The Astrology Podcast
Transcript of Episode 102, titled:
Astrology Forecast for April 2017
With Chris Brennan and guests Austin Coppock and Kelly Surtees
Episode originally released on March 31, 2017
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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 27th, 2024
Copyright © 2024 TheAstrologyPodcast.com
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CHRIS BRENNAN: Hi, my name is Chris Brennan, and you’re listening to The Astrology Podcast. Today is March 28, 2017, starting at 1:18 PM in Denver, Colorado, and this is the 102nd episode of the show. Joining me today to talk about the forecast and the astrological alignments for April 2017 is Kelly Surtees and Austin Coppock. Kelly, welcome back to the show.
KELLY SURTEES: Hey, Chris. Hey, Austin.
CB: And welcome, Austin.
AUSTIN COPPOCK: Hey.
CB: Hey. All right. I can’t believe it’s been a month since we talked last. We talked in late February of course on our last forecast episode. It’s been a pretty busy month for me. What about you guys?
KS: Yes, it’s been busy. I’m just getting started on my 2018 WellBeing Astrology Guide, which is something that I write for as well as edit. So I kinda had to come back to, “Oh, what’s happening now?” cuz I’ve been thinking a lot about next year already. But it’s good. It’s been a good month. Spring has finally sprung in my little corner of the woods, so that is always pleasant.
CB: Yeah, it’s really amazing seeing spring coming around and it sort of brightens things up a bit. When is the due date on that? Like how long is your process for writing that 2018 column?
KS: Yeah, so the editorial copy for the entire magazine—which is a total of about 65,000 words—is due in May, about the middle of May. So I’ve gotta create part of that content and then edit the part that I create. But I also have to edit the part that the writers—who are doing all the feature articles—will submit, too. I mean, I kinda keep up with clients and my teachings, but I sort of fit this in. So I’ve probably got about seven or eight weeks to get it done.
CB: Okay, so this is like an intense two-month period of getting together the forecast for next year.
KS: Yeah, it is. It’s lovely to do. And this is why I’ve always enjoyed the different horoscope-writing projects that I’ve done over the years—it does really get you into the groove of the flow of the aspects and the actions and the configurations and eclipses and things. So it’s nice to get all the research done for that.
CB: Totally. All right. And, Austin, what have you got going on?
AC: Let’s see, March has been very dramatic in my neck of the woods. Kait and I moved to Oregon—I’m now speaking to you from Ashland, Oregon—and that was harder and more complicated than we expected, and there was also a death in the family in the middle of the move. And so, it’s been a hell of a month.
CB: Right.
KS: Yeah.
CB: You’re cohabiting with somebody who’s going through a Saturn return right now?
AC: Indeed, indeed. And so, yeah, March’s configurations hit both of our charts very directly, and so there was a lot of stuff. We’re fine, and I think we’re gonna be very happy here in Ashland, but there’s been a tremendous amount to deal with.
CB: Yeah.
KS: Huge for you guys.
CB: Yeah, I mean, my heart goes out to you. Yeah, that’s been some crazy transits and events you’ve been dealing with. And then it sort of culminated with—you even got sick right in the middle of the move, right?
AC: Uh, yeah, both of us. Poor Kait. Her back went out right before the move, which basically had happened once, like eight years ago. It’s not a thing that normally happens. But she could barely move for a couple of days.
CB: Right.
AC: And then she went and got an adjustment from a chiropractor and a massage, just a full-frontal assault on the back problem, fixed that. Next day, got horribly sick.
KS: What emotional stress, right?
AC: Yeah. Although the back problem was before the family health crisis happened. And so, I held out against the virus—which a lot of people we know had—for about a week-and-a-half, but I finally succumbed on my birthday. And I knocked it out in a couple of days, but I was pretty down for the count for a few of those. So yeah, it’s just been everything and the kitchen sink. You know, it’s funny, you talked about last month. There was that annular solar eclipse in Pisces at the same time as the Mars-Uranus conjunction, and those were in a very tight contra-antiscial relationship. And yeah, it was that. I assumed that that would be challenging—and boy was it.
CB: Yeah, it’s weird how sometimes when you’re going through tough transits like that, that you just get hit from all sides rather than it just being this one thing. But sometimes it’s like a series of events.
AC: Yeah, I mean, actually one of my principles of chart reading and counseling people is what I find generally is that most people can handle any one thing, almost no matter how rough it is. It’s when people are asked to handle two or three or four different problems all at once that you have really rough times. You know, if you can just bring yourself to bear and focus on figuring out how to deal with or remediate or fix one situation, that’s well within most people’s capacity. But it’s when you’re trying to do that and then something else kicks you in the ass or trips you or whatever that it starts getting gnarly.
CB: Yeah, totally. I mean, I don’t know, this is not hugely related to that—it’s sort of vaguely related—but I had something happen recently that was kind of weird. And this is slightly off-topic or a change of topic, but have you guys ever had that experience where it’s like sometimes astrology tells you dumb stuff that you don’t need to know?
KS: Totally.
CB: You know, like not really important or even directly relevant to your life, but for some reason it’s showing up in your chart. And it’s timed very well, so it’s clearly that thing, but it’s otherwise a very pointless thing to know, or for astrology or the cosmos to be telling you.
AC: So, one, yes, that happens. Yes, I see that. Two, I think that actually ties into another important principle of reading charts in astrology—figuring out whether a transit, for example, is going to be something which is just incidental. Like, “Oh, there was just something nice about that week,” or “Oh, and I got sick that week,” versus something that is significant in your life story.
CB: Right.
AC: You know, the incidental stuff doesn’t change the shape of the narrative at all.
KS: No. It’s like a subplot or something. Just background.
AC: Or not even. You’re just like, “Oh, and my toe hurt that week,” right?
KS: Yeah.
AC: It doesn’t change the story at all. It doesn’t change the real choices you made. Kait and I were actually talking about that last night and sort of separating out the astrology of a very difficult month. And it’s like, okay, what was responsible for the big stuff? And those were the things that were tied into profections and really tight, big transits. But then there were also just like little, irritating transits that didn’t really need to be there, but it’s just twisting the knife a little bit, where it’s like, and your back hurts, right?
KS: Yeah. Or your cat goes missing.
AC: Oh, yeah, the cat went missing.
KS: I thought, “Oh, my God, that’s the last thing you guys need to deal with.”
AC: So fun fact—I totally used horary to locate the cat. It totally worked.
KS: Totally. It’s so good for missing pets, usually cats.
AC: And so, my horary skills are very amateur. It’s a branch of astrology that I’ve spent very little with compared to the other branches. And so, yeah, a shoutout to Gurita Sportan for helping me understand the chart better. But what was interesting about it is here’s what it told me—one, it told me that the cat was fine. He wasn’t hurt.
KS: Yeah, that’s always reassuring to get.
AC: That was very important. And then, two, as far as location, it was somewhere around the house. Of course it was, right? He ran away. He’s not gonna go on an adventure, he’s a cat. He’s never been in this area before. He’s gonna stake out territory and watch things. But what it actually did is it showed me when to look for the cat.
KS: Yes, the timing, great.
AC: Cuz my significator as the querent was the Moon. Basically, it was Cancer rising, Moon was in Scorpio, right?
KS: Right.
AC: Moon’s in Scorpio in the 5th. Kitty was seen through the 6th, which is Sag, right?
KS: Jupiter.
AC: But my Moon in Scorpio—me, being emotionally unhappy; Moon in a fallen sign.
KS: Well, that’s exactly describing you. I mean, there was so much stress around you guys when that was happening anyway. No surprise you were ruled by the Moon in Scorpio. But Jupiter, lord of the 6th, would have been in the 4th, so that’s good.
AC: So here’s the issue. The Moon in Scorpio in the 5th can’t see Jupiter in Libra, right? But it was the Moon at like—I think it was in the late 20s of Scorpio—
KS: Oh, so you just had to wait till it ingressed.
AC: Right. Actually I should have waited, but I wanted to just give it a look. Kait and I looked all over the property, all over the house. While the Moon was in Scorpio, we didn’t find them. Went out later that night—once the Moon had ingressed into Sag—it took about five minutes and he came running out.
KS: Yes. It’s so good, isn’t it? So good. That’s great, Austin.
CB: Yeah. And that kind of ties into something I talked about with Adam a few episodes ago, which was just, what is the value of prediction? And he used a similar example in terms of horary sometimes having that value. Do you feel like, in that instance, that was something that was valuable to you at the time?
AC: Yeah, it was really useful. Because I didn’t think the cat was injured, but I did fear the cat was injured, and so it was good to get a testimony to the state. You know, it did show location. The significator of a lost object or pet being in the 4th is kind of shady. Sometimes it can mean it’s in a building. It’s not always your house. I had the same thing with a lost driver’s license a while ago, where the significator was in the 4th, but it was at a grocery store, which can also be the 4th. But what was really valuable about that was not the location in space, but the location in time, where I could rendezvous with the cat.
KS: Yeah.
AC: And so, it’s interesting cuz it was less about giving me all of the information, but it was more about giving me a really good lead on when to look and when I would likely find it.
KS: Yeah, and that timing is so reassuring, cuz our human mind can be so anxious and worrisome about things that we have no proof for. Not that the astrology chart is proof, but it’s certainly a great guide.
CB: Sure. And that’s a more important thing. I mean, the thing that I ran into recently was I’m in a 9th house profection year, which is interesting in terms of my book and publishing my first book, and the 9th house, especially in modern astrology, being associated with publishing, and lots of other 9th house things happening. One of the things that I’ve really focused on over the past several years is that sometimes when one house is activated through profections—if it’s a sign that is ruled by a planet that rules another—
KS: Two houses, yeah.
CB: Yeah, oftentimes the other house will come into play as well, and you’ll see the connection between those becoming activated in that year. So the ruler of the 9th also rules the 4th.
KS: The 4th for you.
CB: Yeah, Venus ruling Libra and Taurus. So it’s like 9th house things and 4th house things. And one of the things that happened was right in the middle of the Venus retrograde, for some reason, my mom decided to take a trip, decided to take a vacation to a foreign country. And I was actually a little nervous about that ahead of time. I was like, “Why would this be showing up in my chart? That’s such a stupid thing?”
AC: By the way, that’s such an amazing combination of 9th and 4th and Venus.
CB: I know. Isn’t it?
KS: Yes.
AC: I would also add that Bonatti says that in a day chart, Venus signifies the mother.
CB: Right.
KS: Further clarification.
CB: I mean, it’s very, very literal and very straightforward. But then ahead of time I’m kind of thinking, “That makes me a little nervous. Why would my chart be showing her taking a trip and that being an important thing this year? Even the timing of it being really perfect.” Cuz the middle of the trip—which was a few-day trip—was timed to coincide with the Venus-Sun conjunction. So literally right in the middle of the retrograde cycle—the Venus retrograde cycle—with Venus being the lord of the year. And I’m like, “Well, does that mean this is gonna be more important for some reason, and could that be bad?” So that actually had me a little nervous ahead of time. I didn’t see any other negative things, so I didn’t have any other reason to think that. And then the trip came and went and then she got back and it was fine. It was just like a little trip, but for some reason this stupid thing showed up in my chart and I have no idea why. I don’t think it has any broader impact on my life or on her life or anything, but for some reason it showed up in a very literal way. Of course that’s not the only thing that happened. Cuz that brings up another topic besides just astrology sometimes showing you stupid things that you need to know, there can be overlapping things. I signed the lease for my apartment for another year at the same time, that weekend, so there was like a 4th house thing. I joined some international astrology organizations, there were a bunch of 9th house things. You know, there were a bunch of other overlapping, symbolic things that happened around the same time that were also fitting with that. But then there was just this one other dumb side thing that had no other broader impact, and yet, very much fit the symbolism very literally. And so, it just brought up this question to me of astrology telling you pointless, useless things you don’t need to know.
AC: Well, Chris, I think that some people might argue that the actions of immediate family members are not inconsequential.
CB: Yeah. It’s not that it’s not important—and I’m not trying to denigrate it, or even say that astrology is stupid or something like that. It’s just that sometimes as astrologers, we get so into looking at the bigger picture. There’s whole schools of astrology that are like ‘what is your life’s purpose’, ‘what is your life’s work’, ‘what was your past life’, looking at things from this very broader perspective. But sometimes the astrology doesn’t—not cooperate with that, but sometimes it’s showing things on a much more mundane, straightforward, simple level. And it’s not necessarily always big, life-changing events, but sometimes it can just show you’ll take a trip, or you’ll get sick for a weekend and that’ll be it, or some relatively minor thing. And that realization is important because it helps to further define and clarify the full scope of astrology. Even though that should be obvious to me at this point, it was just another confirmation of that and how broad it can be sometimes. Yeah, I don’t know. There was just something about it that stood out.
KS: Totally. It sometimes seems a little odd that this really magical, amazingly involved and complex craft can show something that seems quite simple in passing. Another part of me wonders about things like, okay, it’s a Venus year. It’s not a Jupiter year, for instance, which might be more substantial things. But it is interesting. And I think we sometimes forget that in addition to being able to describe some of that ‘life-changing, life purpose’ level of stuff, astrology can also speak to the current or the theme or the mood of a week or just a month, which in hindsight is a drop in the ocean. I mean, two years from now, you might not even remember that your mom took this trip. I thought you were gonna say she decided she wanted to relocate to where she went and that would have made it more substantial. But it didn’t seem to be that was the case.
CB: Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just my own focus with doing zodiacal releasing and looking at people’s entire life stories so much rather than frequently focusing on more day-to-day events. Or if I was to write a column and was more tied into people describing day-to-day energies and things like that, maybe I’d be more keyed into that. I was just surprised in this instance because it seemed to be such a transient thing that for some reason showed up in what was otherwise a slightly more important focal point of the year for me, in terms of the lord of the year. I’m not really going anywhere with that.
AC: No, no, I think it’s a good point.
KS: It’s an interesting observation.
AC: It’s something to remember. I would say that’s why we—at least ‘we’, as in we three, and a lot of other astrologers—will use a battery of techniques, a series of filters, to figure out whether a particular transit will simply describe the flavor of a week or a month, or whether that symbolism should be used to describe the actual character of the biography. You know, things that will matter in a year happen that month. I mean, the general method is you have to have agreement on multiple levels, right?
KS: Correct.
AC: If you just have like one indicator, then it’s like, yeah, it’s kind of like that for a little bit. But also, I would say that in my experience something that’s powerful, that’s agreed upon on multiple levels, will resonate throughout deep and consequential layers of the life, but you will also be able to see the pattern in inconsequential, little, everyday things. It infects—‘infect’ is kind of a negative term.
KS: It informs.
AC: You can see that pattern seeded in a lot of different densities of the life, a lot of different layers.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Right. It overlaps.
KS: The other point, Chris—I noticed this myself last year—to what you were saying, the idea that you were in a 9th house profection, but you’re noticing 4th house themes, in your chart, those two houses are ruled by the same planet. I noticed last year, I was in a 2nd house year, where I have Aries ruling. I’ve also got Scorpio on the 9th house cusp. You know, the 2nd house is all about money and cash flow; we were talking—before we started recording—about managing your own business. So there was a lot of that money stuff, but I traveled more last year than I’ve ever had. And one of the challenges I had was balancing my at-home budget with my travel budget, because there was just all this ‘come and speak here’ and ‘come and speak there’. And I didn’t get it right every time, but I certainly saw the connection between the topics of both houses coming through.
CB: Right.
KS: Yeah, I remembered Rob Hand years ago saying houses ruled by the same planet interact. And so, I think we do see that quite strongly with profections.
CB: Yeah, it’s always amazing to see that and to be reminded of it, and for it to come out sometimes in either very literal ways or sometimes in ways that you don’t expect.
KS: In some inconsequential ways.
CB: Right. I mean, one of the points you made, Austin, it’s like you have that ideal. And certainly that’s how astrologers attempt to deal with that issue of what is the intensity of that transit gonna be or how serious or consequential it’s gonna be by looking at other techniques to see if they agree that something big is zeroing in on that timeframe. And sometimes you can do that. And certainly, with some of the more major events—if you’ve got a bunch of techniques that are all pointing to an important turning point at that point, you know something big is coming up. But then, I don’t know. It’s like every once in a while there’s still this level of uncertainty that astrologers can have about the importance of a specific transit. And sometimes one of the things that we can do is overestimate how important something’s gonna be that’s coming up, and then it comes and goes and it’s something much more minor than we expected. Conversely, sometimes we can underestimate it, and you can easily think something’s gonna be pretty minor, and then it hits and it was like a huge turning point. And sometimes you can figure out why that was in retrospect, but sometimes that’s an experience astrologers have from time to time.
AC: Absolutely. I would also say that when we’re looking at really big turning points—or an event of such magnitude that it will become part of a person’s biography—those events are powerful enough that they work against clarity when we think about them. They’re almost like shock waves coming from a future thing. I would say it’s natural to be less clear and more confused by something big on the horizon than something small. Something small is not something which challenges who you are up to that point, whereas something big necessarily entails a rearrangement of the structure of your life internally or externally, or most likely both. And so, the structure of you, as you are approaching that event, is sort of wobbled by that. I knew, for example, that there was some big stuff happening with my move. I knew about the moving part because we had scheduled that, but it felt much bigger and much deeper than that. And I was wondering about what that would be, and I was very concerned about it. I don’t know. I think a lot of people get a sense of the magnitude and are affected by the magnitude of a turning point, and it makes it harder. Anyway, I’m going in circles. I think you know what I’m saying.
CB: Yeah.
KS: Totally. It’s almost like there’s a vibration that you’re picking up on at some other level. At a deeper sense of consciousness or awareness there’s something more than just a straight A-to-B shift here.
AC: Yeah, yeah. That you will be different on the other side of that event.
KS: Yes.
AC: And so, the part of you that is wholly within this period of time—the part of you that is whole in this week, the very perishable part, is meaningfully different than that same part the week after the event. Whereas I do think that there are layers of the human being that connect all of those perishable moments like a string through a pearl necklace. Maybe it’s an immortal soul. Maybe it’s a piece of us that’s less bound by time. And that’s not where we live, but we do intersect with that part of ourselves which is less perishable. But there’s also the perishable part, and there’s kind of a funny and often awkward dialogue between those two. But the whole idea that the biography is anything but a choice and chance—that there is already some pattern behind it—suggests that there is something which is patterned behind it, that there is some sort soul. We can look at “The Myth of Ur” and be like, oh, you chose a biography.
KS: And a shoutout to that story, Austin, “The Myth of Ur” from Plato’s Republic. If people haven’t read it, Google it online.
AC: Yeah. Basically, it’s the Platonic death-and-reincarnation thing. The idea is that you pick or you’re handed out a whole biography and then you descend into life. Some accounts in the Tibetan Book of the Dead are very similar, where you see a ‘womb’ door; or that’s the translation of it, it’s really interesting. You get this movie trailer, this sizzle reel for one particular story, and then you either do that or you move onto another one. But once you’re in, then the story has a momentum and a pattern all of its own.
KS: Just beautiful.
CB: Yeah, that would be a good topic to do at some point, like “The Myth of Ur” or similar narratives or myths or philosophical approaches around the world.
KS: Totally.
AC: Yeah.
KS: But April.
AC: Yeah, it’s very difficult to do anything like fate or destiny if you don’t have a story like that, or if it’s not anchored to that, right? Cuz if there is a fate or destiny—which the practice of astrology very strongly and consistently suggests—then where is that? What stories, ideas, paradigms can we wrap around that to get a hold of it?
CB: Sure, sure. Yeah, I’m trying to figure out shows for April. That actually might be a good one, so I’ll have to think about that. In the meantime, why don’t we transition. I’m trying to decide—we need to announce the winners of the giveaway for this month. We can either do that at the end of the show, or we could do it now as a segue into the forecast. What do you guys think?
AC: I think we should do it now.
CB: All right, let’s do it now. I’ll put the timestamps in this episode, so that people can skip if they want to.
AC: Great. What are you giving away? What’s the prize?
CB: Got some great prizes this month. So the top prize is a free pass to the upcoming Organization for Professional Astrologers retreat; OPA, as they are referred to. Maurice Fernandez is the president, and it’s run by a great group of people. And they’ve got this really unique format. It’s not like a normal astrology conference, but it’s actually like a retreat where you go out and you have a track leader, who is an OPA-trained or OPA-designated astrologer, who’s done their program and has received their certificate of training. So you have a track leader, and then you basically pick a track that you want to be on, and each of these only has like a maximum of 10 participants. And then you’re with those 10 people, plus the track leader, for the entire weekend, for like three days with the same mentor, focusing on the same topic and doing this sort of peer group work, which is what they call it. So it’s actually a really unique format. I mean, I don’t know if anyone else is doing anything like that. Have you guys ever done that, or done anything like that?
KS: I haven’t done anything like that, but I have heard about it. And it does sound like you could get a really intimate and rich learning experience because you’re getting a lot more time with the teacher, essentially.
CB: Yeah, exactly.
AC: Yeah, I haven’t done that. But something that I think all three of us have done is where you go to a group and then you give a talk on Friday night, and the people who are into it sign up for the workshop on Saturday—maybe it’s Sunday, too—and then you start spending a lot of time together. It always feels like, “Okay, we could go for another couple of days,” or “Let’s do another day of this.” I feel like there’s a momentum there that the OPA format is sort of working with.
KS: Like explicitly working with, yeah.
AC: Right. Like they know how to learn from you, you know how to share with them. Like you’ve got it going on, and then it’s just time to go home, usually. But it sounds like with OPA, they’re kind of taking that to its logical conclusion.
CB: Yeah. When I did mine, I was able to do a full three-day intensive on zodiacal releasing. It’s like one of the most complicated techniques, but we actually got to walk through, three full days, doing it, and go through each person’s biography. Yeah, it was pretty intense. So they’re doing another retreat this October, from October 19-22 in beautiful Zion National Park in Utah. The theme of the conference is The Art of Living and Dying. There’s gonna be those tracks, like I said. But in between the track meetings, there’s also other presentations and short lectures surrounding the theme of the conference, which is The Art of Living and Dying. They’re gonna be doing some talks and some discussions about Jupiter’s ingress into Scorpio, as well as some presentations on astronomy for astrologers. So out of 13 tracks, 5 are already sold out. So it’s already getting filled up. So if you’re interested in checking it out, you can find out more information at opaastrology.org. Let’s do the drawing. So we’re doing the drawing for patrons on the $10 tier who are automatically entered into the monthly drawing. And the winner of this month’s drawing is patron Alec Senese. So congratulations, Alec.
KS: Congratulations.
CB: Yeah, so you get a free pass to this conference. So that’s like worth $300 or $400.
AC: Yeah, that’s huge.
CB: Yeah, a pretty good deal, as a listener of the podcast. So you’ll have to report back and let us know how it goes. I hope you have a good trip. And thanks to OPA for sponsoring that. So again, you can find out more information at opaastrology.org. And I hope they have a great conference. So the other giveaway we’re doing this month is I’m giving away three copies—three signed copies—of my book, Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune. The book has been doing really well. I’m actually starting to get Amazon reviews, which I’m really excited about. Including one really great review from Christopher Warnock, which I was really surprised and happy about. He called it something like: “the new standard textbook for Hellenistic astrology.” What was his exact wording?
KS: That’s very high praise. Well-deserved, but wonderful to receive, Chris.
CB: Yeah. He said: “The definitive source on Greek and Roman astrology.” So yeah, I mean, the reviews are coming in. That’s really good. It’s been crazy getting out there. The gallery of people sending in pictures from around the world keeps growing. You can find that either on my Facebook page or at hellenisticastrology.com/book. Over on the right-hand sidebar, you can click the link to see the gallery. People are sending in pictures from everywhere. It’s been really amazing to see.
KS: So, Chris, just a total quick sidebar. That’s another expression of your 9th house profection year. Like the essence of you through your book has gone global with these pictures that are showing up all over social media.
CB: Oh, yeah, totally, and all over the world. And there’s like people all over the world reading it: a group in Romania ordered a bunch of copies; copies in Brazil; a group in Taiwan. Yeah, it’s been really interesting also making connections with people and making friends with people from different parts of the world as a result of that. Cuz the funny thing is that the ruler of my 9th is also in my 11th.
KS: Oh, perfect.
CB: Yeah.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Anyway, so the book is doing really well. And you guys got your copies, right?
KS: Yeah. Mine came really quickly, and I’m treasuring it. It’s wonderful.
CB: I appreciated the picture that you sent in, with your precious—
KS: It’s called a Caramello Koala. It’s an Australian candy chocolate, obviously with caramel in it. I mean, we used to have them as kids. Because I don’t live in Australia, whenever I go back, I sometimes have one as a treat. But my best girlfriend visited me last November and she actually bought me a couple of bags, and I’ve been saving them. I don’t know how I managed to have chocolate in the house for that long, but it was definitely worth breaking out one of my precious Aussie candies for.
CB: Awesome. All right, well, let’s see, so the book—yeah, we’re giving away three copies.
KS: Three copies. So you’ve got to draw names for this, Chris. Yeah, I just drew the first name, and the first winner is Dave Fassett. So Patreon supporter on the $5 tier, Dave Fassett, has won a signed copy. So send me an email with your mailing address, and I’ll send out a copy to you right away. The second winner, Mari Minegishi, has won the second signed copy. And then the third winner is Bonnie Heatherington Robson. All right, so congratulations to the three of you. You all won copies of my book. So let me know if you don’t already have it. If you do, I’ll just pull another name, but otherwise, I’ll get those copies sent out this week. It’s so funny. Austin, I remember when you or your publisher ran into problems getting your book out in the immediate aftermath of the release of the decans book, and I was hoping to learn from that and try to avoid that, to whatever extent that I could. But then it was funny that I ran into the same problems. I’ve since worked most of that out, but it’s interesting those ‘birth pangs’ that you sometimes go through when you’re transitioning into trying to get a book out there.
AC: Yeah, well, I was telling you writing books is one job and doing order fulfillment is an entirely different job.
CB: Yeah.
KS: Yeah.
CB: And we’ll leave it at that.
KS: Yeah, we’ve got so many great sidebar topics today, but at some point we’ll talk about April.
CB: Yeah. All right, so that’s it for the drawing. You can find out more information of course about my book at hellenisticastrology.com/book. Thanks to all the patrons for supporting the show. If you want to find out more information about how to subscribe and be entered into the monthly drawing, just go to theastrologypodcast.com/subscribe. And now that we have all that out of the way, let’s transition into actually talking about the focus of this month, which is the forecast for April. So should we do it chronologically, from the top of the month? We do have some big stuff right away at the top of the month. Or should we do it like what are the major signatures for April? You guys have a preference?
AC: Yeah. Well, the way I’ve been thinking about it is let’s do the ‘Venus’ story and the ‘Mercury’ story, cuz those are kind of the two big stories. And they’re roughly chronological, although there’s some interlacing at a couple of points.
CB: Okay.
KS: Okay. Venus, yeah, I mean, she’s the big story.
AC: Mercury being conjunct Uranus more or less for three weeks—it’s gonna matter.
KS: That is gonna matter. Yeah, that’s the big ‘Mercury’ story for the month, for sure.
CB: So, Austin, you were saying that the Mercury thing is one of your primary signatures. And, Kelly, you’re focused more on the Venus retrograde stationing direct square Saturn.
AC: Uh, no. Venus then Mercury.
KS: Well, I think we both probably think they’re both important.
AC: Venus then Mercury, sequential.
CB: Okay.
KS: Venus would be more important.
CB: Let’s start with Venus. So we—as we’re recording this—just last weekend, we got through the halfway point of the Venus retrograde period, when the Sun conjoined Venus, so halfway through the retrograde cycle. And by the time we get to April—right away, at the very beginning of the month—Venus starts out at the beginning of Aries, still going retrograde, but it ingresses back or it falls back into Pisces by April 2. And then it slows down and starts getting ready to station direct, but it doesn’t do that until two weeks into April, on April 15. And prior to the point when we get to that, we get some major Saturn action going on, right?
AC: Yeah.
KS: Major Saturn action. Yeah, April 8 and April 21, I’ve got the squares.
AC: Although it’s worth noting that Venus is gonna be within just a couple of degrees of a square to Saturn for about 25 days. Or, I’m sorry, about 20 days.
KS: Yeah, the three weeks in the middle of the month.
AC: Yeah. And so, it’s basically Venus square Saturn with two punctuation points for almost the entire month.
KS: That’s a good way of describing it.
AC: So as I see it, we basically got two things going on. One, yay, it’s Venus in Pisces, right? The difference in essential dignity is—
KS: Palpable.
AC: We can say it’s night and day.
KS: It is.
AC: And make a sect joke, ha-ha.
CB: Good.
KS: Oh, astro-nerd jokes, I love it.
AC: Right. So I was thinking about this. In terms of the crude point systems—which I think they’re great—they’re like water wings. They’re great for learning to swim, but no Olympic swimmers use them. But just in terms of the crude numbers, Venus in Aries, -4 for detriment. Venus in Pisces, in triplicity (+2), in exaltation (+4). So we’re looking at +6/-4, right?
KS: It’s a really big difference.
AC: It’s a huge difference. In addition to that, Venus stations. Venus comes to rest in the single degree of the zodiac said to be her ‘throne’, to be her single degree of exaltation, where she has the greatest power, right? That’s significant. That won’t happen again in our lifetime.
KS: No.
CB: Venus stationing direct conjunct the exaltation degree?
AC: Exactly. Unfortunately, on the inferior side of a square to Saturn the whole goddamn time.
CB: Right. And that’s the kicker.
KS: It is. It is the kicker. Yeah, it’s a beautiful Venus, but she’s navigating some really tough pressures, I guess.
AC: Yeah. So when I was trying to get the mytho-poetic layer of this, there’s this sort of retreating from the battlefield of Aries, right? Going back beneath the waves, like literally going to her innermost sanctum, the place of healing and strength. You know, Venus’ undersea throne, however you want to put it. But an exaltation degree is literally where the planet is happiest of 360s. That has to be a very special place for each planet, and it definitely seems like Venus needs to do some healing after all this stuff in Aries. But while that’s happening, that Saturn square—it’s like even though Venus is in this place of restoration, the weight of commitments, obligations, what simply must be done is still very present. It’s like the second she steps outside of that fortified degree, it’s like, “And here’s your lead weights. Here’s your job. Here’s commitments. Get back to it.” Anyway, that’s part of how I was thinking about it sort of dramatically.
KS: From your poetic perspective. It is beautiful to think about it that way. The square to Saturn doesn’t diminish the strength of Venus in Pisces, but it adds a complicating factor or that sense of duty or obligation I guess because it is Saturn. As you said, these things still need to be dealt with, but we are in a place where we can be accessing resources or support that we didn’t have access to prior.
AC: Yeah, resources—internal resources, external resources. You know, in terms of Venus, one resource that we have that Venus speaks to is our ability to positively connect to and embrace whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. You know, I often see that as Venus moves in and out of signs where it’s comfortable, when Venus has got a lot of dignity I personally find it easier to just appreciate life. I’m like, “Oh, no, this isn’t so bad. This is great. I can embrace this.” Whereas when Venus is in a rough place, it’s really easy to be like, “Oh, I hate this. This is so stupid.” And that’s not something you can weigh on a scale, but it’s a very important resource. Your ability to say ‘yes’ emotionally to what’s happening—even if it’s rough—is huge. And that’s part of why Venus is exalted in Pisces. Pisces is pretty good at accepting things.
KS: That’s the word that keeps coming to mind, Austin, as you’re talking. It’s like that strength of Venus can give a level of acceptance energetically. Not that you want to accept things when they’re horrible, but at least if you accept things as they are, it gives you a place to work from rather than expending energy simply hating something or being frustrated with something which can just be a depleting exercise and doesn’t actually create any progress.
AC: Yeah, acceptance doesn’t always need to mean—
KS: It’s not as passive as it sounds, is it?
AC: Yeah, yeah. Exactly, exactly. No, no, this is the task at hand, and I’m gonna do it either way. But I can either be hating it, or I can be like I’m making progress, I’m doing this. This is where I have to be patient. Different attitudes.
KS: Do you think something similar, Chris? I don’t know if you’ve thought about it like that.
CB: I mean, one of the things that’s just weird to me about this whole configuration is just that Saturn uniquely gets kind of amped up at the beginning of the month by stationing retrograde right at the top of the month, April 6. So that adds this other dimension to it. One of the things that’s weird—and I’m thinking about doing a show on this maybe later this year. Maybe a show where we interview some specific people who have gone through their Saturn returns lately—cuz there have been some dramatic ones of different people that we know—and just talking about that. But this is the last Saturn retrograde station that’s gonna happen in Sagittarius prior to the direct station later this year, and then it just zooms out of Sagittarius.
AC: Absolutely.
CB: But there’s something important about that as one of the last points where Saturn’s gonna stop and then go back into early Sagittarius and dredge up or make its final pass of that, to make sure that whatever that transit was about for of those people is there and is clear one more time.
AC: So a couple of things. It’s not going into early Sagittarius. It’s going back to 20-21.
CB: Right.
KS: Back from 27 to 21.
AC: Two, the people who are having their first Saturn return—that have Saturn in his last decan of Sag—they all have Uranus there, too. So it’s Saturn going over Uranus while returning, which makes things more exciting.
KS: More dramatic and explosive.
CB: What’s super interesting about those people that are having their first Saturn returns now is, in many instances, you can really see the Uranus part, in it being something that’s coming out of nowhere and is a surprise Saturn return event that they weren’t necessarily anticipating, and then, bam, it’s there. And that is a slightly different flavor than some of the other Saturn returns, where it’s like something you see coming like a mile away. And then you hit it and you go through the process, but then it comes and goes. But some of these other ones are like a curveball that’s coming out of nowhere. And it’s been interesting to watch some of these, just from a purely technical perspective.
[crosstalk]
KS: I was gonna say quickly, yeah, I had a client this week who was having her second Saturn return in this 21-27 Sag. Totally different because she doesn’t have the Uranus there. She’s from a different generation. And she’s having a much more typical Saturn return where you kind of see it coming, you kind of know what you’ve gotta do, and you’re just working through the process. So I think, Austin, that’s a really good point that you’re making and that you’ve commented on there, Chris. The first Saturn returners right now are Saturn conjunct Uranus, which is a whole different and very special kind of Saturn return.
CB: Yeah, totally.
KS: Wait till we get the kids. My baby sister was born at the end of 1990 and has Saturn, Uranus, Neptune in Capricorn.
CB: All of it’s in Capricorn.
KS: Yeah, that’s gonna be interesting when they get this a few years away.
AC: Not only were they born with Uranus and Neptune next to their natal Saturn—which is a very strange thing—but they’re also going to be getting not just a Saturn return. Well, they’re Saturn return will be the Saturn-Pluto conjunction.
KS: Correct. Oh, my gosh, of course, yes. We’ll do many shows on this.
AC: Yeah, I think just historically speaking that generation is going to play a pivotal role in the world story, cuz their birth intersected with one really important point, and their coming of age intersects with another really important point. You know, it’ll be really interesting to see what role that generation plays in the world story.
CB: Right.
KS: And then for April of course—just to come back to this month—Saturn, as you said, Chris, stationing retrograde early in the month, 27 Sag. Venus is stationing direct at 26 Pisces and spending quite a lot of time at 27 Pisces before she goes direct and then shortly after. So both are stationing into that square aspect. I guess that’s much more intense than just a passing square that’s done in two days.
AC: Yeah. When does that happen? Now is the answer.
KS: And that’s it. We need Nick here, the ‘human ephemeris’, to answer if it’s happened before.
AC: Well, the Venus cycle creeps about 2° every eight years.
KS: Yeah. So she’s not gonna station—as you said, Austin—in that exaltation degree again.
AC: Yeah, for a very, very long time. Also, I know we don’t do a lot of talking about Chiron, but it is a thing. And my rule with things like Chiron is that by-degree conjunctions mean they matter.
KS: Yeah.
AC: And so, literally Chiron is waiting in Venus’ exaltation degree for her to station there.
CB: Right.
KS: Oh, Chiron’s at 26 Pisces right now?
AC: Not right now. It’s at 25 now.
KS: But will be.
AC: Yeah. I feel like that will be a little sloppy to just totally disregard that. Again, it’s not like I’m all about Chiron everyday, but that’s right there.
CB: I mean, that just emphasizes the Venus retrograde ‘trail of tears’. That’s the way I’ve been thinking about it on some level. Cuz the only mitigating factor is it’s exalted in Pisces, but still it’s square Saturn for a month and then conjunct Chiron.
AC: See, Chris, this is one of the challenges that Kelly and I go through in trying to write an approachable column that doesn’t utterly destroy people.
CB: Right.
AC: You get an idea like and you’re like, “Oh, okay, the narrative model is the Bataan Death March.” And you’re like, “No, no, no, no, no. I can’t write using that.” What I will say about that that’s interesting is Saturn has a lot to say about where this ends, where this is all going. And so, Saturn in the last decan of Sag, that’s the face of Sag that it rules. And if you look at some of the images and some of the tarot stuff that’s associated with it, the grueling end of a long journey is one of the decanic meanings for Saturn in the last decan of Sag, which makes perfect sense. I think the idea is illustrated rather clearly by the 10 of Wands in the Rider-Waite Tarot, which was built with the idea that it would correspond to that decan. And you see a person whose back is bent and is exhausted, and they’re carrying this big bundle of 10 wands. It’s the ‘getting it done’. Like getting over the finish line, finally getting there. In my big book of decans, I use a horse skull for the image. It’s riding the horse until it dies. In a sense, the body is sacrificed for the spirit’s objective, right? Running yourself into the ground to just get it done. It’s like ‘The Myth of Marathon’.
KS: Yeah, he dies at the end.
AC: If I don’t get to my city and warn them in one day—it’s a hundred miles or whatever—then everybody dies. There’s no half-doing it. Like if you don’t get there in time, you don’t get there, right? You don’t get a 50% for making it 50%. You get a zero unless it’s a hundred-percent.
KS: Yeah, it’s all or nothing.
AC: And there’s a Hellenistic list of god and daimon names that are associated with the decans. And the one that is associated with the third decan of Sag is Ananke, and Ananke is ‘necessity’.
CB: Right.
AC: You know, I was actually just reading the Corpus Hermeticum two days ago, and I was looking at the distinctions that they make between different kinds of fate and they were talking about necessity. And they were saying necessity is irrational fate, meaning that it doesn’t make sense that it has to be that way, but it has to be that way. It’s just stuff you have to do. It’s not necessarily the logical progression of something you set in motion. It’s like you just gotta do it. And I’ve been seeing a lot of that, and it does feel like that has this tie to this rather dramatic Venus retrograde. And if I can just rant a little bit longer, I have one more thought, and this is we’ve got Venus going back to the point of maximum empowerment and perhaps what some people will experience hopefully as the, “No, I am strong enough to do this,” right? Point of maximum empowerment. Chiron there, like, “Oh, I had these fears or old wounds or anxieties that I wasn’t strong enough for. But actually I am strong enough to do all of this.” Cuz Venus will never be stronger than at that point. Like that’s the point where the ‘seven treasures of heaven’, the regalia of Inanna are placed on in its full power.
CB: Right. Strong enough to do something even though it’s difficult, or even though it involves saying ‘no’ or other Saturn keywords that are coming in from that square.
AC: Yeah, Saturn can be grueling.
CB: But it is manageable. I always think of that difference between Saturn versus the modern outer planets. The way I conceptualize it is that we can experientially interact with Saturn. You can go outside, you can look and see Saturn just looking up at the sky. But Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, you cannot. And I sort of weave that into the difference between the trials or tribulations of Saturn versus one of the outer planets. Saturn will bend you down. I’ve had clients almost take on the posture of an old person with the hunched shoulders and the things bending over, but it’s bearable. And I think the point with Saturn sometimes is to become conscious or clear of where those limits are. If you are bowed under by burdens, what burdens can you push back on? And that idea of the Venus at the exaltation degree is realizing that you have the strength to push back or to restructure where it will give you relief.
AC: Yeah. Two things about that, that brings me back to the acceptance bit, being able to accept, embrace a heavy charge or task or a duty, right? Like, yes, I can run a hundred miles in a day. And then, two, a thing I think is really key with Saturn—that’s especially key with Saturn at the end of Sagittarius, where it tends to take on more extreme meanings—is figuring out what really is worth running yourself down for. Like, yes, if it’s saving your whole city, you run all night and all day, and maybe you die at the end and it was worth it. But life and Saturn will try to get you to do stuff—where you get that rundown, that exhausted—that’s not nearly that important and you can just say ‘no’ to.
KS: Or it’s important to someone else, but it’s not important to you.
AC: Ooh, yeah. By saying ‘no’ to some things, it allows you to save your strength for the stuff that really does matter.
KS: To say ‘yes’ to where it really counts.
[crosstalk]
KS: Sorry, Chris, were you gonna say something?
CB: No, go ahead.
KS: Just the idea very, very simply—Venus being at the very end of the zodiac as she’s wrapping up this retrograde—it feeds into some of what we’re saying here about the idea of that conclusion or that finalization or that completion or the final restructuring. From here, we’re gonna move forward with whatever foundation or arrangement we are locking in. And in some ways I think part of the point of April is to be really clear and thoughtful and maybe well-researched about whatever it is that we do lock into or commit to or make a promise around because we will carry that forward, at least through the end of the year.
AC: Totally.
CB: That’s a really good point. I mean, I want to say this is the primary signature of April. Certainly for the first-half of the month, right?
AC: I think if we’re gonna give a first prize, Venus gets first prize.
KS: Totally.
CB: Okay. And my last statement on that, one of the things that’s interesting in contrast is I was just looking at the beginning of the retrograde cycle, and of course it stationed retrograde in mid-Aries, where it was not that far from Uranus. It was about 10° off, but it’s still in the same sign and opposite Jupiter. You know, there’s probably some people whose—if they’re really tied into this specific retrograde cycle, or if they have it activated as the lord of the year, especially with profections from the 7th house—relationships began under or around that first retrograde station, where it stationed retrograde conjunct Uranus and opposite Jupiter that was very exciting and very dynamic and new and sort of fresh. But then it’s interesting that it retrogrades back and then stations direct in Pisces square Saturn, which is much more sober and much more somber in some ways and much more realistic, and a little bit less exciting than the stationing retrograde of Saturn. And so, that might be one of the other final things. To the extent that this is not just a thing that’s happening in April—like a singular event, but is part of a continuum of some sort of narrative that began much earlier, at the retrograde station—it might be interesting or useful to look at it from that perspective. Especially for some people where their charts are closely tied into this, the two notes on either end of that retrograde cycle is the pizzazz of Uranus versus the more somber tone of Saturn.
KS: Absolutely. The one other planet around the station retrograde in early March, Venus was only about 6° away from square Pluto at that point, too. So a very different feeling there, yeah, with both Uranus and Pluto versus the Venus—which is now in Pisces—to Saturn. It is good to point that out though, Chris, cuz the stations, they are tied in together.
CB: Yeah, just in terms of when it is about a sequence of events versus a singular event. And sometimes it’s one or the other, or sometimes it’s both. But it can be good to see all of these cycles as the continuation of a series of events sometimes.
AC: Yeah.
KS: For sure.
AC: Speaking of Uranus and Pluto, and speaking of Venus, we have a pretty dramatic Full Moon coming up on the night of the 10th.
CB: Right.
KS: April 10-April 11. We do need to mention this for April. It’s quite stellar.
CB: So that’s our first lunation.
KS: Sorry, Chris?
CB: Just that’s our first lunation of the month.
KS: It is.
AC: So it’s the Full Moon on the night of April 10, morning of April 11. And so, that’s at 21 Aries and Libra. And so, it lights up our Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto T-square, which has been waxing and waning over the last couple of months. So we have Uranus at 24 Aries, Jupiter at 17 Libra, and Pluto at 19 Capricorn, and then you have the Moon really transferring the light between all of those. You know, that’s kind of pulling apart. And if we didn’t have a lunation on top of it, I wouldn’t be as interested in it. But it’s a big old Full Moon right on it.
KS: Yeah.
AC: Not only that, it’s a Venus-ruled Full Moon, right? And what’s Venus doing on the 10th? Venus is three-and-a-half days away from station, right? Venus is barely moving. Venus is doing something very dramatic. Venus has just completed the retrograde square to Saturn. And so, that’s a biggun. Oh, and Mercury has just stationed retrograde the day before.
KS: Exactly.
CB: Yeah, at 4° of Taurus, I believe.
KS: Correct. Yes, around there. So yeah, April 8-9-10-11, that’s when we have the first exact Venus-Saturn station, Mercury goes retrograde, and then we have this Full Moon. And the chart—I mean, you have to print it off and have a look at it. The Moon at 21 Libra, it is just separating from Jupiter-Uranus and applying to Uranus. Sorry, separating from Jupiter-Pluto and applying to Uranus at 24. So we’re definitely still in that ‘cardinal’ stuff. Explosive.
CB: Right.
AC: Well, I would say that if we just reduced this down to the main thing, it’s the Full Moon in Libra, right? What’s Libra about? Well, it’s the Venusian function of connecting, finding harmony between opposites, balancing different priorities in different life areas. And in a lot of ways all of this stuff—the Jupiter, the Uranus, the Pluto—basically just underlines that idea. Like, yeah, there are a lot of different things in different areas to equilibrate. There’s a lot that needs to be balanced. And this is not gonna be a ‘solving everything’ sort of balance. It’s going to be like finding the way that you can move with things and move in balance, right? That’s what it’s gonna be. And that balance will be challenged and tested for a lot of people. You may stumble and fall and need to get back up and pick up everything and keep going.
KS: Yeah, it’s a Full Moon that kind of highlights how and where balance might be needed, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a Full Moon that gives you the easy solution for it, with that connection to Uranus. It’s more like you thought that was balanced, so let’s turn it upside down. In this situation, how do you re-balance if everything is different from what you expected?
AC: Yeah, I would say it’s like, no, you really need to focus on balance because you really need balance during this time, because things are not balanced, right?
KS: Exactly, yeah.
AC: This doesn’t come neatly wrapped for you.
CB: It’s funny that we’re focusing on that and talking about that, cuz that was one of the possible elections that we were gonna highlight this month. Leisa ran the charts, and the two she came up with—that she was trying to decide between—was one chart on April 10 to highlight as the main election for the month, and one on April 27. I think I’m gonna highlight the 27th one over the April 10th one. But just to give people sort of a freebie for the second one this month, this is probably one of the other ones we’re gonna highlight in our 45-minute electional episode for patrons later this month. The election takes place on April 10, 2017, at about 11:41 or so in the morning, with 17 Cancer rising. So you have Cancer rising, the Moon is the ruler of the ascendant. It’s at 15° of Libra in the fourth whole sign house—also the fourth quadrant house—and it’s applying to a conjunction with Jupiter. So it’s about 6° off from the exact Full Moon that day. It’s in the middle of the day, so the Sun’s in the 10th house. But it’s trying to focus in on just the fact that you’ve got a Moon-Jupiter conjunction that day, in a day chart, sort of emphasizing it by making the Moon the ruler of the ascendant. So it’s tricky though of course because then you’re also picking an election where Mercury’s literally just stationing retrograde at 4° of Taurus. It’s not otherwise a major player in the chart, but it’s still the questionability of when you want to have a Mercury retrograde happening or just starting when you’re beginning an election. Especially if it’s something tied into Mercury versus when you might want to avoid that, as well as all the other stuff in terms of Venus retrograde stationing direct square Saturn, etc. So if you wanted to focus on a chart that really emphasized the themes that you were talking about with the Full Moon, then this would be it.
AC: Yeah, I would say that you can get away with this for something that you don’t need to endure for a long time.
CB: Right.
AC: Like I would not start a business on this election. But there’s a lot of stuff that I would do, like more temporary stuff. Just grab that Moon applying to Jupiter—which is what you’re doing here—where you have the Moon applying to Jupiter and it’s not hit the ‘T-square’ storm that it hits later that night. Just grabbing a little bit of that and moving on. But I wouldn’t get married or start a business on this one.
CB: Yeah. There’s a lot of focus on cardinal energy, which is really good at initiating things, but not at keeping things going. Uranus is very prominent, cuz the Sun is conjunct Uranus and it’s sort of loosely opposite to the Moon-Jupiter conjunction. Yeah, like you said, there’s a lot of dynamic good stuff for initiating things, but not as good for follow-through.
KS: Yeah, a quick turnover or a quick response. And I agree with what you guys are saying. The Moon applying to Jupiter would be the preference.
CB: Sure.
AC: Yeah, I would say that’s a necessity.
CB: Definitely. Cuz if you miss that conjunction, then just skip it.
KS: Wait. Wait for a few days or another week maybe.
CB: So the actual election that I wanted to highlight this month isn’t until the very end of the month, so I think I’ll save that for when we get there. So why don’t we transition? So Mercury stations retrograde on the 9th or 10th, and then it’s retrograde for the rest of the month. And it doesn’t actually station direct until the very beginning of May, where it stations direct in Aries. So eventually we have the Venus stationing direct on April 15. We have the Sun ingressing into Taurus. So we’ve completed the first month of—I don’t even know what you want to call it—the ‘astrological’ new year by April 19, when the Sun moves into Taurus and it’s completed its trip through Aries. And then right around this point, we start getting a lot more action going on from my ephemeris, right?
AC: Yeah, the 19th through the 21st is pretty action-packed.
KS: It’s like the second period into this month.
AC: Yeah, this is what I was saying about there are kind of two phases for this month, and they overlap in the middle and that’s basically ‘Venus’ drama and then ‘Mercury’ drama. And the first part, Mercury’s retrograde station is actually not very dramatic, right? As Chris mentioned earlier, it stations at 4°51’ and it’s not really aspecting anything. Not a big deal, right? And then it works backwards through that first face of Taurus and actually meets the Sun in the very first degree of Taurus. That’s where the inferior conjunction happens and that’s on the 19th. We get, boom, Sun-Mercury. So that’s interesting. Again, the Mercury retrograde, it is interesting of course that it’s a Mercury retrograde that starts in a Venus-ruled sign, right? And so, we’re pinging off of everything that Venus has been through recently with that Mercury retrograde. But I don’t see the Mercury retrograde as entering its dramatic phase until it regresses into Aries.
KS: Which is where all the action is.
AC: Which it does basically immediately after that cazimi with the Sun. That’s April 20 that Venus—excuse me, Mercury moves back into Aries. And that starts about four weeks of Mercury being within 5° or less of conjunction to Uranus. That’s a lot of Mercury conjunct Uranus.
CB: That’s kind of interesting that the cazimi happens right after the Sun ingresses into Taurus; the Sun moves into 0° Taurus. And then that same day essentially—it looks like around the same 24-hour period—is when Mercury exactly conjoins the Sun.
AC: It’s like eight hours later.
CB: Interesting. All right, so that’s a more amped-up Taurus ingress than we’re probably used to.
AC: Yeah, there are a couple of other things that happen at the same time. The same day—or not the same day. Another eight hours later, Pluto stations retrograde, which is interesting, just sort of amping, deepening what’s already going on, right? And then eight hours later, you get the Mercury regressing into Aries. And then the next day, you have Mars changing signs and entering Gemini, which is important because, hey, guess what? Mars is in a Mercury-ruled sign. What’s Mercury doing? Oh, Mercury is conjoining Uranus forever.
CB: Right. In Mars’ sign.
AC: Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s a reception, yeah. I was just thinking of one way. Yeah, you’re totally right.
CB: Interesting. And then that ends up being the station, like you were pointing out. Eventually Mercury slows down and conjuncts Uranus for this long period of like a week or so, and then eventually stations pretty closely conjunct Uranus.
KS: Yeah, it stations at 24, and Uranus is at 25 at the time.
CB: Okay.
KS: That’s the 2nd of May or something. 2nd or 3rd of May.
AC: Right. And so, Mercury doesn’t go back into Taurus until May 15. So again, literally, you have Mercury within 5° or less of Uranus in the same sign, from the 20th to the 15th.
KS: 20th of April to the 15th of May. It’s almost a month, isn’t it?
AC: Yeah, that’s like 25 days of Mercury right next to Uranus. Will there be surprises? Yes, there will be surprises.
CB: Right.
AC: And I think that sort of gives us a very basic theme for the Mercury retrograde. It starts in ‘steady’ Taurus, right? What’s interesting about that first face of Taurus is that it’s often considered to be Mercury-ruled, and the images for that are usually people doing agricultural work. But Mercury isn’t a farmer. But it’s explained very clearly by Agrippa who says in this face, you learn the arts of geometry so that you might divide the land, right? If you have a bunch of fields, you have to be like, “Am I gonna go corn here, beans there? What’s my plan?” It’s the ‘planning’ decan. Because you don’t just throw seeds in the ground and hope you get crops, right? You have to make a plan at the beginning of the growing season, and so you can see Mercury as the ruler of that decan of Taurus. And so, this is Mercury stationing retrograde there, which is like, you know what? You might want to be a little flexible with that plan, right? You might want to rethink it. And I feel like Mercury spending so much time with Uranus doubles-down on some factors that you did not initially consider that are gonna need to be part of that plan.
KS: And just to add into that, too, Austin, the Mercury-Uranus period that we’re talking about—late April and into May—there is actually a first hit of Mercury-Uranus which has taken place already March 26, when Mercury was still kind of powering forward. So for people that need a bit more clues about this Mercury-Uranus and what are the surprises in regards to the planning, think back to that end of March period, when we had that first Mercury-Uranus hit or aspect, if you like. Because there’ll be a thread from then that becomes relevant or makes more sense towards the end of April.
CB: It’s also nice that the Mercury-Uranus conjunction is trine Saturn. Cuz I feel like that balances it out a little bit more than it would otherwise.
AC: Maybe.
CB: In terms of the potential for a constructive outcome rather than just a crazy Mercury period where things are unpredictable and you don’t know what’s going on, and everything’s in upheaval. You know, somebody has their hand on the wheels sort of guiding things or calming them and adding some sense of regularity a little bit more than there might be otherwise if it was just Mercury-Uranus conjunct in a cardinal sign like that.
AC: I’m sympathetic to what you were saying, and I think that’s valid to some degree. But I think we also need to consider that when planets are in aspect, it’s not merely Saturn which will help to stabilize Uranus. It also puts Saturn in Uranus’ cross-hairs. Uranus has an ability to disrupt Saturn when he is aspecting him in a way that he does not when he is not aspecting him. And so, I would say that it emphasizes this necessary dialogue between circumstance and the desire to manage and plan. You know, the changes will impact the plans directly. A trine is a very strong aspect. And so, to a certain degree, it means that you’re not gonna miss the fact that you need to organize around this. But even when it’s a ‘happy’ aspect—when two planets that have sets of meaning as opposed as Uranus and Saturn do—it does mean that they affect each other very directly and that there’s some contention there.
CB: Right, right.
AC: You know, if Saturn was off somewhere unaspected, it might be that a lot of the Saturn stuff didn’t get disrupted, whereas this really mandates this dialogue between those two spheres. And at least it’s a trine, right?
CB: Yeah.
KS: That is better than a square.
CB: Yeah.
KS: Sorry, Chris.
CB: I mean, the potential for Saturn to be fully disrupted by Uranus is lessened significantly by the fact that it’s a trine rather than a hard aspect.
AC: Yeah. Again, at least it’s a trine.
CB: Sure. All right, so we move past that cluster of a bunch of stuff around the 19th, 20th, and 21st. And then eventually the next thing that comes up is we have the New Moon of the month, which occurs in Taurus on April 26. Kelly, do you know what degree that’s at?
KS: Yeah, it is at 6°27’ Taurus. So what is it? I’ve got Sydney charts here. So it’s the 26th in the evening in Sydney. So it’ll be the morning, East Coast, like New York, Toronto. Yeah, I think it’ll be the 26th probably around the world. Maybe late on the 25th for some people. So 6°. The Mercury-Uranus is applying as a conjunction. Venus is at 29 Pisces, the ruler of that New Moon. So she is just about to head back into Aries, but she’s not there quite yet.
CB: Oh, right.
AC: And she’s cleared Saturn, which is nice.
KS: She is past Saturn. They are mutually-separating, I guess, cuz Saturn’s retrograde. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. It just looks a little more mellow—other than the Mercury-Uranus—the New Moon itself. It’s only a couple of degrees off the Moon’s exaltation in early Taurus.
CB: Oh, right. That’s a good point.
KS: I don’t know. I really like New Moons and lunations that are in the first decan of Taurus. They seem to have this sort of stabilizing or grounding quality.
AC: Yeah, I think it’s a powerful counterpoint to what Mercury is doing. And it’s only 2° off Mercury’s station degree.
KS: That is true. Yeah, Mercury had retrograded, starting at 4.
AC: Right. Again, just like Saturn bearing on Uranus is like, no, no, you can’t just float or dance with the chaos, it needs to be factored into the plan, right? And with that sort of planning and plowing decan in the first part of Taurus, it’s like, no, no, you really do need to figure out how to incorporate whatever the changes are, internally and externally. Whatever surprises Uranus is throwing at you, these really do need to be factored in and become part of the trajectory forward. So there’s this dialogue between randomness or what might seem like randomness or certain turns of events and the importance of bringing those down and being like, okay, where can I fit those in? How can I move around those or bring those with me? Again, there’s this dialogue that I think a lot of this speaks to.
CB: Sure. And immediately after this—or just after the New Moon—is actually the electional chart that Leisa and I wanted to highlight for this month. So it takes place on April 27, around 10:35, let’s say 10:30 in the morning, with about 17° of Cancer rising. Again, the Moon is the ruler of the ascendant. This makes Jupiter angular. That’s one of the reasons why we’re using a lot of Cancer rising charts at this point, in addition to that fact that there’s nothing that’s really in dignity and not otherwise afflicted. So Cancer rising. The Moon is the ruler of the ascendant again, and it’s exalted in Taurus at about 24° of Taurus, applying to a sextile with Venus—which is still at the very, very end of Pisces—with reception. Because the Moon is not just exalted, but it’s in Venus’ sign, and therefore applying to a sextile with its domicile lord, Venus in Pisces in the 9th. This is after the New Moon. So the Moon is actually waxing and it’s increasing in light. It’s starting to become brighter and brighter. So it’s on that half of the cycle that’s good for beginning new things generally. It’s also far enough away from the Sun that it’s not under the beams still, which is another positive.
KS: That’s nice.
CB: Yeah, it’s pretty, pretty good.
KS: The Moon in Taurus applying to Venus in Pisces is a really nice aspect.
CB: Yeah. I mean, the only downsides of course the Mercury-Uranus conjunction is still very close, and Mercury is still retrograde. It’s very close to stationing direct, but you’ve got a little bit of instability there in terms of the Mercury-Uranus and Mercury stationing retrograde. And then I don’t like it a lot that Mars is in early Gemini. It’s at 4 Gemini, and the Moon is at 24 Taurus. So even though the Moon hits the sextile with Venus first—and that is its next aspect—the aspect after that, once it changes signs, will be to conjoin Mars, which isn’t ideal. But all things considered, I think it’s still an acceptable chart and is still pretty good.
AC: Yeah. I mean, I think that the ascendant lord being in mutual reception with both of those planets being exalted provides a lot of insulation. Like that’s pretty sweet.
CB: Yeah, yeah. And it ties together the 11th house, which is doing pretty good. So the chart’s very much focused on 11th house activities. So friends, alliances, groups, social movements, things like that—it would be useful for and very geared towards. It’s also not bad for 9th house activities related to education, maybe travel—I mean, Mercury’s a little unstable for travel, but it still could be okay—and other types of 9th house activities of that sort. I mean, because of that strong connection between the 11th and the 9th, it’s a very good 11th house/9th house election, with some underlying 4th house stuff as well, with Jupiter being angular in the 4th house by whole sign and quadrant in a day chart and looking pretty good.
AC: Yeah. I mean, especially if there are activities that tie together the 9th and the 11th, like connecting people who all believe the same thing. You know, connecting with friends who live in different places.
KS: Yeah, traveling with friends.
AC: Let’s say if it’s a book project, like putting out an invitation to take part in an anthology about something you all know about and knitting together those threads from far away.
CB: Right, right.
KS: I mean, part of what we’re sort of all alluding to here is the idea that with the New Moon, the Sun and Moon together in Taurus—but even just the month with the Sun in Taurus—planets in Taurus right now are kind of disconnected. They’re not aspecting Saturn. They’re not aspecting Mars. They’re also not aspecting Jupiter. I don’t know. It highlights a different part of the zodiac in the sky which takes us away from all that angst-y stuff, which is what we’re dealing with, with the more yang placements at the moment.
AC: Right. As we’ve talked about the year is mostly about planets in late fire signs, and Taurus is largely unconfigured to that.
KS: Exactly.
AC: And what that means is it might be a little timeout, right?
KS: Yeah, that breathing room or catch your breath or slow down for a pause or something.
AC: Yeah. And let me say something positive about the Mercury-Uranus, cuz I’ve said a lot of ‘oh, shit’ things about it—and there will be some ‘oh, shit’ things. And I’m sure that politically—in terms of what the cable news is talking about—there’ll probably be some startling revelations from the blah-blah-blah. But on a personal level, in your own nation—which is much more sane than the one we live in right now—Mercury-Uranus can be a lot of positive ‘oh, shit’. It can be like, “Oh, I’ve been thinking about this, this way the whole time. Whereas if I just adjust my perspectives, suddenly everything makes sense and I understand.” A lot of times those shifts in perspective can be tremendously empowering because then you can see the way through something rather than just seeing the unpleasant details and feeling oppressed by them, right?
CB: Right.
AC: Like seeing a way through. Yeah, just seeing with new eyes.
CB: Yeah, that sudden flash of insight of seeing the shortcut rather than the long, laborious, adding up all the math until you eventually get there. But instead sometimes you can see a way through things that otherwise was not clear or you shouldn’t have been able to see.
KS: Absolutely. I’m always reminded of some of the benefits of the trickster Mercury, which is in some ways amplified when Mercury’s in aspect to Uranus. You know, Mercury kind of gets into the nooks and crannies on the ecliptic that other planets don’t really touch with their orbits or with their cycles. And sometimes I think one of the benefits or one of the opportunities that lies in maybe a Mercury retrograde or these tricky Mercury aspects—Mercury-Uranus aspects—is the ability to hit upon a side door or a back entrance that is gonna get you into something. When you’ve tried to come up to the front door, for whatever reason they said, “You don’t have the paperwork (or your documents), you can’t come through this way.” And then the agility of Mercury—being flexible and looking at something from all angles, which is so amplified with Uranus—can help you realize that there are different ways to solve whatever problem that you’re trying to solve.
CB: Right.
AC: Absolutely. Hallelujah. I would also add that I get that literally during a lot of Mercury retrogrades.
KS: Yeah.
AC: Like I literally have to take a back road because the highway is closed.
KS: Right.
AC: Or whatever, the normal route is blocked. So sometimes you’ll take a back road, and you’ll be like, “Oh, this is actually quicker.”
KS: Yes.
AC: I’ve literally had to go in the backdoor because I got locked out of the front door, or go in through a window. Yeah, these non-standard points of entry and exit.
KS: Yeah, the access point is non-standard. And it goes back to what you were saying, Chris, at the very start about inconsequential. Like Austin, if you get in the backdoor or the window or the front door, you’ll still get in the house. Do you know what I mean? It might just take a little bit more effort or wiggling. I’m imagining you going through a window right now.
CB: Right.
KS: But you still get in.
AC: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
KS: Sorry, Chris.
CB: And just the fact that when you’re dealing with symbolism or archetypes like that sometimes it just filters down to all sorts of different levels in a person’s life, from the very large and significant and super-impactful to the very small and mundane and more inconsequential.
KS: Totally.
CB: All right. So let’s see, the very last thing that happens is that after our election date of course—when Venus is at 29 Pisces—it eventually completes that whole trip through Pisces and ingresses into Aries on April 28, it looks like. And then that’s pretty much it. I mean, on the Planet Watcher Calendar, Kirk actually highlights that Saturn exactly squares Chiron on April 30, for whatever that’s worth. But that pretty much brings us to the end of the month, right?
KS: Yes, I think it does. The only other aspect that I’ve got my eye on is not an overly-dramatic thing—and I think mentioning it at the very end, it’s all I need to mention—but Mars will trine Pluto this month, April 6 while it’s in Taurus. So I don’t know, it’s just something to be aware of in terms of how it might push or activate something. Not necessarily the scale or the ways we talked about other aspects this month, but it’s happening, I guess.
CB: Sure. So April 6?
KS: Yeah, Mars will be hitting that 19 Taurus around then and just linking over to Pluto.
CB: Okay, got it. I mean, I’m trying to think of a good description of that. Cuz sometimes that can be like really sustained, intense energy and the ability to push through something.
KS: Like drive, determination. Extreme focus. Cuz it’s an earth-Mars-Pluto combo. So it’s very much about getting stuck in something but then staying with it. I know Mars in Taurus, negative this-and-that, because of strength-based things, but it is a slower version of Mars. If we need some sustained output or sustained effort, that’s what Mars in an earth sign can be helpful for.
CB: Right.
AC: Yeah, it’s the long war. It’s trench warfare. You know, it’s the work of building. I’m exquisitely aware of some of the earth-Mars stuff because the house that Kait and I moved into has a lot more stuff to fix than we realized. And so, we’ve just been plowing 10s, 20s, 30s of hours into it. It’s just not something you can get excited about, and go and ‘Mars in Aries’ it and punch it in the face and then knock it out. It’s like, no, no, no. This is just plowing hours in over and over and over again.
KS: It’s like writing a book. It’s hours in the chair.
AC: Yeah, hours in the chair, right? And you’ve really got to squint to see that you’ve made a difference everyday. It’s like it’s 21% done rather than 19% done, which isn’t very encouraging, but you gotta keep your eye on that incremental progress. So I have something I wanted to bring up about Mars in Taurus, just while I have you guys on the horn here.
CB: Sure.
AC: So Nina Gryphon wrote a nice piece about the Aries ingress for this year.
KS: Yes.
AC: Shoutout to Nina. Everyone should read that. And then Ben Dykes pointed out on social media that there was something very interesting and rare happening with Mars in that Aries ingress chart. You know, it’s just Mars in Taurus, but Mars doesn’t aspect any of the other planets in that Aries ingress, like no classical aspects to anybody. And he kind of threw it out there like, “Well, what do you guys think this means?” And I don’t know. I wanted y’all what you think this means.
CB: So Mars is completely in aversion to all other traditional planets in the Aries ingress chart.
KS: Yes, it was a really interesting post.
CB: I mean, that’s tough because it’s so in contrast with the big thing we know that’s coming in August with that eclipse and the Mercury retrograde. And then it hits Mars, and it’s all in late Leo. You know, there’s different points during this year when things are so Mars-y, it’s such a weird, sort of quiet period when it’s not around the Aries ingress, and so I guess you just have that question. That makes me think back to a year ago—or one of the lessons of last year—that that Aries ingress chart ended up being much more important than I was anticipating, with that Mars-Saturn conjunction in Sagittarius in the 1st house, depending on what location you put it for. But for the US, I think it was with Sagittarius rising, if you set it for Washington, DC. I mean, do you guys think that’ll really set the tone for the entire year? And if it does, does that mean Mars is neutralized? Cuz I don’t even know what the traditional interpretation of a ‘wild’ planet is. I know in modern astrology, in the Noel Tyl school, they think that unaspected planets are less encumbered. I think they treat them almost as if they’re more prominent or more in-your-face because they have nothing else holding them back, if I’m remembering that correctly.
AC: Yeah, I think that there’s some traditional thinking on that to back it up, that they kind of go crazy.
KS: Yeah.
AC: I think the suggestion is that Mars gets to kind of go crazy, but it doesn’t change anything. So whatever is Taurus, as far as the world is concerned, might get affected by that, but it can’t touch anything else. It’s shunned by everything else. That seems like flailing, right?
KS: Flailing. And what did Ben—he said ‘wild and uncivilized’. So this sort of rogue element—as you were saying, Austin—that’s in aversion to everything. So it’s not actually interacting directly, but it is like somebody maybe standing in a corner just absolutely going a bit loco, so it’s there. But it is interesting to think. Does that mean it has more impact from the wildness? Or because it’s not interacting with anything else, is it just situation-specific if you set that Aries ingress chart for your country or your city? In whatever house that shows up in, is it just relevant to those topics?
CB: Right. And it’s also weird because it’s in Taurus, which is almost a contradicting factor where Mars is ruled by Venus. And so, it has these contradicting significations to work with. It’s almost like Mars puts something out there, but then Venus pushes back.
AC: But I don’t think you can have that push-pull cuz the two are blind to each other. Mars can’t see what Venus is doing. Venus can’t see what Mars is doing.
CB: Right. They’re still in those signs, though. So it’s like those are some of the significations that they’re given to work with. The problem, to some extent, with planets being in detriment or in their adversity—which is what I’m trying to call them now—is having significations and being in a sign where they’re truly out of their element, because they’re in one of the signs that’s opposite to their own domicile where they’re most comfortable. Instead they’re being given significations from a planet ruling the sign that are literally the opposite of what it typically likes to signify, regardless if they can see each other.
KS: Yeah. I mean, Ben gives a description I’ve just pulled up. It’s a really interesting discussion if you can find the post on his Facebook page. He gives the description of a ‘wild’ Saturn. It would be something like a monk or a wild man living in the forest, so there is that almost disconnect. And then I guess the rulership piece—the rulership relationship is there, but it’s almost like that idea that neither Venus in Aries nor Mars in Taurus has a lot to offer. They can’t really help each other.
AC: Well, just to mobilize the rulership model, Mars in Taurus is staying in Venus’ domicile, right? And so, Venus has her spring palace—that’s Taurus—and Mars is crashing there. However, Venus, off somewhere else, can’t see what Mars is doing and doesn’t have any idea how he’s treating the place.
KS: He’s trashing the joint.
AC: Mars is squatting there, and he has no idea how to work anything, right?
KS: He doesn’t know how to run the heat or turn on the Wi-Fi or something.
AC: Right. So he’s just kind of gonna do Mars but ineffectively, right? And he’ll probably end up trashing the place to some degree just because he’s not aware of the mandates or how things work. He disempowered, but because he’s left alone, why would he not act like Mars?
CB: Right.
AC: I don’t know, I hope you guys find this interesting.
KS: It’s an interesting thing to think about. No, totally, and I’m gonna be really interested to see. And I know we’re talking about the Aries ingress here specifically because Mars is wild. But Mars is wild the whole time he’s in Taurus, unless the Moon is in a place where it’s configured to Mars.
AC: Once Venus gets back into Pisces—
KS: That’s what I wanted to say. There’s gonna be a direct sextile between the two.
AC: Yeah. Oh, and I didn’t realize this until I brought it up, but Mars in that Aries ingress is at about 7°.
KS: Oh, the New Moon.
AC: Right. So that’s right on that New Moon. So if we’re gonna see what that Mars looks like on a mundane, larger level, it’ll probably be within that lunar cycle.
KS: That’s a really good point.
CB: Yeah, that’s interesting. It puts more importance on that New Moon in Taurus than we were otherwise giving it earlier when we were talking about it.
KS: For sure, for sure.
CB: All right, interesting. Well, yeah, we’ll have to talk more about that. And I think, Austin, you had suggested at one point—based on some listener feedback—that maybe we check in halfway through the year. Because in our yearly forecast episode, we spent a lot of time talking about the first few months of the year, and then we just sort of ran through the later half.
KS: The rest. Yeah, maybe in July we do a check-in session and look at the second six months before the big eclipses. That would be really good to do.
AC: Yeah, I had a couple of people suggest that to me, and I thought it was a good idea. I think it would be interesting to check in midstream. Like we know what Jupiter-Uranus looks like right now. We’ve had two of those. We’ve had giant marches. We know what that looks like, right? And we’ve had some eclipse action on the Leo/Aquarius axis. We’ve got some precedents. I think we can probably say some interesting and accurate things about the second-half.
CB: Definitely.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Cool. Well, yeah, let’s plan on it then.
KS: Excellent.
CB: Yeah. And so, we’re over a hundred episodes into the show now.
KS: Oh, yeah, cheers. We should all be having some champagne, Chris, to toast you for getting more than a hundred episodes. That’s fantastic. If you were a TV show, there would be cake.
AC: Cast party.
CB: It’s really crazy mentioning that it’s Episode 102. It’s really weird. I’m still getting used to that. But yeah, I owe a lot to you guys, because we do this every month. And this has really become the staple of the show and the thing that I come back for—and it keeps me sort of focused each month—and I think a lot of people come back and listen for. So thanks to both of you for helping to make that happen.
KS: Thanks for having me.
AC: Yeah, it’s always fun. So we’ve done a month since June of 2015.
KS: 2015.
CB: Right.
AC: So we’ve done maybe 21 of these so far.
KS: Approximately.
CB: Yeah, so that’s almost a quarter. And that of course has been sprinkled with a few additional ones from time to time, like our one on the planets, or the Saturn ingress one into Sagittarius and stuff like that.
KS: Yeah, it’s true. We’ve done a few extras, yeah.
AC: Yeah, so maybe 25-26.
CB: Yeah, so that’s like a quarter of the episodes, and it keeps getting bigger and better. I’m looking into doing video stuff and returning to using Zoom before too long and other things. Kelly, I think you and I are gonna do a Q&A to get to some of those questions that were left over from last month’s Q&A that went really well.
KS: We are doing that in a couple of weeks, so that’ll be fun.
CB: Yeah. And, Austin, you’re free to join us if you’d like, but I know you got a lot of stuff going on.
AC: Yeah, I do. When are you doing that?
KS: We are on schedule for the 10th.
AC: Of?
KS: April 10, sorry.
AC: Oh, okay. So the Full Moon. I don’t know, we’ll see.
KS: Oh, shit. Yeah, right before the Full Moon.
CB: Right. The day we were just talking about, one of the elections we focused on.
KS: We did the Moon-Jupiter, I’m sure.
CB: Yeah.
AC: Right. So it’s previous to the Moon-Jupiter. Yeah, gotcha.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Right. Yeah, so we’ll have that coming up and then lots of other good things lined up for the future.
KS: Yeah.
CB: So do you guys have—very quickly, before we go—anything going on that you need to mention? I mean, I know I forgot to mention I’m doing a webinar for Kepler College on April 1, which is this Saturday—if this show is out before then—which is titled, What is Hellenistic Astrology? I’m going to be talking about what is Hellenistic astrology, giving some background on my book—as I’ve already done on the podcast—but also talking about some techniques that you can take from Hellenistic astrology and apply within the context of modern astrology, so that it’s not just about getting rid of everything that you’ve ever learned about modern astrology and doing only ancient astrology, but just taking a few ancient techniques and how you can use them to enhance what you’re already doing. So you can find out more about that at kepler.edu. Do you guys have any classes or webinars coming up anytime soon?
KS: I just have two things this April. My group online mentoring for senior students and people who are wanting to transition into professional practice starts, and that’s gonna be running monthly from now right until the end of June. And then I’m also doing a webinar for Astrology University on the 22nd of April. And the topic will be announced in just a couple of days, but that is coming up. And that’s on a weekend. And we usually time it so it fits with Canada, the US, and Australia, so that will be out there as well.
CB: I mean, this’ll probably be released Thursday, I’m guessing, in a couple of days. So if you want to mention it, you can. It’ll probably coincide with the release of your announcement, if you wanted to say what the topic is.
KS: I think it’s gonna be on predictive astrology. Sorry, I don’t have a topic.
CB: Never mind. Scratch that.
KS: Chris, you’re calling me out on my organizational challenges.
CB: Right. And so, Austin, you have any webinars or classes you’re doing soon?
AC: Yeah. So let’s see, I am starting my timing techniques class on April 15, and that is cut into three units. The first unit is annual profections, the second unit is transits, and the third unit is zodiacal releasing. And so, that’s gonna run about five months. And so, it starts on April 15. People can sign up for the whole class. Or if they would prefer, they can do it modular style, where they can just do a month of profections. I think I have 12 weeks of transits, and then there’s a month-long zodiacal releasing at the other end. Anyway, the profections unit starts on the 15th of April, and that’s running concurrently with my fundamentals program. And so, we’ll be starting a month-long unit on aspects on April 22, and that’ll run for a month as well.
CB: Awesome. And your website’s austincoppock.com?
AC: Yeah. A-U-S-T-I-N-C-O-P-P-O-C-K.com.
CB: Awesome. And, Kelly, yours is kellysastrology.com?
KS: Yes, that is it.
CB: Perfect. Oh, yeah, the last thing. I totally forgot to mention this at the beginning. I released a new recording that’s on the sidebar of theastrologypodcast.com that you can buy or purchase, and it’s The History of Western Astrology in 90 Minutes. And if you’ve already listened to my Uranus-Neptune and the History of Western Astrology lecture, then you probably don’t need to listen to it. But this is a new recording that just focuses on the history of Western astrology, in the shortest time possible to get 4,000 years worth of history into a short period of time. So with that I think we’re at the end of this episode. So yeah, thank you, Austin and Kelly, for joining me.
AC: Always a pleasure.
KS: Anytime. Thank you guys for having me.
CB: And I look forward to talking to you guys and seeing you again in April. Yeah, so that’s it for this episode. So thanks everyone for listening, and we’ll see you next time.
AC: Bye.