Leo Traits & Personalities
(July 23 – August 22)
DUALITY: Masculine
TRIPLICITY (ELEMENT): Fire
QUADRUPLICITY (QUALITY): Fixed
Leo is enthusiastic, powerful, expansive and creative, generous and extravagant, dogmatic and fixed in opinion.
RULING PLANET: The Sun – Center of our solar system, a star that burns with intense fire and supplies us with light,
heat, and energy. In astrology, the Sun is the most powerful planetary influence, bestowing vitality and authority.
SYMBOL: The Lion – Regal, brave, dominating, sometimes indolent. Possessing nobility and pride.
GLYPH (WRITTEN SYMBOL): ♌ The pictograph represents two valves of the human heart (a part of the anatomy that Leo rules). It is also the Greek symbol for the first letter of Leo. In symbolic terms, it is two incomplete circles of the Sun joined by a crescent Moon, symbolizing power derived from both the intellect and the emotions.
DOMINANT KEYWORD: I WILL.
POLARITY: Aquarius
Leo is the sign that governs pleasure and creativity. Natives of Leo look for what they can get out of life for themselves, and tend to dominate others. Aquarius, Leo’s opposite sign, is the sign of hopes and wishes and the higher aspirations of mankind. Aquarian people are concerned with larger ideals, humanitarian concepts, and are more impersonal and aloof in their relationships.
PART OF THE BODY RULED BY LEO: Back, spine, and the heart: Emotional strain and physical overexertion cause back and spine ailments in Leo people.
LUCKY DAY: Sunday
LUCKY NUMBERS: 8 and 9
MAGICAL BIRTHSTONE: Ruby – Protects against physical injury and ensures faithfulness. It also brings its wearer serenity of mind.
SPECIAL COLORS: Gold and orange: The magnetic colors of the Sun.
CITIES: Rome, Prague, Damascus, Hollywood
COUNTRIES: France, Italy, Romania
FLOWERS: Sunflower and Marigold
TREES: Orange and all citrus trees
METAL: Gold
ANIMALS RULED BY LEO: All felines
DANGER: Leo people tend to be bombastic and challenging, and often unknowingly provoke others into impulsive violence. They are also prone to being victims of slander.
All About Leo
Your loyalty is beyond question. You are devoted to yourself. All Leos possess a kingdom. The kingdom may be big or small, it may be your home or a lover or a piece of creative work or your whole career. But whatever it is, you are unquestioningly ruler of this kingdom. Self assurance surrounds Leo people like a ghost image on a television set. While others wait in the wings, you bask in the spotlight. Whatever you do, you do with a flair for the dramatic—everything about you is theatrical. You don’t have to look for a role to play in life. You’ve found it. You are the monarch of all you survey.
When you enter a room you secretly hope everyone will stand up and sing a few stanzas of the Hallelujah Chorus! At a party it isn’t long before you assume control of the evening. Witty, vivacious, a fluent talker, you are a born entertainer who can lend spice to any occasion. Your energy is electric, and people gravitate to you as steel filings to a magnet.
Your Sun sign confers a great flair for drama and an instinct for getting attention. Because your nature is flamboyant and expansive, you despise the humdrum, the ordinary, and the dull. When real life does not supply all the excitement you need, you try to create your own. Hyperbole is second nature to you. You are born to do things in a r-r-really big way.
If you invite people to your castle (which is how you think of your home), you entertain them royally. You are a splendid host.
Others may become reconciled to accepting second best; not Leos. Born under the most royal sign of the zodiac, there is absolutely nothing Leo people can think of that’s too good for them. Luxury is as vital to you as breathing. You want to enjoy the good life, and never mind what it costs. You are not a good haggler or bargainer because basically you want what you want when you want it.
Your public image is very important to you. When a Leo woman’s checking account is down to two figures somehow she’ll find the means to buy a glorious new dress, and when his credit cards are overdrawn a Leo man will still make reservations at the best restaurant in town. Leos are the most lavish spenders in the zodiac (Librans run a close second).
Generous, kind, and openhearted, you find it hard to believe ill of others. If injured, you strike back quickly, but you also forgive easily and never hold a grudge. Marvelously affectionate and cheerful, you have genuine joie de vivre. The Sun is your ruler, and you always bring some sunshine into the lives of others. Obviously, this is one of your most endearing traits. In many ways you are like the Sun itself—life-enhancing, radiating energy and magnetism, burning with steady fixity. Astrologers call Leos eternal children, for you take pleasure from the moment and are uninhibited in giving affection.
No one could ask for a better friend. If approached in the right way (flattery is the right way), you will do almost anything, but you expect praise and appreciation and admiration in return. Pride is your Achilles’ heel. Your ego demands not respect but adoration, not compliments but flattery, and when you receive lavish praise you never stop to wonder if it is insincere. Despite your self-centeredness, you need others to give to if only to get back their appreciation. However, because you’re too proud to ask for appreciation, you often suffer silently from a wounded ego. Your hidden secret is you need to be needed.
In business you are the one in command. Another sign that gravitates toward authority is Capricorn, but its natives steadily climb toward a high position. Leos simply assume that they were born to high position. One of your most useful assets in career is an unerring instinct for getting along with people who are in a position to be helpful. You know the value of socializing and work best in group enterprises rather than solitary pursuits. You’re an order giver, not an order-taker, but you’re usually so cheery and enthusiastic others don’t mind taking orders from you. You are also a hard worker who doesn’t ask more of anyone else than you do of yourself. You won’t quail before a challenge or flinch from a confrontation. You will do the thing that scares you because to do otherwise spells failure to your eyes. You are ambitious, but not ruthless. All you ask is to be in the limelight.
Among your most striking characteristics is a refusal to be hampered by petty rules. Day-to-day routine quickly leads to boredom and makes you desperately unhappy. Your unhappiness doesn’t last long, because you simply won’t put up with it. You have an unshakable belief in your luck and quickly bounce back from despondency.
It is difficult (though not impossible) to dislike a Leo. True, you can be bombastic and overbearing at times. True, you love to give advice and tell people how to run their lives. Like your symbol, the Lion, you can be quite indolent and lazy; you like to sit back and bask in your own glory. But your great warmth and sunny disposition is very hard to resist. The world would be much less fun without Leos.
The Inner Leo
You have larger-than-life emotions; whether you’re experiencing joy, despair, excitement, or love, it might as well be playing on a giant movie screen. You feel you have an important role to play in life and you’re going to find it. You need to be involved in the world; in fact, you tend to think of any plan or project that you’re part of as an extension of who you are. You believe in taking action. Your immediate reaction to any problem is to do something about it rather than sit around pondering it. But you’re extremely sensitive and you try to hide this fact under a lot of bravado. It’s very important to you to get others’ approval. What makes you special, though, is that in spite of all your inner qualms, you jut out your chin and walk head-on into any challenge. You have a deep-seated need to prove your worth—not to others but to yourself. You’ll tackle any job just so you can say, “I wasn’t afraid to try!”
How Others See You
You have a regal quality, a way of standing out in a crowd. The unique combination of the excitement you project, your sense of style, your way of speaking, and your laugh is what draws people to you. They’re also seduced by the fact that you think big, which feeds their own fantasies of success and power. They’re attracted to your energy and enthusiasm and your take-charge attitude. They assume you’ll take a leadership position. But some people dislike what they consider your king-sized ego. They think you hog the spotlight and that you’re performing even when you’re perfectly serious and sincere; they question your sincerity. Others regard you as a showoff who merely talks a big game. And there are those who think you have the temperament of a demanding, spoiled child.