Today we move with Jupiter, the planet of expansion and luck, into Leo , the fire sign of heart led passion. And what is Leo not passionate about?! When Leo is inhabited in its highest expression, fear fades away and love takes center stage in expansive thinking leading to generous ways of being. There are so many ways to be generous with yourself – with your listening, with your smile, with your fully embodied presence. The places where you used to hold back, are now ready to be held with honest visibility and absolute divine grace shining through.
With this in mind, I ask you to pause today and consider how you may personally move with this lucky heart centered placement over the next year while Jupiter holds this energy.
What in your life is ready to expand?
Where could you use some extra love and luck in your life? What may change in this area by honing in and giving your undivided, trusting focus here?
How can you live more and more each day from your heart to expand beyond the obstacles you perceive today?
What can be held with curiosity over fear? Dearest, what does happen when you trade fear for curiosity?
What pattern is playing in your mind that needs to be thrown in the trash? I’m not good enough. I’m too old. That’s too expensive. Perhaps it’s something else.
You will see clearly what needs to go when you pause to ask your heart for guidance:
1. Heart, as Jupiter moves to Leo to inhabit the generously heart-led energy of the Lion, how can I expand to assume luck and love are mine to experience in every possible form?
2. What script, conscious or unconscious is ready to be released from my field?
Give yourself plenty of space and time with these points of reflection. The answers may come straight away or they may appear to you over time through your own vessel, through others, in songs, in the title of some article, or in nature. Stay open, Sweet Souls to the beautiful ways Spirit may communicate with you.
I’m right here with you asking myself these questions. Everyone has work to do, even when they’ve done so much already. There’s always room to grow.
Jessica, the lovely soul who began this blog with me back in 2016, reached out yesterday to share a video she found of the actor James Van Der Beek speaking on his experience of cancer and being stripped of the roles that defined his worth.
When we were in high school, Jess and I were extras in the pilot of Dawson’s Creek which became his claim to fame in the roll of a small town boy seeking a career in film making. While neither she or I watched the series in full and there was no direct exchange with this man during those days on set, we both felt a little extra jolt around death in midlife. I’m sure many folks in this age range feel the passing of a well known 40something in a certain kind of way for his familial loss and life not lived.
His vision was towards recovery during this recording and his words from the heart:
This morning there was the most beautiful visitor passing along the trail that runs through my yard. He’s probably my favorite passerby yet; there’s just something majestic about them that makes me hold my breath in their presence. With that stilled breathing, my heart slows too and I sink into deep appreciation for nature and the wisdom a stag seems to carry with his crown.
Traditionally interpreted as a song about staying true to another person, the title by Fats Waller dropped into my mind for another reason: staying true to you. For the purposes of this post, “misbehave” means behaving in any way that isn’t authentic to your essence; it’s any action or non action that is an untrue expression of your soul signature. So stepping away from conventional standards if those have you in their grip, is essential to know if you’re behavin’ or misbehavin’. You may also need to allow a lot of space around what you’ve been conditioned to believe is right and good as well as timeline management on what needs to happen when, if it applies to you behavin’. Here it can be especially important to remember that we humans have created time and the ideas around how life *should be mapped out. Just go ahead and let yourself drop any should right now unless you’re applying it to what feels true to your heart and brings peace to your mind while upholding the highest good of all. This may also require looking at what the “highest good” means with a soft heart and deep trust in the intelligence of your emotional body.
Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more – more unseen forms become manifest to him.
— Rumi
Below you’ll find questions for self inquiry as we come away from a powerful solar eclipse. Paper and pen may be handy as people tend to find response in writing to be different than pure mental chatter. If you want to really stir things up, try writing with your non dominant hand. Give yourself space to answer from the heart as you consider the following:
How could you soften into your heart when you feel caught in the mind?
What does the heart allow you to see?
What could be seen differently if you release yourself from the storyline of your life as told to you by your mind?
What would you do next if you saw yourself as a character that could be or do or say anything to shift direction?
“Watch nature, because it is your greatest teacher. It moves and flows and moves on again. There is an incredible beauty out there in the mountains, in the forests, to teach you it’s silence, it’s beauty, it’s humility. Stay aligned to that.”
— Stuart Wilde
More than a decade ago, I wished to not operate from the various components associated with the personality but to function from spirit within the body; I believed this would allow room for pure spiritual growth. Moving in the world without a pesky personality would allow a free flow of connection to every living thing — so I thought — and I was so wrong. The personality is far too complex for such a wish! However, that wish was then and I am writing this years and years down the road.
What did I learn? When you wish for something from the heart, my experience has repeatedly shown me that heaven and earth will move for you to experience that thing as long as you’re willing to receive it without dictating the how, what, when, where, and who of the wish. Having lived through what followed (which was repeated experiences in various shapes sizes and scenes to release “Valerie”) I would wish you never ask for such a thing and that instead you spend each day embracing yourself as much as possible. You need your ego to function in the world with a grounded view of reality. It may be important that aspects of your personality change, but change is not elimination.
In conversing with one of my daughter’s art teachers in the last few years, I learned she had ventured down a similar rabbit hole at one point. She wanted spirit flow to art without restraint. With the chance you’ve ever gone down or are tempted to a similar path, I’d say to not wish aspects of yourself away. If you must make change – wish for peaceful change that highlights your strengths. We grow with and through our humanness. Spirit works through the expression of personality as an intended stroke on the large canvas of life. So show up with your quirks and your humor, loving every aspect unconditionally for your best possible outcomes.
The current expression of you in this moment is your incredible beauty. You showing up every day as you is a mountain and it is a forest of sorts. You hold a wealth of wisdom within and there’s nothing external that can teach you what’s inside or allow it to flow into the world better than it will naturally. The external can only reflect, reveal, and maybe polish. Your healthy ego directing that glorious personality is the key to your ideal life experience. With pure intention, stay aligned to that.
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”
As you find yourself waking up to the middle of another week, and approaching the full moon in Leo on Thursday, how would it be to pause and create a time for a little heart consultation?
Leo is sometimes branded with a bad rap for being the drama king or show off of the zodiac, however, in its higher octave of expression, this sign is all about fully embraced heart centered living. Not only does a full moon bring that energy into the internally felt emotional life, it turns it up to the max.
We are approaching a wonderful few days to take extra time to be in communion with your heart.
What would your heart say to you over tea, in a few lines scrolled out on paper or typed into your screen, in images on a vision board, whispered to you nestled next to a warm fire, or in promised blossoms to come?
Presence and Positivity 