Instrument 11 — The zodiac calendar
Twelve signs,
twelve seasons.
The oldest question in astrology is also the most factual one: which dates belong to which sign? Here is the tropical calendar — the same wheel every reading on this site is cast against — with the honest fine print about cusp days that can shift by a year's leap.
● The tropical calendar — all twelve signs
Tap a sign for its full daily reading · tropical zodiac · cusp birthdays can shift one day between years.
The machinery
The calendar hangs on the equinox.
The zodiac's dates are not arbitrary and not lunar — they follow the Sun. The tropical wheel begins at the March equinox, when the Sun crosses the ecliptic heading north: that instant is 0° Aries, and the twelve signs divide the year from there, roughly thirty days and one element each. Because the wheel is solar, it holds the seasons: Cancer opens at the northern solstice, Libra at the autumn equinox, Capricorn at the midwinter one. The dates above are the long-run averages of that wheel; only the boundary days wobble, by a single day at most.
The fine print
Born on a cusp? The chart decides.
If your birthday falls on a sign's first or last printed day, you own the only birthdays that can genuinely change sign between years. The Sun does not read calendars; it moves about 59 arcminutes a day, and the equinox itself lands at a slightly different clock time every year. Popular articles sell a 'cusp blend' — the precise answer is more interesting: you are exactly one sign, and the deciding witness is your birth time. Cast the chart; the Sun's degree settles it to the arcminute, not the folklore.
● From dates to readings
Date questions,
precise answers.
What are the zodiac sign dates for 2026?
The tropical zodiac re-begins at the March equinox, so the calendar dates stay stable from year to year: Aries runs roughly March 21 to April 19, Taurus April 20 to May 20, and so on through the table above. Only cusp birthdays — the first or last day of a sign — can shift by about a day between years, because the Sun's calendar is not perfectly even.
What does "cusp" mean in zodiac dates?
A cusp is a birthday that falls on the boundary day between two signs. Popular astrology sells "born on the cusp" as a blend of two signs; the precise answer is simpler — you are one sign or the other, and only your exact birth time and date can settle which. Cast the free chart and the Sun's position is computed to the arcminute.
Why do some sites list different zodiac dates?
Two reasons. First, cusp days genuinely shift by a day in some years, so a site that checked one specific year may print a different boundary. Second, the sidereal zodiac used in Indian astrology runs about 24 degrees behind the tropical one — its dates are roughly three weeks later. Both are internally consistent; this page uses the tropical zodiac that western astrology is built on.
Are zodiac dates the same every year?
Almost. The tropical zodiac is anchored to the equinox, not to the calendar, and Earth's year is about six hours longer than 365 days — hence leap years. The practical effect: only birthdays within a day of a boundary can change sign from one year to the next. Everyone else keeps their sign for life.
Which sign starts the zodiac?
Aries — always. The zodiac begins at the March equinox, the moment the Sun crosses the ecliptic heading north, which is the Aries point. That is why Aries is sign number one and why the whole wheel renews itself every spring (in the northern hemisphere).
A sign is a start,
not a sentence.
Your Sun sign is one line of the poem. Cast the chart and read the whole thing — planets, houses, angles.