D.K. Foundation

This is an abridged version of an article to be included in a publication, The Healing Zodiac,

Leo
The Courage of Consciousness

When we realize that our primary destiny is to become fully ourselves, we can accept any circumstance that brings us closer to that goal. Illness is part of our dialogue with our wholeness; it is part of the healing process itself. Pain naturally brings our attention to those aspects of ourselves we have wanted to ignore. Above all, pain and illness are a request for our own love and care.

The opening quote pertains strongly to the healing issues constellating around the sign of Leo because it relates the themes of becoming fully ourselves, illness as a path of consciousness and the necessity of love. Leo, the Sun and the fifth house of the birth chart are about individual self consciousness - selfhood - and the purposefulness, creativity and flow of love that are released when we learn self-awareness. Through Leo we become aware of our uniqueness: the particular qualities of beingness that we embody as individuals. Leo lends these qualities a certain distinction, which beckons the attention of others and earns the individual recognition. It is crucial that the Leo Sun or Leo rising individual receives this recognition, but to do so they must cultivate and display their individuality. The Sun must shine, and must be seen to be shining! Suzanne Rough (director of the D.K. Foundation) has remarked that without recognition some part of the Leo person dies. If an individual’s Sun energy (the placement of the Sun in the birth chart) is not identified, the life force will not be sufficiently engaged to ensure well-being.

The Sun rules Leo (at the orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical levels) and for all of us, no matter which sign the Sun occupies in our charts, the Sun indicates (by sign, house and aspect) the qualities we need to cultivate if we are to develop full self-awareness, fulfil our potentials, activate purposefulness and vitality and come to consciousness as beings. Bodily symptoms are, at bottom, an expression of the attempt to come to consciousness, and coming to consciousness is the fundamental purpose of taking human form. The soul journeys over many lifetimes in its quest for an increasingly inclusive consciousness. It operates through form (the body and the personality) - that is to say, it manifests - in order to acquire experiences and developmental opportunities. Coming to consciousness relies upon a truthful encounter with our physical experience and all that manifests in the ‘worlds’ we inhabit; we are manifesting what we are - ‘the essential traits that are within’. The sign of Leo and the placement of the Sun in the birth chart signal where and how the soul is operating through the personality; that is to say, Leo and the Sun represent the current identity being taken in any one lifetime.

Orthodox astrology defines the Sun as representing identity, purposefulness, vitality and power potential. Certainly, if we learn to identify the Sun energy in our lives and orient ourselves towards its requirements, we will, wittingly or not, be drawing ourselves into alignment with the higher self, and it is this alignment which is the source of any power, purpose or vitality we may acquire. Failure to orient ourselves towards solar energy, however, will result in futility, decreasing vitality and a radical lack of confidence. Obviously, then, the astrologer concerned with personal or spiritual development always gives a thorough delineation of the Sun in the chart. The challenges and difficulties we face in life are always useful to the extent that they reveal the shortcomings of consciousness and point to the development that needs to take place. That development will always be centralised and synthesised by the Sun, which is, then, the lynchpin of any consultation.
The Sun is the central organiser of the individual’s life force just as it is the centre of our solar system; it is the route to accessing purpose, purposeful activity, personal power and the fulfilment of potential. The Sun is the principle that organises all of the other energies in the birth chart, because it is the centre around which they must orbit. The Sun is our source, our star: the representative of the stellar level (which pertains to higher consciousness) in our small corner of the cosmos. Seeking to align ourselves with our solar energy is essential to our well-being: it is the key to the contribution we, as individuals, need to make to humanity and to Gaia in the development of planetary consciousness.

This idea of the contribution we need to make to life is a key to the trajectory of development for Leo. In Leo we become conscious of self and demarcate our individuality, but this is not an end in itself. Leo is in polarity with Aquarius, the sign of group consciousness and group service. The trajectory of Leo is to become self conscious in order to affiliate and give the gifts of self to the group. Self-serving uniqueness is a stage in development, not its goal. Leo rules the heart, just as Aquarius rules the circulation: they make sense of each other. Indeed, they require each other to the extent that they are unimaginable without each other.

In the body, Leo rules the heart, the spine and the sides of the body. It also rules the eyes. Some astrologers make the distinction that the Sun rules the left eye of the female and the right eye of the male, while the Moon rules the right eye of the female and the left eye of the male. The symbol for the Sun is obviously eyelike and seeing is the product of illumination (which is a function of the forces of light and life that flow from the Sun). When we talk about heart and spine we are colloquially referring to courage. Someone who is not very hearty or who lacks backbone is one who retreats, who seems to weaken in the face of life’s challenges. This is precisely someone who lacks a sense of self, who makes no claims on behalf of ‘I’ or who cannot adapt themselves to current life circumstances. Problems arising in the heart function or with the spine reveal this basic lack of courage, flexibility or self-value. The words core, coeur (heart) and courage are etymologically linked, which serves as a reminder that coming to consciousness is not simply a matter of waking up, but of activating our core qualities (the deep authentic self) and our courage. This is the willingness to show who we are, to become adaptable and stand upright in the face of life’s challenges. The strength to do this - to occupy our full stature, stand in our own power - are the gifts of Leo and the Sun.

The spine, more than any other body part, expresses the ideas of connectedness and alignment. It literally connects our various body parts, allowing them to function as an integrated whole, just as the Sun organises the solar system. A healthy spine holds the vital organs in their right places and in right relation to each other; it also is the line along which the etheric energy centres of the chakras are situated. Chiropractic has established a system of practice where all symptoms can be treated through their connection to the spine. The spine aligns above with below, within with without. When energy is flowing through the spine uninhibitedly there is balance between the three worlds; the blood supply to the nerves is optimal and the subtle energy of prana (from the Sun) optimally supplies the chakras. All is well. Any resistance to life will create an energy block in the spine that may manifest through another part of the body (chiropractic and osteopathy are rich in the knowledge of how the spine refers pain outwards, which can then be related back to particular vertebrae). Correspondences between vertebrae and symptoms manifesting in particular parts of the body will obviously furnish the healer with very fruitful lines of enquiry and many opportunities for the client to come to consciousness about the conditions and beliefs surrounding their symptoms. However, the bottom line will always be to relate the spine - and the level of vitality in general - to the Sun and its requirements for development in the current incarnation. This delineation will need, in turn, to be related to those elements in the chart that are impeding expression of the solar energy (particularly to Saturn and the Moon, representing the undertow of past-life identity).

Writing of the heart, Louise Hay touches on the issues of love and drama that we have connected with Leo:

Heart problems urge us to look at how we are relating to love, joy, pleasure and creativity, for they indicate some closure to the experience of these qualities, which of course, correspond to the fifth house of the birth chart. If one is over-burdened by the stress of work and the seriousness of life, it is very unlikely that the fifth-house energies of pleasure and play are going to be flowing. In fact, they are going to be badly snarled up by exaggerated, restricting and joyless beliefs in duty, responsibility and the importance of self. The heart, so much an indicator of the real self, has a way of calling us back to ourselves.

In psychological parlance, Leo energy corresponds to the inner child, just as it corresponds to the creative activity of conceiving and child-rearing. Very often it is as children that we have established patterns of defence and resistance that condition our bodies at subtle levels that manifest later as pain in the body; consciously interrogating our memories in connection with these energetic patterns allows the voice of the inner child to be heard, so that we can release the old defence and the ancient belief behind it and free ourselves to enter more fully into the present and authenticity. Judith Blackstone notes that ‘this is a process of literally coming to our senses’, which is precisely what life would have us do.

References
Bailey, Alice, Esoteric Astrology (London: Lucis Trust, 1951).
Blackstone, Judith, The Subtle Self (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1991).
Hay, Louise L., You Can Heal Your Life (Carson, CA: Hay House, 1984).
Dethlefsen, Thorwald and Rüdiger Dahlke, The Healing Power of Illness (1983; Shaftesbury: Element, 1990).

©Kate Wickens 2001

©2001- The D.K. Foundation. This article, including this copyright statement, may be freely distributed but not altered, expanded or abridged in any way. We thank you for respecting this request.

Leo The Courage of Consciousness

Leo
The Courage of Consciousness