Full Moon in Leo | January 2021
Full Moon in Leo
28 January 2021
2:17pm EST
Photo credit: Joshua Cotten
Happy Full Moon in Leo, loves.
I invite you to put aside what you think you know about Leo, and let’s journey to the heart of this archetype.
The heart of the Leo, which we are being asked to access, activate, and amplify this full moon (with help from Jupiter), is our love of self and our creativity. Let’s take each in turn.
Soul Leo: Self-Love
Leo is the medicine of authentic, deep, self-love. That word is not about taking baths, leaving lame partners, or listening to Lemonade (although all those things may happen as a result).
True soul Leo self-love is about recognizing and embodying the truth that we are a spark of the divine. At its essence, Leo isn’t about being “the best” or better than another; because, in true self-love, there is no comparison to another that would make you better or worse. This is between you and creator.
I’m on day 20 of a 40-day practice I now recognize as being Leo soul work. Each day I spend 12 minutes engaged in a simple self-love practice. Seven minutes in meditation repeating the mantra “I love myself” and five minutes gazing into my own eyes in the mirror and telling myself “I love you.” (This practice is inspired by the book Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on it by Kamal Rakivant.)
This practice isn’t an ego bolstering journey. It’s not self-care. It’s not self-improvement. Rather, it is the deep soul work of reprogramming a subconscious that has absorbed messages of not-good-enough, unlovable, damaged, and unwhole that are simply not true.
Imagine a world of people who truly loved themselves at the soul level. Down to their bones.
That is what this moon invites us into.
Chandra Symbol for the Full Moon in Leo
The Chandra symbol for this Leo at 8º moon could not be a more perfect echo of this sentiment:
“You can do nothing for anybody else unless you are whole within yourself.
There is an urgent call, an inward stirring to offer to yourself the full power of your destiny path, to become bonded and fused with the truth of your being.
There is also a transcendent power, a greater selfhood-presence blessing, preserving, and sustaining your path in this world.
So that the light can burn brighter through the joy in your heart and your vital physical embodiment, given through yourself to all.”
– Elias Londsdale
This moon is about the deep work of becoming whole. To stand in our full power (not a corrupted kind of power but the power of your heart). To permit transcendence into a greater sense of self that is a gift to all.
Only when we love ourselves can we truly love another. This is what compels us to the other side of the full moon axis into Aquarius, which is about liberation for all and we-based collective co-creation. Without the Leo core, Aquarius is cold and dangerous.
We need a second piece of this Leo-at-the-soul-level archetype before we get to the healthy, generative collective action of Aquarius: creativity.
Leo Soul: Creativity
Leo represents tapping into our creativity with childlike wonder and abandon. Children don’t care if what they make is good, they make because they are the spark of the Maker, and they still remember that.
Creativity is painting, dancing, cooking, singing, drawing, writing, yes, but it is more. Those are expressions of creativity. Creativity is what we generate in our lives, what we make in each moment. We are never not creating.
Creativity is about what we are contributing to life in any moment.
The quality of our thoughts and emotions are creative. How we interpret what we see, smell, hear, touch and feel is creative.
If we are tied to the news in horror for three days, we are contributing horror to life. If we soften in a heated conversation with a loved one and deeply listen to their pain, we are contributing compassion to life.
This way of considering creativity is not an invitation into self-judgment but loving self-awareness. Because we have that first Leo key of genuine soul-deep self-love. When we love ourselves, we create from that core essential truth.
This is the essence of Leo. This embodiment of love, creativity and vitality is needed in these Aquarian times.
Find your heart and don’t let her go.
Some specifics of this moon:
The Sun is conjunct Jupiter, expanding and amplifying the Leo-Aquarius axis, and bringing it’s blessings to the medicine of each.
This full moon forms a T-square with Uranus and Mars, adding more fire, more heat, and more electricity to the present energies. Take action toward freedom.
Venus (the feminine in all creation) is conjunct Pluto in Capricorn. This is Venus’ final weeks in her descent process before she enters the underworld. She is meeting with Pluto now to help her break bonds with anything that is not a true source of power for her. This meet up is a preview of the shadow journey and annihilation she will face in the underworld. What false stories are you telling yourself about where you source power?
Key Questions for this moon
If I really loved myself, truly and deeply and without reservation, what would I do? (generally, and in any specific given instance)
What do I want to contribute to life today through the creative channel that I am?
What is ready to die in the way I relate to others outside of myself because it does not serve love?