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Cleopatra Elland
As a professional astrologer, people ask me all types of questions. Of the most common curiosities is "what are the best zodiac signs?" along with its evil twin, "what are the worst zodiac signs?" While I appreciate any and all astrological inquiries, including zodiac signs compatibility, let me set the record straight: In astrology, there are no winners or losers. In fact, when you enter the metaphysical realm (the world of stars, tarot cards, tea leaves, etc.), that black-and-white binary goes straight out the window. In this magical, mystical domain, we work with nuance.
Got it? Good. Now let's take this to the next level. The 12 zodiac signs are also divided into sub-groups: four triplicities and three quadruplicities. If this seems a bit confusing, don't worry, there's a method to the madness. Triplicities refer to the four zodiac sign elements, of which there are three zodiac signs in each group: Fire Signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius), Earth Signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), Air Signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius), and Water Signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). Generally speaking, fire signs are passionate and exuberant, earth signs are practical and grounded, air signs are intellectual and curious, and water signs are intuitive and emotional.
Quadruplicities, also known as "modalities," refer to the signs' qualities and where each zodiac sign occurs within its respective season. There are three modalities, with four zodiac signs in each: Cardinal (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) occur at the beginning of a new season, and are excellent at taking action and starting initiatives; Fixed (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius) occur in the middle of seasons, and are known to be steady, consistent forces that maintain movement; and Mutable (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, or Pisces) occur at the end of a season, and possess effortless fluidity well-suited to change and transformation.
Elusive and mysterious, Scorpio is one of the most misunderstood signs of the zodiac. Scorpio is a water sign that uses emotional energy as fuel, cultivating powerful wisdom through both the physical and unseen realms. In fact, Scorpio derives its extraordinary courage from its psychic abilities, which is what makes this sign one of the most complicated, dynamic signs of the zodiac. Read your sign's full profile here. Next, read this month's Scorpio horoscope predictions.
What is the most valuable resource? For Capricorn, the answer is clear: Time. Capricorn is climbing the mountain straight to the top and knows that patience, perseverance, and dedication is the only way to scale. The last earth sign of the zodiac, Capricorn, is represented by the sea-goat, a mythological creature with the body of a goat and the tail of a fish. Accordingly, Capricorns are skilled at navigating both the material and emotional realms. Read your sign's full profile here. Next, read this month's Capricorn horoscope predictions.
Despite the "aqua" in its name, Aquarius is actually the last air sign of the zodiac. Innovative, progressive, and shamelessly revolutionary, Aquarius is represented by the water bearer, the mystical healer who bestows water, or life, upon the land. Accordingly, Aquarius is the most humanitarian astrological sign. At the end of the day, Aquarius is dedicated to making the world a better place. Read your sign's full profile here. Next, read this month's Aquarius horoscope predictions.
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8 north and south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, which is the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The orbital paths of the Moon and major planets are within the belt of the zodiac.[1]
In Western astrology, and formerly astronomy, the zodiac is divided into the following twelve signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Each occupies 30 of celestial longitude and roughly correspond to the astronomical constellations with the same name.[2][3] These astrological signs form a celestial coordinate system, or more specifically an ecliptic coordinate system, which takes the ecliptic as the origin of latitude and the Sun's position at vernal equinox as the origin of longitude.[4]
This division of the ecliptic into zodiacal signs originated with Babylonian astronomy during the 1st millennium BC. Babylonian astronomers divided the ecliptic into 12 equal "signs". Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the time of year the Sun is in a given constellation has changed since Babylonian times, and the point of March equinox has moved from Aries into Pisces. The zodiac was communicated into Greek astronomy by the 2nd century BC, and from there into the Hindu zodiac. In modern astronomy, the ecliptic coordinate system is still used for tracking Solar System objects.
The English word zodiac derives from zōdiacus,[5] the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek zōdiakòs kýklos (ζῳδιακός κύκλος),[6] meaning "cycle or circle of little animals". Zōdion (ζῴδιον) is the diminutive of zōon (ζῷον, "animal").[7] The name reflects the prominence of animals (and mythological hybrids) among the twelve signs.
The zodiac was in use by the Roman era, based on concepts inherited by Hellenistic astronomy from Babylonian astronomy of the Chaldean period (mid-1st millennium BC), which, in turn, derived from an earlier system of lists of stars along the ecliptic.[8] The construction of the zodiac is described in Ptolemy's comprehensive 2nd century AD work, the Almagest.[9]
Although the zodiac remains the basis of the ecliptic coordinate system in use in astronomy besides the equatorial one,[10][11] the term and the names of the twelve signs are today mostly associated with horoscopic astrology.[12] The term "zodiac" may also refer to the region of the celestial sphere encompassing the paths of the planets corresponding to the band of about 8 arc degrees above and below the ecliptic. The zodiac of a given planet is the band that contains the path of that particular body; e.g., the "zodiac of the Moon" is the band of 5 above and below the ecliptic. By extension, the "zodiac of the comets" may refer to the band encompassing most short-period comets.[13]
As early as the 14th century BC a complete list of the 36 Egyptian decans was placed among the hieroglyphs adorning the tomb of Seti I; they figured again in the temple of Ramesses II, and characterize every Egyptian astrological monument. Both the famous zodiacs of Dendera display their symbols, identified by Karl Richard Lepsius.[14]
Around the end of the fifth century BC, Babylonian astronomers divided the ecliptic into 12 equal "signs", by analogy to 12 schematic months of 30 days each. Each sign contained 30 of celestial longitude, thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system. According to calculations by modern astrophysics, the zodiac was introduced between 409 and 398 BC, during Persian rule,[15] and probably within a very few years of 401 BC.[16] Unlike modern astrologers, who place the beginning of the sign of Aries at the position of the Sun at the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (March equinox), Babylonian astronomers fixed the zodiac in relation to stars, placing the beginning of Cancer at the "Rear Twin Star" (β Geminorum) and the beginning of Aquarius at the "Rear Star of the Goat-Fish" (δ Capricorni).[17]
In Babylonian astronomical diaries, a planet position was generally given with respect to a zodiacal sign alone, less often in specific degrees within a sign.[21] When the degrees of longitude were given, they were expressed with reference to the 30 of the zodiacal sign, i.e., not with a reference to the continuous 360 ecliptic.[21] In astronomical ephemerides, the positions of significant astronomical phenomena were computed in sexagesimal fractions of a degree (equivalent to minutes and seconds of arc).[22] For daily ephemerides, the daily positions of a planet were not as important as the astrologically significant dates when the planet crossed from one zodiacal sign to the next.[21]
Knowledge of the Babylonian zodiac is said to be reflected in the Hebrew Bible; E. W. Bullinger interpreted the creatures appearing in the book of Ezekiel as the middle signs of the four quarters of the zodiac,[23][24] with the Lion as Leo, the Bull is Taurus, the Man representing Aquarius and the Eagle representing Scorpio.[25] Some authors have linked the twelve tribes of Israel with the same signs or the lunar Hebrew calendar having twelve lunar months in a lunar year. Martin and others have argued that the arrangement of the tribes around the Tabernacle (reported in the Book of Numbers) corresponded to the order of the zodiac, with Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan representing the middle signs of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio, respectively. Such connections were taken up by Thomas Mann, who in his novel Joseph and His Brothers attributes characteristics of a sign of the zodiac to each tribe in his rendition of the Blessing of Jacob.[citation needed]
The earliest extant Greek text using the Babylonian division of the zodiac into 12 signs of 30 equal degrees each is the Anaphoricus of Hypsicles of Alexandria (fl. 190 BC).[29] Particularly important in the development of Western horoscopic astrology was the astrologer and astronomer Ptolemy, whose work Tetrabiblos laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition.[30] Under the Greeks, and Ptolemy in particular, the planets, Houses, and signs of the zodiac were rationalized and their function set down in a way that has changed little to the present day.[31] Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century AD, three centuries after the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by Hipparchus around 130 BC. Hipparchus' lost work on precession never circulated very widely until it was brought to prominence by Ptolemy,[32] and there are few explanations of precession outside the work of Ptolemy until late Antiquity, by which time Ptolemy's influence was widely established.[33] Ptolemy clearly explained the theoretical basis of the western zodiac as being a tropical coordinate system, by which the zodiac is aligned to the equinoxes and solstices, rather than the visible constellations that bear the same names as the zodiac signs.[34]
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