Zodiac Cusps: You Are What You Are

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me that his wife is a Libra. I asked him when she was born and he said, "22nd September 1976". I informed him that she was actually a Virgo, to which he replied, "Yes, but she was born really close to Libra so that's probably what she is." 

As stupid as it seems, this is a common misconception. I've heard this argument before from other people who think that because their birthday is close to the next sign, they can leap forward and claim it for themselves. It's like saying you live at the house next door because it's just through the wall from yours. If you're in number 20, you don't live at number 21 - just as, if you're born during Virgo, you're not in Libra. It doesn't matter how close your date of birth is to the sign before or after - it's the sign you're in that's your Sun sign.

The Sun moves into the same sign once a year but not at the same time, so this discrepancy of a few hours means that the changeover sometimes takes place on a different date. The only way to determine which sign your Sun was in on the day you were born is by using your date, time and place of birth. There's a debate raging at the moment about zodiac cusps with some people arguing that they don't exist. Where this misinformation has come from I don't know but it's totally wrong. So, what is a cusp? 

The zodiac circle is divided into 12 equal sections. Contained within each section is a sign. Each sign has a border on either side, a line separating it from the sign before and the sign after. These lines are called Cusps - from the Latin word cuspis, meaning 'a point', as each cusp marks the point where one sign ends and another begins. 

Sometimes if you know your Sun sign is Virgo but you 'feel' like a Libra, then chances are you have other astrological placements located in that sign. For example, maybe your Moon is in Libra, or perhaps you have Libra rising. There's also the dominant sign phenomenon whereby someone has their Sun in a particular sign but several of their other personal planets - Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars - are gathered together in a different sign. This means that the other sign and not their Sun sign is the dominant influence in their chart. This is true for all signs, of course, not just Virgo and Libra.

The dilemma people have with being born 'on the cusp' is that they seem to think they have a choice over which Sun sign they want to be and invariably choose the more popular sign, or the one they perceive to be more pleasant. So, my friend's wife who was a Virgo obviously desperately wanted to be a Libra, probably because she'd read typical horoscope blurb describing Libra people as 'attractive, artistic, socially popular, etc'. Yes, it does sound lovely, but all the signs have both positive and negative personality traits. It's not a case of Libra is better than Virgo, or whatever. 

Using full birth data will produce the exact degree of your Sun. Each sign of the zodiac is 30 degrees, so, if your Sun's degree is 29.59° Virgo, you are a Virgo. If it's 00.00° Libra, you're a Libra. The beauty of astrology lies in its logical simplicity. Don't believe the mysticism - believe the maths.