Rewind: The Deeper Meaning of Mars in Leo

Hey, everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Saturday!

Everybody got a little bonus episode cooked up for you guys today. We’re going to take a look at the deeper meaning of Mars in the sign of Leo. I think this is a good one to refresh on right now, because Mars is in Leo retrograde and also about to oppose Pluto.

So, it can really help in a moment like this, with an aspect like this, to take a deeper look at one of the planets engaged. Today, we’re focusing on Mars in Leo—a little rewind episode.

I’m also doing this because it is the final days of our Kickstarter campaign. We’re trying to push our way across the finish line, and we need a lot of support. Our backer goal this year is 1,937 backers by January 1, so that’s New Year’s Eve at midnight.

Right now, as of the time I’m making this, we’re pretty close to 1,100 backers, which means we still need 800 backers. We need 800 backers by New Year’s Eve, so we’ve got a long way to go.

Thank you to everybody who’s already donated. If you haven’t yet, you can find the link to donate to the Kickstarter campaign in the comment section of this post, in the description of this video, or head over to NightlightAstrology.com and click on the 2025 Kickstarter link.

Once you go over to the Kickstarter campaign, you can choose from a variety of rewards. I will tell you about those rewards at the end of today’s video, including all of the best sales on our classes. We have four years’ worth of program material, plus yearly master class content—tons of material for you to study and learn with us in our community.

We invite you to check out those deals. The bundles, when you put class passes together, are up to 75% off. So if you come study at Nightlight, you’ll get the best sale that we run all year, and it gives you really profound discounts on all of our programs. It helps us keep this channel alive, along with all the free content we make year-round for everybody.

You’ll also find a variety of other gifts, like the astrology of 2025 talk that I do, my book being released chapter by chapter in audiobook and text form, and year-ahead horoscope readings. If you want to get your year-ahead horoscope for 2025 and take a look at the whole year to come for your sun or rising sign, you can pick up this exclusive reward through the Kickstarter.

It’s about eight hours worth of content going through all the horoscopes for 2025, so some really good deals. You can check out all the other classes and class passes we offer there.

I’ll say this: we need a big final showing of support in these last days if we’re going to make our goal and keep going, sustaining everything we do. We have a staff of 11 people, a full-time social media manager who helps me with everything I do, and we create content for all of you daily throughout the year.

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Let’s see if we can cross the finish line strong. I’m going to be doing some live streams! Tomorrow, Sunday, I’ll be doing a live stream. Monday and Tuesday morning, all at 11 a.m. Central time, noon Eastern. I’ll be going live and answering your questions, doing some Birth Chart readings, and trying to pound the drum to see if we can’t get across the finish line here.

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All right, we’ll see you guys tomorrow. Bye.

Hi everybody. This is Adam Elenbaas, and this is another episode of Planets in Profile.

I’m catching up right now after a summer away from doing this series. Mars is currently in the sign of Virgo, but today we’re actually going to go backward a little bit. We’re going to look at Mars in the sign of Leo as we go all the way around the wheel with both Mars and Venus in this series.

So today, I’m going to give you a sense of how you can interpret Mars when it’s in the sign of Leo. This applies whether you’re looking at it in your birth chart or someone else’s, or how to interpret Mars when it’s transiting through Leo, which, of course, happens somewhat regularly. Hopefully, this talk will address both of those things at once.

All right, I’m going to go ahead and share it on the screen, and let’s make this full screen.

We’re looking at Mars in Leo. Now, one of the things that I feel is very important to start with in all of these series is a note on how ancient astrologers looked at planets when they were in signs. In modern astrology, we place a lot of emphasis on science, right? We say, “Leo means this,” or “Aquarius means that,” or “Virgo means this,” or “Pisces means that.”

But in ancient astrology, the signs were really ways of breaking up the seasonal developments of the sun and describing the different homes of the planets. The signs showed how planets change depending on their environment.

Every planet, except for the Sun and Moon, has two signs—a masculine and a feminine sign. The Zodiac, in this view, is an expression of how the seven traditional planets change their personalities depending on where they’re located. Each planet has two signs where it’s really at home.

When we read something like Mars in Leo, we’re trying to figure out how Mars behaves, what Mars wants, and how it gets what it wants. We also look at how it might struggle with the symbolism of the Sun, which is the planetary host of Leo.

Leo is the hot, dry fire temple of the Sun. That’s what the sign represents—an environment or atmosphere in which a planet resides. So, the question we want to ask is: How does Mars behave? How does Mars get along with the Sun? How might the Sun qualify an interpretation of Mars?

To do this, there’s one thing you need to do: Check the status of the Sun in the chart. When you're reading Mars in Leo, you can't do it alone. You need to know more about the Sun. That’s how Mars is going to express itself.

For example, if Mars is in Leo, then you know the Sun is in Virgo, or maybe in Taurus, etc. This will change the meaning of Mars itself because Mars is reliant on the Sun. So, you always have to look at that.

You want aspectual connections—like a trine or a sextile—between Mars and the Sun. This creates a harmonious relationship with the host, which is very key.

Now, what does Mars usually want? What does Mars do? Mars is the god of war. Mars wants action, violence, and to cut. Mars wants to sever, conquer, demonstrate courage, fight, compete, or exert itself. These are Mars’ main desires.

So, as Mars moves through any sign, it’s still going to want to do these things. The question is: How does the Sun act as a host for Mars? How does the Sun provide for Mars’ needs, wants, desires, etc.? How does the Sun participate in those things?

As we said, Mars wants to cut, conquer, demonstrate courage, and compete. So, how does Mars do that in the sign of the Sun?

Let’s remember something about the seasonal qualities of Leo. We know a lot about the Sun. The Sun represents leadership, kingship, fame, visibility, and light. The ancient astrologers also associated the Sun with our higher intelligence.

But what can we say about the seasonal qualities of Leo in particular? Well, remember that Leo is the middle of summer. It’s the young half of the year, but the light is declining every day during Leo.

As the light declines every day in Leo, there is a duality: the source of light in life (the Sun), but also the eventual loss of light, the eventual death that is built into Leo. The days are getting shorter every day of Leo, even though it’s arguably the brightest and warmest time of the year.

This is at the heart of what Leo symbolism is all about. Think about a king, for example. A king is a symbol around which a society is organized, and the king goes through a succession. The king is a position that different people can hold. The succession of kings and queens symbolizes something that will live on eternally, despite the fact that different people will wear the crown.

This idea of passing something on to live on is at the heart of Leo. Leo is associated with kings, rulers, fame, and anything that needs to be celebrated as eternal. This is why we associate this time with icons—people around whom everything else can be organized. We can all look up at the stars, and celebrities, rock stars, movie stars, and others become an icon around which we focus.

Many of us are told anyone can be famous, and it could be you. The Leo archetype has a lot to do with the mantle of power and position in the world as a symbol of something undying.

This seasonal quality of Leo is important to understand in order to understand how Mars behaves when it’s in that sign.

Now, let’s talk about some things. Mars likes to struggle. Mars in any sign can represent conflicts. Conflicts with what? Conflicts with solar things, or conflicts in relation to the seasonal solar archetype we just talked about—the need to live on and endure despite the dying of the light.

This relates to fame, icons, legacies, greatness, awards, and memorializing things—all of which are part of Leo. So, Mars can struggle with those solar issues or can find conflict or honor in those issues.

These are the typical things that Mars brings in any sign, and you just mix it with the planet—in this case, the Sun.

Celebrities with Mars in Leo include Donald Trump, who has it right on the ascendant. Critics say he’s a bully, a strongman, a braggart. Others might like that he’s strong. This is classic Mars in Leo. He has the executive, king-like vibe—strong, commanding, but also a bit cocky.

How about Beyoncé? Mars in Leo gives her a powerful, warrior-queen vibe. Hillary Clinton also has Venus in Leo, and her critics say she’s more ambitious and power-hungry than she lets on. That’s another example of Mars’ interaction with the Sun.

James Dean is another example—youthful, solar, and rebellious. He represents the troubled, eternal youth archetype. Michael Jordan, the king of basketball, has Mars in Leo. He is competitive, competitive to the point of greatness, and he’s tied to fame.

Other examples include Harrison Ford (strong, famous, a bit of a cocky hero), Frank Sinatra (confident and strong), and Bruce Springsteen (the rocker, the Jersey rebel).

We can also see Mars in Leo in figures like Steven Tyler, John McCain, Thomas Jefferson, Jon Stewart, Hulk Hogan, and Dennis Rodman. Each of these figures expresses Mars’ interaction with the solar, kingly archetype in different ways.

That’s Mars in Leo—struggling with, benefiting from, or being honored by the solar qualities of the sign.

I hope this was an interesting Planets in Profile episode. I’ll be catching up now, so I’ll do Virgo next. Take care. Bye.