Everyone’s an egomaniacal child star when Venus enters Leo

Venus, our planet of love, attachment, attraction and wealth is setting up shop in the lion’s heart of Leo this week.

Named for the goddess of love, Venus changes signs every 20-45 days or about once every three weeks. As an inner planet, Venus transits have an evident, immediate impact on we earthlings. Venusian transits influence our collective approach to love, pleasure, aesthetics, and our relationship to earning and spending money.

Crawling out of the crab shell of Cancer, where Venus expresses itself via sentimental leaning, aching nostalgia, and a deep need for security, the planet will move into the spandex-clad limelight of Leo on Thursday, July 11 at 12:19 p.m. ET

As Leo is the great showboat ‘pick me’ sign of the zodiac, this Venus transit is primed to make everyone crave a little more validation and a lot more frivolity.

Leo rules the heart and, in terms of the zodiac as a developmental scale, represents the eternal adolescent, complete with willfulness, egocentrism, and an irrepressible joie de vivre. This transit asks us to connect with the child we were, the skinned-knee kid who made for the sake of making with no thought for judgment, monetary value, perfect form, or second-guessing.

“Acting like a child” is usually leveled as a condemnation, but Venus in Leo reminds us of the richness of that time when we were most connected to what made us feel full, fine, and absolutely ourselves. Venus in Leo encourages play and dressing up, trying on, trying out, and showing off until we find what feels right.

Leo is a bold b–ch, and with Venus here, we may likewise feel emboldened to share the song in our heart and don the gold lame catsuit in our closet. This is the sign of the stage, of sweeping romances, grand gestures, dramatic entrances and happy endings, making this transit an ideal time to launch a project, declare your love for something or someone, make art and/or revel in the activities that make your life feel cinematic; artful, beautiful and memorable.

Leo energy is synonymous with confidence, but it is not that Leo is never self-conscious; it is that Leo does not allow that self-consciousness to curtail authentic expression, nor does it allow fear of failure or fear of being laughed at to stop them from taking the stage, cracking the joke, or leading the charge. We can all learn and borrow the lion’s brand of courage in the coming weeks.

A healthy, actualized Leo loves themselves and others with utter abandon and gives the rest of us the inspiration and permission to do the same.

Leo sings lead, will embarrass themselves to earn a laugh, and won’t apologize for a seventeen-minute guitar solo or for living out loud at the amplified level of 11.

For a prime example of the energy of this transit, see Venus in Leo native Jason Momoa, who created an entire television series, HBO Max’s On The Roam, to celebrate s–t he loves; pink motorcycles, striped apparel, and hand-hewn knives. This dude’s big cat Venus placement is also on peak display in this gesture, wherein he restored ex-wife Lisa Bonet’s first car…and documented the journey for the masses.

Typically, Venus’s spin through Leo is something of a sunshine daydream, but the planet of love gets some shade thrown its way when it forms a gnarly opposition with power planet Pluto in Aquarius on Friday, July 12.

This face-off between love and death, fire and air, fixed sign and fixed sign lends relationships an unwelcome intensity and may stir up old aches, fresh jealousy, and unexpected bouts of paranoia and possessiveness.

Compromise seems out of reach and matters of the heart take on a leaden weight.

Blessedly and at its very best, Venus in Leo views love itself as an act of creation. I hope you’ll approach the fierceness of the Pluto face-off with a mind to bring forth something unexpected from your relationships, to loosen the reigns to give all parties the slack they need to run freely from or towards one another.

While you’re loosening your grip on the heartstrings, keep an eye on your purse strings as part of Leo’s self-care routine is spending lavishly on luxury and often well beyond their means.

As a challenge, get curious about what and who makes you feel rich without spending and loved without condition. Maybe that looks like flowers you pick yourself, wearing your best friend’s t-shirt, a nap in the sun, a poem read aloud by your lover, or a tomato between your teeth.

Allow yourself the rapture of this transit and all of the tactile delights of summer by focusing on how it feels versus what it costs.

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience.