Insights for Leo
July 22
Sun enters Leo: 03:13 PM EDT
The constant Sun, steady, unchanging does not rise and set, not really. It’s us here on earth who turn and turn again rotating on the axis of zenith and nadir and revolving around the Sun. And yet, what we see is the Sun; rising, culminating, setting and vanishing from the sky.
This powerful contemplation allows us to catch a glimpse, even a bit of revelation about Leo and all that it symbolizes. Symbolically the Sun is the great awakener because of course it wakes us to the new day, every day. We decide if it awakens us to love or power. There is great power in love but not much good in the love of power.
The Sun is the heart of our solar system. Each of us with a heart of our own – not one that rises and sets but a heart that beats a steady rhythm most of our lives, allowing us to dance, to love, to live through the time of our existence on earth. This year the Sun in Leo is quite busy as it aspects all the planets including Chiron and the asteroids as it appears to wend its way through our heaven.
July 23
Sun square Chiron
Mercury stationary direct
If you’re looking for planet ‘B’ don’t bother. Not because it doesn’t exist somewhere in the realm of future possibilities but because if we can’t get planet ‘A’ to work why would we? Here at home, in real life, we struggle to bring heart-felt goodness to the problems caused by greed and the hoarding of abundance. What are your best resources? How much and with whom are you willing to share? Getting on with this lessens the need for another planet and quells the relentless, ego driven, greed based, rapacious project to leave Earth behind. To escape the embrace of our Mother.
July 24
Venus sextile Mercury
Look for the blessings on your pet projects. It may not be a save-the-world kind of endeavor but we never really know, do we, what ripples out from the stones we throw into the waters of conditions? Sometimes it’s our talents that are the blessing. Other times we may be a gift of inspiration for someone else’s project. It’s even possible for a blessing to come along, shrouded in what appears to be a curse. Consider the uninvited 13th fairy at Sleeping Beauty’s christening. Was it a curse or a blessing that she would put everyone to sleep until they awakened to the light of love? (There is quite a case to be made that the world has fallen asleep under the spell of this 13th fairy over (at least) the last 100 years… Time to slash our way through the thicket, come to the palace and wake everyone up!)
July 25
Pluto sextile Neptune
July 15th - 25th has been a time of exact aspects between Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Any aspect mentioned in these insights is exact. What makes this unique is that these slow moving, outer planets, invisible to the naked eye, are doing this. Jupiter might be the conductor but the orchestra playing the song is in Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
In truth, some of these aspects have been around since the early 1940s (Neptune sextile Pluto). To have all three of the outer planets in such precise aspect in such a short span of time is the exceptional astrological event.
The opportunity is in our ability to suffer the consequences of the conditions which we have created without succumbing to the delusions and misdirection of the power brokers. Things fall apart. How they come together is the challenge.
July 26
Saturn stationary retrograde
North node enters Aquarius (South node enters Leo)
Stations focus the energies of a planet the way a magnifying glass concentrates the energies of the Sun and allows us to start a little fire. In this case the magnifying glass is our awareness as it concentrates Saturn’s agenda of responsibility, sustainability, structure, discipline and the wisdom that only comes from experience. What kind of fire are you starting? (This station has influence between from the last week of June to the last week of August but is exact today.)
Nodes are portals, not planets. They offer windows to parallel realities. Sounds like the stuff of science fiction. For most of us this shift is toward creative and collective solutions to the problems we face.
July 27
Sun opposite Pluto, trine Neptune, sextile Uranus!
Bingo! Tilt! Eureka! The Sun is a hot, fast-moving body. As it trips the switch on the outer planets’ exact aspects it’s as though a brilliant golden highlighter is emphasizing the energies which the outers indicate. Heat waves? Climate stressors? El Nino? It’s true that the Sun burns, yet when the fire comes from love and creativity it’s less of a conflagration and offers reason to take heart, to Fear Not. To do what has to be done with courage and willingness. One World. One Love. Consider any of these words by a great Leo sage.
July 29
Full Moon: 06* Aquarius: 10:35 AM EDT
Sun conjunct Jupiter
There are an (over)abundance of conditions on our planet, requiring courage and creativity as heat rises, fires burn and the world itself seems to be quaking. We know to protect ourselves from the harsh rays of the Sun. The action-packed events are another story. Full Moons always prompt us to witness things as they are. Aquarius, at best, is beginner’s mind: that quality which encourages the getting of wisdom through authentic learning. Beginner or not, be discriminating of easy, breezy knowledge in this world of sought after ‘likes’. Generally speaking ‘know-it-alls’ know very little.
(Aquarius at its worst is dissociation.)
August 3
Chiron stationary retrograde in Taurus
Earth element (Taurus) is alive with all manner of life. We have learned the importance of microorganisms and the intelligence of the forest floor. There is a kind of kinesthetic sixth sense in earth signs which people easily miss if they forget that dirt is alive. Chiron’s station heightens this for all who pay it some mind. You might start with the intelligence of the body as it protects us from danger and shows or tells us how we are really feeling. (Not how we think we feel, or wish we felt.) The body isn’t a score-keeper. The body is an eloquent ally. Chiron in Taurus underscores this, especially as it stations. The body of each of us individually is part of the collective body of our Earth. (Chiron in Taurus this year from June 19th – September 17th).
August6
Venus enters Libra
Sun trine Saturn
In Libra Venus reminds us that all relationships matter; in fact we exist in relation to everyone and everything we encounter, the server at the café, the support person helping us with our on line headaches and the wasps circling our picnic food and of course, our primary other. Sun/Saturn encourages us to support and strengthen the scaffolding of relationship.
August 9
Mercury enters Leo
One more planet engaging the fire and action-packed days of summer in the northern hemisphere. The world – is it a tinder box about to ignite or an artist’s studio full of tools enabling all manner of creative expression? Maybe both.
August 10
Mercury square Chiron
Venus trine Pluto and oppose Neptune
Whatever the spirit of these times requires, it needs to be considered from new perspectives. Acknowledgement of our stubborn resistance to new ideas allows us to grapple with the difference between want and need: craving and satisfaction: glamor and beauty. We are in the habit of thinking we have earned and therefore deserve our bounty. But perhaps it’s more about grace.
August 11
Mercury opposite Pluto, trine Neptune
Venus trine Uranus
Mars enters Cancer
Creation is a gift from some universal divinity that created everything in the first place. Our human creativity is a huge part of that gift. Don’t let the machine think for you. The ability to listen to the mind’s wildness allows for great writing, art that speaks for all, music that lifts us out of our ruts. Creativity isn’t for winning the prize or making it rich. It’s about using the power you were blessed with to communicate with Creation Itself.
Of course all that creativity only highlights the vulnerability and tenderness of taking the risk of our full humanity. Mars will remind us of this as it travels through Cancer; think, vulnerable/fierce & tender/strong. Particularly in the next week as it encounters Neptune and Saturn. Even the bravest of warriors needs to eat lunch. Presidents and dictators, sports stars and heroes of all stripes depend on the Mother (Earth) to feed and nourish them. Some see this as weakness, the rest of us know that it’s the beauty of an integrated system, the synergy of life. It’s all relatives.
August 12
New Moon: 20* Leo: 01:36 PM EDT Eclipse
Mars sextile Chiron
Mercury sextile Uranus
Leo is about creativity and power. For dominators the power of creativity means control and lusting to make the world in their own image. An eclipse of the Sun is a portal to possibilities that are not usually visible; as the light is obscured we are taken for a moment to other, alternate realities. Parallel universes. This one is connected to the South Node which represents the past. Today’s eclipse is visible over Greenland. There are opportunities and possibilities which require us to reckon with and shift the habit of colonization. It is not the way we are meant to see the world. Surely there are other ways.
August 15
Mercury conjunct Jupiter
Big ideas are enticing. We have been conditioned to ‘think big’ in ways that prime the pump of patriarchy. Which is to say that progress and profit drive our thinking. Consider a big idea for our times which might be that hope is stronger than hate.
August 17
Mars square Neptune
Mercury trine Saturn
Venus sextile Jupiter
Tangled in the frustrations of the day (Mars/Neptune) it’s hard to get moving. Reminded that one foot in front of the other is always how to get where we are going (Mercury/Saturn) we notice small blessings (Venus/Jupiter) that add to our confidence and remind us that life is good: complicated, but good.
August 21
Venus opposite Saturn
Oppositions invite us to resolve polarities, not once and for all but for now, and maybe again later the same day. Beauty (Venus) benefits from structure and skill (Saturn). Our ability to see beauty requires it to have some kind of order. Any work of art benefits from the skill and ability of the artist – even if that artist is Nature Herself.
