New Moons are always pretty special. Part of this is because for those couple of days before, the sky is pitch dark. There is no light. Things are ending and they’re ending there in the dark behind the blackness. This leaves an emptiness that needs to be filled- a clean slate, so to speak. The PSB song title I was going to use for this post was “we all feel better in the dark”, but that sounded a tad too Scorpionic.
I’ll let you in on a little secret- I’m scared of the dark. But it’s more than dark, it’s about what’s out there or under there or in there- the things I can’t see and therefore can’t know about.
When I was younger, like TTM’s age or a little older, my family used to holiday on Greenmount Beach at Coolangatta on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Every year Mum & Dad would pile all of us in the car for the long journey and every year we would stay at this old fibro Queenslander right on the beach. Of course its gone now….
Anyways, in those days I used to swim the length of the beach before breakfast, out there past the breakers. The ocean didn’t scare me, but what I couldn’t see under me in the dark water did. Every time I was out there, I was trying to beat my own fears.
These days what I am scared of gets pushed away or under the carpet as I pop my fingers in my ears and do the whole lalalalalala not listening thing.
But these few days before the New Moon are the best time for banishing fears and things we no longer have uses for. Whether it is ideas, habits, stuff in your head that shouldn’t be there.
This New Moon, that may present more of a challenge than usual. With Mercury so slow he may as well be stationary opposite Neptune, identifying between what is real and what is not, what should be feared and what should be faced head on will be more confusing than usual.
Having said that, the Leo New Moon is, I think, the most creative of new starts. Leo, ruled by the Sun, is about ego, self expression, creativity. Given the Sun’s propensity to send out its’ warmth, Leo is also arguably the most generous sign.
In the body, Leo rules the heart. In nature, Leo is the King. In the Wizard of Oz, he was looking for courage. But above all, he wants to feel proud. Not necessarily flamboyant, but just proud.
With Leo, though, the fear of potential exposure of something coming out from the dark or grabbing your leg when swimming is never that far away…metaphorically speaking. Leo’s challenge is to find heart, strength and courage without losing himself in the process. The “Heart” in the title of this blog, is therefore not the romantic version of heart, but rather the heart of the matter sort of heart…the slow burn, the beat, the pump, the very part of survival of self.
In any case, at this New Moon, with Venus sitting under the rays of the Sun and in easy aspect to unconventional Uranus, the urge is there to share those special parts of yourself with others. You have the ability to stand out from the crowd in some way- looking at the pic above, be not just another bum in the flock. But, as all good stylistas know, less sometimes is more, and with a Venus/Jupiter square coming into play, the urge to indulge and exceed is very definitely there.
OK, the technical details. This New Moon is at 7 Leo 16’, so those most impacted will be Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio and Taurus planets at or around, say, 5-9 degrees of those signs. Aries, Gemini, Libra and Sagittarius planets between 6-8 degrees may also feel it. But as with all lunations (that’s a technical astro word for New Moons and Full Moons), the closer the orb the better…well the more likely you will feel it in some way.
Check out where this falls in your chart. It is that part of life where you are being asked to look for courage and strength, but above all self-expression, generosity and creativity.
For me, this falls in my 5th house (creativity, risk, kids- you know the drill by now) and forms an exact square to the nodal axis. The challenge for me is which way forward- to the South Node (8th house Scorpio for me) and comfort in the past and towards the North Node (3rd house Taurus) and the way forward. Do I want to stay afraid of the metaphorical dark or let the words and the creativity out. Both require heart…and that is something Leo has plenty of.
New Moon 7 Leo 16′
Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane: Sunday 31/7/11 4.40am
New Zealand: Sunday 31/7/11 6.40am
Perth, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong: Sunday 31/7/11 2.40am
London: Saturday 30/7/11 5.40pm
New York: Saturday 30/7/11 2.40pm
Los Angeles: Saturday 30/7/11 11.40am
or thereabouts…I have never been great on details!