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.
I had the incredible fortune of crossing paths with a hawk today that called to me just before I crossed a creek it was sitting above. My mind was running laps on something I wanted to resolve and I was out in the woods to quiet myself. Getting quiet is often the key to seeing more clearly and then resolutions appear with less effort. I was looking down and the sounds from the bird above caused me to stop dead in my tracks; the hawk was so loud and close. I couldn’t believe what I was missing lost in my thoughts when I looked up. Wow. Just wow.
Once I looked up and met the eyes of this amazing friend, I was overwhelmed by being so close and the bird not budging. I see hawks frequently here but not this close, not with eye contact, and not with an invitation to visit. I could see the hawk was defining some sort of boundary and stepped back a little. After complimenting the bird on the magnificence of its being and taking some photos, I sat down on a larger rock next to the creek just to marvel at the wonder of nature to be appreciated before me. I continued on with the hawk for some time just sitting together until it caught sight of prey and went through its hunting ritual. Once the hawk was off on its way, I took back to my path with the quiet mind I had been intending to cultivate sooner.
I was so beautifully reminded of the importance to speak up for yourself, hold space with grace, and take your time in stillness so that movement is made with focused intention.
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:
Otrespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again. — Shakespeare
So often we look outside ourselves for something to be satiated internally. We want people to love us so that we feel a certain way or we want a thing that will help us embody a particular energy – maybe confidence or desirability. We want someone else to tell us or show us we are good enough. At the root of it all, we are seeking love and quite possibly we look for our divinity everywhere but inside. If someone else sees us in our best light or appreciates something about us, it must mean we are lovable and that can be addictive. You can find yourself chasing illusory love through achievements, big ticket items, grand experiences, or the presence of another reflecting your divine birthright of love —- or you can give that source energy to yourself and be delighted when someone else offers you the same without a sense of longing.
Longing is not in and of itself bad , (it may ultimately lead you to a spiritual path) but it can leave you feeling pretty out of sorts until you see it for what it is: an invitation to seek within, to hold yourself with what you wish to be reflected back, and to know YOU dearest one are love.
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.
I’ve been immersed in a training since March that I find shifting me at every level of being, integrating past expressions and future intentions with the ability to hold those loosely in present moment , as well as healing beliefs that are ultimately blocks in true self embodiment.
As we wind down into the final modules, invitation to illuminating the shadows of self to better inhabit a consistent vibration of joy led me to a night practice of asana (yoga postures) outside over the last month or so. I practice outside during daytime hours when possible but have not extended that to night before. The intention to welcome the shadow hits a little differently under a blanket of darkness with considerably less human activity occurring.
Ultimately, after dedicated practice I began to feel myself as the point of illumination. Miraculously, the shadows shrink when you hold yourself as the light. It’s a powerful experience.
I’d invite you to try this should you find yourself in an environment that can offer you darkness safely.
to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.
—
Starlings in Winter excerpt by Mary Oliver
Perhaps you’re not a starling gifted with wings, but you may have the capacity to find your way to light and frolicsome behavior before this week is out …and that may lead you to feel as if you do.
Good wishes to you ahead of the next full moon, also known as the pink moon or budding moon. May you step into your own expression of full light in whatever way that can best support you now.
Presence and Positivity 