Leo New Moon

'I laugh in the face of danger!' said Simba.  Lions have been admired and feared since the dawn of time, and the Nemean Lion represented in the constellation of Leo was the real Lion King.  This month we explore the legends behind this fiery sign and ask ourself what is nature, and what is nurture? This month's mediation is a little unconventional and more of a mindfulness exercise involving an apple (or any other piece of seasonal fruit!) - so have it handy before you tune in.

Transcript

 Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Moon and you, the podcast that's all about the New Moon, the changing signs and how we can vibe with it to bring about positive changes in our own lives. My name's Jonah. I'm an Aussie living in South London, and I'm really glad that you're joining me today. The focus of this episode is on the sign of Leo, which the new Moon will be passing through shortly.

Leo's the fifth sign in the Zodiac. It's the second fire sign and it's ruled by the sun, which is nice and poetic. After last month's cancer sign was ruled by the moon. As always, I'll start with some quick observations about what I see around me in this wonderful city of London. I think the first thing that's caught my attention is the bird life, as always.

Uh, so this month I've seen a huge amount of crows, uh, going about their business in all of the parks and the streets around me. And what's really funny is I've seen lots of teenagers sort of come into their own and they're starting to lose their sort of spring downy feathers, um, in place of some.

Proper big, black, sleek adult ones. So what's strange here is that while Europe has literally been on fire, London has been unseasonably wet and quite chilly. And I've seen these crows do two things. So firstly, they love it when it rains because it means that all the snails and the slugs and the worms come out.

So I can see them having a nice little smorgasbord, um, in the, in the garden behind me. But when it is sunny, Because so many people are using the parks and, and making the most of the, the plentiful parks that we've got here. I can see that they're also basically following up the human picnics with their own picnic, eating all of our scraps.

The plant life is still really abundant at this time of year, so there's lots of fresh ivy growth at the tips of vines, and they seem to really enjoy the wet and the heat that we've had over the past month. And lots of flowers like Holly Hki getting tall and kind of gangly as we come. Closer towards the end of summer now, and uh, I've seen lots of those big purple buder uh, plants swinging about in the breeze, and they've been wonderful for attracting lots of insect life to the area.

I think it's true to say also that the insects are loving this time of year 'cause they don't seem to shut up. They're making a lot of noise day and night, uh, in the city. So I can't imagine how loud it is outside of the city. But if you were to go out, you would notice that there's lots of different berries and fruits in seasons.

So blackberries are still abundant and juris are coming through as well. And what's fun about this time of year is that there's lots of seasonal mushrooms coming, coming into season. So things like oyster mushrooms, Uh, uh, can be found out in the wild. And, um, there's a few other plants that are starting to really dominate the landscape as well.

So things like wild Angelica, uh, are growing tall and overshadowing some of the shrubs that they share space with too. So the month of August is named after yet another Roman Emperor. This one's name is Augustus, but the name refers to Nobility and Majesty, which is kind of fitting for Leo, which, you know, the symbol is, is a lion as we know.

Um, On the 1st of April, uh, we have loaf mass or lamos, which is the beginning of the harvest proper. So there's lots of little kits, traditions around like making corn dollies or brewing beer, which is a personal favorite of mine, but that's because it's the first time that things like potatoes can be dug up.

And, uh, some of the, the most important vegetable crops can be harvested. So, like, you know, one random example is corn. So I guess the big question is what's Leo all about? And as usual, we'll start with the Greeks because there's just such a richness of mythology and law there. Uh, but you'll remember from last month that we touched on the trials of Hercules and how that poor crab, uh, sort of was a side, not even a side character really, but a side character in the story of the hydra.

And that was the second trial of Hercules. The, the sign of Leo represents the Nemean lion, which was actually the first of Hercules' trials. So as I explained last month, and just to recap a quick bit, Hercules was one of many illegitimate children of Zeus, and he was on a quest for retribution and resolve after.

Being sort of dispelled into a frenzy by his stepmother, Hera and, uh, murdering his children and his wife. It's all pretty dark, but the naan lion was the first creature that he had to face as part of his 10 to 12 trials to attain redemption and to sort of secure his place amongst his godly peers. The Nian lion was, wasn't an average lion by any means.

In fact, it was the child of two titans who were sort of part of the family of original gods. The, the titans were called Typhon and Echidna, and they birthed monsters left, right, and center all around the world. And one of them, uh, according to the original myth, was this, this majestic nian lion. And unlike its kin, so the scaly hydra, and you know, the tree had a dog that guards the underworld.

The, the, nemean line was a creature of exceptional beauty and majesty. It was still ginormous in size. But it was coated in gold fur with teeth and nails as sharp as swords and sleek muscles, and a main that was, you know, as bright and blue mini as the stars. So it was even from a little baby cub. Such a beautiful site to behold.

The little thing was so beautiful in fact. That it caught the eye of two exceptionally powerful goddesses. The first being Hera, who as we know is the wife of Zeus and rules over the domains of marriage and things like that, which is why she really does not like Hercules, who, uh, was one of Zeus's many illegitimate and met children.

Um, and the other goddess that that really took a shining towards this little lion cub was the moon goddess Selene. So in some of the older retellings of this story, uh, while Celine wasn't sort of the, the, uh, biological parent of the nemean lion, she did play a really active and important role in raising it from a lion cub.

And then as the stories went on, as the stories changed a bit, and there are some retellings of this myth that say that Celine was actually the, the true mother of the Nemean lion. In those same stories, uh, there is a bit of a recurring theme of the child being born by Celine at the request of her who at this stage in sort of the patriarchal retellings of these original myths, uh, had become quite a petty and jealous figure in all of these stories.

And according to these sort of subsequent retellings of the myth, it's Hera that instructed Celine to sort of birth or create this fierce and monster because Hera essentially wanted a trick up her sleeve because of Zeus's constant affairs. And, um, carryings on that offended her name, especially as the sort of mother and queen of marriage and all that, all that entails.

Regardless of its origins, though the lion terrorized the region of nemia capturing maidens to lure aspiring heroes into his den way. He'd snack on them as well. And sadly, for all of his foes, his fur was impenetrable. Now, some say this was a gift from the goddess who raised him from Celine. Others say that he was born this way as a weapon of sort of terror and fear, depending on the retelling of the myth.

Either way. When Hercules cried out for absolution after committing his terrible deeds, Herra saw yet another opportunity to destroy him. And here's how we got to this point, to this first trial of Hercules. He needed to defeat the nemean lion with fur that was impenetrable to any human weapon. So our Hercules went towards nemean where he found the lion lying behind a cave.

The battle was ferocious. When Hercules fired arrows, they snapped against the lion's fur. By contrast, the razor sharp claws and teeth of the lion cut deep into Hercules' flesh releasing lashings of blood. It was a fearsome sight. The son of the Gods Versa monster, who was impervious to attack, Hercules was tenacious, though he needed to prove himself, not only to absolve himself from his sins, but to secure his place among the gods.

So he kept at it. He kept fighting. Eventually to seek reprieve, or potentially to seek a home advantage, the lion retreated into its den and Hercules noticed that there was one entrance in and another entrance out as the lion retreated to the dark crevices of the cave, which it knew so well. Hercules jumped up and quickly grabbed a handful of boulders to block one of the entrances to the cave.

He knew if he didn't trap the lion and make it vulnerable, that there was only one way this was going to end, and he didn't wanna be dinner. So he placed himself at the second entrance, putting the lion into an inescapable trap. Herc knew that his weapons were useless, so when he saw the lion preparing to pounce, Hercules himself crouched on all fours like a lion dug his feet into the stone and tackled the lion to the ground.

Straddling its back. He then wrapped his bare hands around the lion's neck and squeezed for what seemed like an eternity. Until eventually, the NemeanLion, this majestic and powerful creature surrendered its last breath. Hercules was victorious. He'd won, he'd survived the Nemean lion and taken its life himself, which probably doesn't seem like a surprise if you've listened to the last episode.

As the lion's still body lay on the ground, Hercules admired the golden color of its fur, the beauty within it, the way that light refracted from each and every hair. Hercules pulled out a knife to skin the beast. However, as he held the blade up to the fur, all it did was warp and bend against it. Even in death, the fur was impenetrable.

It was then that the mighty Goddess Athena appeared before him, the goddess of war and strategy. She was impressed by Hercules, by his Witt, by his strength, and she pointed towards the claw of the lion had clicked. And using the claw, Hercules was able to skin the lion, removing its pelt and create for himself a cloak.

Harris's plan had backfired. Not only had he destroyed a creature of magnificent beauty, not only had he survived a fierce monster, but he now had a cloak that was impenetrable to weapons. So in honor of the nemean lion, with all its beauty and all its terror, she placed the constellation of Leo in the sky so that we could all remember its sacrifice.

It's quite a sad story for the lion, but if we look back even further at Babylonian origins of a lot of these myths, the name of the constellation of Leo was her U GU LA, which translates to the great carnivore. This constellation was also represented as a lion, which to our early ancestors would've been really terrifying and fierce and beasts.

It wouldn't be uncommon for this apex predator to snack on a friend or two, I'm sure, back in the day. So context is really important. I'm also mindful that in these parts of the world, it's a time of extreme heat and pestilence. So what better creature is there to represent that than the Great Carnival or the lion?

In Babylonian and Mesopotamian culture, lions were sacred to the goddess Ishtar or Innana, who was the goddess of many things. Uh, chief of which was the, was beauty and war. But other accounts link this lion to hum Baba, who's a fearsome fire breathing monster that the Gods themselves feared and features in a number of different stories, including the epic of Gilgamesh.

The ancient Egyptians linked the constellation of Leo to the jackal and to the God. Anubis, which both have connections and connotations with death. It's also the time of the flooding of the Nile. So it brings with it that paradox of beauty and destruction and I guess the magnificent power of the natural world to make or break our own destiny.

Today we associate Leo with attributes like bravery, showmanship, and I guess a touch of danger. And all of these things ring true in in these myths and these stories, but I think there's also something about nature versus nurture. There's definitely something about the quest for survival, and I think there's an apt mind in all of these that we're all essentially just animals when it comes down to it.

The Nian lion was beautiful and it was strong. It was feared by all, but ultimately it was just acting in line with its nature. Of course, the lion has to wait. Does that make it a monster? I can't help but feel like he was a bit of a pawn in a greater game of politics and ego. And it's like that feeling you get when you watch some David Attenborough documentary where you want the antelope to survive the lion's attack.

But then you also know if the lion doesn't catch it, you don't want her cubs to starve. So I think there's a lesson behind all of this, and sometimes we just have to be a bit brutal to survive. And when it comes down to it, we need to honor our mammalian nature. I also find it kind of poetic that Hercules' bow, his arrow and his skinning knife were all useless in this quest, and ultimately in the end, he had to rely solely on his own predatorial instincts and to take fate literally into his own hands using just his strength.

While most of us don't have the same threats to our daily existence as our ancestors, I think Leo is a timely reminder that we're all part of the circle of life. Uh, nice little reference to the Lion King there. That was definitely accidental. Um, but let's not dwell too much on the negatives here. I.

Think there's something about how we can use this season and this time to welcome the first fruits of the harvest by eating nourishing food and enjoying time in the sun with our friends and and family. Appreciating the simple pleasures of human existence and being a human animal, which we all are. So this month's meditation is a little bit unconventional and I guess it's more of a mindfulness activity.

So what I want you to do is to find a time that suits you to do this because you'll need an apple and about five minutes. Um, it doesn't have to be an apple if you don't like apples. Uh, just any piece of seasonal fruit. And what I'm gonna ask you to do is to pause this and when you're ready and have some time and space and a piece of fruit in front of you, come back to me.

Find a place that's comfortable and sit with your back straight. Holding your apple in between your two hands.

Take a few moments to slow and steady your breath. Breathing to the count of four. Breathe in one. 2, 3, 4. Hold, 2, 3, 4, out. 2, 3, 4.

In, 2, 3, 4. Hold, 2, 3, 4, out. 2, 3, 4. Repeat this a number of times. 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4. 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4. Now with your eyes closed, draw your attention to the feel of the apple skin against your skin slowly and purposefully. Move the apple between your hands, making contact with the surface and feeling its smoothness,

soak in every feature, every bump, every waxy bit. Its curvature, its shape.

Now, open your eyes and hold it up towards your face. Look at the color of the skin,

look at it in detail. Use your eyes to soak it in.

Appreciate its shape.

Appreciate its unique form, knowing that no other apple, that was no other apple that is and no other apple that will be, has exactly the same skin as this. Apple has exactly the same shape as this apple.

Now bring the apple closer to your face still and hold it towards your nose.

Breathe in its scent, deeply putting all of your effort and all of your concentration into its fragrance

smell. Its freshness, its sweetness, and its woodiness.

And bring it closer again, press the up against your lips and again, draw attention to its feel. Draw attention to its fragrance, and when you're ready, open your mouth and take a bite. Paying attention to the sound it makes and the taste. As it moves across your tongue,

hold this focus and attention as you chew the apple

being totally present with the apple

and totally present with your senses.

Take your time enjoying the apple and enjoy it as long as you want and need before you even think about doing anything else. But for me, I'll return.

So for the rest of this Leo season, there are a few things you can really do to connect with the energy of this moon. So the first, and probably the most obvious one after that story is to pamper yourself. So give yourself a face mask. Go get a haircut, treat yourself to a fake tan, or whatever it is that makes you feel pretty.

Um, basically what I want you to do is channel the beauty and grace of the nemean lion. The next thing to do is to consciously incorporate seasonal foods into your eating patterns. It's a really great time of year where lots of tasty natural foods are in abundance, so take a moment to appreciate the freshness that we've got while it lasts.

The third thing to do is to make sure that you're spending some time in the sun while we have it. Leo's ruled by the sun after all. So do make sure that you've got some time and space in your diary to soak up some rays and. Do what I'm about to do, which is go out and meet your mates in the park for a pint or two while it's still bright.

Next month we'll be getting into the sign of Virgo. So until then, look after yourself and enjoy the rest of the summer.