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“Whether it’s science or magic, if it’s of fun benefit, enjoy!” ~ ed

The heart is a compass,
A sorceress of wisdom,
And mystique,
Beauty and depth,
Fire and passion,
Do we hear it inviting us in?
Asking more of us?
Asking us to heed the call of the lion?
The fire in our hearts
Is here,
Ready to awaken to more
If we so dare…
~

What does it mean to live a heart-centered life?

Does it mean a life free of suffering, struggle, and challenge? Does it mean a life of abundance and opulence? Or a life full of beauty and wonder?

The heart is a compass. A guide. A stoker of the flames. A cauldron of wisdom and mystery. Only for those who never seek or dare to touch it, does life feel lifeless, empty, and desolate.

These past few years have shaken us awake. Asked more of us. Asked us to stretch and bend and adapt. To shift. To open. To expand. To soften. We are only two months into 2022 and we already feel the shifting of tectonic plates beneath our feet yet again. We wonder if we will ever stay in one place long enough to hear our own hearts speak.

Yes, the outside world asks so much of us, especially these days. Some days, we feel like our heads are barely above water. Other days, we feel as if we can breathe a deep, long, audible exhale. Even if just for one moment. And, yet, our internal world beckons. Something within is stirring.

Many of us have begun taking steps toward our heart-centered call. One baby step and then another toward what lights us up. Maybe, we still feel far away from this vision, but it’s one that’s maybe becoming a little more clear each passing day. We sense it a little more. We feel the resonance of alignment coming into our reality.

This is Aquarius energy. The energy of vision. Of the grander picture. Of what we are seeking to align with and create in our individual lives, but more so in the collective mapping of humanity. The sun has been in this air sign for the past few weeks. It has perhaps created a more versatile, quicker-moving energy. It’s allowed for an opening of the energy. For things that felt stuck in the mud to shift. To change. A broadened understanding of our current experience.

Aquarius is the visionary. The dreamer. The seeker of change. Revolution. Innovation. Perhaps, on some level, we have been seeking a massive innovation in our own lives, whether in our careers, our relationships, our inner worlds, our health, or our homes.

We have been coming out of a super dense and sticky retrograde with both Mercury and Venus having gone retrograde for a month or so. This was not easy energy. We all were brought face-to-face with our old emotional baggage and wounds around relationships, money, and communication. These lessons were a doozy, over and over again, to say the least. But—we made it, and a little wiser for the wear.

Kicking off our second full moon of the year, the Leo full moon will be landing on February 16 at 11:55 a.m. EST at 28 degrees of the fire sign.

Leo rules the heart. The life force energy. Governed by the sun, the solar plexus, our power center, Leo is the lion. The loyal, devoted, love-with-all-you-got feline. Love is of utmost importance to Leos. If we aren’t doing it out of love or in the name of love, what’s the point?

Leo is the inner child. The artist. The creatrix. The playful essence of our heart-inspired actions. The courage to go after what it is our heart desires. The bravery to take the risk in the face of fear and all the stories of how things could go horribly wrong. Leo energy is magnetic. If you’ve ever been around a Leo shining brightly in their own light, you know what this feels like. They can be the most vibrant person around. In their highest, the light pours out of them like the sun’s rays, shining on all those it touches.

Leo energy begs the question:

How does it feel to embody your true, authentic self and allow yourself to express and emanate that light? 

Many of us (through our own shades of conditioning and trauma manifestation) have learned to be afraid to show ourselves to the world. To let ourselves and our uniqueness be seen. To be witnessed in our glory. Many of us carry a cloak of shame noosed around our neck just waiting for someone to call us a fraud, or be seen for the flaws we fear could bury us.

But Leo energy is not here to ask of us perfection. It’s not here to say we can’t have flaws. It’s here to say, “When presented with the opportunity to stand lit up in your gifts and beauty, do you step into front and center of your own damn life? Or do you shy away out of unworthiness because somehow that still feels safer?”

We didn’t come here to withhold from the world our light, though. Not only is it a disservice to ourselves, but to the world. To the collective. To the Aquarius energy we are swimming in. Leo, the individual, is here to make its mark on the collective after all. But, we can only do so when we are standing in our own power, in the driver seat of our life.

We all can feel the pressure these days. The pressure to constantly evolve. To go with the flow of this new world. To rest in uncertainty and be present with the discomfort a little bit more. But this kind of evolution isn’t a “wait-and-see-what-happens” kind. It’s a chance to take the reins of your own life and start making the desired changes and course corrections as needed. The evolution the world needs anyway is already within our hearts, just waiting for us to listen and heed its call.

This full moon is ripe with energy to get us out and living again. If we’ve been deep in the process of transformation, albeit a necessary one, this energy asks us to get out into the world again. To see our friends and loved ones. To let our heart expand again. To be open to the unexpected love and beauty that awaits us, if only we have our eyes and heart open to receive all that’s here for us.

Joy doesn’t wait for the clouds or the rain to stop. It doesn’t ask our lives to be perfect. It asks us to allow it in, allow it to envelope us, to recognize we’re worthy of its arrival—any time, any place.

This full moon is happening near the same time as the annual Mars-Venus conjunction. This annual meet-up is the energy of the masculine and feminine coming into intimate relation with the other—it’s a balancing of the two, within and around us. We all have both energies within us after all. This beautiful energy is a chance to harmonize our relations, too. To allow this heart-expansive energy to ignite our love, with self and perhaps other.

The two lovebirds are making Capricorn their home for the next month. Capricorn is grounded in the here and now; they’re in it for the long game. We can expect with this energy a more serious, grounded, and practical approach to our relationships. If it isn’t going to have value for us in the long-term, we won’t see those options with rose-colored glasses as appealing anymore.

This full moon will be opposing the north and south nodes of the moon, now in Taurus and Scorpio, respectively. This amplifies the visionary energy we are moving into. It asks us to get even clearer on what stays and what goes. Are we in alignment with our heart’s truest desires? If not, can we take one small step in that direction?

The Leo full moon invites us to embrace the courage of the lion to be our fullest, brightest, most whole selves. Aren’t we tired, anyway, of hiding our light? Suppressing it takes a great deal of energy. Is there a dormant dream within us that we’ve forgotten about?

Now is always the time to remember. To invite our dreams back online. To allow ourselves to feel worthy of realizing our own dreams.

This full moon energy is a dance between the individual (Leo) and the collective (Aquarius). We are all so much more interconnected than we even realize. Our actions (and inaction) do ripple out and affect others. This is the law of karma—energy in action. A reciprocal effect of energy out, energy in.

All planets will be direct and in forward motion for the next month, so now is as good a time as any to move ahead. If you don’t know quite yet where you want to go, start by placing your hand on your heart, and softly asking it what it needs to feel safe to open.

Most likely, a simple, quiet answer will bubble up at some point. Stay with it. Keep listening. Keep attuning. The heart is on your team after all.

Leo is the ego. But, the ego must be in service to the heart. It oftentimes requires us to take the risk and make new choices. To ask: How is what I want going to fit into the bigger unfolding picture of humanity’s evolution? And what next aligned choice do I need to take to get me a little but closer to that vision?

We are all wanting an activation of our heart chakra. To feel a little less blocked and guarded from future, feared pain. The heart was made to open, but sometimes it does close, and that’s okay. We are all learning how to stay open and connected to our hearts no matter the outward appearance of things.

As poet and spiritual teacher, Mark Nepo says, “Whatever opens us is not as important as what it opens.”

So, whether it’s the sighting of a sunset kissing the mountains, the loving embrace of a friend or partner, the warmth of a bath enveloping our bodies in care, a new adventure on the horizon, or perhaps a soulful meeting and encounter, the external source is never what has caused us to open. Rather, it aided in the source of love, joy, and bliss being ignited from within. A remembrance. Not something to be fed externally but remembered internally. The fountain is within you after all.

With this full moon, let yourself by fed and led by your own love, stored within your own heart—which is connected to the heart within all. Let this home be your guide. Your true north. Your sanctuary. Your truest companion. And, from that space of soulful reunion, love can’t help but blossom out of you. Let yourself blossom. Let your light be seen by all those waiting to be inspired and uplifted by it. Let this light within you be your most sacred devotion.

~

“Through the opened heart, the world comes rushing in, the way oceans fill the smallest hole along the shore. It is the quietest sort of miracle: by simply being who we are, the world comes to fill us, to cleanse us, to baptize us, again and again.” ~ Mark Nepo