LEO SUN

LEO MOON CYCLE

The sun just went into the sign of Leo -- this covers the 5th house of creativity. It's the house, also, of children, being child-like, friends playing, taking risks, teen-agers, romance (but not marriage), romantic friends, gambling, speculation, acting, being in the spotlight, teaching... and a few other things -- this house is called "the play pen". The ruling planet of Leo is the Sun, so it involves basic ego self. This is a fire sign, along with Aries and Sagittarius.

The opposite house is 11 (goals, organizations, groups of friends, attainment, payday, being appreciated and recognized -- given awards). The opposite sign is Aquarius, with its ruler, Uranus (The Fool in Tarot). Uranus is erratic, likes to break up routine, is unique and individualistic, freedom-loving, and sometimes dangerous as the energy moves swiftly and has no rules -- in fact, hates rules and will break any it finds. Uranus represents teen-age energy. (Sounds like it should be in 5th house Leo instead of 11th house Aquarius, right?). Aquarius is an air sign, like Gemini and Libra.

Leo-Aquarius moon cycle is about to begin (on Saturday, July 30 at 2:40 pm, edt).

When the moon comes new, moon and sun will be in Leo (sometimes moon will be shortly before the sign changes, but not this time. Moon enters Leo at 2:16 am.)

When the moon is Full, the sun will still be in Leo, but the moon will be opposite the sun, in Aquarius.

At the waxing square, the moon will be in Scorpio and at the waning square the moon will be in Taurus.

There are only 3 crosses of energy to learn.

This one is: TAURUS/SCORPIO and LEO/AQUARIUS This is the second of these three crossroads of energy. The energy of these signs is FIXED. Stubborn, tenacious, persevering.

In these crosses of energy, Air and fire are opposites and earth and water are opposites. All 4 are related by modality. There are 3 modes: Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable. Cardinal initiates things and is related to the 4 seasons with Aries at Spring Equinox, Cancer at Summer Solstice, Libra at Autumn Equinox and Capricorn at Winter Solstice.

You could draw an equal-armed cross and put the current sun sign at the left of the horizontal line and it's opposite across from this. Then place the crossing signs at the bottom and top of the vertical line. To know which of the crossing signs goes at the bottom, look for the related (by mode) sign following the sun sign. In the above signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius are the natural order.

YOUR CHART -- YOUR STORY

To know where the Leo Sun is focusing on the story of your chart, find the house where Leo rules the cusp. The sign may be in the preceeding house, but it is counted in the house where the sun shines at the door. As if it is leaving the events and circumstances of one house and entering another, its focus, now, on the new house.

The sun highlights the house and all that is going on there, every planet and every aspect made by any planet there or any pull on the degree the sun is in made by any other planet in the chart. If the moon is in Scorpio, for instance, that energy is pulled into the story, by way of the square that Scorpio planet makes with the transiting sun.

You will also need the story of the ruler of Leo, the Sun, in your personal chart.

It is also a good time to check your progressed chart to see what the Leo natal house is doing in the progressed chart. For instance, if the progressed ascendant would happen to be Leo, then this story is current in your life. Whatever is found at the ascendant in the progressed chart is "on stage", and you have only to look at your natal chart and the story there to find out what is getting this focus.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE INFORMATION

When the moon moves into play in Leo and the Leo moon cycle begins (this year it begins on Saturday, July 30), you have an opportunity to edit the story.

I use focused prayer. But if you use nothing more than attention and positive thought, then you are editing the story.

The moon energy does not bring itself into the story, it only highlights what's already there. Moon is motherhood, the past, moods, women, home, nuture and needs. But that is not the energy represented during the moon cycle (unless the moon cycle is within the cross containing Cancer, which the moon rules or is in the 4th house which belongs to Cancer in the natural zodiac).

Leo sun/moon will be about stepping out and showing yourself, about using your creativity and taking risks. It will be about identity as are all fire signs. Where it shows itself in your chart, however, will tell the biggest part of how that energy is used.  If Leo sun/moon are in your second house, you may be using talents to create a more positive self value system or using your creativity to create wealth. If Leo sun/moon shines in your 7th house, the Leo energy may be expressed through or with a partner.

Don't forget to check the houses where the waxing and waning squares will act.

The Goddess I associated with Leo is Lofn. You can find notes about Lofn and use that to help you in finding your story. http://storyspin.blogspot.com/p/handmaidens-of-signs.html

both ends of the glass

Take a cue from writing fiction when you are finding story.

Begin with the sun or ascendant for a closeup view. Then draw back and go to the farthest planet out, Pluto. Find where Pluto is transiting the natal chart and use the house information to set the situation of the story. Tell how Pluto is affecting the world and then how it affects the Storied One.

Do this with any of the three major planets, Pluto, Neptune and Uranus. Or do this with the social planets of Saturn and Jupiter.

Come in close when one of these affects a personal planet. Write the story, but don't take it all too close to heart. Play with the theme and allow intution to come through. Let your angels, your spirit guides, your ancestors talk to you. Use what you can and don't get entangled in the details or in dire predictions. Remember that thought creates your life -- where you cast your thoughts, your life follows.

Prompt #8 -- Grow towards Unity with Neptune in Pisces

In Storyfinding, we look to the past in order to move more confidently into the future.  Read the page concerning Neptune's movement into Pisces (this past Monday, April 4th, 2011). Write a short story, poem, song, or article about how Neptune through Aquarius changed your life.

Locate the natal house which holds your Neptune. Locate the house which Neptune rules (the house with Pisces on the cusp). If you don't know astrology yet, read about those two houses and write the best possible scenerio of what it might mean to have Neptune moving through these houses.

Imagine Neptune as the old Hermit, with her light held high as she walks through fog and darkness, illuminating only the step in front of Her. How has she come to serve? In the house where your natal Neptune lives, there you'll find how you can best serve the Universal good. In the house where Neptune now transits, you may also find reason to serve Unity and togetherness.

Music may open the way to your Spritual awakening. Can you imagine the song? Can you sing it?

In the Handmaiden's way, Vor is the Goddess who shows the Pisces nature. She sees beyond what is seen with the natural eye. She knows that one part of the web affects all other parts. Nothing we do is in isolation. Divisions are illusions.

Write your unique (Aquarius) path to Universal (Pisces) service (Neptune). Dream big.

Checking an ephemeris (Prompt # 7)

TRY THIS:

List your planets and their degree and sign.
Relist, in ascending order, by degrees: 0, 1, 2, 3... and so on.
Online, find an ephemeris, such as:

http://www.khaldea.com/ephemcenter.shtml

http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swepha_e.htm

http://ephemeris.com/ephemeris.php

Print the ephemeris for the current month. Find the current day. List the planets, degrees and signs. Reorganize according to degrees.

Find aspects from the transiting planets to the natal planets.

If a natal planet, telling part of your story is at 5 degrees of a sign, and a transiting planet in the epehemeris is at 5 degrees (or 4 - 6 degree) of a sign, see what kind of aspect the two are making. Reread: http://storyspin.blogspot.com/2011/03/three-aspects-from-last-post.html

Major story threads are found when the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto make aspects with your personal planets or each other. The slower moving planet will influence the swifter moving planet. If Saturn conjuncts your Mercury, your thought patterns (Mercury) will slow down (Saturn). This can be a good thing, (if you usually take off all directions, you might be able to focus on one thing), or it can be difficult (your thinking gets bogged down in analytical Saturn tendencies). If the aspect is a square, the more difficult outcome is probably true, though you can often make this work for you if you know about what is going on. With the opposition, you may find this limitation (Saturn) to your thinking or movement or socialization (Mercury) coming from an outside source.

Keep practising with the three major storyfinding aspects. Eventually, you will add others, such as the trine, sextile, and inconjunct.  For storyfinding though, the action lies with the three already discussed.

Imagine the two characters involved in the aspect. Write the story. Rewrite with the best case scenerio. Now, watch and journal what actually happens.

prompt # 6 -- Today in the life of...

As stated earlier, your planets are listed, beginning with the sun. The signs that follow are according to their distance from the sun. The order of planets are: Sun, Moon, (these two are properly called lights rather than planets), Mercury, Venus, Mars (these five are called personal planets), Jupiter and Saturn (these two are the transitional or social planets), Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (these three are the outer planets, affecting the world in major events, but also making great changes in our personal stories wherever they aspect other planets).

You've seen the planets in your natal chart. They are recorded there as if they were a snapshot taken the moment you were born. Then the planets moved on. All the many charts that could be made for any moment of your life would refer back to that natal chart and would be considered according to aspects made with natal planets or angles (special points of action in your chart, such as ascendant and mid heaven -- the cusps of the first house and the tenth house).

Charts could also be made at any time to see how your personal story had progressed. We'll talk about this in upcoming prompt. We'll also talk about the yearly gift of the solar chart and about the monthly glimpse given by the chart of the  lunar return.

Prompt number six, however, concerns transiting planets of this day -- the day you read this entry.

I'll tell you where you can go to locate the planets for this, or any, day you want to explore notes of your story. But first, let's get ready to use the information once you find it.

To get ready for working with the story of the transiting planets in relation to your own story, you need to rearrange your planets. Instead of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, you will list them according to the degrees of the signs they are in. Ignore the signs themselves for the moment. You are only concerned here with degrees.

In order to illustrate this, I'll use Thoreau's chart.

Prompt #5 -- Your Sun, your Self

Your planets are generally listed beginning with the Sun, which represents your conscious mind, your ego-self, your basic characteristics, your will and life force.  Think of the Sun as the central you. If your Sun could shine its true light, this would be the light you would shine. Some astrologers believe it is the force you grow into.  When you read the message of the horoscopes, you are reading a generalization about your sun's sign. What you read may or may not be true, depending on other notes in your personal story.

One way to become acquainted with the signs is to personalize them. When I think of Libra, I think of my sister. When I think of Capricorn, that's my youngest brother. Gemini is my grandaughter. Pisces is my husband. This is one way to personalize the signs.

That way is not transferable, these make sense only to me. I'm sure you could easily come up with your own list of Sun Signs, but until you do that, I'm going to loan you Twelve ready-made sun-sign personalization characters. These are based on Norse mythology and came to me through my reading THE PROSE EDDA by Snorri Sturluson.

PROMPT # 3 -- MYTH YOUR STORY

Write a fiction story from your chart. Allow three years for each house. 

Using your own memories, but allowing for imagination, write your way to discoveries concerning the characters in this story. If you’d like, ask your character to tell you of the years associated with each house.