Transcribed using AI, please forgive mistakes.

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the essential astrocast. I'm your host, Veronica Perretti. And this is the podcast where you come to hear what's going on in the heavens so that you can dictate your fate down here on earth. So lately there is a lot happening. It is always chaos. It's like a Uranus station every day. We have a very uranian person in at the head of our country right now for those of us here in the States.

And I know that everyone is really at some sort of level of anxiety, being on edge, unsettled, in a state of [00:01:00] Helplessness, despair, et cetera. So I really like starting these episodes with taking a deep breath, because I think it is important to remember that you are here in this moment, that you are here in your body to feel your feet on the ground, to feel your breath entering and exiting your lungs.

It can feel at times like we are so in our heads because of the situation that is going on around us that we forget that we're here in this moment and you might be Under the weather, but you generally have your health, I hope, and you have people that you love, and you have responsibilities, and you have dinner to make, and you have [00:02:00] fun shows to watch, and you have this podcast to listen to.

So, while there are a lot of things that are making us feel particular way, That are out of our control. I want us to take a moment and just honor that there are a lot of things that are going really well that are within your control. So take a moment and just take a deep breath in and a full breath out.

And this time as you breathe in, I want you to feel your breath, fill your belly, fill your chest.

And as you exhale, let the breath out slowly.

And let's just do one more, because why not? This time, fill your belly, fill your ribs, fill your [00:03:00] chest.

And exhale from your chest, from your ribs, from your belly. Okay, so let's get started and talk a little bit about the astrology because we've got some really good stuff happening this week. So first and foremost, I know things have felt like a wild ride regardless of the astrology. This is a week where you actually get the opportunity for a deep breath.

So please take The moments where you can enjoy a deep breath, enjoy a little rest, enjoy laying on the floor and just looking at the ceiling or listening to some good music because there really is a lot of opportunity for rest in this week, at least from the cosmic perspective. So. On Tuesday, February 18th, we had the sun enter Pisces.

So happy birthday, happy solar return to all of my [00:04:00] Pisces friends out there. You teach us about feeling our feelings, about, allowing ourselves to be empathetic and compassionate human beings. You teach us about understanding the connectedness of humanity. And those are all things that we need to remember right now.

I think it's really important, particularly in Pisces season, but of course all the time, for us to remember, that we are all part of this human experience, that we are all connected, and being human is a vulnerable experience, so we can't allow ourselves to harden in our hearts. We cannot allow our hearts to harden because other people are acting in particular ways.

So I encourage you this Pisces season, the next four weeks to look for ways that you [00:05:00] can expand your heart, that you can allow your heart to remain open, places in your life where you can soften. maybe softening with yourself, giving yourself grace, giving yourself time to rest, not being hard on yourself.

If you miss the workout or you miss the deadline for something or you don't get, whatever it is that you thought you should have gotten, softening in the ways that we can soften with ourselves. It'll be easier for us to soften with other people. So that is Pisces season in a nutshell, you know, Pisces is symbolized by the two fish swimming in opposite directions But they are connected by a string So they are never without one another one fish is swimming toward the depths of our shadow self the subconscious and the other fish is swimming toward our highest self One might say it's the experience of our soul or our spirit.[00:06:00]

And those two are interconnected. So the shadow and the light are, of course, working together. You know, you can't have the shadow without the light. And so we have to delve into the shadow parts of our humanity, of our culture, of our society. To be able to reach the highest experience of ourself, of our potential.

And that's what Pisces Season teaches us, amongst many other things. okay. So, we're in Pisces Season. It started on Tuesday. I'm recording this on Wednesday, February 19th. We are Not having a ton of transits this week, mainly the only, but the only planet in the sky that's having some conversations with other weather planets is Mercury.

Mercury moved into Pisces last week, and this week he [00:07:00] is making a square to Jupiter on Thursday. And that means that you might hear some grandiose promises. there might be a lack of clarity. Somebody has a really great big idea, but they don't necessarily have the plan in place. big ideas might percolate with Mercury squared Jupiter on Thursday or around Thursday, but they will need to be detailed later.

So, a great day for doing some visioning, some dreaming, some journaling, doing some business development if you are an entrepreneur or a solopreneur like myself, great day for that. Not a great day for putting things in the spreadsheet, putting things on the calendar. Um, then we won't have another transit.

I mean, other than the moon, the moon is of course talking to other planets every day because the moon moves more quickly. so the moon does [00:08:00] have transits each and every day this week, but we don't get into those here on the podcast because I don't ever want to get too in the weeds.

I want to make sure that I'm giving you the. essential astrology, hence the Title of the podcast, the essential astrocast. So it's not like nothing's going on up there, but there is no big stuff. You know, sometimes we have weeks that I feel like I have astro whiplash where it's like, you look one way, then you look the other.

it's not like that this week, which is why I said you have opportunities for rest. You have opportunities for taking a pause this week. On Sunday, Mercury again, Mercury and Pisces will make a trine to Mars. Now this is interesting, because the big news, the biggest news of the week, and big news that you've probably been looking forward to because I know I have, is that Mars is stationing direct on Sunday, February [00:09:00] 23rd.

Mars has been retrograde. For a really long time. And Mars rules our muscles, our motivation, our desire to go out and get the thing that we want. So you might know that you want something, but you just don't have the motivation to get off the couch and go get it. I mean, how many of us have had that experience, right?

So, that's kind of how everything feels in life right now. I know I want to be part of that revolution, but I'll get to it. I can't quite get off the couch just yet. we really have been feeling stuck. And that is, a big part of that is Mars retrograde. we are feeling Stagnant energy and that is Mars retrograde plus Mars has been in the sign of cancer, which is a water sign and It's an emotional sign.

So you're feeling stuck and stagnant Not only because you're lacking [00:10:00] motivation, but you're also Feeling a sense of stuckness out of that emotional response you're having because Mars is in cancer. Cancer is a water sign. Water signs are associated with our emotions. So, I feel like this Mars retrograde has really been a time of feeling very protective.

Like, there's a big scary world out there, and I'm going to protect what I can. I'm going to really protect what's mine. And, we've all been feeling that way, and perhaps, Insulating ourselves a little bit, isolating ourselves a little bit. As Mars stations to go direct, I hope we will be more inclined to start to get out into the world a little bit.

And I think we will, because we'll naturally have more motivation. Now it takes time for Mars to get going again. So, you know, if you're running in one direction [00:11:00] and you gotta slow down, then you stop, you turn around, you start running again, you have to, it takes a couple of seconds for you to start finding that pace that you were at before.

So expand that out over weeks, months. It takes a little bit for Mars to get going again. It won't be abrupt in terms of our motivation flooding back. I don't think that you'll be running to the gym to go lift weights if you haven't been doing it regularly. But it'll come in time and we'll get glimmers and we'll get moments where we feel that push coming back so I Am really excited about this particularly because I am a Mars ruled girl.

I have a lot of Aries in my chart So Mars being my ruling planet. I am Really needing it to find its way back in forward motion. I do not like feeling stuck or stagnant. That is [00:12:00] not my jam. So hopefully we will all get a little bit of a push. In the coming weeks and months, which is wonderful, but I want to just review Mars retrograde with you for a moment so that you can just take stock of what this time has been about for you because retrogrades are about reflection.

They're about giving us time to pause, to rest and to reflect. And if astrology was all forward motion all the time, we would never learn anything because having retrogrades are the pauses that give us time to look at where we've been so that we can learn, we can assess what we're dealing with, and then make more conscious decisions about how to move forward.

So Mars first station retrograde December 6th, 2024. So last [00:13:00] year before Christmas after Thanksgiving, I know it feels like a lifetime ago, but it really wasn't. back on December 6th, it's stationed to retrograde at six degrees Leo. So all of you out there who have anything at the fixed. degrees, Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, and Taurus.

Six degrees of those fixed signs. You guys probably felt that Mars station retrograde more intensely. And then he moved back. through those early degrees of Leo and re entered cancer in reverse on January 6th, one, exactly one month after his retrograde began. And he's been retrograding cancer ever since.

So he will station to go direct on Sunday, at 17 degrees cancer, [00:14:00] which is interesting because we talked about Kendrick Lamar's. chart in Cosmic Conversation on Monday, and we spoke about how he has Mars in his natal chart at 17 degrees cancer. So this station direct is really impacting him. Mars, 17 degrees cancer for five weeks. So Kendrick Lamar is getting five weeks of Mars return Mars on his needle Mars. Every two years we get a Mars return. It's very rare for it to last five weeks. So it's interesting because that Mars return has really been bringing to him all the accolades for all the hard work that he's been putting in for many, many years.

And we talked about that in Cosmic Conversation, which was really fun because he has a very fun chart to look at. But also it's nice to take the astrology and look at [00:15:00] someone in the public eye and see it play out. And we start to really understand the astrology more deeply. So if you're interested in that kind of thing, you can join us for Cosmic Conversation.

I also talk about what's going on in the moment so that You know, it applies to you, but then we, we have just recently started pulling up charts of notable people in the news. We looked at Chapel Rowan two weeks ago, and we looked at Kendrick Lamar this past week. And the next Cosmic Conversation will be on March 3rd.

So it's Mondays at 5 p. m. Eastern Time. It is free. It is my free offering for you. We gather. We talk astrology. Sometimes we moan about the state of the world a little bit. Mostly we talk astrology and then we do a short meditation and journal prompts at the end just to ground our energy before we enter the week or as we enter the week, cause it's Monday afternoon, at least on the East coast.

so I hope you join us. It's a wonderful group of women that come regularly, so you [00:16:00] can sign up for that on my website under events and sign up for the next one, which will be March 3rd. Those are every two weeks right now. We're testing out That cadence and that time which seems to be working at least for the people that are coming regularly Okay, so moving on We talked we're talking about Mars retrograde again.

So Mars now has stayed in cancer for that time since January 6th And he will be in cancer until April 18. That is a long time. Now mind you, Mars already did a whole stint in cancer way back in the fall. in October, we had Mars in cancer, October, November, We've had, we'll have Mars mostly in cancer with, that short stint in Leo, but it's a lot of Mars in cancer.

So we are experiencing a whole lot of Mars in cancer. And not only is it Mars in cancer. [00:17:00] Mars has been out of bounds. So when we look at astrology, we don't just look, mostly what we're looking at is the longitudinal lines when we look at degrees, but we can also look at the latitudinal lines, which is the declination, which means how far it is north or south of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun around the earth or around you, right?

Because in astrology, we put you at the center. So, We're looking at the declination. Mars is out of bounds and Mars is out of bounds for like months. Mars is out of bounds now. He's been out of bounds pretty much since he's been into cancer. he will be out of bounds until, April 7th.

So it is a whole lot of. Mars with this retrograde, but it's also a whole lot of Mars out of bounds, which means Mars is unruly. Yeah, so it's been an emotional time. It's been intense and it's been really hard to honor [00:18:00] what we want, honor our motivations, honor our drive, honor That light within us, that, that, that fire in our belly, if you will.

It's been hard to honor that and to listen to it and to take action on it. but Mars will go direct and it will help. So he'll be out of bounds until April 7th. He will be in cancer until April 18th. He will re enter Leo at that time.

And then he will leave his shadow on May 2nd. So we're not totally done with this Mars Retrograde story until May 2nd. So you might just want to consider, and you know, just flip back through your calendar, flip back through your journal if you keep a journal, all the way back to December 6th. And maybe even all the way back to October when Mars was in cancer originally, and see what's been going on for you, what's been coming up for you, what have you learned about your relationship to your [00:19:00] motivation, to your drive, but also to your feelings of anger, to your feelings of frustration, to your feelings of, sexual desire, that's also Mars.

These are all themes that might be coming up for you over this time and wanting to be looked at. What to expect with Mars Direct. That's more exciting, right? So as I said, I feel like we've been in this protective mode. But here's the thing, Mars and Cancer, Cancer is that mama bear archetype.

It is the divine mother and the divine mother is a protector, right? So you, I always think of the mama bear, like the polar bear mama, who's looks so beautiful and fuzzy, but is really fierce, particularly if you come for her cubs. So I think when Mars goes direct. Again, out of bounds, still in cancer, we are going to wake up that mama bear [00:20:00] energy.

And here's what's really interesting about what's coming this next week. We have six days between Mars stationing direct and Venus stationing retrograde. Yes, you heard me right. we're already in the Venus. Retrograde shadow. There is a shadow period before and after every retrograde.

We've been in the Venus shadow for a while already. Sometimes I call it the pre shadow and the post shadow. Venus will retrograde on March 1st. So we are going, from ending this Mars retrograde into beginning the Venus retrograde. It's very different energy because Venus is much more, about our values, about what's important to us.

It's about allowing ourselves to receive that which we desire. Mars is about going out and getting [00:21:00] what we desire. It also has to do with money. So you want to be watching your finances. You don't want to overspend or overextend yourself during Venus retrograde, regardless of the sign that it's in, but it will be an Aries and Venus is an Aries already, and we've been feeling this energy start to percolate.

So I think as Mars goes direct in that feminine sign of cancer, and then Venus retrogrades in that masculine sign of Aries. We're going to see some interesting and perhaps volatile things crop up. So, stay tuned and, you know, prepare yourself. Prepare yourself, get your rest this week because I think things are going to start to get active.

We're going to start to feel activated and we're going to start to, take So [00:22:00] Aries loves action, Aries loves to move forward. So Venus retrograde in Aries. It'll be interesting to see what action is taken by the women in the world, particularly because Venus is associated with women. And of course, Mars is in a sign of the divine feminine.

All right. So moving on last little bit here. moving into next week. I just wanted to let you know that again, Mercury will be the only one really chatting it up early next week. He'll have a conjunction with Saturn on the 25th of February, which is nice because all those big ideas you're having this week with Mercury squared Jupiter, you might actually be able to take the help of Saturn and put some structure to it on Tuesday or around that date.

Last little bit. This is the fourth quarter of the moon cycle meaning that we are preparing for the new moon in Pisces on the [00:23:00] 27th so There's always gonna be a natural inclination to move inward in the last week of the moon cycle.

So honor that if you're feeling it, if you're feeling like you have to pull away a little bit and spend more time meditating, if you want to just turn off the phone, if you want to turn off the notifications, if you want to stay off social media. Those are always wise things to do, especially with a new moon in Pisces, which is going to be a little bit more emotional.

It is also a really powerful time this last week of the moon cycle, as we lead up to the new moon on the 27th, to Let go of something that is weighing you down And that's what I got for you. So make sure you sign up for Cosmic Conversation on March 3rd. I do have one on ones available. I have limited availability for one on one readings. If you're interested in those, make sure that you are on my email list. I send out a link for sign ups for that exclusively to members of my email [00:24:00] community.

And you can sign up for my email list on my website, VeronicaPerretti. com. Remember, take care of yourself. Deep breaths. Make space for rest. Make space for taking care of yourself. Move your body. And that doesn't mean you have to go to the gym. Just get up from your chair and sway a little bit.

Do a little stretching, maybe bend and straighten your knees. It doesn't have to be major, but it can make a big difference. Not only in how you feel physically, but really how you feel mentally and emotionally. I will talk to you next week. Bye!