Sagittarius Zodiac Sign

Sagittarius is the ninth sign of the zodiac, and its symbol is the Archer (♐︎). In the tropical zodiac, the Sun stays in Sagittarius from about November 21 until December 21 (US Eastern Time). The exact moment changes yearly, so the start date moves between November 21 and 22. Sagittarius is a Mutable Fire sign ruled by Jupiter.

Sagittarius at a glance

• Dates (usual): November 21 – December 21 (US Eastern Time)
• Symbol: The Archer
• Glyph: ♐︎
• Element: Fire
• Modality: Mutable
• Ruling planet: Jupiter (traditional and modern)
• Polarity: Positive / masculine (yang, active)
• Opposite sign: Gemini

Born near the start or end of Sagittarius? Check your Sun sign in your birth chart

The tropical zodiac counts from where the Sun stands on the March equinox, and each sign takes 30° of that circle. Sagittarius is the ninth one, from 240° to 270°. Our calendar only approximates the Sun's annual loop. A 365-day year falls short of it, so the crossing into 240° slips about six hours later each year, until February 29 resets the count. That drift is enough to push the start from one date to the next.

Between 2020 and 2030 (Eastern Time), Sagittarius opened on November 21 six times and on November 22 five times, and every one of those eleven years it ended on December 21. NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris data gives the exact moment of entry:

A birthday on November 21, November 22 or December 21 can fall on either side of a boundary. In that case the hour and the city of birth make the call. Sign boundaries have no overlap, since 240° belongs to Sagittarius and not to Scorpio, so the Sun occupied a single sign when you were born. Many people call these birthdays "cusp" dates; astrology still gives each of them one Sun sign, not a mix.

Where you were born matters too. The 2026 ingress, 2:23 AM on November 22 in New York, happened at 11:23 PM on November 21 in Los Angeles. The 2025 ingress came at 8:36 PM Eastern on November 21, when UTC had already rolled over to November 22. Your birth chart uses your birth time and city, so check your Sun sign there.

Three things shape how the Sagittarius sign is read: element, modality and ruling planet. As a Fire sign it joins Aries and Leo in the positive, expressive half of the zodiac. Its modality is Mutable, the changeable quality, and it sits between Fixed Scorpio and Cardinal Capricorn in the order of signs. Jupiter rules it, and a planet placed in the sign it rules counts as dignified, or strengthened. Sagittarius also begins the group of four the tradition labels transpersonal. From those pieces, the Sagittarius zodiac sign comes out as candid, curious and more interested in why than in how.

Astrology works as an interpretive tradition and has not been validated scientifically, so take the points below as descriptions to weigh rather than verdicts about you.

Strengths in the tradition

• Big-picture thinking (Jupiter): Sagittarius is the one who asks what a project is for before anyone argues about the font.
• Quick to adapt (Mutable): A plan that falls apart on Friday afternoon gets rebuilt instead of mourned.
• Straight talk (Fire): Opinions arrive unfiltered, often with a joke attached.
• Generosity of spirit (Jupiter): Astrologers read Jupiter's sign as welcoming toward strangers and unfamiliar ideas.

Challenges in the tradition

• Saying yes too often (Jupiter): Excitement about the next idea can outrun the hours in the week.
• Tactless moments (Fire): A comment meant as honesty may land as a jab.
• Loose ends (Mutable): Once the interesting part is solved, the paperwork can sit untouched.

Sagittarius is the Latin word for an archer. The Greeks called the sign Toxótēs, a word with the same meaning. In a chart it appears as the glyph ♐︎. Pictures of Sagittarius come in two versions, an archer and a centaur. One classification calls the archer a human sign and the centaur a bestial one, although that label makes no practical difference to how a chart is read. Another piece of lore holds that the archer never misses his target, an image linked with the power of prophecy.

Sign and constellation are two different things here. In the tropical system, Sagittarius is an exact 30° slice that begins 240° along the ecliptic from where the Sun stands at the March equinox. The constellation of the same name is a cluster of stars that covers its own, uneven stretch of the ecliptic, and the Sun's path also crosses Ophiuchus, a thirteenth constellation whose lower part lies between Scorpius and Sagittarius. On top of that, precession moves the equinox point westward against the stars. Hipparchus is credited with discovering it around 130 BC. The result is a drift of about 1.4° per century between tropical signs and the star-based sidereal zodiac. Astrolivo works in the tropical zodiac.

In love and friendship, astrologers describe this Jupiter-ruled, Mutable Fire sign as warm, honest and independent. Shared plans, long conversations and a sense of humor tend to count for more than grand gestures, and so does space to keep a life of one's own. When it comes to compatibility, the tradition talks about shared elements and polarity, and promises nothing: Aries and Leo share its Fire, and the Air signs Gemini, Libra and Aquarius share its positive polarity.

Career readings link Sagittarius with teaching, strategy and jobs that keep handing you something new to learn. Its Mutable quality is read as an asset in jobs where priorities shift every month. Tight supervision and the same task day after day are described as the setting where the enthusiasm drains, so a Sagittarius Sun can be read as needing a partner or a system for the finishing work.

Ask someone their sign and the answer is their Sun sign, the one placement that simplified sun sign astrology relies on. For most birthdays the date alone settles your Sun sign. A November 21–22 or December 21 birthday is the exception: there the hour and place come first, as the dates section shows. Horoscopic astrology goes further and reads the Moon, every planet, the Ascendant and the houses together.

Picture an example chart combining a Sagittarius Sun, a Cancer Moon and an Aquarius Ascendant. Astrologers would set a restless Fire Sun next to a Water Moon that values home and familiar people, with a Fixed Air sign rising to color the first impression.

The Moon has its own sign, and that one is about emotional needs: see Moon in Sagittarius for it. Your rising sign can only be worked out from a known birth time. Give the free birth chart your birth date, time and city, and it lays out Sun, Moon and Ascendant together; no account is required.

Before Sagittarius comes Scorpio, Fixed Water, with Pluto as modern ruler and Mars as classical one. After it comes Capricorn, Cardinal Earth under Saturn. See all zodiac signs side by side.

FAQ

When does Sagittarius season start and end? Usually November 21 to December 21, US Eastern Time. The Sun entered Sagittarius on the evening of November 21 in 2025 (already November 22 in UTC) and enters on November 22 in 2026 and 2027; the table under Sagittarius dates gives the minute.

Which planet rules Sagittarius? Jupiter. Western astrology names no separate modern ruler for this sign, and Jupiter also served as the classical ruler of Pisces.

What element is Sagittarius? Fire, shared with Aries and Leo. Its modality is Mutable, which groups it with Gemini, Virgo and Pisces.

How this page was made

Prepared by the Astrolivo editorial team. Ingress times come from NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris data; everything else comes from the Wikipedia entries on Zodiac, Sagittarius (astrology), Planets in astrology, Astrology and science, and Astrological sign. Every fact was checked against those sources, and sign meanings appear as traditional readings.