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?
I suffer from depression, but I don’t really notice it getting worse as the days get shorter. I have nothing in Leo.
I’m pretty sure I suffer from SAD. The worst time is the begining of the cold days, by end of summer. I get a shock from the change, the end of the days in the beach on the sun, and using more clothes and being at home in artificial light. Eventually i get used to it and slip into semi hibernation mode through winter, and then on spring I feel a burst of life coming back. It’s been getting more subtle in the past years. I try to get as much light as I can an be outside.
I have jupiter in leo… the sun is in house one, and I think that might have more to do with it, not sure though. You’re leo theory caught me off guard:
Me and my capricorn-cousin/ housemate, both have the sun in house 1 and we both get depressed in the winter. (though capricorns may tend to be depressed year long). She has nothing in leo.
I wouldn’t have imagined that leo had something to do with it, depression happens due to lack of fire, so I’d guess fire signs would be the less depressive ones.
All sources of light and heat are good anti-depressants. fireplaces.. candles. I don’t have a fireplace so i stare at a candle hehe. Colorful house is good, warm colours.
I’ve heard of those lights, people use them in england, i’ve heard. Never saw them here.
I’ve also heard a theory about myopia having a link with SAD. But I haven’t been able to find any info on that. Me and my cousin have myopia.
I answered that I don’t notice a mood change, because it’s not the lack of light that gets to me. It’s when I’m in a place where the amount of light doesn’t change very much with the seasons. I’m from northern Canada, where the difference in light between summer & winter is very dramatic and intense in both extremes, and I really find I miss that when I’m living futher south.
This doesn’t affect me because I work outside. Woot woot Northern Canada! Funny, Korellyn I was talking to another Northern friend last night as we went for a walk in the snow and we talked about how light the night is with the snow reflecting on the moon…
Oh, Saturn Leo.
Oh, and I don’t agree with the possiblities for Caps being depressed year long, though they are firmly rooted here on earth for the most part, and that can be depressing for anyone ;
Oh, and I meant the moon reflecting on the snow…
oh oh oh
I am extremely prone to depression and am fighting it all the time, but it is not affected by the presence or absence of daylight.
If anything, I can’t stand being in the sun for more than a very short while. I do best in the shade.
My Desc is at 2 degrees Leo, and my Uranus at 19.
Interesting… Viviana’s comment re: a link between depression and a lack of Fire… because my Uranus in Leo mentioned above ~is~ the only Fire in my chart.
And interestingly, sitting by a fire DOES absolutely perk me up and the thing I miss most about this house is not having a fireplace or woodstove. Next house: must have!
I also have strong Saturn and various saturnian aspects that I understand contribute to my struggle with the Black Dog…
I don’t have SAD as much here in Texas, because the sun does make an appearance on a regular basis, but in Northern Indiana, where the sky was gray for months on end, I was absolutely miserable and could have really used a light. Mars in Leo here and I feel a lot more powerful after a good sun soaking!
I get really depressed with a lack of beautiful things, and I think sunlight- all forms of fire and natural light, are beautiful…the most beautiful things ever.
Excuse me, normally I write more, but I just saw a guy outside with gorgeous green eyes, and I have to wash my hair and go find him again once I look decent, if he is to be found.
I don’t have leo in my chart.
I have a Leo (Moon/Jupiter/Mars) stellium and I hate winter. It is the season of dead and the lack of sunlight is already effecting my mood. I enjoy lounging in sunlight like a lizard, it is enough to make my day. I do not like the cold, it makes me self-concious of my skin, it makes my nose run and my face freeze.
I think I suffer from SAD. I have Leo Sun, Venus & Moon. Aargh.
I live in Northern Scotland with the long dark winters. Sigh….. When I lived in London, it helped a lot because the weather is similar but London is a huge city with bright lights and it never sleeps. That helped so much.
Now I live on a country road with no street lights. It’s the lack of light that gets me. I can handle any amount of cold and don’t really sunbathe but I need to see light.
Roll on spring….!
I really need sun. I definitely start to get a drop in mood around september and I don’t start feeling “right” until april. I like rain and cold, dark days, but I can only handle so much.
No leo whatsoever.
The shorter days of Winter didn’t really bug me much until I moved from the San Jose area up to Seattle. Yikes! The northern latitudes are bad enough, but the overcast is irksome. Last year’s 30 straight days of rain drove me up the wall.
My reaction to sunlight is weird. I’m a creature of the night, and constantly wear sunglasses when out and about during the day, but stick me outside on a nice sunny spring day and I’m so happy!
And yeah… Leo moon.
oh, funny you should talk about missing the sun.
start here:
and keep going to the present…
I have Mercury in Leo and never suffer depression for any reason…. although i live in Australia and it is only very rarely that we will go for more then a couple of days of cloudy sky… It was extremely hot here today and the sunshine is so strong it almost blinds you….
About capricorns and depression, saturn aspects maybe show to be alot more depressing than having planets in capricorn.. young capricorns may be depressed but get alot better with age. my cappy cousin is 23. If it weren’t for our sagitarius moons, we’d be poster childs for depression. hehehe
I’m pisces by the way. leo in jupiter and the sag moon are the only fire in my chart. and the moon represents something we lack, right? This is what I learned. So fire moons would need fire. Earth moons would need earth.. etc. Sag moons need orientation, need to learn the meaning of things, etc.
I’m elaborating on this because I don’t know if this is in astrology books, maybe my astrology teachers have thought this up. It didn’t make any sense to me at first, but now it does.
so here are my 2 cents on this 🙂
I’m off to get some sun, great day here today.
I don’t have Leo and my favorite place to live is in a basement apartment, but I do suffer from seasonal depression. I grew up in the desert and live in Georgia now. The temperature range isn’t drastically different but the amount of light is.
re: Viviana (18): “the moon represents something we lack”
I have Cancer Moon. Water. I live in my bathtub. You can tell when I’m *really* fighting the Black Dog (depression) — I can have as many as three baths a day — as long as two hours each! Also: bliss for me is being in a canoe on a small meandering river overhung with shade trees.
“the moon represents something we lack” (cont’d)
Hmm… Cancer Moon… the mothering principle… being nurtured and nurturing others… I have definitely lacked adequate mothering and nurturing and am no doubt always seeking it, also to mother and nurture others… I’m a definite ‘den mother’ and ‘mother hen’!
re: Viviana (18): “saturn aspects maybe show to be alot more depressing than having planets in capricorn..”
I have Saturn at 0.51 degree Capricorn, squaring my ‘core self stellium’ in Libra (Sun, North Node, Mars, Merc).
On good days that plays as being grown up and disciplined, businesslike and practical; other times fear and depression win over.
I’m a Leo Sun and I think you’re unto something. When I first came here from South America, I didn’t understand what was UP with it getting dark at around 4pm in the winter. I was a kid and my country is near the equator so the days were about the same length year-round; dusk always came at around 6.30pm. So, yes, the lack of sun definitely affects me. February is hell for me and does not feel like the shortest month at all.
Very interesting topic
I’m a Cancer born in the northen hemisphere
I also don’t like the short days at all… except around new year so i can go out
I think may be Cancers & Virgo do suffer from it also…
@ Viv (message 2)
Yeah i also lack in fire and air…
I’m a rather outgoing person, but when i’m alone i can be very depressed…
Most friends i have are very firey of airy persons, may be i’m searching out for what i lack
I don’t have anything in Leo (and only Neptune in Fire as the fire in my chart) and I suffer from SAD bigtime. But as soon as there is lots of light around me I certainly notice a big change in my energy levels.
My husband who has nothing in Leo (but has a very fiery chart) doesn’t suffer from SAD, but boy does he ever perk up when he hits a spot of sunlight. It’s like he’s just one big solar panel and he lies down to bask in it and drink it in.
I notice a bit of a mood change with the shortening days, but for me it’s more of an “oh goody! now I get to bundle up and cook and do crafty things and read!” sort of feeling. I’ve got nothing in Leo (which rules my 3rd house, btw).
Also, I’m a Capricorn, and I’m not depressed, and I don’t buy for a minute that one’s sun sign alone would be an indicator of emotional distress.
Stellium in leo and I left the darker Northeast for the warmth and sun of the southwest….ahhh…..I do like winter though. Just in small doses.
I have no Leo and I definitely am not a winter person. It depresses me…
hrmmm
Re: Strawberry Fields
“I have Cancer Moon. Water. I live in my bathtub. You can tell when I’m *really* fighting the Black Dog (depression) – I can have as many as three baths a day – as long as two hours each! Also: bliss for me is being in a canoe on a small meandering river overhung with shade trees.”
I totally understand this. I have a Pisces Moon and I love baths and showers, etc. I also will take many, many showers or baths to get out of a funk (if I can) having a baby around makes this more difficult to do (I miss being able to shower or bathe whenever I feel like it)…
Re: lack of fire/prone to depression…interesting, as the only thing I have in a fire sign is Chiron in Aries.
The thing that annoys me the most is that the MOST activity I do during the day is from 5 p.m. on, and I hate leaving work only for it to be full dark outside. I like afternoon light best of all to do things in, dangit. (Mars/Saturn in Leo, five fire planets in all)
I see there are quite a few non-Leo people that suffer from SAD here, so the theory needs some more checking or elaboration 🙂
However I have Leo Sun and Venus and my Leo Sun squares my Aries Saturn. I’m depressed and also have SAD – I call it hibernating because it’s pretty much the way it is for me… I also sleep with the lights on and I like them to be strong. I hate the winter, the dark and the cold – a textbook Leo tripled by Saturn prevention :-). I’m also very sensitive to the various degrees of sunlight, if it’s not strong enough it depresses me. I Sun bath whenever I can.
Regarding the Moon (#18, 20, 29) – I have a Cancer Moon and I don’t particularly like baths or feel lacking in the “water” qualities departmet. Maybe it’s because I have some other planets in Cancer. However most people won’t guess I have any water in my chart, I don’t seem like a water person. I think the Moon is our private self and it goes double for a water Moon since water do like their privacy. We don’t go out advertising our feelings, so we may not live our Moon enough, particularly if both your Sun and ascendant are in different elements than your Moon. I have a Leo Sun and a Sagittarius asc and the ruling Jupiter in Virgo – people get the impression of a rational type of Sag and are oblivious to my other sides unless they get very close to me – and being as watery as I am I like it this way :-). But then if we don’t express our Moon enough in our lives and don’t take care of its needs we might feel we are lacking or missing the qualities its sign represents – if you have a Cancer Moon you have Cancerian emotional needs and if you don’t express your Cancer and don’t address its needs you’ll sure miss being enveloped by tender reassuring warmth like you were in your mother’s womb – and a warm bath is as close as it gets. I have a good friend that has a Pisces Moon and he thinks he lacks imagination… This guy certainly doesn’t lack imagination, he just doesn’t live it out as much as he needs to having a Pisces Moon so he feels he’s lacking or missing something.
I’ve noticed the Leo/SAD connection as well, and nowhere stronger than in my own chart. I have my Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars all in Leo, and I suffer tremendously from SAD. It doesn’t help that I live in Ohio, which is cloudy a good half of the year. I have one of the lights, and while it does help, it’s no substitute for real sun. I hope to move to the desert soon and see how I feel there.
About the moon,
This theory comes from the physical fact that the moon is a dead body, with no light of it’s own, it’s reflects the sun and gravitates around it.
The sun being what we are, what we radiate generously (unless there’s some tense saturn aspects to out sun). So the theory goes, the sun is supposed to iluminate the moon (unconscient), and that is the process of illumination, or part of it at least.
What we are “illuminated” at, which is where our sun sign is, is supposed to illuminate the sign where our moon is. PEople with sun conjunt moon have a hard time doing this, because they’e not aware of the difference between one and the other.
For example, my whole closest familly has sun signs in all earth signs, except for Sag (sun and saturn) mom, and they all have water moons. I’m a water sign with fire moon and I felt like an alien growing up in this familly. And They all like water with their water moons, because they are not empathic or sensitive, or whatever qualities water suns have, they have a more vampiric need for water. It’s like they show the worst side of water.
I can totally relate to what strawberry said about cancer moons, my dad, my older sister, and her daughter have cancer moons, and I can say neither of them had a real mother or familly basis.
I didn’t either, thus moon conjunt neptune =Absent mother/parenting in general. But I guess my soul didn’t need familly in the same way as they do. I’ve been too independent in past lifes. (south node in house 1)
Another example, is my sag moon, I love sag women (who don’t have saturn in sag like my mom) the iradiate things that i need. I show the worst side of sag, the lack of tact, the need for truth, I don’t like to teach- even though i do, etc.
Debby, I really don’t know if the moon is that much of a gift like some of the other planets are. I used to think so too, because I love my moon, but this “version” makes sense to me too.
Leo Rising, Leo Mars
Don’t notice a change. Don’t really mind.
Debby (32) and Viviana (34):
Thank you for the further insights re: moon.
I’m on my way to the tub and needed some distraction (or better, food for thought!) to fight the Black Dog that’s been nipping at my heels the past week… and you have provided! 🙂 Thank you! xo
You’re welcome Strawberry Fields 🙂
Here are some tips on fighting the black dog, besides what has been mentioned already:
Be creative, paint, make a collage, play music, whatever comes easily or seems more interesting.
Eat nutricious food.
Do exercise. This is the hardest thing when we’re depressed I think. But even taking a walk in nature will help alot, it will make you breathe harder and get the blood flowing.
Be warm at all times. 🙂
I guess the point is to get as much on “fire” as you can.
Thanks Viv! My Cancer-Moon self is getting all weepy at your caring/nurturing…! Seriously. I’m gonna put a smiley face here 🙂 at the irony of this (you, your words, just what I needed) but I ~am~ choking back the tears… (but tears are good, it’s ok…)(the only reason I’m holding them back is so I can type this reply!!)… 🙂
“I guess the point is to get as much on “fire” as you can.”
You’re right about this. I just need to figure out how to do that. Lately, I manage to flint up an occasional spark, but it dies out almost instantly.
But I do have a Never Say Die streak in me, courtesy of other factors in my chart, so… the Fat Lady Hasn’t Sung Yet!!! 🙂
Thanks for being there. I appreciate what you bring to me.
P.S. — Fire… warmth… ~candles~ *have* been helping (for lack of a fireplace)… maybe I’m gonna go light up a WHOLE BUNCH… 🙂 Yes, that’s what I’m gonna do! 🙂
:):):) That sounds great Strawberry. *Warm Hug*
Oh my gosh… (sorry Elsa, me again! :-P)
I was just about to light up that WHOLE BUNCH OF CANDLES when it dawned on me… ruminating the various comments above, and other things you (Elsa) have said in the past about “Live your sun, satisfy your moon”… (and a book I was just now reading in the tub, about Moon signs)…
I saw it: the *TRIGGER* (to my current bout of depression)… a decision I made about a week ago…
I see it now: it was the decision to cut out ‘something’ from my life (temporarily).
That decision was made by my Sun, to favor my Sun. But it TOTALLY NUKED my Moon!! It left my Moon TOTALLY deprived. No wonder I ‘blacked out’. Everything went black right then and there, with that decision. Wow.
I need to put that ‘thing’ back in my life right this minute. Because that ‘thing’, it is THE most important ‘flame’ (fire) in my life — has ALWAYS been. (No wonder everything else just ‘petered out’.)
This is not the first time I make this mistake. I won’t make it again now that I *see* it. Wow.
Viviana, you are a gem.
Thank you Christine, that’s very nice of you 🙂 *bit embarassed*
i love long showers and baths, especially together with a girl friends
When i see or feel water, it just calms me down, makes me more relax…
(Cancer Sun, MArs & Mercury, Neptune opposition Sun, Pluto trine Sun, Pluto, Saturn & Sn in Water)…
The only fire in my chart is Mercury in Aries, 10th house; only air is Gemini NN in the 12th.
I’m with Ronda. I think I may have anti-SAD. This is my favorite time of the year, from the leaves turning and the darkness increasing and then creeping cold and snow… love it! I wish I lived where Sibs lives 😀
I love the darkness. Maybe I’m a vampire?
Too many days of rain, however, will get on my nerves – especially if other annoying things are going on as well.
“saturn aspects maybe show to be alot more depressing than having planets in capricorn..”
True and I have Saturn widely conjunct my Venus. But… I’m not depressed so much as melancholy or saturnine. And I can live with that.
Candles… which I just realized I have burning all the time. I love the light of candles in the darkness and usually only have those for light at night. I wish I could read by candle light because electric light is so jarring to me.
Teehee! I just realized my Cancer rising and Virgo stellium loves the frugality (really low electric bills) and my Pisces stellium loves the romance 😀
HCSQ, take the baby into the shower or bath with you.
I have Leo moon and enjoy an even (sub-tropical) climate in Australia – sunny days winter and summer. However I’m fair skinned, blue eyed and fair-haired so wear hat and sun-screen at all times outside. I enjoy the sun from my window and from the shade – to be in the actual sun is excruciating.
I’m a 4:28 Leo. Heck yeah, five months out of the year are livable. In Feb I went to Death Valley for a few days (I’m from WI), and I felt alive again. Till…I got back.
Actually, it would appear that summer births (including Sun in Leo) are more prone to SAD, and also SAD-related obesity, studies we covered in the news section of http://www.AstroCocktail.com over the last couple of years. Here are two of them:
General types of depression:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15491243&dopt=AbstractPlus
Obesity and depression:
influential venus in leo here, and looove the sun — but always thought it had to do with my scorpio moon — reptiles are sun worshippers — just give me a hot rock to sleep on in the bright sun & i’m a very happy person.
I definitely notice the difference between the way I feel on those Winter days when the sun shines and those times we get stuck in the fog for several days. An increasing sense of lethargy creeps over me the longer it’s grey. I spent one & only one winter in the Far North (same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska) . . . too damn dark in the winter and too damn light in the summer!) My Leo? Saturn/Pluto in the 9th.
Definitely no SAD here…no Leo here either, unless you count that it’s on my DC…I’ve often thought I would be happiest living in Iceland or Norway… 🙂 (But here I am in TX! *rolls eyes*)