New Moon in Leo — article

On July 31st, at 11:12pm EDT, the Moon aligns with the Sun in 8.5 degree of Leo — in other words, the New Moon will be exact. (I recommend you also watch my New Moon video on the subject).

This New Moon is also the end of Eclipse season; we have received our consciousness upgrades, and can now move forward with any intentions we set in early July.

The New Moon in fun-loving, extroverted, expressive Leo has us looking for heartfelt experiences. It’s important for us to express ourselves, to learn about love — and in particular, to learn about how those things work together to gift us the power of creating from the heart and from a place of joy.

Think about the keywords for this self-expressed fire sign: “proud, generous, hospitable, caring, warm, authoritative, active, open, fun-loving”… How could you live into those words?

Leo is ruled by the Sun, symbol of consciousness and the unique light we came to shine forth in this lifetime — this is what we were born to explore and express… ask yourself: Where could I shine my unique light more brightly? What brings me joy? Not just in general… but in this very moment?

Leo also represents our creativity. There are as many ways to be creative and self-expressed as there are “selves” — indeed, we are all creators — we create with every thought, every word, and every action.

Creativity requires innocence, curiosity, courage, and play. To live it out, we must tap into the unique spark inside of us in a joyful way; we must also allow ourselves the freedom to make mistakes — creativity thrives on love and permission and is stifled by judgment and fear.

Take a moment to contact your “free inner child” — that place inside that is ready to play and create. What might that inner child need to come out and play? If you aren’t sure, there’s no need to guess: Try asking it gently and directly…

This New Moon chart is unique, in that we have six retrograde planets (bear in mind that there are only 9 planets that can even go retrograde)! This means that…

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This means that we have a chance to be more in tune with all of these planet’s energies. So which ones are they? They are Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Neptune and Pluto.

The energies of these 6 planets are being accessed from the inside out right now, turning our attention towards what is no longer in alignment with our innermost Selves — in other words, it’s an inside job 🙂

Ask yourself: Is the outside world in alignment with my inner world? If the answer is “No”, ask yourself: Where are the gaps? Where might I start to close some of those gaps?

Mars and Venus are currently also moving through Leo, adding more weight to the Leo-energies; as Venus closely aligns with the New Moon in Leo, it encourages us to be more aware of our feminine energies: connecting, receiving, enjoying, collaborating, to name a few.

All those planets in Leo encourage us to align with our heart and engage playfully in joyful activity; we also get an opportunity to connect to our ”inner child”, and to children in general.

You might say this builds on an earlier question: What brings me joy? Not just in general… but in this very moment of now? What drains my vitality? What energizes me?

What have I always wanted to do? Who have I always wanted to be? What if, just for right now, just as an experiment, I met life with a courageously open heart?

The New Moon/Venus alignment trines Chiron in Aries and squares Uranus in Taurus. Chiron enhances our ability to heal issues around self-expression and accessing our creative energies more fully. Things flow nicely and we feel excited about new healing modalities or unusual approaches.

There’s an opportunity here to be compassionate toward ourselves and others — and also for connecting to our inner child. As best as you can, have fun when connecting with others; bring a healing quality to the table by tapping into your inner joy, exploring things in a holistic way, and taking healthy risks.

Ask yourself: Might my joy and my courageously open heart help the collective healing of the world? Might that in turn help my own healing?

So… that’s Chiron’s contribution to this aspect — now let’s talk about Uranus for a moment: Uranus highlights where we are being called to break old patterns and make radical shifts, collectively and individually speaking; it is exalted at the time of the New Moon, as it is slowing down in preparation for its Retrograde phase which begins on Aug.11th.

We will relate the Uranus Station/Retrograde phases to our own birth charts in the next Forecasting Forum. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Forum, it’s a 90+min. webinar that I conduct every month, the next one is coming up on Aug. 15th. To join live or register for the mp4-video presentation, click here

As a reminder to all the Star and SuperStar Members of my online community: you are automatically registered and will receive an email on the day of the webinar to join live, then another with a link to the video replay of the Forum within 24 hours after the live event.

The Square to Uranus in Taurus invites us to stretch and grow in our individuation process. We might experience unexpected shifts in our lives in regards to romantic relationships, creative projects, courageous new avenues that we are exploring, etc.

To bring this home, ask yourself these questions: How uniquely myself do I allow myself to be? Where do I stop myself from enjoying my unique gifts? Could I grant myself permission to value that I am different from others and they are different from me?

What if I gave a voice to all my talents — even the “crazy” or “out there” ones? Where do I huddle down when I could perhaps stand tall? What needs to break down for me to have a breakthrough?

Mercury comes to a complete still stand on the day of the New Moon and ends its 3-week retrograde phase only 45 minutes after the New Moon becomes exact. This indicates a heightened awareness of our thoughts regarding past issues — we might be struggling to move forward with something, most likely connected to home, safety, family, or feeling nurtured.

Ask yourself: What’s in my face? What am I trying to move beyond?

Mercury also aligns with the North Node in Cancer and opposes Pluto in Capricorn: Intense conversations and connections feel more “real” than superficial ones. We want to dig out the truth about our feelings and the world we’ve built or are currently building.

As best as you can, try not to obsess about what someone said to you, or what you’ve heard — we may feel hurt by things that were meant to empower us, so ask yourself: Could I allow myself to go deeper and tap into my true inner power?

If you notice that you are taking things personally and starting to get defensive, take a deep breath and ask yourself: Is this really about me? Or my past issues? Or their’s? How can I ground myself in the here and now? What might change if I decided to focus on nurturing myself?

This aspect might also bring up some very deep issues that need to be discussed. Obsessive thinking, attempts to persuade, insistence on knowing the “truth” or exposing lies: these are all possibilities…

Ask yourself: What past memories or experiences no longer leave me feeling empowered out there in the world? Might I be ready to release them at last? Have I come to the point where I can truthfully say: “I’ve had enough”? And if I have reached that point, am I willing to cut out anything that is toxic and poisonous — no matter how scary this may seem?

One thing that might help with this aspect, is accessing our inner Neptune in Pisces — this is the energy of universal (non-personal) love, of trust in our intuitive voice, in our connection to source/god/the universe, and of a greater connection to self-compassion and self-acceptance.

I will give a talk on “React vs. Respond — Where in the chart can we learn about our emotional maturity?” on Saturday, Aug. 3rd at 3pm PDT/6pm EDT. My segment is one of 12 talks from a variety of Astrologers that have been invited to speak at a 2-day virtual Astrology Summit, presented by AstrologyUniversity, called: “Fresh Voices in Astrology”

Mark your calendar, if you are interested: It’s free, and it promises to be amazing! Click here to register for the summit

Lastly, I want to mention Mars in Leo: Mars trines Jupiter in Sagittarius, and quincunxes both Neptune in Pisces and the South Node in Capricorn.

The Trine brings optimism, enthusiasm, and expansion to our personal goals, creative projects, and explorations. Our positive attitude helps us to take risks that get us unstuck, and we have the vigor to blast through challenges. Ask yourself: What could I tackle right now that seemed impossible in the past?

The Quincunxes create a Yod-aspect, with Mars as the Focus planet; this means we are being invited to take a look at our masculine energies and how we are using them (Mars represents the masculine principle of assertion, willpower, and protection).

Ask yourself: What stirs me to action? What am I willing to defend? How do I assert myself? What am I willing to fight for? What am I passionate about? What lights my fire?

Healthy Fire is fed by joy, authenticity, and self-determination. However, our fire could be extinguished in these ways: It could be blown out by too much Air should we start over-analyzing things; it could get dowsed by an excess of Water if we become emotionally blocked; and it could get buried under too much Earth if we resist going beyond traditional values or comforts, or become too serious.

When we are experiencing a lack of fire, we tend to have low self-esteem, or feel timid or merely apathetic. We basically feel the opposite of passionate, excited, or “full of life”.

If you detect a lack of fire within, ask yourself: What activities bring me joy? What action could I take right now to feel good in my body and soul? Am I ready to commit to my own happiness and take a playful approach to life?

To sum it all up: This New Moon invites us to reconnect to what lights us up, to what we love, and to how we want to express that in the world. This New Moon also wants us to experience joy that is supported by the framework of humility and healing.

It also invites us to tap into our healthy masculine by acting from an authentic place, coming from the heart in every moment: What might it feel like to create, not for the sake of achievement or gain, but out of love, joy, and fun?

For the next four weeks, I invite you to pause occasionally and ask yourself these questions: What am I grateful for in my life? How could I express that gratitude? To whom might I express it? Could I express my joy kindly and compassionately? How could I go about engaging others in a joyful dialog that aligns with my inner truth?

If you’d like to explore this more, I recommend you watch my New Moon video for a fuller discussion on the subject 🙂
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Do you have your Ascendant (or any personal planets) in 6-11 degrees of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, or Scorpio? Or do your Ascendant or Sun-sign in Leo or Cancer? This New Moon may feel stronger to you…

Last but definitely not least: the New Moon is also the best time to set some powerful intentions for this month’s Moon cycle; the best time for the intention-setting process is soon after the New Moon becomes exact, and definitely not during a Moon void of course phase.

So the best time to set intentions this month would between 11:12pm (July 31st) and (Aug. 1st) at 4:48pm, and then again on Aug. 2nd from 9:20am until 11:12pm (all times in EDT — the New York timezone).

For more info on setting New Moon Intentions click here

If you live in a timezone other than EDT (US East Coast-time), I recommend you join my Facebook Fan-page or follow me on twitter, as I post reminders on Wednesday late evening, Thursday throughout the day, and Friday all day, to let you know when it is time to set your intentions 😉