The Sun is in Leo from about July 23 to August 22, a day earlier or later in some years. Someone born on the 22nd or 23rd of either month is on the line and needs the hour of birth to know.

What does a Leo Sun mean?

The Sun shows what a person is for and where they feel most themselves, and in Leo that place is the center of attention, warmly held. It is one placement among many, and a Leo Sun with a Virgo Moon and Capricorn rising is not what the word Leo alone suggests.

Yes, the fixed fire sign, between Aries and Sagittarius. Where Aries starts the fire and Sagittarius carries it off, Leo keeps it burning in one place.

Astrology basics · The twelve signs

What a Leo Sun means, and what Leo does to any planet

Leo is the fifth sign, from 120 to 150 degrees along the Sun's yearly path. Fire, fixed, ruled by the Sun, opposite Aquarius. The Sun is in Leo from about July 23 to August 22, the middle of northern summer, and, counting the houses from Aries, the sign answers the 5th: play, pleasure, children and the audience.

Element: Fire
Modality: Fixed
Ruling planet: The Sun
Sun in Leo: About July 23 to August 22
Opposite sign: Aquarius
Natural house: The 5th

The middle of summer, by degree

Leo is the fifth of the twelve equal divisions of the ecliptic, measured from the equinox point and not from the stars; the Aries page sets out why the sign and the star group that shares its name no longer coincide. It is fixed, the sign at the center of its season, and it is fire. The Sun's dates in Leo move by a day or so from one year to the next.

What a planet in Leo does

Leo puts a planet on a stage under a steady light. The planet's business is conducted in full view, warmly, and with the assumption that it is worth watching. Mercury in Leo tells the story with the voices done. Venus in Leo shows affection in front of the room, with the bill picked up. Saturn in Leo spends its effort on being seen to deserve the attention, and goes quiet the moment it is not sure.

A Leo Sun, Moon or Ascendant

The Sun rules Leo, so a Leo Sun is the Sun in its own sign. It hosts. The table is full, the story is being told a second time for a new arrival, and the room has arranged itself to face one chair without anyone deciding it should.

A Leo Moon tells the bad day as a story and is calmer once the story has been properly admired. Being ignored, even gently, lands harder than being criticized, and the safe household is the one that claps at home as well as at work.

Leo rising enters as though the room had been waiting. The hair is done, the coat is good, and the first sentence is addressed to everyone present at once; an hour later the host has quietly given up the center of the room.

Aquarius opposite, the Sun, the 5th house

Aquarius is the sign opposite Leo: one person at the center against the many, and a Leo planet is always answering to what stands across from it. The Sun rules Leo; the Sun's domain, what a person is for and where they feel most themselves, is the sign's native subject. The house that matches Leo is the 5th: play, making things for the joy of it, children, the audience.

See Leo in your own chartA free birth chart, with the reading, from your date, time and place.

Questions

What dates is Leo?: The Sun is in Leo from about July 23 to August 22, a day earlier or later in some years. Someone born on the 22nd or 23rd of either month is on the line and needs the hour of birth to know.
What does a Leo Sun mean?: The Sun shows what a person is for and where they feel most themselves, and in Leo that place is the center of attention, warmly held. It is one placement among many, and a Leo Sun with a Virgo Moon and Capricorn rising is not what the word Leo alone suggests.
Is Leo a fire sign?: Yes, the fixed fire sign, between Aries and Sagittarius. Where Aries starts the fire and Sagittarius carries it off, Leo keeps it burning in one place.