The earth signs

Why these three

Nothing is chosen here. Start at Taurus and step a third of the way round the circle twice, and you land on Virgo and then Capricorn. The four elements divide the twelve signs into four groups of three because twelve divides by three, and each group is an equilateral triangle drawn in the zodiac. Two signs 120 degrees apart are said to be in trine.

The elements themselves are older than the astrology that uses them. Fire, earth, air and water as the four roots of everything come from Empedocles in the fifth century BC, and Aristotle paired each with two qualities — earth is the cold and dry one. Hellenistic astrology inherited the scheme and mapped it onto the signs.

What the tradition makes of it

In Western astrological tradition the earth signs are associated with practicality, patience and an interest in what can be held. That is a statement about a tradition of reading, not a claim about anyone born under one of these three signs, and this site makes no such claim.

A sun sign is one body's position at one moment. It is not a birth chart — see why a sun sign is not a birth chart.

When the sun is in each of them

Worked out from the sun's position with the VSOP87 planetary theory, to the minute. Why the dates shift →

Read on

• The fire signs
• The air signs
• The water signs
• Every sign