Everything you need to know about the Total Eclipse in Leo on the 12th August 2026
A month from now I’ll be in Ibiza ready to watch the total solar eclipse on the 12th of August.
The Leo Sun is HOT and BRIGHT. ☀️
Leo rules party season; a snooze on the beach , siesta, put your frock on and enjoy the evening. It’s a stark contrast when that red hot summer Sun is SMOTHERED by the Moon.
Symbolically, this is the life force being taken from a vibrant young spirit and it’s far more confronting.
Bonnie Tyler died recently, she had Pluto at 17º Leo. Famously she sang “total eclipse of the heart.” In medical astrology the heart is ruled by the Sun and the sign of Leo. There’s something in this synchronicity. It tells us eclipse season is coming and that it’s a total eclipse of your heart.
QUESTIONS:
If your heart is eclipsed and decided to orient your life differently, what would change?
who will you buy flowers for?
what will you do for work?
how much time will you spend with people?
what will your children need from you?
what creative project will you get on with?
how will you align your vocation?
how will you treat the people you meet in the supermarket?
will you swat all the flies, or deter them?
would you be vegetarian?
what would you life look like if you cultivated more LOVE and reset your heart?
how will you LEAD your life?
how would you communicate boundaries?
how brave will you be about saying what you want and what you mean?
will you try and control people around you more or will you take control of your own actions?
The Eclipse Path
Greenland was my watch point of choice but I’m told it could be cloudy. 🐋
I had a dream that I’d be watching it on a boat and whales would come and circle the boat (I hope that’s someone’s experience!)
I’ll be in Ibiza, on a boat.
Less whales, I expect!
Eclipses
Eclipses are the best predictive tool in astrology. I love a bit of “ooo Jupiter’s on your Sun,” BUT an eclipse to your Sun = something is going to change!!
Sometimes transits = internal psychological processes, with eclipses it’s more likely to be 💥BANG, your life is changing.
FUN FACT: did you know that moon phases repeat every 19 years? The New Moon in Leo 12th of August 2026 also occurred in 2007 and 1988.
However, the Nodal Cycle has an 18.6 year cycle so there’s a slight shift in when a New Moon = an Eclipse. These two things have to be lined up for an eclipse to occur.
Here are all the 2026 - 2028 Leo and Aquarius eclipse dates:
17th Feb 2026 - Annular Solar Eclipse at the North Node - 28º 50’ Aquarius
12th August 2026 - Total Solar Eclipse at the South Node - 20º 02’ Leo
6th Feb 2027 - Annular Solar Eclipse at the North Node - 17º 38’ Aquarius
2nd August 2027 - Total Solar Eclipse at the South Node - 9º 5’ Leo
17th August 2027 - Penumbral Lunar Eclipse at the North Node - 24º 12’ Aquarius
26th January 2028 - Annular Solar Eclipse at the North Node - 6º Aquarius 11’
(If you have any planets on or around the degrees mentioned in the fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, then expect MOVEMENT.)
The Eclipse in February coincided with the Saturn Neptune conjunction and if you don't remember it, I’ll remind you. Everyone was VERY TIRED and upset about Epstein files and Trump going whole hog against Iran. I wrote this article called it’s always darkest before the dawn.
The eclipses will EXCITE and agitate a part of your chart, if you don’t know which, here’s a free workbook:
Solar Eclipse in Leo at the South Node
12th August 2026 - 20º 02’ Leo
Ace of Diamonds
King of Pentacles / The World
When I read charts I look at the playing cards, pull a tarot card to get an overall theme and then breakdown the astrology. This is what I do in my moon journal CYCLES and I’ve already looked at every lunation for 2027!
The South Node
The South Node is casually known as the ‘cosmic dustbin’ it’s where karmic baggage is dumped and where we release old and outdated stories. It’s always a bit odd to have a New Moon at the South Node - there’s something contradictory about it.
To have a new beginning that’s more obviously, an ending.
When we have a New Moon (eclipse) at the North Node it’s all go! 🔥 This is your chance to BEGIN AGAIN! But this South Node eclipse in Leo is very much a total eclipse of the heart. Something must cease, end and STOP. Pause and let the dust settle.
Leo is such a CLEAR and strong energy because normally when we look at charts we look at the dispositor.
What I mean is; I have the Sun in Sagittarius… so you take that information and think OK, where’s JUPITER, the ruler of Sagittarius, then? In my case I have Jupiter in Capricorn and you can understand that my Sagittarius dreams are professionally aligned. The information is spread out. A chart reader has a few avenues to explore.
But when the Sun is in Leo you just have the Sun in Leo to look at; LAZER FOCUS. ☀️
Which part of your chart is being eclipsed?
What was going on for you the last time we had eclipses across the Leo and Aquarius axis?
10–11 Feb 2017 — Lunar eclipse, 22° Leo
7 Aug 2017 — Lunar eclipse, 15° Aquarius
21 Aug 2017 — Total solar eclipse, 28° Leo (the “Great American Eclipse”)
31 Jan 2018 — Total lunar eclipse, 11° Leo
15 Feb 2018 — Solar eclipse, 27° Aquarius
27 Jul 2018 — Total lunar eclipse, 4° Aquarius
11 Aug 2018 — Solar eclipse, 18° Leo
21 Jan 2019 — Total lunar eclipse, 0° Leo (the closing act)
1 Aug 2008 — Total solar eclipse, 9° Leo
16 Aug 2008 — Lunar eclipse, 24° Aquarius
26 Jan 2009 — Annular solar eclipse, 6° Aquarius
9 Feb 2009 — Lunar eclipse, 20° Leo
6 Aug 2009 — Lunar eclipse, 13° Aquarius
8 Aug 1998 — Lunar eclipse, 15° Aquarius
22 Aug 1998 — Annular solar eclipse, 28° Leo
31 Jan 1999 — Lunar eclipse, 11° Leo
16 Feb 1999 — Annular solar eclipse, 27° Aquarius
28 Jul 1999 — Lunar eclipse, 4° Aquarius
11 Aug 1999 — Total solar eclipse, 18° Leo (the big one over Europe)
21 Jan 2000 — Total lunar eclipse, 0° Leo
5 Feb 2000 — Solar eclipse, 16° Aquarius
It’s a real mixed bag for me (I’ve just looked through my photos.)
I’d say the top line feedback is - somethings are unavoidable. Life will do what it always does. When I was in London trying to enjoy things that I clearly hated (going to shows etc) I can see in my eyes that I was trying to make the most of life, but I was compromising. I was living a life that didn’t make me feel alive. I was in the wrong place, I was away from the people I loved the most. I was living a life that had been SOLD to me, not one that made me feel alive.
Working in the mountains in 2017 was one of the best weeks of my life. I was also working in the mountains working in 2009. Ecstatic with all those NEW people and experiences. My Aquarius Mars was happy.
On the 14th August 1999 my grandfather died.
August 2018 I was at a festival alone, but that’s where I met Ann-Louise who told me about my medical astrology teacher, a fated encounter linked to my Mars-Saturn square being eclipsed. Sometimes that’s how it goes, aligned timing.
Look for the themes!!
I’m happiest when I’m working abroad and in general, with the aforementioned Jupiter in Capricorn, I feel the most ALIVE and excited when I’m making things happen. Don’t let those Leo’s tell you that having fun and going back to your inner child is the only way to find joy. It isn’t. Your chart shows you where the joy is.
August 2026 - Chart Analysis
The King of Pentacles and the Ace of Diamonds are great cards for this Eclipse. It says to me, work on your business, take better care of your finances, pursue your ideas, believe in yourself.
The King is such a REGAL, Leo symbol and the Ace of Diamonds is the card of the business-bro entrepreneur. Ace of Diamonds people are awesome at having clear ideas and working towards them.
This makes me think that we will do rituals and have focus sessions on purpose, business ideas, and do some group brainstorming on our legacy. A group of women talking about how to be the KING in their life,
“People telling porkies.”
Why is that line in my head? LOL.
I was just day dreaming waiting for the chart image to upload and the line ‘people telling porkies” was looping in my head.
Mercury is at 5º of Leo and Uranus is at 5º of Gemini. Also, Venus is at 5º of Libra and Neptune is opposite at 4º of Aries.
EMBELLISHED WORDS.
There’s something in this eclipse that draws our attention to where we embellish what we say and do. Mercury is EXAGGERATED by Jupiter and here we have the image of the raconteur. The person who calls you to talk about themselves for 30 minutes and then puts the phone down without realising they didn’t ask you a single question. Ace-like behaviour. King-like behaviour. A little bit of a prima donna too!
With Mercury opposing Pluto in Aquarius you’d better start telling the truth but with Venus opposing Neptune there’s a temptation to romanticise everything. The spectacles are heavily rose tinted.
BTW “Porky” is Cockney rhyming slang, a porky pie, lie.
The eclipse helps us to GET REAL. The North Node in Aquarius also helps with us getting REAL.
Leo, Libra and Neptune like to “glitter a turd.”
Aquarius prefers to say it straight, less there be any confusion.
Mercury in Leo wants to send you 100 cat reels to say “I love you”. Pluto in Aquarius deletes your apps.
Question is - where is life’s colour distracting you from your truth?
Is social media with pictures of other people on fabulous holidays, with families that actually get on and people who have had hair transplants or hair extensions looking oh so fiiiiine leaving you feel less than?
Leo is BRILLIANT at marketing.
People who are good at marketing generally have placements in Gemini, Leo and Libra because they know how to communicate what looks good and make it seem better than something else.
However, this is a South Node eclipse and all of a sudden those clever adverts look outdated and not very enticing.
This Eclipse is for connecting to YOUR HEART, your passion and YOUR JOY.
This actually brings me back to my observations above. Working in the mountains when I was 33 seemed pretty tragic, but I LOVED it. I was so happy. Laughing all day. It was much more fun than going to a show in London Town. For me, work is more fun than fun because I have so many placements in Capricorn. I’m happier sitting here, alone, writing all this than I would be sitting in a pub getting bored shitless by people telling me things they’ve defo already told me at least three times.
On the flip side this New Moon, Solar Eclipse in Leo is when you map out your big plan. Your story. The big pitch. Your big vision.
It’s for saying this is what I want and the way I want it » but what has to end and go is all the OUTSIDE influence.
We are like slowly boiled frogs. The way we are marketed to at every single corner means that our brains have been adjusted and influenced.
I think this Mercury Pluto opposition with all the other planets feeding into it is a reminder that SOCIAL MEDIA, algorithms, your phone tracking everything you say and all the rest of it are turning our lives into ONE BIG COMMODITY.
FOMO is leveraged on every corner.
The trend for a “flawless’ face is insane and our DESIRES have been INFILTRATED because we are consumers in a world we are supposed to CREATE in.
Where childhood boredom used to involved pens and pencils (if you were lucky!) It’s now screens and endless YouTube. By the same token, our total lack of boredom means we scroll and scroll and scroll.
This leads me to Mars at 0º Cancer.
Because Cancer cares, just look at Jude Bellingham and is big Viking mate. They are peak Sun in Cancer boys, Jude has Saturn in Cancer too.
They CARE - they go beyond being stars and wanting what they want.
All the marketing, all the embellishments, all the narcissism is preventing us from caring about other people and driving us further and further into a blackhole of appearances (Leo) and fitting in (shadow Aquarius.)
Mars at 0º Cancer is the gift that takes us HOME.
Home to God?
Home to love?
Home to care?
Home to a nest where we build our lives?
This eclipse is a call back to unique identity, to the gifts of your soul and for living a life that means something to you.
Go beyond the NOISE.
Back to your heart!
I’m ROOTING for you to set your life on fire with love and affection!