Leo's Shadow

There's an insane amount of Leo flying around this weekend!  Not only is the sun in Leo, we have a dark moon and a solar eclipse in the last couple degrees of Leo too!  And Leo had a bad rap for being overly self-oriented and having a 'me, me, me' complex, but let's look at this with a new perspective...

The sun is in Leo, and it illuminates everything it touches!  It boosts the ego, give self-confidence and fills us with the vibrant energies of the sun!  So the focus is on ourselves already - but now we have the moon moving into Leo, and it will stay in Leo for the Eclipse on 8/21... so it's almost as if the Universe is pushing us to take care and bolster ourselves, and this is also a stellar time for shadow work, as the moon will be blotting out the sun next week.  Dig in there deep because it is all about you right now - it's all about honoring the light and the dark of your soul.

That's right, your shadow.  What shadow?  I thought we were talking about bright and sunny Leo?  Well, we are.  The events going on in the cosmos are calling for you to honor, heal and know thyself.  And how can you do that without honoring the balance of energies within you?

Oh, you're all love and light?  I bet you fart rainbows too...

Leo calls for you to go in and clean house with this eclipse and take on a new perspective.  Love and light is great, don't get me wrong - but light would not even exist if it weren't for darkness, and vice versa.  Neither one is 'good' or 'bad' as we have all labeled them - but they are both part of us, separate parts, yes, but only for the sake of balance and unity.  Why is it that most of us insist on honoring only half of our being?  We have be born in this amazing time and place, with so much potential, beauty and power and we insist on selling ourselves short.

Our shadow isn't going anywhere.  We seem to want to sweep it all under the carpet or into a closet, just outside of our consciousness - but it's still a part of us.  We like to feed ourselves the story that we can overcome the darkness with light, and although that may be true in some cases, the light does cast shadows - and how we would know light if not for the darkness?

The shadow self is the teacher - and sometimes the catalyst.  It's imperative for change, asserting your will and making you whole.  So yes, you are love and light... and unfathomable darkness.  Your anger, rage, insecurities, laziness, lust and envy… your pride, greed, and vanity… your anxiety, despair, co-dependency and martyrdom… whatever it is that you bite back, hide away, or maybe you unconsciously feel these emotions because you have stuffed a closet full of them somewhere and you don’t remember why, but you know you never go near that closet. 

And I don't mean for you to be overwhelmed by the shadow - shadow work takes time and a whole lot of self-cultivated compassion - but just to acknowledge, sit with and get to know, well, you!  Sometimes just the acknowledgement of that part of us that has been locked away for so long can be a profound step towards healing the self.

So this weekend, we get to feel all of our self.  The light and the shadow co-existing inside – neither is bad, and neither is good, but together, there is balance, completion and power.

I see the light in you - and your shadows too.
They're a lot like mine, and I see you.
I see you... and that's okay.
We're all in this together, come what may. 
- Cerridwen Cauldronborn

Happy Eclipse!