LEO
You are the one you’ve been waiting for.
Meet yourself with enthusiasm.
Show up for the energy that is your essence.
From this point forward,
let no one degrade or deny that essence.
From this point forward,
let those who love you receive that essence.
From this point forward
any agreements you make should honor that essence.

3:00  

Hello Leo, welcome to your horoscope for Leo season, July 22 through August 22, 2021. This horoscope is for you Leo sun and Leo rising. Happy birthday if it's your birthday month! Happy new solar year for you all Leo risings. I don't always say this in your horoscopes, but I just want to out myself right now as a double Leo—Leo sun, Leo rising. I'm always speaking to myself when I'm speaking these horoscopes to you and I really hope that anything that's occurring for me is relevant and useful for you. And I just want to say I love you. I love Leos. Every time I meet a Leo, I'm like, you rock. And Leo risings, I love you, I get along with you so well. I love Leo energy, I love us. I've been watching a lot of videos recently of lioness prides, and I've been so touched by the tenderness between the lionesses and the ways that they look out for each other and their playfulness and their pride. And their pride in their connections and their friendships. And it's been really inspiring to me to think about the pride of lions as an archetype for Leo rather than that like singular masculine lion with his mane. I'm preferring to think more of the group of lady lions all hanging out together, you know, hunting, sunbathing, being badass bitches. And whatever your gender, sexuality, whatever, you can identify with the lioness pride. And I think that that's a big kind of theme for Leo season as we go into it is this relationship of the self with the community and with the others and with the relationships.

4:55  

Leo's opposite sign is Aquarius. And in any opposition, first of all, there is an axis of polarity that is not actually two opposites, right, it's two ends of an extreme. And in the axis of Leo-Aquarius, we have a kind of symbolism of the one and the many, so the individual self and the community of individual selves, right. Leo as a sign is ruled by the sun, it is the only sign in the zodiac to be ruled by the sun, you know, and all the other planets orbit around the sun. So the quality of Leo really has a kind of centrality to it. And everybody has Leo in their chart so everybody gets to express this centrality and feel into it, everybody has a sun in their chart. And for those of us who really resonate with the energy of Leo, one of the challenges that we have in our lives is understanding how to center ourselves and how to be in some kind of central space while also celebrating, amplifying, elevating, and centering others, and uplifting our communities. And that is the work that Leo is here to do. Leo is here to be proud and courageous and loving and playful and a leader. And it leads by example and the example that it sets is an example of friendship, and I think that this is shown in the axis of Leo-Aquarius. And the energy of Leo is brave, it is courageous, and the courage of Leo is the courage to love. It is the courage to love unapologetically, unabashedly, and sometimes to love in ways that are like maybe a little showy or dramatic or a little extra or over the top, but it is really a Leo strength to be generous, to be loving, to be playful, to be charismatic, to be entertaining. You know, Leo wants to have a good time. And Leo has a good time when the people around Leo are having a good time too, thus the lionesses.

7:08  

Now, there's an emphasis on the axis of Leo-Aquarius this season because we enter into Leo season with a full moon and the full moons always occur in opposite signs. And this is the first of two full moons that will occur in Leo season, one right at the beginning and one right at the end. And this is a symbol I think of a kind of bookending around a particular energetic shift that to me feels like a magnification of the larger themes of 2021 and also a turning point within them. And if you've been tuning in with astrology so far this year or listening to my horoscopes, you may have heard about some of the major aspects this year that have a lot to do with the sign Aquarius and also with one of Aquarius's—well both Aquarius's planetary rulers with saturn and uranus—I'm not going to get into the technicalities of astrology. I will plug my extended subscription right now, if you want to learn about planets and signs and all that, become a subscriber, hang out with me there, we'll talk about it a lot. But in these horoscopes, I just want to give you the gist. So a lot's going on in your opposite sign and a lot's going on in another of the fixed signs, Taurus. And as Leo, you are in constant relationship with Aquarius and Taurus because Leo is part of the fixed cross, it's part of the four signs that hold the center of the seasons. The fixed signs—Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio—are all signs of condensed and accumulated power. And Leo represents the power of the heart, Leo represents the power of life and life energy and that is heart energy. And there's so much going on in your opposite sign and so much going on in a sign that squares yours in Taurus, and so you are just getting it right now. I'm getting it, us Leos, anybody on the fixed cross, anybody with fixed placements, 2021 and 2022 are years to remember because we're really being put through it. A lot of challenges, a lot of tests, many people are probably experiencing some form of breakdown or another. I don't know about you, I got plenty on my plate. But what we need to remember right now is that the energy that is coming up astrologically is testing energy. And we test something to prove its strength and also to reveal its weaknesses. And so anything that is showing weakness right now, we have an opportunity either to address it and to fortify it, to ignore it, which will lead to a state of collapse or some kind of breakage, or to replace it with something else that works better. And this first full moon that we come into Leo season with brings an emphasis into the realm of relationships for us lions. These relationships include all relationships. Any relationship with another human being where you come into one-on-one contact and you have to negotiate the terms of that relationship. Who are you and who am I? What do you have to give? What do I have to give? What is our exchange? What's the deal we're making? What kind of relationship are we going to be in? This is the conceptual realm in some ways of relationship or the realm of the agreement and the contract. Now, we all have contracts for relationships that were written like thousands of years ago because we're people and so, you know, we're part of the life organism that's constantly reproducing itself and there are genetic codes that we're all walking around with, like family traumas, cultural entrainment, we all have our own life experiences, right. And so we got all kinds of programming telling us who we need to be and what we should expect in relationships and what the deal is going to be. And for most of us, I think, probably for all of us, a lot of our kind of baseline assumptions of what the relational contracts are going to be are coming from places that are very unconscious and unchosen. We didn't get there on our own. We got there because someone told us that's what it was going to be at probably very early on in our lives. Maybe not even explicitly, maybe it was just modeled to us. Maybe we were bribed. Maybe we were coerced. Maybe there was a big fear factor. You know, we all have trauma in relationships, for sure, and this is a full moon that might bring us really into contact with some of that trauma and with the processes of renegotiation that we are in with it—because this is the theme of saturn in Aquarius for Leo, is restructuring the relationship contracts. Now, the relationship contracts are not just what you get into when you can define a relationship like oh, yeah, that's my partner, like whatever partner means. The relationship contracts happen way before we ever determine whether or not we're partners. They probably happen in the first couple of weeks or months if not the first couple of seconds that we come into contact with another person. And these contracts have to do a lot with our sense of self worth and self value and the things that we think that we have to give and why anybody would love us and why anybody would give us the things that we want to get and what we think is valuable in another person and why we think we would want that and such and such and on and on. All of this is getting reworked right now. It all needs to get examined, it all needs to get tested, it all needs to go through some kind of process. And on the other side, our relationships are going to look very different. And I think for a lot of us, they're going to look a lot better. And that's the good news. And you definitely want to be remembering that right now because Leo season looks like it could be bringing some tests. And this is a test, I think of intention, it's an intense of endurance, it's a test of desire, you know, what do you want and what are you actually willing to work for? And if you're going to put in the work for something, what do you expect in return? There are major questions in the Leo solar chart, reflecting these kinds of themes right now about the give and the receive. And questions of self worth and self value are huge in this. So I just want to repeat what I said at the beginning of this horoscope like, I love you, Leos, I love us. People all the time talk shit about Leos and they're like, Leos are so dramatic, they're arrogant, they take up all the space, for sure, like, for sure, there are some Leos out there that, you know, could take it down a notch and self reflect a little bit. But pretty much most of the Leos I know are really hard working, very self critical, self exacting kinds of people who go beyond the beyond to do the most in whatever realms they're trying to do in and a lot of what they're doing is trying to love people. And because Leo is ruled by the sun, there is this feeling of, I need to put myself at the center of something. And how that manifests for a lot of us, certainly how it has manifested for me, I don't know about you, is taking on a lot of responsibility. And thinking like, oh it's my job to make this person happy, oh it's my job to make this relationship work. And that's not true, right? It's the job of anybody who's involved in it. It is not solely anybody's job to make anything work, right, unless it's like you're self employed and you're literally like the only person working for you. But in a relationship, that's not the case. So there's something that is really important right now, I think, for Leo, in determining what the value is in the relationship. And that includes the value that you have inherently, the value that you bring through your actions, the values that you have as a person, right, like what do you value in your relationships, your love languages, or whatever? And what do you value in others? And this is a like, really sticky and deep space because it is so deeply programmed, it has so much to do with parental narratives, with familial shit, with cultural shit, dadada. There are so many programs operating unconsciously that probably a lot of us are experiencing some form of recognizing where we have been under an illusion of value right now. And we might be in processes of dissolution. Like, wow, like this thing isn't actually as shiny as I thought it was. You know, this person that I thought was so great, like, actually—not that they're not great, but like, they're not so great, like, they're a human too. You know, like, I don't need to bow down to them every 10 seconds. Like, they're just—they're a human too, like, we can be on equal terms. There might be a kind of letting go of an illusion of your own value or your own lack of value. And it's like, oh, well, I bring value to relationships because I do all the work, you know, and then you might be going through an experience where you're like, well, I don't want to do the work anymore. And so then it's a crisis, like, well, what's my value? Or it's like, I don't have any value and now you're going through a process where you're like, actually, I bring a lot.

17:26  

So there's something that's happening right now that is about recognizing the exchange. And this—after the full moon that's just bringing so much to the surface, it's like, wow, okay, like look at this and look at this and look at this and look at this, and this is what you're working for, and do you actually want to and like here's all the stuff and here's all the information and like, what are you going to do with it all? There's just a lot. After that full moon as we move into the waning lunar cycle, what rolls out is clarity, I think. What starts to roll out are different kinds of perceptions and either disillusionment, which people think is like a bad thing but I always was like, why is it bad to be disillusioned because you're not under an illusion anymore, right? Like, doesn't seem like a bad thing. So there might be feelings of like coming to reality in some way, like being like, oh, okay, like this is the deal, alright. Like you might need to confront something, you might need to contend with something, you might need to look at where you've been tripping out about something, having a fantasy about something that's not accurate, placing value or misplacing value on yourself or on others. Something is coming out of the full moon that starts some kind of clarification process and restructuring process that is going to very deeply come into your relationships.

19:02  

And over the next couple of months, from now through October, there is a deep reflection that's happening and a need to rework some stuff. And then from October on until December, you're implementing new ways of being in your relationships. And so if up until now in this year, you've been like, holy what's going on, like, everything's everywhere, I don't even know, right, you're reaching the end of that phase of like, everything is everywhere, and everything is up in the air. And now pieces are starting to come into place, but they will be shifting around a lot for the next several months. So in this shift, you're having more and more understanding and invitations to understand. Whether or not you decide to understand is up to you and it has to do with your willingness to be in reality and not in your fantasy, not tripping out on some old program about who you are and who they are and what this means and whose everybody's roles is and what people are gonna get and this is the model for that and this is how we do this. You got to let all of that go. And get as present as you can with yourself. Because this is Leo season! And you're Leo, you're identifying as Leo and so this is your season. This is a time when, even though there's a ton of emphasis on others and on relationships and on exchange and what you're giving and what you're getting, there's also a lot of emphasis on you and who you are becoming and how you're recognizing yourself and how you're feeling your strength and how you're feeling your worth and what you are here doing in the world with your time and energy. And the more you free up your energy from outdated modes of faulty belief systems and fantastical fantasies about who should do what and dadada, then the more energy you have to actually show up for how you want to be in the world. You want to get out of that programming and into presence.

21:09  

The last few days of July and the first week or so of August brings a lot of new energy in. During this time, you get motivated to fortify and strengthen and act on what is valuable to you and what you feel your value is. This is a great time to feel confident, to boost your self esteem, it's a great time to make money, to get resources, to go after what you want, to be clear about what you want. In the first week of August, or from July 31 until August 8, there's a ton of stuff going on between Leo and Aquarius and a lot of contacts getting made. There are a lot of influences coming up in the chart that make me feel like you're going through something that's rapid. You might be up and down quite a bit. You might—watch your energy, because it feels like you're getting a lot of energy and there could be surges of energy and there's a lot of insight that can come in with that energy but it could also leave you feeling a little shell shocked, like a little depleted. It feels like you could have a kind of like up and down in that week and like a lot of stuff kind of moving around. And so as much as you can, try and remember that no feeling is permanent and everything is going to shift, don't get attached to any state of being in any particular moment, just know that things are changing rapidly, and really try and tune in with your energy. And this is especially true in this first week of August, and especially the first day of August, on August 1, the sun and mercury come together, they form their superior conjunction, and they both oppose saturn that day as well. And this is a powerful symbol for you coming very strongly into yourself and defining who you are for you. Not for other people, not for any partnership, not for any applause, not for any audience. Who you are for you. Who did you come here to be for you? What feels good to you? What brings you joy? What makes you feel alive? What makes you feel like you're connected to your own essence? This is your life, you did not come here only to be in relationships, you did not come here only to please other people, you did not come here only to take responsibility for all the things you want to take responsibility for. You came here to be a frickin Leo. And you know what, Leo is ruled by the sun. And what does the sun do? It shines, motherfucker. It combusts particles, it burns, it expresses itself. You are here to express your life essence, you are here to be vital in your aliveness, in whatever way that is. And that means authentic, it means you. Not any iteration of you that is false, that comes through some lens of somebody else's idea of who you should be. On August 1, take some time for yourself to tune in with yourself and ask yourself who you are. And ask yourself again and again, who you are, and get to the deepest answer you can find and then feel it in your body and let it emanate inside of you. And bring that into this week, into this first week of August, because a lot is happening.

24:55  

And it leads to a powerful new moon on August 8. And this is a new moon that is calling you to make new contracts, to get updated in your relational agreements so that you can be the person who you want to be in the world and do the things that you want to do in this world. And if you are not in relationship in ways that are actively supporting you and supporting the work that you want to be doing and supporting the person that you are and really caring for that essence, that energy that I was saying focus on August 1 "who are you?", you want relationships that help you be yourself in the best iteration of yourself that you can possibly be. You want that lioness pride, you want your ride or dies, you want to be surrounded by: yes, I can trust these people, I love these people, these are my people. Because that is really when you are your best self is when you are in your community.

26:04  

And from the new moon on, from August 8 through 22, there is more and more emphasis on, what are you building? You know, like what do you want to be sharing? What do you want to be thinking about? What are you cultivating in your life? What do you want to manifest? What do you want to grow? And I think that you are really wanting to grow something around intentionality in relationship and community right now. And I think that you can and you will find the best success when you are absolutely, unapologetically committed to your own essence and your highest self.

26:44  

The last couple days of Leo season, August 18 through the 22, again we've got like bam, bam, bam, a whole bunch of, wow, big powerful aspects that lead us to that second full moon in Aquarius. So here's what I want to say. August 18, you need to know what you stand for, what you want, and what you expect to receive for what you are giving. Any exchange that you are a part of whether it's an energetic exchange, a financial exchange, a time exchange doesn't matter. Get it clear for yourself. This is what you are giving, this is what you expect to give. August 18 is a powerful day for you to get really clear about some kind of like exchange situation. I don't know what that happens to mean for you. But it is definitely a good day to balance a budget or make a contract or something like that. As we move into the next couple of days, this theme of what do you want to give and what do you want to receive is a very powerful theme and what I would say is, give exactly what you want to give on these couple of days. Like really tune in with your own energy. Notice if you're out of alignment, if how you're expressing yourself is like, not actually what you want to be putting out into the world, change it. Use your mind, change your energy, change your attitude, give exactly what you want to be giving. Show up for your life in the way that you really want to show up for your life in those couple of days.

28:30  

And then that second full moon on August 22, just a couple of hours before the sun moves into Virgo, is a powerful full moon for you in your manifesting capacity. And that's why you want to lead up to it with, you are giving exactly what you want to give because you know what you want to build, you know what you're trying to cultivate, you know what you want to magnetize, you know why you are here, what kind of energy you are holding inside of yourself that you want to grow. Show up for it.

29:03  

I hope any or all of that is helpful for you. If you would like more astrology, check out your Year Ahead Report, you can find them at embodiedastrology.com in the horoscope section. They are an hour and a half long reading special for your sign where I go over the major themes, opportunities, and challenges with suggestions for how to work with them in 2021. Those readings are discounted now to 50% because we are halfway through the year, more than halfway actually. Also on my website, you can find information about my extended content subscription. You can get access to my month ahead calendars, worksheets, and workshops. I offer embodiment practices and tools for working with your own chart for doing astrology and applying astrology, as well as a monthly conversation space and q&a space. You can find all that info and sign up at embodiedastrology.com. Becoming a subscriber is a great way to support this work if you love it. My subscriptions are by donation, you can sign up for a recurring monthly donation. Other great ways to support this work include sharing with your friends and network and subscribing, rating and reviewing on your favorite listening platforms. And of course, leaving a tip if you have access to some coin right now, please consider sending it along if you enjoyed this horoscope. It will go directly to the production and sustaining this production of these free offerings. So thank you so much. I'm wishing you all the best in Leo season and beyond. Happy Leo! Bye for now.