TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 98 (Sep. 24, 2021)
Podathon Day 5: What Accents?!
Jen: Welcome to the Big Sky Astrology podcast, with April Elliott Kent and me, producer and cohost Jen Braun. Hey friends, Jen here. Today is Friday, September 24th, 2021. And here with me – possibly ready to fall over because we’re almost at the end of our Second Annual Podathon week – is my friend, astrologer April Elliott Kent. Hi, April.
April: Hello, Jen. On the contrary, I am brimming with enthusiasm, pep and verve!
Jen: Me too. Yes.
April: There’s nothing more invigorating than a good Podathon.
Jen: Exactly. Yes. Well, as we head into the Podathon’s home stretch today, we just wanna say happy Friday, and we’re delighted to welcome you to The Second Annual Big Sky Astrology Podathon!
April: Jen, would you like to tell the people what is a Podathon?
Jen: I’m so glad you asked. You know the details by now friends, but in short, we bring you a week of daily fun, shorter episodes with listener questions, prizes, and a raffle. Of course, in tandem with these mini episodes, we also run a larger appeal for contributions because this helps us cover the cost of producing the podcast. But first, we do want to take a moment just to say thank you to those of you who’ve helped us over the past year. Really, we appreciate all of our podpals so much. We could not make this podcast without you, hands down.
April: Very true.
Jen: Most of you know that our podcast is audience-funded. We’re just a small, independent podcast trying to put out high quality, reliable, free astrology content for you. So, of course we hope to continue to earn your support and we love to shout out our contributors’ names at the end of each regular episode. Don’t worry if you don’t want your name called out… maybe you have some planets in Cancer or Scorpio, you don’t want people to know your name. We do have a work-around: Just email April, she’s at April(at)bigskyastrology.com. And just say that you prefer to remain anonymous. You’ll also get a donor email with this information, but we did want to say that here in case it’s a barrier for anyone.
So, to encourage your contributions, we want to mention what this year’s fantastic giveaways are. Take it away. April.
April: First, everyone who donates $25 or more, as well as our ongoing monthly contributors, will be entered in a drawing to win one of these five great prizes. One listener will win a solar return report from my online store with text by the wonderful Mary Shea. We’ve talked about solar returns on the podcast before, and this is a really great opportunity to look in depth at your own solar return report for the year.
One listener anywhere in the world is going to win an awesome astrology poster from friend of the podcast, Philip Patrick Blasa of The Elegant Universe. Two listeners will win a 60-minute personal astrology reading with may, $175 value.
Jen: Woohoo.
April: And, one grand prize winner, a super lucky, super special winner will win a 90-minute reading with me, a $225 value.
Jen: Yay!
April: Yay!
Jen: It sounds like an awesome raffle, but what if somebody doesn’t want to contribute that much?
April: I’m so glad you asked, Jen. We’re also inviting donors of $5 or more to our special episodes for the September Equinox, which we just dropped on Monday and the December Solstice. Yes, you will get both of these bonus episodes. Our September Equinox episode is 50 minutes long and it’s a really comprehensive look at the upcoming three months with the eclipses and everything else.
Finally, all the contributors to the podcast get our whimsical bingo card. You can play along as you browse our back catalog and listen to future episodes.
Jen: We also want to say that we know not everyone can contribute financially… really, that’s okay. Don’t worry. We both really get that. We still love you. But there are some easy, free ways that you could help us increase visibility. If you like the show, please dazzle us – go ahead, let’s be bedazzled! – with five stars.
April: I’d love to be bedazzled! Tell me more how they could dazzle us, Jen!
Jen: It’s such a fast and easy way to help out. You could also write us a delightful, happy review on either Apple Podcasts or any of the platforms that allow comments. These always make our day.
April: They really do.
Jen: We just love reading your comments. You can join our conversation on our site and leave us a comment at bigskyastropod.com. Just click on whatever episode you want to comment on.
And finally, go ahead and hit that follow button or borrow your friend’s phone and hit follow on their behalf… wait, no, don’t do that…
April: No, no, no. We don’t do that. We don’t do that.
Jen: But you could talk to them about the show.
April: You could. Please do. Well, a lot of you probably heard this earlier in the week, but our honest and scrupulous Virgo planets want to let you know that for the time being as we head into the end of the calendar year, we will be continuing to bring you episodes every other week. And we hope that you will continue to find value in them, even though they are slightly less frequent for now. We’ll continue to pack each show with the same amount of love and care and astrology. And we hope to earn yours support. Tell folks how to donate, pal.
Jen: Just go to bigskyastropod.com. We will have it there on our homepage. You’ll see our little podpal figures, and you can click on that and make a contribution. We would love that. Thank you so much.
And now for today’s episode! April, tell us about today, Friday, September 24th. Won’t you?
April: Ah, Friday, Friday is the day of the week that is ruled by Venus. We had a whole episode, I think, where we talked about the correspondences between each day of the week and a particular planet.
Jen: We totally did.
April: Yes. Jen will link that in the show notes for us, I think.
Jen: I’d be delighted.
April: Jen, do you know what time it is now?
Jen: What time is it?
April: Moonwatch…
Jen: Moonwatch…
April: Play it.
April: Yes, Moonwatch! So, this is the day of the week that is ruled by Venus and the Moon today is continuing to move through Taurus which is ruled by Venus. So, generally speaking, the Taurus Moon vibe is one of taking it easy, moving a little bit slowly. Today, however, we do have that aspect of the Moon conjuncting Uranus, which we talked about in yesterday’s episode, that is at 09:56 AM. And that will probably shake things up a little bit just to keep us from getting too complacent.
Jen: Right.
April: And then the Moon will make an opposition to Venus the planet of the day at 01:15 PM Pacific Time. So, Venus really the main player today through its rulership of the Moon in Taurus. And again, you know, Venus days are always lovely days for beautifying your home, get yourself some nice flowers or something to put somewhere in the house and basically design your day to be a little less pressured and hectic than usual. And I think you’ll enjoy this day quite a lot.
Now. we do have a couple of things coming up over the weekend that we wanted to make you aware of as we are wrapping up our Podathon.
Jen: Yes. And what happens?
April: Well on Saturday, September 25th, as everyone is recovering from the thrill of Podathon…
Jen: So thrilling!
April: Super thrilling, super thrilling. So, the Moon does a few things in the morning. It makes a sextile to Neptune at 12:23 AM just after midnight Pacific Time. It makes a square to Jupiter at 03:48 AM Pacific Time. So, we’ll mostly be sleeping when these things are happening, but depending on where you are in the world, you might be up and around doing some exciting things. And then the Moon goes void of course, on a trine to Pluto at 06:09 AM Pacific Time.
Jen: And will you say more about what happens when the Moon has a final aspect before it goes void-of-course? And we do, by the way, have an episode on the void-of-course Moon, that I will link in the show notes as well. So, you can learn more about it there.
April: Yes. We talked quite a bit about that in one of our episodes, the last major aspect that the Moon makes before it leaves its sign is considered really important because it’s how all of the matters of the proceeding couple of days resolve themselves. If it resolves on a hard aspect, like a square or an opposition, it can be that you end up feeling that whatever you were trying to do the last couple of days didn’t really work out the way you want it or was a lot more work than it should have been. But if you have a flowing aspect, it means generally you have the sense that it’s all been productive in the end and fairly worthwhile and you end up with a good feeling about it. I think the Moon’s last aspect says, “How do you feel at the end of this little two-and-a-half-day period?”
So, the Moon makes trine, which is nice as it’s last aspect. Now, it does trine Pluto, which is not necessarily the happiest vibe in the world, but it says at the end of it, all you feel as if you’ve really manage to move the dial, maybe a little bit on some significant project or some change of habit or change of attitude. Because, Pluto always says how we are really trying to get rid of the old and change our perspective in the way we’re moving forward on things.
So, this whole two-and-a-half-day period has been one where if you play your cards right, and listen to the Moon’s connection with Uranus, for instance, we know that it is possible to actually make some changes in this two-and-a-half-day period. That is where we end. And so, the Moon’s last aspect in the sign is when it goes void of course. It’s not making any more major aspects to planets, as long as it is still in this case, in the sign of Taurus. So, we float, we float really for a lot of the day, until the Moon goes into Gemini at 05:36 PM Pacific Time, which is a very different vibe.
Jen: Right, right.
April: And working with void of course is a little bit like working with Mercury retrograde. Just don’t expect things to go exactly as you plan them to go, and you’re okay with a void of course, Moon, I think,
Jen: Can you say a few lines about what it means when the Moon enters Gemini?
April: The Moon again, is the mood of the day and what you need to do to feel comfortable and grounded.
Jen: You’re an expert on the Moon in Gemini!
April: I possess one of these Moons.
Jen: I should have led with that.
April: I have 60 years of experience driving a Moon in Gemini. It likes to have information coming at it. So, it’s gonna be a two-and-a-half-day period of, if you’ve been putting off returning phone calls to friends, this is a really great time of the month to do it. If you’ve been needing to catch up on your email, if you have been wanting to catch up on a particular TV series, if you’ve got a stack of books next to your bed, this is a good time to grab on an actually start reading it. Gemini just loves having lots of information coming in and then loves to process it and then loves to communicate it to somebody.
Jen: We also have – tomorrow, Saturday, September 25th – Mars trining Saturn. Now, Mars is at 7°, four minutes of Libra, and will be trining Saturn in Aquarius. This will be happening at 02:50 PM. All these times are Pacific Time. Tell us about this, April. What should folks know?
April: Well, so even though the Moon will have gone void, of course in the morning, and generally speaking, that’s more of a floating kind of a day. The Mars trine Saturn is a really productive aspect. But I think tying it in with the Moon going into Gemini later in the day, too, this is a good time to spend some time with friends and to do things that are collaborative with other people. Mars is a up getting stuff done. Saturn gives us the ability to create a structure and a plan for getting things done. But they’re in air signs and air signs is less about doing things on the physical level and maybe a little bit more about doing them on the idea level or the communicative level. So, great day for any projects that involve getting people on the same page to get something done, herding cats. Yes.
Jen: Libra is very much a sign about relationship. And Aquarius also is about the community of people that you feel a connection with. Isn’t that right?
April: Exactly. So, it’s a great day for anything that involved with getting your friends, a group of like-minded people together to do something that you’ve been wanting to do.
Jen: April, we also had a question from listener Lara of Denmark. Let’s listen.
Lara’s message: Hi you two amazing astrologers. I’m from Denmark and I’m really loving your podcast. I’m wondering what to do if you have really tight conjunctions in some planets. My boyfriend has Moon conjunct Saturn, and I have Mars conjunct Jupiter. And, how do big conjunctions in one’s chart come out, and how do we live with them?
I’m sorry for my accent. You guys have a much more lovely accent and I love when you sing. Thank you. Bye, Lara.
Jen: Oh, wasn’t that so nice?
April: I loved it.
Jen: Yes.
April: And she a apologized for her accent, but we love her accent!
Jen: Just love it. Love her accent. And she loves our accents. And I just want to say, “What accents??”
April: I know I’ve got an accent. You do. Your Minnesota comes out from time to time.
Jen: When I lived in Spain, I did have some people notice that. They thought I was from Canada, actually.
April: Well, yes, I can see that, but what’s interesting is I will encounter people from all over the world, and they will pick up on the Midwest in my accent. Which I find fascinating.
Jen: And I don’t hear any accent when I listen to you.
April: Oh really?
Jen: Yes.
April: Well, because we’re both Midwestern, maybe.
Jen: Yes. Yes.
April: That’s it. Mine’s a little twangier. Anyway, and she loves it when we sing!
Jen: That’s so sweet! Thanks, Lara, for this question. We really appreciate it. And April, how would you answer her question?
April: So, the way conjunctions tend to work is very much dependent on the planets involved. So, you have two planets who are forced to live in very close confines together. Think of it as a couple of people on a chain gang, they’re chained together. One can’t make a move without the other, making a move. And that’s not so terrible if they have the same goal and the same personalities, it’s still not great, but at least they can work.
When planets are very dissimilar though, it’s like having a couple of really strange bedfellows that are shackled together and can only work in tandem with each other. So, in the case of Lara’s boyfriend with the Moon conjunct Saturn, that is traditionally kind of a difficult conjunction because the Moon and Saturn want pretty different things. You know, the Moon tends to want to be safe, be at home or in comfortable surroundings in particular and is very tender and very sensitive.
Saturn is about our ambitious side that kind of propels us to get out into the world to accomplish things. So, to do that means risking that need that the Moon has to feel secure and taken care of.
Jen: That makes sense.
April: Yes. That’s why it’s a little bit hard. It can also mean that growing up, which is a Moon, what was going on in your very earliest life, that there was a feeling of not always being able to feel as taken care of and safe as this Moon might want. For some reason you have to become pretty self-reliant emotionally pretty early on. This can be because your parents are working really hard to support the family. It can be because you have younger siblings that you end up being in the role of needing to take some care for. It can be lots of different things. We’re not talking about a Dickens novel here necessarily, but we’re saying, it’s a little bit harder. You have to step up to the plate and gain that emotional self-reliance and maturity pretty early on.
Now, in the case to Lara who has Mars with Jupiter, those guys get along a little bit better. Mars is about how we’re going out in the world and achieving things. And Jupiter says, “Yes, the more, the better.” Jupiter’s very encouraging and very optimistic. So, all other things being equal, Mars in Jupiter together is a pretty exciting combination, but it can also be a little overpowering. Mars is that part of our nature that just wants to get out there and get things done. It can also be a very physical planet. This can have to do about the kind of work that you do because Mars is work planet.
So, in combination with Jupiter, it can mean that Lara’s involved in some kind of Jupitarian work. For instance, in education, in travel and those kinds of things. And it says, she probably likes to take some chances depending on the signs these are in, because Mars is a little bit of a risk taker and Jupiter likes an adventure.
Jen: Jupiter says, “Let’s do it!”
April: “Let’s do more, more, further, faster!”
Jen: Yes.
April: So, I hope that that helps a little bit. What I want to say generally about the conjunctions is it so much depends on the planets involved and how well they that along with each other and getting them to work in tandem. And it kind of means you don’t ever get to do one planet without the other planet being there and tagging along.
Jen: Right on.
April: And I think we had another question from a listener.
Jen: Yes. Our friend Shellie Crow, who was a non-imaginary sponsor, wrote in with a question about your art.
April: Oh!
Jen: Shellie writes, “Hi, April and Jen. I’d really love to know more about your artwork, April. I create astrology art myself, mostly sketch and colored pencil. It brings me a lot of joy. Your images are beautiful and I just love them. I’d be fascinated to know more about your technique if you don’t mind sharing. Love, Shellie.”
April: Oh, that’s so nice.
Jen: That’s very sweet.
April: No, I don’t mind at all. Of course, we’d love to see some of Shellie’s artwork as well.
Jen: Yes, let us know Shellie.
April: Yes. I create artwork on the computer using a really rickety old version of Photoshop. I learned to use Photoshop back in my web design days, which was in the early odd. I was designing websites for people. And I had a slow lazy summer in between semesters of school at that point and taught myself how to build web pages and use Photoshop. And basically, I just kind of started making some of these digital collages for fun here and there. And when I was redoing my website a few years ago, the designer suggested that we really make these collages a cornerstone of the design of the chart. And I’m really glad she suggested, and I love doing them so much.
And it just means working with little individual clip, art images, digital images, and in Photoshop, I just kind of arrange them. And what’s wonderful about it is I do so much writing and so much talking on the podcast about astrology and that uses a particular part of your brain, but I get to the point that I’m kind of out of words. And so, doing artwork is so wonderful cause it uses that other half of the brain, it’s very imaginative and it’s gotten to the point that if I’m stuck in something to write for my weekly column, I’ll make the collage first.
Jen: Nice.
April: And then that inspires me with what I wanna say about the aspect.
Jen: That’s so great.
April: Yes.
Jen: I think it’s fascinating, too, that you actually use your left hand on your mouse. I mean, you’re right-handed. But you use your left hand on your mouse when you do your art. I think that’s so amazing.
April: I wonder if it makes a difference because I started basically to get a little bit of carpal tunnel at one point when I was doing web design, so, that’s why I switched over to the left hand. And yes, I think it probably puts me into more of that Neptune in place maybe.
Jen: Yes, I think so too.
April: Yes. Thank you for that question, Shellie.
Jen: Thanks, Shellie.
April: Well, my pal, that’s a wrap on that show sheet. Have we done it? It’s a wrap on Podathon!
Jen: It’s a wrap! I can’t believe it’s over. It went so fast!
April: It really did. It was gone like a dream too soon. We’ve loved having you here every day this week. And thank you for listening to the podcast. Thank you so much for your support of the podcast…
Jen: Yes, thank you.
April: …throughout almost the last two years, because we published our first episode in late November, 2019. Does that sound right?
Jen: It was a Sagittarius New Moon.
April: It was a Sagittarius New Moon. So, we’re closing in on two years of the podcast. We were talking about it this morning and saying, “Wow, does it really seem like it’s been two years?” And yes, it does. It feels exactly like two years.
Jen: It totally does.
Well, thank you so much for your generous contributions this week, everyone. And just one more last call here: It’s not too late to donate. Go to bigskyastropod.com. Contributors of $5 or more receive access to our current September Equinox episode as well as the upcoming one in three months in December for the Solstice. Donors of $25 or more will be entered in a raffle: One winner will get a solar return report; one will get a cool astrology poster; two extra lucky winners will get a free 60-minute reading with April; and one super-duper lucky winner will get a full 90-minute reading with April.
April: Huzzah!
Jen: Yay!
April: Huzzah for the readings! Well, we are extending the window for contributions. Please make your donation no later than September 30th to get entered in our raffle, our drawing. Winners will be announced by email on Monday, October 4th and on our October 11th episode.
Jen: Perfect.
April: And we want to thank all the donors on the air in the months to come. So, if you do not want us to mention your name, please email me at April(at)bigskyastrology.com. We’re also going to send out a donor email that will have this information, but we wanted to make sure to mention it here.
Thank you so much for joining us during this gala Podathon week, the happiest week of the year!
Jen: Yay!
April: We will be back on Monday for Episode 99!
Jen: 99!!
April: Until then, keep your feet on the ground…
Jen: …and your eyes on the stars!
Thank you for listening! To learn more about April Elliott Kent, please check out her website, www.BigSkyAstrology.com, where you can sign up for her newsletter, read her thought-provoking weekly essays, purchase her books, sign up for a personal astrology reading, and more.
That’s all for today. If you like what you’re listening to, please take a moment to rate and review this podcast and hit subscribe to stay current with new episodes.
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© 2021 April Elliott Kent & Jen Braun
