We are in the balsamic phase of the lunar cycle – the dark side of the Moon, sensing that the New Moon is just around the corner but we don’t quite know what the new energy will bring. Restlessness and listlessness are not uncommon feelings, with double the potential today given that the Moon in Cancer will be void-of-course from 9:53AM ET until 10:55AM ET on Saturday. Wanna start the weekend early?
If you must work — as I must — stick to routine tasks and roll with any twists or delays that may thwart your efforts to move forward in a straight line. Chill out; don’t turn molehills of frustration into mountains; enjoy the aimless drift…see where it takes you. Wrap up projects from this lunar cycle and get ready to begin anew on Saturday.
Big news today is Mars, finally finally leaving Libra, where it has been all year — and entering Scorpio at 10:25pm ET. And there was much rejoicing in the land! Mars is much happier in Scorpio, where its headstrong efforts are freed up from Libra concerns over what everyone else will think. In Scorpio, Mars needs to act with depth and substance in its quest for world domination – or annihilation. Scorpios are so interesting that way. Caveat: today and for the next few days, Mars is in an especially tense pattern with Uranus (accidents, shocks to the system). This pattern was in effect through most of February and reflected in stunning accidents and outbursts — checkout the archives of this site for examples in the news.
Sleep in, chill out on Saturday. Moon shifts gear and roars into sunny Leo at 10:55AM ET — time for some summer fun! Wish Mick Jagger a happy 71st birthday OMG. Don’t start a fight around 11:29AM ET, when the regal Leo Moon is squared by willful Mars. If you’re shopping around 3PM ET, you may be inclined to splurge, courtesy of a hook-up between Moon and expansive Jupiter in luxe-loving Leo.
The New Moon kicks in at 6:42PM ET, when the Sun and Moon conjoin at 3 degrees of Leo. Make a list; light a candle. A New Moon offers us an opportunity to re-set intentions and goals for the next lunar cycle. Around August 3rd, on the First Quarter Moon, we can expect a challenge to those goals, with appropriate adjustments made. At the time of the Full Moon on the 10th, we can expect illumination on the success or failure of our goals for the cycle. If we succeeded, we can consciously release our success into our reality; if we failed, we let go of whatever did not work. After the Third Quarter Moon on the 17th, we can review our achievements, tie up loose ends and get ready to begin another New Moon on August 25th.
Creative self-expression, a sense of play and romantic love are Leo trademarks. So are royal entitlement and ego aggrandizement. Leo is born to rule; there’s no need to prove its case, and the sooner everyone in the room recognizes and honors it, the happier everyone will be. Why is that so hard for non-Leos to understand? In this New Moon chart, the need of the Leo Sun and Moon to shine is augmented by this week’s hook-up with expansive Jupiter. An intensified and potentially groundbreaking social expression of this need is suggested by dynamic alignment between Venus (love, women, art, money) and the Uranus-Pluto square. An extra dose of willpower, potent and potentially volatile, is suggested by the aforementioned tension between Mars and rebel Uranus, and by an approaching challenge by Mars to Jupiter which adds an abundant physicality and enthusiasm. How are you going to release all of this energy? Hopefully by being your naturally sunny self and doing what you were born to do. Get in touch with your passions this month. Take some time to follow your bliss. Do what you love. Leo rules the heart!
You are more personally affected by the need for creative self-expression of this New Moon if you have a planet or point around 3 degrees of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus and Scorpio…or if you were born around the 26th of July, October, January and April.
Sunday the Leo Moon coasts through the day without interference, until it goes void of course on a stubborn challenge between Moon and stern Saturn at 8:38PM ET. An intense emotional response may have been building all day, suggested by ruthless Pluto opposing Venus at 2:17AM ET on Monday. A power play involving women, resources and/or aesthetics is suggested. Here’s what happened the last time Pluto and Venus were in a challenging pattern. Venus will square rebel Uranus on August 1st.
Once the Moon goes void at 8:38PM ET Sunday, it will not enter the next sign — Virgo — until 11:37PM ET on Monday. Long Moon voids suggest long rest periods. If you didn’t launch your New Moon initiative on Sunday; wait until Tuesday.
And now, some news.
I was expecting some royal edicts to make headlines yesterday, given the Leo Sun’s hook-up with expansive Jupiter. And there on the NYT homepage was a piece about what life is like in a Syrian city now controlled by ISIS. That hook-up suggests a lot of hot air, and sharing the NYT homepage was an update on the severe drought affecting the Western United States.
There were plenty of headlines reflecting the disruptive potential of this week’s challenge to mental Mercury by Uranus-Pluto, starting with more than one crash of a commercial jetliner — in Mali and in Taiwan, not to mention the death of a teen pilot attempting to fly around the world. In other news, the startling revelation that Senator John Walsh (D-Montana) plagiarized much of the content in his master’s thesis. Meanwhile, a 16-year-old has created an app that aims to expose “corrupt politicians”, while proprietary information about how one might end up on the U.S. “no-fly” list is leaked. Travel plans for some may be further disrupted thanks to a computer glitch that is delaying the issuing of U.S. passports.
Yesterday’s piece about memory and music was particularly well-received. So here’s another story about the positive influence of art (Venus trine Neptune), creative self-expression (Sun-Jupiter in Leo) and especially art’s ability to shake people out of a mental funk (Mercury square Uranus): find out what happens when some people diagnosed with mental illness take up photography.
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