Insights for Leo

These insights, are meant as contemplations of a sort: Each one fashioned using the astrological aspects of the moment. Astrology can be thought of as a kind of sky writing which invites the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but any of us can find insight through the images if we look. These are mine, happily offered for you to reshape and fashion into something of your own. Follow the links, where you find them for further musings on the planetary aspects.

July 22
Sun enters Leo: 09:50 PM EDT
Mercury trines Chiron
Venus stationery retrograde
This year unlike last year or next, the Sun travels through Leo along with Venus as she descends. In fact today Venus begins her descent just as the Sun takes up residence in the noble hearted sign of summer. Of course it’s the beginning of winter, Down Under. But here in the northern hemisphere is where our astrology began where the meanings were born. For the north ‘down under’ is where the Sun goes at night: where there is just as much sky and the same planets, but different stars. At night you might think it’s a different cosmos: No Big Dipper or North Star to guide travelers. The Southern Cross is the beacon in the night down there.
As Venus begins her descent today we might give some thought to where the Sun goes at night. Those of us who live on Earth have a down under, an alternate sky, a different cosmos within: partly shadow but perhaps a parallel life, the road not taken, yet felt. A road that wants our attention from time to time. This summer being one of those times.  
Mercury supports this today reminding us of our ability to learn from everything, be it positive, negative or neutral.

July 23
Chiron stationery retrograde
Mercury square Uranus
By now it’s pretty obvious to most of us that we aren’t going back to the way it used to be. Life is indeed ‘but a dream’. Some things change, some stay the same. If you think with your heart more than your head you know that what doesn’t change is change itself. It’s a mighty river and we ride it whether we want to or not. From the heart we recognize change as relentless creativity, not always art but always becoming. Always expressing. Absent the heart and it only sounds like clatter and breakage.

(July 25: Pluto is square the Nodes which recently changed signs. This is not the same as aspects between planets. It is more a suggestion that we are looking at life or we need to look at life through a different window. It has something to do with the cost of aggression, the threat of war and the failure of diplomacy at the moment. To sustain life on this planet (Capricorn) we need to transform (Pluto) our tendency to solve problems with aggression (Aries/Libra nodes). This aspect is not just for a day. It permeates the year).

July 27  
Mercury conjunct Venus (Rx)            
Express yourself even if only to yourself. From kindergarten to the great masters creativity calms chaos and the emotions which it generates. And it’s fun. Creativity has more expressions than the hairs on your head.

July 28
Mercury enters Virgo  
Where there is art there is craft. To be good at something requires 10,000 hours. Practice, practice, practice. Mercury will be here longer than usual (until October 5th) because of its retrograde journey. It is a reminder that each of us has a particular genius, apart from the strange measurement of our I.Q. and we might as well use it while we are here. Life is a gift and it comes with a stamp of uniqueness which is yours and yours alone. Mercury in Virgo celebrates this aspect of diversity. Think of it as your particular offering to life itself which is the original gift.

August 1
Full Moon: 09 degrees Aquarius: 02:31 PM EDT
Mercury opposite Saturn
It’s the pinnacle of summer! How is your social life? Does it brim with frivolity and play? Is it full of people you enjoy? Or perhaps a bit sparse for your liking? If life is a celebration, everyone’s invited. If you’re taking to the streets bring something for someone who has no choice but those streets. There but for grace are we the ones who have something to give. Even if, somehow it is never quite enough.

August 6
Sun square Jupiter
Abundance was the given on Planet Earth. Greed and domination seem to have been the strange reaction of many humans. Times change. Generosity and kindness go a long way toward a remedy. Just like children in kindergarten we need to share. Perhaps we need to divest our portfolios from fossil fuels, junk food and the like. Otherwise there will be nothing left to cherish anymore.  

August 9
Venus Rx square Uranus
Mercury trine Jupiter     
There is a kind of stress in the way we feel these days even when we get what we want. Harder to feel satisfaction even though our packages are delivered faster. The shot of dopamine is still there but doesn’t last. For some this means wanting more and more. For others there is the possibility of taking what you already have and making it what you want. You still probably can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear but maybe it doesn’t have to be silk.

August 12
Sun trine Chiron
It’s easier to be part of the solution, the resolution, maybe the absolution of a problem when your heart is open to that all-pervasive quality we call love. Even just locating your heart in your chest can start the love-light shining.

August 13
Sun conjunct Venus Rx
Today is the exact midpoint of Venus’ journey of descent and return. She is nowhere to be found in the sky. We are reminded of loss and grief, of powers much greater than our own. We are humbled but not humiliated. ‘Naked and bowed low’ is Venus at this moment as the story goes. Utterly powerless. Today Venus, the heavenly expression of all that is beautiful, pleasurable and valuable is nowhere to be found. If you tap into this mysterious moment, you might sense the essence of transformation, how one thing, one reality becomes another. For 9 months Venus graced the evening skies as the evening star. This period was marked by a lot of smoky haze from forest fires, making it difficult to see the diamond twinkle of her light in the west. Venus will reappear in about 8 days (depending on your horizon) as the morning star. Forever changed. Life goes on for the living even after great loss. This is the way of it.

August 14
Venus trine Chiron
As if to affirm the significance of her Great Transformation Venus reminds us that we all will lose everything we love, sooner or later and even so we might as well participate in the Great Round of Life while we are here in embodied reality. There is so much to learn and where there is life, there is possibility.

August 15
Sun square Uranus       
Whatever today’s energy brings we have been in it since at least the 9th when Venus was squaring Uranus for the second time.  Tension between the good life and the realities of (unwanted?) change are strong and pervasive. What is success? All things Leo invite us to consider the quest of the Holy Grail and particularly the story of Perceval, the knight who eventually heals the Wasteland. Consider alchemists of old, hard at work turning lead to gold. We too are alchemists only we have got so used to gold we have come to disparage the lead, the prima materia, the base material and substance of life. We want the happily-ever-after ending, the good life but disdain the stinky clay out of which it is made. When Leo and Taurus get into a struggle this is often the issue. Either/or is not really an option. It’s a both/and kind of issue.

August 16
New Moon 23 degrees Leo: 05:38 AM EDT
Mars trine Uranus
If the last few days tired you out; if that exhaustion made you fearful that goodness will be overshadowed by forces of ill will, take heart. You are not being buried alive in a terrible place. Today is meant for dispelling the sense of powerlessness in the face of a world gone bonkers. Today your intention matters. Today we embrace it all and move toward the work, the effort, the application of energy that will create shift. The great alchemical mystery of life is understanding that shift (sounds like…) becomes gold. Shift happens. By aligning with it we co-create with the Universe, the Multiverse, Creation itself. Every New Moon is a reminder that we can start again. Leo offers the image of alchemy. Let your intention be to have courage in a world of radical shift. The greatest power is in service to life, in love. Isn’t that the world you want to live in?

August 22
Venus square Jupiter
Mars opposite Neptune
The band plays on or you might say the Moon waxes in light, all the while carrying your intention along with it. Like a stone in a calm lake creating ripples on the water your intention connects with the intentions of others. It’s a web. You might marvel at this. You might feel overwhelmed and anxious. Perhaps all of these things. Each of us is only one small drop in an ocean of movement. Overwhelm and anxiety melt in a kind of ecstasy (your version) when we relax and allow ourselves to flow in awareness of the vast ocean of life.