Leo Solar Eclipse: Open Heart with Backbone

On August 12 at 10:38am PST/1:38pm EST, the Sun and Moon meet at 20° Leo alongside the South Node, forming a powerful New Moon Solar Eclipse; and opening a portal that feels like an ending and a beginning.

There is a big concentration of energy in Leo right now. The Sun is at home in the sign it rules, joined not only by the Moon and South Node, but also Mercury and Jupiter nearby. And when this much energy gathers in Leo, our attention is inevitably drawn toward the heart: toward creativity, courage, visibility, desire, self-expression and the deeply human longing to be seen and admired for who we are.

But with the South Node (the past) here, we aren't only being invited to embody more Leo. We're being asked to release some of the ways we've learned to distort it. Because somewhere along the way, many of us learned that simply being ourselves wasn't always enough to guarantee belonging. We allowed the outside to influence what emerged through us - learning which of ourselves received praise and which created discomfort. We learned to use others' perception of our light as a measure of our ability to self-express; noticing when our emotions were 'too much', when our dreams were 'unrealistic', when our needs were 'inconvenient', when our sexuality was 'inappropriate', when our creativity was 'impractical' or when our natural expression made other people 'uncomfortable'. And slowly, authenticity became entangled with performance. We learned how to shine in ways that would be applauded, or perhaps learned to hide our light altogether. This eclipse asks us to notice the difference.

What Is a New Moon/Solar Eclipse?

Every New Moon occurs when the Sun and Moon meet at the same place in the zodiac, beginning another lunar cycle. The Moon disappears into darkness before slowly becoming visible again, which is why New Moons have long been associated with beginnings, intention and the fertile unknown; the moment when something has been planted beneath the surface but hasn't yet taken form.

A Solar Eclipse is a New Moon that occurs close to one of the lunar nodes, the points where the Moon's orbit intersects the apparent path of the Sun. Astronomically, the Moon passes between the Earth and Sun, temporarily obscuring the Sun's light. Astrologically, eclipses tend to correspond with periods of acceleration, revelation and change. They illuminate patterns already moving beneath the surface and can bring turning points that become much easier to understand in retrospect than they are while we're living through them.

This particular eclipse takes place alongside the South Node in Leo, making release an important part of its story. The South Node represents what is familiar: patterns, identities and ways of navigating life that we already know intimately, but may have begun to outgrow. This doesn't make Leo itself something we need to leave behind. Instead, it asks us to examine the shadow expressions of this archetype and notice which ones no longer belong in the life we're becoming available for.

We last experienced a major series of eclipses across the Leo–Aquarius axis between 2016 and 2019, so themes from around 2017–2018 may be resurfacing in interesting ways now. But during that cycle, the nodes were reversed: the North Node was travelling through Leo while the South Node moved through Aquarius. The last time we experienced the South Node in Leo and North Node in Aquarius, as we are now, was in 2008–2009. It may be worth reflecting on who you were then, where you were trying to belong and what you believed you needed to be in order to receive love, attention, admiration or acceptance. You don't need to expect the same events to repeat themselves (astrology rarely works that literally) but you may recognize an older pattern returning in a new form, asking whether you are ready to respond differently.

And because eclipses tend to have a much wider energetic window than an ordinary New or Full Moon, this isn't something that begins and ends on August 12. We've already been moving through this eclipse terrain for the past couple of weeks. Pay attention to what has been surfacing: the conversations, relationships, endings, beginnings, unexpected emotional triggers and recurring patterns that seem to be demanding your attention. Eclipse season isn't necessarily a time to force an outcome. Our work during this time is to become conscious enough to recognize what life is already showing us.

The Leo Archetype: The Courage to Be Seen

Leo is ruled by the Sun, the centre of our solar system and the source of the light that sustains life on Earth. The Sun doesn't need permission to shine. It doesn't negotiate its brightness according to who is watching or wonder whether it has earned the right to take up space. It simply radiates because radiance is its nature.

At its healthiest, Leo asks the same of us. It reminds us that there is something inherently creative about being alive, and that our unique expression doesn't need to be justified through productivity, usefulness or approval. Leo creates because creation brings joy, it loves because love wants to move through us, it plays because play itself is meaningful and it allows itself to be seen because being fully alive inevitably makes us visible.

But underneath Leo's confidence is also a profound sensitivity around being seen. The desire for recognition can easily become a dependence on validation, particularly when we have learned that belonging is conditional. Instead of expressing ourselves because something is true or wants to move through us, we begin unconsciously asking: How will this be received? Am I too much?

Some of us respond by performing more loudly, constructing versions of ourselves designed to attract admiration. Others respond by dimming ourselves completely. We become agreeable, undemanding or carefully curated. We hold back the thing we actually want to say because preserving connection feels safer than risking rejection. And sadly, both are forms of performance. With the Sun, Moon and South Node meeting in Leo, this eclipse is asking us to release the belief that belonging must be earned by becoming someone 'easier' for people to accept.

The North Node across the sky in Aquarius reminds us that there is another kind of belonging available: community formed around authenticity rather than conformity. Aquarius doesn't ask us to become identical to everyone around us. It asks us to contribute our particular weirdness to the collective. There is a beautiful paradox along this axis: the more willing we become to stand in the truth of who we are, the more possible it becomes for the right people to actually recognize us. We cannot be seen and loved for who we are while simultaneously hiding that very light.

Leo Solar Eclipse: Open Heart with Strong Backbone

There is another layer to the Leo archetype that feels especially relevant under this eclipse. In medical astrology, Leo is traditionally associated with both the heart and the spine; and lately I haven't been able to stop thinking about the relationship between the two. An open heart needs a strong backbone. We often talk about opening the heart as though openness itself is the goal. We are encouraged to become softer, more receptive and more vulnerable... but openness without discernment can cost us our centre... and conversely, sometimes a 'boundary' is actually armour designed to prevent anyone from getting close enough to hurt us. Sometimes a rigid backbone prevents the heart from opening.

The spine gives structure to the heart, allowing us to remain soft without collapsing. I've been feeling deeply called toward rose medicine lately, and the symbolism feels aligned with this eclipse. We tend to associate roses with the flower itself: beauty, sensuality, openness. But the rose also has thorns, and their medicine is integral to the medicine of the rose... so it can remain exquisitely soft and know how to protect itself. I think this is the kind of courage Leo is asking us to cultivate now: not the courage to open indiscriminately, but the courage to remain open while staying rooted in ourselves... to feel love move through us without abandoning our needs, to express desire without demanding a particular response, to allow others to witness our tenderness without handing them responsibility for our worth, and to tell the truth while remaining strong enough to accept what it reveals.

Heart open. Spine tall.

Mercury, Jupiter + Pluto: The Stories Beneath Our Words

Communication is another major thread running through this eclipse because Jupiter is expanding Mercury as they meet in Leo, and Pluto in Aquarius sits across the sky from them.

Mercury governs communication, language, perception and the stories through which we make meaning of our experiences. Jupiter expands whatever it touches. Their conjunction in Leo can bring realizations, conversations and a desire to finally say what has been alive inside us. There can be something bold and liberating about this combination; a willingness to speak more openly, name what we desire or allow our voices to occupy more space than they usually do. But Jupiter doesn't only amplify wisdom... it can also amplify the mental chatter itself. One thought becomes another thought, which becomes an interpretation, which becomes an imagined future, until suddenly we are responding emotionally to something that hasn't actually happened.

This is where Pluto steps in, exposing what lives beneath the surface. It governs the shadow, the unconscious and the cycles of death and rebirth that occur when something hidden is finally brought into awareness. Opposing Mercury and Jupiter, Pluto can reveal the deeper beliefs influencing the way we communicate; particularly the beliefs we may not even realize are running the show: "If I let myself be fully seen, I'll be made to feel I'm too much."

These patterns don't emerge from nowhere; they're usually strategies, or armour, that once protected us. But when they remain unconscious, we begin organizing our lives to avoid the outcome we fear most. In relating with others, these patterns emerge from the subconscious. We meet that mirror in the other, and with it, the place where our desire for connection collides with our fear of losing it. Suddenly our nervous system conflates the present with past narratives around belonging, acceptance, rejection and admiration. Under this eclipse, the invitation isn't necessarily to stop feeling afraid. It's to become conscious enough to distinguish between what is actually happening and the story fear is creating around what is happening.

Poppy Medicine + Breaking the Loop

The plant card I pulled for this eclipse was Poppy, connected in my deck to Saturn and Neptune, and its medicine feels deeply intertwined with everything happening in the sky.

Poppy speaks to addiction, but addiction doesn't always look like a substance. We can become addicted to thoughts, emotional states and familiar stories. We can replay conversations, predict outcomes and convince ourselves that if we think about something long enough, eventually we'll arrive at certainty. Sometimes rumination is an attempt to manufacture control in situations where control isn't actually available.

This is where the Saturn–Neptune symbolism becomes interesting. Neptune dissolves boundaries. It rules dreams, imagination, intuition and our capacity to surrender into something larger than ourselves, but its shadow can blur the line between intuition and projection. Saturn does the opposite. Saturn asks us to come back to reality, structure, boundaries and what can actually be known. Together, they ask us to hold the dream without disappearing into it....What actually happened? What was actually said? What do I genuinely know? What am I assuming? What future have I created inside my mind because uncertainty feels uncomfortable?

This feels like the exact medicine for an eclipse so focused on authentic expression. Because often, the thing preventing us from authenticity is the imagined consequence we've already constructed around what will happen if we dare to let ourselves be seen.

Saturn + Neptune in Aries: Making the Dream Real

The Saturn and Neptune story becomes even more significant because both planets are now travelling through Aries and harmoniously connected into this eclipse chart. Saturn forms a supportive fire trine to the Sun, Moon and South Node in Leo, while Neptune trines the Mercury–Jupiter conjunction.

This pulls us back toward one of the defining astrological moments of this year: Saturn and Neptune meeting in the first degree of Aries in February 2026. Saturn represents structure, responsibility, commitment and the realities required to sustain something over time. Neptune represents dreams, imagination, spirituality, longing and the invisible world of possibility. When they came together at the beginning of the zodiac, there was something profoundly symbolic about bringing the dream down to Earth and beginning again. Aries is the spark. It is the moment life says yes before it knows exactly where the road will lead.

Now the fire of Aries is dancing with the fire of Leo, and something that was conceived, imagined or initiated at that time may be asking to become more fully embodied. The dream may require us to become visible, to risk expressing it, to allow ourselves to want it enough that we are willing to build a structure capable of holding it.

Saturn's trine to the eclipse offers support, but Saturn always asks for integrity. If we say we want a life built around authenticity, eventually we have to make choices that reflect it. If we say we want reciprocal relationships, we have to stop abandoning ourselves to preserve connection. If we say we want to be seen, eventually we have to let ourselves become visible.

Manifestation isn't only about calling something toward us, but about being capable of meeting it when it arrives.

Uranus in Gemini: What Else Could Be True?

There is also a harmonious sextile between Mercury and Jupiter in Leo and Uranus in Gemini, bringing another possibility into the conversation: perhaps the story doesn't have play out the way it always has.

Uranus disrupts patterns, bringing liberation through surprise, innovation and the willingness to step beyond what we've known before. In Gemini, that disruption is occurring through language, thought patterns, perception and communication. This aspect feels like a crack opening inside an old mental pathway. We can become so accustomed to our own interpretations that we forget they are often just old stories. Uranus asks us:

Do you ever really know? What if something else is possible? What if the story you've been repeating isn't prophecy... but familiarity?

Liberation often begins with one incredibly simple question: What else could be true?

Mars + Chiron: Acting From the Body

Meanwhile, Mars has just entered Cancer and forms a supportive sextile to Chiron, newly in Taurus. This grounds us into the body and feeling.

Mars represents instinct, action, pursuit, anger, protection and desire. In Cancer, those instincts become deeply intertwined with emotional safety. Chiron's recent entrance into Taurus begins a much longer collective exploration around worth, security, embodiment, resources and our relationship with 'enoughness'. In supportive conversation with Mars, there is an opportunity to respond differently to old wounds; not by overriding our emotional responses, but by learning how to move with them consciously.

Can you stay inside your body long enough to recognize what you actually need before reacting? Can you ask rather than assume? Can you create a boundary without closing your heart?

Venus, Neptune + Relational Reality

Relationships are woven throughout this eclipse chart as Venus travels through Libra, one of the signs she rules, emphasizing our desire for partnership, harmony, beauty and reciprocity. But Venus opposes Neptune in Aries, creating an important tension between connection and projection, relationship and fantasy.

Neptune can make connection feel transcendent as it dissolves the boundaries between self and other and reminds us of the sacredness of connection. Under its influence, we can also romanticize potential that we stop noticing what is actually unfolding. However, Venus is simultaneously supported by Uranus and Mercury–Jupiter, suggesting that relating itself can become the place where something new becomes possible. Connections that don't resemble the structures we've known before may teach us entirely new ways of relating.

Venus also squares Mars in Cancer, reminding us that harmony and emotional truth aren't always the same thing. This energy may bring up the question: Can I remain connected to myself while I am connecting with others? Again, we return to the rose... petals and thorns, heart and spine, connection and boundaries.

Every Ending Is Also a Beginning

There is something paradoxical about a New Moon eclipse occurring on the South Node.

New Moons represent beginnings while the South Node represents release.

So really, the ending is the beginning. We aren't being asked to release our desire to be seen, loved or celebrated. Those desires are profoundly human, and deeply Leo. We are being asked to release the ways we've betrayed ourselves trying to secure them. Perhaps we're releasing performance so authentic expression can begin. Maybe we're releasing validation-seeking so self-trust can root. Maybe we're releasing old communication patterns so honest conversations can occur. Or perhaps we're releasing communities and relationships that require us to shrink so that the people capable of meeting our fullness can actually find us.

South Node eclipses can bring endings because sometimes something has completed its purpose in our lives. And sometimes this end comes with people or communities leaving... but sometimes what ends is the version of us who believed we had to abandon ourselves to make them stay in the first place.

This is the first eclipse of this season, and we've already been living inside its story for a few recent weeks. Rather than trying to force clarity or control where everything is heading, notice what is revealing itself. Notice where life is asking you to speak, where fear is asking you to hide, and where your body already knows something your mind keeps trying to negotiate with.

The lion has always been a symbol of courage, but courage doesn't mean the absence of fear.

It means being brave-hearted enough to move with it... to stand tall enough to remain rooted in yourself; to open your heart without abandoning your backbone, and to trust that when you stop performing for belonging and allow yourself to be fully seen, what is meant for you has the opportunity to recognize you.

Embodiment Practice | Rose Heart + Lion Spine

For this practice, bring in rose medicine in whatever form feels accessible to you: fresh or dried petals, rose tea, rose water, a tincture or simply the image of a rose. Before beginning, take a moment to notice the plant itself. The softness of its petals exists alongside the protection of its thorns. Neither contradicts the other. Together, they allow the rose to be what it is.

Come to standing with your feet planted firmly beneath you and your knees soft. Rather than immediately trying to "stand tall," begin by noticing how you naturally hold yourself. Where do you collapse? Where do you brace or feel rigid? Where does your chest want to protect itself? Where are you working unnecessarily hard to hold yourself upright?

Slowly bring your awareness to the base of your spine and begin travelling upward, vertebra by vertebra, imagining your spine as the stem of a rose. Feel your feet rooting downward as the crown of your head rises toward the sky. Allow length to emerge rather than forcing it.

Bring one hand to your heart and one to your belly. As you inhale, allow the front of your body to soften and expand. As you exhale, feel the strength of your spine supporting you from behind. Explore the sensation of being simultaneously receptive and supported; an open heart held by a strong backbone.

From here, put some music on and begin to move. Let your arms reach farther than they usually would. Open across your chest. Take up space. Allow yourself to become playful, expressive, sensual, dramatic or weird. Move in a way that feels slightly outside the range of how you normally allow yourself to be seen. Pay attention to what happens internally when you do: Where do you want to shrink? Where do you become self-conscious? What part of you wonders how you look? Can you keep moving anyway?

Eventually return to stillness, standing with your heart open and your spine long. Imagine a rose blooming from the centre of your chest; petals opening toward the world, thorns growing along the strong stem beneath them.

Take one final breath into the heart. Feel your feet beneath you. Follow with the journal prompts below.

Where is 20° Leo in your natal chart? What house does this eclipse fall in, and what themes around visibility, creativity, belonging, self-expression or courage are currently being illuminated, or asking to transform?

Where have I learned to perform for love, belonging, admiration or acceptance? 

What thought, story or fear have I been looping lately? 

Where is my heart asking me to open; and what would allow me to do so without abandoning myself? What boundary, truth, request or act of self-respect would give my open heart a stronger backbone?

What am I ready to stop being so that something more authentic can emergy?