TRANSCRIPT Ep. 244 (July 22, 2024)
It’s Leo Season: Time for Roaring and Relaxation!
Hello invisible friend, April here, and the date today is July 22nd, 2024. Welcome to Episode 244 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, the Sun enters Leo, its fiercest season, and aspects Pluto and Mars. Mercury enters hands-on Virgo. The Taurus Last Quarter Moon brings an important eclipse season to a close, and I answer a listener question about the mysterious 12th house.
Sun enters Leo (July 22, 2024, 12:44 a.m.)
On July 22nd at 12:44 am Pacific Time, the Sun enters Leo. It’s in this sign through August 22nd, and this is the time of year that the Sun is at its most fierce in the Northern Hemisphere. And Leo, the sign that it’s in at this time of year, is considered the Sun’s strongest sign.
This solar season is interesting because, here in the United States at least, there are no official holidays during the whole month of August. But it is the time of year that many people will take a long vacation. Leo is the sign of recreation and restoration, of play and creativity, of love affairs, and generally, of self-expression.
Leo is sometimes thought of as a lighthearted, playful sign. Honestly, I don’t think that is the whole story. Leo is actually a very dignified sign, a royal sign and it is also fierce when it’s provoked. It feels like royalty, and it doesn’t appreciate familiarity from people that it doesn’t know well. So, always keep that in mind.
And sometimes, because Leo can be very warm and very welcoming, it makes you think that they have a good sense of humor about themselves. They don’t always, and in fact, I would say probably usually don’t, unless there are a lot of placements in the chart in Sagittarius or Gemini or something like that.
If you think of pictures you have seen of lions in the wild, usually they are either tearing up another animal that they’ve caught, or they are lounging around and relaxing and restoring their energy. And that is a good way to think of Leo and the Leo season, as that time of year when we take a little time out to rest and restore ourselves.
Sun opposes Pluto (July 22, 2024, 10:37 pm PDT)
On the same day, July 22nd at 10:37 PM Pacific Time, the Sun in Leo opposes Pluto in Aquarius. This is an aspect, as always when we see the Sun connect with Pluto, which tends to be about meeting the limits of our personal power. The Sun and Pluto, in many ways, are opposites. The Sun celebrates the glorious individual self. But Pluto is quick to remind us of the limits of an individual’s power.
Pluto will be in Leo’s opposite sign, Aquarius, for roughly the next 20 years. And in Aquarius, Pluto insists that the individual is secondary to the needs of the group. One of the things that chills us about artificial intelligence is that it seems to indicate that each and every one of us is easily replaced by something more efficient and less costly.
But it’s sort of the way many of us complain about doing all of our shopping at one or two giant online retailers, because it damages the retail environment in our neighborhoods. And yet, we find it so hard to stop ordering from these convenient services because it’s so cost effective and it’s so easy to find exactly what we want.
I suppose one thing this Sun-Pluto opposition brings to light over the period of just a couple of days this week, let’s say maybe July 20th through the 23rd, is the cost of doing things in this way. I wrote something recently on my website about this issue of AI images, because on my website, for my weekly column, I create these digital collages, which I love, and they’re very popular with visitors to my site. But they do take a lot of time to create.
But what I was writing about for the website, was my discovery of this new Microsoft Office feature Co-Pilot. And I can go in there and easily generate a perfect AI image for a concept that I have in mind to support something I’ve written for the website. And it’s so tempting to use them, because they do a pretty good job and because it just takes a fraction of the time. But I was examining that as I was writing for the site and saying, the problem is, it doesn’t have me in it. And that’s what gives art its beauty and makes it something that we can connect with, is the feeling that there is a human at work behind the scenes. So I’m still struggling with this from time to time. And for images, for things like promoting a class or something like that, I might find a use for those images.
But it gets to the heart of the Sun’s opposition with Pluto, and the Sun in Leo, which is, “I want to create, I want to express myself.” And Pluto over in Aquarius saying, “But here is this way that it can get done much more quickly and you don’t even really need to be involved to the same extent.”
Mercury enters Virgo (July 25, 2024, 3:42 pm PDT)
Mercury enters Virgo on July 25th at 3:42 p.m. Pacific Time. It will be in Virgo through September 26th. And this is Mercury moving into one of its strongest signs, just as the Sun has done this week.
Mercury is the ruler of two signs, Gemini and Virgo. And when it’s in its Gemini expression, it tends to be more about the mind, what we think, our cognitive abilities. When it’s in Virgo, there is a lot of that because Virgo is a very analytical sign. It’s really good at figuring things out.
But it also brings in the hands-on element of Virgo. Virgo is an Earth sign, and I’ve often seen that people with planets in Virgo emphasized in their birth chart, they are really handy. They’re good at fixing things because it’s easy for them to figure out how things work and how to make them work better, or to fix them when they’re on the fritz.
So, the Sun in Leo is urging us to express ourselves in acts of creativity, and Mercury in Virgo can provide the skills, the hands-on ability, and the intelligence and the troubleshooting ability, and to unite a kind of craftsmanship with creativity. Now, on a very practical level, if you are using some of this Leo season to take a little time away from your work and to relax or to just kind of get things done around the house, maybe, that you haven’t had a chance to do in a while, Mercury and Virgo can be very, very helpful. Virgo likes systems. So, if there are systems that you can put in place to keep your household running more smoothly, to make your household routines a little more efficient, maybe a way to handle your paperwork or to track your finances – anything like this will be easier and more efficient while Mercury is in Virgo.
Sun sextile Mars (July 25, 2024, 7:32 pm PDT)
On July 25th at 7:32 pm Pacific Time, the Sun sextiles Mars at 3º36’ Leo and Gemini. This aspect tends to bring out the fierce side of Leo, because Mars does not hesitate to fight for what it wants. But Mars in Gemini is the type to tear you up with its words.
This is a sextile aspect, and that means Mars is bringing something helpful to the Sun and the other way around. And here, Mars in Gemini, which is a verbally agile sign, can act a little bit like an attorney or a negotiator. Let’s say, for example, you post something on Instagram and a lot of people show up and really enjoy it, but a few people decide to pile on and criticize you. This is an aspect that can help you defend yourself, or it can be that somebody else in the vicinity steps in to defend you. Somebody might swipe your content. This is happening to a lot of people on Facebook and Instagram. It’s happened to me. And, Mars is the one that can help you go after the offender.
Most of all, Mars can take Leo’s most creative impulses and motivate us to make them real. It’s great to have a lot of creative ideas and a lot of fun things we’d like to do, but we don’t always have the impetus to get up and actually make it happen. And that’s what Mars can do. It wakes us up just a little bit during this sleepy Leo season.
Taurus Last Quarter Moon (July 27, 2024, 7:51 pm PDT)
And now for the Moon Report. It begins with the Taurus Last Quarter Moon on July 27th at 7:51 pm Pacific Time. It’s at 5º32’ Taurus and Leo.
Each month at the Last Quarter phase, the previous New Moon is brought to some kind of resolution. If at the New Moon on July 5th in Cancer, you had some idea that maybe you want to do something to your home, maybe bring together your family and your close friends, maybe help and support some of the important people in your life – but you might have been a little overwhelmed by the logistics – well, last week’s Capricorn Full Moon probably shed some practical light on this situation. And now the Taurus Last Quarter Moon brings the resources, financial and otherwise that can help bring those particular dreams, especially domestic oriented dreams, closer to becoming a reality.
Lunar Phase Family Cycle
This is the Last Quarter in the lunar phase family cycle that began on April 30th, 2022 at the New Moon at 10º28’ Taurus. This was a solar eclipse, and it was in a conjunction with Uranus, so it was a particularly disruptive eclipse. And this is true especially if there is something in your birth chart between, say, maybe 6 or 7 degrees and maybe 13 or 14 degrees of one of the fixed signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, or Aquarius.
So, if there was something in your birth chart, in other words, that was getting a strong aspect from that solar eclipse point at 10º Taurus, and you were also getting an aspect from Uranus at the same time. That was a big eclipse. And it probably turned over a few rocks and showed you some squirmy stuff underneath that you have been dealing with ever since. Or, just a sense of things have to change in your life in order for them to improve.
And ever since April 2022, more than two years ago, you’ve been working through this cycle. The First Quarter in this cycle was on January 28th, 2023. That would have been a moment for taking some kind of action, or some kind of action is required in the matter that you were dealing with at that New Moon eclipse. The Full Moon in this phase was on October 28th, 2023. That was a lunar eclipse. So, having two eclipses in the same lunar phase family cycle, not completely unusual, but not really the norm, says this is an important phase cycle. A lot has been changing in everybody’s lives.
And in your life in particular, again, if you have planets or important points in your chart around those degrees of the fixed signs, keep an eye also on the house of your chart where the early degrees of Taurus are found. So between, say, 5 and 10 degrees of Taurus, that’s where all the lunations in this phase family cycle have been concentrated. What is changing? What needs to change? What have you been dragging your feet about changing? Because Taurus is not a sign that loves change. Probably there has been a little hesitation there.
But now is the time here at the Last Quarter in this cycle. It says you have one more action opportunity or something has to happen, but you have to make it happen. You have to have a plan and focus. And start to bring this cycle to its conclusion.
Void-of-Course Moon Periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week.
On July 23rd, the Moon in Aquarius opposes Mercury in Leo at 2:58 am Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for about three and a half hours, and then enters Pisces at 6:23 am. Void-of-Course Moons that began on an opposition bring insight and this combination seems to be about communicating feelings effectively. Balancing extremes of feeling, which would be represented by the Moon, and thinking, which would be symbolized by Mercury. You want a balance of the two. And also, to have that ability to express what you’re feeling in the appropriate moment. Sometimes we get caught off guard by something that somebody says to us, which is a Mercury thing, and it affects us emotionally, and we can’t really sort out our feelings in the moment and respond.
But oppositions provide an opportunity to see this play out, often through another person. Maybe we say something and we see an emotional reaction that is a little bit closed off. Or we feel something very strongly and we find it hard to get the words out to describe that feeling. Void-of-Course Moon periods are all about changing our habits. So, if you have a habit to get too much into the feeling place, or too much into the thinking place, this is an opportunity to take some kind of step to try to get them more in balance.
On July 25th, the Moon in Pisces makes a conjunction with Neptune at 7:31 am Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for about 21 minutes and then enters Aries at 7:52 am. I think the key to this Void-of-Course Moon is about managing emotions, both your own and the ones that you tend to take on from other people, without getting completely overwhelmed.
It’s a short Void-of-Course Moon period. It’s less than a half an hour. And if you’re awake at this time, wherever you live in the world, it might be helpful to just tackle a practical task. It could just be doing your evening chores, washing the dishes, cleaning out the cat box, walking the dog. Or getting everything ready for the next day, picking out your clothes, getting breakfast ready to go. If you are overwhelmed often, or easily, maybe take steps during this Void-of-Course Moon period to develop a new habit of focusing on tackling simple, easy-to-complete chores to help you deal with that overwhelm.
And on July 26th, the Moon in Aries makes a trine to Venus in Leo at 3:14 pm Pacific Time. This is a pretty long Void-of-Course Moon period. It’s a little over 19 hours before the Moon enters Taurus, on July 27th at 10:22 AM. A Void-of-Course Moon that begins with a trine to another planet, I like to say, brings us a gift. And the gift here is that doing what comes naturally for the Moon in Aries, so, initiating new projects, getting exercise, moving at your own pace, can make it possible to get not only what you need – which is represented by the Moon – but what you want, which is symbolized by Venus. Venus in Leo enjoys creative projects, dates with a romantic partner, having fun, going to a movie, going to a play. The thing about the Moon in Aries is it motivates, it gets us moving. And that’s a good thing for getting us moving more in the direction of that Venus in Leo, of going after the things we like and enjoy and not hesitating.
Maybe there is somebody you’ve been romantically interested in and the Moon in Aries might motivate you to ask them out. You might be wanting to try out for a chorus or to act in a community play, whatever it might be represented by that Venus in Leo – and the Moon in Aries might give you the courage to do that.
So, again, Void-of-Course Moon periods are about changing a habit. And the habit here would be having lots of things that you want and not being able to find the courage to act on that desire and to go after what you want. Because during this time period, this 19 hour time period, you tend to have a little more success with bringing these two together.
Listener Question – The Twelfth House Revisited
In this week’s Listener Question, Listener Swimfan asks, I’d like to ask about a liminal, often maligned, or mislabeled house, the 12th. It’s prisons, it’s mental institutions, it’s quarantine. I’ve heard it referred to as everything from mental health, to a house of distant travel, to places where we feel totally unfamiliar, or like fish out of water, or maybe faraway places we would rather not go.
For example, perhaps needing to go across country to sort out an estranged relative’s estate, to a place you’d rather not visit or deal with. I also think of it as the place where we’re meant to catch our breath and unpack all the events of the previous eleven houses. I accept if any of these descriptions are dead wrong in your book, because that’s kind of my whole point. The Twelfth gets a lot of shade, controversy, and confusion. So Invisible Teacher, what is your in-depth analysis of the twelfth house? What do people often get wrong, and what do you feel is accurate?”
Swimfan, thank you for this question. It’s a really good one. I did answer a somewhat similar question from Listener Cyn, C-y-n, back in episode 162, but that’s been quite a while ago, back in January of 2023, and I think it bears a second look.
The Twelfth House certainly does have a dire reputation. When I was first starting to learn astrology, my old timey astrology books used to call the Twelfth House the House of Self-Undoing or the House of Confinement. It’s been associated with hospitals, prisons, generally, with places of contemplation and rehabilitation.
It’s also said to contain your hidden enemies and the ways in which you might actually get in your own way and become your own worst enemy.
Now to think about why this might be, let’s put ourselves in a 12th house frame of mind. I find it helpful when talking about the houses of the horoscope to consider what the time of day is like when the Sun moves through that house.
The Sun rises at the Ascendant and it rises into the 12th house for about two hours. So we often picture the 12th house as a dark place. But really, we can see that it is lit up by the Sun, symbolically. What is the day like between Sunrise and about two hours later? The Sun is burning off the morning dew, and everything is wrapped in a soft, lovely haze. It is not a dark time of day.
By that definition, many of us are just waking up, we’re padding out to the kitchen in our slippers with our bedhead hair sticking up all over the place. We’re not necessarily at our sharpest or our fastest in the 12th house time of day before we’ve had our morning coffee or tea.
Our solar selves are not necessarily at peak strength. If we were a telephone that was being charged, we’d be up to about 55 or 60%. We have emerged from the land of dreams and we are gradually adjusting to the real world. If we think of the 12th house as describing what meets us as we get up to greet the day, we can imagine that having some tough planets in that house of your chart, or a more subdued sign on the cusp of that house, might mean we’re not necessarily morning people.
I had a friend who had Mars in Taurus in the 12th house, and she just had a devil of a time getting going in the morning. It got her in a certain amount of trouble in her jobs because she was often late. Now another person might have experienced that Mars, overcome its difficulties by being very energetic, getting up, working out. But so much depends on the whole chart, of course, and the whole person. But we can readily imagine that Mars would be a pretty tough customer to have breakfast with every morning.
The self-undoing that’s associated with the 12th house, I think just means we’re not necessarily awake to what’s going on behind the scenes of our own lives. Often, we might try to hide what’s in our 12th house, because it’s a place in the chart where we’re quite vulnerable. You know, we’re still in our jammies, having our toast. We would be surprised if we realized just how obvious the things we try to hide in our 12th house are to everybody else who looks at us.
Mostly, Swimfan, I’m inclined to agree with your perception of it, which is that the 12th house is a sort of a spiritual clearing house, where we go through all of the experiences of a planet moving through the previous 11 houses, and getting rid of what isn’t helpful, and assimilating what is. I often picture it as being a convent or a monastery where we are sitting and contemplating all of the things that have happened to us and figuring out what we need to divest ourselves of in order to have the energy to move forward. Because the house after the 12th is the first. That’s a very dynamic house where a lot is asked of us. We tend to have a lot of things going on. So the real job, I think, of the 12th house is to get ready for that. And if that means getting more rest, being away from people a little bit more than we normally would, losing ourselves in imaginative pursuits like reading or watching a bunch of movies, whatever it might be – I think it’s not a bad thing, I think it’s a healthy thing.
What it means when it shows up in a chart such as a transiting planet going through it or an eclipse, we can see some pretty sad things that happen when transits are affecting the 12th house. Sometimes they have to do with the other people in your lives and that they are suffering or that you need to let them go because it’s a difficult relationship.
So I think what people often get wrong about the 12th house is that it’s a dark place where we’re going to do a lot of suffering. That can happen, I’m not gonna lie. But I don’t think it’s all that happens there. I think more importantly what happens is we tune into ourselves. We step away from the sixth house world, the sixth being the opposite house of the twelfth, where we deal with the minutiae and demands of daily life. And the beauty of something like a convent or an ashram is that these are places where the entire point is to pray, is to look within oneself, and to connect with something larger, something more elevated than our daily lives.
Swimfan, thank you for this question. I sure hope that was helpful. I do love the 12th house. It is hard to describe in the same way the 8th house can be and the 4th house can be. They are mysterious places.
And if you, Invisible Friend, have a question you’d like me to answer on a future episode, just leave a message of one minute or less. At speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast, 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 gonna wrap this one up. Thank you so much 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. Maybe leave a rating or review, and I hope that you’ll spread the word by telling an astrology loving friend about the podcast. You can read show notes and full transcripts, and leave your comments for each episode at BigSkyAstropod.com.
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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 © 2017-24 by April Elliott Kent
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