Rasis are spatial divisions in the sky/ether where the energies of the Grahas (that which seizes, planet) either thrive or contrive according to their relationship with the inherent workings of that division. An understanding of this phenomenon can reveal to us the power of consciously or voluntarily illuminating, via contemplation and articulation, the matters of the unconscious symbolic world, a world made up of actions and not things. It is the lucidity of zodiacal symbolism, deeply engrained in our collective unconscious which prefers to communicate in images (maybe because it is older than language itself), that helps us derive meaning in a world where actions speak louder than things, where deeds are more crucial than possessions.

I am reminded of the Latin adage, “Omnia in numeris sita sunt” means: “Everything lies veiled in numbers.” Astrology and its constituents; the zodiac signs and the planets, in essence, are numbers that have been given names, words, images, and symbols by the ancients for the purpose of comprehensibility of this complex subject to our language and image-oriented minds. Therefore, we could say that an understanding of this sacred science could unravel the nature and fabric of existence and therefore its meaning, in the most mathematical manner possible.

Now, we may begin deriving meaning from the seemingly abstract world of zodiacal symbolism. As the cub leaves the mother’s protection, grows a mane, learns to roar, protect and fight for his land, he encounters the Self. The freshly arrived self-awareness about one’s role in the pride brings a sense of power and along with it responsibility. To not just be, but also to become is what the Being is required to do in the magnificent sign of the Lion called the Leo, or Simha Rasi. In the ancient times, initiation rituals were given fair amounts of importance and rightly so, they were symbolic of the beginning of a new phase of life. These rituals can be seen as a transition from the rhythmic, traditional, emotional Cancer to the courageous, heroic, proud Leo. The journey from rising above one’s own emotional needs to become capable of serving everyone else’s is a heroic one. The tribes-boy in ancient rituals and ceremonies was introduced to the ways of the tribesmen, and therefore, mark the culmination of boyhood and beginning of manhood. In Leo, the realization of one’s role in the tribe of humanity gets illuminated, and we must say that such is the rule of honor. The movie “The Lion King” depicts this journey wonderfully, and if carefully observed and analyzed reveals too much about this Zodiac Sign. Leo is where the roar of the heart resides. The need to have one’s own solar system with a prince (Mercury), a wife and advisors (Venus), an army (Mars), a priest (Jupiter), workmen (Saturn), a kingdom, a legacy, and therefore, to be remembered after the inevitable dimming of the light of the glory days arrive. All things five, the number, the house, the rasi, contain the energy of Leo and its ruler, the Sun, things such as inspiration, insight, intuition, instincts, intrinsic, intelligence, innate, inherent, all those Sattvic unconscious sources of divine intervention, governing the Sookshma (subtle) aspects of the material world reside here. The number five is where the journey to create embarks, this can vary from something as gross as creating an offspring to something as su