The New Moon at 16 degrees Leo is exact on Sunday August 8th at 6:50am PST, and characterizes the energy of the coming month--especially the next two weeks, especially the next few days, especially today.
Leo gets a lot of credit for its flare and sense of drama, for rock and roll and big hair and great style. But the more subtle truth of Leo is that we are all creators. We create in every single moment, through every single choice we make, thought we think, and vibration we cultivate. Creativity isn’t some skill that manifests in rare moments in artists’ studios or on stage. It’s the energy of life itself, expressing itself, through us and into the world; through energy and into form.
Leo describes the process by which our true nature, the energy of our soul, manifests in the world of form. The creative act is an act of channeling our own being into the world. This is why Leo also governs love and joy: our pure unconditioned soul is Love and the feeling of embodying raw unadulterated Selfhood is Joy.
Joy is a barometer that informs us how much of ourselves is present. When we deviate from our soul path, usually in order to please others or to meet expectations or to do what we “should” do or to be seen in some way, we constrict the flow of Self, and Joy is more difficult to access.
Creativity of course includes the arts and performance, but those are outer manifestations of a process that begins well before any art is made, and we certainly don’t need to be artists to engage with Leo; we all channel all the zodiacal energies whether we know it or not, but in different ways, and to different degrees. And in Leo season, we all have greater access to the energy of Leo.
Creativity is creation; a subtle process that can best be witnessed in moments of silence and inner reflection. There are those who say there is nothing new under the Sun; that all we can ever do is combine words and ideas in different ways, synthesize different learnings, draw new connections perhaps, present things in a new light, but that we don’t actually make anything new.
It’s a lie. But like many lies, it makes itself true to the extent we believe it. If we believe we are automatons haplessly reorganizing matter that has already been made, we will be. If we think music is nothing more than a reorganization of notes, that’s the music we’ll get. The truth is--a truth that can only be known by believing it--is that we are creators, every one of us. Creators. Not just creative. But creators.
Big words, I know. I’m always wary of biblical language, because it has been so manipulated and used against us. And yet, if we don’t reclaim some of that language, we also deny ourselves of the original magic it once signified. To be a creator means we can create from thin air something altogether new.
I don’t mean that we manifest yachts or world peace by imagining them. I mean we create and cultivate certain energies and resonances within us, whether intentionally or unintentionally. These states of being affect our thoughts, actions, words, and deeds; they ripple through us and into the world, affecting everyone and everything.
Practices like meditation and emotional healing can make the process more conscious. We can learn how to influence and take responsibility for our internal state of being, which is to take responsibility for our effect on the world, because what’s internal doesn’t stay internal.
I’ve grappled with depression for much of my life, and I know it can be maddening when people claim, as if it were easy, that we have influence over and responsibility for our internal state. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying there aren’t other factors that affect us--of course there are. I’m definitely not saying anything is wrong with us if we feel at the whim of big emotions or feelings sometimes or if it doesn’t always feel like we are empowered in that way. I’m also not saying it’s “bad” to have difficult feelings. And indeed, many of us have “difficult” feelings out of compassion for all the suffering on Earth, and that is beautiful.
I think respecting the feelings that arise is a key part of this process. In my own work with depression, I have found that acknowledging, accepting, and respecting the depression itself has been key to feeling ok. I have learned that when I move through the feelings, even when they feel scary, I move through; whereas if I resist them, they tend to increase and I get stuck.
But most importantly, I have learned that I can cultivate an energy of love and compassion for myself at the very same time that I am having difficult feelings. I can love and hold myself through the pain. This is honest: it doesn’t deny the feelings that are present, that are part of reality. It is loving: I’m not giving myself the impression that I am wrong or bad for feeling down. And it is creative: I am creating an energy of love and support even while I am also feeling sadness, grief, fear, etc.
We can cultivate any vibration within us. But Love and Joy are the energies of creation, the subtle physics of the world coming into form. They are the energies that we play with to make things, to make art, and new ideas, to build cities, and live our lives, to design policy, and to make and do literally everything under the Sun that is new rather than a mere rehashing of what’s already been made or said or done.
We might feel like it’s irresponsible or indulgent to play with love and joy when the world is burning. I think it would be irresponsible to completely check out; to ignore pain and suffering not just in ourselves but in others as well; to deny any responsibility to the struggles and oppressions of others. That would be irresponsible. But to be present with our own, and other people’s pain, and to bring to it love, is healing, it is loving, it is helpful, it is responsible.
If out of compassion we all drown in fear and pain and anger, that won’t help us. To the extent that we are able to take care of ourselves, and tend to our inner state of being; we will have the capacity to help and care for others as well, to do our work in the world, to do our little part in the best way we can, to bring more of what we want into the world.
Saturn square Uranus
The New Moon is loosely opposite Saturn, and tightly square to Uranus, which means this lunation is intimately tied to the central themes unfolding over 2021 and 2022 as indicated by the Saturn-Uranus square. The Saturn-Uranus square is relatively loose right now (5 degrees from exact), so the tensions connected to this aspect is still present but less potent than it has been or will be again (the square will be exact again in December 2021, and very close to exact in the fall of 2022). But this New Moon is speaking with it, and so we have an opportunity to work with the important themes we are living through with more ease and joy, perhaps.
New Moon square Uranus
The square to Uranus asks us to change. We are in such a significant moment of global change and transformation--I think I say that in every blog I write these days, but I feel like I have to keep repeating it because I just keep getting the feeling that most of us, myself included, don’t understand quite how significant the change is, and to what extent everything is being changed under our feet in ways we can’t yet see. In ten years, we will look back and see.
But as the world changes around us, if we resist change within ourselves, this global transformation will be more difficult. Resisting change in this case would be to give our power away, to allow others to direct this transformation we are undergoing. On the other hand, if we take the initiative to change in ways that are in alignment with Self, then we participate in this transformation, informing its energy and direction.
New Moon square Uranus asks us to stand in our truth. To, in joy and love, creatively channel ourselves into the world more fully; to cultivate joy, to be freely who we are, to express ourselves, to share our energy and perspective. There is a real freedom (Uranus) in simply allowing Self to flow into the world without contorting our energy for fear of how it may be received.
The conditioning around not wanting to upset others runs deep. We’ve been so ingrained with the idea that it's disrespectful or rude or inconsiderate to do or say anything that might offend someone else that we’ve essentially learned to stymie the flow of who we are. This is not to say we ought to go out there and intentionally hurt people. It’s to say that other people’s reactions are not our responsibility. Ooof, that’s a hard one to learn. Let’s say it again: other people’s reactions are not our responsibility.
So: how can you more fully stand in the truth of who you are? How can you more freely share your energy with the world?
Change might be as simple as taking the time to cultivate joy. It might mean sharing yourself more, or differently. It might mean trying something new: express yourself with vulnerability, put yourself out there, do something a little out of the ordinary.
Try one small thing and use it as a spell. When we intentionally do something a little different, the energy ripples through our being and lays in place a blueprint for change, and change then becomes easier. This isn’t about setting goals or beating ourselves up or wanting to be better. This is about harnessing love, joy, creativity, and freedom, and simply being who we are.
New Moon opposite Saturn; Saturn trine North Node
It has been important to acknowledge the gross imbalances of power that exist in our world. The structural inequalities, economic injustice, systemic oppression, etc. Those are really important conversations. But sometimes they can leave us with a sense that we are powerless. And I think not only is that not true, but it’s a dangerous mentality.
We have so much more power than the standard narrative would have us believe. And our power begins with that subtle internal process of creativity, of the ability to cultivate certain energies and then channel them into the world through form and movement and sound and everything else. I think that is what artists intuitively do, but it’s a skill we can all learn.
It’s a skill that is helpful on a personal level. But I think we are at a time in history when we are seeing that we actually have a responsibility (New Moon opposite Saturn) to work with energy in this way. If we buy into the narrative that we have no effect on the world, and that those in power have all the power and we have none, well we make it true by believing it; we shirk our responsibility to the collective by denying the power that we do have.
Accepting responsibility for the energy we create is in line with our evolution (Saturn trine North Node). There is a harmony between new narratives, new ways of seeing, new paradigms (North Node in Gemini), and our work: our dedication to the collective in the form of new energies, new ideas, new technologies, and all form of innovation (Saturn in Aquarius); or more simply: whatever it is that is our work in the world right now. It’s not a secret. It’s whatever you are working on, whatever you are creating, whatever you are attending to.
This is a really big shift in mindset: once we realize that our internal state of being affects our actions, and affects those around us, who in turn affect those around them, and therefore affects the whole world; we can see that every single choice we make, every single thought we think affects literally the whole world. This is huge. This suggests enormous responsibility. Creativity then becomes our responsibility to the collective; our influence on the world. A far cry from the powerlessness that the standard narrative offers us: this perspective suggests we have enormous power, so much so that we better take very seriously and joyously what we contribute to the world.
Venus opposite Neptune
Venus opposite Neptune heightens intuition and aesthetic sense; it offers a sweetness and creativity and compassion that can really assist us in working this magic; and indeed cultivating joy is of the highest magic, a pure act of creation that will affect every other creative act. Joy is an energy that ripples out into the world around us and touches every other being in existence because energy is infinite and we are all plugged in.
Mars square the Nodal Axis
Mars square the Nodal Axis invites us to change, once again; not just to change our energy or relationship to creativity, but to change the way we act. To disconnect from the old ways as defined by the standard narratives, the current social structures, by a reductionist and prescribed scientism, and all manner of thinking and being that have become narrow and rote (South Node in Sagittarius). We are at a time when what seems obvious is no longer true.
Mars square the Nodal Axis invites us to experimentation, exploration, play, openness, and curiosity. It’s ok to play with new ideas or ways of thinking without buying into them. It’s ok to explore modalities that you always thought were too out there or not for you. It’s ok to try. It’s not a commitment. It’s ok to loosen our attachment to how we’ve identified. It’s ok to let go of who we thought we were, and how we’ve always done things or what we’ve always believed. A part of the shift that we are all moving through is a shift in identity. Every one of us is invited to release some aspects of who we thought we were and how we once identified.
It’s not just that it’s safe to do so; but it’s how we grow. It’s how we evolve. The world only changes because we do. If we deny our power, if we shirk our responsibility to the collective by staying small, by only every reacting, by consenting to be moved about by outer forces and relegating our will; by not moving ourselves, by not acting ourselves, by not changing; well then we give our power away; and indeed, those with most power in the world will keep that power and we can only expect to be ruled over. But it’s not the only way.
Joy as Revolutionary
The rationale for cultivating Joy and Love goes beyond Self Care (which has perhaps never been more essential): to cultivate Joy in a world largely governed by fear, manipulation, and control is a radical act. It is truly revolutionary. I know this goes against what so many of us have been taught to believe for so long: that we change the world through hard work and stress. But there’s a reason those efforts so often lead to burn out; the revolution requires that we revolutionize our tactics and our thinking. We can’t change the world using the same problematic methods that characterize its problems.
A simple practice is to sit quietly, draw awareness into the heart centre (literally holding your awareness in the centre of your chest), and start thinking of things that bring you joy. It can be as simple as thinking of kittens or babies or whatever makes you smile. The thoughts are just a way to access the energy of joy, and once you find that energy, meditate on it, cultivate it, nurture it, and it will grow, as all does that we feed with our awareness which is love itself.
Beyond that, anything that brings you Joy is a blessing and precious, anything that is fun, playful, pleasurable; cherish that. To do what you enjoy is not an escape, it is not an indulgence, it is one of the most important ways that we influence the world at large, it is how we create a more loving and joyous world. The inner state of being that we cultivate, intentionally or not, is the single most important way we help humanity--for from that inner state flows everything else we think, say, and do. And so the world is made.
Announcements
New Offering: 1 hr Intuitive Astrological Consultation $130
After nearly a year of focusing on deep-dive 3-hour readings, I want to offer something more accessible. I explained why I wanted to focus on longer readings here I’ve been so deeply honoured to work with you in this deeper way, and my full readings will still be 3 hours long. Because of the way I work, I find that amount of time is needed for a comprehensive understanding of the natal chart and transits.
But I know that not everyone is always able or desiring such a deep and intensive process. So I’m now offering 1-hour intuitive-astrological consultations. They will not cover the whole natal chart and transits, but they will focus on one or two main themes or questions that you have at the time of the reading.
~Astrology Club~ Starting in September
Astrology Club is a monthly community gathering, a digital coven of sorts, where we align with the current astrology and work magic together.
We’ll discuss the monthly transits, the New and Full Moons, and where they land in our natal charts. My intention is to convey the current astrology as well as to hold space for what it means for each of us, for what we are all going through in our lives right now.
I’ll guide practices and offer spell work and ritual for working with the energy at hand, so that we can better understand what we are going through, make the most of the current month, and transform what is asking for change.
Everyone of all genders and all levels of experience with astrology is welcome.