EPISODE 43 | Podathon Day 2: Into the Void (-of-Course Moon)!
September 8, 2020
Read full show notes hereJen: Its Podathon week on The Big Sky Astrology Podcast with April Elliott Kent and me, producer and co host, Jen Braun.
Hey Friends Jen here. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 2020. And of course, running a marathon with me to bring you a week of daily episodes is my friend, Astrologer April Elliott Kent. Don’t worry April, it’s just a mind marathon.
April: I am not running anywhere. It is hot. It is humid. It is disgusting. And you might just want to just give up on that idea. You know me well enough that you hastened to assure me of that.
Jen: April, and you know I’m not running anywhere either. So…
April: No. I know, my friend.
Jen: We’ll be running in our mind together.
April: I should do it because I can. But it ain’t happening. I don’t have it, you know. Well as Jen implied by her very witty opening, what we’re doing this week is something a little bit different on The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. It’s our first annual Podathon! This week, we are bringing you five mini-episodes of 10 to 15 minutes in length, one each day through Friday, September 11th.
Jen: This format will give us the opportunity to share different kinds of content with you than we normally would, of course, but we do have an ulterior motive if I’m being honest, right, April?
April: Oh, yes, yes. We are sneaky ones. We are sneaky boots. As you know, at the close of each of our regular episodes, we send out an appeal for donations to help us cover the cost of producing the podcast. And many of you have done so, and we can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. We also know that not everyone is in a position to contribute financially. And we completely understand that and we love you just the same!
Jen: What we hope to do in the months ahead is basically to either replace or at least augment what that appeal at the end of each episode would normally be with just a really big shout out and an individual thank you to each and every person who donates to the podcast this week. We’d love to just get it all done this week so that we can spend the rest of the year giving thanks. It would be like a year-long Thanksgiving.
April: And you know how we feel about Thanksgiving.
Jen: And there’s pie. Thanksgiving has pie.
April: This has been richly documented on this podcast. We started out at Thanksgiving time. So we just want Thanksgiving to last all year long.
Jen: Podathon week would not be complete without the mention of pie, my friend.
April: That’s right – pie. And we’ve got to get The Repair Shop in there somewhere…
Jen: And Bob Ross?
April: Yes, Bob Ross. to encourage your donations, we are sweetening the pot with a few incentives. First of all, we are inviting donors of $5 or more to a series of four special podcasts that we’re going to produce at the equinoxes and the solstices. So we’ll have one coming up later in September. Everyone who donates $25 or more, and this includes our current monthly podpals, who have already signed up to contribute regularly, are going to be automatically entered in a drawing to win these fantastic prizes which Jen Braun will now tell you about. Take it, Jen!
Jen: One grand prize winner will win a 90-minute reading with April which is, my friends, a $225 value. What a deal. One listener will win a 60-minute astrology reading with April, which is a $175 value.
April: And three runners that will receive their choice of computer-generated reports from my online store, which Jen will testify are wonderful reports.
Jen: They’re great.
April: Yes. They’re based on your personal birth chart. I think so too. And there’s such a deal anyway, but getting it free is an even better deal, right?
Jen: And you could get April’s Eclipse report which you can’t get anywhere else.
April: And it’s a $35 value. So it’s a bit of a peach of a treat, that one.
Jen: It’s excellent.
April: But you can also get the Steven Forrest “Sky Log” and “Sky Within” reports which is sold as a bundle. You can get Mary Shea “Solar Return” report. And we did talk about solar returns on a recent episode. So what we’re going to do is take everybody’s names, put them in a big bowl, throw my little kitten Toby in the middle of it, and let him go to town.
Jen:
April: And we will videotape it for you. And you can see when he gets up to. Violet might help too. We’re just going to have to see.
Jen: I do think Violet should be able to help.
April: Yes, but his claws are especially spiky. So he can just spike a little piece of paper, get it out of there. So…
Jen: I see.
April: We’ll see. And of course, we might see jack and Bear in Minneapolis getting in on this.
Jen: I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday, and I don’t know that Jack would be that interested but Bear, he’s got a personality that one.
April: Yes. Absolutely does. I could see him being a big help.
Jen: Maybe.
April: Anyway, we’ll be here with you all week long. So…Don’t forget to tip your waitress!
April: Well, the thing that we were really looking forward to doing this week was to handle some of the faster-moving astrological developments in a given week that we don’t normally get a chance to share with you. Because we’re usually looking at the big picture for a whole week, and picking out the really big aspects that are going on or planets moving into signs or whatever it is. Working like this day-to-day we get to talk a little bit more about one of my favorite subjects, which is the Moon, the astrological Moon. Because it moves so quickly, it goes to a sign every two and a half days. And it really, in 28 days, it gives us a microcosm of everything going on because it goes through all the signs. It aspects all of the planets and goes through of course, its eight phases.
Yesterday the Moon was in Taurus, and you can go back to yesterday’s episode and listen to what we had to say about that. Today, what we have is the Moon’s final aspect in Taurus, which is a trine to Saturn at 5:46 AM Pacific Time. So it means that the Moon in Taurus over the last two and a half days is ending on a high note. I mean, it is a high note that involves Saturn, so it’s not a super high note, but it is a trine. And it says, “Whatever you’ve been working on the last couple of days, the last two and a half days now concludes and it concludes in a way that you have met your responsibilities. You have completed what you set out to do.” Because the trine says “Yes, it is complete. We’re bringing it to fruition here.”
Jen: So yesterday, you said that the quality of the final aspect impacts the upcoming period?
April: I think it’s more a summation of what has gone before.
Jen: Okay.
April: For instance, we’ll talk in a little while about the Moon going into Gemini. And the Moon goes into a sign and sometime within the next two and a half days it’s going to go void-of-course, it will make its final aspect. Everything from the time the Moon enters that sign to when it leaves that sign is very much characterized by the final aspect it makes in that sign.
Jen: No kidding?
April: Yes.
Jen: Even when it first enters that sign?
April: Like yesterday, we had a day with a lot of flowing aspects from the Moon. But that could have been the case and then if it had ended on a square to something, the overall feeling you would be forgetting all the nice stuff that happened and you’d be focusing on the difficult thing that happened at the end.
Jen: So from the moment that the Moon entered Taurus, it had this nice flavor about it because it ends with a trine to Saturn?
April: And that we would say that things that were initiated during that lunar period have a better chance of working out well in the end because of the final aspect, being a trine.
Jen: Very interesting.
April: It’s one of the things that horary and electional astrologers will look at.
Jen: I’ve heard that it does make a difference for the upcoming time that it’s sort of flavors that period. But I hadn’t heard the part about it affecting the Moon from the moment it enters that sign. That’s great. Okay.
April: After the Moon makes its final aspect in a sign it goes void-of-course. Which we talked about at some length in Episode 23, “Talking Taurus and the VOC Moon.” Things that are initiated during a void-of-course period… And this one will last from 05:46 AM to 02:28 PM Pacific Time, this is most of a productive day, like work hours, or whatever you’re doing between 6 AM and 2:30 in the afternoon. Things that are initiated during this time might have a little bit of an unpredictable outcome with a void-of-course Moon. I give examples in the other episode of certain things that begin on a void-of-course Moon and just go on and on and on. And that these actually are said to be good times for changing habits or routines. Because if you initiate a new routine or habit on a void-of-course Moon, symbolically, the Moon is not going to encounter any other planets that’s going to change its course. So it just keeps going as it is.
Jen: It is void-of-course. Not void… of course!
April: Exactly. So after 02:28 PM Pacific Time, the Moon is no longer void-of-course, because it enters the sign of Gemini. It will be there through Friday at 01:23 AM Pacific Time. And makes the last aspect on Thursday in the evening, and it’s a sextile between the Moon and Mars on September 10th. And we’ll talk about that more of course on that day. But again, like we were just talking about often the distance two and a half days from now we see that this Moon is going to come to an opportunity at the end of it because it ends on a sextile. So the Moon is entering Gemini and I like to think when the Moon is in Gemini, the world is speaking to us. And our job is to listen.
Jen: Not speak back.
April: Well sometimes speak back, but I emphasize listening because it’s so often talked about Gemini as a sign that speaks, that’s always talking, that’s very outwardly communicative. But it’s just as fair to say that it’s a listening sign. Communication has two sides. It has somebody speaking and someone listening. And as somebody born with the Moon in this sign, I find it’s really misunderstood lunar sign.
Jen: How so?
April: Well, because people tend to think that you are not a very feeling person.
Jen: Why is that?
April: Well, because they think of Gemini is just cerebral, indeed of all the air signs, so of Libra and Aquarius as well. But on the contrary, I think the Moon sign tells us what we’re very sensitive to, and the ways in which we process our feeling nature. When the Moon is in Gemini today, we’re going to be sensitive to what the world is saying. To birds that are singing their songs, and to traffic noise and construction noises and things that our friend is saying in a text or an email. We’re very sensitive to it and we have to guard between projecting too much onto what we’re listening to as well and try to hear it clearly for what it is.
Jen: And of course as the saying goes, “You have two ears and one mouth.” So you should do twice as much listening as you do speaking.
April: That is well said Jen.
Jen: Well, I didn’t say it.
April: And a good reminder.
Jen:
April: So, what I said before yesterday about dressing in the way that people are subliminally going to want to see and be receptive to. When the Moon is in Gemini, you can get away with wearing lots of patterns and different colors and things, often something sparkly and eye catching. Some fancy earrings or a pin or a brooch or a tie.
Jen: How about some neon colors like the 80s?
April: It’s less neon, that’s more Aquarius.
Jen: Alright.
April: Gemini is more things that are fun and bright, but not necessarily as electromagnetic as that.
Jen: I just really wanted to bring up the 80s.
April: Well, we will get there. We will definitely get to the 80s.
Jen: We always do.
April: We find our way back there. Think of colors that are bright enough to attract a bird or a bee but not necessarily like a neon flashing light.
Jen: Like the mini zinnias planted in my front yard?
April: Yes. Precisely. Just so.
Jen: Perfect.
April: The Moon is in aspect to Venus today at 08:41 PM.
Jen: And Venus is in Leo. Sing it April.
April: (singing) Leeeeeooooo…
Jen: Leeeooo…
Jen: We are not singing Moonwatch.
April: No. We haven’t. It’s all Moonwatch!
Jen: Yes.
April: Some people are going to be very sad and some people are going to be very relieved that we’re not here giggling all through the Moonwatch theme, but there you are. So a sextile to Mars, it’s a nice thing, Gemini and Leo get along well. Because Gemini is fun and light and keeps Leo from taking itself a little too seriously, sometimes. It’s a nice aspect for socializing of any kind, for having meaningful conversations with people you like a lot, for enjoying entertainment in all its many forms with Venus in Leo. That happens at 08:41 PM Pacific Time.
Jen: Very good. What can you tell us about the phase of the Moon today, April?
April: Well, we’re still continuing the Disseminating Moon, which we talked about yesterday. The Last Quarter Moon will be in Gemini – that comes on Thursday, so we’ll be talking about that. We know that during the time that the Moon is in Gemini, we have a square in the distance that we’re looking forward to, the square to the Sun, and also the square to Neptune.
Jen: Okay.
April: Because they’re running in opposite signs right now.
Jen: Right.
April: So there will come a moment in this bright happy Moon in Gemini journey where suddenly we’re stopped in our tracks and get to process something new that’s coming.
Jen: Very interesting.
April: Well, my friend, these go so quickly.
Jen: They go very fast. Yes.
April: Yes. It has been wonderful to meet with you today and just like do a little Moon talk. The whole thing is Moonwatch.
Jen: (sings) Moonwatch…
April: I won’t ask you to play it, Jen. There’s no time. We’re on a strict schedule here.
Jen: No time to play it?
April: You might be able to sneak it in.
Jen: We’ll see. We’ll see if I sneak it in.
April: We will see.
April: Well, thanks to all of you for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, please do subscribe. It helps us in the ratings more than anything else. If you just subscribe to the podcast, it costs nothing. Maybe leave us a little five- star rating or review wherever it is that you listen to podcasts.
Jen: And both of those are so fast to do. Just one second.
April: Yes.
Jen: That would really help us…
April: Would be much appreciated.
Jen: Much appreciated.
April: And we hope that you will help us spread the word by telling a friend.
Jen: Tell a friend.
Jen: Well, this is the second day of our first annual Podathon, your generous donation.
April: Podathon. We need a theme for Podathon, I can tell.
Jen: Podathon… Your generous donations help us keep the podcast coming to you each and every week. We are a small independent podcast. So to donate, please go to bigskyastropod.com. Of course, anyone who donates $5 or more as April said earlier will receive access to the special episodes that we’ll be producing four times a year for the equinoxes and solstices. And if you donate $25 or more, you’ll automatically be entered in our raffle.
April: Raffle.
Jen: Raffle. Chosen by April’s kitty.
April: That’s right. Three winners will get a free report from my online store. One lucky winner will get a free 60-minute reading with moi. And one super lucky winner will get a full 90-minute reading with me. It’s a $225 value!
Jen: With April…
April: With me… We want to be able to thank each of you on the air too for your donation in the months to come. Now if you don’t want us to do that, if you have lots of Scorpio planets, if you’re a shy person, we respect that. Just make sure you email me april@bigskyastrology.com and we will make sure to keep it mum.
Jen: Yes.
April: Alright.
Jen: And we’ll also mention it in the thank you email that you’ll receive.
April: We will. Well my friends, join us again bright and early tomorrow morning for the next in this gallup Podathon extravaganza. 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, bigskyastrology.com or 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. Thanks again for joining us and we’ll catch you next time.
© 2020 April Elliott Kent and Jennifer Braun
