With the Sun in noble Leo, you are flashy, passionate and theatrical, and you like to take the center of the stage. There is nothing insignificant or mean about you, and your famous pride ensures that others treat you with admiration. You also have a powerful imagination, and the future, with its many potential, not the past, is what matters to you. But beneath your bold and colourful outside, you can be more unsure of who you are than you appear. In fact, with the Sun in Leo, your life's quest is building a true sense of self and you seek consideration from the world around you to achieve it. Leo is the fifth sign of the Zodiac, ruling enjoyment, originality and self-expression.

Your ruling planet
The ruling planet of your personal chart is the one that rules your Rising Sign. However, if Leo is your Sun Sign, its ruler, the Sun, will also play an significant role in your psychology.

The source of all our warmth and light and the centre of the solar system, the Sun rules the heart and the true self, as well as originality, recreation, fatherhood and children. Worshipped from time immemorial, the sun god drove across the heavens in a chariot drawn by passionate horses. Its position at birth is your 'Sun Sign' and shows your real self and true possibility.

Just as the sun in the sky is the center of the solar system, the Sun in astrology is the central nucleus of your traits. If each of the planets circling round the sun represents a single facet of your personality - Venus describes how you love and Saturn how you associate to responsibility, for example - then the Sun is the performer of your personal orchestra, giving meaning and consistency to the wholeness that is you. It is the part of yourself that you recognize with, your sense of self. Its sign - your sun-sign - and house position, as well as the aspects that it makes to other planets, describe your true potential; the 'you' you are deep down and are determined to express, as well as your will, your goals and purpose. While the feminine Moon represents your Soul, the masculine Sun represents your Spirit. Its position in your chart also shows the ways in which your outlook has been predisposed by your father.

The lion is a symbol of kingship and manly power - and of the sun which rules the sign of Leo. It was worshipped in ancient Egypt, as its admission into Leo in the heat of Summer coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile. Regulus, the star which marks the Lion's heart, was worshipped as the ruler of the heavens throughout Europe and Asia as far back as 4000 BC. It brought riches, magnificence and power. The stars of Leo, which form a 'reversed question mark', lie between Cancer and Virgo on the zodiac chart.

Flowers that turn their faces with the sun as it travels through the skies, such as the sunflower, the harmoniously scented heliotrope, or cherry pie, and the scarlet pimpernel, belong to the Sun, and so to Leo. Your herbs are the warmly perfumed chamomile and golden saffron, cinnamon, rosemary, angelica and lemon balm. Your trees are the bay and the juniper, as well as the orange and lemon.

Your essential oils are orange, lemon, neroli, made from orange blossom, petitgrain, made from citrus leaves, and juniper, which are uplifting and inspiring for Leo, as well as lemon balm, chamomile and rosemary, which strengthen and soothe your fiery Leo nature.

Leo, the sign of high summer, is ruled by the life-giving Sun and amber, which was believed to be the essence of its sunset rays, congealed by the sea and thrown up on the shore, is its stone. Wearing amber brings the warmest most liberal side of Leo to the fore. It is also a symbol of understanding with others and its use as jewellery as a lucky, talismanic matter, dates back to the earliest days of ancient Greece. The fiery, fervent ruby, symbol of the heart, which Leo rules, also belongs to the Lion, and is said to ward off negative emotions and give sacred strength.