Insights for Leo
July 22
Sun enters Leo: 09:29 AM EDT
Wondering where the noble-hearted leaders have gone? Unfortunately, along with all the other unfortunate reversals of meaning which dominator culture has wrought, leadership has taken a hit. As love got confused and conflated with power leadership became control, domination, and learned to draw power from greed and manipulation. Likely we are at the end of this run but we have no guarantee regarding the beginning of what’s next. Very unsettling.
Even so, when it comes to noble-hearted leaders, look no further than the domain of your own heart. Small as you may think the sphere of your influence might be, keep in mind the life-giving, vitalizing energy of the Sun’s rays as they fall upon you. Summer (north or south of the equator) is not what it once was, to be sure. We are troubled with heat domes and wild fires as well as drought and blistering of the skin. Still there is radiant light shining from each and every heart if allowed or encouraged. And still the Great Solar Power in the sky rises, culminates, sets and vanishes only to renew itself and begin again, each and every day.
The Sun, as it travels through Leo this month has many adventures in the first week: It will engage all the outer planets as well as Saturn. And then at the end of July it will draw Mercury to the great inner chamber of the heart. If it could speak our languages it would tell us to be creative, it would encourage us to risk love and rewrite our notions of courage and power. Whatever the question, love is the answer when Leo is present. We aren’t like the Tin Woodsman wishing for a heart. We have heart and now is a great time to let it shine, radiate and illuminate your world with the power of love. It may not be all you need but all you need is made more powerful in its light.
July 23
Sun sextile Uranus
Venus square Mars
Today is one of those days. The Moon is on the wane. The Sun rose as usual. The earth turned. You greet the day in your own way. Better or worse. You are as much created as creator. Nothing is exactly the way we want it. Not for long anyway, not here in the realm between heaven and earth. This is your life. It is what it is. Be curious.
July 24
New Moon: 02* Leo: 03:11 PM EDT
A powerful New Moon with the Sun and the Moon aspecting all the outer planets as well as Saturn. In the eye of so many storms our intention needs to be to take all changes to heart. Make it real. Consider where it touches you and how to meet it with the power of creativity and a willingness to align with, rather than resist it. (Easy for me to say about your life but, given that these words emanate from a flesh and blood human – not a bot – you can be sure; I’m figuring out the same things.)
Sun trine Saturn and Neptune
There is nothing good or true about war, it simply exists despite the fact that most people hate it. It’s hard or impossible to see it as a metaphor or through symbolism when it’s headed your way. And yet each of us, as well as the collective psyche of all of us has dreams and images of war that we can, should and must interpret. Why the need to fight? To kill? To win? To defend? What does it mean? All this animosity and reactivity always, always comes down to the fact that we are fighting ourselves. Killing something we despise in our own self, something we can’t accept and don’t want. War is aversion on steroids. The world is a dream. Some of us are lucid dreamers, awake in the dream. Most of us are not. Today is a moment in time, as you make an intention, when there is something to be gained by considering war as a symbol of something so unwanted, disowned, inadmissible that you would rather kill (the planet) than allow it to exist. A-ring-pass-knot. Or perhaps a ring-pass-not.
July 25
Sun opposite Pluto
Disowned power becomes projection. And yet, there are evils in the world. Pay attention to what compels you, as well as what lifts your heart. We are less at the mercy of merciless conditions and more in need of finding the mercy in our own hearts.
In a time when it appears that ‘mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’ we were warned long ago that the ‘best would lack conviction’ while the worst would be filled with ’passionate intensity’.
July 28
Venus sextile Chiron
Assuming that something or someone matters to you, make the best kind of difference you can by telling the healing story. The ‘wise wound’ connects us to the life force. Back to the beginning of time. You may not be a woman, with the power to bleed and not die, and to give birth but you like everyone else (so far) come from a woman who has this power in her body. It is a mystery and a wonder worth consideration.
July 30
Chiron stationery retrograde
Venus enters Cancer
Chiron retreats as Venus continues on her way. We are not done with the lesson in Chapter 13 of the What Trauma Means for Me teachings. And yet we are called to tenderness in the care and feeding of those around us. Possibly healing requires us to care about others with as much commitment as we care for ourselves.
July 31
Sun conjunct Mercury retrograde
Cazmi! Mercury at the heart of the Sun in the Sun’s own sign of Leo makes it even stronger than usual. If your mind and your heart were fused what might you learn? If you could think with your heart, what choices might you make? If your will was fused with your ability to love how might that express?
August 1
Venus square Saturn
Venus square Neptune
As the world around us tumbles and twists into seemingly unrecognizable shapes our values take a hit. Things we consider necessities are questioned as we measure them against the cost. Some of this is good for the environment. We consume less. Some of it is hard on our need for healthy nourishment of body and soul. The wisdom to know the difference helps.
August 6
Mars enters Libra
Mars would rather go to war than negotiate so it is considered to be in detriment in Libra, the sign of civil society and negotiation. Given that we enact the planets through the way we live this might be a good time to consider the merits of negotiating in good faith with those you would actually like to deny, ignore or defeat. It’s a practice.
August 8
Mars trine Uranus
Mars opposite Saturn
As we enter the influence of the Full Moon (day before, day of and day after), Mars is busy. An especially good time over these days to practice the negotiating in good faith. Be on the lookout for clever adjustments that might benefit you as well as the other guy. Hire a lawyer if you need one. Be kind but not passive/aggressive.
August 09
Full Moon: 18* Aquarius: 03:55 AM EDT
Mars opposite Neptune
In the depths of your heart exists a vast and spacious knowledge above and beyond the clouds of concern. How to unlock this without self-deception is the challenge. Watch for inflation or the temptation to fall into something which is in fact ‘too-good-to-be-true’. There is no need to be caught in the tangled web if you remain aware of Mars and put it to work. We can do that. We are not puppets or playthings of the gods. Or the planets. Our actual superpower is awareness.
August 10
Mars trine Pluto
I told you so! Or you told you so… Or maybe they told you so. Here is proof that awareness empowers and awakens us. Fully human, even if you didn’t get it ‘right’. Even if you are only seeing it now. Awareness empowers us whenever it pulls back or pierces through the curtain of our delusions.
August 11
Mercury stationary direct
Saturn sextile Uranus
Find the sweet spot between believing that you create reality and understanding which asserts that conditions arise and we live in an intricate web of interconnected energies. Like an angel negotiating the head of a pin you live in a world where all of it is true but none of it is real . There are as many possibilities as your mind can imagine and there are conditions, situations, experiences you will meet that take you by surprise. Past, present and future; fate, choice, destiny – everything, everywhere, all at once.
August 12
Venus conjunct Jupiter
Blessings come in many guises or should I say disguises? Move slowly and allow things to reveal their true nature. As we have all seen, moving fast and breaking things is nothing more than an ego trip and has always been destructive.
August 14 - 18
Mars sextile Mercury
Mercury sextile Mars
These aspects are unusual; they appear to be like a game of tag, hopscotch, or perhaps leapfrog. Mercury is beginning to gather speed now that it has gone direct. On the 14th it moves more slowly than Mars and by the 18th it moves fast and faster and becomes the maker of the aspect. Mars in the lead suggests that we better act on those good ideas we gathered while Mercury was retrograde NOW! Mercury making the sextile wants us to think creatively about how we are acting. These planets are not at odds with each other. Rather it looks like the possibility of mutual support from both directions: creative thinking and engaged action.
August 19
Sun trine Chiron
Leo, like every other astrological sign, goes two ways (at least). One way is the noble hearted, proud face of love as it risks all for self-expression. Another way is the blustering, insecure narcissist who bullies and aggrandizes their every act as if it is an accomplishment, even and perhaps especially when it is not. Sound familiar? As the pages of our calendar turn, tomorrow toward the last sign of summer here in the north, it looks like a good day to spot the difference between Leo manifestation – at least in your own mirror if not in the larger mirror of the world.
May the lion that lives in your heart roar into the world, the power of love.