(00:31) Randee: Hello and welcome to the Dark Moon Cafe. We are your hosts. My name is Randee (Khasanti: And I’m Khasanti) and each Dark Moon, we will be inviting you in for a monthly conversation about astrology and other adjacent topics. Each episode will compare notes on how the monthly transits have been showing up for us, followed by a deeper dive into a specific topic, which for tonight’s episode is BEGINNINGS. You can find transcripts of each of our episodes on our website darkmooncafe.com. 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. So, hey, Khasanti, how are you and what are you drinking tonight?

(01:22) Khasanti: Hey, Randee. So super nice to see you, as always. I’m drinking a beer tonight. (Randee: Oh! Excellent! (laughter)) I’ve kind of had a day. It’s been fine, like nothing terrible happened, but it was just like a chaotic day where I was just like running from one thing to the next and I’m like, you know what? I could just use a little beer energy in my life.

(01:53) Randee: Yeah, you know, the nervous system sometimes just needs a little depressant just to calm down. (Khasanti: Yeah (laughter)) So that’s all good here in the cafe.

(02:03) Khasanti: Exactly. Exactly And I feel like it fits with, you know, all of the Aries Sixth House busines I have going on. Life is just busy, and I am, yeah I just have a lot going on. So, yeah, that’s the medicine that I prescribed myself. (Randee: Mmm hmm, excellent) Yeah, yeah, yeah. How about you? What’s on the menu in in Randee-land tonight?

(02:37) Randee: Well, in Randee-land, I am drinking an orange blossom tea because here in upstate New York, we are in the beginning of Spring and things are just blossoming right now. And it’s aside from summer, it’s my favorite season. So I just felt inspired to drink a tea that sort of has the word blossom in it. It just feels in alignment with the season right now. Yeah.

(03:12) Khasanti: That is so lovely. And isn’t it just, I don’t know, it never gets old this time of year after the I mean, I love the winter. I love the fall. I love the winter, but like, wow. It’s just watching the world kind of wake up and sprout out of the ground and all the blossom on the trees and you know, more light in the evenings. It’s like, the soul. The soul has been hungry for such things. (both laughter)

(03:44) Randee: So true. And I’ve been trying to instill a curiosity with my daughter in terms of just the awe of watching things shoot up from the ground. And so we kind of have this little thing that we’re doing each night where we walk around the house and we try to find the new little buds popping up and it’s just really fun. We’re getting our hands in the dirt and it just feels so good.

(04:14) Khasanti: Oh my god, that is so great. You know, I still have this visceral memory of pulling up radishes in my mom and dad’s yard when I was little. And it must have been before I was five because we moved from that house. But like, there’s just a real sensory deliciousness of feeling a radish kind of just give itself up out of the, out of the ground. And, yeah, I feel grateful to my parents for giving me that experience. I love knowing that you’re doing the same for your little one. Who knows which little magical moments of what you’re doing together she’ll still remember when she’s 53.

(05:09) Randee: Yes, I know. I’m always projecting into her future, so it’s kind of interesting. But yes. So tell me, how are things going for you in the astrological winds of life? And also, is anything just kind of interesting lately for you?

(05:33) Khasanti: Yeah, in general, I would say I am, I’m doing well. I am a little tired and I am, I’m kind of realizing that I’m a couple months out from the end of this sixth house profection year and that what’s coming next is going to be a seventh house Taurus year ruled by Venus, which is going to have a whole different vibe than a sixth house Aries year ruled by Mars. So, you know, I’m not, I’m not taking my foot off the gas just yet, cause I wanna, you know, I wanna just, just milk that sixth house year for all I can get out of it. But I’m just, I’m aware that I’m, my, my mind is turning towards ideas of how can I make my life feel more sustainable and how can I make it, how can I just indulge more in the moments that feel delicious and kind of give myself more of them? Because I, I tend to be very project focused and very to-do list focused and kind of let’s do all the things first and then when when we have a clean slate, we can do nothing or just chill out and lie around in the grass and smell the flowers and all that kind of thing. Yeah, I’ve just been sort of realizing that, well, in general, that life is short, but also that this next year is going to be a really good opportunity for me to lean a bit more into the Venusian and the Taurean and just kind of graze around in life, taking in all of the pleasurable sensations. And just, I guess, of balancing, because there’s still a lot of stuff that I am busy with that I want to continue being busy with. I’m loving having a really busy client practice at the moment that’s filling me with joy and delight and meaningfulness. So it’s not like I’m asking for any of that to slow down, but I think I just want to, I want to space things out a little better and yeah, just indulge myself a little more. So yeah, I’m kind of noticing that Venus just went into Taurus not too long ago and, you know, in about three weeks time, which will be more like a week’s time from when this airs, the Sun will go into Taurus and all of this party bus that was in Pisces and now is in Aries is gonna be in Taurus and that just feels like a really good time for me to have like a little preview of what my Taurus year might feel like and just start laying the groundwork a little bit for it. It feels good. It kind of feels like I’ve, you know, I’ve been in the trenches and I’ve worked my ass off and I’ve actually survived longer than I really imagined that I would when I went into this Aries year (both laughter).

(09:15) Randee: Wow. Well, nothing like an Aries year to reflect back to us that we can do hard things.

(09:22) Khasanti: Yeah, yeah, beautiful. love that. Yeah, how about you, Randee? What’s been going on with you?

(09:32) Randee: Well, I have sort of not astrologically related, but kind of astrologically related, I have been devouring this new book I got written by the former bassist of the band Hole. And then eventually she went on to play bass for the Smashing Pumpkins. Melissa Auf Der Mar recently wrote a book called Even the Good Girls Will Cry. Interestingly enough, which is basically like a 90s rock memoir, she sort of chronicles her journey through the mid to late 90s in the band Hole. And then I think maybe towards the end of the book, she talks about the Smashing Pumpkins more. I was such a huge 90s grunge music person. But interestingly enough, throughout the book, she references astrology. She is a Pisces and shares the same birthday with Billy Corgan, also a Pisces on March 17th is their birthday. And of course, youn know, with Courtney Love and Hole we’ve got Kurt Cobain, who was also a Pisces. So just like a lot of Pisces vibes in the book, I feel like.

(10:55) Khasanti: Totally. Interesting. OK. That’s awesome.

(10:57) Randee: Yeah. I’m just devouring it, though. It’s just such an interesting peering behind the curtains into the backstage world of these 90s bands that I idolized as a teenager. But more sort of personally, astrologically, I kind of have my sights set on this upcoming Uranus ingress into Gemini (Khasanti: Yeah) which will be taking place in my ninth house (Khasanti: Oh yeah). And so I’m like eager with anticipation about what new, surprising and innovative things lie ahead for me in the realm of higher learning, mysticism, spirituality, expanding my mind and my heart and my soul, all that great ninth house, where the sun rejoices type of stuff. (Khasanti: Yes, ohh!) So I’m excited. I’m excited to see what that seven-year transit will look like and yeah, what that will bring.

(12:12) Khasanti: Yeah. Maybe you’re going to pioneer some new astrological technology.

(12:17) Randee: Oh. Wow. I love the sound of that. If only I was tech savvy. (both laughter) I’m almost wondering if it will have something to do with learning something new. You know, as we’re talking about beginnings tonight, I do feel like Uranus kind of has a lot of inceptional energy around it. (Khasanti: 100 % yeah, yeah) So, I don’t know, or maybe I’ll travel. I dont’ know. We’ll just have to wait and see.

(12:52) Khasanti: I can’t wait. Yeah. Very cool.

(12:54) Randee: Well, that’s a good catch up on the month.

(12:57) Khasanti: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So shall we begin to talk about beginnings then? (Randee: drum roll sounds, laughter) Actually, I discovered that Riverside, which is the tool that we use for recording, it actually has like a soundboard that has like a kind of, what do call that thing that you just did? (Randee: the little high hat roll) Yeah, yeah, so if I get really good at riversiding then, you know, maybe we’ll be able to put like little kind of canned laughter in after we say something funny.

(13:38) Randee: (laughter) That’s amazing. In front of our live studio audience. (Khasanti: Yeah) That’s fantastic.

(13:46) Khasanti: Yeah, I love it. (Both laughter)

(13:51) Randee: Yes. Well, tonight we are talking about beginnings and it was so organic the way in which this topic arose for us as we were considering this absolute pile up of planets in Aries that we are currently all living with and experiencing. And at the time of this recordings release, we will have the sun, the moon, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune all in Aries. That’s a lot. And also, obviously, we will be having a new moon in Aries as well. So perfect fodder for a conversation about beginnings, right?

(14:45) Khasanti: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. So, um, what do you, what do you think about beginnings? Are you a fan? Do you like the starts of things or do you prefer the middles or the ends? What’s what’s your favorite flavor?

(15:04) Randee: You know, it’s so funny. I think maybe as a sun sign Aquarius, one might think I like the middle. I sort of like that fixed energy, that maintenance, stable. I do tend to find myself in the wingman position with people, which I kind of love. But I love beginnings. And maybe that has something to do with cardinal signs sitting on all my angles. But I love beginnings. I’ve always enjoyed arrivals more than departures. I love the challenge of starting something new. I love the learning curve of starting something new. And I love sorting out, developing new systems in that sort of new space of a new beginning. (Khasanti: Oof) I know I’m talking your love language. (both laughter) I know. Cue Khasanti. (Khasanti: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm) I also love the unfolding, the anticipation of the unfolding of something. And maybe that has something to do with my work as a therapist. Just that sort of faith that a beginning is the beginning of an unfolding. And to bear witness to the unfolding process is very beautiful to me. So yeah, I love beginnings. I think they’re really fun and exciting. Yeah. How about you? How do you feel about beginnings? Because I could imagine they are not everyone’s cup of tea.

(17:01) Khasanti: Yeah, I could imagine that too, but I’m a fan. I like a beginning. I mean, it depends on the context, I guess. (Randee: Mmm, of course) I don’t love the beginning of something where I feel like I might be out of my depth. I don’t love a new job or something where I have to kind of learn the ropes in a situation that I don’t really have full control over, not super into that. But if I have some amount of agency in whatever I’m beginning, then I’m all about it. Love starting a new class or a new course or something and like metaphorically showing up with my pencil case full of new sharpened pencils (Randee laughter) and little apple for the teacher. Just kidding, but also not (both laughter) you know, setting up my… For me, it’s… You know, I’m a big notion nerd for people who don’t already know that notion being like an online tool that you can organize your whole life in. So yeah, I love setting up a new notion system for a new course or a class or something. And yeah, I love what you said though about the unfolding. That’s really nice. I don’t know that I quite thought about it in those terms, but it sounds to me like you’re kind of okay with the not knowing of what something’s gonna grow into and in fact maybe not just okay with it but you kind of actively relish the the unknown-ness of that…would you say that’s true?

(19:05) Randee: That’s so insightful of you to kind of pick up on that. Yes, I don’t think I’ve always been that way. But I think as I’ve gotten older, which interestingly, I had to look, knowing that we were going to be talking about Aries tonight, I had to look to see, does Jupiter have any like dignity in Aries because to me there feels to be something about faith and trust in the unfolding that allows for a beginning of something to be positive or to be adaptive. And sure enough, Jupiter has a triplicity rulership and I think it has a Decan…uh, I could be wrong on that…

(20:05) Khasanti: I’m looking. It looks like Jupiter rules the first Bound of Aries. (Randee: Bound, that’s it) Which is probably all gobbledygook to people that don’t know what a bound or a decan is, but it’s basically different ways of slicing up a sign of the zodiac and each slice is ruled by a different planet so even in a sign like Aries where Jupiter doesn’t have a domicile rulership or an exaltation rulership, sometimes you can find something in one of these more minor dignities that kind of gives you little bit of insight into a way that that planet still has something to contribute to that sign. And I love that. That’s very…Yeah, I like that you went looking for that because I can see why and I kind of love that Jupiter is the first bound ruler of Aries. It’s kind of like, all right, we’re all being born here into this new space. So better come in with at least a few degrees of optimism (Randee: Yes!) about how things are going to go before we switch. I mean, it switches from Jupiter into Venus, so that’s not a terrible place to land after Jupiter. And then you’ve got Mars as the first Decan ruler, which makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

(21:47) Randee: I think you’re right though. I think like maybe when I was younger, there was a bit more anxiety about beginning and a little more desire for control. And I just think as I’ve gotten older, as I’ve spent more time working in the field of mental health and really witnessing changes within myself, within the clients I work with, there is something very amazing about an unfolding that does require, I think, an openness, a flexibility, and a faith and a trust that the unfolding is taking place as it will, as it should. Kind of fill in the blank. Yeah.

(22:37) Khasanti: I mean, it makes me think of…like it feels a little cliche to say it, but whatever. I will say anyway, it makes me think of planting a seed, right? (Randee: Mm hmm) Like you have that whole period after you’ve planted a seed where you don’t see anything happening. And, you know, there’s this sort of this metaphor that gets thrown around in Buddhist circles of like, you don’t just every day go and dig up your seed to see if it’s sprouted or not. You have to kind of you know, just be patient and leave it under the ground and trust that at some point some little shoot’s gonna come up and that kind of feels a little bit like what you’re talking about. Like when you start with a new client or something and you go through whatever process you go through before the real kind of potential flowering of that process happens, but you can’t just…You can’t just have somebody show up at your door and turn into a flower in five minutes, right?

(23:46) Randee: Right, exactly. (Khasanti: I mean, I imagine (both laughter)) Might be a red flag. (both laughter)

(23:58) Khasanti: Yeah, there’s something just very beautiful about that, the kind of life cycle of anything, I think. You you do have those kind of quiet beginnings, and then you have the excitement of seeing something kind of sprouting, and then the next excitement of seeing maybe a little bud kind of coming into being, and then the flower opens, and then…maybe some fruit happens and then, then, you know, we have the kind of the withering and the going back into the earth part of the process and they’re all, they’re all, they all have their own value, even though we might tend to look at the flower or the fruit maybe as being like the, you know, the, thing that we’re aiming for. I don’t know, maybe, maybe that’s not really the case. Every part of the cycle has its own medicine, I guess.

(25:09) Randee: Mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah, I love that. And, you know, maybe if we are present and mindful, we can drop into those gifts of every stage of the cycle. And really, you said such a key word there, which is cycle, right? Like, to me, that’s such a fundamental foundational aspect concept in the topic of astrology. It’s just so foundational to everything that we study in astrology. Synodic cycles, beginning, middle, and ends. Everything has a cycle.

(25:59) Khasanti: It really does. The moon has a cycle, even the sun, who’s kind of like, in a way, supposedly the kind of the constant light (Randee: yes!) that is sort of conceptually in contrast to the cyclical nature of the moon. The sun, you know, also, I mean, we have our diurnal cycle with the sun coming up and culminating and going down and then we have the yearly cycle of the sun. So, yeah. And then we have, you kind of alluded to this, like the cardinal fixed and mutable signs are a kind of cycle. (Randee: yes) Like the cardinal has that beginning energy and the cardinal signs come at the beginnings of each season. And then the fixed signs come in the middle of each season where we’re more kind of in that, that a little bit more stable, static kind of situation. And then the mutable signs come at the end of the season as that season is transitioning into the beginning of the next one. And then even with the Decans, which we’ve mentioned I think in many episodes, including this one, each sign of the Zodiac has three decans and there’s kind of a progression from one through three. I guess it’s not maybe so much a cycle because it’s not like it comes back to the beginning again. But certainly going all the way around the zodiac is a cycle, whether it’s the sun doing it or any other planet.

(27:51) Randee: Yes. Cycles within cycles, right? (Khasanti: Right1) It’s just cycles within cycles.

(27:57) Khasanti: It is, it is and sometimes that can get a little head fucky. (Randee: Yeah (laughter)) I don’t know if it does it for you, but like, yeah, sometimes I’m like, how do people hold all of that? Like there’s people out there. Like I think of the astrologer, Nick Dagan Best who’s kind of like the big Venus cycle (Randee: Yes!) and other like he’s just somehow kind of has the the kind of brain that can know, like, where are we in Venus’s cycle with the sun, right? Because a lot of the cycles come back, their kind of seed point is when a planet conjoins the sun, right? (Randee: yup, yup) and then the planet kind of goes off on its journey around the zodiac until it makes its next conjunction with the sun. you know, right now, we’re somewhere in Venus’s cycle. We’re somewhere else in Saturn’s cycle, somewhere else in Jupiter’s cycle. And then you’ve got like the, the Jupiter Saturn cycle of when, where those two planets meet. Then you’ve got the outer planet. I mean, it’s like, I, my head just kind of goes, no, thank you, I can’t. (both laughter) Which I think is kind of what, for me, where I go from that kind of head fuck place is back to remembering that astrology is divination and that we’re not supposed to be like, sort of inquiring into our location in every single cycle all the time. But like in a moment, in a divinatory moment where we have a question to ask of the cosmos (Randee: Yes!) then one or more of those planets and wherever they are in their cycle will kind of emerge to show themselves as like, this is the particular piece that you’re supposed to be paying attention to now. You know, blah, blah, blah thing just happened. And it’s just like that thing that happened 12 years ago to me and the thing that happened 24 years ago. Well, maybe that’s something to do with your Jupiter cycle. Eight years, maybe it’s a Venus thing. (Randee: Right) So, but yeah, all that to say, astrology is all is like almost entirely made up of cycles of one kind or another.

(30:41) Randee: Yeah. And I feel like you were kind of alluding to the importance of context. (Khasanti: Yes!) When we are, you know, and astrology as divination, we are, you know, considering the relationship synergy between the querent and the astrologer. And what emerges from the question? What emerges intuitively? Where do the energies and where do the focal points land in a reading? All of that feels so divinatory to me. (Khasanti: Yes) And it’s all very context specific, of course. (Khasanti: Yeah. Yeah) So I love, I love how you said that, you know, it can be so overwhelming and something always emerges as the thing of relevance, you know.

(31:41) Khasanti: It totally does. It totally does. Yeah. If you, if you kind of show up with, with that mindset, I think, I mean, it probably emerges whether you do or not, but you can probably, you can save yourself a lot of astrological overwhelm by, by trusting that process and not imagining that you’re supposed to be just dialed into every single thing that’s happening. (Randee: Yes) I kind of wonder whether that is some of like where the astrological anxiety is a thing, right? I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a thing that really troubles some people, people who are really dialed in either like they know enough about astrology that they can kind of see, see upcoming gnarly looking transits or they don’t quite know that much, they have some favorite astrologer or whatever that they follow who is doing a lot of horoscopes and transits and whatnot. It can be easy to feel like every transit that’s happening is gonna blow up your life in some way and obviously that’s not happening or all of our lives would, I mean guess you could argue that all of our lives are a little bit explodey a lot of the time lately with everything that’s going on, but truly what’s happening in the sky at any one time is gonna have a greater or lesser impact on you as a person depending on what your natal chart looks like. (Randee: Absolutely) And yeah, what kind of perfection year you’re in, other timing techniques and so forth can really point you towards which, you know, which planet is is going to be the most…I’m making hand movements that nobody can see. (both laughter) Impactful. (Randee: Prickly, Pointy) Yeah, exactly. Anyway, I don’t know what that has to do with cycles, but I suppose it has to do with like, maybe if you’re in a Venus year, or you’re a person who’s like a Libra rising or a Taurus rising or something like that, then maybe looking into Venus cycles might be really fruitful for you. Whereas if you are a more Mars heavy person, then looking at Mars cycles and (Randee: Absolutely) Yeah. I just don’t want anybody to get overwhelmed by like, God, I didn’t realize there were so many cycles.

(34:44) Randee: I know. And maybe what would kind of anchor us a little bit tonight is thinking about, you know, we’re kind of zeroing in tonight. We’re talking about beginnings, which is kind of a huge topic. Yeah. But we are filtering our thinking about it for tonight through a couple different specific lenses. You know, we’re thinking about Aries because of all of these planets in Aries right now. And we’re also considering that we have a new moon right now in Aries. And so one thing that our dear listeners can think about, or you can reference your chart, you can look at where is Aries in your chart. And you can reflect upon are there any sort of energetic impulses occurring right now around beginnings? And there may not be, you know, it may not be apparent, it may not be important, but there may be. And so that could be like a good anchoring point for us, just kind of as we’re thinking about the topic of beginnings. (Khasanti: Yeah) And you know, one way that I was kind of thinking about beginnings tonight is asking myself the question, what can Aries teach us about beginnings? What can we learn about beginnings through Aries? I thought about the planets that are dignified in Aries and the planets that are in detriment in Aries. And I just like briefly want to go through them because this was exciting for me to kind of think about organizing my thoughts in this way. We have the sun as the exaltation ruler of Aries. So that says something about beginnings in the sign of Aries around purpose. How many times as astrologers do we have people coming to us with that question, what is my purpose? Will this change in direction in my life be aligned with my heart? Should I take this new job? What about this new relationship? And I think that the sun’s exaltation in Aries just really grounds us in there is something about a beginning when we look at it through the lens of Aries, that has to do with heart and soul. That demands of us to look at, is this part of your truth? So that was kind of coming up for me when I thought about the sun. And then I went into Mars. Of course, Mars is in domicile in Aries. And that has everything to do with courage. (Khasanti: Yeah) These are beginnings that we initiate. These are beginnings that we boldly step forward into without knowing exactly where we’re going. We just know that we’re doing something new. And I think Mars finds its home there. And then, of course, we have the planets that don’t find so much ease in the sign of Aries. Or maybe we could think about beginnings. You know, we have Saturn in fall in areas. Saturn loves endings. It doesn’t always love beginnings. So of course Saturn’s going to tell us something. It’s going to give us wisdom about impulsivity. Maybe we need to slow down. Maybe we need to be thoughtful in a new beginning. And it also, to me, says it’s a reminder that with every new beginning comes an end. So we are, Saturn really embodies, I think, cycles. And when we’re thinking about beginnings, we naturally have to think about endings. And then we have Venus in detriment in the sign of Aries. Venus wants harmony. It wants to work together. It wants people. And there is something about a beginning in the sign of Aries that kind of wants to go it alone. It’s independent. It’s self-assured. It’s a little cocky. (Khasanti: Yeah) And it doesn’t really need a lot of handholding. Those are just some thoughts I just wanted to kind of like, blah, get that out.

(39:50) Khasanti: Oh, I love all of them. That was really awesome and definitely gave me some, some food for thought there. Um, yeah, I hadn’t really thought about the sun and the, love what you said about the heart and soul that just kind of feels, cause like what, I mean, yeah, obviously we have to start some things in our lives that maybe, you know, we just need to do cause we live in a stupid capitalist society. (Randee: Exactly (laughter)) but you know, that aside, like on a bigger scale, like what’s the, what’s the point of starting something new if it, if there isn’t some of that kind of fire of purpose about it, if it doesn’t like just light your soul up a little bit. And it really just, when you were talking, it did remind me like there’ve been a handful of times in my life where I’ve just kind of, I’ve just had this feeling of like, oh shit, I’m gonna throw everything up in the air and go do something really cra- not crazy, but like, there’s just a few, like, when I decided to just go to India on a pilgrimage when I was like 24 or 25 or something and you know, quit my job and, you know, it but, decided like really fast. You know, I just sort of went to a meeting with these various other people that were planning to go. And as I, as I was like listening to them, I was just had this sort of like up-swelling of like this kind of like slightly maniacal smile kind of in my soul. (Randee: Yes! (laughter)) I’m like, Oh fuck, here we go. (both laughter) We’re going to go to India in like two weeks or something. (Randee: Oh amazing) And it’s such a intoxicating feeling. And, know, I know that there is a lot of privilege involved in being able to just do that kind of thing. And as I’ve gotten older, it’s harder and you know, living in the United States where you’re, I don’t know, I won’t get into all of that, but like, you know, it’s a whole fricking thing to decide to just leave your job and go do something. Cause suddenly you don’t have health insurance and blah, blah, blah, blah. (Randee: Right. Yeah) You know, there are still smaller ways in which, like I think when I started with, studying with Nightlight, I think I had a little mini version of that feeling of like, Oh fuck, I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it. I’m going to drop like whatever hundreds of dollars on this thing that I don’t. And there’s often for me, there is a kind of intuitive knowing that this is what I’ve got to do. Right? It’s, and believe me, I am the overthinkiest overthinker in town. And yet sometimes I will just have these intuitive moments where I’m like, my soul just knows we’ve got to go in this direction. And that feels pretty, now that we’re talking about it, that feels pretty Aries and it feels pretty kind of sun exalting in Aries.

(43:29) Randee: So true. Like, I feel such a heart connection to what you’re saying. And I think we’ve all had those moments where our heart just leaps forward towards a thing. And it’s such a beautiful moment. It’s such a hard thing to describe that feeling. But I love that you kind of went there just now because I think that’s it. That’s the sun in Aries. That’s why the sun exalts there. It is about this arising of something so true and so pure and so unique to us that we can’t ignore it.

(44:26) Khasanti: Yeah. And for someone else, might just be like, whatever. That was just an astrology class that some dude on YouTube announced. But like, it’s sort of for some reason, it’s like a sort of the perfect jigsaw piece to the puzzle of your own heart and soul. Yeah, that’s beautiful. I love that you, that you brought all of that up and yeah, the Venus piece, that totally makes sense. Yeah, you’re right. It is more of a, you know, Aries is symbolized by kind of the youth. Who is sort of like, in real traditional terms, it’s kind of the youth going off to war or kind of going off to sort of, you know, seek their fortune as people used to do in old timey times. (Randee: Right (both laughter)) It makes me think of the fool in the tarot actually. (Randee: Exactly, exactly) You just kind of, you know, and I love the kind of dual nature of the fool. It’s like when you pull the fool card, is it because you’re doing something dumb or is it because you are following your heart and just stepping off that cliff with your little dog and your little bindle on a stick because you’re having one of those like moment those fuck I’m doing it moments and I just I kind of love that I mean that’s that’s kind of it feels like it goes back to the not knowing because like if we already knew what the outcome was going to be then we wouldn’t have that kind of fluttery feeling (Randee: yes) but the unknown of it all is like, well, maybe I am making an absolutely ridiculous mistake here, but somehow I got to just like walk off that cliff and see, see what happens. And for me, I feel like I’ve been either pretty fortunate or I have a pretty good inner compass because I have come to really trust whenever I have that kind of impulse that it pretty much always just leads me in the direction of something that’s gonna be really good for me in my life.

(46:48) Randee: Do you feel like your meditation practice allows you to notice that feeling more?

(46:58) Khasanti: That’s a good question. I mean, I feel like maybe like a lifetime of on and off meditation practice maybe just kind of in general tuned me more into like the machinations of my inner workings. So yeah, maybe I… yeah, I feel like I’m not a very consistent meditator, but I also feel like I was consistent for enough years that I wonder if it’s just kind of slightly rewired me into like a generally more mindful person. You know, I like to argue that when I’m trying to give myself a hard time about not meditating enough, like, we did all that we already.

(47:50) Randee: It’s in the bank. (both laughter) It takes one to know one. Yeah. But I also feel like a lot of what we’ve been saying tonight through the lens of Aries also, we could even be using some of those same words around a new moon, right? (Khasanti: Yes) And here we’re in a new moon in Aries, right? So it’s sort of a lot of inceptional energy. And you know, when I think about that, I’m reading this another book that I’m reading right now. I’d like to read more than one. (Khasanti: Of course, like a normal non-monstrous human (both laughter)) It’s called Pushing Through Time: synodic cycles and their developing phases. We’ll put the, we’ll put the link in our, in our notes, but, the author talks about the new moon cycle as the, the part, the part of the cycle that has to do with non experience and the unknown. So there is something also, I think about Aries, about New Moon that can speak to beginnings when we have no prior experience to lean back on. And there is something brazen and bold about that, you know? There’s an innocence there. There’s a naivete there. There’s a risk taking there. And so I kind of like that sort of idea as well. Even though I think we could argue that the balsamic moon phase really has some seeding points of that beginning of a new phase, but they’re so unconscious, I feel like, a lot of the time that I don’t even know if we could call it a seeding. They’re just so deep. They’re so deep within us.

(50:15) Khasanti: Yeah, and what it makes me think of is that like in that whole period for the moon, like the moon goes dark, I don’t know, some like a day or two before the new moon, right? And then a day or two after you see that cute little kind of thumbnail moon. But like, you know, if we didn’t have, you know, astronomy and ephemerides if that’s the right way to pronounce the plural of that word. (Randee: Let’s go with it) Or astrology software, like we wouldn’t know like when is the exact moment of the new moon. Cause it’s all happening in the darkness, right? It’s all happening in the underworld. (Randee: Oh, love that!) So it’s like, you know, the balsamic moon giving way to the new moon is kind of like, you know, it’s not a clear cut. We make it into that when we split the moon cycle into these segments, but actually it’s a lot more of an organic process than that. Yeah, like a full moon. Yes, it is only technically full at that one nanosecond before it starts waning again, but to the naked eye, you look up in the sky and there’s a big fat old moon up there.

(51:50) Randee: Yeah. I love that. (Khasanti: So yeah) I love that. So beginnings really to go back to one of your earlier concepts, where does a beginning really start? You know, does it does it’s it starts before the beginning, right? And yeah, and then we can work ourselves into a spiral.

(52:12) Khasanti: We totally can. I’m saving, I’m looking at the time and realizing there’s no time for me to go on a Buddhist rant right now about whether things really exist or not. So I’ll spare you all that for now, but don’t think it’s not coming in a future episode. (Randee laughter) But yeah, just made me think of…what did you say? When does something really begin?

(52:46) Randee: Yeah, yeah. And does it begin before the beginning?

(52:50) Khasanti: Right, yeah, because everything, nothing just kind of springs into being independently of conditions. Okay, I’m going a little, just a little. (Randee: OK we’re going to go there a little bit, yeah, I was really hoping) Yeah, I just can’t not because, yeah, it’s like, yes, there are kind of obvious moments. Like the moment of birth is what we, how we note what the natal chart is going to be. But in a way it’s a little bit arbitrary that we just decide that like, you know, the baby’s head comes out and that’s what birth is, you know, could it also, I don’t know. I feel like the same thing happens when you’re trying to elect a good astrological date for the start of a business or something, or even a wedding. It’s like, which moment do you pick? Like a business, do you pick the moment when the website goes live, or the moment that you open the bank account, or the moment that you kind of send off your thing for your business license or the moment that you get your first customer. It’s like, yeah, astrology kind of, as we practice it, kind of demands that we, that we just kind of decide what is the, what is the beginning point of a thing that we want to have a chart for, which is just kind of interesting to, to reflect on.

(54:27) Randee: Yeah, that is interesting. Mm hmm, mm hmm.

(54:31) Khasanti: This has been fun. (Randee: Yeah, yeah) I’d love to just keep yapping about this, but we do try to keep our episodes under an hour. That’s kind one of our things. We want this to be something that’s long enough that you can kind of get your teeth into it, but you don’t open your podcast app and stare down a seven hour episode of something and then not looking at any astrology podcasts in particular, and feel a little intimidated and then maybe go and pick something else that feels more bite-sized. So I guess I’ll ask you, Randee, was there anything that we didn’t get to tonight that you’re going to feel sad that you didn’t express about beginnings?

(55:29) Randee: Well, I think it would be an invitation to our beloved listeners to reflect on any areas of life that you are feeling called to a new beginning right now. Or on the flip side, where are you locating endings in your life? And that could be just a little guidance into where to kind of think about these concepts that we’ve talked tonight in looking at your chart.

(56:05) Khasanti: Yeah, definitely. And then just to go back to, I think earlier you mentioned that folks can also look at where Ares is in their chart (Randee: Yup) and see whether there is anything kind of beginning there. And if you’re not sure where Aries is in your chart, you can listen to our episode, episode blank titled, insert episode title here (both laughter) which we will put in the show notes. I feel like it was two or so episodes ago when we did the little mini horoscopes. So it was probably the Saturn in Aries, which I think was called Knock on the Door.

(56:48) Randee: A Knock on the Door, episode five.

(56:50) Khasanti: Okay, perfect. So towards the end of that, we go into like how you can figure out which house Aries is for you and what topics that includes. And if you want to not listen through to the whole podcast, obviously we’d love that you do, but we have transcripts up on our website so you can always search through the transit. Oh my good Lord. Search through the transcript to find that part and get a little intel on where to look in your life for all of this Aries stuff that we have going on. So, with all of that said, we have loved hanging out with you at the Dark Moon Cafe tonight and we hope you enjoy 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. We also adore hearing your thoughts and you can now write to us directly at [email protected]. Let us know what you like, what you’d like more of, any questions you have, any topics you’d like us to cover. In the meantime, we are wishing you the very best for the coming month and we look forward to being with you again next Dark Moon.