New Moon in Leo, New Self: Astrology of 8/4 – 8/10

This week we have a New Moon in Leo square Uranus in Taurus, so a lunation that would already have Leo themes like creativity, expression, and play is infused with the radical, innovative, electrifying and freedom-loving quality of Uranus. It is as though then there is a thrust to this New Moon around feeling creatively expressed in our sense of self or the circumstances we have around us. Either we have some spaciousness to invent or create something or we are feeling some necessity to befriend what we already are, given that Taurus has a grounded and resourceful quality.

It is a pretty common orientation to wish our lives were different than they are: to be striving toward something (the Sun relates to actualization, after all). As an energetic pattern, this kind of orientation can have a detached or dissociative quality, like any part of ourselves we put on a shelf that we believe we will access “when” something changes. It is valid that we will feel different when we are in a different home, in or out of a relationship, in our out of a career. However, some grounded focus on what the nectar/juice is of exactly where we are at now can be an important awareness to cultivate: a source of inner-freedom and accessible abundance that might grow with our attention.

Resourcefulness is often deeper than we imagine, there are mysteries here. For example, the images you generate in your imagination or visioning, or the feelings you generate with your sensuality and receptivity to pleasure are forms of wealth. Intuition, and recognizing an opportunity is also a form of wealth. Confidence is like an investment in ourselves (the practice or embodiment of backing our own gifts or inherent worthiness). Consider how this New Moon in Leo squaring Uranus in Taurus can be a portal for an intrinsic discovery of internal riches, as well as how you honor this source of life within you.

Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the zeitgeist feels like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive these weekly forecasts to your inbox and be notified of upcoming educational opportunities, sign up for my mailing list here.

Watch this week’s forecast on YouTube, or keep reading below:

Here’s our week after a few announcements!

New episode with @saltwater.stars about Saturn in Aquarius, the eroticism of Saturn, and living from the seat of power… a special broadcast brought by the Mercury cazimi opposite Saturn in Aquarius ✨🖤✨ This episode had a deep impact on me and I’m excited to share it with you. 🪐 Tune in where you listen to podcasts! Or on your browser here.

My debut novel, The Garden of Sleeping Hammers is out and available for purchase!

Katerina is twenty-one when meets a spy twice her age who offers to teach her anything she wants to know about spycraft and magic. This apprenticeship plunges her into an unconventional romance and a heightened state of psychic awareness.  Her new identity inspires complete strangers, who are sure Katerina is destined for fame, but scares those who know the old Katerina. Katerina’s family believes she’s mentally ill and forces antipsychotic, antidepressant and mood-stabilizing medications upon her at the advice of a psychiatrist. The novel follows her struggle to maintain the heightened state of awareness and aliveness that she suddenly feels after years of depression, in the face of her family and friends urging her to come back down. What happens when a massive opportunity for personal growth is seen by others as a dangerous mistake? In the hope that she might be able to return to an extraordinary life, but with no guarantee, Katerina has no other choice than to use her recent spy training to play the game, and to get an up-close, inside look at the state of mental health in mainstream America.

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The course dates have been announced for the next Evolutionary Astrology Intensive. Enrollment will open soon. Get on my mailing list to be notified! Learn more about the intensive here.

Here’s our week:

August 4, 2021

Sun in 12 Leo trine Chiron retrograde in 12 Aries: 3:41 PM PDT

(Image: Edmund Dulac)

• The fire signs (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) relate to creative self-actualization and the hero’s journey. Chiron in Aries, as a longer transit, is generally speaking to activations and initiations around courage. It is through self-awareness that we recognize our fears, as well as our longings and desires and resistances/fears around pursuing these dreams. Once we are aware of our fear, we have the opportunity to develop courage in the face of it.
• At a visual or external level, the Aries archetype can seem brave or courageous, but the underside of this is often fear and overcoming fear. If there are places in your life that you are currently harboring a lot of fear, this may speak to a developmental process of self that is occurring. As an example, some people are afraid of expressing themselves fully within their family dynamic. At a mythic level, this relates to the individuation process or ‘leaving home’, as well as the re-integration process of the return home with new knowledge to share. There may be more than meets the eye in the friction of a situation like this. But consider where your cutting edge is: something you desire, but are also afraid of moving toward.
• Leo relates to the heart, and as we likely know, it takes courage to live with an open heart. One common situation that may be arising with this transit is a situation that calls upon our courage to receive or hold blessings in our lives without the fear that they will evaporate if we celebrate them or are expressive of them in some way. (i.e. the fear of announcing good news, the fear of trusting a good thing.) Though it is subtle, stepping into a new level of joy or fulfillment in life is also an initiation, and one that may challenge older ego constructs that were working more to just survive.

August 6, 2021

Sun in 14 Leo square Uranus in 14 Taurus: 4:57 PM PDT

• There can be some impetus with this transit of changing who we are, flipping the script of our identity, becoming a new being. Taurus and Leo are so sensual and fashionable/expressive, that it is possible some of this change of identity may be correlated with physical objects (like a new accessory, or a new ‘toy’ a la Leo). We might be drawn to a physical object that allows us to step into a new dimension of our character.
• Another possibility may be around generating the experience or the object from within: creating a piece of art, creating something with movement, embodying ourselves in a new fashion.

August 8, 2021

Juno in 8 Sagittarius conjunct the lunar South Node in 8 Sagittarius: 2:45 AM PDT

• Juno and the South Node joining up in Sagittarius (though this has been in orb since around mid-May of 2021, and the two already formed a conjunction July 6) could relate to an ideological assessment of committed relationship (Juno relates to marriage). Where do our beliefs about relationship come from? Sagittarius relates to worldview, which can be cosmic/religious/spiritual in nature as well as social/political.
• The South Node or Ketu is the tail of the dragon (the North Node, Rahu, is the head). Mythically, this nodal dragon tail has a windy, sweepy energy, kicking up debris on the ground and bringing them into the air. The South Node works in this way to re-constellate familiar patterns from the past – a personal past (like past lives and ancestral content) or a collective past (like history and deep history). How we interact with what is swept up into the air determines what kinds of karma we create and perpetuate. The opportunity is to become aware of the dynamics we exist within and then to make increasingly conscious choices.
• So if we apply this to relationship, there may be unconscious or socially inherited ways that we participate in relationship. Our social conditioning or personal familial conditioning has worked to reinforce certain ways of relating. If we never philosophize or question any of this, we often just repeat the patterns. Our work is to become more aware of the way that we are living, and then with this knowledge can access to the opportunity for change.
• It is worth mentioning that not all patterns need to be changed, or changed dramatically. We often inherit things from our past lives or our ancestral lineage that are valuable: certain affinities or gifts. Becoming aware of these things can be a moment for gratitude. Were there things that your family or upbringing that taught you about relationship that you want to bring forth into the future? What would you change?

New Moon in 16 Leo: 6:50 AM PDT

(Image: Gabriela the Stylist Witch, top image also her by @stylebythesigns)

This New Moon is square Uranus in Taurus and trine Chiron in Aries, aspects explored above! The lunation will also be in a wider opposition to Saturn in Aquarius. At the upcoming Full Moon, the Moon will be closely conjunct Jupiter in Aquarius. More thoughts:

• The new phase of the lunar cycle vivifies the Uranian themes here around innovation or becoming a new version of ourselves. It is not necessarily becoming an entirely new person (imagine that dramatic of a shift! Which can happen but is of course, more extreme): this inner revolution may be located in a particular area of life.
• At a ceremonial level, bringing in a desired shift may be supported by concrete or pragmatic activities, since we’re looking at a Leo-Taurus square here: Leo being expression and actualization, and Taurus being embodiment. It is one level to ideate a shift (envision it), and another thing to strut and play in it in the way we move our bodies through space.
• There can possibly be a dysmorphic quality we are contacting: where we feel a different way that we perceive ourselves when we look in the mirror. This is not limited to appearance – it can also be having a life circumstance that we do not feel ‘fits’ us or our concept of ourselves. On the flip side of this, there is a radical joy in being surprised and delighted by our own expression: enjoying how we see ourselves, or enjoying the creations that come forth from us. The tension of Leo and Taurus is one of discovering the sensuality of our inner-expression – the radiance that comes from inhabiting our form. This speaks to some level of resourcefulness: working with the material available to us. The process of truly befriending ourselves and our lives can be full of surprising developments. Like there is a seed within us that blooms with our attention, presence, and facilitation. A deeper mystery here is listening to it, that deeper thing within us, as opposed to trying to shape and contort ourselves into something that abandons that deeper internal thing.
• Another metaphor (or reality) to consider here is the way that we might have a vision or a plan in our minds for something we are creating in our lives, or an art piece – and it does not come out the way we envisioned it exactly, but it takes on a life of its own. Often in a way better than we could have imagined, if we are willing to let go of our attachments. How much space are we granting for an organic emergence?

August 9, 2021

Venus in 22 Virgo opposite Neptune retrograde in 22 Pisces: 5:20 PM PDT

(Image: Bruce Pennington)

• There may be a deeply aspirational quality here around beautifying life – wanting to cultivate more beauty or value in our experience. Having a longing and wanting to materialize it. Seeing where something could be better or more magical and wanting to improve it. The potential for divine discontent here, as well as for sublime encounters.
• Venus in Virgo highlights the craft of love: it is the kind of lover who reads books about tantra, goes to communication and sex workshops, and practices love.
• We may be finding where we allot our forgiveness for things to not be perfect – where it is true to ‘work’ on a relationship or practice the deepening of intimacy, versus where it is an addictive or delusional pattern (taking on a person as a project, ‘saving’ them, etc.) While Venus is in Virgo I’ve already heard numerous people talk about the imperfection of love and how relationship is a journey of growing together. I find Venus in Virgo is extremely willing to put effort into communication and collaboration. Venus in Virgo may also relate to the reciprocity in this arena: how both or multiple parties are contributing effort.

August 10, 2021

Mercury in 28 Leo opposite Jupiter retrograde in 28 Aquarius: 6:20 PM PDT

• Mercury and Jupiter already represent contrasting principles (and here they are “opposite” each other). Jupiter is the bigger picture, Mercury the details. Jupiter tends to bring information together or incorporate and include things, at least under a particular philosophical umbrella, but Mercury picks out specific data points and asks, “what about this?” It’s like Jupiter is the preacher, and Mercury is the kid in the pews asking questions that annoys the preacher. Jupiter promotes faith, while Mercury promotes logic.
• Jupiter in Aquarius can represent our register of a bigger picture systems awareness: understanding social networks and infrastructures, ecosystems. It may be our understanding of how things are at a deeply objective level, as well as a school of thought that we are viewing reality through. Mercury in Leo could represent how we play or are clever within these larger systems. Either we play into a role that conforms us to that particular matrix, or we bend the rules a little bit and play.
• At an experiential level, look for where context of a larger system/picture (Aquarius) opens up possibilities for play (Mercury in Leo). The Leo-Aquarius axis can also speak to things like “following our highest excitement”, i.e. playing with inspiration and materializing and expressing our inspiration.

Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! If you would like further guidance, I have been increasingly focused on longer-term experiences in the form of the Evolutionary Astrology Intensive, higher level courses for alumni, and 1:1 mentorship – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to be in their power, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. I would love to support you in building your relationship with astrology. The intensive is currently in session but will be offered again in the autumn, and I am to take on new coaching clients again in the future.

Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you next week!

With love,

Sabrina Monarch

(Top Image: photo of Gabriela the Stylist Witch, collage by @stylebythesigns)