Zodiac Signs

The zodiac sign is the focal point of every horoscope. It symbolizes our personality, our conscious self, and shows us our central concern. It reveals a great deal about our inner strengths and weaknesses and helps us recognize our path toward self-development and self-realization.

The zodiac sign is the sign in which the sun was located at the time of your birth. Therefore, you should definitely know the exact date—ideally, even the birth minute—to find out your own zodiac sign.

People often refer to it as the sun sign or the star sign. In all cases, however, they mean the very same sign. The Sun, of course, is actually a Star.

The Zodiac

In astrology, the celestial sphere is depicted as a circle, which is then divided into 12 segments of 30 degrees each, and each of these twelve segments is assigned a constellation (as they actually appear in the night sky). Since most of these are images of animals, we speak of the zodiac, i.e., twelve zodiac signs.

From the astrologer’s point of view—who considers the Earth as a fixed point—the sun travels through this zodiac within one year; its apparent path is also called the ecliptic. Its journey begins in the east with the zodiac sign Aries in the direction of Taurus and ends finally with Pisces.

A specific birth period is assigned to each zodiac sign, although this shifts a bit each year, and the actual deviations can be around +/- two days. Therefore, you should always check the actual zodiac sign in a zodiac sign calculator or in what are called ephemerides. This is due to the fact that in two different years, the Sun can fall into one sign or the next corresponding sign. There is no such thing really as being born on the "cusp."
This is often mistaken as a Pisces, for example, thinking they are born on a cusp will often have their Mercury and Venus in Aries and therefore think they have the Sun personality of both. That is why it is very important to know the time of birth. If you do not know, you can find an astrologer who deals with rectification to find your exact time of birth, which she will do by looking at important, often legal and contract-involved, events in your life.

What are the twelve zodiac signs?

The Three Modalities of the Zodiac Signs

Each zodiac sign is assigned certain qualities. These are cardinal , fixed , or mutable . You can read more about their meaning in our article Qualities of the Zodiac Signs.

The Four Elements of the Zodiac Signs

Additionally, each zodiac sign is associated with one of the four elements: Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius), Earth (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius), and Water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). Furthermore, six zodiac signs are attributed to the feminine and six to the masculine gender. Water and earth signs are considered feminine, while fire and air signs are considered masculine.

As you can see, different attributes are assigned to each zodiac sign, revealing a lot about a person’s character and continually pointing us to new facets. Engaging with your own zodiac sign can be very rewarding and can be a particularly valuable guide in times when you no longer know exactly which direction you want to take.

The Twelve Zodiac Signs