EPISODE 44 | A Mars Retrograde Hump Day
September 9, 2020
Read the 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 Wednesday September 9th, 2020. And here with me of course to bring you a week of daily episodes is my friend Astrologer, April Elliott Kent. Happy Hump Day of our Podathon of our week, April. she just lost it friends.
Jen: She just lost it.
April: Oh, Jen, I did not see that one coming.
Jen: Of course, you didn’t.
April: Oh my God. Didn’t this go back to some conversation we had about camels and dromedaries at some point?
Jen:
April: Happy Dromedary Day. Oh, welcome. Yes.
Jen: Well, we never normally record on a Wednesday. So, we never could say Happy Hump Day.
April: No. It’s true. There’s so many new things, so many new experiences and distance to explore in this week of special many episodes. And as we were saying in between episodes, we’re terrible at this. We’re just terrible at doing something very short and concise because we’ve mastered the 30 minute format. We know how crazy we can get for 30 minutes, but 10 to 15 minutes, it’s a little bit tricky.
Jen: I mean, can you imagine us even making a 10-minute episode?
April: No. I don’t know how people do it.
Jen: I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t know what I was thinking at first.
April: I don’t know. But there was this guy, I know I mentioned this on an episode of the podcast one time “The Cosmic Muffin.”
Jen: Yes. You did.
April: Darrell Martini up in LA. And there were these little five minute gems during drive time radio. I don’t know how he did it year in year out.
Jen: Did he have a radio partner?
April: No, it was just him.
Jen: Maybe that was the trick. I don’t know.
April: Well, that’s the thing. You get the two of us together and all bets are off, is the deal.
Jen: There’s going to be laughing, for sure, and there’s going to be talk of Bob Ross and the 80s.
April: And there will be singing. There will definitely be singing.
Jen: I’m sorry, everybody, there will be singing.
April: And probably talk of cats. People know what they’re in for here with April and June at this point.
Jen: I hope so. Yes.
April: Well, as all of you know, this week, we’re doing something a little bit different for you. We’re bringing you five mini-episodes of about 10 to 15 minutes in length one each day through Friday, September 11.
Jen: It’ll probably never be 10 minutes, let’s be honest.
April: I mean, you know, as we’ve just established, but this is basically to make the editing easier on Jen. It’s not because we don’t have lots we can be saying. We’d be blabbing to you two hours every day, I’m sure.
Well, our hope is that this format is going to give the opportunity to share different kinds of content with you. This week, we have been talking a lot about the Moon because that’s mostly what’s been showing some activity up to now. But we have an ulterior motive as well.
Jen: That’s right. Because, regular listeners know that at the close of each regular episode, we do send out an appeal for donations to help us cover the costs of producing the podcast. Many of you have heeded that call and we really appreciate it so much. We also know that not everybody can contribute financially. There are hard times right now and we totally understand and we still love you just the same.
April: We love you. We luff you!
Jen: Love.
April: Our hope in the month ahead is to replace or at least augment that appeal that we give at the end of each episode in step with hardy an individual thanks to each and every person who donates to the podcast this week. We would love to just get it all done this week and spend the rest of the year giving thanks and eating pie.
Jen: Of course.
April: As is our wont.
Jen: Thank you for bringing up pie, April Elliott Kent. I appreciate that.
April: I felt it was my job. It hadn’t happened yet this episode.
Jen: To encourage your donations we are offering a few incentives. So first of all, we’re going to be inviting donors of $5 or more to a series of four special podcasts at the equinoxes and solstices. Second, everyone who makes a donation of $25 or more and this includes our current monthly pod-pals who’ve been with us almost since the beginning, you all will be automatically entered in a drawing to win one of these great prizes. April.
April: Where Carol Merrill is standing.
Jen:
April: So, one super-duper grand prize winner will win a 90-minute reading with me. An astrology reading $225 value. And one other listener is going to win a 60-minute personal astrology reading with me. And that’s $175 value. Take it, Jen!
Jen: Three runners up will receive their choice of April’s very lovely computer-generated reports from her online store. I have sampled these fine reports and I can tell you that they are awesome. They are based on your personal birth chart. They include Steven Forrest’s “Sky Log” and “Sky Within” reports, Mary Shea’s “Solar Return” report, and April’s very own exclusive “Followed by a Moon Shadow Eclipse” report, which is fantastic. And that is a $35 value.
April: As you can see, so many reasons to donate this week. And we’re going to have a very special drawing by our newest pod-pet, Toby.
Jen: Toby!
April: The tiny terror, the terrible Tabby, and we’re going to toss gun into a bowl with scraps of paper with everybody’s names on them and see what he comes back with. He’ll go fishing, possibly with an assist by his sister.
Jen: Sounds awesome. I cannot wait to see that video.
April: I know it’s going to be quite something.
Jen: Very good.
April: So, what do we have coming up today, Jen?
Jen: We are, of course going to talk about the Moon.
April: Moonwatch.
Jen: Moonwatch. That’s for anybody that’s been missing…
April: Play it!
April: I have to admit, I have been missing our Moonwatch theme because it’s all been Moonwatch this week.
Jen: Which is fun. I like that.
April: For everybody who likes to sing along and thrill to the intense rhythms of our Moonwatch theme, we’re not letting you down.
Jen: Hump Day is the day to do it.
April: Hump Day is the day.
Jen: Alright. So April, the Moon is in Gemini today.
April: Which makes it a dromedary, right? Because it’s two. Like, it’s got the two humps?
Jen: Twin. Yes. Two things. That’s right. No, the camel. The camel has two, the dromedary has one.
April: Oh, okay. So, today is a camel Moon.
Jen: Absolutely.
April: Well, we talked quite a lot about the Moon in Gemini yesterday, and what it’s about, what it wants from us and how the rhythm of that goes in the world, speaking to us and all the rest. The Moon will trine Mercury, which is its ruler when it’s in Gemini at 01:38 AM. So we start the day in a Gemini Mercury mood. It’s a great morning if you roll out of bed and catch up on your emails right away or… Sometimes I’m an early morning writer. There’s nothing to distract me, to cloud my head, it’s a good moment. Jump out of bed and get moving.
Jen: Yes.
April: But we have a couple of really big aspects today. These are ones that would have made the cut even if we were just doing a big Monday episode. So having two of them on the same day is pretty big news. The first is a trine between the Sun in Virgo and Jupiter in Capricorn. That happens at 09:04 AM Pacific Time.
Jen: A Trine is a nice flowing aspect,
April: Nice flowing aspect, nothing’s getting in between them. So I think of the Sun and Jupiter as similar in some ways. Big energies, big presence. The Sun is the life force and vitality. This time of year in Virgo, we are getting joy, we are exhibiting great expressive power by taking care of Virgo things. So it’s such a wonderful time of year. We talked earlier in the week about how great it used to be this time of year to start school. That is very much of the nature of Sun in Virgo. There’s going to be this opportunity to really show one’s best self through things like education or self-improvement, those kinds of things.
Now, Jupiter is a planet that we would normally associate with luck, or good fortune. I don’t know that I always strictly interpret it in that way. But when the Sun comes together with Jupiter, a very delightful alchemy tends to happen. And it means that if we express ourselves, which is what the Sun wants to do, then Jupiter will sort of pick it up and propel it upward, and magnify it and let it be seen and appreciated. “This is the day to be yourself and enjoy doing it.” And by doing that, what is the old saying, “Those who have the most luck are the ones who make their own luck.” This aspect has a little bit of that feeling to me.
Jen: And of course, it’s not like a square or an opposition where things are sort of from your outside world happening to you. Have to take advantage of it, right?
April: With the trine, it does tend to kind of fall on your lap a little bit.
Jen: It does? Okay.
April: But sometimes we don’t notice when good luck is right in front of us.
Jen: That’s so true. Yes, I remember running with Joni, my wife at one point. We used to run together. We would run around one of the lakes here in Minneapolis. And we turned the corner and there was this big – you could all of a sudden feel the wind kind of pushing against you. And we turned the corner felt this wind against us. And she said, “It’s funny. You never really noticed when the wind is at your back.”
April: No. It is so true though. Isn’t it?
Jen: It is.
April: And with the Sun too. I mean, for the lucky people who are born within a couple of days of today, they’ll have a solar return that has the Sun trine Jupiter in it.
Jen: Right.
April: Which takes it from being just something that happens to all of us for a day to something that happens to a lucky few for the entire year.
Jen: That’s lovely.
April: And it means to the extent that you’re being yourself and expressing yourself and doing the things you love to do. The wind is at your back today.
Jen: I like that.
April: Nice. Right?
Jen: Yea. Super nice.
April: Nice day.
Jen: Yes.
April: Now, have said that…
Jen: Yes. Should I say, ‘Bombombom, bom. Bombom, bombom bommmmm’?
April: The story you’re about to see is true. So Mars, our friend Mars is stationing today. Which means he’s sort of slowing down standing still, getting ready to turn retrograde. We talked to you all about this when Mars went into Aries a month and a half ago?
Jen: Yes.
April: And now it is here. It was so close. It got almost to the end of the sign. It’s going to retrograde at 28° of Aries, retrogrades all the way back to 15°. And yes, Mars and Aries not thrilled about standing still even less thrilled about moving backwards. If you think you’ve had a rocky time over the last couple of weeks, and you think he got a few things resolved. I’m here to tell you’re probably going to revisit a couple of them. Because what Mars is going to do when it retrogrades it’s very quickly going to go back through the same territory it’s very recently been through. And that includes some sort of testy aspects to Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter.
Jen: Okay.
April: I don’t mean to be a downer about it, but I think when Mars is retrograde, again, the energy of retrograde planets is internalized. What can sometimes happen when Mars turns retrograde is we don’t feel we have an outlet for our Mars energy, physical dynamism and anger, frustration, the sexuality. All of these things can go inward and even be a bit repressed. Stuff gets bottled up as Mars is going retrograde, especially as it’s making hard aspect to all those planets in Capricorn.
Jen: Yes.
April: And it’s a time to as the old adage says, “Measure twice, cut once.”It means really think things through a little bit before you take action. Now, how likely is that with Mars and Aries? Mars hates to do that.
Jen: Doesn’t want to pause.
April: No. It wants to just go for it. fix the problems later if it possibly can. But right now it just wants to take action. This is a time too when we have to mind our temper. We’re easily provoked when Mars is turning backwards and making these contentious aspects. Your energy can feel kind of dampened. So any kind of physical exercise you can take is a good idea, because it’s getting out some of this frustration. That can be very helpful.
Jen: Sure.
April: It’s going to be a really difficult retrograde for Mars ruled people with the Sun or the Moon or the ascendant, especially in Aries or Scorpio, which are both ruled by Mars. Or have those planets or points in close aspect to Mars. So you’re probably all feeling it already. From the time Mars went into Aries and has been building up to this moment, it’s been a little bit of a frustrating time, I think.
Jen: Mars will go direct mid-November. I want to say it’s November 13th.
April: Yes.
Jen: And then he’s out of his shadow January 2, I believe.
April: So let’s all be careful clear out there.
Jen: Yes.
April: And be a little bit cautious, restrain yourself. I’m watching the process right now of young Toby getting smacked down on the regular by his slightly older sister violet, who’s teaching him how to be a cat. And a little kitten is all Mars. He’s all like claws and teeth and energy and bouncing off walls. And it’s always good when they have another little kitty, a Saturnian figure that is willing to smack them down and teach them to be patient, to sheath their claws. And that I think is what this Mars retrograde is going to help us with as well.
Jen: Yes.
April: To be better kittens.
Jen: Now are your kittens getting along April? Are they getting along better? Because the last people heard they were still struggling together?
April: Well, I think they might not have even met yet. But from the day they met, they have been close friends. Now at night, there’s a little bit of a turf war going on.
Jen: Well, there were a couple days in there where they weren’t close.
April: Yes. They’re working things out.
Jen: Yes.
April: And when things start to get a little too intense, will give violet a rest by giving Toby a timeout and sticking him in the bathroom and letting him relax a little bit. But no, we’re very lucky. They’re getting along really beautifully.
Jen: Yes.
April: See, we promised we would get to cats.
Jen: It always will come back to cats, or dogs, puppies, kitties…
April: Or pie.
Jen: Pie, the 80s.
April: The 80s. Yes. Later in the week for the 80s perhaps.
Jen: Maybe.
April: Alright.
Jen: One more thing April about Mars before we end. Which is that I recently read that Mars is retrograde only 9% of the time, whereas the outer planets are retrograde almost half of the time. So although this is some hard energy right now, it really only happens every two, two and a half years.
April: Yea. With the outer planets, it’s exactly like half the year. At any given time, an outer planet is very likely to be retrograde. And Mercury Of course retrogrades regularly, several times each year. It’s Venus and Mars that are retrograde a little less. And normal, it’s only in a sing for two months, but we got the six months this time because it got almost all the way to the end of the sign before it retrograded. So thank you for that.
Jen: My pleasure.
April: Well, I think that is everything that we hoped to cover on this Hump Day. We want to thank you all for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing here, be sure to subscribe. It’s the number one thing you can do that costs you nothing and just takes a minute to really help us out to get the podcast heard. You can also leave a rating, a five-star rating we hope or a little review wherever you listen to podcasts. And we hope that you’ll help us spread the word by telling a friend.
Jen: This is the third day of our first annual Podathon, and your generous donations will help us keep the podcast coming to you each and every week, which would also really warm our hearts. To donate, please go to bigskyastropod.com. Anyone who donates $5 or more will receive access to the special episodes that we’ll be producing for the equinoxes and solstices. And if you donate $25 or more, you’ll automatically be entered into a raffle. So three winners will get a free report from April’s online store. One very lucky winner will get a free 60-minute reading with April and one super-duper uber lucky winner, will get a full 90-minute reading with April
April: Yes, a very Sun/Jupiter winner really will get the full 90-minute reading.
Jen: Today is the day to donate. Right?
April: Indeed, it is.
Jen: We want to thank everyone on the air in the months to come. And if you do not want us to mention your name, please do email April. And her email address is april@bigskyastrology.com
April: Yes. Alright, well join us again bright and early tomorrow morning for the next in the 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.
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