mercury enters leo for its first standoff with pluto in aquarius

your golden shadow would like a word and it's urgent.

“go into the arts. I'm not kidding. the arts are not a way to make a living. they are a very human way of making life more bearable. practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. sing in the shower.

dance to the radio. tell stories. write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. do it as well as you possibly can. you will get an enormous reward. you will have created something.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

the stars above us:

artist: Design By Ahad

ahhh, july. where i live this time of year is unbearably, sometimes fatally hot. there’s more sun than anyone knows what to do with and you can’t spend much time in it without access to shelter, cooling, and water close at hand. 

but the nights, THE NIGHTS.  most of the time i get to spend outdoors is moonlit; sheltering under luna’s cooling rays and basking in jasmine scented breezes (which smell much lovelier in the nighttime anyways). 

anyone who knows me well knows that i prefer to spend the majority of my summer nights hiking under the stars.  my loved ones aren’t always happy with these life choices because as we all know; there are things that go bump in the night and some of them are very real threats.

that is what this july reminds me of. the first opposition between the regal leo sun and pluto, the aquarian outcast prince of shadows? how utterly poetic. welcome to a whole month of midnight in the garden of good and evil. i probably shouldn’t be, but i am SO excited. mercury is the first to cross into the line of fire this year and there is MUCH to unpack. let’s do this.

pluto in aquarius vs EVERYTHING leo:

artist: Design by Ahad

historically pluto’s transits thru aquarius have coincided perfectly with bloody revolutions. both the french & american revolutions began the last time pluto moved thru aquarius from 1777-1798. the collective majority (of which the aquarian working class always are) became consumed with overthrowing or breaking away from cruel & corrupt monarchies (leo rules royalty) in favor of new “sovereign” hierarchies, for the people by the people.  but a hierarchy is still a hierarchy and as such, subject to corrosion + corruption, something the world will become all too aware of during this transit. 

on a personal level it’s a different story.  leo is the fixed home of the sun, the spotlight & the magnetism of warmth + radiance. leo placements are known to have a certain love of performance and the audience that requires. this is not something to demonize, imo, after all the light belongs only to those who can withstand it’s heat. the three decans of leo tell us the true story of the spotlight and what it costs. they also provide an apt metaphor for what it takes to seize any moment that shows up loaded with opportunity and without warning.

•  Leo I tells of the performance anxiety and dread that comes before the big performance; anxiety over abject failure vs the anxiety of surrendering to fear, not trying and having to live with the “what ifs” for the rest of your life. leo 1 tells us that this is a universal experience and rarely one that can be circumvented entirely. it’s also a good acid test for whether or not it’s worth the effort. do you care? does your heart?

• in Leo II we get to experience the glory + the fame that comes with a truly inspired performance. we are SEEN for our gifts and acknowledge warmly. this is the decan of Regulus, the lion hearted, with his reminder that only someone with the courage to take the risk in the first place will ever get to sit among the victors. SUCCESS.

• in Leo III, the golden reign meets revolution, the adoring audience begins to turn (metaphorically). you're not performing as well as you had been. the inspiration is drying up and the competition is getting stiffer. this is a mars ruled decan and it represents a fight, a last stand. it’s time to leave it all on the floor or bow out gracefully if you find your moment in the sun has run it’s course.

pluto’s pressure on leo rules feels a lot like the battle of leo’s third decan.  formidable external (or internal) opposition popping up when you try to share your light, the kind of mythological foes that start to make the shadows sound very, very tempting. 

unfortunately, the fear based suppression of gifts that are meant to be shared has consequences, a little something Jung referred to as “the golden shadow”.  the golden shadow is made up of the repressed talents, desires, abilities and charm that were never allowed to see the light of day.

the longer these suppressed gifts are left to fester and rot in the dark, the more vulnerable we become to their projection, only this time it’s the gilded version.  this manifests as anything from fascination to all out limerent obsession with someone expressing or living in the gifts the subconscious identifies with. the good news is, there is no placement more aligned with the heroic quest for self expression than mercury in leo. so if you recognize any of this within yourself (don’t we all?) then help is here.

artist: Design by Ahad

there are many astrologers who believe you cannot miss a moment that was meant for you but i am not one of them.  not to be all rationalist on main, but it can’t be proven and i think it’s infinitely wiser to live as if each if each big moment were unique and perishable, never to cross your path again (aka the truth).  if something is regularly blocking you from meeting the biggest moments your life brings to you, maybe pluto is the antihero you need? obliteration of longstanding creative blocks is not outside the realm of delineation here, but it’s still pluto. it gets heavier the longer you resist.  

on the other hand, the risks of outstaying your welcome in the current <revolutionary> astro are real and enduring. we’ve all suffered under the lash of the current “attention economy” for at least a decade and We The People are TIRED.  today most online services make you pay for the privilege of not being bombarded with useless ads every 4 minutes, a ransom that is being paid more frequently than ever. the collective wants curation control and nutrient dense offerings with some kind of depth to them. when did that become too much to ask for?

and what does this mean for anyone who legitimately needs (or wants) to interface with the public? authors seeking publication, artists seeking display, master craftsman that need to market their wares? how do we balance the needs of healthy self expression with the fragmented attention span of the collective expected to receive it? nothing is certain but here are some thoughts:

• shooters shoot. the purpose of putting your work out into the world should first and foremost be a selfish one, one that is required for wholeness of being. if you are called to create or offer something to the outside world there are consequences for refusing the assignment, and they can’t always be quickly undone. (see ominous golden shadow warning above.) whether you miss the shot or not isn’t the point, it never was.  

• service to the collective > stardom because fame for the sake of fame sounds downright treacherous at the moment. if you want to release it to the masses, it’s very important that your heart is in it, that you truly believe in its worth (even if no one else does). no one is guaranteed a warm reception but the intention + the authenticity you create from matters more than ever.

• you cannot truly serve a collective you can’t connect with. this is something the archetype of aquarius struggles with but archetypal leo is a master of. if you have the gift of relating right now, you are wealthier than you know. community is becoming more important than ever, and we all have a responsibility towards our own. be generous with praise for the works that have inspired you and share light with those you find worthy (your fellow lion hearts etc etc).

if you are interested in exploring your own stars around creativity, courage and expression, you can book with me here! this is one of my favorite uses of astrology and I honestly doubt I would ever have written a single forecast without the support and guidance of my birth chart. all the best works are guided by the stars, yours can be too :)

mercury will transit leo from 7/2/24 to 7/25/2024 with the added bonus of a retrograde (yay?) from 8/4/24 - 8/28/24 so you will have plenty of time to co-create with the genius within. all in all, mercury doesn’t leave leo until september 9th and then? it’s back to school with virgo season. so even with the presence of pluto, this truly is the fun part. enjoy your moment in the sun, they don’t last forever. and the spotlight looks so good on you!

with love from your biggest fan,

emilie