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TWELVE PHASES OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE: LEO
Throughout the stage of human experience represented by Cancer two basic needs are impressed upon the evolving personality. One of them is the need for a clear cut focusing — and thus limiting — of the energies of the Day-force whose strength had become overwhelming; the other is the need to assume responsibility toward one's fellow men and to participate consciously in the life of a social whole.
While the Day-force can be defined as a "personalizing energy," forcing into concrete and particular actuality abstract patterns, ideas or spiritual entities, the Night-force is an "in-gathering energy" bringing personalities together in the process of building social groups. The foundation of that social process is — at least in our present phase of human development — the home and family. Cancer is the symbol of that foundation, the well-spring of the Night-force which will wax in strength and influence until the winter solstice is reached with Capricorn (the symbol of completely organized social living: the all-powerful State).
The zodiacal Sign Leo represents the second phase of that social process. In Leo, the power that compelled the individual man and woman to limit, stabilize and deepen each other within the social root-pattern of a home, is now urging them to create a progeny. Thus, they are made to assume a new social responsibility. A new field of integration is opened up: the integration of parents to children, of older to younger generations. Out of this, truly social issues will arise; problems of relationship which cannot easily be broken because they involve the responsibility of the "present" (which is constantly becoming the "past") to the "future." Thus time begins to lay its weight upon the individual's consciousness.
Time is a very powerful factor in all creative activity and all social relationships. We might say that time means very little in normal adolescence; that it is lost in the glamour of love during the honeymoon. But when the child (and all creative activities) brings to the parents a new burden of responsibility, then time begins to be an actual, often poignant reality. The woman knows it for the first time with the depth of her being through her nine-month pregnancy. The man experiences it through the discipline of a "schedule of work" in the life of social activity and responsibility which then begins to confront him. He experiences it as a father at home, and as an executive or manager in the sphere of his work, even if he "manages" only his own tasks.
When we wrote "for the first time" and "begins to experience" we were obviously referring to conditions of living such as prevailed in archaic societies based on the normal rhythm of biological growth; societies such as, for instance, prevailed in the India of old. Modern societies, on the other hand, are transitional affairs, chaotic, non-organized; and thus the normal biological-psychological rhythm of human development, which the Zodiac accurately symbolizes, no longer operates with clarity or precision. Yet the Zodiac remains a potent symbol of a natural process which some day will again serve as a basis for the organization of society and even of personality. It will be a kind of organization encompassing much more than the old civilizations did include, an organization at several levels of human activity; but it will be organization just the same, and along natural lines made visible by the symbolic pageant of Sun, Moon and stars.
Leo is the realm of emotions, in contradistinction to Cancer which is that of "feelings." These two terms, feelings and emotions, should be clearly distinguished from one another. "Feeling" is an internal and organic sense, by means of which the personality as a whole (or at the strictly biological level, the body as a whole) passes judgment on what is constructive and destructive, good and bad for the entire human being. To "feel" is to react as an organic whole to a situation and a person — and reacting thus means simply reacting for or against the situation or entity confronting the person who feels.
As a result of, or synchronously with, such a "feeling" a number of things happen. Muscles contract. The blood pressure is raised or lowered, the pulse accelerated or delayed, however imperceptibly it may be. The endocrine glands also react to that "feeling," secreting more or less of their products in the blood. Organic chemistry is thus ever so slightly altered. All these organic changes constitute, psychologically speaking, the "affect" or emotion; and the emotion either transforms itself into an action (kissing or running away, for instance), or else is stopped from manifesting outwardly into a visible muscular action. Emotions, therefore, follow feelings: but the two must be clearly differentiated. The feelings belong to the realm of the Sign Cancer; emotions, to that of Leo.
There are also what may be called "internal feelings." A man feels well or feels sick. Such feelings are the direct manifestations of the way in which the organism as a whole operates. The moment one of the functions of the organism is impaired or inhibited, the human being feels that there is something wrong. In a localized and acute sense the feeling of organic disturbance is "pain." Through external and internal feeling, and above all through pain, man gains progressively a sense of being a separate unit, somehow different from other similar organisms. Man learns to say "I." He learns to say it at first through pain and frustration; that is, by not having what his organism needs or desires. He learns to operate as a "personal ego," different from other personal egos because he "feels" in a different way. Individualization begins through pain and the exercise of feelings. It grows through man's attempts at self-expression (the realm of Leo). It becomes set through the exercise of the power of intellectual analysis and discrimination (the realm of Virgo).
In Cancer the human being becomes: at the biological level, an organism with a definite life-span and rhythm of growth; at the psychological level, a person — an organism of feelings centered around an ego — at the social level, the owner of a home which defines his social status. At each level what is built in Cancer is the basic capacity to meet as an integrated whole (an organism) the impact of other entities, and to establish a foundation from which one may be able to operate creatively and socially. In Leo, man goes forth from this foundation and, with a still somewhat insecure determination to be a "social" person, he "moves-out" into the world brandishing his "yes" and his "no" as a flashing sword. In Cancer, the human person is like a square or cube — a foundation. In Leo, he is an ego straining his — to him — glorious "I am" as a standard which will lead to victory.
Leo has been often interpreted as the most individualistic sign of the Zodiac; but it is so only if one defines the term "individualistic" in relation to social relationships and everyday life in groups. In Leo the individual having begun to feel a responsibility to beloved and child, is impelled to participate in some kind of social activity; no longer as an adolescent in school, but as an independent personality having to determine his course of action and to be responsible for his failures. The result of such a situation is that the personality, at the Leo stage of experience, overdoes everything. He wants to make an impression upon society, very much as a seven-year-old child wants to make a big impression on his intimates. He feels that he is "the thing" that of course everyone will see at once how important he will be to society, and that quickly they will bow to his unusual abilities and bestow upon him riches and power — riches and power he needs not only to feed, but even more to lord it over, his wife and children.
Thus the keynote of Leo is: dramatic exteriorization of personality in order to gain social recognition and increased self-assurance as a social unit. The Leo type may not necessarily be a leader by right of ability. But, if so, he will undoubtedly attempt, even if in small ways, to bluff or push his way through, with big theatrical gestures, emotional fireworks and much gambling — Leo likes to take risks as much as to manage people. But just as the so-called "aggressiveness" of the Aries type is the result of his sense of personal insecurity, so the dramatic bids for leadership and the generosity of the Leo type is a psychological compensation for an often poignant — withal unacknowledged and most likely unconsciousness of — social insecurity.
Mussolini, whose youthful photographs betray his early sense of social inferiority and his neurotic character, is an excellent example of the course a true Leo type will or may pursue. If he finds himself in the midst of confused and disheartened people he will at once sense his chance and rise to the occasion; power will build him up in an amazing way and he will glow just as an adulated "young prodigy" usually does — and likewise he may collapse into obscurity when the tide of success turns and the Virgo phase of self-criticism and self-mortification begins to operate. Then the proud Leo may astonish everyone by big public gestures of self-humiliation. He takes all the blame. There is no more convincing penitent. But he may soon forget and begin another cycle of social self-aggrandizement.
Such a reliance on social gestures and gambles is a sure sign that fundamentally the man is not sure; often that he is actually filled with social fears. He does not know how to cooperate with people; so he has to lead them. Leadership in the manner of dictators means projecting oneself forcefully upon receptive materials. The creative artist acts likewise. Whatever be his field of creation, he encounters resistance from the materials upon which he projects his vision and his emotional intensity; but that resistance can be overcome by ruthless means. The musical instrument can be forced to resound; the oil can be spread over the canvas if enough insistence is displayed. It is not a matter of cooperating with materials, but of clever handling and of instinctive (or acquired) knowledge of how they react to the touch. Likewise dictators are adepts in mass-psychology. They use propaganda and they dramatize themselves. And such is the technique of leadership.
True social consciousness is something entirely different. The typical Leo person has very little of it in his make-up; even though he may give the impression he has. He speaks in terms of generalities. He stirs crowds with words and dreams. He hypnotizes people through the intensity of his self-projection. But his wife often knows better; for dramatic gestures need foot-lights and distance to be really effective.
Nevertheless there is something fascinating and compelling about a true Leo type showering upon large groups his solar radiance. One may be overwhelmed, as by the glare and heat of summer noons; yet, if one can find a tree in the shade of which to rest, it is a beautiful spectacle. The sun, indeed, is the great Autocrat of the solar system. Is it because he is rather a small star — some occult books even say "a lost star"? Nevertheless to all that are drawn within his orb of radiation he gives generously of self and of life; though be also may kill and produce wastes, unless clouds and rains intervene to mother those whom the great Autocrat would glorify — to death.
In the Leo phase of the zodiacal cycle the Day-force is waning; but while it is waning in terms of effective manifestation, nevertheless this decrease means as well an inward withdrawal and subconscious activity. The Day-force has begun to move inward into man's subconscious; just as the Night-force had done during winter and spring. It still operates; but in a subjective and introverted manner. It takes on transcendent characteristics — and in some cases, negative ones.
Personality, which had been fulfilled in its physical and natural aspect at the summer solstice and throughout Cancer, acquires in Leo, as it were, a new dimension. Art is born, often a refuge for sensitive natures and an escape from everyday social realities; but also a transcendental and symbolic projection of the normally focused and integrated personality. The man who cannot be an autocrat — or, following a modification of that urge to power, the teacher of children and receptive adults — can gain social usefulness and prestige through artistic activity. In such a type of activity we find combined an unyielding individualism, the urge to be alone and self-concentrated, and the need to impress oneself upon society.
Creative artistic expression, in as much as it uses socially accepted and traditional materials, and in proportion as it commands fame and perhaps financial support, is a socially conditioned activity. Yet it is also a means of extending one's personal selfhood inward and beyond the limitations of time. It is a means to reach personal immortality through a fame perpetuated from generation to generation; thus to negate or overcome time. And it is also a method for expanding one's own consciousness; for teaching oneself.
The artist at his best performs a kind of yoga while creating. He is not only intensely concentrated, but the symbols he paints or the energies he rouses through tones are often real messages from his deeper Identity. In creation, the outer self (being concentrated and devoted to the task) becomes a receptive surface; just as receptive and expectant as the canvas or the piano. Therefore it can be moulded by what pours from within; by the Teacher within, the Inner Ruler.
The main negative manifestation of the inwardly operating Day-force in Leo is an extreme of sensitiveness to anything that seems to challenge personal dignity and pride. The Day-force is waning; thus it is no longer building directly the personality. Personality expands still, but on a social basis; that is, in terms of social approval and support. Anything which tends to lessen this social sustainment seems therefore to challenge the very right of the personality to live, and causes great resentment or hurt. Thus the extreme sensibility of artists and dictators to criticism or loss of public favor. Thus the Leo type's willingness in many cases to use any means to maintain or regain such a favor; including dramatic over-statements, lies and bribery.
Leo is the individual in his first attempt to be a social personage. And, as with any first effort, he often fails; or, for fear of failing, he overdoes and over-dramatizes situations. He has not learned yet not to want to be a master of slaves, because of his being absolutely sure he can never become a slave. Indeed, he is instinctively fighting against his subconscious fears that society might absorb and enslave him. Thus, his exaggerated attitudes and the intensity of his projections. And because he senses acutely the power of the universe and of time over his socially un-adjusted ego, he must create; and he stamps his own ego upon the world which he wills to organize in his own likeness, so that he be not lost in the onsurging tide.
