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The King Must Die: Leo
What do I love,
What do I hope for?
How will I live that love,
that hope
in the time to come?
~ Rebecca del Rio
True giving is a thoroughly joyous thing to do.
We experience happiness when we form the intention to give,
in the actual act of giving, and in the recollection of the fact that we have given.
Generosity is a celebration. When we give something to someone we feel connected to them,
and our commitment to the path of peace and awareness deepens.
~Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg in A Heart As Wide as the World
Greetings of late summer, as here in the north the sun’s rays slant and spread with a diffuse shade of gold, in tune with the glittering gold affiliated with this month’s zodiacal archetype, fire sign Leo. Moving on from receptive Cancer, sign of the Mother—of nourishment, holding, and gestating—in sharp contrast we now meet the majestic Lion King, signifying the glory of a heart-centered, generous and charismatic leader.
We may be rolling our eyes at the antiquated notion, thinking, in your dreams! But dream we must as, despite the off-centered Leo display—writ larger day by day—of prideful attachment to largesse and self-adulation that we’re seeing from a certain orange-headed wannabe king with Leo rising, the archetypal call to this sign’s higher gifts of self-confidence and self-respect, and the capacity to hold authority gracefully and creatively in all our doings, is here for us to partake of.
To this end, the first poem above asks an important question, How will I live what I love in the time to come? It is ever more important that we make space in our lives to tune ourselves to this notion, of centering on the supreme power, not just to the notes of discord, outrage, and fear that our collective conversation compels us to.
Understandably, for many, our attention is trained on the abundant abuses of the larger world collective, of the ‘brother-and sisterhood’, signified by Aquarius— particularly those who are being marginalized, detained, deported, and killed across the globe; and yet, Leo, the sign of the empowered individual, is an important energy to embrace, as the polarity partner to Aquarius. The two need each other to function optimally.
The quote from Sharon Salzberg reminds us of one of the cornerstones of Leo, its gift of generosity, of giving for the sheer joy it brings to the heart. Also important is that she invokes celebration, another keynote of the Leo impulse. For in the face of everything, come what will, Leo reminds us that we are here to celebrate life.
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Considering Our Harvest
August 1 marked the cross-quarter (the midpoint between solstice and equinox) of Lughnasa, a Gaelic festival marking the opening of harvest season—August traditionally being a month of joyful celebration and gratitude for the fruits of a season of creative work, from both humans, and Gaia herself. This can be a time for harvest fairs and festivals that honor the dedication of farmers, bakers, and artisans.
This weekend I will be volunteering at my own local Gravenstein Apple Fair, which honors what once was the native pride and joy of Sonoma County, the Gravenstein apple, but which has been shoved to the rear by the proliferation of more lucrative vineyards in recent decades. Thankfully we do still honor the humble apple with this event, at which I recall my daughter won a gold-fish at one of the games, over 20 years ago – with gold being our seasonal, Leo theme!
With the harvest in mind, we can also be asking ourselves, what might be our own personal harvest from this point in the year through till the fall equinox. Or, stretching out time a bit, we might ask, what am I seeking to harvest in this season of my life? This could be seasonal garden gifts, as well as larger creative projects, or perhaps children and grandchildren—with children and creative projects, along with (heart throb!) romance, being the significators of the 5th House in the zodiac, the house naturally ruled by Leo.
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Child's Play
Speaking of children and creativity, I recently visited an astonishing exhibit of the works of prolific Japanese American sculptor and artist, Ruth Asawa. The exhibit, extending through 12 galleries, was a tour de force display of a phenomenally creative individual. I was intrigued to learn that on top of the huge body of work she generated over her life, Asawa also raised six children. To keep them engaged while she did her own work, she invented projects they could all do together, such as sculpting with flour and water. This inspired her to create San Francisco Fountain, featuring hundreds of molded images depicting the city’s history, made with baker’s dough shaped by the hands of local school children.
Art in its purest form is sheer play, done for the joy of it, without any sense of preciousness. An influential painting teacher I studied with in San Francisco in the 1990s, Michelle Cassou, who founded The Painting Experience with her then husband, was moved to deconstruct the Saturnian ‘rules’ of her academic art degree in Paris by observing young children’s ‘spontaneous’ art classes. In watching children paint, she was liberated into a ‘free expression’ philosophy of art that wound up influencing the hundreds of students that went on to take classes in this form of ‘process painting’. These classes surely influenced me, as they were not only foundational to the exploration of my latent creativity (having been labeled ‘not an art person’ during school years), they were where I met my Russian husband (whom, I noted, painted like Kandinsky!).
One of Moon-ruled Cancer’s specialties is its present moment awareness, its being open to receiving and being nourished by what is here now; and now, in Sun-ruled Leo, this becomes heart-centered presence or radiance, a presence that transmits through a fullness of self. In this vein, when making art and tapping into the Leo archetype, something is revealed within the heart, a passion of sorts—one is infused by what is coming through at a deep feeling level, beneath the mind. This is one reason why making art, and creativity in general, feel so good. And we needn’t be artists in the conventional sense to experience this—we can be artists of life.
True to form, the Leo news showed up in my inbox after having written the above, with a feature about our local Sebastopol Center for the Arts’ new show, “The Art of Play.” The center’s director, recently returned from Europe, notes that play as theme for artistic expression is “having a moment,” sharing how a museum in Cologne, Germany has an exhibit called “Kids Take Over,” and that the UN has just declared June 11 International Day of Play!
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The king must die
In many respects this is a time where we are moving out of the era whose focus is the individual, and into the pulse of the Aquarian archetype—concerned with the big picture view of life, with the future, and with the collective. We are transitioning from the Age of Pisces into that of Aquarius, and Pluto is now in this sign for the next roughly 20 years. As well, the Saturn-Jupiter “Great Conjunction” at 0° Aquarius back in 2020 marked the start of a new 200-year cycle during which these planets conjunct in Air signs.
The conjunction of these two planets is considered ‘great’ because they are the two impulses for bridging the personal with the collective, thereby describing the cultures we build, and the beliefs underpinning them. Open-minded, innovative, sociable, harmonious, intellectually inclined Air energy will be prevalent, in this next age, should maturity win out!
Here in the crux of death and rebirth, we are currently seeing the dying of an aged-out era, of the ailing Piscean “Grail King,” and as well, the most puerile manifestations of a young, off-centered Aquarius: autocracy by sociopaths, dark takeover schemes by the ‘technocrats’ with their disembodied, heartless AI, and visions of occupying outer space. Astrologers suggest this is to purge the shadowy, Aquarian detritus out of humanity’s system, before the more beautiful manifestations of the sign—founded on a vision that honors all life in its diversity, with the needs, limits, and gifts of Earth front and center—can take root. We cannot know the outcome, of course, but I feel it serves to hold and live into this Greater vision.
The legend of the Grail King is associated with Christ as individual savior, but in addition to its affiliation with Pisce, the fishes (with The Fisher King being a common designation for this mythical king), the story speaks to the Leo archetype, that of the blazing Sun, who rules from the throne. Marie-Louise von Franz and Emma Jung, in The Grail Legend, discuss the king archetype:
Among primitives, the King, especially in his original role as chief of the tribe, represents in his own person the centre of the life of the people. In him the divine “spirit” of the tribe is incarnated, on him depend the psychic and physical welfare of the people, even to the rain and the fruitfulness of fields and livestock. Psychologically he represents a symbol of the Self become visible in a human being, to which the entire social and psychic organization of his people is adjusted.
The authors go on to point out that in primitive cultures, the king was always ritually killed off when showing signs of old age or illness, so that the tribal spirit could live on healthily through a more competent successor. They cite experts who suggest that the ailing Grail King is a symbol of a “stricken society,” or “mankind in a fallen state.”
While there are many, one respected version of the legend put forth in earlier centuries, is Parzival (early 13th c.), by Wolfram von Eschenbach, which traces the innocent youth’s journey through painful transformation, to the acquiring of wisdom, and the movement from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. In it is reference to a celestial origin story underpinning the legend that portrays Lucifer, once a bearer of heaven’s light, as hurled to the earth due to his prideful ambition become Satan. Sick lion syndrome writ large!
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Kogi Indian observations
I’ve written in a prior blog post on Aquarius about the Kogi Indians and their earth-sourced technologies. The Kogi have dwelt apart from Western civilization for centuries in the mountains of Columbia, preserving their indigenous ways. In the past couple of decades, some of their leaders have ventured to Europe, putting out the word of the urgent need to amend our errant ways if we are to save the earth from all-out destruction. Substack blogger Daniel Pinchbeck recently shared some quotes from the Kogi that I find relevant to the idea of the ‘toxic Leo’ of our time, and to the notion of the ailing king:
We didn’t come here to suffer, to fight, to lie to each other. None of that. This world is well-developed, well-structured, well-regulated. It is full of light…But many people feed themselves and dress themselves with the spirit of the dark world. And so, people from the dark world don’t see the natural world—only what they invent, which is all just games. Everything they do, they do with tools—games, games, games. And in their body, in their heart, it turns into pure fire. Negative fire, because they like to work only with fire.
[…] In contrast, someone who belongs to the world of daylight sees the consequences. They see the lives of all living beings as part of the natural world. That person is a person of light. And they offer life to the rest of society. Because someone who doesn’t offer life is someone who doesn’t have a mind—they suffer, they don’t know where they’re going. They can’t hear, they can’t see. They only eat and eat. They are pure fire—like a flame that burns everything. A fire-minded person. A person with a mind of fire. We can’t live with that spirit in this physical world—because we end up destroying ourselves through a system made entirely of games.
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The work of our time: Leo-Aquarius synthesis
In a recent webinar, Astrology for Times of Upheaval, depth psychological astrologer Laurence Hillman (son of famed depth psychologist James Hillman) suggests that the integration of the Leo-Aquarius polarity is the most important task of our time. With innovator Uranus being the modern ruler of Aquarius, we are beckoned to an expanding consciousness; yet we cannot deny the importance of the centered self. What is needed is a serious ‘uplevel’ of the Leo archetype, such that it returns to its noble roots, and casts out the arrogant self-centeredness that has crept into the psyche of the era—as well as a recasting of the Leo-Aquarius partnership.
Leo benefits from remembering the Aquarian ‘big picture’, and the community of all beings, and not just the shining of its own bright light. And Aquarius needs Leo’s heart-centered charisma, giving it the confidence to step out from the recesses of the crowd and take a passionate stand so that it’s not stuck in the isolated, disconnected wings.
Kosmos Journal recently published an article with an intriguing Aquarian vision of a cohesive future that operates through anarchy, relying on resonance as the “leader of leaderlessness.” Author Arabella Thais suggests,
In an anarchic society, the leader is not the one with the most control, but the one with the most alignment—the one who is so attuned to the deeper frequency of the Real that others orient around them effortlessly, not out of obedience but recognition….This is how the cosmos leads. Not with domination—but through radiance.
[…]This is what I call impulsional sovereignty—a mode of being in which one’s actions arise not from external commands, but from interior concordance with the Whole. In mystical Christianity, this is agape; in Taoism, it is the Tao; in Jung, it is individuation: the harmony of the Self with the archetypal totality.
Thais references agape, the highest form of love and charity, as the source of the ‘radiance’ of which she speaks. To me this offers an exciting possibility for the Leo-Aquarius synthesis.
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Full Moon Astrology
The August 9 Full Moon at 16° Aquarius, opposing the Leo Sun, features a prominent “kite” formation involving Mars, newly minted in Libra. Mars in Libra focuses on the conceptual, and social realms; ideally acting out of consideration for others or, less than ideally, getting righteously upset when others don’t show consideration for them! The possibility offered with this placement is to work on achieving harmony in social relations, while avoiding the off-centered Libra tendency to devolve to the aggression of Aries (its polarity partner), in self-righteous outbursts when we feel justice isn’t met.
From its position at the base of the kite, Mars’ opposition to the Saturn-Neptune conjunction (discussed at length in my Gemini blog) forms the kite’s backbone, suggesting possible resistance to its attempts to assert and take action (whether for better or for worse), from either Saturnian limitations (sluggish bureaucracy, projects hastily mounted hitting obstacles) or the diffuse subtleties of Neptune’s dreamy, elusive methods. Practicing patience (Saturn), holding to higher ideals, and peering behind the veil of illusion (Neptune) is the directive of this configuration, given that included in the kite is a Grand Trine between Mars, Uranus (unexpected insight or occurrences) and Pluto (the transformer), as well as the ‘magic’ or mini triangle outer planets configuration I wrote about last month forming the kite’s upper triangle.
With connections to all three outer planets, Mars will be attempting to call down a synthesis between the real and the imagined, convention and its upending, and aggression and high-mindedness. No tall order, and frustration could result, or, if one flows with the larger energies, a new way of acting that is less focused on personal will. Helpfully, Jupiter and Venus are conjunct in Cancer, calling forth deep sensitivity and the urge to take the high road when it comes to personal trespasses.
I close with an excerpt from a Mary Oliver poem that beautifully speaks to the wisdom of Leo love, and its partnership with Aquarius, in its inclusion of the whole world.
To Begin, With The Sweet Grass [excerpt]
What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements,
though with difficulty.
I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment
somehow or another).
And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.
And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.
~ Mary Oliver