Welcome to the Leo Full Moon, the time in the lunar calendar when the spotlight is on passion and joy, creativity and self expression. Ruled by the Sun, Leo invites us to discover what makes us shine and fuels our lives. It reminds us that play is a necessity to life. The full moon is exact on January 25, 2024 at 12:54 pm ET, 5 degrees Leo-Aquarius. That’s 9:54 am Los Angeles, 5:54 pm London, 7:54 pm Johannesburg, 11:24 pm New Delhi, 4:54 am Sydney on January 26, and 6:54 am Auckland.
Full moons are decision points, a time when life or events may demand action. There is a turning point. Is it a left or a right? We also see the seeds that we planted with the new moon on January 12 come into full view.
I love Leo. It’s such an undervalued or even misunderstood sign. Of course, it has its reputation in modern pop astrology for being a bit of a diva or having an outsized ego, but that’s only a small sliver. And a sliver that reveals our shadow side as humans.
Leo is the sign of the Sun. It’s the light. It’s the spark of the Divine that ignites our hearts and animates our lives. It’s our spirit.
We need Leo. Of course we need all the signs. They are the building blocks for life. But very often we skip over Leo. We’re burned out. We’re not sure what we want. We’re disconnected from our joys and our passions. Or we convince ourselves that passion is a luxury. We feel crushed by duties and responsibilities as a result.
This may be a technical point, but it’s an important point. Leo comes before Virgo, which is to say, passion, joy, creativity come before work, projects, and the responsibilities of life. Leo is the fuel for Virgo. Passion and creativity is the support for the work we have to do in the world.
How can your astrology work for you and take you to the places that you desire if there is no fuel? No spark? What has to happen in order for your life to reanimate? Is it an inner examination? A permission? Leo has to be felt. It’s a fire sign after all and fire has to be a physical sensation. We have to feel alive.
At the time of the full moon, Pluto is newly in Aquarius, so we have a Pluto opposition to contend with, a planet that’s happy to show us what’s in the way of us reconnecting to who we are and refinding our joy and passion. Pluto demands the start of a systems upgrade. Or, in some cases, a complete overhaul. Pluto also reveals the shadow self, the unconscious, the parts that we reject or project onto others.
There’s a lot of activity in the fixed signs with the full moon. The Sun and Pluto in Aquarius … the Moon in Leo … Jupiter and Uranus in Taurus. The fixed signs govern our manifested lives — structure, security, stability, money, and systems. There could be something about this full moon that shakes the systems a little bit. After all, Uranus is about to turn direct, doing so on January 27 at 19 Taurus, a planet that reminds us to expect the unexpected.
A square to Jupiter with the Leo Full Moon is a friction point, a push to examine our beliefs, to get back to the things that support our lives, and nourish it. With that in mind, if we’re not sure what happened to our spark, if life has become tasteless or lacking something, it’s a full moon to take action and redefine who we are as well as our priorities.