magickalconnections

Authenticity is being yourself, we all know this much about this somewhat overused term.

But what does it really mean to be yourself? 

Does it mean to act out on anyone of your emotions and impulses because you have the right to be yourself?

Does it mean to always say what comes to your mind without consideration for how someone else might be impacted by your words, because this is how you interpret self-expression?

Does it mean to literally don´t give a damn, because what is going on inside you is so much more important than the person in front of you?

While we sometimes admire those who are able to express themselves without filters, is this a behavior driven by true authenticity or the ego?

What is the difference here?

Isn’t it desirable to always ´be yourself´ and never hold back on who you are, freely expressing yourself to the world without having to think about what people think or even whether you hurt them with your self-expression?

Leo’ s energy of focus on self expression is liberating if understood in its essence.

This past week´s New Moon in Leo seems to be a tricky energy in some way. On one hand it’s liberating as this energy invites us to be ourselves and reconnect with our passion and our inner child. To follow our heart, do what makes us happy and feel whole. Maybe you know a Leo and have always admired the way people born under this sign show up in the world. With unshakable confidence in themselves and their abilities, they seem to always find a way to shine and steal a piece of the spotlight. And rightfully so. Leo people have this irresistible charm that they pull from the depths of their souls. They are convinced that the world is their stage and all they have to do is act out their piece. And for the most part, they are absolutely brilliant at this and always find a way to charm themselves into the hearts of people.

If you are at odds with Leo´s energy, you might feel especially invisible and misunderstood these days.

The first step to reclaiming your authentic power and being seen as who you truly are is to connect with your true essence.

This means that you have to take responsibility and meet the shadow inside you that has created your perception of life and your role in it.

Just for a moment, act as if you were 100% responsible for how you feel.

Perhaps you will say ´I feel so invisible because of what that person said to me.´

If you used the phrase because when you described how you feel, pause and take responsibility.

•  Remember, it´s not your fault what happened to you, but it’s up to you what you do with it
• What are your own perceptions about yourself and the situation? What are your beliefs around being seen and in the spotlight? Can you remember the first time you were made feeling arrogant or unimportant when you expressed yourself?
• Ask yourself what do you need to feel safe being seen?

Perceptions create your sense of identity and your ego that communicates your conscious self with your external world. 

Perceptions often are distorted but nevertheless seen as the truth by your ego. It´s your unconscious that filters all incoming information and creates the image your conscious mind has about yourself, your story, who you are, and how the world sees you.

If you want to recreate that magickal connection with your essence – the one you were born with but seem to have lost along the way – the key is to understand how your subconscious works.

You need to understand why how you see the world is not the truth, but rather a mere reflection of the perception created by your own beliefs and lifelong experiences.

Once you understand how perceptions and therefore your identity is created, you can start peeling back the layers of your consciousness until you get to the core of your true essence.

This is when you can shine the light of your authentic self and be seen by the world as who you truly are. 

When you connect to that essence, you connect to your creativity, your uniqueness, your passion, and the purpose you serve in the light of the collective subconscious.

Your energy will align with what Leo is all about. 

• Shining your light with true confidence, not arrogance.
• Feeling whole and fulfilled because your emotions, thoughts, and actions are completely aligned with your essence.
• Being seen by the world, not because you force yourself unto others, but because you are the mirror that reflects your authenticity onto others, giving them permission to shine alongside you.

How an apple can help you understand yourself.

In my own quest of understanding perception, how it is created, and how we can use that knowledge to take full responsibility for ourselves to change our emotional state, connect to our own Magick, and achieve alignment and therefore fulfillment – I stumbled about David Key. He is a NLP and Hypnosis Coach, and I recommend checking out his teachings, if you are interested in understanding more about how our subconscious works and why we behave as we do.

The apple example is from one of his NLP courses, and I thought it is a brilliant example for a simple explanation of how our perceptions are created. So here it is:

Your brain doesn’t hate you. It´s main function is to protect you!

It does this mostly by deleting, distorting, and generalizing a lot of the 2 million or so bits of info that flood the brain at every second.

Since it´s impossible for your brain to process all of this info, it filters it through the unconscious mind – your memory, beliefs, values, and the sum of your past experiences.

If you, for example, see an apple amongst a bunch of fruit to choose from, your brain has several options:

• Simply delete the apple, and you won´t even notice it´s there. 
• Remember the maggot that had made her home in the the last apple you ate, so you now cannot help but almost see this apple ridden by maggots
• Remember the last apple you ate that tasted awful, so now you will assume that this apple will taste bad as well

You might be a health-conscious person who knows that eating apples is good for you, so you will feel a certain way about the apple. You might want to just eat it because you believe doing so is healthy for you. Or you might even feel things like guilt for not eating enough healthy food. These emotions will then make you behave in a certain way.

The same goes for any of your experiences. Because there is no way the brain can catalog all of the incoming information, it simply makes a general model by filtering your experiences and sensual perceptions on a subconscious level.

If something doesn´t make sense, it gets either distorted or generalized to fit into one of the models or already existing categories.

Your (generalized) past experience automatically puts you in a certain emotional state as a response to something you hear, see, taste, or experience. This might not be beneficial as your brain has generalized the experience which might not be correct in this particular, present situation. It is your perception.

This is how yu create the story about yourself and who you are. It’s a perception, not necessarily the truth.

While the bright side of this protective brain function of ours is that once we learn something, we don´t forget it, the other side of the coin is that we tend to assume that things are always as they were in the past.   

This can get us trapped in the prison of our own mind and perceptions which will inevitably lead to behaviors that might not be useful in the present situation.

Knowledge is power!

Now that you are aware of how your subconscious works, it is up to you to use that information to empower yourself, connect to your true essence and Magick, and change your emotional state of being one perception at a time.

If this post made you stop and think, you are already on your way to finding your purpose and fulfillment. 

Don´t hold back, shine your light by commenting your thoughts below.

Wishing you a happy and productive Leo season full of insight and revelations!

With all my love,

Wanda