Time to Let Your Light Shine at Summer Cross-Quarter
Dear Reader,
I hope this finds you well!
I am writing to you on another day filled with sunshine and warmth. The green of the trees is beginning to darken, the swifts are beginning to leave and migrate south again, and the sunflowers are beginning to wilt and turn into nutritious treats for birds.
What are you noticing in your surroundings?
How are you experiencing this time of year?
In the heart of summer
The beginning of August features a major seasonal crossroads in the yearly cycle of the Sun. At Summer Cross-Quarter, the Sun reaches the middle degree of the sign of Leo and marks the midpoint between Summer Solstice and Fall Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the exact Leo/Summer Cross-Quarter falls on August 7, 2:10 a.m. Central European Time.
At the height of summer, the days continue to be long and warm, but daylight hours are slowly growing shorter as the Sun keeps lowering its arc across the sky. Summer Cross-Quarter is the 'Waning Gibbous Moon' and 'afternoon' of the year, when the light is still strong but beginning to withdraw. Until September Equinox, we remain in the bright half of the year, but the dark is stirring and the energy of the year is beginning to wane.
Just as the warmest time of the day is in the afternoon, when the Sun has already peaked and is beginning to descend, the warmest time of the year is at Summer Cross-Quarter, when the peak of daylight is behind us, the days have begun to shorten, and we begin to prepare for the waning of the Sun's intensity and power.
All four cross-quarters are major transition points in the seasonal calendar. At Summer Cross-Quarter, we are crossing over from the expansive energy of summer into the gentler, waning energy of fall. It is a time of fruition, early harvest, and appreciation of the abundance of the Earth. Whatever intentions from Winter Solstice have grown and are bearing fruit in our lives now, we now have to decide what we want to do with them moving forward.
Thank heaven there is a zodiac sign that is not afraid to shine!
Summer Cross-Quarter coincides with the height of Leo season, when the Sun is moving through the sign of the Lion, where it is said to be at home. Leo is a fixed fire sign and signifies a season of sustained creative energy. It gives us permission to be playful and proud, to enjoy, love, and share ourselves, and to celebrate our lives, and reminds us of that special gift that only we have.
Belonging to the Sun, Leo is about shining our own inner light with which we warm and bless those around us. As the performer of the zodiac, Leo helps us to express ourselves in the world, who we are at heart, playfully, joyfully, and unapologetically so, and allows us to take up space and let ourselves be seen and felt.
Leo teaches us how to embrace ourselves fully, let our light shine, and radiate confidence without shame, holding that same vision for everyone it meets so that we may bask not only in our own light but also in the light of each other.
What the world needs
When I was writing that last section, the phrase “that special gift that only you have” came up, and it felt familiar. I put it in my search engine, and Marie Forleo popped up. I have not followed Marie's work in years but I used to when I was in my late twenties, early thirties. She was one of the people who inspired me to work for myself and live a creative life.
While we do not have Marie's birth time, we know that she has Saturn in Leo, pulling focus to self-authority, leadership, visibility, and celebrity in her life. Her slogans, “The world needs that special gift that only you have” and “Create a business and life you love”, her fun, entertaining content and bright, bold style as well as her love for dance breaks all help to tickle our inner Leo awake.
Follow your enthusiasm
At Summer Cross-Quarter, the Sun in Leo is applying to an exact sextile with Jupiter in Gemini, who has been expanding our curiosity and opening our minds to new possibilities since its ingress into the sign of the Twins on May 26. The Sun-Jupiter field helps to bring out our generosity, confidence, optimism, and enthusiasm, and reminds us of the joy of living a creative, expansive life, whatever that means to us at this time in our lives.
The Sun is also separating from a sextile with Mars in Gemini, highlighting the building conjunction between Mars and Jupiter, which will become exact at 16 degrees of Gemini on August 14. The Sun-Mars field draws out our courage, audacity, vigor, and strength and gives us a bold, fearless, adventurous spirit to go for what we want.
If you have any planets or sensitive points at or near 16 degrees of any of the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces), this Mars-Jupiter conjunction will be more personal for you. Whatever it touches in your birth chart is being activated for exuberance, passion, and action guided by higher ideals, giving you the courage to expand your comfort zone and the drive to do whatever it is you aspire to do if you so choose.
Navigating what feels hard with compassion
The Moon is in analytical Virgo, the nocturnal home of Mercury, who stationed retrograde at 4 degrees of Virgo on August 5, indicating a change of direction, possible delays or detours, and a period of reflection and introspection. Mercury is also the ruler of Mars and Jupiter in Gemini, its diurnal home, giving retrograde Mercury even more influence on the quality of this time.
As Mercury is appearing to move backwards in the sky, we ourselves might need to go back over something that we had done already. We might have to recover or reclaim something that we did not even know we still needed. We might run into people from our past or find ourselves revisiting old ideas. We might be asked to reconsider something we were once sure about, and to be open to changing our minds.
With the Moon is in its New Moon phase – the New Moon in Leo took place on August 4 — we are in the energy of fresh beginnings, renewal, and possibility, especially when it comes to the Leo house in our birth charts. New Moons are an excellent time to get clear about our intentions and reflect on what we want to create for the coming month.
The Moon is applying to an opposition with retrograde Saturn, indicating that there might be a disruption, difficulty, or disappointment we need to navigate. Saturn in Pisces wants us to clarify our ideals, restructure our dreams, and respect our sensitivity. Compassion, optimism, and fluidity might be harder to come by, but Saturn assures us that they are worth our effort and helps us to pull focus on what matters to us most. In the process, we might need to face hard feelings and take responsibility for our emotional needs.
All in all, this Summer Cross-Quarter speaks of newfound confidence and creative spark to me, and also: there is something within or without that we need to acknowledge and navigate in practical ways in order to actualize the potential for creative fulfillment and to move forward with our desires.
Horoscope for Leo/Summer Cross-Quarter on August 7, 2024 at 2:10 a.m. CET
Are you ready to enter the heart of summer?
What is summer teaching you?
What have you already accomplished?
What are you proud of?
What is growing fruit and ready to be harvested?
What are you eager to do with the fruits of your harvest?
What is asking to be shared?
What do you need to thrive?
How will you honor your emotional needs?
I invite you to take these questions on your walk or into your journal, your dreamtime, or any other kind of creative or contemplative practice, either solo or with others. I hope they tickle you and help you weave yourself deeper into the heart of summer.
The story of your life
I recently came across the work of body educator Jonathan Mead. He offers beautiful workshops online, guiding participants through somatic practices to help them become more fluid in the language of their bodies. I find his way of teaching to be gentle, kind, helpful, and deeply nourishing, and I recommend checking out his newly opened Self Care School, which you can join for free for 14 days, featuring a library with all of his favorite workshops.
In his workshop “The Art of Self-Trust”, he shared a journaling exercise that I love for Leo season and want to pass on to you:
Imagine yourself as the main character in the movie of your life. You are simultaneously watching the movie and playing the character. First, take the perspective as the viewer and ask yourself, what would you ideally like to see this character do next? What would be most interesting, inspiring, or exciting to see as the person watching this movie?
Then, take the perspective of the main character and ask yourself, what would you like to do next as the main character? What would be the most fun or powerful next scene that you could create? Reflect on what came up for you and how the way that your story unfolded was similar or different depending on your perspective. Anything that surprised you?
Until next time...
I very much look forward to writing to you again around the time of Libra Equinox, which marks the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and heralds a time of harvest and reorientation. It falls on September 22, 2:44 p.m. Central European Time this year (convert to your local time).
In the meantime, I'm wishing you a beautiful rest of summer wherever you are.