Leo Zodiac Sign

Leo, the Lion (♌︎), is the fifth sign of the zodiac. In the tropical zodiac the Sun passes through the Leo zodiac sign from about July 22 to August 22, US Eastern Time; the exact moment of the change shifts every year. In astrology Leo is the Fixed Fire sign, ruled by the Sun.

Leo at a glance

• Dates (usual): July 22 – August 22 (US Eastern Time)
• Symbol: The Lion
• Glyph: ♌︎
• Element: Fire
• Modality: Fixed
• Ruling planet: Sun (traditional and modern)
• Polarity: Positive / masculine (yang, active)
• Opposite sign: Aquarius

Born near the start or end of Leo? Check your Sun sign in your birth chart

Leo dates come from geometry rather than the calendar. The sign begins when the Sun reaches 120° of celestial longitude, measured from the Sun's March equinox position, and ends at 150°, where Virgo takes over. The Sun's yearly cycle does not divide into whole calendar days, and leap days reset the calendar, so the Sun hits 120° at a different clock time each summer. In Eastern Time the start date stays the same: from 2020 through 2030, Leo begins on July 22 every year. The last day is August 22 in nine of those years and August 23 in the other two.

The times come from NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris data. Look at 2027: the change arrives at 9:05 PM in New York, which is already July 23 in UTC. Any evening Eastern change works this way, while a change shortly after midnight Eastern Time still falls on the previous calendar day in Pacific Time.

On a change day, the date can't settle your sign by itself; your birth time and place do. Since 120° belongs to Leo and 150° to Virgo, the Sun sits in exactly one sign at any moment. "Cusp" is the popular name for these borderline birthdays, a label for the date rather than a personality made of two signs. The birth chart works out the Sun's sign from your birth time and city.

The Leo personality, as astrologers describe it, rests on three ingredients. Fire is the element, the one Leo shares with Aries and Sagittarius. Fixed is the modality: a sign's modality reflects its place within its season, and Leo is the middle sign of northern summer, after Cardinal Cancer and before Mutable Virgo. The Sun is the ruler, and Leo is the only sign it rules; the tradition counts a planet in its own sign as strengthened. Add Leo's positive, expressive polarity, and the picture is of a sign that runs on enthusiasm and holds its course.

These characteristics of a Leo zodiac sign come from an interpretive tradition that has not been scientifically validated, so check them against your own life instead of reading them as a description of you.

Strengths in the tradition

• Lasting enthusiasm (Fire and Fixed): Fire supplies the spark and Fixed keeps it going, so Leo is pictured as still devoted to the band or the cause long after the first rush.
• Stepping forward (Sun): With the Sun as ruler, astrologers read Leo as ready to set the tone when a group needs someone to go first.
• Putting itself into its work (Fire, positive polarity): The tradition links the sign with creative self-expression: the hand-lettered sign for the yard sale, the toast at a friend's wedding.
• Encouragement (Sun and Fire): Leo is read as the one who talks a nervous friend into sending the application.

Challenges in the tradition

• Digging in (Fixed): Once a position is stated in public, changing it can feel like losing face.
• Taking up the room (Fire, positive polarity): The same expressiveness can crowd out quieter people at a meeting or around the dinner table.
• Taking critique personally (Sun): With so much of the self poured into a project, feedback on the work is described as landing like feedback on the person.

Leo is Latin for "lion" (in Greek, Léōn), and the glyph is ♌︎. In Greek mythology, Zeus created the constellation to commemorate his son Heracles completing his first labor, the defeat of the Nemean lion.

Egyptians worshipped the constellation, which they called Knem, because it was present during the flooding of the Nile, a sign of plentiful harvests to come. The lion also stood for power and royalty there: Tutankhamun's gold throne has lion heads where the seat meets the front legs and clawed feet at the end of each leg.

The sign and the constellation are two different things. The sign is the exact stretch of the ecliptic from 120° to 150°, measured from the March equinox. Constellations vary in width along the ecliptic: Virgo takes up five times as much ecliptic longitude as Scorpius. The equinox point also creeps backward against the stars, a motion called precession whose discovery is credited to Hipparchus around 130 BC. Because of it, the tropical signs slide out of line with the constellations, and with the star-based sidereal zodiac, by about 1.4° per century. Astrolivo, like Western astrology in general, keeps the season-based tropical signs.

In love and friendship, astrologers read Sun-ruled Fixed Fire as wholehearted and loyal. Affection is expected to show on both sides: plans made in advance, birthdays remembered, a partner who speaks up for you when you are not in the room. On compatibility the tradition speaks in elements and polarity rather than promises. The Leo sign is grouped with the other Fire signs, Aries and Sagittarius, and it shares its positive polarity with the three Air signs, Gemini, Libra and its opposite, Aquarius.

At work, the tradition connects the Sun and Fixed Fire with roles that are visible and owned: running the event, presenting the plan, building something that carries your name. Long stretches of unseen work, or credit that keeps going to someone else, are read as the harder fit.

Calling someone "a Leo" refers to the Sun's sign at their birth, the single placement that simplified, popular sun-sign astrology works with. For most birthdays the date alone settles your Sun sign; around a late-July or late-August change, the birth time and place make the call, as described under Leo dates. Horoscopic astrology, born in the Hellenistic world, adds the Moon, the other planets, the Ascendant and the houses.

Take an example chart with the Sun in Leo, the Moon in Pisces and Virgo rising. An astrologer would set an outgoing Fire Sun against a Water Moon and a Mutable Earth Ascendant, so this person might come across as more careful and reserved at first than the Sun sign alone suggests.

The Moon has a sign of its own: Moon in Leo describes a different placement, the one read for emotional needs. Your rising sign depends on the exact time of birth. The free birth chart shows your Sun, Moon and rising sign together once you add the date, time and city of your birth; no sign-up is required.

Leo follows Cancer, the Cardinal Water sign ruled by the Moon, and comes before Virgo, the Mutable Earth sign ruled by Mercury. To compare the whole set, open all zodiac signs.

FAQ

What are the Leo sign dates? About July 22 to August 22, US Eastern Time. Every year from 2020 to 2030 the Sun enters Leo on July 22 Eastern Time; in 2027 that moment, 9:05 PM EDT, is already July 23 in UTC.

What planet rules Leo? The Sun. Unlike Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces, Leo has no separate modern ruler, so traditional and modern astrology agree.

Is Leo a fire sign? Yes. Leo is the Fixed member of the Fire group; Aries is the Cardinal one and Sagittarius the Mutable one.

How this page was made

Prepared by the Astrolivo editorial team using Sun ingress times computed from NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris data and five Wikipedia articles: Leo (astrology), Zodiac, Astrological sign, Planets in astrology, and Astrology and science. Every fact was checked against them. Interpretations of the sign are presented as the tradition's readings.