This week, my energy teacher gave me an exercise that seemed custom- tailored Leo. We were having a conversation about thinking we want and need our partners to show up in a certain way, and the disappointment and resentment when they don’t. Instead of getting caught up in what they’re not doing, she said, the work of the new dimension is to focus on what we need, just as men naturally focus on what they need. Then, we discover, we won’t think we need it so much. Because we actually don’t. It’s nice when they show up, but its not a requirement for our happiness.

Then she said, “When you’re in your Divine power, you don’t need to be held, you got this, and you’re a fucking rock star. Because you are a fucking rock star.” (She’s a truth-telling Scorpio. I love this about her.) My Spirit began to soar at her words, but energetically my Ego immediately pushed back. Oooh, I don’t know about that, my energy replied. I had a really hard time taking it in on a deeper level.

“Listen, when you are really in your Divine power, it is true and doesn’t feel proud or bragging in any way. That’s the final level (of mastery), when you can say I’m a fucking Goddess, I am a rock star. Not with arrogance but with sincerity. And so is everyone else.”

This reminded me of a Lady Gaga interview. Gaga spoke about her journey to stardom and said she couldn’t have gotten here without recognizing she was a born superstar, and that everyone else is, too.

Oh, but how uncomfortable that is. It’s a habit, this staying small. We think it’s “self-absorbed” to give positive attention to our self because we confuse the Ego’s ideas of greatness (earning admiration and love from others) with the spiritual goodness of our own talent, skills, inherent worthiness. Blaming others for the happiness they’re not able to give us is another way we stay small.

So… the assignment.

Practice owning your Goddess/God/Divine power by saying it and feeling it. Then, when you get comfortable with that, “What’s the highest compliment that you fear the most?” Feel into the question, and feel into your energy when you receive that compliment. Imagine someone told you: “You are fucking amazing because you are so ____.” For me, “I love my sensitivities. They make me amazing,” caused me to hit my fear edge. Marinate in self-praise. Play with it over a few days. Play.

When we think of playing with stepping into our light on a much grander scale, we think of Leo. With the North Node now in Leo, we are individually and collectively tasked with leading from our heart, our true self, our talent and our light. To achieve excellence in any area of our life we need to first acknowledge it in our self, not in an oh I’m so serious way but more like, wait a second, who am I to not be amazing?

This is a Leo eclipse. It’s special, and you know it. Everyone is making a really big deal about this eclipse- that’s how we know it’s a Leo eclipse! But underneath the politics, media hype and eclipse viewing caravans, the three ring circus, what is happening? We are each unfolding our Divine Power. In small ways, like: remembering our partner doesn’t have to hold space for us; we hold space for us. In small ways, like: refraining from blasting someone with a piece of our mind, instead asking “What would love do? What would goodness do?” while still feeling our feelings. In small ways, like: making choices with our spiritual values (what feels good and honoring to me), not material ones (what pays me well, looks best on me, earns praise). In (seemingly) small ways, because paradoxically, to the Divine Feminine, these small unfoldings are a big deal. This is how we become the change we seek.

I know you’ve heard this one before, Mercury retrograde, and there’s no better time to listen again to Marianne Williamson’s profound words:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Happy Leo Solar Eclipse. You are a fucking rock star.

P.S. -Want to know how August’s eclipses will impact you? Read more right here.