Leo New Moon: July 28, 2022
Leo New Moon,
July 28, 2022
peaking at 1:55 P.M. EST
happening at 5°39’ Leo
click links above for timezone converter & to check the placement in your chart
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This moon is like a bomb.
A pomegranate bomb.
Over the last two weeks, I’ve been flooded with magical moments - rapid fire intuitive downloads -as if some great force has been compelling me to see one asteroid and then another and another and another - all coalescing now - and when I wondered what all these asteroids meant, I just heard:
This moon is like a bomb.
A pomegranate bomb.
I see it in my mind: all the asteroids aligning in the sky, meeting the sun around the same point in Leo. And then I imagine the moon on July 28th. I imagine it approaching the same place, preparing to join the sun and all the asteroids, and then I imagine the moment when the moon arrives - the very moment of the new moon at 1:55 PM EST - and I see in my mind: an explosion of light. A pomegranate bursting open - red seeds flying out, dispersing themselves all over the earth.
I search the words “pomegranate bomb.” And when I do, I learn that in France, pomegranates are called grenades, that the weapon “grenade” was actually named after the fruit.
Pomegranates are known to explode into many pieces if opened too quickly and with too little care, and if pomegranate trees absorb too much water, the fruit will split. Once that happens, if you wait too long to pick it, the pomegranate will fall to the ground, exploding its many seeds all over the earth.
What’s exploding now? What’s rupturing?
A fission, a split. A great divide?
Revealing many, many seeds.
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The taxonomic name for pomegranate is Punica granatum. This translates to mean many-seeded apple, and as one of the first domesticated fruits, the pomegranate’s history is rich.
Its symbolism and seeds have spread from one culture to the next for thousands of years.*
In Ancient Egypt, pomegranates were a symbol of prosperity that aided people into the afterlife.
In Buddhism, the pomegranate is considered one of three blessed fruits.
In Hinduism, it represents fertility and abundance.
In Islam, it is said that every pomegranate seed comes from paradise.
In Christianity, pomegranates - specifically exploding pomegranates - are a symbol of Jesus' suffering and resurrection.
During the Han Dynasty, images of exploding pomegranates were hung in families’ homes - to bless them with many children.
And in Judaism, the pomegranate is a symbol of fruitfulness. It’s associated with the mystical tradition of entering “the garden of pomegranates,” and many scholars believe that the fruit eaten in the Garden of Eden wasn’t an apple but a many-seeded apple: a pomegranate.
Before sitting to write this note, I knew about pomegranates. I’d eaten their seeds and drank their juice. I even knew that in some cultures they were considered symbols of abundance. I also knew that many people think a pomegranate is what Eve ate in the Garden, and lastly, I knew the myth from Ancient Greece. The story of Persephone and how she ate a handful of pomegranate seeds, thus condemning herself to spend a portion of every year in Hades as Queen of the Underworld. I knew all these things, but I’d never heard of a pomegranate bomb. I’d never heard about the ways the fruit explodes, and I knew nothing about how the specific image of a pomegranate bursting open held special meaning both in Christianity and during the Han Dynasty, which happened to reign during the period when a person named Jesus actually did live and die.
And as I look over the list of all the meanings in all the cultures, what strikes me most is this: the incredible similarities and the division.
Yes, the pomegranate is pretty consistently considered a fortunate symbol of abundance, but in these stories, there’s also a shared foundational story. A story about abundance existing - somewhere - and of that abundance being stripped away.
In Egypt, you have the pomegranate aiding people into a prosperous afterlife. But behind the notion of a prosperous afterlife is the idea that the opposite exists, that without the pomegranate something less than abundance awaits.
I think now of Persephone, who - like Eve - ate the pomegranate. She ate the pomegranate, and this forced her into the underworld. But not only did it force her into the depths of darkness, but it forced everyone on Earth to also endure an infertile period. In her grief, Persephone’s mother - Demeter/Ceres - stopped the earth from fruiting, the flowers from blooming, the grain from growing. She made everyone wait for Persephone’s return, and only then, did the earth become a blooming garden again.
In Christianity, the pomegranate bursting forth represents not just one side or the other. It isn’t just the underworld and the paradise. It is both. Like in the stories above, it helps you into a prosperous afterlife (i.e. Heaven), and it’ll send you to Hell. It’s Jesus’ suffering and his resurrection.
It is both.
It is both.
And as the pomegranate explodes with this new moon, that is what we see: Heaven and Hell.
A great, great divide.
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The new moon arrives at 1:55 PM EST on July 28th. At this time, the sun and moon will meet in the sky at 5°39’ Leo. Revolving at the same point are the asteroids: Pythia, Midas, Isis, Ceres, and Porta Coeli.
Pythia was named after the great oracle - the high priestess - at the Temple of Delphi.
Midas was named after the king who turned everything gold (which turns out…was a blessing and a curse).
Isis was named after the Egyptian goddess who possessed the most powerful magic.
Ceres was Persephone’s mom who ruled the harvest.
And Porta Coeli…well, it means “gateway to heaven.”
All these asteroids are woven into this new moon, and they tell the story of a gateway opening, a harvest coming, and magical powers turning everything to gold.
This new moon is initiating a powerful time for the return of magic to Earth, and it marks a turning point in the karmic story of The Great Divide.
This initiates a prosperity that grows over the next six months, leading to the Leo full moon on February 5, 2023.
And it’s actually the increasing presence of this heavenly, magical experience on Earth that increases our awareness of all that lives in opposition. We see Heaven and Hell because we can see the division. If all experiences were just one or the other, would we even have a word for that which is different?
We’re returning to the garden now, restoring hope, but for some, this is a time of downfall.
The asteroids Rosa, Jubilatrix, Lilith, Elpis, and Atë are all conjunct Venus. It’s like our relationships and all aspects of relating - relating to each other, relating to the world, relating to money - are balancing on a fulcrum. On one side is the blooming rose, the jubilation, the wild woman, the Spirit of Hope (Elpis was the Spirit of Hope in Ancient Greece), and on the other side is the heavy weight - but lesser weight - of Atë, the goddess of mischief and delusion who led men to their ruin. You may find yourself tilting in one direction or the other, or perhaps you simply observe this happening to the people around you while you rest in the center, allowing the manifestations of heaven and hell to swirl around you without becoming too attached to any of it.
But this isn’t really the time for that. Buddhist notions of non-attachment have their purpose. They can help free you from internal narratives and external experiences of suffering so you can see past the suffering and experience greater inner peace. Often, when meditating, you’re working towards this peaceful center point, you’re trying not to get hooked into one story or another, but instead, to simply observe the stories, but what I’m seeing now is that the big opening to heavenly, magical experience that occurs with this new moon is basically like a train moving by. Its doors are open, and allowing yourself to get “hooked in” to the joy, the ecstasy, and the excitement of this moment is basically your way of jumping onto the train so you can keep riding it.
When you take non-attachment too far and keep yourself from fully feeling your experiences, then opportunities can pass you by, and this new moon offers us all a tremendous opportunity to HOP ON BOARD THE PEACE TRAIN.
So with any “good” that arises with this new moon, feel into it. If something exciting happens, be excited! Don’t talk yourself into staying cool and tempering your expectations and preparing for the worst. Feel the joy! Be grateful! Expect THE BEST!
Better than best.
Better than you could ever imagine.
Some prosperous, magical earthly future that’s nearly as unfathomable as Heaven itself.
This doesn’t mean you should fake happy feelings during this new moon. This is simply an invitation to let yourself be filled with the spirit of hope, let yourself be wild, trust your intuition, trust that a great harvest is coming and a gate is opening and that right now, you have a Midas touch that turns everything to gold but unlike in the fable, it’s not about physical bars of gold. It’s about THE GOLD YOU SEE IN EVERYTHING when you trust this life so much that you trust yourself and you trust your experiences and you trust the entire world to move together to form something beautiful for you and also ultimately hopefully for everyone else.
This is a healing time for everyone.
Somehow, even with all the difference and division, this time is helping to heal the garden that is Earth.
The asteroid Chiron is conjunct the asteroids Thalia and Gaea. Thalia comes from the Ancient Greek meaning “to flourish, to be verdant,” and Gaea is the goddess of the earth. This is not about the time when the earth is growing brown and cold. This is about the time Persephone spends on the green, green surface, and here, in the fertile soil, we reap great rewards.
These rewards are KARMIC.
This new moon marks the third and final conjunction of the asteroid Karma and the karmic south node of the moon. I wrote about this in full here and here, but in short, this karmic cycle has been working to propel you past your past. To propel us all past our past and towards a bright new future.
And as if Thalia and Elpis and Midas and Ceres and Porta Coeli weren’t enough to point to this new moon creating incredible opportunities for material and spiritual blessings, Mercury is conjunct the asteroids Demeter (Greek variant of Ceres, goddess of the harvest) and the asteroid Pomona (named after the goddess of fruitful abundance)!
Fruitful abundance.
Fruitful abundance.
Fruitful abundance.
The pomegranate bomb that is this moon helps us see both Heaven and Hell. The pomegranate exposes this division because it’s only through this division that we can truly appreciate the magic of miracles. If it was all miracles all the time, then they wouldn’t be miracles. They’d just be life.
Persephone appreciates her time on the green earth even more because of her time navigating the darkness of the underworld.
And Eve? She had no idea she was in a heavenly garden until she learned all the ways she could judge herself unworthy of such a place.
And maybe the afterlife isn’t just about physical death. Maybe it’s about all the moments of death and birth we experience in just a single lifetime. All the ways we change and grow, leaving our past behind us and moving forward into a new life - an after life - and maybe the pomegranate - its symbolism and its stories - can help us through.
Heck, maybe even the literal physical fruit can help. Maybe every seed really is from paradise. Maybe we should all go out and eat one. Maybe when we do, we’ll see that the place where that fruit grew is paradise indeed.
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This new moon initiates a powerful time for psychic experiences and receiving communications (spiritual and earthly) that deliver great rewards! Expect miracles.
Some may feel instant, like they’re appearing overnight, or you may simply receive news that something big is coming.
It’s coming in the fall, with the harvest, with the eclipses, when Jupiter turns direct. On the very day of this new moon, Jupiter - the planet of abundance - goes retrograde. And it’s about now that I feel like we’re just being hit over the head with the message: ABUNDANCE! It’s coming, and the Jupiter retrograde doesn’t mean that the abundance you experience now is stunted, false, or temporary. It simply means that it’s part of a cycle.
Like Persephone’s story and the very real experience of the seasons themselves, we have ebbs and flows. And right now, ABUNDANCE IS FLOWING. Even if it seems challenged, it is flowing.
Don’t let traditional ideas about “retrograde” fool you. Instead, stay curious about what you’re actually experiencing. How will all the messages in this note show up for you? What will they spark in you?
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Reflect back to July 19th. What happened for you that day? Did anything memorable arise? An idea, a conversation, an intuitive ping? Anything? On that day, the sun was perfectly conjunct Porta Coeli. What happened then was winking towards the abundance of this new moon time.
The new moon time lasts from July 28 - August 10th. It’s leading us to the Aquarius full moon on the 11th and the Leo full moon in February. All those pomegranate seeds that are dispersed now - all across the earth - will continue to flourish and bloom.
Pay special attention to the period around July 31st and August 1st. On these days, the destiny point conjuncts Uranus and Mars. Uranus was named after the God of the Sky, the personification of Heaven itself, and as a planet, Uranus represents independence and rebellion. Mars was named after the god of war, and as a planet, Mars rules how we do things. And as I think about this, I just hear The Beatles song, “Revolution.”
You say you want a revolution
Well…
We all want to change the world
And while I’ve noted the dates - July 31st and August 1st - this conjunction really marks this entire new moon period from July 28 - August 10th, and it sets the stage for the next six months…
The world is changing.
And this brings me back to the karmic cycle with the asteroid Karma conjuncting the south node of the moon, helping us leave our past in the past. And it makes me wonder…what was happening on the first two conjunctions (not just for me and you personally) but for the world?
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A Karmic Cycle of Grain
The asteroid Karma is conjuncting the south node of the moon for the third and final time with this new moon.
The first conjunction: February 9, 2022
The second conjunction: June 3, 2022
The third conjunction: July 28, 2022
On and around those days, many things happened, so when reflecting on the world, I decided to keep it simple. I just searched “world events” on the date in February and the date in June, and here was the top story that came up for each day:
February 9, 2022: Putin denied rumors that he had agreed to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine during a meeting with the French President. (Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th.)
June 3, 2022: This was the 100th day in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
July 28, 2022: What will happen now?
Essentially, the first conjunction marked the start of the war. That conjunction fell during the Aquarius new moon time that led to the Leo full moon time…which was when Russia invaded.
The second conjunction just happened to exactly mark the 100th day of the war.
And now, the third conjunction is happening during the new moon time that is leading to the Aquarius full moon (which connects back to the first conjunction). This is all to say that I think something major will happen with the war during this coming moon cycle (the cycle that begins on July 28th and goes through August 26th). And in the spirit of hope - and resisting every desire to hedge my expectations and yours - I will wish for peace.
I close my computer…I go to sleep. I think this story is done, but then…I wake in the morning, and a message arrives: TURKEY.
Here we go:
In the middle of July, I was intuitively guided to asteroid #59, the asteroid Elpis, the Spirit of Hope. In researching Elpis, I learned that at the end of January (six months ago), there was a massive blizzard that hit Turkey, Greece, and Jerusalem. The storm was named Elpis. When I saw this, it felt important. I emailed myself the information so I wouldn’t forget to include it in this note, but then, it stopped feeling so important, and I didn’t bother including it.
Then, the morning after I finished writing this note, I woke to a text message from a friend. It was a picture of a postcard she received from Turkey, except it wasn’t for her. It was delivered to her by mistake, but the postcard was full of numerical synchronicities, so she sent me a pic. What she didn’t know is that I’d just been reading about Turkey.
When I first woke up - before checking my texts or anything - I decided to check the news to see if there was maybe a hint of what’s to come with this third karmic conjunction. That’s when I read about Turkey and how Turkey is helping Russia and Ukraine resume grain exports through the Black Sea - exports that have been halted by the war, creating a global food crisis that’s causing some 47 million people to experience acute hunger. When I read about the shipments, I thought again about the storm Elpis. The Spirit of Hope that caused a rare transfer of energy over the Black Sea that formed a cyclonic vortex over Istanbul, covering Turkey in snow.
So here I was thinking about Turkey, the Black Sea, and snow storms when I opened my texts and saw TURKEY.
Curious, I decided to read more about the exports. That’s when I learned that the grain shipments first stopped when Russia invaded on February 24th…shortly after the first conjunction. Then, an initial deal between Russia and Turkey to resume grain exports was reached on June 6th…just three days after the second karmic conjunction. And now, right before the third conjunction, there’s a new deal to get the shipments moving. The U.N. has called the deal “a beacon of hope,” but two days after the deal was struck, literal bombs hit one of the Ukrainian ports. That in combination with insurance woes has people wondering whether the deal will go through, and I just keep thinking of the start of this note…a bomb, followed by seeds spreading everywhere.
A hopeful prediction for this cycle:
1st conjunction: the halting of grain
2nd conjunction: an ultimately failed attempt to get the grain moving
3rd conjunction: the grain will flow
And just now…I’m realizing this is all about grain. Literal grain, fields of wheat.
Ceres/Demeter was the goddess of grain/the harvest, and this new moon conjuncts Ceres while Mercury conjuncts Demeter! If the shipments do finally resume during this new moon time, then there will literally be a dispersing seeds/grain across the earth.
A harvest for all the world. Helping to heal the earth, making it again feel like a flourishing garden. What I wrote at the very beginning of this note:
“All these asteroids…tell the story of a gateway opening, a harvest coming, and magical powers turning everything to gold.”
A military blockade has been stopping the flow of the harvest - 20 million tons of grain - but with this new moon, it opens, it opens.
And I’m sitting here in a bit of awe/laughter at just how literal the messages are, and I think about how last week, I just kept hearing in my head and singing the song “Fields of Gold” again and again, and as I’m looking now at these pictures of wheat fields in Ukraine…all I can think are…these are fields of gold.
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I invite you now to reflect on the three major dates of the karmic cycle for yourself. What came up for you during the following time periods?
The first conjunction: February 4-13, 2022
The second conjunction: May 31 - June 9, 2022
Now, watch what happens in your life. Watch how it connects to what happened then. Feel how it helps propel you - fully propel you - past your past.
For I promise, in the days to come, we will walk in fields of gold.
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Long story short:
This new moon bursts forth like a pomegranate splitting open, blasting seeds all over the earth. The pomegranate has long been a symbol of abundance, and that’s the overarching message for this moon. Again and again and again with nearly every astrological aspect: ABUNDANCE. Of course, in our awareness of this great abundance - the only way to have this awareness - we are also acutely aware of its opposite. We see the places and ways abundance is not experienced. But we don’t let ourselves get sucked into that sorrow. Instead, we open our hearts to the great joy and gratitude of ABUNDANCE. We allow this rapture to propel us towards even greater abundance. We trust in the fine-tuned machinations of the universe of which we are only partly aware, and we let bliss seep down into our bodies, propelling us past our past and into a great new future. We watch the grain flow to all the world. We trust, we trust, we trust. And we hope. We are filled now with the Spirit of Hope.
And here, a little soundtrack for this new moon. All the songs that came through in this note:
