On August 21, we have an incredibly powerful New Moon at 28’53 Leo, which also happens to be a Solar Eclipse! The Moon will be passing directly in front of the Sun around 3:30 pm ADT. This is the last eclipse of the recent cycle, closing it out with a big burst of sunny Leo energy to propel you towards achieving your greatest personal heights! Truly, everything that’s been stirred up between the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius and now has only been for your benefit, showing you where you can truly improve and laying before you the golden path to What’s Next. The cards for The Moon, The Sun, and Leo are II – The High Priestess, XIX – The Sun, and VIII – Strength, suggesting that this New Moon will allow you to bring the intuitive messages you’ve been accumulating into the light, and in doing so you will find yourself feeling hopeful and empowered to connect with others to transcend what once held you back. You have come to a new understanding of your situation and are prepared to seek the balance that benefits everyone involved. You are opening your heart and you are ready to share what you’ve been developing in secret! New Moons are about intention-setting, and in the case of the Solar Eclipse, what we start manifesting now will play out and come into its full form in about 6 months’ time. Intend for your vision to shine and be received warmly by everyone it meets!

The following reading, drawn from the Thoth Tarot, Connected and Free: The Alchemist’s Oracle, and The Wild Unknown tarot, looks at how to make the best use of this New Moon Solar Eclipse’s energy. This reading is an example of what’s included with the $25 New/Full Moon Readings tier on my Patreon page, which also includes a one-card Monthly Kick-Off reading on the 1st of each month and a 5-card reading when the Sun sign changes. Normally New/Full Moon readings are 3 cards, but I had to throw in an extra card for the Solar Eclipse! If you’re interested in a 4-card reading like this to maximize your use of this New Moon Solar Eclipse energy, you can order one from my Etsy shop 😀 For this reading, I laid out a crystal grid for chakra alignment, with red jasper and black obsidian for the Root/Muladhara, carnelian and my sunstone-y astrological wheel for the Sacral /Svadisthana, citrine for the Solar Plexus/Manipura, aventurine for the Heart/Anahata, blue lace agate for the Throat/Vishuddha, sodalite for the Third Eye/Ajna, and amethyst and moonstone for the Crown/Sahasrara.

This New Moon Solar Eclipse, above all, will represent finding personal balance in its entirety — the kind that finds you glowing because you know exactly what you have and how to best work with it, not against it. It’s a time to rest and recuperate, to let go of past struggles that you carry with you in your heart and mind, even though you know they have no place in the present. It’s time for a truce, mainly between your past and future selves, as you decide to move forward once you’ve recharged a bit after this eclipse season’s many mini-upheavals. Indeed, the Solar Eclipse will have this New Moon feeling very much like a Full one with all the upstarts and excitements — keep in mind that since this is a New Moon, anything uncomfortable can be worked into your intentions for what to release in harnessing this Solar Eclipse Leo energy, and you can trust that 6 months from now it will noticeably be “history!”

Oracle Cards: 4 of Cups | Luxury + Throat Chakra

This New Moon Solar Eclipse will represent an opportunity to realize and face your disappointments once and for all, giving “voice” to them, and as a result watching them become resolved. Speak your dreams and watch them become reality, and let yourself relax into all that you have recently attained — you’ve reached new levels that even a year ago you weren’t sure were possible, but here you are, with your cup running over and the future looking bright. That being said, you can only “see” that bright future if you look forward to it: examine what’s keeping you from quite literally Enjoying your Life, and take this opportunity to look for new ways to express yourself in order to make that happen!

Tarot Cards

Card 1: What Shadow will be cast by this New Moon Solar Eclipse? 9 of Pentacles

This Solar Eclipse will represent realizing where your “comfort zone” is actually holding you back, and about allowing yourself to progress to the next level, in particular by accepting that you deserve it! You have already reached incredible heights, why not rise to your full potential? You have been doing a great job grounding yourself to prepare for future success, which is rolling towards you now — take the opportunity when it arrives even if you feel slightly underqualified. You will not regret it!

Card 2: What challenge will the New Moon Solar Eclipse help you to overcome? XIV – Temperance

All these recent eclipse energies have tensions high, and tempers too — your challenge is to STAY CALM and be the wise one. All this urgency everyone has been pushing is unnecessary, but also forgivable, because you know this eclipse cycle has been about making yourself “stand in the flames,” feeling your discomforts through so that they can truly heal. Let yourself cry if you need to, picturing your tears cleaning off the soot of the past, leaving you fresh and free to fly on once the sky settles and the stardust clears, finding you prepared to make use of what you’ve learned about yourself through all this!

Card 3: What can setting a New Moon intention this powerful Solar Eclipse help you release for good over the next 6 months? 8 of Swords

Intend to identify and release yourself from all the little traps you set to convince yourself you don’t deserve better (and better!!) than what you have now. It’s one thing to be grateful, but it’s another to realize wasted potential, and this New Moon Solar Eclipse finds you preparing to “cut loose,” emerging from your cocoon an amazing butterfly. Intend to be honest with yourself about what works for you and what doesn’t, what you continue to refuse to examine for fear that you’ll lose everything if you admit this one last thing to yourself: you won’t lose anything important. Unfurl: the world is waiting!

Card 4: How will this New Moon Solar Eclipse help you increase your “shine”? XV – The Devil

Truly, MASSIVE change is underway in your career, and also the way you project your personal power — let your realizations in the “Temperance” department be your wings as you cooly soar above your past transgressions and approach the summit of your personal mountain. Your goal is in sight: keep going! If anything, you are now more aware than ever of the kind of person you do not want to be, and so you have an example to work against. Strive to be your best self in all that you do and watch yourself take off — you now know how much control you really have in spite of all the recent fires and flipoffs!

You are nurturing something new into existence, and the energy of this New Moon Solar Eclipse is exactly the boost that will carry you towards territory where you have a better grip on protecting what you have earned, not to mention the people you are earning it for. As everything gets tossed around and shaken up when the Moon brings nighttime darkness to cover the Sun, just keep in mind “doing what’s right” to get you through. Stay calm, knowing that all this intensity will soon be replaced with much more soothing, healing energy, and that persevering with your end-goal in mind will find you with exactly what you hoped to “get” out of your situation and more. Six months from now you’ll look back on this time and find your worries cut in half, replaced by a restful contentment achieved through trusting things to work out in your favour, remaining open to new opportunities, and staying grounded through your every “trial by fire.”

The first steps have been taken towards your new endeavour, and there’s no going back! I squealed when I noticed that there are 3 “4s” again in this reading — 444! You are very much protected by your higher guidance now, and can trust yourself to stay on track towards implementing the structures that you know will serve you better. At present, conflicts are past and being re-integrated; allow yourself to forgive and move on. There is a slight warning to this reading, which is to KEEP WORKING at this, as you’ve reached the comfortable point where you could easily “drop the ball” and backslide, having settled into the flow of your new responsibilities. Know that you are ready for more! In the meantime, self-care, self-care, self-care: take care of yourself and get ready for another influx of “wishes granted” and dreams you’ve made real!

Connected and Free: The Alchemist’s Oracle. Lauren Aletta. Illustrated by Tegan Swyny. First Edition. Inner Hue, 2014. (link is to second edition)

Thoth Tarot Deck. Aleister Crowley. Illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris. Stamford, CT: US Game Systems, Inc., 1983.

The Wild Unknown. Kim Krans. Philadelphia, CA: The Wild Unknown, 2012. (link is to Amazon/2016 edition)