A few weeks ago, I found myself in a place I didn’t want to be, with people I didn’t want to be with, not enjoying what could have been the relaxing ambience of a short summer break. Instead, I was experiencing a visceral experience of revulsion to where I was, powerfully physical. I knew I couldn’t change any aspect of the situation even if I’d wanted to. It was a quandary: I didn’t want to be there, yet I couldn’t be anywhere else. As deep feelings of powerlessness emerged, I saw they were key to awakening an authentic response (rather than reaction) to the situation.
What did I discover as I quietly accepted the complexity of the external world, the relationships involved, and my inner realm? It was soon very clear – a reminder that these feelings had become rooted in me at age 11, in the experience of being at boarding school, hating every aspect of new life away from home. Of course, this kind of experience is not unusual, and I have embraced aspects of it before, emotionally. Yet this powerfully embodied revulsion was new. Unwittingly, I had put myself in exactly the perfect scenario to bring that into awareness. At age 11 I did not have the maturity or grounded expansive consciousness to process this fully, to embrace it with loving consciousness. Now I do. This personal experience demonstrates a key to healing for us all now.
In our current challenges (however they look individually) we are facing what we couldn’t embody before. What we weren’t big enough, strong enough, mature enough, to embrace fully & integrate. It’s a quandary: we are fully individual now and yet not. For growth of consciousness is a requirement of evolution.
In the zodiac, Leo is the sign where we constantly (and perhaps consciously) become more authentically individual. It is the sign where the developmental phases of maturing find grounding in ‘me’, before we venture as an individual into the external world of work, relationships, & the social sphere. As planets move through Leo with their different timings (the Moon once every 29.5 days, the Sun once per year and so on,) questions around ‘Who am I now? What am I drawn to express or create?’ emerge.
As you’re probably aware, individuality can be a conundrum in these times. We’re changing so fast, and so much is demanded of us, that it’s a challenge to find stability in our sense of self. And yet the purpose of these times, as I see it, is the potential of soulful individuality that consciously tributes to collective awakening in unique ways – not necessarily in what we do, but in who and how we are being. Thankfully, in the rhythmic universe, we are given quieter phases, more inwardly orientated, as well as dynamic challenges, to grow that. We are given gathering points.
The upcoming Leo New Moon rises at 20.11BST on Thursday 24 July, at 2 Leo. This brings focus to growing individuality, yet as always, individuality within the field of emerging new frequencies of consciousness.
This year the emerging rhythms are profoundly new, due to outer planets changing signs. Yet their apparent forward-backward-forward motion means these profoundly new frequencies don’t begin to express or integrate fully until Spring 2026. The Leo New Moon gives us a benchmark of emerging sovereignty within this process for its geometry is profound and rare. It introduces an alignment of the slow-moving planets – Wise Elder Saturn, Mystic Neptune in Aries, Awakener Uranus in Gemini, and Lord of the Underworld Pluto in Leo – that guides collective evolution to 2028. In that, exploring & honouring your unique contribution within our collective evolution is valuable. You may think your involvement is minimal, yet every tiny momentary movement of consciousness towards love, wellbeing & conscious living IS that!
The Leo Moon encourages you to claim your uniqueness with courage, to express what’s truly important to you. The next seven New Moons build on this, taking us to the Saturn-Neptune exact alignment at 0 Aries on 20 February 2026. Much more to come on that. We cannot yet know how that alignment will manifest, yet we can tune into the opening frequencies of it within. We can live the questions we have about what being divinely human means. Right now the answers lie within the mystery of our soulful dreams & vision, within the very nature of our longing for a new way of living here on our sacred Earth. Honour that in you; acknowledge the signs in non-mainstream news that reveal healthy change, talk about it with those you know will hear you, energise it in your inner world, meditations, prayers.
The shift of outer planets from Earth & Water to Air & Fire (Capricorn to Aquarius, Taurus to Gemini, Pisces to Aries) is guiding this evolutionary process. Outer planets move slowly so their initial foray into new territory inevitably shifts towards retrograde. That’s happening now.
Retrograde motion is a time of integration, the new frequencies and our old patterns of consciousness are weaving a new form of embodiment. This takes time, for although our consciousness as insight is often immediate, fully expressing or living from that insight is gradual. When planets change signs, initially we tend to respond or react in new ways without full awareness or grounding. We can tend to get ahead of ourselves in terms of dreams, inspiration, excitation, goals, direction. As in my story above, when new frequencies come in, we may not have the resources to fully digest our experiences as they unfold. Old storylines come up for conscious loving. Planetary retrogrades give us the reflection & integration space to process & embody, to learn to fully live these new vibrations. They’re a pause in the evolutionary process even as life might seem to be speeding up.
The outer planets movement into Air & Fire signs is not accomplished until Spring 2026. In the meantime, we are offered an assimilation space.
Key focus is as follows, with the added awareness of this Leo New Moon as a benchmark in emerging new individuality.
Saturn & Neptune in Aries: Moving Aries–Pisces-Aries now to February 2026
– Allowing stillness to reveal, clarify and shape what lies beneath the practical realities of your life
– What would I do, who would I be, if there was nothing to stop me?
– What clues are my longings, dreams & vision giving me about a new phase of being me?
Uranus in Gemini – Moving Gemini-Taurus-Gemini now to 27 April 2026
Uranus is conjunct Mother of the Sea Sedna at 1 Gemini (long-term)
– Recognising that you are weaving your life with light in the moment – always.
– Attuning your responses/reactions to unexpected changes, the daily little ones as well as the larger disruptions.
– Open to relate beyond your usual reactionary triggers & recognising them as the release of unnecessary tension with your system.
– Consciously navigating the dramatic shifts between deep-dark & light-bright aspects of experience, the play of frequencies vibrating in you & through your life.
– What does true freedom mean to you? What are you curious about? What are you called to learn?
Pluto in Aquarius – Pluto is fully in Aquarius now, retrograde until 14 October 2025
– Honouring your uniqueness – how both your traumatic & healthy experience has created that.
– Reflecting on what unique contribution to the collective your life experience has grown you for.
– A clue: What qualities do you bring to those around you, your tribe?
– In what aspects of your life might you be subtly resisting a necessary change in your self, or a new phase of your life’s journey?
Chiron in Aries – station retrograde at 27 Aries 30 July to 2 January 2026
Chiron is in ongoing conjunction with Disrupter Eris to March 2026 (more to come on this)
Eris in Aries – station retrograde at 24 Aries on 22 July to January 2026
– Uplifting your relationship to the unpredictability of change, chaos & insecurity.
– Recognising how you might self-sabotage in subtle ways?
– Awareness of what you feel most vulnerable about expressing. And to whom?
Warrior Mars conjunct the Moon’s South Node in Virgo: 17-25 July
– Uplifting your relationship to toxicity in your body-mind system & its sensitivities
– Going beyond the family/ancestral patterning with awareness & compassion
– Exploring your sacred relationship & necessary guardianship of nature & our Earth – this includes your body
Hawaiian Creation Goddess archetype Haumea at 1 Scorpio in square aspect to the New Moon
– Awareness of the constant cycles of death-rebirth and your capacity for renewal
– Embracing the synergy of dark-light that a human being is & uplifting your personal perspective on it.
– Your innate capacity to prevail against the odds by calling up inner resources you were unaware of
This Leo New Moon introduces a re-evaluation phase. With Messenger Mercury, planet of the mind & communication, also in Leo retrograde until 4 August, we’re called inward, to hone understanding, & revitalise the meaning of our lives from our mind-heart connectivity.
Retrograde Mercury amplifies the frequencies of the right-brain hemisphere, offering awareness we cannot find through logic or rationale. With the rare outer planetary configuration ongoing to 2028, the planetary rhythms are flowing towards more ease (sigh of relief anyone?). They are talking to each other in harmonious ways rather than being at odds energetically. Whatever your personal dilemma right now – the one aspect of self or life you can’t seem to fix – the key lies in being with it with more ease, with willingness – so you will come to naturally live the answers in right time.
July offers a turning point. It’s like slowing down to take a long slow loop in a winding road uphill. We can’t see the road ahead yet, so the remainder of 2025 is about feeling your way whilst relaxing into the process. It’s about consciously establishing a more enlightened world in your individual life, honouring, respecting, and protecting the sacredness in all life, including (especially) yourself. Then you are enriching your aspect of the web, whilst weaving a new way of being for us all. As Elias Lonsdale’s Star Destiny Degree for this Leo Moon states (in part): ‘I come forth with an original feeling for what Earth aliveness can really be.’
