I began contemplating this New Moon as a tropical storm brushed past the eastern coast. It brought some rain and wind, but thankfully no major destruction. However, those north of me did not fare so well. Such is the power of nature. The random innate destruction and subsequent rebirth. It is only after a storm, the energy lightens. The Sun emerges, casting the most brilliant yellow hue. The calm. The air somehow feels clearer. Rejuvenation replaces the heavy pressure. Light emerges again.
It fits then that the Sabian symbol for this New Moon in Leo is “The luminescence of dawn in the eastern sky,” reminding us sunrise always follows the darkest of nights and the Sun’s endearing presence despite the clouds. Every New Moon, like every dawn, holds the chance for a new start. A fresh breath. A distinct opportunity to get it right. In fact, the Sun itself rules the sign of Leo. Thus, a keyword for this cycle is illumination—awakening to the start of something new.
And get ready because you are going to hear the word awakening a lot in the upcoming months. As we venture through Aquarian and Uranian times, it is most fitting. Both Aquarius and Uranus are known as the “great awakeners”, the gods of lightning bolts of rousing. And to be sure we are at a critical point of potential.
But what does it mean to awaken?
Certainly, that word, like many other spiritual buzz words are multilayered, complex, and often romanticized in ways that bypass the true grit they evoke.
At its most basic level, awakening defines the process that challenges your current perception of reality and offers opportunities and insight into a more expanded vision. It is when you realize there is more than meets the eye concerning what you thought you knew. To be sure, sometimes we choose to see things differently, but often this expansion is required. Our eyelids forced open.
To what are we meant to awaken? Where is the expanded vision needed?
Where this New Moon (26° Leo) falls in your chart (as well as the current location of Uranus & Mars) offers insight into the nature of your personal awakening. In general, though, it isn’t subtle. Take a look at any news feed, and it is obvious we are experiencing shocks of reality to our collective dream. Take a look at your own life to witness where the lightning is striking. Of course, the intention is to illuminate technical truths that force us out of our entrained belief system, challenge our ethics, and question our esteem system to embrace a newfound sense of progress. Times of awakening are meant to highlight where we are off track so we can power pivot our intentions to realign with soul esteem, not self-esteem. Thus, these shifts happen on all levels- physically, scientifically, psychologically, socially, morally, and spiritually.
Exciting potential for sure. But this shedding and reemerging is not always comfortable. It’s tough to admit we are wrong when the foundations of our established identities are shaken. Our status quo, along with our cemented definitions of the self, are ingrained in genuine survival strategies and attached to habits of safety. Thus, fears of security are triggered, often causing reactions of control. We find ourselves asleep, living a dream created long ago.
No change happens there.
Awakening asks us to ponder, “Who am I without these definitions, stories, habits, assumptions, and attachments?” If that question stimulates excitement and trepidation, you are right on track.
Awakening brings us to the magic of being no one. The beginner’s mind of curiosity and the graces of uncertainly are the only schools where we can indeed excavate who we REALLY are. Instead of depending on external validation and expectations of worth, we awaken to the truth we were and are ALWAYS enough.
This freedom is earned, though.
~Times of awakening brings opportunities and choices where we can reclaim authenticity, reset our power grids of potential, and claim creativity. This also means we will be required to take new actions from a clearer self like setting boundaries and being assertive, risking stories of disapproval, rejection, or even abandonment.
~Times of awakening ask us to lead, inspire, and galvanize behind a cause. This means we will be asked to face our personal forces of passion, honesty, courage, humility, and integrity.
~Times of awakening point out what isn’t working, where there is imbalance or incongruence between what is right and what is convenient. This means we will need to look at technical truths in our lives (Hint: they will be the ones you do NOT want to examine or accept).
~Times of awakening brings us face to face with our survival archetypes like the codependent, perfectionist, scapegoat, gossip, bully and the shadow rescuer, shapeshifter, healer, judge, prostitute, and victim. This means we will have to evaluate our esteem power agendas and rework them to redefine our holism.
~Times of awakening offer a place where we cannot do everything on our own, where we must ask for help, and summon what lives deep inside our hearts. This means we must face the vulnerability of trust, receiving, and enhance our multi-sensory systems of discovery beyond this human realm.
To awaken to our light, we must remove all that hide its brilliance.
Awakening is also not something you can ignore or spin- the shocks of reality will just get louder and more obvious.
In truth, awakening is a practice, a process not an event. If we do it right, it is a continual process of discovery. Curiosity, surrender, forgiveness, sacrifice, and radical accountability are the bricks on the pathway forward.
No doubt, we are suspended between worlds right now- the uncovering and revelation awakening us (Uranus just went retrograde in Taurus). The pauses, storms, and discord getting our attention with the medicine of both uncertainty and potential. Because when we awaken from our dream-state possibilities surround us. Hope, faith, miracles, and synchronicities become common place. The world wondrous and new. Leo reminds us of that too.
Because Leo is our heart- our lighthouse in challenging times. It is our fire of passion, optimism, inspiration, strength, and courage.
So, as we celebrate this New Moon let us always remember the potential of each new day and the possibility it holds. Let us trust our innate process of awakening and welcome the work it takes to get there.
For every ending summons a beginning. Let us let that truth lead the way.
“We awaken by asking the right questions. We awaken when we see knowledge being spread that goes against our own personal experiences. We awaken when we see popular opinion being wrong but accepted as being right, and what is right being pushed as being wrong. We awaken by seeking answers in corners that are not popular. And we awaken by turning on the light inside when everything outside feels dark.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
If you would like to see exactly what the current astrology is offering you, contact me for a reading.