The new moon in 12°34′ of Leo on August 4th, 2024 (exact at 6:13 a.m. CDT) is prompting us to risk embracing our true selves.
This lunation marks a new beginning that is anchored into our heart-centered vision for our life. When we break free from old mindsets we can align with our soul’s desire for love and authentic expression.
We are turning a page and beginning to write a different narrative toward the life we are meant to live.
Leo is associated with our will and personal power. This is a crucial time to surrender our ego timeline and trust in divine will and the larger intelligence that governs our lives.
We understand more about what we do not want and what we most need and are beginning again in new ways—and leading from the heart.
We are being initiated into an 18-month cycle that is focused on creativity, self-expression, radiance, and heart-centered action. We will see results of this focus in full bloom near the full moon in Leo on Feb 1, 2026.
Now, we are offered insight and encouragement about what is required to move forward. This includes what can be transformed and reclaimed by honoring what we feel in our hearts.
Mercury Stations Retrograde
Six hours after the new moon is exact, Mercury will station retrograde. This transit activates our intuitive technician to thoroughly review something in our life and see it from a holistic point of view. We are prompted to be honest about what is not working and specific about what needs refinement so that we can create a strategy for a more efficient system.
This Mercury retrograde asks us to consider our relationship to visibility and where we are getting in our own way. When we can observe the patterns that keep us playing small, we can install ways to shift and change. In order to shine, we must face where our light has been dimmed.
The next two weeks may guide us into childhood patterns and relationship dynamics that will offer insight to how our creative spark may have been diminished. Questions about our childhood experiences might come up, such as whether we felt safe enough to express ourselves.
“Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s.”
Anaïs Nin
This transit invites us to own our creativity fully, and to embody the part of ourselves that know it is our divine birthright to playfully create, explore, and express ourselves. What area of our creative self is demanding more presence and devotion? How can we tend to our creative spark?
As we explore our creative gifts, refine our craft, and strengthen our self-esteem, we come into right relationship with how divine inspiration seeks to flow through us. This retrograde is our scheduled integration time to gain new insights that will help us understand the lessons we are currently being taught. What we learn will aid us in calling in more of our light and allow us to step into new levels of our sacred work. This may start a bold new creative process or an opportunity to claim our power and cultivate the courage to share our unique gifts.
Reflection, review, and reassessment are vital now, especially regarding the details of our lives. By identifying what needs adjustment, we can more easily correct our course.
Expanding Our Capacity for Love
Leo is associated with the heart. This energy invites us to honor our past experiences and remember what matters most. It also encourages us to treat others with loving kindness, practice generosity, speak warmly, and encourage the light in one another. To live more fully from our heart center, we must be willing to be vulnerable and trust in intimacy. We have an opportunity to share courageously and unreservedly in our relationships at this time. How do we create safety so that we might freely open our hearts? Can we share our identity even if others do not understand our creative vision? Can we look through love’s eyes and witness the light in others?
“Love creates a communion with life. Love expands us, connects us, sweetens us, ennobles us. Love springs up in tender concern, it blossoms into caring action. It makes beauty out of all we touch. In any moment we can step beyond our small self and embrace each other as beloved parts of a whole.”
Jack Kornfield
The highest expression of the Leo archetype is living life through the vision of the heart and creating from a heart-centered place. In order to do this, we must devote ourselves to tending to our creative essence.
We may have to reconnect with what excites us and nurtures our creative spark. We may have to be honest about where we do not feel a heart connection to what we are involved with and be willing to make space for something that captivates our whole heart. We may let go of roles and relationships that we know aren’t going to work out to make room for a more extensive personal transformation that is emerging. It is time to really listen to what we are called to create and share of ourselves.
We are invited to expand our capacity for love, both with others and with ourselves. We are asked to practice the art of self-acceptance, which will allow us to feel a range of love in self-expression.
We explore our relationship to love and ask: What stories and past conditioning are preventing love from guiding us and moving through us? Are we ready to abandon the old narrative we’ve held about love and write a new story?
“If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
In a culture that has fixed ideas around what is socially acceptable at different times and different stages, we must both create and cultivate the courage to playfully begin again. This is a necessary time to explore, try new things, and share our unique gifts with the world. It is also important to examine how our creative light has been conveyed throughout our lives and to honor the evolutionary journey of our soul expression that requires us to start over at different stages and in different capacities. Only by being willing to engage in this exploration can we take up the offer of freedom this new moon offers and begin to discover our potential.
“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.”
Maya Angelou
Discovering Our Sovereignty
In Leo, we are learning to be rooted in a healthy sense of self, be true to who we are, and to share that with the world. We can stand in dignity and hold ourselves in regard, owning our sovereignty. This requires us to be strong enough in who we are that we shine our light regardless of other people’s opinions or responses.
When we are connected to a purpose greater than ourselves, we can align with the life force energy flowing through us.
We are provided an opportunity now to heal the part of us that seeks outside validation. If we can learn that what others think is of little consequence to our own path, then we can more easily tune into the insights of our soul. We may feel restless and push forward seeking quick results, but the process of personal transformation will take time.
To embody our sovereignty and take ownership for what we are creating in the world and how we can use our unique gifts to be of service, we must be willing to heal and grow in new ways.
This requires us to release our allegiance to people-pleasing and to strengthen our connection to our center. The more conscious awareness of ourselves that we have the more we learn that shining is the most natural thing we can do when we remember who we are. And by being rooted into this awareness, we can share our gifts with the world and be of greater service to the collective.
“Your true passion should feel like breathing; it’s that natural.”
Oprah Winfrey
This lunation invites us to embody our authentic expression of what it means to be a heart-led leader. We all have our unique wiring and gifts, and how that is expressed may be varied, but a multitude of approaches is necessary.
During this time of massive shifts in the collective and energetic upgrades, the world’s embodied heart-led leaders are needed more than ever to work in service of this transition.
The Invitation
This cosmic energy beckons us back to our hearts. We are being reminded of our true nature. We awaken to the places where we have been dimmed so that we can devote ourselves to reclaiming our light, exploring our creative essence, and opening to a new understanding of our creative capacity. This cycle encourages us to expand, take creative risks to begin again, and love fiercely.
We cultivate the courage to commit to ourselves in new ways that develop our unique gifts and align with our soul’s intention.
When we surrender to the divine will, it supports our center so that we might withstand the shifting and recalibrating collective energies, recognize our unique role as a heartfelt leader, and call in the light.
“Lead with your heart. The rest will follow.”
A.D. Posey