July 3rd at 4:39 AM Pacific Time. It’s at 11º18’ Capricorn with the Sun at the same degree and minutes of Cancer. A Full Moon is a revelation point, and by that I mean everything is illuminated in the night sky. So symbolically, this is what the Full Moon represents as well, that the things that previously might have escaped our notice are now held up to us in bold relief.

This is the midway point of the lunar cycle that began at the June 17 New Moon in Gemini. They’re very different signs, Gemini and Capricorn. The Gemini New Moon speaks to the beginning of a new cycle in communication, learning, processing information; of entertaining new ideas, and quite a variety of them, too. It’s not Gemini’s way or really Gemini’s job to stop and delve into one particular idea. Its job is to gather a lot of them.

And Gemini is very cerebral. It’s very much concerned with things of the mind. Capricorn, on the other hand, being an earth sign wants to take something of all of this information that Gemini has, gather it, and do something practical with it. So with this Full Moon, we are inclined to look back at the New Moon in this cycle and look at it with a very appraising eye.

Capricorn can tend to be a little bit impatient with our Gemini selves, and it might be saying at this Full Moon, all of the things that you are starting and trying and thinking about at that New Moon, now it’s time to really get focused on one of them at the most and see what we can do with them in the next two weeks of this lunar month.

This Full Moon is also the revelation point of the Capricorn New Moon on December 23rd, 2022. That was a New Moon at 1º Capricorn, which was square Jupiter in Aries, a very dynamic New Moon showing lots of ambition and enthusiasm for trying new things and blazing new trails. That was a bit of the mood going into the holidays and as we began the new calendar year, and now, halfway through the year, we see the shape of our ambitions. Were our eyes in some way a little bit bigger than our stomachs at the beginning of the year? During the Sun’s Cancer season, having the time to lie around a little bit more, maybe relax, can actually in the long run help us define and refine our Capricorn New Year’s resolutions.

Now this Full Moon on July 3, the Full Moon point is trine Jupiter, which is now in Taurus, and the more deliberate pace of Taurus is actually much more supportive of Capricorn’s long-term, pragmatic goals. When it was square Jupiter in Aries at the beginning of the year, there’s no question that was a lot of energy and very exciting. But there comes a point at which we have to cool off a little bit and begin to see, in a practical sense, how it is we can get the things done that we would like to get done.

This is also the Full Moon in a lunar phase family cycle. That began way back at the January 2nd, 2022 New Moon. That one was at 12º20’ Capricorn, and it was making a trine aspect to Uranus. The seemingly sudden changes that came about for many of us at the beginning of last year had actually probably been brewing for some time. And the trine to Uranus just said that it was time to make the shift, and even if things seemed to come from nowhere, they really had been underway for some time.

The First Quarter Moon in that lunar phase family was on October 2nd, 2022. And the Last Quarter will be on April 1st, 2024. So we are halfway through this lunar phase family cycle, and now is the time we begin to see the effects and the results, the lessons even that began at that New Moon beginning of 2022.

Void-of-Course Moon periods

Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. The first is on July 4th, Independence Day here in the United States, when the Moon and Capricorn will make a conjunction with Pluto at 9:45 AM Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for about 45 minutes before it enters Aquarius at 10:30 AM. And I think it’s nice to have a fairly short Void-of-Course Moon period on a holiday.

That Moon in Capricorn in a conjunction with Pluto. It’s a pretty intense combination, and it means we don’t necessarily begin this holiday feeling freewheeling and easygoing. But I think once the Moon goes into Aquarius at 10:30 AM, that is a time when the emotional tenor of the day lightens quite a bit, and it’s actually a wonderful Moon for getting together with friends or family and casual gatherings.

But during the Void-of-Course Moon period that morning, this is one of those Void-of-Course Moon periods that are similar to the ones we were experiencing at the beginning of the year, again, when Pluto was at the same late degrees of Capricorn. And every time the Moon went through Capricorn, it ended up on this conjunction with Pluto.

This is a combination about examining the way we deal with our feelings. Moon in Capricorn tends to deal with their feelings by getting things done, coming up with systems, taking care of business. That can make a Moon in Capricorn feel very grounded and very much in control of its emotions. When the Moon makes this conjunction with Pluto, there’s a strong desire to want to have control, to have power over our emotions, but that control can certainly help us meet our Pluto in Capricorn goals that are left over from earlier in the year.

So if you are in the United States and you need to work on the 4th of July holiday, see if you can’t get that work done in the morning, and then you can enjoy the rest of the day with the Moon in Aquarius, having some fun celebrating with the people close to you.

On July 6th, the Moon in Aquarius makes an opposition to Mars and Leo at 6:42 AM Pacific Time. It’s for, of course, for about three-and-three-quarter hours before it enters Pisces at 10:32 AM Pacific time. Now Aquarius is not an especially warm sign for the Moon, but when it makes this opposition to Mars and Mars in the very fiery sign of Leo, we can find ourselves getting pretty heated up about things that Aquarius cares about. Things like friends and the future and technology. You could have some really interesting discussions with people early in the day on July 6th about these kinds of things. I would say it’s a really good day to keep a handle on your temper and your emotions, especially online, because Aquarius has a strong association with the online world.

Try not to take things too personally, which Mars and Leo can be a little apt to do if it feels it’s being disrespected, especially. And on this day, take a look at how you can detach a little bit from your emotions and yet still feel that warm energy and use it towards things like creativity, creative solutions to problems you might be experiencing.

And then on July 8th, the Moon in Pisces sextiles Pluto at 11:22 AM Pacific time. It’s Void-of-Course for just under one hour, and then enters Aries at 12:19 PM while the Moon goes through Pisces. These days, it ends up at some point spending some time with Saturn, which is also moving through this sign.

And so the Moon in Pisces, which can be a little bit of a dreamer, is a little bit more awake and on its toes wearing its serious suit as it sextiles Pluto in Capricorn. This is another kind of hard influence that the Moon in Pisces is encountering during a lunar month. But remember, this is a sextile. And it is up to you whether you want to accept Pluto’s invitation to step into more powerful emotions and to step up to a more powerful role in your life.

Mercury’s Busy Week

Beyond looking at the Moon, the only really significant transits this week involve Mercury. And as I mentioned in episode 184, transiting Mercury is currently out-of-bounds through July 7th. I talked in some depth in last week’s listener question about this idea of out-of-bounds planets and what it might mean.

But what I do think for this week, and especially since Mercury is really the only planet doing much, it’s a good week actually for thinking outside the box. That is where out-of-bounds planets really excel, is being a little bit outside conventional thinking. Since it’s Mercury, it’s about thinking and it’s about speaking up for what’s important to you.

But as I think I mentioned last week, we do have to be a little bit careful with this Mercury because it can make us apt to say things that we might later regret. Or that might cause offense to others.

Mercury sextile Uranus (July 6, 2023, 9:54 pm PDT)

On July 6th at 9:54 PM Pacific Time, Mercury makes a sextile aspect to Uranus at 21º57’ Cancer and Taurus.

The Sabian symbol for Mercury is 22 Cancer, Woman awaiting a sailboat. And Uranus is on 22 Taurus, White dove over troubled waters. What a nice and really kind of related combination of Sabian symbols. Both of them contain water, and water pretty reliably symbolizes our emotions. The woman in Mercury’s Sabian symbol could be waiting for her lover who is coming back from the sea, but just as likely the sailboat could be coming to take her away to far-off lands. The symbol for Taurus, White dove over troubled waters, and as I think I commented recently – it might have been in the last episode – this is kind of ironic, because Uranus is the planet that tends to make the waters troubled in the first place. So this could be, however – this sextile -about having healing conversations, about bringing peace from emotional turmoil and for reunions maybe of some kind as well.

Mercury coming together with Uranus always presents an opportunity for brilliant thoughts and ideas, and I think I said when I was talking about out-of-bounds planets last week, how similar they can be to planets when they are in aspect to the planet Uranus. Because Uranus is a little bit of a rule breaker and a renegade and a rogue, and that is very much the nature of an out-of-bounds planet.

So Mercury and Uranus are kind of in cahoots this week and leading us in the direction of unconventional, brilliant thinking and ideas. And so if you’ve been waiting for a moment to do some brainstorming about a creative project, about something related to your work, maybe a big project that you want to do around your home. And you’ve just been having a hard time troubleshooting some of the problems that keep coming up, ttis combination of Mercury with Uranus on July 6th is a wonderful opportunity to do just that.

Mercury trine Neptune (July 9, 2023, 4:57 pm PDT)

On July 9th at 4:57 PM Pacific Time, Mercury makes a trine aspect to Neptune at 27º39’ Cancer and Pisces. Mercury is nearing the end of its time in Cancer this week. It will go into Leo late on July 10th. But for the time being, it’s still in this quiet and contemplative transit, and Mercury is normally so busy and so verbal. When it’s in Cancer, there’s a lot going on under the surface, but we are tending to keep our thoughts a little close to our chest.

Mercury is trine Neptune on the loveliest Sabian symbol 28 degrees Pisces: A fertile garden under a Full Moon. It’s especially fitting because we have the Full Moon this week. Now, as I said, Mercury in Cancer doesn’t necessarily like to say a lot, but at this trine to Neptune, art or poetry or music can perfectly convey the important feelings that it might be hard for us to say with words.

The trine to Neptune from Mercury can also be about words of comfort or apology, or even healing. The Sabian symbol for Mercury, 28 Cancer: A modern Pocahontas, is one of those that, again, uses kind of dated language. But Pocahontas would’ve been perceived, I think, to the psychic who channeled these symbols, Elsie Wheeler, as a figure representing mediation between often people from very different cultures or who have very different backgrounds. Mercury trine Neptune might be a lovely opening for bringing people together through Neptunian means. So again, something like art or music. I can picture this being a really lovely opportunity to get some people together and go down to the beach and have a bonfire or something like that where we’re close to the water, enjoying ourselves all together in that lovely setting.

But if there is something you’ve been wanting to say to somebody and it’s just felt too difficult, this might be a time where it can be just as effective to give them a lovely card or play a particularly meaningful piece of music when you’re in the car with them.

Listener Question: How long does a transit matter?

In this week’s listener question, listener Kyle asks, “How long does a transit matter? So if a planet has an aspect to a natal planet, how long is the effect of that transit? I assume it depends on the planet. With the Moon lasting, maybe a day, is there a rule of thumb for each planet or can the ripples last just depending on… what?”

April: Well, that’s a great question, Kyle. I’ve probably answered variations on this question in the past, but because the podcast is adding a lot of new listeners and there are probably a few people out there who are really wondering about that as well, this seemed like a good time to go back and refresh our memories about this important question.

Well, let’s begin with how long do transits matter? As Kyle assumed, I think it really depends on the planet. The faster a transiting planet is moving, the less time it’s going to spend in aspect with the natal planet, with Pluto spending may be a whole year making an aspect, the Moon maybe two hours or so.

Think of it this way. An overbearing relative who comes to live in your house for an entire year is much different than a neighbor who stops by for coffee and cake and maybe stays for an hour or two. One is having a profound and lasting influence on your life. The other, something that’s nice, but you might not even really remember it a week from now.

For example, let’s say Venus in your birth chart is at 20º13’ Leo. As I record this episode on June 26, transiting Mars is sitting at 21º45’ Leo, and Uranus is at 21º31’ Taurus. So Mars is just a little over one degree past the exact conjunction with Natal Venus, and indeed I talked about that on last week’s episode.

Mars moves roughly one degree every two days by transit, so we can estimate that it made a conjunction to Natal Venus about two days ago. And indeed, when I looked it up, the exact aspect was on June 24th. Now transiting Uranus, on the other hand, moves much more slowly. At the moment, it’s moving about one degree per month. It made a square aspect to Natal Venus when it was at 20º13’ Taurus, and that was on June 1st. So that is just a little over a month ago. If we are going to consider the peak influence of these transits when they were making the exact aspects they made to natal Venus, well that happens on a single day.

If it’s a planet like Uranus, it might make that conjunction then turn retrograde and make another conjunction to the same planet, and then when it goes direct, hit it a third time. So this can happen with the big slow moving planets really regularly. But let’s say generally speaking, they are at their peak for a day, maybe three days tops.

But as Kyle presumed, the influence can be more far reaching. And this takes us to something that I’ve mentioned before, which is the question of orb. In other words, how far apart can two planets be from this peak, their exact contact with each other and still have some kind of influence or connection with each other?

Is there a rule of thumb? When it comes to transits, personally, I use an orb of one to two degrees from the exact aspect to see the strongest influence. Speaking very generally, let’s say two degrees, as the transit is approaching the exact aspect to the natal planet, and one degree maybe as it’s separating.

But that is a very broad rule of thumb. If we’re talking about the transiting Moon, which moves one degree about every two hours, this can give us a span of influence if it’s aspecting a natal planet between three and six hours. Whereas if we’re talking about transiting Uranus moving one degree per month or so, we might be talking about three to six months in total approaching and separating from the exact aspect.

And you might fairly ask, well, which is it? Is it three months or six months? With the Moon, is it three hours or six hours? And I hate to sound equivocal, but it depends really if you are a person who is very sensitive to the planet, Uranus. To its themes like sudden change breakups standing out versus fitting in, then you might actually have a pretty strong reaction to Uranus transits and be sensitive to them for a little bit longer, so maybe six months. If Uranus is transiting a planet that in your birth chart is in a strong aspect to Natal Uranus, then this is an especially important transit because these are two planets that have preexisting business. They have issues to deal with that are fundamental to your life and your character.

So you’re probably going to feel that influence a bit longer. A lot has to do with how much work the transiting planet has to do to get you where it wants you to be. Think about it this way. You hire an electrician to rewire your 1923 bungalow. If the wiring hasn’t been touched since it was installed, this is going to be a massive job. It’s going to take longer. It’s going to be more disruptive. And it’s going to be a lot more expensive than it would be if someone had updated that system 40 years ago, and it just needs to be brought up to date from that point. In this case, if someone has been resisting doing the Uranus work in their life, in other words, making changes that need to be made, liberating themselves from conformity, getting out of situations that make them feel hemmed in, then Uranus is probably going to have to hang around a bit longer because there’s a lot more that needs to be done.

So, as you put it, Kyle, the influence can have a kind of rippling effect based on other factors that have to do with your individual birth chart, your relationship with the transiting planet, and maybe also other planets that are aspecting your chart at the same time.

Kyle, I really hope that helps. Questions like this strike to the heart of what leads astrologers into the realm of art, where we can’t really hope for the comfort of exactitude, exact orbs, exact formulas, exact amounts of time or results.

Now if you, invisible friend, have a question you’d like me to answer on a future episode, please leave a message of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast, or email me: 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 gonna 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 the show in your app of choice. Leave a rating or review, and I hope that you’ll help spread the word by telling an astrology loving friend about the podcast.

You can read show notes in full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at BigSkyAstropod.com.

Thanks very much to everyone who’s shown support for the podcast over the past year on each episode, I’m thanking some financial donors by name this week. Let’s give a Big Sky Astrology Podcast shout out to Judy Ricciardi and Lori Rodefer! Judie and Lori, 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 you can sign up to be a recurring monthly pod pal. If you donate $5 or more, I’ll send you my bonus episode that was just released 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 by April Elliott Kent

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