Leo New Moon
++ Exploring Julia Child’s birth chart
New Moon Blessings! The new moon occurs this week on August 4th at 12 degrees Leo. New Moons occur once per month and are the phase when the moon can not be seen in the sky. This dark moon phase is a time when farmer’s would plant seeds, as the water is low in the soil and so metaphorically, we see it as a time of new beginnings. It is not the light, bright harvest of the full moon when plants bloom, but rather the dark space where seeds germinate. The days before a new moon are good for slowing down, shedding and releasing. We go inward and reflect before we plant our seeds of intention. There is some mystery, some unknown elements - we have to trust our intuition to take those first few steps. As the light of the moon grows, so do we in our actions to move towards those goals. Some manifestations are short, just a cycle and some will take years of watering and weeding before we see those first few shoots peaking out from the ground. How do we know we are on the right track? We don’t always, but we trust the process and keep going inward, checking in and moving forward.
This month, the new moon occurs in Leo, a fixed fire sign that is about creativity, our ability to express ourselves and the need to be appreciated by others. I’ve had a few people ask me about their charts and many people assume that if they don’t have any planets in a sign that it is “empty” or devoid of this energy. But the 12 signs of the zodiac make up every single person’s chart. So even if the sign is “empty” of planets, there is still a house in the sign and you still absolutely have that energy in your life! It might not be as pronounced as another sign with many planets but we all have it. We all have Leo in our charts and we are all creative and have a desire to be seen and appreciated by others in some area of our lives. During Leo Season and a Leo new moon, we can think about these themes and how they impact our lives and create intention around it, as this is the time the themes are highlighted - literally because the Sun is bringing light to this sign.
There are different traits associated with each sign, both skillful and unskillful applications. And like anything in life, it can take patience and practice to become skillful at any one thing. I’m going to list a few of each, and maybe you can identify with a few that you want to work on this season or set intentions around for this new moon. If you feel some of the unskillful applications are present, use this new moon to journal on those points and get to the root of some of those feelings. Leo is all about creativity so it might be interesting to play around with these words, make a collage about them, put them into art or music or whatever form calls to you!
Skillful applications of Leo:
Confident
Powerful / Authoritative
Courageous
Loyal
Creative
Playful
Unskillful application of Leo:
Insecure
Selfish / Conceited
Arrogant
Guarded
Rigid / Inflexible
Immature
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Ok, let’s move on to the New Moon chart and what planets are making aspects to this new moon. A new moon always occurs when the Sun and the Moon are in a conjunction (lined up with one another) at the same degree in the same sign. A conjunction in astrology has the potential for intensified strength through unification. So a sun/moon conjunction(new moon), always has the potential for new beginnings, as the bright, clarifying light of the sun, unites with the more internal themes of the moon, connecting our internal and external worlds through the themes of Leo (confidence, creativity, ego, inner child, etc.)
This new moon is making positive aspects to both Jupiter and Mars, which are stationed in Gemini. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling the impact of these planets moving from Taurus to Gemini a lot lately! Taurus was a slow moving earth sign and Gemini is a fast moving air sign, and in the past few months, my mental activity has picked up a lot - new ideas, social events, changes and a bit of overwhelm! One thing we can do during this transit is remember to ground so we can focus and manage our thoughts. I’ve been taking a lot of notes, doing more journaling and then totally disconnecting from social media at night so I can turn off my brain and take some time to unwind. Jupiter in Gemini can bring a lot of mental activity which can spin out into worry, anxiety or overwhelm if we don’t keep it in check.
This new moon is sexile Jupiter and Mars in Gemini, an aspect that allows for these energies to flow in a productive way and perhaps build a new talent in this area. Jupiter and Mars are expanding themes related to learning, information, communication, and social activity. This sextile could help us network, connect to friends, neighbors or new business partnerships. It could also be a great time to put out creative work into the world, to be more courageous and bold in your writing or to put focus on how you want to be seen by others. We could set intentions to build these kinds of relationships and change how we engage with our communities, both in real life and on social networks. This transit could also help us to get more clear on what we want to learn about and Mars could initiate action for us to finally buy the book, start the course, book the trip or pull out those applications we’ve been sitting on.
The other thing I want to take note of for this new moon is that Venus is in the final degree of Leo applying to a conjunction with Mercury in its home sign of Virgo. So again this is a positive placement where the way we communicate (Mercury) is uniting with how we attract the people and things we love and desire (Venus), so this could be a great time to start a conversation(slide into a DM), ask for what we want, go after that crush, apply for that job, etc. Mercury does well in Virgo because it is the traditional ruler of the sign - this is a great aspect to take advantage of before Mercury starts its retrograde the next day!
If you want to see how this new moon is affecting your chart, I wrote in detail about the transits of Leo Season and your horoscopes in this post.
I am currently re-reading one of my favorite books, My life in France, by Julia Child and in perfect synchronicity, I realized that Julia is a Leo and she also has Mercury and Venus right on the cusp of Leo and Virgo - which is the same signature as this Leo New Moon! So let’s take a look at Julia’s chart:
Julia’s top three is Leo Sun, Libra Moon and Gemini Rising. I love these placements, Leo suns often feel most comfortable on the stage and in the limelight, they naturally glow and the sun illuminates their creative gifts and self expression. Although, I also want to take note that Leo is in her 3rd house of learning, writing and communication - perfect for a writer, especially with Mercury in this area as well! Mercury is making a square with Saturn and Jupiter, which explains why it took Julia until later in her life to come into the limelight in her career, she didn’t start working on her famous cookbook until her early 40’s and was in her 50’s when it was published and she worked on TV! In the year that Julia published her book, there was a Saturn / Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn in her 8th house, a huge transformation for her and her career.
Jupiter in Sagittarius is expanding themes around travel, foreign lands and higher learning, which aligns perfectly with Julia’s life, as she spent many year working for the US government and traveling through Europe and Asia post war. Sagittarius is in her 7th house of committed partnerships and she met her husband, Paul Child while abroad (he also worked for the US government) and they traveled extensively and lived in France together for five years while she was learning to cook. Venus and Mar are both in Virgo in the 4th house an earth sign in the area of home and family. Julia found her passion through cooking, providing this amazing sense of home and belonging (4th house) to American homes. Uranus (disruption and innovation) in Cancer (home/belonging) really makes sense because her cookbook was so innovative! It was the first of its kind to really highlight the depth and truly explain the process of French cooking. Not only that, but it was the first to list out ingredients on the left side of the page with the recipe description on the right, a format all cookbooks use today.
We also see her North Node in Aries in the 11th House - the place she is hungry for (north node) is in Aries, a sign of independence and leadership, in the 11th house of technology, and global connections really points to her becoming a TV star later in life, as it takes time to achieve the north node teachings, and she was a pioneer to cooking classes in general, during a time when TV was just coming of age.
Lastly, her midheaven or MC is located in the 9th house of travel, teachings, mentors, and far- reaching communication. The midheaven shows our public facing life and Julia was famous for how she brought the food of foreign lands home to America and bridged the gap between two very different styles of cooking. What makes this even. more fascinating and innovative is that she did this during a time when the US was obsessed with TV dinners and quick meals and box mixes - no housewives were making sauces and beef bourguignon from scratch! Julia found a way to introduce a completely different style and method of cooking into American homes, bridging language gaps and going against what was popular in the zeitgeist of the moment.