Is this the most fun you’ve ever had?

Are Leo and Sagittarius compatible?

Leo and Sagittarius are a trine: both fire signs, one fixed and one mutable, four signs apart on the zodiac wheel. Astrologers have called the trine the most harmonious angle since Ptolemy. That is the Sun-sign answer, shared by everyone born under these signs. The personal answer sits in 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 Sagittarius 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 Sagittarius Fire · Mutable Nov 22 – Dec 21

△︎ Trine · 120°Fire + fire · fixed + mutableHarmonious, 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 Sagittarius share the element but not the mode.

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 Sagittarius and not at all with another. ²

Why do Leo and Sagittarius click?

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

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.

Sagittarius in love

Sagittarius loves the way it travels, in the old portrait: wide open, a little reckless, always up for one more adventure. Traditionally an Archer wants a partner who's also a co-pilot, and freedom inside the relationship, not outside it. Honest to a fault, the books say. Fence one in and it starts looking at the horizon.

Together

Fire with fire. Tradition hands you the same temperament twice: both want to go first, both talk louder when the other one does. Bonfire, or two matches racing each other to the end?

Fixed meets mutable, the rock and the river in the old reading. One holds still and the other flows around it.

Fire meets fire with a laugh on both sides. Leo wants a stage and Sagittarius wants a road, and tradition pictures them managing both: the road trip with the singalong and the detour to see the world's largest something. Generous, loud, and short on early nights.

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 commanding and obeying signs pairs signs that sit the same distance from an equinox and rise in the same time. The one in the summer half of the year commands; the one in the winter half obeys. In Robbins's notes to the Loeb translation, Leo commands and Sagittarius obeys. ¹
Classical2nd century CELeo and Sagittarius sit in the same one of Ptolemy's four triangles, the fire one, which he puts under the Sun by day and Jupiter by night. 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 Sagittarius is sign 9: four signs apart, 120°. Trines always share the same element and the same polarity, but not the same mode. Of the 78 possible sun-sign pairings, 12 are trines.
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 Sagittarius's in one of five (Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn or Aquarius). Which one is a matter of the year and the day.

If it’s this fun, why do you wonder about the long haul?

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 Sagittarius's Venus can only sit in Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn or Aquarius. Two people with the same sun sign can want completely different evenings.

Your card reads your Venus.
Mars · what you want

Why does it feel like they won’t commit?

That's Mars: desire, temper, the way you chase what you're after. It can sit in any of the twelve signs, so two Sagittarius 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.