by Silvianne K. Delmars | Aug 2, 2024 |
Recovering our Enthusiasm – Key to Cosmic Co-Creation
On Sunday, August 4, the Moon and Sun come together at 12 Leo 34, exact at 4:13 am PDT. With Venus and Mercury along with asteroids Vesta and Pallas Athena playing prominent roles, aided and abetted by untethered Uranus activations, this irrepressible New Moon presages an eventful and unpredictably sparky month ahead.
At the New Moon, Leo Overstory Venus, recently reborn into the evening sky, will inhabit the very last degree of the sign that began her current synodic cycle a year ago. She will then move into Virgo a few hours later, preceded by messenger Mercury who has been hanging out with her low in the evening sky (they will meet exactly in Virgo a few days later). Sandwiched in between is asteroid Vesta (not visible wit hthe naked eye), nudging us in her quietly powerful way to rekindle our devotion to the inner sacred hearth fire.
The Sacred Flame of Leo Sovereignty
It is time to bring the sacred flame of Leo sovereignty into manifestation, expressed with the assistance of Virgo Mercury’s deep discernment of the sacred patterning of all life. But what exactly is this Leo flame meant to serve? What are the forces that sparked it, and how is it fueled?
This New Moon begs us to explore these questions. In a culture that delights in the perverse pleasure of labeling everyone by their astrological Sun Sign shadow, the mainstream view of the Leo archetype has devolved into an egotistical, show-off, selfish bully – the quintessential narcissist. Not an energy we can easily reconcile with the concept of sacred focus.
Yes, Leo is in the fixed cross, in the TOTAMS paradigm known as the cross of healthy self-exploration. It is meant to go deeply into the mysteries of self-love and to express its innate creativity in the form of inspiring leadership, not consciously motivated by service to others, but for the pure joy of it. However, the true potential of Leo’s unique place on the wheel is hinted at by the archetypal energy represented by the Sun, its most resonant celestial body, in our solar system the source of information streaming to us from the heart of the cosmos.
A Leo Movement Practice
Over the past few years I have been sporadically dipping my toe into the fertile waters of Eurythmy as taught by Cynthia Hoven. This movement practice, brought through near the end of his life, is a rich component of Rudolph Steiner’s work in Astrosophy. By practicing Eurythmy, we learn to become more aware of the reality of etheric energy and to use it to shape the world – to speak not with our tongues, but with our bodies moving through space. Each of the signs of the zodiac has correspondences to gestures and qualities and represent specific consonants, while the planets are the vowels.
The keyword Steiner associated with Leo was enthusiasm. The gesture that goes along with this energy is to stand firmly planted, feet apart in a comfortably wide V, with the arms upraised in a mirroring V, and the hands turning slightly outward. I urge you to try this for yourself – maybe even right now! Why not? Put aside the phone or the laptop. Stand in stillness, take a few centering breaths, then mindfully move your feet into position, stepping first to the right and then the left. Lift your arms and turn your hands outward. What do you feel?
Enthusiasm
The first time I tried this, I actually laughed out loud, startled by the visceral feeling of joyous energy coursing through me. I WAS enthusiasm! So, let’s take a closer look at the word itself. Here’s an excerpt from https://www.etymonline.com/word/enthusiasm
“enthusiasm (n.)
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1600, from French enthousiasme (16c.) and directly from Late Latin enthusiasmus, from Greek enthousiasmos “divine inspiration, enthusiasm (produced by certain kinds of music, etc.),” from enthousiazein “be inspired or possessed by a god, be rapt, be in ecstasy,” from entheos “divinely inspired, possessed by a god,” from en “in” (see en- (2)) + theos “god” ….
The English word acquired a derogatory sense of “excessive religious emotion through the conceit of special revelation from God” (1650s) under the Puritans; the generalized meaning “fervor, zeal” (the main modern sense) is recorded by 1716.”
What wisdom can we derive from this delectable word genealogy?
Healthy Leo’s Charismatic Power
It turns out that the source of healthy Leo’s charismatic power is deeply rooted not in shallow love of self, but in divine inspiration. To embody the purest Leo expression is to be possessed by the God Force energy, to dance with abandon to the music of the spheres.
In the Puritanical world view, this sacred revelation became mere hubris – daring to believe one was special enough to receive direct revelation from Source became by definition delusional. Soon thereafter, its sacred roots were purged from the meaning completely, lending itself easily to an often shallow interpretation, congruent with dominant culture’s prevalent Leo shadow mindset.
This month’s Leo New Moon energies provide the perfect inspiration and support to reclaim the divine, joyful ecstasy at the heart of the Sun-born Leo archetype. This is definitely not a Pisces, unity consciousness, no-self sense of Oneness with All That Is, but rather something very different.
We need a deeply embodied self-love and sovereignty to be able to receive and hold true to the Leo inspiration that comes through us. Because, ultimately, Leo’s job is not just to receive source inspiration, but to then wield and shape it, as co-creator with Great Mystery.
Subject to excess and false starts, indeed, but at heart (another Leo word!) this soul assignment demands courage and a fierce loyalty to one’s own authentic creative vision. It is not easy to explore and embody, in a literal way, the truth at the heart of all great spiritual practices – that we are God knowing itself, using our spiritual will to unfold ever more complex manifestations of love embodied in the worlds of energy and form.
Steiner’s Lecture
Steiner’s lecture series on The Gospel of St. Matthew includes an imagining of new images for the Zodiac. In the September 11, 1910, Lecture IX, he delved into Leo. Here’s a summary:
“The region of Leo is governed by the forces of the Sun, as the mighty heart of worlds.
In the new image of the zodiac for Leo, we find the human being bringing to maturity the spiritual fruits in-pouring from the great cosmic mystery…”
Turns out it is our job to embody and shape the cosmic abundance pouring onto Earth – to bring it to maturity. To do this, we must not shy away from employing our spiritual will. The way to ensure that we are serving God and not ego is to express ever more fully our own individual soul signature, so that we may become an ever more conscious channel of what longs to pour through us.
The Powerful Leo New Moon Chart
This brings us back to the powerful New Moon chart, with its alliance of Moon, Sun, Vesta and Venus in Leo accompanied by Mercury in Virgo. The current Sacred Feminine archetype for humanity in this cosmic New Moon moment is the newly reborn Leo sovereign creator – with Vesta nearby lending her support. Ellias Lonsdale, in his book Inside Planets, has this to say of Vesta in Leo:
“Her identity structures are strong, deep and durable. Her world is constantly beating at the doors of her massive superstructure. Most of what is going on out there never reaches her… Great advantages accrue to this mode of operating. Especially strongly, she cannot be restricted or diverted from her intentions or designs. At best, she can even focus her consciousness so sharply and acutely that those very things that make everyone else anxious and disturbed cannot cause even the slightest ripple.”
With change agent Uranus in Taurus (which remains active this coming month) forming a T-square with Pallas Athena in Scorpio and Vesta in Leo, the asteroid goddesses continue to play their part in this great Turning of the Ages that is upon us. Time to break out of the false bonds of dominator culture, to reclaim the wholeness of the authentic Sacred Feminine, in both men and women. Pallas Athena wants to be free to wield her considerable wisdom, sourced in the power of the mind to discern sacred patterning, while also being able to delve deep.
Not to be left out, Juno in Virgo is in a trine with Uranus in Taurus and out-of-sign Pluto (still in the first degree of Aquarius, but heading back next month for one last dive into Capricorn). We are being offered the opportunity to form a whole new relationship with Earth and with each other, grounded in awareness of how all relationships, personal and collective, can serve both individuals and the web of life, fostering our capacity to navigate the murkiest of waters as our world implodes.
Can we co-create a reality where we no longer have to choose between wielding our intellects and honoring the sacred feminine way of being? Between garnering respect and support in the world, while also embracing and honoring even our most ‘unacceptable’ emotions? Current timings answer with a resounding “yes!” – as long as we are willing to dedicate ourselves body, mind, heart and soul to venturing deep into the territory of our own uniquely messy, voluptuously challenging, weirdly inspiring, exasperatingly beautiful individual psyches.
Let’s Get To It!
On the website offering the etymology for enthusiasm referenced above, there was a chart delineating the usage trend for the word over time. According to the (not totally reliable) data, enthusiasm had been waning steadily since its peak usage in the late 1890s. However, after wallowing in a trough during the uber-materialistic 1980s, it is now demonstrating a steady comeback. Maybe we are finally ready to reverse the trend and restore not only the word but its spiritual roots to our lives – to be willing to be seized by the divine and follow willingly where the gods inspire, fueled by a fierce loyalty to our personal creative revelations.
Only by summoning the deepest self-love and authenticity can we form a container resilient enough to uncompromisingly embody enthusiastic, fiery, inspiring, energetic source energy in the face of unrelenting outside static – and then use it to co-create a new reality. The Earth and all her creatures, perhaps even the larger cosmos, are waiting expectantly.
Leo takes center stage this month, enthusiastically proclaiming – “let’s get to it!”