The Cosmic Story: Leo New Moon 2020
The Cosmic Story: Leo New Moon 2020
Lammas, both season and fire festival of First Harvest, is well underway. We find ourselves here in late summer harvesting our gardens, gathering in their bounty now that they’ve grown into their design and purpose – sustenance for our bodies, beauty for our eyes. Like the seeds and flowers that grew into our vegetables and fruits this year, the seeds of our previous conscious development slept within us, waiting for the new year to open and grow and create another year’s story.
The year 2020 has developed into quite an unexpected story. From a spiritual point of view, it has become a story of a collective human initiation, a time when we are forced to face death and evolve, to transform ourselves and our expectations of how we live life personally and as a society. We won’t know if we’ve passed the initiation until we come out on the other side. There is no doubt that we’ll get through this chaos and change. It is up to each of us to make sure that change is positive and life-giving.
No small purpose! It will take sacrifice – ‘to make sacred’. It will take discipline and responsibility and imagination. It will take community and intelligence and belief. It will take heart and determination and compassion. We won’t do it by fighting wars or polluting the Earth or disenfranchising anyone.
We do it by living our ideals. We do it by experimenting with ways to do it together. We do it by waiting to see who and what calls us to service.
So let’s look back to the seeding time of this unexpected, chaotic year and remember all the energy shifts that occurred in the heavens. Perhaps it will help us to see and understand what we’ve harvested in our minds, our hearts and our spirit.
Astrologically, we began the year with a lunar eclipse at 20* Cancer, the Nodes of both Saturn and Pluto, questioning our integrity and security needs while asking us to confront the emotional components of our unresolved issues of power and control. Could we let go of fear and return to a more nurturing, caring standpoint? Just to wake us up, a few hours later Uranus turned direct in Taurus (and in turn it just turned retrograde last Saturday, August 15), ready to rock & roll and see how it could shake things up. And shake things up it did!
Two days later on January 12, 2020, Saturn and Pluto came together in Capricorn for the first time in 500 years, around the time Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation and changed Western society. They conjoined on the degree of their shared South Nodes, 22* Capricorn, bringing up the issue of purging old karma. As Maurice Fernandez so presciently said,
Between 2019 and 2020, Pluto and Saturn will conjunct each other around the twenty first degree of Capricorn, exactly on their own shared south node positions! Similar to 1931, the planetary nodes will surely add a whole new dimension to this upcoming conjunction. The collective implications are of prime order. We have a few bridges to cross until then, but we can anticipate that radical political shifts will occur; additionally, Saturn and Pluto also refer to Karma being created or being purged. This conjunction may relate to events that will either open new doors for a better world order, or induce extreme vice and corruption; usually it is a combination of both positive and negative extremes.
Soon after, the first Covid-19 cases became public. It took a few more months to become the full blown pandemic we have now. We became aware of it when Mercury retrograded in Pisces/Aquarius at the end of February-beginning of March. Mercury is the energy of the Mind, how we use our minds or shut them down. During that watery retrograde, we dove into the collective unconscious to see what was troubling us and came up for air to discover an air-born virus that affected our lungs. Lungs symbolize our ability to be inspired (Latin inspirare "blow into, breathe upon," figuratively "inspire, excite, inflame") – to be filled with breath and spirit. How are you doing with that? Are you inspired to change, or living in anxiety and fear?
After Spring Equinox, Saturn, the energy of form, structure, limitations and authority, moved from practical Capricorn into airy, idealistic Aquarius and we all got online and zoomed while we were asked to stay home and socially distance ourselves. I believe Mother Earth sent us to our rooms to meditate on our lives and our world.
In late April, Pluto in Capricorn turned retrograde probably right around the time we began to realize we were stuck at home. Pluto has been purging our collective structures since 2008. In May, both Jupiter in Capricorn and Saturn in Aquarius turned retrograde, and pressure began to build on world leaders to help out their citizens with some kind of monetary relief. How have you weathered our economic downturn? Are you getting help? Have you asked for help?
The Moon’s North Node in nurturing Cancer had moved to Gemini, just as Venus turned retrograde in Gemini on May 12th-13th. Venus is the archetypal energy of connection, of love and of soul. Beginning a new Venus Star cycle, she stayed in Gemini from April 3rd to August 7th, enticing us to communicate and think outside the box (since Venus-ruled Taurus was entertaining Uranus at the time. And you know how Uranus likes to think cosmically!) We certainly have been communicating, but it hasn’t always been as kind and witty as Venus would have liked. How has your thinking changed? Or how are your communication skills? Have you discovered what you love?
Soon after on May 25th, George Floyd proclaimed to the world, ‘I can’t Breathe’. And the world responded with protests and another call for social justice. Down came symbols of white oppression. And up went the hackles in our shadows of white supremacy.
By mid-June, Mercury once again went retrograde in a water sign – Cancer this time. Picking up on all the emotional evolution we experienced while the lunar nodes were in Cancer/Capricorn since 2018, did you figure out what it is you really need to feel secure and to thrive?
Summer Solstice came in with a last solar eclipse in Cancer, once again reinforcing our need to take care of ourselves and each other. Masks became a thing – a symbol of freedom and individualism, or a symbol of caring and community. The Capricorn Amigos (Pluto, Jupiter, Saturn) set down stringent rules as we were released back into the world. What has your summer been like? Have you relaxed and played, or worried and worked? Or both?
We got to experience two Cancer New Moons – we obviously need some mothering right now. But those two Cancer Moons changed the lunar rhythms on us, so now the dance steps are changing. We’ll be weaving different elements and energies together, making a more complex pattern in our lives.
With this harvest, we also have to consider Uranus turning retrograde – have your electronics died? - and the fact that Mars will be slowing down now to turn retrograde in Aries on September 9th, just as it squares off with the Three Capricorn Amigos. Do you like what you’re seeing of our culture? From our leaders? From Nature? What will you vote for in the coming months?
The Aquarius/Leo Full Moon on August 4th occurred exactly on the Nodes of Neptune. Maurice Fernandez once again brings our last Full Moon into focus:
The nodes of Neptune in this regard describe the evolutionary lesson of associating one’s creative effort with a greater spiritual meaning. It incites the individual to realize that his or her personal sense of purpose must be in alignment with the greater good of humanity and life as a whole. Neptune transmutes the personal effort to a transpersonal dimension. This evolutionary lesson implies there is a need for humility and greater perspective when expressing one’s creative potential. It also implies one person’s effort can affect the masses and change the course of humanity.
Can you imagine what spiritual purpose your creativity holds for you? Have you been being creative? Are you sharing it with the world?
The World has changed. The question is, what are you going to do about it? That’s your harvest.
Leo New Moon
This Leo New Moon occurs on August 18th at 7:42pm PDT/10:42 pm EDT and on August 19th at 3:42am GMT.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 27* Leo is: The Luminescence of Dawn in the eastern sky. Dane Rudhyar says this symbol represents “the exalting challenge of new opportunities at the threshold of a new cycle.” Dawn is the beginning of a new day, and we are in fact living it. Instead of fear, we are called upon to exalt in the excitement and joy that we are living in just the life we incarnated for.
Mercury conjuncts the Sun on August 17th, a day before this New Moon. Hopefully, our minds will be inspired to create something new in our lives that will help us deal with this continuing collective drama.
The interesting thing about this Leo Mercury and New Moon is that they inconjunct (150*) the Three Amigos in Capricorn, meaning that in some ways they can’t ‘see’ the Capricorn planets without doing some stretching. What would that look like? Well, we’ve been immersed in this chaotic energy for over 6 months now. Perhaps the challenge is to step away from our concentration on this breakdown of culture and use that respite to break-through to new insights about our own creativity. Sometimes we have to step away from the crisis to get centered and open to new energies and new insights.
The Leo Sun energies want to light us up and warm us with their generous spirit, their need to create and their powerful sense of Self. Aligned with the Leo Moon, we can access our innate Leo energies on an instinctual level and see what wants to come out and play. Look to see which house Leo rules in your birth chart. That’s a good place to start.
Mars in Aries is a big player in this New Moon. Mars trines (120*) the New Moon and Mercury, adding its dynamic Aries fire to Leo’s fixed fire, reinforcing and supporting whatever endeavors Leo is working on. This is an aspect that wants you to ‘be’ the fire, the enthusiasm, the warmth. Let it flow through you and have its way with you!
The Sabian symbol for Mars at 25* Aries is: The possibility for humanity to gain experience at two levels of being. Rudhyar states: “ Be open. Be able and willing to shape your translucent mind in the form revealing spiritual fulfillment. And you will be able to experience life and power on inner as well as outer planes.”
At the same time as it works with the Leo planets, it challenges the Three Capricorn Amigos to keep changing. This square produces inner stress and tension, which can be relieved by playing with your creative fire. Don’t get mad, get creative!
People are worried about this Mars retrograde coming up on September 9th since Mars in Aries can be warlike. But we don’t have to fall for the old ways of using energy. Mars in Aries can help us find ourselves and our identity. It is our assertion and our ability to grapple with problems. It is our desire nature which drives life. What do we desire most?
Watch what’s been going on this past week and next week as Mars makes its first squares to retrograde Jupiter (August 4), Pluto (August 13) and Saturn (August 24). There will be similar issues coming up for you personally as Mars retrogrades back to reconnect with them throughout the fall. And watch the news to find out what’s happening on a collective level. How will you engage with your Mars in the world?
Mars retrograde again squares Saturn as it turns direct on September 29th, with Jupiter direct on October 18-19, and with Pluto direct on October 9th. It will square them all a third time once it turns direct on Friday November 13th.
Uranus turned retrograde on August 15th at 11* Taurus. The Sabian symbol is: A woman watering flowers in her garden. This is a calm (for Uranus) statement to cultivate our inner garden. What feelings have you been working with that bring color, beauty and fun to your life? It’s time to stop looking at the troubles and start looking for the blessings of life.
Venus will help us with that, as it forms an easy, exact sextile with Uranus from Cancer. Cancer and Taurus work well together, creating beauty and comfort and nurturing. Take this opportunity to go to your happy place. Coax those flowers to blossom and thrive.
Maybe because we’re nearing the end of summer and Covid has gotten us down, but there’s something about this week’s Leo New Moon energy that just wants us to have fun and not pay attention anymore. (That doesn’t mean you can stop wearing masks! I finally broke down and bought some goddess masks to use instead of my scarf mask.) It seems our crisis overload has begun. As we soon enter the season of Virgo on August 22nd, perhaps we’ll get back to work in our own way and in our own time. And perhaps the most important lesson we can learn is to find the joy and blessings in life that are offered to us, so that when we go back to work we are rested and balanced.
Stay well,
Cathy
The Fire
Listen,
I've light
in my eyes
and on my skin
the warmth of a
star, so strange
is this
that I
can barely comprehend
it:
I think
I'll lift my face to it, and then
I lift
my face,
and don't even know how
this is done.
And
everything alive
(and everything's
alive) is
turning
into something else
as at the heart
of some
annihilating
or is it creating
fire
that's burning,
unseeably, always
burning at such speeds
as eyes
cannot
detect, just try
to observe your own face
growing
old
in the mirror, or
is it beginning
to be born?
~ Franz Wright ~
(God's Silence)
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