Hello, Invisible Friend, April here, and the date today is November 6th, 2023. Welcome to Episode 207 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, Venus trines Pluto and enters its home sign of Libra. Mercury is very busy aspecting Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto and entering the sign of Sagittarius, and Mars opposes Uranus. I also answer a listener question about the time of birth.
Moon Report
We begin the week with the Moon Report. There is no major lunation this week, meaning there is no new or full or quarter moon. The Scorpio New Moon is on the 13th, so, I will be covering that on Episode 208.
I’ll take this opportunity to remind you that you might want to subscribe to my mailing list at BigSkyAstrology. com. You’ll see a link in the episode description. And if you sign up, you get free access every month to my monthly New Moon Workbook. It’s a nice little resource. It gives the dates and times when the Moon is moving into a new sign, aspecting another planet, going void of course. And a few thoughts about the New and Full and Quarter Moons. So, people tell me they like it a lot. So, that is a free resource that’s available for you in tracking the Moon.
Void-of-Course Moon Periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week.
On November 5, the Moon in Leo squares Mercury in Scorpio at 11:25 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. It’s Void-of-Course for a little over 12 hours before it enters Virgo on November 6 at 11:39 am. When the Moon is in a difficult aspect with Mercury, we see that how you feel and how you communicate are in conflict.
And this is the beginning of an especially long Void-of-Course Moon period. So there’s plenty of time for us to reflect about whether this has become an ongoing pattern in our lives and if there is something we can do to change it. The Moon in Leo wants to express itself and needs to be noticed and appreciated.
But Mercury in Scorpio prefers to keep its thoughts to itself, so if we’re feeling in some way that we’re not being properly appreciated for who we are. The difficulty is it’s very hard to talk about that with others. Even if it’s an ongoing issue in our lives, because of that Mercury in Scorpio that just really prefers to keep its thoughts about its feelings to itself.
During this long Void-of-Course Moon period, I would just say, do anything you can do to express those needs. This might be journaling, it might be keeping a dream journal, it might be… writing letters to people about long standing grievances, but then burning them instead of sending them. It really depends on your particular situation, but that’s the nature of this conflict: I need to be appreciated, I want to be noticed, I want to express myself. But it’s really hard to do that because I’m afraid of making myself vulnerable by sharing my feelings and especially my feelings about needing to be important.
On November 8, the Moon in Virgo sextiles Mercury in Scorpio at 8:55 p.m. Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for a little over three hours, and then it enters Libra on November 9th at 12:08 am. Now, unlike the Void-of-Course Moon period that I just spoke about that began with the Moon square Mercury, this one begins with the Moon in Virgo and a happier aspect to Mercury in Scorpio.
The Moon in Virgo finds us feeling most comfortable where there is something practical that we can do with our feelings. The Moon’s sign in a given day talks about the general mood of the world, but it also talks about the most effective ways we can deal with our own feelings.
So, Moon in Virgo wants to do something practical, do something with your hands, clean or organize something in your home or in your office. And Mercury in Scorpio was very good at digging in, looking at what’s really going on. And I would say its particular meeting point with anything in Virgo is this ability to get in and declutter. And not just on a physical level, of course, but also on an emotional level to help us let go of, especially thoughts, because it’s the Moon in aspect to Mercury, so releasing thoughts that are pessimistic, a little bit toxic, and obsessive, where we are going over and over in our mind past grievances or conflicts.
On November 11, the Moon in Libra squares Pluto at 7:05 am. Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for about three and a half hours before it enters Scorpio at 10:39 a.m. The Moon in Libra square Pluto ushers in a relatively brief Void-of-Course Moon period this time that’s about examining whether you’re prioritizing others needs over your own too much of the time or even not enough of the time.
We recently had that eclipse on October 14 in Libra, and it was square Pluto. So this is a Void-of-Course Moon period to revisit the things that emerged around that eclipse, especially in our relationships with others. And give it a little more thought and a little more review, and decide whether we need to take corrective action toward giving ourselves more time and energy and thought, or giving a little more of those things to the other people in our lives.
Venus trine Pluto (Nov. 6, 2023, 6:38 a.m. PST)
On November 6 at 6:38 am Pacific Time, Venus trines Pluto at 28º 03′ Virgo and Capricorn. Venus is on the Sabian symbol 29 Virgo, a man gaining secret knowledge, and Pluto is on the Sabian symbol 29 Capricorn, a woman reading tea leaves.
I like that both of these symbols are concerned with secret knowledge, getting the inside scoop. And I think that’s very important in our relationships, that we’re willing to take the time to delve deeply not only in what the other person needs or is thinking about, but what we ourselves need and what our motivations are.
I remember my brilliant colleague, Michelle Gould once said something in a lecture that I thought was so insightful. I think of it every time I look at a connection between Venus and Pluto. She said, when these two are in aspect, Pluto will burn away anything that doesn’t look like love. And this is a pretty intense connection for Venus. Venus is a symbol of affection and delight and fun but Pluto is much deeper than that.
And it says there is a point in relationships where we have to confront the darkest parts of ourselves, of the other person, of our beliefs and expectations around relationships in general. So it doesn’t have to be a terrible transit and spell doom for your relationships, but it is an opportunity to take things to a somewhat deeper level.
Now on a mundane level, this is a terrific aspect for getting rid of things, Venus rules possessions, items that you might have floating around in your material world that have outlived their usefulness. And this is a time to look at getting rid of them, re-homing them, perhaps repairing or renovating something that you actually really love and want to keep, even if it is not the most efficient tool for the job.
So this might be a day where you find somebody that can help you make those kinds of repairs and restore things. I always think that Pluto loves a makeover, so this is a great day for that.
Mercury trine Neptune (Nov. 6, 2023, 5:37 p.m. PST)
Later on November 6th at 5:37 pm Pacific Time, Mercury trines Neptune, and this is a beautiful aspect for creating art. It’s also very conducive to sensitive conversations, and these can be in response to the things that came up earlier in the day at that Venus trine to Pluto. So, now is an opportunity to have those conversations.
That might be necessary in an important relationship. Generally, Mercury connecting with Neptune in a good way is very effective for articulating the things that are difficult to put into words. Mercury likes to communicate. And generally, we associate it with language and verbal communication. But of course, there are all kinds of different ways to communicate, and some of them are not verbal at all.
Neptune is about the things that don’t really lend themselves to verbal expression. So, that’s why Mercury connecting with Neptune is lovely for creativity, especially things like music that articulate feelings so beautifully, sometimes without even using words.
So, this is an aspect that can help by enlarging your toolbox, your Mercury toolbox, and communicating on a different level or a slightly different way. Be very sensitive in how you approach your conversations with others today because both Mercury and Neptune are in these very sensitive water signs, Scorpio and Pisces. So we need to be very gentle, and maybe not approach a conversation head on, but rather kind of in an oblique kind of way.
Venus enters Libra (Nov. 8, 2023 1:30 a.m. PST)
Venus enters Libra on November 8 at 1:30 a.m. Pacific Time. It’ll be here in its own sign through December 4. Venus transits through the signs of the zodiac symbolize what we will take pleasure in and what we’re willing to invest some money in. In Libra, it will want to invest a little bit more, spend a little bit more on appearance, on art, on loved ones, on whatever it is in your life that particularly brings you pleasure.
It can be a wonderful transit for beautifying yourself or your home, and it’s specifically about spending money for those things that aren’t, strictly speaking, practical, but that make a home feel beautiful and gracious, and a place where you just like to spend time.
Venus in Virgo really enjoys spending time alone, so perhaps that’s where we’ve been for the last few weeks, withdrawing a little bit more from social commitments. Venus in Libra is much more sociable. And you might find yourself, even if you’re not a person that likes to go out and do lots of things, you might find that while Venus is in Libra, that might sound a little more like something that you would enjoy doing, and especially for any kinds of cultural events, going to a show, going to a concert.
Libra is a very refined sign, so we will often be drawn, when Venus is in this sign, to activities that are of a little more exalted nature. This might be going to the symphony, going to the ballet, going to museums, art installations, whatever it might be. Or it could just be that for the next few weeks you’ll really enjoy spending time with the people in your life that you’re especially fond of.
Mercury sextile Pluto (Nov. 8, 4:17 p.m. PST)
Also on November 8th at 4:17pm Pacific Time, Mercury sextiles Pluto at 28º05′ Scorpio and Capricorn. We’re coming to the end of Mercury’s time in Scorpio and it’s finishing up on this aspect of powerful Pluto. This combination is about appealing to powerful forces. The Sabian symbol for Mercury at the sextile is one of the more vivid and intense ones, an Indian woman pleads to the chief for the lives of her children. And in Pluto’s symbol, 29 Capricorn, a woman is reading tea leaves to get messages from unseen forces. If there is something that you want very much, or that you feel very strongly about, or you’re trying to be very persuasive to get something that’s important to you, this sextile brings an opportunity to appeal to powerful forces.
I don’t think it’s literally something as intense as pleading to the chief of the tribe for the lives of your children but we get that clue in the woman reading tea leaves that it’s about intercession sometimes to forces beyond. Here is the opportunity to ask for a thing, to do some ritual, to do some manifestation work.
But what it does say is we have to ask. We can’t just sit back and hope. We have to show in some way that we feel strongly about this and that we’re willing to do our part, do the work that we need to do, but that we are asking for a little bit of help from other unseen, perhaps powerful forces.
Mercury enters Sagittarius (Nov. 9, 2023, 10:25 p.m. PST)
Then on November 9th at 10:25 p.m. Pacific Time, Mercury enters Sagittarius. It’ll be in this sign through December 1st. It’s moving from that quiet and circumspect Scorpio into Sagittarius, which is a bit more jolly and sometimes boisterous and almost always opinionated. Share your ideas with the world while Mercury is in Sagittarius, but be aware that just because you believe something doesn’t automatically make it true.
Mercury is said to be in its detriment in Sagittarius. That just means that it’s in the sign opposite the one that it rules. Mercury is designed to attend to details, and Sagittarius prefers to focus on the big picture. And my favorite analogy for this is a funnel, and there’s a wide end and a small end. Sagittarius represents the wide end of the funnel, and Mercury is that tiny little aperture. So everything that goes in, all these big ideas that come with Sagittarius, have to be filtered down into mere words.
But it is a very nice Mercury sign for a number of things. It’s great for lightening your perspective and for feeling more optimistic, especially after that transit of Mercury in Scorpio, which is also great for a lot of things, for digging deep, for research, for taking close observations of the people and the world around you.
But the sky does brighten a little bit when Mercury goes into Sagittarius. This is also a wonderful transit for brainstorming and coming up with good ideas, not necessarily about following through on them, but we can do that when Mercury enters Capricorn after December 1.
Mercury squares Saturn (Nov. 10, 2023, 7:07 am PST)
Busy Mercury squares Saturn in Pisces on November 10th at 7:07 a.m. at 0º32′ Sagittarius and Pisces. Mercury is the planet of speaking up, of communicating, and when it’s in a square aspect to Saturn, it can feel very difficult to do that. It almost feels like there is a cork in our mouths and it’s really difficult to get the words out.
But Mercury square Saturn is an excellent aspect for tackling those communication-related projects that have either been difficult to get started at all or to bring to completion. So if there’s something you’ve been putting off for a long time, maybe tackling some paperwork in your office. Maybe, getting started on a significant writing project, these would all be excellent to tackle this week, as Mercury is square Saturn.
Mercury has a wonderful facility with language and ideas, and in Sagittarius, it often has so many ideas. That it’s hard to sit down and pick one of them to do something with. What I like about this particular square is Saturn will bring that persistence and stick-to-itiveness that’s needed to not only decide which thing to work on, but really bring it to completion and take it to market. The Sabian symbol for Saturn, at this square, is 1 Pisces, A public market. We are refining our ideas and getting ready to share them with others.
Mars opposed Uranus (Nov. 11, 2023 1:11 p.m. PST)
Mars opposes Uranus on November 11 at 1:11 pm Pacific Time at 21º08′ Scorpio and Taurus. The Sabian symbol for Mars is 22 Scorpio, hunters starting out for ducks, and Uranus is on the symbol 22 Taurus, a white dove over troubled waters. Well, Mars is about taking action, asserting ourselves, going after what we want, and even a willingness to compete with others.
Sometimes there’s a prize that cannot be shared by more than one person, and it can only go to one. Uranus is really a symbol of new ways of doing things and, also of matters not going according to plan, but this is also a wonderful transit for breakthroughs in work, especially. It can also speak to opponents who are unpredictable and therefore a little bit difficult to get the better of.
As I mentioned last week, when Mercury was opposed to Uranus at roughly the same degrees and on the same Sabian symbols, we may have reached a point when we feel justified in fighting or using aggressive methods to get what we want or to defend ourselves. But, the white dove over troubled waters says that there might be a way to achieve a peaceful outcome, but it requires thinking outside the box and approaching things differently than the way we’ve always approached them.
Listener Question: How is the time of birth determined?
In this week’s Listener Question, listener Teina asks, “I heard an astrologer say that the time of birth was when the umbilical cord is cut and the infant is independent of the mother, rather than at the first breath. What is your opinion on this? Usually, at the time of birth, no one is standing around with a stopwatch, so I wonder if many people get an accurate time of birth. Mine is an estimate and not on my birth certificate.”
Teina, thank you for this question. When I first read it, I thought, well, surely it’s when the baby takes a breath. But then I thought about the births when the baby can’t breathe on its own initially, but goes on to survive.
Anyway, I decided to ask a nurse that I know about the recording of the time of birth, and here’s what she had to say:
“Usually, the time of birth is recorded when the head and body are delivered. I’ve gone to many, many deliveries. And I know that as soon as the head and the rest of the body is delivered, the monitor that is recording labor shuts off. And that’s when we get the time of birth from the labor, or fetal, monitor. So we get the exact time nowadays. If we waited till the first breath, we might not have a birth time in some instances.”
Now, that is in present day America for births that take place in a hospital. And I was really glad I asked my friend because having never been present at a birth myself, I was imagining a much more chaotic scenario.
I read that electronic fetal monitoring has been widely used for about 50 years. This means that in most cases, for those born in a hospital, over the last half a century, astrologers are going to have access to birth times that we can really rely on, at least here in the United States.
I can’t speak to how this was done in the days before all this modern equipment or even in a modern home birth, though I would assume there are systems or at least traditions in place about noting the time. As for thoughts about what should appropriately be considered the time of birth, I imagine there’s not a lot of time between the delivery of the head and body and the cutting of the umbilical cord.
I didn’t think to ask my friend that question. She did say that most babies cry immediately after birth, and those who don’t are sometimes very distressed or even a little bit sick. If a baby cries immediately after birth, that can happen even before the cord is cut, which suggests that it can survive independently.
Now, while we are on the subject of birth times, which form the basis of the natal astrologer’s work, it’s worth reminding listeners of ways you can research your birth time. And it really is very important to get the most precise birth time you can.
Because even as little as four minutes can make a difference in the chart that’s significant. If you’re relying on your mom’s memory, remember, she had other things on her mind at the time. In the United States, your birth time may be recorded on a hospital birth record, as well as a government, it’s usually a county birth record, I think.
Depending on the state or the county of your birth, the government birth record may be available in a short form or a long form, and sometimes the birth time is only recorded on the long form, but if you don’t have a copy of your official birth record, absolutely request one from the Registrar of Births, again, it’s probably a county office in the U.S. And you may be able to request one also from the hospital where you were born.
If you’ve done all that and you still don’t have an exact birth time, check personal written records. Written records are always most reliable. A hospital ID bracelet. A baby book or card, family bible, newspaper announcements.
For years, I had despaired of finding a birth record for my mother, who was born at home in rural Indiana in the early 1930s. But a friend was actually able to find a copy of her birth certificate with the time recorded on ancestry.com. So, that’s not a bad resource. There are a lot of government records that have been uploaded to Ancestry.
Now, if you still have not found a written record, family accounts might help you get into the general neighborhood of the time, but take them with a grain of salt. And finally, if you have exhausted all other possible sources of a birth time, you can hire an astrologer to rectify your chart. This involves comparing transits and other measurements from important life events to your birth chart to determine the most likely time of birth.
This is much easier to do if you have an approximate window of time to work with and the narrower that window, the best chance probably of coming up with a good birth time and you’ll never be completely sure it’s the exact time. You should be able to end up with a chart that’s pretty reliable, that responds pretty reliably to transits and this kind of thing.
Teina, thank you so much for your question. And if you, invisible friend, have a question you would like me to answer on a future episode, just leave a message of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrology Podcast, or email me at april(at)bigskyastrology(dot)com and put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.
Donor Thanks
Well, that is everything I have 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, please 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.
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That’s it for this episode. Join me again bright and early next Monday, and until then, keep your feet on the ground, and your eyes on the stars!
Writing and images © 2017-23 by April Elliott Kent
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