Leo New Moon

Leo New Moon - Will Power and Determination

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."

— Zora Neale Hurston

The week begins under a remarkably optimistic Leo New Moon (11:25 AM PDT 27° Aquarius/Leo) which sextiles a forming Mars-Jupiter conjunction. However, the optimism may not be terribly well grounded. Mercury stations to go retrograde just after the New Moon. As well, Venus arrives in Virgo. Perhaps most notable, Vesta is forming a trine to the stationary Chiron which will complete by the end of the week. The Vesta/Chiron interaction is quite mystical, slicing through old perspectives and opening us up to brand new ideas. As Mercury's retrograde journey begins, we are encouraged to investigate these potential new ideas and perspectives by following a methodical process of research in order to unearth new information and develop a new sense of clarity and understanding. Venus and Mercury in Virgo serve to keep Leo's ego-inflation tendencies under control but still effectively support Leo's will-power and determination. By the time we reach the culmination of this lunar cycle on August 19th at the Aquarius Full Moon (11:25 AM PDT 27° Aquarius/Leo), we should have a far better understanding of exactly where we stand, grounded by the investigations that we embark upon this week. The Aquarius Full Moon will be in a tight, fixed T-square with Uranus, suggesting surprising and unpredictable developments. The process of investigation and research that we undertake this week will feed directly into the surprising developments at the culmination of this lunar cycle and beyond. The forming Jupiter-Saturn square will also complete at the Full Moon (the first of 3 completions). That square also begins to come into view this week. We must begin to anticipate the need to make some very hard choices based upon the information that we begin to gather and the review process that begins under the retrograding Mercury. By the time Mars completes the highly optimistic conjunction with Jupiter next Wednesday (August 14th), the square to Saturn will be fully engaged, further increasing the pressure to ground any optimism with clarity and facts. Mercury will join Vesta and make two more trines to Chiron during this process, offering another review of the lessons we have learned from the Spring eclipses and the Chiron/North Node conjunction last February. Those lessons helped us to focus on the authentic expression of our 'true self', without needing to deny others the same opportunity.

Sunday's optimism may obscure the need to ground our perspective with clarity and facts. We will need to temper our optimism with further research. We begin to find just a bit of clarity on Monday, foreshadowing future developments. Relationships may experience some tension when some feel the need to 'dig in their heels'. We direct increasing energy towards research and investigation on Tuesday. There are important opportunities for profound healing. It may be easy to become overstimulated on Wednesday. We may begin to sidestep so-called accepted standards in order to look at new ideas with a fresh perspective. We begin to roll out some 'preliminary findings' of our research on Thursday. We find ways to cooperate and share a desire for clarity. There is a dizzying pace initiated on Friday. We find new connections and new information. There may be some difficulty establishing cooperation during the early part of the day on Saturday. Aggressiveness brings us to a 'breaking point' later in the day and we find ways to retrace our steps and correct our mistakes.