Ferocious vulnerability: a creative toolkit for Leo season
PLUS: Free tarot journal access for August
Hi little coven, how’s your Leo season going so far?
Mine has been full-on, to tell you the truth: rammed in equal measure with experiences that have made me feel powerful and vulnerable. I can’t say I expected anything less.
But wait! Before we dive into this creative toolkit for Leo season, a quick reminder that every month I pull cards for the whole month ahead and make them available to you through my free digital tarot journal. This month’s password is: Strength
Fierce, bold, and hungry, Leos thrive when they let their wildness steer their ship.
When I say wildness, I’m not talking about chaos, but rather, a connection to self, to instinct. An archetypal Leo is always in pursuit of what feels right for them. They trust the needs and values they feel in their gut, and they honor those needs — even if doing so appears wild or unconventional to others.
Creatively, we all have a lot to learn from Leos — what writer, artist, even small business owner wouldn’t benefit from releasing others’ expectations and pursuing what we truly feel, on a gut level, will fulfil and fortify us?
This season, we can look to two Leonine archeytpes to help us tune into our own instincts — both killer and kind: the Zodiac Lion and the Strength tarot card.
It’s hard to think of a lion — and by extension, Leo season — without ferocity coming to mind. The king of the jungle holds a special place in human imagination and history; Lion energy is so much bigger than the living, breathing animal itself.
And without a doubt, lions are fierce. They didn’t find their way to the top of the food chain through passivity or luck. Embracing Leo energy without a doubt means identifying your goal (your prey) and hunting it down with the confidence of an apex predator.
And yet, like all living things, lions are vulnerable creatures. This too, is a key aspect of their wildness. They’re guided as much by the vulnerabilities as they are by ferocity. They never try to hide either version of themselves.
While on the surface, Leo season certainly invites us to embody the mythic energy of a lion and embrace ferocity and boldness, this season also invites us — through the Strength tarot card, to remember that lions are flesh and blood creatures: their fierce exterior doesn’t make them impervious, and neither can ours.
In Pamela Coleman Smith’s Strength card, a maiden prepares to peer into a lion’s mouth, as if the creature might have a toothache, or have swallowed something it shouldn’t have. The lion is vulnerable, here. At the mercy of another. And that other, the maiden, is venerable, too. The strength the card hopes to capture is not brute strength, ferocity, or dominance.
It’s the strength to face pain and risk, a receptivity rather than a fortressing of the self. The card suggests that a fierce determination to move forward requires a commitment to healing and self-knowledge. After all, a survival instinct is the first ingredient to making it to the top of the food chain.
In my upcoming book, Tarot for Creativity, I offer insight into how the card is a vital guide and companion for surviving and navigating hard things in our creative lives, like handling criticism and rejection, dealing with block, or sharing vulnerable work for the first time:
“It’s hugely important that centuries of tarot artists have chosen such a tender display to represent the archetypal energy of Strength. It’s a reminder that true strength requires a certain level of vulnerability and sweetness in the face of difficulty. Being soft and open is a crucial skill for getting real with the hard things.”1
When reflecting on this card, Mary Oliver’s beloved poem, Wild Geese, floated into my mind.
She famously writes: “Let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”
I was struck by how perfectly this line captures the disparate things I want to tell you about Leo energy:
You can be both soft and animalistic. You can be receptive and driven. You can burn things down and you can heal. You can be ferocious and vulnerable at the same time. You can know what you want and hunt it down and be open to whatever you need in any given moment.
Conventions and norms in life and in creative spaces often keep us from allowing two things to be true at once, but Leo season invites you to be the soft animal: fueled by fire, and open to care at the same time.
Creative Prompts for Leo Season
Use the following prompts as jumping-off points for your own creative exploration of Cencer season. These aren’t homework — try what feels good or interesting to you, and know you have my permission to ignore the rest.
Journal about the Lion symbol and the Strength Card
How do these images make you feel?
What memories, desires, and questions, do they bring up for you?
What similarities and differences do you notice between them?
Take time to tap into your instincts
Use stream-of-consciousness journalling, or doodling to open up space for your purest expressions. Practice creating based on what feels right process-wise, rather getting caught up in producing the “right” output.
Create a piece of art that captures the same combination of care and courage present in The Strength card
Try using a medium that allows you to connect with your body and physical instincts — think clay, dance, or designing clothing you plan to wear
More creative resources for Leo season (including a tarot spread, a creative ritual for Leo season, Leonine playlist & more) are available below for paid subscribers.
If you’d like to dig deeper into what creative gifts Leo season has to offer you, and get access to future creative tools for every Zodiac season, you can become a paid subscriber to The Shuffle for just £1/$1.25 a week (annual subscription rate). Subscriber support means that I can keep regular resources like these coming, and continue to focus on developing quality writing & resources at the intersection of spirituality & creativity.