Modern
Leo is a fixed fire sign ruled by the Sun, the archetype of the sovereign, warm and creative, expressing the heart. Wherever Leo falls in a chart, that area of life takes on this character: the fire temperament (its way of meeting the world) in its fixed mode (how it moves and changes). The gift is the sign's strength at its best; the work is balancing it against its opposite. At your best you live the sign's nature consciously rather than on autopilot.
Traditional (Hellenistic)
Leo is the fixed fire sign, hot and dry by the old qualities and reckoned a diurnal sign. Its domicile ruler is the Sun, so the Sun is the lord of any planet that falls here and of the matters Leo governs; no planet takes its exaltation here. A planet in Leo must work through the sign's nature and answer to its ruler's condition. As a place in the chart it carries the sovereign, warm and creative, expressing the heart.
Lean in — Express Leo's nature consciously and at its best.
Watch for — Run Leo on autopilot or only its shadow.
- fire
- fixed
- sign
Sources
- Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, I.17Gives the element, modality, ruler, exaltation, and qualities of the sign.
- Brennan, Hellenistic Astrology (2017)Frames the sign's rulership, sect, and traditional nature.
- Oken, Alan Oken's Complete Astrology (1980)Gives the modern archetypal reading of the sign.