Leo: Embrace our Inner Lion

by Guru Rattana, Ph.D. - Issue #92 July 26, 2004

Aquarian Full Moon, Leo New Moon

The Sun enters Leo party territory July 22nd at 4:50am PDT and stays through August 22nd at 11:53am PST when it moves into Virgo terrain. The Full Moon in Aquarius is JULY 31st at 11:06am PDT (6:06pm GMT). The Leo New Moon is AUGUST 15th at 6:25pm PDT (August 16th - 1:25am GMT)

The liberating, open-hearted Leo energy is abundantly shining on us. Mercury (how we think and communicate) has been in Leo since July 5th and will remain through July 25th. Mars (how we direct our energy) entered the Leo party June 24th and will stay through Aug 9th. There is a short, but powerful window available to us to strengthen our inner heart light.

In the Northern Hemisphere, we are enjoying the summer Sun and feel more outwardly expansive. In the Southern Hemisphere, the long nights of winter will give you the time to be alone, and the motivation to kindle your inner fire.

Cancer Prepares the Inner Ground

Cancer reminds us of the importance of returning to our fertile inner waters where our wisdom resides, and from which our creativity blooms. While the Sun is in Cancer, we turn our senses inward to find and cultivate our inner sanctuary. We lovingly take care of our emotions so that this vital energy is not consumed in anxiety and stress. As we become more peaceful inside, we gather power. The more supportive and nurturing our inner container, the more our primordial essence energy becomes available to us.

The more inner peace we feel, the more we are ready for Leo's hero's journey - the quest for the Grail, our true Self, our heart and indeed our soul! Leo is associated with the Sun. Leo teaches us that each of us is a star with our own inner light, which both guides us and shines out into the world. Leo reminds us that we each have our own unique role to play and gifts to offer in this world.

While the Sun is in Leo, we are driven to find the inner star that guides us. We find ourselves asking - Who am I? What makes me special? How do I shine in the world? To find out we must discover what opens our heart, what illumines our light, and what we have come to this world to express.

You are a Star

When our unique star quality, our personal inner sun shines, our innate enthusiasm for life makes us vibrant and radiant. We are able to express ourselves with ease and self-confidence. Apologies disappear and reticence recedes. We feel special. Our projection is pure and clear Here I am! I am me! Who I am makes a difference in the world.

Leo teaches us that there is no need to prove ourselves or to try to get adulation. Although the immature lion indulges in precisely those insecure, egotistical behaviors, the mature lion learns that we simply have to know how to be comfortable being ME. From our unapologetic experience of Self, Leo requires that we use our vital energies to create something beautiful and significant. Leo is the second fire sign, so beyond the excitement about being alive that Aries awakens in us, we get in touch with our creative juice, our inner inspiration and our desire to make our contribution.

The key concepts associated with Leo include - joy, spontaneous self-expression, creativity, risk-taking, passionate love, children, toys, pets and the pleasure of being alive. Leo energy opens our heart. We want to love and be loved.

The highest expression of Leo, however, goes beyond the search for attention and love. When we truly open our hearts, we realize that WE ARE LOVE. We enjoy sharing love spontaneously, whether there is an object to receive it or not. We can do this because we love ourselves!!

While the Sun is in Leo we are invited to work with our fire energy and to examine how we use it. Do we use our fire to warm, inspire and enliven or is our fire energy consuming us through stress, anger and the desire to dominate, hurt or get even? If our fire energy is extinguished we will feel depressed, bored and dissatisfied. The manic/depressive cycle is also a fire dysfunction. If we continuously direct our fire energy outside ourselves, and use it to be entertained and to get attention, we eventually feel drained, and then have to recuperate and regenerate. One of Leo's principal lessons is to learn how to direct our fire inward, and use it to light the flame of our own heart. When our internal heart connection is stable, our energy is stronger, more consistent and less prone to ups and downs.

Identify how you Resist being Fully Alive

To cultivate our fire energy, we need to examine how we resist being fully alive. How do we keep ourselves from optimally enjoying life? Here are a few ways to start your own self-investigation:

1. Do you let yourself be consumed by obligations and resign yourself to drudgery?
2. What and how much do you believe you deserve in life? To what extent do you think you deserve to be happy?
3. What is your level of self-worth? How much do you truly appreciate who you are?
4. What should-nots and forbidden territory limit your dreams and aspirations?
5. Do you delay gratification for later in life?
6. Does your life feel like all work and no play?
7. How much of your time is spent on what you NEED to do, versus of what you want to do? Note if what you need to do and want to do are the same. The extent to which they are the same, the more contentment you should feel.
8. Can you be really honest about what you truly want?
9. How much do you dare to ask for what you want?
10. What are you denying yourself that you really want?

Now penetrate below the specific answers to the above questions, and identify the thoughts, attitudes and beliefs that are keeping you from enjoying life and having fun. Which of the above do you really believe? On the other hand, what beliefs are you operating from that, with honest examination, you really don't believe are true?

Some of the most common beliefs that control our fun factor and prevent peace of mind include:

1. Life is a struggle. No pain, no gain.
2. I have to work hard and exert a lot of effort to accomplish anything.
3. I am all alone and responsible for the world, which rests on my shoulders.
4. If I don't do it, it won't get done.

The point is to examine how these beliefs can, and often do, sabotage your best and highest intentions, by disconnecting you from your heart, the power of Grace and the possibility of serendipity. What is preventing you from relaxing enough, after you have done you part, to let go and let God? What is creating the stress and negative thoughts? How are your body, emotions and mind sabotaging, instead of supporting you?

Our Fire Sustains Us

What we generally do not realize is that our connection with the fire of our soul is not a luxury. This is the energy that feeds the psyche, sustains us, and gives us power. It is our fire energy that creates courage and the ability to commit. If you need to be practical, know that your relationships, career and income depend upon your inner passion. We are so used to attaching some kind of negative judgment to the pleasures and passions of life, but take this fire energy away and we become lifeless and depressed. We are not referring to debauchery here. We are talking about our natural, God-given instincts, that are the source of our pure expressions. Tuning on this energy and enjoying it is what creates miracles and magic in our lives, and brings us good fortune. Its our radiant body that attracts things to us, so we don't have to stress out endlessly running after things.

One of the basic things we learn on our spiritual path is that there is always more. There is always another level of awareness and joy available to us, if we are willing to do what it takes to get in touch with it. So if you are happy with your life and having fun, Leo can take you to the next level of fun and enjoyment. If you experience any degree of depression, unhappiness or dissatisfaction, embracing your inner lion can transform your life in many delightful and unexpected ways.

How do we get Unstuck?

So how do we get unstuck? How do we find what is missing? How do we light our inner fire? First we have to realize how we are programmed to believe that happiness is externally created. To identify how you have externalized your quest for happiness, ask yourself what makes you happy. Write down ten or more things. Then count how many of these depend upon a situation, condition or person other than yourself.

When we externalize joy, we lose connection with ourselves. When we lose connection with ourselves, we don't listen to our heart. If we don't listen to our heart, we ignore our own truth. Over time, our heart light shuts down, our fire goes out or smolders unnoticed. We lose touch with our inner glow and smile that keeps us delighted with life. So first, and foremost, we have to learn to LISTEN TO AND TO FOLLOW our heart. Here are a few guidelines to rekindle your heart light:

1. Observe how you doubt your instincts. Examine where and how these doubts were programmed into you by restrictions imposed in childhood. What shame and blame trips, accusations of being selfish, and self-indulgent admonishments are you still listening to?
2. Your parents and other adults instilled these rules in you when you were too young to make choices for yourself, but you are doing this to yourself now. It is YOU who has the power now to liberate your spirit and to unleash your untapped energy. As you do so, you will free yourself from a prison you didn't even know you were in. As you gently and lovingly climb out of the old box of resistances and negative programming, you will begin to feel happier. You will notice that this happiness is not dependent upon external circumstances or relationships. You will also begin to notice that the quality of the latter begin to change.
3. Take time to simply be with yourself. A common suggestion is to take yourself on a date. The critical piece is that YOU have to be with YOU. The exercise is not to see if you can distract yourself without help from someone else, but to learn how to be comfortable with yourself. How about sitting home alone and doing yoga and meditation and getting in touch with your heartbeat? It is your inner connection that allows your passion for life to be renewed.
4. To let go and be free, you have to pay attention to your heart and identify what you really want. The stronger our heart connection, the easier it is to face the unknown and accept our vulnerability. Connection with our heart gives us something solid to trust. We can face our fears, have confidence in ourselves and muster up the courage to go after what we want. A healthy ego allows us to have a stable connection with our heart. Heart is the spark that makes it all possible.
5. Be willing to experiment, to try things that you normally resist, and to take acceptable risks. Then be ready to learn from the choices you make. I don't like calling experimentation that leads to unsatisfactory results making mistakes. This way of thinking makes us wrong and dampens our enthusiasm. It limits our willingness to make other choices and to try again. We become afraid of unknown outcomes instead of welcoming the discovery and the knowledge that new adventures bring.
6. Be open to the fact that there are many levels of happiness and satisfaction. We can satisfy ourselves on many physical and psychological levels. Happiness is different for everyone. There is no dogmatic, definitive definition, but we can and must identify what opens our own heart to ourselves, if we truly want to experience happiness this lifetime. (Discussed in more detail below in Leo and the Fifth house.)

Self-Love

Leo's mission is to remind us to be authentically ourselves. The lion teaches us that our ultimate success in life depends upon how deeply we love ourselves. It is the purity of our self-love that is the foundation for our outer encounters and relationships. What is interesting, is that the more we are absorbed in the joy of self, the less self-centered we become. We simply love life and freely live it.

Blissful happiness is the awareness of our infinity. Thinking, analysis, judgment, worry and fear - all take away this awareness and thus deprive us of our basic right to be happy. Leo and the Sun give us the antidote to our rational, negative mental addictions. Stop thinking and worrying. Relax and have fun. Let go and enjoy life. Its fine to start small and work up to bigger doses. The important thing is to give yourself permission to start, and to reorient your journey toward your heart.

The Hero's Journey

It is interesting how many people have told me recently, either that they are enjoying life more or that they are making life decisions based on their commitment to being happier. If you are feeling the same way or want to join the Enjoy Life Club, now is the perfect time to amp up your dedication to your mission, to make your heart sing.

If we are depressed, we are out of touch with our hearts' desires - what we love, what we like to share, what makes us happy for no reason at all? The hero's journey is to find out how we unleash the hidden, mysterious powers of the heart. The heart heals all. The heart creates magic and miracles. The heart attracts to us what we cannot manifest through all our efforts.

Our hero's journey wakes us up from our sleepy nap and reactivates our impulse to live life fully. On our journey to the heart, we tap our strength and vitality. We find our inner conviction, unlock our guarded yearnings and awaken our secret passions.

Me, Me, It's All about Me!

Isn't it interesting that the sign (Leo) and house (Fifth) associated with fun, passion, entertainment and the heart are about the CREATIVE SELF? The topic is ME. The message is - It is all about ME. Religious and social control trips have succeeded in making us believe that focusing on ourselves is selfish. Without proper instruction about how to care for and honor our individuality, people get lost in giving away their power, in an attempt to feel important or engage in egotistical, and even narcissistic behavior, to try to create boundaries. The Lion King asks us to examine ME at a deeper inner level.

What about the ME that creates my own reality - the ME that takes responsibility for my actions and their consequences? A lazy, unempowered human tendency is to be a victim, to blame someone else and circumstances for our plight. This is the superficial, asleep version of being human. However, our innate urge to roar like a lion eventually awakens us to the fact that victim trips don't deliver us to our destiny, because our fire and juice are squandered. To reclaim our power, the lion path requires that we acknowledge the consequences of our choices, and take responsibility for our lives.

The Heart beyond the Stories

We have to move beyond the stories we fabricate in order to wake-up to the process of what is unfolding in our consciousness. We will always make up a story, until we get that our fundamental relationship is between me and me. Our heart goal is to extricate ourselves from our victim trip stories, and to extract the underlying themes and truth. Leo teaches us to focus on ourselves, so that we can wake-up to what we are creating and why. If we learn our Leo lessons we are much better equipped for mature relationships.

Without an authentic relationship with ourselves, we create dysfunctional relationships with others. We misinterpret our relationship challenges. Relationships are not about finding a partner to complete us. Relationships are a statement of who and what we are. Others are a reflection of ourselves. Relationships test us to see the depth of the relationship between me and me. Some of the common tests include - being honest with ourselves, standing up for ourselves, taking action for ourselves, thinking FOR ourselves, making our own choices, and following our own heart.

It is amazing how many of us lose ourselves in relationships, and fail in the above tests. I have listened to so many stories, and the common thread behind every story is that EVERYONE KNOWS the dysfunction that they are creating, and they do it anyway. Until one day they finally wake-up enough to be honest with themselves, and take action based on what they already know. If we really take our Leo lessons seriously, we will listen to our own heart. We will read and pay attention to the signs quicker, and eventually we will choose to avoid repeating the same story with the predictable consequences.

The lion takes us on an inward journey to the heart of our soul. We enter a place inside ourselves where we can see through our own eyes, listen with our own ears, and feel with our own feelers. Once we clean and clear up our sensors, we realize that everything we experience and attract is part of our projection. Once we accept this view of reality, we can live and love in peace and wholeness.

Leo Lessons

Below I have summarized the most fundamental Leo lessons. Like the lessons of every other sign, these are challenges that we face our whole lives:

The Love of Your Life is Your Soul

Leo teaches us that the love of our life is our own soul. (Pisces teaches us that the love of our life is the Divine. When we get to Pisces, we realize that the two merge into one.) If we want to experience love (and we all do), we have to become conscious of our soul/self. We have to follow a path that leads us deeper into SELF-knowledge and SELF-love. We have to establish the relationship with ourselves as our primary relationship. We have to give this relationship between ME an ME priority and nurture it every day.

Get Really Real. Enjoy Yourself and Celebrate Your Life

Our most important task in life is to tune into our life force and to come alive. In the process we discover how to ENJOY ourselves and our life. We learn how to distinguish superficial fun that is masking pain or trying to substitute for authentic happiness. When we are honest with ourselves, we can easily identify phony fun. We learn to find a deeper level of fun and pleasure in our own being.

Listen, Follow and Trust Your Heart

Learning to be honest with ourselves takes lots of practice, but eventually we realize that self-honesty is the only thing that works. We realize we do know our own truth, and can access it quite easily if we just stop and allow ourselves to listen and feel. When we listen to, follow and trust our heart, everything in our life works better. Being honest with ourselves is a requirement for having relationships that work. Relationships always push us in the direction of self-honesty. If we lose ourselves, we lose our relationship.

Follow the Commitment. Don't Indulge in the Challenge

Our basic commitment is to our own heart, soul, truth, happiness, inner peace and the Divine. Whatever works we use, there is a feeling, an experience, a consciousness that is our goal. We are here on planet Earth to learn how to hold this consciousness through all our life challenges. The human tendency is to get absorbed in the challenges, and to lose our connection with the peace and joy that exists at every moment. Our task is to follow our commitment to live conscious lives, and not let ourselves be distracted by the challenges.

I Create My Own Reality

We all create all the time. This is what humans do. Creation is the nature of the Universe. We take one giant step forward in consciousness when we profoundly accept how we participate in creating our own reality. Then we can investigate the extent to which we like what we are creating. Does what we are creating make us happy? Does it give us peace?

As our investigation deepens, we gain an understanding of how we create and an appreciation of the dynamics of cause and effect. In victim mode, we focus on the effect and ignore or misinterpret the cause. We live in an effect-oriented culture. This is why we continue to create more of the same. When we externalize the cause and don't recognize our participation, we can't change the sequence. We end up thinking that pain, suffering and struggle are inevitable - just the way things always were and always will be. Collectively, we have normalized war because we don't realize that the cause of war is a projection of the internal war, conflict and stress in the psyche of billions of individuals.

I Take Responsibility for What I Create

When we take responsibility for ourselves as the original cause, our lives change. We discover that participating in creating our own reality is empowering and FUN. I personally find it exhilarating to witness the changes that occur in my world, when I experience an internal shift. It is thrilling to know that my world has changed because I have changed.

The more we get in touch with our own heart and listen to it, the more we can wisely choose our actions, instead of mechanically reacting. We can consciously create, instead of responding to messes and problems (that we have created.) The deeper we go, the more proactive we can become. Victim mode loses its allure. We want to know more about how we create, and how we can shift internally, so we can create a more satisfying life.

One of the interesting comments in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?(1) was by a psychologist, who had come to the conclusion that most people don't have psychological problems; they are simply disturbed about having made bad choices. He added that the solution was to help people learn how to make better choices. Taking responsibility for our choices, facilitates this empowerment process. The more conscious we become of our inner guidance, the less we needlessly create problems through ignorance.

Dare to Dream? Cultivate the Courage to Follow Your Own Heart

We all need to know that we can live an inspired life. There are so many other options than boredom, fear, pain, struggle, and violence. Life can be fun and not so hard. We can and must follow our own dream, not someone else's, to be authentically happy. Many people are unhappy because they are following, bought into or being used to support someone else's dream.

To identify our dream, we need to identify what makes us feel good about ourselves, what lights our fire, ignites our vitality and unleashes our passion.

Leo and the Fifth House - What Opens Your Heart?

To find out what opens our heart, we have to investigate Leo territory in our birth chart:

1. The sign on the cusp of the Fifth house is the first thing to notice. This is the energy that defines the, what I consider, fun territory.
2. Next identify the planets in the Fifth house and what sign they are in.
3. Then find the location (house) of planets in Leo.
4. Your Sun sign indicates the nature of your vital, soul energy.

What we find out is that what we consider fun is different for everyone. Only you know. And you DO know. There are an infinite number of variations. Below are a few examples.

I was talking with a friend the other day and she mentioned that an astrologer had asked her what she was doing to express all her creative energy? She seemed concerned that she was missing something. Maybe some hidden artistic or musical talent was going unexpressed. But after looking at her chart, it is obvious that she is very creatively using the energies available in her Fifth house. She has Capricorn on the cusp of the Fifth house, Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn and Mercury in Aquarius in the Fifth House. She used to have a responsible position in a corporation, which she enjoyed but left. She is a dynamic entrepreneur, has created several businesses of her own, is bringing some of her current business clients into the 21st century (Aquarius), and volunteers for two non-profit Aquarian organizations. She loves her independence and what she does and gets paid well for it. She was relieved to know that expressing her creative talent does not require a guitar or a paint brush.

I know a man who also has Jupiter in Capricorn in the Fifth house who works in a corporate environment. The good pay supports his lifestyle and his joy of mountain climbing. He is under no illusions that the corporation has his best interests in mind. He was in fact fired and out of work for six months, but he likes the camaraderie, which helped in motivating his buddies to get him hired back as a consultant. He enjoys the challenge of his job, which uses his talents to solve complicated problems.

Aquarian energies will lead us to link up with and attract colleagues with complementary dreams. We want to work together and collaborate to make the world a better place. Aquarius creates organizations and alliances based on common dreams and communities of the heart.

I have Aries on the cusp of my Fifth house, and no planets there. Does that mean I am not creative? Not at all. I have 3 planets in Leo in the Ninth house of spirituality, higher mind, higher education, publishing and teaching. Voila! Just what I love to do, and I love doing it by myself (Aries) too.

Taurus in the Fifth house will like money, real estate, gardening, beautiful things, and plenty of physical attention. Inwardly, Taurus will like to feel comfortable and cozy. Gemini will be more extroverted and search out lots of activities and new adventures. Inwardly Gemini will seek satisfaction in mental challenges. I have a theory that Gemini gets deep satisfaction from inner listening. Let me know if you fit into this category.

Cancer may be happier at home reading and studying, with family members or beautifying the home environment. Cancer seeks an inner sanctuary where he/she can feel safe.

Virgo will want to serve in some way, do yoga or some form of physical fitness, to take care of his/her health. Inwardly, Virgo wants to feel whole and complete within in her/his self.

Libra is happy when everything around him/her is beautiful and in order, including friendships. Libra seeks mental balance and neutrality.

Scorpio thrives on a challenge and will need to penetrate deeply into something and solve some kind of problems. Starting with self is a very good idea for Scorpio. Pisces longs to merge with the Divine and is a natural meditator. Pisces likes to serve and simply make this world more beautiful by spreading love.

Saboteurs

There are many things that distract us from the path of the heart. Some of the things that we think will satisfy our desires are the worst offenders. These are the externally defined desires that we hope will distract us or cover up our pain. The problem is that they subvert us. We all can identify the things we think we want, but know they don't deliver the happiness and peace we hope to attain.

In terms of substances, drugs, alcohol and cigarettes are the worst offenders. But there is also refined sugar and coffee. The intake of refined sugar disrupts and messes up our desire body with artificial cravings. We end up not knowing what we want. We just want something! Coffee interferes with the nervous system. The concentrated stimulation of caffeine confuses our fire energy with uppers and downers. Over eating upsets our whole body, by diverting attention and energy to digestion, at the expense of everything else.

Full Moon July 31

Full Moons and oppositions bring issues to a climax. They require balance, compromise and integration to achieve wholeness. The Aquarian Full Moon highlights the need to challenge the status quo and our desire to work with kindred spirits to make a difference in the world. The Aquarius/Leo polarity synergizes expanded social values that unleash the potential of the collective through individual contributions. One of my very favorite quotes is the perfect synthesis of Aquarian and Leo energies: Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. - Harold Thurman Whitman

New Moon August 15-16

New Moons seed new cycles by opening doors that send us in new directions. Commitment to your creative self is the theme for the Leo New Moon August 15-16. Listen to your heart and follow it.

Mercury goes retrograde in Virgo from August 9 through September 2. When Mercury is retrograde, the grip lock of our mind is loosened, making it easier to enter our heart. This 22-24 day period comes three times a year, allowing us the space to listen to our heart.

Kundalini Yoga - Meditation and Spiritual Practice

There are many ways we can take advantage of Leo energy. Here are two suggestions.

(1) Create Your Own Reality

The best way to take responsibility for creating your own reality is to commit to a DAILY spiritual practice. The bottom line is - change your energy and you change your life. COMMITMENT requires fire energy. We need fire to take action, to go for the gold and to passionately express ourselves. Daily practice of Nabhi Kriya works on the navel center and generates the fire energy needed to sustain our commitments. As you do the exercises, and especially during the relaxation between exercises and at the end of the set, feel how you are igniting and lighting the flame at the navel center. Then let this flame move up to your heart.

This set is on page 55 in Transitions to a Heart-Centered World 2nd Edition(2) and in Lesson 10 of my free online Kundalini Yoga course.

Shorter times for the exercises are fine. Just start doing it every day. Then observe how your attitude, fortitude and circumstances in your life begin to shift. This is proof that you are participating in creating your life.

(2) Listen to, Trust and Follow Your Heart

After Nabhi Kriya and the deep relaxation, sit is a comfortable position for meditation. With the four fingers of the right hand, feel the pulse on the left inner wrist. Lightly place the four fingers in a straight line so that you can feel your pulse in each finger tip. Adjust the position, so that you can feel your pulse. Focus the lightly closed eyes at the brow point. On each beat of your heart, mentally hear the sound SAT NAM. Continue for 11 minutes and build up to 31 if you wish.

Simply get into FEELING and LISTENING to your heart beat. BE WITH your heart beat. This meditation allows you listen to the truth of your heart and to build trust in your own inner wisdom. (This meditation is on page 141 of Relax and Renew 2nd Edition.) *(3)

At the end of this meditation, sit with the hands on the knees with thumb and forefingers touching. Listen to and feel the heart beat in your chest. If you cannot feel it, be present to the wave of the breath in the chest at the heart. Feel the warmth in your chest and in the spine at the level of the heart. Feel the flame radiate its energy through your whole being. Then let your inner Sun shine on all beings and things alike.

Enjoy the sweetness of your heart during the day. Let your heart light bring radiance to your whole being and silently enjoy sharing this radiance wherever go you.

References and Footnotes

"The Fifth House", by Dana Gerhardt, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #115, June/July 2004, pp. 57-62.

"Aquarius Full Moon July 31", by Stephanie Austin, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #115, June/July 2004, p. 117.

"Leo New Moon August 15-16", by Stephanie Austin, The Mountain Astrologer, Issue #116, August/ Sept. 2004, p. 107.

1. This is a fabulous non-Hollywood movie, which has had limited showings at this time. You can hire the DVD from Netflix or other outlets, and you can read about it on http://www.whatthebleep.com/
2. Contains dozens of meditations and Kundalini Yoga sets to open the heart.
3. Contains dozens of meditations and Kundalini Yoga sets to relax, relieve stress and rejuvenate.

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