the new moon in leo for writers

ICYMI! I have a brand new lecture coming your way Wednesday, August 30th at 7pm Eastern: The Astrology of Book Bans.

We’ll explore the birth charts of commonly banned books and their authors, as well as the astrology of the present moment, major obscenity legislation and legal challenges past and present, and more.

Donation-based! Excited to see you there.

And now, for the New Moon in Leo!

Jeanna

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The New Moon was exact at 23* of Leo at 5:38am Eastern this morning. Courage, warmth, love, strength, heart: these are all deeply available to us here, now. Leo energy invites us to come sit the hearthfire with those we love, those who inspire us, and those who we wish to walk alongside as we live more bravely. And here, at this New Moon, we might make a wish, plant a seed, write an intention down on a piece of paper and burn it in that hearthfire: make it manifest. Make it real. 

As a writer, a teacher of writing, a holder of spaces/containers/cloisters for other creative folks, I most associate Leo with creativity and creative living. As we have often discussed here, vulnerability is the root of creativity. When folks come to me expressing that they have writers’ block or are feeling stuck, my questions inevitably lead us to a series of questions: 

What are you avoiding? What are you afraid of? Or, alternately, what are you (understandably) grieving? What has you in your feels? Where are you feeling especially tender? 

Vulnerability can feel uncomfortable. Like poking a wound with a stick. 

But following it inevitably, invariably, leads us to something rich. 

Sparks of flame in a fireplace in the basement of your subconscious that you didn’t realize you’d been tending all along. 

Exactly square Uranus in Taurus, there is an alternately rebellious and disruptive current lent to this lunation. This season requires us to challenge things we have perhaps taken for granted and thought were done deals, to reckon with and even rebel against the status quo. Where we face down book bans and bigoted publishers, algorithms that don’t want to pick up your promo and a slow end of summer with everyone out on vacation. This is a moment where we must, not to quote Lady Macbeth (but to quote Lady Macbeth), screw our courage to the sticking place. 

Courage goes hand in hand with creative work, for courage is required of us if we are to face our vulnerabilities and our fears and make something of them. (“Make it matter/make it matter,” as Diana Rose Harper recently told me in a conversation we had for the Roses & Thorns Venus Rx Cloister.) 

The root of courage, of course, is cor, the Latin for heart. It is only by operating from our heartspace that we can create, that we can look at what we fear and write anyway.   

Happy New Moon in Leo

Writing Prompts for the New Moon in Leo

• What are you, or have you been, beginning, planting, seeding lately? Or, what intentions do you have? Your rising sign will tell you more about which area(s) of life the New Moon is highlighting: 

  • Leo rising: your self-expression & identity; your (approach to) appearance, style, and aesthetic; your way of showing up in the world; your general vitality and energy levels

  • Virgo rising: your subconscious & personal connection with the unseen world; what you are slowly integrating into our consciousness; ancestral legacy

  • Libra rising: your friendships, community commitments, and/or professional networks; the internet; hopes and dreams

  • Scorpio rising: your relationship with legacy & authority; your public roles and reputation; how you think/feel about the idea of “career”; in Hellenistic astrology, this is also the part of the chart that tells us about the birthing parent or mother

  • Sagittarius rising: your relationship to teaching & learning within the wisdom pathways (philosophy, religion, spirituality, and astrology); overall approach to beliefs; publishing; travel, especially international; long-term plans

  • Capricorn rising: your collaborations with others; contracts — monetary, emotional, spiritual, and otherwise, including but not limited to the book deal itself, anything to do with your independent clients/students, freelance work, debts, taxes, royalties, inheritance, alimony, child support; grief and loss; mental health

  • Aquarius rising: your committed partnerships, whether romantic or business, but most especially contracted relationships such as spouses, domestic partners, agents, long-time editors, and co-writers

  • Pisces rising: your daily work life, especially the environment of your workplace; any people you specifically employ or who report to you; daily health & wellness; how your work impacts your body; pets

  • Aries rising: your creative and erotic energy; important children in your life; inner child work; games and play, such as sports and gambling

  • Taurus rising: your home; relationships with caregivers, parents (especially fathers), and grandparents; roots and cultural heritage

  • Gemini rising: your daily rituals and routines, including your writing routine; communication; K-12 education; siblings and close friends who feel like family; local neighborhoods

  • Cancer rising: your budget and personal finances; how you spend and how you save; what you value

• This New Moon comes on the heels of Sunday’s Venus cazimi: of Venus in her retrograde meeting the sun. A cazimi is a moment where a planet is so close in a conjunction, by astronomical degree, to the sun that it is said to be cazimi, which means in the heart of the sun. Leo cazimis, then, have a special resonance, for Leo’s rulership of the heart. Did you notice any events on Sunday that seemed to mark Venus’ halfway point in her retrograde? How might this New Moon allow you to pick up some seeds the Venus cazimi left behind and plant them? 

• Who is inspiring you in this moment? What media, TV, movies, books, art? What is your heart space craving?

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