ZODIAC SIGN LEO

Covering 22 July to 22 August(ish) - can change a wee bit from year to year. What does the zodiac sign of Leo say to us? Keywords springing immediately to my mind are: limelight-loving, outgoing, fun-loving, sociable, warm, show-biz, the two 'o's: ostentation and opulence, leadership, kingly bearing.

Naturally, every keyword doesn't apply every time a planet or sensitive point in a natal chart sits in Leo's throneroom. When the Sun lies in Leo it's at home, and unless there's a slew of planets nextdoor in Cancer, damping things down, or in Virgo's straitjacket on the other side, I guess the Leo Sun person will almost always demonstrate, at the very least, one of the above traits.



I've met few Leo Suns in my time - a couple of guy friends I recall, back in the 1960s, in Devonshire, the English south-western riviera. One had clear Leo tendencies - he wasn't wealthy - far from it, but he made it his business to have a flashy Jaguar car to make a good impression. Onlookers probably never guessed that the back seats were supported by a couple of old soda crates, and various other bits and pieces of the interior had seen much better days. He started his own business, a one-man affair which hadn't truly taken off at the time I knew him. He had dreams of building a lovely house on a Devon cliff-top, took me to see the site he wanted to buy. He was a sweet dreamer. I often wonder how things turned out for him.

The other Sun in Leo guy friend I met, around a year later, was a very different character. He was the foster son of a couple of elderly spinsters who ran a small boarding house where I stayed when attending an interview in the same town. I got the job, and later the son befriended me. He was neither outgoing, nor particularly warm. No aim to be successful. He had, I think, been worn down by life with the two ladies. I tried hard to like him, but didn't succeed. Several years later after I'd been away from the area and returned for some reason, I happened upon one of the ladies from that boarding house. She told me that her foster son had commited suicide some months ago. That was a shock - and so very un-Leo-like! I don't know his chart other than his birthday - 27 July - so can't say what other unfortunate placements might have added to his obviously distressing situation. I suspect he might have had just the Sun in Leo with small groups of personal planets in both Cancer and Virgo - but that's a wild guess.

Those two guys, birthdays 27 and 28 July and a cousin of mine, also born 28 July are the only Sun Leos I recall, apart from my paternal grandfather, and (I think) my paternal grandmother who were both Sun Leos. With 10 children of their own to raise, as well as bringing up at least 3 others, they didn't have much chance to be ostentatious! My grandfather was quite amazing. He used to sew clothes for all the kids - taught himself how to do it. He also used to go around collecting old broken clocks then, via mixing and matching parts, he'd get them working. After serving in the First World War he became a postman for the rest of his working life. His name was Edward but people called him Moses or Isaac - nobody seemed to know why, not even my Dad, his eldest son.

I mustn't forget Himself now - my husband - who has Leo rising and Moon in Leo. I really do struggle to identify any strong Leo traits in him. He was in management, before retirement - there's one. He ain't in the least ostentatious or opulent, nor does he crave the limelight (quite the opposite). Kingly bearing? Nope. Fun-loving - yes, he is. He adores cartoon in film and in newspapers. Loves slapstick humor, and in fact, all humor, loves to laugh. A favourite thing to do, for him, in antique shops is to try on old hats, the more outlandish the better, and take his own photograph in a nearby mirror (while I try to pretend I don't know him!) I put his hat fetish down to his Aries Sun, by the way - Aries rules the head. I have to say he's a wee bit of a music snob at times, but kindly with it. Snobbery, of any kind, might be one of Leo's shadow sides.

Me? Natally, all I have in Leo is Pluto, along with trillions of other mortals, but it does fall in First House of self. I suppose I'm a wee bit Leo-like in my tendency to always crave the best quality (and most expensive) of almost anything. Craving doesn't necessarily bring me satisfaction though, 'cos I don't have Leo $$$$. "Champagne taste and beer money" was how my mother oft described her only daughter.