Leo
22 July to 23 August. The lion: a fire sign that wants to be seen doing it, ruled by the Sun, the body the tradition places at the centre of every chart. This page is the reference, written plainly, followed by the one thing most sign pages will not tell you.
What the tradition actually says
Western astrology reads a Leo Sun as an identity organised around being seen doing it. There is a performance in the good sense: the effort goes up when it is witnessed and flattens when it is not. The fire element gives warmth and appetite; the fixed modality gives loyalty and staying power, which is why the tradition describes Leo as the king rather than the adventurer. The Sun's rulership adds generosity: attention given freely, and a real wish for the people around to shine as well.
The honest shadow readings in the classical sources are pride that cannot take a correction in public, a need for applause that can be fed at other people's expense, and a warmth that cools sharply when it is not returned. The tradition is clear that the lion's dignity and the lion's vanity are the same faculty pointed two ways.
Common misreadings
Leo is not "the show-off sign"; the tradition reads a person who needs to be witnessed, which is different from needing to be admired, and who gives attention as readily as they take it. It is not incapable of humility; it is uncomfortable being overlooked, which is not the same thing. And a Sun sign describes what you are consciously building, not the whole person: your Moon, your rising sign and thirty other placements say the rest, which is why we calculate all of them.
The part other sign pages leave out
If you are a Leo Sun in Western astrology, your Sun in the Vedic system is probably in Cancer.
Western astrology anchors its zodiac to the seasons; Vedic astrology anchors its to the stars. The two rulers have drifted about 24.2 degrees apart over two thousand years, so if you were born between 22 July and 16 August, your Vedic Sun sits in Cancer, in one of the lunar mansions Pushya and Ashlesha. Born 17 August to 23 August, you keep Leo in both systems, in the mansion of Magha. Neither ruler is wrong. They are measuring differently, and any product that shows you only one is choosing tidiness over the whole truth.
Those dates are 2026's. The Sun reaches the sidereal boundary at 02:21 UTC on 17 August, so a birth on that day is settled by the hour and the place, and the split moves by about a day every seventy years as the two zodiacs drift apart.
About 60 seconds · every system from one entry · nothing stored unless you keep it
Questions people ask
Is Leo compatible with my sign?
Sun-sign compatibility is the postcard version: two placements out of the eighty a real pair comparison reads. The traditions also disagree with each other about pairs, which we show rather than hide. The honest answer needs both charts, and the free calculator is where it starts.
What is a Leo Moon or rising?
A Leo Moon reads as the emotional pattern (feelings that need warmth and acknowledgement, and are wounded by being ignored), and Leo rising as the first impression of presence and confidence, and the frame of the whole chart. Same sign, three different jobs. Your own combination is on your free chart.
Which is right, my Western sign or my Vedic one?
Both. They are two internally consistent rulers laid against the same sky, about 24.2 degrees apart. What matters is knowing which one a reading is using, and what each was designed to do well.
We read charts for pattern and coherence, not prediction. Nothing here tells you what will happen, and nothing here tells you who you are; it shows a structure and leaves the judgement with you.