Cardinal sign (astrology) Cardinal sign (astrology) The practice of astrology recognizes four cardinal signs of the zodiac: Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn — sometimes called reacting signs. It associates those people born "under" one of these with certain human behaviors and traits like being active, self-motivated, insightful and ambitious. The word "cardinal" originates from the Latin word for "important," since they each mark the turning point of a temperate season. They were called "moveable" by traditional astrologers because, as Bonatti says, the "air" changes when the Sun enters each of these signs, bringing a change of season. Sometimes the word "cardinal" is confused
Astrology or rising sign. In the fifteenth century, references to astrology, such as with similes, became "a matter of course" in English literature. In the sixteenth century, John Lyly's 1597 play, "The Woman in the Moon", is wholly motivated by astrology, while Christopher Marlowe makes astrological references in his plays "Doctor Faustus" and "Tamburlaine" (both c. 1590), and Sir Philip Sidney refers to astrology at least four times in his romance "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia" (c. 1580). Edmund Spenser uses astrology both decoratively and causally in his poetry, revealing "...unmistakably an abiding interest in the art, an interest shared by