Leo, Isis and the Royal Star Regulus

Dear Friend and Reader:

THE SUN enters the fixed fire sign Leo at 4:07 pm on Friday. It does so in an exact conjunction to asteroid Isis. This is an urgent message that we must do something about the fragmentation of self that we are experiencing under full digital conditions. Countless millions of people are walking around on the planet like confused and wayward souls trapped in Bardo.

The myth of Isis also includes an odd detail about the loss of the penis of her lover/brother Osiris — an image of dismemberment in an era characterized by chopping off our sensory organs to handle the overwhelming pressure induced by digital chaos.

There is already something Egyptian going on in the heavens as the fixed star Regulus makes its gradual transition from Leo into Virgo. The morph of a cat (Leo) and a woman (Virgo) is sphinx-like, and that is one marker of the era we are in.

Regulus entered Virgo in 2020 — something I had entirely missed until now — and is currently at about 8 arc seconds of Virgo. It’s noteworthy that the first world event under this astrology involved a medical issue, usually under the rulership of Virgo — but one where the kings pretended to be doctors and healers.

While Regulus in Leo is about honor, on one level, and the attainment of undeserved fame or success on another, the transition into Virgo is subverting the individuality, ego, fame and rank associated with this sign — and instead, emphasizing service.

From Fame and Ego to Service

Fixed stars do not orbit like planets do. These neighbors of the Sun in the Milky Way advance through the zodiac, all at the same pace, by what is called precessional movement — created by the wobble of the Earth on its axis. If you’re curious, I explain that in an oldie but goodie.

The whole backdrop of the stars moves through the zodiac at about a degree per 70 years. This is the same factor used to measure the astrological ages; one full wobble works out to 2,000 years per sign or about 24,000 years for one full precessional cycle.

Even at this incredibly slow pace, it’s possible to track movement — though from the standpoint of classical astrology, Regulus changing signs is big news. (Please note that Regulus remains part of the constellation Leo, and remains in the sidereal sign Leo.)

While Regulus in Leo is about honor, on one level, and the attainment of undeserved fame or success on another, the transition into Virgo is subverting the individuality, ego, fame and rank associated with this sign — and instead, emphasizing service.

We might ask where, exactly, this is going on, at least somewhere other than a $5000-a-plate black tie charity dinner where the rich and powerful can feel a little better about themselves. It is more a harbinger of the future. In a society with less money, we will need more service. That’s what most of you came here to do, so this is an excellent time to re-frame that discussion in a serious and meaningful way.

Pluto’s presence in Leo from about 1937 through about 1958 seemed to amplify the fame aspect of the fixed star for which this sign is best known. There have never been more famous people in human history than the cohort with Pluto in Leo. Wealth is supposed to come with that, though fame stands above even money as a metric of success, which has led many Pluto in Leo people to feel they are underachievers.

You also have to search carefully to find Pluto in Virgo people (born approximately 1956 through 1972) who have gone the distance on dedicating their talent to bettering the human condition. Pluto in Leo people invented the internet (and most forms of modern entertainment), and on whole, Pluto in Virgo people designed, built and programmed the internet.

And what do we get? Endless celebrity — and full digital conditions.

In astrology, the delineation of Isis is mostly about putting the pieces back together, as well as relations between siblings. The pieces of our lives and our families have been scattered over the past two years, and we could do with some reassembly, and the spirit of joining families and neighbors rather than splitting them.

The Sun Conjunct Isis in Leo

Back to Egypt, the more immediate factor is that when the Sun enters Leo on Friday, July 22, the first thing it does is form a conjunction to the asteroid Isis. She was a major goddess dating back to the Old Kingdom, and likely dates back much further. She was later adopted by Greek and Roman civilization.

Isis was married to her brother Osiris, and had the responsibility of putting the pieces of him back together after he was murdered and scattered around Egypt by the god Set (a desert god also known as Typhon). Isis presides over the process of reassembling Osiris. She succeeds, with the exception of his penis, which was eaten by fish. So that is reconstructed using magic.

The mythology is endlessly complex, though both Isis and Osiris were extremely popular figures among the ordinary folk of Egypt. In a similar vein, Ceres (guardian of ordinary folk, and of democratic ideals) is in the very last degree of Cancer, also closely conjunct the Sun.

In astrology, the delineation of Isis is mostly about putting the pieces back together, as well as relations between siblings. The pieces of our lives and our families have been scattered over the past two years, and we could do with some reassembly, and the spirit of joining families and neighbors rather than splitting them.

Also in that very early zone of Leo is a point called Vulkanus (energy rising from the Earth) and Amor (the conditions on “unconditional” love).

I first got involved with New Age and Human Potential Movement matters in the mid-1980s, and then moved onto serious therapy studies, tantric studies and practicing astrology. I’ve never experienced a time when people seemed less curious about who they are. Nearly everything is now about survival and image. Curiosity about oneself seems to be an entirely forgotten endeavor.

Important Events During the Sun in Leo

The Sun and Mercury fire sign Leo make trine aspects to the group of fire planets already in fire sign Aries — Jupiter, Chiron and Eris, among others. That may let some pressure off of the self-actualization crisis that has been induced by electrical communication and full digital conditions. Leo is individualistic, and the fire trines will allow for a bit more of that. We need it.

However, part of how the pressure could be let off is by an increase in violent events that are facilitated by the opening created by the trine. There is no easy solution here.

I first got involved with New Age and Human Potential Movement matters in the mid-1980s, and then moved onto serious therapy studies, tantric studies and practicing astrology.

I’ve never experienced a time when people seemed less curious about who they are. Nearly everything is now about survival and image. Curiosity about oneself seems to be an entirely forgotten endeavor.

The Leo New Moon takes place Thursday, July 28 at about 2 pm EDT. It’s a friendly seeming chart as the Moon and Sun make a trine to Jupiter. The same day, Jupiter stations retrograde for the first time during this visit to Aries, and heads back toward Pisces.

But in this chart (and the days surrounding it), ever-sensitive Mercury, Venus and Mars all experience squares. Mercury is square Mars from Leo to Taurus; and Venus is square Chiron from Cancer to Aries. Mercury-Mars in fixed signs has the feeling of intractable anger.

Venus square Chiron from Cancer to Aries stirs the pot on gender dysphoria. Gender is the expression of sexuality. In natal charts with this aspect, there can be considerable confusion over matters of sexual orientation — and it’s being pumped by digital conditions. The utter chaos around sex, sexuality, gender, sexual orientation and sexual identity will get something of a new layer of revelation thanks to this aspect.

Sadly, neither the Mercury-Mars square nor the Venus-Chiron square are encouraging of the vulnerability needed to have a sincere conversation. And there are many ways to avoid such discussions, all of which come back to living a digital life rather than a physical one.

This is classic disinformation astrology — describing a storm of aggressive media chaos. To avoid the worst consequences of this aspect and the corresponding retrograde, we will need to be vigilant in a way that I have not seen that most people are capable of.

Mars Enters Gemini: Classic Disinformation Astrology

To my ear, the most significant event with the Sun in Leo is Mars ingressing Gemini —  the earliest event associated with Mars retrograde in Gemini, which takes place from Oct. 30, 2022 to January 12, 2023.

Over long years of doing this work, I now count the whole time that an inner planet is in the sign where it will be retrograde as the outer markers of that process.

This spans through March 25, 2023, when Mars finally leaves Gemini and enters Cancer. That combined with Saturn entering Pisces and Pluto entering Aquarius the same month portray another watershed moment, somewhat on the scale of January through March 2020.

There are several hot spots of the Mars retrograde process, including many weeks surrounding the station-retrograde, when Mars in Gemini is holding a long, challenging square to Neptune in Pisces. Depending on how close of an orb you use, this will occupy the entire (Northern Hemisphere) autumn season, from September through December.

This is classic disinformation astrology — describing a storm of aggressive media chaos, and misunderstandings between people — many of them intentional. To avoid the worst consequences of this aspect and the corresponding retrograde, we will need to be vigilant in a way that I have not seen that most people are capable of.

The majority of people attack those who make even the most common-sense observations, and are selling their souls (and those of their families, friends and neighbors) in the process. Mars retrograde in Gemini describes neighbors set against one another, disruption to commerce and aggression with viciously deceptive words and ideas. Does that sound familiar?

We have the choice of a creative life of community participation, or being slaves to a robot that most people don’t even recognize as such because it does not roll around in an aluminum can.

The Cult of Ignorance

Science fiction author Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) once said, “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

Asimov spent much of his career writing about robots. He was one of the first writers to address the issue from an ethical standpoint, with his laws of robotics, all of which seem to have already been broken.

We have the choice of a creative life of community participation, or being slaves to a robot that most people don’t even recognize as such because it does not roll around in an aluminum can.

Robotics is about our thought patterns. It is about turning oneself into an algorithm. It’s about out-sourcing memory, thinking, the structure of time, finding your way around the Earth plane, and even relating to people — all of this has been forced into binary code and artificial intelligence.

I will have more to say about this with the monthly article this coming Thursday.