Cosmic Deep-Dive: Leo Edition
Exploring the Leo archetype, the Sun as Leo's ruler, the Leo shadow, and why Leo energy is front and center for the next 18 months.
Leo: The Performer, The King, The Queen, The Child
Three times a year we transition from a water season to a fire season. It happens when we move from Pisces to Aries, from Cancer to Leo, and from Scorpio to Sagittarius. To me, the shift from water to fire is always the most satisfying. Generally, water seasons are challenging. They call us into the inner, emotional realm and ask us to do the difficult work of feeling everything.
This inward pull can feel like a contraction. And who wants that? Especially as we in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate long-awaited Summer.
Plus, this Cancer season was extra tough because Mercury was Retrograde in Cancer for nearly the entire time. So if July felt like moving through molasses, or like one long wistful sigh, it wasn’t just you.
[Please enjoy this playlist featuring Leo artists, themes, lyrics, and vibes. As always, you can expect a mix of psychedelic, dreamy, and upbeat tunes to groove to.]
But now, the fabric of our reality changes once again. It becomes animated by fire. And not just any fire sign, but Leo the Lion. The sign ruled by the Sun, the sign of courage and creativity. The sign of the human heart.
If Cancer season felt like a contraction, Leo season (July 22-August 22) is an expansion of the most exciting kind.
Let’s dive in.
Shifting focus from feeling to expressing
As I wrote last month, the evolutionary aim of Cancer is pure feeling. No judgment, no analysis, no attempting to understand why. It’s about communing with the rawness of our emotions, and the inherent healing that comes with doing so.
Not sure what I mean by that? Not so long ago, I learned that human tears contain cortisol. And not the tears that well up while you’re chopping an onion. Only emotional tears contain cortisol and other stress hormones.1 This means that the act of crying has a literal physiological function that helps bring us back toward homeostasis, toward healing.
In other words, feeling our feelings is not trivial, nor is it a luxury. It’s essential. And still! It is not a process that we, collectively, honor. It’s not something we set aside time and space to do.
Under Cancer skies however, our feelings became more available to us. Our hearts were more sensitive and open. If you slowed down enough to feel the emotion that’s always pulsing beneath the mindchatter, good. That’s exactly what you were tasked with.
But now it’s time to move on. We are surfacing from our emotional deep dive into the splendor of a sunny Summer day.
Remember, each sign is a subtle rebellion against the values of the sign before it. That’s how our consciousness evolves. Leo the Lion and everything it stands for is a rejection of the inwardness of Cancer the Crab. Leo feels enriched from Cancer’s exploration of the emotional realm but now it’s, quite frankly, over it.
For Leo, simply feeling is no longer enough.
“Expression – that is the key to understanding the Lion. The contents of the mind are made visible . . . everything is given form. Everything is expressed. Leo must leave tangible evidence of its internal processes in the hands of the world.”
- Steven Forrest
It’s no doubt that making art is the main outlet for Leo’s self-expression. Poetry, songwriting, painting, singing, acting – anything that translates the intimacy of the inner emotional world works.
But it can go a step further.
There’s a difference between a singer recording a song in a studio vs. playing a concert in front of an audience. Same for publishing a poem on your substack vs. reading it out loud at a poetry reading.
It’s not that the former options are invalid. They are still honest expressions of the heart. But ultimately, Leo is the performer. There is a healing exchange of heart energy that occurs when someone vulnerably expresses themselves in front of an audience. Both the performer and the observers feel the effects in real time.
Ultimately, Leo reminds us what it means to be brave. Not in a warrior sense, but in a human sense. Leo energy is pure and unafraid, like the present-tense spirit of a child who has not yet learned to stifle their self-expression. Leo embodies the courage required to take the inner experience of the heart, turn it outward and say “here I am in all my humanness. Please witness me in this. And please, go easy on me…”
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Remember, each sign is ruled by a planet (or two) or a luminary. Leos are ruled by the Sun, which is one of the two luminaries – the other being the Moon. Whenever someone makes a comment about Leos thinking that the world revolves around them I think “Well, yes. It does.” We live in a heliocentric solar system. Everything revolves around the Sun.
The Sun in your birth chart is the symbol of your ego and your personality. It speaks to your identity, essence, and the kind of qualities you need to embody in order to find your sanity in life. Your Sun points to the basic values to which you must be true if your life is going to make sense to you.2
And yet.
The Sun is one of the most misunderstood placements of the birth chart. Everyone knows their Sun sign, but people don’t always identify with it. That’s because, unlike the Moon which I covered last month, the Sun is not something we inherently are. It’s something our soul endeavors to become. FarStellar writes,
“Nobody is born already being their Sun sign. A Scorpio is not born knowing how to sit with darkness, but with the assignment to learn it. An Aries does not come in brave, but with bravery as homework. A Pisces does not arrive dissolved, but with dissolution as the thing to practice, resist, fail at, and practice again until it stops being a concept and starts being something that lives in the bones.”
Similarly, a Taurus is here to move toward a life of peace and simplicity. A Gemini must learn to follow their curiosity toward a state of open-mindedness. Cancer is here to cultivate their softness and nurturance. Leo must let creativity and self-expression be the guiding force of their life. The Virgo curriculum will lead them to mastering skills and being of service. Libra must evolve through teamwork and partnership. Sagittarius must develop their faith and commitment to expansion. Capricorn is here to walk the path of self-discipline and integrity. And Aquarius must embark on the journey of individuation.
I always say that our Sun asks a lot of us. These values and evolutionary intentions don’t necessarily come naturally.
That’s the whole point.
Jupiter enters Leo, the nodes switch signs, & why the Leo shadow is more present than ever
Being ruled by the Sun can create a natural desire or impulse to make oneself the center of everything. A Leo can simply get addicted to the applause. In its quest for true, authentic expression, Leo can find themselves performing for the sake of it, pining for accolades wherever they go.
Selfishness, arrogance, stubborn pride, attention-seeking behavior, over-dramatization. This is the Leo shadow.
We’ve all seen it.
Normally I don’t talk about transits here, but we have two major events happening in Leo that will impact how this Leo season feels and how Leo energy manifests in the collective over the next 18 months.
First, at the end of June, Jupiter moved into Leo where it will stay for about 1 year. Generally, this will bring Leo energy to the forefront of our reality and heighten our own inherent Leo qualities. The area of your chart ruled by Leo is about to go through a period of growth, expansion, actualization and potentially lots of luck (it depends, of course, on your specific birth chart and how you respond to the opportunities that life presents you. Transits aren’t universal in their impact and they affect us all differently).
Wherever Leo is in your chart, Jupiter is asking you to stop playing small in this area of life. This is where you must start taking risks. There is a spotlight you’re being asked to step into. As a Leo Moon and Leo Rising myself, I’m thrilled about this transit, as I could really use some of Jupiter’s generous energy in my 1st house of identity right now.
However.
The Nodes of the Moon are also switching signs, with the North Node moving into Aquarius and the South Node moving into Leo.
Why does it matter? The location of the nodes always indicate where the lunar and solar eclipses will occur in the sky and they speak to the direction of humanity’s collective evolution.
The sign the North Node is transiting indicates the values and beliefs that humanity is being called to explore and embody in order to evolve, while the sign the South Node is transiting indicates outdated qualities and collective conditioning we are being asked to let go of.
This means that for the next 18 months, society is evolving towards embodying the positive qualities of Aquarius (where the North Node is), while simultaneously being asked to release the shadow qualities of Leo (where the South Node is).
In order to release these Leo shadow qualities, they must first be brought to the light so we can examine them and agree upon the fact that we, collectively, need to let that shit go. Having Jupiter, which expands everything it touches also in Leo just means that this process is going to be more obvious and loud than it would be otherwise.
Okay. But what does this actually look like?
Both Leo and Aquarius are about authenticity. Only Leo needs to be celebrated in their self-expression while Aquarius couldn’t care less. Aquarius doesn’t do anything for applause. They’re fine with being the black sheep. Aquarius is steadfast in their beliefs and their vision for the future of humanity. They’ll happily walk the path of life alone if it means they’re staying true to their values. This is what we’re moving towards.
Meanwhile, the Leo shadow qualities we’re moving away from: performative authenticity, needing to be seen to feel worthy, outsourcing our worth, performing for likes, relying on external validation, existing as an outdated version of ourselves because that’s the version that gets the applause, etc.
You get the idea.
Despite these conflicting energies, Leo season should deliver some relief after Cancer season, a good deal of expansion, and most importantly, some much-needed fun.
No matter what, wherever Leo sits in your chart is about to become the main stage. The mic is ready, the spotlight is on, and you’re about to step into it, whether you practiced your lines or not. Your most truly authentic I don’t give a fuck self is calling you forward. And that’s something worth celebrating.
Finally, one more thing. Eclipses this Leo season. Am I excited? Not really. Are they happening anyway? Yes. There will be a South Node Solar Eclipse in Leo on August 12 and a North Node Lunar Eclipse in Pisces on August 28 (the North Node will move into Aquarius soon after). Eclipses, which always happen on the nodal axis, are about collective human karma and the evolution of consciousness. They remind us that growing pains are rarely comfortable.
Remember, there’s nothing you need to do during the eclipses. No need to try to control, manifest, or bend the cosmic energies in any direction. Just sit back and let it all unfold.
Eclipses tend to bring about rapid, unexpected change. Some people, opportunities, or beliefs will unexpectedly fall away. Let them. Meanwhile, others will show up at your door unannounced and step across the threshold of your life as if they’ve been there all along. Welcome them. They’re meant to be there.
This month’s essay was long-winded. Thank you for sticking with me. If you have any questions about the Leo archetype, the nodes of the moon changing signs, or how Jupiter in Leo is going to affect you, please leave a comment (with your rising sign!) below.
Sources:
1 https://www.reachlink.com/advice/stress/why-do-we-cry/
2 Quote by Steven Forrest The Book of Fire
Love this Tara, so interesting 🦁
I’m a Virgo rising Sagittarius moon and Taurus sun my husband Aquarius sun Sagittarius rising Gemini moon very complicated relationship for 15 years on a threshold of stay or leave only this will determine my future any thoughts advice?