by Janet Booth
You probably know your “Sun sign” according to the month-long period in which you were born. While this is an influence you carry with you throughout your life, as you grow and develop you add more traits to your personality. Such advancement is reflected in astrology through “progressions,” a technique where the days following your birth act as indicators of the years following your birth on a day-for-a-year basis. If you are 55 years old, where the planets were 55 days after your birth provides clues for your current year.
The progressed Sun moves about one degree per year. Thus your Sun sign changes to the next sign sometime in your first 30 years (because there are thirty degrees to each sign). After that, every 30 years it moves to the next sign (in the normal zodiacal sign order, listed below).
To estimate your progressed Sun, determine how many days you were born after the first day of your Sun sign period. Subtract that number from 30. This is the approximate age when your Sun progressed into the next sign. This will be just an estimate since the day the Sun changes signs can vary within a day or two from year to year. (For example, the Sun usually enters Aries around March 21, but one year it might be March 22 and another it might be March 20. This is because of the “man-made” insertion of “Leap Year” into our calendars once every four years.) Consequently, this estimation could be off by a year or two. If you were born around the day the Sun changed signs, you may not even know your birth Sun sign for certain without obtaining a more precise calculation. (Find out your exact birth time and consult an astrological computer program or an astrologer. Or you can get your chart calculated on line for free at Alabe.com by clicking on “Free Chart.”)
Here is the order of the signs of the zodiac and some of their key personality characteristics:
ARIES March 21 – April 19 assertive, independent, pioneering, inspiring, enthusiastic, impatient, selfish
TAURUS April 20 – May 20 stable, loyal, patient, persistent, practical, possessive, stubborn, slow to anger but enraged once aroused
GEMINI May 21 – June 20 inquisitive, communicative, people-oriented, flexible, adaptable, flighty, “jack of all trades, master of none”
CANCER June 21 – July 22 sensitive, nurturing, protective, receptive, family-oriented, emotional, usually good at business
LEO July 23 – Aug. 22 creative, warm, generous, fun-loving, childlike, dramatic, a natural leader, egotistical
VIRGO Aug. 23 – Sept. 22 analytical, critical, health-conscious, service-minded, useful, efficient, detail-oriented
LIBRA Sept. 23 – Oct. 22 diplomatic, other-oriented, peace-loving, romantic, refined, indecisive, flirty
SCORPIO Oct. 23 – Nov. 21 magnetic, powerful, intense, passionate, secretive, persevering, a survivor, resentful, jealous
SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22 – Dec. 21 free, idealistic, cheerful and optimistic, honest, love to learn and to travel, restless, scattered
CAPRICORN Dec. 22 – Jan. 19 ambitious, responsible, prudent, economical, dependable, disciplined, materialistic, insensitive
AQUARIUS Jan. 20 – Feb. 18 humanitarian, independent, original, eccentric, inventive, impersonal, detached, rebellious
PISCES Feb. 19 – March 20 responsive, sentimental, sympathetic, artistic, psychic, idealistic, indecisive, escapist, hard to pin down
You keep your birth Sun sign characteristics all your life, but you add the characteristics of the following sign(s) to your behavioral repertoire as you develop. The impatient Aries learns to slow down when progressing through Taurus. The stubborn Taurus learns to be more flexible when progressing through Gemini. The thought-oriented Gemini learns to rely more on feelings when progressing through Cancer. And so on. These are long-term patterns. The characteristics gained with each new progressed sign may not show up right away; we grow into them.
Other planets in your personal astrological chart can also change signs by progression, contributing additional dimensions to your personal development. These are not as simple to estimate as the Sun’s changes; consult a reliable astrologer for the details of your progressions. (The astrology readings I do generally discuss the trends indicated by your personal progressions.)
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