Follow the Sun
Leo, the Sun &
Creatively Expressing our Spiritual Practices
LeoSun by Jef Bartow
The most important principle to internalize about living our spiritual practices assisted by the energetic system of astrology is that each of the 12 phases of the spiritual cycle includes three key tools to help us in our spiritual growth. The first is the spiritual intent for each house and its natural sign around the spiritual mandala. The second is the sign connected to this house in our birth chart. The third is the ruling planet of the natural sign on this house (phase) and how it affects your astrological life.Moving from the fourth house to the fifth house in our spiritual cycle means taking our internalizing of our spiritual practice in the fourth phase to the creative expression of our spiritual practice in the fifth phase. This fifth phase relates to the fifth house in our astrology chart. Fifth house activities include our creativity, our romantic and leisure activities and the expression of our purpose and life goals. From our beginning in Aries, Mars and the first house we are now at a creative ease in the fifth house, Leo and its ruler the Sun. This phase represents unleashing our creative potential in our new spiritual practice.Our articles are available for reproduction for all members. Please give credit to the author.
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One example of creating a new spiritual practice in Aries could be reading spiritual books each week. Everyone focused on spiritual growth will say they have read a number of spiritual books. Making a spiritual practice is by defining a specific ritual (goal) that becomes our ongoing habit. For myself, I defined reading spiritually related books at least three hours per week as a spiritual practice for myself almost 2 decades ago. As I have already discussed, it took me as it would most of us quite a while to make it a consistent spiritual practice.Internalizing this spiritual practice through Cancer, the Moon and the fourth house as discussed in our last article did not happen for me until I reoriented my day to include a half-hour to 45 minutes each day at a coffee shop with my morning coffee and my reading. This spiritual ritual helped me to complete at least one book about every couple months.Images provided by NASA
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As described above, the next phase regarding our new spiritual practice is about making it a creative expression in our life. We do this most easily by utilizing the spiritual principle described in the first paragraph. First we look to see which sign is on our fifth house cusp. Let's say for example that Gemini is on the fifth house cusp (normally an Aquarius ascendant). For this person, being flexible, intellectual communicative, curious and involved in a variety of experiences (all Gemini characteristics) will naturally help becoming more creatively expressive in a new spiritual practice.This could easily translate into expanding the reading of spiritual materials into various fields of study including Eastern and Western mysticism, transpersonal psychology or even astrology. This broadening of perspective as a natural Gemini characteristic will make reading each day far more enjoyable and insightful for this individual.
With Gemini on the fifth house cusp, Leo will normally be on the seventh house cusp. For this individual, expressing dramatically, generously and kindly (all Leo characteristics) to others and key one-on-one relationships (all seventh house activities) about the insights obtained in this new spiritual reading practice will further enhance the fulfillment and potential for spiritual learning and awareness available through reading spiritual material.Let’s say this individual has the Sun in Aquarius in the first house. Since the Sun rules Leo and is naturally related to the fifth house, it will also enhance the creative expression of our spiritual practice of reading spiritual literature. How you say?
Sun in Aquarius in the first house indicates that his/her self-consciousness and need to "shine" will need to be original, inventive, individualistic and independent (all Aquarius characteristics) in her/his basic approach to life and in developing self-image and identity in life (all first house areas of life). By approaching the new spiritual practice of reading spiritual literature with this attitude and orientation will further enhance spiritual growth.
How might this work out? Although this is not my astrology chart, it has a similar orientation to mine. Just reading one book after another in an area of spiritual growth that I enjoyed or needed to focus on was not enough. Fairly soon I needed to be reading various books at the same time. At the same time, one book on transpersonal psychology, one on Western theology, one on astrology, one on science, etc. This led me to spend part of my days off and vacations in determining how all of these different perspectives were describing the same spiritual Path, our universe and us in it.
The further I creatively expressed my developing spiritual practice, the more I creatively developed new more comprehensive models of God, Man and life in our universe. When I realized that no one was writing a new metaphysics for the 21st century, I was led to commit to writing a treatise on what I have learned. The first volume of this treatise is over 600 pages and is entitled God, Man and the Dancing Universe.
To oversimplify things, this is represented in my chart by Pisces (transcending past limitations & being imaginative and compassionate) on the fifth house of creative expression; Leo on my 10th house cusp regarding taking things into the outer world and my Sun in the sixth house which means I will make it about my work and daily routine.
This very powerful phase in the spiritual cycle represented by the astrological mandala is about our first creative expression of our new spiritual practice that we have made a habit and internalized in earlier phases. It certainly isn't the end of fulfilling our spiritual goal, but a great ease of expression in the process.
