The 12 zodiac signs at a glance
- Twelve signs split the tropical zodiac into 30° each, anchored to the seasons, not the constellations.
- Each sign has a fixed element (fire, earth, air, water), a modality (cardinal, fixed, mutable) and a ruling planet.
- Dates shift by a day year to year because the Sun's ingress is an astronomical instant, not a calendar rule.
All twelve signs
| Sign | Glyph | Dates (approx.) | Element | Modality | Ruling planet | Symbol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | ♈ | Mar 21 – Apr 19 | Fire | Cardinal | Mars | Ram |
| Taurus | ♉ | Apr 20 – May 20 | Earth | Fixed | Venus | Bull |
| Gemini | ♊ | May 21 – Jun 20 | Air | Mutable | Mercury | Twins |
| Cancer | ♋ | Jun 21 – Jul 22 | Water | Cardinal | Moon | Crab |
| Leo | ♌ | Jul 23 – Aug 22 | Fire | Fixed | Sun | Lion |
| Virgo | ♍ | Aug 23 – Sep 22 | Earth | Mutable | Mercury | Maiden |
| Libra | ♎ | Sep 23 – Oct 22 | Air | Cardinal | Venus | Scales |
| Scorpio | ♏ | Oct 23 – Nov 21 | Water | Fixed | Mars (Pluto, modern) | Scorpion |
| Sagittarius | ♐ | Nov 22 – Dec 21 | Fire | Mutable | Jupiter | Archer |
| Capricorn | ♑ | Dec 22 – Jan 19 | Earth | Cardinal | Saturn | Sea-Goat |
| Aquarius | ♒ | Jan 20 – Feb 18 | Air | Fixed | Saturn (Uranus, modern) | Water Bearer |
| Pisces | ♓ | Feb 19 – Mar 20 | Water | Mutable | Jupiter (Neptune, modern) | Fishes |
How the four elements and three modalities map
The four elements repeat in the same order around the wheel: fire, earth, air, water, starting at Aries. Signs sharing an element sit 120° apart and form a triangle, called a trigon.
The three modalities also repeat - cardinal, fixed, mutable - starting at Aries. Cardinal signs open each season (Aries/spring, Cancer/summer, Libra/autumn, Capricorn/winter in the northern hemisphere), fixed signs hold its middle, and mutable signs transition out of it.
Because every sign has exactly one element and one modality, the pair is unique: there is only one cardinal-fire sign (Aries), one fixed-earth sign (Taurus), and so on.
Classical vs modern rulers
Before the outer planets were discovered, each of the seven classical planets ruled either one or two signs, with the Sun and Moon ruling one each. That scheme is still used in traditional and Hellenistic astrology.
Modern Western astrology reassigned Scorpio to Pluto, Aquarius to Uranus, and Pisces to Neptune after those planets were found (1781–1930). Both rulers are shown above so the table is usable in either tradition.
Exact Sun ingresses in 2026 (UTC) - where the date ranges above come from
| Sign | Sun enters | Time (UTC) |
|---|---|---|
| Aquarius | Jan 20 | 01:44 |
| Pisces | Feb 18 | 15:51 |
| Aries | Mar 20 | 14:45 |
| Taurus | Apr 20 | 01:39 |
| Gemini | May 21 | 00:37 |
| Cancer | Jun 21 | 08:25 |
| Leo | Jul 22 | 19:13 |
| Virgo | Aug 23 | 02:18 |
| Libra | Sep 23 | 00:05 |
| Scorpio | Oct 23 | 09:38 |
| Sagittarius | Nov 22 | 07:23 |
| Capricorn | Dec 21 | 20:50 |
Why sign dates shift by a day
Sign boundaries are not calendar rules. Each one is the instant the Sun's apparent ecliptic longitude reaches an exact multiple of 30°, and that instant lands about six hours later each year before a leap day pulls it back. A birthday on a cusp date can therefore fall in one sign one year and the next sign four years later, which is why any table of sign ranges printed as fixed dates is an approximation.