People with Seasonal Affective Disorder get the winter blues. Deprived of sunlight, people see their mood drop and it stays that way until May or so when the days get longer.
I’m not prone to depression and I don’t have SAD but I do have Leo in my chart and people with Leo absolutely need to exposure to the sun.
I grew up in the desert so I never lacked sunshine but then I moved to Colorado. It’s was colder but very sunny so I didn’t notice anything until I spent a winter in a mountains living in a shack with northern exposure. It was eye-opening.
We shoveled the snow to keep the space in front of the shack clear. By February the snow around our home was more than twelve feet high. I realized we were living in shade… constantly.
This was a novelty to me at the time. But it did register because ever since I’ve insisted every home I live in face south! I don’t mind the winter and I don’t mind the snow but come February, which pretty much marks the end of winter in the desert, I start to get a little antsy.
Becoming aware I was sensitive to this, I bought one of those SAD lights for my home. I originally wrote this in 2006. I have used my SAD light to illuminate my workspace all day long, ever since! There is no doubt it spares me the blues.
If you have Leo in your chart and you’re feeling low as fall approaches, try opening the shades to let the sun in. If it’s especially severe, you may want to think about getting one of these lights because Leo has just got live in the light to thrive.
When I think of living in a north facing house in frigid mountains these days, I just cringe. Something is very wrong with that picture.
Do you suffer from SAD? Do you have Leo in your chart?
Not much Leo in my chart but I did indeed used to get winter blues. After changing my diet (no more meat, minimal sugar and gluten) and taking lots of vitamin D during the winter it’s all gone 😀
I have persistent depressive disorder that gets worse in the winter. No Leo on my chart other than my Midheaven and South Node. I have a lot of Capricorn though. I probably should start taking vitamin D to help alleviate the depression and do my cognitive journaling.
Well I have sun 24° Saturn 8° and midheaven 6°in leo. You made me go back to my childhood. the shift from summer to fall especially at the end of September makes me feel like darkness covered my heart and i shift quickly from being happy to being sad. To be more precise I feel like life is ending during fall and winter especially during sundown. I feel like losing joy. and I feel depressed if i sleep at the afternoon and I woke up at night. oh I hate such feeling believe me it’s hard. I always asked myself how could people be happy during winter.but the positive side is that I always have and excess of vit D.
Leo Rising here. No SAD (but then I live in sunny SoCal). I am happiest outside in the sunshine. With sunscreen of course.
Leo Ascendant conjunct Moon here. Definitely bothered by too many dark days or being stuck inside without enough sunshine. I’m in the Boston area and despite the cold in winter we usually get quite a lot of sunshine, fortunately. Last winter when we were stuck inside a lot with the pandemic I used to go sit on my bed in the afternoon where it gets direct sunlight. I was calling it “the sunroom”.
This is very interesting. I have Jupiter in Leo in the 9th house and lack of sun totally affects me. I am not prone to depression but when the sun is not shining, neither am I. Sunshine is such a mood booster for me. Having grown up in the northern hemisphere (Scandinavia) winter is the time when I hibernate as we had only about 6 hours of daylight around Christmas. Moving to Canada did not help much, but I feel the sun is stronger here.
I have mid Leo Sun, Pluto not far away in Leo, and Mercury at 0 degrees Virgo helping me communicate my frustration with SAD.