Leo III: The Fight for Light

We continue our series on the 36 Decans of the Zodiac today with Leo III, the third and final Decan of Leo. This Decan is ruled by Mars, which adds intensity, drive, and a warrior-like determination to Leo’s steady and expressive energy. Leo III is a place of perseverance and faith, where the challenges of life are met with courage and conviction. It’s about holding onto one’s light, even in the face of adversity.

What sets Leo III apart is its connection to endurance and the will to overcome. This Decan is associated with the 7th Sephira, Netzach, on the Tree of Life, which represents courage, resilience, and persistence. It’s a place where creativity and strength combine to shine through struggle, but this energy can also show up as a fierce need to defend one’s position or power. The fiery influence of Mars infuses this Decan with a sense of urgency and passion that makes it stand out from the others.

In this post, we’ll explore the unique characteristics of Leo III through its esoteric meanings, Tarot associations, and numerological symbolism. We’ll also examine how this energy manifests in the lives of two very different figures: Maya Angelou, who exemplifies the triumph of resilience and creative brilliance, and Donald Trump, whose persistent and controversial drive reflects the shadow side of this Decan. Their contrasting stories provide a nuanced lens through which to understand the complexities of Leo III.

Transcript (Edited)

Introduction to Leo III

I continue my series on the 36 Decans of the Zodiac today with Leo III, the last decan or 10 degrees of Leo. Leo is a fire sign, so it's about inspiration. It's ruled by the Sun, that object in the sky that all the other planets revolve around. It’s something about how we shine for other people in the world.

Leo has a social quality. Something about people with planets or points in Leo will always have to do with being on stage in one way or another. It could be in different areas of your life, depending on where Leo falls in your chart.

What differentiates this part of Leo from the other two decans is that it is ruled by Mars under the Chaldean order of rulership for decans and Mars under the triplicity system. That brings in some potential for conflict. Mars is the God of War. He’s about courage and bravery, but it can also—Mars can be tough. That fighter that can harm—it just depends on the motivation behind the Mars energy. It can have a defensive quality, a desire to protect oneself or other people.

Overview of the Upcoming Video

In the upcoming video, I’ll talk about that planetary rulership. We’ll talk about some ancient texts and give descriptions that they provide for this “face” or decan. Then we’ll talk about the tarot card, the Seven of Wands, that’s associated with this part of the Zodiac, as well as the Sephira Netzach in the Kabbalistic tradition, the meaning of the number seven in numerology, and how that adds a little flavor to our understanding of this decan.

Last of all, I’ll go through two different chart examples. Two very different people have their rising degree in this part of the Zodiac. One is Maya Angelou, the famous author, poetess, and civil rights activist. And the other is Donald Trump, who also has his Mars in this part of the Zodiac, as well as his ascendant degree, and it gives his Mars some extra power.

There’s a lot to unpack. I hope you enjoy the video. If you do, like and subscribe. It helps people find my content.

The Sun and Mars in Leo III

The Sun rules the sign of Leo and Mars rules the decan under both systems of rulership, so let’s start off talking a little bit more about what happens when the Sun is there with Mars. When we think about the last part of August, which is when Leo happens or where the Leo energy falls in the Northern Hemisphere, that’s when the Sun begins to fade. We begin to lose the light. Summer is ending.

You can think about this last part of the Zodiac simply as, what do you do when you’ve been the center, or you are the center, and you begin to lose some of that light? Maybe it fades. How do you relate to that situation?

When you’ve been the king, when you’ve been on top—we’re going to see the Six of Wands card has an image, and that’s the second decan of Leo. It has an image of somebody who’s on top and being praised and doing well. It’s that Jupiter-Sun decan.

Then we get to Leo III, and it’s Mars-Mars-Sun, and you’re thinking, “I want to hold on. I want to hold on to that light and that glory.” How am I going to defend that? How am I going to defend myself and my right to shine in the world? That’s some of the energy of this part of the Zodiac.

Ancient Text Descriptions of Leo III

Now I’m going to move on to talk about or give you some direct quotes from ancient texts that describe this decan.

The Yavanajataka

The first is the Yavanajataka. (I hope you like my funky new reading glasses!) It’s a third-century text, and it describes this face or decan as:

"A woman whose actions are marvelous and is cunning in respect to machines and undertakings involving the arts, business, or jewels. Seated on an ivory throne, she considers the murder of her enemies."

Wow, so you see the real contrast there. You see the capacity to shine and have success in the world—that’s what the Sun can bring, right? But then you see this feeling like you need to defend oneself against your enemies because you’ve reached the top, and now people are maybe out to dethrone you. That’s the Mars vibe.

The Picatrix

Then we can look at the Picatrix as well. It describes this face as:

"The image of the third decan of Leo is of a man riding a donkey, holding a wolf in his hand. This is an image of subtlety, deceit, and evil works. It signifies evil intentions, a lack of moderation."

Now this description is leaning toward the darker potential of this decan. I'd say hold these descriptions lightly because every planet is going to have a different valence and quality to it. You can have people that are not of bad conduct who have their rising degree here. Maya Angelou is one example of an exemplary human being who has her rising degree here.

And then we have from Agrippa:

"A young man in whose hand is a whip and a man very sad and of an ill aspect. They signify love and society and the loss of one's right for avoiding strife."

I take that last description as talking about some of the sadness that Leo energy can have if it's been in the spotlight and is facing the potential of losing that. It can bring a little bit of sadness and a sense of loss. Some of that is definitely part of Leo energy.

I could talk about that separately—just in general, having clients who have Leo rising. Sometimes there's a way in which you can feel like you're destined for greatness, and there can be a little bit of melancholy around whether you receive that light that you inherently feel or kind of know you're supposed to have. Maybe you're supposed to be in the spotlight in some way. Sometimes in life, it can take a little while, if that's who you are, to find the place where you shine.

Anyway, that's a little aside.

Tarot Cards Associated with Leo

Let’s look at the tarot cards that are associated with this decan because I think it’s illustrative, not only to look at the Seven of Wands, which rules this decan, but also the Five and the Six, because we see the progression of that fire energy over the course of the sign.

I’m going to bring up a whiteboard that I’ve created for this video. And there we go. I need to—that’s Maya Angelou’s chart. I’m just going to move and get to the first page.

Here we see—let me move this over a little bit—those tarot cards I was talking about.

Fire Energy Progression in the Leo Decans

In the Five of Wands, which is associated with Leo I, the first 10 degrees of Leo, we see that you’re at the beginning of shining in the world. You’re trying to put your creative spark out in the world. And you have to battle and compete with other people that are equally matched to you so that you can achieve that.

I talked about that in the Leo I decan, and we talked about Meryl Streep as exemplifying that. Her competitive capacity to fight hard to get the role she wanted—that’s a Sun-Saturn decan, having to do with wanting to shine but feeling some restrictions and feeling like you have to work through barriers to get there.

Once you work through those barriers, now, you’re on the top of the heap. You’re at Leo II, the second decan of Leo. There, it’s Jupiter and Jupiter that are ruling the decan.

Of course, the danger with that decan—whenever there’s a Jupiter-Sun contact in a chart—is that Jupiter expands, but it can expand so much that there’s a danger of hubris or overstepping. That’s what I talked about in Leo II.

The vibe is: yes, you achieve this greatness, but there’s also a potential for being inflated or perhaps not understanding the limitations of what it is to be human. Christopher Reeve, who played Superman, is an example chart for this decan.

Mars and the Seven of Wands

Last of all, we have Mars-Mars. Look at that Seven of Wands card that’s associated with this last decan. We see he’s at the top of the heap, but look at all these people that are coming after him to try to steal his glory. That’s the vibe of that card.

As I mentioned, Maya Angelou and Donald Trump both have their rising degrees in this part of the Zodiac, and we’ll talk about that.

The Thoth Tarot Deck

Let’s move to the Thoth Tarot Deck, which is another tarot deck, and sometimes it can be helpful to have other illustrations.

Here we see—and the words on the Thoth deck, written by Aleister Crowley, kind of help express some of the energy, too. We start off with “Strife,” in the 5 of Wands and you can see the glyph for Saturn on this card as well.

Here’s the image of the wands attempting to move forward.

In the second decan, we see “Victory,” and everything is firing on all cylinders. Look at the fire at all the crossroads, showing that you’re stepping into the greatness and the fullness of your potential. There’s some nice light violet and purple energy there, suggesting the success and victory that can come with the second decan of Leo.

Then we get to the last decan, and all of these wands are not hitting on all cylinders anymore. They’re having a difficult time, having to defend their turf.

Let’s bring out Aleister Crowley’s description of the Seven of Wands because it helps convey the sense of it. Crowley says:

"The image shows the fixed and balanced wands of the Six of Wands relegated to the background, diminished and becoming commonplace. In front is a large, crude, uneven club—the first weapon to hand, evidently unsatisfactory in order to combat."

We’ve gone from a position of being at the top of our game, where we’re the ruler in Leo II (Six of Wands) where we’re in charge, and now all of a sudden, we’re having to get that club to whack other people down. You can really get that vibe from the tarot cards, and I think that’s helpful.

The Hermetic Kabbalah: Netzach and the Tree of Life

The last thing I want to talk about before we get to the two charts of Maya Angelou and Donald Trump as examples is the Sephira that is associated with the number 7, Netzach.  

Netzach, in the Hermetic Kabbalah, is based on the ancient Jewish tradition of the Kabbalah and the Tree of Life. The idea is that energy enters at number one, from spirit, and then moves down the Tree of Life to number ten, Malkuth, where things manifest in the world.

Each number from one to ten on the Tree of Life has a different meaning. As we move down the Tree of Life in our attempt to manifest, we slowly lose energy and encounter different difficulties or obstacles to overcome.

Netzach on the Tree of Life communicates the idea of patience through adversity and endurance to completion. It also represents passion and leadership—the ability to motivate people to action.

This ties directly to the Mars-Sun energy in the last part of Leo. People with energy in this decan tend to inspire others to fight for a cause, or to fight on behalf of who they are. Donald Trump has proven successful at doing just that.

I’ll read a little quote from him where he talks about his capacity to rally people around him. This is something Austin Coppock talks about in his class. People with the Sun in this decan have the quality of enduring through conflict and difficulty, holding on and rallying others to their side. The idea of endurance is strongly connected to this decan.

This quality of endurance is also tied to the number seven in the Kabbalah. We’ll see this same theme of endurance when looking at other parts of the Zodiac associated with the sevens in the tarot cards.

The last decan of Taurus, which I’ve already covered, also illustrates this idea of endurance. You might want to go back and look my video on Taurus III. In fact, I’m going to bring up the card from that in the whiteboard—just one second—and show you the image.

That’s the next image, so that you get an idea of the enduring quality present in all the sevens. With Leo, the endurance is centered around faith in my capacity to shine and the ability to rally others around me to support that effort is part of the energy here. Even when I’m starting to lose my energy or worry about it, there’s this quality of holding on and having faith that I can do this.

When we look at the earth energy of Taurus, it’s associated with the Seven of Pentacles. As I talked about in the Taurus III video, people with planets or points in this last part of Taurus, which is an earth sign about financial security and hard work, have the quality to stick with it through difficult times. This often involves fear of losing financial security.

We could say that the last part of Leo might equate to a fear of losing one’s inspirational security or creative security. In the Seven of Pentacles, we see an image of a farmer who has done everything possible to grow his crop. He’s waiting, with a sad look on his face, knowing that at any moment, a storm might wipe out his crop.

7 of Pentacles, Rider-Waite Tarot

People with their ascendant or key planets in this last decan of Taurus, may have some association with industries such as insurance or finance, people who take care to ensure that they protect themselves financially. Meanwhile, in the third decan of Leo, there is still a protective quality, but it’s focused on staying on top—remaining the king or the leader at the top of the hierarchy.

This comparison helps to illustrate the energy. I always like to connect the different decans of the Zodiac when possible. I’ll likely do the same with the last decan of Scorpio, which also has a very enduring quality, but it’s focused on emotional, water-based energy.

Back to Leo III. Let’s explore Netzach, the seventh Sephira of the Tree of Life. Another description of Netzach is:

"Netzach means eternity. It is the aspect of revelation which stretches horizontally for all time and the attribute of endurance within the divine, in the sense of both 'God's mercy endures forever' and the more common usage of endurance through difficult times."

We see this theme of endurance through difficult times in the incredible story of Maya Angelou.

Netzach also represents the concept of a great force of resistance or suffering until the accomplishment of an important goal. It can be identified in patience, like the sublime patience of Job in the Bible, who suffered many horrific fates but held on and endured through his faith in God.

The number seven, therefore, has a divine quality and represents endurance driven by faith—faith in something larger than ourselves that allows us to persevere through difficulties.

Maya Angelou’s Chart

Now I’ll bring up the whiteboard again to show the examples of Maya Angelou and Donald Trump. Both of their life stories demonstrate endurance in unique ways.

Let’s talk about Maya Angelou first.

In her chart, we immediately see the Sun in Aries. There’s a star here because the Sun is exalted in Aries, and another star because the Sun has its joy in the 9th House. Her Sun has a real fighting energy. It’s also with Jupiter, giving her an expansive optimism, which is evident when we look at the difficult events in her life.

That brave Sun rules her rising degree because it rules Leo and she is a Leo rising. In her chart, we see Neptune conjunct her ascendant, giving her a compassionate essence. This suggests a capacity for empathy and feeling deeply for others.

Unfortunately, we also see Mars, the God of War, as a more challenging planet in her chart because she was born during the day.

Mars on Maya Angelou’s descendant creates tension, difficulty, and the potential for her to experience suffering at the hands of others. When Mars opposes the ascendant, it can be challenging because the ascendant represents who we are.

Talking about Maya Angelou’s life history, we know she had a very difficult story as a child. She was the victim of rape at a very young age. Some people in her family ended up killing the man who raped her, and she felt responsible for that. She experienced such guilt that she stopped talking for five years.

Later in life, as she found her voice, she wrote the memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It is one of her most famous works, but she was also a prolific author and poet. She spoke several languages and had many planets in the ninth house, a house associated with international travel, higher education, and expanding one’s consciousness.

She lived abroad, notably in Ghana, and was highly intellectual. Her ninth-house energy reflects her advocacy for human rights and her fight against racism in the United States.

Other tragedies befell her, including two separate fires that destroyed her property—in 1998 and again in 2001. Despite such misfortune, she persevered. Her quotes often reflect the idea of continuing in the face of struggle and enduring the challenges of life on this planet.

She overcame immense tragedy to find her voice and used it not only for herself but also for the larger community of people who had been oppressed or suffered abuse. This is an example of the light of Leo shining in the world, coupled with the need to protect and defend oneself.

Donald Trump’s Life and Chart

Then we can also look at the chart of Donald Trump. I put this quote here because it shows the fact:

"Donald Trump said during the first campaign that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and he wouldn’t lose any voters."

This shows a little bit of his faith in his own fire.

I was trying to think about this Sephira Netzach, which can have to do with a certain amount of faith in oneself and the capacity to endure. How is that exemplified in the chart of Donald Trump or his existence? Certainly, the fact that he keeps going on and has this faith in his ability to survive is really... let’s say his chutzpah around continuing to move forward as he does in the world.

He has Mars in that decan of Leo, giving it extra power. I don’t want to... the personal is political, so I think it’s important to state that I am 100% not with his agenda. But I want to set that aside and more observe this from the astrological standpoint.

We see he has Mars in Leo III, and his Mars is powerful. It’s right there because Mars rules the decan, and this gives it added power. His desire to defend his throne is great. Look at this ascendant degree—29 degrees, 55 minutes. He’s at the very last little minutes of Leo, trying to hold on to his power and authority, and using every ounce of his Mars capacity to do that.

He also has Pluto in the first house as well.

And then, of course, we see his Sun, which rules his Leo, is with the North Node of the Moon and Uranus. Whenever the North Node is near the Sun, it leads to this hunger, this feeling, this distorted thinking sometimes around the planet that it touches—an expansion of the energy. So there’s something about his solar fire wanting to expand and get even bigger.

Of course, he was born on an eclipse—that’s a whole other story. Uranus, the planet of things hitting out of the blue and being a disruptor, is part of his chart as well.

If you took a step back and weren’t thinking about it from a personal, embodied perspective—what it is like to be a human being on planet Earth in the United States under his power—and instead separated it out and looked at it from 200 years in the future, you might say, “This person has the karma of shaking things up in the world.”

He’s born on an eclipse. He’s got Uranus, the great liberator, awakener, and disruptor, with the North Node and Sun in his chart.

That’s a lot of interesting astrology! I hope you enjoyed the video and found the analysis of Leo III and the associated charts insightful.

I’ll be back soon with a tour of Virgo I. Have a great day!