August 16, 2023
2:37 AM PDT / 5:37 AM EDT / 9:37 AM GMT
23 Leo 17
This year’s Leo New Moon isn’t merely boosting self-expression, self-confidence, and the self in general. It’s updating all of them for their – and our – future growth.
A New Moon is always a time of beginnings, of refreshing, and of next phases in existing processes. The sign of Leo imbues them with flair, drama, playfulness, and attention to the self.
This year’s has a strong retrospective potential. It comes in the thick of Venus’ retrograde through the sign, a journey that has been bringing up creativity, business and loves past. Fusion and self-realization are still in the air from her meeting with the Sun August 13 and the Moon hours before the Moon becomea new. Everything we’ve learned and assimilated so far plays into the New Moon. Whatever we’ve encountered (new or old), whatever bits of ourselves we’ve reclaimed fuel the seeds, goals, intentions, and next steps igniting now.
Breaking off from whatever’s “not us” is part of the mix. This Moon is actually forcing us to shake things up, to take risks, and to throw off shackles, whether they’re self-imposed, habits, or trappings that no longer fit current conditions.
Responses promise to be drastic and extreme, when measured against your personal norm. For some, that may mean pole dancing or dying your hair pink; for others, it may mean taking the mic at karaoke night, or daring to text a person who’s been on your romance radar.
What have you thought you might do, if you had the nerve? You might just do it. Or you might do something you didn’t foresee. We’re all capable of surprises, shocks, and pulling off major plot twists, with the Moon in an exact square to quick-change artist Uranus in Taurus. Uranus is in one of Venus’ signs and therefore under her command, a situation that ties a lot of the lightning strikes and breaks to our Venus retrograde journeys. Venus, in turn, is in the Sun’s sign and under his command, which underscores that the Sun is control of this event.
Whatever this New Moon is kindling for you has a decided sense of inevitability. The Moon is trine the North Node, only a few weeks in Aries, and pointing us toward autonomy and self-actualization. This North Node, and the Aries/Libra eclipses this year and next, are updating “me/we” issues – the challenge of being both yourself and in relationships. The emphasis of those eclipses, and the Aries North Node, and this Leo New Moon, is on the individual, which will lead to rewriting default dynamics, rule books, and behavior patterns.
Inspiration, guidance, and forces greater than our conscious will are pointing the way. The Moon is the focus of a wide yod, or Finger of God, from Neptune and Pluto. The configuration puts at our disposal the dreaming and transcendent potentials of Neptune, and the raw, nonrational, nonconscious ferocity of Pluto. The combo injects a kind of autopilot vibe to the New Moon. Dream; dare; take a chance or three. Have fun with it. And watch fast and lasting change catch fire.
Image Neal E Johnson from Unsplash