Are You Aligned with Your Star?

Leadership and Your Sun Sign

Leadership is an overused and often misunderstood word. For years, I couldn’t stand hearing people throw it around — leadership this, leadership that. I avoided using it myself and scoffed at anyone brandishing it like a badge.

That is, until I got involved with the Honors Program at the college where I was a professor of physics at the time — and suddenly had to create ways for students to fulfill the leadership component of their Honors curriculum.

What in the world does leadership even mean?

Back then, my idea of leadership was fuzzy and came mostly from Daoism and the I Ching: the wise person acts but does not take credit; you must learn to follow before you can lead; and other such insights that emphasize inner integrity over outer recognition. In those traditions, the superior person must first govern their own lesser tendencies before leadership can extend outward.

That model of leadership felt worlds apart from what I saw — in media, politics, business, and world affairs — where leadership appeared synonymous with aggression, ambition, and a permission slip to indulge the worst of human traits. It was less about wisdom and more about domination, often lacking any moral or spiritual compass. But I digress…

Redefining Leadership in Practice

Working with Honors students forced me to redefine leadership in practical, immediate ways. I began to see that true leadership isn’t about commanding others — it’s about taking responsibility, owning mistakes, and getting things done. Whether it’s for a task, a person, or a group, leadership starts when someone says, “I’ll take care of it.” Not “I’ll lead” or “I’ll be in charge,” but simply, “I’ll make sure this gets done.”

Once I saw leadership this way, designing meaningful activities for my students became much easier. Often, I didn’t have to assign anything — I just had to recognize what they were already doing: helping a peer, organizing an event, taking the lead in communicating with a professor, or researching opportunities for networking or research.

My understanding of leadership kept evolving and expanding. I reflected, meditated, and observed — watching examples of both strong and weak leadership all around me.

Your Sun and Authentic Leadership

Then one day, during an astrological coaching session completely unrelated to my academic job, it clicked: those who are in touch with their Sun energy are in touch with their most authentic leadership style.

The woman I was working with had been invited to take a higher organizational role in a local community group. But she hesitated. She described herself as someone who helps others grow into leadership — someone who offers mentorship, support, and resources. “The woman behind the woman,” she said.

Her friends didn’t understand, and their mix of encouragement and pressure to climb up the hierarchy made her doubt her own inner knowing — her Sun energy. But her Sun in Virgo made perfect sense to me and validated her common sense. She strongly identified (Sun) with service, discernment, and mentorship (Virgo), and was happy to hear that she wasn’t being a coward but was well aligned with the best expression of her authentic leadership style.

Your Sun sign isn’t necessarily what people see when they first meet you. That’s more influenced by your Ascendant. Your Midheaven shapes how you’re viewed in your career or community. The Moon may guide how you show up in family life or caregiving roles, and Mars — how strongly and passionately you go after a goal. But the Sun? That’s the core of your identity. It’s who you feel you are in your bones.

Study your Sun sign, because that’s where your leadership strength and style lie. If your Sun is in Leo, like mine, you might feel deeply aligned with dignity, courage, and inner nobility. I’ve been known to quote the Buddha on many occasions: “Better alone than with a fool.” There’s the strong Leo energy for you — I don’t suffer fools and am comfortable being alone if that means I follow my values. Of course, Leo’s occupational hazard is to be judgmental, and another, more sociable energy like Sagittarius or Libra would prefer to go along with the flow and accept people where they are.

What about my Sun-in-Virgo client? At its best, Virgo brings a grounded, practical kind of wisdom. It expresses itself through service, craft, and attention to detail — quietly getting the job done. Supporting others. Decluttering the mess. Organizing the spreadsheets. Bringing snacks to the meeting. You get the idea. She didn’t need to take the spotlight (Leo), give the orders (Aries), or transcend the world (Pisces). Her leadership style was about being of service. And it was exactly right for her.

In life, alignment matters more than the sign itself. There are no “better” or “worse” Sun signs — only energies we either express harmoniously or not. A Sun in Taurus can lead with grounded, natural, and intuitive wisdom. A Sun in Pisces might lead with compassion but will also bring the unwavering strength of spirit and inner knowing that all is well in our “Father’s Mansion.” Think of George Washington, whose Sun in Pisces didn’t stop him from leading the continental army. His inspired leadership style was very much in tune with that placement — quiet, enduring, and deeply rooted in a vision beyond self.

So if you can lead through any of the twelve Sun energies, the question becomes: how do you recognize leadership in yourself and others? Even more importantly: how do you become the leader you were meant to be?

The answer is: through alignment. When you’re aligned with your Sun energy, you’re strong in your convictions. Authentic. You aren’t easily swayed from your inner knowing. You have a clear sense of right and wrong — and what you simply won’t do because it isn’t right.

In everyday life, people may not even notice you until something critical happens. Then suddenly, all eyes turn to you. Because in times of crisis, people gravitate toward strength. They sense who is solid and seek reassurance that “this too shall pass.” Wait for a crisis, and it becomes easy to see who is aligned with their inner Sun.

Linking Energy to Astrology

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the energy that connects you to your deepest self is the chi (qi) of the Heart meridian. When that energy flows freely, no one can bend you against your will. Your eyes are clear. You remain calm even in the midst of chaos.

Because both astrology and TCM divide a whole into twelve parts, a correspondence arises through the numbers. TCM traces the daily flow of chi through twelve meridians — Lung 1, Large Intestine 2, Stomach 3, Spleen 4, and so on. Astrology divides the sky into twelve zodiac signs — Aries 1, Taurus 2, Gemini 3, Cancer 4, etc. This principle of numeric resonance allows the linking of the two: Aries resonates with Lung, Taurus with Large Intestine, Gemini with Stomach, and so on.

You can use this powerful correspondence to bring practical exercises to your astrological chart. Look up the sign where your Sun lies, find the corresponding TCM meridian, and harmonize that energy — either by visiting a practitioner for acupuncture or acupressure, or through your own practice of Qigong or Jin Shin Jyutsu. I use the latter, which is very similar to Reiki in its application, and have been practicing it for over a decade. I look up an energy from my chart and gently place my hands along the corresponding meridian. It’s fun, it’s easy, and — above all — it feels really good. If you already have a favorite energy practice, try it with this framework in mind. And be prepared to be amazed.

But even if you don’t have a preferred energy practice, you can still benefit tremendously from understanding your Sun energy. Just knowing how it expresses itself when balanced — and what to look for when it’s out of balance — gives you a significant edge in self-awareness. And self-awareness is already halfway to self-mastery.

Here’s another practical tip: pay attention to when the Moon passes through your Sun sign. Something interesting happens during those 2–3 days. You feel energized, ready to take on more responsibility, enthusiastic about life. Just don’t overdo it! One time, when the Moon was in my Sun sign, I overextended myself so much I fell sick. Ironically, I now have a little calendar reminder for my “Moon-in-Sun-sign” days: Don’t overdo it! Tomorrow is another day.

You can read Tatiana’s story about how she tracked the Moon in her chart for two years — and the surprising insights that came from that experiment — in her latest book, Effortless Reality.