October’s 0 Scorpio Solar Eclipse (Pt. 2: that ‘Other’ eclipse)

The partial solar eclipse of March 29, 2006 (at 8 Aries) as photographed by Szczery

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Every time we get into ‘eclipse season’ we run through the stats on eclipse duration and such - the answer there being 3 years for solar eclipses and 3 months for lunar eclipses, give or take your having a birthday within five days of an eclipse event (in which case there will be thematic echoes of the eclipse throughout your ‘birthday year’).

And despite all the up-front drama which tends to cluster around eclipses (which I’m guessing we’ve all noticed this year)... with all the chaos and upheaval which sweeps through at the time of any eclipse, there are thousands of years of lore which say that in the long run (that being the operative and imperative term: long run) events of today will ultimately prove beneficial in the evolutionary sense - most of all to those who experience upheaval/s at this time.

Those changes - be they a change of heart or a new opportunity - will begin to occur or formulate somewhere around the two-and-a-half year mark after the original eclipse (our ‘Now’). And despite whatever we may think, we do NOT know what those changes will be except for the fact that whatever happens in the future can only happen because of what we’re going through now.

Just don’t connect the two. It’s natural to think that the two things might be connected - and indeed they may end up being ‘in theme’ as it were. Such ‘eventualities’ often show us precisely what we can gain because we have gone through some sort of giving up of something, whether that’s physical, financial, mental/theoretical or otherwise... and in that are probably part of our overall maturation as human beings, a process which teaches us both to try and to accept, stressing those lessons we need individually.

Not that we like them, of course. But in terms of what we need to learn in the whole of our lives...? Yes, they’re probably needed.

And therefore we get...’eclipsed.’

That said, eclipses - like most things celestial and astrological - have a certain rhythm. In the case of eclipses, we get two ‘eclipse seasons’ a year, which means they happen around every six (6) months.

And that means any given eclipse is really two processes, not just one mega-complicated test of gut, endurance and ability-vs.-inability to focus.  The first process is the one we talk about most often: the eclipse as a focal point in time which is evolutionary in that it represents something which both dismantles and regenerates our life or life around us - the former happening (astrologically) when the eclipse aspects our chart.

But the second process is just as important. It represents that which you’re coming to be aware of now which in some way you couldn’t have gotten to or arrived at if you were still who you were (or where you were) two-and-a-half years ago.

That’s right...that eclipses happen approximately six months apart means that the ‘twist’ on an eclipse already past occurs in tandem with current eclipse effects.

No wonder things get weird, right?

This varies a bit, as when you get down to the nitty versus gritty of it all as eclipses cycle backwards through the year - which makes technical/astrological sense when we remember that eclipses occur when a full or new moon occurs within fifteen degrees of the lunar nodes and they cycle backwards through the zodiac. Add to that the subtle but pervasive iffy quality of a calendar with months of various lengths and what you come out with (after a deal of sitting with eclipse tables) is how most such two-and-a-half-year marks will fall just after a current eclipse season - though I’m not willing to chisel that in concrete and this isn’t the moment to hand-check a hundred years of eclipse cycles.

Still, what this amounts to is an interesting concept: namely that the pre-(solar)-eclipse ‘breaking down’ period is about the current eclipse - meaning in this moment the eclipsing of 0 Scorpio and our ability or willingness to recognize that what life is ‘bringing home’ to us is meant to provoke deeply personal feelings and emotions of vulnerability not so that we can fight about it (or against it) but so that we can ask ourselves how we came to be who we are, and whether that’s valid or (quite possibly) the product of a different time, a time and perspective which is no longer valid.

Scorpio is never “about” them. It’s always about us. The reason we should understand this is simple: it’s our chart and our life.

As for that secondary eclipse, if that eclipse comes into the last half-cycle of its process (at the two-and-a-half-year point) in the wake of eclipse season, then the “opportunity” we associate with with an eclipse which is ‘aging out’ of its transit cycle is also something which buoys us through the natural period of vulnerability letting go of whatever it is being currently ‘eclipsed,’ be it a notion, a relationship, some course of action or conviction - whatever we have been under pressure from, about or because of over these past two months.

That becomes our opportunity - and a worthy explanation of why this 'turn' in any given tale of any eclipse ends up being, or focusing on something generally at a tangent to events which we began with. After all, now we're dealing with a Scorpio eclipse. But back then?

That eclipse...the one which occurred two-and-a-half years ago was at 0 Gemini. It occurred during May 2012 and the blog post (for those who care to traipse back in time) would be this one:

- link to post -

0 Gemini Solar Eclipse of May 20, 2012

Perhaps you’re looking at that ‘0 Gemini’ notion now and thinking... ‘Does it matter that the 2012 eclipse and this 2014 eclipse are both at zero degrees of respective signs?’

Answer: exactness always matters in astrology, mostly because degrees function like frequencies. So when any aspect (or transit) is exact, that’s like a radio station getting perfectly tuned in. It’s louder. It’s stronger! If you’re off the mark, there’s static - which in this case would be confusion, distraction, things being up in the air or unknown. And once you get the station tuned in, all becomes clear.

No, you may not like the song being played - but at least it’s clear while being clearly awful.

The current eclipse being (about to be) in Scorpio, Gemini is the eighth derivative sign from this eclipse, just as seen the other way around, Scorpio is the sixth derivative sign from Gemini.

Eighth sign derivations area always about transformations. They’re also intrinsically Scorpionic by nature, which by implication ‘doubles up’ on the potential to create/experience change now, whether that manifests through some effort to do something or your effectiveness/ability to get where you want to go in life, all of which we learn about through an intense course of effort and reflection.

Eighth sign also derivations speak of emotional ‘check points’ - meaning this eclipse season we’re in (the Aries lunar eclipse plus the Scorpio solar eclipse) may signal a challenge to something you have been working on or towards since May 2012. Or perhaps you now find yourself going (or needing to go) in more than one direction - a fact which tests you emotionally (which is to say through a test of self-confidence and self-determination emblematic of this October’s Scorpio solar eclipse) or mentally (referring to the 2012 Gemini eclipse).

The above is the eclipse map not for the 2014 solar eclipse at 0 Scorpio, but the solar

eclipse at 0 Gemini which occurred back in May, 2012. Unlike the eclipses for this year

(2014) this eclipse back in 2012 was a total eclipse and therefore has a central line of

totality (in red) which is different from the total expanse of the eclipse (marked off with

two vertical blue lines) where the eclipse would be visible in part, but not in its totality.

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That two eclipse signals would be in an exact one-hundred-fifty inconjunct signals various ‘adjustments’ and adjusting to realities which began being (Gemini) ‘thought/talked of’  back then and which is now being revealed to be something other, indicating the need to ‘adjust’ one’s thinking and/or manner of addressing issues (or others). Testing times and finding out about slips, cracks and soft spots in our own sense of ‘feeling secure’ - whether that has anything at all to do with the reality of personal security - would be common during a time like this. And some will, make no mistake, thrive on this energy even if that act of thriving gets them nowhere or undermines their own interest.

Yes, such are the gifts of eighth sign harmonics. And Scorpio, if truth be told.

Others will take it upon themselves to take their Self in knowing...or at least ‘willing to know’ hand. And let’s not be too unhappy here as there is much progress to be made now, even if some of it will take a while. Scorpio is a sign which never rushes. Or at least it does better when it stops to consider without solidifying on the spot. Like it’s polarity partner Taurus, Scorpio is fairly well known for digging in an resisting simply because something isn’t their idea - at least initially. That quality - that(Scorpio) ability-and-willingness to react in one direction then ‘adjust’ to another once all the reactions and feelings get sorted out - is part and parcel of this dynamic too. Scorpio energies always incite emotionality while challenging us to get past that emotion to an act or choice at least driven by thought and not emotion. 

Are we capable of getting past the pluses and minuses of our ego strengths?

Will we are able (and willing) to create alliances and grow opportunities which are not necessarily based on similarities with others but on the capacity to unite in terms of just the goal? Or because something which could be created would be a decided “total which is more than the sum of its parts”?

Some will, some won’t. Eighth sign dynamics always achieve their greatest gains through acting, not relying not on control, but its certainly not easy. After all, even when eighth harmonic energetics don’t indicate mortal threat they tend to stir up insecurities and floating questions which make us feel vulnerable even when we aren’t. Why? Because that’s another side of eighth sign harmonics. Wherever we see active inconjuncts we know there’s an ability... maybe even a propensity to make  emotional mountains out of molehills - sometimes all by ourselves with regards to our Self.

And that may or may not be part of the problem. Given how the gravity of the Sun - despite its massive size - is less ‘apparent’ to us here on Earth than that of our tide-producing Moon, it’s not surprising that the solar eclipse which metaphysically seems so ‘aimed’ at getting us to change our life begins through our more ‘fluid’ or emotional nature.

A lot of the walls have been torn down. We have a chance to be, become and change in response to our world, our times and (evidently rather importantly), our ability and willingness to use our (Gemini) ability to think, choose, organize and prioritize.

What we do with all that moving forward...? Well, that’s pretty much up to us. While Gemini is always about our world (life as we experience it in our mind), Scorpio is about the world - that which we share and which through creating, we ultimately bring upon our Self.
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Sun in Virgo / Eclipse Effects Begin

A mirage sunrise over Lake Superior

(photo credit: Tom Ruen, July 2002)

Believe it or not, everything that we have been going through and seeing around us in the world is something of a prelude (or prequel, if you prefer).

To what?

To understanding what it’s all about, which at some level and at some point isn’t about ‘them’ or ‘that’ or whatever. It’s about us. It’s about how willing we are to grapple with what’s wrong - not with life, but with how we’re responding to life. How we’re treating ourselves through whatever we choose to do with our days, our life, to this world and (so we think) to others. All the fighting, all the despair and disregard, all the name calling and ill will, all the shameful neglect for our own standards with regards to anything or anyone who would dare disagree with us...

Metaphysically, none of that is about anyone but us.

Yes, it’s you and me and everybody else, individually going about stirring up our own karma. There is an argument to be made here that things have gotten so bad that there is some underlying knowledge that we need to do some purging of the malicious sort of toxin which has been eating away at our world.

It’s just that very (very) few of us are yet at the point where we realize that the ‘bad’ out there is what we apparently need.

Need? Who needs grief?

Evidently we do.

Why?

Simple: because we’re human, and humans generally don’t learn all that much through the good times. We would like to think that we do, but then there are all those expressions like ‘the burned hand teaches best’ (and a thousand others) which admit what we know deep down in our gut: we learn best through pain. That which carries too high a price, we tend not to repeat - just as that which we keep doing over and over again must have some benefit.

Think about that for a while and then think through what’s going on in our world. Humans don’t seem to be in the habit of ‘committing’ peace.’

But why would that be?

Astrologically - which is to say metaphysically - the reason we would be looking for here is described by Scorpio, the sign which wherever it manifests is always about the feelings we are confronted with through our experience of others or emotionality connected with some process, choice or situation.

When it comes to anything Scorpio, we like to feel not that we can win but that we’re going to win - a quality which tends to manifest in Scorpio’s intensity of drive and personal focus. But let’s be real here... as convinced as we might want to be, the reality is that if there’s a question of winning, there’s also a possibility of losing.

There are three water signs: Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. With Cancer there’s always a candy coating of innocence. So Cancerian mistakes, as flinch-worthy as they may be are generally of the ‘fool me once, shame on you’ type.

But with Scorpio there’s a knowing - at least an emotional knowing. Plus Scorpio is a sign which belongs to the public and interactive quadrant - as opposed to Cancer, which is personal and mostly hidden from the greater world at large. This marks the Scorpio mistake as the one which isn’t just annoying, but possibly embarrassing...even humiliating.

And when people are threatened with humiliation, most don’t take it very well...hence Scorpio’s reputation for manipulation, vengeance and badgering, browbeating and other forms of waiting out a ‘foe’ - which is the point here: in representing where we intersect with others, as part of its polarity to Taurus (sign of personal security) Scorpio also represents how we defend our internal Self...or whether we need to.

This becomes important now as the Sun reaches 0 Virgo on August 23rd (at 4:45 in the morning UT/+0 time) simply because 0 Virgo is in perfect sextile to 0 Scorpio, and 0 Scorpio is the degree of this October’s solar eclipse, a solar eclipse which will occur on October 23rd (UT/+0).

In other words, with the Sun moving into Virgo (which obviously begins with 0 Virgo), this is also the moment when a celestial timer goes off as we enter the two-month ‘breaking down’ period which precedes any given solar eclipse. This ‘breaking down’ process has to do with us - the breaking down of our resistance to things, whether that amounts to something we need to know (and/or accept) about our Self, or something we need to understand about life, our world, or something going on in that world.

As Mercury moved into Virgo last week on the 15th we started thinking about things. Now, as the Sun moves into Virgo, the ‘thinking’ as something apart from real time efforts fades or even vanishes - a quality often seen when Sun and Mercury are in the same sign. Mercury alone is the thought...Mercury plus Sun becomes the theme.

With Mars in the 3rd sign to Virgo (Scorpio) throughout most of the Sun’s transit of Virgo we can expect to see efforts, denials and threats over the next few weeks, all of which are diversions of sort considering there are things coming to the surface in everyone’s life which are too real to ignore even if dealing with them is difficult at best. Eliminating things (and people) is sometimes necessary and yet often simply the easy way out - one which we are likely to find cuts us short in the process.

This year’s annual Sun in Virgo is likely to have  financial implications. Such matters do not have to be negative, but they should be taken into account. That this Sun/Eclipse positioning forms both a one/eleven...

...as well as a one/three...

...harmonic note speaks to communications and responses, acceptance and whatever earnings our successes are due against that tendency we have to segregate, separate, differentiate or unify, whether actively or passively, whether financially, mentally, systemically, societally or through any other means we might think to associate with ‘identity,’ ‘identification,’ ‘individuation’ or ‘ideation.’

...All of which is not only its own little pot of things to stew about (stewing can be nourishing), but also a means by which we will begin to process and either a.) attract, or b.) manifest those situations which represent our individual Scorpio test of personal security.

(Oh joy, oh rapture...)

With the Sun entering Virgo, the eclipse sits in the derivative third sign (1. Virgo, 2. Libra, 3 Scorpio), eliciting everything and anything which has to do with the generic third house...or the individual third house of your natal chart, which we obviously can’t talk about in detail. But we can consider what it means to have an eclipse ‘blacking out’ that which we have thought of as our ‘norm’ or ‘modus operandi’ for however long, tra-la-la.

The third house/sign points to mentality, choice, consideration, information, organization, intelligence, record-keeping, accounting/accounting for, siblings, communication, cars-trains-planes-telephones-computers and whatever else ‘communicates’ us or our ideas to anyone or anywhere else. To have a solar eclipse in this aspect to Virgo speaks to a desire (or) need to let something to... which may mean a real (tangible) something - or it may be our attitude which makes us think getting rid of someone or something will some a problem which in reality is about our personal perspective.

In other words, as the Sun reaches Virgo and as all comes to be as it is at that time and moving forward, something about our (Virgoan) efforts is either eliminated... or comes to be causal in some sort of event or experience wherein life is asking us to not just deny but actually let go of (in reality) something we have long used as methodology, justification, moral position - something.

One slightly unusual quality about this Virgo ingress chart is the fact that as the Sun enters Virgo it  doesn’t actually aspect any other standard planet using standard (Ptolemaic) aspects and standard orbs - a quality which in astrological terms accelerates or multiples the general effect of any placement.  Yes, the Sun is certainly in aspect to fixed (royal) star Regulus at 0 Virgo as it conjuncts it, but this rule only applies to the 'standard planet' list (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto).

As for Regulus, this is the point which gives us royal notice about how in all the things we may think of doing, revenge had best not be not a part of any of it.

No, don't even think about it.

You’re free to do what you want to do about this, of course, but Regulus at any degree promises success only where we are not embodying or utilizing the concept or qualities of revenge (otherwise known as vengeance). At 0 Virgo this speaks to a combining of two rather different influences, one being a burning confidence and the other being the humble servant, suggesting all sorts of ways we may move forward through requiring of ourselves that we lead through earning the respect of all those we would like to have as supporters and/or followers. It not being in the general Virgo play book to do much but drop a hint as to what may be coming at us, this unaspected Virgo Sun may well represent matters or issues in life which we don’t pay much attention to.

It may also represent our not wanting to pay attention to something which doesn’t tickle our fancy.

There is no pre-determined ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ chiseled in stone here. Furthermore, there is just that odd but karmic chance that something highly focal at the moment may be just the thing which the universe has made (in true Scorpio and Scorpio/Virgo style) irresistible so that it will elicit the behavior or choice or realization or victory or complete and utter loss which for some of us will be the 0 Scorpio black rabbit hole we drop rather in slow motion between now and October 23rd, the to-be-hallowed (in short order, no doubt) date of the incoming eclipse.

The March 2006 Solar Eclipse at 8 Aries

(photo credit: Aliparsa, March 2006)

As a side-comment here, if you’re thinking that you should start dreading now and avoid the October solar eclipse rush, there really is no hurry.

Why so?

Well, it’s not like we’re not already on slippery Scorpio ground with ourselves. We can tell that - just look around: wars are raging and death is stalking among us overly openly. Reason has become subject and subjugated to ensnarled passions we haven’t come to grip with yet.

We think we have, of course. But we haven’t. That’s what the next two months are about, with the first part of that process to be lived out under Sun in Virgo.

Oh yes...before I close, the other part of this Scorpio-Virgo relationship - the Virgo-to-Scorpio (one/three) derivation. We can expect a lot of demanding, a lot of manipulation, a deal of denial, much begging (real and otherwise) and a whole host of human beings attempting to manipulate, corner and browbeat others (often through sheer volume or repetition) over the next few weeks.

Be aware: those who fall to such tactics are showing you their vulnerabilities. Treat those issues with kind respect and both sides will win. Take advantage of such chinks in armor and the karma will be yours.

So...do you really want to try that fate on (of your own free will) as we go into the prelude to the last and most primal of all Scorpio solar eclipses?

That would be the question.
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Sun in Leo

Image adapted from a photograph of Tanzania's

 Ngorongoro Crater taken by William Warby (April 2008)

When the Sun hits 0 Leo on Sunday, July 22nd (at 10:02 a.m. UT/+0) life will move from the emotional tides and variable ‘surf zone’ actions of Cancer into the brightly sunny ‘I know what I want to do’ quality of Leo.

Much like the namesake lion, any object transiting through Leo tends to be in one of several modes: either they’re on the hunt...celebrating the hunt...having their fill...reveling in a snooze...defending territory (right or wrong)...or contemplating whether they really HAVE TO to get up and do anything about anything.

Add to that one more idea: Leo isn’t an ‘airy’ mental sign like Libra, Gemini or Aquarius, there’s a whole lot of thinking going on with anything Leo...though we may not hear about it.

Sometimes that's fine and sometimes that's not so fine...my Leo brother tends to insist he's had conversations with me that we've never had. Lucky for him, I'm an astrologer. So I understand what's going on - he's so in his head, he's imagining the whole of the conversation, he's figured out how he's sure it's going to go...

...He just forgets the 'telling me about it' part!

So what do I do when he does such a thing? I do what you would expect me to do - I tell him he's being a total Leo.

Me: You're being a Leo again...
Him: Yeah, and...?

As the second sign in the zodiac’s second quadrant, Leo takes the necessities and aims which Cancer's attention to the emotional 'basics' has defined and not only creates the plan, but generally makes the first stabs at bringing any plan to fruition.

After all, if Leo can be the hero, why not? Even with ourselves, we LOVE that moment when we can prance a bit and shake our tail (imaginary or otherwise) and say 'I did it! It's done!'

Through all this planning, trying, succeeding and (gasp!) not succeeding, Leo becomes the testing ground. And from testing comes....what?

Okay...so Leo can be a little testy, yes. But more to where I was going with this idea, Leo is the sign (and the 5th house would be the place) where we test and develop the plan and the basic abilities we think of as what we'll need to get us where we want to go. The tall hopes of Leo, the grand roars (of laughter and otherwise) which are so Leo, they're all about stretching our wings as individuals, about seeing who or what we think we can be or become.

Of course, all this is going on pretty much in our head. (Hence my brother's conversations with the me in his brain). Translating such visions to real life? That's another thing.

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That Cancer (and the 4th house of the horoscope) are defined as ‘family, culture, nationality and childhood’ (obviously not put in order of importance…) and the 2nd quadrant in general is the realm of pre-teen/early-teen sort of development tells us that Leo is the sign (and the 5th house is the place naiveté initiates the effort to encounter reality.

Take dating. Dating is a Leo and 5th house subject - as is competition. (We'll throw that one in too.) Both dating and competition require a lot of 'personal preparation.' There's psyching up which gets done, there's choosing the venue (or the person) you're going to date or compete against...in the 5th we think we can 'control' the parameters.

That's a Leo dream. But we try, nonetheless.

And then comes reality: our date is mortal, the day of the race is dawg nabbit hot and humid and things don't quite work out as we thought they would.

You know...when we were having that conversation in our head?

A middle ages rendition of Leo the lion as an

astrological sign

And that...right there is the big challenge to Leo. Where the vision which motivates meets the reality which isn't the dream, the result is often disappointment.
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Like the other two fire signs (Aries and Sagittarius), Leo is born to envision and imagine. Leo is the sign (and the 5th house is the house) of creating...the effort to make something happen.

Yet Leo is dangerous. Lions are magnificent creatures, to be sure. But let's not forget - a lion can eat you. Thus we come to the zodiacal dichotomy built into this sign - while life is a Leo picnic (carnival, vacation, buffet, etcetera...) to any Leo - and thus while the Sun is in Leo, there is a chance of "getting killed" not necessarily physically, but your hopes? Yes. Your plans? Yes. Anything which any sign is born to do that sign can also 'not do' or suffer in the 'doing of,' if you will.

And this is why the Sun's yearly transit through Leo can be so much fun...but can also spell such disaster.

You've heard me talk about Mercury retrogrades in Leo and how they can spell rocky times for the stock market. Mercury retrograde is a time of pulling back and  'reconsideration' and when that happens in Leo, we pull back on things which might be risky. Or which might not be the 'sure bet.'
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Link to Blog Post: Mercury Retrogrades in Leo

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And let's not even talk about solar eclipses. The last solar eclipse we had in Leo occurred in August of 2008. Anyone remember August of 2008 and all the economic chaos which ensued? Which we haven't cleared ourselves out of as yet?

But why is Leo so connected to economics? That's because Leo is one half of the Leo-Aquarius polarity, and Aquarius is the sign of all things social, systemic and societal, including the economy (and income, as a form of 'personal economy').

So...sunny and creative though the nature of Leo can be, the sheer strength of the Leo 'vision' can be so blinding that to call Leo ‘sun-struck’ (in honor of its ruling symbol, the Sun) would seem quiet sensible. When the Sun is in Leo, it's often hard time to see someone else's point of view. Or to even get any perspective on our own point of view.

(Or behavior, for that matter.)

NATAL LEO COMMENTARIES: There are two symbols noted as being particular susceptible to both the strengths and weaknesses of Leo in the natal chart. They are Saturn and Uranus. Why Saturn and Uranus? Because they are co-rulers of Leo's oppositional sign,  Aquarius.

With an orbital cycle of 27.46 years, Saturn appear in any sign more often than Uranus. Saturn’s latest Leo (ad)venture was from July 16, 2005 through September 1, 2007 and before that there was…

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- Saturn in Leo: September 17, 1975 through July 25,1978  (less January 14-June 4, 1976 which had Saturn retrograded back into Cancer)

- Saturn in Leo: August 2, 1946 through May 28, 1949 (less September 19 1948-April 2, 1949 which had Saturn playing footsie with moving on into Virgo)

- Saturn in Leo: October 17, 1916 through December 6, 1916, then June 24, 1917 through August 11, 1919

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Uranus is a different case. With Uranus having an orbital cycle of 84 years, the only time we’ve seen Uranus in Leo during the past century was from August 24, 1955 through January 27, 1956 and then June 10, 1956 through August 9, 1962.

 A 'false color' photograph of Saturn taken by Voyager 1

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

Saturn in Leo seems prone to 'reading it's own press' - real or imagined. (Yes, it's back to that 'in their head' sort of thing.) Lack of responsibility and timeliness can also be a problem. On the plus side, Saturn in Leo can be righteously creative; this placement often figures prominently in the charts of people who are successful in many, many fields. They require room to operate and an opportunity to have input.

On the down side, they can come off as 'full of themselves.' The person with Saturn in Leo who says 'I don't have to listen to you' (or who acts that way) is going to be accused of being arrogant.

Yes, they will deny it. Tell them anyway. Don't get mad, just notify them and leave them to have that conversation with themselves. (They're going to anyway, so get your two cents in!)

Uranus in Leo tends to be less than practical. Sometimes they're just 'ahead of their time' and goodness knows they can be feisty and impatient! At times loveable and clever, this combination needs to balance 'alone time' with social time and for Uranus in Leo people, that isn't easy. Inside, they wonder who they're working for and against - and whose interests are really at stake.

 Constellation Leo, with it's famous Royal Star, Regulus

 

Such questions can provide insight - and such insight can lead to discoveries personal and valuable to others. But before that happens, there's usually a bit of chaos.

And that's the way of Leo, too. Where Leo sees not challenge they often make some, hence this signs association with 'drama.'

It's how Leo learns. In youth, Leo is the impulse which asks us to tests edges and limits...it's that thing which gets us to take chances so that we can see whether some 'danger' is real and whether life's 'rules' are really useful or merely some farce.

As we mature (mentally, emotionally or physically) we accept that some limits are there for a reason. We come to recognize the value of getting along with others for the sake of acceptance if nothing else.

It's a balancing act. If we give up our Leo spunk and individuality we sell ourselves out and end up hating our life. We we live totally for ourselves and our own will we eventually trip ourselves up.

Leo is about learning to try. It's not about being trying, but that does happen along the way!

Leo is about exploring and growing our Self - not at expense to others, but in their presence, learning through feedback. 

Yes, Leo promotes a lot of mental activity. We generally only hear part of it. Those who funnel and sort out their Leo (and 5th house activities) often come across as brilliant - 'brilliance' being a clearly Aquarian term.

It's all about connecting the dots...first inside, then to the world around us.

As the Sun comes into Leo, Mercury is already in Leo and counting back through degrees, being in retrograde. This is an interesting 'doubling up' of Leo energy which promotes figuring things out and recognizing how to make things work.

With Dionysus (sacred celebrations) at 0 Leo as the Sun enters the lion's sign, life supports  - even congratulates us for the mandatory we attend to and that we have done. Meanwhile, it discourages the frivolous...though yes, we may do that oh-so Leo thing and ignore all the warnings!

Given Mercury's Leo retrograde, some people will be thinking over how to do better, how to fix things which have gone awry and how to improve on plans going forward.

Will you be the self-willed one who does well? Or the person who ignores everyone? Do you really know what you're doing? Are you kidding yourself?

Sometimes - especially with so much Leo energy around - it's hard to know.

And what to do in that case...that's another Leo conversation to have with our Self...and yes, maybe others! Let's remember after all...though Leo is the sign of our innate internal ability to envision and create, Leo only triumphs when that creation or when that vision takes the opinions, needs and interests of others into account.

In other words, when you're in the Leo arena, others may well know (or know of) something which it would be potentially useful for you to consider.

 Dionysos holding out a kantharos

(c. 520-500 BCE, British Museum - photo credit Jastrow)

Meanwhile...as this ingress occurs there's still a lot of energy (represented by South Node, Vesta, Jupiter, Ceres and Venus) flowing through the Gemini realm of last May's eclipse. So though people seem to have discarded their interest in that eclipse as soon as it happened, its kinks are still unfurling.

Or in some cases, kinking us to the brink!

Also worth bearing in mind: Venus was IN Gemini at the time of the eclipse. At the time, Venus was retrograde. Venus represents 'results' - that which comes of whatever we do or are. So the 'results' of that eclipse were delayed. At the moment of the eclipse, Venus was 'sitting' (zodiacally speaking) at 23 Gemini.

And do you know...? It hasn't gotten back to 23 Gemini yet! That moment will happen on Tuesday, July 31st. And when that happens Mercury will still be in (Leo) retrograde, about to slow down and go direct on August 8, the Wednesday after.

But why connect these two? Well, for one, Venus does represent results. And Leo is about wanting to do things which we would like to turn out well for us. Even if our plan is to lie around the back yard, we want it to be a nice day!

More to the astrological point, Mercury rules Gemini. So this whole May eclipse, Venus retrograde...ALL of it was about how we think. And what we've been thinking.

And if we're been thinking things through.

With Mercury in Leo, and Leo being ruled by the Sun, the Sun's entire transit through Leo (July 22 through August 21st) will be focusing on whether we know how life works. Whether we can reach our goals. Whether our goals are realistic. There are some hard moments to come where fantasy gives way to reality, but at some point realities must be dealt with.

And the sooner we deal with them, the better. Mercury will remain in Leo for the whole of the Sun's passage through the sign. Those who realize what needs to be done - even though it might not be delicious - can use this time to set themselves up for a better future.

Of course, you could just go to the beach (the mountains, the back yard, the park, the office) as well.

But wherever you go, you may be assured your brain will be thinking.

Your job is just to know what's real...and what's a fantasy. And what to do with, and about each.