Leo Constellation Astrology

Constellation Leo the Lion, is an ecliptic constellation laying between constellation Cancer and constellation Virgo. Leo spans 40 degrees of the Zodiac in the Signs Leo and Virgo, and contains 15 named fixed stars.

(Star positions for year 2000)

In mundane astrology Leo Constellation is associated with royal events especially the ascension or death of kings and queens, the election or death of heads of state, assassinations uprisings and massacres, currency and the stock exchange, the Vatican and European Union.

Ptolemy makes the following observations: “Of the stars in Leo, two in the head are like Saturn and partly like Mars (bold, cruel, heartless, adulterous, criminal, liar, loss of estates, poverty, few friends. if of 1st magnitude, rises by usury or unfair means. If culminating, bad name, rise by trade followed by disgrace and ruin.) The three in the neck are like Saturn, and in some degree like Mercury (profound liar, thief, blackguard, scandal and slander.) Those in the loins, Saturn and Venus (slovenly, very immoral, shameless, revolting, mean, sorrows in love. If rising, good-tempered, healthy, gain by industry and marriage. If culminating, improved health, fame by help of superiors.) Those in the thighs resemble Venus, and, in some degree, Mercury (idealistic, psychic, handsome, neat, lovable, refined, genteel, intelligent.)” It is said that the stars in the neck, back and wing all bring trouble, disgrace and sickness affecting the part of the body ruled by the sign, especially if they happen to be in conjunction with the Moon. By the Kabalists, Leo is associated with the Hebrew letter Kaph and the 11th Tarot Trump “Strength.” [1]

Leo, the Lion… lies between Cancer and Virgo, the bright Denebola 5° north of the faint stars that mark the head of the latter constellation; but Ptolemy extended it to include among its … the group now Coma Berenices… In Greek and Roman myth this was respectively Leon and Leo, representing the Nemean Lion, originally from the moon, and, after his earthly stay, carried back to the heavens with his slayer Hercules…

Bacchi Sidus was another of its titles, that god always being identified with this animal, and its shape the one usually adopted by him in his numerous transformations; while a lion’s skin was his frequent dress. But Manilius had it Jovis et Junonis Sidus (Jovis = Roman Jupiter or Greek Zeus; Junonis = Roman Juno or Greek Hera), as being under the guardianship of these deities; and appropriately so, considering its regal character, and especially that of its lucida (Regulus).

The Egyptian king Necepsos, and his philosopher Petosiris, taught that at the Creation the sun rose here near Denebola; and hence Leo was Domicilium Solis, the emblem of fire and heat, and, in astrology, the House of the Sun, governing the human heart, and reigning in modern days over Bohemia, France, Italy, and the cities of Bath, Bristol, and Taunton in England, and our Philadelphia. In ancient times Manilius wrote of it as ruling over Armenia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, Macedon, and Phrygia. It was a fortunate sign, with red and green as its colors; and, according to Ampelius, was in charge of the wind Thrascias mentioned by Pliny, Seneca, and Vitruvius as coming from the north by a third northwest.

Ancient physicians thought that when the sun was in this sign medicine was a poison, and even a bath equally harmful (!); while the weather-wise said that thunder foretold sedition and deaths of great men. The adoption of this animal’s form for a zodiac sign has fancifully been attributed to the fact that when the sun was among its stars in midsummer the lions of the desert left their accustomed haunts for the banks of the Nile, where they could find relief from the heat in the waters of the inundation; and Pliny is authority for the statement that the Egyptians worshiped the stars of Leo because the rise of their great river was coincident with the sun’s entrance among them. For the same reason the great Androsphinx is said to have been sculptured with Leo’s body and the head of the adjacent Virgo; although Egyptologists maintain that this head represented one of the early kings, or the god Harmachis. Distinct reference is made to Leo in an inscription on the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes, which, like the Nile temples generally, was adorned with the animal’s bristles; while on the planisphere of Denderah its figure is shown standing on an outstretched serpent. The Egyptian stellar Lion, however, comprised only a part of ours, and in the earliest records some of its stars were shown as a Knife, as they now are as a Sickle. Kircher gave its title there as Pimentekeon, Cubitus Nili…

On Ninevite cylinders Leo is depicted as in fatal conflict with a bull, typifying the victory of light over darkness; and in Euphratean astronomy it was additionally known as Gisbar-namru-sa-pan, variously translated, but by Bertin as the Shining Disc which precedes Bel; the latter being our Ursa Major, or in some way intimately connected therewith. Hewitt says that it was the Akkadian Pa-pil-sak, the Sceptre, or the Great Fire; and Sayce identifies it with the Assyrian month Abu, our July-August, the Fiery Hot; Minsheu assigning as the reason for this universal fiery character of the constellation, “because the sunne being in that signe is most raging and hot like a lion.”

Thus throughout antiquity the animal and the constellation always have been identified with the sun, — indeed in all historic ages till it finally appears on the royal arms of England, as well as on those of many of the early noble families of that country. During the 12th century it was the only animal shown on Anglo-Norman shields…

Its symbol, ♌, has been supposed to portray the animal’s mane, but seems more appropriate to the other extremity (the tail); the Hyginus of 1488 and the Albumasar of 1489 showing this latter member of extraordinary length, twisting between the hind legs and over the back, the Hyginus properly locating the star Denebola in the end; but the International Dictionary, in a more scholarly way, says that this symbol is a corruption of the initial letter of Leon. Lajard’s Culte de Mithra mentions the hieroglyph of Leo as among the symbols of Mithraic worship, but how their Lion agreed, if at all, with ours is not known. [2]

Who can doubt the nature of the monstrous Lion, and the pursuits he prescribes for those born beneath his sign? The lion ever devises fresh fights and fresh warfare on animals, and lives on spoil and pillaging of flocks. The sons of the Lion are filled with the urge to adorn their proud portals with pelts and to hang up on their walls the captured prey, to bring the peace of terror to the woods, and to live upon plunder. There are those whose like bent is not checked by the city-gates, but they swagger about in the heart of the capital with droves of beasts; they display mangled limbs at the shop-front, slaughter to meet the demands of luxury, and count it gain to kill. Their temper is equally prone to fitful wrath and ready withdrawal, and guileless are the sentiments of their honest hearts. [3]

Here we come to the end of the circle. We began with VIRGO, and we end with LEO. No one who has followed our interpretation can doubt that we have here the solving of the Riddle of the Sphinx. For its Head is VIRGO and its Tail is LEO! In LEO we reach the end of the Revelation as inspired in the Word of God; and it is the end as written in the heavens. BAILLY (Astronomy) says, “the Zodiac must have been first divided when the sun at the summer solstice was in 1^o Virgo, where the woman’s head joins the Lion’s tail.”

As to its antiquity there can be no doubt. JAMIESON says, “the Lion does not seem to have been placed among the Zodiacal symbols, because Hercules was fabled to have slain the Nemean Lion. It would seem, on the contrary, that Hercules, who represented the Sun, was said to have slain the Nemean Lion, because Leo, was already a Zodiacal sign. Hercules flourished 3,000 years ago, and consequently posterior to the period when the summer solstice accorded with Leo” (Celestial Atlas, p. 40).

There is no confusion with this sign. In the ancient Zodiacs of Egypt (Denderah, Esneh) and India we find the Lion. The same occurs on the Mithraic monuments, where Leo is passant, as he is in Moor’s Hindu, and Sir William Jones’s Oriental Zodiacs. In Kircher’s Zodiacs he is courrant (running); in the Egyptian Zodiacs he is couchant (lying down). In the Denderah Zodiac he is treading upon a serpent, as shown in Mr Edward Cooper’s Egyptian Scenery. Its Egyptian name is Pi Mentekeon, which means the pouring out. This is no pouring out or inundation of the Nile, but it is the pouring out of the cup of Divine wrath on that Old Serpent.

This is the one great truth of the closing chapter of this last Book. It is THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH AROUSED FOR THE RENDING OF THE PREY. His feet are over the head of Hydra, the great Serpent, and just about to descend upon it and crush it. The three constellations of the Sign complete this final picture:

1. Hydra, the old Serpent destroyed.
2. Crater, the Cup of Divine wrath poured out upon him.
3. Corvus, the Bird of prey devouring him.

The Denderah picture exhibits all four in one. The Lion is presented treading down the Serpent. The Bird of prey is also perched upon it, while below is a plumed female figure holding out two cups, answering to Crater, the cup of wrath. The hieroglyphics read Knem, and are placed underneath. Knem means who conquers, or is conquered, referring to the victory over the serpent. The woman’s name is Her-ua, great enemy, referring to the great enemy for which her two cups are prepared and intended. The Syriac name is Aryo, the rending Lion, and the Arabic is Al Asad; both mean a lion coming vehemently, leaping forth as a flame!

It is a beautiful constellation of 95 stars, two of which are of the 1st magnitude, two of the 2nd, six of the 3rd, thirteen of the 4th. The brightest star, α (on the Ecliptic), marks the heart of the Lion (hence sometimes called by the moderns, Cor Leonis, the heart of the Lion). Its ancient name is Regulus, which means treading under foot. The next star, β, also of the 1st magnitude (in the tip of the tail), is named Denebola, the Judge or Lord who cometh. The star γ (in the mane) is called Al Giebha (Arabic), the exaltation. The star δ (on the hinder part of the back) is called Zosma, shining forth.

Other stars are named Sarcam (Hebrew), the joining; intimating that here is the point where the two ends of the Zodiacal circle have their joining. Another star has the name of Minchir al Asad (Arabic), the punishing or tearing of the Lion. Another is Deneb Aleced, the judge cometh who seizes. And another is Al Dafera (Arabic), the enemy put down. [4]

References

1. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923, p.48.
2. Astronomica, Manilius, 1st century AD, p.237.
3. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, Richard H. Allen, 1889, p.252, 253.
4. The Witness of the Stars, E. W. Bullinger, 39. Leo (the Lion).