TRANSCRIPT Ep. 293
Virgo First Quarter Moon: Aspiration and Inspiration!
Hello, invisible friend. April here, and the date today is June 2nd, 2025. Welcome to Episode 293 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast.
This week, a productive Virgo First Quarter Moon gets us moving on those Gemini New Moon intentions. Hope, optimism and a little bit of luck are in the air when Venus aspects Jupiter, then enters her home sign of Taurus. Mercury connects with Mars, Jupiter, and the North Node, and then sinks into the sign of Cancer for a nostalgic look at times gone by. Listener questions are back this week and I answer a listener question about which transit wins, when very different ones happen at the same time.
Virgo First Quarter Moon (June 2, 2025, 8:41 pm PDT)
We begin this week with the Moon Report and as always, the week’s major lunation, which is the Virgo First Quarter Moon on June 2nd at 8:41 PM Pacific Time at 12º 50 minutes, Virgo and Gemini. As we reach this Virgo First Quarter Moon, it’s time to initiate action on intentions that we may have set back at the Gemini New Moon on May 26th. Mercury is pretty close to the Sun and forming a tense square aspect to the Moon, and that adds a layer of mental intensity to this Quarter Moon. Mercury’s influence overall is really strong in the chart for this First Quarter, and that sharpens our focus and drives us to get things done.
The Virgo Moon is also moving toward a conjunction with the South Node, and this can signal a time when we need to release things, especially some of Virgo’s more challenging traits like perfectionism over criticism or being overly rational. A good use of Virgo Moon energy is to devote ourselves to being of service, to help out where we’re needed or to tackle tasks that need attention, maybe ones that we have been putting off for a while. During this Moon, people may feel drawn to problem solving, productivity and also spending time outdoors, which is something Virgo really loves.
The Moon Sabian symbol is 13 Virgo, A strong hand supplanting political hysteria, and it highlights the power of charisma and magnetic leadership. While the Sun Sabian symbol is 13 Gemini, A great musician at his piano, and this speaks to the connection between aspiration and inspiration – reminding us that when we reach for our highest potential, we can become a source of inspiration for others.
Lunar Phase Family Cycle
This is the First Quarter in a lunar phase family cycle that began with a New Moon on September 2nd, 2024 at 11º four minutes Virgo. Whatever intentions you set at that time with regard to Virgo matters, this could be things to do with your job, with health, with being of service generally, are now ready to be acted upon and moved even more forcefully in that direction.
This First Quarter is the time for taking those kinds of actions, and then nine months from now at the Full Moon at 12º 53 minutes Virgo on March 3rd, 2026, we’ll have a much better sense of how we are doing in going after those New Moon goals. How is our health? Are we enjoying our job? These kinds of things.
And then nine months after that, on November 30th, 2026, there is the Last Quarter Moon in this phase family cycle, and that is at 9º 3’ Virgo. That’s when we begin to wrap things up, put things into context and really understand what it is that we’ve accomplished and where that may be taking us.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Next, let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. On June 4th, the Moon in Virgo squares Jupiter in Gemini at 4:11 AM Pacific time. It’s Void-of-Course for two hours and 27 minutes, and enters Libra at 6:38 AM. When the Moon squares a planet as it’s going Void-of-Course, we know that we’re in for a period of a little bit of conflict or obstacles we’re trying to overcome. The conflict here, since both planets are in Mercury ruled signs, the conflict has something to do with drama from communication, especially connecting with Jupiter in Gemini when things can kind of get inflated. We can stick our foot in our mouth and maybe not speak as mindfully as we should.
The Moon in Virgo can also get a little bit critical, so that could be the tone of this Void-of-Course period. Use this time as a reminder to be mindful with your words, to avoid being unkind, to avoid overspeaking, sharing too much and feeding the gossip mill.
On June 6th, the Moon in Libra trines Jupiter in Gemini at 6:04 PM Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for one hour, 19 minutes, then enters Scorpio at 7:23 PM. Void-of-Course periods that begin with the Moon trine a planet, bring some kind of gift or reward. Jupiter at this time is at the very last degree of Gemini. It’s at 29º 21, so it’s finishing up the last year that it’s been in this sign.
The combination of the Moon and Libra with Jupiter in Gemini can really indicate generosity, having a good time with friends and siblings and neighbors. Use this Void-of-Course period to initiate a habit of treating people in your social circle to things that are fun. Going for a local happy hour, hanging out in a park or at the beach, and making that a routine, a habit that you get into of remembering to treat the people that you care about
Venus sextile Jupiter (June 4, 2025, 7:32 pm PDT)
On June 4th at 7:32 PM Pacific Time, Venus sextiles Jupiter at 28º 55’ Aries and Gemini. The Sabian symbol for Venus is 29 Aries, A celestial choir singing, and the symbol for Jupiter is 29 Gemini, The first mockingbird in spring. This is a feel-good transit, a sextile between the two most fortunate planets, Venus and Jupiter. It brings a chance to invite more pleasure and satisfaction into your life.
I love these Sabian symbols. Both of them are hinting at themes of music and voice. The choir singing, the mockingbird, which we know are always singing in the spring. Think of it like this. Life has its own melody, and this is a transit that invites us to listen more closely to what the world is saying to us, especially the things that are joyful.
Jupiter brings optimism, but it also comes with a warning, don’t go overboard. It is really easy to chase the highs and end up with, you know, a hangover, buyer’s remorse, or just that uneasy feeling of having said too much, eaten too much, done too much. The key here really is balance, which Venus always likes, which says, enjoy what makes you feel good without giving up your peace of mind or killing your budget.
Aspects like this, as we’re getting to the very end of Jupiter’s time in Gemini, encourage us to think about and to reflect. What it is that we have learned in the last year and the things that we might want to turn our attention to as Jupiter goes into Cancer.
Mercury sextile Mars (June 5, 2025, 3:10 pm PDT)
Mercury sextiles Mars on June 5th at 3:10 PM Pacific Time, at 23º 42’ Gemini and Leo. This brings a surge of mental energy, and this can be a good moment to speak your mind if you have to, or dive into something that really requires sharp focus, some project of writing or studying or problem solving, maybe.
Creative work in particular really benefits from this combination because Mercury is in Gemini, which is very witty, and Mars is in Leo, which has a flair for the dramatic. So if you’re a playwright or a screenwriter, get to work.
However, although this is energy that can be very productive and very creative, it is Mars that’s involved here, and that can make you a little quick to react, especially if we get to a point where we are feeling overwhelmed. It might even lead to arguments or words that you can’t take back. So, it’s important today to take a look at what is fueling any frustration that you feel under the surface, because of this aspect of Mercury connecting with Mars. It gives us a powerful opportunity to learn from that. You might not be at your most tactful right now, but you can definitely get things done. With Mercury in Gemini, get things said that need to be said.
Mercury square Lunar Nodes (June 5, 2025, 5:28 pm PDT)
Mercury squares the Lunar Nodes on June 5th at 5:28 PM Pacific time at 23º 54 Gemini, and Pisces and Virgo. And here’s the thing, this square, it’s happening just a couple of hours after that Mercury-Mars sextile, so that Mars energy, it’s still very much alive and active. We have motivation here and drive, but maybe also a little bit of sharpness in the way we communicate, especially with Mercury in Gemini square, the North Node in Virgo, both Mercury-ruled signs.
Squares usually bring up some kind of conflict or friction, and when Mercury is involved, this can often show up through conversations, texts, social media, and all of those quick Gemini style thoughts or comments and ways of communicating.
The North Node is about what we’re striving towards, something that feels important or even fated. So this is a square that can bring up tension between what we say – Mercury – or what we think, and what we deeply want. And the North Node often represents things that we want without knowing it, but we recognize it when we see it. It’s the kind of day where if you’re not careful, a few poorly chosen words could get in the way of something really meaningful. So, if there was a disagreement earlier, especially around something you care about, that Mercury- Mars energy could have made things a little more heated. So, the good news is that same energy can help us go after what we want. It’s a motivating force.
The question is really whether we will stay mindful of where we’re focused and how we are expressing ourselves. So, think before you speak. Maybe check your texts before you hit send. There is a lot of potential in this combination. Mercury is trying to move us out of the south nodes’ stasis, and towards the North Nodes opportunity for growth. But there’s also a chance for a misunderstanding if we don’t stay grounded.
Venus enters Taurus (June 5, 2025, 9:43 pm PDT)
Venus enters Taurus on June 5th at 9:43 PM Pacific Time. It will be in this sign through July 4th. Venus in Taurus is in one of her home signs, one of the signs that she rules. This means that she will be particularly strong during this transit. It’s actually been a while since we had such a nice strong Venus.
While Venus was in Aries, she was in a sign of her detriment where she struggles a bit, and she was there for a very long time. And then even when she was in Pisces, the previous sign, which is otherwise a really strong sign for Venus, she was retrograde for part of that. Venus is in her rulership in two sides in Libra, which celebrates the relational gifts of Venus and in Taurus where she luxuriates in the things of the physical world.
Venus in Taurus symbolizes the pleasure that we take from our belongings, the home that we own or live in, the plot of land that we call our own, anything that we own in a physical sense that gives us pleasure and joy. I’ve always thought that there must be lessons we can only learn through being incarnated in a physical body on this planet, and during this relatively brief time that Venus is in Taurus, it’s an opportunity to really celebrate being in your body, going out and enjoying taking a walk, going to the park, eating a really nice meal.
Venus also rules financial matters generally, and normally these things would be strong with Venus in Taurus, but Venus is going to end up in this sign on a spicy conjunction with Uranus, which will be sitting at 29º 52 minutes, a day or two before it goes into Gemini. So however comfortable we have been feeling while Venus has been in Taurus, however much we feel we’re on solid ground, as it skids to the end of this sign and makes that aspect to Uranus, just as it’s getting ready to change into a new sign, be prepared, because there is still some change coming.
Mercury conjunct Jupiter (June 8, 2025, 1:12 pm PDT)
Mercury makes a conjunction with Jupiter on June 8th at 1:12 PM Pacific Time at 29.º 45’ Gemini, and it seems that everything these days is ending up on one of these, what we call anaretic degrees, those critical degrees just before a planet or planets change sign.
So here we have Mercury and Jupiter together at the very end of Gemini. Pay attention on this date as you follow the news, or overhear conversations in your own life, because this is actually a summation not just of Mercury’s short time in Gemini since May 25th, but of Jupiter’s time in Gemini, which began on the same date last year, May 25th, 2024.
So, in the past year, has Jupiter in Gemini opened your mind and led you to learn about new things or has it just resulted in kind of a scattered focus, hard for you to really get things done? Mercury’s conjunction to Jupiter can be encouraging, it can be inspiring, but whenever we have Mercury and Jupiter together, we have to watch out for the tendency to embellish the truth a little bit to support our beliefs. Because Mercury represents the facts and Jupiter what we believe, the sense that we make out of them. And in fact, this has been an issue that’s come up a lot in the zeitgeist while Jupiter has been in Gemini.
Mercury enters Cancer (June 8, 2025, 3:58 pm PDT)
And on June 8th at 3:58 PM Pacific Time, Mercury enters Cancer, and it will be in the sign through June 26th. This actually is a really good transit for working to improve your memory and to put words to feelings, communicate with others on an emotional level. But remember that Cancer is one of the quieter signs for Mercury. It’s what used to be called a mute sign. So we’re not always necessarily speaking up a lot when Mercury is in Cancer. We might be a little afraid of showing more emotion than we intended or reacting with really strong emotions to what other people say. Cancer is very protective, and in this case, we can be a little protective of saying too much about what we feel. But this does tend to be a good transit for expressing emotions indirectly through writing, music, art. This can be a little bit of a melancholy transit, a nostalgic, homesick placement for Mercury. You might find yourself feeling homesick even when you’re at home, yearning more for a place in your past, maybe when you were a certain age or when your loved ones were all together.
It might be an interesting time to launch into a genealogy project or maybe just to sit and go through old family photos and letters to remember the times gone by, and maybe even learn a little bit more about your family’s past this.
The Sabian symbol that begins the sign of Cancer, 1 Cancer, A furled and unfurled flag displayed from a vessel, speaks to the strong sense of identity that comes with this sign, identifying with being part of a family or a country or a nationality. The flag that we fly shows where our ship left port and where it’s headed, and what values we’re aligned with.
Listener Question: Which transit wins?
In this week’s listener question, Listener Elizabeth asks, “If you have a challenging transit aspect to your natal chart exactly on the same date there is a positive aspect…. For example, transiting Pluto exactly opposed my natal Venus, on May 24th, the same day there was a Sun trine Pluto aspect, which one has more effect on you? Does the good aspect soften a tough one to your natal chart and a disruptive transiting aspect lessen the benefits of one to your natal chart, as I suspect?”
Well, Elizabeth, that’s a very good question that gets to the heart of how we use transits. The first thing to keep in mind is how quickly a transit moves and is in effect. In this case, Pluto is opposed natal Venus for a good long while. Usually, an aspect like this will be exact to the natal planet about three times over the course of a year. And then you have the question of orb to fit into that, maybe one or two degrees. So, conditions are ripe for a Pluto-Venus kind of event in your life over a pretty long period of time.
Whereas the transiting Sun trine transiting Pluto is a one day, at most two-day event. Depending, again, on what kind of orb you want to use. I’d usually give that one degree or one day approaching the exact aspect. If those planets weren’t actually connecting with anything particular in your birth chart, I wouldn’t tend to give it a very big emphasis at all beyond just considering it to be something about the day’s astrological weather that’s interesting to think about. I mean, really that’s what this podcast is, the astrological weather. But in this case, the transiting Sun in Gemini was trine Pluto in Aquarius on that day. And the transiting Sun is also sextile your Natal Venus in Leo and trine Pluto, which of course is opposed your Venus in Leo.
Now this is the point of which some people right now are getting their brains completely scrambled by this. But stick with me!
I don’t actually think of this very quick, easy trine aspect between two transiting planets as offsetting any difficult aspects from a transiting planet to a natal planet, or vice versa. Instead, the way I think of them is the transiting aspect is acting as a trigger that is activating the far more significant Pluto aspect to Natal Venus. It’s like the lit match that is carelessly discarded on the Pluto-Venus terrain and it can just start a fire.
A whole lot depends on the condition of Venus in your birth chart – its house, its aspects, and the house or houses that it rules. We know that in general, Pluto with Venus in almost any kind of aspect is a transit that’s trying to get us to a place of greater authenticity in relationships, in finance, on what it is that we value and how we value ourselves. And sometimes these aspects bring difficult conditions; that can be what it takes to get us to that truth. And Pluto has very much a breaking down effect. Sometimes the matters that facilitate this breaking down process with the Pluto-Venus aspect involve the houses that are ruled by Venus or the house that Venus is in.
I think I’ve often told the story that when I had this same transit, Pluto opposed Venus, one of my cats at that time collapsed and ultimately was diagnosed with diabetes. My Venus in Cancer rules the sixth house of pets and small animals, and for the next 10 years I gave that little kitty daily shots and was very devoted to her care. I also became weirdly obsessed with the color pink, which is a Venus color! One thing I’ve noticed about Pluto in aspect to any planet is that it can make us a little bit obsessed with things related to that planet.
So, I don’t know exactly what form your transiting opposition is taking, but I do imagine that within a day or so of the transiting Sun trine transiting Pluto, you might have seen an event that brought these matters to a head. And in fact, I seem to recall in the case of my cat, she had her collapse around the time that I think the Sun was transiting through Aries and was squaring my Venus.
So keep an eye out for other fast-moving transits to transiting Pluto to get more of a feel for this. Because as these transits are aspecting transiting Pluto, they’re also aspecting your natal Venus, which is getting the Pluto hit. So the Moon makes an aspect, for example, to transiting Pluto every few days, just get a good astrological calendar and take a look at those days and make little notes because those are times that most likely the Moon will be aspecting your natal Venus at the same time. So keep this little diary and just see if anything pops up. Not necessarily anything dramatic, but small little things because the Moon moves quickly, so it’s a small trigger. And watch aspects of Mercury, Venus, and to some extent Mars, as well as the Sun and Moon, and see what comes up when those planets aspect transiting Pluto and therefore your natal Venus.
I hope that this helps. I realize it may sound a little bit esoteric, but basically it begins with understanding what the slow-oving aspect is doing, the one from transiting Pluto to Natal Venus. That’s the big headline news. And then just looking at these moments that that gets triggered by the faster moving transits to the same planets.
Elizabeth, thank you so much for your question!
And if you are an invisible friend who would like to have a question answered onn an upcoming episode of the podcast, leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/ bigskyastrologypodcast or just drop me an email april@bigskyastrology.com and be sure to put podcast question in the subject line.
Donor Thanks
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Writing and images © 2017-25 by April Elliott Kent
For more on this week’s planetary news, read my column!
