By Amanda Moreno

Writing here has been such a pleasure for many reasons. Sometimes, however, I have to do the highly responsible thing and turn to Facebook for crowd-sourced ideas of what to write about. Today, someone requested that I talk about how we can use the energy of the Sun in Leo to help overcome energetic blocks. Leo energy is pretty darned incredible — fun, playful, expressive, creative — so I figured I’d go that route.

In summary, I associate Leo with creative self-actualization and the celebration of self; fun, loyalty, romance, generosity and heart all come to mind. The free doling out — and receiving — of appreciation and love.

Leo also casts shadows, like anything else. The Leonine shadow of narcissism fascinates me, especially as I tune into the world stage and our collective social media frenzy, in a culture where so many of us portray ourselves as the perfectly crafted avatars and stars of our own social media shows.

Leo is ruled by the Sun and it is unique in that way. Although Cancer is also ruled by a luminary rather than a planet, the Sun is unique in that it is the center of our solar system. Wherever the Sun is in our chart tells us about our purpose for being here and about the spark we can cultivate to come into alignment with our purpose.

We can look at the astrological wheel as a developmental progression. Aries is the birth instinct and related impulses. Taurus relates to our internalized sense of security and resources based on how we’re held. Gemini is the phase where we begin to link together the perception, thought and speech processes to communicate about experience. Cancer is where we first begin to develop an ego identification based on the constructs of our blood tribe and our emotional self.

In that context, Leo can be seen as where we begin to express the ego identity. It’s akin to the phase of development occurring between four and five years old — coming into contact with other kids, moving into Kindergarten and expansion out of the home environment.

It is perhaps during this stage, when we’re learning to creatively express our ego identity from a place of joy and innocence, that we’re prone to the perils of being shut down by others and by internalized feelings of shame or inadequacy. We need validation in this stage. Our Sun needs to shine and be seen as we are. It’s during this phase that we need recognition for being unique, and there are so many ways — both subtle and not — that this need can be shut down.

In Leo, we have a need to be seen in a particular way. Narcissism is defined psychologically speaking as “extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one’s own talents and craving for recognition and admiration,” or diagnosed as a personality disorder that is characterized by “self-centeredness arising from a failure to distinguish the self from external objects, either in very young babies or as a feature of mental disorder.” Narcissism is a trait in which we might essentially choose our godly qualities over our human ones, privileging one role over another, typically in an inflated way.

Perhaps we all have areas of our life in which we inflate ourselves or become one-dimensional, clinging on to an identity that we think is better than another or that we feel a strong need to have recognized. We become overly identified with an image, perhaps to cover up something we are lacking or feel loathing about. We become consumed with proving our specialness, or denying the parts of ourselves we find painful, lacking or inadequate.

The narcissistic process, then, is perhaps trying to save something, or to cover up a wound. And what do we talk about here on Planet Waves over and over again? The need to hold space for people’s wounding to come out in non-judgmental settings. We greet wounding with compassion.

We’re all living right now during a time of incredible transformation and often turbulence. What this time period needs is for each of us to get in touch with the spark of genius inside of us, to rise to the occasion of cultivating that spark — while not getting lost in artificial facades that we can hide behind.

We need to express our identity while understanding it is fluid. Perhaps part of that is owning our need for validation and recognition — and doing a little digging to understand how those needs might have been shut down when we were young.

Through its trine to Aries, the spark of Leo sunlight in each of us can be accessed through the bravery and courage it takes to tap into our own mode of self-expression, to listen to what our heart is calling us to do. Leonine creative self-actualization calls on us to express the currents of the divine, of the mystery, as they flow through us in our own unique ways — while understanding that we are not the source of the spark, just the fortunate recipient.

How might we harness the bravery of the fire signs to wade into the mystery, knowing that it is not something to fear but to embrace in wonder? Is it about recognizing that, despite the fact that we are each unique manifestations of something greater, we are not alone here?

We have tribe and there are others on the earth who are as confused, frightened and unsure as we might be at any given point in time. Similarly, there are likely others who are ready to dance and sing and celebrate their way through the madness as well, heart to heart, hand in hand. Because love is the only sure medicine, and the heart is the true source and power of the divine.

Tearing down the walls we’ve built to protect the child in us that was shut down or unrecognized might be tender work, maybe even best done within the container of a therapeutic or other form of relationship; there is an innocence in that Leo function that can feel raw and vulnerable. But that innocence is also a gift. I believe it is often referred to as ‘divine child’ energy. That part of us that believes and that is untarnished by the world lives within us all the time and, I believe, can be a source of great healing…if we can only let it shine.

*Title inspired by Harvey Sid Fisher.