The Lion in The Moon

8 July 2024

The Lion has such a beautiful and expressive face, but perhaps there is also a certain sadness. Who can know all that they think?

It was announced in February 2024 that after 150 years of dead lion marketing, Tate & Lyle were losing the dead lion from their tins of golden syrup , but why did they ever have a dead lion in the first place?

“Sweetness coming out of strength.” Golden syrup is not honey. It is a mixture of water, sugar and citric acid. But Abram Lyle had found inspiration in the Old Testament story of Samson, who had killed a young male lion, and came back a few days later to find the carcass had been occupied by bees, and they were already producing honey.

Sweetness out of strength. The Moon is in Leo today until early tomorrow, and really, this is nothing of particular significance in the grand scheme of astrology. Regular, ephemeral, two days or two and a half days per changing moon sign. A fleeting mood board. But today is also a day of a curious astronomical moment. More about that in a minute.

The major Tarot cards of Leo include Strength, major arcana 8, and also, though this tends to be treated as secondary, The Sun, the nineteenth major arcana card, doubling the Eight of Strength. Our moment in the Sun. The Sun card stands for Life itself.

Smith Waite Tarot

I think a lot about my second born child this time of year. Who he was. So strange to think he would now be 31 years old. But he died aged less than two hours old. What did it mean, such a short life? What could it mean? But maybe the meaning was and is for all of us, Life itself. A purpose to every season under heaven and “Everything perfect in its time.”

One does not need to be religious, and I am not, to feel the weight of those words. We called him Rowen, after a long dead uncle of his fathers, and also, the variation in spelling notwithstanding, in honour of the rowan tree, a tree of sacred protection, divinity and transformation. But I can be thankful and take comfort that at least my little one died in quiet and in peace, unlike the babies today in the blitzed children’s hospital in Kyiv, and the children in the other war torn places. May they dream every kind of happy dream in the dreaming time of Death. Because the dead do dream.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

This Leo moon may be understood as a poetic reminder, not only about outright fighting courage, but the unseen courage of everyday living. Quiet everyday courage, moral courage, resilience and fortitude. The kind that says whatever our burdens, we keep going, and even if we don't smile first, we smile back.

Smith Waite Tarot

The Strength card is also a pictorial message, signifying the tremendous endurance power of the Number 8 in a Number 8 year. And today, 8 July, 99 % of the world's human population gets to see sunlight at the same time.

But 8 July, as it turns out, is not the only date on which this happens.

This from EarthSky…”It seemed like an implausible claim that circulated the internet last year. And yet, our number crunchers confirmed it: 99% of the world’s population really do receive some degree of sunlight at 11:15 UTC on July 8 each year….”

READ ON FOR THE FULL STORY

There is a lion in the sun and moon. There are lions in the fields and hedgerows. There is a lion in our hearts. The star Regulus is the Heart of The Lion, and in medical astrology, the Lion of Leo rules the Heart.

Dandy-Lion

Dandelion's

Golden Mane

Ghostly

Greying

Casts away

Alight on Chance

To someday seed

And newly golden

Lionize again

-Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash

Thank you for reading.

Until next time : )