I actually believe, given that it is my sign and I have a lot of it in my chart, that most Leos are real good at cruelty if need be. All of this warm, affectionate and buddy-buddy stuff is good for close friends and people who are on our good side. I would go to bat for my friends and make sacrifices to people who have been on my good side or helped me. A lot of the good traits of Leos revolve around people who have been good to them.
Are you using Leo as shorthand for "born in the last week and a half of July or first three weeks of August?"
All having a birthday in that time frame means is that your sun is in Leo. People without Leo suns can also be very Leo, if they have a Leo ascendant, moon, and/or strong planetary presence in Leo. People with Leo suns always have Leo as a significant sign, but in some cases their strongest planetary presence is somewhere else. It's possible for a person born in Leo month to be less Leo in many respects than a person who was not born in Leo month but has a lot of Leo in their chart.
In your case, not only were you born in Leo month, you have several planets and your ascendant in Leo. So, you are very Leo, no question.
That said, I agree with you that the warm, affectionate, etc. Leo traits are for people who are on our good side (being a fellow Leo, I can say this!). But for some of us, that's most people. Personally, the only people not on my good side are the ones who have done something really, really awful to me, and that's a very short list. Those people are simply not in my life. But, if they lived nearby and I had to see them regularly... it might be a different story. With everyone else, whether they're a close friend or just a casual acquaintance, I think I'm the warm, generous Leo. They certainly respond to me like I am.
What Leo needs, overall, is positive relationships with others. That's key to Leo development. We need ourselves to be validated by those around us. The validation can be simple, quiet affection or appreciation, or it can be the roaring crowds that go with stereotypical Leo. If people are validating us, we give them our warmth. If they're not, we'll probably freeze them out.
The issue is, so much of this stuff about how an angered Leo is either going to have the woe is me mentality or turn into some snob is off base.
I didn't say an
angered Leo would react that way. I said that either arrogance or low self esteem would be a manifestation of unhealthy, poorly adjusted Leo. Unhealthy and poorly adjusted doesn't necessarily mean angry.
Because Leo is naturally self centered--Leo sun in particular, considering that sun and Leo are both about the self--the options for Leo are to be self centered in either a healthy or an unhealthy way. Unhealthy self centeredness manifests as either an overinflated sense of self or a negative sense of self, in other words, low self esteem. Healthy self centeredness means you're well grounded in yourself, you have a realistic sense of who and what you are and you like that well enough, and you have plenty of love to share with others because you love yourself enough. To others, it might not even look much like self centeredness, but it is.
Even using common sense, you have a fixed sign that is big on pride, why are astrologers saying it is a good idea to step on those toes?
What astrologers say it's a good idea to step on Leo's toes?
