TRUE SHINING.
We start this year with Mars, the sign of our will, drive and desires, moving backwards through your sign (December 7th until January 7th), which is symbolic, especially as much of it is during Capricorn season, when you’ll naturally be looking ahead to this fresh year and how you want to experience it. Are you applying your action-taking energy towards the things that make your Leonine shine come to life? Never forget that your sign is ruled and fuelled by the Sun. The more alive and vital you are feeling – AKA the more you are doing the things that bring you to life – the more your inner Sun shines out. Are you allowing yourself to be (and shine) as big as you are? Keep this in mind when you make those new year’s goals.
From April 18th until June 17th, there’ll be a strong and natural impetus towards movement as Mars re-enters your sign for this twomonth period. This time, it’s moving forward. Capitalise on this transit. Make the moves, take the action, do the things, listen in to your own instincts. Re-visit those desires for the year ahead and make moves towards them. This transit is also a reminder that the expression of your own identity, in whatever form that takes, is one of the best ways that you can regenerate your Leo energy. You’re a fire sign and fire wants to be expressed. How do you do that? What are your go-to rituals for self-expression?
The following month, from July 18th until August 11th, for much of your birthday season, Mercury will retrograde through your sign. This feels like a continuation on a theme for your sign this year, carried through from the Mars retrograde earlier. How are you running your energy? How are you playing this great and complex archetype of Leo? What are your avenues for expressing yourself (whether it’s a journal practice, dancing in your own room, or something more public) and how often are you allowing this into your life? With Mercury retrograding here, you can contemplate more of the unconscious qualities that can be associated with your sign; creating for the ‘audience’ versus your own authentic desires; self-censorship and either the avoidance of being seen or being seen in a way that suits the audience more than it does you.
Pluto has taken up full time residence in your opposing sign of Aquarius for the next twenty years. As it slowly moves through this territory, it feels like part of what it will be evolving for your sign is building more personal power. This will be done through self-validating who you are and relinquishing anywhere that you were giving that power and sense of self to others and relying on their external validation to make you feel full.
It feels like a brilliant tune-up and re-activation of your star (Sun) energy this year, Leo. When you are feeling alive and authentically expressed, you are a shining beacon for so many of us. Do the things that make you feel deeply attuned to yourself, that’s the curriculum for your year. Not as simple as it sounds, but highly medicinal and healthy for you.
Want to understand why the zodiac signs are the way they are? Look no further than our comprehensive guide to the personality traits of each zodiac sign. Plus, you can find all the answers to the year ahead in our 2025 astrology forecast.
PHOTOGRAPHY Anna Pogossova @ Bernstein & Andriulli AU
FASHION Hannah Cooper
SET DESIGN Roze Hooij
PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANT Simon Hardy
STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Mia Kidis
