12 zodiac signs (rashis) in Vedic astrology

The zodiac is a 360-degree band around the sky. Vedic astrology divides it into 12 equal parts of 30 degrees, called rashis (signs).

Aries (Mesha) runs from 0 to 30 degrees, Taurus (Vrishabha) from 30 to 60, Gemini (Mithuna) from 60 to 90, and so on around to Pisces (Meena) at 330 to 360 degrees.

Vedic astrology uses the sidereal (nirayana) zodiac, which is anchored to the fixed stars. Many Western astrologers use the tropical (sayana) zodiac, which is anchored to the seasons.

Because the two zodiacs are offset, the Vedic sign is often one sign earlier than the Western one, for the sun sign and the ascendant. Each system reads the chart within its own frame.

The Sun's entry dates into each sign shift by about a day from year to year. By True Chitra Paksha reckoning, the Sun enters Aries on 13 or 14 April and Capricorn on 14 or 15 January each year.

The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS), the classical reference text, assigns each sign a lord in chapter 4: Aries to Mars, Taurus to Venus, Gemini to Mercury, Cancer to the Moon, Leo to the Sun, Virgo to Mercury, Libra to Venus, Scorpio to Mars, Sagittarius to Jupiter, Capricorn to Saturn, Aquarius to Saturn, and Pisces to Jupiter.

The Sun and Moon each rule one sign. The other five planets rule two each.

This matters because each house in your chart takes its lord from the sign occupying it. In Skybond's sample chart, with a Cancer ascendant, the Moon rules the 1st house and the Sun rules the 2nd, since Leo sits there. The house lords lesson covers this in depth.

Each sign carries one of four elements: fire (agni) for Aries, Leo and Sagittarius; earth (bhoo) for Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn; air (vaayu) for Gemini, Libra and Aquarius; water (jala) for Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. The fifth element, ether (aakaasa), is present in every sign. In the description of P.V.R. Narasimha Rao (PVR), author of the textbook Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, fire transforms the state of things, earth has a constant and solid state, air a varying state and water a flexible state.

Each sign also has a type: movable (chara), fixed (sthira) or dual (dwiswabhava).

Movable signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) tend to move and be dynamic. Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius) tend to be stable and constant. Dual signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) are stable sometimes and dynamic sometimes.

The pattern repeats in zodiac order: movable, fixed, dual.

One more classification: Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius are odd (male) signs, while Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces are even (female) signs.

BPHS describes the 12 signs as the limbs of Kalapurusha, time itself imagined as a body: Aries the head, Taurus the face, Gemini the arms, Cancer the heart, Leo the stomach, Virgo the hip, Libra the space below the navel, Scorpio the private parts, Sagittarius the thighs, Capricorn the knees, Aquarius the ankles, and Pisces the feet.

Komilla Sutton's course teaches the signs with this image.

PVR offers a framing worth holding onto: signs stand for situations that develop in your life and influences that enter it, while planets stand for people.

Every sign appears in every chart. The sign rising at the moment of birth becomes the 1st house, and the rest follow in order around the wheel.

That means any sign can be your lagna (the sign rising at birth), your moon sign (the sign the Moon occupies), both, or neither.

In Skybond's sample chart, Cancer rises, so Cancer is the 1st house, Leo the 2nd, and so on to Gemini as the 12th. The Moon sits in Leo and the Sun in Capricorn, so the chart's lagna, moon sign and sun sign are three different signs.

The Skybond calculator gives your Vedic ascendant (lagna) and moon sign from your birth date, time and place. It is free and needs no account.

Many courses teach the 12 rashis as part of the core, after the planets. Komilla Sutton's weeks 6 to 9 cover the rashis from Mesha to Meena, Kalapurusha, and their rulers. Some texts put the signs first, including Phaladeepika, Saravali and PVR's textbook.

B.V. Raman cautions that sign descriptions 'are only general in nature and should not be applied hastily'.

Each sign also has its own lesson on Skybond. Start with the structure: 12 signs, 7 lords, elements and types.