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Fire · Fixed

Leo

The Lion, the 5th sign of the zodiac year, usually printed as 23 July – 22 August.

A hand-coloured star card of Leo: a tawny lion standing in profile with a full mane, Regulus marked at its heart and Denebola at the tuft of its tail, with the smaller Leo Minor above.
Leo Major and Leo Minor · Sidney Hall · Urania's Mirror; or, A View of the Heavens, London, 1825
Element
Fireenergy, initiative and self-assertion, in the tradition
Modality
Fixedthe signs that hold the middle of a season, traditionally read as sustainers
Traditional ruler
the SunAssigned before the outer planets were found
Modern ruler
the SunSame as the traditional ruler.

When the sun actually crosses

The moment the sun enters Leo and the moment it leaves for Virgo, each year from 2015 to 2026, in UTC to the minute.

22 Jul 00:0022 Jul 06:0022 Jul 12:0022 Jul 18:0023 Jul 00:0023 Jul 06:0020122016202020242010202622 Jul 00:0022 Jul 06:0022 Jul 12:0022 Jul 18:0023 Jul 00:0023 Jul 06:00201220162020202420102026
Where the sun crossed into Leo, 2010–2026, in UTC. The marked years are the ones where a 29 February has fallen in between and pulled it back by most of a day.
YearSun enters LeoSun leaves for Virgo
201523 July, 03:31 UTC23 August, 10:37 UTC
201622 July, 09:30 UTC22 August, 16:39 UTC
201722 July, 15:15 UTC22 August, 22:20 UTC
201822 July, 21:00 UTC23 August, 04:08 UTC
201923 July, 02:50 UTC23 August, 10:02 UTC
202022 July, 08:37 UTC22 August, 15:45 UTC
202122 July, 14:26 UTC22 August, 21:35 UTC
202222 July, 20:07 UTC23 August, 03:16 UTC
202323 July, 01:50 UTC23 August, 09:01 UTC
202422 July, 07:44 UTC22 August, 14:55 UTC
202522 July, 13:29 UTC22 August, 20:34 UTC
202622 July, 19:13 UTC23 August, 02:19 UTC

VSOP87, checked against published equinox and solstice times.

Which dates can be Leo

Since 1920 the sun has entered Leo on 22 July or 23 July, and left it for Virgo on 22 August, 23 August or 24 August (UTC). On those dates the sign depends on the year, and in a crossing year on the hour; each date's page gives every year.

In the tradition

In Western astrological tradition, Leo is classed as a fixed fire sign. Fixed signs are the signs that hold the middle of a season, traditionally read as sustainers, and fire signs are traditionally associated with energy, initiative and self-assertion. Its ruling planet in that tradition is the Sun.

These are associations reported from tradition, not claims about anyone born under the sign.

The king of beasts, and a lost lock of hair

The Lion is in the sky, Hyginus says, "because he is considered the king of beasts," and some writers add that he was Hercules' first labour, killed by the hero unarmed.

Near the Lion's tail, on the side towards the Virgin, seven faint stars in a triangle are the Lock of Berenice, now a constellation of its own, Coma Berenices. Berenice vowed her hair if her husband Ptolemy came home victorious from his war in Asia. She dedicated the lock in the temple of Venus, it was gone the next day, and Conon the mathematician, to win the king's favour, said he had seen it among the stars and pointed to seven stars "which he imagined were the lock."

Hyginus, Astronomica, book 2, in Mary Grant's translation (1960), chapter 2.24, checked .

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