Leo New Moon
- Lori Barnes
- Jul 23
- 10 min read
Re-Ignite Your Inner Spark
New Moon Dates and Times
Thursday, 24 July 2025
3:11 PM East Coast USA
12:11 PM West Coast USA
9:11 PM Rome, Italy
2 Degrees Leo
Leo New Moon Overview
The Leo New Moon arrives on July 24, bringing a creative reset with Mercury Retrograde in a complex late July sky. While Leo season typically encourages confidence, creativity, and increased self-expression, this lunation has a few curveballs attached. The New Moon is exactly opposite Pluto and in tight aspect to Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. With several retrogrades in motion, this lunation is best paired with reflection and creative realignment.
The Leo New Moon is symbolically like a creative spark. Think about what you’re prioritizing in creative endeavors, and which parts of your creative identity are ready to shift. Old roles and unfinished ideas may return with new meaning.
Use this New Moon phase, alongside Mercury retrograde, to revisit the creative projects you’re still passionate about, review what’s blocking your creative flow, and prepare the space for your creative inner fire to flow freely when Mercury goes direct in mid-August.
Understanding Leo: Element, Modality, and Expression
Leo is the sign that steps into the spotlight to express the inner fire that fuels creation, courage, and confidence. Represented by the Lion, Leo energy is regal, radiant, and expressive. It thrives when it’s seen, heard, and appreciated.
As a Fire sign, Leo operates from instinct and inspiration. It brings warmth, enthusiasm, and conviction to everything it touches. Fire signs are proactive, and Leo channels that energy into creative pursuits, creative roles, and heart-centered expression. Whether on a stage or behind the scenes, Leo’s drive is to create something meaningful and leave a mark that shines.
Leo is a Fixed sign, giving it staying power, loyalty, and a deep commitment to its creative path. While this can lead to inflexibility or resistance to change, it also fuels the persistence required to bring ideas to life. Leo’s ruling planet is the Sun, the source of light and life. That solar rulership gives this sign its natural charisma and a psychological need to express itself and feel valued in return.
Under this Leo New Moon, reconnect with your inner creator, the part of you that burns to express, lead, or light up a space simply by being fully yourself.
The Bottom Line: This is a powerful time to honor your creative spark and take pride in what makes you shine.
Leo New Moon Ruler: Sun
The Sun rules the sign of Leo, which means this New Moon is infused with solar power and radiant self-expression. When the Sun is at home in its own sign, its influence becomes especially vibrant. This adds energy, focus, and a strong desire to create something that reflects your inner light.
The Sun represents vitality, life force, and the core of who we are. In Leo, this expression becomes creative, courageous, and centered on personal pride and recognition. This solar energy illuminates the part of your chart where Leo resides, energizing it with passion and a drive to create.
Even with this solar strength, the broader landscape of this lunation is influenced by retrogrades and outer planet activity, reminding us that self-expression may arise from deep reflection, unexpected changes, or a need to revisit unfinished business before charging forward.
This New Moon, take some time to connect with your creative vision and explore what is working, and what needs realigning. Whether you're launching something new, reclaiming center stage, or simply giving yourself permission to shine, this is a time to nurture your inner fire.
The Bottom Line: When the Sun rules the Moon, self-expression becomes the seed of creation. Let your purpose guide the way.
Leo New Moon Symbol: The Lion
Symbolized by the Lion, Leo expresses its powerful nature through confidence, presence, and creative vitality. The Lion moves with intention and radiance, commanding space with ease and a natural sense of majesty. Here are some ways this symbol reflects the energy of the Leo New Moon.
Commanding Presence: The Lion naturally stands out, just as Leo energy draws attention through self-expression, charisma, and creative leadership.
Protective: Lions are loyal to their pride and protective of their role within it. Leo energy defends what it loves and takes responsibility for its creative and relational domain.
Instinctive: The Lion doesn’t hesitate when it senses an opening. Leo energy moves with confidence and trusts its instincts when it's time to act.
Noble: As the traditional ruler of the animal kingdom, the Lion reflects Leo’s sense of dignity, pride, and the desire to shine with personal flair and a magnetic presence.
Expressive: The Lion’s roar is bold and unmistakable. Leo channels that same dramatic impulse into creative expression, storytelling, and captivating performance.
Under this Leo New Moon, honor what makes you feel strong, alive, and lit from within.
The Bottom Line: The Lion reminds us that true strength shines through creative expression, inspiration, and inner majesty.
Leo Energetics and Shadow
When Leo energy is strong, the desire to be seen, appreciated, and create takes center stage. This can inspire incredible leadership, warmth, and passion, but if thrown off balance, it can tip into ego-driven behavior or a need for constant validation.
Leo’s fixed fire can become stubborn or overly focused on being in control. In the pursuit of recognition or personal vision, there may be moments when pride gets in the way of collaboration, or when dramatic reactions overshadow genuine connection. The same charisma that attracts attention can, if unchecked, become overpowering, condescending, or self-centered.
This energy thrives on expression, but it also benefits from reflection. Taking time to step back and check in with your deeper motivations can help you lead and create with integrity. Self-awareness is the key to keeping your fire constructive rather than consuming.
This Leo New Moon is a good time to notice where confidence becomes control, or where performance masks vulnerability. By steadying your inner fire and staying present with those around you, you allow your creativity to uplift rather than isolate.
Leo and Aquarius
To understand Leo, it’s helpful to look at the sign opposite it, Aquarius.
Leo expresses itself through passion, creativity, and a desire to be recognized. It thrives when it can share what makes it special and receive appreciation for its contributions. Aquarius expresses itself through originality and innovation, often bringing new ideas or unconventional approaches that serve a broader purpose.
Leo engages with the world through warmth, flair, and a desire to offer something personal and inspirational. It thrives on creativity, celebration, and the experience of being fully seen. Aquarius engages through originality, intellect, and a drive to improve systems. It thrives on sharing ideas, questioning norms, and contributing to a better future for the collective.
One seeks fulfillment through personal expression and shared enthusiasm. The other is driven to bring something new into the world that benefits the larger whole. Leo contributes through creativity and presence. Aquarius contributes through vision and innovation.
Leo is centered on the individual, with the self as a source of vitality and inspiration. Aquarius is centered on the collective, with the group as a catalyst for change and progress.
Leo New Moon Aspects
This Leo New Moon is more than a spark of creative fire. It sits at the center of a dynamic and intense sky, forming connections with every outer planet and activating a larger pattern of collective change. While Leo usually encourages forward movement and bold expression, this particular lunation asks for patience, perspective, and reflection.
With Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn all in conversation with the New Moon, and most of them retrograde, the energy may feel unstable, inspiring, or even overwhelming. The key is to reflect, review, and resolve unfinished business. This is a time to review recent progress, address errors, and repair cracks in the foundations of important relationships and projects, so you can move forward with confidence.
Sun and Moon opposite Pluto
This New Moon forms a powerful and exact opposition to Pluto, opening a window into deeper emotional truths. Power dynamics, hidden motivations, or unresolved issues may rise to the surface, offering a chance to face what has been buried. This aspect can stir intensity, but it also creates an opportunity to work through past experiences that are shaping your present. Awareness is the first step toward reclaiming your power.
Sun and Moon sextile Uranus
Uranus brings sudden insight and unexpected emotional shifts, especially around your sense of identity and self-expression. There may be surprising conversations, realizations, or events that help you break free from an outdated version of yourself. Stay flexible. The breakthroughs that come now may feel disruptive, but they carry the potential to unlock new creative momentum.
Sun and Moon trine Saturn
Saturn’s retrograde trine adds stability and long-term focus to the New Moon’s creative spark. This is an opportunity to reconnect with goals that have lasting value and make progress through consistency, rather than urgency. While progress may feel slower, it’s more likely to hold. Look for ways to recommit to what matters most without forcing the timeline.
Sun and Moon trine Neptune
Neptune dissolves boundaries, loosens attachments, and blurs the line between what’s real and what’s imagined. In retrograde, its effects can feel even more diffuse, as if solid ground is temporarily out of reach. This aspect may stir dreams, visions, or a longing for something beyond the tangible, but it can be hard to know what to trust. Because Saturn is also involved in this lunation, there is more structure available than Neptune typically provides on its own. Give your ideas room to unfold without rushing to solidify them.
Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus forming a Great Sextile
Behind the scenes of this New Moon, a rare and slow-building Great Sextile is forming between Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus, all in early degrees. These outer planets don’t move quickly, so this alignment will echo across months and years, not just days.
While the Leo New Moon and Sun are only briefly activating this pattern, they illuminate a larger sea change that is already in motion. Collective structures are shifting, and for some, personal breakthroughs or reckonings may begin to surface. You may find yourself sensing a change that doesn’t yet have words, or standing at the edge of something that feels bigger than your current role. Watch what’s unfolding. Even subtle signs could point to long-term transformation.
These aspects suggest that while inspiration is high, so is the potential for disruption, confusion, or emotional depth that takes time to process. There’s wisdom in pausing. Let what’s rising show you where you’re ready to grow, create, or step into your power. Just give it space to become clear. The fire is there. Let it build with focus, not urgency.
Check out the July Business Outlook for the list of planetary transits this month.
Recast Yourself: Leo New Moon Ritual
Theme: Reclaiming your creative identity by honoring who you’ve been and choosing who you’re becoming.
The Leo New Moon forms aspects to every outer planet, with four planets in retrograde, creating a powerful moment to connect with your creative fire and reawaken parts of yourself that may have been quiet or on hold. This lunation is about kindling the fire that lives within you, honoring your evolution, and choosing how you want to express yourself next. Leo reminds us that life is a stage, and you have the power to direct your next act and decide which role to play.
What you’ll need
Past creative materials, anything you’ve made or dreamed up that carries your imprint. This could be a poem, recipe, sketch, musical idea, tech solution, lesson plan, business idea, journal entry, or part of a project that was never finished.
Paper and pen.
Creative mood-setters like music, essential oils, stage lighting, colorful fabrics, or a costume piece. Anything that evokes a sense of playful self-expression. Your ritual space can be bold and theatrical or intimate and sacred. Make it yours.
Set the Stage
Choose a space where you feel free to explore. Activate your creative energy with music, a favorite scent, a dramatic lighting setup, or anything that helps you feel present and inspired. Take a few deep breaths, drop into the moment, and begin.
Revisit Your Creative Past
Spend time with your past creations. These may be tucked into old notebooks, saved on your hard drive, or living in the back of your mind. Let go of judgment. You are not looking for polish. You are looking for fire. What still excites you? What part of you made this, and what does it reveal?
Name the Role You’ve Been Playing
Reflect on the patterns you see. What creative archetype or character have you embodied until now? Is it The Overcommitted Giver, The Background Visionary, The Cautious Performer? The Imposter? The Performer? The Magician? The Teacher? The Musician? The Poet? Write it down as both a character and an archetype that captures their essence.
Choose Your New Role
Now, choose the next role you’re ready to step into. This is not about pretending to be someone you’re not, it’s about becoming more of who you truly are. Name this new version of yourself and the archetype it aligns with. Let it be bold, fun, expansive, or quietly powerful. You get to decide. Whatever it is, make it a positive version of yourself that feels true to who you are.
Write Your Monologue
Let this new role speak. Write a short monologue, speech, or declaration for this role. Include how role expresses itself, what it cares about, what it’s here to create or lead.
What archetype best represents this part of me?
What does it look and feel like when I perform this role?
What does this role deeply care about?
What does creativity look like in this role?
What impact will this role have on others?
Take the Stage
Read your monologue aloud, like a proclamation. Stand if it feels right. Speak to a mirror, or an imagined audience. Let your voice carry your intention into the space around you. This is your dress rehearsal, your creative initiation, and a promise to yourself.
Carry It Forward
Now that you’ve developed your new creative role, spend the remainder of Mercury retrograde preparing for what comes next. Look at what needs to be restructured in your current commitments to support this new role. Is your schedule aligned? Are your tools and environments ready? What patterns need to shift to let this part of you take the lead?
When Mercury moves direct later in August, begin aligning your actions with this new role. This may include revising your website, outlining a new project, setting boundaries around your time, refining your creative space, or mapping out your next moves.
This Leo New Moon offers the chance to spark the inner fire of who you are when you’re creating from your core, not for applause, but for the joy of expression itself. You don’t need to rush the transformation, let it unfold according to your own timeline.
Leo New Moon Inspirational Quote
‘The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.’ — Carl Jung
Wrap-Up: Leo New Moon
This Leo New Moon brings a potent blend of creative fire, tension, and perspective. With every outer planet involved and multiple retrogrades in motion, this lunation carries the potential for disruptions and shifts in your creative voice and the deeper motivations behind your self-expression.
Connect with what energizes you and notice what no longer fits. Some truths may come to light. Some roles may feel complete, while new ones are rising. Let that awareness shape how you move forward. There’s no need to force decisions, outcomes, or answers. Return to what inspires you. Your creative fire is an eternal flame burning inside of you. Let it rise.
