(00:31) Randee: Hello, hello and welcome to the Dark Moon Cafe. We are your hosts. My name is Randee,

(00:38) Khasanti: and I’m Khasanti,

(00:40) Randee: and each dark moon, we will be inviting you in for a monthly conversation about astrology and other related topics. Each episode we’ll compare notes on how the monthly transits have been showing up for us, followed by a deeper dive into a specific topic. And tonight we felt there was no better topic than the moon to kick us off. We hope this podcast offers a cozy space to settle in and explore with us how we live our lives through the lens of astrology. And before we dive in, I just have to say, since we announced that we were doing this, we have just received an outpouring of love and support from all of our friends and loved ones. And it’s just made us feel so warm and fuzzy inside, and we feel like you’re all here with us tonight. So that’s just so nice. And Khasanti, I just have to say, you know, astrology has just totally changed my life, my worldview. I feel like I see through the glasses of an archetypal universe now and having someone to share in that with for this big time 11th house person is so amazing. So just thank you. Thank you for being you.

(02:09) Khasanti: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for being your beautiful Leo Moon self also. We probably shouldn’t like start crying within the first two minutes of our first episode.

(02:24) Randee: I did feel like I was just fighting back a tear there, but that’s okay. We are talking about the moon tonight, so we can get emotional. It’s okay.

(02:35) Khasanti: It’s required.

(02:40) Randee: But I do have to ask, Khasanti, we are in the cafe and my friend, what are you drinking tonight?

(02:47) Khasanti: Well, I thought you would never ask. So tonight, I am drinking a Super Greens juice with a ton of spinach in it, because boy do I need as much iron as I can get my little Scorpio rising hands on right now. Mars is transiting my first house, which I’ll probably say a little bit about later, but yeah, I feel like I need help. I’ll just leave it there and you can tell me what you’re drinking tonight, Randee.

(03:37) Randee: Well, that sounds delicious, by the way. I am drinking…you know my love affair with Saturn runs deep. Of course, I will probably segue this into a little dialogue about Saturn, but I am drinking an Earl Grey tea tonight.

(04:01) Khasanti: How incredibly civilized of you.

(04:04) Randee: Exactly, exactly what I was thinking. It’s solid. It’s a standard. It just embodies an essence of control and discipline and I liked it because gray is sort of a dreamlike color. And we currently are working with this beautiful little Saturn retrograde into Pisces, which you know is a transit I’ve been kind of keeping my personal eye on, you know as it sort of moonlights back into my sixth house and just ever so gently opposes my natal Saturn. I find myself in a redefining state of mind, sort of a reinvesting or reviewing, but really reviewing what service means to me, what my work means to me. And I think that, you know, Saturn, I think Jupiter gets a lot of gets a lot of credit for the word meaning. But I do think that Saturn so often offers us a window into what truly matters to us.

(05:27) Khasanti: Totally.

(05:30) Randee: And just with that opposition to my 12th house Saturn, I find myself just in this space of doing some shadow work as well. And it just sort of happened. So yeah, so I’m just sipping on some Earl Grey just thinking about my patterns and my shadow side, you know, just having a light night over here. It’s fine.

(05:55) Khasanti: Welcome to life as a Saturn devotee.

(05:59) Randee: Exactly.

(06:03) Khasanti: Oh my goodness. Yeah, I love that. I love that. I’m sure Saturn is smiling. I wouldn’t say happily, but you know, he’s pleased. He’s looking down on his child with like, she’s drinking the right kind of tea and having the right kind of thoughts.

(06:25) Randee: That’s right, doing the work, doing the work. Are there any planetary movements or things you’ve had your eye on recently?

(06:34) Khasanti: Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot going on right now, in terms of just the mundane astrology, but also how the planets are hitting my chart. So I am a Scorpio rising, as you know, but maybe some of our, our dear listeners are not party to that fact just yet. So, right now and for the whole of this month, Mars is transiting through Scorpio, so that means I’m getting a lovely visit from my ascendant ruler in my first house of self and identity and body and vitality and all that good stuff. And I’m actually kind of feeling pretty good, which is a little surprising. You know, when you’re somebody whose ascendant ruler is their out of sect malefic in fall, which for people that don’t necessarily know what that means, it’s not great. It can mean things like, you’re your own worst enemy or, you know, just the that life in this particular incarnation may not be like a total breeze. Not that it probably is for most people, but yeah, weirdly what’s happening this time is I’m actually kind of feeling a little bit like I’m coming into my own. Things that normally I would feel a little pretender syndrome-y about I’m actually kind of feeling like, yeah, I can do this. See also starting a podcast.

(08:40) Randee: Right, right. IE.

(08:42) Khasanti: Yeah, exactly. But this is just one of like several things that I’ve got going on at the moment which is, again, pretty unusual for me. I’m not a person who likes to have too many things going on, but I’m leaning into it and I’m kind of seeing it as like a way to practice some Mars devotion. Like, all right, Mars, bring it on. Let’s do this. Let’s be me and shine my little light into the world and let’s see what happens. So I’m into it. Check back with me at the end of the transit and we’ll see.

(09:28) Randee: We’ll see how scorched you are. I love that. There’s such an inceptional quality about Mars that I think just lends itself to starting new things and feeling that excitement, feeling a forward momentum in life. And I love that for you. And I know you’re super busy. I know you’ve got a lot of projects on the iron right now, but that’s great.

(10:03) Khasanti: So what else is up? What is feeling fizzy and exciting to you right now, Randee, in your astrological life?

(10:14) Randee: Yes, yes. Well, I will say I did pick up a book recently, but it had been sitting on my bookshelf for quite some time. I don’t even know where I got it, but it’s called The Hero Within, subtitled Six Archetypes We Live By by Carol Pearson, who I don’t know much about, but it’s been quite interesting, you know, as I’ve been kind of thinking about this episode and thinking about our topic of the moon, of course, also just considering the role of the luminaries and the roles of the archetypes and how they intertwine and how they’re interwoven in everything that we think about astrologically. And so this is, this has been a cool book. The six archetypes she highlights are the innocent, the orphan, the magician, the wanderer, the martyr and the warrior. So I’m kind of excited. I’m only about a quarter of the way in, but it’s been pretty, pretty cool.

(11:29) Khasanti: That sounds awesome. I’ll have to check that out.

(11:32) Randee: Yeah. I like thinking about, you know, the archetypes and sort of the hero’s journey, which we’ll get into a little bit later. But yeah, how about you? What’s been lighting your fire these days?

(11:48) Khasanti: Well, I have been getting back into… I’ve taken a little break from watching wall-to-wall Adam Elenbass content. For those who don’t know who that is, Adam is our astrology teacher. We both hold him in great high esteem and he is like the nightlight astrology school guy. And he puts out just an unbelievable amount of astrology content every week, every day. He’s just super reliable for that. And I caught a live that he was doing, I think it was last week, which was Astrology for Skeptics, which was like a really fascinating topic, and I really enjoyed just listening to him talking about astrology and addressing a more skeptical audience and he said this thing that I just really, really loved. Like it was almost a kind of throwaway comment in passing, but he said something about the reason that we do astrology is to give the soul comfort that life is meaningful. And I just, I was like, wow, that just puts into such beautifully succinct words something that I’ve kind of been trying and failing to articulate over the last years. I’m gonna be reflecting on that. And I might even, I don’t know, put it on my website or something. It just feels so key to like why, why I do this, why I love it, why I love sitting down with clients and talking about their chart. Cause it’s like, I don’t know, even when life is really shitty…we never really talked about whether we were going to curse on this podcast, but I guess…

(14:06) Randee: Let’s just green light that now.

(14:09) Khasanti: Yeah, alright, good, good, because that was going to be my take on it. Yeah, I’ll change our rating on all of our podcast places. But yeah, you know, life can be really hard. Life is really hard. It’s beautiful, but it’s really hard. And we have to go through really difficult things and sometimes it can just feel like too much. But I personally find that one of the things that really helps keep me going is feeling like there is some meaning behind it all, that even when I’m really kind of in the trenches with whatever it is I have going on, like if I can see something happening in the astrology that mirrors that, it just it truly does feel comforting to me. It doesn’t make the thing go away, but it makes me feel less like I’m just kind of being, I don’t know, just pointlessly suffering, if that makes sense. So anyway, that is the thing that is floating my boat the most at this moment.

(15:36) Randee: I love that. Yeah, that’s beautiful. And I feel like Adam has such an incredible way of synthesizing deep and expansive concepts into just the most beautiful sentences. It’s just so apparent to me that he’s a writer as well.

(16:00) Khasanti: Yeah, yeah.

(16:02) Randee: Just a beautiful mastery of the language really. And yeah, I love that. And, you know, just to kind of piggyback off that, I think that one of the thoughts that I’ve been having lately is that astrology is so lunar by nature, that it’s so emblematic of the natural seasons that we progress through in our life. And for me, that sort of framework gives me comfort that pain and suffering is just part of a cycle that its opposite is joy and fulfillment and that everything in between is just all part of this beautiful rhythmic cycle that just goes on and on. So yeah, just the the lunar quality of astrology really speaks to me and gives me that same degree of comfort.

(17:10) Khasanti: Mmm. Yeah, that’s beautiful. And it sounds a little bit like that could be a little teeny segue maybe into our topic of the month.

(17:21) Randee: I think we’re ready.

(17:23) Khasanti: All right. All right. Let’s do it.

BUMPER

(17:34) Khasanti: Alright, so the moon. Randee, how do we do this in less than 15 hours of like romantic poetry?

(17:46) Randee: Uh, you’re so right about that. The moon does beckon us towards her poetic, mysterious nature. You know, when I think about the moon, I think about how it’s a real anchor. It anchors us to the physical embodiment of our life. It gives us that starting point. And you know, the moon has so many significations. If you go back over the centuries of astrologers and mystics offering their wisdom about what the moon symbolizes, it just embodies so much. But one of the ways that I think of it is this sort of energy of drawing down the celestial placements into something tangible – into something that we can embody. And I just, I love that about the moon. And I think that it’s by its very nature and by its very expansiveness, something that is quite mysterious, something that requires reflection, right? No pun intended, but the moon does offer us counterfeit light. I think Valens said that. And so it does give us a space to reflect and it invites that. It just invites reflection and it invites an embodiment and going kind of both inward of course to the emotional realm but just also what we can touch, what we can see, what we can taste. Yeah so that’s…I don’t know, what do you think? That’s kind of where I start.

(19:47) Khasanti: Yeah, I love that. I start in a pretty similar place to be honest. But where I tend to go with, I like, have all these Gemini placements, right? So like pretty much everything that I approach philosophically tends to have something to do with duality. Like, I love, and I can’t really think about the moon without also thinking about the sun. Cause they, they just in astrology, and in life, they kind of exist as these counterparts to one another. So in that sense, the moon as compared with the sun. So the sun is very kind of daytime. I mean, obviously the sun has a lot of connection with kind of the activities of the day. Like the sun is a pretty active principle and the moon is more receptive. It’s quieter. It’s more magical. And the moon can remind us to slow down and open up to the mystery and the beauty of existence. And I feel like we kind of need more of that. Speaking personally and like as a member of our current society, you know, I think there is, there is a lot of focus on productivity and value, a person’s value being kind of connected to how productive they are. And I think we all suffer from this in our own ways. Like who amongst us hasn’t had a day off and just had a really hard time just resting and doing nothing? Because there’s like, well, we only get these X number of days a week and X number of vacation days a year, like better use them for all the million things that we don’t have time to do while we’re working, you know, if we’re working people. And so I love thinking about the moon as an antidote to our society’s obsession with productivity. And I also feel like you can kind of bring that into spiritual practice as well. Like I am a Buddhist and it’s a pretty standard thing in Buddhism to kind of compare like the path of the Vajra and the path of the Lotus. So it’s kind of like the path of the Vajra is like this very goal oriented, like I’m gonna sit down, I’m gonna meditate, I’m gonna like get into Dhyana, I’m gonna gain insight, I’m gonna get enlightened. And like it’s a very sort of linear, I’m here, I want to get to there, and now I’m going to do that. Whereas the lotus, as you might imagine, is more of a kind of unfolding template for the spiritual life. So it’s less about kind of wanting things to be different, wanting to get to a different place than where you are and it’s more about just kind of being in the moment of what is actually there and kind of using that as your way of practicing. And as with all of these dualities, it usually is not the case that one of them is better than the other. Like if you’re all lotus, then maybe you need a little Vajra. If you’re all Vajra, then maybe you need a little lotus. So kind of same with the sun and the moon. But I do feel like just given the way everything is right now, there is a need for a kind of toning down of the solar to some extent and a turning up the volume on the lunar.

(24:25) Randee: That’s beautiful.

(24:26) Khasanti: Yeah, yeah.

(24:27) Randee: I love that and it kind of like as you were talking it kind of brings to my mind, you know the imagery of a lotus flower opening and just being that sort of container and the holder, the holder of what was it the Vahara? Is that how you say it?

(24:53) Khasanti: The Vajra. V-A-J-R-A. It’s a thing, it’s like a name for a, one of the translations is it’s like a diamond thunderbolt. So it’s like this very kind of like energetic. And it’s all, it’s a lot to do with truth and action and activity and stuff. Yeah.

(25:19) Randee: I love that and almost like the Lotus is a resting place, like something that the diamond lightning can come back to to recharge and rejuvenate. And I can see how that sort of metaphor or analogy brings in some of the significations of the moon as home, as where we recharge, where we sleep perhaps. That’s beautiful. I love that.

(25:56) Khasanti: And what you were just saying also made me think of the, when you were talking about the Lotus as being like a kind of container or a cup kind of shaped thing, that also just made me think of the moon as a vessel, as a kind of container for, I mean you could probably go in a million different directions with that. But like one of the significations of the moon is that she collects things. You know, she collects light from other planets and then kind of drops it off with with the next one that she goes and hangs out with. The moon is connected with memory, which is one of the significations that I really love about the moon. And it kind of speaks to that. Like the moon as memory, kind of, it just makes me think of this sort of vessel that we, as we kind of go through our lives, we’re kind of adding these little drops of memories into the vessel. And, you know, if we’re lucky to live long enough, then the vessel just gets filled up with all of the, all of the things that we’ve experienced and all of the ups and downs of our lives, which is another very lunar thing. It’s like, as opposed to the sun, which is more to do with like a more transcendent kind of, almost kind of god-like. The sun’s house in the chart is called the house of God and the moon’s house is called the house of the Goddess. And so the moon very much has this kind of, it’s very much not about transcending the, the kind of mucky messiness of our human existence, but like just embracing those cycles and understanding that the things that we love will eventually pass away and new things will be born and I just love that. And I just feel like it’s such an important…in my life it’s been a very important thing to remember that life and particularly kind of the spiritual life I think you know it’s been something I’ve wrestled and wrangled with quite a lot over my lifetime as a Buddhist is kind of this whole thing of like, are we trying to like escape this material situation? Or are we okay with embracing it and fully appreciating the beauty of it? And it’s always just felt to me kind of like a waste to find ourselves in this human form and then be like, okay, well, I’m going to spend my whole life just trying to figure out how to transcend this because I don’t want to do this anymore. So yeah. So I love the moon for that. The moon just feels like kind of a cheerleader for like being human and yeah.

(29:26) Khasanti: Yes, yes. I feel like you just dropped us so nicely into that, that core duality, you know, of astrology. You know even when we’re brand new, even before we were astrology students, even when we were just interested in it, we start by knowing the sun sign and then we usually go to the moon sign. So there’s something about the dominance and the importance and the sort of interconnectedness of the two that they need one another to exist. We need the opposite to define the other. And just to kind of expand on that idea, one thing that I had kind of been thinking of in terms of the sun and the moon, you know, when we think about the hero’s journey – that sort of familiar and predictable arc of the hero’s journey that we see in every movie we’ve probably ever watched, but most certainly in fantasy movies. Especially so in children’s movies. I just watched Moana for the first time with my daughter. I have to say, side note, that was just a gorgeous movie and I cried so many times during it and we may just have to devote a whole episode to that movie but it got me really in the mindset of the hero’s journey and what is the role of the moon in the hero’s journey. And I think about movies like Lord of the Rings, right? That one always comes to my mind as well as sort of the hero’s journey. So I was kind of meditating on this concept of, you know, the hero we often think of as sort of symbolized by the sun. We have this sort of quest. We have this individuation. This journey forward on an adventure that’s often singular in its mission and maybe even individual in its mission. And all of that feels like very visible, right? Very solar.

(32:02) Khasanti: Yes, yeah.

(32:03) Randee: So what is the role of the moon in the hero’s journey? And I was thinking the moon is everything else. The moon is the terrain that the hero walks on. The moon is the backdrop of the story. The moon is the circumstantial timing of all of the events, of the near-death misses, of the, you know, the intuitive knowing about where the arch enemy will be next or the feeling of where we have to go forward. It’s the…when we think about Frodo and we think about him leaving the village, that’s the moon. The moon is the village. The moon is is his origin. The moon is the people along the way that he meets that that provides support and help. The moon is the environment. The moon are the circumstances of the journey, the circumstances of the family, the circumstances of the origin. And like you said, what we collect along the way. So it’s almost like our wisdom keeper, our intuition. It’s everything that the hero needs to succeed. So without the moon, the hero, there is no hero. That was, you know, that all kind of just came to me in this meditation. And it just really has helped me kind of more deeply appreciate the interconnectedness between the sun and the moon and how they truly do need one another. You know, the phases of the moon, right? I often think about where I tend to start my chart readings with people looking at the phase of the moon that they were born under. Okay, well, here we are again, we’re talking about the sun and the moon and the relationship to one another. Looking at the house placement that the moon is in, looking at the sign that the moon is in. What sort of environmental origin story are we crafting when we do a reading? And I also consider the progressed lunar cycle to explore what part of this person’s journey are they in right now. Are they in this crescent moon phase where this sort of waxing crescent phase where seeds have been planted and there’s lots of ideas and maybe the direction is starting to form and crystallize but we don’t quite know exactly yet. Are they in the waxing gibbous phase where there’s just a sense of excitement about what is just on the horizon? There’s sort of a goal, there’s support, there’s sort of a momentum and a buoyancy, you know. Are they in their balsamic moon phase where we might be exploring themes of surrendering and letting go, shedding, integrating. And so the moon is just so integral and it’s often where I begin a reading. I know I just went on a big tangent there, but from hero’s journey to where I start a reading. That’s my journey.

(36:04) Khasanti: Yeah, it doesn’t seem tangenty to me. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah. But I love that you start with the moon. I feel like that is, that’s a really lovely place to start a reading and it feels appropriate for you as a night chart person.

(36:30) Randee: Right. That too.

(36:39) Randee: Now you’re a day chart person.

(36:42) Khasanti: I am.

(36:43) Randee: I have so many questions I want to ask you, just so many. Sometimes I want to just be in your brain. You know, you have this amazing mercurial, gorgeous, complex, Geminiain brain and I just love it. I’m here for every minute of it. You know, as a day chart person, can you say more about that? Like, how does the moon kind of show up for you? How do you think about it?

(37:21) Khasanti: Mm. Yeah. Wow. So many things I could say about that.

(37:29) Randee: Just some…small question.

(37:30) Khasanti: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, just for folks who don’t know what we’re talking about with Day Chart and Night Chart, that relates to a concept called Sect. S-E-C-T. Wow, that was hard to spell somehow.

(37:50) Randee: I’m glad you spelled it because it’s so easy to say it wrong and it just means something totally different.

(37:57) Khasanti: Yes, exactly, exactly. And so, yeah, depending on whether you were born at night or born during the day, that has an effect on which of the planets in your chart are kind of a little, not exactly louder, but have a little bit more ability to do what they’re trying to do. And if you’re born during the day, the sun is what’s known as your luminary of sect, whereas if you’re born during the night, your luminary of sect is the moon. And so, yeah, as a day chart person, I do think that I am naturally…not that I think that this is kind of a hard and fast thing, like all day chart people are like this and all night chart people are like that, but I do…I really do kind of identify with that hero’s journey type thing and I am just a pretty active like, I have all these, all these planets in Gemini that are just like constantly trying to kind of be thinking about things and analyzing things and like creating systems and figuring things out and learning things and whatnot. And it’s actually quite hard for me to turn that off and yet I really need to be able to do that. My natal moon is in Aquarius and I feel like my moon has… and yeah, I guess my moon also rules like my Mars and Venus, and my moon is my only angular planet just to kind of get nerdy about things so I do feel like the moon is kind of loud in my chart even though I’m not a night chart person. And I actually have this little thing that I’ve written up on my monitor that says “what does my moon need?” with a little heart underneath it. ‘Cause that’s a question that I need to keep asking myself, because otherwise just kind of left to my own devices I won’t just sit down and vibe. Even though I like really value that like in practice, it’s hard. It’s hard for me to just kind of, it’s almost a little scary to just kind of enter into that wide open space of like, I’m not thinking about anything, I’m not figuring anything out, I’m not like solving a problem, I’m just…just being. And when I can manage to do that, it’s just deeply, incredibly nourishing for me.

(41:01) Randee: It sounds like it’s really grounding for you to have that reminder for yourself.

(41:10) Khasanti: Yeah, 100%. And it’s kind of… I can’t remember. I feel like there was some astrologer that I’d been to see at some point, apologies to whoever it was that I’m not able to credit them for this, but I’m pretty sure that they said something to me about how I need to kind of be on my own in order to figure out what I really feel about things and that feels very true. Like this Aquarius moon, ruled by Saturn, it needs this spaciousness. Like I just, I need that in order to not only just to function, but to kind of, so that interestingly, I feel like it kind of speaks to your question of like why..what’s the moon for in the hero’s journey? And it’s like for me, I think I need that the open space, the reflectiveness, the quiet, the dark, the silence to really just kind of feel into who I actually am. And that without that, I’m just kind of like being this self who thinks they know who they are, but actually they’re just kind of geminiing off the walls and there’s something deeper in there that much as we love those gemini placements, they’re not always the best at like really doing the deepest dives on things so yeah.

(43:06) Randee: I love that. It speaks to just how even just reflecting on our own birth charts can be this infinite self-exploration – layers upon layers of knowing ourselves more deeply. And I love that about astrology just at a foundational level. But I really resonate with what you were just saying about the moon and the moon placement for you offering you something about how to access what you know about yourself. Or how to, yeah, I guess access is the right word – how to access your self awareness and you know, maybe looking at the ruler of that kind of sheds a little bit of light on that. You know, this sort of Saturnian ruled moon, which would be true for anybody with moon in Capricorn or moon in Aquarius, this sort of Saturnian ruled moon may be requiring some degree of solitude, aloneness. And kind of maybe like a seriousness to just reflect on what do I need? How do I nourish myself? I really love that. And I can see how that would be kind of a contrast to that sunny solar Geminian sort of vibe. And so, yeah, just the self-awareness that astrology can offer us is so beautiful. You know?

(45:03) Khasanti: It’s amazing. Yeah.

(45:06) Randee: I was, as you were talking, I was kind of trying to apply that to myself and just reflecting, you know, with my moon in Leo, sort of a solar ruled moon. And, you know, not to go into all the details…

(45:28) Khasanti: Oh, we will in time.

(45:29) Randee: We will, oh we will. All will be revealed. We will hold nothing back. But I find that sometimes I feel most embodied when I am being creative, when I am being expressive. That doesn’t nourish all the parts of me. I certainly need quiet. I certainly need time for self-retreat. But there is something about the ruler of my moon, giving me some sort of information about how to access the self and how to feel embodied. So yeah, I love that you bring that up.

(46:19) Khasanti: Yeah, that’s really interesting. And I’m, you know, I think it’s really fascinating that we have these, that our moons are opposite each other, at least by whole sign house. So like, feel like I, my Aquarius moon is very fascinated by your Leo moon, because they’re just kind of quite different.

(46:44) Randee: Yes, yes.

(46:45) Khasanti: So, yeah. And I’m really curious, can I ask you something about your moon?

(46:52) Randee: Please do, please do. I’d love to share.

(46:58) Khasanti: Its a very stupid question.

(47:02) Randee: There’s no such thing. There is no such thing.

(47:05) Khasanti: Yes, well see, this is what I was gonna say, you know, I personally have found myself extremely nourished by the cheerleader vibes of your Leo Moon. There’s really nothing like the kind of warm, sunshiny, emotional embrace of being celebrated by your Leo Moon friend. For anything, really. I feel like you’re just so lovely at being happy for me whenever I kind of do anything that I’m proud of or what have you. And I’m sure that that is also an experience that all of your other friends and loved ones have being in your orbit. And so I’m just curious how does that, do you feel like you are able to be that good of a cheerleader for yourself? And/or are there other ways that that kind of Leo Moon nourishes you personally as a self, as opposed to just kind of radiating out and shining its beams on the people around you?

(48:30) Randee: Mm hmm. It’s a really astute question and it’s so funny. I was literally earlier today having a conversation with my partner about some of the shadow work aforementioned that I have been doing and recognizing ways in which I will sometimes put my own needs secondary. And now I’m also Libra rising so we have, you know, we could build the story, but I do think that while I receive much nourishment by shining that light onto others, and I think that is very hallmark of a Leo trait is that sort of we get as much as we give. That sort of idea.

(49:35) Khasanti: I love that. Yeah, totally.

(49:36) Randee: And when I’m giving, I often do feel like I’m getting a lot as well. So maybe that answers your question. But to be determined on figuring that out for myself, like still working on that.

(49:51) Khasanti: Mm hmm. Saturn nods approvingly.

(49:55) Randee: Oh, Saturn. You just rule my life in so many ways. It’s so good, it’s so good. I did also have a question for you though. I’m wondering, you know, do you have any certain symbols or myths or imagery that you go to when you are contemplating the moon or when you are offering a chart reading or when you are just reflecting on your own moon placement? Do you have any imagery that comes to your mind?

(50:39) Khasanti: Yeah, I definitely do. I am a big Hekate person.

(50:48) Randee: Ohh, ohh do tell. Do tell.

(50:51) Khasanti: So yeah, I love Hekate because she is this goddess that really embodies I want to say kind of like the real kind of mysterious, slightly dark nature of the moon. Like she’s the goddess of the crossroads. She is a companion for people journeying in the underworld. She’s kind of connected to death and, you know, all things that this little Scorpio rising is kind of excited about.

(51:29) Randee: Yes. Yes.

(51:31) Khasanti: Yeah, so I love, I love Hekate for that – that kind of connection with like the sort of slightly sinister maybe things that might be kind of going on under the cover of night that we don’t necessarily see kind of happening out in the daytime. I’m a huge fan of the night. Like that probably would be another whole episode we could do, but man, I just love the nighttime. I love…

(52:10) Randee: There’s such a magic to it. Yeah.

(52:13) Khasanti: Yeah. It’s kind of one of the reasons that I, I love the fall and winter time, you know, probably another Saturnian thing, but like, I, I don’t really, a lot of people really hate the kind of, oh my God, it’s dark at four o’clock thing, but I’m like, sounds like more cozy time to me. More time for putting on the candles and putting on the fire and having everything just be kind of super vibey and cozy and I yeah.

(52:45) Randee: Love that.

(52:46) Khasanti: I wonder if we should like start moving towards a conclusion here, even though we could both just go on and on about the moon as we’ve already established for more time than anyone probably wants to listen to a podcast episode. Yeah. So do you have any resources about the moon that you particularly love that anyone who’s listening to this and might want to dive a little deeper could go check out?

(53:24) Randee: Yeah, I have several. Even though I’m formally trained in Hellenistic astrology, I am such a Steven Forrest fan. He’s a more modern evolutionary astrologer, and I just adore his writing, his sentimentality, his care and compassion and anything that he has written on the moonI have found deeply inspiring. There’s also the astrology podcast episode 294 with Israel Ajose – amazing. I don’t know 2, 3-hour long episode on all things moon related. It’s a beautiful, in-depth coverage of significations dating back a couple thousand years. Um, just beautiful. So I would definitely direct people there. How about you?

(54:29) Khasanti: Yeah, I mean, all of the above. And also one of the resources that I really love, it’s not a tall kind of academic resource, but it’s this podcast called Luminaries In and Out of Sect by an astrologer named S.P. Hall.

(54:51) Randee: Yes, yes.

(54:54) Khasanti: I have really loved listening to that podcast and it’s all basically just interviews with other astrologers or I think it’s mainly astrologers just talking about their Sun and Moon placements. So there’s like an episode for interviewing like a person with I guess like a Leo Moon who is a day chart person and then another one with a Leo Moon who’s a night chart person and Leo Sun.

(55:24) Randee: Yes, I’ve heard a few of those. They’re so good.

(55:28) Khasanti: They’re so good. And I just, I just, I could listen literally all day to just people kind of talking about their lived experience of astrology and their placements, which is, I guess, a good reason why we’re doing this podcast, because we, we love this stuff. Yeah.

(55:48) Randee: We share that.

(55:49) Khasanti: So that’s, that’s my recommendation. Yeah. So, do we, let’s just check in and see whether we have any closing thoughts. Is there anything, Randee, that you’re gonna feel super sad that you didn’t get to say if we stop here?

(56:15) Randee: I will just offer, you know, in our preparation for this episode in my own personal reflections on the moon that the moon is truly a meditation. Its meanings reveal themselves over time and I don’t think the moon is something that we can look at once and understand or read about once and understand. It’s, like you said, it is like a lotus flower. It opens, it closes, it reveals, it hides. It does everything and nothing all at once. And there’s so much we can learn about the moon, about ourselves and our own mortality, the seasons of our life. Yeah. So I think that’s, that’s my period.

(57:14) Khasanti: I love it. So gorgeous. So gorgeous. Yeah. And I guess I will just put a little bow on top of this episode by just reiterating that I believe the sun and moon are equally valuable and equally important. And it’s really crucial, I think, to look for a balance in life between those two archetypes. And my guess is that many of us could really benefit from more honoring of the moon and the lunar in our lives. So hopefully this episode has given you a little food for thought, pun slightly intended. Yeah, so do drop us a line. You can find our contact details on our website. If you have any feedback about this episode or anything that you’d like to share, anything you’d like to ask us to talk about in a future episode. We have loved hanging out with you at the Dark Moon Cafe tonight. We hope you enjoyed your time with us. It would mean so much to us if you would subscribe to the pod in your podcatcher of choice and leave us a stellar review. And we are wishing you the very best for the coming month and we look forward to seeing you again next dark moon.

(58:58) Episode Ends.