New Moon in Leo Pt. 1 - What's Happening in August 2011

by Robert Wilkinson

Over the next 4 weeks, the New Moon in Leo indicates revolution is in the air, and things we have seen as "bankrupt" will end in abrupt ways, freeing us from pressures we no longer need to carry. We will have opportunities to value our independence in new ways, and purity of heart will be rewarded.

The New Moon occurs at 8 Leo on July 30, 2011, 11:40 am PDT, 2:40 pm EDT, 7:40 pm Greenwich (July 31 in India and points east.) When a Lunation is on one of the angles of a chart, it is said to be particularly powerful. This month the Lunation is culminating on the midheaven across most of North America, setting in Rio, the UK, and Western Europe, on the nadir across Pakistan and India, and rising in Tokyo, Brisbane, and Wellington (but not Melbourne).

The Lunation finds 17 Libra rising in Santa Monica, 11 Libra in Vancouver, 19 Scorpio in Washington DC, 14 Capricorn in Rio, 16 Capricorn in London, 20 Capricorn in Amsterdam, 1 Aquarius in Berlin, 5 Aquarius in Tallinn, 28 Aquarius in Sofia, 8 Pisces in Istanbul, 15 Pisces in Cairo, and 18 Pisces rising in Johannesburg.

Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 16 Taurus in Abbottabad, 18 Taurus New Delhi, 10 Taurus in Trivandrum, 6 Gemini in Bangkok, 23 Gemini in Hong Kong, 23 Cancer in Tokyo, 3 Gemini in Perth, 25 Gemini in Melbourne, 8 Cancer in Brisbane, 21 Cancer in Wellington, and 13 Virgo rising on Maui (July 30).

In August, this New Moon in Leo will heavily activate the recent June 2011 Lunar Eclipse, bringing many things to an end. The discoveries we began to glimpse or learn about then helped us begin to liberate ourselves from the past, freeing us from old burdens we no longer need to bear. The next month will finalize those releases forever.

This is the eleventh in a sequence of New Moons that fall in the same sign as the following Full Moon. It is the next in the 12 phases of how things come to be each year. The cycle could be described as follows: Life energy is initiated in Aries, substantiated in Taurus, explored in Gemini, grounded in Cancer, renewed and creatively expressed in Leo, refined and ordered in Virgo, balanced in Libra, purified in Scorpio, expanded in Sagittarius, organized in Capricorn, solidified into a vision in Aquarius, and ended/perpetuated in Pisces.

This New Moon at 8 Leo puts the focus on emergent developments related to Jupiter's transit of Taurus even as that planets continues to expand and offer opportunities of growth related to the time Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars transited Taurus. Here we shift our sense of purpose and/or service, and will integrate our sensitivity with our diversity of interests that have emerged since then.

Our success will result from our persistence, sticktoitiveness, and willingness not to settle for lesser rewards when greater ones are at stake. Couple these with a need for genuine friendly detachment and a deep sense of spaces we need to hold so that we can attract exactly what we need to further future growth.

This Lunation jumpstarts Leo energy wherever it falls in our chart. This period involves the "fermentation" of the substance of a new life order that has arisen from an old form of "repression and misfortune." Here we enter a creative or heart-related revolution in conditions so we can find and/or demonstrate our independence from "fate" or any sense of being "too old."

Jupiter entered Aries in January, ending an old vision and quest forever while setting the tone for the new initiatives since then. In April and May we mobilized and acquired some of what we need to further those initiatives over the next year, and in June sorted out what we need to leave behind while asserting our rights in order to grow through new experiences, new situations, and new understanding.

We had opportunities to become more perfect in some way in July, and the eclipses of June and July have already shut some things down forever. These changes, along with the introduction of new ideas, values, and ways of doing our Being assisted the past to give way to the present which is rapidly blossoming into radical new futures.

This New Moon has a social, emotional, and cultural focus. As it falls in Leo, the Sun is the worldly and spiritual ruler of this New Moon, and is the final dispositor to most of the other planetary energies. (Mercury is the other final dispositor for itself, Mars, and Uranus, with Neptune having dual dispositors, itself and Jupiter.) Forming aspects to the Lunation and the other planets show the backdrop to what's coming over these next 4 weeks.

This is the fourth of 4 New Moons with Neptune in Pisces. These have given us a front end look at how Neptune will function through 2025, so welcome to intuitions of the whole as we finish this transition through "the Winter of the 21st Century" on our way to Spring, beginning in 2025!

Due to Neptune and Chiron both in early Pisces, we are being offered chances to learn about bargaining and trade-offs, with the ultimate payoff a deeper and larger feeling of being connected to others as we enter into a month of mastering discouragement in collective setups. Though Chiron is now past "The Cusp of the Age," Neptune is still there, and will be for many months to come.

Over the past year both of these planets have shown us our unique part to play within a larger light/life field. These planets, being on "the cusp of the Age," have shown us global lessons we all must embrace, and help us to graduate into a new view of how we are an essential part of a greater whole.

This is the next Lunation featuring Saturn in Libra, a phenomenon that will last through late 2012. What we learned from Saturn in Virgo in 2007-2009 got refined by Saturn in Libra between November 2009 and April 2010, which was a front end look at what we've been dealing with since last August. These early Libra lessons will be prominent through Summer 2011.

Saturn, though no longer the nozzle of prior Lunation Bucket Jones patterns, continues to be a very powerful influence since it is in its sign of "exaltation." That means Saturn's discipline and personal power focus is able to become very effective as it shows balance, rhythm, moderation, and reasonableness in how we demonstrate it.

Saturn in this Lunation chart indicates we need to find a greater imagination through healthy forms of play and "joy of human intercourse." It is on a degree of "relaxation" and "creative fantasy."

Saturn direct now begins to finish the lessons based in the duties, responsibilities, and sense of limits set into motion in January. These are related to understanding consequences from past actions and inactions, as well as the need to be aware of future consequences for our actions or the actions of another. Links to this at the bottom of this article.

Also important is that we first got these lessons related to this part of Libra back in October and early November 2010. Now we are getting a final concentration of experience related to those Saturn issues. Saturn is now moving forward from the degree where it went stationary direct on June 12-13, so we're now done with our review (set into motion January 2011), and for the next few weeks have to demonstrate how we've been instructed related to past, present, or future consequences of past and present actions and inactions.

If you need a way to deal with something or someone, reference Saturn in Libra and the lessons of balance, justice, fairness, and proportion you've been learning. Naturally, the usual Saturn keywords will be crucial to effective behavior - patience, discipline, organization, patience, maturity, wisdom, patience, authority, responsibility, and of course, patience.

The recent Gemini Solar Eclipse triggered the Grand Irrationality, which is why there have been hectic intense bursts that often made no sense during the past 8 weeks. Since that Eclipse lasts for many months, keep finding ways to liberate yourself from unhelpful views and attitudes while staying on track with the new elements that have presented themselves over the past 4 months. Find the right angle on karmic consequences, and keep learning the rules of whatever system you're dealing with, or acting within, showing as much balance, grace, and equipoise as you can, given Saturn's penchant for heaviness.

We are all learning a lot about Dharma during Saturn's stay in Libra, as well as what we should not be trying to prop up through a misplaced sense of responsibility or obligation. If we run into roadblocks or delays, it should tell us a lot about patience, as well as what limitations and burdens we can live with and what we cannot.

As noted in previous articles, Saturn continues to usher in allies, friends, fellow truth-seekers, more balanced views, and corrective actions as techniques for community building or group awareness. Since January 2010, "greatness calling itself to itself" has been in the air, and we completed major lessons around that theme between January and September 2010.

All the transfigurations in our actions and relationships we've done since January 2011 have led us to do some "repair work," where we confronted the consequences of past actions, whether our own or another's. We've had opportunities to retire from old dramas to free energy to reconstruct elements of our life that bring us joy. Now is the time to see how we've been instructed in a form of kindness, or must demonstrate kindness as we explain something to others in our world.

Though not specifically related to this New Moon, as with recent New Moon articles, here's some backstory to what we've all been learning via Saturn these past 22 months.

Starting October 2009 Saturn began to show us new archetypes, perspectives, or roles, as well as larger cycles, larger possibilities, and the dawning of a new day in our lives. Between January and early April 2010, due to Saturn retrograde, we re-traced the ground of the "first run" of manifesting a new ideal, a new archetype, and a new sense of self within interpersonal and collective circumstances.

We revisited and finished up our Saturn in Virgo lessons between April and July 2010, at which time Saturn re-entered Libra and began to firm up our new archetypal expressions. This was activated in a powerful way in late July when Mars entered Libra and conjuncted Saturn at the critical first degree. Since then we've experienced a new set of life expressions. Once Mars conjuncted Uranus at 1 Aries in early April, those energies began to surface in new and individualized ways.

Last year's October 2010 New Moon in Libra continues to be important since that Lunation lit up the Libra area near where Saturn has occupied during the past several and future New Moons. That means the Libra seeds that came forth in October and early November 2010 will continue to acquire more solid form and structure through August 2011.

Taken together, we're all living a new archetype, and at the same time have been letting go of parts of our past that have no more place in our lives, freeing ourselves from old pressures and burdens we no longer need to bear, and slowly but surely stabilizing our understanding of our inner balance, or balanced perspectives.

Overall, due to the mix of Capricorn, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Virgo, and Libra energies, this will be a very naturally creative-expressive New Moon period, where revolution is in the air. This time is an overlap of past, present, and future, where we can find a healthy (and maybe even playful) way of valuing our independence and youthfulness. This is a threshold where we enter into a new country, and much depends on our attitude as we find ourselves in a transitional period.

We're still finishing up some things before we can gain entrance into the new realm, and through imagination we can find our uniqueness. Again, much will be ended, and overall it should be a very solid and practical time with equally solid and practical decisions regarding seeds of the future.

Jupiter is showing us our ability to create happiness in the face of coldness or barrenness. As mentioned, purity of heart should be cultivated, as well as faith in a transformed future. It is our first exposure to Jupiterian themes that show us the way to "immortality through giving of self to the race." These will be further developed in late September and early October, with a final practice to be demonstrated in March 2012.

This is a period for new emergent creative expressions amidst the meltdowns. The pressure is definitely on, due to the aspects at play that I'll discuss tomorrow. That said, there are some very good clarifications to come, showing us the power of Divine discrimination. Just be very clear about what roles you're playing and those you're not, and be inventive in expressing your creative, playful independence.

We've just been through some major turning points in June and July! The recent Eclipses set the Grand Irrationality into motion as well as an offset Grand Cardinal Cross. These are both in full force and will be for many months to come, so view this larger time frame as one where our choices set destiny in motion, coupled with major fragmentation of old structures forcing all to turn corners, whether they want to or not.

So contemplate the wreckage of the past months as necessary to make space for the future growth of the new initiatives and expansions set into motion between March and May 2011. As noted in other articles, at present order, discipline, self-reliance, and a pioneering attitude are the antidotes for any heaviness, resistance, or sense of being bogged down by lesser things even as greater things beckon.

As I mentioned last month, we're all in a very weird dreamscape and will be for years to come. Now we can apply our new strengths and understanding freed from the ghosts of the past, and by riding the waves of intense (but curiously steady) pulses of spiritual energies shaping our minds, we can find techniques where our efforts will lead us to forms of good fortune.

In the next part of the series we'll discuss the various aspects at play in the chart, as well as some important degree symbols and other interesting elements affecting all of us for the next few weeks.

Here are the Saturn articles I promised you earlier:

Saturn Stationary Retrograde at 18 Libra Affecting All Through September 2011 Pt. 1

Saturn Retrograde at 18 Libra Affecting Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces Through September 2011

© Copyright 2011 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Cris]

Dear Robert,

The ending and releasing happened to my old work. And I am looking forward to the finalization forever. WOW!

And I am sailing smoothly through this major transition in my life. Mainly because I am being guided by your articles.

Otherwise, as a fixed sign, I would have been bitter about losing a familiar way of daily life.

Thanks.

Shalom!

[reefaroundme]

Wreckage indeed! This is just what I needed to hear, as the last month has left me confused and bereft, and I'm in need of a new start. This new moon is exactly conjunct my Sun (happy b'day to me!) and Jupiter is on the degree of my natal Saturn. I look forward to learning more in tomorrow's post.

[taricia]

I too am ready- the lessons have been painful, but having courage to face them and walk through the fire will pay dividends. New Leo moon is conjunct my Ascendant; praises to better days ahead!

[Jozephine]

So helpful - as usual!

Thank-you Robert.

[ka]

Blessings to the wreckage, and thanks to all of it for the lessons taught. Ready for the new...