TRANSCRIPT Episode 197 | Podathon Day Four: Stocking Up with Jupiter!
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Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is September 7th, 2023. Welcome to Episode 197 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast, and day four of the Fourth Annual Podathon!
“What is a Podathon?” you might ask? Well, this is the week each year when I bring you five daily episodes, a drawing for prizes, and special features. Of course, this is also the week when I make my appeal for donations, which help me cover the cost of producing the podcast all year long.
But first, I really do need to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who’s shown so much support for the show over the past year. It’s been wonderful to see my listenership continue to rise, and I get so many nice comments by email or from clients who have found me through the podcast, and it really means the world to me to know that this funny little thing that I do each week from my little home office, sitting in a little box that is a converted armoire that’s been made into a home studio, that you are actually hearing it and enjoying it, and I am so grateful.
And because this podcast is funded by my audience, I do hope to continue to earn your support this year as well.
And to encourage your donations, here are this year’s fantastic giveaways. First, everyone who donates $25 or more, as well as my ongoing monthly pod pal contributors, will be entered in a drawing to win one of these great prizes. One grand prize winner will win a 90 minute reading with me. One lucky listener will win a 60 minute personal astrology reading with me. Another lucky donor will win free enrollment in your choice of one of my upcoming courses. And two donors will receive a personalized copy of my Followed by a Moonshadow Eclipse report to help get you ready for October’s eclipses. This report actually covers three years worth of eclipses, following them through your birth chart.
But April, you say, have you seen my veterinary bills? I would like to help out, but I just can’t contribute that much! Well, I’m happy to say that I’m also inviting everyone who donates $10 or more to access my super-secret, donors-only bonus episodes at the Equinoxes and Solstice.
That said, I realize not everyone can contribute financially, and that is okay. Here are a few free easy ways that you could help the podcast by increasing our visibility. If you like the show, please subscribe or follow on your app of choice. This is the very best way that you can support the show and help it get noticed by other listeners. You could leave a five-star rating (I hope) or write a heartfelt review on Apple Podcasts or any of the other platforms that allow comments. You could join the conversation on my website and comment at bigskyastropod.com. Just click on whatever episode you want to leave your comment about. And finally recommend the show to an astrology loving friend.
However you choose to show your support, please know that I appreciate it very much.
Greetings from Listener Karen
Hi April. This is Karen. I am a longtime listener of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast. I found you a few years ago, actually through your blog on Mooncircles. I wanted to know more about this astrologer that just kept getting everything right in my life. So I clicked through and discovered that you had a podcast, which was delightful.
You’ve become a part of every week and even the weeks where I miss the episode, when I catch up and listen to it the following week, I just kind of nod along going, yep, that was right. Yep. That happened. Yep, yep, yep. So thank you so much for all you do and I’m looking forward to another great year of listening to you tell me the events of the stars. Thanks so much. Power out!
April: And now for today’s episode!
Today’s Moon
Like I said, Podathon is the week when I can give the Moon a little more attention because there are some days that are pretty quiet other than the moon’s sign changes and aspects. And as it happens, this is such a day. The Sun is approaching its trine to Jupiter, but that technically takes place on Friday. So I’ll be covering that on tomorrow’s episode. But if you feel a sense of growing wanderlust today, or a desire for adventure, I think you’re already tuning into that Jupiter frequency.
So let’s get into the Moon report for today. The Moon is in Gemini and squares Neptune at 3:21 PM. It goes Void-of-Course until 9:59 PM, when it enters Cancer.
The moon’s monthly stay in Gemini is really good for reading, studying, socializing, and getting a change of scenery. Because of the connection with Mercury today – the Moon is in a Mercury-ruled sign – it is an extra busy day for the Moon. Our minds want to be engaged. Multitasking is favored over getting really intensely focused on one thing.
But we do need to be just a little cautious about overdoing it. The Moon, when it’s in Gemini or Virgo, can tend to get a little scattered and a little overcommitted, and it can exhaust us. The Moon squares Neptune today as well, and that is an aspect about reconciling intellect with intuition. This is a six-and-a-half-hour Void-of-Course Moon period that we have today after that square.
So it really is a more important message than usual, this Moon square to Neptune, and it says, “Hey, it’s great to be busy. It’s great for your mind to be stimulated, but you have to be a little bit careful about overdoing it.”
Thursday is Jupiter’s Day
And again, this week I’m talking about the days of the week and their connections with the seven visible planets. Thursday is associated with Jupiter. Now it’s named for the Norse God, Thor. But there are a lot of similarities between Thor and Jupiter. They’re both gods of thunder, for example. In the romance languages, we’ll see that the names for this day of the week more explicitly reference Jupiter.
Jupiter compels us to share our thoughts and beliefs, teaching, lecturing, writing for publication. These are all good things to be doing on this day. Jupiter also represents unfamiliar people, places, and things. Today is the day to try a new kind of restaurant or go to a class or a club meeting where you’re likely to meet new people.
Jupiter enjoys the outdoors, so try to schedule some time in nature. Take a walk or a bicycle ride on Thursday. Failing that, maybe you can just eat your lunch outdoors.
In the traditional home, Thursday was marketing day. And that kind of makes sense. Jupiter loves to share its prosperity, so today is the day to get out and shop for your household needs.
And Jupiter’s colors are purple and turquoise, so try to incorporate those into your wardrobe today. The idea behind this is that on an unconscious level, people might be inclined to respond favorably to these kinds of colors on Jupiter’s Day, so not a bad idea to incorporate a little bit of that if you can.
Jupiter’s gemstones are turquoise, topaz, and lapis lazuli. So if you have any jewelry with those gemstones, be sure to wear them today to honor our friend Jupiter. Of course, today is a special Thursday because as I said, we’re building up to tomorrow’s Sun-Jupiter aspect, so we’re all feeling the pull toward Jupiter a little more than usual.
Greetings from Listener Shellie
Hi, my name is Shellie, and I’ve been listening to the Big Sky Astro podcast since the beginning. It’s been part of my Monday rituals. April, you are an incredible teacher and I am so grateful for you deepening my education in astrology through your writings and through your wonderful podcast. I wish you a very happy podcast week. I hope it is most successful. And please know your listeners, including myself, of course, love you, and we’re so grateful for your presence in our lives via the wonders of podcasting.
A Closer Look at the Sabian Symbols
This week, I’m taking the opportunity to dig a little bit deeper into some of the concepts that appear pretty often in my weekly episodes. Today I want to talk about the Sabian symbols, because I refer to them a lot.
The Sabian symbols are 360 symbolic images and phrases. There’s one for each degree of the zodiac. They were channeled by psychic Elsie Wheeler and recorded by astrologer Mark Edmund Jones in 1925, here in my fair city of San Diego. So they will celebrate their centennial in a couple of years.
The Sabian symbols are used in a variety of ways. Astrologers use them often as a tool of divination, to use the symbols as points of focus for meditation or as writing prompts, and they can take us into a birth chart in a little more imaginative way.
The Sabian symbols begin at one Aries, but the Zodiac in astrology begins at zero degrees Aries. So therefore, planetary placements are rounded up to the next whole degree, and the Sabian symbol for that degree is the one that’s interpreted. For example, if the Sun in your chart is at 24º25’ Libra, you would read the Sabian symbol for 25 degrees Libra, Information in the symbol of an autumn leaf. Something that is placed at 29 degrees and some number of minutes in a sign would then be rounded up to 30. So if you had the Sun at 29º45’ Virgo, you would round it up to 30 Virgo for the Sabian symbol.
I had a question from listener Josh about my use of the symbols, and he wrote, “I’m just really starting to get into astrology and I’m slowly accumulating a vocabulary around the signs, planets, houses, and transits. I’m listening to a lot of different podcasts right now, many from different perspectives.” Which, by the way, I think is a great idea. “You talk about the Sabian symbols a lot, and I have done some Googling about them, but I’m wondering what led you to use the symbols in your readings personally as opposed to some other method of divination, tarot, the I Ching, ox entrails….”
He actually wrote that. I love that!
Josh, it is a really good question. I actually didn’t always use the symbols, and in fact, when I first encountered them many years ago, I just didn’t resonate with them at all. That changed some years ago when I hosted astrologer Lynda Hill at my home. Lynda is an expert in the Sabian symbols. She’s devoted a lot of her career to getting the word out about them, and her book 360 Degrees of Wisdom, is just a terrific reference book on the subject. So I spent some evenings with Lynda over glasses of wine, talking about the symbols. And the way she spoke about them was really intriguing to me, and it opened up the way I looked at them.
I think I didn’t like them at first because I tried to read them literally, and they’re really a lot more like poetry. There are times when you get this literal connection between a symbol and something that happens that can be quite striking, but most of the time they’re more imaginative. And what I’ve learned to do over the years is just take my first impression of a symbol and focus on what spoke to me about it in a particular situation, instead of trying to figure it out word for word.
I really like using them on the podcast because I feel they bring interesting shading to the planetary aspects and lunations and all the things that I cover on each episode. They summon my imagination, and that can be useful when you’re an astrologer who spends a lot of time writing and speaking. The symbols awaken the same part of my brain, really, as the digital collage work that I do, and those images are featured in my website and on social media. Anyway, I do really love them and I invite listeners to look up all of their own Sabian symbols. Remember, round up. And if you have a planet that is exactly at a degree of a sign, so say 14 degrees Taurus, no minutes, then you would read 14 degrees Taurus.
But read all of yours and I think you’ll find they’re kind of fascinating. And if they don’t make sense to you initially, just set them aside, see how they might connect to your favorite movie, your favorite book, particular things that come up often in your life as a theme. But of course, now Josh has me thinking about reading oxen trails.
So not really. Ew!
Donate during Podathon Week!
Well, that is everything I have on my show sheet for today, so I’m gonna wrap this one up. Many thanks for listening to the Big Sky Astrology Podcast and for joining me in this Fourth Annual Podathon. This weekly podcast is funded by my audience. There are expenses that are associated with the show and your generous donations help me keep the podcast coming to you ad-free.
To donate, please go to BigSkyAstropod.com. Anyone who donates $10 or more – just $10! – will receive access to my bonus donors only episodes that come out at the equinoxes and solstices. And if you donate $25 or more, you’ll be automatically entered in my drawing. Two winners will get a personalized copy of my Followed by a Moonshadow Eclipse report. One winner will get a free enrollment in one of my upcoming courses. One extra-specially lucky winner will get a free 60 minute reading with me and one super-specially lucky winner will get a full 90 minute reading with me.I wanted to mention that I will be thanking every donor on the air over the months to come. But if you don’t want me to mention your name, just email me at April(at)bigskyastrology(dot)com.
That’s it for this episode. Join me again, bright and early tomorrow morning, for the climactic episode of this Podathon Week!
And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars!
© 2023 by April Elliott Kent
