Six of Wands & Leo Season (July 2026)

The Wild Unknown Tarot, by Kim Krans

Greetings Friends,

Happy Leo Season. This season is dear to me, not simply because of my Leo Sun + Mercury placements but also because my birth card is Strength, the card most associated with Leo (if you want to find your birth card, add up all the numbers in your birth date until you get to a single digit and see what card in the Major Arcana has that number). Leo Season is known for many things, but I think most importantly, it is a call to risk vulnerability by leading with the heart. 

The second decan of Leo (Aug 2-12) relates to the Six of Wands in the tarot, a card that signals we have overcome great adversity. If there were ever a card that gives us our flowers, it's this one. When Six of Wands appears in a reading, it is time to celebrate a victory that we worked hard to achieve and allow ourselves a moment in the sun.

In Kim Kran's evocative deck The Wild Unknown Tarot, we see a blue butterfly rising from darkness and debris. I pulled this card as a guide when I was diagnosed with leukemia in 2019. My diagnosis was poor, and except of this card, there wasn't much evidence I would survive. To this day, when I see a blue butterfly, on a poster or a work of art, it feels like a message from beyond, "keep going, allow transformation to take place."

Caterpillars dissolve completely before growing their wings. In fact, it is the friction from their old cells attacking their new "imaginal" ones that leads to the new cells proliferation. This initial battle tells us something about the transformation process- it's not easy, and some dying is required. Eventually though, the imaginal cells persevere, and while it may take time for their wings to dry, butterflies know innately how to use them.  

Leo Season is ruled by the Sun, a luminary known for it's warmth, radiance and creative power. It is the season when, despite our uncertainty or the newness of our wings, we are asked to rise up and take our place in the sun. Not because we're the best at flying but as evidence of the transformative power of the heart. 

with love and warmth,

Lisa