The Astrology Podcast
Transcript of Episode 34, titled:
Astrology Forecast and Auspicious Dates for July 2015
With Chris Brennan and guests Austin Coppock and Kelly Surtees
Episode originally released on June 26, 2015
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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 August 28th, 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. You can find the show at theastrologypodcast.com. For more information on subscribing to the show, please visit theastrologypodcast.com/subscribe. Today is Thursday, June 25, 2015, at approximately 6:13 PM in Denver, Colorado, and this the 34th episode of the show. In this episode, I’m gonna be talking with Kelly Surtees and Austin Coppock about some of the major astrological alignments occurring over the course of the next month in July of 2015, as well as highlighting some of the most auspicious dates for starting different types of ventures using the basic principles of electional astrology. For more information about Kelly, see her website at kellysastrology.com. And for more information about Austin, visit his website at austincoppock.com. So, Kelly and Austin, welcome back to the show.
KELLY SURTEES: Thanks, Chris.
AUSTIN COPPOCK: Yeah, thanks for having me.
CB: As usual, I’m really excited about the show. I’m especially excited about this show because this is the first time I’ve ever done a sort of astrological three-way with three different astrologers at the same time.
KS: That didn’t take long, did it?
AC: I really want to make a joke, but—
CB: Okay. Yeah, you’ve got a lot of bad jokes from your decans book that we were talking about that we’ll probably leave out of this show. So, yeah, last month, we did an experiment, which Kelly and I came up with at NORWAC in May, where we did a forecast for basically the major astrological alignments or signatures for the next month, and the response to that was really positive. So thanks to everybody who listened to the episode and gave us feedback and comments. I think that was enough encouragement to definitely keep doing this experiment throughout the summer and then perhaps just make it a regular thing. So this time we’re gonna bring Austin onboard, who’s out here in Denver visiting me because he’s giving a lecture at a tarot conference this summer, or this weekend. And Austin is the author of a yearly almanac that he’s been publishing for several years now. And that almanac is actually on sale right now, right Austin?
AC: Yeah, until July 1. It’s 40% off the paperback and half off the ebook.
CB: Brilliant. Cause we’re halfway through the year.
AC: Exactly.
CB: Okay. Excellent. So I thought you would be a great person to bring onboard for this because all three of us are kind of interested, in different ways, in looking at the major astrological alignments in a given month, and each of us probably has an interesting perspective to bring to this sort of discussion. So why don’t we dive right into it? Kelly, I’ll let you set the stage for this month, since it’s really your column that acts as sort of the backbone of this episode in terms of identifying the most auspicious or the most prominent astrological alignments in a given month. So where would you start us off? Or what’s the major signature that you’re focused on for the month of July?
KS: Sure. Yeah, there is a lot of astrological action indeed mid-month, second-half of the month. Venus getting ready for retrograde is going to be connecting into both Jupiter and Saturn this month; Jupiter at the very start of the month. So Venus will conjunct Jupiter 1st of July at 21 Leo. But then, weirdly, or in contrast to that, by mid-month, Venus is going to be square Saturn as she gets to the end of Leo, and Saturn of course has now retrograded back into that tail-end of Scorpio. But Mars is in Cancer this month too, which is sort of an energy that’s got a weird contradiction within itself, and I’m really keen to get into that with you guys, the Mars in Cancer, just as a tone. But the aspects that Mars in Cancer will make include an opposition to Pluto, which is gonna happen mid-July, and then a square to Uranus around the 24th of July. I think it’s that date. We’ll come back and confirm that. The key though is that we’ve got Venus going retrograde, Uranus going retrograde, Mars square Uranus all over the same weekend, 24th, 25th, 26th of July.
So there’s sort of a couple of pockets that we could dive into. I thought we might as well start chronologically and just speak very briefly to the Venus-Jupiter conjunction cause I’m sure that’s gonna show up—I mean, it may not show up in any elections. But it’s one of those conjunctions where it sounds good. We’ve got the two brightest lights outside of the Sun and Moon conjunct. So, visually, it’s a very pretty night-time spectacle. If you’ve got clear skies, you can look west, just after sunset, and you’ll actually see—literally it’s like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” has been made manifest.
CB: Yeah, it’s beautiful.
KS: Have you guys seen this? Yeah, you can see it now.
CB: You can literally walk right outside and there’s these two really bright stars just off the horizon, shortly after sunset that just stand out in a very striking way.
AC: Yeah. There were a lot of non-astrological, but astronomical blogs and posts that I saw on the internet being like, “Hey, look up,” when the Moon was conjoined with them, I don’t know, four or five days ago. Because you could just look up and see one-two-three.
KS: Yeah, it’s beautiful. And I think astronomically speaking it’s a conjunction that is very tight in terms of space as well, so it’s not just a zodiac conjunction. I’m a little loose on the technicalities here, but in terms of the actual distance between Venus and Jupiter, it’s one of the closest conjunctions there as well.
CB: Okay. Just according to declination or latitude?
AC: Mm-hmm.
KS: Yes, yes.
CB: Got it.
AC: When you look up, you can see they’re basically on the same line, as opposed to one being way above the ecliptic and the other way below.
KS: Exactly, exactly.
CB: Sure.
KS: I mean, I’m curious—it sounds good, it looks good, Venus-Jupiter, it’s the two benefics. There’s definitely a sense of potential or nice things coming together essentially. But Venus is slowing down and she’s gonna make this conjunction with Jupiter a couple of times, not in Leo, but just by virtue of her retrograde. Do you guys have any take on that?
CB: Yeah. I mean, my take initially is just that there’s this sense of optimism about it that’s really interesting. Because even though Venus is slowing down and it’s preparing to go retrograde, it has this amazing conjunction with Jupiter right now, and you can get some really electional charts out of that. Some of them already took place in June—for example, June 20—where there was the pile-up that Austin mentioned, of Venus and the Moon and Jupiter all in mid-Leo. But I think there’s another one even in the middle of July, around July 17, around 5:00 PM, with Sagittarius rising. So Jupiter is the ruler of the ascendant, and it’s in Leo, in the ninth whole sign house. And Venus is still there barely in Leo, and the Moon catches up to Jupiter and Venus again and applies to a conjunction with Jupiter. So, again, you’ll see shortly after sunset this really beautiful alignment of those three planets or celestial bodies—the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter—that day. And that would be a really good electional chart for 9th house matters since it puts the ruler of the ascendant in the 9th house, along with both the Moon and Venus. So it’d be good potentially for—I don’t want to emphasize travel too much since Mercury is conjoining Mars at the same time. But other 9th house activities like educational pursuits or contemplative pursuits or things like that would be kind of appropriate for that sort of election in order to take advantage of the very last tail-end of that Venus-Jupiter conjunction.
KS: Beautiful, beautiful.
AC: Yeah, that’s really interesting. I would like to point out that I like that you’re emphasizing Jupiter in that election, Chris. Because Venus is not technically retrograde at that point, but she gets increasingly sketchy as the month progresses. For electional purposes, we need to be a little bit more careful about relying on her to deliver the goods. But her adding a little bit to a Jupiter that already has sufficient strength is I think a much safer bet than really betting on Venus when she’s so close to her station.
CB: Definitely. And squaring Saturn, since she’s in late Leo as well.
AC: Yeah.
CB: And just in terms of, Kelly, you were asking earlier about general comments about this, the thing that’s interesting to me is that Venus already—as of a few days ago, June 22—entered its shadow. Because it went past 14° of Leo, which is the degree that it will eventually retrograde back to by September, when it stations direct. And it’s interesting that in the early part of this, while Venus has entered its shadow and the pre-Venus retrograde shadow period, there’s this weird sense of optimism with Venus conjoining Jupiter in Leo during that time in June or much of July. But then by the time Venus stations retrograde later this summer and then comes back into Leo and stations direct, Jupiter will have completely left Leo and moved into Virgo, sort of abandoning Venus in some sense. And Mars will have finally caught up and moved into Leo, where it will conjoin Venus. So there’s this weird contrast that almost—at least for certain people, depending on what the sect of their birth chart is, if they have a day chart or night chart—might be a little bit problematic or challenging, where we have sort of the positive end of the Venus retrograde, which is with Venus, in its shadow conjoining Jupiter. And then we’ll have the more challenging end of the Venus retrograde with Venus stationing direct with a conjunction with Mars and kind of swapping out Mars for Jupiter.
KS: Which is quite the exchange really, isn’t it? To trade the ‘good’ benefic for that sort of lesser, more problematic Mars.
CB: Yeah. I mean, in the best-case scenario, you’re sort of switching out something that’s somewhat optimistic and stabilizing for something that’s a little bit more aggressive or confrontational or direct in some sense. So there’s certainly a tone change from one side of the retrograde to the other side of the retrograde. But in the worst-case scenario, you’ve got something that’s optimistic and positive and forward-looking in the first part of it and sort of stabilizing. And then on the other side, you have something that’s more about the possibility of separation or strife or contentiousness on the other side of the Venus retrograde that seems a little bit more problematic to me just in terms of what the broad theme or archetypal theme of those two conjunctions are.
AC: Yeah. If I could say something about the contacts that makes with Jupiter and Saturn, in one sense, the Venus retrograde is basically really digging into Jupiter and Saturn’s positions on what’s going to be a very felt emotional and personal level. And Jupiter and Saturn aren’t always that personal. But even if Venus wasn’t going retrograde, we’d be coming up on the exact square of Jupiter and Saturn at the end of Leo and at the end of Scorpio. Those two planets in those two signs, I would say they’re diametrically-opposed, but they’re really squared.
KS: Yes.
AC: It’s a different hard angle. Saturn in Scorpio is so dark and often pulls people to examine the darkest and most horrific. And I mean ‘horrific’ in terms of an emotional feel, right? It’s a very popular genre of entertainment for a reason. There are things we always feel revulsion towards, right? And so, on a collective level all of the ugly truths about racism coming up in the United States are a good example of something that is horrific, right? And so, Saturn pushes or pulls us to confront things of that category. Whereas Jupiter in Leo—that’s about as celebratory—
KS: It’s exuberant.
AC: Yeah. It’s like, “Let’s have a good day because we’re alive and we’re being of love and light,” which is also true, but they’re very difficult truths to square, so to speak. Chris, you were talking about this exuberance and optimism beginning with Venus-Jupiter. If we just trace the contacts, Venus first encounters Jupiter, “Hey, things are gonna be great.” Then she squares Saturn, “Oh, maybe things are gonna be horrible.” Then she squares Saturn again, “Oh, things are gonna be horrible,” and then hits Jupiter again, “Maybe it’s not so bad,” and then will eventually square Saturn a third time, and then the final hit will be a conjunction with Jupiter in Virgo. That puts us way into September.
CB: Right.
AC: There’s this back-and-forth between ‘are things wonderful and should we celebrate’ or ‘is it a disaster and should we all cry’.
CB: Sure.
KS: Yes. And it’s gonna be a lot of change too. Because by the time Venus makes that next square to Saturn—I mean, we are kind of talking late September/October—Saturn has moved out of Scorpio by that point too.
AC: Right, right. The final Saturn and Jupiter hits are both in different signs.
KS: Yes. So what’s interesting right now I guess is the Jupiter square Saturn hit is 28 Leo to 28 Scorpio, and it’s in the first week of August when it’s exact. So that’s the contrast in July really that we’re kind of moving from, that Jupiter to Saturn, and really moving out of the Venus aspects and into that deeper—as you said, Austin—that attempt to square off the Jupiter in Leo exuberance and celebration with the Saturn in Scorpio potential for sort of looking at the darkness, or if we can use the term ‘horror’.
CB: Yeah. And with Saturn stationing in Scorpio for its final station at 28 Scorpio, we get the very last tail-end of whatever that transit of Saturn in Scorpio has been about for the past two or three years now.
AC: Yeah, I summarized it recently in a newsletter as ‘a spiritual enema’ or something.
KS: Yeah. Austin, I was gonna quote you today, so I’m really glad that you’re here and you can quote yourself.
AC: Well, somebody brought it to my attention. They were like, “My job for this summer is to complete the enema.” And I was like, “Oh, I guess I did write that.”
KS: Yeah, and it’s true. And I think that’s the key—even just to focus on July for a second, that Venus square Saturn, which is gonna happen mid-month. It is pulling something out of the depths that hasn’t yet been fully released or examined essentially.
CB: Right.
AC: One last thing.
KS: Yes.
CB: Yeah. One last reminder about whatever that Saturn transit has been about for the past, what, two or three years now.
KS: Since October 2012.
AC: Yes.
CB: Yeah. And I’ve already seen a lot of people getting reminders where it’s sort of like Saturn left in December and it went into Sagittarius, and all of the people that were getting hit kind of hard with Saturn transiting through Scorpio kind of breathed a sigh of relief. They started getting out of it and returning back to normal again and thinking everything was over and they’d learned their lesson. But now Saturn is backed up into Scorpio again for one last reminder—just to sort check and see if you got the point—over the next three months, between mid-June and mid-September. And Saturn station right in the middle of this, at the end of July and beginning of August, I guess would probably be the focal point of that, just because stations tend to be like an exclamation mark next to planets, sort of emphasizing whatever that transit or that placement is about at the time.
AC: Yeah.
KS: Absolutely. You go, Austin.
AC: Okay. Yeah, I just had a really quick anecdote. Chris, I was telling you this the other day. So Saturn moved back into Scorpio very recently. And this day last week, the entire period I was sleeping, I just had these horror dreams. In the dreams, there was like somebody or some foul entity making me watch horrific images over and over and over again. I woke up and I was like, “Jesus.” It was sort of like Clockwork Orange where you’re just being made to watch terrible things. And I got up and I was like doing my little tai chi moves that I do in the morning, and then I noticed that Saturn went back into Scorpio. And I was like, “Oh, okay.” It had literally gone back in while I was sleeping.
CB: Nice.
AC: And so, yeah, it was like, oh, of course, it’s back.
KS: It’s back. And just to stay with the Saturn in Scorpio briefly, it’s only back for such a short amount of time, but for the whole of July—except for the first two days and then all of August—Saturn is just at 28 Scorpio. It’s not even moving. I mean, that’s obviously the station at the end of July/early August. It’s going from retrograde, where it is now, and then direct. But that sense of real emphasis, just the pressure point at one particular point.
CB: Yeah, definitely. And one thing to emphasize as well is even if you have planets in early Scorpio, or if you’re going through your Saturn return and it’s in early Scorpio or something like that, you’re not out of the woods. Like this is the last part of that transit, and then that transit is not over until Saturn leaves that sign. I’ve seen a lot of people thinking they were kind of done with their Saturn return or done with whatever Saturn transiting through Scorpio was about. And then suddenly, over the past couple of weeks, there’s stuff that’s just coming back up again out of nowhere because this is the last tail-end of that.
AC: Ooh, I have a good anecdote.
KS: Go.
CB: Okay.
AC: Okay, so I have a good friend who has Saturn in I believe the very first degree of Scorpio, and his Saturn return has entailed a big struggle with his current profession, which he’d like to leave. He would actually like to work on writing for the screen and television. And ever since the Saturn return began, he was really struggling with what he was currently doing and then went on sort of a bender. I believe he made himself read a hundred books a year to get a better grounding and has been working on screenwriting, right? And so, what is he doing this summer? Well, he’s actually applying to a screenwriting program—to make it official—that begins within a few days of Saturn leaving Scorpio for Sagittarius. Like the actual engaging, committing to this process of change which has taken the last almost three years to figure out—that final note, the ‘making it official’ part, school begins then, and he’s in the process of putting together his application right now.
CB: Wow.
KS: Wow. So that’s a good analogy for anyone who’s got major Scorpio cycles or transits—that we’ve got this final push required this month and next month.
CB: Yeah. I mean, most of the anecdotes that I had, I’ve been impressed over the past three years watching everybody I know. I have Aquarius rising. And so, for some reason, I have an abnormally high number of people that I know in my life that have Leo rising, which is my descendant. And watching all of the Leo rising people have Saturn go through their 4th house has almost been entertaining. But maybe ‘entertaining’ isn’t the right word. Like it’s all been—
KS: Not for them.
CB: Right. Not entertaining for them.
AC: It depends on if you like horror.
CB: Right. Well, it’s just entertaining from a ‘I can’t believe it’s doing the same thing to almost all of them,’ which is either stuff related to their home and their living situation—like rearrangements at home—or things related to parents and family. So just all of the Leo risings I know have moved over the past few years. And some of them—now that Saturn’s coming back into that sign—are finally getting settled in and working out the very last kinks of whatever the readjustment has been in their living situation over the past few years this summer. There’s been others, just to reiterate the Saturn coming back into the sign and sort of being reminded of that transit. There was one person who—as Saturn was leaving that sign, it was in Scorpio, still at the end of Scorpio in December—lost a parent. Her mother passed away, but she was part of the Greek Orthodox Church. And so, there was something where the funeral service or the religious service was put off for six months until June, and then they finally had it like a day or two after Saturn went back into Scorpio and returned back to the native’s 4th house. So the person’s mother actually died when Saturn was in Scorpio, in their fourth whole sign house, but then there was this sort of reminder of it or revisiting of that topic when they had the actual religious ceremony to finally let go of her mother just recently, as Saturn went back into Scorpio.
KS: Wow.
CB: So that’s a heavy example. But it’s an example of what we mean sometimes, or what I mean when I’m talking about revisiting some of the things that happened and then sort of putting a final last word or an end to them.
AC: Right.
KS: Yeah.
AC: Oh, go ahead, Kelly.
KS: You go, Austin.
AC: Oh, I was just gonna say on that, if we’re using that as a timeframe, if we’re revisiting when Saturn was last in those degrees, it’s basically fall of 2014, part two.
CB: Right.
KS: Yes. Yeah, with a little bit extra.
CB: With a vengeance.
AC: Speaking of vengeance—we were talking about this earlier—the last 6° of Scorpio, for those who study traditional astrology, that’s where the bound or term of Saturn is according to the Egyptian system. And so, what that means is if you look at all the different levels of essential dignity, the only place where Saturn has any special power in Scorpio is in the last 6°. So he can meaningfully be expected to kick a little harder or, we could say, demonstrate his significations very directly in such a way that there will be little confusion as to what the intention or lesson (or however you want to put it) is. I think it’ll be very clear-cut.
CB: And did you say that’s the last 6° or the last 2°?
AC: I believe it’s the last six.
KS: Six.
CB: Six? Okay.
KS: From 24.
CB: Got it.
AC: Yes.
CB: Okay, well, now that we’ve thoroughly depressed everyone with our discussion of Saturn in Scorpio—
KS: We have to find something happier to talk about.
CB: Right.
AC: Let’s talk about Mars in Cancer.
KS: Yes.
CB: Oh, yeah, that’s just happened. So Mars just went into Cancer I guess yesterday, or two days ago.
KS: Maybe two days ago, yeah.
CB: So this is hilarious, and I have a personal anecdote about this. Austin was flying in with his fiancée Kaitlin yesterday, and I was about to go get them from the airport, and then this huge storm blew into Denver and it was like a monsoon outside. And water started coming through my window, which unfortunately was soaked up by the shelf of modern astrology books that I had just under that window. And I lost a lot of really good books that have been with me for a while, like Hand’s Horoscope Symbols and a Tarnas book and something else. And what’s funny about that, and the only reason I bring it up is that I had this happen this summer, exactly two years ago, which was exactly to the day the last time Mars ingressed into Cancer. There was a flood here in Denver and then water came in through the other window and sort of soaked my apartment and I had to replace some stuff. So that’s my Mars ingress story. For some odd reason it seems to be coinciding with floods at my apartment.
AC: And my plane was delayed three hours by that same storm. So what was supposed to be a two-hour flight ended up being a five-hour flight, with a layover in Albuquerque.
KS: Oh, my goodness.
CB: Brilliant.
KS: So, okay, I want to use that, bounce off that ‘plane’ story, Austin. Because one of the things I see a lot with Mars in Cancer is this sense that progress or movement is not linear. It’s a zig-zag, like the crab. So when people have Mars in Cancer natally—or when Mars is in Cancer and we’re all kind of being infused or touched by that—this idea is that progress happens in a more surreptitious or side-steppy kind of way. Just think of a crab on a beach, which is perhaps a slightly Australian analogy, but they don’t move in a straight line. Crab is obviously the sign of Cancer, and Mars is a lot about how we kind of move forward under our own steam. So your plane trip I guess—to get to Chris—was somewhat surreptitious and not as direct as you might have hoped.
AC: Yes. It was LA to Denver to Albuquerque to Denver.
KS: Wow.
CB: And we have crabs in the northern hemisphere. So I think we can follow that analogy.
KS: Obviously, on the coast. But there’s a lot more of the States and Canada that’s not on the coast.
CB: Yeah, yeah, okay. And the Mars in Cancer is enlivened or gets made even more nice I guess by some aspects that come up later in the month, right?
KS: Yeah, it does. I mean, the point there in the story of the crab and the zig-zagging is I wanted to just mention that idea that Mars in Cancer is the ‘fall’ placement of Mars. Sometimes people get a bit confused. Does that mean it’s bad? It’s not that it’s bad. It’s just it’s a bit tricky for Mars to do what Mars at its purest level wants to do. Because in Cancer there’s a lot of consideration for others and a lot of energy directed towards protecting loved ones, which can be family or pets or people that are meaningful to you. And that’s where we can sometimes end up in a little bit of a vortex and not feeling like we’re moving forward as directly. But perhaps there’s this other focus or other piece—which is the emotional side—which is manifested in your flood, Chris, I guess.
CB: Sure.
KS: That wetness essentially, right?
CB: That makes a lot of sense in terms of Mars, even just as a character archetype, wanting to deal with things head on and be very straightforward. And if you know anybody that has—I think of Alan White, the late astrologer, who had Aries rising and Mars in the 1st house. He was just the most direct person you’ll ever meet. But Cancer, as you said, is not direct, is it? It goes more sideways or more indirect. And that’s where Mars sometimes can run into problems.
AC: Yeah.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Just in the sense of not fitting in its natural element or natural expression to hit things head on or directly.
AC: One of the things that I routinely experience whenever Mars is in Cancer—or in Libra or Taurus, the two signs of detriment or fall—
KS: And of Venus, yeah.
AC: —is that I have a much harder time getting all my work done. Mars plays a pretty important role in my chart, and I expect to be able to get up and light a fire under my own ass and get it done. And I really struggle to do that when Mars is in its detriment or fall. What I especially know, and this is funny—with Mars in Cancer, Cancer being the domain of the Moon, being about comfort and security—is I’m like, “Oh, I really don’t feel like it.”
KS: Yeah.
AC: I might encounter that feeling at other times, but I’m like, “Oh, well, too bad.”
KS: You can override it.
AC: But the idea of going beyond the comfort zone becomes very challenging, for me at least, when Mars goes through Cancer. And I know a lot of more straightforward martial types—those who were born with Mars in a pretty, simple, linear place—have a similar struggle when Mars is afflicted cause they’re like, “My get up and go got up and left.”
KS: Oh, that’s a great turn of phrase, yeah.
AC: I did not make that up.
KS: Of course. Well, you could have claimed it.
CB: Yeah, you can take credit for it. That’s the purpose of this show.
AC: All right.
KS: And the other piece about Mars—cause you sort of mentioned this idea of affliction—Mars is also combust for the first-half of July.
CB: Okay.
KS: So it’s so close to the Sun that there is a little bit of that overshadowing happening there as well.
AC: So I have a question I actually want to ask you guys that might be interesting to some of the listeners. So with Mars’ synodic cycle, we have two really exciting points, right? We have the conjunction with the Sun, which we’re kind of at the tail-end of, where Mars is on the far side of the Sun, right? So right now Mars is about as far away from us as he’s gonna get. Well, the Sun’s in the way. Then you have the opposition, right? And the opposition of the Sun and Mars—those are the Mars retrogrades where Mars is right there and close to us and then the Sun is on the other side. And so, I’m very familiar with Mars retrogrades and the various difficulties that come, and these last couple of weeks has really got me thinking about the period of conjunction or combustion with the Sun. I’ve been asking myself is Mars being dominated by the Sun? Is that maybe helpful? Because Mars, when he gets to do what he wants, is more destructive in his basic significations than the Sun is. There’s this metaphor with planets conjoining the Sun being purified. Is this somehow better or is it worse? And I’ve kind of gone back and forth, so I thought I would throw this out to my colleagues.
CB: I mean, that’s interesting. And the first thing it evokes in me is there’s a statement made in the 1st or 2nd century astrological text attributed to Manetho, and he says that all of the planets are harmed when they’re under the beams of the Sun, except for Mars. And this gets repeated a few centuries later by Firmicus Maternus, so at least there were some ancient astrologers evidently who felt that way.
AC: Yeah. I suppose another point of interest for me is I was born during that period where Mars has yet to arise from the beams, right? And so, that comes up for a chart reading, right? You can read the sign and house for Mars. But this is obviously a very special point in the relationship between Mars and the Sun that affects it strongly, for good and/or for ill, right?
KS: Yeah.
AC: And so, I guess while we’re talking about that we should talk about Mars coming back into visibility, cause I believe Mars arises at dawn. He makes his first appearance again after quite a bit of invisibility towards the end of the month.
KS: Towards the end of the month, yeah. I think it’s a really good point, this idea that maybe there’s something good for Mars about being combust temporarily. If you think even just symbolically, the Sun has that generative energy. We need the light or the heat to have directional focus. And there may be a steadying hand, like the wise old father reining in the tempestuous teenager.
AC: Right.
KS: That could be something to work with here for sure. But that’s what came up when you were speaking, Austin, about that.
AC: Right, right. And I’m wondering about that. On heat, though, one thing I noticed right around the deepest point of combustion for Mars was that I had multiple friends in different parts of the world, each complaining on Facebook about having sudden massive inflammations. Like one guy was just covered head-to-toe in poison sumac or something and another guy suddenly had hives everywhere. And if we think about what the planets can agree on, the Sun and Mars can agree on heat.
KS: That’s true.
AC: Especially in the northern hemisphere, a solstice Sun and Mars can definitely agree that it should be hot. And what we have there, it’s simple medical astrology. That’s excessive heat. Like that’s what’s happening.
CB: I actually have a personal anecdote about that, which a few years ago I was referred to this Indian Ayurvedic doctor. And she started having me drink this tea regularly that was supposed to help with focus and writing—I was trying to work on writing my book at the time—and it did. I was really productive and stuff. But after two or three weeks of drinking the tea regularly each day, I would go outside, and I noticed that I’d start getting sunburns really quickly. And then it got worse. So I would go outside for like 5 or 10 minutes and then have this terrible, intense sunburn. So I had to stop going outside for a while or start covering up and using tons of sunscreen. And my secondary progressed Mars was exactly squaring my natal Sun at that time.
KS: Oh, yeah.
AC: That’s interesting.
KS: So this is great. Because we forget the simplicity of the heat and cold and how we see them in the body, not just in the psychology. Great story.
CB: Yeah. Just in terms of the Sun being a fiery ball that’s out there in space that we see everyday, and then Mars having this reddish color, and as a result of that ancient astrologers deriving and associating them both with fire and fiery things. And what happens when two fiery things come together? You get different fiery, burning manifestations like that.
AC: Yeah. Just in terms of heat, the planets are really simple, right? Jupiter is temperate heat, the Sun is just heat, and then Mars is intemperate heat, right? They’re all warm.
KS: They’re all warm.
AC: Well, one is warm, one is hot, and one is scorching.
CB: And that was Ptolemy’s basic definition of what it means to be a benefic or a malefic planet. He said that Venus and Jupiter are benefic because they’re temperate and because they don’t go to extremes, whereas Mars and Saturn are malefic because they go to extremes of either hot or cold. So the idea of going to extremes rather than being balanced or being moderate, at least for him, was his basic underlying conceptual premise for the distinction of benefic and malefic.
AC: Right. And the Sun and Moon are neither. They’re neither especially gentle nor especially severe. They’re just hot and cold.
CB: Sure.
KS: Yes. Okay, so we’ve got the Mars returning to visibility at the end of the month. So that’s a little bit like Mars taking off the cloak of invisibility, which it has right now.
CB: Right.
KS: But then we do have these two aspects—I know we totally did a nice tangent there—Mars opposite Pluto, mid-month, July 15-16-17, and then Mars square Uranus, July 24-27. And so, they’re gonna create some kind of powder keg. I mean, the Uranus-Pluto square is separating, which is why we get the time lag between these two aspects. So Mars is gonna oppose Pluto while Mars is still in this invisible condition and then just as Mars is starting to emerge, it’s gonna square Uranus. So we do have this sort of tempestuous—I see Mars-Pluto, I always think about it as the ‘force of will’. Are you directing that and locked into a battle of disagreement with someone? Or can you find a way to channel that into forcing your way through a barrier that’s previously held you back? What do you guys think about that one?
AC: Well, I would just like to sort of provide a counterpoint to these really great elections that Chris has, to bring everyone’s attention to probably the worse election of the month—
KS: Go for it.
AC: —which is July 15 at about midnight, which sees the Cancer Moon conjunct Mars and Mercury, all opposite Pluto, within a degree or two. Cause that’s one of the things that’s really gnarly about that Mars opposition with Pluto.
KS: Oh, yeah, Mercury’s there too.
AC: He is right there for it, giving voice to all of those positive feelings.
KS: Positive feelings? Is that how you want us to describe it, Austin?
AC: Oh, no, that’s sarcasm. But, yeah, I would say I do agree with Mars-Pluto often bringing up power struggles. Personally, I find with the opposition—especially with Mars in such a difficult place—I think a lot of people will probably go through a couple of hours or days where it just seems so impossible.
KS: Yes.
AC: They feel like, “Not only do I not want to do it, but maybe it can’t be done. Maybe this is just fruitless.”
KS: This is a mountain too high to climb.
AC: Right. The world is just too unfair and too cruel.
KS: I guess people need to be a little gentle or mindful at that point.
AC: Yeah. Sometimes when there’s something like that I’ll get hit with one of these sort of ‘feeling’ storms, and I have astrology. So I’ll be like, you know what, it’s okay that I feel this way. That’s fine. There might be something to be learned from this. But it’s not gonna be like this in two or three days when the Moon changes signs. And that’s so often the case.
KS: Yes.
AC: Sometimes all you have to do is just let yourself be and give yourself a day off. If going at it hard just feels fruitless, give it a day or two. This is a gnarly moment, but it’s not a long-lasting one.
KS: Good point.
AC: This isn’t the story of the summer, right?
KS: No. It’s just a temporary blip potentially.
CB: So we’re talking about the middle of July basically.
KS: Yeah, July 14-15-16-17. And, yeah, thanks for adding that, Austin. Cause basically we’re in the dark of the Moon, and we’ve got Moon, Mercury, Mars behind the Sun in Cancer, but all opposed to Pluto. Tenderness. Be kind maybe. Or just stay at home.
AC: Yeah. Well, all these things in Cancer, it’s time to make a couch fortress and just hide in that.
KS: A couch fortress. Brilliant.
CB: And with Mercury, that brings up something that I wanted to mention, which is that earlier in the month—or at the beginning of the month—you can actually get one last really good Mercury election before it leaves Gemini.
KS: Gemini.
CB: Yeah. It’s on July 4. Fortunately, if you’re in the US, a lot of people will be celebrating.
KS: It’s a holiday for you guys.
CB: Yeah, you could still probably start something. It’s about 11:15 in the morning. I would give it about 18° of Virgo rising, give or take. So Virgo is rising. Mercury is the ruler of the ascendant and it’s placed in Gemini in the 10th house, pretty close to the midheaven; or at least in the tenth whole sign house. And it’s still applying to a sextile with Venus at 23° of Leo. So it’s separating from a sextile with Jupiter at 22 Leo and applying to a sextile with Venus at 23 Leo.
KS: Nice call.
CB: Yeah, it’s a pretty good one. The Moon is not that greatly placed. It’s at 17° of Aquarius in the 6th house. But if you put the midheaven at about 17 Gemini, you can mitigate the 6th house placement for the Moon by making it in an exact trine, which completely mitigates and sometimes can entirely nullify the cadency of that placement. And while the Moon is also square to Saturn—so the Moon’s at 17 Aquarius and Saturn’s at 28 Scorpio, it’s applying somewhat widely to a square—there’s some mitigation due to the presence of reception, since the Moon is in Aquarius, Saturn’s traditional domicile. And so, even the square with Saturn is less problematic than it could be otherwise. So this would be a great election for business and other 10th house matters pertaining to reputation or visibility or things of that nature. The only thing it would not be that great for is primarily 11th house activities because that Mars in Cancer in a day chart is in the eleventh whole sign house. And so, there’s the potential for conflict or strife or separation when it comes to groups or comes to friends or alliances. But that’s my best early July election, that Mercury election.
AC: Yeah.
KS: Yeah, fantastic.
AC: I noticed that one. Just in terms of single planet elections—for those who work with traditional planetary magic or talismanic stuff, where you’re just trying to get one planet as good as possible and focus on that—that’s about as good a moment for Mercury as we’re gonna have for several months.
CB: Yeah, that’s the last of the Mercury in Gemini elections after this long, two-month period, where we’ve had Mercury retrograde, or we’ve had it square Neptune. That’s been the major signature of the month that Kelly and I talked about a bit in our forecast for July, but it’s really interesting how that became one of the major signatures in mid-June: Mercury squaring Neptune, Mercury stationing and Neptune stationing in Pisces at the same time.
KS: Yeah, a lot of clients were asking, “Oh, Mercury has done its retrograde.” I’m like, “You’ve got to wait until it clears the square with Neptune.” We’re not done yet.
AC: I mean, we just got done as we’re recording this right now.
CB: Yeah, so today’s the 22nd. And it just completed, what, on the 23rd or something?
AC: No, today’s the 25th.
CB: Oh, 25th, I’m sorry.
KS: Too much traveling.
CB: Yeah.
AC: Okay, so obviously Mercury is still square Neptune.
KS: Yeah.
CB: Yes.
KS: But it’s good that you mention this Mercury in Gemini, Chris, cause that’s another point to make about July—we have had Mercury in Gemini since the start of May. So we’ve had two-and-a-bit months. And in July, Mercury is going to enter Cancer around the 8th of July, and it’s gonna fly through Cancer. By the 24th of July, Mercury’s already into another sign, into Leo. So obviously Mercury’s back up to top speed and moving quickly. So I know that Mercury in Cancer doesn’t have any special dignity—except of course for its terms—but just picking up speed is really good.
AC: Middle decan.
KS: Middle decan. Thanks, Austin. Yeah, Mercury getting faster is good for Mercury. And, Austin, what do you want to tell us about the middle decan for Cancer?
AC: Well, the middle decan of Cancer is considered to be ruled by Mercury when you use the descending order method to figure out what planets rule which decans. So with decanic dignity, the planet doesn’t have this sort of global potency that it would have in a sign where it’s exalted or it rules. Mercury in Gemini is just good for anything Mercury.
KS: Yes.
AC: But the decanic rulerships tend to be really good for a specific thing. And in the middle of Cancer, it’s about communicating privately. It’s about having intimate conversations. It’s the kind of Mercury you want for therapy or talking with old friends or having an intimate get-together. It’s those conversations that take place in a protected place.
KS: Environment. So that’s your deep and meaningful conversation.
AC: Yeah. And so, it’s not gonna be great for everything Mercury, but it’s really good for that part of Mercury, or probably for introspection, if you’re gonna turn that in on yourself.
KS: And let me just throw in the dates here. Mercury is moving through—so 10-20 Cancer is what we’re looking for, and that’s between the 14th and the 19th of July, which will be the same time with that Mars-Pluto that we were just speaking about earlier. So private conversations sound like they fit with everything else then.
AC: Yeah. Who knows, maybe Mercury will serve to make some of that stuff talkable or thinkable in a way that might otherwise just be felt.
KS: Beautiful. Cause sometimes that Mars in Cancer, in the negative, it can be a passive aggressive quality where the frustration is building internally, but there is not a lot that’s coming out. And Mercury, in its classic messenger symbolism, may help provide some kind of outlet.
AC: Yeah. Like it might help depressurize it before it boils over.
CB: And two interesting side notes, one, I thought it was really interesting that both of the two major presidential candidates ended up launching their campaigns. Jeb Bush launched his campaign around the time that Mercury stationed direct this month, and then Hillary relaunched or did the official launch of hers, and I thought it was kind of fishy. I’m just gonna throw that out there. It’s a little fishy that both of them ended up launching them right around Mercury stationing direct.
KS: ‘Fishy’ as in too much of a coincidence to not have an astrologer onboard?
CB: I mean, I always had this question, and I’ve asked a lot of older astrologers this. The older astrologers that were around in the 1980s always say, “Oh, yeah, we all knew that Reagan had an astrologer.” And I ask why or how, and they just say, “Because he was launching stuff at weird times that were lining up really well astrologically.” And while sometimes you’ll see that happen when it comes to momentous events or people that are like major historical figures—or will become major historical figures in retrospect—that they just naturally do stuff at auspicious times. Sometimes when you see people going out of their way to do things at weird times or times that are otherwise less practical than a time that’s earlier or something like that, that’s kind of tip that maybe somebody—somewhere along the line in this organization that has a hand in putting everything together in terms of the thousands of people that are involved in campaigns—is paying attention to something for whatever reason. I don’t know. I can’t say one way or another. I’m just saying it was a little fishy, so I’ll have to keep an eye on that to see if—
KS: The Scorpio’s onto it.
CB: Right. I’m on the trail. The other thing was that Austin talking about the decans actually reminded me that your first edition of your book is actually selling out pretty fast, and I interviewed you about that last fall. But you actually had a copy of it that’s for sale. Somebody’s selling a copy of one the special editions for a lot on eBay right now, right?
AC: Oh, yeah, yeah. Somebody pointed me to somebody selling one of the 36 specials—there’s only one for each decan—for like $2,500.
CB: Wow.
AC: And that happens with nice, esoteric books once the editions are sold out. But that seemed a little premature.
CB: Sure.
AC: Yeah, we’re on track. The first edition should be gone in a couple of months. I think we’re down to like less than 50 hardbacks now. I think there are still a couple of hundred paperbacks, but, yeah, they’re going.
CB: All right. Well, just a heads-up for anybody that wants to get a copy of the book to check out Austin’s website where you can order a copy at austincoppock.com. Okay, so let’s move on. We’ve talked about Mercury. We’ve talked about Mars in Cancer. We’ve talked about the Venus retrograde. What else did we mean to touch on about July?
KS: The one other Mars aspect is the Mars square Uranus.
AC: Oh, yeah.
CB: Oh, right.
KS: Uranus station. Yeah, so this is July 24-27, and Mars will be at 20 Cancer squaring Uranus who is stationing retrograde at 20 Aries. So, go. What do you guys think?
AC: I think that’s a messy week.
KS: A messy week. That’s a great way of describing it. It’s also the same. It’s within 24 hours—I think you had pointed this out, Chris—of Venus stationing retrograde. So a messy week is a good interpretation. Maybe a little bit of a theme of holding one’s self on the side. Benching yourself. ‘I’m just gonna sit this one out and see what comes up next’ type of thing.
CB: Yeah, it looks like the Moon is in Scorpio conjoining Saturn around that time as well. So, yeah, there’s some tense stuff. I have this image of some people who are gonna have this lovely start of a summer, and like a summer romance-type thing. But then towards the end of the summer, it’s like you start encountering some of the problems as the relationship goes on and maybe everything isn’t quite adding up or working out. And some of these aspects that are hitting, as the summer progresses, it just seems like they would be important turning points or points of contention along the way.
KS: ‘Points of contention’ is a great description for Mars-Uranus, I guess. And there’s a little bit of volatility or a little bit of things being combustible. And then of course we can’t really talk about July without talking about that first week in August, which is when that Jupiter-Saturn square really peaks. And you do get that sense of what you were just saying there, Chris—this idea that reality sets in, and the hopefulness or the optimism of early July is tested or it comes under pressure. And that’s when true colors come out. Something does have legs and it’s gonna survive a little bit of pressure, or it doesn’t have legs and actually you need to take a step back and reformulate or reassess before pushing ahead again.
AC: You know, Kelly, what just said about ‘something comes out’, like that’s really a good way to summarize a lot of my thinking about that peak of configurations that we’re leading to the last week of July and that we see the first week of August. The secrets are not gonna remain hidden. Cause we’ve got, what—we’ve got three or four planets in Leo square that Scorpio. Leo is very expressive. It denotes a very expressive and dramatic mode. And the Scorpio there is all about the secrets. I think it’s going to be very dramatic in both the common sense of drama, but it’s also going to be dramatic. I think it’ll be a drama of all categories. There will be comedy. There will be romance. There will be horror. There will be tragedy. For my almanac, for early July, I had to try to come up with titles, and I just called it “The Big Show.”
KS: “The Big Show.” Beautiful.
AC: “The Big Show.”
KS: Yeah, it’s that sense right now—I think you used this picture in your latest newsletter, Austin—of, “Places, everyone,” and you’ve got the image of an empty theater. And it does feel like everyone is kind of reorganizing or shape-shifting or shifting, and we’re all waiting to see what comes on stage. And that’s late August—sorry, late July/early August when the show is into the middle of its peak drama, I guess.
AC: Yeah, yeah.
CB: And that brings up the final election that I wanted to highlight for the month, speaking of dramatic, which is a Leo rising election; a Leo election that I wanted to throw in for this month for those that wanted to take advantage of the Sun being in its own domicile in Leo. So this election is on July 28 at about 6:30 in the morning—whatever the local time is for you—shortly after sunrise. So the ascendant will be in Leo. And the Sun will be in Leo in the first whole sign house, conjunct Mercury, which is right at 10° of Leo conjunct the ascendant. Jupiter will still be in Leo at this point. So you’re putting Jupiter in the 1st house in a day chart. It is square to Saturn, so that Jupiter and Saturn are about a degree or so away from a square. But it is a day chart, so that Saturn is less malefic and Jupiter is in a superior position because it’s earlier in the order of signs. So it sort of has the upper hand on Saturn in some sense. The other good thing about the chart is it has the Moon fiery Sagittarius in the 5th house, at 26°, approximately, of Sagittarius—depending on where you’re located—applying to a trine with Jupiter. So Jupiter’s in the 1st house, the Sun, the ruler of the ascendant is in its own domicile, and the Moon is applying to a trine with the most positive benefic in this day chart, with reception, since the Moon is in Sagittarius. So it would be very good for some of those dramatic Leo-type things. For anybody that needs to start something that needs that sort of appearance or that sort of facade, it’d be very useful for, as well as other 5th house activities, due to the 5th house emphasis with the Moon being in that sign or in that house, and the ruler of the 5th house being in the 1st house.
KS: Beautiful. That’s a really nice-looking chart.
CB: Yeah, it’s a really fiery, sort of dramatic and dynamic chart. It has some nice stability going because it has so many fixed signs. It has fixed angles. It has, what, four or five planets in fixed signs, including all of the four angles themselves. But, yeah, it has also this other 5th house element to it as well. One of the things that I mentioned in the TMA electional column—I don’t work much with fertility astrology. I know that there’s astrologers that do. But if I was hypothetically to try and pick a chart that would be good for having children or something like this, a strong 5th house emphasis chart like this might be one that would be useful.
KS: Yeah. The Moon waxing in the 5th, plus the great aspects, and then the ruler of the 5th in the 1st.
CB: Right.
AC: This makes me wish I had some sort of cutting-edge theater project.
KS: That you performed.
AC: I would totally debut it. I’d make everybody wake up in the morning. Like you said, Chris, it has so much. It presents so strongly with that packed 1st house. But with Saturn down there in the 4th stationing, it has depth. It has tremendous bones.
CB: Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so that’s the final election that I wanted to highlight this year. And this is really the only good, really strong Leo election that I would recommend because it’s one of the last ones where the Sun’s in Leo, and Jupiter is also in Leo, and the Moon’s well-placed and everything’s just kind good, aside from some of the impending doom that’s building up with Saturn getting ready to station retrograde and Venus getting ready to station. This happens just slightly before that. And those aren’t major focal points of this chart because Venus, nor Saturn, are major players in the chart.
KS: Yeah. So they’re kind of there but they’re tucked away a little bit.
CB: Yeah, exactly.
AC: So do we have anything to say about Uranus stationing? Cause that got kind of wrapped into Venus.
KS: True.
AC: I mean, it probably will experientially get kind of wrapped into Venus, but it might be worth saying something about that in general.
KS: Yeah, what are we gonna say?
CB: Yeah. I mean, it got wrapped into Venus, but also into the Mars square, and just that it’s stationing so close to Mars squaring Uranus, kind of.
KS: Yeah, it adds to the messiness, I guess, but also perhaps an opportunity to pause. Because the Uranus in Aries—it’s like a horse kicking up the dust behind it. And sometimes just having a break is a good thing.
AC: Yeah. I mean, I think on just a personal, cyclical level the retrograde period that Uranus goes through every year for four months and a couple of weeks—it’s very regular. In a sense, while Uranus direct pushes you to try something new, toss out the old, get restless, get mad, experiment, Uranus’ retrograde phase is about—especially if you have planets in the middle of cardinal signs—so you’ve made some big changes, let’s look at the data from those experiments. How did that work? What further things need to be done? It’s a callback from the relentless change that Uranus direct often prompts to make.
KS: It is. And Uranus is retrograde right through until late December. So it does give time, I guess, for that reflection of those experiments and the pushing that Uranus often demands.
AC: Right. And we often oppose Saturn and Uranus’ significations with Uranus being shaking things up and changing and Saturn being solidifying things. And so, we have this sort of trade-off where Uranus says, “Okay, I’m pooped, I’m going retrograde,” and Saturn says, “Okay, I’m ready for more, I’m going direct.” There’s less than a week between the two stations.
KS: That’s a really nice point actually. Because then we do have Saturn going direct the final tail-end of Scorpio and then back into early Sag and that consolidation for the efforts that people have put out in the first-half of the year. The strengthening of the foundations with Saturn direct.
CB: Nice. All right, well, we are at the one-hour mark just about, so we might want to start wrapping it up. Are there any other major statements or summaries that either of you two wanted to make about the month before we wrap this up?
AC: I have a sentence or two about Jupiter.
KS: You read my mind, Austin, so you say it. Go.
AC: I’ll start then. So we’ve got this really exciting Venus-Jupiter conjunction, and then Venus is, even now, beginning the last leg of Leo, right? It’s gonna do the last 10°. And Venus-Jupiter conjunctions are really exciting. But one thing to remember is when a cycle like that closes—when the Venus-Jupiter cycle begins again—it can be paralleled in some ways to a New Moon. That entire cycle has paid out in terms of good, bad, and other, and that’s the seed of a new one, but it’s not a time where you’ll get a bunch of crazy rewards for work you haven’t already done, right? You may be paid at the end of the month for work you did during the month, but it’s not the time where wild payoffs occur. And then speaking to just Jupiter’s position in the zodiac, the middle decan—where Jupiter was for quite some time this year—is considered unanimously to be ruled by Jupiter. And the images that you see in some of the older texts are figures who are wreathed and being congratulated because they’re so awesome. It’s the ‘you’re great’ party, and it’s really what we think of with Jupiter in Leo. Whereas the last decan of Leo is more about defending, defending your honor, keeping going even once you’ve been challenged. It’s really about the virtue of courage under fire and strength of character rather than a bunch of confetti being thrown at you cause you’re the best. And so, Jupiter’s significations will tend to light that up, especially cause Venus will be doing a lot there too in that same decan. So it’s not as much a straight-up Leo party, but more like what can you hold onto. People have said these nice things about you earlier in the year. Can you then live up to that image even when you’re stressed out and Mars is conjunct Mercury opposite Pluto?
CB: Sure.
KS: Yeah, good point. The one slight addition that I just wanted to throw in about Jupiter in Leo is just from a cycle perspective again—just moving through the zodiac—that Jupiter in Leo is moving into new territory, cause it is getting into this final decan or these last 10°. And Jupiter—when it went retrograde in December last year—stopped at 22 Leo. So from the 8th of July, Jupiter then is up 23-24-25, so the real tail-end of Leo. And just from a personal reflection perspective—for listeners to think about their own charts and what house Jupiter is moving through—that sense of whether there’s just a little bit more that needs to stretch or expand, whether there’s one final opportunity or invitation and whether you’ve got the energy left in the tank to step up and accept that before Jupiter does go into Virgo next month.
CB: Sure. That makes sense. Yeah, and then we’ve got a big shift of a year of Jupiter in Virgo.
KS: Yes. And we’ll probably bang on about that a lot next month. Cause Jupiter in Virgo, Saturn in Sag is a whole energetic tone that’s changing from we had a bit of a fixed theme with Jupiter in Leo, but we’re really going into this mutable chapter with Neptune in Pisces, Saturn in Sag, and then Jupiter in Virgo. And these sort of beginnings or the pace picking up around that really kicks in next month and then of course, further still in September when Saturn gets back into Sag.
AC: Yeah. And then in the fall, the nodes also go mutable for a year-and-a-half.
KS: Yeah. So the fixed signs have had their go, the cardinal signs have had all this Uranus, Pluto, and the mutable signs are ready. Whether they’re ready or not, they’re getting their turn in the spotlight.
AC: Oh, boy.
CB: All right. That’s on you two. I’m all fixed. You guys are taking the brunt of that.
KS: You’re done, okay.
CB: Yeah, I’m gonna take a break. Very good. All right, well, I think that went really well, and I think we can kind of wind this up. So the last thing—I think that was all of our forecast stuff that we had on the agenda. Any things you guys wanted to mention? I think, Austin, you’re doing a class that’s coming up, right?
AC: Yeah, I’m actually teaching two classes online, both of which start on July 11. One is just a basics class where we’re gonna spend a month on houses. And so, if you’d like to revisit the foundations of your astrology, the houses don’t work quite right and you want to check to see the way they’re built, or if you’re really interested in learning houses for the first time, we’re gonna spend a month on houses. It’s gonna be awesome. And then I’m also teaching a month-long class that is an introduction to the tradition of planetary magic. And so, I’m gonna be introducing a lot of material that’ll probably be new for astrologers. It might be old hat to some folks. But, yeah, I’ll be looking at that and the different things people have done with that and the different purposes. And there’ll be lots of experiments as part and parcel of the class.
CB: Excellent. Well, yeah, I’ve heard really good things about your classes that you’ve been running over the past few months. So I definitely encourage people to check out your website, which is austincoppock.com for more information about that. Kelly, you’re gonna be working on writing this summer?
KS: Yes. I have a couple of months at home, where I’m not traveling, and so that’ll give me a chance to finish off a couple of projects. One of which will be my Saturn in Sag ebook. So that should be on sale late August, but I’ll have more information about that for next month.
CB: Awesome. I am excited about talking to you about that because there’s a lot of people that are starting to message me with Saturn in Sagittarius—they were born in the ‘80s—that are now starting to get a little nervous about the Saturn return, now that they’ve gotten a taste of it over the past few months. So I’m sure there’s a lot of people that are looking forward to what you have to say about that.
KS: Thank you, yeah.
CB: All right. And, for me, I’m gonna be doing a lot of podcasts this summer. I have a new subscription-type model. The show will continue to be free, but I’m setting up a new subscription thing so that you can get more shows and you can get extras that I’m gonna be announcing within the next week or so. So stay tuned for that and look forward to more episodes. If you liked this monthly forecast section, then definitely let us know and give us some feedback either on Facebook or in the comments section of the episode for this show on theastrologypodcast.com. If you use iTunes, then please, we’d really appreciate it if you’d give us a good rating on iTunes, since it’ll help other people to find us. And I think that’s it. So thank you, Kelly and Austin, for joining me for this episode of the show.
KS: Always a pleasure, Chris, thanks.
AC: Yeah, that was great fun.
CB: All right, well, thanks everyone for listening and we’ll see you next time.