Latest / Astrology for Beginners / Listener Q&A: Retrograde Shadows, Prioritizing Transits & Missing Birth Times

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Listener Q&A: Retrograde Shadows, Prioritizing Transits & Missing Birth Times · Astrology for Beginners

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Astrology for Beginners podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Stefanie Kate Boucher, and I am so glad you're here.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is the podcast for you if you've ever been curious about astrology,
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: if you've wanted to understand your natal chart or make sense of what's happening in
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: the sky,
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: but maybe it's felt overwhelming, complicated, or hard to know where to begin.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Michael, Thank you so much for being here and sharing your time with me.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome back.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Today I am addressing some listener questions.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is another one of our Q&A episodes.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't done a full-length Q&A in a while,
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: probably because there were so many interesting transits happening over the summer
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: that I wanted to talk a lot about those.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to work my way back through three
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: that I thought would be really helpful for many of you to hear.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about what people mean when they say that a planet is
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: in its shadow period,
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: which means we're going to get into the mechanics of retrogrades a little bit.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I may have touched on this a little bit last spring.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And these are going to be significant retrogrades with Venus involved especially.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Its retrograde cycles occur much less often than Mercury's do.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then we'll talk about how to figure out
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: which transits actually deserve your attention because
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: at any given moment you can have a lot of transits happening
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: and it can be overwhelming especially for people who are just starting out
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And finally,
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: we'll talk about just how helpful astrology can really be for you,
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: even if you don't know your birth time.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: What happens if you don't know your birth time and you don't have
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: an easy way We'll get into all of that.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: But first,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: before I do,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want to remind you or announce,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: if you haven't heard me announce this yet,
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: that on September 22nd and 23rd,
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hosting a two-part virtual workshop with my friends over at Tending the Sacred.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Moon and Your Nervous System, Understanding Your Emotional Wiring.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been listening for a while or following me on Substack,
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: you may have noticed that I really like working with the Moon.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love working with the Lunar Cycle.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I host a virtual...
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: follow the moon pretty closely in my own life for all sorts of things.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: But beyond the lunar cycle,
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: your natal moon is also one of the most important placements in your birth chart.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: It tells us a lot about your emotional nature.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: How you instinctively respond to things,
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: what helps you feel safe and regulated,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: how you experience your emotions in everyday life,
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: and even some of the ways that you attach to people and circumstances.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to use the moon in your birth chart as a lens for understanding some
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: of those emotional and nervous system patterns.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why certain situations affect you more strongly than others do,
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: your instinctive reactions to things,
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: what helps you feel safe and feel regulated,
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: and some of the patterns you may have carried with you for a very long time,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: maybe your whole life.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about moon signs,
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: house placements,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: and aspects,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: but you definitely don't need to be an astrology expert to join us, not even close.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: The whole idea is really just to use astrology as a tool
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: for understanding your own emotional patterns a little more deeply.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Learning how to work with them rather than against them.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put a link in the show notes for more information about that and about the moon circle.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's still time to register for that this month too.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get to it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do our Q&A.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Question one.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: A listener wanted to know, what does it mean when a transiting planet is in its shadow period?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great question.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: We hear this a lot.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: You might remember hearing things like,
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Mercury has entered its shadow or Mercury is direct,
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: but we're still in the post-retrograde shadow.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't understand the mechanics of a retrograde cycle,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: it can sound kind of scary or intimidating to hear this,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe even like we're making a Mercury retrograde or,
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: you know, Mars retrograde or whatever planet it is.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to make it last even longer, you know, which is not what most of us want.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about what's actually happening when you hear about that.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll have to talk a bit more about how retrograde cycles actually work,
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: mechanically speaking, or astrologically speaking, I should say.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: First, when we say that a planet is retrograde, the planet isn't literally retrograde.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Stopping in space, turning around and traveling backward.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It only appears to be moving backward from our perspective here on Earth
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: because Earth and the other planets are moving around the sun at different speeds.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: But astrologically,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: what we see in the sky from our vantage point on Earth is a planet moving forward
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: through the degrees of the zodiac,
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: slowing down,
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: literally slowing down in terms of the speed it appears to be moving at,
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: then appearing to stop,
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: which we call stationing,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: and then beginning to move backward through
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: the same degrees it has already recently traveled through.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually...
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: It slows down again, stations direct, and starts moving forward.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about an example.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than making one up,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: we can actually use an actual retrograde that's coming up because,
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: again, we have a couple of them, Venus and Mercury, happening this fall.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Mercury is going retrograde in Scorpio in several weeks.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And actually,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: as I said,
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Venus is too,
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: but we'll go with Mercury for now because you all hear about Mercury retrograde
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: so often since they happen multiple times a year.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: On September 30th, Mercury will enter the sign of Scorpio.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right, it will ingress into that sign where it will eventually station retrograde.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It will move through the sign of Scorpio,
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: progressing forward through each degree until it stations retrograde at around 20
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: to 21 degrees.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: That will be on October 23rd or 24th.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It will then appear to move backward through the zodiac,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: retracing the degrees it just recently traveled to And it will travel backwards
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: until it gets to 5 degrees Scorpio.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: It travels all the way back to 5 degrees Scorpio from 20 where it started.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: It travels all the way back to 5 where it will then station direct again on November 13th.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it begins moving forward again from that point,
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: eventually retracing its steps and eventually reaching 21 degrees Scorpio
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: on November 30th.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So in this case,
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: the pre-shadow period begins when Mercury hits five degrees Scorpio during
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: that very first pass because that's where it starts hitting the territory or
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: the degrees that it will eventually retrace in reverse.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact,
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Mercury crosses that same stretch of the zodiac again from about 5
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: to 21 degrees Scorpio three times.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: The first time in forward motion, which is the pre-shadow period.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: The second time in reverse, this is the retrograde.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third time moving forward one last time, this is the post-shadow period.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: So again,
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: just in case you're wanting to track some dates on this one,
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: it's about October 4th through October 24th that Mercury is making
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: that first pass moving direct.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is the pre-retrograde shadow.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then from October 24th through November 13th,
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: it's making its second pass over those degrees moving backward.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's the actual retrograde.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then from November 13th through the 30th,
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: it's making its third pass over those degrees moving forward or direct.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, that's the post retrograde shadow.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: All of that is taking place from five to about 21 degrees Scorpio.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then once Mercury moves beyond that 21 degree point on November 30th,
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: it is officially cleared the shadow.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's really all a shadow period is, mechanically speaking at least.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: It describes the territory Mercury is going to cover more than once because
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: of its apparent backward motion.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And of course,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: we actually have another great example of that that's already happening right now
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: that we can talk about.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: As I'm recording this, Venus has already entered the shadow of its upcoming retrograde.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Venus entered its shadow on October 31st at 22 degrees Libra.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: It will continue moving forward,
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: cross into Scorpio on September 10th,
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: and eventually it will reach about 8 degrees Scorpio on October 3rd when it appears
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: to stop and stations retrograde.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then Venus is going to retrace all of that territory that it just covered,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: moving backward from Scorpio back into Libra,
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: in this case,
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: until it reaches that original 22 degree Libra point on November 13th,
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: stops and stations direct again.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then it will make one final pass through those same degrees.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're starting at 22 Libra and eventually reaching 8 degrees Scorpio again
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: on December 15th and clearing its shadow.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: So this one is interesting because you can see that the retrograde doesn't have
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: to stay within one sign.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Venus is retracing a section of the zodiac that stretches from late Libra into early Scorpio.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you happen to have natal planets or angles between about,
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: 22 or 23 degrees Libra or 8 or 9 degrees Scorpio,
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Venus may cross that point three separate times.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, my moon is right between 8 and 9 degrees Scorpio.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So this should be really interesting.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll have stories to tell.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see, I guess.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: But this is one of the reasons that people like to pay attention to the shadow.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just one reason.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you have natal Venus at 2 degrees Scorpio.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then transiting Venus will cross your natal Venus once while moving forward
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: the first time,
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: again while retrograde,
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  SPEAKER_00: and then a third time after it stations direct and begins moving forward again.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: So now you have three chapters of a Venus conjunct Venus transit,
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: or essentially your Venus return, rather than one.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the next part of this conversation.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Astrologically, why do we care about the shadow period?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because often a retrograde can be a process that's unfolding rather
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: than one isolated event.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I know we often think of isolated events, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: When we think of retrogrades, like,
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Mercury is retrograde,
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: so my car broke down,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: or I sent that email I shouldn't have sent,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: and oh, I sent it to the wrong person, or...
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: The agreement went belly up or something,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: but actually the purpose of retrograde cycles is for processes to unfold often
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: in stages.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: During the pre-shadow, a situation may begin developing, right?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Something hits your radar or enters into your field of awareness, right?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: A theme comes up,
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: something gets introduced to Maybe with this Venus retrograde,
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: for example, you get into a small disagreement with someone.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe this brings up a theme about how that relationship is functioning
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: or how you are functioning in it or something.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you at the time simply ignore it and move on.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you smooth things over a bit, you know, for now.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then the planet retrogrades and Back across those degrees and something needs
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: to get reconsidered or renegotiated or revisited, right?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's all those classic rewords that we typically associate with retrogrades.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe now during this phase you realize that however
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: that original disagreement was handled the first time,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the resolution you came to wasn't really enough.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you realize you're still upset about something more so than you initially knew
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: or admitted to, right?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it comes to your And now you have to look at it.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's something about the relationship itself,
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe it brings up,
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: one of your own relationship patterns or something around self-worth or your values,
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: right?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: But now,
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: during this retrograde period,
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: you have the chance to look at it,
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: unpack it, understand it, and maybe hash some things out.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then, on the final direct pass, right...
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is when you have the chance to reach some sort of deeper resolution
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe put into practice what you now know or put into practice all
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: that you've learned during that retrograde period, right?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you and the other person have come to a new understanding about how
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: the relationship needs to be going forward.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you come to a new understanding about what you need or what you want to do differently.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And again, now you get to put that understanding into practice during this post-shadow phase.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So rather than thinking of the retrograde as one single event that happens when
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: the planet turns backwards or when the planet is moving backwards, right?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of that whole shadow retrograde shadow period as a larger process.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now retrogrades are generally even more noticeable when
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: the retrograding planet makes an exact aspect to something in your natal chart.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it can help to pay attention to any hard aspects like conjunctions,
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: squares,
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: oppositions that the retrograde planet is making to planets or angles in your chart.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, this process doesn't always unfold in a way that's just like this.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, life is always more complicated and nuanced than any kind of single formula.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But generally, each of the three passes is going to feel different than the others.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I'd like to emphasize here also that the shadow period is not
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: the same thing as the retrograde period.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: if Mercury has stationed direct but it's still in its shadow,
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: well then Mercury is direct.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think you need to spend another,
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: two weeks terrified to sign a document or buy a car or something
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: because Mercury hasn't completely cleared its shadow yet.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: What the shadow does do is help us see and be aware of the larger cycle
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: of events that's taking place.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want to get to our second question now.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this was from a listener who said that,
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: keeping up with transits feels overwhelming because there are so many
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: at any given time.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she wanted to know, do they all matter?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or is there a way to focus in on ones that are more important than others?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think this might be one of my favorite questions ever because transits can be overwhelming.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of them and there always will be.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe like this listener, you feel like following them is just a bit too much.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: There are always plenty happening, but they're not all equally important.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or I should say that they're not all going to be equally impactful, generally speaking.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way,
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: when I'm talking about transits here,
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: you know, really we could be talking about two different but connected things.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: one way we use the word transits is to describe whatever is happening in
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: the sky right now without being muddied up,
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: so to speak, by the natal chart of any individual.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the current sky is always its own chart.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: A transit chart for an individual, though,
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: is when you layer what is currently happening in the sky over your natal chart.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: In most apps, your natal chart is on an inner wheel with transit planets on an outer wheel.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're then looking for,
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: what houses each transiting planet is traveling through in your natal chart
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: and aspects the transiting planets are making to your natal planets.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: But in either case, the concept is essentially the same.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: When you're looking at transiting planets,
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: generally the slower the planet moves and therefore the longer the transit lasts,
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: the more significant that transit will likely be.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I pay particular attention to Saturn, Uranus,
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Neptune,
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: and Pluto,
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: especially when they're making aspects to natal planets,
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: personal planets, because those transits will last a long time.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And will be doing their work in your life for a long time.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: They have a bigger job to do.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: A more transformational job to do.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jupiter matters too, of course.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But Jupiter moves a bit more quickly than the ones I just mentioned.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And usually doesn't stay in contact with a natal placement for quite as long.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: It can be relevant for weeks or months when making an aspect.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it impacts the house it's transiting through for you for a year.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: By contrast, though, the Moon moves incredibly quickly.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mercury, Venus, and Mars also move relatively quickly.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean their transits don't matter.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: They absolutely can matter.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Mars crossing your ascendant, for example, might be very noticeable.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Venus conjunct your natal Jupiter might result in something very lovely.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: A new moon or a full moon hitting something important
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: in your chart can absolutely matter,
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: but those are generally much shorter windows of time.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: These are kind of like the weather, and the weather comes and goes.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: It can impact your day or your week, but it doesn't usually change your life.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: The faster-moving planets can,
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: however, act as triggers for other aspects that do last a long time.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you have a major Saturn transit happening for months, for example.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's crossing your midheaven or something.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then Mars comes along and hits the same degree.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: That Saturn energy has been working on a story or a developmental process
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: that has been humming along quietly in the background,
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: kind of just setting a general vibe or tone or mood for a while.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: But suddenly Mars crosses that point too
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: and it actually makes something happen externally like a catalyst that brings
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: that longer Saturn story to the forefront of your attention.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: It forces you to do something or take a leap forward in that developmental process
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: that was quieter before.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first question, you know, which planet is doing the transiting?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing that I like to consider is what is being transited.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: I pay a lot of attention to transits involving the natal sun and moon,
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: also the ascendant and the midheaven and any of the angles really,
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: or the chart ruler and the personal planets.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean we ignore everything else like Jupiter or Saturn or
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: the outer planets,
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: but if I'm trying to figure out what deserves my attention first,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: if I'm triaging,
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking for contact with important pieces of the natal chart,
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: the most important pieces of the natal chart.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing I look at is how close or how tight an orb is in the transit.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say if Saturn is a half a degree away from an exact square
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: to your natal moon,
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: that's more important to me than if it were still six degrees away from a square.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where apps can get tricky sometimes
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: because they don't always call attention to this.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: if an app tells you that Saturn is square your moon,
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: but Saturn is still six degrees away,
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: that's not likely going to be the time when something is happening.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to know when the aspect is applying, meaning it's getting close to exactitude.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know when it becomes exact,
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: whether it separates but then comes back because of a retrograde,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: which conveniently you now understand after our first question.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, you want to look at what kind of aspect is being made.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's most useful,
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: to just start,
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: if you're still getting comfortable looking at your transits,
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: with the major aspects, conjunctions, oppositions, squares, trines, sextiles.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't worry about the minor aspects for now.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And even then,
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: if I'm really trying to prioritize what I'm going to pay particular attention
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: to conjunctions and the other hard aspects like squares and oppositions first
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: because you tend to feel them more and they tend to require action on your part.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that trines and sextiles don't matter.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: They absolutely can.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're overwhelmed by a list of transits, you have to start somewhere.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's another thing I look for that I also think is really important,
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: and that's repetition.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is the chart...
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to show you a similar theme or a similar story in several different ways, right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say that Jupiter and Leo is crossing someone's midheaven.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time,
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: there's an eclipse activating their 10th And you know,
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: maybe Saturn is making an aspect to the ruler of their 10th house somewhere, right?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's multiple things that are happening that could impact a person's career
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: or 10th house themes.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you'd want to weight these things more because there's just so much happening
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: in one area of life, potentially.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, remember that every transit is happening to a natal chart.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: A Saturn-Venus conjunction doesn't mean exactly the same thing for every person
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: who experiences one.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Where is Venus in that person's natal chart?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: What houses does Venus rule in their natal chart?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: What aspects does Venus already make?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: What house is Saturn moving through, right?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So the natal chart gives the transit context.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a beginner and you're overwhelmed by the idea of transits,
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: it's okay to simplify for a while.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Start with the slower planets.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Look at their major aspects to your natal planets and angles.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your orbs reasonably tight, like maybe within two degrees.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to when something becomes exact,
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: like that's that zero degree orb,
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: and look for themes that are being repeated elsewhere in the chart.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, third question.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Someone said, I don't know my birth time.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Can astrology still be useful for me if I can't get a precise chart?
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: You do lose some very important information without an accurate birth time,
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: but you do not lose your entire natal chart.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: So let's consider what we know and what we don't know in this scenario.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you know your birth date and location,
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: we can still calculate the positions of most of the planets pretty reliably.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And by positions, I mean the signs and the general degrees of the signs.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: We do know your sun sign.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: We do know which signs Mercury,
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were in.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: We know where the lunar nodes are.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: We know Chiron, right?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we can identify most of the aspects that those planets make to one another.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have the sun opposite Saturn,
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: you still have sun opposite Saturn,
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: whether you were born at two o'clock in the morning or two o'clock in the afternoon.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you can learn a tremendous amount about yourself from those planetary placements
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: and aspects alone.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the moon is a little trickier.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: The moon moves approximately 12 degrees a day.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: So without a birth time, we don't know its exact degree.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we do still know the moon sign.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: If the moon spent the entire day solidly within one sign, we know your moon sign.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: But if the moon changed signs on the day you were born,
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: which is about every third day, now we have two possibilities for signs.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And because we don't know its exact degree,
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: we also have to be very cautious about aspects involving the moon.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what we really lose without a birth time.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: We lose the angles and the houses.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: we cannot reliably calculate your ascendant,
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: which means we don't know your rising sign.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know your Descendant.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know your Midheaven or your IC.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And without the Ascendant, we can't construct your natal houses.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's a significant loss of information because houses tell us,
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: you know, where in life different planetary energies tend to express themselves.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it also means we can't tell you which houses transiting planets are moving through.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you can still use transits in relation to your natal planets.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say you know your Venus is at five degrees Gemini.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uranus in transit reaches five degrees Gemini and forms a conjunction with your natal Venus.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know,
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: we don't need to know your birth time to know
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: that Uranus is conjunct your natal Venus.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: We can interpret that transit.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: What I can't tell you, though,
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: is that Uranus is moving through your seventh house or your tenth house or whatever
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: the case may be because we wouldn't know where those houses begin.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: So the transit still exists.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: We've simply lost one layer of information.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: There are also some alternative ways that astrologers can use when
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: a birth time isn't available to construct some type of chart.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And one is to use what you may have heard called a natural chart.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a chart where Aries corresponds with the first house,
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: and then Taurus is the second house,
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Gemini is the third, and so on around the Zodiac.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: This can be really helpful to provide context.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: I would just be careful about,
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: you know, completely considering these to be your true natal houses because...
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: They kind of aren't.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: But again,
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: it can give you a framework for which to think about the planets and
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: the natural sequence of the zodiac.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Another option is something called a solar chart,
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: where essentially the sun becomes the organizing point for the chart rather than
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: the ascendant.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is related to why sun sign astrology can actually work at all.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you read a horoscope for your sun sign,
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, of course, the person writing it doesn't know your ascendant, right?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have your birth chart sitting in front of them.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're using your sun or your sun sign as the reference point and interpreting
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: the current astrology relative to that.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as individually specific as working with,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: a very accurately timed natal chart that has an ascendant,
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: but it can still be pretty useful.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, if you do really want to go deeper...
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't have a birth time, there is something called chart rectification.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where an astrologer,
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: and not every astrologer knows how to do this or is experienced in this area,
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: but this is where an astrologer uses known events from your life,
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: like maybe a marriage,
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: a birth,
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: a death of a loved one,
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: a big event like a move or a career change,
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: maybe an illness or some other very significant event in your life.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: To try and work backward toward a likely birth time.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think this requires a lot of skill and a lot of good judgment.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you would definitely want to find someone who's done this a lot.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: But this is an option,
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: particularly for someone who is serious about astrology and really wants
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: to investigate their birth time.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know what time you were born,
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: please don't think that astrology is completely closed to you.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can still learn about your planets.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can still learn about your aspects.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can follow major planetary transits and cycles.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch the transits in relation to your natal planets.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can use solar astrology and other techniques that don't depend upon
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: an accurately timed ascendant.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to be clear about what you don't know.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think that's a good place to wrap up today's Q&A.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully this clears up a few things and keep sending me your questions
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: because I really like doing these kinds of episodes.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just a reminder that if you want to sign up for my September workshop,
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: The Moon and Your Nervous System,
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: or my next Moon Circle, those links are in the show notes.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's all for now, everyone.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week and I will see you next time.