MoonCircles.com

Leo Full Moon:
The Cat and the Computer
by April Elliott Kent

As an astrologer and website designer, I spend the majority of my days in the technology-rich realm of Aquarius, gazing at a computer screen. The Internet gives me access to a vast landscape of information. Email helps me maintain friendships with far-away kindred spirits. My astrology work takes full advantage of Aquarian technological wizardry, as I tape readings, record them on CD, and mail them to people I’ve never met. And as a website designer, I spend hours building online homes for individuals and businesses.

My Aquarian world extends my reach beyond the boundaries of my bricks-and-mortar life, enabling me to transcend the limits of geography and an introverted personality. Without the internet, one source of my livelihood wouldn’t exist at all, and my other work would be drawn from a much smaller pool of clients. But the downside to this Aquarian utopia is that my participation in the world of flesh and blood suffers when I spend too much time at the computer. Phone calls from friends languish unreturned and laundry piles up in the corner. It can be difficult to push myself away from my comfortable virtual refuge to attend to real-life relationships and responsibilities, which tend to be more demanding than the electronic variety.

Luckily, I live with my husband and our two cats, and they are three-dimensional, lovable creatures who yank me out of my Aquarian parallel life on a regular basis, whether or not I like it. Our younger cat Spike, in particular, considers me his personal property. Spike has the muscle mass of a full-grown cat but the energy level of a kitten. Since he lives indoors full-time, this equation adds up to a huge requirement for playful exercise. Guess who is his playmate of choice?

Spike has learned that my computer is The Enemy, his foremost rival for my attention. The minute I sit down to work, Spike is on the scene, dangling from an overhead shelf, climbing my computer station and striding across the keyboard. It’s maddening to sit down with a set of goals and objectives, build up to the necessary level of intensity, turn away for a moment – and turn back to find that the last twenty minutes of work have been mysteriously, if deftly deleted.

This morning, my goal was to finish writing this article about the Leo Full Moon. How does Leo balance and complement the global, futuristic brilliance of Aquarius? I hadn’t a clue; but I sat dutifully at my computer, hoping that something, anything would occur to me. The problem is that Aquarius rules my third house of communication, and my fount of inspiration is about as predictable as a lightning strike. My so-called "writing process" consists entirely of working myself up into a frenzy of tension and writhing with resistance like a fish on a hook, until I finally force myself to sit down and spill the words out like Scrabble tiles from a cup.

Spike is keenly attuned to this process, and as soon as I started tapping my fingers and shifting restlessly in my chair, he launched into action. First, a spikey claw materialized from the edge of my desk and swiped my pencil. Then he leaped onto my printer, and soon he was literally swinging from the curtain. My "No!"s grew sharper and my temper shorter, and I was ready to bellow. But just as I was surgically extracting him from the Venetian blinds, Spike gave me a look of such droll feline sobriety that my anger melted into laughter. I surrendered, abandoning my work and following him into the next room for a nice, long game of catch. And of course, when I finally returned to my computer, I had found the inspiration for my article.

The Full Moon in Leo reminds us that all creatures want to feel special and loved, and nothing makes us feel that way more than the personal attention of those we love. Right now, with impatient Mars retrograding through Leo - tightly aspecting the Sun and Moon in the chart for the upcoming Full Moon - and Saturn and Pluto facing off in a chilling clash of the titans, there are plenty of frustrations and fears to distract us from life’s intrinsic joyfulness. The Sun in Aquarius naturally tilts our focus skyward for solutions, gazing into the future and into our computer screens, scanning an invisible horizon for lightning bolts of inspiration.

When we are gazing at the stars, or into the limitless horizon of the Internet, it’s easy to overlook what’s all around us at ground level. Fortunately, this Full Moon in Leo offers the glow of affection when we need it most, and the appearance of delightful distractions, like a mischievous cat that coaxes you away from the computer. You need only shift your gaze a little farther down to earth, into your immediate environment, to find the playful inspiration that can open your heart and inspire a thousand Aquarian dreams.

Specifically, look to the house of your birth chart ruled by Leo, and any planets in Leo, for a description of your natural playground, the environments and situations that encourage you to play, love, and bask in the catnip of affection. Cultivate your kittenish energy this Full Moon season, and you will find all the creative fuel you need as you rev your engine, fire up your computer, and speed away into your Aquarian future.