The Meaning of a Life’s Work: A Meditation on the Solar Eclipse in Leo
- Aug 11
- 7 min read
This solar eclipse in Leo has me reflecting on the meaning of my life’s work.
(Of course... Leo rules my 6th house.)
I’m not talking about just my artistic career or my online content.
I’m considering the labor I put into everything I do; physical, spiritual, emotional, practical, etc.
I've been considering what I deeply desire and what the purpose of my life really is in this season.
What season am I even existing in?
All while trying to think about what this eclipse is sharing with the collective, in Leo, which is also my Sun sign.
When sitting down to write this blog, I've been trying to consider: what needs to speak through me?
That has actually been the most beneficial question to consider. I’m not trying to pin down an exact selfish desire or fleeting fancy, but I’m asking the universe, “What is trying to be channeled through me?”
“What am I actually seen and recognized for?”
“What am I actually benefiting the world by sharing?”
It has prompted me to reflect on what occurred last month.
Drawing Down the Moon
On the day of my solar return at age 34, we decided to plan a rite-of-passage ceremony for my business partner, Serenity, and I on my birthday. We lovingly titled this ritual “Drawing Down the Moon.” This date was chosen because of the fortuitous aspects of Jupiter and the Sun, trine Neptune and sextile Uranus, the waxing phase of the moon, and it was a Sunday, our usual ritual date.
Also… somewhat selfishly (and very like a Leo,) I wanted to celebrate, sing, and dance with my community on my birthday too.
In creating this ceremony, much of my life had to be put on hold so I could write the necessary amount of music to underscore the ritual.
There was also an enormous amount of care and dedication required to choreograph and stage this spectacle; a sacred performance that channeled the Moon’s energy into our human bodies. At the time, I thought my responsibility was to create something extraordinary. Looking back now, I wonder if my responsibility was simply to offer my gifts in devotion so that they could emphasize the collective experience.
Throughout the entire experience of this, I know both myself and my creative partner were consistently asking ourselves, “OK, but WHY are we doing this? Why are we presenting this now?"
This has come after years of hard work together. We've been holding public ritual now for
five years as Divine Warrior Witches, and we have grown to an inner circle of five key members who we are so grateful for and absolutely love working with.
We've witnessed and taken part in incredibly meaningful experiences with members of our community, and have been blown away and deeply touched by the love, support, and incredible wisdom of many who have chosen to join our rituals.
When upholding this level of a responsibility toward a community and consistently volunteering your energy and time to community events, it does, quite often, call into question:
“Why?”
“What is to be gained through this work for ourselves? For others?”
“What is the benefit to our community? To our families? To our own sacred practices?”
“What is the purpose of holding community ritual?”
Both of us came to the conclusion, through our own personal journeys, that we were ready to recognize the public role we had upheld and to mark this milestone in our spiritual practice of stepping into our Priestesshood. That night, we channeled our patron Goddesses, danced and chanted with our community, took our vows of priestesshood and sacred sisterhood, and sang and ran feral under the stars. It was honestly one of the most beautiful nights of my life.
Mother’s Mirror: Returning Home from Initiation
Throughout this process of creating the event, however, I’ll admit, a lot of pieces of my life were neglected. I wasn’t as present at home with my kids and my husband as I would have liked to be. I wasn’t exercising as often. I was up late at night composing, then awake early with my kids just to squirrel away in my studio again while they watched a movie.
The pressure to meet the deadline won out over caring for myself, an experience I have repeated many times over the last several years, both before and after having kids. I find that each time this occurs, my body complains much louder than before.
So when the event inevitably wraps up, and the pace slows again, I often go through a mourning period, or at least a deeply reflective “what did you learn” phase, following months of hard work.
Every season of my overexertion eventually asks the same question: not “Can you do more?” but “Where does your effort actually belong?”
Enter… eclipse season.
For whatever reason- maybe the abundance of Leo energy, maybe the fact that I just took public vows of priestesshood before an entire community, or maybe that I’m just getting older- I looked lovingly upon the month of August as an opportunity to really sort out my entire life, you know?
Let’s really lock in and create the perfect structure here.
You know what that structure needs, right?
A goal. A purpose. A mission.
But I’ve had trouble putting a finger on WHAT that mission is.
It wasn’t until I stepped out of the never-ending analysis of “what do I really want with my life in this moment” that I began to understand what this eclipse was trying to tell me:
Look at where your light is being received.
My precious relationship with my young children. My husband. My friends. My Divine Warriors community. My astrology clients and students. My parents and my sister.
I’ve been so grateful in recent months to hear stories about how my posts have helped people, whether it’s about exercising when I was tired, studying different deities, or finding resources and ideas for what I could offer as an astrologer.
My mind was so preoccupied with trying to find the “perfect role” of “I’m going to be THIS kind of artist” or “THIS kind of astrologer” or “THIS kind of mother” that I was losing sight of the gift right in front of me.
The world doesn’t need me to perform any of those things.
If anything… the world just needs more honesty and more joy.
Not satisfaction… I’m talking about childlike, silly, playful, sun-filled JOY.
I realized my only job is to show up honestly and live from a place of joyfully sharing my light with others who are there to receive it.
Once that realization settled in, so many decisions that had felt impossibly complicated suddenly became remarkably simple.
So a few decisions were made:
For years, I’ve been very private about my own natal chart, believing that my role as an astrologer was never to put myself forward as an example, because it was always about the client. While that remains true in a 1:1 reading, so much of the joy I have from the study of astrology is the EMBODIMENT of my natal chart as a living, breathing guidemap in my life. I thought to myself, “If I can use my birth chart as a methodology towards facing my deepest fears and accomplishing my biggest goals, what curiosity could that spark in others to use their natal charts to do the same?”
I’m no longer trying to carve out different roles for my work. I’m an astrologer who composes. I’m a songwriter who uses astrology. I’m a priestess who is a mother who is an artist who is a teacher who is a student. They all exist simultaneously, and my job isn’t to separate them; it’s to become more coherent at communicating what it all means together.
This recognition allowed me to commit to some larger projects I’ve been putting off for fear. I have signed up for my first 5k; thus starting a spiritual journey I’m calling “MythBody” that I’ve been dreaming about doing and documenting for years. I’m stocking up on episodes of podcasts that have been neglected for fear of “sticking myself in too narrow of a niche”. It has been so liberating to make content and material about sharing the gift, rather than just performing my gifts.
Perhaps this is what the Leo archetype has always been trying to teach me.
Leo isn’t merely about being seen and receiving attention. Leo is about becoming so wholehearted that your joy naturally becomes a light for someone else.
All of this reflection is not meant to determine exactly who I am, not to create the perfect title, and not to finally solve the question of my purpose once and for all.
This Solar Eclipse in Leo has allowed me to notice where life already feels illuminated.
I’m not meant to “choose my identity”. I’m invited to become more honest in all of them.
The mother. The priestess. The composer. The astrologer. The teacher. The student.
They were never competing with one another.
They have been telling the same story all along.
Continue the Journey with BLUEHOUR
If this eclipse has stirred something within you, I invite you to continue this reflection through this month’s meditation offering for my BLUEHOUR Newsletter subscribers.
We step into the sacred stillness of the eclipse itself.
Together, we’ll lay down the identities, expectations, and responsibilities we’ve carried for so long, uncover the light that has always lived beneath them, and witness the quiet ways our presence has already touched the lives of others.
Along with the meditation, BLUEHOUR subscribers also receive this month’s collective tarot reflection and other seasonal offerings designed to accompany you through the lunar cycle.
My Eclipse Wish For You
May this eclipse remind you to release the pressure to become someone more impressive, more certain, or more perfectly defined.
May you instead become more honest, more joyful, more wholehearted.
May you trust the places where your spirit naturally comes alive.
May you recognize those who receive your light with gratitude.
And may you remember that your purpose is not something waiting in the distance.
It is something you practice every time you choose to show up fully as yourself.
From my altar to yours,
🌙 Cawnawyn Mor
