New Moon in Leo: Amazing Grace
We just passed Lammas, a pagan holiday celebrated at the midpoint between summer and autumn. Considered to be one of the turning points in the year, Lammas takes place when the Sun reaches 15 ° Leo, midpoint through the sign that occurs at the height of summer and the Sun's power, symbolizing warmth, energy, and growth. It is no coincidence that Leo, the sign that takes place at midsummer, is governed by the Sun.
This Sunday, August 4, at 7:13 am EDT/4:13 am PDT, there is a New Moon in the sign of Leo.
One of the astrological monikers given to the Sun is “the giver of life.” It’s funny when you stop and think about it that we walk through each day quite oblivious to the fact that we are alive and that that in itself when you pause is an astounding miracle. We exist. Most of us have a story that we are loyal to that explains the mysterious meaning of our existence, obviously including me from an astrological perspective. Yet, we get so caught up in the “whys,” that we, most often, have completely lost sight of the miracle of our mere presence.
One of the most common questions I get asked is “What is my purpose?” And, when I was younger for years I often pondered the same thing but I had come to believe that ‘purpose’ is at best a moving target. I didn’t believe there was one true purpose for any of us but that it grows and changes as we mature.
Recently though, and I am profoundly grateful for this, I have come to believe this is a fool’s errand at best and a way of castigating ourselves for not being enough simply as we are at worst. This “concept of having a purpose” that we must live up to innately sets up a cycle of forgetting the miracle at the center of all of our lives; our very aliveness itself.
Because of this forgetting, this obliviousness, we get caught up in what are in the end petty fears. We become obsessed with all sorts of things from staying young to having a flat enough stomach to proving that we are successful enough and make enough money, are spiritually wise enough…the list is endless and somewhat different for all of us coming down to the final core quest of somehow proving that we are lovable if we achieve these things. We are on an endless search for the Holy Grail that will redeem us.
In the end, it is a distraction, we are missing the point. The miracle is our aliveness itself.
We are the miracle.
Most importantly, miracles don’t have to be justified, they don’t need a purpose or to be earned; in many ways, searching for that makes them lose their magic; they simply are.
The Sun shines simply because it is and as a result, it gives all of us life. From me to you, that’s the message I am seeing in this Leo New Moon. The Sun doesn’t need a light to shine upon it because it is the light.
The one thing I can guarantee that all of you reading this know is your Sun sign. The Sun is the heart of the chart, the center upon which everything both revolves and evolves.
The Sun, which is in charge of this New Moon, is the life energy itself, the thing that comes into us when we are born and the spark that leaves us and this physical world when we die.
The physical Sun literally is illuminated from within, generating its own energy, its own light. It is luminous, just as each of us is, though unfortunately much of the time we are blind to our luminosity.
My wish to you at this New Moon is to let it be a new Moon of amazing grace. That no matter where you are at this moment in your life, no matter how complicated and messy your challenges are you remember: You are alive, and your existence is a miracle. You are breathtaking because that is breathtaking. You’ve been blind but now you see.
