This recent full moon in Leo, I noticed a strange light during my journey work. In the depths of my meditation, facing the moon in the east, I grew distracted by something just over my left shoulder. A white light was shining down from behind and I felt like I could see it through my closed eyelids. Distracted, I thought maybe it was the light of the moon, but I was facing it, and then I thought maybe a light had turned on in the room. I resisted the urge to open my eyes and then I felt a presence accompany it.
I knew immediately who I was with, she whose presence I have felt during my lunar, night time and hedge crossing work. For a long time I wasn’t sure who it was, but I have come to suspect it to be Hecate. I thanked her for joining me and she calmly told me that I may ask three questions.
If Leo is fire, this full moon was about illuminating more intensely the dark places, tapping into the creative current and inspiring. The tumult of life post family holidays is an odd time for me, and I imagine it is so for many of you. Regardless of the fact that I’m not a Christian, the culture I live in assuredly is, and the huge impacts that it’s consumer-companion holiday have on personal energy reserves is staggering. I was hoping to have a quiet, reflective period during the beginning of the year, but so far that hasn’t been the case. It could be the planetary alignment or Mercury in retrograde but I’m finding the pace of 2016 to be more of a sprint than a meditative walk.
This fiery first moon of the year feels like a guidepost more than re-kindling a dormant flame. But as we pass by, I feel the focus that I have been reaching out for tightening in.
I promptly asked Hecate two questions and received my answers. My final one revolved around trying to manifest the life that I want, that I’m in pursuit of…
She answered very clearly.
“You’re on your correct path. You need to spend more time enjoying the journey and stop worrying about only being happy when you achieve your goals.”
This is advice that I’ve needed for a long time. Advice, I think, that most of us know is right and for our highest good. Whether we feel like our lives are leaping forward like a pouncing lion or stuck in a holding pattern. The point of life is the living. To quote a John Lennon song (which I have done on this blog a few times, and I’m surprised by because I don’t listen to his music all that much), “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
Yes, it’s great to make plans, it’s great to try to grow and build, to work at things that make you happy, or proud, or improve people’s lives or the lives of animals or to preserve nature. But love while you’re living, find joy in the process. This has been one of my life’s challenges, and I’m only beginning to understand that it even was one.
So Leo is a fiery primal presence that has popped up just before many of us are about to celebrate Imbolc. The fire will be rekindled with a big blessing of energy from the lion but now it’s upon each of us to decide what we will do with it. It appears I may have a divine pair of eyes looking over my shoulder to make sure I don’t forget it.