
Transcript: Episode 20 | Libra Full Moon: A Magic Carpet Ride
April 6, 2020
Read the show notes for this episode here.Jen: Welcome to the Big Sky Astrology podcast, with April Elliott Kent and me, producer and cohost Jen Braun. Hey friends, Jen here! Today is April 6th, 2020. And here to hobnob about the heavens above, of course is my good pal, astrologer April Elliott Kent. Hi April.
April: Hi Jen.
Jen: Do you enjoy hobnobbing?
April: I hob with all the nobs, every chance I get. I’m very excited to be hobnobbing with you today.
Jen: I love the word hobnob. I think it’s funny.
April: It is kind of funny.
Jen: And I like what it means.
April: Any time you put nob in something, it sounds kind of funny, doesn’t it?
Jen:
April: Hobbing with the nobs. Hey, how’s your week been?
Jen: Oh, the world has turned into The Twilight Zone. Don’t you think?
April: Yes, very much so. I liked The Twilight Zone better when it was black and white.
Jen: Yes, it’s in color now. Full color.
April: It really is.
Jen: For all the world to see.
April: Things are quite strange. Well, we started out before we recorded today, just touching base on the important things, like what snacks we’re sheltering in place with.
Jen: Yes.
April: And you ran down a very enticing sounding Trader Joe’s list. You gave me a couple of things to have Jonny look for next time he’s there. And what we’re watching on Netflix, which for me is Schitt’s Creek. Can we say that without the explicit rating? I don’t know. It is the name of the show.
Jen: It’s the name of the family, “S-C-H…”
April: Yes. Can we get away with that? I don’t know if we can. We’ll think about it. We may have to cut that out, but…
Jen: That may go on the outtakes reel. We’re not sure.
April: Yes. Well, I mean I shared with everybody this week on my mailing list, because again, we’re always a week ahead. And I had a pretty bad week last week, I have to say, emotionally, with a lot of stuff caving in on me. And my way always has been – with my readers, and presumably listeners to this podcast – will just hopefully feel the same. I always want to be very upfront, very honest about what I’m going through. And not from a self-indulgent point of view, but the feedback that I was getting from people today on my mailing list was, “Thank God somebody has said this.”
Because a lot of people really have been struggling emotionally. There’s a whole lot to deal with. And people who like things like astrology are generally pretty empathetic people, I think. They look for meaning in the world. They’re emotionally connected to other people.
And even if you’re not personally being impacted in a really terrible way by everything at the moment, it’s like you’re absorbing all of the angst that you’re coming across in the world. And it really is a lot.
And I’ll just go on record. I had a bad week last week. Anybody else out there who is going through the same things… we’ve been talking a lot in our last couple of episodes about ways of coping with anxiety and being in the moment and things like that. And, the realization I came to today in writing to people was some days are going to be okay and some days are going to be bad. It’s grief, it doesn’t go in a straight line. And we have to be patient with ourselves as well as trying to be patient with everybody else and not judge how we’re feeling.
I have been feeling like such an underachiever. I’ll go on Facebook, and so many astrologers are really kicking it out there and they’re putting together these wonderful articles and videos and free house parties. And it’s like, “I don’t know how you’re doing that.”
Jen: I think it’s good. I think it’s good to say it. I think it’s good to name it. A lot of people have had struggles when they look at social media, in particular… people post photos of their most perfect moments and you never see the hard moments. And so, I think for someone to be open and vulnerable and show that side of themselves, people respond to that.
April: Yes.
Jen: You know, Brené Brown, who is a well-known psychologist and author… have you read anything by her?
April: Oh, yes. She’s fantastic.
Jen: She’s all about the power of vulnerability and finding strength in that.
April: Well, that’s the only the way I’ve ever found strength, is like, if I have to put a lot more energy into masking how I’m feeling and what’s going on with me, then I’m really screwed. Because I only have so much energy some days anyway.
Jen: Yes.
April: And if I have to use the little bit of energy I have faking it and acting like I’m in a different place than I am, it doesn’t work.
Jen: Right.
April: It doesn’t work. So, my way of interacting with people through astrology has always been from a personal place. And we were talking before we started recording about how I’m feeling a little bit adrift with the style of astrology that I do at the moment. Because so much of the focus is outward and it’s focused on the big picture and what the whole world is going through and these major worldwide trends with the virus and when will the economy start again and all this. That just isn’t my bailiwick. It’s never been the area that I’ve focused on in astrology. My astrology is very personal. It’s really focused on the individual.
And so, I’ve kind of had to struggle a little bit of feeling a little bit out of step with what people might be needing at this time from an astrologer.
But in my heart of hearts, I feel the way I always have, which is: If one person can be completely candid about their process and what they’re going through – the more specific you get with that, the more universal it is, the more people can relate to it. And so for the time being, I guess I just continue doing what I’ve always done, which is try to write from a personal place, try to write about what I see in the world and what I’m feeling and experiencing in the world and hoping that that’s helpful or meaningful. Even if on some days it feels really irrelevant and I really wonder why I’m doing it.
Jen: But people have found value in your work, right? And you’ve had that perspective. I might suggest: Turn off all the other stuff and you know, try it for two weeks… don’t listen to any other astrologers and see what happens.
April: It is really tempting.
Jen: Because you know, when you start comparing yourself to other people out there, we’ll never measure up to what other people show of themselves.
April: I mean it’s a little less that and a little more… the idea of wanting to serve the people who have found me and who respond to my work, wanting to serve them at a really unique moment in time and trying to find what there is in the way I’ve always worked that is still helpful. And that’s what’s hard. Because people are dealing with really rough external situations right now. And my work’s very internal. So it’s just kind of a funny place to be. That’s what I was going through this week.
Jen: Yes.
April: But for all of us, like I was saying, there’ll be good days, there’ll be not-so-good days. There’ll be days we feel like we’re really on top of it all. And there’ll be days when we think that we just want to go to bed.
Jen: Yes. And you know what? The world is hard right now, and if there are days where people just need to take some self-care – as long as you’re not hurting yourself or someone else – I say, go for it. You know?
April: Yes. I’ve been starting a series on self-care for the signs of the Moon. I posted a picture of one of my homemade loaves of bread the other day that I had just made when the Moon was in Taurus. So it’s taking care of ourselves. You’re quite right.
Jen: Yes.
April: And speaking of the Moon, Jen?
Jen: Yes?
April: Do you know what time it is?
Jen: I’m going to play it!
April: Okay, do it.
April: It never gets old!
Jen: Doesn’t get old!
It’s great. It’s our little theme song.
April: And it’s Moonwatch! So we have a Full Moon this week. Full Moon in Libra.
Jen: Yes, we do.
April: And that happens on April 7th at 18° of Libra and 44 minutes. So round that up to 19.
Jen: Indeed.
April: So you said that this Full Moon is really close to your natal Moon, Jen?
Jen: Yes. It’s almost on top of it. So here it comes.
April: Yes. It’s a lot of energy.
Jen: Are we going to make this all about Jen?
April: Well, we already made it all about me. So, you know, you deserve your turn as well.
Well, let’s first talk about the Full Moon in Libra and approach it from that point of view. So we’ve talked before about the Full Moon and said that this is the moment in the lunar cycle each month when things are revealed to us. And it was interesting, our last Full Moon was in Virgo and I remember at the time we were talking about health issues and how things tend to come to the fore and be revealed at the Full Moon. It’s the brightest night of the month with the Moon so full. And of course, right after that we started really seeing an acceleration in the dialogue around the coronavirus and all that.
Jen: Yes.
April: The Full Moon being in Libra says, “Okay, what is revealed now about our relationships? What’s revealed now about what is needed to bring our lives back into balance? Because they’re quite unbalanced.”
I told you I woke up this morning and I was thinking, “I just can’t stop eating.” It’s all about food all the time. It’s totally out of balance. Not enough walking, too much eating, too much sitting, and all of that. So I think, we’re all adapting again to a really kind of strange way of living for most of us, which is outside the norm.
So as the Full Moon is in Libra, it is a good time to be looking at things like, “Well how do I get my life a little bit more back in balance?”
Jen: Right.
April: So many of us are having a very new experience of having to share very close quarters all day, every day with our nearest and dearest. I remember talking to you, I’m sure at some point about how my daily life changed here at home once my husband retired.
Jen: Yep.
April: And it’s common. Talk to anyone who’s had the experience. They’ll kind of laugh and say, “Oh yes, that’s an adjustment.” Because I work at home. So I went from having a whole house that was my office basically during the day with just some feline coworkers… to now having somebody in the house all day with me. And it’s a big adjustment and I’m really glad that we made that adjustment a year and a half ago and we’re not having to do it on the fly now. But you do that, and you add a couple of kids into the mix maybe and maybe you’re having to homeschool and you’re having to figure out how to get groceries in the house and how to decontaminate things. People are dealing with a lot. And two different people trying to do Zoom meetings at the same time. You know, there’s so much.
Jen: Yes.
April: So this Full Moon in Libra I think is really revealing a lot about our relationships and what’s needed to balance things out and to be very thoughtful of each other and very considerate while still finding a way to carve out a little space for ourselves.
It’s interesting, the Sun Sabian symbol at this Full Moon is 19 Aries, The magic carpet. And I see that right now as being, “Oh my God, wouldn’t it be wonderful to just have this magic carpet…
Jen: Take me away!
April: Yes. Calgon, take me away! It’s like the personal space that’s represented by that, because, it’s Aries that wants to be alone, you know? It really needs a little breathing room. So this is the dream.
Jen: Right.
April: And the Moon is on this really kind of comical Sabian symbol, which is, A gang of robbers in hiding. It’s like people are robbing our time from us!
Jen: I picture an old black-and-white movie, maybe, and there’s a gang of robbers hiding.
April: Yes. So it’s kind of funny, really. That is what I see as the main thrust of this Full Moon. It’s a little bit of a difficult Full Moon because the Full Moon points are square Jupiter and Pluto. And Capricorn’s a little wide, but we’re calling it in.
Jen: Okay.
April: And it squares the Lunar Eclipse point from January 10th, at 20° of Cancer. So, like we talked about on our last episode, where we were at the Eclipses and midpoint with the Sun… the New Moon was square a couple of important eclipse points.
Jen: Episode 19. Feel free to go back and listen.
April: And that’s sort of the same with this one. So Lunar Eclipse points are getting triggered, both the one in January and the one coming up in July at 13° of Capricorn. So the difference between a Solar Eclipse and a Lunar Eclipse, and these are Lunar Eclipse points that are being activated, is: Lunar Eclipses usually draw on us to find some comfort in the physical world in response to emotional challenges.
Jen: Okay.
April: So this could be taking this difficult situation we have where people are to figure out how to be in relationship with each other in a different way based on these new physical constraints that we’re dealing with. And looking at actual practical ways we can carve out space for ourselves in our homes. Physical space is an important thing.
Jen: Right.
April: And we don’t all have huge houses. We all don’t have tons and tons of space. But even having a schedule… what Jonny and I had to do when he retired was work out a schedule for the kitchen at lunchtime. That was our contentious point because we were both in there. We found ourselves in there at the same time everyday stumbling over each other, trying to make lunch.
Jen: Yes.
April: So it’s something as simple sometimes it’s coming up with a schedule where everybody gets to do what they want to do. And probably a lot of families do some version of that anyway, especially when you have children. But now I think something like that is probably really helpful. What do you think?
Jen: I really recommend people go back and listen to Episode 5, “Unboxing Eclipses.” The visual that’s coming to me right now, April, is when you talked about that Lunar Eclipse that happened back in January… and the shadow that is cast on the Moon from the Earth, and I really liked that visual. Because if you picture it from an aerial point of view, if you’re up in the cosmos looking down at what’s happening with the Sun and the Earth and the Moon at that point, the Earth is in between the Sun and the Moon physically. And so these Earthly needs are being projected onto the Moon. And I loved the way that you described that, so I really think people should go back and listen to that.
April: Yes, thanks for that. And thanks for that reminder. Because, that’s kind of what I’m trying to get at here. It’s when Lunar Eclipses are involved, we need something tangible to hold on to, right?
Jen: Yes. So I also recall that in January, Uranus stationed on the same day as that Lunar Eclipse, and we’ll get to this in a minute… but Mars this week is squaring Uranus on the same day as this Full Moon. Does that give Uranus more power this day?
April: It brings it into the total picture. Part of the Lunar Eclipse thing and talking about our relationships… the Uranian factor can’t be ignored. And the Aquarian factor, too. Which is again at the very moment, we’d all probably ideally like a little bit of distance. Instead we have this unexpected set of circumstances that we’re having to respond to. And wherever Uranus is involved, we’re having to improvise because something unforeseen has come our way. It’s usually nothing as dramatic as a worldwide pandemic that shut down the entire planet, but Uranus is Uranus and always bring something a little bit unexpected.
It’s good that you point that out. I hadn’t remembered that about Uranus on the day of that eclipse. And Saturn right now, of course, now that it’s moved into Aquarius, it’s approaching a square to Uranus.
Jen: Right.
April: As soon as it went into Aquarius, it started that square. And it says, there is tension between restrictions and freedom, and we’re seeing it in the most blatant ways out in the world. But it’s also happening within us and it will be revealed to us at this Full Moon through our relationships with those close to us and having to share space. It’s like a microcosmic view of whatever’s going on out in the world right now. It’s like you have to keep some distance from people when you’re all crowded together in a small space and everybody wants to have their space but still explore being close to each other in a new way.
Jen: Okay.
April: So you mentioned Mars in Aquarius making a square to Uranus in Taurus.
Jen: I did.
April: This week.
Jen: Yes. On the same day as the Full Moon. What can you tell us about that?
April: Well put Mars and Uranus together and what you have is the desire for action, which is Mars, with unpredictable results – which is Uranus.
Jen: Right.
April: Uranus is of course the modern ruler of Aquarius, which is the sign that Mars is in, so we would think that might give them some sympathy with each other. But generally speaking, a square is a very dynamic connection between two planets. Mars is already pretty dynamic and Uranus is already pretty dynamic. The literal interpretation of this, if you go to old astrology – what we call cookbook astrology – is this is the accident aspect. Because what’s usually happening is you’re doing something and you’re not paying attention. Or let’s say you’re on top of a ladder and your two dogs come running outside and they’re tussling with each other and they knock over the ladder. Or you step on them as you’re coming down from the ladder. It’s like unexpected things coming into the environment that you did not anticipate in time or could not have anticipated.
It’s certainly not the only way to interpret an aspect like this, but I would tell people generally if you are trying to avoid risk of any kind, this is one of the aspects we keep an eye on, frankly, in the cycle.
So this is a cycle between Mars and Uranus that started way back in 2019 when Mars was conjoined Uranus in late Aries. That’s where the story began.
Jen: Okay.
April: Then Mars in Leo made a square to Uranus in July of 2019. It opposed Uranus just as we were starting this podcast in November of 2019.
We’re kind of like coming into the final chapter of this Mars Uranus story. And it’s a time when we’re feeling very much usually with Mars/Uranus that we want to move in a new direction and that’s another reason we can be prone to accidents, either literal accidents or accidents in the things that we say or the way we approach things. Because we’re trying to do something new and maybe innovate.
And right now, like I was talking to you before about in my business, I’m kind of having to innovate. I’m having to figure out how to restructure certain things in my business. And that’s really indicative of this Mars/Uranus. It’s like trying to do something that we’re not entirely sure what we’re doing and trying to make that work.
Jen: With Uranus in the mix, could it be the possibility of out-of-the blue solutions to things?
April: Absolutely. It’s innovative – as well as Aquarius being very innovative – and saying, “Okay, well the world is thrown us a bunch of really weird things.”
It’s like if you’re a juggler, sometimes if you get to see jugglers at fairs or something, they’ll invite people to throw things to them from the audience that then they have to incorporate into their juggling. And suddenly they’re juggling this really weird combination of things. And sometimes brilliant things come from that, right?
Jen: Yes.
April: Sometimes wonderful things come from this. Breakthroughs come from this. Being on the same day as this Full Moon in Libra, breakthroughs in relationships can come from this. You’re spending more time together, than you’re used to spending. You’re having to spend a different quality of time. You’re having to have conversations that may be in the past you were able to avoid having. But because of the situation, you’re kind of forced into close proximity with each other. And yes, sometimes you have to work things through and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Jen: And like you said last week, we always have to frame things in the way that the planets might be helpful to us, or help us with some higher purpose. And that’s what this is too, perhaps.
April: I think they’re always on our side, you know? But that’s a worldview and that’s my worldview, is to see the sky as helpful collaborators with us in a world that we’re creating.
At Uranian times and at Aquarian times, we’re in uncharted territory. And we certainly are, at this moment, of Saturn now in Aquarius… and Mars going into Aquarius… and all this Aquarius stuff out on the distance at the end of the year.
Jen: Yes.
April: That is Mars with Uranus.
Jen: Okay.
April: The next conjunction comes January 20th…
Jen: …2021.
April: Yes. We’ll finish up this whole cycle of Mars with Uranus.
Jen: And at 6°44’ Taurus that’s coming in January, it won’t have moved very far.
April: It doesn’t move very far. You know these big, slow-moving planets – Uranus, Neptune and Pluto -they just sit there and sit there and sit there at the same degrees seemingly forever.
Jen: Yes.
April: Well we’re both a little done talking about Mercury. As we talked about last time, we’re still a little tired of Mercury. But Mercury finally is doing something new and different this week.
Jen: Yes. I’m looking forward to it frankly.
April: Oh, me too. Well it’s moving into Aries on April 10th at 9:48 PM here on the West coast. Mercury is about how we communicate, right?
Jen: Yes.
April: Talking, thinking, absorbing information. And Aries wants to do it fast. So after all this time with Mercury going through Pisces, being retrograde, in aspect in Neptune… it’s been a little bit of a fog because we’ve talked about it at some length, episode after episode, for the last month or two.
So we won’t belabor that. We’ll say instead, how refreshing it is to us and how exciting, and how warmly we greet Mercury’s ingress into Aries!
Jen: Welcome, Mercury!
April: Yes, welcome new sponsor Mercury in Aries!
Jen: And just to remind folks who are newer to the podcast, perhaps: When planets move into a new sign – like Mercury going from Pisces into Aries – they’re going from one set of energies into a completely different set of energies. And in this case, Mercury is moving from kind of an interconnected sign of Pisces, into a sign of independence – Aries. Moving from a water sign into a fire sign. Moving from a feeling of internal energy into a feeling of external energy. And in Chinese medicine it’s that yin-yang stuff. As I’m sure my acupuncturist calls Chinese medicine, “Yin yang stuff.”
April: Yes. Yes, well and it’s so appropriate you say that… because we were talking about acupuncture before and Aries rules Mars, which rules sharp things.
Jen: Ah, interesting.
April: Yes. So, Mercury going into Aries is very multilayered, of course, like all these things are. If we put it in terms of how do people communicate, we can start there.
Jen: Okay.
April: Again, people want information in a hurry. They want it concise. They don’t want a lot of philosophy about it. It’s just, “Give me the facts as quickly as you can.”
Breaking news is a very Mercury in Aries thing.
Jen: Okay.
April: Also it’s about “How does this affect me?” is what Mercury in Aries wants to know..
Jen: Because Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac which is about, “I am.”
April: Yes. Mercury is also about transportation, which we’re not doing a ton of at the moment. Who knows, by next week, by the time this airs… but at the moment the world is -unless you’re a UPS driver or you’re delivering things for Amazon – you’re not out-and-about a whole lot.
But normally this would be a time where we’d expect people – all things being equal – to want to be out there traveling more, just getting around, doing things, being very active. It’s a good time for learning in one sense, if you want to learn something new, Aries is very good for that. Because Aries likes what’s novel, what’s new, starting something. It’s not as fond of sticking with it over the long haul. That’s more of a Taurus thing or one of the fixed signs. But these cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn -like to begin things, to initiate. So, if you are involved in learning a new thing, if you’re in communications or writing, if you’re teaching your kids, if you’re trying to learn something yourself… Aries is really key to understand at this time.
So if you can get the kids learning by doing something, that’s going to be a lot easier right now, than having them sit down and read books.
Jen: Okay.
April: Because Aries just wants to be in motion. It’s really energetic. If you have been putting off for a long time learning some particular new thing that you would like to learn, it’s the perfect time to do that.
Jen: Alright.
April: Now Mercury is going to be making a square to the Lunar Nodes on April 11th – on the next day – at 10:18 PM. You know the Lunar Nodes we’ve talked about at some length on some of our previous episodes.
Jen: Again, Episode 5.
April: It all goes back to Episode 5.
Jen: With all the eclipse stuff.
April: Yes. Because the nodes are implicated in eclipses and how they are formed. So the North Node of the Moon has been moving through Cancer. It’s getting to the very beginning of that sign and because the nodes move backwards, we know it’s getting ready to move back into Gemini. But for now it’s still finishing up in Cancer and the South Node is in Capricorn.
So it’s this thing of the South Node being in Capricorn and insisting on keeping old forms just the way they are and keeping an emotional and physical distance between ourselves and others. Being on our own path, moving towards our own ambitions. Whereas Cancer is a lot more about the tribal identity, how can we all rely on each other in a new way and all that. We’ve really seen it play out in a most eloquent fashion in the last month.
So Mercury squaring those points, Mercury again is, “What about me?”
Jen: Right.
April: So it kind of gives a different perspective on the Cancer/Capricorn dichotomy.
Jen: Because there’s some push pull there.
April: Yes. And Aries just says, “Well forget about all that. What about me?”, you know. “What’s in it for me?”
Jen: And if you look across the cosmos, there’s Libra over there, the invisible fourth leg of that table.
April: Except it’s not so invisible this week, because the Full Moon is in Libra.
Jen: Oh interesting.
April: Yes. When we have all of the cardinal planets represented at a moment like we do now, we call them the cardinal planets, they are the directional planets. They point North, South, East and West. And I always think of them as being like that circus wheel of fortune… and also the wheel that we put the person on it and you spin the wheel and people throw knives at them and things.
Jen: Yes.
April: Because that’s where Aries goes. It’s where the Aries imagination goes.
Jen: Don’t try that at home friends!
April: No kids, don’t try that at home! It’s not the kind of lesson plan we’re talking about for your kids.
But when we have everything represented from those signs in the same week, it says “The wheel of fortune is spinning.” And these are the points where it’s like there’s an invisible hand there that is grabbing some point in the wheel and just pulling it and just spinning it.
Jen: It’s like Wheel of Fortune, the TV show.
April: Wheel!…
Jen: … of!…
April & Jen : Fortune!!!
April: I get to be Vanna!
April: So if you have natal planets that are in one of these cardinal signs, we know which part of the wheel is propelling you, is pulling you.
So, you have a bunch of stuff in Libra in the 11th house.
Jen: I do.
April: Yes. That’s the area – friendships, networks, community, that kind of stuff – where the invisible hand is sort of grabbing onto that point and pulling it. And it’s pulling everything in your life to go along with it. And that’s kind of where we all are at the moment. Everything’s interconnected.
Jen: And it’s interesting, all of this cardinal energy right now, because if you have planets in cardinal signs… it really will hit probably one of the points in your birth chart. Because we’ve got Mercury in Aries at 1°-2° squaring the nodes at those low degrees. And then we’ve got the Full Moon happening in the second decan – which is the second 10° of that sign. And then we have in the third decan, Jupiter and Pluto…
April: Yes. It’s all represented.
Jen: …towards the end. So gosh, it’s all there.
April: Yes, you cardinal people are getting whomped.
Jen: Yes. Don’t you have stuff in cardinal signs?
April: Yes. This is getting my Venus. My Venus is at 2° of Cancer and I have Saturn at 25° of Capricorn. Yes. So I’ve been having the most delightful Saturn return, as you can imagine, with Pluto there and the whole world falling apart.
Jen: I forgot about your Saturn for a second.
April: Oh, I never do. No, it is uppermost in my mind…
Jen: That’s how Saturn wants it!
April: …at all times!
So we started out in this discussion talking about the Full Moon in Libra and how close it is to Jen’s natal Moon.
Jen: Yes, we did. Breaking news!
April: bum-ba-da-da-dum!
So this brought us to a point that we wanted to talk to you guys about, which is Lunar Returns.
Jen: Go for it!
April: Now we did talk a little bit about Saturn Returns in one episode. Because I was having mine, so it just seemed like the perfect time to talk about it.
Jen: Yes.
April: The most commonly used, what we call return charts, happen at the Solar Return when the Sun returns to the exactly the point it was when you were born by celestial longitude.
Jen: Your birthday, in other words.
April: Yes. Within a day on either side, usually, of your birthday. So, what you do is – actually the computer very helpfully does this – is identify that moment and calculate a chart for it based on the location where you are.
Jen: Okay.
April: That’s the most commonly used one. You’ll look at your entire year ahead by looking at your Solar Return chart. And it’s fascinating how it reflects the themes that we’ll also see and other charts we use… a transit chart of secondary progressions and those kinds of things. Well, we do the same thing each month with a Lunar Return chart. So the Moon has a cycle of about 28 days to go through all of the signs of the Zodiac. Sometime in that 28-day period, it will land on exactly the point that the Moon was at, at your birth.
Jen: So 13 times a year, we have our little Moon birthday.
April: Exactly.
Jen: Our own personal Moon birthday.
April: It’s a little luna-versary, if you will.
Jen: Nice.
April: So you will have one just about the time, just after this Full Moon, which if we cast the Lunar Return chart for you, we would see that Full Moon still very active in that chart.
Jen: And what does that mean if you’re having your own little Moon birthday, your own personal New Moon, on the same day that the Full Moon hits?
April: So that’s kind of significant. It emphasizes the Full Moon. It makes it even more of a month-long energy for you. You carry it for the next 28 days, so it’s a little more emphasized. And generally, that’s just what you do with a Lunar Return chart. You look at the house that it’s in. You say, “This is where there’s a lot of emphasis for me, a lot of interest over the next 28 days. It is where I feel a need to have my cup filled.” Which is to me always the energy of the Moon.
Jen: Nice.
April: You start with a feeling of lack perhaps in that area and the work of that month is to fill that cup in some way.
Jen: I like that.
April: Yes. And then we’re looking at the aspects that it’s making with the other planets. So you’re going to have the Moon in your Lunar Return chart squaring Jupiter and Pluto, which we talked about before.
Jen: That’ll be fun.
April: And triggering those eclipse points and all of it. Really the story of this Full Moon is also the story of your Lunar Return chart for this month, which is pretty intense.
Now, not every Lunar Return chart is going to be that dramatic or that interesting, but certainly this is a pretty significant one for you.
So as you say, you get about 13 of these a year. And in combination with the Solar Return chart, they can give a really detailed picture of your overall year. If I just wanted to do a reading for someone using Solar and Lunar Returns for the year, I could do a very good reading for them.
So that’s Lunar Returns.
Jen: I imagine you would look first at the Moon, like you said. And then at the Sun, and then the ascendant too probably?
April: Maybe…
Jen: Or doesn’t that matter as much in this type of chart?
April: Well I think they’re important. It’s like with any return chart… the other thing I’ll do is look at what’s close to an angle.
Jen: Ah…
April: So, what’s close to the cusp of the first, the fourth, the seventh of the 10th houses, because those are always energetically souped-up points in the chart.
Jen: Yes.
April: And everything’s important. I mean, you can read it like a regular chart. But always going back to the idea of, “What are we looking at?”
We’re looking at a lunar-oriented chart.
Jen: Sure.
April: So that’s how we have to read it. That’s the symbolism. That’s the most important, the most significant.
Jen: Makes total sense.
April: Yes. It’s just like with the Saturn return chart – I’m sure we talked about at the time – you’re going to read Saturn as the most important thing. And it is the context against which everything else in the chart has to be interpreted.
Jen: Yes. So I actually looked up my Lunar Return chart and it’s interesting, because the Moon is in the same house where natal Moon sits in my birth chart.
And I wondered – because almost everything then is patterned after my birth chart, where everything else falls – and I wondered then if I would even notice it as much. Because it’s where it normally is. It’s making aspects that it’s making as we’re all going through them right now.
April: You might notice it more because it’s your territory.
Jen: Huh.
April: If somebody comes into your house, where you spend all your time… it’s like going back to that discussion. If people are suddenly in your house all day, which you’ve considered your territory and now there are new people in it, maybe you notice them more.
Jen: Sure.
April: But these are aspects that you’ve been getting to your Moon anyway, from Jupiter and Pluto.
Jen: Right.
April: It just might be a month where it’s a little more accentuated… where you’re noticing it a little bit more.
It’s like we look for the pivotal moment. If you have a big transit that’s going on, that’s going to take three years to complete in your chart – like an aspect from Pluto to the Moon or something – then astrologists have to narrow that down and say, “Well, when are you most likely to really be experiencing the full brunt of that?” Because otherwise it becomes like this dull background noise going on for three years.
Jen: Yes.
April: And a Lunar Return like this is probably going to be one of those moments that brings up the things that you’ve been coping with. With Pluto and now Jupiter. And more lately Mars’s aspects to that Moon. Does that make sense?
Jen: Yes, it does. So have you ever tracked your Lunar Return charts?
April: For myself, I’ve looked at them a little bit. They’re not one of the hugest tools in my arsenal, I have to say. But each month I’ll notice when I’m having a Lunar Return, even if I don’t calculate the chart. I know that the Moon’s in Gemini. As we record this now, I will have had my Lunar Return sometime yesterday… which is grim because yesterday was not a great day emotionally.
Jen: Oh. So you hope that energy doesn’t carry over all month?
April: Yes. But you can expect that it would because…
Jen: Well, that’s the right way to look at it!
April: Oh no, no, no, no. But not in such a negative way. Not in such a painful way. But rather to say, “This is a moment to contend with something emotionally.”
And if it’s significant, it’s like everything astrology, there are not a lot of quick fixes. Things don’t resolve overnight. So a month is not too much to give to an emotional condition that is difficult that you’re struggling with. That brings up not just what you’re going through right now, not just what the world is going through right now at this particular moment in time, but how it fits in with what you tend to go through emotionally as an individual. Stuff gets triggered.
Jen: Yes.
April: We all have complicated emotional stories and that’s why we’re all going through the current world circumstances at our own pace, in our own way, because of our Moon. My Moon squares Pluto. It’s a pretty dicey Moon on the best of days. So it makes sense that this is kind of bringing me to a place where I’m having to work through some stuff.
Jen: Right.
April: And that’s okay. It gives me helpful language for how I have to be a little more patient with myself.
Jen: That’s a very evolved way of looking at it.
April: Some days I’m going to be better at that than others.
Jen: Aren’t we all?
April: But again, it’s always the thing of planets are conspiring to help us, not to punish us.
Jen: “Why is this happening for me?” Instead of “Why is this happening to me?”
April: And that never fails me. That is always my worldview. So even if I can’t find the meaning in a given moment, I think it’s always worth looking for it. That’s why I love astrology.
Jen: I agree with you, my friend.
April: Yes.
Well, I think that is all that we have on the show sheet.
Jen: It is indeed.
April: Have we done it?
Jen: We have done it!
April: Yes!
Jen: Now we’re in the 20s! We’re on Episode 20!
April: Yes!
Jen: We’re closing in on two dozen!
April: That’s kind of exciting to me. Any number with a zero at the end just feels especially significant.
Well, thank you all for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast… possibly 20 episodes of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast.
Jen: 20 episodes!
April: If you like what you’re hearing here, we sure hope that you will subscribe so that you don’t miss a single episode. We would love it if you would tell a friend as well about the podcast if you’re enjoying it. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at our website, which is www.bigskyastropod.com.
Jen: If you find value in our podcast, please help us out. You can keep it going for as little as a dollar.
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Jen: Absolutely!
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So anyway, join us again, bright and early next Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground…
Jen: And your eyes on the stars…
Thank you for listening. To learn more about April Elliott Kent, please check out her website, www.BigSkyAstrology.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter, read her thought-provoking weekly essays, purchase her books, sign up for a personal astrology reading, and more.
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