Zodiac sign dates
Every star sign's date range in one place — and what "born on the cusp" really means.
The zodiac is not a scatter of twelve personalities. It is a calendar drawn on the sky. The Sun moves a little under a degree a day, so it spends roughly a month in each sign before crossing into the next, and your Sun sign is simply the season the Sun was moving through on the day you were born.
Because these dates are tied to the turning of the year rather than to the fixed stars — the tropical zodiac, anchored to the spring equinox — they hold steady from one year to the next, give or take about a day at each edge.
The twelve signs and their dates
| Sign | Symbol | Dates | Element | Ruling planet | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Aries | The Ram | March 21 – April 19 | Fire | Mars | | Taurus | The Bull | April 20 – May 20 | Earth | Venus | | Gemini | The Twins | May 21 – June 20 | Air | Mercury | | Cancer | The Crab | June 21 – July 22 | Water | Moon | | Leo | The Lion | July 23 – August 22 | Fire | Sun | | Virgo | The Maiden | August 23 – September 22 | Earth | Mercury | | Libra | The Scales | September 23 – October 22 | Air | Venus | | Scorpio | The Scorpion | October 23 – November 21 | Water | Mars (Pluto) | | Sagittarius | The Archer | November 22 – December 21 | Fire | Jupiter | | Capricorn | The Sea-Goat | December 22 – January 19 | Earth | Saturn | | Aquarius | The Water-Bearer | January 20 – February 18 | Air | Saturn (Uranus) | | Pisces | The Fishes | February 19 – March 20 | Water | Jupiter (Neptune) |
The dates above are the ones almanacs have kept for generations, and for most people they settle the question at a glance. The three outer planets in brackets are the modern rulers, discovered after the tradition was set; each sign kept its older ruler alongside.
Born on the cusp
If your birthday falls on the day one sign gives way to the next — the twenty-second, the twenty-third, the last day of a month — you may have been told you were born on the cusp. It is worth understanding plainly.
The boundary between two signs is not fixed to a calendar date. It drifts by about a day from year to year, because the Sun's circuit and our calendar do not divide into even parts. So a table like the one above can only give the usual edges. In a particular year the Sun might change signs a day early or a day late.
There is no genuine half-and-half. At the minute you were born the Sun stood in one sign, whole, and the only way to know which is your exact birth date, time, and place read against the Sun's real position. A birth chart does not round to the nearest day the way a table must — it settles a cusp birthday for good.
Every month, sign by sign
Each month carries the tail of one sign and the start of another. These are the usual switch-points; in your own birth year they may sit a day to either side.
January
Capricorn holds through the 19th, then Aquarius begins.
February
Aquarius runs to the 18th, and Pisces carries the month out.
March
Pisces holds until the 20th, then Aries opens both the zodiac and the spring.
April
Aries runs to the 19th, then Taurus takes over.
May
Taurus holds through the 20th, then Gemini begins.
June
Gemini runs to the 20th, and Cancer starts at the solstice.
July
Cancer holds until the 22nd, then Leo begins.
August
Leo runs to the 22nd, then Virgo carries the month out.
September
Virgo holds through the 22nd, then Libra opens the autumn.
October
Libra runs to the 22nd, then Scorpio begins.
November
Scorpio holds until the 21st, then Sagittarius takes over.
December
Sagittarius runs to the 21st, then Capricorn begins at the solstice.
The Sun sign is the doorway, not the whole house
Your Sun sign is real, but it is one of three pillars, and on its own it tells about a third of the story. The Sun is the self you live from, the Moon is the inner life you feel with, and the Rising is the face you meet the world through. Our primer on Sun, Moon and Rising walks through the other two.
To meet each sign as a full character rather than a date range, the zodiac signs guide takes them one at a time. And when you are ready to see past the doorway — your Sun sign is one of dozens of placements — you can see your whole chart, the entire sky of your first moment laid out plainly.