Wondering why it’s so hard with them?

Are Leo and Scorpio compatible?

Leo and Scorpio are a square: fire and water, both fixed, three signs apart on the zodiac wheel. Since Ptolemy, astrologers have counted the square as a hard aspect, the angle of friction. But that compares two Suns and nothing else. Venus, Mars, the Moon and the descendant decide how it actually feels.

You're here because of someone.

The Sun signs say friction. 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 Scorpio 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 Scorpio Water · Fixed Oct 24 – Nov 21

□︎ Square · 90°Fire + water · both fixedA hard aspect, since Ptolemy

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 Scorpio share the mode but not the element: two fixed signs, one fire, one water.

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 Scorpio and not at all with another. ²

Why do Leo and Scorpio clash?

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

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.

Scorpio in love

Scorpio, in the old portrait, loves privately and all the way down. Slow to trust, said to test before it commits, and loyal once it does. The books give Scorpio a long memory, for kindness and for slights, and no patience for anything shallow. For a Scorpio, small talk is a doorway, never the room.

Together

Fire and water. Astrologers have argued about this pair for two thousand years. Fire says it out loud; water feels it first and says it later, if at all. Steam, or smoke?

Both fixed, the most stubborn pairing on the wheel by reputation. Loyal to the bone, the pair of you, and neither one keen to blink first.

Leo wants to be seen. Scorpio wants to see straight through you. Both are fixed signs, so there's chemistry by the bucket and not much backing down: this is the pairing that starts arguments at dinner parties and ends them in the kitchen.

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 files Leo and Scorpio together as solid signs: the signs in the settled middle of a season. ¹
Classical2nd century CEPtolemy's chapter on the planets' houses puts Leo under the Sun and Scorpio under Mars. 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 Scorpio is sign 8: three signs apart, 90°. Squares always share the same mode, never the same element or polarity. Of the 78 possible sun-sign pairings, 12 are squares.
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 Scorpio's in one of five (Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius or Capricorn). Which one is a matter of the year and the day.

Why is it like this with them?

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

Your card reads your Venus.
Mars · what you want

Why do you two fight about the same thing every time?

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