Transcript: Episode 030 | Cancer Solar Eclipse: You’re Buffering
June 15, 2020
Full show notes hereJen: Welcome to the Big Sky Astrology podcast, with April Elliott Kent and me, producer and cohost Jen Braun. Hey friends, Jen here. Today is June 15th, 2020. With me here today, as always, is an astro-angel… someone perhaps I’ll be friends with for 20 more years… my delightful pal, astrologer April Elliott Kent. Hi, April!
April: Hello, Jen! Thank you. What makes me angelic?
Jen: It’s another eclipse week, and you are our lead angel on eclipses here at The Big Sky Astrology Podcast.
April: Ha. I am the eclipse archangel April. Is what you’re saying?
Jen: Exactly. More importantly though, perhaps we’ll be friends for 20 more years, just like something we would like to recognize today…
April: Well, thank you for that kind opening. We realized that last week it was the 20th anniversary of Big Sky Astrology on June 10th.
Jen: Yes.
April: And since we didn’t really give that a shout out last week, I wanted to get that in there at the beginning of this episode, just really to thank the people that have followed the website for all these years. I actually started the website in 1999. I had a slow summer before I moved onto university.
Jen: There might be people listening who weren’t even born then!
April: I’m getting them as clients now, Jen!
Jen: You’re just old.
April: I am. I’m haggard. I am O-L-D. I mean, 20 is kind of old for a website!
Jen: It is. Yes.
April: Because it was in 1999… I just had it on this funky little… you know, my cable company that we kept our web space with…
Jen: Okay.
April: And I put the little site on there and I didn’t have a proper domain. And it was the next summer on June 10th that I filed the domain name, “bigskyastrology.com.” So it’s been 20 years! And I will still meet people at conferences, or speaking at groups, or people will email… that have been reading me since 2000.
Jen: Wow.
April: Or 2001.
Jen: So, the day the internet was born, you…
April: Well, I’m not Al Gore or anything! I mean, there were websites before mine, but it was probably one of the earlier astrology ones around. So, I have been doing it ever since. And I really wanted to give a shout-out and a thank you to the people that have followed me for all these years, and have been subscribers almost from the beginning.
Jen: That’s fantastic.
April: It really is. And giving such support to the things that I write, the mailings that I send out, my books, now the podcast. And I appreciate it so much. It’s like I do have this little family, really.
Jen: Yes.
April: And I’m really, really grateful for it. So 20 years though… dang!
Jen: That’s really amazing.
April: It was a crazy good chart too, I have to say, that I launched on. Really good.
Jen: Way to go.
April: I know.
Jen: I would like to say congratulations to you. Thank you for all your hard work. If anyone is actually listening to the podcast that has not checked out bigskyastrology.com, you really need to go check out April’s writing, because it’s lovely.
April: Thank you Jen. And now, there’s this whole other dimension with a lot of the artwork and all of that stuff. And it really has been an evolving project over the years. But wow. 20 years, where did it go?
Jen: And April does all her own artwork, so you’ve got to check that out as well.
April: I do.
Jen: I noticed you signed one piece of artwork once and I really think you should start signing them all, my friend.
April: I forget.
Jen: Because people don’t know. People wonder, “Does she do this on her own?” My friends asked me, I say, “Yes, she does that artwork.”
April: Well, I write something at the end of every column now that says, “Artwork and writing by me.”
Jen: I’d like to see you sign on the artwork, your signature on the artwork.
April: By the time I’ve finished the collage, it’s like, usually I’m just trying to get it done for the week. And half the time I just forget. Or I think, I can’t be bothered to go find the little signature icon that I have to put on there and…
Jen: Send it to me, and then I’ll put the signature on. I’ll stamp it on there. And I’ll send it back to you.
April: I know. You’re just a woman of great leisure, hacking away at this podcast all week long. Anyway. So thank you.
Jen: Speaking of the podcast… let’s get to it, huh?
April: Yes. Oh, yes, the podcast.
Jen: We do have an energetic week coming up. And we are going to start this week with what, April?
April: Well, I think we have to talk about the Solstice, pretty much everywhere, it’s on June 20th. And here on the West coast, it’s 2:43 PM. The Solstice happens twice each year. Once when the Sun goes into Cancer and once when the Sun goes into Capricorn. That’s the Solstice.
Jen: Yes.
April: So the Cancer Solstice marks the longest day of the year. And it is when the Sun is at its highest point in the mid-day sky that it will get.
Jen: In the Northern hemisphere.
April: Yes. And then Capricorn of course is the opposite of that. It’s the lowest. And then it just rises from there. So we get that symbolism of Capricorn being about ambition and rising and climbing up to the top.
Solstice means the Sun stands still in the sky. So I especially like the summer Solstice as it is here in the Northern hemisphere when the Sun goes into Cancer, because it’s very much the spirit of the season here in the United States. If you think to this time of year when we were kids, we had gotten out of school for the summer and we were really starting to hit our stride with not doing much. And just kind of being languid, people going on vacations with their families, which is in the spirit of Cancer. Spending a lot more time around the house, which is also a Cancerian thing. And it’s leading of course, up to 4th of July holiday, which we’ll talk about next week.
Jen: In the United States.
April: Yes. In the United States. Which is of course about the family of our nation. We are a Cancerian country, and so the Solstice has a particular, I think, nostalgic quality for us here.
So that happens on June 20th. And Solstices and Equinoxes are the moments when the Sun moves into one of the cardinal signs. So they are signs of initiation and the Solstices and the Equinoxes initiate new seasons of the year. This one initiates summer here, and winter in the Southern hemisphere.
Jen: And I will give a shout out to Episode 21, “Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable.” Because in that episode I asked April about the modalities, the modes of the Zodiac. And she went into quite some detail explaining each mode. And of course, one of them was cardinal. So I will link that in the show notes.
April: I waxed quite poetic and philosophical on that episode, I believe.
Jen: That’s one of my favorite episodes.
April: Well, thank you Jen. It’s why we’re friends. Because I really kind of got on my soapbox on that one and let ‘er rip.
Jen: Rip away.
April: Rip away. This Solstice is particularly exciting because on that day, Jen, guess what time it is?
Jen: Moonwatch!
April: Moonwatch! Yes… you left me hanging last week!
Jen: I will never do that again.
April: Thank you. You left me with a big old matzo ball hanging out there.
Jen: I did hum it in the background. Could you hear me humming last week?
April: I did. I did. I felt your solidarity and I appreciated that.
Jen: Thank you.
April: So, play it Jen.
April: Yes. It’s very exciting. Because on the very day of the Solstice this week, just about nine hours later, in fact, we have a Solar eclipse…
Jen: Oh boy…
April: A New Moon, Solar eclipse. And it is at 0°21’ of Cancer. So this strikes me as somewhat significant having the Solstice combined with a Solar eclipse.
Jen: Because it’s at zero. Is that why?
April: Well, it’s because these Solstice and Equinox points are energetically very powerful. Because they’re points of initiation, there’s a lot of power behind them, a lot of movement. So having an eclipse close to that point, it’s always especially significant.
Jen: I see.
April: So we have talked quite a lot about eclipses in recent weeks. Of course, we have our Episode 5 where we talked about them – “Unboxing Eclipses” was the title of that one. So I invite people to go back and re-listen to that if they haven’t heard it. And it will tell you a lot of my thoughts about solar eclipses versus lunar eclipses.
Jen: And if you know where the eclipse is falling in your birth chart, we go through each house and talk about what the eclipse means in the houses.
April: Yes. Well, this is a very powerful Solar eclipse and it’s on the Sabian symbol for 1° Cancer, “A Furled And Unfurled Flag Displayed From A Vessel.”
Jen: I do not like that.
April: Oh, tell me, why not?
Jen: Because of what you wrote next.
April: Oh, because of the 09/11 connection. We had an eclipse back on pretty much the same day on June 21st, 2001. That was an eclipse at this point. And of course, that was the eclipse closest prior to the September 11 attacks. And of course eclipses are cyclical and we’ll have one at roughly the same point usually about every 19 years. 09/11 was – fortunately at this point – a once-in-a-lifetime event. And we have not had something of that caliber every time we’ve had an eclipse near that point. That year, we also had a Saturn/Pluto opposition, very close to the ascendant and descendant of the United States chart for instance.
Jen: Oh wow. And we just had a Saturn/Pluto conjunction in January.
April: Yes. But it wasn’t on the angles of the U.S. chart in the way that they were then.
Jen: I see. The U.S. has a birth chart, just like people have birth charts.
April: Yes. And I think we talked about that in a recent episode about the chart that I tend to use.
Jen: Yes, I’m letting our new listeners know.
April: Thank you. So this is a very significant eclipse with the symbolism of the flag. And in reading up about it and what people say about this: They seem to suggest patriotism. Of course, anytime you see flags showing up in something, like “the Furled and Unfurled Flag…” I know Blaine Bovee, I think it was, was saying it had something to do with changing allegiances as well. Which I thought was an interesting way to read that symbolism displayed from a vessel.
What came to mind for me about it is: In the wake of all of the things that happened in Minneapolis and around the country that we talked about last week, and how people are being asked to take a stand in how they feel about the treatment of people of color in the United States… We’re being asked to display a flag. We’re being asked to stand in our convictions and our values about things. And that silence is really not an option at this point. Silence is a statement.
Jen: Right.
April: So people are being required to raise their flag and say, “This is where I stand.” And not just about that, but a lot of things. We’re also coming into an election season that promises to be pretty crazy. And we will all be raising our flags and discussing and representing for the things that are important to us.
Jen: April, do you say that the coming election season will be crazy because you’ve looked at the upcoming astrology? Or do you say that just because of what’s already happening? Or both?
April: Yes. Because I’m an American living here in this country and I’ve been watching everything that’s been going on and how we have reacted and behaved as a country around the pandemic…
Jen: Racial inequality…
April: …yes. All of it. It’s bringing out the divisions in the country that have been there for a long time. We’re more and more polarized. And that’s just going to make for quite a fraught election season, especially if we’re still dealing with COVID stuff and all of that. So we know it’s going to be crazy. You don’t have to ask an astrologer. You don’t have to look at a chart to know this is going to be nuts. But we are moving towards that Jupiter/Saturn conjunction at the end of the year in December, that gives me a little bit of hope of things opening up in a new direction. So we’ll see.
Jen: Yes.
April: There was another eclipse near this point in 1982 on June 21st. It was actually at the very last degree of Gemini and it was an opposition to Neptune at that time. I kind of looked back to look at what was happening in the world in 1982. Of course, there were things that were of relative importance.
From a personal point of view, I was really feeling my oats in 1982. I was a young person, lots of stuff going on. And this is very close to Venus in my chart. And I think the one back in December or January was as well, because I remember we talked about eclipses aspecting Venus. So, it’ll be interesting.
Jen: Do you want to give any more information in terms of you sowing your oats?
April: Well, I was doing my singing and being a performer around Los Angeles. Doing a lot of song writing. That’s very Venusian.
Jen: Yes.
April: Singing with a band. Got my first job. Lots of Venus stuff.
Jen: Okay.
April: What’s going on for you in 1980? You were a small person.
Jen: I was a small person living at home.
April: You were small fry.
Jen: Yes.
April: You were listening to Culture Club…
Jen: I was. “Karma Chameleon” came out right around then.
April: And you were covering your walls head-to-toe with posters.
Jen: Yeah. If anyone wants to hear my parents’ take on my pre-teen bedroom walls, you can go back and listen to Episode 22, “Taurus New Moon and Venus Gone Wild.”
April: Yes. So we shall see. I think eclipses, especially Solar eclipses, we generally really begin to feel them strongly about a week in advance. So last week, if you were feeling yourself a little bit prone to being emotionally overloaded, overwhelmed… I see Solar eclipses often acting like that. They’re like a brownout when suddenly there’s a big load on your community’s electrical resources.
Jen: The electrical grid.
April: Yes. And suddenly ‘voom‘ the energy kind of comes down.
Jen: Because everyone’s using Zoom at the same time, all of a sudden and…
April: Exactly!
Jen: …things slow down. And..
April: Not that we would know a thing about that.
Jen: …you’re buffering.
April: You’re buffering, basically, during a Solar eclipse.
Jen: That’s what I’m saying!
April: Well said!
April: So that’s that eclipse. And you can look at my website, I’ve got a lot of articles and thoughts about eclipses at my website, bigskyastrology.com. And just go to the little section on the menu that says ‘Eclipses’ and you’ll see a lot of stuff. As well as about my eclipse report, Followed by a Moonshadow, which you can take a look at there. And we’ve talked to you about that before.
Jen: Yes.
April: Go in there and just take a look at some of the articles that I have in there for ideas about what this eclipse might mean, depending on what house it’s in, in your chart. What aspects it’s making to your personal planets.
Jen: And if folks are interested in terms of where you can see this eclipse on planet Earth, I will post a link in the show notes. But much of Africa and Asia can see this eclipse. The very Northern tip of Australia and the very Southeast part of Europe. So we will not see it here in the United States since it’s happening in the middle of the night.
April: But we will shout out to our friends in Darwin. If anyone in Darwin, Australia is listening to us way up there in the Northern territory, they can see it there.
Jen: Look at that. Have you been to Darwin?
April: I have not. I’ve only been to Sydney and Canberra in Australia.
Jen: Okay. Yes. Shout out to my friend in Melbourne.
April: Hey yo.
Jen: Who I stayed with for a month and traveled around.
April: Oh, nice. That’s a good friend that’ll put you up for a month and travel around with you. That’s pretty good.
Jen: Yeah. Okay, I have a couple of questions for you, April, on this eclipse.
April: Hopefully I have a couple of answers.
Jen: We’ll see. This is the last eclipse in Cancer for a while.
April: Yes.
Jen: Does that usually signal that the eclipse will be waving goodbye to Cancer in an emphatic way?
April: I think by the time we have the last eclipses in a pair of signs, we’ve done a lot of work in that polarity.
Jen: That makes sense.
April: And maybe the eclipses prior to that have aspected particular sensitive points in our chart that have really raised our awareness around those issues. And with Cancer, it is about, again, the North Node’s been going through Cancer. And we’ve been talking very much since we started the podcast about how that’s been compelling us to take care of each other. To nourish and to nurture one another and the planet and our pets and all of these things. We’ve done a lot of work hopefully in that area over the last year and a half, two years. So I think the eclipse finishing up in a sign is definitely a sort of a ta da.
It’s like a final exam or like commencement. Like a commencement ceremony to say, “Have you made some progress in this area?” Because eclipses are critical, they are crisis points. And they’re usually asking us to move in a new direction. And this polarity has been calling us from Capricorn and toward Cancer. So I think it is a good opportunity to say, “Hey, how are you doing with this? Are you making progress?”
Jen: Nice. Does it mean anything that the Nodes are actually in Gemini and Sagittarius right now, when the Sun and the Moon will be in Cancer? Is that less typical… to have the nodes and the eclipses in different polarities and signs?
April: No, no. It’s pretty common…
Jen: Oh, it’s common?
April: Yes. Because when you have a situation where an eclipse is at 0° and the node is at 29° of the previous sign, they are still a degree apart.
Jen: Yes.
April: They’re very close. Eclipses can happen when the New Moon or the Full Moon, depending on the kind of eclipse it is… is within, I think it’s about 13° of orb of the Nodes.
Jen: Okay.
April: You won’t get a total eclipse and you get very, very small eclipses at those points, but they can be very far from the Nodes. And so they definitely can be in different signs.
Jen: Okay. You just said total eclipse. And then I thought about…
April: You thought about what?
Jen: This is hitting your Venus…
April: It sure is.
Jen: And then I thought of “Total Eclipse of the Heart!”
April: Oh, please don’t think of that. Because now I will be thinking of that… All. Day. Long.
Jen: Sing it..
April:
Jen: Sing it!
April: “Turn around…” Well, and that’s very in keeping with the Nodes and the…
Jen:
April: Oh, Jen. How could you?
And that was probably about 1982? I don’t know… I’m thinking 1983 or 1984. It seems appropriate. You devilish person. Well, anything else about the eclipse you think we need to cover?
Jen: I think we covered it.
April: It’s a big one.
Jen: So buckle up and here we go.
April: “Straighten up and fly right…”
Well, let’s talk about Mercury. Because there’s not an episode of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast, unless we’ve talked about the latest going on with Mercury.
Jen: He’s a fast mover. Although he’s slowing down now.
April: He is slowing down because he is going to station, which means ‘stand still.’ Slow down until he comes to a stop and then turns retrograde… appear to be turning backwards in his orbit. And this happens on June 17th at just before 10:00 PM Pacific Time. We have retrograde periods of Mercury of course, several times each year for a few weeks at a time. So it’s not that unusual. It’s one of the things that even non-astrology people tend to hear about these days.
Jen: Yes. I’ve heard people talk about it. And I’ve had people ask me about it.
April: What do they ask you when they ask about it?
Jen: They ask what it means.
April: What do you tell them?
Jen: That from our view on Earth, it appears as if Mercury is going backwards. Of course he doesn’t really go backwards, but it appears that way. And then I use the description that I’ve used many times… of being on a highway and passing a car. When you’re next to the car, it appears like you’re both standing still. And when you pull forward and that car starts falling behind you, it looks like that car is going backwards. That’s how I describe it.
April: Yes… It’s a good description of it. And all kinds of things get blamed on Mercury going retrograde. Basically anything that can get blamed on Mercury retrograde, will get blamed on it. I think that’s an overreaction. And I think that looking at it as a negative influence is a wrong-headed way to approach it.
Jen: Yes.
April: On May 28th, Mercury entered the sign of Cancer. And just a few days later on June 2nd, it entered what we call it shadow period. We’ve talked about that before at some torturous length, in fact. And that means we started to feel a little bit of that retrograde influence in advance. Then it turns retrograde on June 17th here, June 18th in a lot of the rest of the world. On July 11th, it will turn direct again and then it completely leaves its shadow period on July 26th. So you can see it’s kind of a process we go through. And it’s extended when it’s a couple of months long, of really experiencing different dimensions of this retrograde experience.
With any retrograde planets, it’s the time that favors going within in issues related to that planet’s symbolism. This is why we say it’s not a great time when Mercury is retrograde to sign contracts – which are mercurial – or to buy a car, which can be associated with travel and therefore Mercury. Or to take short trips, which are associated with it. Making decisions of all kinds can be a little bit fraught because we may not have all the information that we need. Mercury is an information-gatherer and distributor. But what it really means, I think, is it’s just a good time to really explore all of the information available related to things. And take things inside yourself to explore them. And not necessarily initiating a lot of new things related to that sign’s symbolism.
So we say: Redo things. It’s a retrograde, so anything that begins with an ‘RE’ is something that’s favored. So rewrite. If you’ve been working on a manuscript, maybe you’ve been working on a book and you’d like to get it published. This is not the time to be sending it out to publishers. This is the time to be reviewing it and rewriting, and just really going inside yourself and saying, “Have I said what I wanted to say in the way I wanted to say it?”
Jen: Unless you’re sending it out to a publisher or an agent again; if you’re sending it to the same person perhaps that you’ve already…
April: It might work.
Jen: Yes.
April: I mean, I’ve seen that work and I’ve seen that not work. It is what I would tell someone, if somebody were insistent on sending something out and it’s like they have to. Because they’re on a deadline or something like that. I will try to frame it in the most positive way possible.
Jen: Sure.
April: And that is one that I will frame it as, “So have you worked with them before? Is this a revision that they are asking for?” In that case, I would be perfectly fine. If people are redesigning their website, it’s actually a pretty good time for that. Because it’s the time to go through and say, “What hasn’t been working in this design? What do I need to revamp moving forward?”
Jen: And there are a lot of planets retrograde right now.
April: There are indeed.
Jen: So it’s kind of the summer of retrogrades. And more are coming.
April: Well, Mercury will turn retrograde just before Venus is going to turn direct. And we’ll talk about that next week.
Jen: Okay.
April: They are kind of…
Jen: Passing the baton.
April: Yes. It’s like a relay race going on here. But yes, there is a lot of retrograde and there will be more. In just a few minutes, we’re going to talk about Mars and that’s going to be turning retrograde in the fall as well. It isn’t the best time in any event to move forward with doing things.
I have a story about Venus retrograde, actually.
Jen: Let’s hear it.
April: A friend of mine decided she wanted to get her couches re-covered, like reupholstered.
Jen: Okay.
April: Now speaking of that thing of, “Oh, maybe you can get away with it if you’ve done it before…” she’s had these redone a couple of times before by the same person, and she went and she decided to buy a different kind of fabric this time. So she went to the fabric store and she kind of looked at the samples of that fabric they had, chose one of them, got the thing recovered… and absolutely hated it! Hated the color. Hated the job they did. And Venus rules design and colors and fabrics and those kinds of things. And it was not a small amount of money, either, that she spent to have this done.
Jen: Yes.
April: I’m not one to run my whole life according to astrology or to these retrogrades. But knowing what a planet symbolizes will really be helpful to you when you are faced with a situation where you say, “Okay, do I want to move forward with this now?” She could have waited on that project.
Like I’m waiting now about getting a new cat because of what Venus is doing in my chart.
Jen: Yes. I was going to bring that up.
April: Yes. Sometimes you have to be a little bit patient. So when it comes to Mercury things and making agreements, signing contracts, doing anything like that… Mercury retrograde probably isn’t going to be the most productive time to do that.
Jen: And we should clarify about you waiting to get the cat: It’s because the sixth house rules small pets. And Venus rules your sixth house.
April: Yes.
Jen: It’s not for everybody…
April: Yes, it’s specific to my chart.
Jen: …in case people are out there thinking, “Oh no! I just got a new dog or a new cat!” I don’t want them worried.
April: Well, all I can say about that is… I’m jealous! I’m jealous. That is what I will say. So yeah… that’s very specific to my chart. But it’s because I know about the symbolism of Venus and what it means in my chart.
So with Mercury, that’s what we want to say. We have done a couple of episodes where we’ve talked quite a lot about Mercury retrograde. We talked about it in Episode 27, “The Amazing Disappearing Venus and Cancer’s Flavor Of The Day.”
Jen: That’s about Mercury in Cancer.
April: Yes. And one of our all-time favorites, Episode 12 “Mercury Retrograde: Where Are My Pants?” Which I just listened to again the other day.
Jen: You did?
April: It just makes me laugh every time. Yes. I love it. It amuses me.
Jen: That’s funny.
So, the North node is in Gemini right now. We’ve talked about that in recent episodes, which is where our collective path is pointed. And Mercury rules Gemini. So when Mercury goes retrograde, does it have an effect on this collective North Node path that we’re all on?
April: So the North Node, as you say, is the path forward, the evolutionary path, the thing that we’re supposed to reach out toward.
Jen: Right.
April: And what I get with Mercury retrograde in that same sign is it says, “You have previously encountered messages or keys that will help move you forward on your path, on this evolutionary path. But perhaps you forgot them or left them behind or dropped them along the way.” And I got that vision of the old kids’ fairytale, where they leave pieces of bread to mark their path, so they can find their way back.
And this just feels like ideas, personal connections with somebody you might’ve just met casually. Or an old teacher. Or a book that you read, or a movie you saw. There was something. There’s something back there along the way that – during this Mercury retrograde period – you should go back and just retrace your steps a little bit and let your mind be on alert for that.
Jen: Interesting. So related to Gemini?
April: Related to Gemini and Mercury.
Jen: Okay.
April: And that’s why I bring in the ideas of the written word or spoken words or connections. Because Mercury is the kind of planet – and Gemini specifically is the kind of sign – that likes to connect people with each other. It’s like that bee or that bird pollinating out in the environment. So specifically going back and just rethinking, retracing your steps… because there’s something back there that’s going to help you over the next year and a half while the North node is in Gemini.
Jen: That’s really interesting.
April: Yes. Alright. Finally, this week we wanted to talk about a couple of aspects that Mars will be making to Jupiter and Pluto, a couple of sextile aspects.
Jen: If folks are interested to hear more about sextiles, they can go back to Episode 16, “Let’s Talk About Sextiles.” We covered it there.
April: We were having a week then, where everything was sextile everything else. And it is one of my favorite aspects.
Jen: In short: It’s an opportunity aspect.
April: That’s how I always think of it. Because it occurs when usually two planets are in signs that are in complimentary element to each other. They kind of feed each other. And Mars right now – being in Pisces – is really in a position to nourish and feed Jupiter and Pluto… which are in Capricorn, an earth sign.
Jen: Right.
April: So if we think about Mars, it does nice things in Pisces. It does some fine work there. But it can also sort of lose its focus because Pisces is a little more diffuse. And Mars tends to like to be very focused and just kind of hit the ground running and move forward. The nice thing about it making sextiles to Jupiter and Pluto in an earth sign like Capricorn is: It tends to bring a little bit more of an element of structure and guidance and focus to our efforts. So if we want to change the world, which Mars in Pisces does, we’re seeing a lot of people involved in demonstrations…
Jen: Peaceful protests.
April: Yes. Activist work out in the world. Then this is an influence that gives an opportunity to really work with power structures. For instance, Jupiter and Pluto being in Capricorn… governmental agencies, police forces… really having a collaboration and a dialogue going between those two sides because of the sextile. It’s an opportunity and it’s a communicative kind of an aspect.
You can think back to March: There were some things that might have been going on for you then personally at the time… we had Jupiter and Pluto in a conjunction with each other and with Saturn, and then Mars made a conjunction to that bunch of planets as well.
Jen: Basically, it’s a good opportunity to use this energy now before Mars goes into Aries. Mars will be going into Aries and will stay there for six months, which is really, really unusual because he’ll be retrograding in the fall. And when that happens, Mars will be making conflict aspects with those planets in Capricorn. And so right now this is an opportunity – a pleasant aspect – that you could use before some of these harder energies start coming up in the fall.
So you can think about what was going on for you personally in March, because there’s an opportunity to add something to that story now.
April: Yes. As Mars gets into Aries and begins to make those squares, it’s the time to really work through some things. So the nice thing about having this sextile before that, is, “Let’s have dialogue. Let’s brainstorm ideas. Let’s come up with a strategy of ideally where we would like things to go.” And this is for us personally, it’s for society, it’s for everyone and on all levels. Because by the time that Mars gets into Aries, it just wants to hit the ground running. It feels pressure to get everything done before it turns retrograde. And as it squares those Capricorn planets, it’s coming up against really entrenched hard issues that we really, really have to work on and work through.
Jen: Yes.
April: So this is the opportunity now before that to really think about how we can be most effective in our lives, in society, with the things that we want to do.
Jen: Totally makes sense. I like that.
April: Well, that’s everything on the show sheet. Have we done it?
Jen: We have done it. Episode 30! Wow!
April: 30 episodes! That’s kind of amazing!
Jen: That’s a lot! That’s a lot of episodes.
April: It’s a lot of episodes, yes. I’ve enjoyed each and every one of them with you, Jen. Each and every one.
Jen: Same here, April. Same here.
April: And we thank all of you for listening to our little podcasting venture. If you like what you’re hearing, we hope that you will subscribe so that you don’t miss any of our episodes. You can read show notes and the full transcripts of each episode, and leave your comments about each episode at our website, which is bigskyastropod.com. And we hope that you will help us spread the word about the podcast. Please leave a rating or review in iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts, tell a friend, share it on social media… however you can help us get the word out.
Jen: If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a contribution to help support the show. We do depend on listener support. You can go to bigskyastropod.com and either make a onetime donation, or you can become a pod-pal and make an ongoing monthly donation.
April: And make our day! Which is no small consideration!
Jen: That’s huge! Let’s not underestimate that.
April: It is really big!
Jen: The power of that!
April: It is! Well, 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.
That’s all for today. If you like what you’re listening to, please take a moment to rate and review this podcast and hit subscribe to stay current with new episodes.
You can follow Big Sky Astrology on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: @BigSkyAstrology
To help support the Big Sky Astrology Podcast and to keep it going for as little as a dollar a month, please visit www.bigskyastropod.com.
Thanks again for joining us, and we’ll catch you next time.
© 2020 April Elliott Kent and Jennifer Braun
