September Zodiac Signs: Virgo and Libra

September: Virgo until the Sun enters Libra. In US Eastern Time the change fell on September 22 in 38 years, September 23 in 49 years (birth years 1940-2026, JPL Horizons); on those days the sign depends on the year and time of birth.

September at a glance

• Signs: Virgo → Libra
• Change days (ET): see the table below
• Elements: Earth (Virgo) → Air (Libra)
• Modalities: Mutable (Virgo) → Cardinal (Libra)
• Rulers: Mercury and Venus

Look up the date first. Through September 21 the September zodiac sign is Virgo, and from September 24 it is Libra, for every birth year 1940–2026 in US Eastern Time. Only the 22nd and the 23rd send you on to the year of birth, and to the clock time when the Sun switched signs on that date.

Dates in the table follow Eastern clocks, and a time zone can move them by one. If the Sun crosses into Libra between 12 and 1 a.m. Eastern Time, clocks in the Central, Mountain and Pacific zones still show the day before; if it crosses at 8 p.m. Eastern or later, the UTC calendar has already turned over.

Virgo has been under way since around August 22–23, Eastern Time, so September holds its final part. By Eastern clocks, for births 1940–2026, the sign covers September 1–21 in full and the start of September 22, and, in the years the switch came on the 23rd, the hours of that date before it as well.

Earth is Virgo's element, and the classical list describes it as heavy, cold and dry; Taurus and Capricorn complete the Earth triplicity. Virgo is the last sign of Northern Hemisphere summer, and of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and the tradition files that end-of-season position under Mutable. Its polarity is negative, or receptive.

The readings that follow, for Virgo and for Libra, describe signs as an interpretive tradition sees them; astrology is not a scientifically validated method, and neither reading is a fact about a person born in September. Mercury rules Virgo. Among the things astrology gives to Mercury are schooling and education, and it calls Mercury the planet of day-to-day expression. Put the two together and astrologers picture Virgo learning with an everyday purpose: the phrases of a new language tried out at the corner café, a cooking class taken to get weeknight dinners right. More of the sign, beyond its September days, is on the Virgo zodiac sign page.

Libra opens at the September equinox, which by Eastern clocks fell on September 22 or 23 for every birth year 1940–2026, and it runs into October, ending when the Sun reaches Scorpio around October 22–24. September gets the sign's opening stretch: September 24–30, the rest of the change day after the switch, and all of September 23 in the years the switch came on the 22nd.

Air is Libra's element, given the classical words light, hot and wet, and Gemini and Aquarius are its partners in the Air triplicity. Autumn in the north, and spring in the south, opens with Libra, which is why its modality is Cardinal, and the tradition reads Cardinal as action. Libra is a positive, or active, sign.

Venus, Libra's ruler, is the planet astrology connects with the desire for pleasure, comfort and ease. This switch also turns the season, from northern summer's closing sign to autumn's opening one, and element, modality, polarity and ruler change with it; continue with the Libra zodiac sign page for the rest of the sign.

People often file September 22 and 23 under "cusp" birthdays. The label suggests a shared zone, but Virgo and Libra meet at a point, not a strip: at the moment of birth the Sun had either reached Libra or not yet.

The usual change day has flipped over the decades. In US Eastern Time, birth years 1940–1983 had the switch on September 23 in 33 years and on September 22 in 11; for 1984–2026 it was September 22 in 27 years and September 23 in 16. Someone born on September 23 before 1984, or on September 22 since, is the most likely to need a birth time.

The September 22 zodiac sign and September 23 zodiac sign pages give the switch for each birth year in Eastern and in Pacific Time, and the two can name different dates. In 2023, for example, the Sun entered Libra at 2:50 a.m. on September 23 Eastern Time, when Pacific clocks still read 11:50 p.m. on September 22.

On those two dates, birth year, time and city settle the sign. Astrolivo's birth chart is free and needs no account: enter all three to check with your birth time. Without a time, the chart is calculated for 12:00 noon and marked as such.

Instead of relying on a single noon position, the calculator checks for any sign changes across your entire local birth date. If the Sun, the Moon, or another planet changes sign during that local day, the result shows each possible sign for that day rather than guessing a single one.

Before September come the August zodiac signs, and after it the October zodiac signs; birthday zodiac signs covers every month.

FAQ

What zodiac sign is September? Two signs: Virgo up to September 21 and Libra from September 24, for every birth year from 1940 to 2026 in US Eastern Time. A September 22 or 23 birthday can be either; check the year first, then the hour.

Is September 22 Virgo or Libra? It opens as Virgo in every birth year 1940–2026, US Eastern Time, and is never Libra from midnight. Before 1984 it mostly stayed Virgo to the end of the day; since 1984 the Sun has more often entered Libra during September 22, so the birth time decides.

Is September 9 or September 17 Virgo or Libra? Virgo, in every birth year from 1940 to 2026. In that span the Sun never reached Libra before September 22, by Eastern or by Pacific clocks.

How this page was made

Prepared by the Astrolivo editorial team. Change days come from NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris data; elements, modalities, rulers and planet meanings come from the Wikipedia articles "Astrological sign," "Triplicity," "Astrology and the classical elements," "Zodiac," "Planets in astrology" and "Astrology and science," and each statement was fact-checked against these sources. The sign readings are those of the Western astrological tradition.