Leo Overview

July 22-August 21

Key Words: “I Will”

The last week of July enters the heat and heart of Leo, an energy that likes to call the shots, and is not a natural at sharing the limelight unless you’re willing to honor their elegance. Those with strong Leo energy usually have powerful physical hearts and therefore strong constitutions. It is the emotions of the heart that unbalance Leo.  This energy is all too easily hurt by not feeling appreciated, or loved enough.

Leo’s energy is the yang of fixed fire, giving fuel to self-conscious individuality.  His ruling planet is the Sun. The Sun’s glyph, a circle with a dot in the center, symbolizes the giver or emanation of light, the un-limited source of divinity. This circle symbolizes infinity, the totality of Oneness, and the dot is the point, or source of light, the opening of creative manifestation. In one’s chart, the Sun represents the motivating power, the individuality, or essence of our Spirit, and ego.  When we remember to be in conscious attunement to our divinity-our Sun, we are unlimited beings of possibility.

The Lion is a perfect symbol of Leo energy, basking in glory under the heat of the summer sun.  It has no fear, it follows no man, it has a mane of wild hair, it is dramatic, perhaps boastful.  It needs to be noticed and fears ridicule.  It loves to play but can be overly dignified.  In short, Leo’s energy is magnetic.

Leo is one of the three fire signs, along with Aires and Sagittarius, is connected to Pitta Dosha.  Fireworks with the metabolic, enzymatic, and hormonal levels.  Fire also transforms mental outlook as well as the senses.

Body Rulership:  Leo rules the heart in the body, and though it weighs only about one pound, it pumps five quarts of blood through the body every minute.  Working hand in hand with the lungs, it keeps blood oxygenated, recycles toxins, and rejuvenates.  The Sun correlates to the thymus gland which controls the immune process.  It is located behind the sternum, in front of the heart.

Sun Rules Leo

As the primary emanation of light, the life-giving energy of will, individuality, and manifestation, the Sun is the masculine, God principle in the chart. Leo is where we express Self, silently, or out loud, as the Sun defines a large part of our unique self-expression. The symbol for the masculine principle in each of us, the Sun reveals ego and identity, the father, creativity, and health, for it gives vitality to the other planets. Along with the Moon, as a feminine principle, the two are the ‘great lights’, or primary directors of life.

Balancing Leo Energies through a Yoga Practice

Partnering work is wonderful for Leo because even kings and queens are stronger when they learn to trust, and ‘play well with others.’

Sitting in any easy pose, such as Baddha Konasana, taking a time-out to appreciate oneself, to feel loved by the Universe-to breath into simply being, are antidotes for the Leo dis-ease of needing more magnificence.

Poses that open the heart, and expand the lungs, help to oxygenate the blood and the body to feel expansive.  Bhjangasana/Cobra Pose,  Urdhva-Mukha-Svanasana/Upward Facing Dog Pose, Ardha Matseydrasana,/Fish Pose, Dhanurasana/Bow, Urdhva-Dhanurasana/Backbend.

Because August is Pitta’s high time in the Northern Hemisphere, balance the heat with cooling poses, longer exhales, and the balancing Yin energies of forward folds.

The Anahata chakra is Leo’s home of the heart, and prana Vayu is the energy of the anahata.  It governs assimilation, or taking into self, including:  digestion, sensory impressions, mental and experiential assimilation of information, swallowing, and inhaling.  It works to keep the body temperature relative to the environment and sustains the heart and vital organs.  To effectively focus on the prana vayu, focus on the sensation of breathing, both at the navel and the tip of the nose.

“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” –Thich Nhat Hanh

Louis Armstrong, jazz’s first great innovator and ambassador, made famous the song, What a Wonderful World, whose words express the best of a Big Leo heart.