Today the moon has a brief confrontation with the collective underworld on its way to blooming in fullness with the reflected light of the sun. For those who follow the lunar cycles, this is a potent moment in which what has been growing in shadows is finally ready to come forward, and in Leo this coming forth is prone to come with a lot of drama and pomp.

But today, it’s as though you’re the actress preparing to step on stage, and through the curtain your eye settles on the audience and suddenly you’re struck by something. Perhaps you see an ex in the audience, an old nemesis, or—perhaps worse?—no one you recognize at all. Total strangers, wanting to be entertained, ready to either celebrate or judge you based on what you do.

Whatever you see, there’s a feeling inside that comes forth that needs to be acknowledged before you step on stage. Because what you perform will be for those people, and for the whole audience, and all the emotion coming up is fuel for your work—but the story must be set aside. You cannot control how you are received or judged, whether you gain satisfaction of some long-running vendetta or you are wholly ignored. All you can do is step onstage and bloom as best as you can.

There are people who want you to succeed, if only because they want what you have to offer. Even if they don’t know you personally, or know what you offer, as soon as they connect they’ll recognize it and be glad for it. Writing this is of course much harder than believing, and believing much more tenuous than knowing, but perhaps as you prepare to step forth, you might imagine connecting to that possibility. That possibility that, whatever dark feelings arise toward the audience—which may be quite valid—there is also a sea of support in which those feelings swim.

Then take a deep breath, and step onstage.