Leo Rashi

Simha is seen. Ruled by Surya, it has a natural relationship to authority and a real, unforced generosity — Simha gives, and gives publicly, and means it. The dignity is genuine rather than performed. What complicates it is that Simha needs the recognition it pretends not to need, and can mistake being contradicted for being diminished. At its best it uses its visibility to make room for other people.

Simha — known in English as Leo — is the sidereal zodiac sign of the Lion, ruled by Surya (Sun). It is a fire (agni) rashi of fixed (sthira) quality: in Vedic astrology that pair describes how a sign begins things, holds them, or adapts to them.

In the sidereal zodiac the Sun passes through Simha from roughly 17 August to 16 September. Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, where Leo runs from 23 July – 22 August. The two differ by about 24 degrees — the ayanamsa — which is why your Vedic rashi is usually the sign before your Western one.

Simha contains Magha, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni (Pada 1). Each rashi spans 30 degrees and holds two and a quarter nakshatras, so the nakshatra locates a planet far more precisely than the rashi alone, and it is the nakshatra that determines your Vimshottari dasha sequence.

In Indian and Nepali practice your rashi is your Chandra rashi — the sign the Moon occupied at your birth, not the Sun. The Moon governs the mind, and it is the Moon's daily transit counted from your rashi that a daily rashifal actually reads.

In traditional matching, Leo tends to find easy ground with Aries, Sagittarius, where the element and the ruling planets agree. Aquarius asks more work — not incompatibility, but a difference in pace and priority that has to be named rather than assumed. Ashtakoota Gun Milan looks at eight factors and not only the rashi, so treat sign-to-sign compatibility as a first indication rather than a verdict.