Joy does not come
from what you do,
it flows into what you do
and thus into this world
from deep within you.
Eckart Tolle
The Leo New Moon August 8, 2021 at 9:50 am EDT lights us up from the inside out. It seeds creativity, vitality, courage and love. The Sun’s flame that burns within us, within our heart, is ignited with renewed strength.
The fiery heat of the New Moon burns away inhibition and patterns of victimhood and self-protection that have served to mask our light. With the light of love, we recognize truths about ourselves. Through this lens, we see life as a heroic journey to realizing our soul potential. We forgive, accept and celebrate the beauty of who we are, warts and all.
The New Moon is not about how we relate to others or how we need to respond to the world’s need. It is about personal power and right us of will. There will always be room to improve ourselves, but we are invited to love all of ourselves as we are. In affirming we are enough, we validate our right to be loved, to exist, to be seen and to move into joy.
To recognize the beauty of this potential, we are to participate in activities that make us smile with the juiciness of the experience. It may be a walk in the woods or hanging out in our garden. We may feel drawn to attending an art fair, putting paint on canvas, donning a fancy hat, or dancing the night away. Within the work or tasks that cannot be set aside, we can be mindful of relaxing our muscles, feeling our breath and engaging them joyfully.
A client recently said: I want my marriage to be less transactional and more relational. TIn our relationships, we can take her words to heart. We can talk with others about what we desire and what lights us up rather than give way to discussing the tasks of the day or how to address an issue. We can look for ways to feel connected with ourselves and the world around.
Each person has an ideal, a hope,
a dream which represents the soul.
We must give to it the warmth of love,
the light of understanding
and the essence of encouragement.
Colby Dorr Dam
Don't Postpone Joy!
To any of us who say 'with my current problems and challenges, I can perhaps look for joy next week, or next month," I offer the personal motto my friend Laurey Masterton trademarked that became a bumper sticker that dons many a car here in Asheville, and was the tagline for the cross-country bike ride she took to raise awareness for ovarian cancer. It became her motto during a time when she was undergoing cancer treatment.
Laurey was one of the most joyful people I have known. I met her when she was assigned to be my business mentor. As a entrepreneur, she had built a business, published books, did Ted Talks, and sat on boards, and she inspired me to meet challenges the way she had. She embraced and lived her joy until her body succumbed to a third bout of cancer. Her motto reminds all of us that there will always be challenges and reasons to feel stressed, scared, defeated, fatigued or overwhelmed, but within every day there is an opportunity for joy. We have only to reach for it. And fortunately for us, this month joy is bubbling up within us. We have only to affirm its presence and allow it to do its magic.
Uranus, Agent of Change
With such an activating New Moon, it is not surprising to see Uranus prominent in the planetary dynamics. Uranus is here to awaken and jolt us out of complacency as it squares the New Moon. There may be unexpected events or surprise encounters that take us off guard and unleash strong feelings. It may be something welcome like falling in love at first sight or the heartbreak of a partner announcing they want a separation. The surprises are designed to crack us open so that what has been trapped can release and new life can emerge from a reality where energy has been stuck and dulled.
We are open to change and less inclined to care what others think of us, as we feel ready to be seen as unique, different, odd, and remarkably ourselves. (Venus and Mars trine Uranus). Wanting to feel alive, we naturally move towards that experience. We have less interest in adhering to expectations or obligations that unnecessarily drain or restrain us. In the choices we make and the people we choose to spend time with, we are looking for authentic connection and to be inspired. New friends, new projects and fresh possibilities emerge as a result of giving ourselves to what makes our heart sing.
Leo is the Counterbalance to Aquarian Age Tendencies
The Leo Moon is an antidote to the Aquarian influence that permeates 2021. Aquarius is progressive, future-oriented, innovative and visionary. But it can cause us to be in our heads as we conceptualize, shape ideas, and collaborate. The New Moon serves to balance out an overactive mind out by drawing our awareness from our heads into our bodies. Grounding our thinking in the energy of love, the vision taking shape is now fertilized with love and feeling. (Leo Moon opposing Saturn/Jupiter in Aquarius)
Our conviction and courage is strengthened with the preponderance of planets currently in fixed signs (Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio and Taurus). Fixed signs specialize in stabilization and seek to sustain and nurture consistency of thought, action and direction. We have the conviction to assert and sustain the open heartedness we experience this month as we move into autumn and beyond.
Your work is
to discover who you are
and then
with all your heart
give your light to the world.
Jennifer Williamson
Mercury in Leo: Thoughts are Colored by Feeling
Ideas and communications are being influenced by what is in our heart. We are less objective, but more inspired. Love and passion bring to light truths that lie beyond what the rational mind can conjure on its own. We feel permission to speak with passion and flare.
Our minds are drawn to contemplating and discussing the big picture, and our role within the scope of humanity, evolution, soul development and the cosmic unfolding of creation. We are thinking about what we can give ourselves to that will produce the most meaning. Our minds are less enchanted with current issues and trends as it feels the pull of the larger movements of what is unfolding (Mercury oppose Jupiter and in a yod, quincunx Pluto and Neptune)
Mercury is moving swiftly at this time and there can be a rapid influx of insight, information and experience. By the end of August, Mercury will slow down and ready for its next Retrograde cycle, when we will enter a time of processing, reviewing and integrating what has surfaced during this time.
August is like a fast moving river...
... a fast-moving river of warm liquid light, liberating stagnant energy, enlivening and nurturing everything in its path. We would need great determination and willfulness to hold on to grievances, hurts, and dark moods. Likewise, if we are wanting to control circumstance or become a stickler for detail, we may become jumbled and lost in our heads. Mental confusion, frustration and fatigue are signs that we are moving against the flow of the river. If things aren't going the way we want, the way we planned, the way we think they should should, we ae invited to let go and discover how they want to go. We are to move with a poetic perspective, a creative spirit and a childlike openness (Venus in Virgo oppose Neptune in Pisces). Surrendering to the flow of August, our heart can be cleansed of the residue and shadows that surround it, and the gates to our passion and lightness of heart can swing open a bit wider. The increased wellbeing will have us ready to start afresh, and there will be greater ease in how we move towards the dream or hope that has been incubating in our minds.
Summary for Leo New Moon:
The Leo New Moon is about matters of the heart. It is about removing blocks for the light and love to flow easily from us into our lives. We are lit up from the inside out. We are invited to express and give voice to our unique essence, to the joy and love that fills us with wellbeing. We are to move towards what lights us up and then to allow ourselves to shine.
Where 16 degrees Leo resides in our individual natal charts indicates where it is time to release procrastination and inhibition and embrace our true colors of how the light plays through us.
The invitation of the Leo New Moon will come to flower at the Aquarian Full Moon in two weeks. As we watch the light of the moon's surface increase in the days following the New Moon, we can imagine it is a reflection not just of the Sun's light but the increase of light emerging and radiating from our heart. Big movements in these next weeks are possible to fertilize our vision with joy, acceptance and aliveness so that our vision for the future is infused with love.
“People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Opening of the Lionsgate Portal Falls on the New Moon
What this portal is said to open resonates and reinforces the potential of the New Moon to open our heart and have our lives infused with the awakening power of love.
I have only been peripherally aware of this event and because it falls on the New Moon, and because clients have expressed interest in knowing more about this day, I have taken time to research and contemplate what it offers.
I cannot find any information on where the concept of the Lionsgate Portal originated. The concept of the portal seems to be the creation of some modern person/group inspired by celestial phenomena that ancient people observed and celebrated. In its essence, it carries an element of power and if honored can provide some meaningful and heart-opening experiences. But from what I have found, The Opening of the Lions Gate portal is real only for those that claim it is.
The Significance and Historical Background of the Lions Gate Phenomena
The first morning appearance of a star before sunrise is known as the heliacal rising of the star. Sirius, the brightest star, makes its first appearance each year during mid-August from mid-northern latitudes. For 2021, under the best conditions, the star is first visible without optical help on August 11 for latitude 41.7 ° North. Some years it is on August 8, but not this year.
Astrologically, this gateway is marked by an alignment between the Earth and the star Sirius.
Sirius Rising at this time of year was a special and sacred occasion and marked the start of the new year in numerous ancient cultures. Ancient peoples would observed correlations between the heliacal rising of Sirius and what was happening on the earth.
Ancient Egyptians eagerly awaited Sirius’ reappearance because is cyclically coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile. When she reappeared just before dawn, it signaled that the long drought was over and life would be renewed. Sirius was Isis and her Beloved Osiris was found in the constellation of Orion. As the star Sirius rises anew in the sky, Orion's Belt directly aligns with the Pyramid of Giza, and from our perspective on Earth, it appears that Sirius (the brightest star we can see) comes closer to the Earth.
It is called Lion’s Gate because the gateway occurs when the sun is in the astrological sign of Leo, the Lion. Leo is associated with the heart center and represents the individualized expression of the Divine.
In Numerology, the 8th day of the 8th month is considered a highly spiritual and charged time. The number 8 is literally an infinity symbol turned upright, which speaks to unlimited potential and the “forever conscious” part of our soul that has lived and will continue to live long after and long before this incarnation. Eight is held as one of the luckiest numbers and corresponds with success and abundance. The eighth day of the eighth month of the year thus charges this date with the energy of success, and is therefore a beneficial day to set clear intentions and goals.
Numerous social media postings, with no author credit, have cut and pasted the following “The Leo energy is the perfect stage to anchor the ascension codes and energies of higher consciousness broadcast through the star Sirius and through the Great Central Sun. The Lions Gate Portal is opened when this alignment happens, resulting in an intense surge of light which awakens DNA, activates the human energy field, and transmits high vibrational frequencies and codes of awakening. Light codes of ascension, mastery, and evolution from Sirius, sometimes called the Spiritual Sun, pour towards Earth, offering humanity another level of activation and opportunity for progression on the ascension path. The Lions Gateway energy is all about more fully awakening your Divine Light and embodying Divinity within a physical form.”
From what I have gleaned, the Lionsgate 88 Portal is activated by the numerology of 8/8, the Sun in Leo Season, and the rising of the star, Sirius. This combination of energy opens a galactic portal that allows high vibrational energy to be sent to Earth, which we can all tune in and connect with. It opens us to more light and divine revelation that expand our consciousness.
In Summary
To the degree that the Lions Gate Portal is made up or divinely inspired, I see that the potential and invitation of the 2021 Leo New Moon is resonant with what Lions Gate Portal enthusiasts say about this day – with one minor tweak. The New Moon is less about opening to energy that is flooding in from a cosmic portal, and more about the light that is quickening deep within and radiating outward. There is no cosmic portal that can light a match to the potentials found in the mysteries and beauty of the heart that beats within us.