Leo: Good King or Bad King?

Where Leo is synonymous with the king and leader of the pack, there’s a side of the king that we don’t always see: he can be a hedonist. But this is only the masculine side of Leo.

In the animal kingdom, the head of the lion family is the pride male. Although it’s his job to protect his family, the female lionesses of the pride spend most of their days actively hunting for food and taking care of each other. Lionesses are, for the most part, able to coexist peacefully and work together to ensure every pride member’s survival. In contrast, there is only ever one pride male, and if he is threatened by another, they fight to the death.

Leo has a bad reputation for being self-absorbed, but this is only the raw and unrefined foundation of Leo energy. When Leo is out of alignment with its core values of self-love and respect, loving and celebrating others becomes an impossible task. Jealousy, criticism, control, and a general disdain for others becomes easier to partake in when Leo’s ego and sense of self is bruised or insecure.

Leo’s learning lesson for all of us is to understand the importance of having a healthy love and appreciation for ourselves. If we struggle with believing in our own abilities to shine and succeed, we are highly unlikely to identify the star qualities in others around us as well.

Simplifying Leo down to the king himself does not bring justice to the complexity of this sign, as it also involves the members of his pride and how they function as a group. When we look at Leo and cannot identify with the ruling king of the pride, it helps to take a closer look at the lionesses of his pack and see how they are able to work together to uplift and help each other.

A curious thought you can reflect on during Leo season is: how can I work to better uplift those around me, especially those who cannot see their own special and beautiful qualities? Like the popular saying goes, “real queens fix each other’s crowns.” How can I make the kings and queens around me see themselves for the kings and queens that they actually are?