Leo – True Tarot Tales

Royalty and Innocence: The Lion and The Dog Days of Summer

Leo Season 2025

Jul 22, 2025

On July 22 we entered the zodiac domain of Cancer the Crab; the zenith of the summer in the northern hemisphere, and moved into the sun sign territory of Leo until 22 August. But what’s the ancient story behind the zodiac sun sign of The Lion, and what is the astrological mood-board this Leo Season, 2025?

Settle in for another long one….

Traditional Associations

Ruler: The Sun Lucky Day: Sunday

Symbol: Lion Element: Fire Quality: Fixed

Hebrew letter: Av (father, regal) Tet (coiled serpent) Tov (goodness)

Astrological House: The Fifth House of joy, vitality, self-expression, life passions, children and childhood.

Metal: Gold

Body: Heart, aorta, circulation, blood pressure, spine

Constitutional salt: Magnesium Phosphate (Mag Phos) Leo rules the heart and this salt is a cardiac tonic. Magnesium Phosphate is a muscle and motor nerve nutrient, helping to empower the muscles, or to relax them, helpful for all types of cramp or spasm, whether induced by physical exertion or by the menstrual cycle. May be beneficial dissolved in warm water for cramps in the stomach, or for colic in babies, crushed and rubbed onto the gums

Trees: Palm trees, laurel, walnuts, olive trees, lemon and orange trees.

Plants: Marigolds, sunflowers, dandelions, (dents- de- lion =”lion’s teeth”) celandines, passion flowers

Gemstones: peridot, sapphire

Key phrase: I love/I desire (The Strength card of Leo is called Lust in the Thoth Tarot deck)

Norse rune: Sol/Sowilo/Sigel: meaning Sun, signifying or invoking happiness, health, success, victory

Tarot cards: Strength, Sun, 5, 6, 7 Wands. The Strength card (Major Arcana 8- in the Thoth Tarot, it is Major Arcana 11) signifies health, vitality, power, physical courage and moral fortitude

Astronomy

Leo is the 12^th largest constellation in the zodiac, one of the most recognizable in the skies of the northern hemisphere due to its many bright stars, and its distinctive shape suggesting a crouching lion facing to the right, located between the constellations of Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east. The bright planet beneath Leo is Jupiter.

The best time to see the Leo constellation is in Spring in the northern hemisphere, from around the March equinox, and in the fall/autumn in the southern hemisphere where it can be seen in the northern skies, but is seen as if upside down. By late July and into early August, the Lion is fading into the sunset before disappearing, and by late September into October it is visible again, reappearing in the east before dawn, below the Big Dipper or as it is also known in the UK, The Plough, which is visible all year.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Mesopotamians recognized the star grouping we later came to know as Leo as early as 4000 BC. The Persians knew this constellation as Shir or Ser. The Babylonians called it UR.GU.LA (“the great lion.”) The Syrians knew it as Aryo. The Turks called it Artan, or, and most famously Aslan, as in Aslan the Lion in The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. The Greeks associated Leo with the story of the Labours of Herakles/Hercules, and the slaying of the man- eating lion of Nemea.

The Lions of The Nile

and the Dog Days of Summer

a plowed field in front of a body of water — *Photo by Mohamad Sameh on Unsplash*

Leo season includes the so-called Dog Days of summer, July 3 to August 11, is the window of the warmest days in the Northern Hemisphere. The ancient Egyptians and later the Romans, had noticed that Sirius, “The Scorching One,” aka The Dog Star, aka, Canis Major, reappeared in the sky, rising just before the sun, rising in the east 21- 23 July when the sun entered the zodiac sky territory of Leo. Sirius is pictured at the bottom, below Orion.

This was immediately prior to the annual flooding of the Nile River which started around August 15 for two weeks every year. The Nile floods, while potentially massively destructive, replenished the soil, bringing forth new life, renewing the lifeblood of their agriculture- and the nation entire. New life. This is the almighty power of the Sun in Leo.

adult lioness lying on ground — *Photo by Chris Rhoads on Unsplash*

Lions were once a common sight in Egypt, roaming the semi-desert regions either side of the Nile Valley, with surviving depictions of pharaohs hunting lions. But that was long, long ago. The lions began to disappear during the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 B.C.) until eventually they became extinct in Egypt as the climate and environment became drier and the human population increased. But not before they had become an eternal part of the zodiac story.

By August the desert lions were becoming increasingly desperate after weeks of drought, coming ever closer in sight of the walls of the cities in their search for water. But this lowest ebb in the lives of the desert lions was a welcome sign that the Nile floods were now due, the tributaries far upriver massively swollen by tropical storms over the highlands of Ethiopia and southern Sudan, and in their joy, the people honoured the lion with festivals. Statues of lions can still be seen along the course of the Nile River, while the lion-headed fountains so popular with later Greek and Roman architects was a legacy of this great story of the zodiac, symbolizing the life-giving waters released by the sun in the season of Leo.

Lion statues on a water fountain — *Public Domain, photograph Petr Kratochvil*

The Zodiac Archetype

Leo is ruled by the Sun, bestowing radiance, warmth and vitality. Leo is energetic, decisive and pro-active. The major arcana cards in the Tarot representing Leo are The Sun card and Strength, denoting not only physical strength vitality and courage, but moral courage; resilience, stamina, discipline and fortitude in the face of adversity. Leo acts on instinct, sometimes on impulse. Sometimes in haste. To be effective, is a message of this card, strength must be wisely directed. There is no Strength without the inner strength of self-control, self mastery. The figure in this card, the Lady Una, has the lion on a loose chain. But it is on a chain all the same. The lion represents her own inner fire, passions and impulses, and she has them under control.

Strength from The Illuminati Tarot, The Sun and King of Wands from The Gilded Tarot Royale

The charismatic King of Wands represents Leo, regardless of the sex of the individual Leo native. This card represents communication, travel, sports, entrepreneurship, exports, estate agents, higher education. He is both visionary and warrior.

There is of course no such thing in reality as THE Leo personality, and this applies to all zodiac signs. You are a unique personality. Your zodiac sign (sun sign) is a major keynote of your natal chart, but it’s nothing like the whole story. These archetypes are based on thousands of years of observation, however, and your decan, which depends on where your birthday falls within your zodiac sign, digs a little deeper.

Tarot Cards

First Decan Leo: 23 July-1 August

Proud, passionate, purposeful.

Tarot card: Five of Wands: ambition, test of strength, contest, competition, stress, conflict, honest intention, summer thunderstorms

This Leo born native, ruled by the Sun twice over, does not just enter the room. It makes an entrance. Lively, confident, warm, talkative. Others who are quieter, or who are less confident or energetic may find these Leo divas loud, overpowering, or even arrogant. And Leo may be any of these things, but the chances are, it is just a natural exuberance. First decan Leo will finish what it starts, and they set themselves exceedingly high standards and targets, though they tend to be fair minded and realistic in their dealings with others, asking only that others do their best.

Second Decan Leo: 2 August-11 August

Name, fame, reputation

Tarot card- Six Wands: victory, progress, vehicle, travel, pride in success, team, determined effort

Subjects of this decan may be literally taller and bigger than other Leo decans, and (apparently) with a collective tendency for having rather noticeable neat, square white teeth. The influence of its sub-ruler, cheerful, outgoing Sagittarius makes this Leo the life and soul of the party when they are in the mood, but this smoothest-talking decan is somewhat restless, for travel, for adventure – or learning. This is Leo on a quest of some kind, hungrier and less settled in temperament than the other two decans. This Leo in general tends to be more of a cat walks alone. Yes, it loves people, but still retains a certain aloofness. Its sub-ruler Sagittarius however, is about groups and communities, and it is this, somewhat more communal spirit, which sets the second decan Leo slightly apart from the other decans. But second decan Leo is something of a philosopher.

Third Decan Leo: 12 August -22 August

Fire, focus and curiosity.

Tarot card- Seven of Wands: courage, moral courage, stamina, endurance, outnumbered but fighting your own corner, defeating the odds

This decan is sub-ruled by fiery Mars- Leo with a double-dose of warrior energy. Third decan Leo is confident, competitive or combative. Driven, ambitious, sometimes this Leo decan loses patience and may not finish what it starts, due to restlessness, but it operates on its own terms, and is an excellent planner and problem-solver, finding failure almost intolerable. This decan needs peace and quiet when its mind is working on something, to figure things out in its own way. It has the usual Leo warmth but with, possibly, an explosive temper at times. Leo in general is quick to forgive and forget, and is not known for bearing grudges, though others may not necessarily be so forgiving in return. Third decan Leo is particularly curious about other people.

A few dates to watch this Leo season 2025

July 24: New Moon in Leo Perhaps not an easy New Moon, this one. Emotionally demanding. Tensions close to the heart. We think we can see a way ahead. Others do not agree. Mercury is retrograde this Leo Season until August 11, and this new moon symbolically suggests dusting something off and shining it up again, perhaps a passion project and now you know how to give it a new lease of life supported by Neptune (vision) and Saturn (focus and attention to detail)

July 31-August 25: Venus goes into Cancer. Tarot card: the 2 of Cups. Cheers! Sociable, romantic, collaborative. Ah, now that is nice. AND the Sun is conjunct Mercury. You may be acting as a messenger. You may be someone’s very angel.

August 8-10 Mars opposite Saturn and Neptune: a mood board that says stay calm, do less, avoid arguments with older family members or senior staff at work. Travel over water could be bumpy, metaphorically or literally, or beware picking up a tummy bug. The so-called Lion’s Gate, August the Eighth, the 8 of the 8th, is a mythical portal said to represent a peak of intensity in human affairs. As if we need any more intensity. But anyway, here is a bit of the background story, The Lions’ Gate Portal via Forbes.

August 9: Full Moon in Aquarius: A dash of inspiration, vim and vigour, doing our own thing, away from the crowd.

August 12: Mercury goes direct in Leo. The lion is still in shadow until August 26. But now he is waking and stretching, the lionesses are mustering again, ready to go hunting.

lion and lioness on brown rock during daytime — Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash

Happy Birthday and Happy Hunting, Leo 2025.

Till next time.

The Story of The Star Lion Leo

Stories of our Seasons in the Stars

Most of us know something about our zodiac sun sign. But what’s the ancient story behind it? This month it is Leo’s star turn under the spotlight.

lion in close up shot — Photo by Luke Tanis on Unsplash

On July 22 we left the zodiac domain of Cancer; the zenith of the summer in the northern hemisphere, and moved into the sun sign territory of Leo until 22 August.

Traditional Associations

Ruler: The Sun Lucky Day: Sunday

Symbol: Lion

Element: Fire Quality: Fixed

Hebrew letter: Av (father, regal) Tet (coiled serpent) Tov (goodness)

Metal: Gold

Body: Heart, aorta, circulation, blood pressure, spine

Constitutional salt: Magnesium Phosphate (Mag Phos) Leo rules the heart and this salt is a cardiac tonic. Mag Phos is a muscle and motor nerve nutrient, helping to empower the muscles, or to relax them, helpful for all types of cramp or spasm, whether induced by physical exertion or by the menstrual cycle. May be beneficial dissolved in warm water for cramps in the stomach, or for colic in babies, crushed and rubbed onto the gums

Trees: Palm trees, laurel, walnuts, olive trees, lemon and orange trees.

Plants: Marigolds, sunflowers, dandelions, (dents- de- lion =”lion’s teeth”) celandines, passion flowers

Gemstones: peridot, sapphire

Key phrase: I love/I desire

Tarot cards: Strength, Sun, 5, 6, 7 Wands

Astronomy

Leo has since ancient times been associated with the sun and royalty, ruled by the sun in astrology, and is one of the oldest constellations collectively recognized as a lion. Archaeological evidence suggests that Mesopotamians recognized the star grouping we later came to know as Leo as early as 4000 BC. The Persians knew this constellation as Shir or Ser. The Babylonians called it UR.GU.LA (“the great lion.”) The Syrians knew it as Aryo and the Turks as Artan, while the Greeks associated Leo with the story of the Labours of Herakles/Hercules, and the slaying of the man- eating lion of Nemea.

Leo is the 12^th largest constellation in the zodiac, and one of the most recognizable in the skies of the northern hemisphere due to its many bright stars, and its distinctive shape suggesting a crouching lion facing to the right, located between the constellations of Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east. The bright planet pictured beneath Leo is Jupiter.

The best time to see the Leo constellation is in Spring in the northern hemisphere, from around the March equinox, and in the fall/autumn in the southern hemisphere where it can be seen in the northern skies, but is seen as if upside down. In early April, the constellation Leo reaches its high point for the night around 10 p.m. By around May 1, Leo reaches its highest point for the night around 8 p.m. local time.

In early May, Leo is beginning to set in the west around 2 a.m. local time, and by June it is descending in the west in the evening, drifting ever further westward. By late July and into early August, the Lion is fading into the sunset before disappearing, and by late September into October it is visible again, reappearing in the east before dawn, below the Big Dipper or as it is perhaps better known in the UK, The Plough.

The Lions of The Nile and the Dog Days of Summer

Leo season includes the so-called Dog Days of summer, July 3 to August 11, the window of the warmest days in the Northern Hemisphere.

The ancient Egyptians and later the Romans noticed that the brightest star Sirius “the scorching one,” aka The Dog Star, aka, Canis Major, reappeared in the sky, rising in the east just before the sun each year 21- 23 July when the sun entered Leo. See more here on You Tube:

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PFtCuw9VP5Y?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

New life, such is the symbolic meaning of the Sun in Leo, correlating with the Sun card and Strength in the tarot deck, and also the 5, 6 and 7 of Wands.

Lions were once upon a time a common sight in Egypt, roaming the semi-desert regions on either side of the Nile Valley, and there are surviving depictions of pharaohs hunting lions. The lions began to disappear during the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 B.C.) until eventually they became extinct in Egypt as the climate and environment became drier and the human population increased. But not before they had become an eternal part of the zodiac story.

By August in Egypt, the desert lions were becoming increasingly desperate for water after weeks of drought, coming ever closer in sight of the city walls in their search. But this lowest ebb in the lives of the desert lions was a welcome sign that the Nile floods were shortly on their way, the tributaries far upriver massively swollen by tropical storms over the highlands of Ethiopia and southern Sudan, and in their joy, the people honoured the lion with festivals.

Statues of lions can still be seen along the course of the Nile River, while the lion-headed fountains so popular with later Greek and Roman architects was a direct legacy of this great story of the zodiac, symbolizing the life-giving waters released by the sun in the season of Leo.

August the Eighth, the 8 of the 8th, is known as the Lions Gate, a mythical portal said to represent a peak of intensity in human affairs. 2024 is a number 8 year and we already know we are living in a time of new and increasing intensities.

Thank you for reading. Back again soon with more on Leo in the Tarot, the decans, and the astrology of this Leo season 2024.

The Water Carrier, The Full Wolf Moon and The Lion

Tonight, 25 January in Aquarius season, is the first Full Moon of 2024 and this Full Moon is nicknamed the Wolf Moon. At this time of year in northern America and Northern Europe, wolves used to come down to human settlements in late winter in desperate search of food- and with resulting conflict.

The dog in this picture is looking a tad nonchalant, just lounging about next to the man, as he does all the hard work, struggling with the wolf who is clearly about to get the worst of the encounter. Folk stories suggest the last wolf in England was killed in 1390 by John, son of Sir Edgar Harrington of Wraysholme, after he chased it all the way from the Coniston Fells to Humphrey Head in Cumbria (coastal North West England).

Windblown trees of Humphrey Head, Cumbria via Wiki

There were always wolves in Britain, but by the late middle ages, they were rare in England, although they survived in Scotland until the 17th or 18th century. Officially the last Scottish wolf was killed (shot) by Sir Ewen Cameron in 1680 in Killiecrankie (Perthshire) But other reports suggests wolves survived in Scotland till much later, with one possible sighting as late as 1888.

Astronomy

This Full Moon is in Leo astrologically speaking, but from the point of view of science and astronomy, this Wolf Moon is technically situated in the constellation of Cancer, next door to Leo, for reasons to do with the wobble of the earth in the 2000 years since the western zodiac was codified.

EarthSky on X: "Tonight's full moon - the Wolf Moon - is located in the direction of Cancer the Crab. You're not likely to see any of Cancer's stars in the moon's

However, according to the working model of Western/Tropical astrology, for profound arithmetic, historic and symbolic reasons, the full moon is in the celestial territory of proud, passionate, playful Leo, the Lion King of the Zodiac.

Tarot cards of Leo

The major arcana Tarot card associated with Leo is Strength, signifying not only the raw power of physical strength, but fortitude; determination moral courage, although it is also, as one would expect, a physically lucky card, suggesting sporting success, military success or recovery if someone has been ill.

This figure – we may think of her as Una- “The One”-but she is you and me, has not tamed the lion as such. They walk side by side, facing futurity, focused on their purpose, looking inward on their dreams.

The lion walks alongside as an equal, though it could deal with Una any time it likes. One bite, one blow of the giant paw and she is toast. Una is holding the leash only very lightly, while the lion remains entirely by his own choice. No-one may sensibly or safely presume to think to altogether subdue or “tame” another. Likewise there is no true Strength, or right to command, without the power of self-restraint and self-command. Any one who would be a leader must first learn to rule himself, or herself. And to control their temper. More haste, less speed. There is a reason patience is a virtue. Lack of it can cost us everything, our lives included.

Leo says ‘fame’. Leo says shine your light, walk the stage, write your part and play it, but don’t overlook the audience. Not only is there no play without them, but they too, have their part to play. An author writes and publishes a book but it needs a reader for it to come alive. The Lion of the Zodiac is capable of many things, not always good. The Lion may be loud, demanding, careless, arrogant, or even cruel, but he is incapable of pettiness.

The minor arcana cards of Leo are the Five, Six and Seven of Wands, representing stress, conflict, competition, victory, fortitude and strategic advantage respectively. We are likely feeling a need to call on these right now.

The Heart of Leo

The heart of the constellation of Leo is its alpha star, Regulus, meaning Little King or the royal star. And in medical astrology, Leo rules the heart.

I had a strange night last night, not least due to a sensation of heaviness in the chest, though I think I may also have seen a ghost. I don’t often see such things, but I have seen them, and they are not necessarily frightening, though they can be. This one was not frightening, only startling. A figure. A man. No details. Today is the anniversary of the death of my husband’s father, whom I never met. But I could not see the face.

The heaviness in the chest was due to long standing inflammation; a sero-negative form of systemic arthritis, which has damaged the aortic valve.

I happen to have both the Moon and Mars in Leo in my natal chart. The Moon is square the sun, and now that I reflect on that, I won’t be surprised if this heaviness eases off again once the gravitational drag of this Full Moon has passed.

The dandelion –dents-de-lion, “the lions teeth” is traditionally used as a diuretic which by removing fluid that places an extra load on the heart, can also support heart health

The Dandy Lion

Dandy Lion’s

Golden Mane

Prideful, Greying

Casts Away

Alight on chance

To Lionise again

–Katie-Ellen

white dandelion flower — Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

Lion and Blue

by Robert Vavra, illustrated by Fleur Cowles

Here’s a book fit to make you roar like a lion, or more likely, howl like a winter wolf any time. It says it’s for 2-6 year-olds but this is a story for anyone.

A lonely old lion loves a beautiful blue butterfly, but the butterfly must leave him to follow its own destiny in search of sunflowers to feast on. The old lion pines for his friend and goes in search…

His devotion will be rewarded, not in the way we were hoping, but in a way far sadder, and more tragic but also immeasurably majestic, when he lies down and dies and decays, and in time a sunflower grows where his body lay. He is reborn as a sunflower. And now the beautiful blue butterfly returns to find him again.

Tarot cards for today 25/01/24 (UTC formerly…Greenwich Mean Time I am writing in the UK. It is 16.20 PM as I write this and the Full Moon is rising here at 17.54 PM)

I am asking the Tarot for its general comments please. Typical! The first three cards out of the deck (The Legacy of the Divine Tarot) are mirroring and almost, though not entirely correlating with real time astrology.

The Star (right now we have the Sun and Pluto Aquarius) The King of Wands reversed (The Full Moon in Leo) and The Seven of Wands (second decan Leo)

This full Moon is actually in the first decan of Leo, 5 degrees and 14 minutes which strictly in terms of date correlations is represented in the Tarot by The Six of Wands. Still, that’s spookily close in respect of real time, and if the Tarot wants to show us the Seven of Wands and not the Six, well, the interconnections and overlap are wondrous, but the Tarot is an oracle unto itself. It contains elements of astrology but it is not astrology. The Tarot is in charge here, and it has its reasons.

General impressions

All three of these cards represent fixed energy. The Star reversed is fixed Air energy, while the King of Wands reversed and the Seven of Wands are fixed fire energy.

This isn’t a bad reading on a general personal level, but it has a certain explosive potential for quarrels or other domestic issues including minor electrical mishaps, water damage, power cuts or trouble with appliances. Chances are we’ve been, not dragging our heels today, but likely feeling as if we’re rolling stones uphill.

Right now we may be embroiled with practical necessities and these take priority. We’re not looking for fights, but no one is going to go stamp-around with us either, whether this is a boss figure, an individual close to home, or issues with some organization not doing what it is supposed to.

All the same, we can see where we want to get to. The fires are lit, the words are on the tip of our tongues. A bright vision beckons. There’s a certain charisma, or an undercurrent of sexual, romantic or creative passion in the air today, and this will last a little while beyond the Full moon.

The Seven of Wands says we are up for defending our turf, standing up for ourselves, and getting ready to roll forward with new projects and ventures…driven the inspiration signified by the number 7, even though we may not have every detail perfectly worked out as yet. Not only do we have the seven of Wands but the Reversed King of Wands, the Leo king, is wearing a 7 on his belt. We may be handling something now, or imminently, that will happen, culminate or conclude in July.

This may also just possibly be picking up events in Ukraine. Why? President Zelenskyy is an Aquarius sun sign native; shown here embattled, weary (King Wands reversed) looking for a new strategy and more air missile support (because The Star is reversed.) The counter offensive has not delivered relief as hoped, but he has not lost the initiative. Look for “fires at sea” -potentially decisive maritime events in the Black Sea between now and Leo season 2024.

The West is not doing enough, is the picture here, and if it does not do more, faster, the West will feel the weight of an new age of The Star reversed and the Kings of Wands reversed, the rise of a new age of dictators. The Star is a beautiful card of hope and recovery , but when drawn reversed it contains the potential for hopes denied, and for the dawning of a new totalitarianism.

Thank you for reading.

Till next time 🙂

The Lion’s Gate and The Number 8

What’s the story?

Photo by u00f6zhan Hazu0131rlar on Pexels.com

What is the Lion’s Gate Portal?

The Lion’s Gate Portal is an astronomical event that happens every year when Sirius, Earth, and the Orion constellation are all in alignment with each other. This happens every year between July 28 and August 12, and reaches its peak of closest alignment on August 8 (8/8) when in the northern hemisphere we see the brilliant star Sirius on the eastern horizon before dawn. Sirius has been out of sight since early in the spring.

But now it is rising again.

The Lion’s Gate Portal is seen by many as a particularly auspicious portal in time, but auspicious for what? Action, that’s the theory. Any action tending towards conquest, achievement or the creation of something new- and lasting.

But how and why?

Sirius, the brightest star in our galaxy, the Milky Way, is the stellar cornerstone.

Sirius

brown rocky shore under blue sky during night time — Photo by Joseph Vary on Unsplash

Here, the photographer has captured Sirius hanging low; a brilliant blue white star, apparently following along behind the constellation of Orion, the Hunter.

The name Sirius comes from the Greek and means “scorching” or “glowing.” Its other names, Canis Major, or the Dog Star, derive from the ancient Greek myth that says that once upon a time Sirius was one of the two hunting dogs of Orion. (The other is the Little or Lesser Dog, Canis Minor.)

See Orion running out of the right hand side of the picture? See the Belt of Orion, and the sword hanging down (or the hunting knife) and three stars that make up the belt; Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka? See Betelgeuse, the bright red giant star of his right shoulder? Some sources call it the left shoulder- it depends how you picture The Hunter. Do you see him with his back to you, or do you see him swaggering past, moving left -right with his face in partial profile?

Now see the brilliant white orb of Sirius, running along behind the Hunter?

As a girl I would go outside to the coal bunker (yes, coal) on a clear winter’s night, and fill up the coal scuttle for the fire, and look up and wonder where Orion was running to, with Sirius bounding along behind him.

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky- within the Milky Way- and about 8.6 light years away from earth and is actually a double star, Sirius Alpha and Sirius Beta. Sirius Alpha is much brighter than the dwarf Sirius Beta, and has twice the mass of our own Sun.

We don’t know if there are planets in the Sirius star system, and it’s possible, there may actually be three, not two stars in the system but we don’t know for sure.

To the people of ancient Egypt, the return of Sirius was a welcome sign that the Nile flood was on its way, ending the long season of drought, when desperate desert lions would come looking for water in plain sight of the city walls.

lion lying on brown grass during daytime — Photo by Jamar Cromwell on Unsplash

This was an anxious time of year. No Nile flood in the seasonal time frame of Leo meant famine. The dawn re-appearance of Sirius was a welcome sign that the worst of the drought was now in sight, and the farmers all along the Nile- and everyone else -waited expectantly, almost holding their breath.

a sailboat on the water — Photo by AXP Photography on Unsplash

The auspicious star of Sirius was associated with the goddess Sopdet, the fertility goddess of the Nile, correlating with deities of other societies and other times; Isis/Ishtar and Demeter, as represented in the tarot deck by the Empress card.

The Zodiac/Celestial Zoo

“As above so below,” the saying goes. But – and perhaps this is being pedantic- “as below, so above,” was how these ancient stories first began.

Astrology, astronomy, cosmology; it all started right where we stood. Some might say, what’s the fuss, any of this astrology stuff. It’s all just random patterns in the sky. But that’s exactly the point. We are a hunting animal. We are a pattern seeking animal. We look for patterns in everything, and we ascribe meaning to those patterns. In time, the pattern and the meaning become conjoined. Hardwired. They are now archetypes, and are part of our ancient collective algorithm, so to speak, lending themselves to anticipation, planning- and potentially, prediction.

People looked up, saw patterns, saw life on earth mirrored in the stars, gave them names. “Ooh, look up at that, will ya? Do you see it too? I can see a crouching ram!”

(If you say so) The brightest star shown here at the bottom is Hamal, the head of the Ram.

More HERE

The Aries Star Constellation: What, when and where? — Via Star Registry.com

Shepherds in the Near and Middle East, looked up at the starry skies, watching their precious flocks by night and pictured the star Hamal as the head of the Ram, critically noting that it was always’seen’ overhead at lambing time. They saw that those patterns repeated over and over. And so in time we got Aries -and by a similar approach- all the rest of the zodiac pantheon based on the 12 constellations visible within a narrow arc of sky, the imaginary pathway known as the ecliptic.

The word “zodiac” comes from the Greek meaning “circle of animals.” The only non-living symbol in the astrological Zodiac is the scales of Libra, but even these are formed from the same stars that make up the claws of Scorpio, the celestial scorpion next door.

The Lion

My darling mother, a Capricorn sun sign native, first decan, and with a massive dose of Sagittarian vision and curiosity; beautiful, brave, self-reliant, wise, witty, and above all, a most determined person, was saying to me, not long before she died in February this year, that there was this theme tune on the box that made the hairs on her neck stand up every time she heard it.

She had been watching that drama series, Versailles, on the box. The theme tune was Outro by M83, as also used in the movie, Cloud Atlas, based on the novel by David Mitchell.

“I’m the king of my own land
Facing tempests of dust, I’ll fight until the end
Creatures of my dreams, raise up and dance with me
Now and forever
I’m your king!”

-(Outro- M83)

Listen here– as being used as the score for a film, “Melancholia” by Lars von Trier. (Don’t be thrown by the really long pause in the introduction.)

She greatly admired, and had a great sympathy with lionesses, for their courage, but also for their incredible devotion, duty and unselfishness, she said.

Number 8

The Lions’ Gate portal is a cosmic, and perhaps karmic expression of the power of the number 8.

The number eight is like a lemniscate- a symbol of infinity, only now it’s standing upright. Note the lemniscate above the head of the figure with the lion in the Rider-Waite tarot deck.

The Strength card in the Tarot is major arcana number 8. The Strength card is about moral fortitude and stamina as much as it is about physical strength and courage.

Strength is self- mastery. Self-control. Taming the inner lion. Leo rules the heart, and the passions of the heart.

The word ‘Karma’ means ‘action’. This is read by some as a celestial signal for Action. Plan, execute, and materially manifest. The glory and the grandeur of the Lion contain on occasion something lonely and forlorn.

There is subtlety in that steady, even number 8.

For folk not familiar with a tarot deck, in a 78 card deck of cards deck we have five cards that bear the number 8. Besides the Strength card, major arcana 8, we also have 4 minor arcana cards bearing the number 8

(22 Major arcana cards=greater secrets or mysteries. 56 Minor arcana cards =lesser secrets or mysteries, but these are no less important in any reading)

We have:

8 of Cups (Pisces)- acceptance of disappointment in developments, walking away

8 of Swords-Gemini- mental impasse, drama, entrapment, indecision, refusal to face a problem

8 Pentacles -Virgo- steady developments, prudence, craft, accounting, harvest

8 Wands -Sagittarius- speed of developments, generation of news and activities

These apparently immovable number eights all belong to the MUTABLE signs of the zodiac- the signs where one season gradually merges into another.

8 of Cups= Pisces, winter becomes spring, 8 Swords= Gemini, and spring becomes summer, 8 Pentacles, Virgo, summer becomes autumn/fall, and 8 Wands= Sagittarius, when autumn now segues into winter.

The eights are mutable, twining, stable because symmetrical and yet subtle, complex, shifting.

There are no easy answers in life. The miracle is that we are here at all. But we do know from all the entire known history of the human species that the experience of happiness is found through a sense of connection with others. Who wants a paradise all to themselves and all alone, except in small doses? The misanthropes can object all they like.

We were never meant to be a solitary animal, any more than the lion, who suffers trauma as a young adult male; when he leaves the pride aged two or three.He must leave or else he will be driven out, to go and fight for, and create his own pride; exiled from his home turf and everyone he has always known.

The lionesses do the dangerous work of hunting. But the lion controls the territory and all its resources on behalf of the pride.

We want- we need- to share our joys and sorrows alike. Part of the tapestry of all Humanity. But we come in alone. We leave alone. And sooner or later, if we are ever to become The Lion, then at some point, we will have to face- and outface- and defy- “tempests of dust.”

The zodiac sign of Leo rules the human heart. Leo can be loud. The dreams are big and bold. But Leo understands what it is to be lonely- or simply alone.

But like the lion in exile, who must fight tooth and claw for his own patch of turf, for his place in the world, for his chance of founding a pride of his own, and for his very survival, we will and must sometimes stand alone, in rising to meet a challenge.

Kings of our own lands.

Introducing the Decans of Leo

(And their corresponding cards in the Tarot deck)

In my previous post, we looked at the ancient story of Leo. Now let’s take a look at the decans.

lion in black background in grayscale photography — Photo by MARIOLA GROBELSKA on Unsplash

Your zodiac or sun sign is not the whole story of your horoscope. Your birthday decan provides further insights into your zodiac persona or archetype.

All zodiac signs are archetypes; something that is considered to be a perfect or typical example of a particular kind of person or thing,

The zodiac signs paint a typical portrait of a person born at a particular time of year, in a particular season. The idea here is that we are affected by the seasons in which we were physically gestated, and the season into which we arrive. This might seem like nonsense until we really think about it. A baby born in summer for example, arrives into a different environment from a winter born baby, just as a spring lamb is different to an autumn lamb. The weather is different, and the hours of daylight and the food resources vary, that are or were available to the pregnant mother, in the days long,long before shops and supermarkets.

The zodiac sign of Capricorn, for example, is associated with the knees. Why? Well, Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, also known as Old Father Time, and knee trouble is commonly associated with advancing age.

The winter born baby arrives into an environment with minimal hours of daylight and therefore experiences minimal vitamin D exposure, as perhaps, so does the mother in the later stages of pregnancy. Vitamin D, together with vitamin K2, is required for calcium absorption into the bones. Chronic deficiency is associated with osteo- arthritis—and arthritis of the knee.

Other zodiac signs may be more challenging to explain so easily in these kinds of terms. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a symbolic, seasonal and ancient natural, biological, physiological or metabolic association with each and every zodiac sign.

What are the decans?

The visible area of sky as seen from earth is what we call the wheel of the Zodiac, representing an imaginary circle of 360 degrees. This circle was then arithmetically divided into the twelve zodiac signs we know today, as codified by the Greek mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, Ptolemy in the second century AD.

Each of the zodiac signs represents a 30 degree slice of this imaginary ‘pie in the sky,’ as seen from Earth. Each zodiac sign can be further sub-divided into three blocks of ten degrees, equivalent to about ten days in length. This is not exact, and may vary by a day or two because not every calendar month is the same length- again, for reasons of astronomy.

These three sub-divisions of the zodiac signs are what we call the decans.

The first ten days of your zodiac sign are the first decan, representing the first 10 degrees of your sign. The second ten days or so are the second decan, and the last ten days or so of your sun sign are the third decan.

The Leo Archetype

Leo, the fifth sign of the zodiac, is a fixed fire sign representing the height of summer in the northern hemisphere (and winter in the southern hemisphere.)

Leo is ruled by the Sun, bestowing radiance, warmth and vitality. The major arcana card in the Tarot representing Leo is Strength, Major Arcanum number 8, ruling the greater part of August, the 8th month of the calendar year, and denoting not only physical strength and courage, but moral courage; resilience, stamina and fortitude in the face of adversity.

There is no Strength without self control. The figure in this card has the lion on a loose chain. But it is on a chain all the same. The lion represents her own inner fire, passions and impulses, and she has them under control.

Image from The Gilded Tarot Royale.

But Leo is of course also associated with the Sun card, its planetary ruler. The image below is from The Gilded Royale Tarot deck, illustrated by Ciro Marchetti.

The court card representing the fixed fire sign of Leo is the energetic, capable and charismatic King of Wands.

Keywords: active, bold, big picture, charisma, business acumen, optimism, innovation, leadership, communication, travel, entrepreneur, exports, estate agents, higher education, visionary, masculinity, virility.

Below: the King of Wands from the Gilded Tarot Royale Royale deck, illustrator Ciro Marchetti.

Ciro Marchetti: Gilded Royale & Oracle of Visions 01/29 by Beyond Worlds Tarot | Spirituality

There is of course no such thing in reality as THE Leo personality, and this applies to all zodiac signs. You are a unique personality. Your zodiac sign (also known as your sun sign) is a major keynote of your natal chart but it’s nothing like the whole story. These archetypes are based on thousands of years of observation, however, and your decan, which depends on where your birthday falls within your zodiac sign, digs a little deeper.

If you don’t feel like a ‘typical’ Leo, well, you’re not. You are unique, with a uniquely individual natal chart. But it may also because you are a second decan or third decan Leo, rather than the ‘most typical’ first decan Leo.

First Decan Leo

Proud, passionate, purposeful.

Dates: 23 July-1 August

Planetary ruler: Sun sub-ruler also Sun

Tarot card: Five of Wands: ambition, test of strength, contest, competition, stress, conflict, honest intention, summer thunderstorms (Gilded Tarot Royale)

This contains an image of: Donnaleigh's Tarot & Lenormand

This is Leo-Leo, ruled by the sun twice over, this could be understood as the most ‘typically’ or archetypal Leo decan.

This Leo born native, ruled by the Sun twice over, does not just enter the room. It makes an entrance, and can be charm itself, lively, confident, warm, talkative. Others who are quieter, or who are less confident or energetic may find these Leo natives too loud, overpowering, self-centred or even arrogant. And they may be all these things but the chances are, really, it is just a natural exuberance.

This decan is generally attractive to others and may well play the field, but once committed, is devoted to its own pride of loved ones. This Leo is hardworking, and likely to be something of a perfectionist.

This decan is cardinal in quality, which is to say, it likes to start new things. It is exceedingly determined and persistent, even more so than the other two decans, and that is saying something. First decan Leo will finish what it starts, whatever it takes.

They have high levels of energy and stamina, and set themselves exceedingly high standards and targets, though they tend to be fair minded and realistic in their dealings with others, and as employers, ask only that others do their best. First Decan Leo is a loyal, faithful friend, unless given cause to feel betrayed, which on occasion, indeed they may be, attracting to themselves, not only admiration, but envy.

Second Decan

Dates: 2 August-11 August

Planetary ruler: Jupiter sub-ruler Sagittarius: Optimism, opportunity, growth, travel, higher education

Tarot card- Six Wands: victory, progress, pride in success, determined effort (From the Gilded Tarot, the predecessor of the Gilded Tarot Royale)

Six of Wands | Wands tarot, Tarot card meanings, Tarot

This is Sagittarius-Leo, co-ruled by massive and expansive Jupiter. Subjects of this decan may be literally taller and bigger than other Leo decans, and with a tendency for having rather noticeable square white teeth.

The influence of its sub-ruler, cheerful, outgoing Sagittarius makes this Leo the life and soul of the party when they are in the mood, but this smoothest-talking decan is somewhat restless, for travel, for adventure – or learning. This is Leo on a quest of some kind, with a visionary quality, hungry and ambitious to know more and less settled in temperament than the other two decans. They are still solid and tough, but versatile with it, and generally good at problem-solving.

Leo in general tends to be a cat walks alone. Yes, it loves people, but all the same it retains a certain aloofness. Its sub-ruler Sagittarius however, is about groups and communities, and it is this, somewhat more communal spirit, which sets the second decan Leo slightly apart from the other decans.

They too, are faithful to their loved ones, and they make loyal friends. Second decan Leo in particular may be an artist, writer or poet. They are something of a philosopher. They are interested in social causes, and keen to do their bit to champion the underdog.

Third Decan Leo

Fire, focus and curiosity.

Dates: 12 August -22 August

Planetary ruler: Mars sub-ruler Aries

Tarot card- Seven of Wands: courage, moral courage, stamina, endurance, outnumbered but fighting your own corner, defeating the odds(Gilded Tarot Royale)

This decan is sub-ruled by fiery Mars, Aries- this is Leo with a double dose of warrior energy. The third decan Leo is confident and competitive-combative on occasion. Driven, ambitious, sometimes this Leo decan loses patience and may not finish what it starts, due to restlessness, but it operates on its own terms, and is an excellent planner and problem-solver, finding failure almost intolerable.

This decan needs peace and quiet when its mind is working on something, to figure things out in its own way. It has the usual Leo warmth but with, possibly, an explosive temper at times. Leo in general however, is quick to forgive and forget and is not known for bearing grudges, though others may not necessarily be so forgiving in return.

The third decan Leo is particularly intense, and deeply curious about other people and other cultures. They also have a reputation for being excellent listeners. This is the sort of person who talks to perfect strangers and hears all kind of stories.

For the full story of Leo see previous post: Salutations, Star Lion Leo

The Season of the Lion

Today 22 July (or 23rd depending where we are in the world) we leave the zodiac sign of Cancer; mysterious and elusive Crab in the Starry zodiac sea and the sign of the zenith of the summer, and we move into the astrological sign of Leo the celestial lion. Most of us know our zodiac or sun sign, but what does it actually look like in the night sky, and what’s the story behind it? It’s time to roll out the red carpet for the star-lion, royal Leo…

TRADITIONAL Associations

Dates: 22-23 July-23 August

Symbol: Lion

Element: Fire

Metal: Gold

Position: Fixed

Ruler: The Sun

Body: Heart and spine

Trees: Palm trees, laurel, walnuts, olive trees, lemon and orange trees.

Plants: Marigolds, sunflowers, dandelions, (dents de lion =lion’s teeth) celandines, passion flowers

Gemstones: Peridot, carnelian, ruby, onyx

Peridot By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10478407

Key phrase: I love/I desire

Tarot card: Strength

The Lady and the Lion. Perhaps it is Una. Or perhaps her name is Leona or Leonora, for the lion is also the lioness. Her hold on the leash could not be lighter. She is controlling the lion, but only because it is allowing it, not fighting her restraint, signifying that the lion is also a part of herself. This is just as one would imagine, a welcome card of better health, signifying recovery if someone has been ill.

Astronomy

Leo is one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and one of the 88 modern constellations recognised by NASA today, between the neighbouring constellations of Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east.

Leo is the 12^th largest constellations, and one of the most easily recognizable due to its many bright stars, and a distinctive shape suggesting a crouching lion, apparently facing right.

The bright light in the sky beneath Leo as seen in the photo below is Jupiter.

The best time to see the Lion is in Spring in the northern hemisphere, from around the March equinox. In early April, the constellation Leo reaches its high point for the night around 10 p.m. By around May 1, Leo reaches his high point for the night around 8 p.m. local time In early May, the Lion begins to set in the west around 2 a.m. local time and by June, Leo is descending in the west in the evening, drifting progressively westward.

By late July and into early August, the Lion is beginning to fade into the sunset, returning to the eastern sky and visible before dawn around late September or October.

Look out for the Big Dipper, Leo is below it. You are looking for a backwards question mark pattern called the Sickle; and you can see its curve outlines the Lion’s mane.

Leo’s brightest star, Regulus, or Alpha Leonis, ‘The King Star,’ is the heart of the celestial lion, a sparkling blue-white star at the bottom of the backwards question mark pattern. Regulus means “little king” or “prince” in Latin. The star’s Greek name, Basiliscos, has the same meaning, while the Arabic name is Qalb al-Asad, meaning literally “the heart of the lion.”

Coeur de Lion.

Leo’s fifth largest star, Epsilon Leonis, 247 light years from Earth, is 288 times more luminous than the Sun, four times as massive and has 21 times the solar radius.

A triangle of stars in eastern Leo represents the Lion’s hindquarters and tail. The brightest star of the triangle is named Denebola, Arabic, meaning the Lion’s Tail.

There are 15 stars in Leo with 18 known planets between them, but none of the planets is in a habitable zone.

The Leonids are meteor showers associated with the constellation of Leo. They peak around November 17-18 every year, and there is another minor shower, the January Leonids, peaking January 1 – 7.

History & Mythology

Leo the Lion has since ancient times been associated with the sun and royalty, ruled by the sun in astrology and is one of the oldest constellations collectively recognized with many ancient civilizations agreeing on perceiving it as a lion.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Mesopotamians recognized a constellation similar to Leo as early as 4000 BC. The Persians knew the constellation as Shir or Ser, Babylonians called it UR.GU.LA (“the great lion”), Syrians knew it as Aryo, and the Turks as Artan.

The Lions of The Nile

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The story goes that the ancient Egyptians venerated Leo because the overhead appearance of Leo once upon a time coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile River, the lifeblood of their agriculture- and therefore the nation entire.

Why once upon a time? The constellations as seen from Earth have moved over the millennia due to a 26 000 year cycle known as the precession of the equinoxes.

By the end of the drought, the desert lions were getting desperate and would come within sight of the city walls seeking water but this low point in the life of the lions was welcomed as a certain sign that the Nile floods were now shortly on their way. The Egyptians accordingly honoured the lion with festivals, and statues of lions can still be seen along the course of the Nile River, proof of their reverence.

It’s thought that the lion-headed fountains commonly designed by Greek and Roman architects equally symbolized the life-giving waters released by the sun’s presence in Leo.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pexels-photo-1320412.jpeg

Herakles and the Lion of Nemea

In Greek mythology, Herakles’ first labour was the killing of the Nemean Lion. This man eating lion lived in a cave just outside Nemea, a town south-west of Corinth. There had been a number of failed attempts to kill it, but these intrepid hunters had discovered- to their (terminal) horror- that nothing could pierce the lion’s hide, it was so preternaturally tough.

But someone must have survived to tell this tale, for Herakles was forewarned of this additional teensy problem, and sneaked up on the lion when it was asleep in his cave, where they fought and he strangled to death the uber-kitty.

Herakles then (rather disrespectfully, I can’t help feeling, if undeniably pragmatically) skinned the lion with its own claws, and wore its skin as a cloak, making himself even more ferocious in appearance, and more importantly, arrow-proof.

Painting by Artist Torgeir Jjereide

Astrology

Tarot cards: Strength and the Five, Six and Seven of Wands.

This fixed fire sign is known for its pride, ambition and determination, warmth and generosity of spirit, not to mention, charisma, but above all, Leo is known for bravery; the lionhearted one, the divine expression of physical, mental, and emotional fortitude, which is a very great virtue. Leo parents are typically devoted, but they rule their households, no question about it.

Courage takes many forms. There is the courage of initiative, the will to advance, engage and attack. There is moral courage, proceeding in the face of fear, “feeling the fear and doing it anyway.”

And there is the courage to endure, to withstand, and the fortitude that quietly says to itself, “I will keep smiling, and tomorrow I will try again”. No banners and no accolades.

Leo can be its own worst enemy; hasty, arrogant, reckless, self-centred, headstrong and careless, and for these reasons, unless these subjects learn patience, consideration and self-control, they are not necessarily always as lucky in life as they could be, or as the great-hearted Leo truly deserves, proud and thirsty children of the sun.

The living animal with such a very beautiful, and somehow sad and wistful face.

Dandy-Lion

Dandelion’s

Golden Mane

Prideful

Greying

Casts away

Alight on Chance

To someday seed

And newly golden

Lionize again

-Katie-Ellen Hazeldine

In the glass darkly, Tarot and the battle for Kherson

Photo by Daniel Eliashevsky on Pexels.com

Article from American-Canadian journalist and author Diane Francis, dated 15 August 2022:

“Yellow ribbons painted on poles or walls suddenly appear in Kherson, the only regional capital city that Russia has captured in this war. The symbol, memorializing missing loved ones, has taken on a new meaning and represents defiance against Russia’s upcoming phoney referendum votes in Kherson and other occupied regions to approve annexation by Russia. Kherson’s vote is scheduled for 9/11 — the anniversary of America’s worst terrorist attack — and only half of its 280,000 residents remain there after it was occupied in March. Russians offer $165 to vote in favor of annexation and may end up forcing most of them to do so. People are being jailed or shot there for protesting, speaking Ukrainian, or refusing to use the Russian Ruble and yet resistance builds. Now Russian soldiers stay off its streets following assassinations and last week its Russian-backed Mayor was poisoned by his chef. Now in the run-up to the vote, a military battle has begun to recapture the region and a great deal rests on its outcome. Read more HERE

Diane Francis also has fascinating things to tell us about the largely silent ‘war’ in the Arctic, the ‘battle’ for control of the Arctic Circle.

She is on twitter @dianefrancis1

Update: Posted on Twitter today, 22 August

@WarMonitor3

Ukrainian forces destroyed a whole convoy of Russian logistics crossing the Antonivskyi bridge when the bridge was hit. Reportedly the trucks were carrying ammunition.

When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February, I drew cards asking about Putin’s objectives.

I had not predicted the invasion. I don’t know any Tarot readers who did. It was predicted in astrology, by Vedic astrologers in India, who were mostly emphatically pro-Russian and were, at least back, In February, extremely confident of his successful conquest of Ukraine. They do not seem to have posted again since. Perhaps they see no need. They have spoken.

Fortunately for me, I do not work for the likes of the Emperor Tiberius, or he’d have had me hurled over the cliff. I had expressed misgivings however, in a general world reading posted January 2022, and published at Ask.Astrology.com that we were in for a dangerous year, deep, dark waters, Pisces in Neptune, full fathom five.

My focus at that point, in so far as I specified arenas, was the Strait of the Taiwan. This is a Chinese Year of the Black Water Tiger. Neptunian and Mercurial, mega mercantile and expansionist, although China’s room for manoeuvre has possibly been complicated by Putin’s invasion, and we’re all watching that space. And we need to do something radical about upping our own, independent chip production in Europe and the UK, and we need to do it yesterday.

Jupiter is re- entering Pisces in late October-where it was when the war in Ukraine started in February. October seems to bring the end of a cycle, and the start of a new cycle in this war in Europe. A card that I have drawn many times for Zelensky is The Hanged Man, a Piscean figure rendered almost transcendental by his responses, in this fateful trial on which so much hinges.

Fire/water. 2022 -Chinese Year of the Black Water Tiger
Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.
Jorge Luis Borges pic.twitter.com/tYVM3QBizs
— Katie-Ellen (@KatieEllenH) August 9, 2022

When Russia invaded Ukraine 24 February 2022, I looked in the Tarot for its take on what Putin wanted, and the eventual outcome.

Two cards in particular came up, and have come up again many times since: the Two of Pentacles and The Ten of Swords.

The Two of Swords

This juggling earth suit card card is saying, what does Putin want? He wants earth-territory. He wants gold and grain. He wants that land bridge to Transnistria and Moldova, next stop, the Baltic all the way through to Kaliningrad. But he is operating on ‘shifting sands.’ Putin must juggle his military actions and what he really wishes to do, or needs to do militarily, against the economic disadvantage. That mega deal with China, and the projected Siberian pipeline to deliver energy to new markets in China is no help to him now, and won’t be for years to come, while ships are taking over from giant pipelines. New ships, three times as long as a football field, are delivering natural liquid gas in volumes equivalent to three days delivery via the biggest pipelines.

The Ten of Swords

This is another card that has come up repeatedly when I look at President Putin, and has done so since the invasion began 24 February. This card means ruin. Hitting rock bottom. It can mean serious health issues too. This card says to me that Putin will do a huge amount of damage, but he does not achieve his objectives and by this, I am envisioning that he wants Odessa, all of Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova and then more.

The suit of Swords in terms of timing is tricky. It can mean that something happens very swiftly, like the strike of a sword. But Putin did not succeed with his February lightning strike, and now it seems entirely possible that this conflict could carry on as a war of attrition over the next ten years.

But that Ten of Swords can’t be fudged in terms of its basic meaning, ruin, failure, and it can mean sickness or death. This card says to the reader that Putin, for all his brutality and patience is not going to achieve that goal of the land bridge, while astrology suggests the inexorable turning of a tide against him from March 2023 while in terms of zodiac correlations, the Ten of Swords correlates with the last decan of Gemini, meaning roughly 11-20 June.

It’s no use counting on such things, if one is counting on them. But experience says it’s worth noting, at least. The reader notes it, that is all, and time will tell.

Can/Will Ukraine retake Kherson?

Lord Dannett, former chief of the UK Armed Forces has said we need to be realistic; that we must help Ukraine, Putin’s actions and weaponization of oil and gas supplies, are a direct and calculated threat to all Europe, but that Russia will not lose this war.

Defining the winning and losing for both sides- what that will look like- there is the rub. A victory for Ukraine would mean in clear terms that Russia is pushed all the way back out of Ukrainian territory and reclaims the Donbas in entirety. I can’t see in my cards that Ukraine will win back Luhansk.

But Kherson, it looks as though Ukraine can take it back and quite possibly will, but not yet awhile. I drew this spread asking for the Tarot’s impressions of the progress and outcome.

The top central card is a benchmark card.

The left hand column represents the Russian forces.

The right hand column represent the Ukrainian forces.

The Queen of Swords here represents the question being reflected back at the me as the Tarot is seeing it:

-Putin himself, as a Libra sun sign subject, born 7 October 1952 or possibly on the same date but in 1950

-Libra season 22 September -23 October

-Justice, rule of law, truce, agreement

Just as a matter of incidental curiosity, countries that are ruled by Libra include: France, Tibet, Argentina, Austria, Burma, Canada, China, Japan, Siberia, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Iraq, Israel, Lesotho, Nigeria, Palau, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Tuvalu and Uganda.

Cities that are ruled by Libra include: Lisbon, Frankfurt, Paris, Copenhagen, Johannesburg, Nottingham, and Antwerp.

Russia’s cards

The King of Wands, Six of Pentacles, Eight of Swords and Nine of Swords.

Russia succeeded in capturing and occupying Kherson shortly after the invasion, hence we have drawn that upbeat King of Wands card (I go abroad and I am victorious.’

The Six of Coins means community, translating here as the Russians saying ‘this is our place, ours again now’. The Ukrainians have blown up the bridge, more than once, but has not made any significant progress as yet in retaking Kherson. But it has forced the Russians back across the river Dnieper (Dnipro) to the east bank. The Eight of Swords (stuck, trapped, no way forward) is reflecting a situation in which the Russian occupation is starting to experience difficulties, now that Ukraine is better equipped to mount a counteroffensive.

The Eight of Swords shows a lady tied up outside a city. This describes a situation where someone has got stuck. It does suggest a siege type situation. Meanwhile the Ukrainian citizens of Kherson are under siege from a hostile occupation inside their own city.

That last card at the bottom of the column, the Nine of Swords means ‘stress, sleepless nights.’ Again, and the timing may prove a red herring, the Eight and Nine of Swords, like the Ten, refer in terms of the calendar, to something pivotal in late May-late June, Gemini season, 2023.

Ukraine’s cards

Strength, Three of Swords, Four of Wands, Ace of Cups

The Strength card is reflecting the fact that Putin had a great shock when he discovered the Ukrainian resistance was so much stronger than he had anticipated. We are just leaving the season of Leo, and though Ukraine has lost Kherson, and the Ukrainian front line is still apparently 60 km away, some parts of the region of Kherson have recently been recaptured, thanks in part to new arms supplies.

The Three of Swords signifies very great anguish. Here is loss, mourning, deprivation, severance and separation. Russia has severed part of Ukraine from itself, and has not cared in the process to limit the damage, but has used calculated acts of gratuitous violence and cruelty against a civilian population, while proclaiming that they are all one family, one people of one motherland.

How many Russian motherland Ukrainians died during the horror of The Holodomor, Stalin’s entirely deliberately manufactured famine of the winter of 1933/39? Conservative estimates put it at 3.9 million, other estimates suggest 7 million or more.

President Putin may prefer to disassociate himself from Stalin, and see this invasion in Imperial terms, Peter the Great and Catherine the Great. But there speaks the history of the 20th century: Lenin, Stalin, and now, still in that mould, Putin, who yesterday closed the Nordstream 1 Pipeline for three days for ‘unscheduled’ maintenance. There will be few who will not see in this, a warning act of retaliation against Europe for the armaments now being supplied to Ukraine, and in response to recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets in Crimea. Severance of energy, here is another manifestation of the Three of Swords.

The Four of Wands is a different card altogether as we work our way down Ukraine’s pictorial timeline. This is the outcome card for Ukraine in response to the question. Unlike the Vedic astrologers, whose confidence I admire, issuing statements about the future as if they were a given, I am not supremely confident of anything, ever. But I do not argue with the cards that I have drawn, in trying to tap into, fetch up and articulate verbally my inner feelings on the matter. The Four of Wands detects a real prospect that Ukraine will ultimately succeed in recapturing Kherson. Why? The Four of Wands represents success, completion, a building made perfect, a home made beautiful, a gathering and a celebration. This is cardinal Aries energy, the bounding Ram, which is represented by The Emperor card. But here it is Ukraine that is ‘The Emperor.’

Key timings suggested in these cards are Libra time, October 2022, Aries time, April 2023, and Gemini time, late May 2023, Putin possibly in situ till around October 2023.

These are deeply disturbing times. NATO has started moving forces into Latvia.

The entire Baltic region is now a buzzing hive on high alert. Ukraine was hardly caught napping. Anything but. But if Europe was, after the annexation of Crimea, now it’s not, though whether it (in particular Scholz) can and will stand firm this winter remains to be seen.

Armchair experts. Everyone can make their own assessments and this Tarot reader is certainly no expert. But whether right or wrong the reader chooses the cards blindly and entirely at random. The final card on the Ukraine timeline is the Ace of Cups. This card holds out the offer of the Chalice, the Holy Grail, the Healing Cup. It is a card of a rebirth, but a good one. Peace. Restoration. ‘My cup floweth over.’

Till next time 🙂

The video below is a demonstration of artwork from the deck being used today, The Illuminati Tarot.

Season of The Lion 2022

Today is a New Moon in Leo, a moon phase of endings and beginnings. Kings and empires rise and fall, but to paraphrase Outro M38, ‘we are all the kings in our own land’…Facing tempest of dust/ I’ll fight on till the end/Creatures of my dreams/Raise up and dance with me/ Now and forever, I’m your king.’

No one needs any more doom-saying, but we all understand these are dangerous times. There is something deeply unsettled right now, says this Taurean subject born with a first quarter Moon in Leo. The astrology paints this New Moon in buoyant, passionate, Jupiterian terms, though with a potential for chaos. But a New Moon phase only last two and half days, while a rare and major Mars, Uranus and North Node in Taurus triple conjunction is approaching 31 July/1 August. This is a rare event, historically associated with major political, weather, explosive or seismic events. Such events may not occur precisely on these dates but are set in train by association with such a rare and volatile conjunction. More here from astrologer SJ Anderson

Mars is action, enterprise, initiative- or aggression. Uranus is innovation, revolution, upheaval, technology -and the unpredictable while “The North Node is an astrological point in space found by an axis,” says astrologer Arnus Arraut said. “This axis is found by the crossing of the orbit of the Moon around the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. This axis is conformed by the north node and the south node. In this case, the north node is like a gateway, it’s like a door. So, by Mars and Uranus arriving at this astrological point, that acts like a door, and in Vedic astrology is known as the ‘head of the dragon,’ -hungry for knowledge and experiences.

The head of the dragon or snake is also called Rahu. It is ambition without restraint, a head with no body, and has no means to digest what it consumes, and in this conjunction the converging point of Mars, Uranus and this north node/Rahu is in the constellation of Taurus: world finances, agriculture and territory. Countries astrologically ruled by Taurus, just as a matter of incidental curiosity are Australia, Holland, Ireland, Ecuador, Israel, Japan (postwar), Tanzania.

Vedic astrology however correlates the approaching North Node conjunction with Aries, not Taurus- aggression.

Whatever manifests on terra firma, which may take months to become apparent, the only immediate practical takeaway from this rare triple conjunction during this year’s Leo season that is within our direct personal control, is for us to take a little extra care 31 July-1 August, and to be extra risk averse in respect of such activities as travel, speed, climbing or handling power tools.

Leo Associations

Dates in 2022: 22 July-23 August

Symbol: Lion

Celestial ruler: Sun

Element: Fire

Metal: Gold

Quality: Fixed (mid- season/high season)

Body: Heart and spine

Trees: Palm trees, laurel, walnuts, olive trees, lemon and orange trees.

Plants: Marigolds, sunflowers, dandelions, celandines, passion flowers

Gemstones: Peridot, carnelian, ruby, onyx

Wikipedia: peridot

Key phrase: I love

Tarot cards: Strength, courage, pride, self-discipline, and The Sun, life, vitality, innocence, childhood

Minor Arcana cards are the 5,6,7 Wands.

Astronomy

Leo is the 12^th largest, and one of the most easily recognizable constellations due to its many bright stars, and a distinctive shape suggesting a crouching lion, apparently facing right.

The bright light beneath Leo as seen in the photo below is planet Jupiter.

In the northern hemisphere, in the Spring is the best time to see the Lion, starting around the March equinox. By June, Leo is descending in the west in the evening, drifting westward, and by late July or early August, the Lion begins to fade into the sunset, returning to the eastern sky and visible before dawn around late September or October.

Look for the Big Dipper then look southwards, Leo is below the Big Dipper.

Leo’s brightest star, Regulus, The Royal Star, representing the heart of the lion; is a sparkling blue-white star at the bottom of the backwards question mark pattern. The star’s name, Regulus, means “little king” or “prince” in Latin and its Greek name, Basiliscos, has the same meaning. The Arabic name is Qalb al-Asad, which means “the heart of the lion.”

Mind boggling fact- Leo’s fifth largest star, Epsilon Leonis, 247 light years from Earth, is 288 times more luminous than the Sun, four times as massive, and with a solar radius 21 times bigger.

A triangle of stars in eastern Leo depict the Lion’s hindquarters and tail, the brightest, Denebola, Arabic, is the Lion’s Tail.

The Perseids

In 2022 the Perseid meteor showers are visible between 17 July and 24 August, the number of meteors increasing every night and peaking in mid-August, after which it will tail off. This year the peak falls on the night of the 12th and before dawn on 13 August. But this year’s full moon will affect the chances of seeing them in their full glory.

See the video below for more on the Perseids 2022, a presentation courtesy of Peter Detterline

The Leonids are the meteor showers associated with the constellation of Leo, coming from that direction around November 17-18 every year, and again in January; with a smaller shower peaking January 1 – 7.

There are 15 stars in Leo with 18 known planets between them, but none are thought to be habitable.

Mythology

Leo the Lion has since ancient times been associated with the sun, and is ruled by the sun in astrology. Leo is one of the oldest constellations collectively recognized in the sky, with many ancient civilizations agreeing on perceiving it as a lion. Archaeological evidence suggests that Mesopotamians recognized a constellation similar to Leo as early as 4000 BC. The Persians knew the constellation as Shir or Ser. The Babylonians called it UR.GU.LA (“the great lion”), the Syrians knew it as Aryo, and the Turks as Aslan, a name familiar to so many from childhood readings of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The story goes that the ancient Egyptians venerated Leo because the sun shone in front of this constellation at the time of the annual flooding of the Nile River, the lifeblood of their agriculture -the lifeblood of the nation entire. Marking the end of drought, this flood shortly followed the arrival of desert lions at the river.

The lions had come to this stretch of the river out of need, driven closer to the city by the drought in the desert. Their appearance meant the worst was nearly over, the rains were on the way at last, and the Egyptians honoured the lion with festivals and today, their statues of these lions are still seen along the course of the Nile River.

It’s thought that the lion-headed fountains commonly designed by Greek and Roman architects equally symbolized the life-giving waters released by the sun’s presence in Leo.

Many stories are associated with Leo the Lion. A well known tale features the first labour of Hercules or Herakles- the killing of the Nemean Lion.

This terrifying lion lived in a cave in Nemea in Corinth. It was killing and eating the locals and several attempts had been made to kill it, but all had failed miserably. This lion had a supernaturally tough hide. No weapon seemed able to pierce it. Hercules surprised the lion in its cave, caught it napping, strangled it, and then rather disrespectfully, if pragmatically, skinned the body of the lion with its own claws, and wore its skin as a cloak, making himself even more ferocious in appearance- and now arrow-proof.

Astrology of Leo

This fixed sign is known for its pride, ambition and determination, warmth and generosity of spirit. But above all, Leo is known for bravery. Leo is represented in the Tarot by the “Strength” card, representing the divine expression of physical, mental, and emotional fortitude, which is a virtue.

Courage takes many forms. There is the courage of proceeding in the face of fear, “feeling the fear and doing it anyway.” Then there is moral courage, the courage to endure, the discipline of damage limitation, and the fortitude that quietly says to itself, “tomorrow I will try again”.

An eternal optimist, tough, the golden Leo can have a dark streak, and can be their own worst enemy; loud, reckless, self-centred, headstrong and careless. For these reasons, unless they can learn patience, consideration and self-control, they are not necessarily always as lucky in life as their promise deserves.

Leo is the sign of childhood- and childhood’s end.