Out of all signs, Leo is the force that connects us back to our hearts. I can’t think of a more needed reminder right now. Because our light, our fire, our luminous tenacity, and our strength is often forged in hard places that ask us to feel deeply. The essential things in life often do.
As Victor Frankl says, “What gives light must endure burning.”
When the burning is afoot, we need to remember to seek the light.
There is no doubt we are at a pivot point of expansion, change, and significant transformation in our inner and outer lives. And expansion is often meant with reflexive contraction. Uncertainty meeting control. Change meeting stasis. Innovation meeting tradition. Inhale meeting exhale. The burning meeting the light. Each choice becomes a heartbeat of potential.
How heart-centered are we? Personally, culturally, and collectively?
We often think of love as a gentle and nurturing force, and it certainly is that. However, love is also fierce in its need to defend what is right, just, and good. This Full Moon squares the nodes reviving more of the latter flavor. It means we will be tasked with choosing and asserting the right side. This isn’t punitive but technical. This also isn’t meant to defend polarity but to offer a solution. While it can be helpful to understand all sides of an issue, we must also be able to discern what is the most empowered choice forward. This Full Moon reminds us that this required decision point is found in the heart.
But what is the “right” side? Therein is the essential question. It is often challenging to ascertain the difference between the fire of heart-based knowing and egoic smoldering. Thus, telling the difference between those forces is a required lesson. Anger, a Leo quality, can be sourced in the blaze of grounded holism or selfish defense. Our triggers can be a nod to healthy boundaries and assertion or based in our shadow layers and traumas reacting and reenacting. Sometimes they can be a mix of both. This is why this work of inner deciphering is so necessary and profound.
Which part of me is showing up right now? Which part of me oversees my decision-making, communication, authenticity, passion, assertion, and purpose? Which part of me is in charge of my hope? Which part is filtering my sense of right and wrong?
Leo awakens the hero’s spirit in all of us, summoning those hallowed leadership principles of sacrifice, maturity, gratitude, wonder, and discipline. Our passion is meant to motivate and inspire, not scorch. The Sun (Leo’s Ruler) holds the gravity of an entire solar system. There is nothing selfish in that.
Our hearts are literally the power centers of who we are physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So we best make sure they are clear channels of expression.
The HeartMath Institute studies this genuine heart /energy connection.
“The heart generates the largest electromagnetic field in the body. The electrical field as measured in an electrocardiogram (ECG) is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the brain waves recorded in an electroencephalogram (EEG).”
HeartMath studies show this powerful electromagnetic field can be detected and measured several feet away from a person’s body and between two individuals in close proximity.”
The frequencies of our hearts do not just influence our being. They can extend out and touch everyone around us. And it doesn’t stop there. The HeartMath Institute is studying the interconnection between our collective heart frequency and the earth’s magnetic fields.
Their studies have shown when connected to love, compassion, kindness, and peace, we have a more robust, balanced, and connected heart field. As a result, we can positively affect our lives and the lives of everyone around us. Leo represents this innate and powerful connection. It is the sign of our very essence, passion, inspiration, and power.
We need some clear channels of authentic expression right now. Some righteous grace. Some exquisite humility. Some assertive boundary setting. Some taking the side of the right action.
In the words of the Heartmath Institute, we need to “add heart.”
“Adding heart translates into increased care and genuine connection with others and harmonizes the resistance between our own mind and heart. Adding heart is especially about practicing kindness and compassion, along with forgiveness and latitude in our interactions. Adding heart increases the love flowing through our system, which can play a large part in solving the collective challenges of these transitional times.”
Ask the heart what it needs to shine authentically, and it will always respond through a force of altruism rather than self-centeredness. This is why Leo is most associated with joy, freedom, and authenticity. Contribution is the birthplace of those dynamic forces.
Some “adding heart” practices:
- Practice random acts of kindness
- Listen to understand, not respond
- Create something beautiful
- Choose compassion instead of judgment (and start with yourself)
- Practice accountability rather than projection
- Appreciate what you have
- Breathe deeply
- Set boundaries and assert yourself
- Challenge the inner critic or any parts clouding your heart
- Follow your intuition
- Have fun, play, and expand your capacity for joy
- Practice empathy
- Ask for help and receive it
When you allow your light to shine, you allow others to do the same. When you illuminate your fire, you remind others, near and far, to do the same.
“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Want to know what this time is revealing for you? Contact me, for more information.
This New Moon occurs at 28° Leo.
Photo credit Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
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