Your Guide to Leo Season: July 22nd - Aug 22nd

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

-Anaïs Nin

I’ve come to develop a strange love, reverence for Leo season, even though it’s consistently one of the most prickly, disorienting astrological times for me. My scorpio/capricornium stellium prefers to be in the shadows.

Leo solaris energy can feel searing at times because it shines a high-beam on the half-finished ideas, the self-promises I quietly postponed, the creative longings I’ve kept neatly folded in the corner of my psyche..

And readiness, I’ve learned, is a myth we tell ourselves to delay the moment we’ll inevitably be seen. The prickliness from Leo’s exposing features can feel like falling on your face while the spotlight stays fixed on you. No one tells you that being brave enough to be visible also means being vulnerable enough to be awkward in your becoming.

No one tells you that being a leader often means going first into the wilderness with shaky legs, looking back at no one for reassurance, and daring to call that mess your path.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”

We want the crown. But rarely do we prepare for the cost, for the responsibility of who we become when we wear it. The gravity of our own potential. The grief of outgrowing who we once were.

This lion also can carry the unbearable responsibility of being known.

Of being loved for the wrong thing. Of being mirrored back through the projected gaze of others and not flinching at what they see.

Or worse, not loved at all when you finally show the truth of who you are. And still Leo asks you to show up. As the Self, not the Persona. That’s the most subversive thing you can do in a world addicted to image: to actually burn brighter from within.

To become intimate with your joy in such a profound way that it becomes contagious. To be so in love with your own aliveness that it makes people uncomfortable. To speak before the sentence feels ready. To create without needing it to be perceived as genius.

Sometimes courage is also quiet.

Sometimes it’s saying no when you’ve been saying yes too much. Sometimes it’s feeling like an imposter and doing the thing anyway. Sometimes it’s leaving the life you’ve outgrown, even when it looks beautiful from the outside. And sometimes it’s the radical act of letting yourself want what you actually want.

So this Leo season, don’t just think of becoming more confident. Think of becoming braver. Bravery is magnetic. It opens timelines. Bravery pisses off the parts of you that got good at being small. But it also liberates the Self that was buried beneath compliance.

And that lion self, flawed, radiant, and soft-hearted, is what the world actually needs to see. And Leo season, as searing and exposing as it is, will never let you forget it.

Now let’s do a breakdown of Leo Season more specifically now. ↓

Leo Season Timeline (July 22nd - Aug 22nd)

Below are key ingresses and aspects to make note of during this upcoming Leo season. You can save this resource to revisit it throughout the season’s phases to see how this is rippling back in your life.

Note: All dates listed are based on Pacific Time (I’m currently based in California. Adjust accordingly if you’re elsewhere).

• July 22nd - Sun enters Leo

• July 23rd - Venus in Gemini square Mars in Virgo

• July 24th - New Moon in Leo

• July 30th - Venus ingress into Cancer, Chiron stations retrograde

• July 31st - Mercury Cazimi Rx in Leo

• Aug 6th - Mars enters Libra

• Aug 8th - Mars opposing Saturn Rx

• Aug 9th - Full Moon in Aquarius, Mars opposing Neptune Rx

• Aug 11th - Mercury stations direct in Leo, Saturn sextile Uranus, Venus

  conjunct Jupiter

• Aug 14th - Mercury sextile Mars

• Aug 17th - Mercury sextile Mars (again because mercury stations direct)

• Aug 19th - Sun trine Chiron

• Aug 22nd - Sun enters Virgo, New Moon in Virgo

How to navigate Leo Season

Looking at this season’s transits, one thing becomes very clear: there’s a growing tension between personal desire and collective direction. You may feel like what you want truly, privately, soulfully is moving in an entirely different rhythm from what’s trending, from what your peers are focused on, or what the world seems to be screaming is urgent.

This misalignment can stir up a ton of self-doubt. You might ask: Is it selfish to want what I want? Is it foolish to create what no one is asking for?

And to be honest, many of us are arriving into Leo season already energetically winded. Exhausted.

We’re still metabolizing the karmic residue of Mars conjunct the South Node in Virgo, a transit that dredged up old patterns, over-functioning tendencies, and the kind of soul fatigue that comes from constantly trying to be “useful.” So if you’ve been shedding, purging recently, you’re likely arriving into Leo season with a bit of an energetic hangover which is totally okay. This low-key exhaustion is also intensified by the slow, subtle internal reorientation that happens when multiple planets station retrograde in the same season thanks to both Mercury, Saturn, Neptune that are all stationing retrograde this month (and with Chiron soon to follow).

Many people in the last couple of weeks have tossed in the towel and finally quit a person, job, business, habit, or identity to the curb. There’s a discomfort period that follows before something new and hopeful emerges again. This discomfort period does happen to occur during Leo season.

Although tired, the New Moon in Leo on July 24 invites you to start again from this raw place with your undivided presence and attention. This is a sacred chance to plant the seed of your next brave chapter, even if you’re still limping from the last one. Think of this New Moon as an inner vow, a quiet promise to no longer abandon the parts of you that ache to be seen.

On July 30, Chiron stations retrograde, and Venus enters Cancer.

There may be a soft ache surfacing around old wounds of belonging, rejection, or emotional safety. You may suddenly remember something you thought you were “over.”

Don’t override it. These transits ask you to protect your tenderness without shutting down your capacity to love. Create emotional buffers. Take breaks from social noise. Surround yourself with people who let you feel soft without making you feel small.

**And if you feel aligned, do join us for the 2nd Chiron Alchemist workshop where I go deep into the Chiron in Aries collective themes we’re all experiencing.

Like I mentioned previously, your courage really needs to come in. Because with Mars ingress into Libra on Aug 6th, you may notice yourself weighing pros and cons endlessly. Saturn currently retrograding in Aries makes our self-identity murky, which is why there may be a lack of confidence around moving forward. If you’re not anchored in your truth, it can easily default to people-pleasing and having it come back to complicate things for you like whiplash.

There’s a poignant moment of release and reflection on August 9, when we arrive at the Full Moon in Aquarius, flanked by Mars opposing Neptune retrograde.

This lunation shines a light on the dance between individuality and community of “how do I belong without betraying myself?”

The urge to disconnect, to question everything, may feel intense. Don’t panic. This is the letting go of who you were trying to be in order to be accepted.

There are some beautiful breakthrough moments this season.

I will say 3 key dates to look out for would be July 31st where we have a Mercury Cazimi in Leo. This marks a point of solar clarity in the middle of the retrograde fog.

You may revisit a past piece of information, could be an old conversation, a previously bookmarked page that gives you a clue as to how to move forward with more affirmed resolve.

Another key date would be Aug 11th as Mercury finally stations direct.

You also have Saturn sextiling Uranus (a breakthrough period after lull) where you might finally get traction on something that felt stuck for months.

On the same day there’s also Venus conjunct Jupiter, a great transit of being supported while supporting others. When these two benefics come together, it brings a spirit of openness, optimism, and opportunity especially in relationships, finances, and creative work. So really on this day, you get a trifecta of momentum and perspective shifts that are much needed.

The more you lean into ease, celebration, and even childlike play, the more magnetic you become. Don’t underestimate the power of lightness to catalyze real growth.

Then, between August 14 and August 17, we experience not one, but two Mercury–Mars sextiles.

These are power days to have courageous conversations, send bold emails, update your messaging, or take action on a creative idea with clarity and conviction. The first sextile on August 14 is like striking the match. You may feel a surge of motivation to say what you mean, pitch an idea, or initiate a bold move. Because Mercury just stationed direct a few days earlier, there may still be some hesitation but the spark is there.

By August 17, Mercury forms the same sextile to Mars again, now moving direct, offering the follow-through energy.

What was sparked earlier in the week can now be carried out with precision and courage. These are excellent days to send the message, launch the project, have the conversation, or write the piece that requires both clarity and conviction. It’s a window of sharp thinking paired with brave execution and in Leo season, that combination is gold.

The final stretch of Leo season the third week into late August will feel more stabilizing than the beginning. Still, it’s not a clean arc.

Expect the wobble this season.

That’s been the entire energetic signature of 2025 really so far. So much unstable terrain that builds inner strength through recalibration, not control. The clarity won’t arrive all at once.

But don’t forget your courage, bravery to keep sailing forward. Keep the lighthouse going.

So move slower if you need to. Pause often. Let joy interrupt your spirals. And when in doubt, follow what feels like joy, not performance, but joy. The kind that reminds you you’re still alive, still becoming, and still allowed to want more.

To work with the energy of this Leo season:

• Don’t wait for the perfect moment, lighting, mood, or message. Leo energy rewards bold starts. Post the thing. Launch the offer. Say the words. Awkward is allowed.

• What would it mean to be seen just 10% more? Pick one way to step forward this month. Start the podcast, update your website, speak up in a meeting, or show your face on video.

• Use delight as a filter. Ask yourself, Does this light me up? Not everything will be exciting, but Leo season wants you to remember that play is productive.

• Carve out time for comfort and slowness. Nurture relationships that feel reciprocal. Say no to social obligations that drain you.

• Remember that wobble is part of growth. When self-doubt creeps in, don’t interpret it as a stop sign. Take a breath. Take a beat. Then take the next step anyway.

Invitation to this month’s upcoming workshop

We just wrapped an incredible first workshop inside The Chiron Alchemist Series: “Original Soul Fracture: Meeting Your Inner Wound” last month!

If you want to go further with this, the full Chiron Alchemist series picks up exactly here.