Leo Season 2024 Is Ready To Roar, Ready or Not!

An Exciting Start Smooths Out In The Middle Of The Month, While The Tension Builds Toward A Dramatic End

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Intro To The Leo Archetype

There’s Leo the Lion, stepping into the fullness of the summer sun, roaring, shining like the Sun, just like a river dancing across a dusty land…

And why shouldn’t Leo shine?

After all, Leo Season is mid-summer in the northern hemisphere where the archetypes of astrology were created. In addition, reaching Leo Season is a milestone for the Sun as it makes its annual journey through the 12 signs of the Zodiac.

On that journey, it makes three trips through the four elements—Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. Cancer is the final sign of that first trip through the elements, so when the Sun enters the Fixed Fire sign of Leo, it’s beginning round two through the elements.

This means Leo Season is the first time the Sun repeats a trip through one of the elements and it gives the Sun confidence, a sense of having “been there, done that.”

However, with great power comes great responsibility, and once you’ve entered Leo Season, your responsibility is to get up on the stage and let your love light shine. Don’t hold back!

Are you up for that task?

If you’ve fulfilled the assignments of Aries (entering the world with courage), Taurus (settling into your body and developing your sensual skills), Gemini (playing and communicating with your siblings and anyone who will join you) and Cancer (beginning to understand your emotional needs and your role as part of a home and a family), you should be ready for the sacred opportunity of Leo.

And what is the sacred opportunity of Leo? Authentic, vulnerable self-expression on the stage of life.

Until now, the Sun has been like a human passing through childhood. With Leo, it enters adolescence. During these years, sometimes we project the appearance of confidence because there’s serious vulnerability in exposing who we truly are. This is why many join the safety of cliques in our teenage years.

After all, if we do find the courage to authentically express ourselves, what happens if we aren’t shown some appreciation for our efforts? What if everyone laughs at us? We’re likely to run back into our cozy Cancerian cave to lick our wounds, and it’s quite possible we won’t want to work with Leo again for a while.

If we’re lucky, we’ll have someone like the beautiful maiden in the Strength card of the Tarot to look after us, to restore our sense of self-confidence and also to tame the inner beast that can come out of us if our Leo nature is unfairly rejected.

The Strength Card in the Tarot is connected to the Leo archetype.

Having said that, because Leo is ruled by the Sun, it is connected to our sovereign selves and the ultimate goal of tapping into the Leo archetype is learning honest self-love and breaking any traps of co-dependency.

As with all of these archetypes, there is a fine balance to discover. After all, ask any person with basic astrological knowledge what negative traits they associate with Leo, and most will say arrogance, egotism, and self-centeredness.

The question is: how do we discover our inner Sun and shine it into the world while remembering that everyone has an inner Sun that wants to shine, and that we must encourage them as well? That’s one of Leo’s many challenges!

In addition, what if people are pumping us up for things that aren’t true to our nature? As evolutionary astrologer Steven Forrest writes about Leo in The Book of Fire,

“We can get all the attention in the world, but if it’s not a reaction to who we truly are, then it is only as nutritious to the soul as cotton candy is to the body.”

And to express who we truly are, to wear our heart on our sleeve, requires courage, something fit for the lion-hearted, not the meek. Quoting Forrest again,

“You have got to stand naked. For the applause to matter, it would also have to matter if there were no applause.”

As the Sun spends the next month in Leo, take some time to understand this archetype and see where you might apply it more in your life. A bit of good news here in 2024: The North Node of the Moon, which points to how we want to evolve, is still moving through Aries, and my keyword for that transit is courage.

Thus, your Soul wants you to be extra courageous right now.

And what better time to start than when the Sun is in its home sign of Leo, shining its light onto a world thirsty for spiritual sustenance?

Can you say it with me: “I am Leo, hear me roar!”

Good! I knew you could do it! Keep that up for a month, and you’ll be king of the jungle in no time.

Now, I’d like to share a brief tale about how I found one aspect of my inner Leo. To do that, let’s hop into my souped-up DeLorean and time travel backward 27 years to a sports arena in Las Vegas and yours truly in a crowd of monstrous hippies, trying to find his boogie shoes…

“Boogie While You’re Young:” A Personal Anecdote About How I Embraced My Inner Leo

We step out of our time machine and find ourselves at a Phish concert in Las Vegas at the start of what would turn out to be one of their most famous tours, Fall 1997.

As was my wont in those druggy days, I’d taken a dose of quality LSD and my world was turning inside out. On the stage were four shaggy hippies from Vermont, and around me was an arena of equally shaggy hippies, many turning into honest-to-goodness monsters in front of my psychedelicized eyes (I’ve seen Bigfoot, everyone, really!). The band was fully embracing their “cow funk” sound of that era, and almost everyone was going crazy.

But I was feeling self-conscious. I was a wallflower in an arena full of dancin’ fools.

Suddenly, though, as I was looking around at all those melting monster faces on top of gyrating bodies, I heard this “voice” in my head, a voice I’ve heard maybe at a dozen key moments in my life, and it said, “Bryan, boogie while you’re young.”

Along with those words came the understanding—obvious as soon as I had it, but completely beyond my awareness until I did—that nobody was watching me and, more importantly, who cared if they were? Wasn’t I here at this rock concert to have a good time?

Fuck, yeah, I was! I started with a head bop to the beat and before I knew it, the rhythm moved through my torso, down my legs and into my feet. Boogie while you’re young, indeed.

And folks, while I’m 51 and no longer young, I’m still boogieing. Over the half of my life that has occurred since that night in the fall of 1997, I’ve lost count of how many times people have told me how much they appreciated my unique way of getting down, how many have felt encouraged to show their authentic selves because they saw me showing mine.

No, I’m not going to win any dance contests, nor do I want to, but yes, I am expressing myself completely authentically. Moreover, nowadays, I’m often the first guy to start dancing, and I’m quick to become expressive.

While that may not seem like a fully Leo type of story since no one was watching me, one of thousands of people in a crowd in a Las Vegas sports arena, in my mind, people were watching. It took both LSD, the revolutionary Uranus of psychedelics, and a supremely talented, hardworking jam band at the peak of their powers to help me get up on that “stage” and I’ve been dancing there ever since.

Hopefully, that story invites you to find the dancing shoes of your inner Leo if you haven’t already. Who knows? Maybe Leo Season 2024, with its powerful astrology, is your chance to shine. Let’s break it down, week-by-week, and see, shall we?

An Overview Of The Month

Since Leo likes excitement, let’s use a rollercoaster metaphor to describe the contours of Leo Season 2024.

For the most part, the first week is a fun section of track, though it starts off with a challenging Sun in Leo opposing Pluto in Aquarius on July 23rd that is akin to Space Mountain when the darkness covers up a sudden drop. For those with night eyes, you might find something interesting in the darkness. Throughout the week, though, it’s like one of those energizing sections that sends you around many bends, wind in your hair and maybe up and down several smaller hills, keeping the energy flowing.

Then, as we approach the Leo New Moon on August 4th, we go around a bend and see that the coaster is about to head up a reasonably steep incline, steep enough where the coaster car does that thing where the track grabs it, jerking you in your seat and then a clicking, somewhat ominous chain starts to pull you upward. This slow down feels nice after all that excitement but there’s a sense that the scary part of the ride is coming up.

We reach the top of the incline during the third week and, to our surprise, we don’t go immediately down again. Instead, this is the sightseeing portion of our journey through Leo Season, right in the middle of the summer (or winter for you Southern Hemisphere folks), and a chance to appreciate the finer details of our reality when Venus and Mercury meet in Virgo on August 8th. However, as we move down this straightaway, our car begins to speed up and at the end of this section all we can see is a big drop off with the powerful Jupiter-Mars conjunction and Mercury retrograding back into Leo on August 15th.

And then, for our final week, the part of the ride we waited in line for. We go over that big-time, exhilarating drop and it sends us through some loop-the-loops, corkscrews and a stretch of track that by contract I’m not allowed to reveal when we reach the potent astrology of August 19th and 20th centered around one of the most dynamic Full Moon of the Year on August 20th. All I can say is that this is not a rollercoaster people soon forget and the main reason is because of this ending.

Notes on Leo Season Astro Data

Note 1: All dates are in Japan Standard Time (JST). To get all the charts and find the exact times in your area, go to July and August.

Note 2: The items with charts are this month’s most notable moments, which I’ll address in the article.

Note 3: When a planet enters a new sign, I’ve listed it in italics to help it stand out.

July 22-July 29: Where Do We Stand At The Start of Leo Season?

July 22, Still Cancer Season, But Important Pretext: Venus in Leo sextiles Jupiter in Gemini (5:42), Mercury in Leo squares Uranus in Taurus (7:20), Sun in Cancer trines Neptune in Pisces (12:24), Mars in Gemini trine Pluto in Aquarius (12:47)
July 22: Sun Enters Leo (16:45, chart)
July 23: Sun in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius (15:11, chart)
July 26: Mercury enters Virgo (7:42), Sun in Leo sextiles Mars in Gemini (11:32), Chiron in Aries goes retrograde (22:59)

July 22,2024: Sun Enters Leo (16:45, JST).

One of the challenges every astrologer faces, especially at the beginning of their journey as I am, is that a proper chart reading requires taking into account the whole chart rather than just focusing on singular aspects in isolation. This is even more difficult when breaking down a full month’s worth of astrology into a blog post that someone is intended to be able to finish over breakfast. Some charts are easier than others, but this chart for the Sun’s entry into Leo is packed with aspects, making it a complex story that could fill a whole blog post. (This is why many astrologers use video streaming sites to break down previews.)

I count eight active aspects in this chart, but to sum it up, we’ve got a lot of interaction between Fire and Air—the masculine expressions—so this will be a very energizing beginning to an energizing month.

We have two supportive Air sign trines (Mars in Gemini to Pluto in Aquarius, and Jupiter in Gemini to the Moon in Aquarius). These give these few days an intellectual flavor, and if you’ve wanted to work on anything related to communication or using your mind, there’s great support for that here.

On the other hand, the planet that rules communication, Mercury is in fiery Leo but is being challenged by a square to Uranus in earthy Taurus and it’s also slowing down as it prepares for its second retrograde of 2024. This might aggravate some of your grander designs with setbacks. However, if worked with wisely, it’s also an energy where something like planning a blueprint for some project in the physical realm might be rewarded. Just know it might come slower than you want.

The good news is malefic Saturn isn’t making any aspects to other planets so it won’t be holding back any ventures you may pursue.

July 23: Sun in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius (15:11 JST).

In my “The Astrology of The Second Half of 2024” post, I wrote about how the Sun in Leo will be making its first of two decades' worth of oppositions to Pluto in Aquarius on July 23rd and how I wanted to research whether this aspect had expressed itself in history when Pluto went through Aquarius in the late-1700s and mid-1500s.

Well, I did a few hours of digging, and the results didn’t produce much except for an insight that one of the many downsides of patriarchy is that half of the human family doesn’t show up in much of our histories. I noticed this when looking at birthdays in 1781 and seeing a long list of dudes I’d never heard about, but no women.

Anyway, to bring this section back full circle, I’m still learning here—and that includes how to do astrologically inspired research efficiently—so I’ll reiterate what I wrote in that 2024 preview post: let’s pay attention to this period around July 23rd and see if there are any particular expressions of Sun in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius that show up. Look for clashes between individuals wanting to express themselves (Sun in Leo) and collectives not taking too kindly to that (Pluto in Aquarius).

The last thing to note this week relates to Mercury. While it enters Virgo on July 26th, because of its upcoming retrograde (August 5th-29th), as Leo Season starts,Mercury will have already entered what's known as its shadow. This is the degree to which Mercury will move back during the retrograde.

In this case, that’s Leo 21 degrees 24 minutes. Mercury first reached that degree around mid-day here in Japan on Wednesday, July 17th, when we were still dealing with the energies of the powerful Mars-Uranus conjunction in Taurus (which will probably be forever connected with the explosive events in Pennsylvania at a rally for presidential hopeful Donald Trump.)

This suggests that whatever transpires during these final days of Cancer Season are things Mercury will want us to revisit through the end of August when its retrograde finishes. One way to work with this is to recognize that whatever happened in your life or the world just before this Leo Season is stuff you’ll have some extra time to review, so there’s no need to feel like you must say everything all at once.

Considering how nervous many astrologers had been about that Mars-Uranus conjunction period—and the astrology we’re about to get to in August—this looks like a small blessing from Mercury and a reminder that much as Mercury Retrogrades get a bad wrap, like every other aspect in astrology, there’s a positive side to them, too.

July 30—August 6: Seeding Slower, Creative Projects

July 31: Venus in Leo trines Chiron in Aries (4:54)
Aug. 2: Venus in Leo square Uranus in Taurus (22:26)
Aug. 4: Mars in Gemini sextile North Node in Aries (2:16), New Moon in Leo (20:12, chart)
Aug. 5: Venus Enters Virgo (11:23), Mercury goes retrograde in Virgo (13:56)

August 4: New Moon in Leo (20:12, JST).

New Moons are times to plant seeds and when the New Moon is in Leo, ruled by the Sun, it’s a great time to seed creative, playful projects, anything that promotes authentic self-expression. With the 2024 New Moon in Leo on August 4th, there’s support from an expansive, energized mind with the Mars and Jupiter conjunction forming and making a sextile to the Sun and Moon.

A small bummer is that Saturn in Pisces is making a superior square to Mars and Jupiter, which could bring a heaviness to those thoughts and may frustrate any desire to move quickly. Having said that, as someone actively working with Saturn since the start of 2023, Saturn can reward those with patience and perseverance.

Here’s an activity that could work well for these energies. If you’ve read any of my previous previews, you know I’m a big proponent of journaling. For this week, why not try doing this by hand? Get your favorite writing utensil, tap into Venus in Leo’s love for something beautiful, buy a fancy diary, and spend 30 minutes a day writing … not typing.

A friend and I have been talking about our results doing this, how when one writes by hand, it encourages a slower, more deliberate thinking process, which changes the nature of the writing. If nothing else, this is a productive way to work with Saturn’s slow-it-down energies. Then, at the end of the week, you can look at your results and decide if you want to keep at it!

In addition, after the very active astrological energies of the past few weeks, this week has calmer skies. Considering it comes at the height of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, this could be a good time to hit the beach with one’s favorite summertime novel or find a local watering hole to re-enact a 1980s Mountain Dew commercial.

There’s not a lot else to report on for this week so let’s move on.

August 7—15: Appreciating the Nitty-Gritty Beauty of Life

Aug. 7: Sun in Leo sextiles Jupiter in Gemini (22:36)
Aug. 8: Venus and Mercury conjunct in Virgo (12:12, chart)
Aug. 15: Mars in Gemini conjunct Jupiter in Gemini (0:21), Mercury leaves Virgo for Leo (9:16)

Aug. 8: Venus and Mercury conjunct in Virgo (12:12, JST).

Is there a part of you that wants to dedicate some of your mental focus to cataloging or organizing the finer things in life? This week, when Venus meets retrograde Mercury in Virgo (August 8), would be a good time to do that.

After all, renowned chef and best-selling author Julia Child was born with a Venus-Mercury conjunction in Virgo, and she rose to fame with the publication in 1961 of her critically acclaimed, massive Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which was “lauded for its helpful illustrations and precise attention to detail.”

As the exalted ruler of Virgo, Mercury in Virgo loves getting into the nitty-gritty of things, and while Venus is in its fall in Virgo, it expresses a refined sense of taste that, when combined with communicative Mercury, could make this a good week to start that literary criticism career you’ve been pondering.

Or maybe you’re a guy like me who can get lost in the stats pages of your local sports section, appreciating how athletic feats can be measured with numbers. Or maybe you would rather turn your gaze to the athletic beauty of individuals from around the world competing for Olympic medals during the Paris Summer Olympics, which will culminate this week.

As those Games near their end, the Mars-Jupiter conjunction in Gemini will be building, and that makes me wonder if we might see more records broken than usual at these Games, with Jupiter inflating Mars’ athletic prowess.

Regardless of what happens, I hope the world can take a moment to appreciate the original spirit of the Games, which was to bring the world together and offer friendly competition as a replacement for the ugliness of war. Considering the fiery final week of astrology in store for us in Leo Season, taking time out to show gratitude for peaceful, global interactions seems a worthy cause.

August 16—August 22: A Fitting, Fiery Grand Finale

Aug. 16: Sun in Leo trines Chiron in Aries (2:12), Mars in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces (14:29, chart)
Aug. 18: Retrograde Mercury in Leo square Uranus in Taurus (18:46)
Aug. 19: Sun in Leo conjunct Mercury in Leo (10:57), Venus in Virgo square Jupiter in Gemini (14:52), Venus in Virgo opposite Saturn in Pisces (17:29)
Aug. 20: Sun in Leo square Uranus in Taurus (1:45), Jupiter in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces (6:45, chart), Full Moon in Aquarius (3:25, chart)
Aug. 22: Sun enters Virgo (23:55)

August 16: Mars in Gemini square Saturn in Pisces (14:29, JST).

Flash back to April 10th when Mars met Saturn in Pisces, just after the powerful total solar eclipse crossed Mexico and the United States. Do you remember anything about that time?

I bring this up now because on August 16th, Mars in Gemini will form the “first quarter” square with Saturn in Gemini, which means a chance to revisit themes that were brought up when the two planets met in April.

In my Aries Season 2024 Preview, I suggested that the Saturn-Mars conjunction was “a really powerful time to devote oneself to a slow-but-steady creative project.” Have any of you been on such a path? If not, there’s always time to start! With Mars energized by some powerful aspects this fall, finding ways to channel your vigorous energies into something creative and spiritual (Saturn in Pisces) is one way to work with what is otherwise a difficult aspect.

But that’s only the tone-setter for what is truly the grandest finale to any of the months we’ve been through since beginning our astrological journey around the Zodiac in March.

August 19th and 20th deserve a separate blog post. I may do that. For now, in the interest of time, let’s focus on the Full Moon in Aquarius chart below and finish with some thoughts on it. Don’t worry, because those six aspects listed for August 19th and 20th are all happening close to each other so we can use each to help us form a holistic outlook for this powerful period.

August 20: Full Moon in Aquarius (3:25,JST).

Before we focus on the main event of this chart—the challenging, hard aspects—I do want to note that there are some smoother, soft aspects between the outer planets (Uranus in late Taurus, Neptune in late Pisces, and Pluto in early Aquarius). These are with us throughout Leo Season, and provide a dreamy, creative depth to this summer for those willing to go there.

But those are subtler, longer-lasting energies, and they will be overshadowed by the hard aspects from the faster-moving planets around August 19th and 20th.

In the chart, those hard aspects are the two dark red triangles sitting on top of each other. Red lines represent hard aspects—oppositions and squares—and when they form a triangle like that, it’s called a “T-square.” This is considered the most intense and volatile aspect in astrology. And we have two of them at once! Yippee!

Reader, my skill as an astrological interpreter and experience reading charts are still not solid enough to sort this sucker out.

At the very least, though, let’s follow Mercury in Virgo’s advice to break a complex system down into its parts and see if that helps us make sense of things.

Our first T-square is in Fixed signs with the Sun (Fixed Fire, Leo) opposite the Moon (Fixed Air, Aquarius) and both square Uranus (Fixed Earth, Taurus). Fixed Sign T-squares can make us stubborn and inflexible. However, Uranus, which is the planet that is aspecting both of the other planets, is the one to focus on here and Uranus usually is anything but stubborn. Hmm. Moving on.

Our second T-square is in Mutable signs with Venus (Mutable Earth, Virgo) opposite Saturn (Mutable Water, Pisces) and both square Jupiter (Mutable Air, Gemini). This can mean indecisiveness and flakiness. Like Uranus, Jupiter is in the power position here. In this case, Jupiter’s transit through Gemini certainly might be lending a sense of mental overwhelm to our lives, so that indecisive flakiness could be intensified.

Stubborn and indecisive, eh? Which is it? Well, it’s both!

This is where looking at your natal chart to see how these aspects interact with your psychology can help sort things out.

However, one of the great gifts of learning the language of archetypes through something like astrology is that you can begin to recognize that one energy has a positive and a negative expression. Thus, let’s look at those four words we used above to describe these T-squares—stubborn, inflexible, indecisive, and flakiness—and see if we can find antonyms for each.

How about adaptable, flexible, decisive, and reliable? How about meditating on these four words and how to incorporate them into your life during this period at the end of Leo Season? Can’t hurt to try, right?

Indulging The Political Junkie In Me

Maybe, though, you’ll be like me, a gawking passerby at a morbid car wreck, and you can’t help but spend some of this time observing whatever goes down in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) from August 19nd-22nd.

If you’re not here for any of the politics, you can skip ahead to the conclusion, but for those of you who, for whatever reason, have that same itch I do, here are a few very early thoughts on this event and how the astrology relates to it.

First, the modern Democratic Party is a far cry from the 1980s Reagan White House, which consulted an astrologer to determine key dates on their calendar; otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen these three days when the skies were so foreboding.

Many secular observers have already been looking at this 2024 DNC and discussing shades of the historic 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. That one took place at the end of a long, hot summer of urban riots, student unrest over the Vietnam War, and political assassinations. (A wonderful soundtrack evoking this era is Jimi Hendrix’s acid-rock-funk classic double album Electric Ladyland, specifically the song “House Burning Down”).

And, like 2024, the Democratic Party was full of infighting, mainly over the Vietnam War, after the incumbent president, Lyndon B. Johnson, announced in the spring that he wouldn’t run for re-election. Flash forward to the DNC in late August 1968, and tens of thousands of protesters arrived in the streets of Chicago, eventually leading to massive violence that some dubbed a “police riot,” resulting in hundreds of arrests and many people, including the police, injured. (For more details, go here.)

Nobody wants something like this to happen again, yet throughout coverage of the 2024 Presidential Election, it’s hard not to notice how often themes about “threats of violence” show up. As this article from USA Today in May suggests, there are reasons for this. However, I keep falling back into a sense that much of the unrest is being intentionally churned up by irresponsible media or simply by people not doing enough to peer into their shadows, work with them, and not project them into the world to go to war with.

Ultimately, while my work will cover these hot-button topics, I aim to raise awareness and offer solutions, not pour gasoline onto any fires.

To finish this section up, as of this writing, I’m not even convinced there will be a DNC in Chicago in August 2024. Today, I listened to Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn discuss some wild plans the Democrats are considering to work around their Joe Biden jam. And during the week that this article was in editing mode, calls for Biden to step down have grown louder and louder, all while he apparently got COVID-19. (MAKE SURE HE’S STILL THERE WHEN POST!)

We are in uncharted territory, so while the convention may go forward, it doesn’t look like it will be at all conventional. And with the cosmic trickster Uranus a key player in the astrological mix, squaring both the Sun and Moon, the best advice I can give is to purchase plenty of popcorn, be extra big-hearted to everyone (even your political enemies), and maybe even pass them some of the popcorn as we all witness history.

And, really, who knows? Maybe it will all be a return to the normal of the boring conventions of yesteryear? I won’t put my money on that, but predicting Uranus transits is a fool’s errand, so popcorn parties it is!

Conclusion

What a month, eh? Do things ever quiet down around these parts? Well, if my second half of 2024 preview is correct, while it will be an eventful fall, I expect Virgo Season to be a little less eventful than Leo Season. Of course, only time will tell. For now, let’s remember to remain playful, open-minded and big-hearted as we move through this powerful Leo Season. After all, the lion wouldn’t have it any other way!

Thanks for reading! You can support me simply by sharing my stuff, by buying me a coffee, by linking to me on Twitter or Facebook , or by listening to my 2024 podcast, The Daily Bryan Podcast. I’m having a good time over there and hope to “see” you!

You can also check out my epic novel of magical realism set in the momentous years following 9-11, “The Teacher and the Tree Man.” You can find that book in full here, or broken down into four shorter books (book 1, book 2, book 3 and book 4) or you can listen to it for free.