Stage Fright And The Leo New Moon
Full Moon in Leo February 5, 2023
1:28 p.m. EST/10:28 a.m. PST
All Full Moons reflect the light of the Sun’s radiance symbolically casting illumination upon an area of our lives for a brief moment each month. The glorious light of the Moon is softer than the direct presence of the Sun, even in its fullest expression, In many ways the Moon’s role is to refract the light while brilliantly displaying a prismatic rainbow of possibilities in expression.
Ruled by the Sun itself, Leo is a fiery sign, it desires to be seen and appreciated. It desires to be loved. Yet among Leo’s greatest fears is the fear of humiliation. Often where we have Leo in our charts we can put on a big show, so to speak, yet never reveal our softness and vulnerability. In essence through this larger than life facade we deflect the very love we seek. Because of our fear we aren’t truly receptive and remain captive to the outside heroic image we project.
When I worked at the Geddes Talent Agency I vividly remember one of the agents relaying a story about the late great actress Maureen Stapleton. (During her storied career she received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, in addition to a nomination for a Grammy Award. ) Apparently her stage fright was so severe her assistant would hold her hand and move from place to place with her during the initial blocking rehearsal. And yes, as noted above she was a two time Tony Award Winner. As terrified as she was she didn’t let her fear prevent her from taking her moment in the spotlight.
Where do you in essence have stage fright in your life?
In other words, where do you metaphorically want someone to hold your hand as you move from place to place? Where does your fear of vulnerability prevent you from taking risks? From really openly allowing yourself to truly be seen, to shine like the Sun?
The light of this lunation provides a powerful opportunity to explore these very questions. To bring them to consciousness where we can actively work with them vs having our stings pulled by the puppeteer of the unconscious mind.
For a number of years I directed, and acted in, Eve Ensler’s renowned play The Vagina Monologues as part of her V-Day charity to raise funds for the Verde Valley Sanctuary, a domestic violence shelter in the Sedona area. One of the rules of the V-Day charity was that you had to enlist community members that most of the time were not actors, had never been on stage and for many of them even the thought of doing this was the equivalent of jumping out of a plane without a parachute. One of my primary jobs was creating a safe container for them such that they could step out from behind their own fears and shine onstage. One of the primary ways I did this was to share what I had realized years ago about the experience of being in front of an audience so they could transform their inner relationship from one of fear to love. I share it here with the hopes that it might provide an opening for you within your own life.
An audience, any audience, at their core simply wants to love you. They are not only hoping to love you, they are waiting to love you. They have actually come to the event on a certain level with the aspiration to love you. Your job is let go of your own fears by fully showing up and loving them right back. Think about it: Whenever we open a new book, turn on a television show, go to the movies we walk in desiring to love the experience. We actively want to be charmed, to be mesmerized and moved by the experience. We yearn for the joy and sense of connection that this engenders.
Our inner selves respond to and speak a symbolic language. The language of art, the language of dreams. Symbolic language invites us to dwell in the realm of our imagination.
This Moon holds the warmth of the Sun which rules the sign Leo. Take a moment and hold an image of it in your imagination, the Sun quite literally glows from within. It radiates. It generates its own light. The Sun’s surface isn’t solid - it is constantly recreating itself. And its beauty through this process is blinding.
Like the Sun, we, our lives, are always in a process of unfolding. I like to think of it as blooming over the course of a lifetime.
The Sun, after all is said and done is the giver of life, nothing would thrive in this world without it. I urge you to use this annual invitation from the cosmos to share your inner light with the world around you. To shine simply because it is part of your nature expecting nothing just generously giving life and then sit back and watch what naturally blooms around you.
