everything revolves around leo

my friends… <3

Can you feel it? Do you hear the call from the cosmos to let your hair down, lay in the sun, dance all night, treat your friends, kiss your lover, kiss yourself, go out in your sexiest outfit on a Tuesday, post a thirst trap, try something new with blind confidence, give a rousing speech, address your daddy issues? I sure do. Leo season is finally, finally here.

I started this newsletter during Virgo season last year, which is kind of a hilarious joke I played on myself because I, a Leo, had to wait a full year to finally write about LEO. I couldn’t be more thrilled that it’s finally time.

I know what you’re thinking — oh, classic Leo behavior, Leos think everything revolves around them — and let’s start there: Everything does revolve around us. Literally. Leo is the only sign in the zodiac ruled by the sun. It’s the center of the solar system! The gravitational heart that gives life to everything on the planet and structure to our cosmic neighborhood!

So it’s true. Leos think highly of themselves, and they should. I am not afraid to say it: I love myself deeply. I am smart, I am beautiful, I am kind, I am talented and skilled and sweet and funny. I work hard, I do the best I can with what I have available to me in every situation. Why shouldn’t I love myself?

And that’s how I feel whenever people talk shit about Leos for loving themselves. Why don’t you love yourself? Why don’t you think so highly of yourself? There is just as much ego in constantly being down on yourself as there is in narcissism. You don’t get a gold star for suffering.

What is often overlooked about Leos is the fact that our love for ourselves extends to the people in our lives, too. Leos are incredibly generous. Nothing makes us happier than seeing our friends succeed, and a healthy Leo has an abundant mindset. We understand that love begets love, success begets success, beauty begets beauty. I don’t think I’m better than anyone else; I think we’re all gorgeous and trying and worthy of care.

There is something natural to me, as a Leo sun and Venus, about this big, beautiful Leo love, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve also had to train it, and one of the very first things I did when I started taking my spirituality seriously was to retrain my internal monologue. Today, with very, very few exceptions, I speak to myself only with deep, earnest love.

Sometimes that sounds like rooting myself on, forgiving myself quickly, gassing myself up, but just as often it looks like meeting myself deeply with the truth, watching how I project my insecurities onto other people, apologizing earnestly and often to myself and others, because that’s love, too.

I don’t call myself names. I no longer allow any story or thought not rooted in care for myself and others to live within me — and I’m not perfect. I fail. But when I do, I tell myself a story of resilience, of power, of leadership, of getting up and learning a new lesson, and of not forgetting who I am.

This truth of the Leo archetype is also revealed via the Tarot. In it, Leo is associated with the Strength card, number eight in the major arcana, and in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (the Bible), Rachel Pollack writes that the card speaks to bringing out the mysteries of our subconscious because we know we have the strength to face them.

“The lion signifies all the feelings, fears, desires, and confusions suppressed by the ego in its attempt to control life,” she writes. “Strength opens up the personality like Pandora opening her box. It does so, however, with a sense of peace, a love of life itself, and a great confidence in the final result.”

She adds, in one of my favorite lines in the entire book, “Unless we truly believe that the process of self-discovery is a joyous one we will never follow it through.”

This is what Leos are amazing at. It’s not just blind ego. It’s a confidence that we can go beyond the ego and meet ourselves, trust ourselves, and that the process will be a joyous one, because life is joyous. Essence is joyous. Divinity is joyous, and we’re all part of that.

What I want all of you to understand is that every single one of us has Leo in our charts. Whether you have planets or placements in Leo or not, there is a part of everyone’s chart that contains Leo, because our birth charts contain the fullness of the sky. It may not be a part of yourself that you’re deeply in touch with, but it’s there, and it’s important that you come home to it, let it warm you, let it nourish you.

So for the next 30 days, from July 22 through August 22, I want you to just see what happens if you speak to yourself only with love. See what happens if you start telling a story about yourself rooted deeply in sweetness and confidence and generosity. Watch the ways it spreads into the fullness of your life, makes you kinder, helps you see others in the same way.

And then go have fun. Life is short. Summer is already on the wane. Go dancing, go hiking, go swimming. Eat good food, take pictures of everything, tell people you love them. That’s the Leo way.

I love you all so much. I hope you tap into this thread of Leo energy and that it buoys you the way it’s buoying me. If nothing else, go be in the sun.

Reach out if you’re interested in scheduling a reading. I’ve so enjoyed tapping back into reading after some time off for book promo. Astrology is awesome.

XO,
A