Leo Full Moon | 2009

2009 Leo Full Moon

Arti­cle by Michael Beard

In eso­teric astrol­ogy there are three states of con­scious­ness that are related to Leo:

1. Mass con­scious­ness
2. Self con­scious­ness
3. Group consciousness

The mass con­scious­ness is gov­erned by the sign pre­vi­ous to Leo, Can­cer, the crab. The crab hid­ing in its shell rep­re­sents the indi­vid­ual being iden­ti­fied with the mass con­scious­ness. This is one who does not exhibit the capac­ity to think for him­self. He fol­lows the herd, or the masses.

In Leo, the indi­vid­ual begins to wake up. Leo rep­re­sents the move­ment out of mass con­scious­ness into self con­scious­ness. The lion starts to roar. Often this hap­pens after some form of betrayal. The per­son put their trust or faith in oth­ers who betrayed that trust. Now the per­son has no one to rely on. The only place to turn is within. It is like going inside of a cave and real­iz­ing that you are the only one in the cave. You have to draw upon your own inner strength. That is why one of the keynotes for Leo is strength. The other keynote is knowl­edge. You gain strength from knowledge.

The lion rep­re­sents the per­son­al­ity. The word “per­son­al­ity” is from per­son, which is from the Latin per­sona, which means mask (espe­cially one worn by an actor.) The actor, the per­son­al­ity, actu­ally has three masks.

The first mask is the phys­i­cal mask, the phys­i­cal body. In con­trol­ling and direct­ing the phys­i­cal body, the Lion gains strength.

The sec­ond mask is the emo­tional body. In observ­ing emo­tional reac­tions, and learn­ing to rule our emo­tions, the Lion builds more mus­cle and greater strength.

The third mask is the men­tal body — the intel­lect. By observ­ing our thoughts and learn­ing to uti­lize thoughts to cre­ate pos­i­tive results, the Lion gen­er­ates fur­ther strength and power.

Through that process of gain­ing strength by learn­ing to con­trol the three­fold per­sona, or per­son­al­ity, the Lion begins to rec­og­nize that there is an inner power that is doing the con­trol­ling. This is the true indi­vid­ual, the Self within, the Soul.

The word “indi­vid­ual” is from the Latin indi­viduus (in + divide) mean­ing not divis­i­ble, not divided — of one essence or nature.

To become a true indi­vid­ual is to unite the three­fold per­sona so that the phys­i­cal, emo­tional and men­tal aspects are not divided. They unite in the light of the Soul. They fuse with the pur­pose of the Soul and the indi­vid­ual becomes a Soul-infused personality.

This is a dynamic moment in the life of the indi­vid­ual. Now the Lion is more pow­er­ful than ever. Through pow­er­ful striv­ing to gain con­trol over the per­son­al­ity, the Lion ends up con­sciously fus­ing with the source of that power — a higher power — the Soul. The Lion then becomes a Lion of Light. This is the light of clar­ity and per­cep­tion. In that light the Lion begins to per­ceive the next level of con­scious­ness, which is group consciousness.

Group con­scious­ness is gov­erned by the sign oppo­site of Leo, Aquar­ius. In group con­scious­ness the strong indi­vid­ual coop­er­ates with the ideals of the group in order to man­i­fest the pur­pose of the group. True group con­scious­ness is in har­mony with the laws of nature and the ideals of beauty, good­ness, truth, free­dom and love. True group con­scious­ness respects the rights and free­dom of oth­ers. In group con­scious­ness, the pow­er­ful Lion no longer lives to meet indi­vid­ual needs, but lives to serve the needs of humanity.

At this time of the Leo full moon think how can I con­trol my thoughts, emo­tions and actions? Then, when in full con­trol, how can I con­tact the light of the Soul? Then visu­al­ize using the light of the Soul to meet the needs of others.

If you enjoyed read­ing this,

Until next time,

Nico­lette Beard, Editor