Full Moon
January 29, PST
January 30, EST 2010
10 Leo 15’

Once I saw a little boy sitting at a piano, vainly trying to bring harmony out of the keys. I saw that he was grieved and provoked by his inability to play real music. I asked him the cause of his vexation, and he answered, .I can feel the music in me, but I can’t make my hands go right.” The music in him was the URGE of original substance, containing all the possibilities of all life. All that there is of music was seeking expression through the child. – Wallace Wattles

I was at a training recently where the mentor told us that we needed to pray for work. That hit me somewhere, partly because the word work still conjures up unpleasantness for me. I might prefer to pray for success or profits or more business, but not for work. I would pray for work if I was unemployed, but it had not occurred for me to pray for work where I am self-employed. I do not pray for work where I am employed because it’s there by virtue of me having a job, and I don’t want to work too hard.

It helps me to be aware that I can redefine work for myself so that it is a thing that I desire and do not shun. I think this is a North Node in Capricorn matter.  (See New Moon Solar Eclipse Lunation, “Go Into the Place of Greatest Darkness.“)

Examine whatever you might have to do that you think is hard. Just thinking about it makes you tired. Feeling tired, you sit or stall. You watch television or play computer games or whatever else distracts you and might give you the false sense that you are doing something.

See if you might turn it into fun. When I heard “Pray for work,” I saw that work could be fun and perhaps “should” be fun. But who has fun anymore? Who of the grown folk (Capricorn) has time (Capricorn) for fun, (Leo)?

Our Full Moon is in Leo (See Journal Page, Play with Me!). Leo makes an adjustment aspect (inconjunct) to Capricorn. This demonstrates that something delicate and intricate has to be worked out between these signs. They are seemingly incongruous. Work is serious, hard, unpleasant, or something that you may feel forced to do for money. If you had your druthers, you would not show up on any given Monday.  Play or fun is light, carefree and is its own reward.

If your work is fun, satisfying and is an expression of your heart (Leo), it does not feel like work that you need to resist or avoid. One of my tasks in my job is to make birthday cards for staff. Often people will look at one of my cards and tell me that it takes patience that they would never have. Their tone of voice conveys that making a card would be difficult. I don’t feel as if I am calling on patience when I make a card.  I notice one of the meanings for patience given in my thesaurus is serenity. This is not what they mean by patience, but it is what I feel. I find that if I get sleepy at work while doing a task (hich might mean that I am bored) making a card will wake me up as surely as coffee does.

The Sun is in Aquarius conjunct Venus in Aquarius and opposite the Moon and Mars in Leo. Serenity is a good word for Aquarius, represented in Tarot by a woman, naked and alone on a plain at twilight. In Tarot she is assigned to the concept of meditation and many artists say that their work is like a meditation and puts them into a flow where the music comes, the ideas come, the images come. So although Aquarius and Leo are opposites, they go together in the artful human. I believe that all human beings are artists, though some declare that this is not so for them. They don’t have a creative bone in their body. But I’ll bet that people who say this feel some kind of music in them, some urge that wants to express itself through them, if not to bring pleasure to others, for self pleasure or healing.

It has been reported that in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, its people are singing. We know why they sing. They sing to keep their spirits up. They sing to soothe themselves and heal themselves and project their minds to better times that will surely come as long as they don’t let the overwhelming appearance of their situation tell them that it is the end of the world, that it will be blight from now on.

The earthquake survivors of Haiti have “lost everything.” Well, not everything. They have not lost the ability to sing, to dare, to hope and to care. They sing because they are happy that they have life and a chance. They sing because they are free to rebuild better, stronger, structures. They sing probably because some unseen strength in them rises to gird their loins and feed, clothe and shelter them and cause them to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves.

Haiti is the poster child for entering the place of greatest darkness in order to emerge shining.

Take some time during this full moon to feel the music in you. Play your music. Sing your song. Write your words, make your piece, do the work that your heart wants. Make art of your work. Work and play.