Sovereignty & Shame

Full Moon in Leo x Sun in Aquarius

🌟 This week’s golden opportunity is an invitation to disengage from social shaming with the Sun in ever-ethical Aquarius and reclaim your dignity with the Moon in Leo🌟

Shame is the new Starbucks.

If you pick up the newspaper (don’t pick up the newspaper!), it’s like an advertisement for humiliation. It seems it is no longer enough just to serve up a steaming cup of dismissal for those who no longer align with the power structure, all customers must now be given a saccharine scarlet swirl of social shame. And guess what, you can tag that cute caffeinated selfie on Instagram so everyone can see! Actually don’t worry about it, we’ll do it for you.

Because I know someone who experienced this energy very directly last week¹, I am now staying true to my vow that I will write about current events when they reach me personally. So the constellation of Aquarius and I are here to say that it’s not cool to dehumanize. Yes, we are allowed to have different opinions on what is right (please have different opinions!), but it crosses the line when we seek to intentionally inflict misery on a fellow homo sapiens because of what they believe or who they are. People have real hearts and real lives, and leaving them to suffer in ignominy adds little love to the spirit we share

Above all else, Aquarius is a place where we understand what it means to be human², where we appreciate how what we do as individuals will inevitably shape the collective landscape we need in order to survive and thrive. It is fundamentally democratic, and this egalitarian ethos guides us to be utterly unique, authentic and original in a way that inspires and supports others to do the same. Indeed, in its highest expression, the water bearer can empower us to sip the perfect morning blend of personal freedom and communal love.

But because we also experience fear in this world, we don’t always align ourselves with the virtues of Aquarius. And when we feel that we are somehow flawed or undeserving of unconditional love, we begin to act through an egotistical prism of control. As we fall further out of love with ourselves, we can fall further into patterns of enforced exclusion, isolation and marginalization. This shift from warm, progressive and open to cold, dogmatic and stern can lead us to make cruel decisions that penalize those who step out of line from our way (the right way) of doing things.

Here in the middle ground - where we can move between these extremes - Aquarius offers a pathway to peace. It’s a well worn way, and the former human rights lawyer in me wonders if this yellow brick road looks an awful lot like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR was born in 1948 from the fertile soil of a war-torn world, and it is now the basis for contemporary human rights law. As I (re)read it now, I feel the enduring resonance of its principles in very first paragraph of the Preamble:

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…

There are so many beautiful Aquarian themes here, words like “equal” and “human family” and “freedom” that speak to the soul of every person who is prepared to listen. But what strikes me most is how “inherent dignity” comes before any mention of rights, how decency and self-respect are our most precious values. This takes me back to the humiliation I see in the headlines, the efforts to deprive people of what they hold most dearly: their dignity.

This week’s Full Moon in Leo offers tremendous insight about how we can embrace more dignity in our own lives. The Sun in Aquarius can serve to shine a light on the subtle ways we might act to demean, and the Moon in Leo can encourage us to exert emotional sovereignty over any incoming shame.

The Aquarius Sun wants us to be honest about where we are treating people (including ourselves) as less than human. In a shared society, it makes sense to have prevailing codes of conduct that facilitate our peaceful coexistence. But let’s be clear that these are about our behavior and NOT about our value as a human being. This is a thing parents deal with all of the time; there is a vast gulf between telling your kid it’s not okay to hit her sister and yelling in her face that she is a monster who doesn’t deserve to be part of the family.

So the Aquarius Sun wants to know: Where in your life can you shift your critical comments from someone’s character to their actions? Because if we don’t give people room to change how they see themselves, they very likely won’t change what they do. The same goes for you: Where are you judging your implicit value based on something you did? Because if you don’t give yourself room to grow beyond that, you very likely won’t become who you are meant to be.

And if you are on the receiving end of someone else’s shade, the Leo Moon wants you to know that you don’t need to accept it as your own. You don’t need to hang your head, because you get to decide how you feel about yourself. You know the truth of who you are, and no matter what anyone does to you - as the great Whitney Houston tells us - they can’t take away your dignity.

The Sun will be in Aquarius for five more days, which gives us ample time to reconnect with the dignity that we all deserve to feel. I’ll be back in touch next Wednesday as the Third Quarter Moon helps us to let go of all the crosses that are no longer ours to bear, and I have two perfectly timed offerings for you if you’re ready to work more closely with the brightest lights in our sky.

If you’re reading this outside of London, Manifest with the Moon is a month-long online workshop starting at the next New Moon on Friday, February 28 at 1:00 pm London time. I run these workshops live and online so that you can very directly experience how much better your life flows when you work with the Moon, and this one will be super powered thanks to eclipse season. It’s a chance to work more closely with me and the Universe we all call home, and this time around I’ll be joined by well-being expert and fellow Moon-worshipper Judy.

If you’re reading this in my neighborhood, I’ll be running workshops with my friends Mary and Fred for the upcoming Solar/Lunar Eclipses and the Spring Equinox. I would LOVE to meet you in person! 🌞 🧘‍♂️ 🌝

• For the Eclipses, you’ll learn to welcome big change with movement and meditation to recenter, ground and come home to yourself. These ritual classes will include Elemental yin yoga, breath work, moon ritual journaling, special eclipse movement practices, guided meditation, energy clearing, tarot and - of course - astrological wisdom from yours truly. Book here for sessions on Friday, March 14 and Friday, March 28 @ 7 pm in Hampstead

• For the Equinox, you’ll (re)connect with your natural confidence, strength and resilience as we move head-first into spring. You'll calm your nervous system and embrace your courage with sacred movement practices, restorative yoga, and guided meditation attuned to seasonal and (as always) astrological insight. Book here for the workshop on Saturday, March 22 @ 12:30 pm in Primrose Hill

Love,

Patrick

PS: If you enjoyed reading this, it would help me so much if you could like it, write a comment, repost it or share with a friend. My words for this year are Enriching Community, and it warms my heart to know you’re here with me. ❤️

1. They have very kindly given me their blessing to write this, and I invite all of you to send them a blessing as well.

2. Aquarius is one of two signs with a human symbol, the other being Virgo. For this and many other reasons, it is popularly considered as the most humanitarian sign.