Zodiac signs and dates
The Sun passes through the 12 signs of the zodiac once a year. See the dates, element, modality and ruling planet of every sign, then open any birthday to see its sign, whether it is a cusp date and the constellation the Sun is in.
The 12 zodiac signs
| Sign | Dates | Element | Modality | Ruler |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | 21 March to 19 April | Fire | Cardinal | Mars |
| Taurus | 20 April to 20 May | Earth | Fixed | Venus |
| Gemini | 21 May to 21 June | Air | Mutable | Mercury |
| Cancer | 22 June to 22 July | Water | Cardinal | Moon |
| Leo | 23 July to 22 August | Fire | Fixed | Sun |
| Virgo | 23 August to 22 September | Earth | Mutable | Mercury |
| Libra | 23 September to 23 October | Air | Cardinal | Venus |
| Scorpio | 24 October to 21 November | Water | Fixed | Pluto |
| Sagittarius | 22 November to 21 December | Fire | Mutable | Jupiter |
| Capricorn | 22 December to 19 January | Earth | Cardinal | Saturn |
| Aquarius | 20 January to 18 February | Air | Fixed | Uranus |
| Pisces | 19 February to 20 March | Water | Mutable | Neptune |
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Your Moon and rising signs
Your Sun sign comes from your birth date alone. Your Moon sign and your rising sign also need your birth time and place.
Questions about the zodiac signs
The tropical zodiac is the one that Western astrology uses. It splits the path of the Sun into 12 equal parts of 30 degrees. The first part starts at the March equinox, so the signs follow the seasons and not the stars.
Each sign lasts about 30 days, and the Sun changes sign around the 20th or 21st of most months. The exact moment moves by a few hours every year. The dates on this page are the days on which the Sun spends most of the day in the sign, counted over the years 1950 to 2030 in the time zone of London.
A cusp date is a date on which the Sun changes sign in some years. A person born on a cusp date can have either sign, depending on the year and the hour of birth. 29 of the 366 birthdays are cusp dates.
No. The signs were named for the constellations about 2000 years ago. Since then the Earth's axis has wobbled slowly, which is called precession, and the stars have moved against the seasons. Today the Sun is in front of the stars of Pisces at the March equinox, which is the start of Aries.
The Sun passes in front of 13 constellations, and one of them, Ophiuchus, is not a sign. In 2026 the Sun is in front of Ophiuchus from 30 November to 18 December. Tropical astrology does not use it, because its signs are 12 equal parts of the year.