We’re saying goodbye to Cancer Season (and the recent Cancer Mercury Retrograde) and hello to Leo Season, but there’s still Big Feelings™️ in the air. We’ve got Saturn and Chiron stationing retrograde, Mars entering Cancer, and Eclipses on the horizon. Amidst some chaotic cosmic weather, the Sun in Leo serves as a beacon of inspiration, beckoning each of us into creative problem-solving and playful processing . . . Read on for a breakdown of the specific transits, reflections on attention-seeking behavior, and full horoscopes for each zodiac sign.
Leo Season Highlights
Leo Season is July 22 through August 21
Key Dates
July 23: 🏁 Mercury Stations Direct & 💥 Sun square Chiron
Time to be honest with ourselves about what we learned no longer works for us, while honoring the real tension between balancing self-help and just existing!
July 26: ↩️ Saturn in Aries Stations Retrograde & 🔗 Sun opposite Pluto & The Lunar Nodes enter Aquarius and Leo
through some existential crisis, we are reworking boundaries and learning how to better honor our limits as we enter a new 18-month chapter of reckoning with authenticity and belonging — how to individuate while still remaining connected
July 29: 🌕 Full Moon in Aquarius & 💥 Venus square Mars & 🌀 Jupiter Cazimi
illuminating capacity for connection and highlighting where where we’ve been too detached or in denial about something. Amidst high potential for conflict, our faith in something gets a reset.
August 3: ↩️ Chiron Stations Retrograde
reworking our perspective on what makes us feel insecure
August 6: ➡️ Venus enters Libra
shifting relationship dynamics toward a more romantic, harmonious, and justice-oriented demeanor
August 9: ➡️ Mercury enters Leo & 💥 squares Chiron
inviting creative problem-solving and playful banter while emphasizing tension around the narratives of when we are “too much” or “not enough”
August 10: 🔗 Venus opposite Neptune
emphasizing challenge and opportunity around chasing our dreams — be careful about being too delulu but also we weary of holding yourself back
August 11: ➡️ Mars enters Cancer & 🔗 Mercury opposite Pluto
emphasizing challenge around communicating our fears & asking us to feel the feelings we need to move through first so we can do what we need to!
August 12: 🌑 New Moon TOTAL ECLIPSE in Leo
opening a portal for reflection on attention-seeking patterns & an opportunity for surrendering to change around visibility, creativity, and initiation
August 15: 🌀 Mercury conjunct Jupiter
An important moment to pay attention to signs and signals from the Universe
August 17: 💥 Mars square Neptune
creating friction around how long certain goals and projects are taking — adjust your expectations and communicate transparently!
August 21: 🔗 Venus opposite Saturn
emphasizing challenge around needs versus desires — where is there overlap and where does something ultimately have to get compromised?
August 22: ➡️ Sun enters Virgo
initiating a new zodiac season!
Leo Season Breakdown
What do you take pride in?
Genuinely sit with that question for a moment.
Once you have a few things in mind, consider a follow up question: which of those things would you continue to do or be even if you didn’t get any external validation or recognition for it?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting or needing validation! It’s human. As the Sun returns to its home in the sign of Leo, we are reminded that shining brightly and getting attention for our magnitude is a beautiful thing! And, when we get too absorbed in the likes, compliments, and social reinforcement of it all, we can lose the authentic joy and meaning that anchors us into our unique expression.
The very fist day of Leo Season, Mercury stations direct after a few weeks retrograde in the watery and moody sign of Cancer. Are you confused about an ex? Frustrated by plans that went askew? Feeling on edge because things feel fine but you can’t predict what struggle will rear its head next? Wherever this retrograde has taken you, now is the time to integrate the FEELINGS that have come up, so that after eclipse season (yes, that’s happening next), you can take action that is less superficially reactive and more aligned with your truth.
On August 12, we have a New Moon Total Solar Eclipse in the sign of Leo. This opens a powerful portal for reflection on your attention-seeking patterns. How do you both consciously and unconsciously seek attention from others? How do you respond once you get it? What kinds of attention feels comfortable and which don’t? Are you getting the kinds and amounts of attention you want? Usually, new moons are a good time to set new goals and intentions for the month or 6-month period ahead. Eclipses, however, are not necessarily the best time to plant seeds in this way. My advice is rather to take note of what’s coming up, create containers for catharsis and care, and use this as an opportunity to surrender to change rather than trying to control outcomes. In the sign of Leo, this eclipse may bring up realizations about visibility and your creative path.
Change is inevitable. How can you embrace it? In moments of struggle, sometimes humor is the medicine. This Leo Season offers us the invitation to lean into play — especially when that feels hard. The right doses of pleasure and levity are part of what makes integration and growth possible. When we make space for that which we actually enjoy, our bodies soften, our nervous systems settle, and we can slip more easily into a sense of flow and presence. Joy reconnects us with who we are underneath obligation and pressured performance.
And as The Lunar Nodes shift into Aquarius and Leo, it is ripe time to lean into your unique, individual expression! Unmask! Decondition! Rewild! There’s never been a better time to, respectfully, be an absolute FREAK!
Below are horoscopes for each zodiac sign that offer specific guidance for where and how to surrender to change while still honoring your authentic center. Please read for both your Sun Sign AND your Rising Sign for a more complete picture!
Leo Season Horoscopes
♌ LEO
Welcome to your season, Leo. It’s the time of the year where you get to shine extra brightly, call in all the love, and make big wishes. How will you honor all that this past sun cycle has taught you? How will you celebrate? We’re all being asked to surrender to some significant changes right now. For you, that change is fundamentally tied to your sense of self: your personality, your aesthetic, your vessel. Maybe you are feeling moved to try out a new look or style or maybe it’s more internal and you have new boundaries or sense of value emerging. Whatever it is, let yourself be moved. Let yourself evolve and blossom. As your appearance or demeanor shifts, notice which relationships support your exploration and which ones are uncomfortable with your glow up or simply not matching your energy. The connections that are an authentic tether to your core self will meet you where you are at with honesty, compassion, and celebration.
♍ VIRGO
Sometimes popular astrology can paint your sign as rigid or needing things done a specific way. Yes, Virgo, you have systems that work really well and are good at maintaining them, but as a mutable sign, you are actually quite good at pivoting — when warranted. You are skilled at analyzing when changing something is useful, practical, and worth it. This eclipse season, you will be given opportunities to practice the balancing act of discerning going with the flow versus holding steady and firm about something. Honor your routines, your rituals, and your rhythms as they are part of your authentic center. AND, notice when something that’s comfortable and familiar maybe is not longer spiritually or energetically aligned. Just because something is working for you doesn’t mean it’s nourishing you. Leo Season encourages you to practice radical honesty by saying yes to invitations that replenish rather than deplete your energy.
♎ LIBRA
Hi, Libra. Welcome to Leo season. It’s the time of the year where the Universe asks you to assess the balance and sustainability of your social life, and eclipse season makes that process extra spicy. As a Venus-ruled air sign, sometimes you can get so centered on maintaining connection that you overlook fundamental incompatibility. Not all symbiotic relationships are based in mutuality. Technically, parasites are symbiotic! I’m not trying to scare you; I just want to look out for you! Do the circles you spend time in match your values? Are the people you show up for showing up reciprocally for you? Are you having a good time!? Your core, authentic self is creative and dynamic. When do you dim this light? Around who? Notice that. Be real with yourself about that. And adjust accordingly.
♏ SCORPIO
Scorpios are known for needing their privacy — keeping secrets, holding a mysterious allure, having a hot vampire cave to retreat to. This breathing room free from an unwanted gaze is a core part of the archetype, and probably a deep need of yours. At the same time, Scorpio energy can be blunt and say what needs to be said. Scorpio can sting. Scorpio is often willing to speak truth to power. Something is changing for you right now around what you want to make public and what you want to keep private. Something is changing about where and how you want and need visibility. As we head into eclipse season, pay attention to this tension: the urge to hide and the urge to expose, the things you want attention for and the things you want to remain in the sacred underground.
♐ SAGITTARIUS
This Leo Season is also eclipse season, which serves as an energetic reboot, like restarting a computer to clear out glitches. What kind of reset does your operating system need right now? Looking at the cosmic forecast, I would guess that part of what could use some shifting is how you are talking to yourself. Something is changing in your worldview, in your life philosophy. For some of you it may be a drastic shift in faith or cultural context, and for others it may be a more subtle expansion or contraction around beliefs you’ve been operating under. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, pay attention to when you automatically assume something is good, bad, or in some other absolute category. Question it. At your core, as a mutable fire sign, you are authentically open to changing your mind, learning as you go, and committing to the pursuit of truth being perpetual. Honor this hunger to learn and bring it to corners of your life this season that have sneakily gone unquestioned as of late. The goal isn’t to get it “right” but rather to catch up with your current self and experience the relief that comes with embodied coherence.
♑ CAPRICORN
Capricorn, you carry a steady kind of drive that not everyone understands. From the outside, it might look like traditional ambition, or it might show up in quieter, more unconventional ways. Either way, you are often playing the long game with the responsibilities you hold and the private goals you’re building toward. This Leo Season, coinciding with eclipse season, is asking you to check in with your inner engine to make sure you are supported by what you’re committing to. Your goals and obligations may be shifting, and that doesn’t mean you’re failing or losing direction! It means you’re evolving! Pay attention to where you’ve been running on sheer willpower, and where you could choose something that actually energizes you. You don’t have to earn rest, and you don’t have to perform strength. Let this season be a reminder: your authentic capacity is deep, and you deserve a path that honors you back.
♒ AQUARIUS
Leo is the opposite sign of the zodiac from you, Aquarius. This time of the year teaches you about yourself through the lens of how you relate (or don’t!) to others. You can, more than most, be okay with — and even take pride in — being different. You are willing to be the oddball if it’s your truth. As you embrace what sets you apart and keep embodying your authentic expression, inevitably you will run into the experience of being misunderstood. You’ll say something you thought was funny that left others uncomfortable. You’ll say something in earnest and get laughter. When is this something to shrug off and when does it become an indication that something is (or needs to be) shifting in your relationships? Notice when you laugh. Notice when you tense. Notice when you really want someone to get it and when you could care less. Something is beginning to change around what you want, what you need, and what you are available to receive from others. Just because you do well as the oddball doesn’t mean you aren’t deserving of appreciation and deep witnessing.
♓ PISCES
For the last 18 months, the eclipses have been happening in your sign (and your opposite sign, Virgo). Now, this eclipse season, the baton is being passed over to Leo (and Aquarius). Over the last year and a half, you’ve without a doubt learned more about yourself and you’ve probably gone through some relational changes! Breakup? New relationship? Dating around and . . . finding out? Even if you’re connections have remained consistent, you’ve probably explored new territory together. Now, regardless of who is or isn’t by your side, the focus shifts to honoring what connects you to an authentic flow state. For some of you it’s art or music, for others dance or working out, for others meditation. Whatever helps you experience total presence and immersion is important right now. And that’s different than escape or numbing! The rest of this year (and into the next) is asking you to take your health seriously, and that likely means change around your routines, work, and other activities that take a lot of your time and energy. Your responsibilities are changing, and that might feel daunting at first, but if you stay connected to what lights you up and feeds your soul, the change may feel surprisingly welcome and relieving!
♈ ARIES
With Saturn currently moving through your sign, Aries, I wonder what new boundaries or limitations you are coming up against. You like momentum, movement, and following the spark of your impulse in the moment. Patience can be harder. Saturn demands patience. Something is changing, whether you like it or not, about how you have fun. Maybe things that used to give you a dopamine boost are feeling flat lately. Maybe the people you used to go to karaoke with every weekend are busy. Maybe what used to feel casual is now tender. Maybe you’ve outgrown some things, or maybe they just aren’t available. Whatever the case, please don’t despair! This is part of the cosmic tides. Can you treat this as an experiment or creative challenge to find what, who, and where is available to match and enliven your vitality? Try something new! When you’re in your authentic flow, you can really expand into a wide network of people and opportunities. Any frustration coming up is valid, and, it was never meant to leave you stuck. Embrace variety. Keep trying!
♉ TAURUS
Happy Leo Season, Taurus! Both you and Leo are fixed signs. This means you can be stubborn, you’re really good at holding things down, and you sometimes share a struggle with letting things go. Leo Season this year is also eclipse season, which means we are all being asked to let something go. For you, that likely requires surrendering to change within your home or family. Where do you feel at home? What feels familiar? Some of you may be moving, saying goodbye to relatives, or otherwise shifting your tangible residence or relationships. For others of you, this may be more internal — letting go of certain ways of being that you inherited from your family of origin, reorienting to new ways of inhabiting yourself. Your archetype is the bull, so at your authentic core you have a powerful strength, sense of responsibility, and work ethic. And, you are also Venus-ruled, which means you love and need softness to recharge and fortify that productive power. Pay attention to the balance between strength and softness in your life. Adjust accordingly.
♊ GEMINI
Greetings, Gemini, and welcome to Leo Season. Which, this year, is also eclipse season! Woohoo! I’m not saying everything will automatically feel easier, but as the lunar nodes shift out of fellow mutable signs, you may slowly start to feel a little less friction and pressure weighing you down. Things have really been shaking up around your sense of belonging and purpose in the world. You should now have more opportunities to integrate those lessons, which likely will require changing how you communicate. If you’re used to joking around shrugging stuff off, maybe you’ll benefit from stepping into more vulnerability and directness. If you tend to anxiously over-share and ask a million questions a minute, maybe you’ll benefit from practicing more mindfulness and grounding. Whatever the patterns may be, give yourself grace to make mistakes and keep trying to get closer to an authentic center. You’re a lifelong learner and your curiosity is a true gift. Let this Leo Season remind you: Your words are magic, so use them with intention, stay curious, and keep coming back to what feels true in your body.
♋ CANCER
Cancer, we are leaving your season now, and many of you have been going through it with Mercury retrograde in your sign. But Leo season also marks Mercury stationing direct! Take your time re-building momentum. Try your best not to rush to action, conclusions, or decisions. Leo Season wants to offer you space to ground, to digest, and to replenish any areas of your life that have become depleted. If feelings of scarcity are arising (be it around time, money, energy, or connection), try to get curious rather than panicked. Something is shifting for you right now around values and finances — what you spend, what you save, what you share, what you’re ready to stop tolerating, and what you’re finally ready to invest in. This eclipse season may reveal that a budget, a job situation, or a dynamic around giving/receiving is no longer the right size for you. You authentically shine in the terrain of emotional intimacy, collaboration, and magic, which means the solution isn’t to harden or do everything alone — it’s to get honest about what you need and practice receiving support without shame. Have the tender conversation. Ask the question. Name the fear underneath the number. Let a trusted collaborator witness you in the mess. Yes, do the practical things: check your accounts, renegotiate the terms, make the plan. But don’t forget your Cancerian spellwork: cleanse your space, speak intentions over your water, light a candle for the future you’re calling in. Align your resources with your values.
