Ep. 493 Transcript: Venus and Mars Retrogrades as the Unfolding of a Sequence of Events

The Astrology Podcast

Transcript of Episode 493, titled:

Venus and Mars Retrogrades as the Unfolding of a Sequence of Events

With Chris Brennan and guest patrons

Episode originally released on June 21, 2025

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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 Teresa “Peri” Lardo

Transcription released June 30th, 2025

Copyright © 2025 TheAstrologyPodcast.com

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CHRIS BRENNAN: Hey. My name is Chris Brennan, and you’re listening to The Astrology Podcast. In this episode, I’m gonna be talking about the recent Venus and Mars retrograde periods that are coming to an end at this point and doing a retrospective on how those worked out by talking to some patrons of The Astrology Podcast as well as some students of my Hellenistic astrology course in order to share some stories about the specific ways that these transits unfolded over the course of the past several months.

All right, so the premise of this episode and the reason that I’m doing this is it’s now June of, what, 2025 – it’s June 7th, 2025. In the past few days, Venus has finally departed from Taurus so that it’s finally left the sign that it originally went retrograde in, which was Aries, ending a several month retrograde period and additionally Mars next week is getting ready to move into Virgo. And once it departs from Leo, it’s going to leave the sign that it originally went retrograde back in December.

So part of the reason I’m doing this episode is something I mentioned on the forecast episode, which is that I have a unique definition and perspective on especially Venus and Mars retrograde periods that I’ve developed over the course of the past, I don’t know, 10 or 20 years of doing astrology. And part of it comes from integrating some Hellenistic techniques. Like, basic concepts like whole sign houses as well as whole sign house aspects in addition to degree-based aspects and paying attention to the degrees of the angles. And one of the things that I realized over the years is that Venus and Mars retrograde periods are not just restricted to the time periods in which the planets actually slow down and station retrograde and start moving backwards in the order of signs and in the order of degrees, but – so that in its most strict sense is the Venus and Mars retrograde periods is those periods in time where they’re moving backwards through the zodiac rather than forwards. But what I realized over the years, many years of watching this in the charts of clients and celebrities and my personal charts, is that the retrograde in addition to being experienced as that period of time – that anomalous period of time when those two planets are moving backwards and against the order of the zodiac and against the order in which all the other planets normally move – it’s not just that, but it’s also a period where those two planets, or each planet that’s retrograde, spends an extended period of time in one or two signs of the zodiac so that it’s just kind of like, hanging out in either one house in your chart or two houses in your chart over this really long span of time. And that’s important and unique, because usually – especially with Venus and Mars – when they’re direct and moving swiftly, they tend to move through a whole sign house in our chart relatively quickly, like over the course of just like, a few weeks. But when they go retrograde, they can spend many months in the same signs of the zodiac, and by extension the same houses in our chart. And what I noticed over the years is that one of the primary things, then, that these retrograde periods coincide with is the opening up of a sequence or a series of events that unfold over a long span of time.

So when I’m talking about long span of time, I’m talking about Mars first went into Cancer – which is one of the signs it would retrograde back to – back in September, and it’s just finishing up that long process now that it’s moving into Leo in the middle of June. Or Venus started that process when it first moved into Pisces, which was at the beginning of January, and it’s just finished that entire process up now in early June now that it’s moved into Taurus, completing the retrograde or the extended trip, let’s say, in Pisces and Aries. So that means that, for me, the unique definition of Venus and Mars retrograde is that I’ve extended the definition to include the entire time that the planet spends retrograding in the one or two signs that it goes retrograde in, not because the retrograde degrees itself – not because it’s always moving backwards that entire period of time, but just because the retrograde itself is partially experienced as a sequence of events that are centered on oftentimes the houses that the planet goes retrograde in.

So let me show some diagrams really quickly, just to give you a preview or a visualization of those periods and some of the dates involved in them. So here’s the Mars retrograde period where Mars first went into Cancer September 4th. It entered its pre-retrograde shadow period at 17 degrees of Cancer on October 4th. Then it went into Leo on November 3rd. It slowed down and stationed retrograde on December 6th. Then it retrograded back into Cancer on January 6th. It slowed down and stationed direct at 17 Cancer on February 23rd. Then it finally departed from Cancer and moved into Leo on April 17th. It left its post-retrograde shadow period at six Leo on May 2nd, and finally it will depart from Leo and move into Virgo on June 17th. So for me, this is the entire range of the broader let’s say retrograde period that includes not just the retrograde itself in the middle, which is like, the nucleus of the retrograde and the most intense part typically – that period in between the two actual retrograde stations or stationary degrees, which in this instance was, what, six degrees of Leo and 17 degrees of Cancer. That is the most intense part, or that’s like, the nucleus. But then there’s these broader ranges at the same time, which is like, the shadow degrees which is when it passes the degrees that it retrograded and stationed at, either direct or retrograde. And then finally, there’s one more extended period which is when it first moves into the sign that it will retrograde back to, and then when it finally departs from the sign that it originally retrograded in.

So that’s what it looks like with the Mars periods. And with the Venus retrograde, we had Venus first going into Pisces January 2nd, which is the sign it would retrograde back into. It hit its pre-retrograde shadow period on January 28th at 24 Pisces. Then it moved into Aries, the sign it would retrograde in, on February 4th. Then it stationed direct at 10 Aries on March 10th. It retrograded back into Pisces on March 27th. It stationed direct at 24 Pisces on April 12th. It then moved back into Aries on April 30th. It exited its post-retrograde shadow period on May 16th at 10 Aries. And then finally on June 5th, it moved into Taurus and completed the entire sequence.

All right, so I am outlining all of that again deliberately. I’ve been talking about this for months and months now, and this is actually gonna be one of the last times I talk about this specific set of retrogrades. And I did so much – I talked about it so much over the past year and did so many episodes on it because I really wanted to document this one. And then I wanted to outline – because I outlined all of this and the premise of what would happen way back in like, August and September if you go back and listen to some of my forecast episodes from back then. And then I’ve checked in at different points during the course of this to see different stories that arose at different points in the Mars or the Venus retrograde to see how that was unfolding. And now that we’re at the very end of it, I just wanna do one final thing to bring it all together in order to essentially demonstrate and show with examples what I said was gonna happen in terms of the sequence of things in order to substantiate the unique statements I made about the nature of Venus and Mars retrogrades at the very beginning of this. So I wanna document this approach and show how it works, and then I feel like now once we do that, other people will be able to internalize that and like, learn from it and apply that to other retrogrades in the future.

All right, so there’s three specific manifestations of the Venus and Mars retrogrades that I’m interested in focusing on today and looking for examples of. So one of them is I’m looking for examples that show the Venus or the Mars retrograde as the unfolding of a sequence of events over an extended period of time. So that doesn’t mean that there’s not sometimes a singular event, especially that happens around the time of the exact station of Venus retrograde or direct or when Mars stations retrograde or direct. Sometimes there can actually be very dramatic singular moments that happen within a specific retrograde, especially tied in with the stations or when it hits a specific degree in a person’s birth chart. But oftentimes, instead of it being just that one singular event, usually that event is a part of a sequence of events that led up to that specific moment and then that came after or subsequent to that moment at the same time. Like, for example, one of the ones I was tracking was in the chart of somebody I knew was somebody who got a divorce with their partner during the course of the Mars retrograde. But the divorce was not just like, a singular thing, but instead it was this entire process that began in September when Mars first went into Cancer when the woman started looking into like, she reached out to a lawyer to start looking into what it would mean to get a divorce from her partner. And then over the next coup[el of months was like, working out some of the details of that. Then eventually when Mars slowed down and stationed retrograde, he was served with divorce papers, so there was an intensification when Mars actually stationed retrograde, but there was like, a build up to him being served with divorce papers. Then they were like, working out the details and there were some tensions over especially whether their assets and the house would be split up because the Mars retrograde was going retrograde in her 4th house. So part of the drama that unfolded during the retrograde itself was this question of whether she would get to keep the house, or to what extent because when they got into the relationship, she already owned her own house and then he moved in with her ironically 15 years earlier – the last time that Mars went retrograde in Leo in her 4th house was when their relationship began in 2010. So part of the drama over the breakup of the marriage was the fact that she was the one who originally owned the house and whether that would be split up or whether she would retain it. And eventually when Mars stationed direct, they finalized the divorce and worked out, like, an amicable resolution involving the house. And then the divorce was finalized when Mars stationed direct in Cancer. And then there were other things that were still being worked out over the next few months as Mars started moving forward again, and then eventually in some of the final days of Mars direct now and moving through the later part of her 4th house, she finalized things by changing the deed to the house post-divorce so that it removed his name from the deed to the house and just left her name. And within a few days of that, she also learned that he was engaged to somebody else and he had started a new relationship during the course of the Mars retrograde and now was about to get married to somebody else just a few months after getting divorced. So there was this sense of completion by the end of the Mars retrograde period, but it played out over this extended period of time. Just like the diagram I showed of Mars, you know, she began the whole proceedings and first reached out to a lawyer at the very beginning of September when Mars moved into Cancer. He was served with divorce papers when Mars stationed retrograde on December 6th. The divorce was finalized when Mars stationed direct. And then during this period once Mars returned back to the sign and things were being completed, the deed to the house was changed so that his name was no longer on it, and he announced that he was getting married to somebody else.

So that’s – I just wanted to share that example, because that’s exactly what I meant back in September when I was telling people that this was gonna be a series of events. And on the one hand, like, there was a singularity to that event because when she looks back on it, she will think of it as, “That was the moment in my life when I got divorced from my husband,” and in that sense, it does form a totality of like, a singular occurrence in the person’s life. But retrogrades sometimes in this way, obviously, it wasn’t in terms of how it happened, it wasn’t just a single day when something specific happened, but it was like, yeah, Tara points out in the chat, it was like, several events but all connected to the same theme and the same sequence of events. And that’s important because one of the ways that the ancient Stoics talked about the concept of fate – and this was really important for the astrologers – is that fate was like, the unfolding of a sequence of events and a chain of causes that go back in time. And you can see in this instance how this entire sequence of events was like, related and interconnected, but it all ends up being timed almost perfectly by this one planetary retrograde that was happening at this specific time. So obviously, there were other overlaps, like, with the Venus retrograde and other timing and other predictive things that were relevant in the charts of both of the people involved, as well as like, the inception chart of their marriage and many other things. But there was still something about the Mars retrograde in particular that showed the unfolding of the sequence of events, especially for her as it came to her home and living situation since the retrograde was happening in her 4th house, and because it squared her Descendant it kind of tied in relationships and other things as well at the same time.

So yeah, so that’s the premise of what I’m looking for is I’m looking for especially other examples like that is one of my primary things today. I’m also looking for secondarily and connected with that examples that show the retrograde connecting two topics across the two whole sign houses that the retrograde occurred in. So for example, we’re gonna talk to some people today where let’s say the retrograde started in the 7th house and then retrograded back to the 6th house. So one of our examples, I think, will connect the topics of relationships and the person’s work or job, and the sequence of events connected with the Mars retrograde connected those two houses. So that was also something I said would come up with both the Venus retrograde and the Mars retrograde, and there have been some very interesting stories showing how the retrograde did connect those two house topics. So I’m very interested in documenting some of those.

And then finally, the third category I’m looking for is instances – and this is more complex, but – that show the topics of both the Mars retrograde and the Venus retrograde coming into play at the same time, especially since the retrograde periods kind of overlapped where Mars was retrograde from December to February in the most intense phase and then Venus was retrograde from like, March to April. But in some instances, for example, if let’s say that one of the planets – like, Venus – was retrograde in the 7th house of relationships in Aries, and Mars was retrograde in the 10th house of career, and there were some events that tied together those two houses that were somehow interrelated at that time in the person’s life or there were important developments in both houses. That’s another way things that can work out and that’s another thing that I’m looking for examples for today if anybody has any of those.

All right, so that’s my extended introduction, and that’s the premise of this episode. Now I wanna talk to some other people live to share some of their stories that match some of these themes.

All right, so the first one I think I was gonna talk to Kitt, right?

Hey.

KITT: Hi. Can you hear me okay?

CB: Thanks for joining me. Yeah, it sounds great.

K: Great.

CB: Here’s your birth chart. So we’re looking at a chart with Aquarius rising. And yeah, what’s your story?

K: Well, you happen to be talking to someone who does a lot of journaling and like, keeping an eye on these things, so I’ve had Venus and Mars as we went through the retrogrades kind of playing next to each other and terrified of what was coming up. My long-term partner in September, whilst I was away in England, disappeared, and then broke up with me before I got back. But I also – we work very closely together at the same company. He had already been disappearing a lot, and people had been really noticing and kind of turning to me for everything, so of course when I got back, I had to go to work. There was no, “Oh, dear, I’ve just got broken up with by this person;” it was, “Can’t talk about it; have to just keep it together!” But boy oh boy, on like, exact dates for the Venus retrograde, exact dates like shadow periods and everything – everything just went from bad to worse to worse trying to like, extract myself out. I was also just developing these new companies, and I was too afraid to, but this breakup kind of launched me into them. So when Mars was over in my 6th house, I was really dealing with colleagues who were frustrated, and him not being around. But then also at the same time, a real shift in realizing that it’s not – I can’t do j-o-b job anymore. I can’t keep fulfilling work for everyone else; I have to do my 10th house work that I’m meant to be doing with my life. And then Venus and Mercury – it was amazing to watch the transition from Pisces, where I was really digging into intuition, spirituality, and kind of my own self-worth, and as soon as I did, my resources started accumulating. And the moment Venus ever went into Aries, oh boy did I do good at speaking my mind and telling my ex what’s what, and being able to finally voice instead of hide it from everyone. So yeah, it was exact. I can’t wait for Mars to be out of Leo entirely!

CB: Yeah. Yeah, so that was the initial thing then is that Mars slowed down in December and it stationed retrograde in your 7th house. So you have 16 Aquarius rising, so your Descendant is 16 Leo. Mars stationed at six Leo, so this is actually a very good demonstration of whole sign houses because it’s in the 7th sign, but it’s – you know, by quadrant houses, it would be the 6th house, but obviously this was a relationship event, which is that you went on a trip and your partner disappeared and like, ran off while you were gone.

K: Yeah.

CB: What was the timing of the trip?

K: I left the middle of August, and on September 4th – I actually have a journal entry from September 4th saying, “I can’t believe I can’t find him.” Like, can’t get in touch with him. This has happened before, but nothing to this extent. I knew something was wrong. September 17th, I came back; he broke up with me like, three days before that. Yeah, because I was going to my best friend’s wedding.

CB: Wait – so this started in September for – maybe I misheard and I thought you said —

K: The shadow – when Mars first went into Cancer was when the work and everything started happening and he started disappearing. He – yeah, there you go.

CB: Got it.

K: October 4th, he had already left me, but I thought maybe there was a chance that maybe I could get him back.

CB: Okay.

K: But then, yeah, November 3rd was another major ghosting moment. This – work has been going horribly, because I have to go to work every day and he’s not there. It just basically, it’s ongoing. Your example of the so many events but all of the exact same… I can’t remember the word you said. But it was just ongoing. But on those specific dates where either it ingressed or went retrograde or some like, little mountain peak would happen within the whole mess that was going on for months.

CB: So you still had hope in late October, but then Mars moved into Leo in early November, and then it stationed retrograde in Leo in your 7th house in early December. And what’s happening in that time frame?

K: He went completely silent. Zero communication.

CB: So he just cuts all contact. He severs all contact with you?

K: Yeah.

CB: Okay. So that’s the station of Mars itself in your 7th house. And that’s the other thing I’ve noticed is sometimes when Mars – I noticed this a lot in this retrograde, but I’ve seen it in other ones as well, so I’d like to develop this more. Sometimes the planet almost starts telegraphing the topics that its going to bring up once it moves into the sign it’s going to retrograde in as soon as it moves into one of the signs that it will retrograde back to. So it’s interesting how like, as soon as Mars went into Cancer into your 6th house, Mars was bringing up 6th house things with work, but it was also already almost telegraphing the 7th house relationship things that would peak at the actual station in November and December while it was still in the 6th house. So there was almost like, a foreshadowing of that or a buildup to that already as soon as Mars moved into one of the signs that it would retrograde back to.

K: Yeah. Absolutely.

CB: Okay. So and this also reminds me of one of the analogies that I used early on, which was like, sometimes a Mars retrograde being like, a hot – eating a really hot sauce that you like, can’t – where the feeling just lingers and you can’t get rid of it, and it just like, extends or drags out over an extended period of time. So part of your experience here is having this extended, really uncomfortable situation that’s happening in both your 7th house relationship life and your 6th house work life that you’re just having to deal with and like, put up with and try to just like, keep doing your normal, day-to-day life.

K: That is a perfect analogy, because my work is my life. You know, I really pride myself on my work and the job that I do, no matter what kind of job it is. So it was everything spicy, everything.

CB: Okay. So he cuts off all contact by November and December when Mars stations, and then Mars retrogrades back into your 6th house by January. And it eventually stations direct in the middle of Cancer in your 6th house of work by the middle of February. So what happened in January and February?

K: January 6th, on the day, he wrote me a letter to – I think he thought it was romantic in some sort of way, but basically telling me that everything came before me, which just – with then if we skip over to the Venus retrograde, the day she went into shadow – January 28th – we ended up having a huge, huge conversation – fight – everything that kind of really, again, solidified everything. But it built from that letter on January 6th to January 28th before that conversation happened.

CB: So he tried to almost reconcile with you in early January, but then things exploded again at the end of January?

K: I would say he was trying to get me to hold on and wait for him.

CB: Okay.

K: By telling me that, “I’m not ready yet; I have to do all these other things,” because of these huge lies that had been told. But really, I already knew at that point that he wasn’t gonna come back.

CB: And part of the uncomfortableness also was with the work was you said, I thought, right, that you worked for him or you worked at —

K: Yeah.

CB: — his company?

K: Yeah.

CB: Okay. Yeah. So that’s also where the 6th house thing is coming into play also.

K: Yeah.

CB: Got it.

K: And at that point already, I had voiced the fact that I felt like he was playing this long game just so that I would stick around at work longer, because I was the one keeping everyone going when he wasn’t there. But then February 23rd, actually it was that week that I decided – I had already told them I was going to leave in six months and I was gonna do it really amicably and beautifully and everything, and then by the time we’d had this conversation at the end of January and it was now middle of February, I was like, absolutely not. I am – my value is so much more than this, and I just don’t need to stick around for this anymore! So I gave my notice that I would leave May 1st, right around the February 23rd date.

CB: Oh, wow. Okay. So shortly after – around the time Mars is stationing in your 6th house, you put in notice that you’re quitting. And how long had you worked at that job?

K: Three years.

CB: Okay. Yeah. So not an insignificant amount of time. And then this is also by this time period, we’re getting into like, the Venus slowing down and stationing on March 1st.

So you put in notice that you’re gonna quit, and then what happened after that?

K: He at that point, because there had been some conversations now at this point, but again, he completely disappeared when I said that because I also reiterated, “I’m pretty sure you’re just stringing me along at this point.” But I found my own replacement; I trained her for the next three months. I trained her every week, just making sure that the whole team was able to continue doing their job and everything, but also just because of what was happening now with Venus, I started out of nowhere in March processing my divorce that had happened in 2019. And these were things that I had never imagined working through came up through March. Like, I – which, of course, also had to do with my ex that I was dealing with at that time. So —

CB: From 2019, you said?

K: Yeah.

CB: Okay. Got it.

K: Yeah. So that really solidified that I was making the right choice, but holy moly, it was hell to go through. And if I skip forward to April 17th, it was that week that I’m so close to being done. Like, May 1st is just around the corner. Unfortunately, the current ex that I was dealing with for work had really noticeably to everyone disappeared, and just being super not helpful for anyone. And when everyone was getting so frustrated – and I’ve done a lot of like, psychology and counseling and stuff, and I could see everyone was getting really frustrated, but they know that they can’t really say anything because he’s their boss. So they would take it out on me, and people going like, “I can’t believe this is happening.” Like, “Why can’t we just hold it together by May 1st?” And I’d turn around and be like, “I have a smile on my face. It’s you guys that are – “ and it was that time, April 12th, April 15th, and April 17th that I had people come at me out of the blue. But because of what I’d been through in March and learning, I was able to turn around and say, “Absolutely not. You cannot speak to me this way.” And then I totally did not realize that May 2nd was a major date until just a few weeks ago, but it’s pretty funny that my last day was May 1st.

CB: Oh wow, okay. May 1st was your last day. So that’s Mars returning back to its actual shadow degree at six degrees of Leo where it stationed retrograde in December.

K: Yeah.

CB: And that was when the relationship between you two was fully severed for the most part?

K: He has never – we were meant to have a personal meeting April 6th, and he told me he would give me time to talk about it, because I just – I’m not someone – even my ex-husband, we’re best friends. Like, I don’t do relationships dramatically. We need, like, figure things out, do it – especially when we work together. He didn’t show up to that meeting, and I’ve never heard from him since.

CB: Oh wow. Okay. So yeah, it was just a complete ghosting situation.

K: Complete.

CB: Wow. Okay. So then – but then part of this was you left that, and then you set up your own, you’re working for yourself now, and you’re finding fulfilment and success in that?

K: So much. Yeah. So much.

CB: Awesome. So that’s the other part is you had this tough part with the 7th and the 6th house, but then the 6th house Mars retrograde part of the thing is that it caused you to start being – to stand up for yourself more at work when you were working in this other work environment. But then also to end that job and then to go out on your own independently, and this is also tying in with like, Venus retrograded back into your 2nd house of finances and stationing direct there and having potentially something good financially happened in terms of an expansion of just pursuing your own like, work independently.

K: Yeah. Yeah, it’s really been an incredible thing. And as much as – right now, this is why I’m very excited for Mars to be out of Leo, because oh my goodness, am I angry! This last little while, I feel so much anger, but I’m working through it. At the same time, a really amazing thing has been happening in the 4th house with Venus and with Uranus is the – I didn’t have a relationship with my family before this point, and they don’t live near me. They all live in the middle of Canada. And just in the last two months, thanks to this situation with my ex boyfriend, I’ve suddenly desired to move out to be with them, create a new relationship with them, and I just bought a house a couple days ago, and I’m gonna move out there in a month, and I don’t know where that came from. But this —

CB: Oh wow.

K: — as horrible as the situation has been through the 6th and 7th, and learning so many lessons through the 2nd and 3rd, this is gonna definitely be the most pivotal moment in my entire life probably.

CB: Yeah. That’s incredible. Yeah. Well, that’s a good example also just of how sometimes Mars and Saturn, their function is to negate or to end or to cut something off in some part of our life, which can be very painful and hard and wrenching like, in the process. But then sometimes after the dust settles, you can realize that it’s nudged you or it’s pushed you in a different direction with your life that you wouldn’t have gone otherwise, and that sometimes ended up being really important and really good in the long run. But during the actual process, it can be really hard. So this is really good example of that. But now by the very tail end of it – that’s the other thing I’m noticing is a lot of people by the very tail end of it are starting to see the silver lining of what they just went through as the pieces fall into place and you start to see like, why you got pushed in that direction. And that can be heartening like, once you get to the very end of all of that.

K: Absolutely. Like, if I didn’t learn this kind of self value, the ability to speak up, everything that had been pushed down and just severed as a child, I just had a visit back there obviously, and every day, I just couldn’t believe who I am there now. Because I just speak up, and it’s not in a mean way or anything, but I just suddenly have the ability to – in front of my father, in front of my siblings – I’m just exactly who I am. I don’t apologize for it, and we all just got along on a level that I’ve never seen before. So I’m really excited about this.

CB: Nice. That might be the 3rd house piece with Venus retrograde in Aries in your 3rd was that taking additional steps in terms of that as well and like, learning how to speak up within the context of that difficult work situation. So there’s possibly part of the overlap as well, because that’s what was happening in those months in the first like, several months of this year when you were still stuck at that job. So Mars was like, in your 6th, but Venus was retrograding in your 3rd and learning how to like, speak up and assert yourself more was part of that process.

K: Yeah. It’s truly showed me just how much we can’t really zone in just on one planet, especially for other people when we’re reading for them. Like, everything is speaking to one another in such complex ways. Like, yeah. It’s fascinating —

CB: Right.

K: — and it’s awesome.

CB: Yeah. Absolutely. Cool. Thank you for sharing that; that’s really amazing. And thanks for sharing your experiences and yeah, just the reflectiveness and insightfulness I think is really helpful. So thanks for sharing that.

K: Thanks for having me, and thanks for all the beautiful comments, you guys! I can see them popping up; that’s lovely.

CB: Yeah. Everyone is saying really supportive things. All right, well, good luck in your journey in the future, and yeah, take care!

K: Thank you!

CB: All right. Yeah, so that was incredible. So you know, that really ties together a lot of those themes that I’ve been talking about in terms of the things that I was looking for but also just what I meant about it being the unfolding of a series or a sequence of events.

So in post, I will have put two other stories that also showed the unfolding or the sequence of events already, but maybe I’ll just mention those for those who are live here today. I think the first one was from a listener who was in California and their house burned down in the fires in January, but then as a result of that, they ended up picking up everything and moving across the country to Maine in order to start a new life out there. But that there was this like, unfolding process. Even though there was a singular event that happened, there was also it led to a sequence of other events, and that’s part of what we’re seeing today.

Hey Abby. Thanks for joining me.

ABBY: Hi. Thanks for having all of us!

CB: Yeah! Okay, so set it up for us. I read the description, but maybe if you wanna repeat like, a synopsis of that. Like, what’s your story?

A: Yeah, the story is I survived the fires in Altadena, California, in January. I’ve been on a constant quest to find home since then. And really – yeah.

CB: So in January, what was the date on that? Was that January 10th or?

A: No, I think it was January 7th.

CB: 7th. Okay.

A: And —

CB: Got it.

A: It was January 6th and 7th, and it was happening overnight. It happened all in one night, and like, yeah, everything was gone in one night – the whole town.

CB: Wow. So okay, so and January 7th – so that’s early in the fires, right? Because the fires started like, the 6th through the 7th… Like, was your house…

A: So there was the Palisades, which happened first, and then —

CB: Okay.

A: — and then Altadena was kind of after that, and then yeah, the house was gone by January 7th, I think. Somebody showed me a picture of the street like, gone.

CB: So I’m looking at this, and you have Virgo rising, and your 4th house is Sagittarius and the ruler of the 4th house of home and living situation is Jupiter at 29 Cancer. And I’m just seeing that Mars conjunction’ that retrograde Mars is like, exactly conjunct your Jupiter the day that this happened. That’s really stunning just astrologically.

A: Yeah. It was absolutely brutal.

CB: Yeah. How long had you lived there?

A: 11 years. And it’s so fascinating, because you think like, the house burns down, but it’s actually the town and then my son’s school, so —

CB: Wow.

A: Yeah. So it was, we’ve just been on a quest for home, and we’ve landed actually interestingly in Maine by the ocean, which the Neptune and Saturn and stuff on my Sun, and it’s just been a lot.

CB: Yeah. That does a lot. So you packed up your bags and moved literally like, clear across the country. As far across the continental US as you could almost get to Maine.

A: Yeah. In a very cold – I arrived actually in a snowstorm. We’d been living in the car, you know, and hotels, so again, the isolation I guess of Saturn. Yeah, it just – crazy.

CB: Yeah. When did you arrive or when did you —

A: March —

CB: — move to Maine?

A: March 25th we actually found housing. And so I guess I just don’t know what my question is, but it’s great to be here, and I don’t wanna take up too much time, but I thought it was a good example of just this relentless Saturn and Neptune thing I’ve been going through.

CB: Yeah. Yeah, no, this is good. I like to see stuff like this, because sometimes it’s good for astrologers to like, see and share, you know, sometimes difficult stories so we can understand how things like that work out and what it can look —

A: Yeah.

CB: — like under a difficult transit. In that case, it was like, Mars conjoining your ruler of the 4th house, but then also Saturn was conjoining your Mars at the same time that day. And then you moved in late March, and I mean, part of what I’m seeing – so the retrograde was across your 12th and 11th of Mars, and then Venus was retrograde in your 8th and 7th. And then you —

A: And then there’s nodal returns happening or whatever – nodal oppositions happening I think. Yeah.

CB: Right. Okay. So yeah, you had the reversal of the nodes since your North Node is in – okay, yeah. So you – that is really important, because that means the first Virgo eclipse that took place, right, was in your 1st house, and there had been a preview of that last fall in September when the first Pisces eclipse was in your 7th house. But that first eclipse in Virgo was in March, and —

A: My Saturn here. My Saturn’s right there, my natal Saturn.

CB: Got it. Okay. So yeah, you’re going through a whole – those 1st house eclipses can be really transformative, and especially balancing out like, self and your own needs and like, who you are versus relationships. What’s the – because you know, a lot of the activity has also been in your 7th house in terms of relationships, and so that’s coming up with partnership as well?

A: Huge. Yeah. Yeah. So grief is so interesting. So my husband’s grief had a lot of anger and resistance, and he had to stay in LA and shut down his shop, so he’s been going through a lot and we’ve been navigating trying to stay together across two coasts and losing the house, and you know, transitioning —

CB: Okay.

A: — now.

CB: That makes sense. So part of it is now there’s —

A: Yeah.

CB: — a lot of distance between the two of you while Saturn’s like, transiting through your 7th house?

A: Yeah. But we’re coming back right now where it’s really coming back here, and what Leisa said in the June forecast about, you know, the barn burns down, and now I can see the Moon – sorry, my dog – was so poignant, because where we’ve landed is actually like a fairy tale. Beautiful, unbelievable harbor town by the water. We can’t believe it. It’s incredible, so.

CB: Nice. You had had aspirations to move out there for a while?

A: Yeah. For about four years. And so I actually looked up at the sky and said thank you to whoever – Jupiter, Saturn, whatever – and I felt the most benevolent gaze back down. Like, I’m sorry we had to do that to you, but here you are.

CB: Nice. Beautiful. I like that. I like that – yeah – that sometimes having a really hard tragic event happening can sometimes force you to do something that either you wouldn’t have done otherwise or sometimes it can accelerate plans that you maybe had but that you were putting off or not doing, and suddenly, yeah, really force you to head in that direction.

A: Yeah. And there’s always – I won’t take up too much more time, but there’s a lot of more synchronicities happening here with my like, kind of mental health advocacy and career, and it’s just phenomenal. And the nature is very healing.

CB: Nice. What – with the Venus retrograde and Mercury retrograde in your 8th house, sometimes that’s like, other people’s money, debt, resources, resources of a partner. Was that like, did the insurance come through and cover you for some of the losses, or was it —

A: Yeah.

CB: — a process of like, working through that or what?

A: Yeah. Really good question, and I’m still clearly in the midst of it! It’s like —

CB: Okay.

A: — the insurance came through, but our debt to income ratio is excruciating right now. So we can’t buy. Renting is fine, but we’re having to navigate multiple levels of like, tax debt and student loan debt and that kind of thing. We’ll do it!

CB: Got it. Okay. So that’s part of where you’re at now with like, Saturn just moving into your 8th house is just navigating some of those things surrounding issues with debt?

A: And also on the positive side, because I love how you guys always balance the positive and negative, the GoFundMe that I started has been a massive resource. So —

CB: Nice.

A: So then there’s that coming forward, yeah.

CB: Okay, that’s brilliant. So part of the Venus retrograde in your 8th was like, having a outpouring of support from like, friends and family and other well-wishers who helped to balance things out and helped you to get through this really difficult time financially?

A: Yeah. Tremendous. Yeah.

CB: That’s brilliant. Yeah, I love seeing the way that all of the different transits manifest in these different unique ways that are all contributing some little piece to what is otherwise, you know, a pretty complex situation that’s going on.

A: Yeah.

CB: All right. Nice. I’m trying to —

A: Thank you for your work; thanks for doing this. Thanks for —

CB: Yeah!

A: I’m sure it’s not easy navigating – you’re like an improv artist right now! It’s amazing.

CB: Right. Well, I got lots of practice doing the Denver astrology group meetings where we would do stuff like this and have to put on meetings and do live chart readings, and I got a lot of good practice doing that over the years. So that brings us back full circle to the first one where we were talking about local astrology groups and the benefit of that is just, yeah, talking to people about their lives and charts and learning how to do that is really good practice, and I really enjoy doing things like this because it brings me back to doing those live meetings at the Mercury Cafe.

Thank you for sharing this; I’m really glad to hear that things are working out. I’m sorry that that happened and that you went through such a difficult event to like, have that happen so like, suddenly. But I’m glad to hear that there’s been some positive, you know, outcomes from it and that while you’re still coming out of that that it’s pushed you in a good direction and that you’re starting to get settled in your new location. So yeah, thank you for sharing that; I really appreciate it.

A: Thank you.

CB: All right. Cool. All right, talk to you later.

Another listener that I will have probably put in here – his mother was diagnosed with cancer, and during the early part of the Mars retrograde, it was said to be terminal. But then they sought other treatment, and then during the course of it by the time Mars stationed direct, she had gone into remission and it was no longer terminal and was getting better. Baykan? Do you wanna join me to share your chart? You’ve had a tough Mars transit that you’re getting towards the end of.

All right, so your example that you wanted to share had to do with the Mars retrograde in Cancer?

BAYKAN: Yeah. Exactly.

CB: Okay. What’s been going on?

B: So well, last summer I was visiting family in Turkey – that is where we are from originally. I was born in the Netherlands. And my mom, she noticed some symptoms and then that was around the Full Moon in Leo – or no, Aquarius – that happened, so it was something with the Venus opposite Uranus. And then when we came back to the Netherlands on the 1st of September, she went to the doctor and the doctor saw immediately that something was wrong. My mom got – so she went to the hospital; she got an appointment there, and then quite quickly she was diagnosed with late stage first ovarian cancer and later on… So through the autumn, they found out that it was, that it originated somewhere in the appendix, and by the time they found out that the cancer originated in the appendix, it was already too late to have surgery, and doctors told us here that there was nothing to do, and my mom had like, maybe a few months to live. And that was really hard, and eventually my doctor of my aunt in Turkey, she – so this is my mom’s sister – she has been an emergency ER specialist for many years, and she just got promoted to a new like, government job in her province. And she came across a – well, actually, by some advice from somewhere from the US, they came across a very good clinic that does like, kind of like, scientifically proven but still alternative treatment for cancer. And we started —

CB: Okay.

B: — with that in November. And after that, so we had a first PET scan in Turkey, because in the Netherlands, they don’t really do PET scans, and there was no sign of disease anymore, which was very —

CB: Wow.

B: Yeah, amazing news.

CB: Wow. Yeah.

B: Yeah. So you know, if there’s anyone struggling with the same, I can definitely refer you to the clinic.

CB: So when did that result come back that they didn’t see anything anymore?

B: At the end of February.

CB: Okay. So it’s like, you’re going through – because you said it was November when you started the alternative treatment —

B: Yeah.

CB: — because like, the ingresses are timing this pretty well because it was like —

B: Yeah.

CB: — the first diagnosis happened just before Mars went into Cancer and into your 10th house and then opposed your Midheaven, and then somewhere during like, Mars in Cancer, you’re getting like, a terminal diagnosis and things look really bad in September and October. And then in November, you start seeking the alternative treatment, right?

B: Yeah.

CB: And this is when Mars has just moved into Leo, and then it slows down and stations retrograde in December.

B: Yeah.

CB: So she’s going through the treatment all during the Mars retrograde itself?

B: Yeah. And the very interesting thing is that my mom is a Sagittarius Sun in the anaretic degree, and a Sagittarius rising, so she has been having Saturn and Neptune going over her Sun, which is very interesting. So I already thought that something would happen with, you know, to my mom, and —

CB: Yeah. I mean, it’s amazing how some of the different transits are just lining up in different ways. I mean, one of the things I noticed is you were born in the late spring of 1993, so of course, 1993 was the last time that both Mars was retrograde in Cancer and Venus was retrograde in Aries at the same time. So you were born just as those two planets were coming off of that retrograde, so it makes sense why this one was so important for you in 2025 in so many different ways just because it was almost sort of a recurrence of your natal chart in some ways, even though Mars is later in Leo and Venus has already switched over into Taurus natally.

B: Yeah.

CB: But nonetheless, there’s some kind of recurrence there. This was also part of your Saturn return story to some extent with Saturn —

B: Yeah!

CB: — ruling your 4th house and being in your 6th house and then, you know, going through Pisces and activating that placement and dealing with an issue of a parent who’s sick. But it’s very striking how everything worked out during the course of the Mars retrograde and that you said she got the positive diagnosis that things were better in February, right? So that was when Mars was stationing direct in Cancer.

B: Yeah. Exactly. Around that time.

CB: Okay.

B: Yeah. You know, I just dropped my whole astrology and stuff, and you know, I was getting really stressed about, you know, every possible transit that was happening was like, oh my god, like, maybe, you know, I’ll see something that I don’t want to see.

CB: Right.

B: But I’m kind of like, getting off of that thing and I wanna slowly start to, you know, pick up my astrology – you know, astrology in general. Yeah, I think I experienced this quite dramatically! You know, I’m kind of like, telling this now kind of like, you know, has been quite hard, but I’m really thankful and really lucky that, you know, we came so far.

CB: Yeah. Well, it’s cool how – this will be a great example of how we were talking about in the monthly forecast sometimes the Mars retrograde in Cancer caused some problems in that area of people’s charts. And in your case, you know, you’ve had to put so much focus on this, it sidetracked some of the career things it sounds like that you wanted to focus on in terms of astrology. And now with Jupiter moving into Cancer this month, yeah, that’s really gonna help smooth things over and improve and expand and get you back on track in terms of some of your career aspirations.

B: My mom also has a Mars in Cancer in her 8th house as well, so she suffered a lot from I recall that like, relatives she has lost. Her brothers and stuff. And she has also Neptune on the anaretic Scorpio degree. So it has been —

CB: Yeah, I – so the Mars retrograde in Cancer was activating that natal Mars for her in the 8th house, so that makes sense. And having a, you know, at one point, they were saying it was terminal, so that would have been really traumatic. But then when Mars retrogrades and comes back to that sign where she was initially diagnosed, eventually she’s given a clear diagnosis when Mars returns back to that and stations direct. So that’s a great example as well. And it’s also more broadly like, a good example of on the one hand, like you were saying, yeah, I mean, I think traditional astrology and its ability to deal sometimes with hard topics when —

B: Yeah.

CB: — you see a really tough transit and being able to articulate that is like, you know, sometimes people go through really hard things, and to not sugarcoat that. But then on the other side of that, also one of the things that you were struggling with at times was sometimes the burden of knowing or seeing difficult things coming up in the future and how to deal with that. And I do think that that’s an issue that all astrologers and even myself struggle with sometimes of how to use the information and not get completely freaked out about it, or to develop some sort of acceptance. But then at the same time, to never adopt a fully fatalistic or an attitude that something’s inevitable, and to always like, try your best to push through things and to hope for a positive outcome even if the astrology doesn’t look good. Because you know, what a wild example in this case of something that turned around even though it seemed like all hope was lost.

But otherwise, I’m really glad to hear. This was a great success story in terms of Mars retrogrades, but also how – like I was saying at the beginning – how the Mars retrograde as well as Venus retrogrades are often it’s a series of events that are unfolding over a very extended period of time. And I can’t think of a better example of that than the one you just shared. So thanks for sharing that.

B: Yeah, you’re welcome. I hope really that, yeah, that people can get something out of this in terms of learning about astrology. So I’m happy to contribute to the field.

CB: So I think we’re seeing a clear picture here when it comes to some of these. So let’s see, so I’m looking for more examples like that, if anybody here in the live chat has more examples like that. There were two other unique ones, though that I wanted to do that give us a different blend of things. So the first one I wanted to do was Emily, because while this wasn’t a repetition or an extended thing, it was something that was nonetheless interesting. Emily, are you still here, and you willing to share your story?

Okay. Is your Ascendant 29 Gemini?

EMILY: It is. Yep.

CB: Okay. I always check just to make sure I’m looking at the right chart. All right. So this is your chart – Gemini rising. What was your example or since, like, give me the synopsis again?

E: Okay. So I was actually born just before a Venus retrograde in Aries in 1977. But in 1993, in February of 1993, I was in an arm wrestling tournament, and I broke my opponent’s arm.

CB: Okay. So you were in a wrestling – it was a wrestling tournament?

E: Arm wrestling.

CB: Okay, arm wrestling. And your opponent’s arm like, you broke it? So —

E: Yes. Yeah.

CB: That’s like, a huge – was that like, a huge —

E: I didn’t mean to laugh.

CB: No, that’s fine! I mean, it’s a good example of what you’re about to go into. But was that a huge incident? I imagine it would have been.

E: Yeah. So I mean, the whole – do you want me to talk more about that situation?

CB: Actually, I guess setting up the synopsis is – maybe I should let you set up the full synopsis. So you broke an opponent’s arm in an arm wrestling match – like, a professional one – in 1993. And then you had a repetition of that this year?

E: Right. Yeah. So my 16-year-old son, he was playing soccer, and there was like, just a freak accident where the ground was extremely muddy. He slipped, fell down, and another player tripped over my son’s arm, and the other player broke both bones in his lower leg. And again, it was just —

CB: Wow.

E: So when I broke that girl’s arm arm wrestling, it snapped so loud. I mean, the sound was incredible. Everyone can hear it throughout the venue. And it just was a very memorable situation. She ended up having to have surgery to repair her arm. And likewise, when the other player fell over my son’s arm, when that player broke his leg, he broke both bones in his lower leg, and that snap was so loud where all the players on the field just kind of stopped. They all heard it. And of course, he had to have surgery on his leg as well. So —

CB: Wow. That’s incredible. So —

E: Yeah.

CB: And this immediately interested me, because one of the things I’ve been talking about during this Venus and Mars retrograde is that Venus goes retrograde in the same sign every eight years, and Mars goes retrograde about every 15 to 17 years in the same signs. But the last time that Venus was retrograde in Aries and Mars was retrograde in Cancer was the first half of 1993. So I’d been like, connecting a lot of events that happened between now and 1993 and a lot of other repetitions, but for some reason, this is a really striking and like, oddly specific personal repetition in your life.

E: Right. Yeah. I mean, and from my perspective, you know, I was 16 years old, and then I became – there weren’t many females arm wrestling at that time. And I was the youngest. I was the youngest female. My dad was actually the oldest male. And we’d go to competitions together. And then when I moved the following year to another state, it just became – I became known as the girl who broke another girl’s arm. And so it ended up kind of, you know, sticking with me for quite some time.

CB: Okay, so it was actually – there was like, a stigmatism associated with it?

E: Yes. Yeah.

CB: Do you know… So here’s your chart again. So you have Gemini rising. Although the time’s a little rounded; it’s 11:45 AM. So —

E: Yeah.

CB: — it could almost be Cancer rising. Do you have a sense of whether it’s strongly like, Gemini or Cancer?

E: Definitely strongly Gemini, yeah.

CB: Okay. Got it.

E: I’ve – yeah, 100 percent, yeah.

CB: Got it. Okay. So the Mars retrograde in 1993 then was – do you know what the date was of when this happened?

E: Yeah. So I was trying to find the exact date, but the most likely date would have been February 7th, 1993. So we typically —

CB: Okay.

E: — have tournaments on either Saturday or Sunday, and it was definitely the early part of February.

CB: Oh right, okay, so you were born in ‘77, so that was a Venus retrograde in Aries year. So that’s one of the reasons why this particular retrograde’s important for you.

E: Yes. Yeah.

CB: Got it. Okay. So Venus retrograde… All right. So then I’m trying to think of what else or see what else was going on here. I mean, the Venus retrograde would go retrograde in your 11th house. You natally have Venus there, and it’s opposing Pluto in your 5th. And then the Mars retrograde in Cancer was in your 2nd house, and it kind of squared that Venus-Pluto opposition, so it could be something about that in terms of it’s like, a sort of social event in terms of you’re, you know, in a competition with other people. And then it has like, social implications in terms of like, the stigmatism that you said that you dealt with partially as a result of that.

E: Right.

CB: So it could be something coming up there, which then with Pluto in the 5th house could bring up why the repetition then later came, you know, in connection with your child, which is like, the 5th house —

E: Yeah.

CB: — is one potential access point.

E: I’m not sure if it matters either, but my Lot of Fortune is about six degrees of Cancer. I don’t know if that would matter.

CB: Oh wow. Yeah. Okay, let me put that in.

So Lot of Fortune… There we go. Yeah. Okay. So Venus is squaring that, and Mars is retrograding over your Lot of Fortune in Cancer, and it was like, this freak accident that somebody else’s bone just like, breaks like, in the middle of this competition.

E: Right. Right. And when I say that, like, it’s followed me, it actually followed me in like, almost like, a good way. Because it put me – like, I was unique. It made it unique, and then, you know, when we were through college, I would go arm wrestle a bunch of just random people at bars and stuff like that.

CB: Okay, that’s funny! So it was like, a good part of your like, legendary mystique that you were like, the bone crusher.

E: Yes.

CB: All right, so and then so that happened February 7th-ish 1993, we think. When did the event happen this year with your son?

E: So that was April 14th, 2025. Yeah.

CB: April 14th, 2025. Okay.

E: Do you want his chart?

CB: Yeah. You said we could share it, because you asked him. Sure. I would just be curious what that looks like for research purposes.

E: Okay, so that’s December 16th, 2008.

CB: So here’s the chart with the biwheel, and you said that the event happened on what day? April…

E: April 14th.

CB: 14th, okay. Okay, so he has Cancer rising?

E: Yes. Yeah.

CB: Got it. Okay. So he has Cancer rising, so the Mars retrograde had like, retrograded back into his 1st house. It had stationed direct. Venus was coming off of the direct station in Pisces. What else is going on here? Because I’m trying to think of what —

E: Right. Yeah.

CB: — the signature was.

E: Right. The only thing I can think of too is that he was in a 5th house – well, he’s in a 5th house profection year. And Moon —

CB: Okay.

E: The Moon is like, coming over his Lot of Fortune as well. I don’t know if that’s activating the, you know, the Mars-Pluto opposition. I have no idea. It was just so —

CB: Right.

E: I mean, we were just blown away when that happened, because I already knew that I had broken that girl’s arm during this cycle.

CB: Right.

E: Yeah.

CB: Yeah.

E: So Mars was his ruler, lord of the year.

CB: So Mars is his ruler, so the retrograde’s more important. It retrograded back into his 1st house. The Sun and Mars like, were coming into that square at that point, and they were about within the three degree range, so that’s pretty striking. But I guess the main thing that’s just interesting is how it was a repetition for you and how it connected the Venus and Mars retrograde periods and just like, two completely otherwise unrelated incidences and unrelated years of your life when there was a repetition of the same archetypal theme basically of like, somebody being in a competition – a sporting competition – and an opponent suffering a major injury and specifically the breaking of a bone. And that astrologically, we know that those two years – even though those two things are otherwise unconnected, the astrology is the only thing that otherwise we know is connected those two periods of time, because we know that that’s the only other time in the past 32 years that Venus and Mars went retrograde in the same two areas of the sky. So this is really important; I’m doing a lot of reading about like, Stoicism and fate and their views of chance. And one of the things I think astrology was about in the ancient worlds was studying fate, which means sometimes like, studying these weird causes that tie together events that otherwise appear to be unrelated but somehow have a connection through meaning or through time. And that’s kind of what we’re seeing here is we’re seeing the astrology and those repetition connect two events that are connected in terms of meaning and in terms of time even though they’re not otherwise like, directly causally related because it’s like, one event didn’t cause the other and they shouldn’t otherwise have taken place. But while we’re having —

E: Right.

CB: — trouble knowing like, the exact signature other than the Venus and Mars retrograde and why that’s carrying over almost like, generationally, we can at least see that there’s like, some sort of connection there in terms of the timing.

E: Right. Yeah. It was so interesting.

CB: Yeah.

E: So then I asked my father – my mom has passed away, but I asked my dad – if there was any connection. Now, there was something, but it wasn’t Venus retrograde in Aries. So —

CB: Okay.

E: — when he was 16 years old, he’s not a violent guy at all, but when he was 16 years old – that would have been 1958 – and some guy, one of his friends – they’re not friends, but someone in his school – threw a rock at him. So my dad punched him and like, one-punched him knocked him out cold. And when I looked at what was happening in 1958, there was a Venus retrograde in Aquarius, and it stationed direct on February 18th, which – then I was born 19 years later on February 18th. Yeah. That was – I mean, I just thought that was crazy. I have no idea if it means anything, but seeing that date pop up was wild to me.

CB: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, that’s really interesting cross generational stuff, and yeah, whether there’s like, some base chart that’s being activated that’s being passed down and whether it’s like, a repetition of that or what I don’t know. But and this doesn’t necessarily tie into like, the other themes that we were talking about, but it’s still super interesting because it’s pointing to some other phenomenon that I don’t think anybody’s researched or discussed or found before. But there’s probably other instances like this that exist, and I guess that does tie back into some other part of the Venus retrograde I’d been focusing on, which is the repetition aspect of things. But usually that’s in like, a single person’s life and not like, across generations, so that’s the curious part.

E: Yeah.

CB: Yeah.

E: It is.

CB: Wow. Well, thanks for sharing that. I’m sorry that happened. Is your son doing okay, or how did it go for him?

E: He ended up being okay. I mean, he felt bad for the other person who broke his leg. As a matter of fact, his first thought was he wished that when he heard that snap, he wished it was his own head hitting the ground. And then it was like, nah, that would have been horrible for you too if that was that loud and your head. But yeah, he’s doing okay. Yeah.

CB: Okay. Yeah. Good. Well, yeah. So that’s pretty crazy. But I’m glad, you know, we’ll have to see how it goes and he’ll have to track it like, 32 years from now and like, let us know. What would 32 years from now be? That would be, what —

E: Yeah.

CB: — 27, 37, 47, 57 – 2057? Do I have that right, chat?

E: Yeah. I just hope I’m alive long enough to see him have a child —

CB: To see it, yeah.

E: — and see what happens, yeah, when —

CB: Well, don’t do any like, arm wrestling then like, at that point in your life, please, because – yeah. That would probably be even more dramatic at that point.

E: Right.

CB: All right. Well, thanks for sharing that example. I really appreciate it.

E: Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate that. Yeah.

CB: Yeah.

E: Take care.

CB: All right, cool. Take care.

Yeah, so that’s pointing to something. If other people have other examples like that, I would be really interested to find some because that’s pointing to some really interesting, you know, property of the universe that’s happening behind the scenes and that’s connecting otherwise unrelated events. But it’s connecting them through time. And you know, I don’t know – because this just happened like, what exactly that says about things, but that would be interesting to research further or to try to search for other examples like that. And then from that, try to develop more of like, a thesis about like, what’s going on there or what the implications are of what we’re seeing.

Awesome. All right. So let’s move on. There was another example – Summer, if you’re still here, do you feel up for sharing your story?

Is your Ascendant one degree of Virgo?

SUMMER: Yes.

CB: Okay, cool. So here’s your chart. One degree of Virgo. So the Mars retrograde was in your 12th house in Leo back into your 11th house in Cancer. Give us the synopsis or tell us what happened in short, and then we can expand on that.

S: Yeah. So Mars retrograde in my 11th and 12th, and Venus in my 8th and 7th, and I had a stalker scare. Thought I was gonna be murdered, but instead I left my job to pursue astrology as a career instead.

CB: Wow. Okay. That’s pretty heavy. What – how did that come about, or how did the stalker part come about, and what was the timeframe?

S: Okay. I always wanna add in another mini story about my time. I actually also had it rectified during this Mars retrograde. Before I was using 10:15 AM, and it was two degrees away from Mars. And then after I rectified it, it’s now minutes away, so I found out I was even more Martian over this Mars retrograde. But —

CB: So your recorded time was 10:15 AM with like, a little later Virgo rising?

S: That was the time my dad gave me. And then when I ordered a birth chart, it didn’t come with a time unfortunately. So I used a rectification website online where you plug in important events in your life, and it gave me 10:06. So it still might be a little bit off, but I think this is more specific.

CB: Got it. Okay. All right. So what was the set up and the timing for the stalker thing?

S: So August 31st, I met a friend of a friend, and I was naive enough to let him follow me home after – in his car – he said to make sure I was okay. And yeah, just a reminder to everyone to not let anyone you just met know where you live, even if they’re a friend of a friend. And then a little bit later, he invited me out to a party, and when I turned him down, he didn’t take it very well and sent me this really creepy sinister voice message that I’ve shared with a lot of people just in case. And you know, happy to share with anyone else who’s curious. And so the timeline was September 4th, Mars went into Cancer. September 8th, he sent me the voice message. And then on Instagram, there is a place where you can share songs as a status, and then after that day, he started sharing song names with like, really violent names and lyrics that like, basically suggested he had a gun. So and I know they were addressed to me, because there would be other indirect comments in there. And then I was looking at my transits, and September 12th I have a whole slew of things. So first, Mars would conjunct my Sun that day. The Virgo Sun would square Jupiter in Gemini, which mirrors my Sun square Jupiter in my own chart – my Cancer Sun square Libra Jupiter. I’m in an 8th house Mars profection year.

CB: Okay.

S: And then also on that very same day, I’ve been tracking my zodiacal releasing dates for – I just note it down for like, other ones, and I had a zodiacal releasing loosening of the bond in the Lot of Death on that very same day. And then also as you can see, Mars on the Ascendant has been associated with violent deaths. So after I saw all of that, I was like, oh my god, he’s going to come to my place and kill me. And my Mars retrograde story of going from 11th to the 12th would be me being on the news for being murdered by like, a stalker essentially.

CB: Right.

S: But yeah.

CB: Yeah, so you get really concerned at that point. And then so this is really in the middle of September, and then how do things play out over the next couple of months?

S: I got really scared and didn’t take any chances. So on September 12th that morning, I flew out to my friend’s place. I got permission from HR to work remote. And then I just kind of hid out there for two to three weeks. I kind of felt like that maybe hopefully he would calm down, and then I felt like after two to three weeks I was out of, like, the danger zone. I’m not entirely sure if he ever like, dropped by my place or anything. But he did after a few months; since then, he has messaged me a couple times, like, being cordial about it. So sounds like he’s calmed down a lot. And so then what happened instead with Mars retrograde in Cancer is that I started having a lot more conflicts with my coworkers and like, other things after I had been at my job for like, two years, and I was pretty happy with it. But then all of a sudden, it just started making me unhappy. And then by it’s a little bit out of orb, but by sign it also squares my Libra Moon. So then I was like, not feeling appreciated. And then I think it was around December when I started like, considering like, maybe I should leave and pursue astrology. And then…

CB: So you think about quitting your job and basically starting to work for yourself.

S: Yeah.

CB: Okay. So that’s around the Mars retrograde station in Leo, which is your 12th house.

S: Yeah. Then just like; every day started getting like, stronger. Like, the idea of like, really wanting to do – to be an astrologer. And then I also have Uranus on my Midheaven. So that definitely went to play.

CB: Yeah, absolutely.

S: And on —

CB: So your Midheaven’s 25 Taurus, and so Uranus was just retrograding all over that at that time in addition to being not very far from your Venus in Taurus in the 9th whole sign house.

S: Yeah. And I also have I think the asteroid Urania conjunct my Venus too, so that was like, another indicator.

CB: Nice.

S: And then so tying into the Venus retrograde, on March 1st, Venus went into retrograde, and on 10 days later on March 11th, I announced to my team that I was going to be leaving to be a professional astrologer. And then I believe one of your keywords for Venus retrograde was defiance, and so at that time, it really felt like I was like, defying my team, my family, like, general societal values to do this, so.

CB: Yeah.

S: It like, all tied into together.

CB: You were striking out on your own, which then had important financial implications with Venus stationing retrograde in your 8th. But also then you were announcing that to your coworkers but also that’s presumably like, part of your social network with Mars having just stationed direct in your 11th house of friends and groups. So part of it is saying goodbye to all of them as well.

S: Yeah. Like, as you mentioned, cutting my job and cutting my community of coworkers that, yeah. It was really sad for me, because this was like, a job I really enjoyed. So it was definitely a little bit like, shocking for me as well.

CB: Were there any lingering things with the stalker situation? Or you said that after some of that initial stuff after September that he sort of went away. You said you received some messages from him later, but was that situation done, or were you still just – was your leaving the job still partially motivated by wanting to get out of there?

S: I think maybe I was kind of saying how maybe the thought of impending death made me realize like, you know, I might as well die doing something I love instead. But and the last time he’s messaged me was in December. So it’s been a while. I still get a little bit frightened every time I get like, a hidden message. But I think yeah, I think it should be… I think I could be good for now.

CB: Okay. Yeah. So December, so that was when Mars stationed in your 12th was the last time you heard from him. So then that’s interesting just from a technical standpoint that again it was almost like the Mars in early Cancer was like, telegraphing the station eventually that it would station in your 12th house ahead of time even though it wasn’t there yet. But I guess the positive part, now that we’re getting to the end of both the Mars retrograde and the Venus retrograde, is that with those two planets going retrograde in difficult houses of your chart – like, the 12th house of enemies, which I’ve commonly seen associated with stalkers, or the 8th house, which can sometimes have to do with death and mortality – that the, like you just said, the fear of those and having to like, think about that made you – pushed you – then to wanna pursue your dream to do astrology professionally and to go out on your own doing that. And therefore while it was again like, a very uncomfortable and terrible experience having to go through those things, it ended up pushing you in a new direction in your life at this point.

S: Yeah, definitely. Like a blessing in disguise. So definitely had me rethinking everything and focusing on what I really want, and I actually used your May 27 election to start my channel. So I know Mars in Leo is kind of on my Chiron in the 12th, so that’s also a little bit concerning, but this is like, right around the time that Uranus is on my Midheaven. I also got a professional astrologer reading to confirm that like, it was okay for me to also be an astrologer, and then she said like, it looks like I would be able to.

CB: Nice. Yeah. That’s awesome. Well, that was a good electional chart on May 27th, and that lined up really well with your chart since the Mercury cazimi that happened right after was in your 10th house. There was just a New Moon in Gemini in your 10th, and you caught the tail end of Jupiter in Gemini in your 10th whole sign house. So that’s incredible. So you started a YouTube channel for astrology. What’s your YouTube channel?

S: So it’s the Astrology Weather Station. With Virgo, I’m focusing on the details of the transit times, so I basically present it as a weathercast format, and I’m doing it for – I’m using the timezones for Pacific timezone, Taiwan and Tokyo in Japan, so yeah. If anyone wants to share transit stories whenever I post forecasts, I’d be really excited to hear about them.

CB: Nice! Awesome. Yeah, well, people should search for that on YouTube then, and they’ll find your channel. That sounds awesome. Well, thanks for sharing that; I really appreciate that because I think that’s a really good – once again, another good example just like our first example of, you know, having a difficult event happen but then through that, you know, turning it into something much more positive. So good job, you know, getting through that and then doing that and going out on your own. And I wish you success and good luck in that.

S: Yeah. Thank you guys for all of your support. It really means a lot. And yeah, thanks for just talking to me; it was an honor. And I’m not sure if you’re still going to conferences, but it’d be nice to see you in person at one of them one day, so.

CB: Yeah. One of these days hopefully, yeah. But yeah, we’ll see what happens. UAC next year is happening, but yeah, we’ll see how it goes.

All right, cool. Well, thank you.

S: Thanks! Bye!

CB: Okay, so let me look through and see what the other top voted examples are. That could be a good one, Christine, because that’s an interesting – those two houses could be interesting to talk about. So here’s your chart. Virgo rising. Interesting because it’s very similar to the last chart that we just looked at with Summer’s chart with like, Virgo rising, Mars in Virgo. So you were born in 1996. So the Venus – the Mars retrograde was in your 12th and your 11th, and the Venus retrograde was in your 8th and your 7th. One of the things that you said that I thought was interesting with the Venus retrograde in your 7th is you said that there was an old relationship that came back into your life randomly?

CHRISTINE: Yeah. Yeah, it was wild because I’ve been following astrology, and ended up buying your course in January. But anyways, around that time, I was like, binging so many astrology episodes. So I was paying attention to these cycles and being like, oh, I remember when you were talking to Austin on one of the year ahead – y’all mentioned on how like, people coming back in your life. And so I was like, I wonder which ex it’s gonna be! But I was thinking it was gonna be like, a recent, and so this was wild because this was my first boyfriend ever. And he is now like, married with a kid. We have no contact. We’ve never spoken. It wasn’t anything that ended weird. But it was just so wild, because he not only randomly came back, but he came back confessing his dying love for me for this whole time and thinking about like, ending his marriage, and it was absolutely wild. Like, I definitely did not expect that.

CB: And this is from a relationship from like, middle school?

C: Yeah. It was all the way from middle school, and I’m 28 now. And it —

CB: Wow.

C: — ended when we were like, 17.

CB: Okay. So yeah, that’s a long time ago. And you said it started in January? Or when did he —

C: Like, when he reached out?

CB: Yeah. When did he reach out?

C: I wanna say it was sometime around either September or maybe it was after November. I’m not sure because there were so many different things. Like, there was also this random like, big influencer guy online that like, right on the September eclipse randomly reached out to me and started like, obsessing over me. So I can’t remember if when the ex reached out if it was in September or if it was later around December. But it started to progress into the like, wanting to fly out and like, calling me all the time and different things like that. It started to progress all the way through January. And then it went silenced when one of them went retrograde; I forget which cycle, because I also was like, so many other things were going on. So I was like, loosely tracking. And they were so tied together, the Mars and Venus, like, the storylines in my life, that I couldn’t really – I’m very amateur. I couldn’t really understand which storyline was which.

CB: Okay. So what’s the – maybe we should get into that. So that was like, one piece, but so what was the broader – give me the synopsis of what other stuff happened with the Mars and Venus retrograde for you?

C: Yeah. So I noticed similarities in Summer’s story too as a Virgo rising. So I also loved my job. I was a pastry chef and like, farm-to-table chef at a charter school. Loved both my jobs. Was loving where I was living. And then all of a sudden, I started to feel this desire that I needed to completely move jobs and go after what I’m more passionate about. And at the same time, it was also this learning of my relationships – how my not only past romantic relationships have affected the partners I choose, but also my friendships. So I was taking a harder look at all of my relationships in my life – my job, my career, like, how I show up and what I give – and really changing all of that. A lot of severing, like, but mental. Like, behind the scene. And then active in my 11th house. I also started to, like Summer said, had conflict within my work, and I never have conflict. But it was like, teammates were jealous of me. And there started to be like, weird conflict of like, someone that was like, a friend that turned into a enemy. So it was like, so many mixes of relationships. And also the job, which I haven’t – I don’t understand if that’s tied to because my 2nd house Libra with my Venus there, if it’s like, me thinking about the space I occupy outside myself and like, what’s important to me. I don’t really know, but there was so – the theme was really heavily tied around the job too. And I noticed that in Summer’s story with like, quitting and kind of being unexpected with that decision, too, of like, it wasn’t – like, I thought I was really happy and then just one day I wasn’t. I was like, no, I need to change everything! I need to like, quit my jobs and just do something I’m passionate about and move. But it was —

CB: Right.

C: — kind of with relationships too if that makes sense. I was like, evaluating all of that.

CB: Let’s focus on the relationship part first, because I think that’s interesting and I can connect that with the Mars retrograde in your 11th house of friends and groups and the Venus retrograde in your 7th house of like, one-on-one relationships and interactions. Tell me about the one where you said there was a friendship that turned into like, enemies, because that’s kind of interesting and could connect Mars going retrograde from your 11th house to your 12th house.

C: Yeah. So this person I worked with, and we also rock-climbed together. So we would rock climb after work together pretty much five days a week, and we were friends. But I could tell – I’m very like, hypersensitive to like, what’s actually going on behind the scenes when people aren’t verbalizing it, but I can feel the energy. So I was always not sure if this was a real friend, but it was friendly. And like, we rock climbed together. But it started to get like, very passive-agresive where like, at work, there’d be like, really aggressive notes. And this started – so in the summer, we were like, friends, hanging out all the time, and it was in September that it started to become a big question of like, “Is this person a friend, or do I need to put up like, boundaries here?” And it was —

CB: So right as soon as Mars went into your 11th house —

C: Right.

CB: — basically.

C: Yeah, totally, and I was watching this, because I was like, “Is this gonna be the story?” And then —

CB: Right.

C: — it ended up being a bunch of other stories. But I was watching it in this friendship in general, because I was unsure.

CB: That’s really important. Like, people need to pay attention. As soon as like, an ingress takes place, as soon as a planet goes into a new sign, it also goes into a new whole sign house in your chart. And this is always useful, because on the one hand, this was always the way to me to test whole sign houses and just to see how compelling it is when like, this new area of your life you see a planet move into that house and then all of a sudden, that topic, the energy surrounding it starts to change like, almost immediately. And sometimes it’s subtle at first so that if you’re not like, watching for it you may not notice and you may overlook it. But so on the one hand, it’s like that, but then on the other hand, it’s if that planet is also gonna retrograde in that sign or if it’s gonna retrograde back to that sign, as soon as the ingress happens, it starts setting up the sequence of events that’s gonna unfold over an extended period. But sometimes it starts off a little subtly. So for you, you started noticing like, these weird notes at work and like, this subtle tension taking place at work?

C: So the notes weren’t yet. So in September, it started to be – I started to notice they weren’t supportive. Like, I got a promotion at work, and they – like, a really big promotion – and I was the shortest team member there, but I’m really detail-oriented. I’m really good at what I do. I’m very like, Martian. Like —

CB: Right.

C: — I’m fast. I do it. I figure out the system, and then I fucking conquer it better than anyone else. And that’s just – I love that. And so they were noticing that, and so they gave me this like —

CB: Leisa’s —

C: — massive raise.

CB: Leisa’s keyword for Mars in Virgo this month was like, wielding spreadsheets. So I like that you embodying that a little bit here.

C: Totally. And yeah, because even at the bakery, it literally is spreadsheets and all these things. But —

CB: Nice.

C: — when that happened, when we were rock climbing together, I was telling my friend like, “Oh my god, I got this raise – how incredible!” Like, and I noticed that it was envy. Like, there was envy. And so I thought about that, and I was like, oh my gosh, this person – are they even a friend? Like, I don’t even know if they’re a true friend. So that was like, the initial it started in the brain. Around my birthday around November, they started not wanting to climb with me anymore and started writing passive aggressive notes on the clipboard at work. So it was around the November timeline that things started to pick up a little.

CB: So and your birthday is November 5th, so that’s right about the time actually that Mars moved from Cancer and from your 11th house of friends to Leo and your 12th house of enemies.

C: Yeah. And what’s interesting is I also around that time started to wonder, is it me? Am I the aggressor? Like, am I making this? So it was like, a lot of 12th house, me thinking like, is this possibly me, or is this actually going on? So it wasn’t until it got —

CB: Right.

C: — like, a little crazy that I was like, oh, no, this was real. Like, this has been going on. Because I can hyperfixate in ways that haven’t always been accurate with the way I view situations.

CB: So what was the – how did it escalate after early November?

C: So we have like, a community baker board, as in like, it’s where all the bakers share messages with each other. And the notes started to get really aggressive where other people – like the linecooks, they can see the board, and they’d be like, oh my god, what did you do to piss like, so-and-so off? Like, the person. And the notes would be like, in all capital, and they would be the most ridiculous things. Like, “Don’t label something two times. You labeled it on this board, and you labeled it on this other board, and you don’t need to do that.” Like, they’d be these type of notes that are just like, why are you writing this? This is an emergency book for stuff. And so there was like, a lot of different ones. Or it would be like, “You left the butter in the fridge instead of the freezer.” And then they have these drawings at work, and the person drew my animals and put it on the back like, where my work station is, and it was a really sweet gesture when we were friends. She ripped them down, but then put it back up ripped and taped it.

CB: Oh wow.

C: And then like, aggressively, I kept not replying to these notes, so then she kept ripping it more but then taping it back up, which was really weird. So it ended up being like, eight little ripped pieces of my dog taped up —

CB: Okay.

C: — behind the baker board.

CB: So is this escalating by early December when Mars is like, stationing retrograde?

C: Yeah. And it got – so the ripped up paper at its worst was at the end of December to early January because it was right before my final days at the bakery. Because by this point, I’d quit and was going to start a whole new thing and just like, move with no idea what I was doing, and my last day of work was January 6th. And I remember the two weeks prior, I was trying to hold it together and not like, have a talk with this person and being like, look, you gotta stop this. I was trying to just like, ignore it all and just do my job and just ignore it all.

CB: Okay.

C: And so it started to get like, worse around that timeframe.

CB: Now I understand part of what’s happening. Part of what’s happening – I forgot – that should have been integrated and that we talked about a lot in the forecasts, but needs to be integrated into this story as well as actually the previous one with Summer was just part of the signature with this particular Mars retrograde was when it was retrograde in early Leo, it was also opposing Pluto. So part of what you’re experiencing here is not just a Mars retrograde in your 12th house of enemies going back into your 11th house of friends, but you’re also experiencing this Mars-Pluto opposition that’s taking place across the 12th house of enemies axis and the 6th house of work axis, and it’s creating this really intense and really uncomfortable but like, kind of weirdly behind the scenes, weirdly in front of the scenes like, power struggle between that axis. And it’s even more sort of bizarre and out of nowhere in your case, because you have Uranus at zero degrees of Aquarius. So it’s like, activating your Uranus placement in the 6th house at the same time.

So some of that’s culminating then in early January, which would have been when the Mars-Pluto opposition – I mean, interestingly, the Mars-Pluto opposition first went exact I think in early November. But then it went exact again in early January, and that’s when you decided to leave the job?

C: Yeah. That was my last day; my last day there was January 6th.

CB: Okay. And did you leave because of this, or were you leaving for other reasons or what?

C: No, I didn’t leave because of that at all. I was leaving because of the feeling, the need to just not work for – I was just too – I felt like I was so good at the job, and it was like, is this all I’m gonna do in life? Like, where do I go from here? I should do my own thing. I’m passionate in astrology; I want to like, work for myself. I adapt at everything so quickly; why would I – I just felt like I needed… I felt like, bigger than those things. I felt like I was just being a robot and stuff. So it wasn’t to do with that situation at all.

CB: Okay. But you did decide to have a conversation with that person before you left?

C: I did not. I was —

CB: Okay.

C: — going to if it got worse, but I ended up not. But I did do things that they noticed. So they followed me on social media. I not only unfollowed them, but I removed them from being able to follow me as like, a move of like, hey – like, taking my energy back. And I asked my manager to not have us work the same shifts because I was worried about if so I was gonna confront. And I was feeling very fiery – I can be very fiery – and I was like, if I confront this person, it’s not gonna be friendly. Like, it won’t be friendly because I put up with all this. So I was trying to make sure that I didn’t leave with this like, heated thing, so I kind of just like, made sure we didn’t work together and put up the walls and just ignored the stuff that was going on there.

CB: So you leave January 6th, which is interesting because that’s when Mars retrogrades from Leo back into Cancer. Was there any resolution to that over the next couple of months as Mars stationed direct and moved out of your 11th, or was that the end of that sequence of events with that like, friend who turned into an enemy?

C: That was the end of that sequence of events, as far as I’m aware. I don’t know if anything else happened there, but as far as I’m —

CB: Right.

C: — aware, like, in relation to me, there was nothing more from that.

CB: Okay. Yeah. That is always – that is sometimes a issue I’ve noticed coming up, although usually by now you would know is sometimes there is something that happens during the retrograde or especially around the time of the stations that sometimes people don’t know about until later on. So that didn’t necessarily happen here, but I wanted to mention that as an aside, because I was noticing some stories where there were things developing in the background that only became – the person only becomes aware of like, later on. So that’s something important for people to look for when researching this as well.

So you after early January, you decide to pursue – you strike out on your own to start working for yourself?

C: Kind of. But so I kept telling everyone I just needed to create the space. Like, I didn’t – I always think of everything, and so I just needed to focus on like, creating the space and doing all of these things. And so when I quit, I just focused on like, moving out. I was then like, moving out of my place on January 9th, and I had nowhere to live, but I was still – I crashed at a friend’s place until the end of January when I then just like, hit the road. So what my desire was was to quit and start deeply – like, I bought your course immediately once I quit my job. Or no, once I moved out of my place. I was like, this is what I’m gonna do! I’m just gonna create space and obsess over astrology. And like, something will come to me from there, because I’m a very “do it” person that I was like, I’ll figure it out. I also wanted to get back to the land and work with like, regenerative farms and community. I was so isolated that all these things were just like, it wasn’t like I was gonna work for myself. It was that I’m not gonna work for anyone else. It also coincided, though – I don’t know if you saw in the notes I added too – where eight years prior, before I ever moved out to California where I live and have lived, when I was in college, I would do arrangements where it’s like, you have a relationship with usually a older man but just a wealthier man and they pay for all of your things. So that’s very like, 7th-8th house stuff there. Like, very 8th house.

CB: Right. Back in 2017 and like, the last Venus retrograde in Aries —

C: Yes!

CB: — in your 8th and 7th house?

C: Exactly. And —

CB: Right.

C: — when I moved out to California, I like, cut that and I was like, no I’m gonna earn like, honest money. And like, it doesn’t feel good internally for me; it feels kind of weird. But around this time, I was just like, I need to just create space. Like, maybe I could utilize that again. So that thought started to come back up, and I actively did that. Like, that’s what I did to then be able to just study astrology and like, have complete space but have some finance coming in. So that was fascinating to me, because I never thought that that was gonna come back up. And then these thoughts started seeping in, and then I like, did that too. And when I tracked it back, I was like, oh my god, that’s wild that it was the Venus retrograde cycle. And with me – well, I guess now starting the Saturn in Aries, and that’s also Mars-ruled. It’s just fascinating because I see all those connecting points —

CB: Right, so that —

C: — to be able —

CB: Sorry. Go ahead.

C: Oh, I finished.

CB: Okay. Yeah. I mean, so that connects the Venus retrograde in your like, 8th house of like, finances and other people’s money and your 7th house of relationships. And then you saw that that was a repetition from eight years earlier when the same houses are activated in your chart. So that’s a good example. We’ve seen several examples of like, the Mars retrograde connecting two houses in a person’s chart, but that’s a good example of the Venus retrograde doing the same thing. And then it’s also a good example of how sometimes – because it’s not like you went out of your way to do that, because you thought the astrology was saying that. You just found yourself in that situation. And that’s one of the things I find really striking about Venus retrogrades is sometimes we just like, start doing something over again that we’ve done in the past, and then at some point you become aware that you were doing the same thing eight years earlier, and that there’s this weird repetition or like, rhyming where you’re returning back to some activity or set of circumstances from like, earlier in your life in eight years or 16 years or other increments like that. But that it’s something that sort of like, arises naturally from within you and from within your circumstances at that time.

C: Yeah. It was – yeah, it was exactly that of it wasn’t something I thought or saw coming with the astrology, but then I was able to track after and be like, oh, these are repeating timelines.

CB: Got it. Okay. So that’s really incredible. And then were there other – you said there might have been other like, relationships that were severed during this time. Were there other friendships, or was that the primary one?

C: Yeah, so my closest friend. So a friend that I went to college and we were random college roommates – she lives in Colorado. And we were the bestest of friends. We were talking all the time, and every year we go backpacking in Colorado together. And during this whole period, the same period with the coworker, she’s going through her Saturn return. She’s like, it’s 8th house, she’s like – all the mental. So I’m like, she’ss reaching out to me, and I’m holding all of this space for her. So I started evaluating this friendship and being like, wait, like, I’m such a giver, but whenever I need something it’s not mutually received. So I started to evaluate my closest friendship and set up boundaries. There wasn’t this big severing; like, there wasn’t this angry severing. But there was severing where now I don’t actively talk to her, and she just randomly will like, like my stuff on social media. But we were like, best friends who were together all the time,a nd I mentally put up boundaries and severed one of my closest relationships. And now there wasn’t an active discussion about it, but for me, I don’t consider her a close friend like, at all, because I changed the way I view relationships. And to me, it’s only reciprocal relationships are allowed in my life. And so I severed anything that felt like it wasn’t reciprocal in a way where it’s like, if you want to be my friend again, you just need to show up. And I’m not gonna keep showing up. So that’s what type of severing it was.

CB: Got it. Okay. And that was taking place over this whole extended period of from like, last fall until the early part of this year?

C: Yeah. It was very much September to late December for that one of like, it getting intense of her needing me and me being there but then me evaluating that and then me mentally severing. And then that was it. So it was in that exact same timeframe that the coworker was happening too.

CB: Got it. Okay. Yeah, that’s a good example that sometimes the same energy can manifest in like, two different areas or two different relationships while still being broadly in like, the same area of your chart. So it’s like, two different friendships that go that there’s a severing, but for like, different reasons so that you’re experiencing like, the Mars archetype on two different areas but still in the same part of the chart.

Were there any other major things? Because that’s pretty comprehensive. I mean, this is a very good example of how you experienced the topics of the houses of both like, the Mars retrograde and the Venus retrograde. Were there any other major ones that we missed?

C: The – I feel like we touched on it a little bit, and it wasn’t super major except for me personally of having right around the eclipse, like, an influencer online that I’ve like, followed for years randomly following me and starting to like, hyperfixate and obsess over me share their location with me like, on phones. Try to like, wanna come and visit me. And that was all in the September to – and that kind of stopped around January as well. Like, where he then just went away, which is very eclipse-y energy of like, all in. But it’s like, is that story done? I don’t know! He still lurks around. And so I’ve been watching that one more with the eclipses in general of the —

CB: Which eclipse?

C: — eclipses. The September 17th partial lunar eclipse is where he and I stayed up all night, like, talking. Like, there was this weird mental energy we had. Which he has his Mercury in Scorpio as well in the 11th house.

CB: Oh, you’re talking about the first Pisces eclipse in September?

C: Yeah.

CB: Okay.

C: And that was like, the exact night that that started.

CB: Got it. Yeah.

C: Well, he had followed – it was like, a Venus cazimi, I forget when. And I was paying attention to it. And on that cazimi is when he randomly followed me, and then it was a few days that he started messaging, but it was on that eclipse that then it was like, we like, Facetimed for like, six hours. And that one got where yeah, then it was like, he was sharing his location with me. He was planning on visiting me all the way from Ojai. And yeah, and then that fizzled out as well where it just – I set boundaries. I was like, wait, I’m doing the same time. I’m like, choosing an actually emotionally unavailable people. I’m better than this. But that one was the same timeline where around January too… I don’t know why around January for all these things, but that also just like, there was no more communication other than random stuff.

CB: Right.

C: And I’ve been paying attention to that one more with the eclipse, but I don’t know if that kind of plays into similar territory.

CB: Yeah. I mean, well, that eclipse was just opening up a whole sequence of you’ll be going back and forth over the next couple of years between focusing sometimes a lot on relationships and other people, and other times on yourself when the eclipses start hitting your 1st house and seesawing back and forth between the two. The Saturn going through your 7th and being around your Descendant and stationing there has also been tied in with some of the cooling off and the setting boundaries in relationships. Yeah, but so this a good example that even though I’m trying to focus in on specific transits or like, isolate like, Mars retrograde was doing this or Venus retrograde was in this house, there’s obviously like, a lot going on in a person’s chart and life at any one time, especially if you’re getting very close degree-based hits of like, important transits at the same time or eclipses and things like that that can be layered on top of things. But yeah, it sounds like all of the – both of those transits really manifested in very striking ways for you, and some of these themes, especially with that eclipse, will probably open up a sequence of events that’ll be ongoing for another year and a half or so as the eclipses continue to bounce back between your 7th and your 1st.

C: Yeah. Totally. Yeah, because we have a lot of connecting friends, and so I’m paying attention to that storyline a little different. But yeah, I think that’s all of the events.

CB: Cool. Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that. That was amazing; that really helped fill in some pieces that I was looking for of like, things that I would expect but that it like, multiple different things that I was looking for. So thanks for sharing all of those.

C: Yeah, no, it was a privilege and pleasure.

CB: Cool. All right. Take care!

C: Thank you.

CB: Yeah, Ezekiel says it’s like the main theme in general is severing of relationships. I do think that is important, because it’s like, we see an overlap in the significations where like, Mars is about severing things, and especially sometimes when it hangs out in a certain sector of the chart for an extended period of time, one of the core meanings of that can be an extended period of like, severing relationships. And then Venus retrograde, you know, since Venus’s basic function is to unify and brings things together, sometimes when Venus goes retrograde, it can back out of relationships or undo them in some way. So that may be part of what we’re seeing a little bit here with the overlap with those.

Yeah, and Helen mentions, “and taking decisive and assertive action.” Yeah. I think that was relevant especially because of the Venus retrograde in Aries and then the Mars retrograde at the same time. Because sometimes the energy of Mars is… While that severing and separating energy is important, sometimes that also can manifest as a decisiveness or as a sense of like, courage. Like, having the courage to be bold and like, do something aggressively, despite what other people think, which can sometimes create tension with other people, but can be good.

All right, so there’s one… Dinah-Maria, are you still here? Yeah? Okay. Let me promote you to a panelist, because yours might be good. It will be some overlap with what we’ve just been talking about with the 8th house, but it brings in another element with the 5th house that could be good as an interesting additional perspective.

Hello! There we go – can you hear me?

DINAH-MARIA: Awesome. I can, yes! Thank you!

CB: Yeah, thanks for joining me. What is your birth data?

All right, so is your Ascendant four degrees of Sagittarius?

DM: Yes, it is.

CB: Cool. All right, there we go. So you have Sagittarius rising natally. You have Mars in Cancer in the 8th house. And give us a synopsis about what happened and what your example is about.

DM: So let’s see. I’m not quite sure where to start. But I’ll say that I guess going back to 2017, it turns out my now ex-husband was being unfaithful. I didn’t discover it at that time, but fast forward to now, we are divorced. And during our divorce, he got involved in a bribery scandal at work. And this dragged on for all of five and a half years, but it really came to a head over the last six months. And it ended up that he had to testify the day before his birthday – March 28th – it was also the day before this big solar eclipse in Aries – and was ultimately found not guilty. Interestingly enough, he was found not guilty as Chiron was making an exact opposition to my natal Pluto. It was just about 18 minutes away from doing that in real time that I received the news that he was not guilty.

So he ended up losing his job as a result. He worked for one of the biggest companies in the world. And so that impacts the 8th house in that I have primary custody of our children, but you know, his ability to continue to provide support in that sense. But beyond that, our children have been just impacted because of the divorce and everything. And my eldest – our eldest son – he has Venus and Uranus in Aries. My ex-husband has an Aries stellium too. And so our eldest son, another part of it with regards to the retrograde in my 5th house, is that our eldest son got really sick this March almost to the date that he had gotten really sick back in 2017. And back in 2017, he also was like, in preschool at the time, and he ended up getting hit in the face with a shovel and I had to rush him to the emergency room to get stitches.

CB: So there was – in 2017, during the Venus retrograde in Aries in your 5th house, there was a incident where your child got an injury and then eight years later you had a repetition of that when Venus went retrograde in Aries again and there was an injury involving one of your children?

DM: Yes, although this year he suddenly became sick and potentially maybe it’s because he has Uranus in Aries as well. But for him this year, it wasn’t the injury; it was that he was suddenly really sick. And he was also suddenly sick in 2017 as well. But thanks to following the transits, I intuitively felt that something was gonna come before it happened, and so I’m grateful for this map of sorts.

CB: How long was he sick for?

DM: Maybe he ended up like, a week the first time. He ended up getting influenza-A, which is highly contagious and he got his brother sick as well. And then he ended up getting suddenly sick again, so – and I use the word “suddenly” because I just, with his Aries placements, Uranus there at three degrees I really think that was impacted as well as his Venus.

CB: And what was the injury in 2017?

DM: That’s when he got hit in the face with a shovel at preschool.

CB: Okay.

DM: And so he had to get stitches on his face, which I —

CB: Oh wow, okay.

DM: Yeah.

CB: Did it leave a scar?

DM: It did.

CB: Okay. That’s really interesting just that we can see the repetition of events connected by the Venus retrograde, but in the specific house in the chart which is the 5th house for you.

And then so with the ex-husband, and then you found out that he had in 2017 he had cheated during that Venus retrograde in your 5th house. How or when did you find out later that he had done that?

DM: What was interesting is that when Uranus – I was led to astrology two and a half years ago, but I’ve really gone deep since because I have felt it in my body when these planets ingress as you were saying earlier. And so what’s fascinating is that when Uranus moved into Taurus, I intuitively like, felt something and it’s my 6th house – not only did I get sober – that led me to discover his infidelity. And come to find out, his birthday’s March 29th, so he had traveled to go see her the year prior which would have been 2017. And as I mentioned previously, he has an Aries stellium, so he has his Sun, Chiron, Venus, and Mercury all in Aries.

CB: Okay. So all in Aries, so the Venus retrograde then is like, going over his stellium sign at least back then in terms of it being an important turning point for him. This is a good example, though, in terms of like, sometimes we see a transit – especially a retrograde – happening in our chart in a certain house. And sometimes we have the experience as astrologers where we don’t see anything happen at the time, so we assume that the transit came and went, and it just didn’t happen or didn’t manifest in anything. But what I’ve learned over the years as an astrologer is sometimes there’s events that happen in our lives that do impact us, but we just don’t know about them at the time. But nonetheless, the astrology does know and the astrology is like, telling you at the time when something is happening because it always will time the events regardless of whether they’re visible to us or not at the time. And sometimes we find out afterwards like, way down the road. Sometimes we may not find out at all, and that’s a class of events that I would like to study more, which is events that happen in a person’s life that perhaps they never find out something. But nonetheless, you know, people outside realize something later on.

Okay, so that retrograde happened in 2017, and so that’s interesting because then there was no overlap in the 2017 one with both children, which is a 5th house topic, but also the 5th house can relate to sex and sexuality. And in that context, it was like, your partner doing something related to that. So both of those are striking. And then you had a repetition here in 2025, and one of your children got sick again. And then your former partner who you’ve been divorced from for a while now – what’s interesting is that with your 5th house, Mars is the ruler of your 5th house, and it’s in Cancer in the 8th house, which is like, shared resources, other people’s money, sometimes debt but also can relate to the finances of a partner or even in this instance an ex-partner. But part of the reason that’s important for you – his financial situation – and why that’s still relevant to you even though you’re divorced is the financial support that you get from that as a result of the connection with your children. So that’s part of the delineation that we’re seeing here is the ruler of the 5th house of children in the 8th house of other people’s money or the partner’s money or the ex-partner’s money. And so went through this entire court case at this time, and he won, but then he still lost his job?

DM: That’s correct.

CB: Okay. And then you said that that culminated early this year in like, February or March?

DM: He testified on March 28th, the day before his birthday, and was found not guilty on April 2nd, I believe it was.

CB: March 28th, okay. And was found not guilty on April 2nd. I mean, you know, ironically, the Mars – you’re having your exact Mars return in Cancer around that time where Mars has gone direct. And it conjoins. Why did he still – did he lose his job after that or during that or how did that happen?

DM: He was officially let go closer to like, April 20th or 21st. It was like, two, three weeks after.

CB: Got it. Okay. So that was just after Mars departs.

So that then impacts your financial situation as well?

DM: Yes. I have primary custody, but he would pay child support and get like, a portion of his bonuses from this company, you know, the children would receive as well.

CB: Got it. Okay. So then it – yeah, it also affects their financial situation of the children, which is interesting. Okay. What else – is there anything else that happened, or are those the main points?

DM: Another thing is so I’m going through my Uranus opposition, and I say that because a week before I was to hit the third peak, my friend who was also going through the same life cycle, she was electrocuted and she died. And I think that day, Mars in Cancer might have been… I don’t recall exactly what it was, but she passed on April 23rd. And just with the theme of a death being one of the 8th house topics as well.

CB: Oh my god. Yeah. That’s terrible. I’m sorry to hear that. So you had the unexpected sudden death of a friend right after like, all of that had just happened. So there was like, a bunch of stuff that all happened like, in a quick succession of events for you around this time.

DM: Yeah. And just going back to the sudden, the, you know, the fact that she was electrocuted and that’s, and we’re both going through that life transit of that opposition because we were born one month apart. So we have similar placements.

CB: Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah, because your Uranus is at 26 Scorpio in the 12th house, which can sometimes have to do with loss and transiting Uranus was at 25 moving into 26 at that time. And then as you mention, your natal Mars is in the 8th house, and Mars is still coming off of that activation there in terms of that. It might also be actually relevant, the Venus stationing in your 4th house conjunct Saturn just because that’s one of the things we’ve been exploring is how the Hellenistic astrologers associated not just the 8th house with death and the 12th house with loss, but also the 4th house in some instances as well.

Okay. So were there any other ways in which – I’m curious, the Mars retrograde in your 9th house became relevant, or the Venus that retrograded back in your 4th house that became relevant? Because those are the only pieces like, I would almost be curious if those topics came up as well, but I’m not fully seeing it. And it’s okay if there’s not, but I was just curious.

DM: I feel like my spirituality has gone next level, because I’ve chosen to grieve through just diving deeper into that path. I’ve really been also feeling like the Mars-Pluto opposition was just really, again, driving me more towards that. And a year ago, I pivoted from being in real estate to opening up a business in spirituality and just feeling everything that’s been going through Aries. Since I wasn’t born with anything in the 5th house, I’ve really been feeling it, and it’s been opening me up more creatively and more into expressing myself in ways that I never had before, and I could really feel the opposition to my Libra stellium too. And so that’s been a beautiful side of this. I feel like I’ve been able to alchemize this pain in a very healthy way.

CB: Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and that does connect the 9th house and the 8th house, and that can be something when you have like, a really traumatic loss is sometimes even emphasizing or wanting us to throw ourselves into something like that of study or the exploration of different things like religious or spiritual things in order to understand that better. I guess this actually – I forgot that – again, I’m overlooking and continuously under appreciating the Mars-Pluto opposition. But if your friend passed away in like, late April, that was the other thing was the third and final pass of the Mars-Pluto opposition across your 9th house-3rd house axis. Was your friend somebody that you grew up with or how long had you been friends with them?

DM: We’d been really close friends for five years but gone even deeper, because she was not familiar with astrology. And so we were diving into her lunar returns, and she had relocated, and you know, she was saying, “I’m really having a hard time; like, what are you seeing here?” And I sensed death and rebirth, but I didn’t ever think that it would be her transitioning from her physical vessel. I thought it would be, you know, her new life. She had just gotten married. So we were connecting really regularly, again, to go through these transits in real time because I find it so fascinating and so accurate. You can’t make up the way that it’s just so precisely unfolds. Yeah, so that – I really – and also, she died on April 23rd, but I didn’t – she was in Ghana at the time. And I didn’t learn about her death until April 26th, 23 minutes before the opposition went exact. So I mean, again —

CB: Wow.

DM: — one of the things that you can’t make up. And then with regards to what you asked —

CB: Yeah. She was traveling when she died? Or what was she doing in Ghana?

DM: Well, she relocated. So she had gotten married, and she – that’s where her ancestors are from, and she just wanted to connect more so with her lineage. And she had met her husband there; she’d been there previously. But she felt that she was being called to relocate there from the US, and so she did so. She relocated there February 23rd, so she was there all of two months, and was having difficulty with her power and basically it was her generator that ended up electrocuting her.

CB: Okay. So that’s the connection with the 9th house, and that’s how the 9th house and the 8th house are being connected with this particular Mars retrograde with you is it’s connecting that a friend relocated and moved to a foreign country. And then on the Mars-Pluto opposition, she passed away. And this connects back to something I talked about in the 3rd house episode when I did my deep dive into the 3rd house last year. And one of the things we saw is how the 3rd house has a close connection with friendship just as much as the 11th house does in some instances. And that I think is part of what was being activated there in terms of the Mars-Pluto opposition is this tension between Mars and like, the 9th house of foreign countries and just coming off of its transit through your 8th and Pluto transiting your 3rd house of friends and having this really tragic loss of a friend at this time that you find out about at the exact Mars-Pluto opposition.

DM: Correct.

CB: Wow. Okay. That’s pretty – that’s really tough. I’m sorry to hear that, and I hope you’re okay and have been processing that okay. So you’ve been throwing yourself into your studies and things like that since then, since late April?

DM: Since even before that, yeah. Because like, even for example when Mars and Pluto first opposed one another, I was in Mexico on a retreat. I’ve been – with regards to Venus transiting through Pisces, I have felt called to explore my Mayan roots more so than ever before and connect with my ancestors, and that’s really been a part of expanding my spirituality. And so I was actually in Mexico in November when that opposition first went exact. And so that’s been very helpful as well to just – it’s been like, nourishing, like, soothing balm to my soul to connect in a way that I never had before. And I think because I wasn’t born with any planets in the 4th, I felt that Pisces stellium like never before in my lifetime.

CB: Right. And you would have had the first eclipse sort of set things off in September and opening up a window for that as well as the Saturn transit through your 4th house. And then during the early part of this year, the Venus retrograde and the Mars – or also Mercury retrograde – in your 4th house as well, so that you’re dealing with a lot of 4th house topics, which 4th house as we learned when I did the 4th house deep dive is much more complex than we tend to give it credit for in modern times where we tend to just associate it with like, parents or your home. But it can also be your roots and like, your origins, which can include your ancestral origins. It can be things involving like, the finality or the end of life, and death, and dealing with things related to that – to death and mortality. But the 4th in Vettius Valens in the 2nd century, he also talks about it being connected with mystical matters and spirituality and esoteric studies, because it’s the most hidden part of the chart. And that’s fundamentally what esoteric means is the things that are hidden that are sort of operating behind the visible world in some sense. So it’s interesting that a lot of those 4th house activations, including the Venus retrograde, have activated a lot of that for you.

DM: Yes.

CB: Great. All right. So now we are at the end of it, and Mars is getting ready to depart from your 9th, and Venus has just departed from your 5th. Were there any other things related to like, children or things like that that came up with the 5th house retrograde in terms of this one?

DM: What’s interesting is one son is a Sagittarius rising as am I, just a couple degrees away from me. The other’s a Gemini rising. So I do feel like they are entering a new chapter. And I’ve been feeling their fire in a different way like never before, but this – learning from you and this community is priceless. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to be able to bring some sanity into our world just by being able to see what is going on, what is coming up, and just to, I don’t know, prepare? I don’t know if that’s a correct term, but yeah. I can still feel and see that there’s a lot to come. The examples that I provided is just a little like, taste of what we’ve essentially gone through. But yeah, this has been so helpful. So I just wanted to make sure to express that to you.

CB: Good, I’m glad to hear that. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Well, and this is a good example also of while there were some singular events that like, did happen in your life with some of these, some of the singular events were also, again, part of an unfolding of a process with sometimes some things that led up to them that put those events in place so that the singular event could happen, but then also a process – sometimes an internal process – of processing those things and coping with them and some of the outcome of how they impact you personally and internally in addition to how they change your life subsequently in a physical way as well. So I think this is a really good example of that, and it was a good reminder that sometimes these transits can have serious internal impacts on us just as much as their external impacts.

DM: Absolutely. Yes. Thank you.

CB: Definitely. All right, cool. Well, thanks for sharing your example; I appreciate it. All right, bye.

All right. Yeah, this has been a really great session. Okay, so let me see where we’re at. Okay. That could be a good one. Erin, are you still here? That had the Mars retrograde in your 10th house? No, I think they’ve left. That’s okay.

I’m just gonna read that one real quick, because it’s a good one. Erin said, “I have Libra rising with Venus in Cancer in the 10th house. During the Mars retrograde in Gemini and Cancer in 2007, I started working for the federal government. During the most recent Mars retrograde in Cancer and Venus retrograde stationing direct in Pisces in my 6th house, I received a RIF notice. I have not yet separated, and further RIF actions are currently paused and the subject of a Supreme Court case. So I’m still in limbo despite the retrogrades being complete.”

So basically, they got their job when Mars went retrograde in Cancer in their 10th house back in 2007, and then they’re basically in danger of losing their job now with the changes that are happening in the federal government where so many federal government employees are being fired. And it sounds like the Mars retrograde and especially probably the station in February when so many US government employees were being fired is part of what they’re dealing with here. So I’ve seen a number of cases like that, so that’s a really striking one with Mars in the 10th house. So thanks for sharing that.

Denese, if you’re still here, would you be willing to share your example that had the Scorpio rising chart?

Hey, thanks for joining me.

DENESE: Thank you. Sorry it’s a bit dark here in England, but it is – I think it’s half past 11 at night. It’s closer to 11 at night, so it’s a bit late for me! I was just about to consider going off to bed!

CB: No problem. Thanks for staying up late and thanks for joining me.

D: Pleasure. Hang on – I’ll just change the light a bit because it’s in my face. Okay. Hello, everyone over in America!

CB: What’s your birth data?

D: The 3rd of March, 1961.

CB: All right. So is your Ascendant 16 Scorpio?

D: It sure is. Let me just check; I’m pretty sure it is. Yeah.

CB: All right. So here’s your chart. So you have Scorpio rising, so the Venus retrograde – you h ave Venus in Aries in the 6th house, and you have Mars in Cancer in the 9th house. You were born in 1961, so this was – we’ve talked to a few people about the 1993 repetition and how that was the last time that Venus was retrograde in Aries and Mars was retrograde in Cancer, but the time before that 32 years earlier was early 1961 when Venus went retrograde in Aries and Mars went retrograde in Cancer. So —

D: And 1993 was the year that I had my first child, although he was born in November. So I was checking to see whether that Mars retrograde and Venus retrograde was happening in November, but it wasn’t; it was earlier in the year. But I got married at that point, and then I had my eldest in the November, so.

CB: Nice! Yeah.

D: 1993 was pivotal for me, because I got married and had my first child in that year, so there was a lot going on then.

CB: Yeah. One of the things I’ve noticed and one of the things Nick and I mentioned is just with these double repetitions, sometimes it’s like that entire year ends up being important and pivotal for the person if —

D: Massive, yeah.

CB: — you’re having an important repetition like that, because it builds in such an important signature into the birth chart. Okay, so you said you got married and you had your first child in 1993?

D: Yeah. Yeah, I did, yeah, so we were engaged the previous September, but we’d arranged to be married in the April. But I found out in the February that I was expecting Richard, so I was already sort of 12 weeks expecting by the time I walked down the aisle! But that’s okay, because it was all whatever. And so I was quite excited about that, and then he turned up on the 17th of November. And I was looking at the day that he was born, because I often – because I’m sort of studying, I’ve got a full-time job and I’m very busy, so I fit my astrology in when I can. So I am absolutely – like all the other people have said this evening how much they love it and how they’re sort of nailed into, and I have my chart on my iPad and I’ve got AstroGold here and I’m always looking at stuff. And I was listening to Richard this evening; I sent him a little text message, because looking at my chart on the day that he was born, my Ascendant was crossing the Sun in the 5th house. And of course, the Sun is a male person, isn’t it? And a male baby being born as my Ascendant is literally within a couple of degrees of that day, it was just nuts! And I just —

CB: Nice.

D: — can’t make it up! And —

CB: So your son’s Ascendant is at about around 12 degrees of Pisces on top of your Sun in the 5th house?

D: Yeah.

CB: Wow. That’s nice. That’s good.

D: I just – I know we’re going completely off the retrograde at the moment, but this is something that blew my brains out when I looked at it. My youngest son was born on the same day as me, the 3rd of March, in 1995. And I remember listening to a podcast of yours a little while ago, and you were talking about generational astrology and how things fall through charts. I think, hell, I don’t believe any of that! And then when I looked at that, and I was listening to another one your podcasts and you said something about sometimes a dual sign can mean two of something. And I thought, “Ooh!” So I went back and had a look, and of course, I’ve got the Sun in Pisces, which is two male children, in the 5th house. It was just boom! It just blew my little brains out, and I just thought that was the most amazing sort of delineation. It was so, so literal – two male children. And I just thought, you know, and I was never gonna have any children. I was determined never to have any, and yet I have these two amazing young men in my life now, and I’m ever so grateful for them, but yeah. Two male boys – two male children – Pisces Sun. It’s just nuts. So yeah —

CB: Nice. Yeah.

D: — your last lady who was saying how literal everything else, I totally endorse everything she said. It’s just, it’s amazing. Amazing.

CB: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s crazy how literal things can be, and sometimes getting to the most simple delineation can sometimes be the most impactful in a way that works out.

All right, so tell me what happened with you this year and give me the short synopsis first from your write-up of what you wanted to share.

D: So basically, I have a night chart. So Venus is my favorite, my best planet. And of course, it’s in the 6th house. I’ve always been incredibly healthy. So even though it’s not very well dignified in Aries, I’ve always credited it with giving me, you know, good physical health. Well! In the last eight or nine months, my health has gone completely bananas, and it’s been so alien to me to be not well. But I’ve been trying to work out what’s been going on.

So I haven’t felt well for a while. Then September I started to feel really poorly, and I’ve got my son and my best friend saying, “You need to go to the doctor; you need to go to the doctor.” So finally I became very ill and I end up going to the hospital in the November. I’d already been quite poorly in the September. And then I was – they think there’s something going on, and it’s taking them ages, and I’ve been admitted two or three times – once in February, once in March, and then I had an emergency admission at the end of May when they finally decided I needed surgery. And that just came to me a few minutes ago, because of course Mars is the planet that is related to surgeons, isn’t it, because it’s cutting.

CB: Right.

D: So it was only the 31st of may that I finally got a date for my surgery, which is gonna be the 17th of July. So —

CB: Okay.

D: — things are moving pace. Yeah.

CB: Did they figure out then what’s wrong finally? Was that the outcome of all of the retrogrades is that there was a lot of mysteriousness in terms of why you were ill and them not figuring it out at first?

D: No, it wasn’t that. It was to do with the fact that they knew what it was almost immediately in the November. But they didn’t believe that I was a serious enough case. And this is when – for any American listening who hears about the British National Health Service and isn’t it wonderful because we don’t have to pay for it – no. Because what happens is it gets rationed. So you get put on a list. So I was put on this list, and it’s only when I became – it became life-threatening in May towards the end of May when I was admitted, and I went in for a day case to try and sort something out, and then I lost 10 days of my life. And I was hooked to a drip for the best part of a week. I was on morphine every two hours. It was just horrendous! And that’s because they kept waiting for it to get worse. Well, they waited for it to get so bad I nearly didn’t make it out the other side. So and now —

CB: Wow.

D: — they’ve finally scheduled the surgery. So it’s been pretty painful. But the other thing I said in the chat was about how Mars retrograde in Cancer has been for me, because I’ve got Mars natally in Cancer. And I always jokingly say to my sons that I’m sort of aggressively affectionate. And I know that Austin Coppock has said that how he gets quite defensive when Mars gets into Cancer. So but I always say to my boys I’m aggressively affectionate as their mother. So but when that’s —

CB: Nice.

D: — so it’s been quite nice, because they’ve been rallying around with me a lot. They came and stayed for Christmas, which was lovely. And it was just the three of us, so it was really quite nice, just the three of us together, which hasn’t happened for many years. So when I say that that Mars retrograde, because again Mars is – I’m a night chart, so Mars is not a bad planet for me; it can be quite constructive. It was really nice to have them around in that sort of peak period when Mars was retrograde. So even though I was going through all this trauma with the health and, you know, am I gonna get my surgery, am I not gonna get my surgery, it was nice that I had the boys together with me over that time for that whole week. It was lovely.

CB: Nice. Okay. So that’s – so part of the core of what happened is the Mars retrograde, or the Venus retrograde in your 6th house was partially dealing with this health issue. And then Mars is the ruler of the 6th house of illness; it’s in Cancer, it’s in the 9th house, and as soon as Mars went into Cancer, this started coming up and being really serious. And part of what you’re dealing with, though, and I think you mentioned this is your initial synopsis in the chat was the doctors as represented by the 9th house, and that has been part of the struggle during the course of the Mars retrograde is they were categorizing your affliction much lower so it wasn’t getting priority treatment. And it wasn’t until things got really, really bad, especially once Mars retrograded back into Cancer and stationed in the early part of this year especially around February that it got – started getting bad enough that they started taking it more seriously.

D: That was the first admission. When I got in – I had to get in overnight because I was literally in so much pain, I had to get a friend to take me to the emergency room, and they admitted me. So I stayed overnight then, and then it was at that point that they gave me morphine to take home, and I’m thinking, “Why are you sending me home with morphine? Just. Do. The surgery! We can all go on — “

CB: Right!

D: “ — with our lives!” And then when they sort of planned in for – there had to be a small procedure before they could do the surgery. And the small procedure was at the end of May, as I say, and that just blew everything up. Because once they got in there and had just, started to do the small procedure before they did the big procedure, everything just went boom. And as I say, I was hooked up to a drip for a week and on morphine every couple of hours. And I’m still trying to get my weight back on. I look like a little wraith at the moment. But I’m getting there! It’s good, so I feel very positive now that Venus is moving forward. And I looked at the chart, the electional chart, for the date and time of the surgery, and I’m quite scared about that, because I’ve got – I’ll have – Saturn will be in there as well, because Saturn’s gonna be there sitting right next to Neptune! And I’m thinking, I’m not quite sure if that’s a good thing on the date, on the 17th of July, but I’m gonna say I think it’s gonna be Saturn saying to Neptune, “No. We’ve had enough of all this nonsense and all this obfuscation. We’re going to sort this out now!” And that’s the —

CB: Right.

D: — reading I’m gonna take from that, because I’ve got to remain positive.

CB: Yeah. For sure. For sure. And you’ve gotta just do it and get it done as soon as possible when it comes to things like that.

So it’s interesting, though, in terms of like, the core part of the example and the – but one of the things your example brings up with the 9th house and the ruler of the 6th in the 9th is just the role that the 9th can sometimes play in like, experts and like, who are the experts in a specific area, or people that have a high degree of training? And in this instance, it was a lot of dealing with doctors over an extended period of time starting in September as soon as Mars went into that house. But then playing out over an extended period of time in terms of your needing to have surgery but they’re sort of like, putting it off for a long period of time until your pain got worse and worse.

D: Yeah. It was really horrendous. And as I say, for someone who has always remained incredibly well physically, the shock of actually – I’ve never been in hospital in my life other than to deliver my two sons, and of course you’re coming out with something positive then! I’m going into hospital spending a week there and coming out like, 10 pounds lighter than when I went in, and I’m thinking, that is not a good thing! So anyway.

CB: Oh right, because Mars is also the ruler of your Ascendant, so that’s why it has additional significations in terms of your —

D: Oh! Gosh, of course!

CB: — body and physical vitality. What —

D: Do you know that had never occurred to me!

CB: Yeah. So but I mean, ironically, it’s like, you have Venus as you said in the 6th house, and it’s actually overcoming Mars through a superior sign-based square. So Venus is part of the reason, in addition to it just being in the 6th house and that indicating good fortune with respect to health and illness, Venus is further bonifying or protecting Mars in some ways, which is why this hasn’t been an issue for you so far. But then in a year in which that Mars retrograde that you were born so close to comes up and gets activated through this transit, it suddenly becomes much more important and unlocks some potential problems just due to that transiting impact.

So what – can you describe starting in September, what was your experience like dealing with doctors from that point forward?

D: Well, they were okay. They recognized that there was something going on. They said, “Well, this is what we think you’ve got,” and I don’t wanna go into bodily functions because nobody wants to listen to that on a Saturday afternoon, and, “We think this is what you’ve got, but we’re gonna put you on the waiting list and we’ll see you at some point in the,” you know, whenever it is. And then I just —

CB: The waiting list is a really good keyword for Mars slowing down and getting —

D: Well, of course, yeah!

CB: — slow and stationing. Like, the idea of extending something. So you were put on literally like, a waiting list?

D: On a waiting list, yeah. And then I didn’t hear anything for a while, and then it was after Christmas before I finally did hear something. And then it was – by which time I was getting worse by the February – because I then heard back, “You’re still on the waiting list, but we haven’t got room for you yet.” So there was all of that time – September, October, November, December, and into January and even into February it was like, you’re still on the list, you’re still on the list. And it’s like, okay. And there’s nothing you can do, because this is what the British health service is like. And you just have to wait your turn.

Now, if I could have paid privately to go and get the surgery done, I would have done it. But unfortunately, the procedure that I need, you cannot get it anywhere else other than the health service, so I was literally at their mercy; I didn’t have any other options, which I found quite frustrating.

CB: That could be an additional 9th house thing just in terms of the – sometimes the 9th house can represent the government and just —

D: Yeah.

CB: — in this instance almost like, complications due to the way the government’s set up in some ways.

D: Yeah. So then I was back in in I think it was around February the 12th, 13th, and that was the day that they gave me some morphine and sent me home. And then I went in again I think it was the March – I think it was the middle of March that I went in when I ended up having to be taken in by a friend because I was so ill. And then I had this procedure on the 30th, 31st of May, 30th of May, which basically just set everything off and I was really very poorly. Let me just see.

CB: Okay. I forgot that we’re also – because it wasn’t just like, Venus went retrograde in your 6th, but we also had the final Aries eclipse in your 6th house and Mercury retrograde in your 6th house around this time in March. So there was a lot of stuff going on in your 6th house of illness in addition to Mars finally stationing direct from February forward.

D: Yeah. And so the 28th of May, I went in for that day case that lasted for as long as it did. Oh no, sorry, the 21st, and I was there until the 29th when I came out of hospital; I was there just over a week. So —

CB: Of May?

D: Of May, yeah. 21st I went in; all went pear-shaped on that day. Sorry, that’s a very English phrase meaning it didn’t work out very well.

CB: Okay.

D: It all went a bit awry. And then I finally got out on the —

CB: Like, physically things got really bad on May 21st?

D: Very bad, yeah. Yeah. I was —

CB: So that was Mars at 15 Leo now squares your Ascendant at like, 16 Scorpio.

D: Oh! There you go.

CB: Yeah.

D: You couldn’t make that one up, could you! So yeah.

CB: So it goes really bad. So then you’re forced to go in for surgery at that point?

D: Yeah. Well, no, they basically they couldn’t do anything. They went in – I went in for this small bit of surgery, which was just basically endoscopic. So they’re sending the tube down; they’re just gonna go and remove a blockage. And that should have just been in and out, and I should have been out the next day. As it was, everything went berserk. My body just enflamed, and I was very, very poorly.

CB: Okay.

D: And then so the surgery is now booked for the 17th of July. But I’ve got to have a repeat of the procedure that I should have had; I’ve got to have a repeat of the procedure that I had on the 21st – I’ve got to have that on the 30th of June. So that’s a repeat of what I had then. And that’s the 30th of June, and that’s booked for one o’clock. So that’s exactly the same procedure, the endoscopic procedure, and then the main surgery on the 17th of July. So I’ve got to go through the whole thing again. I’m not feeling happy about it, but it’s gotta be done! So I’m remaining positive. Remaining positive. It’s gonna be fine.

CB: Yeah. Well, it’s good that things are moving forward again, because it seems like one of the things you’re experiencing that comes up with retrogrades – and this is something we commonly talk about with Mercury retrogrades, but it can also apply to Mars retrogrades and Venus retrogrades as well is the symbolism of the planet like, slowing down or sometimes retracing its steps can indicate delays as well as having to do things over again or do it more than once. So having to have essentially the same surgery or procedure over again —

D: Here we are again! Yeah.

CB: Yeah. But it’s good at least that, you know, you are towards the later phases of this process rather than imagine where you were at like, at the beginning of September when Mars first went into Cancer and all of this began and just the whole series and jumble of different appointments and delays and pain and all that other stuff that you’d been going through at this point. It’s good now that you’re getting towards the end of that and will be able to do those operations soon. And then hopefully finally emerge from this and move forward completely.

D: Yeah. I feel very confident that things are gonna be fine, and I see that everyone’s been saying in the chat wishing me well. So if you guys have all got my back, I know I’m gonna be fine!

CB: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love – one of the positive side effects was you mentioned during this time with the Venus retrograde starting in your 6th house and going back into your 5th house that you’ve been able to spend more time with your children and they’ve been there and been very supportive, right?

D: Yeah, they have. My youngest has moved back in for a little while. He’s studying, he’s doing his write-up for his PhD, so he said, “Well, I can do that anywhere, Mum; I might as well come on back and be with you.” So that’s been really fantastic. My eldest lives near – along further away, lives near Oxford. I live on the South Coast in England. But he’s been pinging me almost every day, sometimes twice a day – morning and evening – just to make sure that the old woman’s still alive, you know? That kind of thing. So it’s been really lovely to sort of – I’ve always been quite close to my sons, but to have one living in at the moment and to have one sort of pinging backwards and forwards, you know, three, four, five times a week? You know, it makes you feel like, you know, somebody loves ya.

CB: Absolutely. Yeah. So that’s a type of, you know, sometimes the cliche about Venus retrogrades is that they can bring relationships from the past like, back into your life, and then sometimes people have to make a decision about whether to resume those or not. But with this Venus retrograde happening in your 5th house, having the bond with your children become – you know, having a return of having one of your children living with you and seeing them on a daily basis is a pretty striking manifestation of that same sort of archetype in addition to the increased just contact and communication with both of them.

D: Yeah. For sure. I just think – I feel very privileged, actually, because I’ve got a lot of friends who’ve got kids. And particularly sons. For all you chaps that are listening, stay in contact with your mother! We all love it, but blokes are very – men are particularly bad, especially when they’re married or got relationship, they tend to forget about the old girl at home. But we just, we still – as far as I’m concerned, as long as you have a mother on the planet, you are somebody’s baby, and – much as my sons have got beards and are a lot bigger than me, I just say, “Remember, you’re still my baby.” But you know, I’m a bit – but we’re back to the aggressively affectionate Mars in Cancer thing!

CB: Right! Yeah. I love that.

D: In my natal chart, so.

CB: I love that; that’s great. Good. Well, yeah, I think that was a really good example, and that helped to show again like, my core central thing that I really wanted to – I’ve been telling people since September, but that it’s hard to understand what that means. But just that sometimes things like the Mars retrograde can represent a sequence of events that play out over an extended period of time, and I think this was a really good example of that. So thanks for sharing it.

D: Not at all, it’s been a pleasure. Hope you have a lovely rest of the day. I’m going to bed now!

CB: Yeah, get some rest!

D: It’s late here.

CB: Thank you for staying up late. I really appreciate it, and yeah —

D: I try and catch all of your work, Chris. I think you’re absolutely exceptional; I think you’re astounding. I really do.

CB: Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Good luck with everything. Let me know how it goes at some point. And yeah, take care.

D: Okay. Thanks everyone! Bye everyone! Bye!

CB: All right, bye.

All right. Incredible. Everyone says thank you to Denese in the chat. Yeah. So that was a really amazing example. Again, so that showed multiple thing – I think that showed in that example, and I think across all of the examples that we’ve seen today, we’ve seen the three primary things that I really wanted to demonstrate, which were, you know, things that I’ve developed empirically for the most part in my practice of tracking these things over the years and which I kind of try to give people a head’s up last fall when some of these transits were starting how it would play out, but I think we’ve been able to really demonstrate that with these examples. And the three things are one – that sometimes the retrograde shows the unfolding of a sequence of events over an extended period of time, and especially how that can relate to the house topic of the whole sign house especially that the planet goes retrograde in. Two – that sometimes a retrograde just stays in one sign or one house, in which case it’s really concentrated on that house topic. But in some instances, like with this set of retrogrades with both Venus and Mars this year, the retrograde crossed over two whole sign houses, and as a result of that, it will sometimes connect two topics across both whole sign houses. And that can manifest – I’m really interested in that and I really like studying those cases then because I think it can give you deeper insight into the houses. But it can also show interesting things when you start mixing the significations of the two houses, and it’s a good exercise to do to think about what does it mean when you mix the significations of those houses? And usually, that only happens when you’re looking at the birth chart when you’re studying like, the rulers of the houses and you have the ruler of one house in another, as I’ve been demonstrating over the past year in the houses series where we do a major section on that. But what I’ve become fascinated by – because this is something I’ve just been developing in the past few years through studying retrogrades – is how sometimes a retrograde that crosses the boundary between two houses can connect those topics. So you know, in that last example, for example, the Venus retrograde across the 6th house of illness and the 5th house of children brought children back into the life partially as a result of the illness that was taking place. Or we saw other examples of like, Mars going retrograde in the 11th house and the 12th house and somebody who was a friend became an enemy, and various other ways in which when a retrograde goes across two houses I feel like that was… Initially, it was more of like, a thesis that I was developing a few years ago when I started seeing that, I think especially under the last Venus retrograde in 2003 that happened in when I was going back and studying that series that happened in Virgo and Leo, I was seeing in the past instances where the house topics were connected. So this set of retrogrades this year when we started getting ready for it last fall in like, September of 2024, I made a specific point to tell people about that, because I wanted to research that to see if that was a thing in this set of retrogrades since both of them doing that would provide a really good opportunity for that. And indeed, I think we saw a lot of that here in this instance. So that’s I think a thing, and now I wanna like, formalize that as a specific thing we can anticipate then when other – especially inner – planet retrogrades happen in the future, whether it’s Venus retrograde or Mars retrograde or Mercury retrograde. The extent to which that might apply to other outer, slower, outer moving planets is possible, but would require sort of separate research, although we’re gonna get a little bit of an opportunity of that with Saturn this year crossing that boundary. But for the most part, I’m just limiting that principle to the inner planets for now.

So that was a good demonstration that we’ve seen. And then the final, the third thing that we’ve seen is how the topics sometimes of both houses that Venus and Mars are retrograde in become relevant at the same time, either in overlapping ways that like, impact each other, or sometimes in ways where you just see events happening in parallel in those two different areas of the person’s life. So in the last example, for example, we saw Venus retrograde in the 6th and Mars retrograde in the 9th, and the connection was between like, illness or having a physical infirmity – Venus retrograde in the 6th house – and then Mars in its transit in the 9th house was partially dealing with some things with like, the doctors and things like that and the delays in terms of upgrading the seriousness of it in order to get the actual surgery. But I think we saw some other examples as well in terms of that also, although having trouble remembering them at the moment.

All right, so I think then that we’ve done it, and we’ve demonstrated those three primary things both that I wanted to demonstrate today but also that I set up as research projects last fall when these retrogrades were beginning. And I think now we’ve adequately not just proven that some of those theories that I’ve had is true, but we’ve also – I’ve now been able to substantiate that by demonstrating what that actually means in practical terms. And this was just like, a handful of examples.

So yeah. I’m actually really excited about that; I’m really glad that we could do this sort of research and have these sorts of discussions, both today with patrons of The Astrology Podcast that, you know, support my ongoing research into these things, as well as with students of my Hellenistic astrology course that study with me and study my approach to natal astrology. And it was nice having sort of representatives from both groups that study and follow my work in different ways. But every single person here today I appreciated how good at like, astrology people are and how brilliant the insight that each person had in terms of reflections on their own chart and the events and how they played out, because that really helped in terms of being able to talk about this stuff and research it together as a community and as a group. So thank you to each person that shared their story.

I know we were only able to get through a handful of these today in this like, three hours, and I would love to keep talking with everybody more, but I think that’s good for this particular workshop. But if people have other stories they wanna share, I would love if once I post the final version of this on YouTube if people would post those in the YouTube comments, because I’m sure there’s lots of other different stories from people that I’d love to hear about to hear different variations of different houses and things like that.

I think this about wraps up my whole treatment where obviously I’ve been doing like, a ton of episodes over the past especially six months on Venus and Mars retrograde periods and different facets of those and really drilling into this. And I hope it’s clear now in retrospect why I’ve been doing that so much, because I think there’s so much interesting nuances and details and things that we can learn from these periods when they happen. And I especially this time wanted to use the opportunity of these two retrogrades to do a lot of research and to learn as much as we could about how those planets work and how those retrogrades work. And I think we’ve made a lot of progress over the course of the past six to nine months in terms of understanding some of these things better, and I hope that astrologers can take some of these principles and sort of like, formalize them and apply that in the future to either making predictions or to working with clients or to even just working with your own personal chart and anticipating and understanding the unfolding of things as they’re happening and especially the unfolding of fate which I believe is part of what we’re seeing and what we’re studying when we look at these things is this unfolding of like, a sequence of events in our lives and the different scenarios surrounding them or the different pieces surrounding them.

So I think I might do one more episode on the retrogrades where I’d been doing a series on Venus retrograde repetitions in the news, and the last one I did was like, a month or two ago. So I have been collecting additional stories of other Venus retrograde repetitions that I’ve noticed in the news since then, so I might do one more episode on that. But then otherwise, I think that’s gonna conclude my treatment of this particular Venus and Mars retrograde in Aries and Cancer and Leo over the course of the past several months. And yeah, I hope people learned a lot from it, and I appreciate everyone who shared stories and submitted things, because I know I’ve learned a lot as an astrologer, and I hope everyone else has as well in terms of the audience, both in terms of the audience of the podcast as well as my students. So I hope you’re all able to take this information and build on it in the future, because I’m sure there’s other pieces in connection with this. There may be other little pieces that I’ve overlooked or that I haven’t fully developed yet, but I think what I wanted to do is create a new foundation here for working with these fundamental cycles which, you know, we know in contemporary astrology already that they’re important, and we have some general idea of some of the things that come up that we associate with a Venus retrograde. But I think now we see that there’s a much deeper implication and that these cycles are actually even more important than we might have thought at first. And one of the things that’s interesting is this type of work goes back to the earliest strata of the astrological tradition, because one of the things that I showed in the Mesopotamian astrology episode this month is how tracking for example the Venus retrograde cycle goes back at least to 1500 BCE. They were already tracking the Venus retrogrades. They were developing the story of the myth of the descent of Inanna into the underworld, which is encoding the astronomical notion of Venus slowing down and stationing retrograde and then going under the beams of the Sun before eventually emerging. And that story encodes the astronomical cycle of Venus and its phase relationship with the Sun. But it also encodes I think an astrological notion of some of the things that we go through during retrogrades, which can be like, a sequence of events and a story and sometimes a process that involves both external events that happen in our environment but also when the planet goes retrograde and goes under the beams and disappears from view, sometimes there’s also an internalization process of the way that that impacts us internally. You know, mentally, psychologically, sometimes spiritually or philosophically. That each of these things, while it represents this external sequence of events, it also represents an internal process of growth and development and change within each of us. And sometimes that can be just as important as the external events that we deal with at the same time, that they both are important essentially – both the external, physical events as well as the internal, psychological ones.

So yeah. I’m just looking at the chat. Yeah, thanks everyone for joining me today. This has been amazing. And I’m really happy with how this went, so thanks everyone for joining me and taking part in this research. So I think that’s it. I wanna keep talking and just like, hang out with everyone all day, and that’s my impulse, but I think I’m going to call it a day and yeah. I hope people will share more stories in the comments. Definitely let me know if you have a good one. But otherwise, I think that’s it. So thanks everyone for watching or listening to this episode of The Astrology Podcast, and I’ll see you again next time!

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