The Season You’re Most In Sync With (According To Zodiac Sign)

Although everyone is aware that astrology is based on your birthdate and the movement of the stars, astrology and all of its magical predictive power is also firmly rooted in the changing of the seasons. One should never forget this basic fact. Without seasons, there would be no astrology.

Each season—spring, summer, fall, and winter—is assigned three zodiac signs. The zodiac’s year starts on the first day of spring, which marks the first day of Aries’ reign. Cancer kicks off the summer season, Virgo begins the fall, and Capricorn signals the beginning of the winter months.

The zodiac’s “modalities”—cardinal, fixed, and mutable—are also based on the changing of the seasons. Each season has one each of these three modalities, which help to describe a person’s personality. A cardinal modality kicks off the first month of any given season. Signs with a cardinal modality are creators and motivators.  A fixed modality represents the height of that season. People born under a fixed modality are generally more stable and rational. Finally, a mutable modality signifies the transition between that season and the next. In keeping with the changing of the seasons, mutable signs are more spontaneous and adaptable.

The three modalities are modified when they intersect with the four elements of the zodiac—fire, earth, air, and water. Just like the modalities, the elements follow one another in a strict order—a cycle that starts with fire, ends with water, and then starts back with fire—through the twelve signs.

In keeping with their name, fire signs are spicy, aggressive, impulsive, and brave. But, as is the case with the rest of the four elements, none of the fire signs share the same modality, which tweaks everyone’s personalities just a bit. Air signs are known for their curiosity, intuition, communication skills, and occasional bouts of aloofness. Earth signs are renowned for being practical and logical. Finally, water signs are usually a giant throbbing mass of emotions.

Wrapping it all up and giving each sign their unique character is their ruling planet.

When you combine birthdate, seasonal modality, element, and ruling planet, voilà!—you get the unique personality traits of each zodiac sign.

Aries

(March 21-April 19)

• Modality: Cardinal—beginning of spring
• Element: Fire
• Ruling Planet: Mars

As the first sign in the zodiac and the one who kicks off the whole year, you represent growth, the blooming of plants, and the awakening of animals who’d been hibernating all winter. You are the fire that melts away the winter’s snow. And your ruling planet makes you aggressive and instinct-driven. You are the zodiac’s grand opening act.

Taurus

(April 20 – May 20)

• Modality: Fixed—middle of spring
• Element: Earth
• Ruling Planet: Venus

The chilliness and seemingly endless showers of early spring have given way not only to the full blossoming of springtime, but also the full flowering of romance. Venus makes you naturally sensual and prone toward lusting after the finer things in life. It’s a good thing that you’re also a practical earth sign, though, which keeps you from falling into the hazards of full-scale debauchery.

Gemini

(May 21 – June 20)

• Modality: Mutable—transition from spring to summer
• Element: Air
• Ruling Planet: Mercury

You are the gateway from spring’s optimism to the fully alive days of summer. Late May and early June find you lurching very slowly toward the longest days and shortest nights of the year, and your guiding planet Mercury makes you a poet laureate of optimism and good cheer. Your mutability makes you one of the most curious and inquisitive of all the signs.

Cancer

(June 21 – July 22)

• Modality: Cardinal—beginning of summer
• Element: Water
• Ruling Planet: Moon

You were born during the peak of summer, when the days are longest and the temperatures are highest. Yet, oddly, you are ruled by the moon rather than the sun, which brings out your maternal instincts and makes you the zodiac’s biggest homebody during a season when the outdoors are the most inviting. Being a water sign makes you emotional, but it should serve as a reminder that midsummer is the best time to go take a dip in the water under the moonlight.

Leo

(July 23 – August 22)

• Modality: Fixed—middle of summer
• Element: Fire
• Ruling Planet: Sun

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer! It’s a great time to be a Lion—vital, powerful, and charismatic. Leo is the alpha sign who reigns when everything is most fully alive. It’s good to be the ruler of the roost, king of the jungle, and leader of the pack. You have reached the mountaintop, and it feels good to be there.

Virgo

(August 23 – September 22)

• Modality: Mutable—transition of summer to fall
• Element: Earth
• Ruling Planet: Mercury

As the waning days of summertime lean into the responsibilities of the harvest season and the cold months that follow, your astrological configuration makes you an intelligent and organized perfectionist. But in your tireless quest for perfection, being ruled by Mercury makes you witty and open-minded rather than dull and humorless. You are also highly reliable, as one needs to be so they don’t get blinded by the demands of school or business.

Libra

(September 23 – October 22)

• Modality: Cardinal—beginning of fall
• Element: Air
• Ruling Planet: Venus

Your cardinal modality gives you a take-charge attitude as the days grow shorter and the nights grow colder. It’s time to put away the surfboards and the Margaritas and the tanning lotion and approach autumn’s challenges with a dispassionate and judicious attitude. But that doesn’t mean you have to be an unpleasant sourpuss—in your case, being ruled by Venus makes you compassionate, sensitive, and highly tactile.

Scorpio

(October 23 – November 21)

• Modality: Fixed—the height of fall
• Element: Water
• Ruling Planet: Pluto

Plants begin to die. People move indoors and turn emotionally inward. Days get darker and begin to cloak themselves in mystery. You are ruled by Pluto, a “planet” that is so tiny, remote, and frozen, it’s no longer officially classified as a planet, although it is a perfect symbol of death and isolation. Yet despite it all—or maybe even because of it—you remain intensely sexy.

Sagittarius

(November 22 – December 21)

• Modality: Mutable—transition of fall to winter
• Element: Fire
• Ruling Planet: Jupiter

The slow and steady decline of fall leak into the bleak deadness of winter, bringing a time for introspection and soul-searching. But a fire still burns brightly in your heart. Being ruled by Jupiter, the planet of good fortune and exploration, keeps you from getting mired in darkness and despair.

Capricorn

(December 22 – January 19)

• Modality: Cardinal—beginning of winter
• Element: Earth
• Ruling Planet: Saturn

You represent the beginning of winter, the darkest, coldest, and dreariest time of the year. But your cardinal modality makes you refuse to succumb to depression or defeatism. Your ruling planet Saturn makes you persistent, determined, and goal-oriented. Winter is not the time for fun—it’s the time to get things done.

Aquarius

(January 20 – February 18)

• Modality: Fixed—height of winter
• Element: Air
• Ruling Planet: Uranus

You rule the dead of winter—not the darkest days, which have already passed, but the coldest ones. This makes you one of the most introverted of the signs, but also one of the most thoughtful. It helps that your ruling planet is Uranus, which governs innovation and thinking outside of the box. Mid-winter is the perfect time to think.

Pisces

(February 19 – March 20)

• Modality: Mutable—transition of winter to spring
• Element: Water
• Ruling Planet: Neptune

The combination of being a highly emotional water sign and being ruled by Neptune, the planet of dreams, makes you the most spiritual of all the signs. You mostly dream about potential—the end of winter’s deadness and the blooming of spring. The slow tease of spring, when a few mild days are buried under a last-gasp winter blizzard, give you a stoic attitude that dwells on a brighter future and refuses to get bogged down in winter’s slow death rattle.