Invisible Sun Within: Leo New Moon

On July 24 the Moon conjoins the Sun at 2 Leo exactly opposite Pluto at 2 Aquarius, activating all of the outer planets.

A significant new beginning in the Leo part of our charts is here.

Uranus is in Gemini, as of July 7, and Saturn and Neptune have recently turned retrograde in Aries. Pluto is retrograde in Aquarius. This is a dynamic that’s never been in play before this Time. All of the outer planets, as well as Saturn, are in harmonious aspect in either fire or air signs.

Because all of the outer planets are activated now, this is a highly collective energy and manifests on all cylinders across wide swaths of humanity, which in turn causes great changes personally due to these societal and cultural tectonic shifts.

The new moon is sextile Uranus and trine Saturn/Neptune, however tightly opposing Pluto, and it’s this opposition that “closes the circuit” so to speak and completes the overall “bucket” configuration all of these planets are now in.

The trines and sextiles are providing fluid, frictionless support to the Sun/Moon/Pluto dynamic, making Pluto’s evolutionary influence easier to arrive, but perhaps not any easier to experience.

The Sun’s opposition to Pluto has been activated for a while now, but became much more palpable as soon as the Sun entered its home sign of Leo July 22.

Wherever this new moon falls for you, that house has been getting used to Pluto occupying the house across the street, where Saturn rules in Aquarius, for over a year now.

The Aquarius area of our charts is the focus of ongoing, deep tilling and churning and will be slowly, irreversibly transformed as Pluto moves through it until 2043.

This new moon is in some way a precise activation of that long process because of its exact opposition to Pluto.

Take care of your nervous system now and try to tap into the Cancer part of your chart where Jupiter has just escaped the beams of the Sun and is intensifying in dignity.

I say this because, in all honesty, this is a difficult and deeply transformative time for many people, and the world at large, and it’s only accelerating.

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Astrology is not as informative without knowledge of what has come before a certain moment in time, or after. You don’t pluck a paragraph out of a novel and say you understand the story. No, you don’t.

So before we get into the new moon itself, it should be put into the context of the days leading up to it.

The weather right now is intense and the changes underway and the new directions they’re taking us might’ve become more apparent recently as this lunar cycle began its second half and Saturn turned retrograde mid-July.

Uranus’s movement into Gemini earlier this month brought something into our awareness that served to awaken us, and Saturn’s stillness before starting to move backward, with Neptune at its side, could have us thinking, perhaps solemnly, about what structures in our lives have enough integrity to remain, even if utterly transformed, and what structures are completely washing away.

On July 21, the Moon passed over Venus in Gemini triggering her square to the lunar nodes. This is sometimes called “the bendings” because when a planet squares the nodes and crosses the midpoint between them, it’s at a pivot point between what each node symbolizes: where is there a deep hunger (north node) and where is something ripe and ready to fall away (south node)?

Venus square the lunar nodes draws sharp attention to the tension between what the tides of our lives are bringing in and what they are pulling out related to Venusian topics such as love, relationships, values, self-worth, beauty, money or creative endeavors.

Venus also squared Mars on July 22 & 23, who just crossed over the South Node at 19 Virgo. This likely brought Venus/Mars issues into sharp focus; and with this square aligning exactly with the nodes, a fated feeling with it.

Relationships of all kinds are being challenged in some way. Something is being brought to a head between a desire for stillness, ease, harmony, equilibrium, grace (Venus) and action, movement, urgency, and need to move energy forward (Mars). Potential vs Kinetic.

If there was a shocking or sudden awareness that came into your life mid-July around Venusian matters, or something that made you question your self-worth or perhaps exposed a financial problem, the days leading up to the new moon could be a time when it’s addressed or re-addressed.

This part of the Venus/Mars cycle harkens back to the last hard aspect between Venus and Mars, their opposition back in December 2024, when Venus was conjunct Pluto opposite Mars retrograde in Leo — a potentially brutal time for some relationships in the midst of deep transformation. Their opening square was late August 2024, just after the Aquarius Full Moon, around the same degrees they are in now, but inverted by sign (Mars in Gemini, Venus in Virgo). So there’s something related to this current square that relates to August and December of last year.

Since the sign placements of Venus and Mars are now inverted, there could be new perspectives gained about an on-going conflict because this inversion might allow for a  clearer understanding of the other’s position.

Once Venus moves into Cancer on July 31and becomes co-present with Jupiter, yet immediately squares retrograde Saturn and Neptune, look for the Venus/Mars story to reach another turning point, perhaps seen in a stark new light without illusion or idealization. Mars then moves into Libra a week later, complicating things.

When that happens, both Saturn retrograde and Mars will be very weak — Saturn in the home of Mars, debilitated; and Mars, host of Saturn, debilitated in Libra where Saturn is exalted. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic unfolds.

But now, Venus, Mars and the South Node are all in Mercury-ruled signs (Gemini and Virgo), so this “bending” turning point will likely involve some kind of communication; but with Mercury now retrograde in Leo, starting to slowly back up toward the Sun, this could be a conversation that’s happened before but is now in need of another visit.

It could be time to rethink what you want from love, what you truly desire and how to create more joy in your life.

What are you rethinking in regard to Leo themes? How do you talk about love or yourself? Do you? What’s the discrepancy between how you talk to yourself and what you say out in the world that is a reflection of yourself? Does the internal image of yourself align with who you want your future self to be? What does your heart say when your mind is quiet?

After triggering the Venus/Mars/South Node square on July 21, the Moon traveled into its home sign of Cancer and immediately squared Saturn and Neptune in Aries, perhaps bringing some gravitas to what is being struggled with right now.

She then conjoined Jupiter, getting a bit of an emotional boost, before moving closer to the Sun in Leo on July 22 and 23, darker and darker as another lunar cycle renews.

PLUTO

In Greek myth, Hades was god of the Underworld, but also a hidden and invisible place.

The Underworld is beneath the earth, but an internal realm as well – where the invisible processes of growth, transformation and evolution are perpetually underway.

The Pluto opposition to the new moon is an extremely powerful aspect and symbolizes the beginning of an important transition, an invitation for change, or the intensification of an unavoidable shift in life that’s already in process.

It symbolizes seeds are being planted that might require an encounter with the Underworld in order to take root.

What isn’t talked about much when we use the word transformation, though it is implied, is the pain, agony, destruction and devastation (emotional, physical, mental) that, by necessity, can come along with it.

We focus on the outcome — the butterfly or moth — and forget (or culturally deny) the extreme violence of metamorphosis the caterpillar must undergo in the process of becoming, transforming into that completely different life as a butterfly.

The word has become a catchphrase and has somehow become analogous to “change”. I’m guilty of this without a doubt, as is evident in this very article. There’s nothing wrong at all with using the two terms interchangeably, but they are not the same. You “change” a lightbulb. To “transform” a lightbulb would be something else entirely.

I only say this because I want to talk about the darker side of transformation with intent.

By the “violence of transformation” I don’t mean blood, gore, rage, etc. (though that is a part of it), I mean the forceful and inescapable severing, ripping, tearing, breaking, collapsing processes that must take place in the natural world for something new to emerge into being.

Birth — actual physical birth — is a beautiful, yet very violent, painful and sometimes deadly event. We all know how beautiful the end result is, but it’s bloody, intense, forceful, and the cord must be cut and tied.

It’s as if in order for Spirit to enter into Matter and be “born” an intense struggle must occur. Imagine the forceful aggression sperm must exert in order to violently enter the egg-wall. This is also the essence of Mars, god of war and violence.

This also happens mentally, emotional, physically, spiritually to all of us at some point, and for many, multiple times in one life.

Unfortunately, suffering is sometimes a natural side effect of Necessity — that which pushes evolution forward. This is the transformational aspect of Pluto.

Is a Actias Luna caterpillar “fated” to transform violently into a Luna Moth? I’d say yes.

Just as we all are fated to spiritually transform in some way over the course of our lives so that we can become what we are.

When this process is brought into the Light, it can be very painful, even traumatic for some and feel like a part of us is dying. A kind of ego-death is occurring. This is Pluto opposing the Sun and Moon.

When this kind of power is facing off with the Sun in it’s own Temple conjoined the Moon, the focus is on the center of our being, our life force, sense of purpose, our will, our truth, what we are; and it’s going to take courage, honesty, grit and heart to go through what’s being compelled to transform now.

For some, there might be a sense that what’s happening now in life, or beginning to happen, must happen. It probably does. An experience of upheaval or the eradication of something central to your sense of purpose or meaning is underway, and that void must be filled in order to survive.

If this is your experience — and of course it won’t be everyone’s — allow Time to slow down as Saturn slowly retrogrades back into Pisces on September 1. Find your Center — your Sun. Healing is on the way.

People with fixed signs in the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses — especially if you have personal planets in the first 5 degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius — will be affected by this new moon the most.

Look to the Leo/Aquarius axis in your chart.

What is struggling to be born or reborn there? What negative thoughts or memories need purging? What is refusing to die? What will renew your heart? Where in your life are you being forced to change, remove, re-create, re-establish?

You really need to know where Leo is in your chart to understand how this might affect you. Please consider booking a reading if you want to learn more.

But as one example:

If Leo is your 6th house, Pluto is in your 12th and working to transform your unconscious mind and inner waters so that your daily life, habits and routines can reflect that transformation via your health and day-to-day, consistent actions required to achieve what you want out of life.

Perhaps it’s time to finally end that addiction before it destroys you or those you love. Maybe you’ve become a slave to obsessions or compulsions to the point your mental health is affecting your physical health and real action needs to be taken. Or perhaps it’s time to get that nebulous, chronic pain looked at, change your diet due to doctor’s orders, or finally talk to a professional about your mental health because something has come to a head, forcing you to begin a process that will eventually result in a new sense of self, purpose and life story.

The Leo New Moon on July 24 might come with a fated quality, meaning your will alone cannot prevent these changes from happening.

Look to Cancer in your chart, where Jupiter has finally been released from the beams of the Sun, and right on Time. The new dark womb you might find yourself in should begin to glow, warming the water as Jupiter dives deeper into Cancer.

Once Venus moves out of Gemini into Cancer at the end of July, it must first clear the solemn gate Saturn/Neptune retrograde in Aries forces her to open before ease becomes more available.

Venus and Jupiter together in the Temple of the Moon is a soothing song buried in these burning winds. The only caution is not allowing their song to become a lullaby and drift you to sleep.

Because once Venus leaves Cancer and enters Leo on August 25, it will enter the same degree of this Leo New Moon and the Venus/Mars story from August and December last year and mid-July 2025 will advance in some way.

But for now, wherever Leo is in your chart, a new creation is emerging, and that creation is You; and a new sense of purpose along with it that will bring new joy, playfulness and renewed inner fire down the line.

Real courage is available now to face the powerful, sustained transformational forces of Pluto, but it could be difficult to tap into if prideful or stubborn resistance to the rebirth process is something you choose to lean into.

You’re being guided to reclaim your power now and restore your sense of Self with a revised vision of the future.

But it may take some time before the invisible sun within you blooms into full light.

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If you’d like to know how this new moon could affect you, please consider booking a reading.