Zodiac signs
Zodiac Signs by Month and Date
Every calendar month holds two zodiac signs, because each sign begins around the 18th to 23rd of a month and ends around the same days of the next.
What is my zodiac sign?
No zodiac sign matches a calendar month. Each sign starts in the second half of one month and ends in the second half of the next, so every month is shared by two signs. The table below lists both signs for all twelve months and links to a page for each month.
Which zodiac signs belong to each month?
Read the table as a rule of thumb. The first sign covers the early and middle part of the month, the second sign the last week or so. The change dates are approximate; they shift by a day between years and time zones.
| Month | First sign | Change around | Second sign | Month page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | Capricorn | January 19 or 20 | Aquarius | January signs |
| February | Aquarius | February 18 or 19 | Pisces | February signs |
| March | Pisces | March 20 or 21 | Aries | March signs |
| April | Aries | April 19 or 20 | Taurus | April signs |
| May | Taurus | May 20 or 21 | Gemini | May signs |
| June | Gemini | June 20 or 21 | Cancer | June signs |
| July | Cancer | July 22 or 23 | Leo | July signs |
| August | Leo | August 22 or 23 | Virgo | August signs |
| September | Virgo | September 22 or 23 | Libra | September signs |
| October | Libra | October 22 or 23 | Scorpio | October signs |
| November | Scorpio | November 21 or 22 | Sagittarius | November signs |
| December | Sagittarius | December 21 or 22 | Capricorn | December signs |
Why don't zodiac signs match the months?
The two systems were built for different jobs. The months come from the Roman calendar, which set month lengths for civic and religious reasons and fixed January 1 as the start of the year. The zodiac comes from astronomy: it divides the Sun's yearly path into twelve equal parts of 30 degrees, counted from the March equinox.
The equinox does not fall on the 1st of a month. It falls around March 20, so the first sign, Aries, starts there, and every later sign starts about one twelfth of a year after the last. That is how each change ended up near the 20th of a month instead of the 1st.
The calendar has its own leftovers. The early Roman year began in March, which is why September, October, November and December still carry the Latin words for seven, eight, nine and ten, even though they are now months nine to twelve.
Why some signs are longer than others
Every sign is the same 30 degrees wide, but the Sun does not cross them at the same speed. Earth's orbit is slightly oval. In early January Earth is closest to the Sun and moves fastest, so the Sun appears to race through the winter signs. In early July Earth is farthest away and moves slowest, so the summer signs take longer.
The difference is about two days from the shortest sign to the longest. It also explains a pattern in the table: the changes in summer and early fall land on the 22nd or 23rd, while those in winter and spring land closer to the 19th, 20th or 21st.
- Shortest signs: Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius, a little under 30 days
- Longest signs: Gemini, Cancer and Leo, a little over 31 days
- Months themselves run from 28 to 31 days, on a pattern that has nothing to do with the Sun's speed
Four switches tied to the seasons
Four of the twelve changes are also turning points of the year. In the tropical zodiac used by Western astrologers, the cardinal signs begin exactly at the equinoxes and solstices, so these month pages double as season markers.
- March: Pisces gives way to Aries at the March equinox
- June: Gemini gives way to Cancer at the June solstice
- September: Virgo gives way to Libra at the September equinox
- December: Sagittarius gives way to Capricorn at the December solstice
The other eight changes fall roughly a month apart between those four points. They have no seasonal event of their own, but they follow the same 30-degree steps.
Each month steps through the elements
The zodiac repeats the four elements in a fixed order: fire, earth, air, water. Because the signs follow one another, every month moves from one element to the next. January goes from earth to air, February from air to water, March from water to fire, and the cycle repeats three times a year.
The modes rotate in the same way: cardinal, fixed, mutable. So the two signs in any month never share an element or a mode, which is why astrologers find the difference between early and late birthdays so marked. A March baby born on the 5th is a mutable water sign; one born on the 25th is a cardinal fire sign.
Born near the end of a month?
If your birthday falls in the first two weeks of any month, the first sign in the table is yours in every year. If it falls in the last week, the second sign is almost certainly yours. The few days around each change are the only ones where the month and day alone cannot answer the question.
For those days you need the exact moment the Sun changed sign in your birth year. The page on zodiac sign dates lists those moments for all twelve signs, and each month page shows them for its own switch. Compare that moment with your birth time, converted to the same time zone, and the question is settled.
From month to the full chart
A month tells you your Sun sign, which astrologers read as your core drive. Two more placements tend to matter just as much in everyday life: the Moon sign, which shifts every two or three days, and the rising sign, which shifts every couple of hours.
To see all three, run your birth details through the big three calculator. For the complete picture with planets and houses, use the birth chart calculator. And if you want to know how your sign gets along with someone else's, the zodiac compatibility calculator puts your sign next to theirs.