This week’s video dives into the meaning of Leo generally, and especially under the Leo Full Moon this week. There’s also some tips about Mercury retrograde, and you can also check out this Mercury retrograde deep dive here. And of course, a review of the week ahead to help you with your planning. As always, the transcript is below.
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Transcript
Hey everybody, its Lynn Hayes here. Welcome back to my channel. And if you’re new, I’m glad you joined me here today.
There was a couple of big things that we have to talk about before we get into the astrology for the week ahead. The first thing I’d like to talk about is the fact that Mercury will be turning retrograde on January 30. Most astrologers agree that there is sort of a shadow period or a build up period before Mercury actually turns retrograde. But there’s a lot of disagreement about what that shadow actually is. And I made a video which I’ll link in the description box about the details of how that works. And if you’d like to do a little deep dive into Mercury Retrograde, I invite you to do that.
In my opinion, the build-up to Mercury Retrograde actually begins when Mercury starts to slow down. Mercury normally travels about two degrees a day and in its lead up to the retrograde turn it begins to appear to slow down. Of course, planets don’t really move backwards as we know, but sometimes they appear to be traveling in reverse to Earth as we are moving forward, the planets appear to be moving backwards. They’re just slower at that time. And this all has to do with the relationship of the planets in their orbit between the Earth and the Sun. You’ll find more details about that in the video that I’ll link below.
But for our purposes here today, we are in that period where the motion of Mercury has began to slow down. This is usually about 10 days before and about 10 days after the actual retrograde turn. Retrograde Mercury is actually closer to the earth than at other times, so its effect is more powerful, and its influence becomes more important. Everything having to do with the transmission of information becomes much more important at that time. And that’s why it’s critical that we pay a lot of attention to what we’re saying to what we’re thinking to how we’re transmitting any kind of information, any sort of communication, any writing. And this also has to do with equipment, often there’s equipment malfunction. Sometimes that’s because of user error! I’ve seen that quite a bit. Sometimes it’s just because under the influence of Mercury retrograde, we’re really meant to slow down along with the motion of Mercury – to slow down and think about things and really consider what we’re doing and not be impulsive.
Mercury is famously good for anything that has an RE in the beginning of the word: repairs, reconstruction, remodeling, reevaluating, revisiting something that we have to redo, I had a client get in touch with me wanting to know if she should wait till after Mercury retrograde to file her divorce. Not that I’m pushing divorce by any means, but a divorce is an unwinding, it’s a reversal of something. And so something like that is perfectly fine. When Mercury’s retrograde there’s no reason really to wait for something that you’re undoing. And the same thing with surgeries. I’ve said this before, a lot of you have heard this but if it’s a surgery to repair something that is not working, Mercury Retrograde periods can be perfect for that.
If you have to sign a contract if you have to rent an apartment or if you have to buy a house or a car if you have to make an important decision. Don’t panic, because Mercury is retrograde. These things come up all the time – Mercury is retrograde for three weeks, four times a year, that’s 12 weeks, which is three months. If you add the shadow period or the build-up period, as I like to call it, then that’s I think five months out of the year, we can’t really put our life on hold for that long. So the important thing is to pay attention when Mercury is retrograde. Make sure that all of your i’s are dotted and your T’s are crossed, and expect that there’s going to be a glitch anyway, these things just happen. They happen when Mercury is not retrograde as a matter of fact!
But in any case, we are in this buildup period and Mercury will turn retrograde during the week that this video is in effect, actually on Saturday, January 30.
The other thing I’d like to talk about is the Libra Full Moon on January 28, which is I think Thursday. The Leo Full Moon is opposite the Aquarius Sun and so we’re dealing with the polarity of Leo and Aquarius. Leo is all about the self. It’s about self expression. It’s about admiration and recognition. Mostly though it’s about doing things that are admirable doing things that we know are right that we know are good things that make us feel good about ourselves. And often there’s a need and a real hunger for adoration from the outside world. A couple of people who you will recognize that have Leo rising, which is where it’s visible to the world, are Donald Trump and Marilyn Monroe. I don’t want to get into a whole Trump conversation because, well, just because but if we look at Marilyn Monroe, she always talked about how she was desperately lonely, how she was loved by so many people on the stage, but then she was isolated in her own self. So even when you’re adored by millions, and you have all the fame and all the recognition, unless we really feel good about ourselves and about what we ourselves are doing, it doesn’t really matter. It’s all in the internal experience. And that’s what Leo teaches, really.
Aquarius is the opposite, which is more transpersonal. It’s more about the collective, it’s more about what’s good for the community, what’s good for the country, you know, it often involves putting our own personal desires aside in order to sort of transcend the self and the individual ego and participate in a greater experience in the collective. So when we have the Full Moon with the Sun and the Moon in opposition, the Moon is the stronger energy. The Moon is lit up. It’s bright, it’s big and bold, and so that Leo influence is what’s really strong. Obviously, there’s still a lot of Aquarian energy. Right now there’s four planets in Aquarius and at the end of the week, Venus is going to move into Aquarius, there’s going to be five planets in Aquarius for two weeks. This influence of the world at large, looking at things more globally, more rationally, not really concerned with the self, is all around us. There’s a lot of that energy already. And here comes the Full Moon in Leo which asks us to look more at ourselves as individuals and what we need and what motivates us and what we can do to feel better about ourselves to have more pride. But not pride in a selfish way, pride in a way where we really feel good about what we’re doing. Until we have that positive feeling about ourselves, we really can’t share the real light of our soul with other people. So it really has to start from inside. And that’s what the Leo Full Moon really teaches.
Jupiter is very powerful in this Full Moon chart; Jupiter is exactly conjunct the Sun at the time of the Full Moon. So it’s opposite the Moon, and because it’s opposite the Moon that’s going to really expand and heighten the emotionality of this Full Moon. So it’s really an opportunity to see where you can shine, to see where we can have that kind of glorious feeling. I always think about the Sun card in the Tarot just that divine child who is so proud and just so joyful. Leo is really the sign, more than any other, that seeks joy. And that’s what’s really needed right now, especially with everything that’s going on in the world. Today, we need to find what can make us joyful in our life. And this is the perfect opportunity with this Full Moon. As always, I’ll be posting a pretty detailed article about all the different energies of the Full Moon. And that’s all the big news.
So now let’s talk about the week ahead.
On Monday, the Moon starts the day in Gemini and then it moves into Cancer at about 1:51pm Eastern Time, Please adjust for your own time zone. The Sun is in Aquarius and it’s in a sextile to Chiron which is a harmonious aspect which helps to kind of shine the light on any areas of our life that may need some healing. It can be a very good day for just generally feeling good and healthy and balanced. But at the same time the Sun is approaching a challenging square to the planet Uranus, the planet of radical change, disruption, awakening, which doesn’t culminate until Tuesday. So all day Monday and Tuesday there’s going to be a little bit of this disruptive energy. We can perceive this disruptive energy as being very exciting bringing in new things, new ideas, you know, generally Uranus wants to break us out of any routines or any place we feel stuck. It’s a square, which is a strong aspect which suggests that it might not be that difficult. There could be some kind of surprise that forces you out of a rut but generally it’s a good time to embrace something new to try something new and different.
On Monday late in the day we do have a challenging square from the Cancer Moon to Chiron. While the Moon is in Cancer for a couple of days, everybody is more emotional. Cancer, more than any other sign is about feelings and emotions. It’s about exploring the emotions. It teaches us how to be vulnerable, teaches us how to experience our emotions fully. But that can also be difficult. And sometimes with the Cancerian influence, we can create a hard shell just like the crabs on the beach that forms a hard shell to protect themselves. Ideally, we want to try to be vulnerable. And when the Moon is in Cancer, everybody is a little bit more vulnerable especially when the Moon squares Chiron, which will start very late on Monday, but it doesn’t actually culminate until 12:45am on Tuesday, so depending on where you are in the world, you may not even experience it.
When the sensitive Moon when is interacting with Chiron in a challenging way, sometimes we can feel somewhat disturbed. So just you know, watch for that and know that if that comes up for you. This is an old wound that’s being triggered that’s ready to emerge. It’s ready to be released and to be healed. So that’s not a bad thing. It’s not always very comfortable. But it’s a lunar aspect, it’s only going to last for a few hours. Anyway, at the same time, the Sun is forming a harmonious sextile to Chiron. So while the Moon is triggering the emotions, the Sun is illuminating everything and helping to bring some light into the situation.
So that takes us to Tuesday. On Tuesday, we have that exact square of the Sun to Uranus, which is going to bring in some new ideas and new changes that we may want to make in our world. But more importantly, there’s a series of harmonious lunar aspects that are really good for just general a good feeling. We have the Moon harmonizing in a sextile to Uranus which helps us to feel kind of awakened and excited, stimulated, and that happens at around 2:49am Eastern time. Then later in the morning just after 8 am Eastern Time, the Cancer Moon is in a sextile to Mars which is in Taurus. The Moon and Mars are not natural allies. The Moon so sensitive, especially in Cancer, and Mars can be abrasive and aggressive. But when they harmonize together, Mars excites the Moon, influences the Moon to be more active, more motivated. So this can be a very good day to help to energize yourself. You know if there’s something that you’ve been having trouble getting going, this would be a good day to do it between Uranus, which is exciting and Mars which helps to fire up the engines.
And then later night we start to go into a trine from the Cancer Moon to Neptune in Pisces, which doesn’t actually take effect until just before 2am on Wednesday, but it’ll start to build on Tuesday night. These lunar aspects generally, I would say, last three or four hours maybe so you may just breathe and miss them. But a trine from the Moon to Pisces is wonderful for dreaming even if you’re asleep. This could be a wonderful time for some sort of traveling in your sleep some sort of harmonious nighttime experience. And if you’re a night owl, this would be a wonderful night to stay up and do something creative.
On Wednesday, January 27 the energies are building for a conjunction from Venus to Pluto. Venus is in the late degrees of Capricorn and it’s bumping up against Pluto. A conjunction from Venus to Pluto is not always the best thing for our interactions with other people, quite honestly. There can be power struggles, there’s generally an intensification of emotion. That can potentially be good for romantic relationships. But it can also feel overwhelming sometimes. Because Venus and Pluto are both in Capricorn, that is going to ground the energy a little bit for a couple of days – Wednesday, when the energies are building, and on Thursday when the conjunction really takes place. That could be a very good time for solving problems between people. This can be in work teams, it can be in marriages, it can be in parent child relationships or friendships. Anytime two people or more get together we’re dealing with Venus.
This could also maybe not be such a great day for the stock market because in Capricorn Venus is very practical and doesn’t like a lot of speculation. So this would not be a couple of days where I would maybe venture into some new financial situation and of course, we’re getting ready for Mercury Retrograde where we have to really be careful about starting new things especially financial. However, that said, the Cancer Moon is going to oppose both Venus and Pluto. When the Moon is opposite Venus that’s not at so mild. We don’t really even feel it. But when the Moon is opposite Pluto, which it will be around 1pm on Wednesday, we can definitely feel that. Sometimes Pluto can feel very intense and powerful. And here’s our Cancer Moon feeling very sensitive. This might be a time when your emotions are very strong, just kind of, you know, be prepared for that. And that’s all going to be part of the Venus Pluto conjunction that could bring up issues to the surface so that they can be dealt with when the conjunction happens. One thing about Capricorn is it does help us to be very practical about the solution to any problems. And for that reason, even a challenging aspect in Capricorn can be very positive, it can be very constructive.
Then on Thursday, January 28, we have the Venus Pluto conjunction and the Full Moon. And of course, the conjunction is embedded in the chart of the Full Moon, so everything is amplified, and at 9:54pm on Wednesday, the Moon will move into Leo. After the Moon moves into Leo, the energies really start to build for the Full Moon. Technically, the Full Moon energies really start to build around three days before, but it really intensifies when the Moon moves into the sign where it will make that opposition to the Sun. And on Wednesday, that happens at 9:54pm. The Moon is going to be in Leo, where it’s going to be more fiery than the Full Moon occurs Thursday, January 28. And the Venus Pluto conjunction is also exact that day so that conjunction is embedded in the chart of the Full Moon. All of those themes of pride and expression of the self and a healthy ego that I talked about earlier, those are all going to combine with this conjunction from Venus to Pluto. So if there are situations in your life that are giving you maybe a hard time expressing yourself and really feeling valued and appreciated, those are likely to make themselves known at this time, it’s a really good time to kind of take an assessment and see where improvement in these areas is needed in your life because the feelings about it are going to be right there in our face, ready to be managed and dealt with. And that’s what really helps us to grow and evolve and to become more happy and more joyful, which after all is really the purpose of Leo.
On Friday, January 29 we’re sort of coming down off the energies of the Full Moon and there’s no planetary aspects, except that later in the day the Moon is going to oppose Mercury I don’t really see that as being much of an issue because the lunar energies is so intense anyway. It’s not like you will notice if the Moon aspects Mercury or Venus or anything subtle like that. However, there is an exact conjunction that day of the Black Moon Lilith – is a theoretical body that does seem to have a great deal of importance as far as feminism and feminine power is concerned – the Black Moon Lilith is going to conjoin Eris the new planet of discord. These are two pretty strong influences of the dark, feminine, the feminine power, feminine outrage against the patriarchy. I’m not really certain what kind of effect this is going to have. I don’t really see that Eris is so active in our individual charts anyway. I would love for you to make any notes on Friday. If any of these themes come up for you, it would be really useful. Maybe you could leave that information in the comments. It would be interesting to know if anything does come up in your personal life. These themes are already floating around out in the world. We have our first female Vice President, she’s a person of color, we are dealing with some of these themes and issues out there in the world in the United States, and really everywhere in the world.
On Saturday, the Moon moves from Leo into Virgo at 3:02am Eastern time. When the Moon goes into Virgo, which is Mercury’s sign, while Mercury turns retrograde in Aquarius it’s going to be a little bit easier. I do want to mention that Mercury is not that happy retrograding through fixed signs. When Mercury is retrograde we need to always be looking backwards and redoing things. We need to have some flexibility and adaptability. Mercury is in Aquarius now which is a fixed sign which can be kind of stubborn. So the Moon in Virgo, which is ruled by Mercury is going to help that shift into the retrograde.
Around noon that day on Saturday the Virgo Moon is going to make a trine to Mars which is in Taurus. So this is very good for our personal energy. I like to say Virgo Moons are very good for getting organized and cleaning, and for a lot of other things too, but it’s a really good time to organize your thoughts and with a Virgo Moon and a trine to Mars in Taurus that’s going to help us to be more energized as well.
And that takes us to Sunday January 31 when the Virgo Moon makes a lot of aspects to different planets. It starts with an opposition to Neptune at 12:08 pm Eastern time. When the Moon is in Virgo, which is a sign of the mundane details of everyday life, is opposite Neptune which is the planet that inspires us to transcend those details – to emerge into a state of bliss and of consciousness, there can be a little bit of conflict for just a few hours that could be a time of uncertainty and perhaps a little bit of a lack of clarity. But again, this will only last for a few hours.
Also, the Sun is building up to a square to Mars. The Aquarius Sun will be in a square to Mars and Taurus which perfects on Monday February 1, but the energies are building. When the Sun is square Mars, often the energy ramps up to an extent that can be difficult to control. There can be a lot of aggression, a lot of assertiveness, a lot of passion when the Sun is in a square to Mars. So this starts building on Sunday and then it perfects on Monday. But at the same time on Sunday evening, we have a beautiful trine from the Virgo Moon to Pluto, which is in Capricorn and Pluto is bigger than Mars more powerful than Mars. So this trine from the Moon to Pluto will help to empower us to feel more balanced and more integrated and help to prepare us for Monday when the Sun is in a square to Mars. And we have all of this energy that we need to put into some project or something that we can feel really enthusiastic about. That’s a very good thing for Monday, February 1.
On Monday, February 1, we’ll have a new video and I have been posting these at 7:30am on Monday mornings so click the notification bell if you’d like to be notified but early in the morning 6:09am Eastern time the Virgo Moon will make a harmonious trine to Venus the planet of love and beauty and comfort and then it will immediately move into Libra which is a sign that’s ruled by Venus. So that sets up a lovely harmonious kind of balance in the morning of Monday, even as the Sun is making that square. So we have the harmonization of Venus and then we have the Moon in Libra, which craves beauty and which craves comfort and peacefulness and the energy of the Sun squaring Mars. So if you have a goal or something you’d that you really need a push in order to do. That’s your day, Monday, February 1. So we’re at the end of my information for the week. Thank you so much for joining me, especially if you’ve hung in for the whole video. I really appreciate it and I look forward to seeing you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai and edited by me