On July 22nd, the summer sun left the quiet, nurturing sign of Cancer, and roared into the fire sign of Leo. No doubt about it, nothing is quiet about this sign. Jupiter may be the king of planets, but Leo is royalty in the zodiac and like royalty, all things are about ‘expression’. Where Cancer prefers involution, Leo thrives on evolution… “All the world’s a stage” for The Lion. Like its feline counterparts, Leos like to preen, be seen AND HEARD! And, because this sign rules the zodiacal 5th house of ‘creativity’ (among a few other things), there’s an innate flair for dazzling drama other signs can only sigh and fantasize about (well there are a few exceptions about the fantasy thing, which I’ll leave for you to speculate on!)
Like all astrological signs, Leo has a shadow side that can get in the way of its soul evolution. In the body, Leo traditionally rules the heart, blood and cardiac system. Typically those born under a well aspected Leo sun have big hearts but never doubt that they need to shine. In evolutional astrology, the Leo sun is here to develop personality and ego, but there can be predictable bumps along this path.
Leo is a ‘fixed sign’ like Taurus and Aquarius. Despite the lion’s endearing enthusiasm for ‘going big’, he or she, can become zealous, overbearing, over the top, intense and prideful along the way. And, they can easily take on too much, more than they can handle and in the end, burn themselves out. When Leo moves into any of these energies, Dr. Edward Bach’s flower remedies, Elm and Vervain, immediately come to mind as resources for getting the lion back on track.
Elm is typically regarded as a ‘temporary’ mood state (which is why it’s another remedy I have in the big bottle on my desk!). “Overwhelmed Elm” succinctly describes the mood, which is one that overachieves, takes on way too much and then hits the wall. The action of the Elm remedy is one that shifts the perception of everything being ‘priority’ to one of prioritizing in the very ‘Capricornian’ manner of one foot in front of the other; chop wood, carry water.
As one of Dr. Bach’s original ‘Twelve Healers”, the energy of Vervain is both a mood state and a soul type. Vervain is all about ‘over enthusiasm’ fighting for the underdog, seeing the ‘right’ in all things. Vervain is ‘heart centered’, but like the well meaning Leos, when this soul type or the temporary mood state moves into its negative or shadow energy, it becomes intense, zealous and can be intolerant. The beauty of this remedy is that its energy brings these shadow behaviors into balance, particularly regarding tolerance so that the soul can come through, bringing harmony to the Leo’s heart with evolutionary intent.
ELM
VERVAIN
Photography©Dr. Edward Bach Foundation