1st Qtr Moon, 3 May 2017, Leo

Exact time & zodiac degree of this moon | Understanding Quarter Moons |

When Taurus and Leo energies combine, as they do at this 1st Quarter Moon in Leo, they can bring a longing for luxury and possessions. Kings and queens have adorned themselves in jewels throughout history to show their value. Business tycoons buy yachts and private jets to show theirs. But are success and personal value exclusively equated with luxury? When Taurus and Leo become stuck they tend to make their goals align with lifestyles that require more and more money, and overlook the deeper heart, soul, love, creativity and purpose values. This 1st quarter moon in Leo has some important alignments coinciding with it, pointing to the true value that comes from knowing your personal identity and forging wealth and success from that – materially, spiritually and emotionally. Leo is a zodiac sign associated with the heart. A full heart that participates in honest intake and out-take of life’s rich kaleidoscope of emotions is an abundant heart, even if the emotions are over a loss that hits us to our very core or are tears of joy from a heart union or reunion.

With Saturn aligned with the Galactic Centre at this Leo quarter moon, life asks us to throw out beliefs about the worth of ourselves or of others made disproportionately from worldly, social or career status values, or from past wrongs or injustices, and instead allow the heart to communicate and reveal the true value of a person before us. We all know the sayings ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ or ‘a beggar might be a god in disguise’. Each person is a god when living from the heart, as the asteroid goddess Juno shows at this time. Both Leo and Juno are associated with royalty, and the symbol for Juno even looks like a crown. The word crown is connected to the word ‘crone’, a woman in her richest wisdom. It can also mean ‘to make complete’. Juno is right next to Pluto, the archetype that takes us deep into our smallest selves where our biggest fears lie, yet also our biggest breakthroughs. Weeding our inner gardens, tending to our ‘soul’s estate’, creates an automatic inner ‘halo’ radiating out. And sure, if we want an outer crown too, why not! But a true crown can only come from embracing the full value of the self (a Leo theme).

This Leo quarter moon asks the question ‘If I am to follow my life path only with the natural wealth of goodwill toward others and find others who also have a value system based on goodwill and paying forward generosity rather than paying back through a ledger of who owes who, then who will benefit?’ The whole of humanity will benefit. Another major alignment at this 1st quarter moon in Leo involves Saturn squaring Chiron which asks ‘Have the old-fashioned values of love, respect and kindness really been overthrown in favour of survival-of-the-fittest and competitive bite?’ The Leo energy matches the fire theme, so strong in this year of the Fire Rooster. But fire can tip out of balance into warring competition and lose connection with the warmth of remembering every human being is a kindred spirit. The image of the Statue of Liberty comes to mind. She looks not unlike Juno wearing her crown, and perhaps you can imagine her rising out of Pluto’s deep, radiating purely after completing her inner quest, holding high her heart values, and shining from her courage to fight for her own self without harm to the ‘self’ of others.