The 12 zodiac signs

By Maren Tremblay, Fatesight editor · Last updated October 25, 2026

Find your Sun sign by your birthday, then read what it tends to bring to love, work and growth.

• AriesMarch 21 – April 19
• TaurusApril 20 – May 20
• GeminiMay 21 – June 20
• CancerJune 21 – July 22
• LeoJuly 23 – August 22
• VirgoAugust 23 – September 22
• LibraSeptember 23 – October 22
• ScorpioOctober 23 – November 21
• SagittariusNovember 22 – December 21
• CapricornDecember 22 – January 19
• AquariusJanuary 20 – February 18
• PiscesFebruary 19 – March 20

When the Sun changes sign in 2026

The dates in the list above are the usual ones. Here is the exact minute the Sun enters each sign in 2026, from the same ephemeris as our birth charts:

What your Sun sign is

Your Sun sign is the part of the zodiac the Sun was in on the day you were born. Western astrology divides the Sun's yearly path into twelve equal signs of 30°, starting at the March equinox, which is why Aries comes first and why each sign keeps nearly the same dates every year.

The Sun is one part of a birth chart. The Moon, the planets and the rising sign each sit in a sign of their own, and astrologers read them together: someone with a Leo Sun and a Virgo Moon is read quite differently from a Leo with a Sagittarius Moon. Each sign is described by three things, its element, its modality and its ruling planet. The sections below explain each one, and every sign's page goes further.

The four elements

Fire signs, Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, are read as warm, direct and quick to act. They are said to lead with enthusiasm and to grow restless when things slow down.

Earth signs, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, are read as practical and steady. They trust what they can see, build things that last and take their time deciding.

Air signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, are read as social and thoughtful. They live in ideas and conversation and step back from strong feelings to understand them.

Water signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, are read as feeling, loyal and perceptive. They sense what others leave unsaid and guard the people close to them.

Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, written in the second century, already groups the signs into four triangles of three; later astrologers matched each triangle to one of the four elements of Greek natural philosophy.

Cardinal, fixed and mutable signs

Each element has one sign of each modality, following the seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) begin at an equinox or a solstice and are read as starters, quick to take the first step. Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) sit in the middle of a season and are read as steady and determined, slow to change course. Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) close a season and are read as adaptable, good at adjusting and at seeing more than one side. Ptolemy's names for them were solstitial or equinoctial, solid and bicorporeal, meaning double.

The signs' ruling planets

Each sign has a ruling planet, the planet said to be at home there. The traditional scheme, as Ptolemy gives it, uses the seven bodies visible to the eye: the Sun and the Moon rule one sign each and the five planets two. Modern astrology gave Scorpio, Aquarius and Pisces to Pluto, Uranus and Neptune once those planets were found, and many astrologers read both rulers.

The constellations behind the Sun in 2026

The Sun crosses 13 constellations in a year, Ophiuchus among them, and spends anything from a few days to well over a month in front of each, because their sizes differ. Since about AD 150 the equinox has moved 26.2° against the stars, so the Sun stands in front of these star patterns at other times than the dates of the zodiac. The table runs from the Sun's entry into Capricornus in January to its next, in UTC.

Questions about the zodiac signs

What are the 12 zodiac signs in order?

Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. The order follows the Sun through the year from the March equinox, when it enters Aries, and alternates fire, earth, air and water.

How do I find my zodiac sign?

Find your birthday in the list at the top of this page. If it falls on the first or last day of a sign, look up the exact minute the Sun changed sign that year on the sign's own page, or put your birth date, time and place into the free birth chart calculator, which also gives your Moon and rising signs.

Which zodiac sign is the rarest?

How many people share a sign depends on how many are born each month, which these pages don't measure. What the sky does decide is time: in 2026 the Sun spends the fewest days in Capricorn (29.4) and the most in Cancer (31.4), because Earth moves fastest round the Sun in early January.

Why do websites give different dates for the same sign?

The Sun's entry into a sign moves by hours from year to year, so a sign's first day can be the 20th one year and the 21st another, and sites round in different ways. Each sign's page gives the exact minute, year by year, in UTC and New York time.

What about Ophiuchus?

Ophiuchus is a constellation the Sun passes in front of between Scorpius and Sagittarius; its dates this year are in the table above. Western astrology's twelve divisions are equal parts of the Sun's path measured from the equinox, not the star patterns. Ophiuchus is not one of them, and no birthday changes because of it.