Signs of the Sun

The sun signs or the zodiac signs, as they are often called, are a part of the very ancient astrology that developed at a time the world was almost five thousand years younger than today. Astrology, therefore, can be called the world's oldest celestial sciences.

Watching and studying stars was a part of man's life at that time. Stars were grouped in recognizable patterns (we now call constellations) and names were given as per their outlook. There were twelve such groups. It was also noted that the visible planets often appeared to wander through they sky against this backdrop of constellations. These planets eventually acquired personalities and mythologies of their own, and astrologers soon began to affix significance to the position of these planets against certain constellations in the sky. The night sky was a grand soap-opera, where gods and goddesses played out their dramas, and the consequences were manifested on earth through droughts, floods, and a host of natural occurrences.

Through the centuries, Astrology has dealt with the charting and interpretation of the cycles and movements of celestial objects. Through the use of computers, calculations that once took months for mathematicians to perform by hand can now be done in seconds, and the positions of planets can be computed to a hundredth of a degree. The interpretation part is another matter, relying vastly on centuries of richly embroidered legend and mythology.

There were ten planets or celestials controllers: Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto; the sun and the moon were also among the bodies that followed the path of the planets (that�s what they thought then!!), so they were too called planets.

The constellations or groups of stars were named the sun signs, or the star signs or the signs of the zodiac. Each sign is said to have certain features, traits and built in qualities. They have some elements associated with them as well as certain symbols. A brief presentation follows:

Fire Signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius.
Enthusiastic, courageous, passionate and impulsive.

Earth Signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn.
Practical, materialistic, conservative, and inhibited.

Air Signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius.
Intellectual, adaptive, impractical, and superficial.

Water Signs: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.
Emotional, sensitive, placid, and susceptible.

Another group of traits occurs among signs that are 90 degrees apart from each other. There are four signs in each group of Qualities, which are cardinal, fixed, or mutable. They suggest the basic kinds of activity a person will be engaged in--getting things started, keeping them going, or steering them in different directions.

Cardinal Signs: Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn.
Initiating, enterprising, ambitious, domineering.

Fixed Signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius.
Determined, conventional, organizing, dogmatic.

Mutable Signs: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius.
Adaptable, imaginative, tutorial, critical.

And lastly, here are some handy piece of information:
 

Aries	Taurus	Gemini	Cancer
Mar 21 - Apr 20	Apr 21 - May 21	May 22 - Jun 21	Jun 22 - Jul 23
Leo	Virgo	Libra	Scorpio
Jul 24 - Aug 23	Aug 24 - Sep 23	Sep 24 - Oct 23	Oct 24 - Nov 22
Sagittarius	Capricorn	Aquarius	Pisces
Nov 23 - Dec 21	Dec 22 - Jan 20	Jan 21 - Feb 19	Feb 20 - Mar 20

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