leo new moon
sunday, august 4th, 2024, 04:13 PST
what is me?
experiencing the body as boundary
experiencing the internal sky
as boundary of self
interoception
this perception of internal ecosystems
registering as
that feeling in the gut
that taste in the mouth
do i have hunger/thirst
am i experiencing pain?
these internal check-ins
contrast the external world
drawing my attention away
rather than drawing self in
what arouses sensation in me?
that balance between what’s outside and what’s in
what is the eclipsed space between self and everything else?
what if your vibration’s emissions
your self-regulation
gave permission?
permission to be
permission to experience
to slow down
to check in with self
before worrying about everybody/everything else?
who put you in charge of everything?
who made you the boss of everything?
As we learn to rule our lives
to be sovereign over our beings
we have to remember that no one has
control over you
but you
(easier said)
and in turn
you do not have control over anyone else
(ya dig?)
learning relationship
means getting honest
about what is yours
and what is not
learning relationship
means
sitting in the space between
illusion and awareness
desire and activity
and constantly updating your real-life feed
what new information
what new want
what new ambition
what new variable
what new hindrance
what new newness
and then adjusting.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
VENMO @laurenkhickman PayPal or apple pay l.k.hickman@gmail.com
or DRaGON DāNa
Jenn Zahrt of CAELi in Seattle, Washington — THE collection of astrological texts with over 5,000 editions for members and guests to peruse — invited me on to the WITHIN ORB podcast. Our 38-minute chat will be available on MONDAY, AUGUST 5th for listening and, apparently, a YouTube video. This was fun. Jenn is awesome and the legacy of CAELi is crucial to keeping texts alive.
It’s back for a HOT window of time (August, Leo season, fire sign, wink wink, nudge nudge, know what I mean).
VIRTUAL ASTROLOGY POP UP with 30 minutes for a $40 special rate (normally $65) to check-in.
Lion’s Gate is a time of alignment, manifestation, and reconnection with the heart. If you need some space, some witnessing, and astrological insights into current transits and energies impacting your natal chart, join me for a short session or double up and book two back-to-back for the special rate.
This is an opportunity for an introductory session with me if you have been hesitating to connect. I don’t bite. I mean, I can’t, I’m literally 3,000 miles away from a lot of you. AUGUST 7th, 8th, 9th. Interoception is the collection of senses providing information to the organism about the internal state of the body. This can be both conscious and subconscious. It encompasses the brain's process of integrating signals relayed from the body into specific subregions—like the brainstem, thalamus, insula, somatosensory, and anterior cingulate cortex—allowing for a nuanced representation of the physiological state of the body. This is important for maintaining homeostatic conditions. In the body and, potentially, facilitating self-awareness.
sourced from Wikipedia
the “breaking-the-astrology-down” section
For some reason, this lunation chart wasn’t speaking to me, and that happens sometimes.
It wasn’t until I noticed the Yod configuration between Venus, Pluto, and Neptune.
Yod is fun to say. Say it out loud. No one cares.
It’s good.
Yod.
Yod = “finger of g*d” = destiny = opportunity
When we see Yod’s in a natal chart there is certainly an indicator of purpose (we can have many) and for some, it is the tail that wags the dog in their makeup.
A Yod consists of a sextile and two inconjunct (150’) aspects, creating an isosceles triangle. On the New Moon in Leo, it is Venus in the last degree of Leo that stands at the focal point.
Venus is a relational planet. Relationships have been the focal point of the lunar nodal cycle. In its axis of Aries and Libra between July of 2023 and January of 2025, we’ve been aware that relationships of all varieties are in flux. New information is being revealed about ourselves and our attachment patterns. The relationships that blur our sense of self are coming into focus and we are offered the opportunity to get very clear about who we are what we want and what relationships are preventing us (or what perceptions WITHIN our relationships) are hindering our growth.
Venus’s connection with Uranus by square on Friday, August 2nd could offer a new sense of space, freedom, or much-needed perspective on what is best for us or what may be gluing us to the focal point of other and away from self. Venus in Leo knows how to honor the self and that is welcomed energy in this lunation with the New Moon’s connection with the lunar nodes.
So.
Venus in inconjunct contact with Pluto teaches us about alllllll the Pluto things in relationships: control. obsession. power struggles. fixation. secrecy… did I mention control?
Venus’s inconjunct with Neptune (humming a LOUD vibration in the final degree of Pisces) has that keen tendency to reveal where we are putting others on a pedestal, having a dreamy fantasy life connection with others, casting or projecting personhood onto another, storytelling, and generally
being disconnected from the self through blending with the concept of the other.
Now, you are talking with a Venus in Pisces over here and limerance is an ol’ favorite pastime of mine. There is ZERO judgment on my part of our romantic fixations on others as aptly spoon-fed to us culturally through media and demonstrations of relationships.
Venus-Uranus connections tend to want to BREAK FREE from concepts of ownership, values, beliefs and delusions about our entitlement to another person or another person’s entitlement to us, our bodies, our time, our being. How we got into this place of romantic delusion is a tale best told in another format, but here we are. In pain because of relational formatting and simultaneously despairing because we long for the formatting to give us a sense of structure, power, and purpose.
If none of this is resonating for you, please teach me your ways. Unlearning gender roles, relational beliefs, societal structures of behavior as well as roles as well as “stature” (sociology books cover this at length in human development and lifespan — marriage is equated with elevation of social status).
The fact of the matter is that in (hetero) relationships typically cis-male partners will benefit (health, longevity, happiness) from being married and cis-female spouses will only benefit from marriage if theirs is a happy relationship. When I read this in my textbooks it did not surprise me yet we are perpetually in a state of romanticizing and elevating romantic partnerships while other relationships — potentially as impactful— fall into the “to-do” box because we get so wrapped up in that tension that is our primary partnership.
If Leo is anything when in balance, it is generous. It is generous with time and attention; it is generous with friendships, connections, with relationships of all variety. That generosity is known to loop back around — by offering our resources (illustrated in the fecundity of the Summer season, lush gardens, and lots of tomatoes, use your imagination here) so that we can have the favor returned when it comes to winter.
By queering our relationships, by decentralizing romantic partnership as the pillar of all our supports and needs, we de-stabilize archaic systems of the nuclear household and the lie of self-efficiency and independence.
We are social beings, we rely on each other, and the focus on mutual aid and community care is central to our well-being.
By queering, I mean STOP DOING IT THE WAY THAT’S BEEN TOXICALLY DEMONSTRATED BECAUSE it's NOT WORKING (hunched over, heavy breathing, steps off soapbox).
We need one another, and by focusing all our attention on one prized plant*, the rest of the garden suffers.
*prized plant = central romantic relationship or concept of centralized romantic relationship.
Jupiter in Gemini knows about the importance of networking. With Mars coming into conjunction with Jupiter on the 14th of August in the sign of the mycelium network, there will be a lot of energy and focus on recharging our network and connections.
This lunation requires an inward gaze into what the self needs, what the heart needs, and what your body needs. The planetary poetry above eluded to this idea of interoception and that by listening to our body, by truly checking in with how it FEELS when we ask ourselves a question about desire, about choices — we know how we feel.
AND THAT CAN CHANGE. OUR FEELINGS CHANGE.
A HELL NO on one day can be an um…MAYBE the next.
And the same goes for other people. Cut yourself and others some slack.
Just because the plans aren’t going your way doesn’t mean that the sky is falling.
It’s just reassembling itself in the constant chaotic dance of the universe.
AUGUST ASTROLOGY
Aug. 4 – Mercury stations retrograde (4° Virgo)
Aug. 14 – Mars conjunct Jupiter (and parallel)
Aug. 14-21 – T-square Venus-Mars+Jupiter-Saturn
Aug. 15 – Mars square Saturn
Aug. 18 – Mercury square Uranus
Aug. 18 – Mercury cazimi conjunct Sun
Aug. 18 – Venus square Jupiter
Aug. 19 – Venus opposite Saturn
Aug. 19 – Jupiter square Saturn
Aug. 19 – T-square Sun+Mercury-Uranus-Moon
Aug. 22 – Venus square Mars
Aug. 27 – Venus trine Uranus
Aug. 28 – Venus opposite Neptune
Aug. 28 – Mercury stations direct (21° Leo)
Aug. 29 – Venus trine Pluto
Ingresses
Aug. 4 – Venus enters Virgo
Aug. 14 – Mercury retrogrades back into Leo
Aug. 29 – Venus enters Libra
If you would like to learn more about how this lunation or the current transits impacting you personally…
Schedule the Mirror astrological consult
It became apparent during my interview with Richard Wisniewski aka The Star Whisperer for AstroStar that I needed to get back to teaching. This $11, 1-hour talk is happening next Sunday, August 11th at 11 am Pacific / 1 pm Central/2 pm EST to give a brief download on the concept of GLAMOUR. Glamour feels pressing as these Neptune in Pisces years come to a close and I’m interested in integrating what has been learned in this time. What is Glamour, Maya, and Illusion? How do these misperceptions impact our spiritual development? Join me for a brief hang on Zoom where I’ll present a little ditty on the topic of Glamour and share some of my (funny/horror) stories about how it’s shaped a path to better self-awareness.
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NOTES FROM THIS ONE…
Hey Care Bear,
if you’ve made it this far — you are one of my greatest cheerleaders, and I appreciate that.
Everyone needs a cheerleader and I think early on I identified as a “Spiritual Cheerleader” and I think I still do. I still want you to be happy, healthy, and free, but I am also a Coach because I will call you out on your stuff and help you laugh about all the stupid life things along the way.
Leo season is truly about uplifting and elevating those you love around you. Leo season is about getting back in your body and playing after all that emotional upheaval in Cancer season.
Leo season is about sharing the goods.
I am playing as much as humanly possible at the moment amid a lot of transition. The plan (which is ever-evolving) is to depart Baja on August 15th.
I would be lying if I didn’t admit to a tremendous amount of grief in that reality.
It took me a long time to get comfortable here. I wish I could say that I had the resilience of my nineteen-year-old self navigating Europe on my own as a student abroad (omg what?) but I am an adult and I have been in my body a lot longer and I am more aware of my sensory needs and more self-aware regarding my privilege and my occupying of space [insert long rant about the colonial descendant’s dilemma and not knowing where I belong]. I spent a month, 4 hours a day studying Spanish and I need more. LOTS more exposure and opportunity. Just as I am getting confident (Leo stuff, see what I did there) finding my community and connection with the space, and grabbing my bearings on what is possible for a Bear in Baja (trademark pending) I am about to leave.
And yes. It is time.
I’ve grown dramatically and there is a deep desire to continue my relationship with this space, but to understand that, I gotta go. I gotta go finish up projects and determine some logistics for what I’ve been building. Baja has not been an escape but a deepening in my relationships with myself and with my family and what that means to me.
I’ve confronted a lot here. The world is my mirror, and the desert offers fewer distractions and more space to comprehend with clarity.
I’m not ready to post dates for all the classes and places I will be heading, but some of you know the logistics. Portland in 3rd week of August, Minneapolis in early September, The Driftless for a good chunk leading up to the Equinox and back to Milwaukee for a stint, Charleston for a hot second to see my favorite MEDIUM BUILD, and some of my besties.
October and beyond is a fuzzy horizon line— but there will be Des Moines and Midwest residencies and I am hoping to teach as many places as possible while I’m figuring out the next steps on the path for me.
I’ll be reaching out to my places and spaces and if you have ideas for me, if you want to host me, if you want to be a destination, ya gotta let me know. I am ready to teach and touch (consensually, Reiki we are talking about here) and see all you beautiful souls.
————————————
Okay, so true story, big surprise — Dragon has been sick (again). I think a lot of you who follow me on the i-gram know that in June he was fighting off an infection and we’ve had so much blood work that his vet here didn’t mind giving me a vial of dragon’s blood (because duh) and we had a PCR test (sent to Cabo) this week that revealed, ta-da, he doesn’t have any specific bacteria that he’s fighting.
[pause for dramatic effect]
His body is fighting itself.
My beloved Dragon dog has an auto-immune situation. Which, tbh, explains a lot.
If you’ve considered making a teaching offering or donation, now would be an appreciated time. Book a session or consider joining up with the Lunation offering which is a monthly astrological/coaching/energetic check-in. The description of my service offerings is on my website, and you can always, always schedule a fifteen-minute complimentary consult where I can answer all the questions.
They don’t call me Dr. Bronner’s all-in-one soap for nothing.
I mean, no one actually calls me that, but it pretty much sums up how I do.
And to all of my long-term clients, students, colleagues, and supporters I’ve had the honor of building relationships with, THANK YOU. Thank you for your texts, your emails, your messages. It’s all fuel for the fire.
stay inspired.
ursidae
