The Cosmic Story: Leo New Moon, August 2, 2016
Personal Ego or Higher Self
Lammas and the Leo New Moon 2016
This year's New Moon in Leo falls on the Wheel of the Year's power gate of Lammas, an ancient festival of the First Harvest, when the bread baked with the first grain harvest was blessed and offered to the gods. Ancient peoples knew how to live in harmony with all of Nature. Even if you don't believe in God or Goddess, the goal of a life lived in balance and harmony always includes gratefulness to something larger than our personal ego. That's when we find ourselves centered in what Carl Jung calls the Self, the animating Spirit within each of us, the Spirit that is our truest connection with each other. And the New Moon in Leo wants to celebrate that Self.
We are living in the hottest time of summer, the gardens are full and the grain is high, and it's time to give thanks for the bounty of the Earth. We'll notice that now the daylight really begins to decline as our Sun heads south toward the Equator, and we'll see the days growing shorter as we head into the autumn. Where did the summer go? The first harvest of the year is upon us.
In Celtic countries, this festival was dedicated to the god Lugh of the Long Hand, a multi-talented god who combined all the skills the Celts valued. In Ireland, Lammas is called Lughnasadh. This summer festival was a time for warriors to display their skill in games and competitions, for marriages to be brokered between tribes and for artisans to show their wares.
Spiritually, it's a time to look at what we've accomplished this year and celebrate those achievements. Did you get involved in the political races? Did some project you worked on accomplish what you hoped for? Did you take the time to help family or friends in need? Did you finally settled down? Did you dance your dance? Name and honor what you've been working toward. It's your creation! Leo knows how to value his creations.
To show reverence to our Mother Earth and Father Sky, we might find that this first harvest is something we offer back to Spirit. This offering can be gratitude for another year of health and love. It can be gratitude for learning a new skill. Or it could be something more inner, such as a new sense of possibility and hope. This is a good time to honor what we value, honor it by naming it and celebrating it. Then give it where it is most needed, sharing it with people. What do you have to offer those you interact with on a daily basis?
One of the major lessons for Leo's time of year is to practice open-heartedness and generosity, just as Mother Earth shows to us abundance of life . As we give of ourselves freely, we also receive what we need. If we make generosity and open-heartedness virtues we live by, they help us create a full and happy life; they become a blessing all around, and definitely something worth celebrating.
Leo New Moon
A New Moon is a time when both the Sun and Moon occupy the same space in the heavens, a sort of cosmic get together, what was once celebrated as a 'sacred marriage' of our two luminaries. Sun consciousness, which is rooted in our collective and personal ego-identity and which helps us navigate our daily common lives (our left brain rationality); and Moon consciousness (which until recently our culture rejected as 'irrational') our unconscious knowledge coming to us through feelings and images and instincts (our right brain wisdom).
When Sun and Moon come together in the same sign, both our consciousness and our unconscious are on the same page. They both want the same things. They're in synch. So at New Moon, together they can plant a seed that our lives need to continue to grow.
This Leo New Moon comes after a tumultuous year of political and social unrest around the world. And I bet each of us has experience some kind of personal upheaval. Change is in the air whether we want it or not. While many of us Bernie people hoped for radical change to happen instantaneously, that's not how real and abiding change happens. Our Taurus-self knows that the foundation has to be strong for the building to last. We in America are in the last years of America's Pluto cycle. We are reaping what we've sown for the past 230 years. But we're also getting a chance to really live out America's ideals of freedom, creativity and unity. We are living under corporate oppression and we're going to have a revolution. It's our choice if we create a peaceful revolution, which takes time to make the necessary changes, step by step or a violent one.
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