Tree City Witch: The Sun in Leo Is Your Fire Cure

I used to think that I stopped being depressed in my mid-30s, that suddenly it was gone.

Okay, not suddenly, but life changed. It got better. I was my own boss after years of failing at working for others. Work saved me. I was in New York City. Surviving. Living. I felt as though I’d crossed some bridge of life, the depression bridge, and that was it. I’d outgrown it and become some better stronger version of me. Amazing me. Look at me.

Now I see things differently. Yesterday was my birthday, and now I know better. That multi-year span of no-depression was actually the aberration. Amazing me. Look at me.

It’s in this context that I want to talk to you about the Sun, from an astrological vantage. The Sun will leave Cancer, a water sign, and enter Leo, a fire sign, later this month. The Sun “rules” Leo.

Leo is a very “look at me” sign. Real life Leos are known for their pride and warmth and creativity and courage and EGO, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. We all need a little ego. We all need to get up each day. Without a sense of self (Sun), how do we know what to do? We don’t.

The Sun, my friends, is who you are. Essence. Identity. We need fire. We need Sun. We need it shining on our faces at least some of the time and not just for the Vitamin D.

HOW MUCH FIRE?

If you know your natal chart then you know the answer to this question: do you have fire?

Every planet in your birth chart is in a particular astrological sign and each sign is an element: water, earth, fire or air. Some people have an even distribution among the elements and some do not. The less fire you have, the more you may try to get it. Fire is passion, like the suit of Wands in the Tarot.

Years ago an astrologer told me that because I lacked fire, I should light candles, warm myself up from the outside in. This was years before I knew anything about candle magick although having grown up in a traditional Jewish home I was more than familiar with the power of ritual fire because of the Shabbat candles. These Friday night candles usher in and welcome the Shabbat just as the Havdalah candle on Saturday night says goodbye. We are sad to say farewell to the Shabbat Queen so we light and we pray and we wait for Friday to come again. Fire as antidote.

WHO YOU TRULY ARE

I’ve been doing this work a long time. It’s not uncommon for a client to have me draw cards for them or look at the chart because they do not know how they feel, what they are good at, what their essence is — until I tell them. No. Until I remind them.

See, we forget. We forget and then the Sun enters Leo, the sign it rules, and it’s easier to remember who we are, why we’re here. To be ourselves. To shine.

The Sun enters Leo and you can (re)connect to YOU.

BRIEFLY ABOUT THE AUGUST ECLIPSES

For those who do not know the astrology: the wheel is made up of twelve houses, twelve pieces of the pie, and each house symbolizes an area of life (and always more than one!).

This Sun in Leo will be someplace specific in your particular chart. It will light you up, and it is journeying there, right now, as I type this. The Sun is currently in the mid degrees of Cancer and day by day we get closer and closer to the start of Leo Season. We follow the Sun.

But the real reason I have my eye on Leo so intently at this time, besides the fact that the Sun will be entering Leo shortly, is because we have two eclipses next month, one of them in, you guessed it, Leo.

I will write about this more as the days pass, but I just wanted to give you a heads up now, in case you didn’t know:

Eclipses. August. Leo. YOU.

HOW THE SUN IN LEO CAN HELP YOU

I recommend fire meditation, fire ritual, candle magick, ordinary tea lights, not so ordinary tea lights, Shabbat candles. I recommend the fires of Leo Season and gazing at the lights. All of this for your mood. I recommend August. I recommend the lion. I recommend warm foods. I also recommend acceptance without judgement. This is a tough one. Acceptance of where you are, including your lack of fire.

So maybe you need extra time to do your work. So maybe you can’t always be so social. So maybe you need time to sit and do nothing. Hours and hours of nothing. Or minutes. Because it is quiet and healing.

And by “acceptance” I mean patience, like the Strength card in the Tarot, the lovely lion card, and that the Sun in Leo can teach you how, show you how.

It’s in the way the Sun just shines. It doesn’t worry: are my rays too warm? Am I showing off too much? Should I turn it down a little? Real Leos don’t worry about such trifles. They dance. They beam. They are themselves.

This is your sacred task in Leo Season, to remember what it’s like to feel no shame and reconnect with that part of yourself, even for a moment, even if you have to think back to another lifetime, and to be the Sun.

You’ll get glimpses of precisely how to do this as we get closer to the August eclipses. In fact, the revelations may become fast and furious for you, revelations about the path you’re on and whether it’s the right one! Really. You will. Let me know what you hear, and I’ll be back soon to compare notes.

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Are you interested in my on-line Tarot workshop? It’s a six-week course called Every Picture Tells a Story and is a collaboration with the Sequential Artists Workshop, a school for Comic Artists here in Florida. The course is for Tarot lovers and artists/writers who are interested in creating their own Tarot deck. We launch this summer. Stay tuned for details or message me!