5) Leo
5) Leo
Direction: West
Period: July 23 – August 24
Element: Fixed Fire
Planet: The Sun
It’s the warmest period of the year. Plants are full of juices and the new life feeds off them. They change into corn, vegetables and fruits. The sun is on its way down the sky.
Cancer represents the re-polarization of an individual, the change of direction, the turn, the decision, the feeling. It’s up to Leo to make this step into collectivity real. If Cancer could feel the love, Leo symbolizes its physical realization – family. Leo thus represents the personality in the first attempt to find its own place in society among others, with all the uncertainty and effort to cover it by exaggeration and dramatic gestures. Leo enters a room with a loud scream to frighten those he is frightened of. Leo doesn’t understand society yet, so he must transform it after his own image to be able to live in it. Political leadership reflects these characteristics in the act of manipulating others. Leo, as a symbol of the sun (e.g. vital energy), can bring fresh impulses into life but also death when there is too much of this energy. Sunlight is a symbol of youth, strength, vitality, physical love and also of ingeniousness.
At Cancer’s side, the Strahov cloister marks out the beginning of Leo. It’s other side is the southern margin of the Strahov platform on the Petrin hill, just before the bulky and green mane hill begins to rush into Virgo.
In the Prague sector of Leo directing to the west (individualistic, Yang direction) you can find the park hill Petrín, the number one place for dates of Prague lovers. The romantic area of beautiful views and shadowy corners among lilac bushes and under tall trees is also linked with a statue of K.H. Mácha, the symbol of Czech 19th century romantic poetry with a strong glow of eroticism that has burned with fire in many hearts and bodies.
Strahov - the plain beyond the top of Petrin hill composed of a large campus of university colleges, hostels and sporting grounds – is also an area of youth. Several large sport stadiums point to the majesty of leonine strength and values of the Olympic games that perhaps one day will be played here. Among others, Leo’s fixed fire symbolizes the everlasting Olympic flame.
One of Prague’s stadiums is the largest open-air stadium in the world. No joke, it’s the truth! The megalomaniac spot is originally bound with large gym-festivals “Sokol Slets” that were later replaced by the communist emotionalism of All-State Spartakiades which were state controlled festivals that were to show “the strength of the communist block headed by the Soviet Union and love of its people for their communist leaders”. It’s a clear embodiment of the leonine exaggeration and political leadership: the leonine sunstroke that makes you vomit and later die.
