Leo 2008 - Dynamic Generous Fire Spirits

by Robert Wilkinson

Today we celebrate the shining sign of Leo and explore the qualities of this noble, loving, powerful Fire sign that represents the principle of Solar Fire, one of the three cosmic fires pervading our solar system. We all have this "kingly" or "queenly" royal quality somewhere in our charts, the area where we are the law, the light, and the center of power holding court in our own private solar system. Leo shows us the way to center ourselves in our higher law.

August is the heart of Summer, a time when a maximum of Solar force helps us continue our creative work begun in the sign of Cancer. This month will expand the externalizing self-gathering and consolidating that Summer symbolizes, stabilizing the life force in Leo, the sign of Fixed Fire.

We decided some things in Cancer that are now showing as a new way of life, self-expression, and enjoyment of how we are connected to doing our being naturally. We are now in a period of extending our enthusiasms and spontaneity – thus a time of traveling, celebration, vacation, and family involvements before the return of more practical matters in September, the time of Virgo, the harvester.

This period indicates dramatic combustions that force us to release old patterns and demonstrate new ones more appropriate to who we really are. Find a larger vision, new friends, new goals and ambitions, and if there is a sense of frustration, decrease egoism and be more inspired and flexible.

Beware of excessive pride or jealousy in self or others, and try to remember that each is the center of their own Solar system. As a rule two different Suns in too close a proximity usually generate sunspots, Solar flare-ups, and turn everything within range a little crispy. However, when our Sun is shining at its best, we overcome any tendencies to make things sterile and bring forth the natural fruitfulness in all things and circumstances.

August is usually dominated by the Fire sign energies of Leo. Unlike last year when we had 4 planets in Leo dominating the span, this year Venus left Leo the first week and Mercury left Leo the second week, both entering Virgo, and Earth sign.

Thus Earth energy dominates August 2008, with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn all in Earth signs for most of the month. Mars slips into Air sign Libra on August 19, just before the Sun enters Virgo on August 22. So really, practicality rules this month, shaping the idealism of Mercury, Venus, and Mars all in Libra by the end of the month lasting through September.

This month mainly entails following through on practical details related to whatever activities we initiated during May and June when Mars transited Leo. We now can see the light-life relative to what we began in late Spring which led to the decisions made so far this Summer. Here it is important to note that Mars is going to be conjuncted by Mercury and Venus in early September, making mid-Libra a very active sector in our maps in the near future.

The Sun is now in a closing phase with Mars, preparing to catch it by conjunction this December 5-6 at 15 Sagittarius, beginning another mid-length cycle between these two planets. They last conjoined at 30 Libra in late october 2006, so you may want to consider events in your life that have transpired since then, given that Mars activates things and the Sun incorporates them into our lives. We've all become philosophically "complete" about something related to wherever 30 Libra falls in our charts.

Now back to our celebration of Leo. When the Sun spotlights Leo, we are shown the light in this phase of the twelve-step evolutionary process that what was stabilized in Taurus, expanded in Gemini, and consolidated in Cancer undergoes a fundamental combustion showing as a creative projection of that energy, preparing for the practical refinements and adjustments when the Sun enters Virgo. This month the new initiatives and vision offered back when Jupiter was in Leo (2003), given shape and structure when Saturn was in Leo (2005-2007) will continue to power up due to the Sun vitalizing that structure.

Leo is symbolically associated with the Lion, a sign representing the regal, self-sufficient, magnificent ruler of their own domain, fierce, quick, sensitive, and noble. The more evolved Leos demonstrate the wisdom-power of the little cats, sent by Bastet, the Great Cat of ancient Egypt, to teach humanity how to serve the Divine Order through all its local manifestations in our house cats. In the year cycle we can now use the needs and decisions we discovered and made in Cancer to act creatively on our own behalf.

We now know what we care about, and can act decisively on that. In our Leo experience each year we renew our connectedness with life, on the basis of the Cancer experience where we found stability and emotional identification with our widened vision of ambition or worldly service begun in Aquarius, the sign showing us how Leo exteriorizes. This was deepened in Pisces, glimpsed and communicated in Aries, concretized and anchored in Taurus and incorporating new ideas and information in Gemini.

Mythologically, Leo is the sign of the King/Queen, the ruling nobility of that which shines eternally, the central force of light and heat in any fixed field of activity. This function is the direct representative of that which bestows life, the central order of any given "realm." It also is the Orphan, in that the ruler has no one to defer to, no one who can make the decisions that must be made about the order of things, the laws of the system.

Leo is where the buck stops and starts, and as such symbolizes the Divine Power of Spiritual force used to curse or bless, destroy or allow. In the wisdom-tradition, it is said that there are good Kings and Queens, as well as bad ones. Historically, we have Arthur as the symbol of the good King that blesses the knights to embrace their holy quests, and Herod as the symbol of the bad King, one who would destroy all life that might someday challenge his hegemony.

Leo, when freed of the traps of pride, inflexibility, egocentrism, sulking, vanity, arrogance, and dictatorial childishness, demonstrate a magnanimous dignity and authority that is fearless, courageous, honorable, humble, devoted, and self-sacrificing. This is a playful sign, and can be the best of companions when among their loyalists. Sometimes oblivious to threats (as they will not even deign to acknowledge them!), they are fierce in protecting their own.

They are loyal, and expect it in return. And, like the mother lion whose cubs are threatened, they will fight to the death to protect their offspring, both literal and figurative. They are the embodiment of love incarnate, and when well adjusted, show as powerful leaders, friends to all, and a force majure in any thing they are involved in. They are capable of becoming world leaders who change their world forever through their light and power.

Think Helena P. Blavatsky, aka "HPB," who brought the Eastern Wisdom to the Western world, founded the world-wide theosophical movement, and is revered as a saint in parts of Asia for the restoration of Buddhism. A voluminous writer of books and translator of the legendary Tibetan text "Voice of the Silence," she gave the world the awe-inspiring volumes of "The Secret Doctrine," a miracle translation work of ancient historical chronicles outlining the "cosmogenesis" and "anthropogenesis" for our solar system and Earth.

In it are the foundations of all we know about creation mythologies, the powers latent in the human vehicle, auras, chakras, the seven planes of our known existence, and Mu and Atlantis, to name just a few subjects covered. It is the source material for anyone who would understand humanity's awesome Spiritual nature and heritage. The other founder of the Theosophical Society was also a Leo, Henry Steel Olcott. Besides this gift to the world, he was renowned as a man of absolute integrity who cleaned up several corrupt departments in the American government and a highly respected author of many spiritual works.

Another world-altering Leo was Napoleon, Emperor of France who ended an old world order and ushered in a new era for Europe, the Americas, and even the rule of law itself. Napoleonic Law is somewhat different than other kinds of law, and is still a force in the world today. Leo potentate Henry Ford created an idea, an empire, and his name is ubiquitous even to this day.

In the movies, we have magnificent examples of the dramatic and creative quality Leo brings to each project. Our stellar sign features directors Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Peter Bogdanovich, Norman Jewison, Melvin Van Peebles, Blake Edwards, John Derek, Betty Thomas, John Landis, James Cameron, and heavyweight producers Cecil B. DeMille, Norman Lear, M. Night Shyamalan, and movie mogul Sam Goldwyn.

Among legendary actors and actresses in theater, and movies, a list for all time that includes Mae West, William Powell, Gene Kelly, Bob Mitchum, "cowardly lion" Bert Lahr, Billie Burke, Jason Robards Jr., Keenan Wynn, Ethel Barrymore, Walter Brennan, Myrna Loy, Peter O'Toole, Robert Shaw, Jane Wyatt, Maureen O'Hara, Shelly Winters, Mike Connors, Rhonda Fleming, Louise Fletcher, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Esther Williams, Arlene Dahl, Jack Weston, and Rory Calhoun.

Modern cinematic shining stars of modern media include Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Daniel Radcliffe, Chief Dan George, Martin Sheen, Halle Berry, Danny Glover, Catherine Bell, Hilary Swank, Sandra Bullock, Antonio Banderas, Ben Affleck, Sean Penn, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, Steve Carell, Ed Norton, Billy Bob Thornton, Woody Harrelson, Charlize Theron, Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, Kevin Spacey, Peter Bagdanovich, Sam Eliot, Anna Paquin, Dom DeLuise, Geraldine Chaplin, Timothy Hutton, Leslie Ann Warren, Melanie Griffith, Michael Biehn, Michelle Yeoh, Vivica Fox, Keith Carradine, Brad Renfro, George Hamilton, and Christian Slater.

Leos who graced our homes through television include legends Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Gracie Allen, Fess Parker, Ted Cassidy, Connie Stevens, and Mike Douglas. Others include Bert Convy, Arthur Treacher, Estelle Getty, Ruth Buzzi, Robert Culp, Jill St. John, Carroll O'Connor, Susan St. James, Mike Connors, Martin Mull, and Jerry Van Dyke.

Modern television personalities include Cindy Williams, Valerie Harper, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Jay North, Lynda Carter, Maureen McCormick, Loni Anderson, Delta Burke, Kim Cattrall, Rosanna Arquette, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempest Bledsoe, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, David Spade, Jon Lovitz, Lisa Kudrow, Donnie Wahlberg, Marlon Wayans, Adam Arkin, Peter Gallagher, Charisma Carpenter, Sally Struthers, Victoria Jackson, Donny Most, and television journalists Peter Jennings, Linda Ellerbee, Connie Chung, and Christopher Cuomo.

In the world of music we have such legends as composer Claude DeBussy, early jazz masters Louie Armstrong, Rudy Vallee, and Count Basie, and bluesmen John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Mike Bloomfield and Robert Cray. The list continues with the great Tony Bennett, Eddie Fisher, Jimmy Webb, Paul Anka, Buck Owens, Mel Tillis, Jimmy Dean, George Shearing, Jim Reeves, Isaac Hayes, Dan Fogleberg, the legendary Ronnie Spector, and Dead shaman Jerry Garcia.

More modern Leos doing their royal thang include Eric Johnson, David Crosby, Mick Jagger, Geddy Lee, the amazing Scott Matthews, Whitney Houston, Robert Plant, Kris Kristofferson, Ray Davies, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Kevin Cadogan, Lee Rocker, Madonna, Emily Robison, Kenny Rogers, BJ Thomas, Maurine McGovern, Jennifer Lopez, Adam Yauch, Kate Bush, Tammin, James Hetfield, Daniel Jones, Michelle Williams, John Deacon, Mark Hallman, Adam Duritz, Roger Taylor, Rick Wright, Brad Hargreaves, Arion Salazar, Bill Berry, Vanessa Amorosi, and major guitarists "the Edge" and Slash.

Leo poets include Petrarch, John Dryden, Percy B. Shelley, Tennyson, Rupert Brooke, Ogden Nash, Charles Bukowski, and Stanley Kunitz. Stellar artists feature Maxfield Parrish, Aubrey Beardsley, Gary Larson, Jim Davis, and Andy Warhol.

In literature we have such luminaries as Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas, Alexis de Tocqueville, Emily Bronte, Herman Melville, George Bernard Shaw, Carl Jung, Beatrix Potter, H.P. Lovecraft, James Baldwin, Raymond Chandler, Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ogden Nash, J.K. Rowling, Alex Haley, X.J. Kennedy, and Garrison Keilor.

Presidents include Bill Clinton, Herbert Hoover, and Benjamin Harrison. Other political Leos include such figures as First Ladies Jacqeline Kennedy Onassis, Roselyn Carter and the political matriarch Rose Kennedy. Other political legends include Davy Crockett, Fidel Castro, Simon Bolivar, Barack Obama, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Bill Bradley, Benito Mussolini, and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), also a noted author.

Other Leos who made their mark on our world for all time: Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark), Neil Armstrong, (first man on the Moon), Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, Alexander Calder, Jean Piaget, and Karl Menninger. Add to this eclectic bunch trick shooter Annie Oakley, seminal Afro-American figure Marcus Garvey, the legendary Ralph Bunche, co-founder of the UN and first black to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Yankees coach Casey Stengel, John Scopes of "monkey trial" fame, Apple founder Steve Wozniak, chef Julia Child, and Alex Trebek.

More famous Leos include sports stars Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Peggy Fleming, Evonne Goolagong, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Hulk Hogan, Rocky Colavito, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Walter Payton, A-Rod.

Unique historical figures feature Martha Stewart, WWI spy Mata Hari, Dino DeLaurentis, Yves Saint Laurent, Paul Taylor, Rudi Gernreich, mind-science guru Jose Silva, aviation pioneers Orville Wright and Amelia Earhart, Dag Hammarskjold, first Secretary General of the UN, humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg, and extraordinary comedians Stan Freberg and Firesign Theater founder Phil Proctor, two of the funniest guys who ever made us laugh.

In the world of astrology we find four greats in Alan Leo, Max Heindel, Llewellyn George, and Sydney Omarr, and in the spiritual world we have the amazing Sri Yukteswar and Sri Aurobindo.

Finally, a big happy Leo birthday to the first underwater telegraph cable, NASA, the international cities of Bath, Berlin, Blackpool, Bombay, Bristol, Damascus, Jerusalem, Portsmouth, Prague, Rome, and US cities Miami, Montpelier, Chicago, Baltimore, Boston, Albany, Warwick, and Charleston. The states of Colorado, Missouri, New York, and Hawaii are under the sign of Leo, as are the nations of India, France, Madagascar, and Italy. Tanti Auguri, and Viva vino!

© Copyright 2008 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Chickie]

Your HIGHNESS.....(yes the pun is intended!)

The lioness has finally AWAKENEND! Thanks to you and yesterday's performance of ONEBODY, directed by "CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD," author, Neale Donald Walsh. Please google him and find the nearest city in Ca to experience the experience!

Much love

Chickie

[Annette]

Useful post -- and interesting, Chickie, how even when one is born a Leo, Leo nature sometimes needs to be uncovered or discovered. Monarchy, I'm finding, must be earned, even if one believes in some sort of passively earned direct succession (or whatever the astrological term might be). In fact, one of the provocative things about astrology seems to be that being born to resources doesn't mean they've been already mined. Finding them is even more challenging than excavating them .

[Chickie]

Thank you Annette,

Except the shameful thing about me is avoiding, due to fear, or being passive about the things I already KNOW yet being Lucky enough (jupiter in pisces part of a grand trine in water) for something to come along like a hugh silver axe drops down upon my head to give me the "tune up" I need at the moment so that I may reiterate my own mantra..."find your mother and the rest will follow!"

[Annette]

Chickie,

I hope you will forgive the presumption, but I don't believe that there can be anything shameful about you -- or about anyone, really. In my experience, shame is imposed as a means of control (parents or authority figures), and when we have no control, we tend to internalize it.

There's always the next breath. Nothing is wasted. And there is no reason for shame. In fact, (and I can only speak for me), it's an emotional state of disliking oneself that stops further examination of whatever behavior or feeling -- and the reason -- we've been taught to feel shame about.

Why do you wait until pushed before moving? What's under the shame? I'm not asking you for an answer, but it's something to consider.

There's always the next breath. Again, please forgive me if I seem presumptuous.

[Chickie]

Annette

"Why do you wait until pushed before moving? What's under the shame?

I'm working on it.......if you visit my website, one would never know what a wimp I can be :)

[Robert]

Hi Chickie - Glad you've hit a groove. Got your emails. Interesting proposition. Will ponder on what could be done and when. Gotta love The Mother, since she brought us to the dance.

Hi Annette - We are born with potential, and it is up to us to make it actual. We do this through the oscillations between pleasure and pain on many levels until we resolve the polarity of the opposites and resolve the prime causes of planetary tendencies that lead to suffering. That's why there are good kings, as well as bad ones. Good priests and shamans, as well as bad ones. Eventually we come to pure loving wisdom that expresses as intelligence in action.

Shame is one of the means by which our internal "will to good" feels that our personality is somehow missing the mark. Sometimes this is a good thing. Other times, we are playing out a useless feeling of a learned behavior that cannot help us honor our inherent Divinity. The difference is the shame we feel when we haven't been taught a thing is shameful, but we know that it is not a good thing to do (such as violate the Golden Rule, for ex.) You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.... Personally, with Moon in Aquarius, I find it useless in most instances, since I'd rather just "go and sin (miss the mark) no more..." But there are those who refuse to heed, and must be made to feel, lest they continue to generate bad karmas in action, feeling, and thought and thus put their eternal Self in peril of occupying a shell of hurtful tendencies in a future life. Spirit uses all kinds of ways to get the attention of the ego.

[Damien]

'In fact, one of the provocative things about astrology seems to be that being born to resources doesn't mean they've been already mined. Finding them is even more challenging than excavating them.'

Annette that's one of the sexiest and most nerviliciously arresting turns of astrological phrasing i've heard!!!

[Annette]

Damien,

Thanks. What a surprising thing to say. I usually don't proof read well enough to be grammatically clear even. I appreciate the compliment.

[Annette]

Robert,

On shame -- is it really true that we have it inborn? I am not so sure. My experience has been that shame usually comes from the shadow of some rule from a childhood authority figure. Otherwise, it doesn't seem to exist for me at all. And I'm not exactly an angel. I do feel guilty when I'm not doing the right thing, though.

Annette

[Annette]

Addendum to last comment:

My childhood authority figures were about as dysfunctional as you can get. That's why the shame-as-learned-behavior seems so true to me when it only arises from mashugana rules.

[larissa]

Hi Robert - my mom was a Leo, most warm and generous soul I ever knew. I have Leo rising, she was Aries moon. we understood eahc other from one shared glance. Today could have been her B-day, but we all have what was destined to have. I am back from my motherland, still jetlegged. Visited mom's grave several times, saw whatever is left from my family there. House will be sold shortly. Feels like closure. Glad to be back to Florida.

[Robert]

Hi Annette - If you could, please group your comments in one since multiple comments force others downstream off the page. Also, do not hit the post button more than once. I don't like having to delete multiple duplicate comments.

As for shame, yes, it is inborn. We call that which recognizes shame "conscience." If we could not experience shame, we could never know how to grow into a state where that does not exist within us, not from shutting down or reactivity, but through enlightened view. The trick is not to reference others' moral view of what constitutes shameful behavior, but instead listen to our heart and then act accordingly. We must experience all the feelings humans feel in order to know how to be productive and not lose our spiritual equipoise in the face of the world's judgments re: shame, blame, etc. We cannot become that until we learn when it is appropriate, and when it is not.

Hi Larissa - You and your mom had a lot of major connections. This is a major closure/transition, when you have received powerful "cellular wisdom" transmitted when your mom left the body. You have now graduated into your majority in a different way than those who still have elders living, thus anchoring their own vintage of the family genetic wisdom force. Welcome back to the land of the flooded!

[Chickie]

About Shame. Do you ever feel bad about yourself and you don’t know why? I have. According to John Bradshaw in "Healing The Shame That Binds You," there are two kinds of shame: Healthy and Toxic. “In itself healthy shame is necessary to have the feeling of shame if one is to be truly human. Shame tells us of our limits.” However, he says, “Shame as a healthy human emotion can be transformed into shame as a state of being. As a state of being, shame takes over one’s whole identity. To have shame as an identity is to believe that one’s being is flawed, that one is defective as a human being. Once shame is transformed into an identity, it becomes toxic and dehumanizing."

[Robert]

Hi Chickie - It seems like Bradshaw took the general description of "anger" from Elizabeth Kubler Ross and replaced the word anger with shame. Not sure I agree with the correlation between shame and limits, unless limits are somehow related to shame as an expression of conscience. I actually feel we give far too much to power to shame, blame, etc. since dwelling on these lends them power.

Shame is but one element of the range of human emotions. We are "flawed and defective" until we walk the walk of personality integration and embrace whatever Higher Eternal Truth of Self that is our path to travel. Authentic shame shows us the way out of suffering, and is a natural part of recognizing our inner voice expressing the feeling that something is wrong. The only wrong is us not living our truth, integrity, aspiration, and heart-strength. By following shame to its inner source we find how we are not living our Higher Self. The experience of shame, whether appropriate or inappropriate, is an immediate call to witness our Truth of Being, our Eternal potential to become our Soul-force expressing our Will-to-Good.

Shame as a state of being is an illusion of identifying with something untrue. The cultivation of discrimination and dispassion immediately busts the game. Exploring how others are to blame for our identifying with shame is also an illusion, since the punch line is always "what are you going to do about it?" Even to affirm any element of our self identity is hooked into shame gives the illusion more power than it deserves. As long as we struggle with certain things, they remain victorious through our giving them power and reality. However, if we immediately embrace the quest for Truth-of-Being, turning to more positive actions, feelings, and thoughts, then the old patterns fall away quickly. And I may turn some of these thoughts into a post, since there are many hooked into the illusion of shame.

[Chickie]

Your Highness,

"Shame" may in fact be the wrong term Bradshaw chose to use as boundaries or limits. However I do believe and so do many sisterfolk feel that being nurtured with the La Storia di Garden of Eden with Eve taking the rap for the fall, no matter how symbolic its' supposed representation of "choice and free will,".....chicks from the old school got stuck with a stain that a truckload of yesterday's WISK and today's multifacted antidepressants aint gonna remove!

That said, my friend, is why the special people like you and a few others who escaped, are the minority and are stuck having the MAJORITY of shamed lunas banging away our typewriters on your brain!

Tutti Baci

ps to the rest of the guests. I am not assuming everyone on this blog is shamed.

[Annette]

Chickie,

I don't really feel royal -- in fact, it's taken me this long (and this much work) in my life to feel entitled to just be myself. One of my parents has narcissistic personality disorder, so most of the world was for years entirely surreal. Once I learned to see (and practice focusing on) an alternative, the shame from the old world disappeared. I haven't seen it since.

I see it sort of like brain science -- you find out a lot from the vastly abnormal case. And there are some commonly found tendencies/feelings (in more common circumstances) that simply don't apply when the tissue has developed or is missing what others have got. That's always how I've seen it, anyway.

Not sure what you mean by "banging away" on my brain -- I certainly didn't mean to offend in any way.

Kind regards,
Annette

[Chickie]

Dearest Annette,

There is a technical communication problem! The last note I wrote was in reference to Robert's last comment on shame.....and I always refer to him as "Your Highness." I was being "tongue in cheek" about him and other's like him who are of the higher mind and have been able to escape the shame and become great guidance counselors for people like me who are "banging away" daily on his brain.

As for brain science, with all my spiritual work and research, I've been successful at helping everyone else except myself and it just so happens that your "alternative" is what was professed by the pastor of this new spiritual center spoke of at the service yesterday. Thanks for being part of my synchronistic moment!