You have moved through the First Four, the Ini­tia­to­ry New Moons of the Astro­log­i­cal Year. The Fun­da­men­tal Vibra­tions have been evoked…Fire, Earth, Air and Water have each tak­en their turn around this, the first third of the Wheel of Life. Those New Moons released their seed-forms to inspire, inform and guide you on your journey…

And now you begin again, with a greater under­stand­ing, in the Fire that is Leo. Where­as in Aries you moved through the expe­ri­ence of being for itself; you formed your per­sonas (masks) so as to present your­self to the world. Now in Leo you must go fur­ther and so extend your­self through roles, upon stages and in the dra­mas that are the Dance of Life itself; here in Leo you must cre­ate, per­form and release your­self for you (and the world) to see.

Sing your spir­it song, dance your cre­ator’s dance, as you humbly acknowl­edge, accept and trea­sure the gift that is Life-Consciousness-Spirit.

Misunderstanding…Delusion…Deception…Confusion…

Which will lead you to…eventually…

Acceptance…Revelation…Illumination!

Yes, that’s right; it is anoth­er “Through the Look­ing Glass” moment when Mer­cury and Nep­tune stand oppo­site one anoth­er. Only this time you are real­ly going to be “chal­lenged” (and have a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty); with Mer­cury turn­ing ret­ro­grade next week, this oppo­si­tion is going to occur 3 times in the next 40 days! That’s a lot of Delusion/Confusion as well as Illu­mi­na­tion to deal with!

Mer­cury rules your mind (man­as), your intel­lect, pow­ers of per­cep­tion, analy­sis and com­pre­hen­sion, as well as your fac­ul­ties of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Nep­tune is one of the Great Three, the Avatars from the Beyond, tru­ly gifts from the gods, whose pur­pose is to reveal (re-veil) the mul­ti-dimen­sion­al uni­verse, the “Mul­ti­verse”, that you real­ly move through.

You had a sim­i­lar encounter with­in your­self back around June 3 when Mer­cury Squared Nep­tune. This time the dra­ma of Her­mes and Posei­don will play out more exter­nal­ly, seem­ing­ly between you and anoth­er (or oth­ers). That’s the way it is with an oppo­si­tion, the quick­en­ing of your aware­ness is elicit­ed by the jux­ta­po­si­tion of one con­scious­ness to another.

You may find your­self in a par­tic­u­lar mis­un­der­stand­ing that mush­rooms between you and anoth­er, or you will real­ize each of you have been mak­ing an incor­rect assump­tion about one anoth­er for some time…or you that you have stum­bled into a sit­u­a­tion of delib­er­ate decep­tion. (But, spir­i­tu­al­ly, it is true, that all decep­tion is ulti­mate­ly the prod­uct of self-deception).

But of course, as in all things, the real oppo­si­tion, con­fronta­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ty will take place with­in you; it is real­ly between your more lim­it­ed aware­ness ver­sus your ever unfold­ing poten­tial for a greater aware­ness. Remem­ber, there is noth­ing to fear; you have been through this many times before; and there are many more steps you must take as you become the becoming…

Your unfold­ment pro­ceeds from one lev­el of con­scious­ness to anoth­er; at each lev­el you will even­tu­al­ly move from cer­tain­ty, to doubt, to confusion…Treasure that, for it is that con­fu­sion which is your gate­way for the release from the less­er real­i­ty; it is that let­ting go of the old cer­tain­ty that you were attached to that makes pos­si­ble a re-imag­i­na­tion and move­ment into a greater, more encom­pass­ing consciousness.

So Nep­tune serves you now as The Illu­mi­na­tor, who comes along to help you re-con­nect to your tran­scen­dent, intu­itive mind, your Bud­dhi Mind, and so frees you, for a time, from your more lim­it­ed, dual­is­tic low­er mind; Posei­don takes you into his “sea of mir­rors”, into a por­tion of The Mul­ti­verse, so that you may see the reflec­tions of reflec­tions of reflec­tions, the won­der that is Life-Consciousness-Spirit.

You will emerge out of the waters renewed, restored and hum­bled by the majesty of cre­ation which you have just, even for a moment, felt your­self to be one with.

This is the Truth that you are mov­ing towards, slow­ly, sure­ly but not yet able to hold.

Not yet…

All right, Shift!

And…Repeat!

Yes, it is a dou­ble-day of inspi­ra­tion as the Winds of Spir­it swirl; it’s time to change direc­tions in your heart and your head.

Venus moves into Leo for the next 3 weeks…Now this is the time for Romance! When Aphrodite dances through the styl­ish, gra­cious and regal rays of Leo you bet­ter put on your finest, know how to bow…as well as make your entrance! 

Venus in Leo means it is time to show your appre­ci­a­tion of beau­ty, life and love; time to have fun in the sun and with one anoth­er. With Venus rul­ing value…what you want to expe­ri­ence now quite sim­ply is…Love, Love, and more Love.

While Venus was in Can­cer you re-affirmed the source of your love, the foun­da­tions of your life that nur­ture, sta­bi­lize and cen­ter you. Now it is time for you to move out from that cen­tered space; now is the time to love your­self and to enjoy your love for one another.

Her­mes’ shifts are more com­pli­cat­ed. He’s mov­ing into his own sign of Vir­go, and your mind will become sharp­er, more discerning…and more prac­ti­cal! But Her­mes is only in Vir­go till August 8th, why so short a time? Well, there is a bump ahead. Her­mes is about to turn around, back up and go into Leo for a lit­tle while longer… that’s right, next week Mer­cury “stands still” and goes ret­ro­grade, (from Aug. 2 till Aug. 26), and so will move out of Vir­go and revis­it Leo from August 9th till Sep­tem­ber 9th.

There is some­thing going on here; you will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to attend to some issues that were not resolved in July. Maybe you for­got some­thing (with Leo it was prob­a­ble that you or the oth­er were being less than prac­ti­cal or too ide­al­is­tic), or you did­n’t con­vey some mes­sage as well as you could of (maybe you or the oth­er did not show one anoth­er enough respect), or per­haps the mes­sage was not under­stood (maybe you or the oth­er did not exer­cise enough compassion).

What­ev­er the nature of the mis­un­der­stand­ing or dis­agree­ment, you should take the next 10 days with Mer­cury in Vir­go to use your pow­er of reflec­tion and dis­cern­ment to fig­ure out what might need to be adjust­ed. Then on August 8th, take the “high road” but go with­in and recon­sid­er what that means as Mer­cury ret­ro­grades and recon­nects with Leo.

Try to cor­rect the mis­takes made in July because that is the gift that Mer­cury in ret­ro­grade offers you, a chance to go back and get it right this time. Then, as Mer­cury moves for­ward again on August 26, you can take your new under­stand­ing and think, com­mu­ni­cate and act with greater wisdom.

So, get ready to shift gears, dis­play adapt­abil­i­ty and learn…that’s what it’s all about on this beau­ti­ful blue orb called Earth!

Sparkle.…Dazzle…One of Kind…Yes, this feels good!

That’s right it’s time to cel­e­brate how spe­cial you are when Uranus and Sol align, from Aries to Leo.

The Sun is your pure poten­tial to be what you will be. To become some “thing” you have to pour your­self into forms of self-real­iza­tion with­in which you jour­ney. Yet, those very forms become lim­it­ing, con­fin­ing to your unfold­ment. What was self-ful­fill­ing becomes self-denying…

The spir­it with­in yearns to move beyond those rings of Saturn…and the Hier­ar­chy of Com­pas­sion answers you.

Uranus is their Uni­ver­sal Emis­sary, the ambassador/awakener of the greater cos­mos, that releas­es you from lim­i­ta­tions so that you may reveal a lit­tle more of who you tru­ly are. It offers a way through by open­ing new path­ways of under­stand­ing; Uranus is the Illu­mi­na­tor whose light shows you new forms of self-unfold­ment, of greater fulfillment.

Some­times this “gift” is less than gen­tle; we are often jolt­ed, shocked and upset by Uranus’ gift of growth. Yet, grow you must for your spir­it is nev­er ceas­ing in its jour­ney of becom­ing, of mov­ing beyond the forms which no longer ful­fill you.

Enjoy today for now you will expe­ri­ence a point of equi­lib­ri­um where pure poten­tial is quick­ened by enlight­ened under­stand­ing. Orig­i­nal think­ing will lead to new approach­es; a break­through will be achieved through inven­tive­ness that moves you out of those “zero- sum games”.

This is not a day to be lagging…today you are at the cut­ting edge, the razor’s edge that is known as the path of wis­dom. Ask for help, it will be giv­en. Your only offer­ing is to extend your hand to those who follow…

Beat­en paths are for sleep­ing souls…arise, awake and be a soul blazer!

Shine on, shine on Lumi­nous Ones!

And the Fifth Door opens…

After secur­ing your foun­da­tions, embrac­ing the Self at your cen­ter in the time of Can­cer, Spir­it must move out now so to release, express and stretch itself in “per­for­mances” of cre­ativ­i­ty, lead­er­ship and love. Yes, that’s right… it is Leo’s time to shine in your life.

The time of Can­cer was a time for “feel­ing”; you were immersed in the “waters of life” so that you could feel your­self whole again. Your life was cen­tered upon home, fam­i­ly and the roots of your being. Now you are back in Fire; you must move out upon the stage of life with “emo­tion”. You must move out from the with­in. You must “per-form” (act through an appro­pri­ate vehi­cle or form); you must choose your stage to act upon and a role to per­form through.

What you seek…is acknowl­edge­ment, that you are what you are…“I am that, I am!”

You need to be rec­og­nized, you need to be appre­ci­at­ed and you need respect. But, of course, the strug­gle and answer is always with­in you.

You want recog­ni­tion, but you must first see yourself.

You want appre­ci­a­tion, but you must first val­ue yourself.

You want respect, but you must first respect yourself.

Wher­ev­er Leo is in your own chart, there you will always seek to shine, to project, to real­ize your­self in some­thing or some­one. Now is the time to under­stand more about this Leo side of you. Now is your time to shine!

Yes, you do need to expe­ri­ence these emo­tions for your­self, you need to release your­self in dra­mat­ic dis­plays of lead­er­ship, cre­ativ­i­ty and love…but per­haps just as impor­tant to the Spir­it that is with­in, you must hon­or these self­same truth­ways in those that are before you. Set an exam­ple for them to follow…

Under­stand that you do not lead by telling some­one what to do; you lead by help­ing them to believe that they can do it!

Under­stand that your pow­er by which you cre­ate comes through you; you are “mere­ly” a focus­ing lens for its rev­e­la­tion, so be joy­ous, grate­ful and hum­ble in your achievements.

And under­stand that the love you have for your­self is com­plet­ed only by the uncon­di­tion­al love that you bestow on those around you.

Like its ruler, the Sun, Leo is about the release of your true self. It is time to cre­ate authentically…it is time to lead respectfully…it is time to love with all your heart.

Shine on you shin­ning ones!