TRANSCRIPT Ep. 282 (3.17.2025)
The Sun Meets Venus: The Star Point!
Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is March 17th, 2025. Welcome to Episode 282 of the Big Sky Astrology Podcast.
This week, the Sun conjoins the North Node and Neptune, then enters its Aries season and the equinox. Venus comes together with Pluto and with the Sun to explore what’s truly essential and joyful. The Capricorn Last Quarter Moon calls for an examination of what we’ve accomplished during this lunar cycle and how to reach the finish line successfully. And I offer a mini lesson on the Venus Star Point.
Sun conjoins North Node (March 17, 2025, 11:03 am PDT)
The Sun makes a conjunction with the Moon’s North Node on March 17th at 11:03 a.m. Pacific time at 27º23’ Pisces on the beautiful Sabian symbol 28 Pisces, A fertile garden under the Full Moon. Some days you may feel as though you’re not getting anywhere, and that you will never reach your most cherished goals. But don’t believe it. As the Sun makes its conjunction with the North Node, recommit to taking even the smallest step toward what is really important to you.
The Sun making a conjunction with one of the Moon’s nodes indicates that we are in an eclipse season. This week, we’re between two eclipses, the Lunar Eclipse on March 14th and the solar eclipse that’s coming up on March 29th. Eclipses mark turning points between the past and the future, between one lunar node and the other. And this conjunction is on such a beautiful Sabian symbol, as well as on the North Node, a placement that invites us to reach out to something new that leads to growth, as well as being very close to Neptune, a planet of faith and idealism. It’s at the peak of its influence as it prepares to enter a new sign at the end of the month.
Sun conjoins Neptune (March 19, 2025, 4:25 pm PDT)
The Sun makes a conjunction with Neptune on March 19th at 4:25 pm Pacific Time at 29º36’ Pisces. This is on the Sabian symbol 30 Pisces, The great stone face. The other interpretation of it is, A rock formation like a face is idealized by a boy who, as he grows up, begins to look like it.
This Sabian symbol is about becoming our own ideal. We become whatever it is that we idealize. Neptune is a planet of glamour, of idealization, and the Sun represents authority figures and heroes, specifically those whom we idealize.
It’s easy to put people that we respect on a pedestal, to think that authority figures are somehow a better version of human than we are. But that’s a lie. In the words of Alexander Pope, to err is human, to forgive divine. This is true for every human who has ever lived. And especially important to keep in mind, as the lunar nodes are in error-hating Virgo and forgiving Pisces. This transit reminds us that nobody has all of the answers, and it falls on our own shoulders to make something of our lives, our world. We have to be our own heroes and create our own dreams. As always, under Neptune’s influence, focus and clarity can be hard to come by.
It’s also important to safeguard your health when Neptune is on the scene, especially with the Sun, which is the symbol of our physical vitality. Sensitivity can be very high and resistance to disease and negativity is low during this transit. Be sure you’re taking enough time to be by yourself and to get some rest. These are the really restorative things that can help improve our resistance.
Sun enters Aries / Aries Equinox (March 20, 2025, 2:01 am PST)
On March 20th at 2:01 AM Pacific Time, the Sun enters Aries. This is the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. Day and night are equal on the equinox.
The chart for this ingress into the sign of Aries is used by astrologers to cast a chart using the capital of their country to get a feel for what the upcoming year could look like. This is not a specialty of mine, but I couldn’t resist calculating the Aries Ingress chart set for Washington, D.C., which should symbolize a lot of what 2025 generally will look like until the Aries Ingress next year. The overwhelming emphasis in this chart is a very full second house. This puts a lot of emphasis on the country’s resources and finances.
Every year, I try to find a website or resource I can point you to for really good examination of the Aries Ingress, and in recent years, I really haven’t been able to find one. I’ll take another look before I post this episode and see if there is somebody I can refer you to. I know Nina Gryphon and Wade Caves are two astrologers that I’ve heard give really insightful reviews of these ingress charts.
Aries is really the opening of the new astrological year, and it is the sign that’s closely associated with all new enterprises, with a pioneering, risk-taking spirit. If the Pisces season with not only the Sun, but also a Lunar Eclipse and a New Moon and Saturn and Neptune and the North Node of the Moon all clustered around this area of the zodiac, if all of this Pisces energy has left you feeling a bit drained, vulnerable, overwhelmed, I think there’s great hope for us as the Sun enters Aries. It is its sign of exaltation, where it does some of its very finest work. And I think that we should begin to see a little more revitalization of not only physical but emotional energy as well.
But it is worth noting that Mars, which is the planet that rules Aries, it’s still in the quieter, retiring sign of Cancer until April 17th when it enters Leo. Mars in Cancer takes a more indirect approach to things than Aries does. So, there’s a little bit of a contradiction here between those signs, and that might temper Aries’ impulsiveness and impatience. The Sun will be in this sign until it enters Taurus on April 19th.
Venus sextile Pluto (March 21, 2025, 2:32 pm PST)
Venus in Aries sextiles Pluto on March 21st at 2:32 p.m. Pacific time at 03º22’ Aries and Aquarius. The Sabian symbol for Venus is 4 Aries, two lovers strolling through a secluded walk. And Pluto is on 4 Aquarius, a Hindu healer. The challenge always when we see aspects between Venus and Pluto, even hopeful ones such as the sextile, is to reconcile how to love life and people, even though we know that they are not perfect and they will not last forever. And even if we love them exactly as they are right now, they will change. There can be an opportunity with this aspect to grieve our losses without forfeiting our appreciation for what is good about life. There could be challenges in relationships. As information comes to light about one partner, or maybe both, that make us really reassess how we see each other and have to figure out if we can love each other exactly as we are. The good thing about Venus-Pluto aspects is if we’re in a relationship and we come through these aspects okay, we know that we’re in a really good situation because we’re loved, accepted and appreciated for who we truly are.
The Sabian symbol of the Hindu healer gives a spiritual dimension to this planetary connection as well. And suggest there is an opportunity for some kind of healing, especially in the faith that we have in one another.
Venus is a financial planet as well, and another way this transit could play out is financially. We could be worried about financial matters, or maybe we have lent somebody we know some money and they have been slow to pay it back. There are a lot of different ways this could play out. The sextile nature of the aspect, though, does say that there’s an ability to measure the importance of these financial matters against the importance of relationships.
Capricorn Last Quarter Moon (March 22, 2025, 4:29 am PST)
Now it’s time for the Moon report and we begin with the Capricorn Last Quarter Moon on March 22nd at 4:29 am Pacific time. It’s at 02º05’ Capricorn and Aries. I like to see the Last Quarter Moon in a tough sign like Capricorn to get us over the finish line in completing whatever projects or intentions we began on the Pisces New Moon back on February 27th.
The Last Quarter Moon has a lot in common with Capricorn. They’re both about looking back, reassessing our efforts, and in a very pragmatic way, deciding where to go forward from here to reach our goal. Both the Last Quarter Moon and Capricorn indicated a tendency to be a little hard on ourselves, which is why I like to see the Moon on the Sabian symbol, 3 Capricorn, The human soul receptive to growth and understanding. That’s another way to look at the Last Quarter Moon. Not just about beating ourselves up for what we have or haven’t done or the way we’ve done it. But rather to think, have I done the very best that I could? And really, that’s the most that we can ask of ourselves.
Venus is also prominent in this Last Quarter Moon chart. She’s getting ready to make the conjunction with the Sun, which we’ll talk about in a few minutes, and is also square the Moon in Capricorn. Venus always indicates that our values are getting a lot of our attention. Capricorn and its ruler, Saturn, represent obstacles that we need to overcome.
How do we go about pushing through those obstacles and getting what we want? And Venus being retrograde is asking us to really clarify what we want in the first place, what we desire and value. But somehow, we don’t have any problem at all getting in touch with what we do not want, desire, or value!
Lunar Phase Family Cycle
This is the Last Quarter in a lunar phase family cycle that began with a New Moon at 01º32’ Capricorn on December 23rd, 2022.
Capricorn New Moons are very often a time that we dream big dreams, that we set really ambitious goals for ourselves. How have you done in the time since then, in going after those goals? And I think this is especially pertinent if you have planets in your chart that are very close to one and a half of Capricorn or the other cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, and Libra.
You should have seen some kind of forward motion on those ambitions at the First Quarter Moon in this family cycle, that was on September 22nd, 2023, and it was actually on the very last degree of Sagittarius, so there was a real high-flying element to it. The Full Moon in this lunar phase family cycle was on June 21st, 2024, just last summer at one degree Capricorn. It might have been a little easier to see exactly what it was going to take to get you to your goal or ambition. And now we’re at the Last Quarter. In this lunar phase family cycle, and at this time we’re pushing not only to complete something that we began at the most recent New Moon in Pisces, but something we began all those months ago at that Capricorn New Moon in December 2022. Don’t back away from your wishes and your dreams and your ambitions.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. These are periods when the Moon has made all of the aspects it’s going to make in its current sign and has not yet moved into the next sign, and it’s sort of free-floating. We call it Void-of-Course – “without a course”. During these times, I think it’s a wonderful idea to try to disengage from habits that are not serving us and especially to initiate healthier and more positive habits. This is because since the Moon will not be making any other aspects in its sign, there is nothing symbolically that will deter our current course.
On March 19th, the Moon in Scorpio makes a trine to Neptune at 12:28 pm Pacific Time. It’s Void-of-Course for only 49 minutes – we don’t have a lot of time to work with here- and then it enters Sagittarius at 1:17 pm. This trine is happening on the very last degree of Scorpio and Pisces, so intuition is going to be incredibly strong.
When the Moon begins a Void-of-Course period on a trine to another planet, there is a gift that is implied, and the gift here is getting to the root of important matters. Use this Void-of-Course period to practice really tapping into your intuition, tapping into what your gut is telling you, with the purpose of serving others with kindness and compassion.
The habit here is about trusting our intuition. We hear people say it all the time. We say it ourselves: “Oh, I should really have listened to what my gut was telling me.” And this is a very short, Void-of-Course period. But around this time, set an intention and say, I will honor and listen to my intuition and my instincts.
On March 21st, the Moon in Sagittarius squares Neptune at 11:53 pm Pacific time. Another very short Void-of-Course Moon, only 36 minutes, and this is because Neptune is so close to the very end of its sign that it just doesn’t take much time between when the Moon makes an aspect to Neptune and when it moves into the next sign. The Moon here will enter Capricorn on March 22nd at 12:29 am.
A square between the Moon and another planet indicates a conflict or some kind of blockage you’re trying to overcome. If you happen to be awake at this time, a change in mood could come out of nowhere. And this might happen because you discover that something you believe to be true ends up not being true at all. There’s disillusionment, very often, to squares involving Neptune. Use this Void-of-Course period to accept whatever truths come your way without letting it send you down a path of gloom and doom.
Sun conjoins Venus (March 22, 2025, 6:07 pm PDT)
The Sun and Venus come together in a conjunction on March 22nd at 6:07 pm Pacific Time. That’s at 2º39’ Aries. Venus’s retrograde period is reminding us to treat ourselves well and that if we don’t truly value ourselves, no one else will. The conjunction of the Sun and Venus is a critical moment in their synodic cycle, and it’s called the Venus Star Point. I’m going to offer a very short, very remedial mini-lesson on this topic at the end of this episode.
A conjunction of Venus and the Sun at roughly the same degree in sign will occur every eight years, and it tells an ongoing story about this particular cycle. Look to the position of 2º39’ Aries in your birth chart to see where this story is unfolding for you. And Venus in Aries is always about being more independent and looking to ourselves for approval.
This is one of the most powerful days of the year to manifest the situations and relationships that you’re beginning to see are truly in line with your heart and values. Look your best today, don’t hide out at home, and accept compliments gracefully.
You could see some kind of insight about an important relationship in your life. And whether or not it’s really good for you, whether or not this person appreciates you exactly as you are.
Sun sextile Pluto (March 23, 2025, 12:32 pm PDT)
On March 23rd at 12:32 pm Pacific Time, the Sun sextiles Pluto at 03º24’, Aries and Aquarius. So this, coming the day after that conjunction of the Sun and Venus, is reinforcing a message, which has to do with accepting yourself exactly the way you are. Pluto strips away any falsehoods, and when it connects with the Sun, what’s being stripped away are any falsehoods about the way you’re presenting yourself.
We all do this to some degree. We go out into the world and we behave in certain ways that we feel are going to make life easier for us or help us get the things we really want. But when the Sun comes together with Pluto, that will not be acceptable. Pluto won’t let us do it. And this is the kind of day, especially with the Sun in Aries, and Pluto in Aquarius for that matter, when we might get a little carried away and say things that we later regret. Or do something that is not out of character for who we are, but out of character for the way people think of us. So, it can be a kind of a dramatic day.
We think of the sextile as maybe a little bit of a weaker connection than, say, a trine or a square, but it’s still bringing together the Sun and Pluto. When the Sun connects with Pluto, the dead and outgrown parts of ourselves are burned away. So, this is a day to let go of waste, to cleanse ourselves, and to appreciate the fact that when we have nothing to hide, we are much more empowered.
Mini Lesson: The Venus Star Point
In today’s mini-lesson, I talk about the Venus Star Point. Before, I mentioned the Sun-Venus conjunction this week, and I promised to tell you a little bit more about it. Now, I am by no means an expert in the Venus Star Point technique, but since we’re having one this week, I just want to mention it and give you a very quick overview, so if it intrigues you, you know where to go to learn more.
When Venus comes together in a conjunction with the Sun, that delicious, cazimi exact conjunction, that moment and that degree and sign are referred to as a Venus Star Point. The subsequent conjunctions, every nine months to a year, for the next few years, are the other points in this Venus star cycle. If you take all of those cazimi points, those five points, and you connect the dots between them, you come up with a beautiful, five-pointed star. These star points nearly always fall in the signs of Aries, Gemini, Leo, Scorpio, or Capricorn.
To find your own Venus Star Point, look for the Venus-Sun cazimi, or conjunction prior and closest to your birth. This point is closely linked to your sense of self-worth, values and desires, what you find beautiful, and how you attract love and show affection. Venus rules artistic endeavors, so this point can give insight into how you channel your artistic energy. And importantly, the Sun-Venus conjunction, as I said, will occur close to that same point every eight years, less two days, and therefore, losing a couple of degrees each time it repeats.
Here is an example, and I apologize for using my own chart, but it is near at hand and it has been a busy week, so I didn’t have a lot of time for research! The Venus Star Point prior to my birth was on April 10th, 1961, four months prior to my birth date, at 20º 51’ Aries and retrograde. That point falls in the fifth house of my chart. It is square Saturn at 25º Capricorn, and it’s trine Uranus and the North Node in Leo. It’s really no wonder that from the time I can remember, I was always trying my hand at creative ventures, especially writing and music and performance, very driven and unusually competent. When this cycle repeated in April 1977, I was 16 years old, and I had a rather spectacular success in the music program at my high school. Which seems pretty fitting with that star point in the fifth house, and especially trine Uranus in the North Node.
At the next repeat in April 1985, I was ending one toxic relationship and beginning another one that went on for some years, and it was mostly heartbreaking rather than toxic. Again, the fifth house is a house of love affairs. But eight years later, my personal Venus Star Point repeated on April 1st, 1993, and I was married almost two months later on May 30th, 1993. I happened to marry somebody whose natal Sun is almost exactly opposed my natal Venus Star Point.
This is a much fuller cycle, much more nuanced than I’m prepared to do justice to here. But just to give you a place to explore this more, I’ll just sum it up to say, every conjunction of the Sun and Venus, as we’re having this week, is a rather profound moment for relationships and for considering our values and expressing ourselves artistically. In particular, the Venus-Sun conjunction prior to your birth tells the story of these matters for the duration of your life to a great extent.
The astrologer who specializes in this cycle, there are a number of people that follow it, but I think the one who has really popularized this is Arielle Guttman. Her book is called Venus Star Rising, A New Cosmology for the 21st Century. We’ll link to it in the show description. And her website is SophiaVenus. com. She has a PDF on her website that we’ll show you at a glance the Venus Star Point before your birth and the ones in the year following that. We’ll also link to that.
We’ll link to a terrific video on this subject from the Astrology Podcast with Chris Brennan and his guests, Nick Dagan Best and Patrick Watson, two astrologers I really like. This video really helped me get a much better handle on this topic.
I plan to return to listener questions in my next episode. So, if you have something you’d like me to answer, leave a voicemail of one minute or less at speakpipe.com / bigskyastrologypodcast. Or email me at April (at) BigSkyAstrology (dot) com and be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.
Donor Thanks
Well, that’s everything I have on my show sheet, so I’m going to wrap this one up. Thank you so much for listening to the Big Sky Astrology podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, be sure to subscribe or follow the show in your app of choice. Leave a rating or a review, and I hope you’ll spread the word by telling an astrology-loving friend about the podcast. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at BigSkyAstropod.com.
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That is it for this episode. Join me again bright and early next Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars!
Writing and images © 2017-25 by April Elliott Kent
For more on this week’s planetary news, read my column!
