Victorious New Moon in Leo

Why is it victorious you might ask?

Surviving Eclipse season + Mercury retrograde that's why! As most of the seven visible planets slide from CANCER into LEO we feel a lot better. CANCER is a beautiful sign, but in this current era, it is so besieged by SATURN PLUTO that it feels like a raw emotional nerve. Blasting from the deep cardinal water out into fixed fire feels good, in the same way as standing by a roaring bonfire after swimming for hours feels good. Let's dry out and warm up a bit.

AUDIO VERSION LINK HERE

Not entirely though, as MERCURY has traveled back to 23 CANCER, the Lunar Eclipse point, stationed direct opposite the Big Bad Wolf PLUTO. There is some essential and deeply felt communication that needs to happen this week.

Ice melting from volcanic magma running underground, shed tears as needed to rebalance your emotional body. We need to emotionally recalibrate after all the intensity that the 2 eclipses brought us in July. The NEW MOON happens on July 31 at 8:11pm PDT at 8 degrees of LEO, and MERCURY turns direct within the same hour. And people say that there is no divine intelligence backing everything .... HA!

MERCURY doesn't clear its station degree until August 6, so you're advised to wait one more week before making any big moves or purchases.

LEO is about promoting the continuation of life into the future, and the children are our future, thus LEO's association with children and creativity.

LEO is the ripe and ready, egocentric participation in life. LEO wants to leave a legacy and to do so the LEO part of all of us must touch the emotions and inspire people in order to move them, in order to be remembered.

Emotionally charged moments causes an impact on us make us feel alive and in the moment, and create a lasting memory. This is LEO's forte, which is the expressed goal of many spiritual traditions, to be present in the NOW.

LEO rules the heart and spine, and is governed by the life giving star at the center of our earthly existence. LEO is the KING/QUEEN for this reason.

LEO is the sign where we begin to need to create something that will last beyond our lifetimes. LEO wants to leave a legacy, via children of the body as well as children of the mind. LEO is fixed fire meaning that we have a focused creativity with which to work right now.

VENUS, our lady of love and money is now in her full LEO glory, heading into the heart of the SUN. When she goes Cazimi in mid-August, she will meet with the KING and get her orders for her next year. In LEO, she loves to love and be adored. She loves all the trappings and finery and indulgences.

She wants to dress up and preen and be seen, as do we during this time. During the next three weeks, it's time to celebrate and play and indulge and flirt. Drink deeply from the fire goblet of passion and love that she holds. VENUS in LEO is the harvest of love. This is the best astrology of the year.

SATURN is still traveling retrograde with the SOUTH NODE and PLUTO; the ever ready, roto-rooter team. They were featured in the second eclipse and will continue to present a united front all the way until our next eclipse, on Christmas Day.

How is the letting go of old, burdering, heavy baggage going? As they are in cardinal earth, this is literal. Downsize and reduce your load for greater flexibility and streamlined maneuvering as we sail towards 2020.

The 3 planets not in the CAP CANCER line-up are:

JUPITER (expansive good fortune),

NEPTUNE (dreams), and

URANUS (the Great Waker-Upper)).

This Eclipse-Season-concluding NEW MOON sees JUPITER in fire grooving with the NEW MOON and MARS in LEO, while NEPTUNE in water is singing to MERCURY and the SOUTH NODE, still in watery CANCER.

It's all passion and feelings, on top of this ongoing SATURN PLUTO KETU grind in earth. I think we need to see an image of tilling the soil right now.

Why are SATURN and PLUTO and KETU doing all of this long, thorough tilling all year, into next year? Listen below, and think metaphorically.

We are in this very thorough tilling, composting, breaking down phase that is funky, sticky, and plain old hard work. The soil needs to be wet (we need to be in touch with our emotions) but not too wet (don't lose balance there).

The only way out is through. The tilling must be done so we can plant the seeds of our big new cycle, that will follow this churning time of 2019-2020.

The SUN is so happy to be in its home sign of LEO, and we are benefiting from this joyful, solar-radiance after the journey through what my teacher

Austin Coppock, nicknamed the 'Meat Grinder'.

I was resistant to this moniker, hoping it wouldn't prove to feel like that... but, it definitely felt like that. Now we are leaving the Tunnel O' Grind, but the next big thing on the game board of life is the LEO SUN making a disruptive, confrontational square with URANUS in TAURUS. It was exact on July 29 but the whole week will have a flavor of creative revolution. Not a great week for feeling happy to take orders from anyone. This is a symbol of dramatic, passionate, revolution.

VENUS and MARS, the receptive planet of love, and the active planet of war and passion are flanking the NEW MOON and SUN. All are in a happy discussion with JUPITER in SAGITTARIUS, turning direct on August 11. Fortunes and tides are about to turn for the better, and in general, this month feels pretty darn good. Enjoy it!

After the SUN squares URANUS, next up is VENUS. It perfects on August 1, also called Lammas, the long celebrated, pagan cross-quarter gateway into earliest autumn. Where have you been complacent/asleep in your relationships needs? Where can you make some changes that will improve the quality of your relating? This is a very reactive energy so keep that in mind and try to be productive and proactive vs reactive and destructive. If you end up in an argument, neither side will be inclined to yield, so you have the upper hand by knowing that you win by staying as calm and loving as you can even in the face of fire. The disagreeing could be about resources/generosity and issues around self-care needs.

Lammas is the beginning of the ripening harvest, where we begin to taste the sun kissed arrivals. It's time to pause and reflect on the wheel of the year spinning beneath us, with just a short time more of summer warmth and longer days until the nights lengthen, the nights get colder and the leaves begin to change. Here in Northern California, the non-native but much loved Chinese Pistache trees are the first and also most vibrant contributors to the show.

But for now, take a moment to give thanks for what we have, from the simplest to grandest blessings.