Heart and Head, Head and Heart. Which one leads and which one follows? This Full Moon has a sharp turn into a new rhythm, new dance steps between the Heart and Head. The footwork may feel awkward and clumsy at first. That’s appropriate. In fact, it’s how you know you are in unfamiliar territory. This is not time for perfection, it’s time to find your own beat to dance to in life. Yet this Leo Moon turns up the volume on the corners where we want approval, feel like we need it in order to be okay.
There is percolating creative tension all through this Full Moon weekend. We have Venus square Mars which is the hallmark for creative eruptions. Both the Sun and Moon also square Uranus, the Great Awakener. Squares require a change of course. Which means that what we desire (Venus) and how we act on those desires (Mars) insist on necessary shifts. The Sun in Aquarius and the Full Moon in Leo holds the tension within us of how we belong and then how we stand out. Guess what, you can’t stand out when you are isolated or alone. So you can only be seen fully as the individual you are in contrast to the groups you belong to in life.
Where do you belong? How well do those groups do change? What’s needed is a more sustainable and welcoming environment for individual expression. Yet the individual also shares responsibility for expressing that uniqueness in ways that add value to the community. Even disruption has value. But how you disrupt matters. One key here is self approval. When you forge strong bonds with what you love, you aren’t afraid of editing it yourself. Like sculpting, it will only help to reveal the work of art underneath whatever is removed or smoothed. So begin with the landscape INSIDE of your head.
Map out how you evolve or where you stay stuck. Those edges are new healthy boundaries that preserve the singular brilliance that is you. They are worth your time. Dig into what you are a yes for and where is your no. Do you know why you choose what you do? Much of this will be make sense when you look in the rearview mirror. This weekend may hit like a lightning bolt that illuminates for miles. Even if the light fades, it revealed things valuable to recall. Breathe mindfully every chance you get this weekend. When you look around you, place a hand on your belly and inhale deeply. On the exhale check in with your body, which takes in far more information than your mind can process.
All the hairs on your body conduct vibrations and information. Your eyes see in cones then your mind fills in the gaps on data. There is fresh input, new insight available and it comes in shocks and waves. So give your body a chance to ground and take it in or you may find yourself sick, just so you can rest long enough to assimilate what you get. Then give yourself your own attention, your own approval. This is not necessarily about completion right now. It’s about new beginnings. Like the acorns that hold a mighty oak, know that these little beginnings hold power and potency. When you recognize that you have more flexibility in dealing with those around you who may be in shock as change happens.
Trauma responses feel rigid and want black and white pictures. Have compassion for that need. Be witness to the distress that wants certainty in the midst of change. Soothe it with breathe and patience. Like a wise adult comforting a frightened child, understand the distress will pass as it’s witnessed and acknowledged. Which is when creativity can emerge. No matter what happens, what you do with it is your power unleashed. While logic wants to remove the grain of sand from the injured oyster, the oyster makes art out of it instead. Make pearls this weekend. Know that you have art within you no matter what discomfort occurs. That recognition is a rich audience for your unfolding inspired presence. The Cards and Stars will help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
2/5 leo full moon four of cups
Leo is the sign we most associate with big hearted, brave hearted, and here it sits with the Four of Cups. One meaning for this card is defensiveness. That combination is a brilliant representation of this Full Moon. With Leo Moon opposite the Sun in Aquarius and both of them square to Uranus in Taurus, you can feel the transformational tension. In fact the image I get is one of a giant catapult with the arm pulled back and ready to spring. No wonder the card for defense popped in to say hello. On top of the tension in this Full Moon, there is a square between Venus and Mars that follows closely behind. How’s that for raising alarm bells of change.
This four card can also stand for emotional stagnation. It’s what happens when we box ourselves in to try to feel secure. It can be where we trade authenticity for approval. Fours represent that duel meaning of stability (four corners) but also limitations (four walls). Why not find the four CORNERS or four legs like on a table or chair. What anchors you is your inner state. The outside world has far less impact when you’ve got your internals on solid ground. Remember, fear overestimates loss. We want approval, we are social creatures. So why not rework the value system on who’s opinion carries the most weight.
When you have set your corners, then you can be resilient with feedback. I’m a big believer in standing in front of the mirror giving yourself honest, real compliments on your efforts. When you give and receive positive feedback, it balances what others offer. Why not honor the risks you take, the efforts it took to amass your personal resources that go into what you do? This Full Moon has an invitation. Add your own voice, more consistently and in approval, to what you do. Strengthen your connection with yourself.
Yet your impactful creative contribution could be lost if the foundation isn’t strong enough to hear feedback and still work with your story line that colors outside the margins. Sometimes we need to go outside the lines. But in order to do that, we need solid ground. That ground is inside of you. Make sure that your voice is one of the first and last that chimes in on whatever you do. Also make sure that your positive feedback outweighs your negative thoughts. This way, you build those four corners that securely hold anything piled on top of it. It’s the security that allows for additional expansion that won’t topple over any time soon.
2/6 six of pentacles
Sixes are the nature of Virgo and represent wholeness. This six emphasizes that our body holds wisdom you need today. Provocation lurks in unexpected places. Make sure your voice is the first and last to be heard. Silence, stillness and retreat are far more valuable than debate or argument with another. Unless of course you use the outside battle to help you understand what is in your head. Sometimes we project our stories on to others just so we can sort out the details.
Except we forget that’s what we are doing. Keep that possibility in mind today and watch for projection. Own your stories. The pull back gives you room to find out what old tapes play and where. The Moon opposes Saturn so it can be easier to see and hear our fears through someone else. When you know that, you can retreat and sort it out. Don’t miss an opportunity for strategic pause. Remember your body sorts out the information more slowly than the mind but helps you anchor and makes sense out of what helps and what harms.
2/7 lovers
After the strategic pause of yesterday you hit a chance to test new theories and understandings today. The Lovers highlights a choice. Where do you align with those around you and where do you differ? Are you able to hold two conflicting points of view? To listen and believe another’s story, even when you don’t share it is the bedrock of good connections and strong communities. We need fresh perspective. Differing views expand our understanding.
But if you fear what is unfamiliar, you get locked into a closed loop. Time to stretch into small changes. Try on new ideas. Even if you decide it’s not a fit, the very act of trying it on is a change. One bite at a time allows you to digest an elephant size change without stress on your system. Take one bite, chew it and digest before you take another bite. That applies to how you interpret what happens today. It applies to how you think about yourself. Bite, chew, pause, bite, chew, pause. See what tempts you to nibble today. Let desire and courage take the wheel. Put fear and judgement in the back seat. It’s a more interesting ride this way.
2/8 the star
The Moon starts off opposite Neptune to challenge our start today. What’s a dream and what is reality. Well, how about the fact that our reality began as someone’s dream. They had to imagine robots before they built them. The Star says reach for the heavens with our feet firmly planted on the ground. Effort is required. Smart effort benefits even more. What makes it smart you may ask? You can’t measure smart by results alone. In fact some mistakes give you more than a success ever could.
Those mistakes make you dig deeper, learn more. It also helps you decide what is worth the effort. An impulse wilts in the face of obstacles. While a desire will deepen and grow to meet the obstacles in its path. What you desire ultimately shapes you as you work towards it. That is the success the Star card promises. Some real aha moments are available by evening. Stop long enough to see what the journey today shows you about where your energy is in service to what matters most to you. Even in small ways, those tough choices define you. The more you that you are, the richer anything you accomplish becomes.
2/9 ten of cups
Well here’s a bonanza. Yesterday’s Star and today the Ten of Cups. Both promise happiness and fulfillment as reward for your investment. The Moon threads a path today through small challenges to our security that promise rich harvest when you plant good seeds. What’s needed is to feed yourself good stories. No matter what you experience, can you explore possible explanations that nourish you? This is good practice, always.
You can feel in your body when a story makes you feel queasy or angry. That is often fear. If there is a threat remind yourself you can meet it. If there is an opponent, remember you define the moment, the moment doesn’t define you. Like Aikido, you redirect the energy. You can always step out of the path of any oncoming projectile. Watch for grandiose impulses this evening. Real love is best served with a combination of daily attention and the occasional big gesture. Feel your way.
2/10 five of swords
Five is the number of creativity, linked to our Leo nature. What we create is our opportunity to stand out. The challenge we have today is the old creativity scars pop up like jack in the boxes. Good. Let them come out of hiding. They are visible today or at least you feel their presence, even if it hovers around the edges. Those were the old edges of your personal map. You need better boundaries today, ones that include all the challenges you faced and overcame. Those strengths flesh out bigger territory than the old fears have you seeing.
So watch for the trickster Mercury to meet up with Pluto to put an end to the story of lack, insufficiency or threat of failure. Innovation requires risk. You have your own brand of innovation. Discover more of that. Don’t worry about how someone else does it. Their just telling you about their map. Unless you want to live their life, you have to find your own edges, not copy theirs. Once you adjust for that reality, more life territory is available to you. And guess what? It is a much better fit for you.
2/11 two of pentacles
This two underlines our tendency to go back and forth. We juggle possible interpretations of events. There is always the split between the path of love and the path of fear. Which one gets the last word? Don’t worry if you find yourself juggling the two ends of the spectrum today. There is nothing wrong with it, as long as you don’t stay there endlessly looping. Remember facts don’t decide things for us. It’s how we feel about the facts.
Those feelings are the lenses we see through. So if you don’t like the view, put on a different pair of glasses or try a new window. Hint, there is always another way to see things. Then it becomes about finding the view and story that feeds you energy, growth, self trust and belief. The view you want offers a solid feeling of yes in your bones. Even when there is nervousness with the yes, breathe into it. Our brain gets anxious when we expand into the unknown. So take it one step, one choice, one situation at a time and practice the choice of love over fear. There is more life waiting for you to claim it, just outside what’s familiar.
2/12 eight of pentacles
Ah, what we put out into the world comes back to us. This eight is our report card on how well we create in physical form. It is also an invitation to master what you do. Mastery includes time, attention, care for the output. The aspects today invite us to understand what is complex and within that framework, what is simple. This is especially highlighted in how you express yourself. When you act in ways that benefit you without considering the implications for how it lands on others, you miss the whole picture. There may be a million reasons, including a need to express yourself now because you didn’t do it in the past, that informs your actions.
But if you aren’t careful, you could ask the people in front of you now to pay the price for what was or wasn’t done in the past. It’s a mismatch of energies. Impulses need to be sorted from true longings. Desires shape you artfully, deliberately. Impulses create random chaos that can require much energy just to manage fallout. Today is an opportunity to learn how to find measured risks. Spontaneity is a wonderful part of life when you master it. And no, that is not a contradiction in terms. Calculated risk is still risky, just less so. As is masterful spontaneity. Explore that today…
2/13 seven of wands
This Seven and the Moon’s aspects today combine to remind us that we are frequently better off than we think we are. Our fear brain prefers to overestimate any threat or obstacle and underestimate us. This way you are over-prepared for situations. Except today it’s a chance to explore where our need to be ‘prepared’ for the worst can suck the joy out of the present. There is a term for it and women experience it far more often than men. It’s called foreboding joy. Joy is a vulnerable emotion. Because the fear brain always likes to point out that we can lose what brings us joy.
But it forgets to include that joy becomes part of our cellular memories. Allowing yourself to take it in, to relish the moment and savor the good feelings nurtures the body, mind and heart. What can you savor today. Choose a moment, or two, or more and roll around in them. Swish those feelings around like a big tub of love inside you. Let the waves splash up and out on to whatever is around you. Reassure your fear brain it can stand guard for any real threats while you delight in what is good and right about this moment. Your body soaks that up and stores it for future resource.
2/14 queen of wands valentine’s day
This fiery Queen represents a good mix of the warmth and edge to today’s aspects. The Moon trine Jupiter is expansive and has a bonfire going that can be seen for miles. Mars has a little tension building between the Moon and Pluto both. So little actions matter. The stories that prompt those actions matter. When you harness your courage (Mars) to overcome your fears (Moon) and step outside your shadow limits (Pluto), you can light up your world and who knows who else will witness that fire.
Fuel is a necessary part of any fire, so be sure to give yourself and others the praise, recognition and respect they are due. Be generous with those elements today and you can help others light up. It requires you to stop long enough to witness what is there to be admired first. So be sure you take in the best in those around you so you can reflect it back to them. You never know how far one spark of admiration can travel to light another bonfire where it’s needed.
2/15 the devil
The need to confront our own ability to deceive ourselves is represented in the Devil card and aspects today. The Moon squares off with Neptune and Venus. Whether you lie to yourself about what you truly want or lie to others, the cosmic timer goes off on this behavior. You’re done. It’s robbing you of so much of the goodness in life. Your desires matter. They need a healthy expression. The key is how you bring them out into the world.
Start by bringing them into your consciousness. Desires are not actions. You can want something without acting on it. I love sugar and it’s toxic to me. Still, I can let myself dream of a candy store and an unchecked binge on all things deliciously tempting without actions attached. I can repurpose the longing into a multilayered expression. First, I can make a sweet dessert with pure Monkfruit that satisfies my craving but doesn’t make me ill. Secondly, I can find emotional sweetness and give myself that along with sweeter mental interpretations of almost anything. Ah mission accomplished for things that delight me.
Denying myself the impulse is punishment mentality and constricts life force itself. So does your deceit. Take those desires out of the basement and closet and get to know them. They are part of you. Give them a shower, shave, haircut and dress them up for public expression. It’s not a quick fix but rather the beginning of a process. You simply cannot keep lying about what you want and live the life you came here to live. So find ways to bring those desires out into the public in a way that benefits all concerned. Yes it may require innovation. Good. That’s exactly what the desire is meant to do for you – get you to expand.
2/16 hanged man
You can break free of self deception when the Hanged Man follows the Devil. Imagine being able to live as yourself, without apology for those who acknowledge and even welcome a fuller expression of you. You are part of creating just that. It requires accountability. This is not an invitation to demand it from those around you. Doing that only sends people into hiding if they aren’t sure how to handle it. No, it’s better to modeled it. Show them how you do personal responsibility.
The Sun with Saturn to reinforces our ability to practice healthy restraint. This is not denial. It’s an active choice of how to express what you feel while also considering your impact. There’s longevity, sustainability in doing it this way. Like an artist placing paint in ways that lets an image emerge, or a sculptor freeing a masterpiece, let your desires bring out the artistry in your life.
2/17 six of cups
Ah, the second six in the Moon cycle. Two sixes signal love and marriage. What we are exploring is the marriage of your inner world and outer. Add in the official joining of head and heart working as partners to create. Aquarius is the sign of the people, the masses. Leo represents our individuality. When we add the uniqueness that is you to the groups you belong to, we have a fruitful and recognizable partnership for growth. This Six is also the hallmark of childhood innocence. Can you see what you do with fresh eyes?
This is the exercise in not letting the past determine the future, but rather letting it simply inform your present actions with wisdom gleaned from that past. Knowing all you know, from what you lived and learned, what do you wish to do with what’s in front of you now? It’s a blank canvas if you let it be. What do you wish to put on it that is representative of YOU. This isn’t a one chance to get it right. It’s the beginning of your artistry as a way of life. Stay flexible to mistakes and make sure you are your own best cheerleader on effort and courage first. Results will evolve. Make the process one where you make it fun to learn, to dare, to dream. Then watch the world exceed your expectations…
2/18 prince of pentacles
Easy does it says this slow moving Prince. This card also corresponds with the 12 year Jupiter cycle of expansion. We have Jupiter in Aries at the beginning of the Zodiac right now. Think back to what you began 12 years ago. Set some intentions for where you will be in another 12 years. I highly recommend that you make the internal world the focus of many of the goals. Because your inner world will define your outer world. The Sun moves into Pisces to help tap into the collective unconscious for some big dreams that serve the world. The Moon and Mercury meet up to tell a good story. Oh and the Aquarius Moon two steps nicely with Jupiter, back to that 12 expansion plan.
You get a boost of individuality and freedom for fresh ideas this evening as the Moon taps Mars is helpful ways, shortly after and uncomfortable show down with our fears. The need for security may rear it’s head. Acknowledge the fears and then, if you recall, fear goes to work on your greatest strengths, not your weaknesses. So let those fears help map out where you can expand the most and then take a step. With this slow moving Prince we don’t need to rush anything. One or two steps will do you nicely. You’ve got 12 years to complete things, after all.
