Sun enters Leo; confidence and caution
We move into Leo season on July 22nd, the sign of fixed fire as we move towards the latter half of the summer here in the northern hemisphere. The Leo ingress brings some unsettled energy, as if we’re sloughing off the old but not sure what to replace it with yet or even if we want to replace it. Perhaps the old resists being sloughed off, gripping on (often an issue with fixed energy involved) so that we’re not able to make space to move into the new. There’s a balance to be found between grounding and vision, between caution and confidence.
With an awkward sesquiquadrate aspect between the Sun moving into Leo and the Moon in earthy, practical Capricorn and an uneasy quincunx between Mars, also in Leo and Pluto in Capricorn, we might find some inner or outer restrictions needing to be balanced. I’m writing this just after most of the restrictions here in the UK have been lifted but I don’t know a single person who thinks it’s a good idea. The mood is towards caution, taking it slowly and thinking very carefully about where we go and with whom. We see this caution in the Leo ingress chart too, not just in the tense aspects to Capricorn but also in Venus, who moves out of Leo into earthy, measured Virgo a few hours before the Sun arrives in Leo. So they are semi-sextile in the ingress chart, another uneasy aspect showing energies at odds with each other, not quite able to connect.
And there are still more shifts to come - Jupiter retrogrades back into Aquarius on July 28th, the same day as Mercury moves into Leo for a fairly speedy visit, rushing through the fire sign in a whoosh of inspiration and vision. We’ll be glad of Jupiter in Aquarius which moves us into the bigger picture, offering meaning and context to balance any Leo temptation to just leap right in. The full moon in Aquarius on July 24th will also highlight the dynamic of the self and the collective, what we do for ourselves and what we offer to others. On July 29th Mars moves into Virgo, directing our energy towards what we can actually achieve, where we can make a genuine difference.
August shifts us yet again, with Mercury moving into their home sign of Virgo on the 11th and Venus into her home sign of Libra on the 16th. Planets can breathe a little easier in their own signs, do what comes naturally, and relax into familiarity. When Uranus turns retrograde on August 20th, the restructuring and reflection of Jupiter and Saturn retrograde in Aquarius is emphasised, a reminder that we need to do the work on ourselves, to change from within even as we seek to create outer change. The message of Leo season is to choose carefully where we direct our energy. A focus on creating the new and authentic and meaningful is more likely to carry us forward than fearing or complaining about what is fake and meaningless. The best way to transform the past is to create the future, to direct our energy there and to learn from the past rather than living in it.