The summer months sped by and I turned my attention to things of the earth. Living in Winnipeg, we always feel rather frantic to cram as much activity as we can into the time of the year when the weather is warm and the sun is shining.
But what a summer we have had! Along with the heat, we have had more rain that I can remember! In my yard at the north side of the city are 4 apples trees, real apples,not crabs and this year the apple fairy decided that they would produce apples galore! As the little round orbs started to swell, the branches of my trees began to bend. One morning I looked out and saw that one of the trees in my front yard was literally scraping the ground with her branches, like a dancer doing a deep bow at the end of her performance.
Oh, my goodness, I thought to myself. Being of Eastern European extraction, I started to fret about the quantity of apples and whether i could actually utilize them all appropriately. Waste not, want not, dontcha know!
I now have explored and experimented with every kind of apple related preserve and other application that I could find in my various cookbooks and on the net. I have apples jelly, apple pie in a jar, apple sauce with flavours of various kinds added to it, apple juice, baggies of dried apple slices and apple leather which, even though I am not a big lover of that kind of thing, is pretty tasty.
But there is only so much of the above that one can make and I started to feel desperate! Then my daughter who is a facebook junkie posted my situation on her site, putting out a call to one and all to come and get the apples. I had, of course been giving them out all along but what I discovered was that no one wanted more than a bag or two. That just wasn't going to cut it this year! We did haul about a dozen boxes off to Winnipeg Harvest but apparently we weren't the only ones doing that! But the call was heard and at the end of the season, James showed up and took away the last remains of the crop of 2010 to the horse farm where he and the kids he works with go to feed the horses. I think that those horses had a little feast this year!
And I have almost 200 jars of various types of canning with more to come since I still have beets and tomatoes to deal with. Last week I put half of the garden to bed. The day was warm and sunny and the smell of the fall was all around me. I don't know what I like better, the fresh tangyness of the spring or the sweet scent of the autumn. Summer can be too hot by half and winter, well, we all know what its like in Winnipeg in the winter!
So I didn't do a lot of writing over the last few months, none to post at any rate. You can still catch me in the Aquarian--I had articles in both of the last two issues and I'm working on something for the winter issue as well--but I haven't been doing a lot of other writing. I just posted a Leo blog to complete the cycle of the 12 zodiac signs so the archives have a few thoughts on different ways to look at each energy as it comes round in the year.
I will give some thought as to what I want to explore next blogwise so keep checking in from time to time if you are interested int he starry skies and how they mirror this muddle here on earth!
In the meantime, have a great fall, get ready for solstice and be blessed!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
For The Love Of Leo
It’s that time again! The Sun, that big beautiful ball of lovely light that warms and nourishes us, is transiting the zodiac sign of Leo. So, all you “Leo’s”, have a happy one!
Most astrologers co-relate this fiery fixed sign with love, birth, creativity, power, luck and romance! Sounds pretty attractive to me! Leo is aligned to the 5th house in the natural wheel of the zodiac thus endowing that segment of the horoscope with Leo-like attitudes. If, for instance, you are not born under the sign of Leo but have a lot of your planets in the 5th house, especially the personal ones like the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars; you may approach life in a Leonine way. Of course, the actual sign that any of these personals is in will modify the way you actually behave. For instance, you might be a “5th house Capricorn”. Capricorn is much more sedate, more reserved than Leo so you might be creative, but quietly so, romantic, but with some reserve, powerful, but in a dignified way.
Leo’s opposite sign is Aquarius and according to the law of polarity, duality is the underlying resonance of all manifestation. Applying this to the zodiac then, we can see that the energies that sit ‘across’ from each other in the zodiac wheel ideally work in harmony with each other and the ebb and flow of anything is regulated by polarity forces. While Leo brings focus to all that is primarily personal—the ‘me’ factor, Aquarius brings focus to all that is primarily collective—the ‘we’ factor. So, the intention of anyone with a focus in Leo is to find a way to pull in the energy of that opposite force. So, Leo, what can YOU do for the greater whole? What is the focus in your life that relates to community? What is the gift that you bring to society?
Leo loves the limelight and who is it that is able to give the limelight? The collective, of course! If Leo has no audience for the sheer magnificence of his manifestation, well, then, he might just lazily lie around doing nothing and basking in the noonday sun!
The shadow side of Leo is the tendency to rest on ones’ laurels and on a deeper level, a sense of entitlement. There is a reason why one of the archetypes linked to Leo is “The Royal” or “The Aristocrat”. Taken too far, this self-image can cause trouble in Leo’s life and relationships. The all powerful ME can eat up a lot of space in any room, leaving little for anyone else. Here is where the simple use of principled love can minimize the tendency to move into the shadow side of this energy. Love for the sake of love itself can help to refocus the Leo persona that has gotten caught up in ego concerns, become overly invested in the drama and as a result lost sight of what is actually real and true. Again, pulling in the Aquarian ideal, that sense of collective power rather than singular power, can be helpful to balance out any preoccupation with self. Not to say that the self should not be served! Naturally, it is through the self that we all get things done so let’s not be too quick in battering the ego senseless! The key is common sense at all times. By all means use your ego gifts but keep focused on what is really true, what is really real.
For the last while, Leo energy has been activated through opposition by Neptune. The God of Water has now moved into the last 5 degrees of Aquarius so Leo’s born after August 15 will be most affected by this nebulous and sometimes impenetrable energy. If this is you, you could experience confusion, ennui, spiritual illumination or triggering of spiritual response within yourself. Neptunian energy, best described, is…somewhat indescribable. The best strategy when the clouds and fog begin to gather around you is to go within and work on faith. Trust that your feet will find the way through and don’t over think as this will certainly tire you out. Neptune transits are ideal for dream work, journeying, guided visualizations and, on a more mundane level, R&R. What your psyche is trying to tell you is that it is time for a break. Take it. If you have the kind of energy that demands productivity, then apply yourself to something creative like stream of consciousness writing or brainstorming prospective projects. These fun kinds of activities lend themselves much more to this kind of Neptune time than detail oriented work. If you find that you are having difficulty keeping your mind focused, this may be a signal to you to just let go of focus for a bit. Neptune is like that! As the higher octave of Venus, this is gentle and responsive energy so attempting to push yourself into action may well be working contra to what your soul is asking of you.
Because both Mercury and Venus are often not far from the Sun, you may be one of those late degree Leo’s with either one or both of these planets there also. If this is so, then the Neptune transit will be heightened for you. And, if you were born on either the New or Full Moon, well then! You will really be feeling this transit, since the Moon represents, in part, the emotional body. New Moon Leo’s may be experiencing emotional confusion and discombobulation while Full Moon Leo’s may be experiencing an identity crisis. To deal with the emotional fall-out of this energetic transit, focus on moving within to the center of your heart—a great place for Leo. Work on building that love energy, fortifying the heart chakra. Visualizing a soft pink glow around the heart center can calm the confusion of the identity crisis and bring balance to the wobbly self.
All transits eventually pass the energy points in question so just be mindful of this fact of physics—time moves along. And as time moves along, just keep working proactively with the energy of dissolvement (Neptune) and trust that what is left after the water has receded, is what you wanted all along anyway. Alchemically, the drek is washed away repeatedly in order to get to the ‘gold’. For you Leo’s this may be a trifle more challenging than for some others since identity, ego, self, however you may want to express it, are important things for you. If you are aware of this, it will be easier for you to move through the ‘transit’. Evolutionary Astrology subscribes to the concept that all energetic movement starts within and that the soul has mapped out potential pathways for itself through the auspices of the many and varied choices that a given ego can make. So, if you are experiencing the various kinds of things described here, it is because your soul wanted it that way. It is your experience to be worked as and how you wish to. It is not happening to you but rather, YOU are making it happen. The real question is, what are you going to do about it?
Everyone has Leo somewhere in their psyche as represented by the birth mandala. And whenever the Sun transits any energy, that part of the psyche is illuminated—brought out into the light, so to speak. This next month or so, the Sun is transiting through Leo according to the tropical system of astrology. As I have often stated when discussing this subject of transits, each cosmic connection is necessarily personal. (Yes, yes, there is the whole issue of the collective consciousness but that is another topic!) So, in some ways, transit reports can only give the reader a general sense of what is going on since that reader has her own unique energetic construct that is interacting with the energy swirling around her. The way to get the ‘most’ out of following the stars is to have a familiarity with one’s own natal horoscope so that one can follow the star crossings with the mind’s eye.
So, picture your natal mandala (birth chart) and plop the transiting Sun into that area of your chart that is described by Leo. Wherever that is, it is this area of life that will be under the spotlight for the next month or so. Even if you have no formal training in astrology, you can begin to track external events and then go back to the diagram and see if anything makes sense. This is called the ‘observation and co-relation’ method of learning, experiential learning.
The horoscope can be divided into 4 quadrants, two below the central dividing line (ascendant/descendant) and two above. Even just noting which one of these 4 quadrants is being ‘lit up’ can be very revealing. Remember, wherever the Sun is transiting in your personal horoscope as it moves through the Zodiac sign of Leo is where your psyche reflects the properties of Leo. This is the area of life that you may approach in a Leo-like way.
So, if the Sun falls somewhere in the lower left hand side of the wheel, you may well be feeling somewhat preoccupied with your own personal concerns. Your sense of self-worth is something that has always been important to you so you may be thinking about what you really want to do with yourself, what holds true value for you, what you have on your mind and just exactly how to express it so that you are properly understood. If you have Leo in this area, you could well be an imaginative and creative thinker, get ‘big’ ideas. The Sun’s transit of this area could trigger ideas that you can explore or develop.
If in the second quadrant, your focus may be turned to family issues, love, romance and fun, or how to energize your own work life. Having Leo energy in this area of the psyche suggests an individual who has a flair for family life or is an artist or works in a creative field. This could be an individual who loves intensely, has a desire to express herself on a creative level and approaches her work with zest and panache. All of these sorts of concerns, then, would take center stage at this transit time.
When the Sun is transiting the 3rd quadrant, you may well feel less self-oriented and more concerned with others, their relationship to you, how to maximize your relationships and where you can take any given relationship may all be of concern to you. You may find yourself dealing with issues of power, control, even life and death or taxes. This could be a good time to sign up for a course that you have wanted to take for a while or just buy a book on an esoteric subject.
Finally, when the Sun lights up the 4th quadrant of the mandala, you are ready to rock! You may feel the need to be seen, noticed, remarked upon. You could find yourself getting more involved in social issues, community work, or even just partying. On a more spiritual level, you may find that you have the urge to more completely align your outer self with your inner set of values. At some point, when the Sun transits this sector, most everyone needs to take a breath or two. Track yourself. Monitor your body rhythms. Pay attention!
Leo is the energy of expression, joy, creativity in both physical and emotional ways and more subtly, the need for recognition; the need for affirmation, approval and ultimately, the urge to both draw love and express love. The absolutely first step into Leo is the plunge into SELF-LOVE. If we are not able to wholeheartedly love ME, it is, indeed, impossible to draw the kind of love from others that we need so that we can feed our soul.
Enjoy these next few weeks of light and joy. Find your little Leo self—each of us has this energy somewhere in all that clutter—and explore the sheer joy of being you!
It’s that time again! The Sun, that big beautiful ball of lovely light that warms and nourishes us, is transiting the zodiac sign of Leo. So, all you “Leo’s”, have a happy one!
Most astrologers co-relate this fiery fixed sign with love, birth, creativity, power, luck and romance! Sounds pretty attractive to me! Leo is aligned to the 5th house in the natural wheel of the zodiac thus endowing that segment of the horoscope with Leo-like attitudes. If, for instance, you are not born under the sign of Leo but have a lot of your planets in the 5th house, especially the personal ones like the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars; you may approach life in a Leonine way. Of course, the actual sign that any of these personals is in will modify the way you actually behave. For instance, you might be a “5th house Capricorn”. Capricorn is much more sedate, more reserved than Leo so you might be creative, but quietly so, romantic, but with some reserve, powerful, but in a dignified way.
Leo’s opposite sign is Aquarius and according to the law of polarity, duality is the underlying resonance of all manifestation. Applying this to the zodiac then, we can see that the energies that sit ‘across’ from each other in the zodiac wheel ideally work in harmony with each other and the ebb and flow of anything is regulated by polarity forces. While Leo brings focus to all that is primarily personal—the ‘me’ factor, Aquarius brings focus to all that is primarily collective—the ‘we’ factor. So, the intention of anyone with a focus in Leo is to find a way to pull in the energy of that opposite force. So, Leo, what can YOU do for the greater whole? What is the focus in your life that relates to community? What is the gift that you bring to society?
Leo loves the limelight and who is it that is able to give the limelight? The collective, of course! If Leo has no audience for the sheer magnificence of his manifestation, well, then, he might just lazily lie around doing nothing and basking in the noonday sun!
The shadow side of Leo is the tendency to rest on ones’ laurels and on a deeper level, a sense of entitlement. There is a reason why one of the archetypes linked to Leo is “The Royal” or “The Aristocrat”. Taken too far, this self-image can cause trouble in Leo’s life and relationships. The all powerful ME can eat up a lot of space in any room, leaving little for anyone else. Here is where the simple use of principled love can minimize the tendency to move into the shadow side of this energy. Love for the sake of love itself can help to refocus the Leo persona that has gotten caught up in ego concerns, become overly invested in the drama and as a result lost sight of what is actually real and true. Again, pulling in the Aquarian ideal, that sense of collective power rather than singular power, can be helpful to balance out any preoccupation with self. Not to say that the self should not be served! Naturally, it is through the self that we all get things done so let’s not be too quick in battering the ego senseless! The key is common sense at all times. By all means use your ego gifts but keep focused on what is really true, what is really real.
For the last while, Leo energy has been activated through opposition by Neptune. The God of Water has now moved into the last 5 degrees of Aquarius so Leo’s born after August 15 will be most affected by this nebulous and sometimes impenetrable energy. If this is you, you could experience confusion, ennui, spiritual illumination or triggering of spiritual response within yourself. Neptunian energy, best described, is…somewhat indescribable. The best strategy when the clouds and fog begin to gather around you is to go within and work on faith. Trust that your feet will find the way through and don’t over think as this will certainly tire you out. Neptune transits are ideal for dream work, journeying, guided visualizations and, on a more mundane level, R&R. What your psyche is trying to tell you is that it is time for a break. Take it. If you have the kind of energy that demands productivity, then apply yourself to something creative like stream of consciousness writing or brainstorming prospective projects. These fun kinds of activities lend themselves much more to this kind of Neptune time than detail oriented work. If you find that you are having difficulty keeping your mind focused, this may be a signal to you to just let go of focus for a bit. Neptune is like that! As the higher octave of Venus, this is gentle and responsive energy so attempting to push yourself into action may well be working contra to what your soul is asking of you.
Because both Mercury and Venus are often not far from the Sun, you may be one of those late degree Leo’s with either one or both of these planets there also. If this is so, then the Neptune transit will be heightened for you. And, if you were born on either the New or Full Moon, well then! You will really be feeling this transit, since the Moon represents, in part, the emotional body. New Moon Leo’s may be experiencing emotional confusion and discombobulation while Full Moon Leo’s may be experiencing an identity crisis. To deal with the emotional fall-out of this energetic transit, focus on moving within to the center of your heart—a great place for Leo. Work on building that love energy, fortifying the heart chakra. Visualizing a soft pink glow around the heart center can calm the confusion of the identity crisis and bring balance to the wobbly self.
All transits eventually pass the energy points in question so just be mindful of this fact of physics—time moves along. And as time moves along, just keep working proactively with the energy of dissolvement (Neptune) and trust that what is left after the water has receded, is what you wanted all along anyway. Alchemically, the drek is washed away repeatedly in order to get to the ‘gold’. For you Leo’s this may be a trifle more challenging than for some others since identity, ego, self, however you may want to express it, are important things for you. If you are aware of this, it will be easier for you to move through the ‘transit’. Evolutionary Astrology subscribes to the concept that all energetic movement starts within and that the soul has mapped out potential pathways for itself through the auspices of the many and varied choices that a given ego can make. So, if you are experiencing the various kinds of things described here, it is because your soul wanted it that way. It is your experience to be worked as and how you wish to. It is not happening to you but rather, YOU are making it happen. The real question is, what are you going to do about it?
Everyone has Leo somewhere in their psyche as represented by the birth mandala. And whenever the Sun transits any energy, that part of the psyche is illuminated—brought out into the light, so to speak. This next month or so, the Sun is transiting through Leo according to the tropical system of astrology. As I have often stated when discussing this subject of transits, each cosmic connection is necessarily personal. (Yes, yes, there is the whole issue of the collective consciousness but that is another topic!) So, in some ways, transit reports can only give the reader a general sense of what is going on since that reader has her own unique energetic construct that is interacting with the energy swirling around her. The way to get the ‘most’ out of following the stars is to have a familiarity with one’s own natal horoscope so that one can follow the star crossings with the mind’s eye.
So, picture your natal mandala (birth chart) and plop the transiting Sun into that area of your chart that is described by Leo. Wherever that is, it is this area of life that will be under the spotlight for the next month or so. Even if you have no formal training in astrology, you can begin to track external events and then go back to the diagram and see if anything makes sense. This is called the ‘observation and co-relation’ method of learning, experiential learning.
The horoscope can be divided into 4 quadrants, two below the central dividing line (ascendant/descendant) and two above. Even just noting which one of these 4 quadrants is being ‘lit up’ can be very revealing. Remember, wherever the Sun is transiting in your personal horoscope as it moves through the Zodiac sign of Leo is where your psyche reflects the properties of Leo. This is the area of life that you may approach in a Leo-like way.
So, if the Sun falls somewhere in the lower left hand side of the wheel, you may well be feeling somewhat preoccupied with your own personal concerns. Your sense of self-worth is something that has always been important to you so you may be thinking about what you really want to do with yourself, what holds true value for you, what you have on your mind and just exactly how to express it so that you are properly understood. If you have Leo in this area, you could well be an imaginative and creative thinker, get ‘big’ ideas. The Sun’s transit of this area could trigger ideas that you can explore or develop.
If in the second quadrant, your focus may be turned to family issues, love, romance and fun, or how to energize your own work life. Having Leo energy in this area of the psyche suggests an individual who has a flair for family life or is an artist or works in a creative field. This could be an individual who loves intensely, has a desire to express herself on a creative level and approaches her work with zest and panache. All of these sorts of concerns, then, would take center stage at this transit time.
When the Sun is transiting the 3rd quadrant, you may well feel less self-oriented and more concerned with others, their relationship to you, how to maximize your relationships and where you can take any given relationship may all be of concern to you. You may find yourself dealing with issues of power, control, even life and death or taxes. This could be a good time to sign up for a course that you have wanted to take for a while or just buy a book on an esoteric subject.
Finally, when the Sun lights up the 4th quadrant of the mandala, you are ready to rock! You may feel the need to be seen, noticed, remarked upon. You could find yourself getting more involved in social issues, community work, or even just partying. On a more spiritual level, you may find that you have the urge to more completely align your outer self with your inner set of values. At some point, when the Sun transits this sector, most everyone needs to take a breath or two. Track yourself. Monitor your body rhythms. Pay attention!
Leo is the energy of expression, joy, creativity in both physical and emotional ways and more subtly, the need for recognition; the need for affirmation, approval and ultimately, the urge to both draw love and express love. The absolutely first step into Leo is the plunge into SELF-LOVE. If we are not able to wholeheartedly love ME, it is, indeed, impossible to draw the kind of love from others that we need so that we can feed our soul.
Enjoy these next few weeks of light and joy. Find your little Leo self—each of us has this energy somewhere in all that clutter—and explore the sheer joy of being you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)