The Cosmic Story: Aquarius/Leo Lunar Full Moon Eclipse, August 7, 2017
Lammas & The Power Gate of Leo
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With this Monday's Aquarius Full Moon, which is a partial lunar eclipse, we are half-way through the Sun's journey in Leo. A lunar eclipse is a potent Full Moon which offers us a chance to release old emotional patterns we're still holding onto. On the Aquarius/Leo axis, those patterns relate to how we hold ourselves back to 'fit in', how we hold onto ideals and judgments that no longer serve us, and most especially, how we let our heads overrule our hearts. How we dim our light.
All eclipses help us shift our reality. The light and energy of the Sun is blocked out from the Moon by the Earth, disrupting and then re-aligning energies. This eclipse asks, how can we let our Leo leadership abilities, our creativity and our bravery shine out to add to, not take away from, the Aquarius group Mind? I like to think of Aquarius as The Round Table where we all sit as equals, and this eclipse tells us to stop being afraid to let ourselves shine out, especially when we're with our group. So let your Lioness roar and call out to your group. The roars from your pride will come back to you. And then let your group--your pride-- support you.
In Leo, we look to the characteristics of the lion to understand why Leo is associated with the Sun as well as the Heart. While male lions are often solitary, groups of lionesses live together with their cubs and a few lions, forming a pride. Male lions protect the pride, and it is in this role of defender that we see Leo's leadership ability. Both male and females hunt for the entire pride and perhaps that's where Leo's well-known generosity is rooted. Lions are also playful -- one of the ways lionesses teach their young. Just as humans play with their kittens! Don't forget, fun is definitely a Leo word! And passion ! Another good Leo word, for passion ignites consciousness!
We are most creative and ourselves when we're having fun!
Lions and lionesses are featured in most ancient mythologies and depicted in cave paintings and temple carvings from over 40,000 years ago. From Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia to the Americas, lions have been connected with royalty. Lions came to represent kingship and bravery, while lionesses were seen as fierce hunters and warriors. Many ancient goddesses have lionesses supporting and upholding them. The fierceness of a mama Lioness protecting her cubs is well known and these ancient lioness goddesses were invoked to protect their people.
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Perhaps that's what we are being called upon to do now as the Sun and Mars dance in Leo. The divine Feminine warrior has been resurrected (have you seen Wonder Woman? -- definitely in tune with the new Venus in Aries cycle) so we look to Sekhmet, the Lion-headed Goddess of Egypt to show us what a feminine solar warrior does. She shows us how to protect our people, our world, our Mother Earth from the savagery of patriarchal beliefs, especially from the cancerous religion of capitalism. She fights and will destroy, she heals and protects, she loves and rejoices. She has 10,000 names.
Did you know that we have fossil remains of lions from over 500,000 years ago? 10,000 years ago, during the Age of Leo, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. No wonder the ancient Egyptians honored the mysterious Sphinx, which might have come down to us from that long-ago age, along with Sekhmet, whom you met in my 1 st Leo New Moon newsletter. (if you didn't already know her!) The strength, power and beauty of these lady warriors is returning to our collective consciousness; not as pale imitations of male heroes but as uniquely powerful women warriors who also know the power of love.
The Queen has returned!
The Lionsgate
This year, the opening of the Lionsgate is especially potent, since astrologically, the Leo Power Gate is at 15* Leo (just as there is a powergate at 15* Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius). With the Full Moon occurring at 15*25' Aquarius/Leo, we are truly in this energetic vortex. This is the degree in these four power signs that is a doorway to the riches of each of these archetypal journeys. In Leo, the riches we discover are self-confidence, power, leadership, pride, creativity, self-awareness and light, our light. In Aquarius, we discover our visions for the future, our connection with society and our archetypal Mind. This Aquarius Moon will shape and embody these Leo gifts, will take Leo's offerings and shift out what is useful for our collective well-being.
This is the season of Lammas, the Celtic festival of first harvest, when the King sacrifices himself for the good of the land. It is the festival of first fruits, which are always offered to the gods. For each of us, it is a time to celebrate the beauty and wonder of life as well as to release/sacrifice those aspects of our character--you can call it the Shadow--that interfere with us shining our light into the world. You can read my Lammas story at The Bard's Grove . It's also interesting that after Lammas, the light begins to decrease rapidly as the Sun descends toward the equator at Autumn Equinox (for the Northern Hemisphere--Down South, Happy Imbolc!).
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