It’s that time again! The Sun, that big beautiful ball of lovely light that warms and nourishes us, is transiting the zodiac sign of Leo. So, all you “Leo’s”, have a happy one!

Most astrologers co-relate this fiery fixed sign with love, birth, creativity, power, luck and romance! Sounds pretty attractive to me! Leo is aligned to the 5th house in the natural wheel of the zodiac thus endowing that segment of the horoscope with Leo-like attitudes. If, for instance, you are not born under the sign of Leo but have a lot of your planets in the 5th house, especially the personal ones like the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars; you may approach life in a Leonine way. Of course, the actual sign that any of these personals is in will modify the way you ultimatelly behave. For instance, you might be a “5th house Capricorn”. Capricorn is much more sedate, more reserved than Leo so you might be creative, but quietly so, romantic, but with some reserve, powerful, but in a dignified way.

Leo’s opposite sign is Aquarius and according to the law of polarity, duality is the underlying resonance of all manifestation. Applying this to the zodiac then, we can see that the energies that sit ‘across’ from each other in the zodiac wheel ideally work in harmony with each other and the ebb and flow of anything is regulated by polarity forces. While Leo brings focus to all that is primarily personal—the ‘me’ factor, Aquarius brings focus to all that is primarily collective—the ‘we’ factor. So, the intention of anyone with a focus in Leo is to find a way to pull in the energy of that opposite force. So, Leo, what can YOU do for the greater whole? What is the focus in your life that relates to community? What is the gift that you bring to society? 

Leo loves the limelight and who is it that is able to give the limelight? The collective, of course! If Leo has no audience for the sheer magnificence of his manifestation, well, then, he might just lazily lie around doing nothing and basking in the noonday sun!

The shadow side of Leo is the tendency to rest on ones’ laurels and on a deeper level, a sense of entitlement. There is a reason why one of the archetypes linked to Leo is “The Royal” or “The Aristocrat”. Taken too far, this self-image can cause trouble in Leo’s life and relationships. The all powerful ME can eat up a lot of space in any room, leaving little for anyone else. Here is where the simple use of principled love can minimize the tendency to move into the shadow side of this energy. Love for the sake of love itself can help to refocus the Leo persona that has gotten caught up in ego concerns, become overly invested in the drama and as a result lost sight of what is actually real and true. Again, pulling in the Aquarian ideal, that sense of collective power rather than singular power, can be helpful to balance out any preoccupation with self. Not to say that the self should not be served! Naturally, it is through the self that we all get things done so let’s not be too quick in battering the ego senseless! The key is common sense at all times. By all means use your ego gifts but keep focused on what is really true, what is really real.

Everyone has Leo somewhere in their psyche as represented by the birth mandala. And whenever the Sun transits any energy, that part of the psyche is illuminated—brought out into the light, so to speak. From the third week of July to the third week of August, the Sun is always transiting through Leo according to the tropical system of astrology. As I have often stated when discussing this subject of transits, each cosmic connection is necessarily personal. (Yes, yes, there is the whole issue of the collective consciousness but that is another topic!) So, in some ways, transit reports can only give the reader a general sense of what is going on since that reader has her own unique energetic construct that is interacting with the energy swirling around her. The way to get the ‘most’ out of following the stars is to have a familiarity with one’s own natal horoscope so that one can follow the star crossings with the mind’s eye.

So, picture your natal mandala (birth chart) and plop the transiting Sun into that area of your chart that is described by Leo, which is where the current transit of the Sun is occurring. Wherever that is, it is this area of life that will be under the spotlight for the next month or so. Even if you have no formal training in astrology, you can begin to track external events and then go back to the diagram and see if anything makes sense. This is called the ‘observation and co-relation’ method of learning, experiential learning. 

The horoscope can be divided into 4 quadrants, two below the central dividing line (ascendant/descendant) and two above. Even just noting which one of these 4 quadrants is being ‘lit up’ can be very revealing. Remember, wherever the Sun is transiting in your personal horoscope as it moves through the Zodiac sign of Leo is where your psyche reflects the properties of Leo. This is the area of life that you may approach in a Leo-like way. 

So, if the Sun is currently moving through the lower left hand side of the wheel, you may well be feeling somewhat preoccupied with your own personal concerns. Your sense of self-worth is something that has always been important to you so you may be thinking about what you really want to do with yourself, what holds true value for you, what you have on your mind and just exactly how to express it so that you are properly understood. If you have Leo in this area, you could well be an imaginative and creative thinker, get ‘big’ ideas. The Sun’s transit of this area could trigger ideas that you can explore or develop. And, if any of your planets are located in this this quadrant, expect to experience all of this in a highly charged manner. The Sun turns things on! He shines his light full onto whatever is in his path.

If in the second quadrant, the focus is turned to family issues, love, romance and fun or how to energize your own work life. Having Leo energy in this area of the psyche suggests an individual who has a flair for family life or is an artist or works in a creative field. This could be an individual who loves intensely, has a desire to express herself on a creative level and approaches her work with zest and panache. All of these sorts of concerns, then, would take center stage at this transit time.

When the Sun is transiting the 3rd quadrant, you may well feel less self-oriented and more concerned with others, their relationship to you, how to maximize your relationships and where you can take any given relationship may all be of concern to you. You may find yourself dealing with issues of power, control, even life and death or taxes. This could be a good time to sign up for a course that you have wanted to take for a while or just buy a book on an esoteric subject. 

Finally, when the Sun lights up the 4th quadrant of the mandala, you are ready to rock! You may feel the need to be seen, noticed, remarked upon. You could find yourself getting more involved in social issues, community work, or even just partying. On a more spiritual level, you may find that you have the urge to more completely align your outer self with your inner set of values. At some point, when the Sun transits this sector, most everyone needs to take a breath or two. Track yourself. Monitor your body rhythms. Pay attention!

Leo is the energy of expression, joy, creativity in both physical and emotional ways and more subtly, the need for recognition; the need for affirmation, approval and ultimately, the urge to both draw love and express love. The absolutely first step into Leo is the plunge into SELF-LOVE. If we are not able to wholeheartedly love ME, it is, indeed, impossible to draw the kind of love from others that we need so that we can feed our soul.

Enjoy these next few weeks of light and joy. Find your little Leo self—each of us has this energy somewhere in all that clutter—and explore the sheer joy of being you!