TRANSCRIPT Ep. 298
Capricorn Full Moon: A Big Shopping Bag!
Hello, Invisible Friend. April here, and the date today is July 7th, 2025. Welcome to Episode 298 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, Uranus enters the sign of Gemini for the first time since the 1940s. Venus and Pluto examine power and control in the realms of relationship and money. The Capricorn Full Moon and its ruler, Saturn stationing retrograde, explore the burdens that we carry and I answer a listener question about transits moving through more than one sign while in the same house of the horoscope.
Uranus enters Gemini (July 7, 2025, 12:47 am PDT)
Uranus enters the sign of Gemini on Monday, July 7th at 12:47 AM Pacific Time. Uranus will station retrograde on September 5th and reenter Taurus on November 7th. It’ll turn direct again on February 3rd, 2026 in late Taurus and reenter Gemini for good on April 25th, 2026. It won’t fully leave the sign of Gemini for the sign of Cancer until May 22nd, 2033.
Well, Uranus is a planet of disruption, and it has an 84-year cycle to go all the way around the Sun, spending about seven years in each sign. Since 2018, Uranus in Taurus has radically altered how we define, create, and store value. We have seen something of a digital rebellion against traditional finance, massive tech disruptions, and increasing awareness of material security and sustainability, or the lack thereof.
The tension between stability represented by Taurus and upheaval symbolized by Uranus continues to drive innovation, but not without some discomfort or uncertainty.
Previous transits of Uranus in Gemini have brought revolutionary advances in technology and transportation. When it was last in this sign in the 1940s, we saw the development of radar, the first commercial jet airliner flight, creation of the international air mail system, the first commercial television broadcast, and development of the US interstate highway system in the post-war United States. The emergence of suburbs created an automobile culture and disrupted existing communities, leading toward a more isolated and fragmented society, one more based on the individual automobile than trams, trains, or busses. This transit of Uranus should bring major changes as well in our neighborhoods, our local communities – ruled by Gemini – including changes in primary education, transportation, and more changes in communication infrastructure.
Uranus is the planet of the radical, and Gemini symbolizes ideas and radical ideologies can prosper. While Uranus is in Gemini, we may also see disruptions in communication and media networks, again schooling, transportation, and supply chains.
The chart often used as the founding chart for the United States called the Sibley Chart is calculated for July 4th, 1776 at 5:10 PM local meantime, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This chart has Uranus at early degrees of Gemini and Mars in Gemini in the seventh house, a house of relationship, including conflict. The period when Uranus was in Gemini between 1774 and 1782 coincided with the Revolutionary War. And subsequent transits every 84 years of Uranus in Gemini have also overlapped with the United States involvement in major wars – the American Civil War during the 1858 through 1866 transit, and the US involvement in World War II during Uranus in Gemini between 1941 and 1948.
Other than a retrograde into Taurus between November 7th, 2025 and April 25th, 2026, Uranus will be in Gemini until May 22nd, 2033. I know it sounds like a very long time, but it’ll be here before we know it. The repeated cycle of war that we have seen with Uranus in Gemini is specific to the US chart. Its house placement and aspects to planets in your birth chart indicate where disruption is possible for you personally, but also that lovely Uranian quality of inspiration and innovation, especially if we’re willing to open our minds to new ideas and new ways of doing things.
Venus trine Pluto (July 7, 2025, 1:44 am PDT)
On Monday, July 7th at 1:44 AM Pacific Time, Venus trines Pluto at 3º00’ Gemini and Aquarius. This connection comes down to maybe making a little more of a commitment with people or situations than Venus in Gemini generally prefers to make.
A trine aspect isn’t that bad, even between two planets that are as unalike as Venus and Pluto. It says that the things that we like, the things we’re drawn to, the people who attract us are ones that now we’re feeling a little more likely to make a commitment to. But I have to say, that will probably go a little more smoothly if we’re willing to wait for a few weeks until Venus goes into Cancer on July 30th.
Cancer is a little more of a nesting sign. So, it works a little bit better for making actual commitments. Venus and Gemini is a little more about being the little bird flitting around and enjoying the scenery, getting to know lots of people, enjoy a variety of situations. But while Venus is making this trine to Pluto, maybe we’re willing to entertain the idea of ourselves as belonging to a group of people that are trying to accomplish something together, finding our way into a friend group or in a primary relationship if these are not things we’ve been really successful doing in the past.
Venus is also a financial planet, and when Venus is trine Pluto, this can be a very powerful combination. It has to do with the intellectual and mental side of dealing with money, making decisions, maybe, about what you want to do with your finances, what you want to invest in, and while Venus is in Gemini we’ll often be just really interested in those kinds of things, interested in our money and our resources, and feel it’s entertaining, in a way, to figure out how to deal with all of that.
Capricorn Full Moon (July 10, 2025, 1:37 pm PDT)
And now it’s time for the Moon report, and we begin with the week’s major lunation, which is the Capricorn Full Moon on Thursday, July 10th at 1:37 PM Pacific Time, at 18º50’ Capricorn and Cancer. This is the Full Moon that highlights the strengths and flaws of your June 25th New Moon in Cancer plans and intentions. If you spent some time with your loved ones at the New Moon and sort of tactfully navigated the social demands of the First Quarter, then the Full Moon can offer insights about setting longer-range goals that extend beyond this New Moon cycle, or even this year.
Your personal goals can’t be achieved in a vacuum, but only with the consent of a community and a society that consciously or unconsciously expects certain things from you. Check your ambitions against these expectations. Draft a game plan for what your contribution to society, not just your own family and environment, will be in the years ahead.
It’s a Full Moon when we begin to let go of the Cancer New Moon ideas that at this point don’t really seem viable. Maybe you had an idea about buying a house or about a big renovation, maybe about moving in with someone or letting someone move in with you. Some of those might not seem like an idea right now that you want to put a lot of energy into.
The Full Moon is on the Sabian symbol 19 Capricorn, A child of about five, carrying a huge shopping bag. Ask yourself, are you taking on more responsibility than is appropriate for you and struggling under the load? The Sun’s Sabian Symbol is 19 Cancer, A priest performing a marriage ceremony. And it’s a message, I think, about being willing to share some of that load with the people that you trust. You just have to be willing to ask for help and then accept it and those aren’t always qualities that we associate with Capricorn, which is very self-sufficient.
Lunar Phase Family Cycle
This is the Full Moon in a lunar phase family cycle that began with a New Moon on January 11th, 2024, at 20º44’ Capricorn. New Moons that take place close to the calendar New Year are especially exciting. They have with them the force of all that energy that we’re ready to put into big goals, big ambitions. And to be honest, we can’t always easily accomplish those in a single month or even a single year. That’s where I really like the lunar phase family cycle because it expands on those intentions and objectives of a New Moon and expands them out over a three-year period, and that gives us much more time to accomplish big things.
So, everything at this Full Moon is connected to that New Moon in 2024. The First Quarter Moon in that lunar phase family cycle was on October 10th, 2024. That was at 17º57’ Capricorn. And that would’ve been an action point in this lunar phase family cycle where you could really put a little extra energy into those Capricorn New Moon objectives.
Now we’re at the Full Moon and we get a chance to take a look at what we started way back in January 2024. How far have we come along in our resolutions, in our goals and ambitions? What more might we need to do to get to the very top of the hill?
And then coming nine months from now at the Last Quarter Moon on April 9th, 2026, at 20º20’ Capricorn, there is the final action point where we review everything that has happened in this cycle up to now and decide how much we might need to adjust those ambitions, those goals that we made, we might need to modify them, make them a little more modest, a little more achievable, whatever it is that we do. This is the final point in the cycle where we can really revise and have a final chance of getting where we started out at that long ago New Moon.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. The Void-of-Course Moon comes when the Moon has made all of the major aspects to other transiting planets that it will make in its sign, and it’s the period between that final major aspect and when it moves into the next sign.
During the Void-of-Course Moon period, we like to see it as a good time to initiate new habits because there is nothing in the Moon’s path to derail that habit or that goal. Void-of-Course Moon periods can be very short, but lately we have been having extraordinarily long Void-of-Course Moon periods, including the one on Monday, July 7th, when the Moon in Sagittarius squares Mars at 2:29 PM Pacific time, goes Void-of-Course for one full day, 11 hours and 26 minutes before it enters Capricorn on Wednesday, July 9th at 1:55 AM. This is a little bit of a hot-headed aspect between the Moon and Mars. People around you could be a little bit impatient, irritable, intolerant. We have to work really hard during a Void-of-Course period like this, to not get into arguments or conflicts. Use the extra energy that comes from a hard aspect involving the Moon and Mars and go out and take a hike in the forest. Spend some time alone in nature. Outline a writing project. Do something.
Use this Void-of-Course Moon period to get in the habit of turning anger or irritability, intolerance, instead into fuel for accomplishing a challenge. Whether it’s an athletic challenge, a work challenge, maybe a writing project.
On Thursday, July 10th, the Moon in Capricorn opposes the Sun at 1:37 PM Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for 20 hours and 44 minutes and enters Aquarius on Friday, July 11th at 10:21 AM. When the Moon opposes another planet as it goes Void-of-Course we say there is some kind of awareness that comes our way.
This is essentially the Capricorn Full Moon, the Moon in Capricorn opposing the Sun. That’s the last aspect it makes before it goes into Aquarius. This aspect can be about needing to balance your personal life with your public life or career. The Moon’s ruler Saturn is making a tight aspect to Neptune in Aries, symbolizing the dream, the ideal, as well as Pluto and Aquarius power to the people or powerful people, the relationship of people and technology, especially to power, and Uranus in Gemini, revolutionary communication, education, transportation.
Use this Void-of-Course Moon period, to develop new structures or systems to be able to complete the projects that you want to complete much more efficiently so that you can spend more quality time perhaps with those you love. That is a way of balancing out home and work.
And on Saturday, July 12th, the Moon in Aquarius opposes Mercury at 12:45 PM Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for one day, four hours and zero minutes before it enters Pisces on Sunday, July 13th at 4:45 PM. The awareness in this opposition can be about the struggle between your heart and your mind, reason versus compassion and empathy. This is a good Void-of-Course Moon period to develop a new habit of working to make balance and of working to make harmony between what you feel in your heart about something, and what makes logical sense. We need both, but with an opposition, we often veer to one side or the other and get out of balance.
Saturn stations retrograde (July 12, 2025, 9:07 pm PDT)
Saturn stations retrograde on Saturday, July 12th at 9:07 PM Pacific Time, at 01º56’ Aries, and it will be retrograde through November 27th. This is the first time Saturn will station retrograde since it entered Aries back on May 24th. When a planet stations retrograde or direct, you tend to experience them a bit more. Pay attention to stories that are in the zeitgeist on this date. They could be revealing important lessons that Saturn wants us to address while he is in Aries.
When a planet is retrograde, it’s asking you to look within for guidance. Saturn is associated with authority figures, and especially with Saturn in Aries, and now is its stationing retrograde, we’ll find that we need to step up to the plate and be the authority figures in our own lives and ask, “Am I taking full responsibility for my life, for my circumstances?”
Saturn’s Sabian symbol is 2 Aries, A comedian entertaining a group. It’s about adjusting to feedback and also taking energy and excitement from others. It’s about being able to see ourselves objectively from somebody else’s viewpoint.
I think since Saturn moved into Aries, we’ve been taking a much closer look at what we are responsible for personally, and as Saturn retrogrades back into Pisces briefly on September 1st until February 13th, 2026, we get a chance to take a look back and say, have I overcorrected and turned away almost completely from focusing on how I can be helping others, and instead giving all my Saturn attention to what I need to do to achieve my own objectives, my own goals? Because ultimately, that is the work of Saturn in Aries. We can take it a little too far and Saturn briefly going back into Pisces will give us a moment to reflect on that, and say, “Is there a way that I can adjust my own personal objectives to being ones that will benefit others as well?”
Listener Question: Transits in two signs in one house
in this week’s listener question, Listener Emme writes: “I have a huge first house, so planets have to travel through most of Pisces and all but one degree of Aries to get to my second house. How does the timbre change as they move from Pisces to Aries, but stay in the first house? Also, I’ve heard the change from Pisces to Aries called ‘the birth canal of the Zodiac.’ Is that an important point in a birth chart, or is it replaced by the Ascendant?”
Thanks for the question, Emme. Some folks listening probably use the whole sign house system, and in that system, all houses are the same size and contain one entire sign. But in the so-called quadrant-based houses such as Placidus or Koch, situations like the one you describe are pretty common depending on the part of the world where you’re born and the time of year… where you can have parts of a couple different signs in the same house, and a planet moving through that house will at some point change signs, giving its expression a somewhat different quality.
Let’s take Saturn, which has been moving through your first house roughly since it moved into Pisces in March 2023. Then, in late May 2025, it entered Aries. Pisces and Aries are pretty different in their expression and in the matters that they’re concerned with.
Now, for you in both signs, Saturn is expressing itself in the first house, the house of the individual. When Saturn is in this house, we can easily take on additional responsibilities that can prove somewhat overwhelming, and we might begin to behave in a more Saturnian way, a little more seriously, behave a little more seriously, dress more professionally, seek to discipline yourself more and to project leadership.
Now, how is that different in Pisces than it is in Aries? I mean, we can feel that it’s very different. In Pisces, Saturn encourages us to be more empathetic toward others, to show some sense of tenderness, some sense of responsibility. We showed leadership in the Pisces areas of life, volunteering for helpful organizations. If we didn’t have good boundaries to protect ourselves, there might have been some health conditions that caused problems from not being able to say no and taking on too much.
When Saturn moved into Aries, I think the energy got tougher. We began realizing we had to take responsibility for our own circumstances. It’s not that we completely turn off our empathy for others, but that we have to establish boundaries that allow us to take care of ourselves and our own objectives.
Where these changes might have been most obvious are in the houses that Saturn rules – the houses with Capricorn and Aquarius on the cusps. Changes in Saturn’s condition can be pretty striking in the matters related to those houses. If Saturn rules your 10th house, you might have started pushing yourself out there a bit more in your career for the things you want to do in the 11th house. Maybe it meant taking on leadership of a group or even an organization.
I really like this idea of the transition from Pisces to Aries being called the birth canal of the Zodiac. I had not heard that expression before, but to me, it really does fit the symbolism of that transition, going from the quiet womb-like energy of Pisces and into the rebirth position of Aries.
Imagine being born and what a huge transition that is, going from the dark, safe, quiet place of the womb out into an environment where suddenly there are all these bright lights and noise and everything is unfamiliar. I don’t know that I would say that the Ascendant replaces that point in the birth chart, exactly. I suppose you could equate it to being similar to that idea as symbolizing the moment we emerge from the womb and encounter the world and it encounters us.
Of course, the Ascendant is an extremely personal point. It changes degree every few minutes. It is so specific to your birth time and place that it’s almost like your fingerprint in a way. And one of the things the Ascendant describes is how we deal with new and unfamiliar situations, how you personally develop the skills to deal with the world and to deal with new situations throughout your lifetime when transit and progressions impact that very personal point in your chart. You are dealing in some way with something new that you have to react to, an environment that requires you to respond.
Emme, I hope that that helps. Thank you so much for your very thought-provoking question, and the best of luck navigating those big transitions of Neptune and Saturn as they briefly retrograde back into Pisces this fall and return to Aries early next year.
And if you have a question you would like me to answer in a future episode, please leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast. Or drop me an email to April (at) bigskyastrology.com and be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.
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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 © 2017-25 by April Elliottt
For more on this week’s planetary news, read my column!
