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This week holds the space for change. As the lunar nodes initiate a new 18-month chapter of evolution, the Moon begins a new cycle in the waters of Cancer. And as Venus begins her six-week retrograde, the Sun moves forward into Leo.
New Moon in Cancer
The Moon, in astrology, speaks to our intuition. Something that comes from our inner reserves rather than outside of us. An internal compass guiding our every direction. A knowing from deep within our bodies. Our heart that speaks to us. Our gut that advises us.
Cancer, as a zodiac sign, draws us into our emotional experience so that we may hear, feel, receive and be with it. Cancer then allows our awareness to translate into the changes that our emotions, and the cosmos, are guiding us to explore.
The Moon is at home in Cancer. There is a natural receptivity and harmony between the Moon and Cancer, and this sense of being nurtured and supported is reflected in the invitations of this week’s new Moon on July 17, 2023.
When the Moon begins anew in the watery sign of Cancer, it invites us to dream and move, feel and heal, crack open and replenish, and reflect and close so that we may step forward.
There are other planetary influences shaping this new Moon’s invitations and offerings, including Pluto, which invites deep inner journeying into our shadows and asks us to pour love into the spaces that desperately yearn for it. And Neptune, which offers access to the vastness of spirit, the all-encompassing energy of love. And Uranus, which reflects an inner readiness for change and supports us with a boost of inspiration, innovation, and restlessness in anticipation for something new.
Lunar Nodes Enter Aries and Libra
Under this week’s new Moon, a sacred transition takes place. Closing an 18-month cycle and beginning of a new one, the lunar nodes alter their placement on July 17, 2023. The north and south nodes—representing purpose, soul growth, destiny, and collective evolution—will leave Taurus and Scorpio, where they have been since January 2022, and enter Aries and Libra, where they will remain until January 2025.
Representing the collective direction of evolution and purpose, the shift in the lunar nodes invite us to explore new themes of consciousness, healing, and growth potential. As the north node journeys through Aries, we each step into a new phase of independence, courage, desire, and selfhood as we shed themes of unhealthy passivity, pleasing, and fears and beliefs that we are not whole and capable.
Venus Retrograde
In ancient astrology, it was seen that as a planet entered retrograde it was descending into the underworld, or the unconscious, so that we may reunite with lost pieces of ourselves. Beginning July 22, 2023, Venus descends into her retrograde in Leo.
Venus is the aspect of ourselves concerned with love, intimacy, partnership, connection, beauty, and desire. Venus represents pleasure, art, and romance. It is the value and worth we place on ourselves, and on others. And while in retrograde, these are the themes that are highlighted in our lives, asking to be reviewed, witnessed, reframed, visited, and healed, renewed.
During these six weeks of Venus retrograde, we are invited to journey into the depths of our heart, as ruled by Leo, to witness all the spaces within us that have felt loved and unloved, nurtured and neglected. We are being asked to hold the space for a judgement-free exploration of our needs and if they are being met, whether within partnership, intimacy, the way we value ourselves, or how another values us.
This time invites a reflection of our relationship with money and earnings, the worth we place on our skills and creativity, how we appreciate art and beauty, and the ways in which we feel secure enough in ourselves, or not, to express who we are.
Sun Enters Leo
The same day Venus begins her retrograde, the Sun moves into the same sign, initiating Leo season. As the Sun transits through the constellations, it brings alive in each of us the essence of whatever sign influences it. It asks us to become, in our own ways, the sign in question. Leaving the deep inner waters of Cancer to join Venus in the fires of Leo, the Sun compels our expression and motivation to move from inward to outward.
Just as the new Moon this week sits in its home sign of Cancer, the Sun enters its home sign. Ruled by the Sun and like the Sun, Leo is here to shine, to express, and to bring warmth and love and vitality. It is a zodiac representing your unique personal identity, burning from within. It requires only that we journey toward becoming fully and wholly ourselves by becoming our passions, expressing boldly, and loving fully.
Your Invitation
There seems to be two distinct chapters to this beautiful week ahead. As the new Moon starts her cycle and the lunar nodes shift into their new domain, it is time to accept the support being offered so you can be drawn more into your body. So you can feel the nodal shift taking place within you. So you can curiously explore the inner Aries that lives within you. So you may know how it desires to emerge in this new chapter.
Aries is independence, fire, inspiration, action, intrinsic desire and directional purpose, courage, and fierce determination. What is your relationship with these themes? What do they feel like in your body? What emotions do they invoke? And how can you support the growth of these energies from within your emotional body, comforting, nurturing, and supporting yourself as you initiate this part of your journey?
As Venus in her retrograde connects with the Sun under the shared sign of Leo, there is an element of self-awareness coming to the surface. Having the Sun shining in the same sign as the planet of love retracing her steps may bring a quieter expression of Leo season than usual, a more internal one. Yet it will also act as a messenger for the underworld journey of Venus and all that is ready to reach our awareness.
This Leo season and Venus retrograde whisper insights of past experiences with relationships, money, and self-expression and how they may continue to create current dynamics in your life. What wounds or experiences from the past are influencing your present? What patterns and narratives around love, intimacy, worthiness, or beauty are you ready to bring love to, heal, and rewrite?
There is much reflection taking place this week and beyond. The invitation is presence and spaciousness so what all that is for you may be revealed.
Learn more about the influence of astrology in your life, including astrological events the Moon cycles, your Sun and Moon and rising signs, how journaling can help you connect with the current influences, and more with Jordane Maree at Girl and her Moon.
About Our Contributor
Jordane Maree is the founder of Girl and Her Moon, a platform and community exploring Soul through the lens of astrology, tarot, and energy healing. She is a writer, intuitive astrologer, energy and soul guide, and host of Girl and Her Moon, The Podcast. She is inspired, every single day, to be the mirror for you to see all that you truly are, you in all your infinite abilities, in total expansion, in infinite opportunity and love.
