Mercury Conjoins Jupiter — The Knowing Heart Knows Best

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Happy Friday, everybody! Today we're going to take a look at Mercury in Leo conjunct Jupiter in Leo over the weekend. This transit follows on the heels of a solar eclipse in Leo, the Jupiter-Pluto opposition, a lot of Leo Aquarius dynamics playing out in the sky.

But we're going to talk about this transit specifically how to get into the heart because this is a transit that speaks I think quite specifically about heart centeredness in mind speech action and I think this would be an interesting episode hopefully you find it useful as well as learning something about the archetypal combination of Mercury and Jupiter.

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You get the recording always, and so if you can't make the live webinar, you could always catch up with the recording later. We're going to take a really deep dive into Jupiter in this talk. All right, those are my announcements for the day. Let's turn our attention to Nicep. So, of course, that's our affiliate software program.

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We'll be on for about an hour and a half with the guys talking about some of the updates to the program. Anyway, let's now look at the aspect that's forming. You can see right here there's Mercury and Jupiter getting together in Leo, and if we move this forward just a day, you'll see that tomorrow, Saturday, August 15, they conjoin.

Their three degrees of separation passes by Monday, so we have a weekend that is all about the Mercury Jupiter conjunction, and that's informing what's happening astrologically right now. Venus is also starting to harmonize with Jupiter, the benefic. So we do have, I think, some nice benefic energy around this.

But what I want to talk about today specifically are five things to watch for as I always do, but this list is born of considering some of the shadows of Leo and some of the shadows of Mercury Jupiter in Leo. So what I'm going to give you are a list of five shadows and how to move into the heart when these shadows arise.

I titled today's talk "The Knowing Heart Knows Best," because many different traditions around the planet speak of the heart as the actual mind of the living spirit soul. So, if we're all eternal beings transmigrating, then the metaphorical heart, connected sort of to the physical organ, but the metaphorical heart, the symbolic heart, is the seat of our real gnosis, our real knowing.

The heart, the wise heart knows best. If that makes sense to you on an internal level, then good. I'm not honestly sure how to explain it other than that when you know something in your heart of hearts. See, I'm touching my heart. There is this sense of there being an illumination, enlivenment, vitality, strength, courage, conviction, but it's also a knowing that avoids a lot of these shadows that we're going to talk about today.

Specifically, because it doesn't have to be anything more than this very simple place of knowing. So, what are the things to watch for when it comes to the shadows, and how do we move into the heart given them? The first shadow to watch for with Mercury, Jupiter, and Leo is overcompensation.

So I was thinking about this list, and I was thinking about as a natal Venus in Leo. I'm thinking a lot about my own experience, the North Node in Leo, and so on and so forth, and kind of what shadows I've noticed as a member of the Leo Society.

And I'm sure all of you out there who know Leos or have some Leo energy in your chart can relate to this, but one of them is overcompensation. A lot of this happened for me, at least. I mean, some of it's still part of adult life, right? But a lot of it for me was like teenage years, you know, college years, kind of trying to find your sense of confidence in the world.

Overcompensation occurs, in my opinion, when we feel uncertain, anxious, unseen, inadequate, and so we respond by becoming louder, bigger, brighter, more impressive than we actually feel inside. And this is so terrible, right? That we act this way, and even though it's coming from a maybe a hurt place or an anxious or insecure, uncertain place.

People perceive it, and it makes us look even worse. You know what I mean? It makes us look even worse, because people are like, "Well, that's not real," and instead of overcoming the insecurity or inadequacy, we end up looking like we're full of bluster and bravado, you know. We're being too big and dramatic.

The reason we're doing so is maybe because we don't feel great about ourselves inside, and that's a sad wound, you know. It's like it's really hard, kind of heartbreaking. But the overcompensation gets us into trouble. So, Mercury and Jupiter in Leo, thinking about the mind, we can speak bigger, present bigger in order to try to protect the heart from some kind of vulnerability that would actually be much more rewarding to step into.

So we overcompensate, we exaggerate something about what we know or what we've done, or we may exaggerate just how happy or excited we are about something, or we may act like we have more authority in a situation than we do, or more certainty than we really do. Right? All ideas related, so it's organized around insecurity.

Usually, that's the idea. That's I feel pretty. Do I feel confident about that? I don't know. So there's something about Mercury and Jupiter and Leo. The heart knows. How do you get into the heart? Don't be afraid of being small. That doesn't mean you are small. It means don't be afraid of it.

Because when you're not afraid of it, then it doesn't matter if you're big or small. Because the fearlessness is the heart-centeredness. You know what I'm saying, the knowing heart doesn't confuse vulnerability with weakness and then overcompensate. I am not afraid of being vulnerable. That doesn't mean I'm not vulnerable. It just means I'm not afraid of being vulnerable. That's the heart move.

Genuine Leonic confidence, courage should be able to say, and this is again just speaking from my own experience. I don't know. I need help. I may be wrong. It's embarrassing considering how big Leo energy likes to be. How regularly Leo energy has to come back to humility.

Like yes, it's okay to carry that big sunshine, but you have to. If there's not a thread of humility within it that is discernible that people can feel, then people won't trust that it's real. You'll be like a showman. It's not about the heart. It's not about being the biggest, brightest in the room.

It's about inhabiting yourself with a kind of fearless courage, just as you are, which includes the mess. Okay, the second one on my list is related. Big declarations. I don't think it's a bad thing to occasionally make a big dramatic statement with your clothing or with your words or your ideas or your art or your love.

You know, I like the theatricality of Mercury Jupiter in Leo, a big announcement or a big oath or a promise or something like a manifesto is like Mercury Jupiter in Leo. Sometimes we, in other words, sometimes the courageous heart does those things and inhabits them fully and wisely and beautifully.

I'm thinking, for example, of Ethan Hawke standing on his desk saying "Oh, Captain, my Captain" to Robin Williams, as Robin Williams was being unfairly removed from his position in Dead Poets Society. It's very theatrical, very grandiose, very big, super heart centered. So there's room for this. Don't get me wrong, but here's the problem: how many times have you made a big declaration with something you couldn't follow through on?

You know, like so we have to be careful because the knowing heart may know a direction to go in, but you have to take it one step at a time, and earn your way into the direction you're taking. Like, prove it to yourself. Prove it to anyone who's watching you.

Like, yeah, I'm gonna. If you make a big declaration that I'm gonna, I don't know, I'm going to go to the gym and get in shape or something. Well, you have then, in some ways, it would be better to just go and do it. You know, you can see how sometimes the big declaration gets us into trouble, because it sets up the experience in terms of an audience that has to see that we've done what we've said we will do.

And so sometimes the big declaration needs to be more internal. I know that when I was a teenager and I was dating and getting in a fight, like and I felt bad because maybe I was a jerk. I'd make big grand declarative gestures, and as I've grown into my marriage over 15 years, I'm like, it's actually the small things that matter more when you mess up.

For both Ashley and I, I appreciate it when she makes a dramatic apology. It's like it can be very romantic, and I'm sure she does when I do too. But you know what it's like when you're in a relationship with someone. The big grand thing doesn't mean a lot if you're not doing the little small things every day.

So, to announce, like one of the things I also reflect on is how often in my younger days, especially when social media was just coming out, how I would process my big transformative experiences very publicly. Nothing wrong with that. I appreciate hearing. I like the humanity of hearing other people and sharing stories, but sometimes it was almost again like why don't I just go and inhabit that transformation and let it speak for itself?

Does this, in other words, does this basic thing I'm seeing here with Mercury and Jupiter and Leo is like, what does the heart do? Well, maybe there's a big dramatic gesture or statement that's appropriate and truly heart centered, but does this need to be announced or does it need to be practiced? Does it need to be embodied? It's just something to watch for.

So I also put grandstanding. So I think about this when I was in graduate school. Okay, this is what comes to my mind in graduate school. We go out for dinner as a cohort, so like all of us graduate students would go out. And I remember in the first weeks of grad school, we were all getting to know each other.

Like there was a lot of grandstanding over food. Like, what have you read? Where did you go to school? What have you done? Who do you like? Like what band do you like? Oh, you like that band? Have you heard of this band? And I started perceiving in myself that a lot of what I was doing and saying was like, sort of like trying to demonstrate I'm interesting, I'm intelligent, you know, I'm important, or I deserve to be a special member of this group of students, you know.

And it was pretty. We were a really diverse group of students, all from different walks of life. But we were all doing this, you know. And then I think about like the second year of my program, we'd all settled in, and it's like, yeah, everyone's shit smells, you know. You know what I mean? Like no one's particularly more interesting than the other.

And I guess what I'm trying to say is that you have to be careful of trying to take an opportunity to prove something or display something about yourself that's rooted in insecurity. So it kind of gets exaggerated. Like, look at how kind I am, or look at how smart I am, or look at how giving I am, or you know, here's what I've done that really shows that I'm a great person.

I think there are moments for celebrating each other, for sharing accomplishments and things that we've done that make you know. It's like, how could we not? My daughters bring me their drawings. Like, look at what I made, and we need to do that for each other too. It's okay to say, look at what I am, look at what I did, look at what I made.

But we do have to be careful. The shadow of this conjunction would be, the healthy Leo radiates naturally, not with this kind of let me force something good about myself onto you because I'm needing it to be recognized and validated. So it's kind of like asking ourselves, like pausing and saying, who or what is being served right now by this demonstration, by this performance, by this display, whatever it is.

And if it's honestly, if there's something else at the center that we're serving, I think that's great. But if it's us at the center and it's rooted in insecurity or fear of inadequacy or something like that, this is a core wound for Leo. Moving into the knowing heart is knowing when to stand forth without making everything a referendum on our worth, or our importance, or our dignity, or our nobility, or our value.

So much of this, by the way, so much of Leo really reminds me of like watching my girls develop their egos and the health of their egos. You know what I mean? And I think about myself as a little boy and how my ascendant ruler Venus in Leo. It's like so much of that. My growing up experience was about these fears, like you know, and I think Leo just deals with that.

Anyhow, self righteousness. Mercury conjunct Jupiter in particular can have very strong convictions, ideas, philosophies, beliefs, religious, spiritual, philosophical, political, ideological, whatever they are, and so self righteousness would be basically just that. What makes me good is the strength of my conviction. What makes me honorable or noble, and actually none of that's true.

I think about Mister Rogers a lot because as I'm raising my kids, I realize like there's a lot about him that was quite sagely, you know. As I remember him as a kid, he was just Mr. Rogers. But as an adult, I'm like, there's a lot that I really appreciate about his model of teaching children. A lot of it I struggle to embody, you know, and that's what makes it really impressive to me.

Is like there are living beings out there who can do this, anyhow. But he had strong beliefs, and yet you wouldn't ever get the feeling that he thought his self worth was rooted in how loudly or dramatically he proclaimed them to the world. You know, I think about when I get on about something that I believe in, and I'm doing it with any aura of superiority.

You know what the best mirror is? Seeing my Virgo daughter who loves purity. You know what I mean? Who's like, let's do the right thing. That sounds really good. What is the right thing? Okay, I'll do the right thing, because oh my God, what if I don't? You know, that's so Virgo. And I'm like, well, if I model for her any aura of moral or spiritual or intellectual superiority about something, then I hear her mirroring it back in some future situation with that same tone, and I'm like, ooh, that came from me.

You know what I'm saying? Oh God. It's like so convicting. Kids are like these crazy mirrors. It's like funhouse mirrors. You're like, oh wow, that was how I gave that to you. Shit. So, the knowing heart can have strong convictions, but it knows that the universe is a work in process. Life is messy. Everyone has blemishes. We can be hypocrites.

It stays humble. Is the point? The convicted heart is humble, kind, patient, and very quick to look back inward, and becoming almost allergic to the rising sound of superiority, judgment, condemnation, and self righteousness in any point of view that we're communicating as we're communicating it.

I find that it's really easy for me to drop into that with the things that I get irritated by as a teacher of astrology, like, well, I don't like that people say this, or I don't like that people do that, or whatever. And when I'm talking about what I don't like about it, it's easy for me to just get into a tone of like anger or self-righteous.

You know, it's just, and then I have to be like, okay, wait, like that wasn't very nice, or that was, and even on the podcast, you guys will hear me say something and be like, "I'm being a jerk. We're all human, and I like to have a good sense of humor, and I'm sure you do too.

But we have to be so careful of that self righteousness because we reap what we sow. Your kid will start saying it, you know. And ideally, we want strong convictions with wise, beautiful, loving hearts. All right, and then the last one is feeling sorry for ourselves, which I think is a particularly leonine thing. Again, just reflecting on myself, when something feels particularly unfair, and Jupiter, this combination can make it feel really big, and really personal.

And self pity, if I'm calling it like feeling sorry for ourselves, self pity, I guess you could call it. It's not the same as grief, because here's the thing: grief is really about processing pain and alchemizing and being transformed in some way by, as far as I can tell, but self pity rather than processing pain and really allowing for it to be what it is.

Right, you can be victimized and you need to process the grief, pain, the betrayal, the abandonment, and it's real. You have to process it, but the self pity is like making us sort of uniquely wronged, or it's trying to find our sense of uniqueness in the way we were wronged. I don't know if that's even the right way of putting it.

Everyone knows the difference. You know it in your body between I'm grieving, I'm hurt, I'm processing, and I'm feeling sorry for myself. I think feeling sorry for ourselves is like a very legitimate first response. It's really hard not to. My Leo daughter, the very first thing that happens when I call her out, even it's very gentle on something she's doing or not doing or whatever, and I have to help bring attention to a behavior that we need to work on.

Very first thing to go toward is like, are you saying there's something wrong with me? And it's so the Leo response, and I have to be like, nope, not at all, sweetie. There's nothing wrong with you. You're beautiful. We all have things we're working on, you know. Um, so the unfairness or the perceived injustice or the hurt is usually true on some level, yet we don't want to lose ourselves to that.

We want to allow the process of grieving, response, recovery from some kind of trauma to occur. And the other thing that's like, I think there's something that's almost philosophical. It's like as I reflect on being a bit of a Leo myself, I was actually talking to my therapist about this. He's a Jungian, and we were talking about how you believe that because you're mostly a good person, you know, like you're really, you really are conscientiously trying your best, and you're failing, but you keep dusting yourself off, picking yourself back up, and really trying to learn and grow.

That that alone should exempt you from things that feel unfair. You know what I mean? It's like, why is this happening? I'm really trying my hardest. It shouldn't happen if I'm trying my hardest. And my therapist is like, you know, despite trying your hardest, bad things can still happen, or unfair things can still happen, or misunderstanding can occur, or whatever.

That's, in other words, there can be a quietly transactional nature to Leo's sense of goodness, right? Or anyone's. It can be like, well, if I'm good and I'm shining from the heart and I'm doing my best, and I'm being courageous, and I'm really trying to be heart-centered, then that keeps me from the pain of the heart.

But no, you know, it doesn't, because the pain that you feel in the heart is yet another moment to move more deeply into it. You can say this hurt me without saying my life is against me. Do you know what I mean? Because that's what it feels like. It feels like suddenly your life is turning against you, and there's a real sense of that for Leos, where life for all of us at the Sun, as an archetype, life feels like it's something.

It's like a destiny path that we're living, and suddenly you feel like the cards have turned against you or something. But the knowing heart knows that this isn't the case. Knows that every moment is an opportunity to open it more, to step into it more, to be more courageous, to be stronger in our vulnerability, to be strong in our weakness, to be strong in our uncertainty, to be strong in our inadequacy, and that doesn't mean that we heroically overcome it.

It means we accept it. We open our heart to it. That's just like oh, that's not easy. I don't know about that. Anyway, I hope you're having a good day. I hope that this is some heart medicine. Let's put it that way. What a week it's been. I hope you're having a good one. We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye.