Regulus is one of the four royal stars, the others being Aldebaran, Fomalhaut and Antares. Each of the four royals is associated with a cardinal direction and marking the ancient solstices and equinoxes; and each of them indicates the potential for great eminence and success with its unique energy.
Each of the royal stars also connects to an archangel: Aldebaran with archangel Michael, Fomalhaut with archangel Gabriel, Antares with archangel Uriel, and Regulus with archangel Raphael. Though of course, archangels are not bound to one thing or star, and are always with you on your path.
I’ve previous written on the other three royals,
Aldebaran, When Michael Guides your Path
Antares, Heart of the Scorpion and the Mystery of the Stag
Each of the four stars has a particular elemental path and journey it moves through, and its ability to rise through the challenges is what will bring forth its true inner power. Aldebaran walks the path of thunder and integrity, Antares walks the path of lake, Fomalhaut walks the path of water.
Regulus walks the path of fire.
Regulus is the heart of the lion.
While many people may often speak of fame, fortune, status and leadership when they speak of Regulus, this royal star isn’t about the outer nobility, nor the crowns nor thrones – Regulus is about our inner nobility. It is about how we choose to walk our path, and the kind of person we choose to be.
What makes the heart of a lion are integrity, honour, courage, virtue, walking with purpose and awareness, and deep reverence for all those who came before him and all those he takes care of in his kingdom. The way this star truly rises and blesses you is when you walk the path of humility and true inner nobility. Otherwise, it’s all just a castle you’ll build with only sand.
Today I’ll guide you through a deeper understanding of this beautiful star, as well as its path of fire. Whether or not this touches your natal chart by conjunction, paran or transit, or you seek to deepen your knowledge in spiritual astrology, may this be enriching to you.
Fixed star Regulus, known as the heart of the lion, is the brightest star of the Leo Major constellation. In the Tropical zodiac, it is currently around the zero degree of Tropical Virgo. I say currently, because while fixed stars are called “fixed” they do still move, it’s just that they move very slowly as perceived from our perspective on earth, because they are suns very far away. Twenty years ago, Regulus was at the 29th degree of Tropical Leo, and in 2050, it’d be at around the 0.32 of Tropical Virgo. The orb degrees we use for Regulus are usually around 2 degrees.
With the movement from Leo to Virgo, Regulus now marks the path of the feminine initiation, a now lioness, not just a lion, a path of fire makes the soul of matter, a move towards inner wisdom and inner nobility of which new understanding may be born about what true leadership means and how it relates to service and sacred work.
While Regulus looks like a single bright star, it is actually comprised of four stars. The brigtest one, Regulus A, looks like a blue, egg shaped star; it is a large and blue star, which means it is much hotter than our Sun. The fainter ones are orange dwarf stars, so what this means is that they are cooler and smaller in comparison. You can learn more about the technical aspects of this and the astronomy on your own, if interested.
The spiritual symbolism of this is that Regulus isn’t about the “one”, it is about the four. Here we speak of leadership as a community and family, as togetherness and interdependence and interconnection. Indeed, Regulus deals with respect towards the ancestors – towards those who have built the thrones upon which we sit, those who have nurtured the soils and lands upon which we walk and live.
In Vedic astrology, Magha is the nakshatra or lunar mansion which is the personification of Regulus. Magha, as its essence, is about honouring the ancestors, and as Ketu ruled nakshatra, it is about the need for spiritual growth and self awareness.
The dharma of Regulus, and Magha, is essentially to lead not by pride and ego, but to lead with humility. It is about the recognition that the ancestors built our lands and thrones, and the lion must lead with humility.
Regulus is the brightest star of Leo Major, and above it is the constellation Leo Minor. So what guides us from above is the knowing and responsibility for those who will come after us, and how to build a better life and place where the next generations will thrive and be able to express themselves in their truth and creative self expression.
In other words: You become the “king” and heart of the lion only when you take care of the child of lion. The child of lion is symbolized and held by fixed stars Coxa and Zosma, of which I speak about further below and I’ve written on them in depth, but essentially, the child of lion is humanity and all wildlife, and having compassion for them all and protecting them.
Regulus is part of the ecliptic path, and that’s interesting is that this star never sets – so it can always be seen above our horizon, though its heliacal rising is known to be around the 23th of August.
Regulus is located along the ecliptic path, and because of this, it rises and sets with approximately the same degree of the zodiac. In other words, it has no phases and for all but polar latitudes it will rise and set every day, never appearing to not be seen above our horizon. Its true heliacal rising though is around the 22th or 23th of August.
Because of its ability to always be seen for us through our perspective on earth, it matters how we choose to walk under the gaze of this starry king. This is why spiritually, it is more about our inner nobility and spiritual sovereignty, and the kind of person we are when no one is watching, because we are seen only for our inner light and inner fire.
Here you can see Regulus located at the ecliptic, and we see how the heart of the lion is actually connected to the front paws of the lion, so it’s about our steps, how we walk and the kind of person we choose to be. Light steps, not overpowering, not domineering, aligned with integrity and compassion and awareness for all.
Regulus actually loves journeys and road trips and airplane trips also, and all travels we take that takes us not just farther out, but also further in. It also connects with pilgrimages, temples, and monasteries, and many Regulus natives often have something to do with religion or spiritual pursuits in some shape or form. It is generally recommended for them to support and respect all religions and contribute towards donations or charities to spiritual projects or people who offer spiritual services.
We often deepen in our Regulus knowledge when we begin a long journey towards an unknown place. Any voyage that is about returning us to ourselves and reminding us of our inner truth and inner light and true passions is a light of Regulus. Regulus loves us to explore not just the outer lands, but also the inner ones, and often, it marks our beginning towards something meaningful.
The heart of the lion desires us to return to our heart, return to love. We may often begin this path alone, getting up on a plane to go on an adventure in some unknown land or country we’ve never been in before; and then, step by step, a world opens for us, we see who we are in these situations, we meet people who may reflect to us various aspects of ourselves, and we get to know who we are – we remember who we are, we embrace and accept who we are, shadows and all. We may get obstacles, we may face weird situations, but we see who we are by how we respond.
We may hike up a mountain and also get to see just how strong we are by braving the cold winds and fears that arise within us. Whatever the situation or journey is, we brave it – we brave it by showing up for ourselves and saying yes to ourselves. We brave it by not being ashamed of who we are, and by stepping out of our comfort zone. We give ourselves permission to show up and shine and not dim our light and not doubt ourselves and our talents constantly. We accept our wholeness.
Like the other three royal stars, a person whose chart it affects can gain great success but only by facing a particular lesson. For Regulus, it is revenge. You may gain a great deal of success in your chosen field with Regulus, but only if you resist falling into vengeance, revenge, vindictiveness and resentment. If you do, then you may lose your power and standing within the community, and all your built may slip through your fingers like sand.
Regulus usually will always present an opportunity to rise in your life, but the higher this star takes you, the more you must guard against revenge and becoming resentful and vindictive. Regulus promises true success that is long lasting, but only if revenge is avoided and the native leads without ego, selfishness and arrogance, and remains humble.
And what is inner nobility? Inner nobility is essentially our intrinsic quality of character rooted in compassion, integrity, and self-awareness, rather than social status or material wealth. It is a spiritual and ethical state of being that manifests as a commitment to moral responsibility, kindness, and personal growth, acting as a guide for living a dignified, purposeful life. It is our ability and conscious choice to live from our truest self, tapping into a “seed of God” within, which makes our actions noble and inspired. It is a way of life which isn’t about the mundane existence, but rather it is about turning every day actions into a meaningful calling.
Regulus is about leading from the heart, self mastery and the courage to face personal shadows. It is about what kingdom are you building within you – who are you when no one is watching, what do you do when you hold the crown and have people who look up to you and depend on you. It is about honour and restoring people’s honour when they have been humiliated, robbed, shamed. It isn’t about you robbing them of their honour, it is about you restoring their honour and self confidence. This is a big part of the path of fire that Regulus offers in its wisdom.
The path of Regulus is determined by how we choose to walk it and what we choose to do with the influence or power we’ve been given – what does success mean, what is a leader?
To be a great leader one needs to be a great server, this constellation reminds of this. You see, the whole body of the lion represents humanity. The head is the leadership, the body where the tummy is, is the people – all those whose voices aren’t always heard, all people from all corners of the world, and all the vulnerable, all the women and children. It is the child of the lion. It is our compassion for all.
The heart of the lion is what holds and connects the head and the body. The heart of the lion holds the whole lion, the body of the lion, the child of the lion and the crown of the lion, it holds all people just as a leader is no good leader if he doesn’t take care of his people. I talked about the body of the lion in depth when I wrote about Fixed Star Zosma, the Forgotten Oracle and the Child of the Lion.
Regulus is about our path of fire. Fire is often seen as destructive, but it isn’t. It is a power that needs to be harnessed and mastered, for with power comes responsibility. But when mastered, fire becomes illuminating, inspiring, feeding us and keeping us warm. We can use fire to burn the house down, to burn others, but we can also nourish the fires of our hearth, warm us meals and warm and inspire people’s hearts.
We can use our fire for good in our own lives also – to get ourselves motivated, to be inspired and driven to live a meaningful life, to get to the gym and be healthy. We can use the fires of Regulus for inner purification and shed light on our inner shadows and transform.
These are the fires of Regulus – inner transformation, and elevation. Regulus, as its essence, is about elevation through the path of fire, once we seek within and rise beyond our shadows and materialistic or ego lower urges and motivations.
Fire here is something which illuminates and clarifies. Just as it can burn all to ash, it can also rise to light the minds of those who know how to harness its power – and this is what brings the heart of the lion. Fire can become the devoted passion to protect others, to be humble, to serve with mindfulness, meaning and purpose. To have the honour and inner nobility. To embody and illuminate our true essence and nature.
People often associate Regulus with public personas, or aligned to being rewarded in relationship to their public image, status, wealth – but Regulus is about the real rewards of alignment to our authenticity and dignity. Confidence here is about true confidence that rises from the courage of our true self and values.
Along the path of fire Regulus walks will be times when you may battle competitiveness, and perhaps even face some humiliation. In those times, it is about passing the test of seeking vengeance or revenge or falling into resentment. These are just tests to face whether you are truly mature and wise enough to be a leader, or to test your authenticity and inner nobility.
Once you master the inner fire, you will walk a path of being aligned to your innate powers, your authenticity, and this is when you become inspiring – because you seek the wellbeing of others also and choose to share with purpose, meaning and courage of heart.
Regulus’ light is diminished when we choose the petty things; its light is dimmed when we use our power for small minded ego things or petty ego battles.
Regulus seeks us to reflect on – what will my enlightened self do? What do I choose to gaze upon, which I seek to transform? What would I want to materialize? What fires do I choose to nurture?
Do I seek to use my fire to uplift others, raise them, encourage them, inspire them to be their true self and have more confidence? Or will I use my fire to burn them, make them ashamed or self doubt or criticize them or judge them? Do I desire to nurture people’s inner flames or make them feel bad about themselves and dim their inner fires?
Whenever it comes to Regulus, I often find people mainly focus on its extremes – they either over-focus on the fame, fortune, leadership, charisma and royalty, or they go to the other extreme of well, famous world leaders or presidents with this star who aren’t the most humble and compassionate, and abuse their power. These extremes make sense to me, because here we see archangel Raphael connected to Regulus – and he is an angel of healing. What healing means is essentially balance – putting into balance something that isn’t yet.
So what I would encourage people, and also astrologers, is to try to see the essence of things and remain neutral; don’t go into extremes and biases, and please don’t align stars to human beings. Regulus isn’t what’s going to make you famous, it isn’t going to make you do anything. You, as a human being, is what will make you who you choose to be. It’s not the fault of a star if you choose to walk a life with selfishness and greed and vengeance.
Regulus, as the watcher of the north, watches. Gazes with its fire eyes, and invites us to use fire for inner illumination and rising in inner nobility. What we choose to do is up to us. There’s a saying, “give someone money and power, and you’ll see who they truly are.” That’s exactly it. Here the truth will shine and illuminate. Eventually all truth comes out.
Who we are is mainly seen by how we respond and react to situations that aren’t very pleasant; when we hold the upper hand, what do we choose to do? How do we treat those who are in a vulnerable position, who are we and how do we speak to others when no one is watching. Regulus asks us to reflect on who we truly are, and how we choose to use the abundance we’ve been given – the wisdom, the resources, the influence, the voice. We can wear all shiny sparkles on our crown and sit on high thrones, but only a heart of purity, compassion and nobility is a heart of lion.
It’s because it deals with inner healing, which most people just don’t really do; and also, because it deals with one of the deepest shadows within our human nature: the hunger for power, status, influence, being the best of the best and the ego driven desire to be known by all, admired by all, known by the history as the best. These are very tempting desires and hungers. And above it all is the so-called nemesis of Regulus, which is revenge – and it is very difficult for us as human beings to resist this urge; it’s very difficult to resist becoming resentful, vindictive or move away from the old eye for an eye mentality. It’s very difficult to stay humble, and not want to “rule the world” or feed off of glory and admiration.
As I mentioned, Regulus doesn’t lose its visibility as a star, which basically means the native’s rise may be witnessed on the big stage, for all to see and admire and applause; but in the same big bright light, if one fails the tests and succumbs to the lower urges, the fall will too be seen by all, and it’s not a pretty one. There are plenty of examples of Regulus people who didn’t pass the test.
In my work with clients, I am happy to say I’ve had many Regulus natives who actually chose the higher path in life, and they’ve become now inspiring and compassionate leaders in their fields. They are now in their later 50s and 60s, and surely they’ve all walked the paths of fire, but they rose with grace, humility and wisdom. They’ve helped many along their way, and embody the heart of the lion in a beautiful and meaningful way.
Each of my writings on the four royals was inspired, just as all my other writings are inspired. For Antares, the inspiration was to infuse some light of clarity and wisdom on this star which was often villainized and misunderstood; for Aldebaran, it was Michael, and for Fomalhaut a creative precious little boy, who needed encouragement to follow his path of water and have faith in his dreams and creative self expression.
For Regulus, inspiration came to me a few days ago, when it called to my mind an experience I had over ten years ago. So I looked at the date when it all happened, and it was around the time when the Sun was conjunct Regulus at her heliacal rising. It was a time during which one day I had woken up and felt a deep calling to buy the first ticket to Europe – and this is how I landed in Zurich, Switzerland.
After over a long 20 hour journey, including airplanes and trains, having eaten just half a sandwich and no sleep, I found myself at the top of Mount Titlis in the Uri Alps, in the middle of summer in a snow storm. I never ever imagined that as a true summer girl who lives for seas and a beach, I’d spend even one hour in snow in summer.
But it was pure fire burning in my spirit longing to go there, and I didn’t even know why but I felt so called to climb that mountain, and as soon as I was there, and my hands were freezing, all I remember was pure happiness, pure freedom! It felt like a complete new beginning, and being able to have done that, to push myself so hard, reminded me of my courage and strength and free spirit longing to be its true self!
The snow storm hit just twenty minutes later, and I couldn’t see the horizons anymore, so the photo you are seeing above is literally one of the few before the storm hit. And then all became white, freezing and unclear, but my god, it was all already so clear for me inside of myself. Perhaps coincidence, but Mount Titlis’ name is actually Engelberg, which translates to Angel Mountain, so it’s often called the Mountain of Angels. My trip there happened a week before Regulus’ heliacal rising, and on the actual rising, I was already in the southern Greek islands being a bridesmaid – dancing and having lots and lots of fun!
My life changed after that. Not because of Regulus, not because of the Swiss Alps, it changed because it had already been changing in the years prior and I chose yes, again, and stepped upon my true life’s path and soul’s calling. A calling like that is undeniable. It is going to pull you and you have no other way than to say yes. Because it’s like you can’t do anything else. Once you become really honest and authentic, once the outer layers have peeled off of the false identities or people pleasings or societal expectations and conditionings, you just can’t be anything or anyone other than who you truly are. Your body will rebel against you doing something that isn’t authentic to you.
Once you know truth, you can’t unknow it. And I mean the truth of you, your inner you, your inner flame. It begins to burn and your whole body burns with passion and life and knowing and joy that you are yourself. No storms and winter winds can change that fire in your eyes, the way I smiled on top of that mountain with all white around me as the storm hit, and my hands were red, freezing, but my god it feels so good to feel yourself so free.
I don’t have Regulus conjunct any of my natal planets, I don’t have it in parans, but I know the heart of the lion. I know the paths of fire and the courage of our soul and the courage the passion of our heart gives us. We all have all within us, all stars somewhere within us deep into the natal houses and more subtle layers of our inner constellations. We all have all water, fire, winds and soil and the ethereal.
You don’t need to have Regulus to know fire and the heart of the lion, sometimes you just need to go out there, feel the wind in your hair, and choose to go the way your soul and heart calls you. Of course you’ll still have moments of self doubt and fears, we all do, I still do, but that’s just part of life. That’s part of the path of the lion. But he keeps walking. You keep walking. We keep walking.
So walk bravely, dear ones, step lightly and gracefully, and never ever dim your shine. Now is the time to be your true self, and express your unique creativity, the world needs the real ones.
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Cover art is Una and the Lion by Briton Rivière.
