Performance & Play: Leo Szn Love!
“Radiate boundless love toward the entire world — above, below and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity.” — Buddha
Leo season wants us to shine, to love from our hearts, and courageously lead with play and performance at the center of our authentic style.
Let’s start with the basics, at the beginning, the essentials of this season:
The Leo journey is to radiate unconditional love for all beings everywhere! It’s is the most regal sign and ruled by THE SUN. The Leo archetype is the proud Lion, the Strength card in the Tarot, the Sun embodied. This is BIG energy. Loud, proud and maybe — a little performative but at it’s core playful and passionate. The work here is finding the balance of needing an audience and reaction to feel fully worthy, recognized and valued. Leos love a standing ovation, but does it come at the expense of being too fixed or attached to the objects of their enormous hearts.
To grow into the Heart Leaders they are meant to be, they must work to constantly release the egotistical part of their passionate performance! They are here to show others how to shine, authentically, unapologetically, shamelessly, boldly, beautifully, with purpose! Notice where the performance and joy for captivating an audience is bleeding into their ability to show compassion for the community they wish to lead. To truly rule from the heart takes a deep authentic connection to self-love and inner power, detachment from personal and societal expectations, and genuine love for all beings, no matter where those beings are on their journey in this lifetime.
Now let’s talk about THE SUN.
Bold, beautiful, warm, powerful, fiery and fearless, where your sun sits in your birth chart is the key to your VITALITY, the way you SHINE, where you find JOY, and how you naturally, authentically EXPRESS yourself. It is our basic personality, our ego, identity and consciousness. The sign in which our sun sits gives us information about our life’s purpose.
Every other planet revolves around the Sun, this is a central puzzle piece of our unique, one-of-a-kind identity! At our best, our Sun sign is where we radiate true joy, pure love and compassionate self-expression. At our worst, our Sun sign tells us where our arrogance, our ego, or our vanity might get the best of us. The journey of the sun is to bring attention to our personal style of magic, power, and purpose so we can lead the boldest most beautiful life we can imagine.
Our Sun allows us to play into our various styles, perform or practice our different personalities and identities, while remaining true to our powerful hearts, our inner light source, and ultimately share the unconditional love for all beings to experience this same self-expression.
Everyone struggles with their ego, everyone shines with purpose, how do we find the beautiful balance between the two?
Finally — FIRE.
Leo is the second fire sign. The three fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. This is wands in the Tarot deck. Fire is about transformation, power, purpose, digestion, creation, passion, pleasure, sex, drive, ambition, alchemy, magic, spark, growth, inspiration, charisma, ego, movement, excitement, youth, play, talent, potential, courage, faith.
So how can we work with the energy of Leo season?
Understanding the inherent energetic traits of planets and the luminaries helps us to understand others.
Understanding their style (Sun in Leo/Aquarius/Taurus…etc) as it relates to your cosmic birth chart, helps to understand you.
Step 1: Pull up your birth chart! (I use Chani or Co-star.)
Step 2: Where is THE SUN in your birth chart? I believe that working with The Sun during this time, through ritual, journaling, or meditation is a great way for us to connect to our authentic selves and they way we naturally shine and create magic in our power or purpose.
Reflect on: where do you feel your brightest, your boldest, your most energized? Where in life do you naturally shine and access your vitality source? Meditate on the place, the people, the purpose that you easily click into the feelings of passion, joy, play, boundless energy, and love.
Step 3: Explore Leo in your birth chart. Do you have any planets or major transits in Leo? This is where having a great app is helpful because the astrologers have done the work for you! Planets, luminaries and transits play their own role in the sky and in your birth chart.
Reflect on: your relationship to leadership, power, courage and heart. All the Leo themes I talked about above.
When in life did you learn to lead? Do you shy away from the stage or the limelight? Are you scared to express yourself boldly? When you think about inner power, what comes to mind, what memories come to the surface, what notable personal experiences do you have with finding your purpose?
A doozy of a question: How is power expressed in your culture, in your family, in your work, in your life? How do power dynamics impact your identity?
Step 4: How much FIRE is present in your chart? Notice if you have a lot or a little fire. When reading the energies and themes connected to the fire element, what comes up?
Reflect on:
Relationship to ego, sense of Self, ability to “send it” and trust the process. (Aries)
Relationship to the heart, courage, leading, having bold ideas? (Leo)
Relationship to adventure, play, inner wisdom and optimism? (Sagittarius)
Step 5: Post-season reflections! An intentional afterthought goes a long way. Depending on how the season unfolded, it might feel more supportive to reflect looking back, rather than looking forward. If that’s the case for you, here are three Leo season journal prompts to play with over a few days when the energy has settled.
🌹 When did I PLAY these last 30 days and feel connected to my inner child? (Leo theme: pleasure, magic, creativity, vibrancy)
⚡️In what ways did I engage in LEADERSHIP within myself and community? What did I learn about power dynamics, politics, presence, PEOPLE this past month? (Leo theme: power, passion, success, ambition)
💖 Where in my life have I CHANGED, healed or transformed? OR: Stepped into something new, shifted an outdated perspective, released limiting narratives, embraced the unknown, or leaned into love? (Leo theme: heart centered, courage, vulnerability, fearless)
It wouldn’t be an authentic Liz Merci Love and Yoga post if I didn’t tie this into the wild world of teaching and guiding movement and my personal thoughts on the performative side of the health and wellness world.
Let’s set the record straight and state that performance is not inherently a negative thing. In ways it can be healthy and impactful. I’m thinking role playing in bed to explore pleasure, or an improv class to step outside your comfort zone, or narrative therapy with a mental health professional. We all wear masks, we protect our hearts, we try on different styles, humans are fluid and are constantly changing, learning, exploring and growing. We all have fire in us!
Our energy, our attention, our available time changes constantly. Wherever you are, whatever you are working through — have deep compassion, genuine empathy, and a soft understanding for yourself and others.
The performance side of wellness gets sticky with this: when we know better, we must do better. For me, that’s it. Hard stop, let it sink in. When a friend or co-workers calls us in, gives us constructive feedback, shares how we caused them harm, what do we do? Do we listen, do we get defensive, do we show aggression or passivity, do we feel ashamed? Seriously, how do we respond or react to challenging, maybe uncomfortable discourse? When a leader in our community or industry brings to light the issues or the imbalances, and we notice where we have been complacent or where we contract in the body — what do we do next? How do we act? How we respond and digest new information and perspectives that challenge us determines our character and our ability to respond to new information or change.
True heart centered leaders take accountability and act accordingly, show compassion for others, and do their best to not let the ego cloud healthy judgement. Humility, kindness, and respect for self and others is essential. Are we alchemizing the information for our benefit or the benefit of all? Are we scared of the hard, uncomfortable work?
What’s at the center of performance or play or practice? Heart. Here we thread it back to yoga: What’s the intention?
Why do we practice what we practice?
Who do we practice for?
Who enjoys the benefits of our practice?
The practice is how you define it. It’s the work, the journey, the process that guides you daily.
In terms of yoga asana, are we practicing just to accomplish a pose?
Does our yoga practice benefit more than just us?
Do we step off the mat and lose touch with self-awareness and compassion for the world?
My mat practice has certainly been and still is performative to a degree.
I’m here to practice for an hour, to explore if my spine can hold wheel, to challenge my balance and strength, to lift heavier. When I accomplish these things, I’m pretty much the only who wins. So yeah, it’s fairly shallow.
But does it end there? Does the connection and respect for the body and the work pour into the people around us? Are we exploring different styles, new teachers, various philosophies? Are our hearts and minds open to learning other perspectives in a state of receptivity and union? Are we practicing detachment off the mat? Is the way we show up changing to meet the needs of the moment, just in the way we practice “listening to the body”? Performance becomes toxic, unhealthy, inappropriate when you know better, and you choose (again and again) to not do better.
When life, the divine, the universe hands us the opportunity to improve our performance, or to play into heart centered leadership, or compassionately stand up and care for our community, what do we do, what’s the next move, does ego and arrogance or the humble heart guide you?
I believe if we can lead with courage, with love, with passion and purpose — all our inner lions will be proud.
