LEO WEATHER IN ASTROLOGY 2017-2019
We have several life-changing cycles in the sign of Leo, between 2017 and 2019. If you have Leo factors in your chart they will be triggered. Leo is associated with leadership, particularly of children and young adults, who inherit the authority of adults. It rules your heirs to the throne – godchildren, nieces, nephews, sons, daughters, young in-laws, stepchildren. Leo also rules former, current or potential lovers and partners.
If you have one or more factors in Leo in your natal chart then the North Node in Leo has either already lined up with these or will do so, by 6 November 2018. The North Node rules karma. What goes around, comes around.
If you don’t have your natal chart, you can pick one up as a Premium Member now. These charts show you all 34 factors in modern astrology – not just the planets. If you find out you have a Leo stellium (three or more placements in Leo) then the Leo ‘weather’ from now to January 2019 will strongly affect your sexual relationships and the impact of children or young people on your world. We have a chain of eclipses in Leo which will alter everything.
THE LION AND ROYAL FAMILIES
The lion symbol has dominated heraldry since the 12 century. Astrologers in ancient times made the connection between the kings of beasts, and the king of a nation. You will find the lion in the coats of arms of England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Montenegro, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Norway, Spain, Bulgaria.
The star Regulus inside the constellation of Leo means ‘little king.’ This may be one of the reasons why Leo is associated with the young – little kings and queens; princes and princesses. This photograph from Buckingham Palace, which arrived on my Twitter timeline, says it all. If you want to know what Leo looks like, this is it (below). Even Leo types who don’t have children (like Beatrix Potter) tend to gather a young court or dynasty around them. In her case, it was her vast readership.
HOW THE NORTH NODE IN LEO IS TRIGGERING KARMA
From the long association with lions, Leo, kings/queens of the jungle and royal families in astrology – we work with the idea of courtship (literally, the romance in the royal bedchamber at court) and so Leo and the Fifth House in astrology are very much about your sexual relationships, be they brief encounters or enduring marriages, and the children that do/do not result. As the North Node goes through Leo, 2017-2018, the past will return. And return.
As I write this in July 2017 the North Node stands at 25 Leo, so if you have chart factors at 29, 28, 27, 26 Leo then the Node has already done its work and raised typical Leo/Fifth House questions, harking back to your past. Your North Node always sends us back to the past. Old questions, familiar themes. This may send you back years or even decades.
THE NORTH NODE, MERCURY RETROGRADE AND CERES IN LEO
The astrological weather in the sign of Leo the lion is remarkable, looking ahead. We also have the powerful planet Ceres moving across 0-29 degrees of Leo from Sunday 24 September 2017 and she stays there until Thursday 28 June 2018.
The Node brings karmic choices. Old debts and credits for your soul, based on this and perhaps other lifetimes. What you did, in the context of your royal bedchamber, or any heirs to your throne, comes back at this time, to be dealt with.
The potent dwarf planet Ceres, however, brings tremendous change. A new world. A new order. You might say, your heirs and spares, your royal bedchamber and your courtships are under reconstruction. So this isn’t just about completing the circle with others – it is about transforming the way it all works. That is what Ceres does.
MERCURY RETROGRADE IN LEO
Along with the Node in Leo and Ceres too, we have two long Mercury Retrograde cycles through the sign of the lion, into 2018 – which will shuttle the discussions or paperwork back and forth. So, this is beginning to look like a key two-year phase for personal Leo concerns (the younger people in your world who will inherit the legacy of your personality – or your genes) and global issues (leaders and those who succeed them). Perhaps this cycle is about ‘young lions’ or princes for you. Potential stepsons, maybe, if you are dating a divorced older father. Maybe it’s about the little boy you want to have, one day. One thing is certain – with two Mercury Retrograde in Leo cycles coming up by 2019, this is going to be a very long conversation.
WHAT THE NODES DO – GOING BACK – AND BACK – AND BACK
The North Node takes 18.6 years to revolve, so any cycle of the Node through Leo has a ‘once every two decades’ feeling about it. The Node in Leo does not happen every day. Because the Node also works backwards through the zodiac signs (it will pass from Leo, not to Virgo, but into Cancer, Gemini, Taurus, Aries next) astrologers associate the patterns of 2017-2019, with a ‘Back, back, back’ pattern. Perhaps into an old lifetime, if you are open to the idea of reincarnation and past lives.
You may find that what took place the last time the North Node was in Leo, from October 21 1998, until April 9 2000, is replayed now. Perhaps a child was born then, and that child is now an adult, about to leave home.
Another example would be an old relationship pattern returning to haunt you. The return of a former lover. A fated ‘fork in the road’ choice about a pregnancy you did not pursue, 18 or 19 years ago.
THE NODE IN LEO – FATED TO PASS ONCE EVERY 19 YEARS
Sue Tompkins, writing in The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook (Flare Publications, The London School of Astrology 2006) notes “To get a feeling for the meaning of the Nodes, imagine going out with some plan in mind and then unexpectedly bumping into someone (perhaps someone you haven’t seen for 19 years) who is following their own particular path. The meeting may herald a change of direction for you. The conversation you have with each other could do that. There might be a feeling of fate about the fact that your paths have crossed.”
If you add in the Leo eclipses in 2017, 2018 and early 2019 the sense of rarity about our forthcoming Leo ‘weather’ increases. Eclipses can only take place on the Nodal path and as Stonehenge proves, they were momentous events. Twice a year, any full or new moon crosses the Sun’s path and we see an eclipse. These two eclipse seasons move backwards around the calendar taking 18.6 years to finish one cycle. The points at where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s path are the Nodes. Thus, the sense of ‘Back, back, back’ in time.
THE LEO ECLIPSES 2017 THROUGH 2019 – BEWARE BLIND SPOTS
If you have Leo factors at these degrees (allowing up to one degree’s orb) then on the dates in question, allowing 24 hours either side, you need to be aware of blind spots, missing information or incomplete pictures. These will concern your sexual relationships (past, present, potential) and any children in your world. We include godchildren, stepchildren, young relatives and also young adults with whom you have a professional involvement, on this list. Eclipses conceal, they never reveal. So allow time to pass before you take action or pass judgement on these important matters.
An eclipse is exactly what you might assume. An unclear, patchy or obscured period. It is neither negative nor positive. It just does not show you, what it normally should.
On a world scale we will see cover-ups involving the British royal family, but also the American White House family. Leaders and their children, and their young relatives. I will look at the global impacts of these eclipses later in this story, but for now, here are those eclipse dates in full, across this unusual two-year period. This photograph of Donald Trump and his dynasty says it all. In fact, there is a toy lion in the photograph. I am sure you have seen this image before. It came to me on Twitter and has been shared across the internet. Donald’s ‘heir’ is riding Leo the lion, ahead of a chain of Leo eclipses.
THE SIX BIG LEO ECLIPSE DATES 2017 TO 2019
The strange dance of the Sun and Moon on these dates will have a powerful impact on world leaders, their children, and their sexual relationships. In your own life, you may prefer to make important life choices another time.
August 7 2017 Sun 15 Leo – Moon 15 Aquarius
August 21 2017 Sun 28 Leo – Moon 28 Leo
January 31 2018 Moon 11 Leo – Sun 11 Aquarius
July 27 2018 Sun 4 Leo – Moon 4 Aquarius
August 11 2018 Sun 18 Leo – Moon 18 Leo
January 21 2019 Moon 0 Leo – Sun 0 Aquarius
WHY ECLIPSES MATTER – STONEHENGE AND THE ECLIPSES IN LEO
How much do eclipses matter? Put it this way. The Ancients risked death by hauling some enormous stones, a very long way, to create Stonehenge. The 56-hole Aubrey Circle at Stonehenge is a stunning eclipse predictor.
Astronomer, Professor Sir Fred Hoyle first pointed out this was how the circle may have been used. Writing in Stonehenge (Wooden Books, 2000) Robin Heath notes many visitors think that the central stone construction, is all there is to Stonehenge and hardly notice the concrete filled Aubrey holes as they step over them. He writes: “But, as Hoyle showed, these are numerically perfect for predicting eclipses, and can also show the Sun and Moon positions, lunar phase and the state of the sea-tides.” The circle of the 56 Aubrey holes was dug around 3000 B.C.
FROM JFK TO PRINCESS DIANA – ECLIPSES COVER UP THE TRUTH
Eclipses mattered then, as they matter now. They are always cover-ups and they frequently affect world history. Kennedy was assassinated after Oswald left his job, to go to Texas – on an eclipse. Princess Diana died days before an eclipse.
Eclipses are neither good nor bad, as I’ve said to readers on my website, many times – but they blot out the light. They never reveal, they always conceal. This chain of eclipses in Leo will look rather like a patchwork quilt, full of missing patches and concealed folds. Those particular eclipses were dark in nature, because the personal charts of JFK and Diana were angled that way. If we had any clear birth data for the Trump dynasty (it is conflicted or missing) then perhaps we would find the Leo weather hits those charts too, until 2019. Perhaps we would find that toy lion in the Trump photograph has a message for us. This is the real thing, below – the ancient constellation of Leo the lion.
LEO AND THE ROYAL BEDCHAMBER – AFFAIRS, HEIRS AND SPARES
Leo, that historic symbol of emperors and kings, is about bravery, nobility and strength. It is also about bloodlines, the human heart and desires. Arranged marriages for dynastic purposes did not always mean joy in the bedroom (King Henry VIII is proof of that) and so both the mistress and the courtesan are associated with Leo and his royal bedchamber. Queen Elizabeth I knew she would lose her power if she married, so she remained the Virgin Queen, entertaining admirers, who could but throw their cloaks over puddles, so the story goes. Courtly love and distant infatuation is associated with Leo as much as a four-poster bed. So are Royal Bastards, who were genuinely called thus. Today, the stigma of illegitimate children has vanished, but centuries ago, affairs, heirs and spares were a deadly serious business. The Fifth House, and Leo, its ruler, maintain the association.
PRINCESS MARGARET – A VERY LEO LOVE LIFE
Princess Margaret, a Leo, is one of the best 20 century examples of what we might call A Very Leo Love Life. She was in love with a divorced man. As the ‘spare’ to her sister, that kind of marriage was simply not allowed. What was allowed, was Princess Elizabeth, her sister, meeting Lieutenant Phillip Mountbatten, son of Prince Andrew of Greece, at her parents’ coronation. That was a proper dynastic match. If you dig deeper, into the history of royal bedchambers, you find the whole question of bloodlines and the line of succession is the actual problem. This Leo story surrounds the House of Windsor. Prince Charles is married to a divorced woman. He is himself divorced. The curse of the royal bedchamber never quite goes away with Leo. The 2017-2019 transits will ignite it. Back to the future!
LEO AT HEART- MENTORING, TRAINING, EDUCATION, TEACHING, TUTORS, GUIDANCE
The long-standing association between the sign of Leo, the Fifth House and education comes from the fact that one could be born king, yet also had to learn how to be a monarch. We associate the zodiac sign of Sagittarius with academia, but Leo is about guidance and training across the board. At heart, Leo the lion is about raising the young. Leaving the legacy of your personality to a younger court – those who inherit your guidance – is a Leo tradition.
Leo and the Fifth House are about education – be it informal or formal; teenage boys in the Royal Air Force in the last war were trained to become gunners, observers, pilots. All British royal children are taught etiquette – and how to ride. Leo guidance can be unexpected. Professor Higgins teaching commoner Eliza Doolittle how to speak and behave, in Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is one example.
LEO – FROM CRAWFIE TO HARRY POTTER
Leo education is about Miss Marion Crawford (Crawfie), governess to the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, teaching them about the sport of kings, with the help of 30 toy horses – and yes, the young princesses were allowed to put a harness on her. History records that their father, the King himself, said his sister Mary was a horse ‘until she came out’ as a debutante. Harry Potter, created by a Sun Leo, is an education of another kind for millions of children. Leo sets an example, at its best.
Leo and the Fifth House are sometimes written up as a grab-bag for everything in astrology. You can pick up some books or click on some websites and find this pairing given over to everything from folk dancing to sushi cookbooks. The word ‘creative’ is thrown around a lot with Leo but in actual fact, it has nothing to do with creativity, per se. Leo diversions, distractions, entertainments and pursuits are about binding the young in the dynasty to the old. There is a serious reason for the weekend bonding. This goes beyond those astrology books from the Eighties with all their Morris Dancing and macrame references to leo the lion and the Fifth House. It’s about dynasty survival.
This really takes us back to British royal history, when arranged marriages and an overload of child care could result in parents who barely knew each other and children who hardly saw their parents at all. This kind of separation could result in such cold hearts in the kingdom that daughters could overthrow fathers (as in 1688). Not surprisingly, Queen Victoria went to great lengths to find entertainments and outdoor pursuits that young and old could share in her dynasty. The family that plays together, stays together (or at least it doesn’t attempt murder within its ranks, as Richard III was supposed to have done).
FUN FOR ALL THE FAMILY – GIDDY UP!
Horse racing is given over to Leo and the Fifth House, but gambling is not something children are permitted to do – although they can jump up and down when a favourite steed crosses the finishing line. Thus, it might be said that riding and polo are Leo pursuits, but Paddy Power betting slips, not so much. Football, which binds the generations together, is Leo if it’s read in that context – as a way for adults to play at being children, and children to play at being adults.
Leo is not inherently creative. Not at all. There is a popular idea in astrology, that creativity equates ejaculation/insemination in the horoscope – and so there is a tenuous connection between Leo and, say, quilting or the bassoon. It’s an outlet for the ‘seed’ that is sown, seems to be the general concept with this sign. Yet – look at the most wildly creative group of musicians in history and there is not one Leo among them. Rather, Leo seems to be about finding something which small children can enjoy as much as their parents. Lion kings are trained by their games.
MALE HEIRS, FATHERS, KINGS
Part of the issue with Leo stories in our lives is the ancient tradition of the male ‘heir and spare’ and this takes us back to questions of fertility, birth order and the rest. Hereditary leadership brings problems in the power structure. For the record, Leo is a male zodiac sign, ruled by the Sun, which is associated with fathers, just as the Moon is associated with mothers. When Pluto was in Leo, Hitler tried to set up Germany as a Fatherland.
Primogeniture is the state of being the first-born child in a royal family. It’s feudal. It means all the land goes to the eldest son. The Succession to the Crown Act of 2013 in the United Kingdom changed this sexist rule, so that the crown can go to the eldest child of either sex – male or female.
Back in the 20 century, Princess Anne only occupied the position of “spare” to the heir, Prince Charles, until the birth of her younger brother Prince Andrew when she was nine. He then jumped over her in the line of succession.
Closer to home the Leo archetype is about the father who is king in his castle – the mortgaged family house he pays for. His sons and daughters stand to inherit that, but also the influence of his personality, values, skills, talents and the rest.
THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME – LEO BEDCHAMBER SECRETS
What happens when the heir has no children, and the spare may be gay? What happens when the royal bedchamber, that home of royal privilege, allows the ruler to do whatever he pleases, with whom he pleases, whatever the laws of the day might say about sex?
Sexuality is primarily associated with the marriages of Libra (gay and lesbian nuptials, equal to heterosexual pairings) and the deadly serious property and financial transactions of Scorpio lovers. Leo is associated with gay, lesbian and transgender stories because of its perennial concern with romance, infatuation and the loaded question of the line of succession.
Pluto in Leo in the Forties was marked by Evelyn Waugh’s novel, Brideshead Revisited, about an aristocratic family whose heir had no children of his own, and whose male spare was an alcoholic – and very possibly gay. Sebastian Flyte was also as close as wartime novels could become, to the anti-hero of ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ with his friend, Charles Ryder.
During the Pluto in Leo years, on December 31 1948, the Kinsey Report stunned the United States of America and the world. It claimed 56% of American men were unfaithful. Of the 5,300 American men interviewed, 90% masturbated and a whopping 37% achieved orgasm with other men. The love that dare not speak its name, spoke its name as this Leo pattern rolled on. If you have exact patterns in your chart involving factors in Leo and the Fifth House, it is very likely that your sexuality and your love life history is complicated. Maybe it’s a Kinsey Report all by itself.
AMERICAN ARISTOCRATS – LEO, CLASS AND THE UNITED STATES
When the Americans drove out the British and King George III the aristocracy did not end. Just as royalty in Europe intermarried within their own class, we find American society from the 18 century following similar lines. The American ‘aristos’ were the children of British upper-class families who could not inherit, due to their birth order. Instead, they came to America looking for land. Today the aristocracy has moved to democracy and thus the occupants of the White House. You might also want to look to Virginia for an old American Leo story.
THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY AND THE LEO BLOODLINE – PREDICTIONS
Leo placements can be found across the British royal family tree, of course, but the immediate branches of the House of Windsor show strong patterns in the sign of the lion. Prince Charles will have his Ceres Return in Leo, as will Prince George and Her Majesty the Queen, across that crucial Ceres cycle – Ceres enters Leo on Sunday 24 September 2017 and stays there until Thursday 28 June 2018.
This is how astrology predictions are made. Her Majesty the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince George will be at the heart of a new kingdom, with a carve-up of rights, roles and responsibilities, between 24 September 2017 and 28 June 2018. There will be a deep change in either the line of succession, or the way the royal jobs are handled.
LEO FACTORS IN THE BIRTH CHARTS OF BRITISH ROYALS
Princess Anne and The Queen Mother – Sun in Leo
Her Majesty the Queen – Ceres, Proserpina, Neptune in Leo
Prince William – Hygiea and Proserpina in Leo
Prince Phillip – Neptune, Vulcano and the Moon in Leo
Prince George – Apollo, Vesta and Ceres in Leo
Princess Diana – Bacchus, Minerva, Uranus and the North Node in Leo
Prince Charles – Ascendant, Pluto and Ceres in Leo
LEO, COURTSHIP AND QUEEN BEES
Queen Elizabeth I was the Virgin Queen who never married, nor had a child, but was courted by admirers. Leo is associated with hives, bees and Queen Bees in particular. In fact, the Virgin Queen is the name given to the female in the hive (they don’t call it Royal Jelly for nothing). The males are called drones and they die after mating. Bees are an interesting reversal of the usual sexism surrounding Leo. Here, the Queen rules.
LEO AND THE SEX LIVES OF LIONS
The male lion has a sharp barb at the end of his penis that hurts the lioness on exit after mating. This is why lionesses regularly swipe lions when the sex is over. Male lions are also notorious for killing their cubs. When they take over a pride (another Leo key word) they can destroy all the offspring, thus bringing females into heat again, so they can mate with them and start their own bloodline.
LEO, CRUSHES, INFATUATION AND COURTLY LOVE
Drones die for their Queen Bee. Monarchs, forced to wed for dynastic reasons, have mistresses and – yes, Royal Bastards. What about the long association between the zodiac sign of Leo and love-at-a-distance? The rush of the crush?
This really comes from medieval literature, created to entertain the nobility, where knights performed services for their ladies. The term amour Courtois (courtly love) was popularized by Gaston Paris who used the knight Lancelot as his model. Courtly love arose when a mistress required that her fair knight did brave and noble deeds at her request, to prove his dedication to her. It did not necessarily have to end in sex although it was based on desire. In 1936, C. S. Lewis wrote The Allegory of Love, describing this kind of affair in terms of humility, courtesy and adultery. Lewis is best-known for another Leo tale – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
LEO, HAREMS AND CONCUBINES
In the East, leading families and their courts included a harem, and concubines, but also eunuchs. This takes us back to the idea of the royal bedchamber and the mistress, but also the Queen Bee and her drones, although eunuchs were of course unable to perform. Again, the bloodline for the Leo line of succession remains protected, with this kind of squeaky, celibate fandom
Strongly Leo ladies like Madonna attract a male court. The documentary In Bed With Madonna is a textbook example of how a lioness runs. This takes us all the way back to the First Crusade of 1099, when poets would declare themselves the ‘vassal’ of the lady, married to their lord. The rich and powerful female head of the castle was flattered and kept busy with the attention when her husband was away on Crusade or other feudal business. Poor knights could social climb this way.
We are back to the problem of Royal Bastards and the line of succession, here. As well as the classic Aquarius-Leo conundrum. The leader needs his round table of knights and his court, and vice versa. Adultery can’t be allowed to break the circle or the leadership. Leo courtly love was deemed either to be purely spiritual, heroic and admirable (the knight’s loyalty to his master could not be allowed to get in the way of anything else, even his fervent admiration for his wife)…or, in fact, adultery. The lady, being the prize at the end of the knight’s conquest. We associate fans, and royal fanfare, with Leo.
LEO, THE FIFTH HOUSE AND FINE ROMANCE
Leo and the Fifth House is associated with romance, rather than sex, death and money (that belongs to Scorpio) or the sexual marriage of equals (that’s Libra). Leo is about the kind of sexual longing that is necessarily from afar (like Camilla’s for Charles). It may be consummated, but it’s dangerous – forbidden. Should it go any further it may become Libra or Scorpio in nature. Money and property changes hands, then. Courtly Love had rules in the 12 century. Andreas Capellanus wrote De Amore, with maxims like ‘He who is not jealous, cannot love’ and ‘When made public, love rarely endures.’
PLANNED PREGNANCIES, UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES, GRANDPARENTS AND GRANDCHILDREN
Courtly love is a long way from the Sixties and the introduction of the contraceptive pill. Yet, even with modern-day contraception, Leo stories continue to be told in our history. Rumours that dangerously charming, wonderfully real-world, fiery, feisty, red-haired Prince Harry is not the son of Prince Charles, continue despite firm denials. Princess Diana, with her chain of fans and admirers (including the odd troubadours and minstrels, like Duran Duran) certainly spun a Leo real-life tale, but then she was born with the Node in Leo. She had done it all before. Perhaps she incarnated to do it all again. She also had a Leo chart signature.
Andrew Morton’s famous biography of the princess (aided by her) has echoes of De amore libri tres, by Andreas Capellanus, in 1184. Capellanus wrote about ‘pure love’ which went as far as a kiss and embrace, and ‘modest contact with the nude lover, omitting the final solace’. Diana’s most famous troubadour was gay, so there was no question about Capellanus’s ‘final solace’ there – Sir Elton John gave his saddest serenade at her funeral, Candle in the Wind. Her most famous lover was her last lover; the son of a man who removed the royal warrants from Harrods after a bitter feud.
Astrology has a way of resonating, no matter how thoroughly modern our lives become. The Leo archetype is a good example of this. How was it that the late 20 century with all its computers, mobile phones and satellite dishes, ended up reading like – say – the saga of King Henry VIII?
LEO, ANCIENT ROME AND EMPERORS
For Roman leaders it wasn’t so much the bloodline that mattered, as the family name. If a man recognized a child as his own, and the law accepted this, then the son could become an heir. If, however, the child was not recognized, it could be left out to die (exposed) or be raised a slave. Claudius first accepted a girl as his daughter, then changed his mind and had her exposed. Emperors, however, often adopted their successors.
LEO AND THE DARK SIDE OF SEXUALITY
Scorpio is usually written about in astrology books as the sign to associate with the unacceptable side of sex. Leo is not immune. Promiscuity leads to sexually transmitted disease. There is nothing particularly noble, regal or dignified about V.D. but it skyrocketed during the Second World War when Pluto was in Leo and in 1943 the Archbishop of Canterbury was moved to speak out about it.
Vladimir Nabokov produced Lolita in 1955 during the long Pluto in Leo cycle. The power of sex. The power of the teenager. This was not a charming tale of courtly love, knights and damsels. It was the story of a nymphet step-daughter and her middle-aged stepfather. In the same year Francoise Sagan, then eighteen, published Bonjour Tristesse about Cecile, a teenager taking on her widowed father’s mistress.
WHAT OUTER PLANET CYCLES IN LEO TEACH US ABOUT THE SIGN
Other Leo transits involving the slow-moving outer planets are also good timing devices, if we want to look at the unhappy truth about the bedchamber. In 1976, Saturn was in Leo, the planet of sombre, sad, serious situations in the sign of youth. Jodie Foster played a child prostitute in Taxi Driver. In the same year, mothers received Thalidomide compensation payouts from the drug company which had affected their babies while still in the womb. In 1977, Saturn in Leo rolled on. Roman Polanski was jailed for sex with a thirteen-year-old girl. That was also the year of the ghastly Yorkshire Ripper. This goes beyond the romping of King Charles II and into darker territory. Perhaps it’s not surprising. Leo the lion is associated with empires and emperors, which takes us to Ancient Rome.
SEX AND THE ROMAN EMPEROR
Modern astrology is based on Roman/Latin ideas, symbols, names, gods and goddesses. The archetypes were shipped to Britain and over a period of 400 years of Roman rule, the charts, the planets and the deities – like Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – found their way into British hearts and minds. Astrologers there then gradually exported their horoscopes, and theories, to the United States, Australia and beyond.
The Roman Empire was based on a royal family of emperors whose sexual appetites could only be stopped by assassination. Julius Caesar seduced wives. He famously loved Cleopatra. However, he also loved Servilia, who was suspected of having prostituted her own daughter. There was a song about him, quoted in The Twelve Caesars (Suetonius/Robert Graves/Penguin). ‘Home we bring our bald whoremonger; Romans, lock your wives away! All the bags of gold you lent him, Went his Gallic tarts to pay.’ If you’re looking at Leo the lion, you can’t really ignore this very early tale of leaders and their love lives.
TIBERIUS, NERO AND THE ROYAL BEDCHAMBER
Emperor Tiberius gives us a horrific variation on the ‘royal prerogative’ of the ruler’s bedchamber. Often, he did not even bother with a bed. He had a private sporting-house at Capreae with girls and young men, known as spintriae, who would 
copulate before him in groups of three. Boys and girls were dressed as Pans and nymphs, prostituting themselves in the caverns. According to Suetonius, he called the little boys who swam with him ‘minnows’. Babies were not immune from his depravity. Today he would be in prison. Then, he was a symbol of royal power gone mad. Nero seduced boys and married women. He raped the Vestal Virgin Rubria. He tried to turn a boy, Sporus, into a girl – by castration. He married Sporus with a dowry and bridal veil, to complete. He desired his own mother, Agrippina but instead found a mistress who resembled her. It goes on. Absolute power, in Rome, corrupted absolutely. We are into Scorpio territory here too, with all the poisonous murders and the vast riches that surrounded the nobility in the ancient world, but Leo is certainly a symbol of empire and emperor, and the Romans took this power to its horrific logical extreme. The Roman Empire was an absolute monarchy gone absolutely mad. Which brings us to genetics.
LEO AND INTERMARRIAGE
The history of empires and royal families is also the history of intermarriage so that property and power remains in a tight circle. Emperor Hirohito of Japan (1901-1989) was the longest-reigning ruler in that country’s history – and he also married his distant cousin, a Princess. In Rome, Nero was thought to be born from his mother’s adultery with his own stepfather. History tells us, monarchy – the great Leo symbol – blurs lines.
FITZROY, ROYAL BASTARDS AND THE BATON SINISTER
Who are the most famous Royal Bastards? Edmund in Shakespeare’s King Lear is one. Henry Fitzroy, son of King Henry VIII is another. The Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II is yet another. In fact, the surname ‘Fitzroy’ means ‘son of a king’ and was used by many pretenders to the throne, who were born out of wedlock, to the wrong woman.
In medieval England, a bastard’s coat of arms was marked with a Baton Sinister – a bend. History also tells us that Cleopatra had a bastard son by Julius Caesar – Caesarion. Charles II fathered at least 20 illegitimate children. His most famous mistress was Nell Gwynn – another mother. Always lurking at the life stories of strongly Leo people is a lingering question about the Baton Sinister. Pregnancies, planned and unplanned.
PLUTO IN LEO AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Discovered in 1930, Pluto was in Leo during the Second World War. Pluto is a symbol of power, the loss of power, and shared power. During the war, it was channelled into questions about sex, pregnancy, adultery, parenthood and children. This cycle which could only have happened once in 240+ years was intense, transformative and unforgettable. It changed the planet.
This was the war when lovers were separated, sometimes by death. Women could be widows while they were teenagers. In 1947, British divorces had doubled within two years. In Nazi Germany, childless Hitler was exploring the idea of breeding a master race. In February 1939, British peers passed the Bastardry Bill making blood tests compulsory in paternity lawsuits. Again, with Pluto in Leo in 1944, genes, or hereditary units, were found to be made from DNA. Leo has always been about bloodlines. The Pluto in Leo children of the war years grew up to become Beatles fans and helped turn teenagers into a new world force.
CHILDREN, TEENAGERS WAR AND PLUTO IN LEO
If Pluto is power and Leo is children and young people, then Pluto in Leo during the last war gave the younger generation tremendous power and influence. In December 1938 as Pluto crossed 1 Leo, German Jewish child refugees began arriving in Britain. One year later, children from Paris were evacuated and British children were sent to the safety of the countryside. The image of a small child carrying a gas mask at a train station is one of the enduring memories we have of this Pluto in Leo war.
More power. On July 20 1939 a five-year-old boy became the new Dalai Lama. A month later, Judy Garland (seventeen years old) became the star of The Wizard of Oz starring Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, of course. Suddenly, children and teenagers were front-page. Front and centre of the war effort and the reasons why people were fighting. From the Dalai Lama to the ‘fighter boys’ of the R.A.F. they were suddenly coming into their own.
Conscription – The Call-Up – put teenage boys front and centre too. Adolescents became powerful, and so did – appallingly – child soldiers. Numbers – young males – the sons and heirs –became the difference between winning and losing the war, on all sides. In June 1940, with Pluto continuing its transit through Leo, the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret became heroic symbols of nationhood as they stayed at Buckingham Palace with King George VI and the Queen Mother, despite being targets.
On October 13 1940 young Elizabeth was a classic Pluto in Leo teenager in power, fronting up to the microphone to give a radio broadcast to child evacuees. She was only fourteen years old. She was sixteen when she registered for war service.
The Pluto in Leo battle for power put innocent children at the heart of the war. Anne Frank was sent to a concentration camp and never returned. She remains the most famous young diarist of all time. A dreadful price was paid by all children at the core of the power struggle over children, timed by Pluto in Leo. In 1944 Hitler ordered the mobilization of all children over the age of ten.
NEPTUNE IN LEO – TESTAMENT OF YOUTH AND WORLD WAR ONE
It is a truth of astrology that both world wars in the 20 century were fought during long outer planet transits of Leo, the sign that rules children and particularly teenagers – young adults. That First World War classic, Testament of Youth, is a lasting statement about the Neptune in Leo years and the young people who were wiped out (a whole generation) by the First World War.
Neptune dashed in and out of Leo in 1914, 1915, 1916 while Kitchener called for volunteers. The Russian Army was notoriously made up partly of children. If Neptune is about unreality then the German chlorine gas on the Western Front was part of that. The young men who gave their lives did so in a mist of patriotism, but the Neptunian reality was gas. The young died for Lord Kitchener, Empire and the King. Teenage runaways who enlisted were a hallmark of the First World War. Australian James Martin was 15 when he joined the Anzacs and died at Gallipolli.
This was the young poet Rupert Brooke’s war. “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England.” This was also the war which saw a poster asking “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” It was a war about fathers and sons, and the loss of those sons. It was a war about leaders, and the people – and so would the second one be, when just nine years after Pluto’s discovery, he entered Leo and armies of young men, the heirs and spares in their families, would give their lives one more time for king, president, dictator, emperor.
PLUTO IN LEO – SCHOOLBOY KINGS IN THE FORTIES
Quite apart from the Dalai Lama, who became Tibet’s spiritual leader when very young, during the Pluto in Leo cycle – a schoolboy also became King of Jordan. On August 11 1952, Crown Prince Hussein was attending classes at Harrow, at the time, but succeeded King Talal, who had become ill with schizophrenia. The Second World war lionized young men, the heirs and spares, as much as it decimated a whole generation.
EMPEROR HIROHITO, JAPAN AND PLUTO IN LEO
Japan also had a royal bloodline to consider and as emperors and empresses and empires are associated with Leo, the story of Japan in the 1940’s is also central to that Pluto cycle. The most extreme outcome of Pluto in Leo was the surrender of Emperor
Hirohito in Japan, to the allies, in August 1945 after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His empire was on its knees even though he had been worshipped as a living god until 1946. Emperor Hirohito ruled until 1989 when his son Akihito succeeded him. As an island monarchy, Japan remains symbolically Leo. The mushroom cloud at Hiroshima is a photograph of Pluto in Leo, doing its worst in a country where an Emperor was God.
EAST TIMOR AND LEO-AQUARIUS STORIES
On 30 August 1999 across the last North Node in Leo cycle and within a fortnight of the total eclipse in Leo, East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia. Leaders Ramos Horta and Xanana Gusmao, who will later become President, show the way. All eyes should be on Indonesia across this new Leo weather and the return of the Node. The old Aquarius-Leo issues of the people, and their leader, will return. When we look at Leo the issue is always leadership, dynasty and heirs, so beyond the striking story of Japan, Emperor Hirohito and the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for his empire – we can look across to East Timor and modern leadership issues, about to be triggered.
AUSTRALIA AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR A REPUBLIC TO JANUARY 2019
In 1999 during the last Leo Node cycle, a referendum rejected a proposal that Queen Elizabeth II be replaced as head of state by a president, elected by the parliament. As both Her Majesty and Prince Charles have horoscopes heavily weighted in Leo, it seems likely that we’ll see a far larger push for another referendum in 2017-2019. This may be connected to the Ceres Return in Leo set to be experienced by Her Majesty the Queen, Prince Charles and Prince George. If so, we could time a campaign for a new referendum for the passage of Ceres through Leo, as before. Again, this is how astrological predictions are made. The Australian government and/or its opposition will relaunch a campaign for a referendum on a republic, between 24 September 2017 and 28 June 2018. You can see the Australian chart here (click to enlarge) . It’s a Leo free zone.
AUSTRALIA – THE LEO-FREE NATION
There are a couple of charts for Australia. The one set for 7 February 1788 at 11.00am in Sydney shows an empty Fifth House – not so much as one asteroid appears in the royal sign of Leo. Monarchy does not define Australia’s identity. One look at this country and its architecture, art and fashion history and that’s clear.
Leo is associated with monograms, precious jewellery and regalia of all kinds – regal trappings – even in suburbia. Imperial, royal or sovereign status was always signalled by this kind of paraphernalia – notably the crown. Middle-class Leo types wear hats instead. Tiaras, sceptres, bracelets, gloves and rings are all Leonine. Gold is the Leo metal. It’s notably absent from Australian museums, with the notable exception of Dame Edna Everage (Average) who is a potent symbol of a Leo-bypass, Aquarius-heavy nation. It will be interesting to see what happens when Pluto finally moves into Aquarius.
THE LEO COURT AND THE MYTHOLOGY OF VERSAILLES
You can learn about Leo as much from a country with a Leo bypass, as you can from a period of history which exaggerated Leo themes. Versailles (recently the subject of an acclaimed new television series) has given astrology the myths. All these ideas about Leos being courted, and conducting courtships, and 
holding court are nothing without the historic definition of a royal court – and that was Versailles. The Leo archetype revolves around the royal household. The nobility. The bodyguards. Foreign royals in exile who come for refuge. Minstrels and fools. Beyond the Leo court we find butlers, chaplains, ladies-in-waiting, pages, secretaries and the rest. Versailles also had its amusements and jesters. Like all zodiac archetypes, Leo echoes down the centuries. Royal fools in courts of old magically became The Goons, favourites of the young Prince Charles – Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers continued the tradition. At the Palace of Versailles. Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, was also his advisor – she famously shared the court with the Queen. Madame de Pompadour was a patron of architecture and art. From all this we expand our astrological understanding of Leo. Loyalty and service from the lower orders is essential to the monarchy but Leo can also become a patron. From this, we develop the idea of the notorious ‘patronising’ Leo archetype. In the 21 century, royal family members work as charity patrons. The royal warrants on selected British brands reflect another kind of patronage. From this comes the idea of Leo generosity. We also associate favours, favourites and favouritism with this zodiac sign and the notion of ‘playing favourites.’ This is the way an astrological symbol is built up. Astrologers find synchronicity.
PLUTO IN LEO, URANUS IN LEO AND THE BIRTH OF THE TEENAGER
If Leo is associated with young people, then the transits of Uranus alongside Pluto in Leo should surely have brought a youthquake – and they did. On April 12 1954 Bill Haley released Rock Around the Clock and the teenager was born. The Moon was in Leo that day alongside Pluto. In the same year, fresh-faced Lester Piggott, who was just eighteen, became the youngest jockey to win the Epsom Derby. Author William Golding created Lord of the Flies in the same year and scared us with the power of teenage boys, in quite another way. Boom! Welcome to Uranus in Leo, the sign of the heir and spare. When Uranus (revolution, rebellion, freedom, radical change, independence) moved into Leo, the year 1956 became a kind of milk bar explosion of new youth excitement, energy and risk. Juvenile delinquents! Elvis Presley!
In 1957 The Beat Generation arrived and Jack Kerouac turned teenagers into beatniks, with the publication of On the Road. The heady combination of both Uranus and Pluto in Leo in 1955, 1956, 1957 resulted in a whole generation of babies who – by the time they reached the age of consent in the 1970’s – would lose their virginity on the contraceptive pill. Thus, the Leo royal bedchamber was not just refurnished. It was destroyed and rebuilt. In 1967, when Jupiter (optimism, hope, expansion, solutions) arrived in Leo, both abortion and homosexuality were decriminalised in the United Kingdom. Compare that to life thirty years earlier. Uranus and Pluto in Leo shifted the earth and then Jupiter arrived to finish the job.
THE SUMMER OF LOVE
The Summer of Love, when Jupiter was in Leo in 1967 gave us the hippie (the clue is in the name – child-bearing hips are Leo) for the rest of time. This cycle ran from the arrival of Jupiter in the sign of the lion on September 28 1966, until the last joss-stick burned on October 19, 1967. Chiron in Pisces supplied the drugs. (Chiron was the centaur who specialized in medicinal herbs on Mount Pelion, according to myth). When Uranus moves into Leo again in 2039, children and teenagers will again be reborn, to rebel, to radicalize and to revolutionise our world. In 2041, both Chiron and Uranus will be in Leo. Once again, a youthquake and a sexquake will be in store. I will be a very old (Leo) lady astrologer by then, but I will be fascinated to see how this cycle manifests.
LEO STORIES IN BRITISH ROYAL HISTORY
Why is the Fifth House and Leo, its zodiac ruler, so powerfully associated with leaders, the line of succession, sons, daughters, heirs, affairs, divorce, fertility and so on? You only have to look at history since 1135. This is about the time we see the lion becoming the dominant symbol in British royal life.
1135 – King Stephen and his cousin Matilda are at war. The throne finally passes to Matilda’s son Henry.
1189 – Richard the Lionheart ascends the throne. His brother John succeeds him.
1399 – Richard II is deposed by his cousin, Henry of Lancaster.
1415 – Henry V marries the French king’s daughter, and becomes heir to the throne of France.
1483 – The boy king Edward V disappears in the Tower of London after his father dies. Prime suspect is his uncle, Richard III.
1534 – Henry VIII falls in love with Anne Boleyn, while still married to Catherine of Aragon, but is refused an annulment of his marriage to Catherine, by the Pope. He breaks with the Catholic Church and becomes Supreme Head of the Church of England. Poor Anne is beheaded in 1536 and Henry marries four more times.
1558 – Henry VIII’s daughter Mary takes the throne. She marries Philip II of Spain but has no children. On her death, her sister Elizabeth takes the throne. This raises a familiar Leo question – the line of succession. Heirs, spares and pretenders.
1688 – In the Glorious Revolution, James II is overthrown by his daughter Mary.
1701 – Mary’s sister Anne is made heir to the throne.
1714 – George I is on the throne but James Stuart, ‘the old Pretender’ and son of James II tries to take the crown – and fails.
1745 – Young Pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie and grandson of James II invades England, unsuccessfully.
1760-1820 – King George III goes mad in power, and is replaced by his son, the Prince Regent.
1837 – 1901 Queen Victoria takes the throne – ‘the grandmother of Europe.’ The marriages of her children to European royalty secure her dynasty. The old Leo associations – lions and lionesses, princes and princesses, climb at this time.
1936 – Edward VIII becomes king but abdicates over his marriage to Mrs Simpson, a twice-divorced American. His brother becomes king as George VI.
1952 – Elizabeth II becomes queen on the death of her father. Her heir, Prince Charles, will divorce Diana, Princess of Wales and go on to marry a divorced woman, Camilla Parker-Bowles. His son, Prince William, and his heir, Prince George, are currently heirs to the throne after him. The story continues.
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO LEO
Leo patterns in the chart can offer up a long and winding road to love, or children, or variations on the above. Madonna, a Sun Leo, is a good example of someone who has taken the long and winding road through that sign. Beatrix Potter, another Sun Leo, never had children at all, but children today have inherited the land she left the nation in The Lake District. Peter Rabbit books paid for it. She married late and her husband’s young family became the Potter heirs and spares. Had Potter been born decades later, she might have been interested in the story of another Leo, the first test-tube baby in history, Louise Brown.
The Queen Mother, a Sun Leo, was never meant to be Queen but her husband’s brother fell in love with a divorced woman and the throne was passed on. Her daughter Princess Margaret, a Sun Leo, fell in love with a divorced man she could not marry. Her grandchild Charles himself divorced and then married a divorced woman. Princess Anne, her Leo Sun granddaughter, also divorced.
LEO WEATHER 2017-2019 AND THE TRUMP DYNASTY
Donald Trump and his dynasty of children and young in-laws and relatives is a good example of the Leo mythology at work. He has cast himself in the role of leader, and holds court over a tribe of young lions and lionesses. Here are two of them.
TROUBLE IN THE COURT OF KING TRUMP
The President, elected in 2016, has been compared both to King George III and Henry VIII. I do not know if he has yet been compared to Tiberius. Does Leo turn up in his birth chart? It is hard to say, because the first ‘birth certificate’ the world was given, was not a birth certificate at all. There are still two conflicting birth times for Trump.
The Leo mythology at the White House suggests we can expect trouble at the court, though. Those eclipses, and the arrival of not only Ceres but two long Mercury Retrograde periods in Leo, points to all manner of complication by 2019.
BARRON TRUMP – LITTLE DONALD
The young heir apparent, Barron Trump (the clue is in the name) is ten years old and also known as Little Donald. The other members of the dynasty include wife Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and – Tiffany Trump, Vanessa Trump, Donald Trump Junior and Eric Trump. Former wives Ivana and Marcia Maples are also in the family tree. Watching these charts, there is a sense of America’s deep past returning. Even that wig on Trump, below, looks strangely like a lion’s mane. There is strong symbolism here.
THE UNITED STATES AND THE LEO NODE RETURN
In the astrological chart of the United States set for 2 January 1776 (when the nation was first officially dubbed ‘The United States of America’) we find Leo factors. In fact, the U.S. has her North Node at 16 Leo so she will experience her Nodal Return when the transiting North Node moves to 16 Leo between December 6 and 17, 2017. As we’ve seen, this is big. It can only happen about every 20 years. There is karma here with the United Kingdom and the United States. It goes back centuries. It is due at Christmas. We can expect a major event then, affecting The Special Relationship.
RICHARD NIXON AND BARACK OBAMA – CALL IT OBAMA KARMA
This Leo Node point is the ‘Nixon’ point in the United States chart. When Nixon quit, America’s North Node at 16 Leo was transited exactly by Jupiter at 16 Pisces. That happened back on August 9, 1974. It’s also the ‘Obama’ point in the United States chart. When Barack Obama was made President on November 4, 2008 the country’s North Node at 16 Leo was under transit from Chiron at 16 Aquarius, which was of course also exactly conjunct her South Node at 16 Aquarius too.
I know a lot of astrologers use the July 4 (Born on the Fourth of July) horoscope for America, but the 2 January 1776 chart is reliable in every way. In fact, I have given it a whole chapter in my ebook, 2020 Astrology
THE WHITE HOUSE KARMA OF CHRISTMAS 2017
Quite apart from that Node Return for America (her Nixon and Obama moment) we will see powerful Leo weather as early as Saturday 2 December when Ceres 17 Leo conjuncts the transiting North Node at 17 Leo, which in turn is just one degree away from America’s own North Node at 16 Leo. This is a White House White Christmas but it will follow on from a White House Whitewash, a few months earlier, in August. Let’s have a closer look at that, because this is a tremendous cover-up we need to be aware of.
If you are asking questions about American politics then, have a look at Carolina. In fact, I made a prediction about Russia, Trump and Carolina one year ago. Why this part of America? Because it bears the full brunt of the eclipse.
THE GREAT AMERICAN COVER-UP 7 AUGUST 2017
Months before this Nixon/Obama karmic moment in the American horoscope, the moment of truth for The Special Relationship with the United Kingdom – we have a cover-up relating to leadership questions. Both are connected.
The cover-up takes place as follows – Monday 7 August, 2017. Full Moon. Partial Lunar Eclipse. Sun 15 Leo opposite Moon 15 Aquarius. As you can see, that’s just one degree off an exact eclipse hit on America’s North Node at 16 Leo (and of course it pulls in her South Node at 16 Aquarius, the opposite sign).
THE GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE – CAMELOT AND COMMUNISM
This is concealed or missing information about a classic Leo-Aquarius question. The President and the people. It may also be about the President and the party, which Aquarius rules. Finally we associate Leo-Aquarius with ‘Camelot’ versus Communism. We saw similar patterns in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. What goes down in Christmas 2017 owes a lot to what was blotted out, back in August, a few months earlier.
WATCHING AMERICA IN 2018
It goes on, into 2018. You have to wonder how the White House will shape up on Thursday 9 August that year, with the Sun at 16 Leo conjunct Mercury Retrograde at 16 Leo, exactly conjunct America’s North Node at 16 Leo. Mercury Retrograde is about media muddle, misinformation, hacked computers and telephones, and negotiations that are based on deceit, or announcements/paperwork that is later rewritten or even scrapped.
This is a particularly important date, Thursday 9 August, because a couple of days later, this happens (below) and it’s very close to America’s North Node at 16 Leo again.
Saturday 11 August
New Moon. Partial Solar Eclipse. Sun 18 Leo conjunct Moon 18 Leo
I hope you can see from these patterns why it would be unwise to just swallow the news, at these times. In fact, anyone who is associated not only with Buckingham Palace but also the White House should be aware that an awful lot of events will be off radar then.
PEERING INTO THE FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES
I am writing this on Sunday 9 July, 2017 so about one year into the future, but even peering this far ahead, it’s possible to see that the period around 9-11 August 2018 is about misinformation and missing information, relating to the President’s children, younger family members, and any youthful successors to the Presidency (the heirs to the throne). In this we also include the standard Leo associations with courtship, the royal bedchamber, pretenders to the throne and so on. The search, when it comes, should really go all the way back to that White House Whitewashed White Christmas of December 2017. Everything is connected in a chain, because the Leo weather is also connected, in a chain.
WATCHING WORLD LEADERS IN 2017-2019
If Leo is about the line of succession, the heir and the spare, the royal bedchamber and courtship – then our world leaders should keep us fully occupied across the Leo weather of 2017-2019.
A couple of things to watch, in 2017, where world leaders are concerned. Mercury (news) goes retrograde shadow on Monday 24 July so the message will go backwards and forwards for some time, across the middle of that year. What you hear and read is not final. To make this muddled and muddy period even more complex – the eclipses on August 7 and on August 21follow on from some very new ‘news’ concerning Buckingham Palace and the White House, from Monday 24 July. After this, the headlines and details will be rewritten when this planet goes back over the same position from Thursday 31 August.
In fact, it may not be until Sunday 10 September (when Mercury in his bizarre pattern finally moves out of Leo) that we have our July story straight. That is just the start of this cycle which will see repeated ‘hits’ on Leo in the heavens until January 2019 on that last Leo eclipse which book-ends the two –year period of patterns in the sign of the lion. Across this period we are going to see a complete reshaping of the House of Windsor and the White House, with the public being kept in the dark at crucial points.
COVER-UPS AND MYSTERIES – DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES
The historic Total Solar Eclipse in Leo on Monday 21 August is a deep concern. There is always concealed or missing information on an eclipse. It can take years for the truth to come out – if in fact it ever does. This particular eclipse is part of a series we associate with Diana, Princess of Wales. This goes beyond the simple association of Leo with royalty. It is part of a Saros Series. I wrote a long prediction about this in August 2016, if you are curious about the Diana cover-up and how it is set to return in August 2017.
CERES IN LEO
Ceres is about division, compromise and new arrangements which carve up the territory. She was found on the same day, January 1 1801, that the United Kingdom was created. She is a dwarf planet and I used Ceres to predict Brexit, which will carve up Europe. Ceres in Leo will be with us for many months so we will see a new carve-up of rights, roles and responsibilities with monarchies, empires and presidencies. People you know with Leo stelliums may experience this with their own ‘dynasties’ or ‘kingdoms’ involving godchildren, children, youth, and so on. Of course, those royal bedchambers are also going to reflect this extreme astrological weather. The lion is of course incorporated into the coat of arms for the United Kingdom so this is quite literally the breaking up of the old coat of arms – a nation divided, as Ceres moves across the sign of the lion. Ceres enters Leo on Sunday 24 September 2017 and stays there until Thursday 28 June 2018. This is going to be a tremendous territorial divide of world leadership, particularly in respect of those leaders’ children, successors or dynasties. It will take around nine months to complete. It’s a pregnant pause for Buckingham Palace and the White House.
Ceres is about chopping and changing; dividing territory, status, position. In Leo we are going to see this playing out in people’s personal lives (heirs and spares, pretenders to the throne, courtship, the royal bedchamber) but also among world leaders. It will be personal, because Leo is always personal!
OTHER LEO TRAFFIC IN ASTROLOGY IN 2018 – FORTUNA IN LEO
Fortuna is also passing through Leo for some of this cycle. Jupiter’s daughter. This asteroid is associated with the Wheel of Fortune in Tarot. She spins the wheel of fate and fortune, blindfolded, without knowing or seeing that she sends us high, then low. She is a familiar figure from Shakespeare and Fortuna tends to bring a random, spinning quality to life. She is an important part of the Leo pattern story, alongside Ceres. Ceres is the big carve-up and the new order. Fortuna means every high point is a low point in the making, and every low point is a high point in the making! Both of these key factors will ‘station direct’ or stand still, which is like running on the spot, across Monday 19, Tuesday 20 March 2018. This emphasizes, but also freezes, the story. It’s like pause on your DVD player. Watch what happens then. It’s a fact of life that Leo is opposite Aquarius (below) in astrology as well. So when we experience the leadership/dynasty stories we also have major issues about Aquarian themes – friendships, groups, equality – at the same time.
AQUARIUS-LEO OPPOSITIONS TO 2019
Aquarius and Leo are opposite each other in the zodiac and the former sign describes groups, teams, communities and circles of people, while the latter obviously describes leaders, kings, queens, emperors, presidents and so on. The North Node in Leo will be opposite the South Node in Aquarius throughout 2017 and 2018 so we will see some classic conflicts between the people and their leaders. The difference between Leo and Aquarius is rather like the difference between King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. They can’t be separated, but the relationship is often fraught.
LEADERS AND THEIR POLITICAL PARTIES IN FEBRUARY 2018
We’ll see a lot of this ‘King Arthur versus Knights’ in January, February 2018 as the new year begins. On Saturday 27 January, for example, Venus at 12 Aquarius is opposite Ceres at 12 Leo. A couple of days later, Venus at 14 Aquarius is opposite Fortuna at 13 Leo. This is about the Democrats, the Republicans and their leadership in America. It is about the Prime Minister, the Leader of the opposition and their respective parties in England, Australia and beyond
You may want to pay particular attention to the Total Lunar Eclipse on the Full Moon of Wednesday 31 January 2018 when the Sun at 11 Aquarius is opposite the Moon at 11 Leo. In your own life you may see conflicts between the mass, the majority and the ‘king’ or ‘queen’ in any situation. In extreme cases, this may be rather like the Czar abdicating, the monarchy falling and people power reigning supreme…but in your book club.
The Leo-Aquarius polarity is a challenge for both signs and both sides. Groups need leaders. Leaders need groups. This mutual dependency can work very well, unless Leo is overthrown by someone who wants his/her throne – or the people find Leo too tyrannical, too autocratic – and revolt. It is also true of these two signs, that Aquarius can only function up to a point as a commune/community/communist organisation before it becomes clear that someone, somewhere, is going to have to lead the way or mere anarchy will take hold.
BILL CLINTON AND LEO KARMA – WHAT GOES AROUND IN THE WHITE HOUSE COMES AROUND
A very Leo thing happened in 1999 on the last major Leo Node cycle. Sun Leo U.S. President Bill Clinton was acquitted in his impeachment trial for allegedly lying about his affair with Sun Leo intern Monica Lewinsky. Lacking a monarchy, or a royal bedchamber, America has the White House and the Oval Office. That year is a good example of Leo-Aquarius ‘weather.’ The Democrats were the people. Bill was King. The people rose up against him, but he kept his crown.
It would be unusual if there was not a direct or indirect replay of the Clinton/Lewinsky story of 1999 between now and 2019, on the final Leo eclipse. The North Node in Leo is about debts and credits from the last cycle, after all. The Node in transit can sometimes confront us. Just when you think someone/something was well and truly ancient history, it will come up again – prompting decisions.
NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE LEO WEATHER
You can watch another patch of Leo weather across Friday 27 July 2018, on the Total Lunar Eclipse and Full Moon with the Sun at 4 Leo opposite the Moon at 4 Aquarius, followed by the Sun at 5 Leo conjunct the North Node at 5 Leo on Sunday 29 July. Northern Ireland has a Leo-Aquarius story to tell in her history. Northern Ireland consists of six counties that remained part of the United Kingdom when the 26 Southern counties became independent. It is often called Ulster, the name of one of the four ancient kingdoms of Ireland.
Across that last North Node cycle in Leo, which was October 21 1998 through April 9, 2000, Northern Ireland saw the Good Friday agreement. Now that Ireland is playing a new, important role at 10 Downing Street, the Leo-Aquarius weather is back. The mythology of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table will return.
THE VATICAN AND THE LEO WEATHER
Leo is a symbol not only of ancient kingdoms, old empires and monarchies – it is also a symbol for some aspects of the Vatican Palace, and the Vatican itself which had its Jubilee Year in 2000. The Pope in this instance is the ‘King’. What will return from that Jubilee Year as the Node in Leo also returns?
RUSSIA, VLADIMIR PUTIN AND THE LEO WEATHER
Russia as a whole tells a strong Leo-Aquarius story. The leader and the people. The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, completed in 1762 for Catherine the Great, was assaulted by Bolsheviks in 1917. It’s a symbol of the Russian Revolution but also about these two zodiac signs. The leader and the people. The palace and the peasants. On the last Node in Leo cycle 1999-2000, Vladimir Putin became acting President and then President. Russia will have her karma from those years now.
YOUR AQUARIUS FACTORS
If you have Aquarius personal chart factors, and particularly if you have a stellium (three or more placements) then the big focus on Leo will automatically highlight the Eleventh House of your chart in the natural house system as the North Node in Leo and South Node in Aquarius will cross this axis of your chart. The Eleventh House of your chart, ruled by Aquarius, using this house system, is where we find your friends. Your clubs. Your associations, societies and teams. Your political parties, bands, charities, book groups and ensemble casts. Aquarius is about the community – your circle – and it describes people power. Watch the travelling or transiting planets and other heavenly bodies as they pass across that Leo-Aquarius axis. If they pass the same degree as one of your Aquarius placements a major story will unfold. It will involve questions about who leads, and who follows – and why. That Leo/lion symbolism will come knocking.
MAKING HISTORY – THE CERES-PLUTO QUINCUNX JUNE 4 2018
There is always a deep transformation in the balance of power when these two dwarf planets are aligned. In fact, their fates were tied together back in 2006 when astronomers decided Pluto should be demoted and Ceres should be promoted, both becoming dwarves at the same time. We’ll see major downsizing/upsizing/reclassification at the White House and Buckingham Palace, and also in the seats of other world leaderships, very close to June 4 2018. Again, it’s that classic question about leaders and their heirs, successors and pretenders to the throne.
The quincunx pattern occurs on June 4 2018 with Pluto at 20 Capricorn, a sign we associate with ambition, social climbing, and the business of getting to the top and staying at the top. Ceres is at 20 Leo. June looks like a significant month for all those issues about leaders and their successors. The very next day, Tuesday 5 June, we find Ceres at 21 Leo conjunct Fortuna at 21 Leo. When you see a couple of patterns being bumped across a two-day period, you usually see something major in astrology. Keep your eyes on the first week of June 2018. The lion will roar.
MIGHTY BLIGHTY – WATCHING THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE LEO CYCLE
The United Kingdom chart set for 1 January 1801 shows, as you would expect, a stellium in Leo in the Fifth House. Jupiter 1 Leo, Minerva 8 Leo, Saturn 23 Leo. Thus, it’s really just a case of watching the triggers, or conjunctions, as the Leo weather passes through. In modern astrology, using software like Stephanie Johnson’s wonderful Solar Fire program, we can use orbs of one degree to judge close or exact events.
On Friday 21 July, 2017, Mercury at 24 Leo conjuncts the North Node at 24 Leo, just one degree away from the United Kingdom’s serious, sombre, stuck Saturn at 23 Leo in the Fifth House, which rules the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, his spares (the siblings), his sons Willian and Harry and his grandchildren George and Charlotte. That’s news. It’s also karma. Another baby for Kate? An announcement about the succession?
On Sunday 23 July, 2017, the New Moon falls at 0 Leo, just one degree away from the United Kingdom’s Jupiter at 1 Leo. Fresh start. New beginning. Optimism, growth, hope for the heirs and spares to the crown.
The story rolls on across the British summer. Then, next to Jupiter at 1 Leo, on Thursday 28 September 2017, we have Fortuna at 1 Leo and Ceres at 1 Leo too. That is a random, fortunate, fated carve-up of the Royal Family’s line of succession to the throne. It can also happen, at best, every 12 years. So it’s historic. Again, we have to ponder – another baby for Kate? A marriage for Harry? Another kind of shift? Monday 21 January 2019 is the cover-up, which surrounds the aftermath of that 28 September 2017 decision. On that day there is a total eclipse with the Moon at 0 Leo, just one degree away.
OUR SECOND MERCURY RETROGRADE IN LEO JULY 2018
Eclipses bring cover-ups, patchy information or missing jigsaw pieces. Mercury rearranges the jigsaw again. We have a second Mercury Retrograde in Leo, coming from the start of the shadow on Saturday 7 July 2018. This is why you need to look at 2017-2018 as a complete story. As always, make allowances for the ‘news’ not to stick. The full dates are included in your 2018 Diary Dates, below. At this time we can expect more global leadership stories which are bound to change.
YOUR LEO PATTERN DIARY DATES FOR 2017 – WATCH THE WEATHER IN YOUR CHART
Thursday 20 July
Mars enters 0 Leo
Friday 21 July
Mercury 24 Leo conjunct North Node 24 Leo
Sunday 23 July
New Moon. Sun 0 Leo conjunct Moon 0 Leo
Monday 24 July
Mercury Retrograde Shadow begins at 28 Leo
Thursday 27 July
Sun 4 Leo conjunct Mars 4 Leo
Monday 7 August
Full Moon. Partial Lunar Eclipse. Sun 15 Leo opposite Moon 15 Aquarius
Wednesday 16 August
Sun 24 Leo conjunct North Node 24 Leo
Monday 21 August
Total Solar Eclipse. Sun 28 Leo conjunct Moon 28 Leo
Thursday 31 August
Mercury enters 29 Leo (Retrograde)
Sunday 3 September
Mercury 28 Leo conjunct Mars 28 Leo
Tuesday 5 September
Mercury Stations Direct 28 Leo
Friday 15 September
Venus 23 Leo conjunct North Node 23 Leo
Sunday 24 September
Ceres enters 0 Leo
Fortuna enters 0 Leo
Thursday 28 September
Fortuna 1 Leo conjunct Ceres 1 Leo
Saturday 2 December
Ceres 17 Leo conjunct North Node 17 Leo
LEO PATTERN DIARY DATES FOR 2018
Thursday 25 January
North Node 14 Leo conjunct Fortuna 14 Leo
Wednesday 31 January
Full Moon. Total Lunar Eclipse. Moon 11 Leo opposite Sun 11 Aquarius
Tuesday 6 February
Ceres 10 Leo opposite Mercury 10 Aquarius
Friday 9 February
North Node 14 Leo opposite Mercury 14 Aquarius
Monday 19 March
Ceres Stations Direct 4 Leo
Tuesday 20 March
Fortuna Stations Direct 5 Leo
Monday 4 June
Ceres 20 Leo quincunx Pluto 20 Capricorn
Tuesday 5 June
Ceres 21 Leo conjunct Fortuna 21 Leo
Friday 8 June
North Node 7 Leo opposite Mars 7 Aquarius
Wednesday 13 June
Venus enters 0 Leo
Tuesday 19 June
Venus 6 Leo conjunct North Node 6 Leo
Thursday 21 June
Venus 9 Leo opposite Mars 9 Aquarius
Friday 29 June
Mercury enters 0 Leo
Tuesday 3 July
Mercury 6 Leo conjunct North Node 6 Leo
Thursday 5 July
Mercury 8 Leo opposite Mars 8 Aquarius
Saturday 7 July
Mercury Retrograde Shadow 11 Leo
Friday 20 July
North Node 5 Leo opposite Mars 5 Aquarius
Sunday 22 July
Sun enters 0 Leo
Wednesday 25 July
Cupido enters 0 Leo
Thursday 26 July
Mercury Stations Retrograde 23 Leo
Friday 27 July
Full Moon. Total Lunar Eclipse. Sun 4 Leo opposite Moon 4 Aquarius
Sunday 29 July
Sun 5 Leo conjunct North Node 5 Leo
Thursday 9 August
Sun 16 Leo conjunct Mercury Retrograde 16 Leo
Saturday 11 August
New Moon. Partial Solar Eclipse. Sun 18 Leo conjunct Moon 18 Leo
Sunday 19 August
Mercury Stations Direct 11 Leo
Apollo enters 0 Leo
Sunday 2 September
Mercury Retrograde Shadow ends 23 Leo
THE JANUARY 2019 TOTAL LEO ECLIPSE – THE TWO YEAR CYCLE ENDS
You can see how a patchwork of patchy information is spread across 2017, 2018, thanks to not only eclipses but also Mercury Retrograde in Leo. We have to ask hard questions then, about our leaders and their dynasties. As you’ve seen, we have a total eclipse on Monday 21 January 2019, with the Moon at 0 Leo and Sun at 0 Aquarius. This returns us to the theme of the people versus their rulers – as you’ve seen, it hits the United Kingdom horoscope exactly. However, anybody or anything (country, organisation, institution) with Leo-Aquarius patterns around 0, 1 degree will see the blackout. I know that we don’t have a strong set of birth data for British Prime Minister Theresa May, but she ‘signals’ Leo with her choice of leopardskin shoes, the same way that Donald Trump signals Leo with his toy lions and dynasty. This graphic landed on my Twitter feed. You have to wonder what lies behind the door of 10 Downing Street in January 2019.
THE LEO PATTERNS OF 1962 AND OUR KARMA IN 2017-2019
In 1962, between January 4 and March 25 we had a staggering line-up in the zodiac signs of Leo and Aquarius. Jupiter,
Saturn and the South Node were in Aquarius. Uranus and the North Node were in Leo. The patterns ran from 0 degrees to 29 degrees of the signs. All of which makes the cycle of the Nodes through Leo and Aquarius (and those eclipses) across 2017-2019 look like a karmic replay of early 1962. We also had a total eclipse on Monday 5 February that year, with the Sun at 15 Aquarius alongside the Moon at 15 Aquarius. The Aquarius-Leo patterns continued in July 1962, when on Tuesday 31 there was an eclipse with the Sun and Moon at 7 Leo. On August 15, a fortnight later, we saw another eclipse with the Sun at 22 Leo and Moon at 22 Aquarius. There is a tremendous sense of old debts and credits about 1962 arriving for 2017-2018.
John F. Kennedy was President in 1962. Soviet missile bases were in Cuba. The threat of nuclear war – the Cuban Missile Crisis – was averted when the USSR decided not to send the missiles. Leo and Aquarius. The leader and the people. The king of Camelot and the Democrats.
Specifically, on January 29 1962, America and Britain walked out of nuclear test ban talks with the Soviet Union. The Sun, Mercury Retrograde, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and the South Node were in Aquarius. Uranus and the North Node were in Leo. The old monarchy of the United Kingdom was up against Aquarian Communism.
KARMA CHAMELEONS – JACQUELINE KENNEDY – QUEEN JACQUELINE
The First Lady of the White House in 1962 was Jacqueline ‘Queen Jacqueline’ Kennedy, who was of course a Leo. The people paid the taxes and she took the televised tours. Marilyn Monroe, rumoured to be President John F. Kennedy’s mistress, was found dead on August 5, just ten days before the eclipse which saw the Sun at 22 Leo and Moon at 22 Aquarius. Like all eclipses, it was a cover-up. It will be very interesting to see how the karma of 1962 returns, now through 2019. We’re back to Leo’s royal court again – the bedchamber – Camelot – and the rest.
THE NEW WARS OF THE ROSES – THE MALE WINDSORS
In the new Leo cycles of 2017-2019 a complete split is possible between the male heirs in the United Kingdom with one male Royal breaking away by himself, in search of post-Brexit new horizons. The Wars of the Roses originally ran from 1455 to 1485 and saw the the royal houses of Lancaster and York against each other. This looks like a Royal flying the flag for new British trade deals around the world, but without belonging to a Royal Family. You have to wonder who will play Edward V or Henry Tudor on this journey. Prediction (July 2017) House of Windsor = New Wars of the Roses by 2019.
PREDICTION – THE RETURN OF BARACK OBAMA
Sun Leo Barack Obama could plant himself and his ideas back in the White House across this historic period of Leo weather for the United States. The former President may be going grey but his astrological chart shows he has not gone away – not if the people, agree. There is huge potential here for him across 2017-2019 to move his plans, if not himself, back into Washington.
AUSTRALIA – WOMEN RISE TO THE TOP AGAIN
Between 2017-2019 Australia could easily see another woman rise to become leader of one of the two main political parties and perhaps even the nation, making history a second time. Julie Bishop?
LEO LESSONS – LEARNING FROM THE LION
Astrology is just history repeating itself, and astrologers use an unusual form of timekeeping to record events. They also do something few others do and predict the future. This is useful because it can be comforting (there is nothing new under the sun) but also a warning about what not to do – next time. As George Santayana said “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Astrologers always remember the past because they usually own an Ephemeris, which is like a a telephone directory of planets, and their zodiac signs, from 1900 to 2050. We flick backwards and forwards through the big book and can see, at a glance, why 2017-2019 is like 1962.
The Leo-Aquarius polarity of 1962 is a stark reminder of what can happen if leaders behave like Roman emperors. That was the year that Camelot fought a battle with Communism and we, the people, nearly went nuclear, thanks to our kings and leaders.
If you know people with Leo chart factors or have them yourself, then watch the transit of Ceres and the North Node in particular across Leo to see how your Fifth House will play out 2017-2019. There will be a lot to learn, but also a lot to learn from – if you also want to peer back at your own past and see how themes repeat. This is the last time we will see a slow-moving Leo transit until 2026, when Jupiter goes into Leo. Another Summer of Love? Much depends on what we do in the summers of 2017, 2018.
Jessica Adams will give a talk on Eclipses, Nodes and Stonehenge, discussing the Leo patterns of 2017-2019, at The Astrological Lodge of London on Monday 6 November, 2017. For more information visit astrolodge.co.uk.