Forget about enlightenment.
Sit down and listen to the wind singing in your veins.
Feel the love, the longing, and the fear in your bones.
Open your heart to who you are, right now.
Not who you'd like to be, but the being
right here before you, inside you, around you.
All of you is holy.
You’re already more
than whatever you can know.
Breathe out, look in, let go. -John Welwood
Leo, the majestic lion of the cosmic sky, embodies Courage.
Couer-age, a French word translated in English is: Heart Time.
A Swiss friend of mine translates it as Couer-Rage: Heart Rage.
The Full Moon calls us to give time to our heart and let it rage with what it loves.
The house Leo occupies in our natal chart will provide clues of where we seek to shine full and bright.
We are compelled to shed timidness and excuses so we can hear our heart’s desire and give fully of ourselves to acts of love.
“Don’t you know yet?
It is your light that lights the worlds…
Love is the bridge between you and everything.”
Rumi
The Full Moon offers a resolution between the head and the heart, between our idea of what we think the world needs of us and taking a leap of faith to follow the impulse to love what we love. What if these two things were not disparate. The dynamic tension between the Sun and Moon during a Full Moon speaks of culmination and resolution between seeming opposites.
Two weeks ago, at the Aquarian New Moon, we were invited to create a vision for the way forward in these troubled times that took into account how our lives could best serve the needs of humanity. Now with the Moon at the opposite end of the sky in the opposing sign of Leo, we are encouraged to act on what would gives us joy, what causes our light to shine forth. We may feel that our desire is selfish or runs counter to what we believe the world is needing, or what our families or workplace need from us. In truth, what the world needs most is for us to be lit up from within, lit up with joy, with love, with passion, with creative.
We are fueled with added passion and nerve (Mars trine the Moon). The fiery nature of action-oriented Mars sparks courage, emboldening us to move beyond fears that have held us back and kept our light small. With Mars in Sagittarius, we feel like the hero of myths called to a noble quest and a journey we feel compelled to take . Mars moving out of bounds of the ecliptic path reflects our own impulse to color outside the lines or veer off the well-worn path. So, let us each discover where we feel emboldened to take heroic initiative to do what we have been longing to be ready to do.
Grounded heart-centered action is called for as Fire and Earth are the signature elements of the Full Moon.
Faster moving planets (Moon, Venus, Mars) in fire signs are moving in juxtaposition with the slower moving planets that occupy earth signs (Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, Uranus). What may have seemed immovable, suddenly does not seem so insurmountable. In fact, we may discover we can actually move mountains to meet our heart’s desire.
Your vision will become clear
only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams;
who looks inside, awakes.
Carl Jung
Yes, the Full Moon makes it easier to listen and give yourself to our heart, yet the trick is to know our heart. Society encourages the development of our mind and rewards rational logic and cool reasoning. We have been conditioned to interpret our heart’s longing through the power of our ego mind. The world’s religions offer ways and practices to release ourselves from the suffering of the mind and surrender to love. It is all too easy to think we are acting from our heart, when it is really a fever of the mind. This Full Moon amplifies heart energy, where we are better connected to our true nature, have clearer discernment and find alignment with our soul purpose.
Our rational mind has less of a grip on us for the next days. Because of this, we may find ourselves emotionally sensitive, experiencing conflicting emotions, and confused about what we are feeling (Neptune quincunx the Moon). Emotions are amplified (Mars trine the Moon). We may want to have courage, but are not sure what we want to have courage for. Rather than having a meltdown or escaping from what is being stirred, lean into it. Like a grain of sand lodged and stuck in an oyster shell, it is the friction with the shell that produces the pearl. The feelings that are stirred will provide the pathway to the heart and knowing what action will most light us up!
The Full Moon is about our inner fire, our inner sun. Let us each tend it so that it lights us up and the world around with the beauty and love it emits.
Here is my secret.
A very simple secret.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
The Little Prince
Mercury is Retrograde February 16 – March 9
12 Pisces to 28 Aquarius
Mercury entered Pisces on February 3 and will remain in Pisces until April 11, except for a short excursion back into Aquarius at the tale end of the upcoming retrograde cycle.
For the next two months, our minds will be less logical and more intuitive, less empirical and more imaginative. We are given to reflection, meditation, and illuminated insight. This is beneficial for spiritual and creative endeavors, and less supportive for navigating the business of life and making worldly decisions. It supports focus on our heart and relaxes the grip of the rational mind, helping carry the Full Moon energy forward.
If we simply rely on our rational mind to navigate a day, a conversation, or a decision we may find ourselves confused or momentarily overwhelmed. When this happens, it is an invitation to come quiet within ourselves and let the voice of our heart or the voice of something larger than our ego mind come forth to help us navigate a given circumstance.
While Mercury is Retrograde, February 16 - March 9, the phenomenon described above is even more pronounced. It is advantageous to take this time to review and re-evaluate plans for moving forward. It is a time to take a retreat or engage in an activity that helps renew and replenish our spirit. We can also clean out closets or tie up ends that have been left hanging. Our creativity will be enhanced over productivity.
We are invited to pause the forward motion of our lives. If we can delay decisions on something, than do. If not, then do the research and due diligence and not make a decision on impulse or from a sense of urgency. Our culture doesn't reinforce the value for 'the pause', for a time to catch up so that we are better prepared and ready for the life that will spring up when Mercury moves forward again.
And with Mercury ending its Retrograde phase in the last degrees of Aquarius, we may find that our vision is restored or expanded in some vital way because we gave ourselves time to pause, to retreat and renew.
Current Offerings
Mercury Retrograde
20-Minute Mini Readings
Cost: $25
Discover how to best move with the Mercury Retrograde
So that you thrive, not just survive, the retrograde experience from February 16 - March 9.
To book your session, email Liv at livwoodford@livbydesignastrology.com
Twitter: #LivAstrology