The New Moon in  Leo officially begins today at 5:51PM ET, offering us an opportunity to re-set  intentions and goals for the next lunar cycle.  Around the 14th, 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 20th, 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 28th, we can review our achievements, tie up loose ends and get ready to begin another New Moon on September 5th.

This New Moon occurs at 14 degrees of Leo, where its need for drama, love and other forms of recognition will likely find expression in groups, perhaps also through a maternal influence. Freedom of expression is a lingering theme, with an added layer of “healer, heal thyself”.  The Sabian Symbol for this lunation suggests plenty of opportunities to pull out all the stops in all matters of creative expression seeking recognition. It is this:  “a pageant”.  Examples of a pageant, notes Sabian Symbol guru Blain Bovee, include the outrageous carnival of a Mardi Gras, marked by wretched excess and exultation. Adding to the potential for celebratory overload is a pattern noted yesterday: expansive Jupiter, seeking its reward in whatever fosters homeland and emotional security….opposed by powerful Pluto in the sign of the Established Order.  But wait, there’s more — and that would be the windfall opportunity suggested by Jupiter’s upcoming square to Uranus. Sudden disruptions of the status quo, for better or worse, that lead to sweeping change…

You will feel this surge of creative expression and celebration more personally if you have a planet or point at around 14 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.  Opportunities for transformational expansion are suggested by the Jupiter-Pluto-Uranus square if you have a planet or point around 8-13 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.

I don’t know about you, but everyone around me has been particularly giddy this morning, true to the spirit of the Leo Moon’s need for play. Once the New Moon is exact at 5:51PM ET (light a candle; set your intentions), it then goes void of course until 11:57PM ET — tomorrow night. That’s a looooong rest period. Time for a party or what? But y’know, that’s the spirit of this New Moon — just be careful your backyard BBQ grill does not tip over and set the house on fire. Or explode. You can have too much of a good thing, including creative self-expression, as this timely article on America’s narcissism crisis explains. Once the Moon is in detail-conscious, perfection seeking Virgo on Thursday, then proceed to launch an agenda that is intended to take form, as opposed to just taking the stage.

In the news — following up on yesterday’s note about the Jupiter-Pluto opposition suggesting big news in the publishing world — how fascinating it was to see the Washington Post being bought by Amazon, and just a few days ago the owner of the Boston Red Sox bought the Boston Globe. Jupiter-Pluto-Uranus also suggests resources, including nuclear power, and I am totally bummed to report that the situation in Fukushima continues to worsen — and it does so every time there’s a trigger to the Uranus-Pluto square by a faster-moving planet. Last month it was the Sun and Mars; this month, Jupiter and Venus; the first week in October it’ll be the Sun; the first week in November it’ll be the fourth of seven exacts Uranus-Pluto square.

What else does Jupiter-Pluto suggest? Big news in sports…and everyone is dishing about the doping scandal in Major League Baseball, which includes its highest-paid player, a.k.a. A-Rod of the NY Yankees. We do not have a birth time for A-Rod (known birth data here), but let the record show that his proud Leo Sun was just smacked down by a square from stern Saturn. And while we are on the subject of stern Saturn smackdowns, let the record also show that a frequent subject of this forecast, Dominque Straus-Kahn, was recently charged with pimping after Saturn’s third opposition to DSK’s Taurus Sun.

Wanna see some cool outer space stuff, also suggested by current planetary patterns? Even the Mars Curiosity rover is in a celebratory mood. Here is a video of it singing “Happy Birthday” to itself, presumably not in violation of any copyright laws on the Red Planet. Happy birthday, Curiosity!