Note to Readers: I will be a guest on the Diva Carla program Monday at 5 pm ET. The context will be the Vesta New Moon and the topic will be an honest conversation about sex. You will have the opportunity to listen live and toward the end of the discussion we will open up the lines to listeners. I believe the system can handle 100 live participants. If you cannot listen, the program will be archived both on Planet Waves FM and on Diva Carla’s website. Join us live on the phone by calling (206) 402-0100, then enter PIN code: 477707# It is also possible to attend via webinar, however, only those who call in by phone will be able to participate in the discussion. — efc
August combines the passion of the fire signs with the empathy of the water signs. Let’s start with the two lunations — the Leo New Moon of Aug. 6 and the Aquarius Full Moon of Aug. 20.
The Leo New Moon is nothing short of a magnificent chart. In the Northern Hemisphere, the New Moon takes place at Lammas or Lúnasa — the First Harvest. It’s the midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, one of the eight most potent moments of the solar year. Those points include the solstices and equinoxes (the quarter days) and the midpoints of those locations (the cross-quarter days).
The New Moon is conjunct the asteroid Vesta. The brightest asteroid, and also one of the most complex, it describes some of humanity’s most profound gifts and its deepest shadows. Her theme is service, though when Vesta is in the picture so prominently, there’s the question of whether the needs of one who offers himself or herself are met. Vesta seems to insist on total devotion, though we walk the line between that and sacrifice.
Vesta’s symbol is a chevron with a flame and is symbolic to the goddess Vesta, the Vestal Virgins of Roman times, and the sacred flame they would tend and never let go out. The real devotion that the astrological Vesta represents is to the inner fire that we all carry, the creative and sexual passion at the core of everyone.
Yet because our culture tends to corrupt the topics that Vesta honors, she can represent a diversity of shadow themes — shame, for instance, or the obsession with appearance and glamour — and that in turn can point to where we are distracted from true inner devotion.