Full Moon in Leo

Jan 25

full moon in Leo (January 25, 2024 12:54 pm est.)

LEO is the sign of the Sun’s domain. The Sun governs the heart, vital essence, and one’s unwavering core purpose as seen through the Sun’s placement in the chart. Wherever the sign of Leo falls along the twelve houses of the birth chart becomes the kingdom which our Sun sign rules over. Each chart, a cosmology in itself, as expressed through our own lives. From a condensed perspective, we are the center of our own worlds, our own universes.

“Humanity has always looked for inspiration, for breakthrough, for a way to experience what more there is in life… and to see through these experiences of the senses and the mind and the world, to uncover what lies hidden and possible within it. That value, that concept of yoga from the earliest traditions, is exemplified in a god, in a character, in a substance called Soma.” Dr. Douglas Brooks

This week I stumbled across teachings by Dr. Douglas Brooks on Indra & Agni (linked here) and soma. Indra and Agni imbibe in soma, their creative fuel and relationship to that which must go through the cyclical process of transformation.

Indra, the overseeing warrior king and king of the gods of the Vedic cosmos, is exemplified by his ability to harness the vast powers of nature into the form of a thunderbolt. Indra, according to Brooks, represents the ability to take responsibility for ones power with intention and righteous duty.

“Indra represented that clear direction to take power and translate it into sovereignty and success… Lightening bolts, as a symbol of Indra’s own direct awareness, wield power as mechanisms of our own sense of ability and capacity to manage, to control, to lay claim, to become as it were the sovereign of ourselves.”

To remedy to burnout one likely experiences as king of the gods, Indra drinks the soma. The elixir of immortality intoxicates him. In order to stay inspired in his charioted trek across the sky each day, he seeks spiritual states of enlightened bliss. As Brooks suggests… even the king of the gods reached for ecstatic states to find a higher purpose beyond the roles required to fulfill for worldly success. “As we step into the intoxicating and ecstatic state we find a deeper, more sublime, even more profound sense of what is possible within us.”

Then there is Agni, the priestly god who is fire. Agni appears in the ancient texts as a messenger of the gods, a transformative power which assimilates, nourishes, inspires, and transforms by making offerings. “In that fire was poured everything that was of value, as an offering in a transactional universe that suggests as we give, so we receive.” In a ritualistic world, we approach Agni with respect, knowing that fire has the capacity to both illuminate and burn.

“Agni represents the ability not only to survive and use the primal energies of nature, but to bring those primal natural elements into those fitting & appropriate roles of civilization. Agni then represents these two values, the value of connectivity with nature and the transformative powers of creativity and transmutation, the messaging between seen and unseen forces of nature. Agni also represents the stately dignified course of transformation that creates civilization. That encultures us. That can cook and nourish us, that allows us to be decidedly human.”

So Indra, the authority managing & organizing the vast expression of the world in relationship to what is life giving and what is life destroying. And Agni, returning one to the primal power of the relationship with nature and honoring the sustaining force of fire which keeps us alive and connected to transformation.

Like a bolt of lightning, Indra seems to strike many chords of synchronicity to the sign of Aquarius. Aquarius, ruled by Saturn, where the Sun is for the full moon moment… the sign of intellectual frameworks and brilliant genius. Aquarius works its way from the outside, in. It is electric, pulsing, seeking new ways for change and reformation of the collective. Similar to Indra, the Aquarian way is one of authority managing and organizing what is necessary for the next stages of human development and omitting what no longer serves future forms. Slightly erratic, idiosyncratic, even ecstatic, an Aquarian vantage point can seem distant and destabilizing to the mainstream. Within its bizarre style, it is consistent and perpetuating. Under the influence of this sign, inspiration comes from out there, beyond. Like Indra’s blissed out soma binge, Aquarian’s are the harbingers of possibility in service to humanity’s evolution.

Agni (fire) could be similar to the sign of Leo, illuminating the centrality of one’s relationship to power from within… within one’s own being and within the context of one’s own ‘kingdom’. The way we approach our own inner fire can be seen in similar approach to the ancient offerings to Agni. The way we cultivate and express that fire with dignity and sovereignty and respect… or allow our fire to weaponize and create destruction… all comes down to our relationship and connection to creativity and primal power.

Under the light of the full moon, ponder the relationship that both Indra and Agni have with Soma. They both seek and consume soma, in deep engagement with life. Both characters In the descriptive words of Dr. Brooks soma is…

‘everlasting, imperishable, immortal, preparation, process, medicine, healer, nutrition, cyclical, ecstasy, inspiration, divine insight, ecstatic, temporal, joy inducing, alchemy, swelling, expansive, elated, undomesticated originality, transformation, radical energy, intimacy, Indra’s thunderbolt, protects from foes, draws in allies, Dionysian power, the heart of the matter, the process of existence.’

Associated with the moon, soma ‘raises the question of how to phase through and sustain ecstasy’ within the ever changing process of life… balancing the “phases of being both orderly and ecstatic, banal and sublime, and moving that way like the moon moves.”

As Pluto sits at the zero point of Aquarius, along side the Sun moving through Aquarius, and the moon is lit in solar rays moving through the sign of Leo… can you attune yourself to the inner-most nature of your own ecstatic expression? Can you find balance between the experience of what intoxicates and toxicity? What can be offered to the inner flame, the alter of the heart(h), bridging worlds and connections?

Along the axis of Leo and Aquarius, how might you begin to spiral back into yourself from the outer edges of your awareness? Sensing your own furthest reaches of insight like a smoke signal, then tracking inward to the source of the flame. Closer in to your body, to your spine, to your own foundational axis of self. These immortal forces, immortal in the sense that they connect to human existence across time and space, are the sources of our unique brilliance. The preparation, perpetuating a sustainable connection to source. That which fuels us to reach beyond the mundane & equally returns us to the world as an offering, serving dazzling insight and inspiration.

Under this full moon, invite the somatic inspiration of lunar light to strike a chord within you. Connect with the daily rituals that center you in your aliveness. May your own inner wisdom emerge, illuminated & embodied. Imbibed with a deeper sense of primal power, perpetuating bliss, and purposeful transformation which honors the balance of living in a world of paradox. In wisdom and grace.

For sovereign world building, I am sharing the fundamental laws of the heavenly universe which were shared by my teacher, Cyndi Dale. In Cyndi’s words, the core spiritual laws include

✦ Protection of the Innocent, guaranteeing that all innocents, such as children and the humble, are to be protected from evil.

✦ Law of Clarity, summoning the correct truth to every situation so that lies are exposed and illusions are illuminated.

✦ Law of Abundance, stating that everyone shall be provided what he or she needs in order to fulfill his or her spiritual destiny. Children are automatically provided for in parental abundance.

✦ Law of Forgiveness, insisting that the forgiveness was granted before the mistake was made. Upon owning divine grace, you accept forgiveness and simultaneously allow the Spirit to clear the strongholds underneath your errors.

✦ Law of Healing, stating that the healing has already been done. Through the Spirit—and along the divine pathway—there is only good; there are no errors and there is no evil. Therefore, by accepting that the Spirit has already provided for healing before the illness or problem occurs, you can either erase a problem before it exists, or heal the part of the self that incurred the problem and thereby help the problem disappear.

✦ Law of Choice, maintaining that all beings have the right to choose divine precepts and perspectives.