New Moon in Leo 19º 51'

Though Leo can be shallow, caring most about outer appearances, it actually carries an inner vision sourced in a deep desire to powerfully express personal creativity.

More than any other sign, Leo rules creative actualization of the self; the ego. Ego is the self, knowing and creatively actualizing itself, in all its complexity and beauty.

The more we know about who we are the more complex our view of self becomes and consequently we begin to become more adept at skillfully dealing with a wider rage of experience.

This is what I call creative mindfulness: opening awareness to a deeper, yet broader experience of the ramifications of action. And in these last few weeks of Saturn in Leo, this New Moon finds Saturn in an exact conjunction with Venus (creativity and passion) and Trans-Pluto (point of fertility.)

If you have had some creative project simmering on the back burner for the last couple of years, this is a powerful time to take it out, dust it off and see if it still has juice for you. If so, start to work with it again during this New Moon cycle.

The Mercury/Moon/Sun conjunction in Leo will help greatly to give an added creative boost of energy to your project. With all these planets in Leo and Mars in Gemini providing the ability to put energy in more than one place simultaneously, great endeavors can be undertaken during this time.

Those of you who work day jobs to support your creative pursuits, and have accrued some vacation time, might do well to take this part of August off to work on your art. You will be glad you did.

Leo rules personal power. What exactly does that mean? In our world it usually means a kind of power-over, which expresses itself in everything from caring only about personal gain and exerting excessive influence over others, to war mongering, exploitation and land grabbing.

Pluto trine the Saturn/Venus conjunction and Neptune/Chiron opposite the Sun/Moon/Mercury conjunction, lead us all to question the deeper meaning of success and power.

Therefore, this is the New Moon to redefine personal power as a means to engender communal empowerment, coexistence and upliftment; in other words, true leadership.

Leo's most evolved form is the inspirational, full-hearted teacher/leader. Consequently, this is the perfect New Moon to look deeply at how much of what you say and do, is done to appease an inner need for attention and recognition of specialness, rather than a selfless, heartfelt, compassionate desire to heal.

True self-esteem is built by developing a calm center from which all decisions are made and all actions are undertaken. A real leader feels a tremendous responsibility to share their talent in an effort to make life better for everyone around us. Use this New Moon to look at how much of your time you share your talents to help others in need.

This is the New Moon for romance. When it comes to love, Leo loves romance; full-blown choreographed romance (even a New Moon in Leo with an exact Saturn/Venus conjunction.) If you are just not getting enough attention from your partner, or you are lonely and looking for love, this is the New Moon to create a powerful ritual to invoke and invite romance into your life. For those of you who have a partner, make the ritual a love-fest and pull out all the stops: candles, wine, roses, anything to awaken the senses. You might want to include your significant other in this New Moon ritual; especially if intimacy and romance is a big problem area in your relationship. With Sun/Moon/Saturn Mercury/Venus in Leo, Mars (sexuality) in Gemini (open-mindedness) and Jupiter/Pluto in wild-hearted Sagittarius, this will be an intensely romantic and sexual New Moon in Leo. And before you get the idea that this is romance without forethought, realistic and serious Saturn may make that ultra-romantic dive into the arms of your lover happen only after a serious discussion on long-term commitment.
All of these placements make this is a New Moon to put some serious work into mindfully paying attention to how you love, who you love, and the quality of the love that gets exchanged. For those of you who wish to invite love into your lives, do the same while envisioning "Mr. or Ms. Right" being right there with you. You can invite love into your life with clear intention and a strong desire to love and be loved.

If you tend toward the Leo drama-queen spectrum of emotional expression, you could use this Moon to do some powerful healing work with your inner "enfant terrible". Reality-check Saturn in Leo makes this a very good New Moon cycle to take a hard look at your own emotional reactivity; especially if you suffer with mood swings. It is possible to love deeply, feel deeply, and create deeply, without wreaking havoc in your own life and the lives of those around you.

All the planets in Leo make this an especially good New Moon for the artist in you. If there ever was a New Moon in Leo to deepen your artistic vision and increase your creativity, this is it. The New Moon in Leo is all about discovering your personal aesthetic and finding the right modus operandi for expressing it. Those of you who are artists can use this New Moon to start a new project or initiate a new direction in your work, build a stronger belief in your own vision, or bolster your ability to handle the vast amount of rejection most artists face at one time or another. And by the way, creativity is freed up tremendously when the mind is calm and focused.

Leo wants us all to understand that our lives are one big canvas and we get to fill it with whatever we want. So dream a little…all right, dream a lot. The way of Leo is big, big, big! Think, "Big-budget Hollywood". It might be a bit harder this year with Saturn in Leo and Mars in realistic/no-risk Virgo, but try to consider what your life would be like if you embraced the risk-taking romantic that lives inside of you, buried deep beneath the weight of all your worldly responsibilities. Pick one area of your life and give it over to this part of you. You'll be amazed at what can happen!

Leo often gets hooked into the importance of keeping up appearances (especially with Venus (beauty) in Leo; how we look, what we own, what we do, become, for many people, the definers of self. More than anything Leo wants to be noticed and appreciated. But the goal here is not to simulate a fashion model or movie star. The idea is to allow your appearance to reflect the beauty inside your heart, soul and mind. Healthy lifestyles are extremely important, especially with no much obesity around. So if you need some inspiration to get in shape and feel better, this is the right New Moon to start a diet and exercise program. Some of you may just want to experiment with a new hairstyle or try a new look. This is good time to indulge a little, by gifting yourself with healing treatments for your body. Live a little and treat yourself to something special.

Leo rules our perception of physical beauty. Most of us have a very unhealthy relationship with the process of aging. There is little acceptance of the beauty and wisdom inherent in growing older. Though this is an especially hard issue to tackle on a Leo New Moon, Saturn, the ruler of mortality, should lend seriousness to any consideration of what it means to age gracefully. Saturn calls up all kinds of fear around becoming old, ugly, frail and useless. This would be a good night to read myths and stories about older, wise women and men and then imagine yourself at 70, 80 or 90. What will you look like? What will you wear? How will you be spending your time? What will our world look like and how will it receive or reject you? What gifts will you be giving to the younger generations around you? Hopefully this exercise may inspire you to commit some of your time and talent to nurturing the elders in your family or community.

So enjoy this powerfully creative New Moon cycle!

©2007 Lisa Dale Miller