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.

PROMPT # 2 beginning your story

TRY THIS: Before you get to know the signs and planets, set about exploring through the written word. What you write now will make a lot of sense later as you learn key phrases for the signs. Right now, don't even think about signs or planets. Right now, write your story or A story in twelve parts. Begin each part with one of the phrases below. I suggest you take them in order as they appear here.

ONE:  I AM... (who? what? Finish the sentence -- elaborate as much as you want. Invent. Tell the truth or tell it slant. Outright lie if you want -- this is your chance to find out a few things and sometimes the truest truth is found in fiction. Give yourself permission to say it like you want to say it).

TWO:  I HAVE... (What do you value? How does what you own affect how you see your self?)

THREE: I THINK... (Tell me about your siblings who helped form your way of thinking. Tell me about your local environment. Who are your neighbors? How do you communicate? What do you think?)

FOUR: I FEEL... (Tell me about your childhood. What kind of conditioning have you had? Tell me about habits. Moods. Your Mom. Your home.)

FIVE: I WILL... (I mean here, to will -- things you will to happen. Your will. If things happened according to your will, what would happen? What wouldn't happen? What do you do ON PURPOSE? What kind of risks have you taken? Tell me about your children? Tell me about your creative efforts? Tell me about your romances. Tell me about your best friend.)

SIX: I SERVE... (How do you give service -- what kind of work, what kind of caring do you give? How do you heal the world?)

SEVEN: I RELATE.. 0r I UNITE... (How do you find balance? How do you solve conflict? What causes you to lose balance? What kind of conflicts do you attract? Who is your perfect "other"?)

EIGHT: I DESIRE... (how do you deal with other people's energy? What do you desire? For what are you passionate?)

NINE: I SEEK... (What is foreign to your upbringing? What new things do you learn? What is your philosophy? Tell me about travel and religion and higher learning.)

TEN: I BUILD... or I AM SEEN AS...( How does the world see you? What do you build? In what way do you make your mark in the world?)

ELEVEN:  I ASPIRE... (What are your goals and aspirations? In what ways do you reach higher? Tell me about organizations and groups that you have joined or would like to join. What kind of awards might you win? In what way do you want to receive admiration?)

TWELVE: I UNDERSTAND -- and sometimes I LET GO (In what way do you serve the universal good? How are you part of the collective? What kind of things have been hidden from you? Tell me about repression? In what ways have you been your own worst enemy. How has this brought you understanding?)

In the next post, an alternative way of writing this story.

The Blank Chart -- Three Crosses of Signs

There are only three sets of "cross-currents" to learn.

The first ones are called the Cardinal signs. You can remember them by the seasons. Aries is the beginning -- Spring. Across from Aries is Libra -- Autumn. Halfway between Aries and Libra is Cancer -- Summer. Halfway between Libra and Aries is Capricorn -- Winter.

You can draw a cross on a sheet of paper and put Aries at the left of the horizontal line and Libra at the right of the horizontal line. Put Capricron at the top of the vertical line and Cancer at the bottom of the vertical line.

If you drew a circle around this, you would now have the circle divided into quadrants.

When it comes to these four signs, you can see at a glance which ones are opposites and which ones are square.

The Cardinal signs you just noted are the beginning energies. Aries is the beginning of the energy of FIRE -- which is ACTION and PASSION. Cacncer is the the beginning of the energy of WATER which is EMOTION and INTUITION. Libra is the beginning of the element of AIR, which is THOUGHT and MOVEMENT. Capricorn is the beginning of the energy of EARTH, which is SENSUAL and PHYSICAL.


THERE ARE TWO MORE SETS OF CROSSES TO DRAW.

The next set is called FIXED. These are TAURUS, which follows Aries. Across from Taurus is Scorpio, which follows Libra. Halfway between Taurus and Scorpio is LEO, which follows Cancer. And halfway between Scorpio and Taurus is Aquarius, which follows Capricorn.

Place Taurus at the left  and Scorpio at the right of the horizontal line.
Place Leo at the bottom and Aquarius at the top of the vertical line.

Now draw the next set.

This is the MUTABLE cross.

The first sign is GEMINI, which follows Taurus. Across from Gemini is SAGITTARIUS, which follows Capricorn which follows Scorpio. Halfway between Gemini and Sagittarius is VIRGO, which follows Leo. Halfway between Sagittarius and Gemini is PISCES, which follows Aquarius.

Place Gemini at the left and Sagittarius at the right of the horizontal line.
Place Virgo at the bottom and Pisces at the top of the vertical line.

If you were to place these two crosses inside the circle which holds the Cardinal cross of Aries/Libra and Cancer/Capricorn, and you placed them according to directions, Taurus following Aries and Gemini following Taurus, and so on, you would have a circle with TWELVE divisions. These could be numbered, beginning with Aries and going around the circle, counter clockwise.

Think of Aries at the 9 o'clock position. Taurus would be 8 and Gemini would be 7 and Cancer would 6. I would rather you didn't think of them with these numbers, however. They each have their own numbers. This instruction was for placement, only.

A quick drawing might show what I'm talking about:

ONE: Aries
TWO: Taurus
THREE: Gemini
FOUR: Cancer
FIVE: Leo
SIX: Virgo
SEVEN: Libra
EIGHT: Scorpio
NINE: Sagittarius
TEN: Capricorn
ELEVEN: Aquarius
TWELVE: Pisces

SUN STEADS

If you don't have your chart yet, please try to obtain one. You can get one for free on Astro.com or other such sites. Local people can contact me and I'll supply you with a chart so that we can work together.

In the very first StoryFinding prompt, you followed the moon through a cycle. The moon moved through each sign. Each month, the moon will move through these signs and though it will pass through the same signs each month, the energy will not be the same. Each time, the Sun will be in a different sign and the moon, which expresses the sun's light will show a different mood depending on how the signs interact.

Another storyfinding exercise is to pay attention to the sun in the houses of your chart.

I'll have more on this later. First, an exercise in recognizing the aspects you learned earlier. We'll see them clearly in the three crosses that create the astrological wheel of signs. (next post)

THE FIRST PROMPT

TRY THIS:

On Friday, March 4, 1911, the moon was new in the sign of Pisces. If you have access to journal (or blog) notes of this time, write about what you were doing on that day. Follow through the rest of the moon cycle, making notes about what was up, mostly what you felt, at that time.

One week after a new moon is the waxing square. The energy is rising from new to Full and this is the cross-current, when the moon energy is in a sign that squares the sign the moon was in at new and will be in when it is full.

Two weeks after a new moon, the moon is in the opposite sign from what it was in at new. The moon is in the sign opposite the sign of the sun.

One week after the full moon,  the energy is once more at a cross-current. The sign is square that of the the new moon and full moon.

One week after this waning square, the moon comes new again in the next sign. (Note: when the moon is new, the sun and moon are in the same sign.)

IF YOU'D RATHER: Use the current moon cycle and daily record things that happen and moods that come along. This same kind of story-watching can be done with the SUN. (next post)

By paying attention to this moon cycle -- or the one currently going on -- you become familiar with three very important aspects mentioned in the previous post.

THREE ASPECTS

ASPECTS you learn in the first exercise (next post): 

CONJUNCT is when two planets are in the same sign and degree (or very near). When two planets are conjunct, it depends on the nature of the planets involved whether the energy will be helpful or stressful. In the case of the moon cycle, the "planets" are the same. (note: the moon and sun are not planets. They are lights. They are called planets for convenience sake in astrology).

OPPOSITION is when two planets are in opposite signs. Opoositions are often stressful, as the two energies try to come to an understanding. This understanding brings awareness. The awareness is often worked out by other people or one other person who "plays a part" in your story. The planets in opposition are 180 degrees apart. (Or up to ten degrees either side of that, depending on the planet. These degrees of allowance are called orbs. Most planets in the natal chart are allowed six to eight degrees. Sun and Moon often get ten degrees. The closer the degree, the more powerful the aspect. Full moon is the moment when the sun and moon are exactly 180 degrees apart -- in opposite signs).

SQUARE is when two planets are in signs that are 90 degrees apart (or the allowable orb). You will learn the signs that are square each other, making this and easy aspect to see.

The Village That Raised You

Once upon a time, Storytellers traveled from village to village, bringing their tales of Elsewhere and Otherwise. While they were visiting, they also collected local stories. They'd hear of the hunter's success, the hero's victory, the widow who overcame poverty and all the other tales of courage and wonder that had written themselves into the weave of the village since last the Storytellers came to call.

Until the story was told or the song was sung, the significance had not been made complete. The event was just an event until the Storyfinders set it to magic by giving it to words. Then the event became legend. It lived in the minds and in the weave of the village. It was told and passed on and taken, as a thread, to the next village. Dramas, comedies, tales of valour and tales of woe, all became part of the tapestry.

So it is with your story.

If you don't know where you've been, you don't know where you're going. You may feel transient, as if you are just passing through and maybe don't count for so much; as if no one takes notice.

But the good news is, you mattered so much, the whole sky took notice the moment you drew your first breath. The story written in the sky at that moment was your story.

And though a traveling Storyfinder can tell your story, or parts of it, and make it come alive and infuse it with magic so the story has staying power, only you can tell the real story. You're the one living it. Once you see that things are not so random, that the Universe is not out to get you,  that things come in cycles and are, at least in part, predictable, you can begin to write your story along more constructive lines.

This is Co-Astrology. It takes a bit of work on your part. You don't have to become an astrologer, but you do have to work a little to find the thread of your story.

So, how about it? Do you want to take this journey?

I'll be giving prompts, such as writers sometimes use, to help you set off down the path to the village that raised you.