Who in the hell d’you think you are? A super star? Well, right you are. – John Lennon

This weekend, I took a walk down the block to visit a new friend. She served me tea, peppered me with questions about myself and soon enough out my reindition of “How I Met My Husband” tumbled out, which quickly led to other topics like: manifestation, healing from past relationships, spirituality and more. A half hour into the conversation, she sat back and looked at me for a moment, genuflecting, “I don’t meet many people like you. Your self-trust and self-knowing seems to guide all your decisions and choices. I don’t have that sense of myself, and many other people I know don’t, either. We all want it – this makes you unique.”

Writing this, I cringe. It’s hard for me to accept praise. Plus, I’ve made plenty of decisions that weren’t in my own best interest, which is how I’m learning to make better choices. But learning to accept kudos and encouragement for the journey, to receive recognition and celebration, whether onstage or in an intimate conversation, seems essential to living fully and fearlessly.

We each have something unique to us, that makes us stand out from the crowd: A talent, a way of telling stories, a unique perspective on a subject… we each have Star power. If we feel estranged from our that power, we have may need to remember who we truly are. Leo has a strategy for self-remembrance and it involves recognition, praise, affection & fun. Imagine your self as a shy, timid child (not hard for me to imagine; I was one!) and how a few positive strokes from a teacher or parent would buoy your spirits, make you giddy with positive self-regard. How easy it is for a child, egged on by praise, affection and encouragement, to let loose, get stupid & just be their self. That’s Leo. Leo confidence is born of trust that the world is loving and good, and so are we. This sense of well-being allows us to risk showing up and sharing our true self. As adults, we’re never too old to be that kind of childlike. Confidence in our own nature is a clear, shining facet of the Leo/Aquarius axis – and the Star.

The Star card is one of my favorite cards in the Tarot, a card of talent and recognition, of the performer, artist and humanitarian. Often depicted as a beautiful woman pouring stars from the heavens down to humanity, according to Angeles Arrien, the Star is a card of self-sufficiency, of “looking within and trusting what is there.” This makes sense, because to shine we need to not only trust the world is a basically good and safe place to come out and play, but we must trust it’s okay to simply be our self. It sounds easy but it’s not always. Our Star power can be projected onto groups of friends who really aren’t our friends, depended upon from lovers, depleted by negative self-talk, held in abeyance by cultural and family conditioning. But this golden-ness is natural, in our nature, in the deepest sense of the word.

Aquarius Sun opposes this Leo Moon. Do your friends, generally, help you to feel special and loved? Deep down, do you know your friends are rooting for you and want you to shine? When our friends recognize our Divine essence, as both companion and cheerleader, it ignites our own Divine spark, and our ability to live out loud, to boldly create. Ponder this: I know that there are people in your life who are continually receiving the brilliance that you possess and they reflect it back to you all the time. There are people whose face would light up like a sunrise at the chance to spend a day just with you. If you’re experiencing a flagging sense of self-trust & confidence, trust those people to help you remember who you are. “On days like this,” Lioness Tori Amos sings, “You know who your friends are.”

Leo Full Moon is a time for reconciling where we feel like an estranged alien from another planet with our need to shine as a creative force, grounded in our true nature. It’s a chance to trust that we are inherently good. With encouragement, praise, a few loving strokes from others, or from within, we can experience the brilliance we are. So as you stand under the light of the Leo Full Moon this week, pull on the resilient, hardy nature of your true Star self. Looking up at that Leo Full Moon, un-self-conscious, luminous, practically boastful in its glow, it’s not a stretch to imagine your self as a shimmering being of light, too. It’s not that hard to trust that what you have inside is exactly what you need.

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on

image source: To Be A Child Again by SalemCat, DeviantArt.com