August 2024 new moon in Leo ushers in creative solutions for Mercury retrograde

The new moon arrives on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, at 7:14 a.m. and 12 degrees of Leo, bringing with it a rich opportunity for reflection and creation.

We’ll feel the effects of this lunation most acutely on the evening before and the day of.

New moon in August 2024

A new moon is a monthly rebirth, a waking up, and this time, we’re all being doused in the baptismal fires of the big cat. Leo rules the heart, and under these skies, themes of how we share, express and accept love are at the forefront, or solar plexus, if you will.

Meaning of the new moon in Leo

Leo is ruled by the sun, which is why lions sometimes (cough, more often than not) believe the universe revolves around them.

Leo is a bold b–ch. It may play drums, but never second fiddle. Leo is a gilded hambone, but it is also a die-hard romantic and a dedicated facilitator of joy.

Owing to this undeniable main-character energy, this new moon is more of a dramatic start than a demure beginning. We can aid and abet the energies of the new moon by being clear and confident. Initiate, create, get loud, take the solo, make the move.

Leo doesn’t mess with delicacy because why would an apex predator behave as anything other than an apex predator?

Let your inner child run footloose and fancy-free

Leo is the domain of the inner child, and in this sun-soaked sandbox, we get to connect to who we were, how we felt, what we made, and what made us laugh before the cruel mechanisms of generational trauma and the capitalist industrial complex told us that our art meant nothing and no one cared about the bluebird dream we harbored in our hearts.

Let that song be sung, my babies!

Leo serves to remind us not only of our essential, eternal selves but of the essential truth that we can always, always flip the script. This is the sign of happy endings and the blockbuster sequel. It invites us to go big and go for broke and lean hard into a plot twist, second act and/or redemptive character arch.

Conception and creation

Sidebar: Leo is also the domain of fertility, so if you’re trying to get knocked up, start or add to your lion pride, so to speak, now is the hour.

The new moon in Leo is forming a beneficial sextile with Mars and Jupiter in Gemini. Mars will amplify us during this new moon, offering the energetic equivalent of a game-time gas-up. Meanwhile, Jupiter will lend us his Midas touch, making us feel like all things are possible and triumph is probable.

Can dig.

The new moon coincides with the last day and final degrees of Venus’ catwalk in Leo. In Leo, our planet of love and attraction can really go all out. It’s big-time, bold moves, standing outside your house with a boombox blaring “In Your Eyes” energy.

Combined with the potent potential of the new moon, Venus commands us, in its last gasp, to be proud in and of love.

Readying the way for Mercury retrograde

We’re gonna need all the good juju we can beg, borrow or steal because the new moon in Leo ushers in Mercury’s retrograde in Virgo.

Leo is synonymous with self-concept and creation, and in relationship to this retrograde cycle, this new moon can help us clear past experiences that may have undermined our confidence or otherwise obstructed the full expression of our excellence.

Make room and make way for a new day.

‘The ecstasy of chaos’

In his poem “Ecstasy of Chaos,” divine poet and obvious lion Robert Graves, who was born on a Leo new moon, writes:

When the immense drugged universe explodes
In a cascade of unendurable color
And leaves us gasping naked,
This is no more than the ecstasy of chaos:
Hold fast, with both hands, to that royal love
Which alone, as we know certainly, restores
Fragmentation into true being.

May this new moon and the weeks to follow leave you brave and breathless, naked in your newness, drunk on neon color, deliriously alive and perfectly in tune with the rich, restorative chaos of love.

When is the next new moon?

The next new moon is Sept. 3, 2024, in the sign of Virgo.

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience