Time to shine as bright as you possibly can during Leo season
Dear Reader,
I have to say, I love summer. I love wearing pink sandals and feeling the warm breeze on my skin. I love tasting fresh cherry jam made from the garden by my mom. I love smelling lavender macerating in olive oil and hanging to dry.
What are you noticing in your world?
How are you experiencing this time of year?
Guided by the Sun in Leo
From July 22nd – August 22nd, the Sun is moving through the sign of the lion. Leo is a fixed fire sign and the temple of the Sun, which is the reason the Sun feels at home here. The Sun in Leo is bold and expressive and signifies a season of finding who we are, deepening into our hearts, and radiating our love.
As the child of the zodiac, Leo loves to play, create, charm, sparkle, shine, and share their warmth and brilliance with the world. Leo helps us to give of ourselves by living our creativity like no one’s watching while reminding us that to shine our light, we need to embrace what makes us us and courageously follow our hearts.
Are you a child of Leo season, having been born during this time of year? Or do you have natal placements in Leo other than the Sun?
If so, how does it inform your way of being in the world?
Fan your creative flames with the New Moon in Leo
The New Moon happens at 2 degrees of Leo on July 24th at 9:12 pm Central European Time and is here to help us plant seeds of joyful presence and creative self-expression. If you have key natal placements at or near 2 degrees of any of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), and especially Leo, this New Moon is more personal for you.
Because the New Moon opposes Pluto, the god of the underworld, this lunation can help us face our deepest fears, unearth our innermost creative desires, and unravel our greatest talents, while a trine to Saturn helps to bring our creative dreams into reality and stabilize the creative projects we bring about now.
This New Moon taps into a rare outer planet alignment in effect between July 2025 and May 2029, when the three slowest-moving planets — Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — form a mini triangle in air and fire. We’re given a precious opening to renew our sense of self and purpose and to align our creative energies with our higher mind, higher heart, and higher will, evolving our vision for a more beautiful world.
The best times to cast your New Moon wishes are between July 24th at 9:12 pm and July 26th at 1:01 pm CET. Write down what you’re most devoted to making happen in this lunar cycle, especially as it relates to the wisdom of Leo and the topics of life signified by the Leo house in your birth chart.
What creative dreams is it time for you to sow?
How and where are you here to shine?
Just as potent as making wishes for the new lunar cycle is closing out the old lunar cycle. Before the Moon renews itself in the heart of the Sun, take a little time to review the past cycle that began at the New Moon in Cancer on June 25th:
What was here for you?
What are you grateful for?
In the heart of summer
Halfway through Leo season, the Sun reaches a seasonal crossroads in its yearly cycle, marking the exact midpoint between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox and the peak of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the exact Summer Cross-Quarter falls on August 7th at 7:52 am CET — an auspicious time to connect with the Sun and deepen our personal relationship with our beloved home star.
The Summer Cross-Quarter is the “Disseminating Moon” and “afternoon” of the year, when the light is still strong but beginning to retreat. We’re about to enter the last half quarter of the bright half of the year before the balance of light and dark tips and dark takes over following the Fall Equinox at the end of September.
At the height of summer, the birds fall silent and shed their feathers. There are less flowers to pick in the garden and more fruits and vegetables to harvest and process. Known as the festival of the first harvest, the Summer Cross-Quarter is a time of seeing the first results of what we’ve sown at the beginning of the year, literally and symbolically.
Are you ready to deepen into summer?
What are you harvesting?
What are you feeling proud of?
Where is your heart beating?
What is in the way of you shining as bright as possible?
What is making you you?
What is making you most generous with your love?
You can take the questions offered in this newsletter on your walk or into your journal, your dreamtime, or any other kind of creative or contemplative practice, either solo or with others. I hope they tickle you and help you weave yourself deeper into the mysteries of summer.
Until next time...
I’m looking forward to writing to you again during Virgo season, which sees the transition from summer to fall in the Northern Hemisphere and heralds a time of learning and refinement. The Sun enters Virgo on August 22nd at 10:34 pm CET, marking the start of Virgo season.
As always, you can find the exact dates and times of the eight yearly stations of the Sun in this little table here. I hope it helps you follow the Sun’s journey through the year and harmonize with the rhythm of the seasons.
In the meantime, I’m wishing you gifts of joy and generosity wherever you are!