What to Expect during Eclipse Season + Mars Retrograde w/ Adam Sommer
Listen here:
In this episode of the Astrology Hub podcast 🚀
In this episode of the Astrology Hub podcast, Amanda welcomes astrologer Adam Sommer to discuss the potent energies surrounding the upcoming eclipse season and the Mars retrograde. With Adam’s deep expertise in astrology, the duo dives into the significance of these transits and how they influence both personal and collective experiences. From reflecting on past cycles to insights into the coming months, this conversation is full of wisdom for anyone looking for insights into navigating these times.
What you’ll learn by tuning in:
✨The importance of eclipse cycles and their long-term influence on personal and global events.
🌌How Mars retrograde in Cancer and Leo will impact energy, boundaries, and the collective emotional climate.
🔮Why tracking planetary cycles, like Mercury and Venus, can offer powerful insights into life's unfolding themes.
⭐️Adam’s unique journey into astrology and how it informs his perspective on the current astrological landscape.
📚Practical ways to work with retrograde cycles for personal growth and understanding.
🌒The mythological and symbolic significance of eclipses across different cultures and their relevance today.
✨ Want to dive deeper into eclipses? Join our Eclipse Mastery Course, featuring renowned teachers such as Bernadette Brady and Benjamin Dykes! Discover how eclipses shape our lives from traditional and modern perspectives, both personally and collectively, and how to work with them for soul growth.
Enroll here for 50% OFF from September 14 through September 17: http://astrologyhub.com/eclipse
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Transcript:
00:00:00:02 – 00:00:28:03
Amanda
Well. Hello everybody, and welcome to the Astrology Hub podcast. I am so happy that you've decided to join us here today. I have a very special guest with us, Adam Sommer. We have been featuring Adam's work almost from the beginning of Astrology Hub. He's one of the astrologers that right from the start I just resonated with everything that he said and continue to resonate with both his approach to astrology, but also the way he communicates about astrology.
00:00:28:04 – 00:00:51:06
Amanda
It's very unique. It's very soulful, and it's just very mercurial for me, and I just love it. So Adam is here. He has been practicing astrology for for 16 years. He started his own astrology podcast 15 years ago, maybe the longest standing astrology podcast on air. I'm not totally sure about that.
00:00:51:08 – 00:00:54:07
Adam
Maybe it's a toss up between Gary and I.
00:00:54:09 – 00:00:57:04
Amanda
Gary. Okay. All right. Interesting. Okay. Tim.
00:00:57:07 – 00:01:04:17
Adam
Yeah, we start at the same time. It was in the spring of 099. Think there was actually another one too. But we've talked about that one before.
00:01:04:19 – 00:01:15:01
Amanda
Yes. Okay. All right. And then 14 years of teaching astrology, he has an awesome, what do you call it, like a blog or like a Substack, but.
00:01:15:03 – 00:01:15:19
Adam
That.
00:01:15:21 – 00:01:16:14
Amanda
Substack, that's the.
00:01:16:14 – 00:01:18:09
Adam
New term. Yeah, that's.
00:01:18:11 – 00:01:50:01
Amanda
Yes. And I absolutely love the way you write, Adam. It's just it's just so good. It's so creative. It's so different. And I love it. and so today we have Adam here to talk about a couple of his favorite topics. And I need to say one more thing. Adam and I tend to have podcast episodes when things are especially intense or almost like right before or as they're becoming intense, we somehow wind up having conversations.
00:01:50:01 – 00:02:14:16
Amanda
And one of the ones that I remember so distinctly was right in the beginning of 2020. It was, I think, March of 2020, and things were starting to get really weird in the world. And it was and I invited Adam on. I was like, what's happening? Like, what do you think? What's going on? And we had just such a beautiful conversation then that helped to anchor me and a lot of our community in the astrological invitation of the time.
00:02:14:18 – 00:02:59:18
Amanda
So today we're going to be talking about the eclipses, the eclipse season that we're currently in. We're going to be talking about the Mars retrograde that is going to be officially starting in December and going into February of 2025, although the shadow of that Mars retrograde is a lot bigger of a window. October 4th to May 2nd. and then I'm going to ask Adam to give us his read on 2025 and 2026 and whether or not he agrees with some of the astrologers we've had on this show recently who've said, the astrology is even bigger than what we experienced in 2020.
00:02:59:20 – 00:03:02:15
Amanda
Adam, welcome to the show. I'm so happy you're here.
00:03:02:17 – 00:03:06:11
Adam
Awesome. I thank you for that sweet intro.
00:03:06:13 – 00:03:32:14
Amanda
Your, well, kind words. Yes. All right, so let's start with the eclipses. actually, before we do that, I don't think we've ever told your story of how you came to astrology and I just I'm I'm fascinated, and I'd love to learn. So what brought you to astrology? And especially the type of astrology that you like to, to, study and teach and practice today.
00:03:32:16 – 00:04:07:03
Adam
How to tell this story differently this time. Let's say, for starters, I'm definitely an accidental astrologer in the sense that I had already kind of been on a bit of a path pre-dating astrology, like I had gone to the rope, had been practicing Buddhism. I had been to a few different jungles doing interesting things. I was in acupuncture school, you know, I was already involved in a lot of healing arts, I suppose, and I was never interested in astrology.
00:04:07:03 – 00:04:34:11
Adam
Of course, I had rubbed up against it a lot, but it just wasn't something that I was into. And the way I'll tell the story this time is I really do think that Bob Dylan was my intro. And it's such a simple story in the sense that when I was like 19 years old and so it the way I'll tell it this time is like, I didn't start studying astrology immediately after, but to what I'm about to share.
00:04:34:13 – 00:04:48:11
Adam
But it was the first thing that, like, kind of kicked a little door open in my mind. And, you know, have you ever played around with that birthday book like the big cat table book game?
00:04:48:13 – 00:04:48:23
Amanda
Yes.
00:04:49:03 – 00:05:14:11
Adam
So my friend had it on her coffee table in college, and one night we're all, like, hanging out at her house. And like, I pull it out, I put to my birthday, and I see Dylan's face in the margins of of the day. Right. And it kind of like, struck me hard in that moment because I was in this phase of, like, really obsessing on Bob Dylan.
00:05:14:11 – 00:05:34:13
Adam
In fact, I was like systematically listening to all of his albums, were reading the lyrics. His book Chronicles had just come out. For all you Dylan fans out there, you know, the time scale. This is probably like 2002 or 3. And I was just obsessed. And to learn that we had the same birthday was really interesting to me.
00:05:34:15 – 00:06:13:04
Adam
And so like I read all about the day and some of the, some of the features of what it means to be born and made 24 hours and stuff like that, and it, it was it was intriguing. I'm like, how in the world can they get all this information just from knowing the day, you know, because even now, looking back on that like it, I have read that as an astrologer and I still don't fully know, like what they're going off of because like, for example, you can't use symbol systems fully because like in the case for for Dylan versus myself, like my son's two, Gemini has three.
00:06:13:06 – 00:06:41:22
Adam
And so you can't be using Sapiens or Chandra or, you know, any of that stuff. Right. And so it's just maybe like more grounded in numerology or something else, like, I don't know, but like all I, all that matters is that like something kind of like, lifted my eyebrow, about it, you know, and I've never listened to Dylan since without thinking like, there's a two degree, three degree Gemini thing going on here.
00:06:42:01 – 00:07:05:17
Adam
You know, like why people love him is the is is what has always driven me with in all of my artistic pursuits. Like you said, mercurial. We are we're ruled by Mercury. And so, like any wordsmith, whether it's a singer songwriter, a poet, a writer, it doesn't matter. It's like I recognize something in what they're doing that speaks directly to soul.
00:07:05:19 – 00:07:15:22
Adam
And I want to do that. I've always wanted to do that right. And he's just one of the best that's ever been able to do that with a guitar, you know?
00:07:15:24 – 00:07:16:15
Amanda
Yeah.
00:07:16:17 – 00:07:38:19
Adam
And so anyways, like years went by after that and then, it was actually when I was in acupuncture school and this is how I usually tell the story was, Richard Tarnas had released Cosmos and Psyche. And so I was just reading that book, these were while I was in school and, didn't even really know it was an astrology book either.
00:07:39:00 – 00:07:56:07
Adam
Like, I just, I was interested in it because he had written for the Western Mind, which was the textbook we used in college, and I liked it. And so this was the second book about it. And then I realized I was reading an astrology. But after a little bit of time with that, I'm like, okay, I'll keep going.
00:07:56:13 – 00:08:12:15
Adam
Like so much of it was over my head, but it was intriguing. I enjoyed it, and then from there, I just basically started meeting a lot of astrologers. And, you've had Aria, right? Ari? Masha?
00:08:12:17 – 00:08:15:10
Amanda
Yes, yes, we love art. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:08:15:12 – 00:08:46:12
Adam
So we briefly lived together, Olympia, Washington. And it was in that small little chapter of my life where, you know, just like constantly talking about astrology with him, having exchanged our services and stuff like that, becoming friends, I realized, like, I think astrology will be really useful in what I'm doing. At the time I was doing medical qigong and so, yeah, just taking in mainly the evolutionary astrology at that point.
00:08:46:14 – 00:09:10:07
Adam
But, you know, I had fast tracked a good amount of information into my mind to where, like, I was using it in my practice and then people it happened very organically. People started asking me if I did readings and I was like, no, but I, you know, I'll try. We can look at your chart together kind of a thing.
00:09:10:09 – 00:09:30:22
Adam
And then after doing that, I realized I actually enjoyed giving readings and like the whole process about it. I thought it was such an interesting way of connecting to the person. Wow. And, when I moved out, I moved back to Colorado from Washington and, it just kind of dropped to my head one day. It was very impulsive, actually.
00:09:30:24 – 00:09:55:18
Adam
I was like, I was biking across town, and, I had this thought of like, what happens if I go and get a microphone from Best Buy right now and start a podcast? Like, it was kind of like that. And so I did it. It was in the spring of 2009, and I started three different shows at the same time, just to kind of like test this, to test it, to see like what?
00:09:55:18 – 00:10:22:17
Adam
What will work. Yeah. So I started one on Chinese medicine. I started one on music, which was me both sharing music I love and kind of like being, deejay of sorts. Like a, like a jockey that just, like, sharing tunes and just telling stories in between that that one didn't work out. And then the astrology one, and almost instantly people were listening to the astrology podcast, and I actually almost named it that too.
00:10:22:19 – 00:10:24:07
Adam
Chris. That story.
00:10:24:09 – 00:10:25:20
Amanda
Whoa.
00:10:25:22 – 00:10:31:15
Adam
Yeah. But I couldn't like, I couldn't because I was too new to the subject.
00:10:31:17 – 00:10:32:19
Amanda
00:10:32:21 – 00:10:42:07
Adam
And the only thing that felt right at the time was exploring astrology, because it's exactly what I was doing. and so that's what the name was forever.
00:10:42:09 – 00:10:48:04
Amanda
And were you interviewing people, were you doing solo shows like what were you doing?
00:10:48:06 – 00:11:17:18
Adam
the first ten. And so that was another thing, like I gave myself the goal of doing at least ten episodes for each of these podcasts. Right. And I did do ten for each. so I think the first ten, there might have been one solo one, but like, no, they were all conversations. And so like, I think the second show was with Stephen Forrest and he was like on an actual telephone, like the sound quality.
00:11:17:20 – 00:11:22:18
Adam
It was so bad I could see him on zoom didn't exist.
00:11:22:20 – 00:11:29:13
Amanda
Oh, but this is 2009. I mean, the fact that you were in the podcast, I don't even think I knew what podcasts were in 2009.
00:11:29:15 – 00:11:34:00
Adam
Not many people did you me until like post 2012.
00:11:34:02 – 00:11:54:15
Amanda
Right? I mean, you've always been ahead of the curve as far as I'm concerned. And in the different things that you do, it's like you're doing them before most of us even know what they mean or what they are. And it's fascinating to see, like what you've been into even in the last few years, where it's like, it's just hard for people to grasp certain things that you're doing.
00:11:54:15 – 00:12:15:05
Amanda
But I just, I feel like you're just a little bit ahead of the curve like Bitcoin. Like bitcoin. Yeah. Which I still literally we've had so many conversations and I still don't get it. But I have I have heard from well, Ray Merriman recently, the financial astrologer who's like it's not going anywhere. It's it's here to stay.
00:12:15:06 – 00:12:33:09
Amanda
It's and it was just interesting because I know you have held that line throughout every up and down, every twist and turn. You've been saying the same thing. And so to have, you know, however many years later, Ray Merriman coming and going and saying astrologically, this is here, this is staying. It makes me really want to understand it better.
00:12:33:09 – 00:12:39:07
Amanda
But then it's kind of like, do you have to really understand, like, do I understand electricity? Not totally.
00:12:39:07 – 00:12:40:06
Adam
Over the internet.
00:12:40:08 – 00:13:07:18
Amanda
Or the internet? Exactly. Not totally, but I use it. So I mean, anyways, you're a trendsetter. Okay, so Adam, what about cycles? Why have you been interested in cycles? Because I know mercury cycles. We're going to be talking about Mars retrograde. Like, which is part of a cycle, obviously. Why? What's interesting to you about studying the cycles of the planets, but then also using them in your life in, in tangible ways.
00:13:07:20 – 00:13:09:07
Amanda
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
00:13:09:09 – 00:13:41:09
Adam
Yeah, I think the simple answer is that it personalizes the experience in a really profound way. to use an example, because we're going to talk about it like with a motorcycle, it's one of the more challenging ones to actually track because it's the longest of the sonic cycles, like 780 days is a pretty long time to keep your mind remembering that like, oh wait, this cycle started all the way back in November of 2023, in Scorpio, and it was in this area of my chart.
00:13:41:09 – 00:14:04:13
Adam
And these were the themes and, you know, in, in being in like there's this journey that it goes on and there's that living sky component of it. There's the journey through your chart. Of course, it's a tough one, but if you do have like a theme that it's very much clear at the beginning of any cycle, whether it's Mars, Venus, Mercury or any of the others.
00:14:04:13 – 00:14:29:03
Adam
And I really only focus on the personal planets. But you could do this with any of the planets. you will notice that it never goes away. Like that theme is set throughout the whole cycle, and like anything, the more attention you give it, the more it's going to give back. And you can even take a further step.
00:14:29:03 – 00:14:58:01
Adam
And once you start engaging with the planet or there we say, God, it too speaks back, shows up in the dream, shows up with symbols and synchronicity, shows up in all these interesting ways. And so, like I was sharing before we recorded, like it's really the mercury cycles that are like kind of the core of a lot of my work at the moment because the, the quickest cycles, they're very easy to teach people.
00:14:58:03 – 00:15:22:09
Adam
But also it's like if you can't pay attention for that extended amount of time, don't even try with Venus or Mars. And in a way like if you can't for a lunar cycle with like, like start with the lunar cycle, right? What was the theme from new moon to new moon? Kind of a thing, right? so yeah, it's just a way of living math.
00:15:22:11 – 00:15:23:10
Adam
Really.
00:15:23:12 – 00:15:58:24
Amanda
Well, let me just clarify. So when you're talking about a mars retrograde cycle, for example, or a mercury retrograde cycle or a mercury retrograde moment, for example, you're saying that there's a there's a starting point of which that retrograde is a part of. And if without the context of the starting point of that cycle, it's sort of out of context, like whatever themes are coming up, you can't relate them to the overarching theme because you sort of lost the thread of the storyline in a way.
00:15:59:01 – 00:16:00:14
Adam
That's exactly right.
00:16:00:16 – 00:16:10:09
Amanda
And when does it start? Like, what is the actual starting point for Mercury or Mars or the moon is obvious when the new moon, what are the starting points for those other cycles?
00:16:10:11 – 00:16:31:10
Adam
So with the inner planets, it's the same for both of them. And there is debate by the way, around like what really is the start. And so I'll give those examples. And then with Mars and beyond, it's the same for all of them. So for instance, you and I talked last in August of last year. Remember you came on my show.
00:16:31:12 – 00:16:41:22
Adam
It was like during the Maui fires, right? Yes. And that was during retrograde. It was the Venus retrograde, though, in Leo. Right. Remember?
00:16:41:24 – 00:16:42:19
Amanda
Yes.
00:16:42:21 – 00:17:12:23
Adam
So when Venus or Mercury retrograde, when they're actually doing is crossing between the Earth and the sun. So they're coming close. In fact, when any planet goes retrograde, it's coming close closest to the Earth, but with the inner planets, it's passing between us and the sun. Right. And that moment of synergy, like when the planet is conjunct the sun, it's called Cassini, right?
00:17:13:00 – 00:17:38:08
Adam
So it will be retrograde this year with Mercury and Venus. And that conjunction occurs. That is a conception moment, for the entire cycle that is now opening up. Now I'm in the camp that treats that is the beginning of the cycle because it is like this conception moment right? There's others like my buddy and Gainsbourg, who treats the Heliacal rising as the beginning.
00:17:38:10 – 00:17:43:03
Adam
So he acknowledges the conception. But it's not until the planet is visible.
00:17:43:05 – 00:17:43:20
Amanda
On.
00:17:43:20 – 00:17:45:01
Adam
The east.
00:17:45:03 – 00:18:06:07
Amanda
Oh, this is the cycle of decimating. So it's like the you you think of it as the life, the cycle beginning at the conception point. And he his feels like a little bit like at the birth point, like when, when it's actually visible, when it comes into visibility as you can think of it as just like birthing a baby too, like he's I.
00:18:06:08 – 00:18:09:13
Adam
Was just going to say, have a baby in you in those nine months.
00:18:09:15 – 00:18:19:21
Amanda
Exactly. You say, well, the baby's not actually born until you can see it. And you're saying, no, it's actually it's actually alive and in context when it's conceived.
00:18:19:23 – 00:18:21:24
Adam
Yeah, it's having a prenatal experience.
00:18:21:24 – 00:18:24:23
Amanda
Right? Right. Yeah. Okay.
00:18:25:01 – 00:18:46:22
Adam
Yeah. Yep. So conception or how like arise. And there's even some, especially when you're considering the Mars and beyond cycles. And so this is where it gets a little confusing when Mars retrograde it's not crossing in between the Earth and the sun because it cannot do that. Right? Right. It's the first of our, you know, neighbors, but it's an outer planet.
00:18:46:24 – 00:19:15:10
Adam
So when it's retrograde, it is close to the Earth. That's why it's like two and a half, almost three times as big in the sky. It grows, it's brighter, it's intense because it's close. But the way it looks in the chart is it's opposite the sun at its peak. And so this is, you know, a little bit of a lifehack like if anybody ever tells you they have a planet opposite the sun, you automatically know that that planet is retrograde.
00:19:15:12 – 00:19:25:13
Adam
It's like a party trick. So it's like, oh yeah, Jupiter is like, oh, you're born with Jupiter retrograde. They're like, how did you know Fraser? Guess I have an affair. So I had, you know, that kind of a thing?
00:19:25:15 – 00:19:26:17
Amanda
Yes.
00:19:26:19 – 00:19:54:04
Adam
But yeah. So the retrograde with Mars and beyond, it's always going to be the opposite. That's what we're going to see on January 15th, five days before the inauguration is Mars is going to peak in its retrograde then. All right. And also the difference is that that peak, just think of it like Mars is bright as what Adam calls the midnight star.
00:19:54:06 – 00:20:18:01
Adam
And it's quite the experience. Now there's some astrologers that say, that's the beginning of the Mars cycle, and I've entertained that idea. I'm like, okay, like I'm not just going to completely discredited. Does it feel like that's the beginning? It feels more like an ultimate moment or like a celebration of sorts or a battle. And over the years, it's it doesn't feel like a beginning to me at all.
00:20:18:01 – 00:20:44:12
Adam
Like it indeed. Like, if you will, I often do is overlap the monomyth like Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey with the Mars cycle. It works well, actually. Like you can use those stages that he talks about with the Mars journey quite well. And so like when Mars is retrograde in opposite the sun, like the whole experience is kind of like facing the enemy.
00:20:44:14 – 00:21:02:11
Adam
It's it's this moment of like, what is the tension in the story and how does it come to a culmination midway throughout the cycle, you know, but then there's still an entire waning part of the cycle of integration and the long but return home.
00:21:02:13 – 00:21:16:14
Amanda
And when you said when you said that, when were working with the cycles, were living the mythology, is that kind of what you're referring to? Like, what do you mean by living mythology?
00:21:16:16 – 00:21:47:05
Adam
Ooh, you just put me in that position to kind of talk about how I my favorite pet theory of how astrology works is I think, I think that we are living myths that, you know, kind of the foundation of consciousness is MRLs. And that's one of the reasons why I bring in Joe Campbell back into it, that he realized through his life work that there's all of these stories that show up all over the world.
00:21:47:08 – 00:22:19:14
Adam
Right. And that's what he kind of distilled was the hero on A Thousand Faces in the monomyth. Right? It's like, why does this show up on every continent almost in the same way with the same features? Right. And when you study astrology enough. Right. Like we have kind of in a way the utilitarian way of thinking, how it came to us like, oh, we projected our own story is onto the night sky and it's kind of like this aggregate or almost that that occurs and it like pings back to us.
00:22:19:14 – 00:22:48:04
Adam
And so we're having almost like the subjective hallucination, collective hallucination of any of this stuff mattering at all. But I actually believe it's reversed in this theory of mine. And I think we've actually received all of these stories because they're kind of like, get the foundation. Like, you know, use the word archetype if you are. But like, you know, there's a structure to all of this, both collectively and personally.
00:22:48:06 – 00:23:25:17
Adam
And when it comes to the planets moving around in their cycles and, and everything like that, like it's just these stories churning in time. Right. And so if we're paying attention to them in a way, like we're getting snagged by those stories, like we are living them out, right? Yeah, we can see, for example, like in a mercury cycle every 120 days or so, that the first part of it, which we're in now, like Mercury, just patient direct, right, that during the retrograde there's all these interesting interventions and tricks and folly and everything like that.
00:23:25:17 – 00:23:53:19
Adam
But like what is actually going on is he's trying to like divert attention from things that we really should not be paying too much attention to and then be pointing it elsewhere. And so there was a big idea that's trying to be inserted into our mind is my opinion in there. And the first phase of the cycle were kind of like the young Hermes, where like that trickster quality is very much alive and well.
00:23:53:19 – 00:24:12:10
Adam
Like, we're so excited about this new idea. We order all the books in Amazon, we listen to all the podcast, watch all the videos. So we can talk about it with people. It's a lot. But then by the time Mercury leaves the morning sky and becomes an evening star, we're like, yeah, was it into that book? Yeah, I have an opinion about that person's podcast.
00:24:12:16 – 00:24:37:18
Adam
Yeah, I have my own ideas now about this. I think that it's this or, you know, this is how I'm going to use it. And that young little Hermes turns into what we often think of as Hermes Trismegistus, like the wise sage. And so there's something that occurs. You can think about it very practically as well, that like an idea comes into us every Mercury retrograde.
00:24:37:20 – 00:25:05:08
Adam
And if we track it and if we follow it and if we really learn from it in our brain, what's occurring is neurogenesis. You know, all these new synapses are firing. We're making new connections. This this idea is bringing us into other places. It's changing our perception of reality. And then by the end of it, it's changed. Like we now have a new skill, or we learned about a new subject.
00:25:05:10 – 00:25:38:02
Adam
And because of that, it's it's it's in the strangest way going to help us moving forward. And then it resets again every, you know, three, four months we get another one. And so I've become like an alien when it comes to retrogrades. Most people kind of like fear them, I suppose. They shake their fist at them. I'm like, I cannot wait even for the next one, because every single time it's wild demand and what comes through and then like, I'm able to spot it and like up there you are plucking you out of the air.
00:25:38:02 – 00:25:45:04
Adam
And then I'm going to commit to this idea for for the whole cycle and then see where it takes me. It's unreal how it works.
00:25:45:06 – 00:26:08:23
Amanda
Wow. So this is just it. And we're going to get to Mars retrograde, the specific one that's coming up soon. And the eclipses that were already in eclipses and up. But what you're describing is it's just more intimate engagement and communion with these planetary cycles. So that because it's probably happening within us whether or not we're aware. Right.
00:26:09:00 – 00:26:33:09
Amanda
Oh yeah. It's oh, it's happening right. There's someone that doesn't know anything about astrology of you kind of reverse engineered. You could probably find those threads, but by being aware, it sounds to me like you can just more actively participate with it. And and it comes to life even more. Like you were saying before. It just it's it's more alive in you and as you.
00:26:33:11 – 00:27:03:04
Adam
Yeah, it augments it. And that's so true. I mean, like, you don't need to have any interest in astrology whatsoever to, for example, be influenced by life cycle transits. You know, when someone goes through a Saturn return, they know it. There's a maturity that happens in their late 20s, and most people are aware, whether they reference it as a Saturn return or making it past the forever 27 mark, what have you.
00:27:03:09 – 00:27:27:01
Adam
I mean, it's it's everywhere. Like you see it in like I see it in my life all the time, listening to people. it's everywhere. Right? And so of course, those people are experiencing it. Just like children will segue into Mars, like when we have our first Mars return, like a sidereal return, when it comes back to where it was when we were born, which is a little bit different than the synodic cycle.
00:27:27:03 – 00:27:49:20
Adam
That's where the whole concept of terrible twos comes from, right? And so like there as well, like a little two year old is going through because they can identify what it is that they desire and they don't know how to hold back the tantrum that comes when you don't get it. And hopefully by four, six, eight and we become better at that.
00:27:49:20 – 00:27:52:14
Adam
But some seven year olds aren't even good at it.
00:27:52:16 – 00:28:06:22
Amanda
So that's true. That's true. Yeah. Okay. And where do eclipses fall into this. Like are eclipses part of cycles that we're also tracking that have a mythology that we can tune into.
00:28:06:24 – 00:28:20:13
Adam
They do and admit oddly they are the most advanced and challenging to properly study in this way. And I think you know that because of that eclipse mastery class is the.
00:28:20:13 – 00:28:26:13
Amanda
Class which, yes, which, by the way, is on sale right now during eclipse season, where I watched.
00:28:26:14 – 00:28:27:14
Adam
In the summer for this.
00:28:27:15 – 00:28:32:22
Amanda
Weekend. Well, Bernadette Brady, who who wrote that the book on the sorrow cycle.
00:28:32:22 – 00:28:33:14
Adam
On the lark.
00:28:33:18 – 00:28:53:01
Amanda
Yeah. So she's she's one of the teachers of this class, plus some other, some other, eclipse masters who have studied eclipses their whole lives. So if you're interested in going deeper into eclipses, this class that we did, it was one of the first classes that we offered in Astrology Hub and was like, let's just get everybody way into the deep end.
00:28:53:07 – 00:29:06:03
Amanda
But there's many of you who are ready for that level of study, and it's just a six week core. Well, it's a six class experience. It's on sale right now. I'm glad you brought it up, Adam. You didn't even know that. Yeah.
00:29:06:03 – 00:29:32:10
Adam
It's good. I learned a lot from it. Like, especially from Benjamin Dikes, because that's a whole different level. It's advanced. It's an advanced way of saying it. But like, the idea is similar that yeah, eclipses have their rhythm as well, like the saros cycle, you know, 18.6 years. It even actually overlaps in the macroeconomics, funny enough. But eclipses have a life cycle, right.
00:29:32:12 – 00:30:00:24
Adam
And so just as a quick example of that, the eclipse that's happening on October 2nd, the solar eclipse in Libra, right. It will pass. The very southern tip, like a lot of the eclipses lately have been. And South America. Right. It's like way down south that solar eclipses. But here's like a lot of people don't know this. It's just mind bending and and and it's just it's some biology.
00:30:00:24 – 00:30:26:20
Adam
Right. Is that these eclipses are burst on the poles. And so some began on the North Pole, some begin on the South Pole. And then every 18.6 years they repeat again and they slowly make their way to the opposite pole. And this takes over a thousand years to happen. There's no, like, hard number to it, but like the, eclipse that's happening on the second.
00:30:26:22 – 00:30:51:17
Adam
I actually was just thumbing through Brady's book earlier today. figure out what Sarah's it was. So she labels it a little bit different than NASA does because like, they to track these things and it's eight Saros series South is the way that she labels it. And really all that means is it started on the South Pole and it's making its way up towards the equator.
00:30:51:19 – 00:31:13:18
Adam
And so every 18.6 years it's going to be a little bit further up. And then also I forget how much it moves in longitude, but like you know, it like if you look at an animation of it, it essentially looks like a shadow serpent moving up the earth. It looks like that that image of the snake around the egg, you know.
00:31:13:20 – 00:31:39:12
Adam
Whoa. Yeah. And so it's no coincidence whatsoever that all cultures, like in this comparative mythology where of a monster, usually a dragon or a serpent eating the sun or the moon with the eclipses, you know, Rahu and K2 are the names in India, but like where I'm from in Colorado, it was a great bear. Like a lot of the Native American tribes, they had a great bear that that was consuming it.
00:31:39:12 – 00:32:07:12
Adam
Or the Vikings. It was two wolves that were chasing after it. Like there's all these images that are so great, but like, that's, you know, embedded deeply into eclipse lore. And it's not to it's myth. So you can't take it literally. But again, it's a gradient of consciousness. It's very real. Like dreams. You can't just say dreams are just like an elusive form of entertainment that we all get to have every night.
00:32:07:12 – 00:32:30:18
Adam
Like there's obviously a function that's happening there. And if like we begin paying attention to them and then actually listening to math and learning about math, you start to realize that there's some overlap. And then when you throw astrology into it, it's like, get out of here. The whole thing starts to come together. You're like this. This is what it is in a way.
00:32:30:20 – 00:32:51:18
Adam
And so it takes a lifetime. I mean, that's the way I feel about it, like to gather the stories and to understand the symbols and to be able to, like, track all of this stuff. but yeah, back to to eclipses, like, so the saros families like the way Brady talks about it is if you want to study the chart of the original eclipse.
00:32:51:21 – 00:33:15:13
Adam
And so the one for the 2nd of October, et Cetera series South, I think was in 1718. Wow. So, you know, it's a young one actually. Like, we like hearing that. It's like, oh, wow. Like this actually, this this family goes on until like 29, 38 or something like that. Well, and so, you know, like they go on like that.
00:33:15:13 – 00:33:36:16
Adam
And so it's like the study of it's like, well, we've experienced depending on our age, a few of them or maybe only one of them, depending on how old we are. But the last one was in 2006, 18, 46 years ago. Right. And so you go back to that eclipse and you're like, okay, well, where that happen? What were the themes?
00:33:36:18 – 00:33:57:05
Adam
You look at the base chart, you know, like there's just so much to it. It's much more complicated to study eclipses and their great trajectory within our lives than, say, a mercury cycle, you know. but yeah, you can
00:33:57:07 – 00:34:22:06
Amanda
So what what are the themes if, if we're, we can take it from a cycle perspective, but then we can also simplify it down. Right. And look at the zodiac signs and look at different aspects of the eclipse. Right. So what what what would you say are the thematic elements of this eclipse series that is happening right now in October?
00:34:22:08 – 00:34:52:04
Adam
So if my memory serves, I'll just take a few of the ideas I have and replace them together. So I think that it started in Aries way back in 1718. Like around that. Yeah, I think that's correct. And then this one happens in Libra. Right. And so just meditating on that polarity and also where we're at. Right. Like this happens October 2nd is the final eclipse to the season.
00:34:52:06 – 00:35:23:09
Adam
And it's also 3 or 4 days before the pre shadow begins with Mars. And so all that means is Mars is going to step into the territory that he's going to be in until Maddie, which is 17 degrees of cancer. All right. And so back to the Aries labor piece. It's like okay, we already know that, at least in my experience, I think most of us would agree, like I have never experienced the world more polarized in my life.
00:35:23:10 – 00:35:48:05
Adam
Like it's like a landmine for language and words and ideas like it's insane. And we can all assume that that's just going to hit a fever pitch in the coming weeks. And whoever wins the US election, I think it will continue to be a fever pitch all the way until the peak of the Mars retrograde or the March cycle.
00:35:48:05 – 00:36:14:14
Adam
Right. And that's January the 15th, and that's when it's opposite. So it's like Mars opposite sun. It's retrograde. And so what's the eclipse? It's like, what's the point of an eclipse anyways. And you know, on that, you know, grandiose mythic ideals talking about of how we're kind of playing out these stories and everything like that, like the eclipse cycles are so fascinating because they are plot twists to our story.
00:36:14:14 – 00:36:39:15
Adam
It's like we feel like we have control, we feel like we know where we're headed, and we think we know how to predict where the world is going and stuff like that. But then eclipses happen and it's like a twist. It's all different and it happens with every eclipse, in my experience. Like whatever the narrative is going into them every six months, there's like this subtle arrangement that occurs right on the other side of it.
00:36:39:17 – 00:36:57:11
Adam
It's not the same anymore, and it's so clearly laid out. If you just study markets like whatever the market sentiment is going into an eclipse season, it's going to flip and get very strange and different on the other side of it. But it's also true in our own lives. and of course, you can move to the areas of the chart.
00:36:57:11 – 00:37:09:17
Adam
And so where we have Libra and the first eclipse on the 18th is in Pisces, lunar eclipse, you know, looking at that, what aspects it makes all that matters. Of course it does.
00:37:09:21 – 00:37:14:01
Amanda
But the September 18th is the Pisces eclipse.
00:37:14:03 – 00:37:15:09
Adam
The lunar eclipse. Yeah.
00:37:15:15 – 00:37:34:11
Amanda
Okay. Okay. yeah. To to just close the loop on that. If you're interested in that Eclipse Mastery course, we will put the link and the discount code in the show notes so you can take advantage of that. and learn from Bernadette Brady yourself. And, you know, go deeper on this.
00:37:34:14 – 00:37:56:18
Adam
Yeah. And so like I was just mentioning, if the eclipse happens on the South Node, oftentimes it's a it's a grand old opportunity to kind of really some old story. Is it. And whatever it falls in the chart, it is amazing to see that play out. And so we can actually think back to the fall of last year in regards to this eclipse.
00:37:56:18 – 00:38:18:16
Adam
In the second. Okay. So it happens on the South Node, right? Just like the Libra eclipse did last fall, if you remember that one. And to make it anecdotal because it was very appropriate, the point of my trip to Colorado last fall was to actually get rid of everything in my storage unit, and just to completely release all of that.
00:38:18:18 – 00:38:43:21
Adam
And, it was way more challenging than I thought it would be. just an energy and the emotions attached to a lot of it as well. Like it was heavy, but I turned into my lock key and it wasn't fully planned like this, but like when I was done with the storage unit and everything like that, it was literally the day of that eclipse in my second house.
00:38:43:22 – 00:39:17:00
Adam
Why is that matter? It's like the second house is where we store all our stuff. Wow. It's our stuff. You know, a thousand other people's stuff or other people's shit. our stuff is the, like a house. And I was just like, dumping a dumping it, dumping it all out. And there was other ways that I found that really interesting, but, you know, and and still integrating it, like, you, for all of you that are going to watch those eclipse glasses, there's this debate with astrologers about like how long eclipses last as well, because it's not just that moment.
00:39:17:00 – 00:39:39:09
Adam
Right. Like there is some say it's for a month after, some say until the next eclipse cycle. Some say you have to like do this calculation with the duration of the totality of the eclipse and then, you know, make it worth months and weeks, etc.. Right. So there's all these different ideas. and I think about this like I have no conclusive thoughts on the matter.
00:39:39:11 – 00:40:02:16
Adam
I just know that they ripple through time like they absolutely are thematic. And so when I look at this eclipse in the second, I immediately hearken back to that story. You know, that's quite personal, but it's also for all of us in a similar area of our chart, like if we have a lot of Libra planets, it's another solar eclipse that's going to impact them.
00:40:02:18 – 00:40:19:07
Adam
Right? and in the think about it, and because it's in the South Node, like, what is it that's trying to be released and buried? Yeah. Like what does that and then the lunar eclipse is on the north stem okay.
00:40:19:09 – 00:40:29:17
Amanda
All right. So and then you referenced that this is all happening right before Mars goes into his retrograde shadow.
00:40:29:19 – 00:40:30:07
Adam
Yeah.
00:40:30:09 – 00:40:51:04
Amanda
Right. So how do you look at his. Yeah. How do you see this storyline playing in and and tell us a little bit just in terms of the Mars retrograde, what you're seeing, why you feel this is an important transit for us all to pay attention to based on the fact that it's Mars retrograde and the timing of everything happening in the world as well.
00:40:51:06 – 00:41:09:22
Adam
Right? Right, right. So the reason why I wanted to pull this started up is I just wanted to see what, or how close the square was between this eclipse and Mars, because like we've mentioned, you know, this retrograde is going to be in cancer in Leo, like the retrograde starts in Leo and it goes back into cancer.
00:41:09:24 – 00:41:32:07
Adam
And then it you know, the opposition happens when it's in cancer too. And so Mars squares this eclipse is the point I wanted to make. And so it's at 15 cancer on the day of it. And then the eclipse is at ten. So it's a bit of a wide square but still a square, you know, or a bending to the nodes.
00:41:32:09 – 00:42:04:15
Adam
And I think it's important based on those themes. Like we all know it to be true. Right. And like let's, let's now enter prickly territory and navigate it like ninjas. Amanda, that, it is unbelievable to me that there are certain words that cannot be said anymore, that some people think that free speech really isn't that thing that it's almost like a perfect mirror reflection on both sides of thinking that each is the next Hitler like.
00:42:04:15 – 00:42:38:13
Adam
It's kind of a stunning thing that's happening collectively at the moment, and it is extraordinarily successful at distracting us personally from what really matters. And that there's this quote from Frank Zappa that really sums it up the best, that politics is just the entertainment branch of the industrial complex or the military industrial complex. It's something like that. You know, it's the circus that is dangling, front from, you know, a corporate America.
00:42:38:15 – 00:42:51:00
Adam
And boy, does it help to distract the hell out of everybody and keep us at each other's throats. And so when you think about Libra, what is the first word that comes to mind?
00:42:51:02 – 00:42:53:17
Amanda
Cooperation. Sure.
00:42:53:19 – 00:43:20:02
Adam
Great. Balance is. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. And I think in thinking about this, it's like, well, how do we feel personally about like, do we feel balanced? Like there's a few things that we can, you know, assess our own situation with as we move in these eclipses? Like, do we feel balanced on just how well curated our feed is?
00:43:20:04 – 00:43:47:04
Adam
Like, are we actually taking in calories from the opposite side? from all angles? Most people aren't. Most of the can't the possible. The point is going back to this Libra piece, right? Like you're saying, cooperation, balance, etc. it's like, how do we do it? And my opinion, like challenging yourself to attempt to actually take in information from multiple places is huge.
00:43:47:06 – 00:44:06:00
Adam
As with anything, you know, take astrology like you're listening to me talk about the Mercury cycle or the Mars cycle, or the eclipses or whatever. It's like I'm just one perspective. What's the classes get? All the other perspectives go on a mercury journey. By the end of it, you're going to have your own ideas. And that's what I encourage you about.
00:44:06:00 – 00:44:34:18
Adam
Any of it. You know, and so that's huge. And the only recommendation I have through that is actually trying to be genuinely curious. And one of the great things that always emerges, at least in my own life when Mars comes close, is these opportunities to set very clear boundaries with ourselves and with those in our lives. Boundaries of steel.
00:44:34:20 – 00:45:00:22
Adam
Right. And and like, we'll see it like, you know, just like a, like a quick reflection of like the last retrogrades. It's like the summer of love into the the election in 2020 was Mars retrograde. Like that was a big one. And then, late fall of 22 was another one. Like that's when Elon took over X. It's when that whole SBF story happened.
00:45:00:22 – 00:45:24:22
Adam
It's like when all the banks were failing again. It looked as if like we were going to have a great financial crisis. Two point though, Pluto was going in and out of Capricorn equator. Yeah. Aquarius like beginning that process. Every time Mars comes close it does heat up. But like how strong and resilient are we and how good of our boundaries with it.
00:45:25:03 – 00:45:41:17
Adam
Like that's really it. You know I'm like if we're strong with it, if we know where the line is then we don't cross it like the ultimate goal. Like the final thing I'll say on it because of course there's so much, but I just want to put a cap on the Mars is and then it does oscillate between cancer and Leo.
00:45:41:17 – 00:46:16:07
Adam
Right. And this mercury cycle actually started in Leo the Venus cycle where in and you and I talked last when Bowie was on fire started in Leo. So we have both of them in these Leo cycles. And then Mars is about to kind of tease at this sign a little bit, right. The idea that came with a vengeance for me, this Mercury cycle had everything to do with art and visual art specifically.
00:46:16:09 – 00:46:33:19
Adam
And so I've just been doodling and doodling and just like playing around with art and like kind of in a way, rescuing my inner child. I used to do this all the time when I was a child up until like 13 or 14, and then it went away forever. Didn't come back until two weeks, three weeks ago. Right.
00:46:33:21 – 00:47:04:21
Adam
Well, and one of the, most amazing insights I've had so far, just being in the process of it, because, you know, I play music, I write, you know, I am artistic, but like, there's something different around giving your guests stuff the time and space just to kind of be present with a particular idea and like, what is this image that I'm trying to squeeze out of my imagination that like, it's part of the purpose of life?
00:47:04:21 – 00:47:36:16
Adam
I feel, you know, because that's all artistic expression is like, we feel something, we have an experience, and then we're trying to express it in some sort of a way. Right. And so instead of, you know, finding yourself in the comics section again, hard in the comment section, I always have or, you know, just like wasting your time and that way, like, you can actually do something alchemical and create, you know, like there is that divine act that is very much available to all of us.
00:47:36:16 – 00:47:58:14
Adam
Like we don't need to be an artist or a musician to do it. It's just like, well, how was this energy moving through me? And how can I actually metamorphose it into something that doesn't even have to be useful to anyone but yourself? Because when you see it or you hear it or whatever it is, it actually reminds you of a process that you just went through.
00:47:58:16 – 00:48:23:19
Adam
you know, like you came out different the other side. And I do think that is the highest expression of Leo is to do that, but without any ownership of it, you know, that being married to your ideas or your creations like that, where it's inflating ego like ideas of oneself. No, no, you were just falling spirit through you, thank God, like you're a vessel to do that.
00:48:23:21 – 00:48:42:02
Adam
And so like that succession in the zodiacal story is fascinating between cancer and Leo, because that's kind of what's occurring, you know, and then like after we're like, oh, we just expressed it. Well, then Virgo comes around and we learn that the whole point is to be a service, like, okay, that's great. You pushed it through, but now how can I help Adam?
00:48:42:04 – 00:49:00:01
Amanda
Thank you. Thank you so much for being here on this podcast. Thank you for continuing to bring your perspective and your gifts and your wisdom, and share it with our community here. I'm so grateful for you and just so happy that you're in our lives. So thank you for everything that you had to offer here today.
00:49:00:03 – 00:49:03:03
Adam
Well you're welcome. I always enjoyed talking with you, man.
00:49:03:04 – 00:49:10:08
Amanda
Same, same. Wishing you continued success. Where do they find your podcast? Where do they find you online?
00:49:10:10 – 00:49:32:18
Adam
So the podcast has a new name. It is now or it's no longer exploring. Astrology is called constellation cosmos. Wherever podcasts are found, you can find that show. And I do have a Substack like you mentioned, so I do share the podcast on there, but I also write on my Substack. And if you type in my name, I think it comes up on Google.
00:49:32:19 – 00:49:41:05
Adam
I don't know, but it's, the Dragon hole is what I've named it. I don't know if you have to type that in to find that, but yeah, the dragon.
00:49:41:10 – 00:49:57:19
Amanda
And he sent out he sent out a newsletter. I love reading your newsletters. And so definitely check Adam out and can't wait to have you back in the inner circle at some point in the near future, if you'd be open to something like that. but Always Love. Have you on the podcast.
00:49:57:21 – 00:50:00:16
Adam
Yeah, it's a trade. Always.
00:50:00:18 – 00:50:10:05
Amanda
All right, everybody, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being a part of our community. Thank you, as always, for making astrology a part of your life. We'll catch you on the next episode.