Welcome to New Millennium Being

Leo, Heart and Creativity

by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #195, July 23, 2012
Planetary Alignments

When your mood shifts, you feel either stuck, or suddenly mobilized to take action, and check out what is happening in the heavens. At the time of new moons and full moons, solar and lunar eclipses, when a planet changes signs, goes retrograde, turns direct, or there are major planetary interactions (conjunctions, squares, oppositions), we are impacted in a variety of different ways. You are not going nuts. You are feeling the effects of planetary shifts. It all boils down to cosmic support for transformation and quantum shifts in consciousness.

Leo's message is shine your heart light, enjoy yourself, and make all life a party!

Planetary Influences

The Sun is shining in radiant Leo from July 22nd through August 21st. The Leo archetype plays a very important role at this time. With Uranus in Aries for 6 years, every woman and man is experiencing some type of awakening, and feeling the need to express her or himself.

Because of retrograde, Mercury is in Leo for almost ten weeks (from June 25th through August 31st), adding heart power to all our ideas and endeavors.

We live in a very volatile time. Change entails a shift in consciousness. Both are accompanied by conflict, confrontation, and chaos. The on-going (for the next 3 years) Uranus-Pluto square reaches another peak September 19th.

The Uranus in Aries square with Pluto in Capricorn can ignite deep seated anger and fear. We are seeing the negative consequences of this activation - when this energy is released as insanity and rage. The Leo archetype invites us to use our fire energy and creativity to serve, instead of destroy, humanity. The transition to the Aquarian Age requires each of us to offer our unique gifts to the world.

In the next 3 years, we will each experience deep transformation in our lives. June 24th was the kickoff date of a 3 year period of what can be called 'Breakdown or Breakthrough'. (date of the first of 7 exact Uranus/Pluto squares between now and 2015). Don't count on the intensity decreasing. The intensity will only increase. There is only one question - How can we deal with it in a way that welcomes positive changes, stimulates our creativity, and opens our awareness to our authentic self/soul?

Leo Evolutionary, Developmental Stages and Themes - Summary

This issue is the seventh in the series, investigating the illusions that we must identify and overcome to tap the powers and gifts of the 12 Zodiac archetypes. As discussed in Issue 190, Neptune in Pisces for the next 14 years presents us with the dual themes of:

  1. denial and illusions, and
  2. truth and reality.

In this issue, we look at the seven developmental stages, and evolutionary themes, in relation to the Leo archetype.

Those with Sun, Moon, Rising, and other planets in Leo, and any planets in the fifth house, will relate in a very intimate way to the following discussion. However, everyone is being touched by an inner awakening of their personal creativity. The Leo archetype - its energy, lessons, and higher expressions - helps us understand our soul desire to be creative, and to live a dynamic, individualized, and contributory life which is directed by our heart.

Leo Lessons

In Leo territory, our desires and passion dominate and control our inner and outer realities. The path of the second fire sign is to identify how our soul wishes to express itself, and to serve life with its unique creative talents and gifts. Our Leo path leads us on a journey, to orient our creative compass toward endeavors that fulfill a purpose for ourselves and others. We are driven to use our personal assets, and resources, to make our unique contribution to the collective, and to leave a legacy that has lasting value.

Leo's evolutionary themes focus on:

  1. consolidating a sense of Self,
  2. receiving recognition, including recognizing our Soul self,
  3. figuring out how to express our fire energy from our heart,
  4. allowing our soul identity to unleash our personal creativity, and
  5. learning how to usefully express our passion for life.

What we discover is that the more we devote our efforts to service, the more we make ourselves available to receive Divine inspiration and support, and worldly opportunities. The Leo/Aquarius polarity pair is about creating a society that gives value to everyone's individual gifts, which in their totality create a vital community that supports the needs and upliftment of all.

Leo's path includes:

  1. honoring and loving our inner child,
  2. becoming co-creators with the Universe,
  3. elevating self-obsession and need for attention, to finding one's individuality, value,and contribution,
  4. opening our heart and shining our light, and
  5. honoring and contributing to others' uniqueness.

[1] Innocence and Naïveté - Illusions

Leo is born in a bubble of joy and love for life. Self-centered from birth, Leo claims its right to exist with its unquestioned power. The Leo child can be very demanding, as it assumes that its family and environments will instantaneously and automatically provide everything it needs to fulfill all its desires. I know of two Pisces parents facing the fact that their newborn girl is a triple Leo (Sun, Moon, Rising). They asked a Leo woman how to deal with their child, to which she responded, "Give her everything she wants!" Leo makes a good only child.

In our Leo state of innocence, we assume that everything we want is our birthright and therefore automatically and freely given. We live a self-absorbed permissive fantasy land, where others exist to serve our needs and desires and have none of their own.

[2] Wake up and Pain - Circumstances

Leo can suffer rude awakenings, when it discovers that the world is not totally devoted to serving its personal desires. When its attitude of entitlement is shattered by the reality that one has to earn and learn in life, Leo can feel seriously deflated. When other glorious beings vie for the limelight, Leo can feel that its very existence is threatened.

Competition, contradiction, and challenges burst Leo's 'Magnificent Me' bubble. Our inner Leo can become disillusioned, when we discover that the world cannot be counted on to indiscriminately give us everything we want when we want it. Humiliation stares back at us when we look in the mirror of consciousness. Our own pride limits our freedom and dims our light.

Leo's wake-up calls involve loss of what had been taken foregranted. We fall from grace because we do not measure up to a puffed up image, or are not worthy of inherited positions of wealth and power. We find out that we own nothing unless we ourselves earn it, and continue to increase our worthiness and ability to both give and receive.

Leo's greatness is not automatically guaranteed. As with every archetype, we must put forth effort to acquire that which must be birthed from within. In Leo's case, effort is required to consolidate a sense of self, uncover our gifts, find our life purpose, earn respect, and gain recognition.

Ironically, with each archetype, we experience the opposite of what we are born to discover as our basic nature and gifts. Leo may be born into a family that is unable to recognize its potential and shining qualities. Leo's early life experiences may lead the Lion cub to feel invisible, guilty for having desires, and thwarted when it needs attention.

In cases of neglect and abuse, innocent Leo can put out its own fire as a defense mechanism, which leads to little motivation, passivity, and a lack of self identity. As a result of perceived or real lack of support for who we are, we lack self-esteem and self-worth. We dim our own light to not be a burden or because we feel unworthy.

Leo's pain and wake-up calls revolve around:

  1. failure to find a purpose in life,
  2. being bored with a secure but meaningless routine,
  3. chronic emptiness,
  4. insignificant dramas, and
  5. deep inner dissatisfaction.

Feelings of failure can ignite self-loathing and jealously toward 'successful' people. Leo can also attract attacks by others who are envious of the Lion's dedication and success.

When immature Leo is not happy, the Lion projects its dissatisfaction onto others, partners, job, and circumstances. However, Leo must learn to take responsibility for its own path and happiness. Leo must find purpose, meaning, fulfillment, satisfaction, and significance in life. One of Leo's evolutionary lessons is to not compromise its creativity, self expression, and inner freedom, for security or superficial attention and gains.

Leo's wake-up and maturation process teaches us that resources, entertainment, and love are not freely guaranteed. In fact, without our personal effort to connect with Spirit in a way that universal energies effortlessly flow through us, what we really quest for remains unavailable. Leo's path continually subjects us to experiences where we are confronted by inner frustration, until be devote our life to being, and creating from, our authentic self.

[3] Accepting the Evolutionary Nature of the Human Journey - Effort and Lessons

Like every archetype, Leo must deal with its loss of innocence and mature into adulthood. We have to learn how to handle life and all its challenges, from a position of inner self-worth, confidence, self-love, and heart power!! Leo's life challenges always involve the heart, the fire element, and the temper of a dissatisfied emotional body.

A serious trap that the Lion must avoid is 'what could have been'. vWe must learn early that achieving worldly success (however we define success) takes work, commitment, and dedication. Nothing is built in a day, or manifested through the sweep of a wand. We have to accept our training wheels as a normal part of the creative process. There are no short-cuts to, or forcing of, creativity, recognition, manifestation, and contribution. There is no magical moment when we arrive and the red carpet appears from thin air. The more we train, the better we get. If we can keep our youthful Leo spirit, we can be creative agents until the end of our lives.

Leo must learn to take care of its own need for attention, and develop the ability to feel self-satisfied, without demanding attention and recognition from others. Leo cultivates a stable inner foundation in the heart, where its internal joi de vivre surpasses the desire to find satisfaction outside ourselves. This requires actively engaging in one's unique creative expressions.

Leo must devote time and energy to opening the portals to its soul. Strategies that don't work and only temporarily cover up the need to do our inner work include:

  1. indulging in being put on a pedestal, and idol worship
  2. avoiding the examination of our painful past, and identifying the programming that keeps us attached to entitlement scripts and messianic delusions of grandeur,
  3. choosing to obsess about our greatness, and
  4. worrying about the illusion of being perfect.

[4] Ego Definition, Separation and Individualization - Empowering Self

Immature Leo is self-serving and ego driven. Personal desires, expectations, and need for self-aggrandizement are stumbling blocks for the majestic Lion. When the soul desire to be creative, and of service, is eclipsed by egotistical ambitions, the Lion creates its own booby traps. When the fire and passion of the heart is not nurtured, one can feel empty and stagnant.

The Lion's destiny is to use its fiery energy as a creative engine of change. To do so, it is well advised to simultaneously cultivate humility, an attitude of gratitude, and devotion to a higher purpose. Leo's heartfelt motivation drives it to uncover a clear sense of self, purpose for living, and meaning in life. Leo must creatively participate in life to be able to shine its heart light.

A major Leo lesson is to become aware of how we use the fire and light of our soul. Immature Leo uses its power to manipulate others to get what it wants. Leo is very charming, but using our charm to control others can create negative effects. We extricate ourselves from self-sabotaging ego trips with genuine humility.

The fire signs awaken us to the deep reservoir of passion for life, but to optimally use our fire we must first deal with our anger issues. We must elevate our fire into the light that shines in our heart, thereby transmuting our anger to the Light of Love.

Leo can become overwhelmed, by both internal desires and external pressures to excel. Expectations weigh heavy on the psyche, which needs lightness and freedom to be able to authentically create, express, and enjoy the process.

Leo has a deep fear of not being authentic, succumbing to others' expectations of what we should do with our life, and disappointing those who we hope will honor and receive benefit from our creative endeavors. We find the freedom that we need, only when we are able to focus on what really interests us, and our soul generated passions.

Leo needs its personal time and space to explore and awaken its heart to itself. The unfoldment of our creative process requires privacy that protects us from external scrutiny, public exposure, and interference with the inner workings of our soul. We need to make lifestyle decisions that limit external obligations and pressures, so that we have quality time by ourselves.

We need self-focus to channel in our creative projects. We need space to be with ourselves to find our purpose, and to establish our connection with the Light of our soul. As we soften the ego-driven need to make a dramatic impact, we are free to be productive in our own unique way.

Leo does not like to be taken for granted, used, ignored, or disrespected. Leo finds existential peace only when it learns to be grateful for its gifts, acknowledges its own efforts and desires, does what it takes to tap into is creative capacity, and humbly enjoys its own uniqueness.

[5] Developing Awareness and Consciousness - Higher Perspective

The long term solution to every archetypal challenge is based upon an expansion and elevation of consciousness, which makes it possible to deal with our life issues from a higher soul perspective.

Leo must defy fear and courageously walk into the unknown, in order to answer to a higher calling. This usually involves giving up secure jobs and comfortable routines, and making material and other sacrifices to pursue one's destiny path.

It is the reorientation, from self-aggrandizement to service to a cause for which one is chosen, that shifts the Lion out of limited ego-driven endeavors into a soul-directed mission. The pivotal shift comes when the Lion chooses to use its abundant energy to serve a contributory mission, instead of wasting it on dramas that only drain it. Dedicating its energy and creativity to serving life, Leo is able to maintain its vitality, youthfulness, and influence into the later years of life.

The Lion represents the grandeur that is achieved through nobility of character, an unattached attitude toward praise and success, and humility. Human lions learn to humbly accept their humanness, not to take themselves too seriously, recoil from idol workshop, and liberate themselves from trying to be perfect.

One of Leo's lessons is to transmute self-indulgence and worldly gratification into a deep honoring of the gifts of life. However, the Leo path is not about renouncing the pleasures of life. It is about experiencing the profound pleasure of living fully every moment.

The Leo archetype teaches us, to honor our unique individuality as the vehicle through which we become creative, and express our unique contribution. We have to establish, and maintain, our personal center in our heart to discover our purpose, and to focus on our destiny. We don't deny the gift of our unique identity; we love ourselves exactly the way we are. Self-love gives birth to humility, compassion, and generosity.

Leo teaches us that we are supposed to hold ourselves in high regard, because without tuning into what is special about us we can miss our calling, and be unable to ignite, and enable to shine, the Sun in our heart. Leo's spiritual path is to radiate so much light and love that we are recognized and uplift by our presence.

[6] New Territory and an Expanded Reality - Spiritual Connection

The Lion learns that we are gifted, regenerated, and uplifted through our Divine Connection. It teaches us to become receptive instead of controlling. The Leo path helps us find satisfaction, from the joy of being the vessel for the higher expression and creativity of our soul.

As long as Leo's heart is open, it is a channel for divine inspiration, and its creativity flows. When Leo can consciously experience that it's light merges with, and is abundantly fed by, the Universal Light, it has earned its way into the miraculous state of existence that it once took for granted. In higher consciousness, this state of joy is 'granted' by our ability to trust, and surrender to, higher Love. We can in this state enjoy ourselves, others, and everything in life with deep satisfaction.

Leo's path is Self/Soul-centered. Directed by our heart, we recognize that our talents, our passion, our voice, our light, and our love are needed in the world. The core truth that Leo expresses, is that we must each become sovereign beings through our own inner-directed dedication, courage, and heroism. We have to cultivate our will to find, and follow, our own path, and to separate ourselves from the expectation of our parents, peers, teachers, culture, religion, and the media. Only when we are willing and able to be authentically ourselves, we can know and express our gifts.

[7] Work is Worship and Life Is Sacred - Mission and Destiny

The regal Lion embodies the qualities that foster the making of a significant contribution in life. The Leo archetype teaches us that each individual's role is unique to that person, and if we don't offer our piece, it will remain forever missing. However, to make a contribution that is coherent with natural laws, the Lion must give up the entitlement attitude of being unconditionally supported for its contributions, and expectations of receiving recognition and appreciation. These will all happen in due time, as we direct our efforts to adding value to our community.

The Leo archetype naturally embodies a public, and a dramatic, component which can be activated in both its conscious and unconscious forms. For example, unconscious Leo can attract and participate in media scandals that give a repressed public a chance to vicariously live out their own emotional need for drama.

In its more mature expressions, Leo's creative expressions in any field (including all the arts, music, theater, fashion, and show-business) touch collective emotions, and bring one into the limelight. The Lion can become leader, role model, idol, who is idealized, adored, and held in high esteem and acclaimed for unique creations. With the light of the radiant body, royal Leo inspires hope, and elevates people in the light of his or her presence.

Leo's complement, Aquarius, reminds Leo that our creations are contributions to the collective. We don't own our gifts: we express our gifts to add wealth and value to our human community. Through our conscious efforts to be instruments to serve all life, we achieve, and are respected for, the value we add to upgrading the Earth experiment. It is part of the Leo path to learn to honor and respect others. Leo's service-oriented projects can help others make their own contribution, and to shine their soul light in their special way.

Our ability to embrace our own emotions, and love our inner child, awakens us to subtle sensitivities of the inner child in every man and woman. When we witness how every human being is a child in this world (doing the best that they can!), we can relate to others with respect, kindness, and compassion. We feel the deep longing to love and be loved, and can speak to the heart of everyone's soul. Others feel accepted in our presence, which gives them the space to love themselves. In the process, we all serve love and peace.

Guru Rattana Online
Kundalini Yoga - Triple Mantra

Fortunately our personal practice of the technology of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation can elevate us out of the matrix of fear into the dimension of Love, where we can tap our unique creativity and dance with our soul. Daily spiritual practice is our insurance policy.

While the Sun shines in Leo we will be motivated to unleash our creative genius. There is a special mantra to eliminate blocks, so we can freely express our creativity. It is the third part of the triple mantra. Yogi Bhajan told me to practice this mantra for 31 minutes a day for one year. I did so, and a floodgate of inspiration has flowed through me ever since. Even 11 minutes a day will produce freedom in your psyche. This mantra is the third mantra in the Triple Mantra. I have included an explanation of the 3 parts of Triple Manta, which is also an excellent guru mantra for the times.

This mantra clears all types of psychic and physical obstacles in one's daily life. It protects against accidents. It cuts through opposing vibrations, thoughts, words, and actions. It strengthens your magnetic field and keeps negativity away. It consists of 3 mantras that are recited in sequence:

Mantra I

Ad Guray Na meh
Jugad Guray Na meh
Sat Guray Na meh
Siri Guru Day Vay Na meh

I bow to the primal guru
I bow to the truth throughout the ages
I bow to true wisdom
I bow to the great unseen wisdom

This mantra puts you into the mode of acceptance and surrender to universal truth and wisdom. It surrounds you with a powerful light of protection. Your aura protects you by becoming light and clear.

Mantra II

Ad such
Jugad such
He BEE such
Nanak hose BEE such

Mantra III

Ad such
Jugad such
He BAY such
Nanak hose BAY such

Both parts two and three translate as -
True in the beginning.
True throughout all the ages.
True even now.
Pure one, the truth will always be true.

Both forms of this mantra align our energy with the Truth. Together they balance allowing and participating, and achieve a union between passive and active. The complete mantra solidifies the cosmic dance within us.

Mantra II. The first with BEE also puts us into an accepting, allowing and surrender mode. This is the last four lines of the Mul Mantra. This mantra embodies the vibration of stability and eternal truth, i.e. that which never changes.

Mantra III. The second with BAY is active. This mantra embodies the active, creative, evolutionary aspect of the Universe. It breaks through energetic blocks and opens the space for things to happen. It also aligns your energy field so you can attract opportunities and take advantage of them.

Chant the suchhh like the hiss of a snake and feel it in your spine. The first form of the mantra is chanted softer. The second is chanted in a more emphatic tone.

When you are finished, sit quietly and LISTEN inside. Simply LISTEN. This is an important part of the meditation.

The complete sequence is recited in a monotone. You can also chant it to the CD Triple Mantra by Gurunam (clip below). This is a very powerful and inspiring recording, incorporating the rhythmic principles of Kabbala.

Chant this mantra for 11, 15, 22 or 31 minutes for 40 days to be able to call upon it.

Leo Classes - Guru Rattana Online

Check out Guru Rattana Online lessons for Leo under FIRE ELEMENT for classes on 'Light of the Soul', 'Meet Me at My Heart, 'The Heart Center and Self-Love', and more!

If you haven't already subscribed, you will need to do so to watch these classes. For a low monthly rate you can enjoy unlimited access to all my classes.

References and Footnotes

"Aquarius Full Moon- August 1, and Leo New Moon - July 17",Austin, Stephanie, "The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #164, August/Sept 2012, pp. 93-4.

"Neptune, the 12th House and Pisces",Fernandez, Maurice, Trafford Publishing, 2004.

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