The Astrology Podcast
Transcript of Episode 162, titled:
Astrology Forecast for July 2018: Lunar Eclipse Conjunct Mars
With Chris Brennan and guests Austin Coppock and Kelly Surtees
Episode originally released on June 30, 2018
Original episode URL:
https://theastrologypodcast.com/2018/06/30/astrology-forecast-july-2018/
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Note: This is a transcript of a spoken word podcast. If possible, we encourage you to listen to the audio or video version, since they include inflections that may not translate well when written out. Our transcripts are created by human transcribers, and the text may contain errors and differences from the spoken audio. If you find any errors then please send them to us by email: theastrologypodcast@gmail.com
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Transcribed by Andrea Johnson
Transcription released November 14th, 2025
Copyright © 2025 TheAstrologyPodcast.com
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CHRIS BRENNAN: Hi, my name is Chris Brennan, and you’re listening to The Astrology Podcast. This episode is recorded on Thursday, June 21, 2018, starting just after 4:10. It’s actually 4:14 PM in Denver, Colorado, and this will be the 162nd episode of the show. For more information about how to subscribe to the podcast and help support the production of future episodes by becoming a patron, please visit theastrologypodcast.com/subscribe. In this episode, I’m gonna be talking with Austin Coppock and Kelly Surtees about the astrological forecast for July of 2018. Hey, guys, welcome back.
AUSTIN COPPOCK: Hey, Chris.
KELLY SURTEES: Hey, guys.
CB: I feel like I have not gotten enough of you guys over the past few weeks. So we’re already back again to talk about the forecast for the next few weeks.
KS: It’s kinda cool to be back in our normal groove, if that makes sense.
CB: Yeah, it does feel like we’re gonna get back to normal finally with this episode, and I think we’ve all almost recovered from UAC and gotten caught up at this point. And today’s actually the summer solstice. It’s the ingress of the Sun into tropical Cancer, which is the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, so it’s kinda fitting that we’re recording it today.
AC: Yeah, it’s nice.
KS: Very cool.
AC: You know, just on that note, it always seemed a little strange to me that the Sun wasn’t given any sort of special recognition or bonus points at the moment when it’s on a solstice or an equinoctial point in a lot of traditional material. I’m sure we could find some points off to the side that recognize that. But in my experience the solstices and equinoxes have a very particular feeling, and I noticed that it is additionally intensified during the hour of the Sun on that day and during the day of the Sun that is closest to that angle.
CB: Yeah. Go ahead, Kelly.
KS: Oh, I was just gonna say, yeah, that’s really cool. I hadn’t even thought about thinking about the Sun hour for the day, and then obviously Sunday—the Sunday closest to the solstice or the equinox.
AC: Yeah. I mean, there are a lot of religious observances that are scheduled like that, right? It’ll be like, okay, so first time there’s a ‘blah, blah, blah’ newer Full Moon, after the Sun crosses that angle, and then on this planetary day because it’s key to that.
KS: Yeah. I mean, that’s where Catholic or Christian Easter comes from. You look for the equinox, then they watch for the next Full Moon and the following Sunday is Easter Sunday. Not in the Greek Orthodox tradition, but in sort of Christian or Catholic, like the general Christian faith, if you like.
AC: Yeah, and not just Christians.
KS: Not just Christian. Cuz there’s Jewish festivals that are done like that as well.
CB: I saw a bunch of videos on Facebook today of people meeting at Newgrange or meeting at Stonehenge—where there’s a thing where everybody gets together and watches the summer solstice—because that alignment of Stonehenge is partially set up in order to identify it as a sort of like calendar.
AC: Yeah, yeah.
CB: Yeah, it’s interesting then that in so many different cultures, the solstices and equinoxes do play that important role in terms of watching those important turning points in the year. But you’re right, Austin, that it’s weird. Like in modern astrology, like with Noel Tyl, for example, they use the Aries point as an important sensitive point that they talk about frequently as an interpretive principle. But you’re right. I don’t know if there’s anything analogous to that in traditional astrology.
AC: Right. Well, it’s just like if we’re just looking at the strength and condition of the Sun, for example, if somebody has the Sun at 1° Cancer, that’s the Sun at a very important point. In the north, here, that’s like the brightest Sun that you get, right? You’d think that the Sun would get a smiley face for that.
CB: Yeah. I mean, with the exaltation at least it’s keyed into that. Theoretically, at least according to Ptolemy, part of the reason why the Sun is exalted in Aries is because that’s when it starts increasing in light and the days start becoming longer and the night’s becoming shorter. So this notion of raising it up, or the light being raised up, whereas it has its fall or its depression in Libra, where you hit the fall equinox and the days start becoming shorter and the light is seen to decrease.
AC: Yeah. It’s not that they weren’t aware of that and that it’s not factored into various structures. It’s just one of those things that, I don’t know, maybe it’s so obvious nobody needed to mention it or write it down. I don’t know, but it’s a thing.
CB: Sure.
KS: Yeah. I mean, I have noticed when I work with clients who are like 0°, 1°, or 2° Sun in Cancer or Capricorn there’s a little interpretive principle that I work with them around the idea of their life having this more extreme quality, because they’re born at those sort of turning points or extreme points of the Sun. So that idea of the see-saw or the highs and lows being a little bit more exacerbated.
AC: Right. The solstices are both the points of maximum polarity between light and night.
KS: Yeah, yeah. Between light and darkness.
AC: And if we’re looking at it not just from one position on Earth, but from the Earth position, you’re getting night over light on one half, and you’re getting light over night on the other half. You get both versions of the least-balanced version of that. And I suppose those two together balance each other, but I think what you just said makes a lot of sense, that there’d be a tendency to experience massive polarizations rather than ‘ready-steady, even-Steven’.
KS: Which is a more typical Cancer/Capricorn sort of interpretation. It’s almost like bringing in the visual phenomenon behind the sign features.
AC: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah. And again, I think that, I don’t know, there are the things that we lay over the explicitly visual, and they’re all very useful—houses, signs, etc., etc.—but there is the type of motion, the type of light, etc., etc. It’s an underlying layer. It’s a more primordial layer. Like you can do astrology—you can do some astrology without houses, but you couldn’t do it without the light and motion and position of the planets. So, anyway.
KS: It’s a good point, because it is the solstice today, which I don’t even think we realized when we planned this.
CB: Yeah, I mean, we didn’t. I think we were just looking for a good chart, and tomorrow’s chart was like way worse, so that was a consideration. So, speaking of that, before we get too much further afield with other discussions, there were a couple of news and announcement topics. So one of them I really wanted to make sure we mentioned at the top of the show is the giveaway we’re doing this month, because the Association for Young Astrologers and the editor of their journal sent me three copies of their newly-released journal, which is titled The Ascendant. And we have three copies to give away to patrons this month, The Ascendant. So volume two of their journal was just released. The last one was released, what? Like three or four years ago, I think. Right, Austin?
AC: Yeah, four, I think. Think it was 2014 that it came out.
CB: Okay. And you were the president of AYA then, and that was like one of the major things that you did in your presidency. You helmed AYA when they released their first print journal.
AC: Mm-hmm.
CB: And, yeah, so they’ve now done a follow-up, and it’s definitely bigger and better and looks even nicer. Like somehow they found a way to improve on the layout and everything else. Has a bunch of great articles in it. They did a launch party, which I think we already mentioned at the United Astrology Conference in Chicago last month. But, yeah, it’s a really great journal. It’s being edited by Jenn Zahrt, with other contributions from a ton of different astrologers who you can see on their website. So you can find out more information about that at youngastrologers.org. I believe that’s right. Yeah, Austin?
AC: Mm-hmm.
CB: Yeah, youngastrologers.org. And they’ve got a big post right now on their front page for volume two of The Ascendant, so check that out. And I will announce the winners of that giveaway to patrons here in the next few days.
KS: That’s exciting. I forgot to buy a copy at UAC, which was dumb of me. And so, now I’m just waiting for mine to arrive in the post.
CB: Yeah. It was one of those publications where they sent like a huge stack to UAC, and a bunch of them—like with Austin’s book—sold. It didn’t sell out completely, but they sold like a ton of copies of it, so it was nice to see it was being well-received. You know, with the Association for Young Astrologers, it’s always been not just about young astrologers, but people that are new to the community. So it’s not actually limited in that way in terms of age, but just helping to bring and integrate new people who are just finding the field into the community, whatever their age is. And I think you can really see that in the people that they promoted and gave a platform to in this issue of The Ascendant.
AC: Yeah. Well, and as I, and probably you, explained endlessly when I was president, it’s the Association ‘for’ Young Astrologers, not ‘of’. And so, if you’re against young astrologers, then I guess you shouldn’t support the organization.
CB: Right.
AC: Are you for that? Cuz if you’re for that, then that’s what the organization is.
CB: Yeah. And I think things like AYA have been really great. Because we’ve seen—as we mentioned, again, not to rehash everything from our UAC discussion—there were so many new people and so many young people at the conference last month that it really did seem to indicate a major generational shift. For a long time there was just this question, where are the younger astrologers? And I feel like they’ve finally arrived. So I’m glad there’s organizations like AYA that are helping to make that happen, and helping to encourage that and give people a leg up once they do get into the community, in terms of finding out what resources are available. And one of the things that I love—they just relaunched their new website—is they’ve got the MP3 downloads section. So one of the major benefits to becoming a member of AYA is that as soon as you become a member, you get access to a library of audio downloads that astrologers have donated to the organization, which you can download and just listen to, from different astrologers.
KS: Yeah. And so, it’s completely free once you’re a member. You can just go and listen to all these lectures. The other thing—oh, we’re just getting info here that that download was actually implemented under Austin’s tenure. So we should make a mention of that. I’m not sure if that’s true or not.
CB: No. I think we had that a long time ago. But there was probably a better version of it that you guys implemented.
AC: Yeah. So what Kait did—who did the website during my tenure—was basically just make that a page on the website, so that if the person logged in as a member, they could just download all of it. Yeah, I don’t believe that was a feature earlier. I think that that’s what Kait was saying.
KS: Okay.
CB: Yeah, I think it was. That was why I joined the organization originally, in like 2005 or something. So we may have lost the functionality at some point, and you just brought it back.
AC: The files were there.
KS: Yeah.
AC: When I took over, that was not in place.
CB: Okay, cool.
KS: Yeah. I mean, the other thing the AYA crew do is they have this free dinner-and-drinks once a month with guest lecturers. You know, for members, it’s kinda like an open call, sit down, have a chat. Very sort of casual, informal. But I do think they’re doing some really good work to help encourage people to participate or connect with other astrologers, so it’s good to give them a shoutout.
AC: Yeah, absolutely.
CB: Yeah, in creating a sense of community. Especially those ‘dinner-and-drinks’ webinar series, which is another thing that you guys started, I think, during your tenure. Right, Austin?
AC: Mm-hmm.
CB: Yeah, cool.
AC: Yeah. Well, the idea was instead of doing lectures, have a lecturer—have somebody who knows about something—and do a little 20-minute, casual talk, and then spend the rest of the hour/hour-and-a-half talking with that person about it. The idea was inspired by conferences actually, where you sit around with the speakers after they give the talk and really get into it. And so, the idea was to try to recreate that to some degree digitally.
CB: Definitely, yeah. And that’s actually doing something new and unique rather than just rehashing the same webinar format that everybody’s doing at this point.
AC: Yeah, I think it was a good idea, and Alia and Nick Civitello and I and Jo Gleason all got that moving.
CB: Cool. All right. Well, yeah, people can find out more information about the journal at youngastrologers.org, and you can pick up a copy by ordering it straight from their website. Cool. All right, so are there any other announcements? Do you guys have any news or announcements you want to mention before we move on?
KS: I have just opened registration for my next online astrology class, which is a four-week or four-part class on predicting with progressions. So that starts July 9 for anyone who’s interested in that.
CB: Awesome. So it’s a four-week class on progressions?
KS: Yeah. So there’ll be live classes every Monday night, starting July 9. And then the video downloads and all the resources are there for people as well. I’m losing my words, and we’re only getting started.
CB: Right. We’ll get warmed up here in the next few minutes.
AC: Perhaps you just haven’t found them yet.
KS: That’s true. That could be it.
AC: So I’ll also be teaching a month-long class on aspects. You know, just fundamentals: What are aspects? How do they work? How do they intersect? How do you put planets together? What effect do they have upon one another? And so, that’s a combination of live sessions and recorded material and lectures. So I’ve been doing some of my classes this year—instead of doing everything live, a lot of the lecture and teaching portion is recorded, and then we spend the live portions getting into it and doing examples and dialoguing, going back and forth. And so, I’ve been doing my fundamentals class this year that way, and I really like it. I like having live time that’s not just presenting.
CB: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I’m glad that teachers are starting to incorporate things like that as we move more into doing webinars and digital things, that that interactive component isn’t being underplayed.
AC: Yeah, it’s important. You know, I’ve got, I don’t know, five years of recording teaching aspects, and I admit that I was somewhat dreading—I was like, “Am I going to be able to summon enthusiasm to give exactly the same talk?” And then I realized I didn’t have to and that I could actually spend time talking with people who are learning it and applying it and incorporating it, which has spontaneity and energy. So hopefully good for me, good for everybody else. And that just runs all of July.
CB: Okay, awesome. As for me, the only announcement I have is I did a talk in Toronto right after UAC—where I did a three-day workshop—and it opened with a talk titled, What is Hellenistic Astrology. And it actually ended up being a really good talk. I’ve given it a few times, but that was my favorite version of that talk. So I think I’m gonna release the recording of that for sale on my website, on my consulting site, chrisbrennanastrologer.com. Because there’s a lot of people that still don’t understand what’s appealing or why you would want to study ancient astrology, especially if you already have a background in modern astrology. So I’m gonna release that talk for people that would like a sort of preview and the high points or the ‘cliff notes’ version of what is there that’s interesting or valuable in studying the older traditions of astrology, especially from a technical standpoint in terms of specific techniques. So I’ll put a link to that in the description page for this episode.
KS: Cool.
CB: Yeah, I think that’s it.
AC: Thanks.
CB: All right, so usually we do a pre-show discussion. I don’t have a lot of discussions lined up, though, or a lot of topics. The only topic that I thought about mentioning is, as I mentioned to both of you at UAC, I’ve been wrestling for a few months now with this idea of maybe wanting to do a monthly astrology column of some sort. Like a monthly horoscope column, either in video format or audio or maybe written, although I’m leaning towards doing it in video format. Because I feel like at some point I’ll hit the limit—or I’m getting close to hitting the limit of the audience that you can reach when you’re doing primarily advanced astrology discussions, like we do on the podcast. And seeing some new people or seeing how effective some astrologers are at being able to draw in new astrologers by having a more general Sun sign column, it’s becoming more appealing to me just as a way to reach out to the community and bring more astrologers into the community and allow them to then make the transition into intermediate and more advanced forms of astrology. So I was really thinking about that at UAC. And then afterwards I saw—and I think I mentioned it to both of you—Jo Gleason start on Twitter, a thread, where she was encouraging and sort of laying down a challenge to astrologers to write at least a monthly Sun sign column, saying that contrary to some popular beliefs about that being too generic or being negative somehow in astrology because it’s so broad, that that was both useful for the community, but also a useful practice for astrologers. Because it strengthens many of the abilities that you need to look at symbolism and understand symbolism and write about it and other things along those lines. I think we’ve talked about this before. But where do you guys come down? Both of you have written columns at various points, or are currently still writing columns, right?
AC: Yeah.
KS: Hell, yeah.
AC: I’m supposed to have one out today, but I don’t think it’s getting done.
KS: Other things.
CB: And that’s the part that actually worries me. Writing dailies, for example, I feel like would be super difficult.
KS: It’s intense. Dailies are intense.
CB: So you have done dailies, Kelly?
KS: Oh, yeah, for three or four years. And the column I had was with a cell phone or a mobile phone company in Australia, back when stuff was just starting to go out via phones. And they wanted specifically love-or-relationship-themed horoscopes. So it wasn’t even as though you could do general topics. Every day, “What is the love horoscope for this sign?” So it was very intense.
CB: Yeah. That’s even more restrictive.
KS: Yeah. I mean, in the end, after you’ve done a column for somewhere in the three-to-five-year range, you sort of get to the point where you’re like, “Okay, I’d like to try a different format or a different focus.” And, Austin, you might have noticed that over your years of doing different columns, too.
AC: Yeah. Well, you know, I wrote under a pseudonym from 2005 to 2010, so it was at that five-year mark that I switched out of that. And I’ve switched it up a couple times. Not my name. I only switched my name once, but I started experimenting with dailies. You know, last year—actually one year ago—I switched from doing a weekly column to a ‘decan-ly’ column. And I’ve written monthlies and not written monthlies. Yeah, you gotta keep it fresh.
KS: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve had contracts over the years where I’ve written weeklies for magazines in different countries around the world. Monthlies. I found it to be really good for developing my vocab. You know, if you’ve got the same aspect happening that day, you’ve gotta put a different spin on it or find some different ideas. I also found it was really beneficial to help me really understand the nuances in some of the smaller cycles that we don’t normally pay attention to.
CB: Right.
KS: So something I often suggest to people to do, and I think that’s where Jo is coming from on Twitter. It’s just a really good practice for people to try.
AC: Well, and it will push your vocabulary to the max.
KS: Yeah.
AC: You can only refer to ‘dreamy Neptune’ so many times.
KS: Yeah. And depending on your editor, sometimes they’re like, “You can say that in one horoscope. And if you wanna talk about Neptune in each, you have to find a different way of saying it.”
AC: Yeah. Indeed. I discovered in, I think, 2014 that I could use ‘anesthetic’ to describe Neptune. And then I abused that ruthlessly to the point where an editor—shoutout to Jenn Zahrt—still makes fun of me for when I used ‘anesthetic’.
KS: Cuz you got obsessed.
AC: Yeah. You know, you only have so many adjectives and adverbs and all that. And so, I discovered the other day that it could be ‘analgesic Neptune’. Neptune has that pain-killing quality sometimes.
KS: Dulling the edges. So, Chris, we’re very excited about this, obviously.
AC: I think you should totally—and I don’t think that you should do it video or verbally. I think you should lock yourself in the ‘writing box’ and know our pain.
CB: Yeah. Well, and I know how much more painful that would be because I’m a slow, painstaking writer, with Saturn conjunct Mercury. But with video, I could probably just force myself to just write some bullet points and like say it for each sign. But 12 signs, actually, when I think about that, sounds like a lot. Having to write 12 separate columns, I don’t know.
KS: Do you have a word count if you were to write? Or do you have a time limit? How are you gonna structure it? Is it 200 words a sign, or two minutes a sign? Or is it 10 minutes a sign and 500 words a sign?
CB: Yeah, I don’t know. I haven’t thought out any of that. I just thought it would be a really interesting challenge to see how many advanced astrology concepts I could take. Cuz one of the things is I really admire you guys and your ability to do that and to do what we do on these forecast episodes, where we talk about the alignments, generally speaking, and how some of them might manifest. I’ve always relied on you guys almost as a crutch for that, because my primary focus has always been natal astrology, and secondarily, electional astrology, and I’m always focused on working on individual charts and the individual manifestation of how a specific transit is gonna result in a person’s life. And so, it’s not a strength that’s as well-developed for me, being able to talk about mundane transits just in general. But I think I could approach that better and would have a much easier time if I was talking about it with respect to specific rising signs. Because then it’s basically just like you’re using whole sign houses, you’re talking about the chart as if it’s the person’s rising sign, or derivative houses from their Sun sign, and then just see what techniques I can throw at that from my normal toolbox that would be useful and informative and things like that. Obviously, it’ll still have its limitations. Like I’m thinking about things like sect, that I may not be able to use sect. Or if I refer to sect, I’m gonna have to almost explain it very quickly in the process. But this will be an interesting challenge.
AC: Chris, one thing I did in regard to that is in the horoscope section, there’s a little disclaimer like, “Hey, these are horoscopes. This is not the same as an in-depth chart reading, but there’s some value here.” And I suggest that people read their Sun sign if they’re born during the day and that they read from the Moon—if they know it—if they’re born during the night. So at least you’re drawing houses from the sect light rather than just one point.
CB: That totally makes sense. Yeah, so, I don’t know. I hope that doesn’t, I don’t know, water-down my brand or something like that. I know some people have mentioned that as a potential downside. But I always thought it would be an interesting experiment or challenge to try, so I might give it a shot in the next month or two.
AC: Yeah, you should just do it. You should do it at least once.
KS: Yeah!
AC: You know, brand concerns aside, it’s a lot of work. It’s gonna take up a lot of ‘mental’ real estate.
KS: Yeah.
AC: And so, knowing your schedule, I somewhat doubt you could do all of that and what you’re doing already, but, you know, who knows.
CB: Yeah, yeah. I don’t want it to become this noose around my neck. Like I remember hanging out years ago at conferences with Rick Levine, and we’d be hanging out and having great conversations about synchronicity and arguing about whether astrology was causal or acausal, and then it would be like three in the morning. And he’d say, “Well, I’ve gotta go. I’ve gotta go write my daily column.”
KS: Yeah.
AC: I’ve been there with Rick for exactly that moment several times.
CB: Right.
AC: I’m like, “Really? At 3:30 in the morning, you can do that?” I might have to, but I can’t at 3:30.
KS: I’ve done that a few times when I was doing a weekly for a newspaper in Sydney. I don’t know how I would get it done, but it’d be midnight, and I’d be like, “Far out,” and just smash it out.
CB: Yeah. And I don’t think I have that kind of discipline, so I could never do dailies. But we’ll see. We’ll see if I can get it together and do monthlies here.
KS: Yeah, try monthly. I think it’d be really interesting for people to hear how you find the experience.
CB: Yeah. Maybe I can do a report next month when I say, “I’m never doing this again.”
AC: A little ‘Mars retrograde’ experiment.
CB: Yeah, we’ll see how it goes. All right, well, that was my pre-show discussion. That’s really all I’ve got. But maybe it’s a good time to transition into talking about the main topic for this episode, which is the forecast for July. Are you guys ready to get into it?
AC: As ready as I’m gonna be.
KS: Yeah.
CB: All right, so let’s just start with the chart for the first day of July to get our grounding, because we’re recording this about a week early. So we’re still in the thick of Mars just getting ready to station retrograde. Neptune recently stationed as well. So we’re still kinda in the thick of the main transits that we were talking about last month for June, so it might be good to start off with just where we’re gonna be in about a week-and-a-half here, on July 1.
AC: That’s a good idea.
CB: Okay. So here then is the chart—for those watching the video version—for July 1, at about noon, here in Denver. So we start off the month—just to give a quick rundown of the planets—the Sun obviously a week from now, after the solstice, is gonna be around 9° of Cancer. Mercury is in Leo. It’s gonna be in Leo for the entirety of July, cuz it’s gonna slow down and go retrograde there later this month. Venus is in Leo as well, and the North Node is also in Leo. Jupiter, of course, is in Scorpio, where it’s actually gonna station direct later this month. And that’s one of the most positive, I think, transits that all of us are gonna focus on as the silver lining to what otherwise looks like a pretty tense month towards the end, around the time of the Full Moon. Saturn and Pluto, of course, are in Capricorn. Mars is retrograde in Aquarius. And Uranus is obviously still Taurus for its second month, and Neptune is in Pisces. So where do we start for July? Or what’s the first thing? Do we want to focus on the major highlights of July? Or do we want to go through chronologically with the first week?
AC: Let’s do some chronological.
KS: I think that’s a little easier for people to follow.
CB: Yeah.
AC: So the thing that stands out about the first couple of days of July is that we have Mercury in Leo, which has very recently ingressed. It entered Leo at the very end of June. And so, it’s not so much that Mercury’s in Leo that draws my attention. It’s that it spends those first couple of days opposing Mars, which had just stationed retrograde less than a week before. So that Mars is broadcasting strong. And so, if you remember the basics of astrology, Mercury often holds the megaphone up to whatever planets it strongly aspects. And so, we have all of that ‘red beam’ coming from Mars being given a megaphone by Mercury. And so, that means inflamed communications, agitated thought processes, potentially harsh words, etc., etc. You know, ‘adrenalized’ thinking.
KS: Yeah, I agree completely, Austin. The Mercury-Mars opposition looks like July 5. I think there is a little bit of that maybe mental angst just with the Mars-South Node together anyway. I completely agree with what you’re saying that when Mercury does apply to that Mars, it’s gonna come out, and we’re gonna hear maybe not necessarily the happiest things, or we’re going to find a way to express things that need to be said, that might be a little bit contentious.
AC: Yeah. You know, with Mercury planning on spending so long in Leo, there’s a lot that needs to get figured out and it doesn’t start in a clear way at all. It starts with Mercury sextiling—or excuse me, Mercury squaring Uranus in Taurus right upon entry into Leo, right? So that’s kind of a shock or a reorienting or a disorienting of the conversation and the thought process. And then Mercury heads directly into Mars. And then after opposing Mars, Mercury will then begin to slow down and dwell in the territory that it encountered just past opposition to Mars, right? You know, Leo is not the easiest place for Mercury to be, right? Like Mercury needs the temperature turned down a little bit. It needs things to be a little cooler to facilitate that objective quality which Mercury has, that logical, objective quality. And the presence of the North Node in Leo is not helpful for that clarity or calmness that Mercury does well within.
CB: Yeah. And to give some dates, it’s like Mercury is already in Leo—of course, as you’ve said—by the beginning of the month. So it’s already headed for that opposition with Mars right from the get-go. But eventually it peaks, and it reaches the exact opposition, it looks like around July 4-July 5, at 8° of Leo and 8° of Aquarius. So that’s the sort of peak of that aspect in terms of the opposition and some of what you’re talking about there. And then eventually the retrograde station happens later in the month, about July 25th or 26th.
AC: And what does Mercury come back to? What is the direct station degree? I don’t remember it offhand.
KS: I’m gonna check for you guys. I just looked.
CB: It looks like 11.
KS: Mid-somewhere 11.
AC: Okay.
KS: Yeah, so it doesn’t come back. We only get one of the Mercury-Mars oppositions.
AC: Right. Yeah, I knew it didn’t hit it again. I just didn’t remember. You know, Mars has run back to Capricorn by then.
KS: Yeah.
AC: But, yeah, I just didn’t remember how far back it went. Thank you.
CB: I mean, that is interesting, though. Cuz that means very shortly after it hits that opposition with Mars at 8-9 Leo, it hits the shadow period just two days later. On July 7, it’ll reach 11° of Leo, which is the degree it’ll retrograde back to. So there’s something about events that start clustering and taking place or start forming around that time that aren’t gonna be finished or are gonna be a precursor to events when Mercury returns back to that degree about a month later.
AC: Yeah. I wonder—just looking at that now, just thinking about Mercury in Leo that long. It makes me wonder if one of the themes that’s gonna be involved is like a struggle to uncover a truth that can be seen. A struggle to show people what’s really going on in whatever area of life, big or small. You know, when you’re looking at fire signs—especially Leo, because it’s the sign of the Sun—things get very visual, right? The Sun doesn’t speak, the Sun shows, right? The Sun communicates by illuminating so you can see things. And so, I don’t know. And also, just take into consideration that Mars-South Node in Aquarius opposite. You know, Aquarius is interested in the truth, the ‘real’ truth. I don’t know. Seems like there’s some cutting through, sorting through images that’s happening there with Mercury, like rethinking the way you see a situation. Rethinking the way you present yourself or someone sees you. You know, rethinking optics.
KS: Yeah. To pick up what you’re saying, Austin, about how being in such a ‘hot’ sign can be a little bit tricky for Mercury, it feels like Mercury’s not at its most articulate best. That there’s this struggle to find the language or to describe or express exacerbated by the Mercury-Mars opposition. That it may not be smooth, even if you’re talking about something very pivotal or significant.
AC: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
KS: Yeah, so that’s definitely a start to the month.
CB: Yeah. I mean, that’s basically the first week or the end of the first week—the tension building in that opposition and then eventually culminating there around the 4th and 5th, towards the first week of the month with some of the verbal sparring or sort of ‘argumentative-ness’ that sometimes comes along with a Mercury-Mars opposition.
AC: Yeah. And in addition to that sort of embodiment of the transit, it’s also just not good for ‘Mercury’ things, right? Like the ‘Mercury-Mars’ stuff will show up when people are traveling. Whenever Mercury is afflicted—like it’s opposed by a retrograde malefic—you get some of the kinds of effects people associate with Mercury retrograde, cuz that’s the only affliction to Mercury that they’re aware of, and it’ll be ‘martially’ themed. But whenever Mercury’s getting beat up on transportation, communication, cogitation—these things get interfered with.
KS: Yeah. The only other thing to briefly mention in this first part of July is that we have the Sun moving through the trines to Jupiter and Neptune.
AC: Thank God.
KS: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, this is interesting. Cuz over the last few weeks, we’ve had Venus go through this part of the sky, and as we’re recording this, we’ve just had Mercury go through this part of the sky. So I am sort of intrigued as to how we’ll see that bring, potentially, some ease or collaboration or a point of connection or agreement. But it’s a contrasting influence: Sun trine Jupiter, same day, July 5, and then Sun trine Neptune, I think that comes in around the 8th.
AC: Yeah. Well, and it’s interesting, cuz I don’t think this is a situation where one fights it out with the other and then you get a neutralization result. I think you’ll get both the grand water trine. Even if it’s a trine between Jupiter and Neptune and the Sun in water signs, there’s like some nice sort of fuzzy, deeper harmony that you’ll get from that. But it also is more emotional than normal. It brings those waters to the surface. But then you have this Mercury-Mars opposition just relatively unconfigured, right? Both of them loosely square Jupiter, but they’re not really hooked into Pisces or Cancer. And so, it’s a little bit more like there’s this ‘super-frictive’ note that’ll fire up and people get mad, and then there’s this other slow-cooking in the sauna. ‘Slow-cooking in the hot tub, water trine’ thing. And I think you’ll get both rather than one canceling the other.
KS: Totally. It feels like one area of life is getting this, and maybe one area of life is getting the other thing.
AC: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
CB: This made some of the elections for the first part of the month difficult. Because even though Leisa found some good charts that we’ll talk about in the Auspicious Elections Podcast for this month, it’s like a lot of it gets ruined by really not wanting to recommend people start something pivotal—like a marriage or a business—during this week, where you have that Mercury-Mars opposition still forming and kind of wanting to wait until at least after it’s separating, after the 4th or 5th.
AC: Yeah, I’d be very careful around that.
CB: Sure.
AC: And it’s worth noting that that opposition occurs on top of the nodes, which I mentioned briefly. But Mars on the South Node, Mercury on the North—that presence on the ‘dragon’ axis only makes things more complicated and powerful.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Sure. So eventually we get a little bit of a break. And once Mercury clears Mars at least, it does apply to Jupiter, which is a nice, little ameliorating thing that happens immediately afterwards, in addition to the Sun applying to Jupiter and Neptune for a few days during that time period as well. So it’s almost like there’s a brief sort of respite after some of those tensions that culminate towards the end of the first week.
AC: Yeah. And there might also be some repair or remediation for some of the difficulties that the Mars-Mercury opposition caused. One, because Jupiter likes to fix things and make them better, and two, it’s because Jupiter’s in a Mars-ruled sign. And so, Jupiter’s job in Scorpio, as we talked about it, is to fix or do what you can with ‘Mars’ damage, right? Like somebody attacked you, but you get justice, right? Or you got into a fight, but you made up. Or you had a falling out with someone, but you kinda figured out how you can reconcile, right? Jupiter’s, in a sense, coming in after—well, in several senses, coming in after Mars and in Mars’ territory to possibly figure out, repair, or healing from it.
CB: Yeah. I like that keyword of ‘healing’. Cuz that’s like a really good, core way of getting to what the function, like the worldly function of the malefics and benefics have. The malefics sometimes have this natural function to break things apart, and the benefics have this natural function to heal or to repair things.
AC: Right. To reunite, to create coherence between pieces that might have become separate.
KS: Yeah, the coherence and the stabilization. So the instability of Mercury-Mars finding some sort of stable ground by the time Mercury gets to Jupiter. I think that’s July 9, which I think is also the day Venus slips into Virgo or thereabouts.
CB: Yeah, it’s very close to that. So that actually brings me to the election this month, which is actually July 9. So I was actually gonna have Leisa join us. We were gonna have her come in a different window and just join us in Zoom, but we couldn’t get her microphone to work. So we’re thinking about just having her join us here and sit next to me to talk about the election for this month, which is on July 9. Would that be cool with you guys?
AC: Absolutely.
KS: Oh, totally. I’m excited to see Leisa.
CB: Let me go find her. You guys talk about July 9 or something, and I’ll be right back.
AC: Nope. I’m gonna go pee.
KS: Okay, I’ll talk.
AC: I was waiting for my moment. I’ll be right back.
KS: It’s fine.
CB: All right.
KS: That’s fine. So I guess I’ll just give some thoughts about Venus going into Virgo. One of the things I thought about this is Venus just calming down a little bit. I think Venus in Leo has some great qualities, but it is Venus in a more dramatic sign. Leo is not the most rational sign, as we were saying before. So I think that is also gonna help maybe cool tempers or calm things. I know Venus is not in great dignity in Virgo, but there is a practical quality for her there. So I think Venus moving into Virgo on July 9 can just take some of that edge off. There you go! Hey, Leisa.
LEISA SCHAIM: Hey, Kelly.
CB: Hey.
KS: And, Chris—do you have enough room there?
LS: Sort of.
CB: Yeah, yeah. I think we’ll be okay. So we were just gonna talk about the election.
KS: Yeah, so tell us what made you choose this chart.
CB: So let me put the chart up first. Hold on. This is not the correct chart. So let me find the correct chart.
KS: Fantastic. So it was a bit tricky this month, Leisa, working with the Mercury-Mars. Yeah, you don’t really want to stick that in anyone’s wedding chart, do you?
LS: No. Yeah, definitely not for things like weddings and even for some other things. Yeah, I think you all covered that pretty well. Yeah, so this is a little bit after that, and you were all talking about the 9th. So this is a Taurus rising chart. It’s one of the rising signs that can get Venus and Jupiter angular without emphasizing Mars too much. Because it ends up being a night chart, Mars is more constructive in a night chart. And then the Mercury-Mars opposition has passed, as you all were talking about.
KS: Oh, and you get the Mercury-Jupiter square.
LS: Yeah. This is actually the day that it goes exact. So even though that wasn’t ruling the ascendant or anything, it’s a nice bonus. So there’s Mercury in Leo in the 4th applying to square Jupiter in the 7th, almost exactly. And then it’s Taurus rising. So you’ve got Venus in the last degree of Leo in the 4th house, and it’s a night chart. So Venus is the benefic-of-the-sect, so that’s lovely.
CB: I think I messed up the data, but we should give the data. So it’s July 9, 2018, at 1:40 AM, local time.
KS: So it’s a later degree, okay.
CB: Yeah. Somehow I cast it with Uranus right on the ascendant, but I don’t think that was the original choice.
KS: I thought that was interesting. I’m like, “What are we gonna do with Uranus on the ascendant?”
AC: Yeah, I had the same thought.
CB: Yeah, that was my typo. So the time is 1:40 AM, with about 13° or so of Taurus rising. So Uranus is in the first whole sign house. So we are now in the decade of anytime you have a fixed sign rising, you’re gonna get Uranus angular, at least by whole sign house. Or anytime you do Taurus rising, you’re gonna get Uranus in the first whole sign house, but that’s unavoidable. So it’s sort of something we just have to deal with.
KS: Well, and this time puts the Mercury-Jupiter square—it puts Jupiter on the angle, if you like. So it just helps emphasize Jupiter.
LS: Right.
KS: Okay, cool. And this is for the night owls. I like that.
LS: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting. I was wondering when I was trying to make some appointments and things for July why it was hard to get good times. And I realized after finally going systematically through the entire month that all the good times were late at night. Not good for business hour appointments, but if you stay up or get up early.
CB: Yeah. And this is partially meant to be a sort of fixed star election as well. Because it has Taurus rising, with Venus in the very last degree of Leo, sort of within about a degree of conjoining the fixed star Regulus. So it’s definitely focused more on the 4th house, because the ruler of the ascendant’s in the 4th house. So it might be better for home matters or family matters or more private matters, cuz it’s emphasizing the 4th house and a lot of the planets are underneath the horizon. But it’s also just generally good because you have such an emphasis on Venus, its conjunction with Regulus, and the Moon in Taurus applying to, with reception, that square with Venus.
AC: Yeah, it certainly doesn’t hurt Venus at all to have a little ‘Regulus’ help.
LS: Yeah, I thought that was nice. You know, we were looking at another date later, once Venus goes into Virgo, which you can then have applying to Jupiter. But it’s kind of a toss-up as to which is better: Venus applying to Jupiter versus Venus not being in detriment.
AC: Yeah, I would agree with the call you made here.
CB: Yeah, it was a tight one, but it was just that debate between emphasizing application of benefics versus emphasizing sign-based dignity. But that’s something we’re gonna talk about and get into a little bit more, cuz we will present that as our alternative. Cuz that’s our second-favorite election of the month—a Taurus rising election with Venus in Virgo applying to a sextile with Jupiter. So we’ll talk about that a little bit more on the Auspicious Elections Podcast for patrons, and I’ll save that discussion for then. Cool. All right, well, I think that’s the election for the month.
LS: Yeah.
KS: That’s great. Thanks for coming in, Leisa, and sharing this with us.
LS: Yeah. Nice to see you all.
AC: It’s nice to hear you unpacking the choices that you made and the logic behind the elections. You know, Chris does a good job, but you actually were the one stressing about them. And so, it’s nice to hear your process.
LS: Yeah. Well, thanks. Yeah, it’s nice to see you all and be on here for a few minutes. Yeah, so I hope that this is a good chart from your recommendation as well. The thing that I was worried about a little bit was putting the ascendant later. That’s why I put Jupiter on the descendant. Because I know that if you do late Taurus, a lot of people are gonna think about Algol in terms of the ascendant. You know, 26°-27°. You could shift it down there and get like the midheaven into Aquarius instead of Capricorn, but then it depends on how much you take those things into account.
CB: Cool.
KS: I like this, yeah. I don’t think I would have done a late Taurus rising.
LS: Right.
CB: All right, and people can find out more about your website and your electional stuff at leisaschaim.com, right?
LS: Yep.
CB: Cool. All right, and we’ll record the Auspicious Elections episode in the next few days.
LS: Right. Sounds good.
CB: Cool.
LS: All right, nice to see you.
AC: Bye.
LS: Bye.
KS: Bye.
CB: See ya later.
KS: Super cool.
CB: Yeah. So that is the election for the month. And that is taking us to that first week of—no, the beginning of the second week of July, I guess, at this point. And the only thing that does start coming out at this point, that’s interesting—that was also mentioned—is of course we start getting that opposition of the Sun and Pluto, which is the only major downside to this chart, that is like the thing that comes after a bunch of those trines that we’d just been talking about. Do you guys know? That aspect must culminate around the 12th or something.
KS: The 12th. Yeah, at 20 Cancer/Cap.
CB: Okay. Let me pull up the animated chart.
KS: It’s right on the day of the eclipse. Well, the New Moon/partial eclipse, I think, is the same day, which is at 20 Cancer.
CB: Okay. And that’s our first lunation of the month on July 12, right?
KS: Yes, July 12.
CB: Okay. And this is funny. Well, on the one hand, normally, that would be something pretty striking and seemingly a little bit tense. What’s funny about this New Moon—almost exactly opposite Pluto, or very closely opposite Pluto at 20 Cancer and 20 Capricorn—is that that actually ends up looking kind of quaint compared to the Full Moon that takes place later in the month.
KS: It’s benign.
AC: The Full Moon—which June ends with—was conjunct Saturn within a degree or so.
CB: Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah.
AC: It’s a string of rough lunations.
KS: It is.
CB: So July was Saturn—or June was Saturn, and the July Full Moon will be Mars.
AC: Yep.
CB: Brilliant. All right, well, nonetheless, at least at this stage in the month, by July 12, we finally have the New Moon—our first lunation of the month—which is the New Moon at 20° of Cancer opposite to Pluto. And that’s really the main thing it’s closely configured with. It does have that separating trine from Neptune and a very wide separating trine from Jupiter, but it really seems like it’s primarily characterized by the opposition with Pluto.
AC: Yeah. And it’s one of those lunations that’s close enough to the nodes to be sort of shadowed but not quite a full eclipse. It’s one of those that makes you think about what your working definition of an eclipse is. You know, if nobody can visually see like a shadow, is that an eclipse? But, technically, it’s an eclipse. It’s one of those—
KS: On the edge.
AC: Yeah, those line-straddling eclipse-or-not.
KS: Yeah.
AC: To a certain degree it kind of just doubles-down on the ‘darkness’ theme. It’s the New Moon exactly opposite Pluto. We’re going to have to find shadow in the symbolism just based on that. And we also have this ‘shadow of an eclipse’ phenomenon.
KS: Yeah. Sorry, go, Chris.
CB: I was just gonna say I often feel like I end up falling more on the side of considering it to be an eclipse when it’s right on the edges, where you guys tend to be thinking that unless it’s fully visible, unless it’s much closer to the nodes, that it’s usually not considered an eclipse, right?
AC: Yeah. I mean, I think I was rather vociferous about one of these instances a few years ago. I don’t know. You know, it’s not the same thing.
KS: Definitely not.
AC: It’s important not to conflate a full solar eclipse with just a brush of shadow.
CB: Right.
AC: But it’s significant that there is a brush of shadow.
CB: Yeah.
KS: Different from a normal New Moon in that regard.
AC: Yeah.
CB: Part of the reason is that it’s not there yet—it’s something that’s building up. Cuz the nodes are getting ready to fall back or to retrograde back into Cancer and Capricorn, at which point, we will start having a series of eclipses taking place in those signs for a couple of years, in Cancer and Capricorn. But this is kind of like building up to that or is like a preview of that almost, cuz we get this little, barely, sorta mini, ‘almost’ eclipse that takes place, and it’s almost like a preview of what’s to come.
AC: Yeah, absolutely. And so, we get our first installment—the first full installment in the Cancer/Capricorn series six months from now, and then a year from now, it’ll be fully right in the middle of Cancer and Capricorn. And those will be fun, with eclipses on top of Saturn and Pluto.
CB: Right.
KS: Yeah. Definitely something to watch out for. But we get an eclipse on Mars that we’ll talk about later in this month. Yeah, I mean, the shadows, the darkness, you know how I put words together. Like a New Moon opposite Pluto, partial eclipse—it’s an invitation to explore ‘Pluto’ territory. And some of us will be maybe dragged in there, like Persephone, and others will be like, “Oh, that’s interesting. I might go in a little bit here.”
CB: I love that. That’s a great analogy. Yeah, I mean, going on a little bit of a temporary tour—a tourist attraction of darkness, like going to see one of those weird—
KS: Yeah, Dante’s ‘spheres’ or something. “I’ve come down to the first couple of circles, and I think I’ve had enough now.”
CB: Right.
KS: Yeah—sorry, go.
CB: Just dipping your toe into the third circle of hell, yeah.
KS: Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, we often do have such a dark interpretation of Pluto, and it is dark, but there can be some value in going a little deeper or questioning things that you normally skim across the surface of. And I’m not saying that’s comfortable, but I’m saying that it can still be a valuable process.
AC: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, a basement is dark, but you need to do maintenance down there, especially if there’s some flooding, or if you’ve got rats, right? You know, life entails the areas described by the malefics, right? There are a lot of things that aren’t pleasant. They have their own vibe, which just wouldn’t call them pleasant. But, yeah, New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto with a little shadow over it—emotional depth comes to mind as a theme.
KS: Yeah.
AC: You know, we still have Jupiter and Neptune holding it down in water signs, so there is this ‘water sign’ quality to it. But, yeah, I don’t know. Sometimes there’s that going deeper into something with that emotional exploratory quality with Pluto. Just as often I see the ‘welling-up’ of things from a deeper level. You know, like there will definitely be some feelings that’ll well up for a lot of people on the New Moon opposite Pluto. You know, I don’t know. My experience of those emotional depths with myself and my clients and all that is that a lot of times it’s almost like your sewer system burping up raw emotional sewage, but there are three or four high-quality gemstones hidden within it, and you have to sort through the muck to find the prize.
KS: Yeah. I mean, from a therapeutic perspective, it’s that idea of sitting with the uncomfortable emotions to see what they’re pointing you towards. What is the idea or the truth or the belief or the value that might be unconscious inside you? But you get there by thinking, “Well, I’m angry about this,” or “I’m really frustrated about this,” or “I feel controlled over here.” What does that point you to in terms of what needs your attention?
AC: Yeah.
CB: Right.
AC: What’s inside that feeling?
KS: Yeah, yeah.
CB: And your mention, Kelly, earlier—that was making me think of the idea of ‘ignorance is bliss’ and the notion of whether that’s true, and most people, if they were given a choice between seeing the truth, even if it was difficult, versus not. It’s kinda cliché, but like The Matrix. I can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years since The Matrix came out, but it’s still a good analogy of a ‘Pluto-type’ experience of Neo is woken up and realizes what the real world is, that there’s been this false world or illusion sorta pulled over everyone’s eyes, and oftentimes they’re given a choice. And like one of the people that has been woken up, Cypher, makes the choice to go back in and makes the statement that ‘ignorance is bliss’, whereas I think most people, when presented with that option of having that sudden revelation of what the truth of something is, would choose to keep that, even if it’s difficult or painful or traumatic. That’s what that New Moon opposite Pluto sort of feels like to me.
KS: Yeah. There’s a beautiful symbolism in this.
AC: Yeah, I don’t know. I think this one’s gonna burp up stuff that’s gonna need a lot of processing, and to a certain degree that’s based on what else happens over the ensuing weeks. You know, New Moons, lunations in general, have an effect beyond the moment at which they happen, right? And so, this is setting a stage, right? It’s a moment, but it’s also setting the stage for at least the next two weeks. And so, we also remember Mercury’s getting deeper into that shadow. Mars is on its way back to the South Node. You know, there’s complicated stuff getting churned up here, and the New Moon speaks to that. Speaks to the depth, the layer from which the stuff to be churned and processed and separated and sorted is coming up.
KS: Yeah. And it’s that recognition that you won’t churn and sort and separate all in this one, 24-hour period. You will be mulling it over and ruminating it and attempting to digest it for at least the next two weeks, as we move into the next lunation.
CB: Sure. And one of those you mentioned, Austin, that comes up just a week after this and goes exact is Mars finally retrograding and conjoining the South Node.
KS: Yeah. And this is the second activation of this. The first activation was around the 7th or the 8th of June.
CB: Okay. And it looks like this one goes exact around July 20.
KS: Yeah, July 20 at 5 Aquarius.
CB: Okay. Let’s see. So that’s the same day as the Moon-Jupiter conjunction at 13 Scorpio.
KS: Yes.
CB: Mercury, of course, is getting ready to station retrograde, and is only about a little under a week away from doing so. So this is the thing you’ve already talked a bit about, Austin, I believe, earlier, with the Mars-South Node conjunction.
AC: We talked about it a fair amount last month. I did mention it earlier. Both Mars and the South Node have their own variety of fire, and there’s this separating/purifying quality, well, to the South Node especially. You know, Mars-South Node—there’s a lot there around retreat or pulling back or withdrawing from identification and engagement: engagement with external things and relationships, identification with internal patterns. It’s purifying, but it’s harsh. As I believe I mentioned last month, there was an event some years ago where a bunch of people died in a sweat lodge during a Mars-South Node conjunction. And that’s purifying, and it’s heat—that’s Mars-South Node. But it’s easy to go excessive with that and we’re still very much in process with the Mars retrograde. You know, with retrogrades—especially Mars and Venus and Mercury—there’s this sort of different side of the story coming out during different points in the retrograde, and I find it to be generally best practice to not jump ahead to conclusions in relatively early days. This is less than three weeks into a cycle that is gonna last for a solid two months. And so, you want to beware of burning too bright or trying to burn a relationship that has problems—like pulling out completely—rather than just getting some distance. In general, I think ‘good medicine’ for this Mars retrograde is get space, because there’s a lot of stuff that can be processed with a little space. You know, relationally speaking, you might think you need to totally separate from a person or a situation, but just start with a little space and see if that doesn’t do the trick to give you the room to do the burning and changing that you need to do.
KS: Yeah, that idea of space and distance has been something I have definitely had in mind for this Mars retro on the South Node. You know, thinking about those themes of Aquarius being quite self-contained or self-sufficient or even self-reliant, and that idea of if you are feeling really irritated or angry, some alone time or some space—like therapeutic distance or healthy distance, if you like—definitely comes through. You know, I had this really great word—but I was like, “Austin should totally approve of this word,”—which is the idea of ‘severing’ with this Mars-South Node. Because Mars is still in process, or still mid-retrograde, you don’t want to prematurely sever or cut something away. But it’s becoming aware of something that might be a little bit festering and then figuring out what are we gonna do to manage this, if you like. So it’s revelatory, if you like. And even as I think about the themes of what we’re saying for this Mars-South Node, plus what we said a week earlier with the New Moon on Pluto, things are coming to light. Things are being stirred up. And they’re not ‘happy, sunshine, and roses’ things, they are darker things or frustrating things or annoyances, but now is the time to attend to those with a sense of mindfulness, if you like.
AC: Yeah.
CB: The glyph for Mars very early in the tradition—about 2,000 years ago—they didn’t really have glyphs yet. They were just writing the words out for the names of the planets, like ‘Zeus’ and ‘Helios’, and whatever, ‘Ares’. But in Demotic, in the Egyptian tradition, they did actually start developing some glyphs, and the glyph for Mars was actually a knife. But it makes me think of that, Kelly, when you say ‘severing’ is the main keyword this month for Mars.
KS: Yeah. I mean, I always think of one thing when I do a little bit of medical astro—the idea of Mars as the ‘surgeon’s knife’, and sometimes that idea it can be a weapon, and this weapon can stab you in the heart and you’ll die, or you can use it to cut away a cancer from which you can make full recovery. So it’s the weapon becomes positive or negative, or productive/destructive in the hands of the user. And so, I think a lot of what we’re saying is this is the territory and it’s what you do with it. You can be really destructive if you fly off the handle and tell someone just to get out, or if you think, “I’m gonna take a step back and maybe breathe before I act or react,” then you could have something more productive come out of this.
AC: Yeah, definitely. And also, everybody needs to remember that you might be the person going through this. And so, you need to kinda watch your temper, get some space. Also, this could be your friend, or this could be your partner, or this could be your mom, and recognizing that people being in this kind of space is going to be going around, and that the answer might not just be you getting space but giving people space, even if they don’t know how to ask for it, so that you don’t accidentally step on a landmine.
KS: That’s a great point, Austin. Yeah, recognizing that space could be the solution, even if the other person in the situation isn’t aware of that.
AC: Yeah.
CB: And the challenge with—
AC: Go ahead.
CB: I was just gonna say the challenge with Mars is always, what is a necessary or an important or conductive cutting out of something in your life, if something needs to be removed? Like surgeons have to cut out or remove a cancer from somebody that’s growing. Like what’s a productive version of that versus the other side of Mars, which is problematic? Which can be impulsiveness or going too far or blowing something out of proportion in the heat of the moment and perhaps cutting or severing a relationship that was important, that if you were not so heated you might have wanted to actually keep around. Or in a few weeks or a few months, once things cool down, that you might regret having impulsively cut out from your life.
AC: Yep, exactly. For example, we don’t casually do surgery, right?
KS: No.
AC: You might casually take some ibuprofen or even antibiotics, but ‘martial’ healing is martial, right?
KS: Yes.
AC: And so, you don’t just cut off your foot because, I don’t know, it kinda seems like a problem.
KS: It’s hurting a bit.
AC: Right. It can be very difficult to reattach those things later.
KS: That’s a beautiful point, Austin. Yeah, don’t do surgery, the symbolism of surgery rashly, I guess, without some consideration first, recognizing that it may be permanent.
CB: And people could apply this to their charts just by thinking about, one, is Mars and that Mars station, or that conjunction with the South Node hitting a sensitive part of your chart? Especially is it aspecting through a hard aspect, like a conjunction, a square, an opposition within especially a degree, but maybe even 3° to an important planet in your chart? And if it is, secondarily, what house is it falling in, in your chart, as being a potential area where there could be this theme of severing or separation or strife?
AC: Yeah, yeah. Well, and one of the things that’s tied to this is, generally speaking, when we do a ‘Mars’ separation with a person or a situation, it is deeply related to issues of power, right? Like this person won’t let us be ourselves, so we separate from them, right? Or this person is attacking me. Or I feel attacked by this person or situation, and so, I separate myself from it, right? When we feel like we need to defend, that’s a moment of withdrawal and separation, even if it’s just the emotional separation that begins as soon as you enter conflict with someone, even if you’re deeply connected to them.
CB: Definitely. So, yeah, just do that through the houses, looking at what I was saying—different people—where that separation could occur in the life. Like 4th house, parents. 5th house, siblings. 7th house relationships. 10th house, your career. 11th house, your friends, and so on and so forth.
KS: Yeah, that’s a really good tip for people who are thinking, “How is this gonna affect me?” Yeah, just have a look at the house of the Mars-South Node. You know, we’ve got the Mars-South Node conjunction on July 20, which is basically just a precursor to what’s coming up a week later.
AC: Yeah. And also, it’s not like these issues are gonna introduce themselves out of nowhere on July 20.
KS: No.
AC: You know, it should be pretty clear what area of life that Mars is landing in, even before the retrograde station in June. It’ll only be a surprise if you’ve been totally ignoring that area.
KS: Yeah. And that’s a good point, too, Austin, because this is the second Mars-South Node conjunction. The first one came through in those first 10 days of June. The first 10 to 12 days of June. So, yeah, if you’ve been paying attention, if you’re aware of your process, if you’re aware of your life, think back to events from then, and we’re just looking at the second act in a story that began in early June.
AC: Yeah. Kelly, I think you just said something that was running through my mind, which is that this Mars-South Node dynamic—this is a preview. This is gonna be put on blast during the eclipse. The lunar eclipse right on top of Mars and the South Node at the end of the month.
KS: Yeah. Do you want to just—before we get there, Chris?
CB: Yeah, I was just gonna say before we get there, cuz I skipped over and jumped to the Mars-South Node conjunction right after the New Moon. Was there anything between the New Moon in Cancer and the Mars-South Node conjunction that we need to talk about? I mean, I don’t have anything written down, but I wanted to make sure.
KS: Only lunar aspects, I think.
AC: Yeah, it’s just kinda working with what the New Moon offered up.
CB: Okay.
AC: Oh, there’s Jupiter’s direct station, right? Or are we not quite there?
KS: It’s just before the New Moon, the Jupiter station. I think it’s the 10th.
AC: Okay, so we skipped that.
CB: Yeah. So one of the things we did before we started talking, we all agreed that the Full Moon eclipse at the end of the month seemed like a really tense and really problematic aspect. And we wanted to see if there’s any other major, really positive alignments that we could focus on to kinda balance it out, so that it’s not all ‘doom and gloom’ discussion. And the one thing I think we all agreed on was Jupiter stationing direct at 13° of Scorpio towards the middle of the month was one of the more positive things that’s gonna happen this month. If we were gonna try to emphasize something that was really positive, that’s the one aspect that we would really focus on to try to hype up as a sort of counterbalancing influence.
AC: Yeah, it’s favorable. I don’t know about hype.
CB: Yeah, yeah. I think sometimes one of the criticisms of astrologers is they can focus too much on the negative things, and surely, there’s gotta be some positive things going on for somebody, somewhere. And so, our thing was just that if we were gonna try to highlight what the most positive thing was this month, that Jupiter station seems to be it.
AC: Yeah, I think it’s useful, and it’s particularly useful in the context of all the stuff that’s getting churned up this month. One reason being that Jupiter is in Mars’ sign, so there’s helping to learn from the ‘Mars’ stuff that’s going down, right? To learn from its repair. Furthermore, I don’t know, when I kind of feel out the themes of Jupiter in Scorpio, I keep being led back to the idea of brewing medicine from poison. And that’s not just like a magical metaphor. There are a great number of real medicines that start as nature’s poisons.
KS: Yes.
AC: And there’s a fair amount of poison going around this month, and so, therefore, we have a lot of base material to make medicine.
KS: To transmute, yeah. I mean, Jupiter station direct is bringing a sense of, okay, now we’re gonna just carry forward. Whether it’s the medicine-making, or whether it’s just whatever things you’re dealing with, with Jupiter in Scorpio, we get to push forward. We get to maybe restart, if that’s been a little slow. But it definitely feels like, look, relatively speaking, even I cannot say this is enough to counteract the South Node eclipse at the end of the month, but it is something that I think is gonna give a little lift at the start of the month. And it’s ‘close-ish’ to when the Sun trines Jupiter. So there is something that is sort of tweaking or showing a sense of hope perhaps.
AC: Yeah. I think the single word that I would use for Jupiter going direct is that it’s ‘useful’.
KS: Yeah. You can do something productive or constructive with it, I guess.
AC: Yeah, I think it’s exactly kinda what we need for this month. It’s not just like a disconnected good thing, which may balance out some of the bad things. It’s actually the kind of good thing that you need to work with the difficult things.
KS: Yeah, that’s a really good point, Austin, because of course Jupiter is in Mars’ sign. So it is giving a little lift.
CB: Yeah.
AC: And it’s not exactly aspecting, but it’s not that far off squaring that nodal axis. You know, Mercury is squaring it. You know, like Mars doesn’t get a full 10° away from Jupiter. You know, Jupiter can see all that happening pretty clearly.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. I mean, if this was a natal chart—and I was looking at this—that would be major. If this was a day chart, for example, you would have Mars indicating the problematic area—wherever it falls, especially by house—and indicating an area of strife or difficulty. But then having Jupiter in that superior, sign-based square overcoming Mars with reception would be a major mitigating factor, where there’s this ‘yes, but’, there is a counterbalancing indication of something positive that comes after, that makes that Mars not as bad as it could be, in balancing it out and restraining it somewhat. Or at least if it can’t restrain it, having the ‘positive healing’ thing that comes afterwards, so that there’s the initial injury, but then there’s later a chance to have it reconciled or have it be healed in some way, so that you can still be productive and it’s not worst-case scenario.
AC: Yeah. Well, and it’s worth noting that the story the Moon is going to tell a number of different times, right? So whenever the Moon is in, for example, a fixed sign, first, it’s gonna aspect Mars and then it’s gonna aspect Jupiter. We’re gonna get that. It’s gonna be one and then the other. It’s gonna be Mars first and then Jupiter as far as the way that the Moon activates that pairing.
CB: Yeah, I like that.
KS: Yeah, that’s really nice, Austin. It’s like you get really annoyed about something, and then we can all know that within a relatively short space of time, there is some sort of perspective or context that comes in that can help you channel that anger into something a little bit better than just, “I hate you, leave.”
AC: Right. Or you get into a little something, and then you’re like, “Hold on. Okay, there’s some good stuff that came up.”
KS: Yeah. “We can work with this.”
AC: “We should talk about this.”
KS: Yeah.
CB: Okay.
KS: So then we have to now go where we—
CB: Yeah.
KS: There is no more delaying.
CB: Now that we’ve said all of that, now we can move onto the last part of the month and the second lunation that occurs, which is—it’s a lot of things. So it’s not only a Full Moon. So the second lunation of the month is a Full Moon that takes place towards the end of July, on July 27. And the Moon makes it to 4° of Aquarius, where it opposes the Sun at 4° of Leo. And of course every time the Moon opposes the Sun, that’s when a Full Moon takes place. But this also happens to take place very close to the nodal axis, where the North Node is at 5° of Leo and the South Node is at 5° of Aquarius. So the Sun and Moon are opposing each other within a degree of the nodal axis, so therefore, this is also a lunar eclipse. And this lunar eclipse is also taking place very close to Mars, which is at 3° of Aquarius, retrograde at this point. So Mars is at 3 Aquarius conjoining the Moon at 4 Aquarius and conjoining the South Node at 5 Aquarius. And then if all of that wasn’t enough, all of this is squaring Uranus, which has freshly ingressed into Taurus a few weeks, and therefore, had made it up to 2° of Taurus at this point, which is close enough to form a pretty close, pretty tight square from 2° of Taurus to Mars at 3 Aquarius and to the luminaries at 4 Aquarius and 4 Leo. And then there’s one other thing, which is that it’s not just that all that’s happening. But almost simultaneously Mercury, of course, is stationing retrograde at 23 Leo on July 25th and 26th and 27th, basically. So it’s slowing down and stationing almost simultaneously, right around the same time that this lunar eclipse takes place.
AC: Yep.
KS: Yes. July 26th, 27th, 28th—there’s just more happening astrologically on those few dates this month than any other day. Mercury retrograde. The eclipse. The Sun-Mars opposition becomes exact, just to add extra heat, basically.
CB: Yeah. It’s like any one of those things would have drawn your attention in a normal month.
KS: Yeah.
CB: But then you add like four or five of them together, all occurring at the same time, basically.
KS: Yeah. And it’s a very spectacular event in terms of just how tight the lunation is to the nodes itself. Like that would be phenomenal by itself. I’ve been talking with clients who’ve got very early Aquarius placements or even early Leo placements about the volatility and the combustibility, like the combustible nature of this. This is where—once the Moon comes in—everything we were talking about with Mars-South Node, it just gets heightened. It goes to the ‘nth’ degree, because it’s much harder to contain emotional ‘reactive-ness’ when the Moon and Mars are together. It’s almost like a signature thing that happens when the Moon and Mars get together. And we’re getting the Moon and Mars get-together this month under very unique and unusual circumstances.
AC: Yeah. And it’s worth noting that this is the day after the Sun-Mars opposition. And the Sun-Mars opposition is the brightest point in the entire Mars cycle, and it’s the dead center of the retrograde. It’s parallel to, for example, the Mercury-Sun conjunction, which happens in the middle of every Mercury retrograde. But for Mars and the other superior planets, it’s the opposition rather than the conjunction with the Sun that defines ‘the middle’. And so, that’s always a key point in the Mars retrograde cycle and it just so happens that we get a total lunar eclipse here. It’s interesting because it ties a lot of our different factors together, our sort of longer-term, ‘this year’ factors, right? It ties the Mars retrograde—which is one of this year’s big things—together with Uranus in Taurus—which is one of this year’s big things—with the eclipse cycle, right? And so, there are a lot of consequential things that are all wrapped up into this one lunation. And then Mercury retrograde station for bonus points, right?
KS: Yeah.
CB: And the eclipse cycle you mentioned is like a series of eclipses that have been bouncing back and forth between Leo and Aquarius for the past year or so.
AC: You know, it’s funny, because last year we had the big solar eclipse in Leo. The total solar eclipse in Leo was the big story. And so, this year, we get a big lunar eclipse—a total lunar eclipse in Aquarius. We have sort of the lunar-South Node complement to the North Node-solar one from last year. And so, I’m personally very interested in what this is going to look like in the newspapers. It’s just too much for larger events to not pivot around. And that doesn’t mean that they pivot the second it happens, right? With a lunar eclipse, generally speaking, traditionally, it basically gets a month to unpack itself. There’ll probably be some things around the lunar eclipse, but you wanna wait for that cycle to sorta show you everything it’s got over the next month or so.
CB: Yeah, I mean, at least. To the extent that eclipses are only happening every six months, and so, they’re almost setting a precedent in bringing to culmination or completion things that have been building up for six months, since the previous set of eclipses, and sometimes setting a new—not new cycle completely—but at least a continuation of something that might not fully resolve until the next set of eclipses six months later.
AC: Yeah. Well, and generally, ‘solars’ get six months and ‘lunars’ get a month. I mean, that’s a position you will see a lot of traditional texts take, but what you’re saying is also true. And also, to a certain degree, the entire transit of the nodes through Leo and Aquarius can be seen meaningfully as one process with important shifts and installments every six months. And so, we are very close to the end. I believe we have one more eclipse on this axis before we’re done, once we complete these third quarter eclipses.
CB: Right. So that’s gonna be, what? Six months from then? So in like January?
AC: Yeah, yeah. The ones in January are half into the new cycle and half completing the old, which the eclipses do.
CB: Okay. So we’re moving away from Leo/Aquarius axis to Cancer/Capricorn?
AC: Mm-hmm.
KS: Yeah. It looks like January, we have an eclipse in Capricorn and an eclipse very early in Leo.
CB: For some people, it’ll be interesting to see if this does coincide with a major event for you, this Aquarius eclipse. Look back and see to what extent that event or some of the origins of it haven’t been building up the whole time that we’ve been having some of these eclipses in Leo and Aquarius over the past year or year-and-a-half.
AC: Yeah. I think in retrospect you can almost always see the process. So just on a practical level, there’s a lot going on here—don’t freak out. You know, it might be that life gets really fast around this period, that there’s a lot going on. That’s okay. That happens. Don’t freak out. And for all the astrologers or students of astrology, don’t look at this and obsess about all the things that could go wrong.
KS: Yeah. And I think that’s a good point, because we do get a little bit of prep time with the Mars-South Node aspects coming through. In the same way, Austin, that you were saying for the Mars-South Node conjunction the week before, it’s not brand new material. It’s not brand new territory. It’s just the activation or the stirring up of things that we are already starting to tune into, because we’re already past that first Mars-South Node aspect.
AC: Yeah. And in terms of preparing, spinning negative fantasies about how bad that could be is not preparing.
KS: It’s not productive. That’s just ‘catastrophizing’.
AC: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
AC: And sure, the sibyls are there to do that, and some bad things will happen to some people, right? But assuming that that’s definitely gonna be the case and that’s totally worth investing your emotional energy in is rather uncalled for.
CB: One of the things I find that’s funny is that astrologers—especially if you work with clients and you can sometimes see the worst-case scenarios, or you know what the worst-case scenario is of a specific transit or alignment or activation or whatever placement—you can sometimes have a tendency to assume or reluctantly think that the worst-case scenario—just because you know what it is—will be the manifestation. But oftentimes when you get there, the thing happens, and sometimes it’s not great, or something not great happens that’s not preferable in terms of your field of experience, but it ends up being a lot more moderate or not as bad as you initially thought it could be. And that’s often an interesting thing, then, as an astrologer—figuring out how to moderate your expectations, so that even though you know what the extreme versions of positive or negative are of a specific thing, you don’t jump to the conclusion that it’s always going to be that.
AC: Yeah, absolutely.
KS: Yeah.
CB: That’s still a lesson that I’m working on sometimes in looking at transits.
KS: Totally. I mean, one of the things that comes up for me when I sometimes see ‘Moon-Mars’ stuff for clients or even for myself is I always think Mars is more of the surmountable problem. So there’s a problem, but it’s manageable. It can be solved or fixed or remediated at least. But ‘Moon-Mars’ stuff, for instance, can be an infection, or it can be a cut or something. Again, you’re not gonna cut your foot off, but just be careful with knives, for instance. Or you might get a little of an inflammation, so ‘take the medicine, don’t delay’ type of thing. Just to give an example—like the people, for instance, who might be seeing this in their 6th house and think they’re gonna have a ‘horrific health’ thing—maybe you just get a bug bite or something and you have a little bit of a weird reaction to it or something like that.
AC: Yeah. And so, all that said, it’s a gnarly couple of days. It’s a gnarly week. And so, just generally speaking, I’m not going to go out of my way to engage in high-risk activities at this time.
CB: Sure. Right.
KS: That’s just smart decision-making based on the info we have from astrology.
AC: And I will probably expose myself less to the other humans, because they will, in general, be less pleasant and in not-good spaces themselves. It’s an even worse time to be on Facebook than normal.
KS: Yeah.
CB: And in the elections this month, all of the elections that Leisa found, were largely for like the first half of the month, before you start getting close to this whole cluster of stuff.
KS: Which is good.
AC: That makes sense.
KS: Not a surprise. I mean, the annoying thing from an electional perspective is that we finally have a planet in some dignity, because we’ve got the Sun in Leo, but we do have to wait for the first portion of that period to pass, for this eclipse to go before that can be of any benefit.
AC: Yeah, the Sun’s got its hands full here.
KS: Yeah. It’s definitely busy fighting off something.
CB: Yeah. I mean, this whole thing, though, raises an interesting discussion about how we, as astrologers, discuss aspects or alignments like this, that are potentially negative and give the full range of possible manifestations without necessarily freaking people out. It’s a tricky line to walk.
AC: I mean, there are people who are freaked out by everything. And so, obviously, you can’t not freak anybody out if you actually talk about life and that bad things sometimes happen, right? And so, to who are you talking, right? You know, I have clients who I’m much more tender and motherly with, and I have clients who want to hear it straight and want to hear the worst case and it’s not a problem for them to process that, right? People have different levels of resilience and fragility, right? And everybody has their limit, right? But we make those calls when we talk to people anyway, just in conversation.
KS: Yeah. Even outside the consulting room those calls are made.
AC: Yeah, it’s just part of dealing with human beings, and being a human being, knowing what your limit is.
KS: Yeah. And certain people—I mean, clients or friends, what have you—they like it straight on some topics, but on other topics, they need a little bit more finessing, if you like.
AC: Yeah, right. All of us have spaces that are a little bit more tender, and we need to be handled gently around certain issues, where we can be rough-and-tough on others.
KS: Yeah. But it is a good point, Chris, and it is something actually that I noticed students struggle a lot with: “Oh, my gosh, this looks like a difficult astrological configuration. How the hell am I actually supposed to talk about this with a client?” You know, the initial response is often with great delicacy, because you want to find out some way of expressing, hopefully, with a little bit of specificity. I find that’s helpful if you’ve gotta talk about something a little bit more difficult. It’s not everything going bad. It’s not the whole thing, the roof is not falling down, but there is one particular problem that might become quite intense at that particular time. And of course the symbolism is something that can guide us towards the nature or the area of that particular issue.
CB: Definitely. That makes a lot of sense. All right, well, that kinda brings us to the end of the month. Because there’s only a few days left in the month after that eclipse, and the Moon moves through the rest of Aquarius, and then moves into Pisces, where there’s a nice little trine to Jupiter and then an opposition with Venus, which almost has some redeeming qualities a few days after the eclipse. Mercury, of course, is gonna be retrograde for three weeks at this point in Leo. As we said earlier, eventually in August, it only gets back as far as 11° of Leo. So it doesn’t oppose Mars again, but it is at least retrograde in the same sign as Mars for the next few weeks, for whatever that’s worth. You know, that takes us into the territory of August, which we’re gonna have to shelve until our next episode.
KS: Did we say—sorry, go, Austin.
AC: Oh, I was just gonna say in the first week of August, we get another exciting square between Mars and Uranus.
KS: Yeah.
AC: So August begins with another installment in this season’s story.
CB: Right. In the ‘retrograde Mars’ saga. So what’s the title for this episode? I had written down a title that was ‘Indiana Jones and the Full Moon of Doom’. That was my working title for the month. I don’t think I can fit that onto a single line, though. Usually it’s like ‘Astrological Forecast for July 2018: Keyword’. So what’s my keyword for this month?
AC: ‘Blood for the Blood God’.
KS: Oh, gosh. You know, a softer approach is maybe—you just need one word?
CB: I mean, it’s a matter of what I can fit onto. But, yeah, I mean, the last one was ‘Mars Retrograde’, because that was the main thing we focused on last month, and I was able to fit that onto a line. So I could probably fit like two words.
KS: Well, ‘Lunar Eclipse’. I mean, that’s the signature event.
CB: ‘Lunar Eclipse’, okay.
KS: Yeah. But that’s boring.
CB: That is boring. Can I say, ‘Lunar Eclipse of Doom’, if I can fit that on, or is that to create major blowback?
KS: Well, it is negative.
CB: Okay. I could put ‘Happy Eclipse’.
KS: No. That would just be lying. We’ve gotta use our vocab here to get a good word. ‘Purification’, that’s your word, Austin, for the Mars-South Node, we used previously.
AC: ‘Enter the Purifier’.
KS: ‘Welcome the Fires of Purification’. That’s not one word.
AC: No. I don’t think that’s even remotely less menacing.
KS: That’s true.
CB: ‘Fires of Purification’ not menacing, okay. All right, well, we’ll have to think about this. I’ll kick around some titles. I’ll get back to you guys. If any of our early-access patrons listening to this before I actually release the episode have a good idea for a concise title, definitely write in and let us know. And, yeah, this should be out before the end of July. So any final thoughts, final words before we wrap up for the month?
KS: Good luck. I don’t know. It’s gonna be intense. I think, Austin, what you said about Jupiter’s involvement and how there’s a lot of raw material that we can use for healing—like the poisons becoming the medicine—I think that’s a really nice analogy or image for people to keep in mind for this month.
AC: Yeah. I would also say just wait and see.
KS: Yeah.
AC: You know this stuff is coming. Don’t over-expose yourself to the downside. You know, don’t be like, “I’m gonna go skydiving during the lunar eclipse. It’ll be beautiful.” You know, wait and see, and maybe not necessarily take a step back, but proceed with just giving things a little bit more distance. “All right, we’ll see how this goes, and we’ll see how this works out.” The more space you can give all this to do what it’s gonna do, I think the easier it’s gonna be. You know, just wait and see what things mean before freaking out about them. Don’t freak out about what this could mean. Cuz, again, all this ‘Mars’ stuff, it’s in the middle of changing. It’s going over this area three times. You know, things are in process. And so, don’t judge final outcomes by how things look at one point in the process. It’s another way of getting distance. Just back it up. And that doesn’t mean looking away, but just wait and see.
CB: Right. Cuz things can have a way of looking worse in the moment, when they’ve immediately happened than they do later, in retrospect, and realizing that you have your whole life ahead of you or what have you, versus just whatever the immediate thing is, even if it seems like a major catastrophe. Sometimes the intensity of the moment can blow things out of proportion and lead you to have a lack of depth of field of scope of the full meaning of everything as it will look later on.
AC: Yeah, exactly.
KS: It’s that depth of perception, I think. If it gets really intense, or you feel like you’re in a pressure situation, take that step back. Give yourself that space, because context and perspective can really shift things.
CB: Definitely. All right, cool. Well, I think, on that note then, that’s probably the end of the episode for this month. So we’re gonna have to call it a day, and we will reconvene here again in about four weeks. Well, actually, we’re gonna have to schedule recording our next forecasting episode somewhere around that time.
KS: We’ll do it earlier that week or something.
AC: Oh, but it would be so much better to be able to talk about what went down and what didn’t, even if it’s just a few days.
CB: Okay.
AC: Not addressing that when it comes out. I don’t know. It seems like a pity to not be able to talk about it until like two months from now.
CB: Okay. Well, we’ll talk about it. So it’s happening on the 27th, which is like a Friday. So we could maybe record the next forecast episode later than we usually do and then get it edited quickly and release it much closer to the end of the month than normal.
AC: I think it’d be worth it.
CB: Okay.
KS: Yeah, we could do it, yeah, a couple of days after or something.
CB: Sure. That would make sense. Cool. All right, guys, well, thanks a lot for joining me today. This has been awesome, and it’s good to get back into the flow of things. It feels like it’s a while since we did, but it’s good to be back doing the monthly forecast episodes again, now that we’ve all survived the United Astrology Conference.
KS: Yeah. It’s like a touchstone, actually, each month doing this. So it is nice to be back in our groove.
AC: Yeah, it is. I’m looking forward to getting to look back on this month.
KS: Yeah, I’m excited to see. Yeah, I agree with you, Austin. I think that it’s a good strategy.
CB: Definitely. All right, well, thanks everybody. Thanks, all of our audience members. We had actually a pretty big audience today of like 20 or 30 people attending this episode live, who are patrons who support the podcast each month, and who joined us today and asked some questions and posted some comments in the comments section. So thanks everyone for doing that today. That was great. It’s kinda like doing the episode we did at UAC, which was live in front of an audience, but a little, mini version of that each month. Thanks, also, to all of our patrons who support the podcast each month, since that’s what makes all of this possible, especially keeping up the pace of doing four to six episodes a month. Four standard episodes and then two that are just available for patrons. Also, we’ve been getting some new reviews on iTunes, and I just wanted to thank people who are going out of their way to give us a good rating on iTunes. I appreciate it, and it helps other people to find the podcast. So if you listen to us there, make sure to rate the podcast, and it’ll help the show to continue to grow and spread. So that’s it for this episode. So thanks everyone for listening, and we’ll see you next time.
AC: Bye.
KS: Bye.