blog

full moon in leo ritual

Full Moon in Leo Art Ritual

The full moon in Leo is a perfect time to release whatever is holding you back from feeling confident, singing your own praises and letting your light shine. You deserve to feel good about who you are and believe in your magnificence but if you’re like me and still struggle with your worthiness from time to time, you may appreciate this ritual.  It is best enjoyed with a group so gather your soul sisters or invite your family to join you in this fabulous evening of feline pride.   Scroll down for the printable step-by-step instructions.

I created this ritual specifically for the full moon coming up on January 31, 2018 but it would be a fun ritual to perform during any full moon that sits in Leo. It’s also great for anytime you want to play with your inner wildcat and use her power and prowess to help you release what you no longer need or want in your life and whatever you’ve been holding onto that you know would be best to just let go already.

I’ve never formally studied astrology and my interest in it pretty much starts and stops with the moon but this moon had me paying close attention to those psychic skies. The full moon on January 31 is a pretty spectacular occurrence astrologically speaking. Some may even call it a super blue blood moon that will kick your ass and smile while doing it – at least that’s what I’m calling it. It’s a super moon because it’s a full moon that occurs closest to the earth so it can appear bigger and brighter in that night sky. It also coincides with a lunar eclipse which can give the moon a reddish glow hence the blood moon name and it’s the second full moon in January which makes it a blue moon.

Full moons amplify the energy or characteristics of whatever sign the moon is in on that day and a super moon is like that sign on steroids and an eclipse just throws a wonky glitch into the astrological mishmash. Yikes! Eclipses tend to bring the areas in your life that need attention to the surface which really just means – all the shit I thought I had overcome came back to bite my ass this week. Issues like poor body image, financial mismanagement and health problems resurfaced and paid me an annoying visit. Thankfully, I practice enough ritual, prayer and meditation that this moon isn’t taking too big of a bite out of me. Especially since, to help me and my Moon Sisters take advantage of the power behind this full moon and release and heal the old stories and wounds that were surfacing, I created this lioness inspired fire ritual.

Before sharing it with you, I want to remind you that when engaging in a full moon ritual, there are a few steps I perform before I sit down to do the writing, painting or creating part of my ritual. They include gathering my materials, clearing my mind and my physical space, inviting or calling in my spiritual helpers and setting boundaries or placing a circle of protection. I outline these steps in more detail in my “Beginner’s Guide to Preparing for Art Rituals” which I send, along with other helpful goodies, when you subscribe to my Moon Sisters Art and Ritual Magazine.  If you would like the guide delivered to your inbox, you can subscribe to the magazine on my home page.

After completing the steps outlined in the”Beginner’s Guide to Preparing for Art Rituals”, I had my Moon Sisters sit down with pen and paper and contemplate what exactly they wanted to release during our ritual. I find when digging deep to inquire into the heart’s authentic needs, it helps to light a candle, play some gentle music and prompt myself by mentally scanning the different areas of my life, such as; health and body, relationships, family, home, career, love, sex and spirituality. I let my mind think about each of those areas and consider what I need to release or let go. What is no longer serving me? Where am I holding a grudge? Are there emotional wounds standing in my way? Am I choosing thoughts that are not kind to me? Do I have patterns or stories I keep repeating that I could use help healing or freeing? Do I need to forgive someone or myself? Is there baggage I’m holding onto that prevents me from feeling the Love I know is there waiting for me? I posed these questions to my Moon Sisters and invited them to write a list of things they would like to release. I asked them to separate each item on their list with a little space so we could cut the paper in strips. This way each strip contained one thing they wanted to release and later, when we were sitting by the fire, we could take turns and share what was written on each strip one by one.

The next step was to create our crowns. The sign of Leo is represented by a lion so I thought a crown that looked like a lion would be fun but in the end, I felt a lioness was far more appropriate. I wanted to call in a fierce and strong energy to help us claim our inner beauty. I also wanted a ferocious symbol to help us banish what no longer serves us with power and passion.  I also like to tie my rituals to my own ancestral spirituality. My very distant ancestors hail from Belgium and France and I discovered that in Ariege, France there is a “Chapel of the Lioness” that dates back to possibly 14,000 years ago where a large engraving of a lioness on an altar with votive objects “carefully placed in crevices below it and around the walls” (britannica.com). This made me feel especially connected to the energy of the lioness I was feeling pulled to call into this ritual.

I also think the energy of the lioness is helpful for this ritual because female lions take care of the cubs and work together to hunt and provide food for the pride. There is usually one male lion per pride so the aunts, sisters, mothers and grandmothers all work together to nurture and sustain the community. The courage, power and sisterhood it would take to be a hunter and a mother in a pride inspires me. Although I used the symbolism of the lioness in this ritual, I also had in mind the wildcats native to Canada. I don’t have a lot of personal story around lions but I do relate to the cougar, bobcat and lynx.

The energy of all these wildcats is what I brought into creating our crowns. I drew a template of a wildcat everyone could paint, color and embellish to reflect their own fierce Spirits. You can download the template here if you like:

Wildcat Template

It looks like this.

 

The first step is to add decorative details to the wild cat’s face with black marker or pencil.

 

Then it’s time to paint or color the details. I chose warm colors to reflect the fact Leo is a fire sign.

After the paint dries, it’s time to embellish the creation. I used things like glitter, gems, beads and feathers.

The last step is constructing a band for the wild cat face to be showcased on. Obviously, the crown has to be a perfect fit for the head it sits on. For my head, I just placed the cardboard on my head to measure it perfectly and glued the cardboard band together at the ends. For my Moon Sisters, I created open bands with the cardboard that could be tied to fit each head perfectly without the need to measure. We glued our faces to our bands and reinforced the face in the back with popsicle sticks to keep the paper from bending or flopping over.

Here are the other crowns that were created during my Moon Sisters Art and Ceremony Circle.

 

When the crowns were completed, it was time to head to the fire.  At the fire, we donned our crowns, opened with a prayer, called in our angels and spiritual helpers and took turns sharing what we wanted to release and tossing our strips of paper into the fire. It was a powerful experience but also a fun and playful one. We cheered our fellow Moon Sisters on with purrs, meows, hisses, roars and catlike behavior. One Moon Sister in particular was particularly adept at emulating our feline sisters. She decided it must be because she herself is a Leo.

 

 

Here’s the step-by-step instructions of this ritual in a format you can print for your convenience. If you do perform this ritual publicly or share photos of the ritual, please respect the work of this artist and creator by providing a link back to this original post. Also, if you end up performing this ritual, I’d love to see what you completed. You can even post the finished piece on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #danasartrituals

Enjoy the full moon my friends.

with love,

Dana da Ponte

 

Full Moon in Leo Fire Ritual
Author: 
Moon Phase: Full Moon
Suggested Month: Any month the full moon is in Leo
Prep time: 
Performance time: 
Total time: 
 
An art ritual to help you release what holds you back from seeing your magnificence.
Supplies
  • template printed out on card stock paper
  • acrylic paints and/or markers and/or pencil crayons
  • brushes
  • magazine images cut out for collage
  • scissors
  • thin cardboard
  • glue
  • black marker
  • pencil
  • eraser
  • candle
  • pen
  • writing paper
Directions
  1. Print the wildcat template on card stock paper.
  2. Light a candle and call in your spiritual team. Inform them of your desire to release what no longer serves you.
  3. Cleanse your space and art supplies using your favorite method of spiritual or energetic cleanse such as Reiki, prayer, herbs, crystals, salt, etc.
  4. With pen and paper, list the things in your life you are ready to release, heal or let go. Mentally scan the different areas in your life, such as relationships, family, home, health and finances and write down whatever patterns, wounds or grievances you are ready to surrender.
  5. Leave space between each item on your list.
  6. Cut your writing paper into strips with each strip containing one item on your list.
  7. With your black marker, draw designs on the face of the wildcat template.
  8. Color your designs with paint and/or markers and/or pencil crayons.
  9. Embellish with glitter, gems, beads and/or feathers.
  10. Cut out the wildcat face.
  11. Construct a band out of thin cardboard that fits on your head.
  12. Glue the wildcat face to the band.
  13. Safely light a fire outdoors, put on your wildcat crown and gather around the fire.
  14. Share an opening prayer and quiet reflection time.
  15. Take turns sharing and releasing into the fire the things you wrote down when contemplating what you are now ready to energetically, emotionally and spiritually release.
  16. Close the ritual with a dance and a song and take turns sharing a random act of kindness you vow to do as an offering to the earth, moon and trees.
  17. End with a prayer of gratitude and a celebration of food and drink if appropriate.
Notes
Thank you for honoring my work and creativity. The photos of this craft and/or ritual and content above are copyright protected. Please do not use the photos without prior written permission or without a link back to this blog post. If you wish to share this art based ritual, please provide a link back to this post on my blog. And if you like this art based ritual but want to make changes to it, please do so in your own words and link this post for credit. Thank you!

 

Pinterest pins:

 

 

hi i'm dana...

dana-da-ponte-sidebar

This is a space where art and spirit come together. On the blog, I share art rituals for working with the magic of the moon. I also work with the subconscious mind to lighten your emotional load and follow your creative dreams.

img-heart@2x

Work with Me

Subscribe to receive hand-drawn journal pages to enjoy every full and new moon:

Previous posts