Friday, Aug. 5, 2005 The Leo New Moon was overnight Aug. 4-5 in the US and Europe, an exciting chart with a variety of contradictions and puzzles, but in true Leo fashion, ultimately, clear and convincing. For starters, here is the basic chart, which may not be posted yet. I've cast it for Washington, DC, because you have to cast it anywhere, and that's as bad a place as any. Actually, it's in honor of Congress being out of session; somebody has to call attention to Washington. http://planetwaves.net/charts/leo-new-moon2005.html This is a New Moon with three planets opposite Neptune. Neptune is multiplied by the number of planets that aspect it, and frankly three is a lot. When Neptune is involved, the time is right to stay sober and reality check. There is information lurking in the clouds that is likely to come out in the first wave over the next four days and in the second wave, over the next three weeks. So lay off the absinth and keep your notebook handy. Much of what you need is already tucked away in there. The smaller time increment (four days or so) is the timeframe over which the Sun will make its exact opposition to Neptune, coming closest Sunday and Monday. This is like "Full Neptune" energy -- Neptune operating at peak intensity, with the Earth suspended between two vastly larger bodies like a BB suspended between a beach ball and a basketball. This is creating something of a fantasy field around everything -- which will clear soon enough, though not everything that seems to be real in this somewhat foggy space is in fact unreal. This is a rather intuitive moment, and one of the challenges is trusting your intuition to guide you. Neptune is as prone to accuracy and inspiration as it is to doubt as it is to doubt, guilt and error. So back up your hunches with facts, sniff the data and don't just analyze it, and remember that when you're proven wrong that's a key step on the way to the truth. As you can see from the Mercury-Sun conjunction, we're approaching the peak or midpoint of the Mercury retrograde cycle. Mercury deals with both information and technology; be patient with both. The next major step in the process is when Mercury stations direct next week, which it does the morning of Aug. 16 (late night the 15th in the UK-Europe). Built into this station is a series of two squares between Mercury and Mars which point to a definite quality of working out something which has arisen. Though patience may be the most challenging quality to muster under such energy, it's also the most precious. So keep your cool and proceed like a fact-checker, as indifferent as you can be to the truth while you're in the process of pursuing it. Venus is about to change signs from Virgo to Libra, initiating the Venus-Jupiter conjunction in Libra. One could hardly hope for sweeter energy, and fortunately it comes Sept. 3, close to a new Moon in Virgo, when a number of other challenging aspects involving the retrograde of Mercury have worked out. That is something to look forward to, but the most important message of the stars is to not knock yourself out on unimportant matters, and to invest your energy in people and situations that are productive, healing, in balance and bringing results to someone. Saturn in Leo is asking for a new kind of maturity -- the assertive kind, the kind that knows the difference between yes and no, between fear and paranoia, and between what is useful and what is not. Given all the potential fog and confusion, we'll have some real opportunities to test that leadership and learn from experience.