Harvest - August 1st
This first harvest festival in late summer begins the shift from lightheartedness and play to taking stock of your experiences. In a masculine sense, it is a time for assessing productivity. In the feminine view, it is the first of a series of “pauses” to integrate experiences, an opportunity to make course corrections if you lost your way during the year. Either way, it’s taking stock of the year so far and determining where to go from here. Stay the course or adjust.
Archetypes
Astrological Sign: Leo
Leo is the king, a powerful male lion in all his glory.
In balance, Leo is a sign of leadership, strength, and protection. Imbalanced, the energy becomes self-indulgent, self-centered, and dramatic. It’s the difference between a person walking into a room and commanding attention simply by their presence and a person walking into a room demanding attention through antics.
Self-assurance vs self-doubt.
Chakra: solar plexus
The heart chakra is the source of the higher emotions such as unconditional love, courage, and strength…the heart of a lion. You’ve had your mettle tested throughout the year – has your heart remained open in the face of your experiences or have you closed in upon yourself, afraid to face some of what has come your way?
Tarot: The Chariot
This card traditionally shows a maiden stroking the head of a lion. Echoing the role of the heart chakra, the card evokes courage and compassion as well as influence. The raw power of the lion tempered by the soft touch of the maiden.
How have your experiences this year affected you thus far? Have you channeled them into a positive outcome, trusting in the benevolence of the universe, or did you lose your cool, become reactive, and watch the tenuous control of the maiden over the lion slip away? Again, the theme of self-assurance vs self-doubt. What does your inner voice keep repeating to you?
Everything that comes to me is exactly what I need to experience and is guiding me towards my best life.
OR
Things keep happening to me that make my life more difficult and keep holding me back from living my best life.
Exercises
Body: Restorative Yoga
The heat outside has really ramped up, and more than likely, regardless of your constitution, you have excessive heat in the body as well. As previously mentioned, this heat can lead to irritability and anger, but will eventually cause burnout.
It is important to keep moving the body, but high intensity workouts may be too much right now. A restorative yoga practice can be of benefit when you need to allow the body to rest and recoup its energy reserves:
Emotions: Medicinal rose
This time of year highlights the heart chakra and its more complex emotional terrain. The more basic emotions get a level up here, taking on deeper meanings and, on the “negative” end of the spectrum, deeper traumas. Here, love becomes unconditional, happiness turns into effervescent joy, sadness condenses into grief, and anger transforms into revenge or jealousy.
When you open the heart energetically and allow a release of these pent-up emotions, you will be flooded with their associated experiences. This can be overwhelming, and so it is important to go slowly when clearing blocked energy.
One way to nourish the heart chakra is with roses. Soft pink roses reflect the color of unconditional love (as well as rose quartz, a crystal often used with the heart chakra and associated with unconditional love) and can be used both externally in rose water, essential oil, baths, etc., or internally in cooling teas. That’s right, rose petals help cool the body, the perfect medicine for late summer heat.
Mind: Letting go of perfect
It’s likely that during this time of year your mind is running a million miles a minute. Or maybe it’s already been running too high for too long and has reached burnout and fatigue.
A mind that tends towards perfectionism is likely caught deep in a hole of self-criticism, beating itself up over everything. Just like the body, you need to let the mind cool down. It’s time for the classic electronics cure-all – unplug it and let it rest.
If you haven’t reached burnout yet, this will probably be very difficult, and you will have to move slowly towards quieting the mind. Perhaps a guided meditation to cultivate acceptance, letting go, and/or confidence. If that is still too slow a pace, puzzles, games, or even coloring can give your mind a chance to rest. Just check yourself if you see the perfectionism creeping in to your “meditation” activities. It’s still easy to overthink or self-critique while playing.
If you find yourself unable to let go here, find another activity that is more repetitive, like cross-stitch, macramé. Even repetitive chores like washing dishes or folding clothes can become an opportunity for mental rest. Create space for your mind to take it easy every chance you get.
Spirit: Finding Your Path
Take stock of your current life. How fulfilled are you? Are you living your purpose or just getting by? If you are easily frustrated or angered right now, what is the source of the emotion? Does it stem from a deeper frustration from not following your path and expressing that unique gift that only you have to share with the world? This is a tall order, but it is, quite literally, the most important thing you can do. You didn’t come here to work and pay bills and die.
You don’t have to have an epic purpose where you single-handedly save the earth. But you do have one. And, no matter how small, it’s important! Examine your feelings and your current path. Is it time for a course correction?
If so, take a step towards your new goal. Whether that’s signing up for a class to get you closer to your desired career, volunteering with an organization whose mission of service aligns with your own, improving your health through diet changes – whatever your new path, take action to move towards it.