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 and the classical elements information, see Wu Xing. Ptolemy later modified the rulerships of Water triplicity, making Mars the ruler of the water triplicity for both day and night charts—and William Lilly concurred. Astrology and the classical elements Astrology has used the concept of classical elements from antiquity up until the present. In Western astrology and Indian astrology four elements are used: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. In Western tropical astrology, there are always 12 astrological signs. Each of the four elements is associated with 3 signs of the Zodiac which are always located exactly 120 degrees away from each other along the ecliptic