Is it as good as it looks?

Are Leo and Libra compatible?

Leo and Libra are a sextile: fire and air, fixed and cardinal, two signs apart on the zodiac wheel. Astrologers count the sextile as a friendly, harmonious angle. That's the Sun alone. The rest of the story is in the whole chart: Venus, Mars, the Moon and the descendant.

You're here because of someone.

The Sun signs say easy. Two whole charts say far more.

Your card is worked out from the day, the minute and the place you were born, not from a sign you share with a twelfth of the planet.

Every Leo and every Libra reads this page. Only your card knows you.

Find out your true compatibility.

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Admit one Leo Fire · Fixed Jul 23 – Aug 22

Admit one Libra Air · Cardinal Sep 23 – Oct 23

⚹︎ Sextile · 60°Fire + air · fixed + cardinalHarmonious, in Ptolemy’s terms

What it is: synastry, the art of comparing two charts

Comparing two people's charts has a name: synastry. Astrologers lay one chart over the other and look at the angles between the two sets of planets, the same angles the old books use inside a single chart.

Sun-sign compatibility is the shortcut version. It compares only the two Suns, and the angle between them is the aspect: four signs apart is a trine, two apart a sextile, three apart a square, six apart an opposition. Ptolemy called the trine and the sextile harmonious, and the square and the opposition disharmonious. ¹

Elements describe temperament (fire, earth, air, water) and modes describe pace (cardinal starts, fixed holds, mutable adapts). A pair can share one, both or neither. Leo and Libra share neither.

Full synastry goes much further: whose Venus lands on whose Moon, where one person's planets fall in the other's houses, how the two descendants line up. Ptolemy himself compared the Sun and the Moon of both charts, not just the Suns. That is why the same Leo can get on beautifully with one Libra and not at all with another. ²

Why do Leo and Libra click?

The traditional portrait: the same for every Leo and every Libra.

Leo in love

Traditionally, Leo courts out loud: flowers sent to the office, the big gesture, the good table at the good restaurant. The old books say a Leo in love is generous and protective, wants to be admired by the person they admire, and does not do lukewarm. Ignore a Leo, the story goes, and you'll find out what a sulking lion looks like.

Libra in love

Libra is the romantic of the old books, in love with love: candlelight, the right song, a partner who matches the room. Traditionally a Libra courts with charm and keeps the peace at almost any cost, and is happiest as one half of a pair. Make a Libra choose between you and fairness, though, and watch it agonise.

Together

Fire and air, the traditional easy draught: air feeds the flame, and the flame gives air somewhere to go. Midnight road-trip energy. Who's watching the fuel gauge?

Cardinal meets fixed. One starts things. The other keeps them going, or keeps them exactly where they were.

The best-dressed pair on the wheel, by reputation. Leo brings the warmth and Libra brings the charm, and both believe a nice evening is worth getting right. Tradition's caution: two people this good at being liked might dodge the hard conversation for years.

Where it comes from: comparing charts, from Babylon to your phone

Era by era, with sources. More in the Reading Room.

Ancientc. 450 BCEThe Babylonian zodiac settles into twelve equal zones, the frame later comparisons of signs are built on. ³
Ancient410 BCEThe earliest known horoscopes, from Babylon and Nippur, date to this year. ³
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy's Tetrabiblos names the aspects between signs and calls the trine and sextile harmonious, the square and opposition disharmonious. ^4,1
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy's chapter on the planets' houses puts Leo under the Sun and Libra under Venus. ¹
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy counts Leo and Libra as masculine signs, both of them, and signs of the same kind are why he calls the sextile harmonious. ¹
Classical2nd century CEIn his chapter on marriage, Ptolemy compares two charts: the Sun and Moon of one against the Sun and Moon of the other, reading trines and sextiles between them as concord and squares and oppositions as friction. ²
Classical2nd century CEHis chapter on friends and enemies does the same with the Sun, the Moon, the rising degree and the Lot of Fortune of both people. ²
Medieval12th centuryAbu Ma'shar's introduction to astrology circulates in Latin; the University of Edinburgh holds a 12th-century copy. ⁵
1800s1890Alan Leo's Astrologer's Magazine offers its annual subscribers a free horoscope by post. ⁶
1930s1937R. H. Naylor's newspaper horoscope, begun in 1930, is organised by the twelve sun signs. ⁷
1970s1978Linda Goodman's Love Signs is published by Harper & Row. ⁸
1980s–90s1980–1999Chart services run by computer arrive: Astrodienst in Zürich sells birth charts from 1980 and goes online in 1996. ⁹
Today202430% of US adults consult astrology, tarot or a fortune teller at least yearly, mostly for fun, according to Pew Research Center. ¹⁰

Worked out, not guessed

Leo is sign 5 of 12 and Libra is sign 7: two signs apart, 60°. Sextiles always share the same polarity: fire with air, or earth with water. Of the 78 possible sun-sign pairings, 12 are sextiles.
Venus never gets more than about 47° from the Sun, so a Leo's Venus is in one of five signs (Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo or Libra) and a Libra's in one of five (Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio or Sagittarius). Which one is a matter of the year and the day.

When was the last time you two really argued?

The Sun can’t answer that. These four can, and your card reads every one of them.

Venus · how you love

How do you love, and how do they want to be loved?

That's Venus. It never strays far from the Sun, so a Leo's Venus can only sit in Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo or Libra, and a Libra's Venus can only sit in Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio or Sagittarius. Two people with the same sun sign can want completely different evenings.

Your card reads your Venus.
Mars · what you want

Why does everything look fine from the outside?

That's Mars: desire, temper, the way you chase what you're after. It can sit in any of the twelve signs, so two Libras born a season apart can want, and fight about, completely different things.

Your card reads your Mars.
The Moon · what you need

Why do they feel like home one day and a stranger the next?

That's the Moon: what you need when the door's shut and the day's gone wrong. It changes sign every two and a half days. If their Moon falls in your sign… well.

Your card reads your Moon.
The descendant · who you’re drawn to

Why do you keep falling for the same type?

That's your descendant, the edge of the seventh house: the sign setting in the west at your birth minute. Tradition reads it as the partner you keep noticing. It needs your birth time and place.

Your card reads your rising sign and your descendant.