At 2:38am PDT, the Leo Moon meets up with the Leo Sun, and the New Moon starts up the next lunar cycle. Leo rules the Sun and the heart, both relate to the center of consciousness itself. The Sun is the burning, bright center of our solar system, and in a natal chart, the Sun is the center of our identity. The heart is thought to be the center of our embodied experience, where we have much more beautiful lives if, as the saying goes, we come from the heart. In Leo, we are driven by the desire to be creatively expressive and shine our individual light, but this is no ordinary New Moon. There is a tremendous amount of gravitas, healing, shadow material, pivots and surprises, and the potential for radical and sudden change as we move out of the last lunar cycle and into the next.
Let’s start with the Square between this lunation and Uranus, the Great Awakener. This is all about surprises and reversals. In a general way, this is also a setup for a backdrop of nervous restlessness, a strong desire for change, and reflects impulses that might seem unconventional or out of character. But it’s also a great energy to shake things up in order to move in new directions. This is a volatile energy on the one hand because anything can happen and probably will with this Square. On the plus side, if we steward this well, we can set intentions that demand a little bit of Leonian courage. Mars in a Trine with Uranus makes our sense of goals and ambitions lit up with the fire of new possibilities as well. Though unstable, this New Moon is powerful in its ability to create something entirely new, and seemingly out of nowhere.
But here’s the real juicy bits. Venus is currently in her retrograde in Leo, helping us all dive into the below and rework the wiring of our hearts. One of the biggest challenges in powerful manifestation is wanting something big, but feeling unconsciously undeserving of that which you desire. Venus in Leo is courageous and bold, and most importantly, knows no undeserving. A New Moon in Leo Conjunct the retrograding Venus will allow the intentions we set to be downloaded into our emotional body at a very deep level. If you know what you want with your mind, you must then infuse those desires with the felt experience that you already have them, standard manifestation technique. With a New Moon we set the intentions, and Venus is right next to the lunations with her basement door wide open to receive those intentions to a much more fertile place inside the unconscious so that our feeling bodies can really marinate on those desires as if they have indeed already arrived.
But also close by in the sign of Leo is Black Moon Lilith, and that Conjunction is even tighter than the one with Venus. In fact, the retrograding Venus just hung out with Black Moon about a week ago, stirring all sorts of shadow material, juicy unconscious revelations, and deepening the integration of healed shame and expanding our access to powerful sexuality. It’s been a juicy few weeks. This may have been uncomfortable, and we are not done with retrogrades by a long shot (Venus is Rx till Sept. 3rd, and Mercury turns around in a week), and so there may be delays built into the intentions we set now. But wee-doggy, are we in a much more open and vulnerable place to understand the deepest desires we have, and the healing work of the last lunar cycle can be poured into the Leonian possibilities of this one. In other words, the trench has already been dug for planting seeds of intention at a very deep place in the unconscious, where all manifestation begins.
Remember Mars? His Trine to Uranus is part of a truly beautiful Grand Earth Trine that is exact during this New Moon. The 120-degree triangle is the most open and flowing energy in geometry, and when you have at least three bodies holding this, a spinning vortex of manifestation potential is generated. In the earth element, we are talking about manifestation directly into form. Mars is part of this Trine, and Mercury is right next to him, so our intentions set with the mind (Mercury) have our bodies (Mars) fully engaged in the desire to create something new. Another corner of the Trine is Pluto in Capricorn, the planet of power and gravitas, which infuses the moment with the best our sense of personal power can generate. And in Taurus, the third corner of the Trine is picked up by Uranus, so truly anything can happen, and Jupiter, the planet of manifestation himself.
So, the general setup is this beautiful moment to amplify your desires to shine brightly, step into leadership, and use your creative gifts to generate more joy in your lives. The heart is wide open and ready to receive the imprint of your desires. Mars and Mercury are joining up with Uranus, Jupiter and Pluto to turn those desires directly into form. But there are challenges. For one, this is a very unpredictable energy from that Sun/Uranus Square and some of us will be knocked on our ass and thrown some very surprising curveballs, and unexpected beginnings and endings are part of this lunar cycle. The fixed energy of Leo and Taurus are good for knowing what you want and staying steadfast, but too much rigidity might find you being thrown overboard. The retrogrades may help us access the unconscious, but they also put long delays into how we might put our intentions into action in the lunar cycle ahead. We’ve been through some deep shadow work and healing, but we are not done with that process, and that may make the next month or two rather interesting to say the least.
Remember Leo and the relationship to the Sun and to your heart center. You can’t go wrong by being bold and audacious in your intentions right now, as long as they align with your heart. Go big with the desires you commit to right now, and just let life correct you for anything that is not yours to attract and keep. For this moment at least, don’t focus on the wounds that might still need some attention. If there is more work for you to do on opening up your loving and deserving heart, the double retrograde of Venus and Mercury will force that hand as this lunar cycle plays out. We’re not quite done with the deep work, but we are complete enough to see what might be possible for our lives if we only have the emotional courage to feel deserving of all that our hearts desire. Have at it.
