Zodiac signs
The glyphs of the twelve signs of the Western zodiac, where each shape came from, and what astrology holds each sign to mean.
These twelve pages are the glyphs of the signs of the Western zodiac. Each page gives the glyph’s Unicode character, the sign’s Latin and Greek names and its astrological dates, what is known of where the shape came from, and the history and myths of the constellation behind it. Astrology is a belief, not a science, and the pages treat it as one: they report what astrologers have said each sign means, from Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD to astrology today as Encyclopaedia Britannica describes it, and each ends that account with Britannica’s finding that no correlation has been found between birth dates and personality. There are no horoscopes here.
- Aries symbol (♈)♈ is the glyph of Aries, the Ram, the first sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 21 March to 19 April, and in their tradition it is a fire sign ruled by Mars.
- Taurus symbol (♉)♉ is the glyph of Taurus, the Bull, the second sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 20 April to 20 May, and in their tradition it is an earth sign ruled by Venus.
- Gemini symbol (♊)♊ is the glyph of Gemini, the Twins, the third sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 21 May to 21 June, and in their tradition it is an air sign ruled by Mercury.
- Cancer symbol (♋)♋ is the glyph of Cancer, the Crab, the fourth sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 22 June to 22 July, and in their tradition it is a water sign ruled by the Moon.
- Leo symbol (♌)♌ is the glyph of Leo, the Lion, the fifth sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 23 July to 22 August, and in their tradition it is a fire sign ruled by the Sun.
- Virgo symbol (♍)♍ is the glyph of Virgo, the Virgin, the sixth sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 23 August to 22 September, and in their tradition it is an earth sign ruled by Mercury.
- Libra symbol (♎)♎ is the glyph of Libra, the Scales, the seventh sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 23 September to 23 October, and in their tradition it is an air sign ruled by Venus.
- Scorpio symbol (♏)♏ is the glyph of Scorpio, the Scorpion, the eighth sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 24 October to 21 November, and in their tradition it is a water sign ruled by Mars.
- Sagittarius symbol (♐)♐ is the glyph of Sagittarius, the Archer, the ninth sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 22 November to 21 December, and in their tradition it is a fire sign ruled by Jupiter.
- Capricorn symbol (♑)♑ is the glyph of Capricorn, the Sea-goat, the tenth sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 22 December to 19 January, and in their tradition it is an earth sign ruled by Saturn.
- Aquarius symbol (♒)♒ is the glyph of Aquarius, the Water Bearer, the eleventh sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 20 January to 18 February, and in their tradition it is an air sign ruled by Saturn.
- Pisces symbol (♓)♓ is the glyph of Pisces, the Fishes, the twelfth and last sign of the Western zodiac. Astrologers give its dates as 19 February to 20 March, and in their tradition it is a water sign ruled by Jupiter.
The twelve signs
In the order astrologers count them: Aries ♈, Taurus ♉, Gemini ♊, Cancer ♋, Leo ♌, Virgo ♍, Libra ♎, Scorpio ♏, Sagittarius ♐, Capricorn ♑, Aquarius ♒ and Pisces ♓. Ptolemy explains why Aries comes first: a circle has no natural beginning, so astrologers take the sign that begins with the spring equinox as the starting point of them all. A sign is a twelfth, 30°, of the Sun’s yearly path, not the constellation it is named after.
Where the glyphs came from
Nobody knows who first drew them. Britannica says the history of the symbols is unknown and that they first appeared in Greek manuscripts of the late Middle Ages. Richard Hinckley Allen, in Star-Names and Their Meanings (1899), cites Miss Clerke, who found them in manuscripts of about the 10th century but in carvings not until the 15th or 16th, and Brown, who quotes the antiquary C. W. King: King saw the glyphs on no antique work and suspected “Arab sages” had devised them, a view Brown did not share. So the familiar readings, the ram’s horns in ♈ or the waves in ♒, are guesses from the shapes, and each page says whose guess it is. Unicode records a second use for two of them: ♍ and ♏ are also glyphs for the minim, or drop.
What astrologers say the signs mean
Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos sorts the signs by kind: Aries and Libra are equinoctial, Cancer and Capricorn solstitial, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius solid, and Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces bicorporeal. He also sets them in four triangles, each governed by planets. Astrology today, as Britannica describes it, divides the signs among the four traditional elements, earth, air, fire and water, and lists personality traits traditionally attached to each. The pages give all of this as the astrologers’ readings.
Why the dates and the stars disagree
Because of the precession of the equinoxes, a wobble of the Earth’s axis over about 26,000 years, the constellations have shifted eastward. Astrologers date Aries from 21 March to 19 April, but Britannica says the Sun is now in the constellation Aries from 19 April to 14 May. It also passes through Ophiuchus, from 30 November to 18 December, which is not a member of the zodiac; Unicode encodes it as ⛎ among the zodiacal symbols. The Aries, Scorpio and Sagittarius pages give the figures.
Sources
- Zodiac, The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica; last revised by Rick Livingston, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Wayback Machine copy, 11 September 2026), Signs and dates; Astrology; History
- Star-Names and Their Meanings: Aquarius, Richard Hinckley Allen, 1899 (reprinted by Dover as Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning), LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer, University of Chicago), Aquarius (on the zodiac signs’ symbols)
- Tetrabiblos, Book I, Claudius Ptolemy, 2nd century AD; translated by F. E. Robbins (Loeb Classical Library, 1940), LacusCurtius (Bill Thayer, University of Chicago), I.10, I.11, I.12, I.17, I.18, I.19, I.22
- Miscellaneous Symbols, Range: 2600–26FF (code chart), The Unicode Standard, Unicode Consortium, U+264F, U+26CE
Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research