September 23 Zodiac Sign: Virgo or Libra?

September 23 is a cusp birthday: in 49 of the 87 years from 1940 to 2026 the Sun entered Libra during September 23 (US Eastern Time), so people born that day are Virgo before the change time and Libra after it; in 38 years the change came earlier and the whole day was Libra. Your sign depends on the year and time of birth — see the table. Pacific Time: change during the day in 37 years, whole day Libra in 50, whole day Virgo in 0.

September 23 at a glance

• Possible Sun signs: Virgo up to the change, Libra from it
• Elements: Virgo is Earth, Libra is Air
• Modalities: Virgo is Mutable, Libra is Cardinal
• Rulers: Virgo has Mercury, Libra has Venus
• Data: NASA JPL Horizons, 1940–2030

Go down to the birth year and read the clock for the coast of birth. A printed time splits the day on that coast: a Virgo Sun for births earlier than it, a Libra Sun for births at that time or later. No time means Libra had already arrived before the date began on that coast, so the whole day was Libra. The coasts can disagree, as 1961 shows. That year the ingress came at 02:42 EDT on September 23 by New York time, which Los Angeles clocks read as 23:42 PDT the evening before; a West Coast baby born at any hour of September 23, 1961 therefore had a Libra Sun, and the Pacific entry for that year stays empty. A birthplace in the Central or Mountain zone needs the birth chart instead, since neither column covers it. For the rest of the month, see September zodiac signs.

The two extremes on Eastern clocks both fall in the war years. The earliest, 00:02 EWT in 1944, came two minutes into the date; the latest, 18:12 EWT in 1943, was 15:12 PWT on Los Angeles clocks, the latest Pacific time anywhere in the table. EWT and PWT are War Time labels: the US set its clocks an hour ahead on February 9, 1942 and kept them there until September 30, 1945, and the 1945 row says EPT and PPT because from August 14 that year the same hour was called Peace Time. On Eastern clocks, no September 23 change has come after noon since 1971 (12:45 EDT). Further on, by year: 2027 is due a 02:02 EDT change with an empty Pacific entry, and 2028 through 2030 are due to be Libra from midnight.

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.

Where your coast's entry carries a time, only the local time of birth can sort Virgo from Libra. Give the birth chart the date, the clock time and the city of birth to check your Sun sign with your birth time; the chart is free to use, and nobody has to register. Skip the time and the chart is calculated for 12:00 noon and marked as such.

Weigh what follows as labels, not findings about you: astrology is an interpretive tradition, not a scientifically validated method.

Until the change minute the Sun is still in Virgo, which sits at the tail of the summer signs, or of the winter ones south of the equator, a place astrology labels Mutable. Astrology puts Mercury, Virgo's ruler, in charge of thinking patterns and rational reasoning. For Virgo in depth, open Virgo zodiac sign.

A Libra Sun goes with any birth at or after the change minute, and with all of September 23 when the Sun crossed on the 22nd. The September equinox marks Libra's start, and astrology counts it first among the signs of northern autumn (of spring south of the equator). That first position gives Libra its modality, Cardinal, a word astrology connects with action. Libra's ruler is Venus, a planet astrology associates with wanting life easy, comfortable and enjoyable. The Libra zodiac sign page is where the sign itself is described.

FAQ

Does the "cusp" label put a September 23 birthday between Virgo and Libra? No. People use "cusp" for dates on which the Sun may move into the next sign partway through the day; the word names the date, not a sign. Each birth comes before the move from Virgo to Libra, with a Virgo Sun, or at or after it, with a Libra Sun; the year of birth and its local time decide.

What is the latest time a September 23 birth could be Virgo? Just before 18:12 EWT (US Eastern War Time) in 1943, or before 15:12 PWT on Pacific clocks that same year. No other year from 1940 through 2030 has a later change on September 23, so after 6:12 p.m. on New York clocks or 3:12 p.m. on Los Angeles clocks, September 23 is Libra in every year of that span, 1943 included.

How this page was made

The Sun's 1940–2030 positions come from NASA JPL Horizons; the IANA time zone database turned each Libra ingress into New York and Los Angeles clock time, with summer daylight time and the wartime clock settings accounted for. Wikipedia's "Astrological sign," "Triplicity," "Zodiac" and "Astrology and the classical elements" are the basis for season positions, the equinox start, rulers and elements; "Planets in astrology" for what Mercury and Venus stand for; "Astrology and science" for the note on scientific standing. Every statement here was checked against those sources by the Astrolivo editorial team that prepared it; sign meanings stay at the level of tradition.