New Moon Leo 7/23/17 Flaring Passions and Creative Juices

"Untitled" by Barbara Kruger at The Broad Museum

This new moon ushers in a Leo season that is bombastic! Dramatic! Exclamatory!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m already exhausted. This could go a lot ways folks, but whichever way it goes it won’t go quietly or without ceremony.

Leo is about showing. Expression. Putting yourself out there.

A Leo key word is creation; that includes recreation and procreation. Anything made out of love and joy, that bears the singular stamp of the individual. It’s  “This represents me!!” “Ta Da!!”

The biggest distinction to make with this new moon is WHY you are putting your beautiful, unique self out there. Leo WANTS the spotlight desperately, but NEEDS to give it away. It’s the sign of generosity. Leo is ruled by the life-GIVING sun. When Leo shares out of the pure spirit of giving, nothing is more beautiful. It’s what born-leaders are made of. When Leo gives to get, we run into some problems.

Leo is without question the ruler of the jungle; big, bold, and swashbuckling. What people often don’t know about Leo is that it can also be one of the most insecure and untrusting realms. Leo rules both heart and ego. The bigger the love, the bigger the anxiety, the bigger the needs. The bigger the ego the more vulnerable it is, and the more it wants something in return for what it gives, like absolute loyalty, control, certainty (it’s a fixed sign). It needs to show and be shown proof of love, acceptance, and respect. Hence the romantic gestures, the ceremonies, the parades and love of titles. Leo is nobility.

This overblown Leo new moon looks amazing for finally having the nerve to put your true self out there and find joy, but there’s also a chance for a lot of hurt feelings if recognition or responses come up short. It’s so important to examine whether we're spreading the love or if we're putting ourselves out there because we're hungry for other people to give us the feeling of love, joy, pride, or self-respect. A magical thing happens when you fill your own cup. We have lots to share without worrying about loss. That’s inspiring. That’s what Leo leadership is all about. Imagine a world where everyone gave freely without expectation of something back. All of our cups would be full.

This new moon is EXTRA potent for all new creations (hint hint use protection if you're not looking to conceive), and ushers in the total solar eclipse in Leo this August which will blast some us into a whole new life or point us toward new projects and people to love. This also means we get two new moons in Leo in a row (separated by a full moon of course), which is rare, and they’ll both be sitting with Mars. This Leo extravaganza could go off the rails.

3 days after this new moon, Mars dies unto itself and is reborn in Leo to start a whole new Mars cycle (Mars-Sun conjunction). With Mars in Leo we have extra fervor about asserting our individuality and putting ourselves out there with FORCE. I know you can already see how this can go a few different ways. It depends on our intentions. What is our answer to that question: WHY are we asserting our individuality? Is it to share our unique qualities and feelings or to prove our worthiness of love and admiration? When we go after the latter, all we prove to ourselves is that we don’t already feel worthy. Do we need to feel more special than someone else to feel special at all?

The way we express our individuality is going through an overhaul. Intention matters. It’s not everything, but in the midst of our creative processes, how else can we know when to course-correct, or when to shift gears? Without intention, we create at the whim an ego whose function it is to separate. Intention keeps us on track and conscious of our behavior so we can create from the heart.

This is a hot one y’all. Watch your tempers. Check the egos. We'll feel all kinds of inspirations and flaring passions. I hope those inspirations are centered on boundless self love for the express purpose of giving it away. You ARE special. Accept that and share it.

Full moon Capricorn 7/9/17 Necessary Surgery

“The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.”—Carl Jung

I also like this one: “The greatest darkness constellates the most powerful, answering light; the greatest threat constellates the most impassioned energy of creativity”—Andrew Harvey

I think that I’m beginning this post with quotations to avoid writing about this lunation. “Good” or “bad” is in the eye of the beholder, but man, this chart looks unnerving. Depends on how you feel about intensity. A lot of astrologers are calling this the “Hades Moon.” And, I get it. It has the forces of the underworld, Kali, and Scorpio written all over it. But, it looks necessary. Handled well, this could be a deeply healing time that gives birth to something we need to move forward. HANDLED WELL.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I recommended staying close to your feelings, trying to understand your deepest needs and those of others, creating safe, flexible spaces, and building intimacy with your tribe? How’d we do with that?  We’re going to find out now. During the new moon Cancer we (hopefully) took some deep breaths and exposed our soft centers. This Capricorn full moon is the harsh light of day come ‘round to inspect what’s going on in there and maybe do a bit of surgery. It’s the doctor saying, “This is going to feel a little uncomfortable,” “you might feel a little pressure.” Let’s face it. This is going to hurt. Question is, when you feel that pressure and heightened sensitivity are you going to wall off, shut down, and don your armor? Or are you going to remember that this surgery is necessary, and surrender? This surgery aims to remove what blocks you from what you need most. I hope you tricked out your healing spaces and got real with your people.

Some of us will choose to fight.

Pick your battles. There will be many to choose from. Conflicts abound. Within and without. Well, as within so without…right?

At any full moon, we’re dealing with polarity. With a Capricorn full moon we’re dealing with archetypal big guns: Mother vs. Father, Public vs. Private, Work vs. Home, Form vs. Feeling, Tides of Change vs. The Establishment. Much as I try to deal with polarities as a continuum of a theme, which I still recommend we do with this lunation; this particular one has some gnarly challenges in the form of Mars in Cancer sitting with the sun, and Pluto in Capricorn sitting with the moon. You got a taste of this last week. It peaks this week.

Like all full moons, this one wants you to release something. What’s especially difficult about letting go with this one is the Mars-Pluto opposition. Mars in Cancer fights by defending, building walls, and hiding. Building walls and hiding your feelings is like waving a red cape in front of a bull—the bull being Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto is Scorpio energy. It is extreme, relentless, and it digs. Pluto in Capricorn digs all the way to the bottom. It will complete the job. Sounds violent. And it could be. But it doesn’t have to be. (PS this is an outstanding time to do research, detox/cleanse, finish a tough job).

All that Pluto-moon conjunction wants to remove are lies, and our false sense of security. It wants to remove what keeps us from feeling the real security of love, interconnectedness, and constant renewal. If we can stay open and awake, tolerate some poking and prodding, that Pluto-moon will take what it needs and be on its way, leaving us to heal and feel secure in a way no one and nothing can threaten.

Should we choose to harden against ourselves, the world, each other, that Pluto-moon might resort to unnecessarily destructive measures to get what it wants. That’s war…within ourselves, with each other, and the world. We don’t need astrology to see this playing out on the world stage.

I don’t think of myself as a fire-and-brimstone type of astrologer, but shit. This is challenging. Not that I think it’s important for life to be easy all of the time. This lunation, handled well, could lead to something much more powerful than feeling easy: feeling whole. There are deep changes that we need to allow for. To cling to old ways of being, to preserve some false notion of safety is to prolong senseless suffering.

Please do what you can to stay open. Let's try to catch ourselves being lured into battle, other-ing, and hyperactive defensiveness. See if you notice urges to escape, evade, or suppress. Those are not the optimal ways to deal with our fear. To quote Robert Frost, “The only way out is through.” Let’s hold each other’s hands as we walk through this…and ditch that armor. We are meant to be moved.

I don’t think of myself as a love-and -light astrologer either but please be kind. Please be loving, please be fierce only in your search for what is true. It is the ILLUSION that we are not already safe that creates war. XC