Leo's Full Moon
On the Revolutionary Self and our Electric Friends
This week, the light of the Aquarius Sun illuminates the full face of the Moon. This is the Full Moon in Leo, which lights our worlds around February 5th, 2023.
Full Moons, if you happen to catch them on a dark and clear night sky, are truly beautiful.
The Moon in herself, is full of holes and craters. She is not smooth and silky. Yet, in Humanity’s history, we have regarded her as stunning and radiant against the black void of the night sky.
The Moon embodies all this beauty and some; the addition is her mystical unknowability - the face of the Moon that is always hidden from Earth.
To evoke such sublime beauty, with all our holes, our craters, our hidden faces with brave, unabashed illumination is the call… no… the demand of this week.
Like the Moon, we are not alone in our efforts to rise to this command.
While Leo is portrayed by the Lion - fierce, brave and independent, there is a subtle acknowledgement that the Lion’s Pride, the pack, is not far behind. This is us, supported in our individual path by our pack.
Our pack can certainly be our friends and family.
Our pack can be the entirely of the cosmos and every star, planet, moon and the space in between them.
Our pack can be the combination of our dreams, desires, resolve, purpose, bravery, will and confidence.
It can be all of the above and more.
It is with all of this, that we can stand up with all of our holes, our flaws, our fears, our shame and our doubts, and shine with our Sister the Moon, fully, unapologetically in emblazoned Love.
The season of the both Sun and Saturn in Aquarius light up and bring to action the revolutionary within. We may experience this as a desire to electrify and change up something in our life; or we may feel exhausted in our effort to suppress this urge because we are low on courage.
Revolution is a current that feels global, so much bigger than just us, but it is also just us.
This is a time of personal revolution as well, within the core of our Being and personhood that holds global impact.
If you now draw your thoughts actively to something you are afraid of or ashamed by - something you think of often, very personal to you - and for a few moments, just sit with it. Sit in comfortable seat without pushing it away or distracting yourself from it.
It could be big or small. This could be something you are not saying or are not doing, because you are embarrassed. Or, you are not comfortable sharing what you are doing because you will appear weak or weird. Maybe you cannot fathom asking for help even though you are drowning and feel alone. Maybe you are concerned with keeping up proper appearances and you do not want to ‘air your dirty laundry’.
When you sit with it, you uncover the nature and texture of our thought and emotions, ideas, dreams and beliefs that are tethered to it.
This is a practice and once we get good at it - at realizing the nature of our thoughts and emotions, they no longer run our life. This is the wild nature of inner revolution.
And by nature, revolutions don’t just stay in one place - they pulse outward and inward and sideways.
This is the great gift of the astrological poles of Leo and Aquarius. With the Sun on one side shining light upon the Moon at the other side, the Earth is enveloped and receives the gift of courage in evoking the Revolutionary Self, strengthened by our Electric Friends and Communities.
Interpreting and Receiving this Gift
One of the reasons I love Astrology, is that it is an art, like painting.
You can take key and descriptive words of each planet and zodiac sign (listed below this article) as individual colours, and on the canvas of your laptop screen. Then you can mix the words to see what new shades and patterns emerge. Those new colours, shades and patterns, may resonate and offer great meaning, understanding and acceptance some area of life - big and small.
This week, my canvas shows a landscape of accepting a greater layer of my revolutionary Self, and how that pulses towards and from friends and communities.
This may be coming up in your world as well. Or, yours could be a completely different mixture (inspired from the keywords below)
This is how we artistically allow ourselves to relate to cosmic energies.
I am taking some Art lessons this week from the planet Venus (archetype of Love, Art and Beauty) bouncing on the waves of Pisces (Cosmic Ocean, Dreams, Intuition and Allness).
The Art here is essential, because art is the how in our journey of coming to courage so that we can radiate our imperfect Life and Beauty. Instead of forcing ourselves into acts of courage, we realize an easy strength in allowing the natural face of our courage to show itself.
Once the waves of the ocean have washed away our external face and facades - our cosmetic face - we are left with our skin exactly how it is in the moment. Flawed perhaps, and beautiful.
So, how do we ingest this gift?
How do we look in the mirror and even consider accepting the reflection as beautiful when we see bags, wrinkles, craters and patches?
When we look at our day, our life and our world, exactly as it is in this moment, how do we accept the absolute perfection of the holes, pits and lacks that we see and feel?
How do we behold all that we do not see and that we cannot control are sublime and perfect?
I think the first step is in believing in the possibility of this Gift. Because that is what it is - a Gift from the skies to each of us right now.
We cannot see it with our natural eyes.
We did not ask for this consciously.
It didn’t come to us because we purchased it.
We took some breathes, lived our life this far and awakened to this week, where these energies descend like a waterfall from the Heavens.
So the next step is the choice - to receive it or not - though we do not know the full meaning and the exact outcomes of this.
Since this isn’t a material transaction, receiving gifts from the skies requires an open Heart, a quiet Mind and Gratitude.
That is all.
A few moments of deep breathes, a practice of quietening the mind, and opening the Heart, in such a way that there is gratitude for what we are receiving. When we bow our head and open our Heart in Gratitude, we are also bathed in Humility.
These first steps, if you have never taken them before, require immense Lion’s courage.
Which is why, we cannot receive fully, without first believing and choosing first.
Receiving gifts or energy from the Cosmos, having no idea how it will change us or our life can be scary. We may not want to do it because we want to cling to what is familiar and comfortable on our previously trodden path.
But, when we are able to tap in to our Radiant and Glorious Courage, then we find that we are not alone.
While the Sun illuminates our conscious mind, the Moon illuminates our unconscious; as such we may not see the revolution (in self or in the world) just as yet.
But in the quiet of the night, if we tap into it, we can feel subtle shifts.
This is where we have help.
For, if with our Heart and Soul we have chosen to open and receive the gifts of the Earth and the Heavens, we are then supported, nourished and protected by our newly chosen path. Here, Courage expands to Trust and Faith as well.
“…But trust the path you choose, and it will protect you.
Even in darkness.
As long as you listen.
Always listen.”
- Geralt of Rivia, speaking to the lion cub of Cintra
This could be something like deciding with galactic resolve that we will end a habit, addiction or relationship that has run our lives for too long and has made us suffer.
It could be, realizing where we have been walled up, pushing people away, hiding in plain sight and finding a trusted friend to share our fears and doubts with, so that it is held in love and released.
It may be seeing our judgement and the pressures we put on ourselves and our people because we hold a material idea of perfection and asking for help in relaxing this.
It could launching your website, writing your book or gathering friends.
It may even be remembering that you loved to dance and spending this weekend dancing in your living room.
In all cases, it is permission and space to Heal Body, Mind, Heart and Soul, and giving it deserved recognition - because when you and I Heal, we can then Rise and Stand in our True Self.
This is the revolution that sends out electric pulses through the ethers that friends, family, even strangers receive.
It is like an evolved text conversation - back and forth pulses of energy through the ethers, in the form of typed words, images, emojis - that raise each and every one of us from our present vibration in joy, friendship, acceptance and laughter.
Historically, we may have given and received what we understood as love and support by pointing out flaws, faults and the craters on the faces or in the lives of those around us.
This may have been the only way we or others knew how.
There may be some element of forgiveness required here on all our parts; for we willingly or unknowingly were playing in this paradigm.
So, this is a relationship revolution as well.
The basis of how we interact and relate to each other now, is shaking - whether we want it to or not.
We may notice this in those who orbit us, if we can observe it with neutrality; and in ourselves too.
Maybe, we realize we have been seeking like-minded communities, because we have little tolerance for opinions and views opposite to ours; or, we are tired of feeling left out, humiliated and weird.
Maybe we feel a lot of pressure from our families or at work; and we realize that we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and others too.
Maybe we acknowledge that we want the world or our people to change, to listen to us and see us because this is how we feel validated in our existence and respected in the society; and we realize, with some dread, that we have abandoned the internal seat of out power and are making these demands from our mind, not our Heart and Soul and certainly not our Truth.
It may be the simple and profound moment of basking in the Aquarius Sun and the Leo Moon, with the True Knowing that the Lion Heart, Winged Soul and Eternal Spirit. The knowing that is more interested in Loving that which is Present in an eternally changing cosmic fabric, rather than imposing changes from our fragile ego and our mental and societal constructs.
These are massive vibrational shifts. They are here now.
They are not easy on our little minds and bodies.
We can put some words and sentiment to them, as I have done, as many of attempt to do; but there is also an ineffability to all of it.
Like the Face of the Moon that is always turned away from Earth, we allow a revolution of Faith in ourselves, in our actions, and in accepting Others as they are, in this time.
Here, we start to receive, ingest and eventually integrate little fragments on this massive Gift - artistically, beautifully, bravely - with Electric Courage that is felt by All.
Astro-Art: A Practice
If the sentiment above is not roaring at you from within, here are some common (not essentially comprehensive) list of words associated with astrological archetypes.
Just like a painter who mixes colours, you can create your own art find colours of resonance within you. This requires letting judgements fall away and a bit of time this week to allocated to your exploration and expression.
Play. Be Wild. Explore.
Aquarius: Electric. Revolution. Technology. Friends & Community. Service to All. Humanity. Bird’s Eye View. The Collective.
Leo: Individual. Creative. Strength & Bravery. Courage. Passion, Power and Play. The Self. Will-force.
Pisces: Cosmic Ocean. Dreams. Intuition. Oneness. No separation between the Imagined and Reality. Collapsed boundaries between Self and Others.
Sun: Consciousness. Awareness. Power of the Individual Self. Sense of Vitality. Represents the personally self in a lower expression and the Higher Self in an evolved expression.
Moon: Unconscious. Relational. Emotive. Mystical. Unknowable. Related to Mothers and Grand-Mothers. Waters of the World and Inner Waters.
Venus: Archetype of Love, Art and Beauty. Of Goddesses and Lovers.
Saturn: Archetype of Authority, Time, Karma. Related to Fathers.
Thank you for playing, Divine Painter!
This is an interesting piece. I particularly resonate with having the willingness/openness to receive gifts from the Universe, in that this was something I awakened to only recently in the last few years. Lovely as the thought is, it has taken me a long time to open myself to it receiving these gifts and I still have a long way before I unlearn what comes easily. The moments I have opened myself up, I am amazed and a little dumbstruck by the bounty and treasure that flows forth.