by Dominique Jones
One of the most reliable methods to align ourselves with a high spiritual vibration is through the energy of appreciation. Nature’s treasures sustain us and surround us daily, providing a spark of awakening energy, and if we meditate on their beauty, we find our hearts and spirits expanding in expressive and fulfilling ways.
One of the ways to grow during our journeys is to recognize the relationship between astrology and nourishment. You will find a correlation between a sign and a food in this article and methods you can use to attune your energy.
Leo is fixed fire, and the planet ruled by Leo is the sun. Solar archetypes include the Egyptian Sun god Ra (who gave us our present astrological symbols for Leo), the Greek god Helios Apollo, and western astrology’s lion—which according to Kathleen Burt, comes from the ancient story Gilgamesh, when the lion’s appearance brought the needed floods during the agricultural era. Ancient people felt the sun to be a steady force; something to count on—fixed fire in the sky. It is the center of what we know to be life on earth. Only recently are we widening our perspective to imagine life beyond our central star. While we can’t physically stare directly at the sun, we are free to stare right into the heart of Leo energy—it will hold us steady and gaze into our souls with grace and love. Get ready to FOCUS.
Leo energy at its fixed fire zenith understands and makes space for nurturing the creative fire within everyone in their sphere. Like the sun, they can draw people around them into a stable orbit that allows for those people to express the best of themselves. However, that requires the Leo to have embarked on quite an internal journey to discover the spark within that allows for the steadiness to inspire others and be that kind of leader. Often, the leadership the Leo offers is not positional leadership. It is TRUE leadership—the authentic kind that has nothing to do with desiring power or influence but the kind that shows the path forward without the need for glory. It’s leading by example. When you see Leo leadership, you say to yourself, “that’s the kind of person I want to be…”
A Leo can’t help but love being loved, too. You can never love a Leo enough. They have an endless capacity for love, because I believe that’s the element from which they are made. Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and LOVE! Once you figure out how a Leo appreciates their appreciation, give them an endless amount and feel good about giving it to them. They need to be recognized for their efforts, because they work very hard to love you and the rest of the world. They deserve as much back as we can give them.
Of course, it’s possible for a person with strong Leo influence to have a blind spot or an ego as large as the Pacific ocean, but that would be a Leo that fell into a lower vibration arena. Hopefully, they will grow out of it and emerge into the giving side of their nature soon. In general, I have found Leo folks to have the best of intentions when their motivations were probed, although they may not yet be skilled in expressing them.
Sometimes, the Leo energy manifests as creativity and storytelling. In that case, it’s important for a Leo to delve into the space behind all the stories, and to resist identifying too strongly with any one of the stories they are so expert at weaving. They’re strongest when they rest in the space and the place that all our stories emerge from, closer to our true beings than any of the tales we tell. Staying close to the creative source is important so we don’t get swirled up into a tornado of drama.
The Leo energy is one of the most vital and the happiest energies of the entire zodiac, and I invite everyone to meditate on it. Find out where you have Leo in your chart and utilize that area to sustain your own happiness and vitality. For example, in my chart, I have Leo in the house of creativity, and I use creative projects to pick myself up any time I feel a little blue or life gets me down. (If you need an astrology chart or consultation to find out where Leo is in your chart, a Kajama astrologer can help you.)
If you are interested in bringing forth more Leo energy in your life, you can use two methods. The first method is through nourishment and the second method is through a guided meditation. If you combine the two, you have even more manifestation energy.
You can manifest Leo energy if you want to increase your ability in any or all of the following areas of your life:
- Heart, back, spine
- Optimism, persistence, enthusiasm
- Vitality
- Creativity, drama (storytelling)
- Leadership (ambition that is never ruthless)
- Masculinity
- Happiness & happy environments, celebrations
- Sports
- Organizing events & people
- Body heating / cooling system
- Faith
Method 1: Nourishment
Leo rules the chile pepper. Many varieties of chile pepper plants grow with their red, yellow, orange, or brown fruit pods shaped to look like little sunbursts, and Leo’s planetary ruler is the sun. The capsaicin in the plant causes the strong, spicy flavor and there even exists a measure of the heat in chiles—the Scoville heat unit—to measure where on the Scoville scale a chile pepper falls. It reminds you of the measures of the luminosity and magnitude of a star.
A sweet bell pepper scores 0 on the Scoville scale while a cayenne pepper (which is very good for the heart) scores 30,000 – 50,000 units. Our New Mexico red chiles score 500 – 750 so we can generally eat them fresh whenever we like, unlike many of the chiles that score very high on the Scoville scale.
Wilbur Scoville was a chemist who developed the Scoville heat unit in the early 20th century. It measures the amount of capsaicin present in a particular pepper. Capsaicin stimulates chemical receptors nerve endings in the skin, and the Scoville scale measures the number of times a pepper extract had to be diluted before the capsaicin no longer could be detected. A hundred years later, we are using high performance liquid chromatography and something called ASTA pungency units in an effort to update the science, but the Scoville scale remains much more widely used and the updated science doesn’t appear to be much more exact.
We do know, however, that capsaicin has some very nice effects in pain relief, and in our family we eat a meal of hot chiles when our feet and/or joints ache. In fact, we don’t need an excuse to enjoy the effects of capsaicin almost daily. We include chiles in almost everything.
Chile peppers originated in South America and quickly became popular throughout the rest of the world after the 16th and 17th centuries when Spanish and Portuguese explorers took plants back to other countries. Chiles are now widely grown commercially and in gardens throughout the world.
When eaten fresh (or raw—straight from the vine), chiles contain more Vitamin C than citrus. In case you don’t know what Vitamin C does for the body, it is the antioxidant that allows collagen to be synthesized. Collagen is a protein that provides for the strength of our blood vessels, our skin, our bones and our organs. Humans are one of a few species that cannot produce our own Vitamin C, and we must ingest it via our diets.
After growing chile plants in the garden, we’ve developed a taste for fresh chiles, alongside frozen and canned chiles. Dicing them and including them in our morning eggs, or including them in our bean dishes, and adding them into our wraps and sandwiches—we make plentiful use of these friends.
Method 2: Guided Meditation
This guided meditation is full of images and thoughts that are very grounding. You can use the following guided meditation in a few ways. The first is to read it silently, slowly to yourself, letting the images wash over your imagination. The second is to visit http://intuitivemoon.com/?post_type=product and listen to the audio recordings. Take a few minutes during your day for yourself, close your eyes, and be led in a meditation that is nourishing and deeply refreshing.
Leo Chile Guided Meditation: The Eternal Fire
There is a fire that doesn’t go out once it is lit. It stays burning deep in your heart with dedication and soul. It is the eternal fire.
When it reaches your heart, you know you are home. It often approaches you as if you are a dry wick and it is a candle flame that has already been lit. All it needs to do is align itself close to you. You find yourself aflame so gently and naturally that you might not notice your core purpose being ignited. You may pass by the moment entirely. Yet, your entire world finds itself enlightened and awakened.
Over time, the small flicker of eternity becomes the portal into the center of a star that leads to a pathway into all light and energy. It is the same light and energy that enlivens the chile plant. That calls it forth from the dry soil it loves and asks it to sing the essence of the eternal flame with its fireworks display of fruits.
When you sync with the chile plant, you realize you want to propagate into the high desert places on this earth. You desire the high and dry places that others may not be able to survive. You know you can thrive in them.
In the language of flowers, you say, give me heat—the full heat of the higher atmosphere. You rise toward the sky in mighty declaration.
The sky receives you as you grow. Side-by-side with your brother plants, you are able to support one another in the winds and rains of monsoon season. Your delicate white flowers emerge as you mature. You prepare yourself to dance with the flying and buzzing creatures who will visit the garden to pollinate your fruits.
A symphony of activity occurs as your flowers open. One by one, each receives the help it needs from a passing bee or insect or moth or butterfly. How strong you feel to be able to gain all you need for pollination. You realize you are also receiving nourishment from the soil, the sun, the air, and the rain to aid in your stability and fortitude. Your spirit is powerful and you feel joyful.
You glow with a happiness that suffuses your entire being as your flowers close and transform into peppers. Every component helps you shine each day as the sun radiates in the sky. You feel as if you are a reflection of the steady sun, thriving and growing each day.
The high heat of the long, late summer days infuses its very spirit into your peppers as they mature. Slowly, they even turn red to let life know they are ready to go. Ready to be enjoyed. You have made seeds in those red chile peppers. You’ve made another example of the eternal flame ready to be passed along to the next hand and the next heart to continue to light the world.
Dominique Jones is an internationally known astrologer, psychic, and writer. She is the author of the upcoming book “Nourishing Astrology,” a compendium of correlations between astrological elements and foods, along with recipes for manifesting astrological energies. She is also a professional metaphysical consultant at Kajama. Visit her at www.intuitivemoon.com to schedule a reading or sign up for her FREE monthly newsletter, featuring a comprehensive monthly astrological overview, healthy recipes and more!