Zodiac sign

Leo

Leo is fixed fire: warmth held at the centre, made visible through courage, play, performance, loyalty, and the desire to create from the heart.

4 correspondences · 1 with an ancient or scriptural source · 0 with no source located · Leo in full

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The oldest attribution here is Counts of 12, first attested 100 CE.

Counts of

  • 12

    Traditional
    Who says so
    Sefer Yetzirah's counting (2nd–6th century CE (contested))
    Earliest verified attestation
    100 CE
    Ancient or scriptural source
    Attested
    Evidence
    The source states it

    Sefer Yetzirah forms the Twelve Simple letters into the twelve constellations. WHICH letter goes with which sign is a separate question this row does not answer.

    Evidence

    1. Rabbi Akiva (traditional attribution); older versions attributed to Abraham, Sefer Yetzirah, 2nd–6th century CE (contested) — 5:2

      Sacred primary · originates · Westcott translation, 3rd edition, 1911 (first published 1887)

      These Twelve Simple Letters He designed, and combined, and formed with them the Twelve celestial constellations of the Zodiac

      The book forms the twelve into the Zodiac; the letter-to-sign key is contested and is not asserted here.

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Sign rulership

  • Sun

    Canonical
    Who says so
    Not yet attributed to a school
    Earliest verified attestation
    130 CE
    Ancient or scriptural source
    Not yet investigated
    Evidence
    The source states it

    Ptolemy assigns the houses of the planets outward from the two luminaries: the Sun takes Leo and the Moon takes Cancer, and the five remaining planets take two signs each, one on either side, in order of distance. The luminaries take one sign each; only they do.

    Evidence

    1. Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, second century CE — Book I, chapter 17: Of the Houses of the Several Planets

      · Loeb Classical Library edition

      The chapter that sets out the whole scheme. Ptolemy argues it from the relation of each planet's orbit to the solstitial signs rather than presenting it as received tradition.

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    2. William Lilly, Christian Astrology, 1647 — Book I, chapters XI–XVII

      Lilly, writing in 1647, still works with exactly seven planets and Ptolemy's houses. He is cited here to establish where the older system ends, not for a modern meaning.

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Plant

  • Sowbread

    Traditional
    Who says so
    Agrippan occult philosophy (1509–1533)
    Earliest verified attestation
    1509 CE
    Ancient or scriptural source
    Not yet investigated
    Evidence
    The source states it

    Agrippa gives this as Apuleius's distribution, not as his own.

    Evidence

    1. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1509–1510, revised through 1533 — Book I, ch. XXXII

      Esoteric primary · repeats · London: Gregory Moule, 1651

      to Leo Sowbread

      What things are under the Signes, the fixed Stars, and their Images.

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Attribution of

  • Strength

    Traditional
    Who says so
    Not yet attributed to a school
    Earliest verified attestation
    1888 CE
    Ancient or scriptural source
    Not yet investigated

    Book T's attribution carried by the Hebrew letter and therefore by this path.

    Evidence

    1. Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (primarily); Harriet Felkin (later material), Book T, c. 1888 — The Twenty-Two Keys of the Book, pp. 5–7

      · Mathers, c. 1888 (Golden Dawn internal)

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    2. Aleister Crowley, 777, 1907–1909 — Table I, astrological and Tarot columns, row 19

      · First edition, 1909 (anonymous)

      Read the source