#22 - What Makes Up Zodiac Signs? Polarity, Elements, Modalities, and Planetary Rulers

This week in the Astro Study Room, Jordan is talking all about the components that make up each zodiac sign that we know and love. You will hear about the polarities, the elements, the modalities, and the planetary rulers along with some sign comparisons to make it all make sense!

Here are this episodes time stamps!

1:00 - Ways to Connect With Us!

2:54 - Astro Weather: Mercury Post-Shadow, Uranus Ingress, Full and New Moon Lunations!

5:40 - The Four Components of a Zodiac Sign

5:54 - Polarity: The Feminine and Masculine

7:36 - Elements: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water

9:52 - Modalities: Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable

12:14 - Planetary Rulers

12:42 - Aries vs Capricorn Breakdown

15:01 - Aries vs Scorpio Breakdown

16:10 - Practice Tips And Closing Notes

17:24 - What's Up Next in The Study Room

We will see you back in the Study Room on April 14th where Ember and Jordan will continue along the zodiac series with Taurus. We can't wait for you to join us!!

Transcript

Ways To Connect With Us!

Astro Weather: Mercury Post-Shadow, Uranus Ingress, Full and New Moon Lunations!

The Four Components of a Zodiac Sign

Polarity: The Feminine and Masculine

Elements: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water

Modalities: Cardinal, Fixed, and Mutable

Planetary Rulers

Aries vs Capricorn Breakdown

Aries vs Scorpio Breakdown

Practice Tips And Closing Notes

What's Up Next in The Study Room

Jordan 0:17

Welcome back to the Astro Study Room. I'm Jordan, a university librarian by day and a dedicated astrology student by night. Today I am without my lovely co-host, Ember Faye, but she will be back for our next episode, which is our deep dive into Taurus. Every other Tuesday here in the Astro Study Room, we will be exploring different astrology and spiritual topics, sometimes teaching, sometimes reflecting, and sometimes just chatting and wondering out loud together. If you're into it, we'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, and just know you can always come hang with us in the study room. This is our 22nd episode today, and I'm going to be talking about what actually makes up a zodiac sign. So we're looking at the polarities, the elements, the modalities, and the planetary rulers throughout this episode. As a reminder, the Astro Study Room is live on YouTube, so if you're more of a visual person, you can check us out there on YouTube. And don't forget about our Patreon, which is currently free as we are figuring out how to best utilize it. But for now on our Patreon, you can be the first to get any of our study guides and fun tools we put out. As with everything, the link is in the show notes. If you want to connect with us outside of the study room, make sure to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at the Astro Study Room. You can also connect with Ember at Emberfey Magic and her website, which is in the show notes. I highly recommend that you sign up for her newsletter. She sends out really great pieces all about loving yourself, pleasure, and embodiment. And my personal favorite parts of what she does is she will include videos. That's always exciting when she includes videos. And she includes all these different tips and practices that range from big and in-depth things all the way down to quick, short little practices that you can do even just while you're at work. So make sure to follow her, make sure to sign up for her newsletter. And I know she's listening to this, so hi Ember, love you, I miss you. If you would like to book an astrology consultation with me, I currently offer natal chart and solo return consultations where we can talk about what your soul intends for you for this lifetime. I also offer cosmic check-ins where we can talk about any current transits or anything else you would like to know about your chart. And you know that words of affirmation is our love language. Actually, it's more so Ember's. My love language is all five of them. But anyhow, please let us know how we're doing. Give us any feedback, let us know what you want to hear from us, and as always, we are learning together in this little astro study room, and it is very, very special to us that we continue to learn and grow together. So, buckle up star students, class is officially out, and the study room is in session. This feels like a bit of a slower fortnight for astrology. Mercury is direct right now and still in its post-retrograde shadow through April 9th, so we're almost done with that whole retrograde, and our next Mercury retrograde won't be until June, so we have a little bit of dive until the next one. If you don't remember, all of our Mercury retrogrades this year are in water science. And check out our episode on the astrology of 2026 to hear more about what's coming up this year. Uranus will also be ingressing into Gemini on April 25th, which is a long-term transit that we will spend a lot of time with and getting to know. We have a full moon in Libra on the night of April 1st. This full moon has a square to Jupiter and Cancer, and the dispositor of this lunation is Venus, who is happily transiting through Taurus right now. I think this is a good time to manifest something that is difficult but great for you, like something that is good for you but might be hard to obtain. Um, and that can be manifesting a more successful health journey or manifesting better resources. Look to where you have Libra, Cancer, and maybe Taurus in your chart as well to pull it all together what you could best manifest during this lunation. On the morning of April 17th, we have a new moon in Aries. Check out our recent deep dive into all things Aries to connect more with this lunation as well. During this new moon, there is a huge stellium in Aries, which means that we have a lot of planets in Aries. And this includes Mars, who is the host of this lunation. Mars is at home in Taurus, so we do like to see this. It's a happy Mars. But yeah, we have the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Neptune, Mars, and Saturn, and also Chiron, all in Aries. This is a huge Aries stylum. If anyone knows any children that are being born on this day, let me know in a few decades what they're like. I'm I'm dying to know. Honestly, I think uh most simply you need to see where you have Aries in your chart, and if you have any planets there or anything aspecting this house, uh ramp up the action in that area of your life. Get motivated, do the damn thing. Um, I know when spring starts to hit, a lot of us feel like we're coming alive again, so harness that energy and keep moving forward with it. That is all I have today for our Astro Weather segment. After a short little cut of our favorite song, I'm going to tell you all about what makes up Zodiac Size. Let's jump into what makes up a zodiac sign. This means we are talking all about how zodiac signs get their significations and their traits. There are four main components that make up a sign. We have the polarity, the element, the modality, and the planetary ruler. Get your pens and highlighters out because I will be dropping a ton of keywords at you throughout this whole class today. Let's start with polarity. This is about whether a sign is masculine or feminine. Some people don't prefer to use the terms mask and femme, that's totally up to you. Some people like to use yin and yang, some prefer active versus receptive, some prefer internal versus external. I usually use masculine and feminine, or sometimes I will also use yin and yang. In the zodiac, we have six masculine signs and six feminine signs. The masculine signs or the yang signs are going to be more active, hot, dry, focused, linear, direct, they're more assertive, and they're also lighter, as in as in they weigh less. They're also lighter as in lighter, sunnier. These are the air and fire signs. And along the zodiac wheel, the masculine signs are every other sign. So we have Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius are our masculine signs in the zodiac. The feminine signs, or the yin signs, are going to be more receptive, intuitive. They're slow and cool and wet and dark. And while Yang is direct and linear, yin is curvy and softer and heavier too. These are the water and the earth signs, so we have Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces. I will say throughout this episode, as I'm dropping so many different keywords at you, you know, I don't expect anyone would remember all of this after one episode, but if you are very interested in astrology, I do recommend that you go through and start memorizing these because this is this is just a great way to get to know the signs. This is how you get to know the signs. So this first piece of polarity is what makes up a zodiac sign. And then we consider the element. In astrology, we have fire, earth, air, and water in that order. Starting with our fire signs, this is going to be Ares, Leo, and Sagittarius. All of these signs are masculine as fire is a masculine element. Fire favors action, it's intense and it's always in motion. Fire is confident and idealistic, fire is energetic, enthusiastic, dramatic, courageous, inspiring, physically active, fire is restless and impatient and selfish and reckless. There's so much to fire, as with every element. And then we move on to Earth. Our Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. Since Earth is a feminine element, all of these signs are feminine. Earth is more cautious, practical, grounded, realistic, organized, hardworking, stubborn, unimaginative, conventional, resistant to change, but Earth is also patient and stable and dependable. Earth is very, very reliable. And I'm hoping that, um, as I'm saying these, things are clicking for you. If you are familiar with a couple zodiac signs, or you are very familiar with the zodiac, but you haven't learned what makes up a sign before, you're s I'm hoping that at this point you are starting to see where these things come from. Like speaking about being dependable. We know Capricorn is a dependable sign. Virgos are dependable. Tauruses are hardworking and dependable. It is because they are earth signs. Then next we have our air signs. This is Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. Air is a masculine element, and all of these signs are masculine. Air is smart, thoughtful, social, curious, articulate. Air is also unemotional, detached, impractical, also adaptive, understanding, socially adept. And then lastly, we have our water signs, and this is Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. Water is a feminine element, so these signs are feminine. Water is deeply emotional, empathetic, nurturing, peaceful. Water is insecure, unstable, water is easily manipulated, water is also compassionate and imaginative and very intuitive. So now I have introduced half of what makes up the zodiac signs. And next I'm going to talk about the modalities, and this is where things will really start to click in place about what makes each sign different from the other. You may also hear modalities referred to as qualities, but I prefer to call them modalities. The three modes are cardinal, fixed, and mutable. First we have cardinal, and our cardinal signs are Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. You can see each element has one sign being represented in the modalities. Cardinal signs are active, they're assertive, they have bursts of energy and motivation. Cardinal is very well known for being the establisher or the initiator. They're the ones that start things, but there's signs that are not always well known for being the ones that see it all the way through. When we think about the seasons, these signs all take place when a new season starts. So March for Aries, June for Cancer, September for Libra, and December for Capricorn. These signs initiate a change and they bring something new. They establish something new as well. We'll talk about it with mutable, but cardinal is when you know you're in that season now. Then we have our fixed signs. These are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Fixed signs are solid, steadfast, slow to change, stubborn, and reliable. Where Cardinal starts something, fixed, sees it through to the end. And looking at the seasons again, these are the months where the season has been established and is a lot more predictable. So I'm referring to April for Taurus, you know it's definitely not winter in April anymore. July for Leo, October for Scorpio, and January for Aquarius. Lastly, we have our mutable signs. These are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces. Mutable signs are changeable, adaptable, flexible, but they're also inconsistent and scattered. Mutable is all about changing times. So for the seasons, this aligns with May for Gemini. It's starting to get hot, it's starting to sometimes feel like summer, sometimes it still feels like spring. August for Virgo, November for Sagittarius, and February for Pisces. This is when the weather is changing and it feels like it's going back and forth between two seasons. I also want to point out that, of course, this is all dependent on where you live, how close or far you are from the equator, and also that this scheme was developed thousands of years ago. Okay, the very last part that makes up what a sign is is their planetary ruler. This gives us the last piece of the puzzle of what makes up a sign and what they are like. In 2025, we did a deep dive in the Astro Study Room into all ten planets. So make sure to check those out because knowing the planets will truly give you a better understanding of the zodiac signs. You I I recommend everyone always starts with the planets. Which is why we started with the planets. Let's talk about a few different signs so I can show you how to put this all together. I'll start with Ares. Ares is a masculine cardinal fire sign ruled by Mars. Ares is known for being brave, impulsive, selfish, courageous, reckless, initiatory, and athletic. Mars is a brave and active planet. Mars is also known as a warrior and an athlete. Selfishness, courageousness, and recklessness are also traits that are associated with the fire element. And impulsiveness and being initiatory comes from being a cardinal sign. When you put all these together, you can see what makes each sign unique from the other. Not every cardinal sign is considered impulsive the way Ares is. But Aries is a masculine sign which brings action and being ruled by Mars, who is quite a go-getter, along with being a cardinal sign and a fire sign, all of this sums up together as impulsive. So not every cardinal sign is impulsive the way that Ares is. To compare, so hopefully this will make more sense. I'm gonna talk about Capricorn, who is a feminine cardinal Earth sign ruled by Saturn. So both Capricorn and Aries are cardinal signs, but that's the only thing that the two have in common. For more intermediate listeners, this is why squares bring a lot of tension and friction. But anyway, Capricorn is well known for being reliable, steady, hardworking, traditional, slow and serious. And you'll hear a lot more about Capricorn when we go into our deep dive into Capricorn this coming December. And while Ares is a cardinal sign that is known for quick action and high energy and motivation and impulsion, Capricorn is a cardinal sign that is earthy, ruled by Saturn, so it has more stability than Aries, and also less quick, passionate motivation like Ares has. So Capricorn is an initiator, but Capricorn is more grounded, Capricorn is slower moving, and more likely to see things through long term than an Aries, or than any of the other cardinal signs, I would argue. But Ares is going to be a lot more outwardly excited, a lot more passionate about the things they are starting, while Capricorn is going to be more serious. Capricorn isn't going to outwardly express their excitement or their motivation the way that an Ares will. So I hope that comparison makes sense. I want to talk through one more comparison. We already talked about Aries, so let's continue with that. And let's look at our two Mars-ruled signs to compare them. This would be Aries and Scorpio. Scorpio is a feminine fixed water sign ruled by Mars. Both Aries and Scorpio are seen as intense signs, but Scorpio is fixed water. So this is this is still water. This is water that is not moving. In our Ares episode, I used a comparison that Ares is like a machine gun that shoots a ton of bullets really, really quickly, while Scorpio is a sniper rifle that shoots once and shoots to kill. Aries does its thing, for better or for worse, and moves on. Like water, Scorpio always remembers. Scorpio never forgives and forgets the way Ares does. But as Mars ruled signs, both of these signs are fighters and warriors and survivors. They're very passionate and motivated because they're Mars ruled. But they're usually motivated about different things, and the way that they go about their motivation is different because the only thing that they have in common is their ruler. So they are very different signs, but they do share that planetary ruler that makes them passionate and motivated. So to sum everything I talked about into a neat little package, every sign is made up of four components the polarity, the element, the modality, and the planetary ruler. For your own practice, I highly recommend walking through the zodiac and practicing breaking down each one into these four parts. And we will also be walking you through this in our Zodiac Deep Dives, which will be coming out the rest of 2026 and into 2027. So make sure to subscribe and follow along to learn this sacred practice of astrology with us. Thank you so much for being here with me in the study room today. I know this was a shorter episode, and I'm very excited for Ember to join me again next episode. Whether you're just beginning your journey with astrology, starting to utilize it as a tool in your craft, or you're just curious about the universe, I am so happy that you were here to join me today. And if you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. The links and everything are in the show notes. You can message Ember at EmberFay Magic, you can book an astrology consultation with me, you can message us at the Astro Study Room, and you can also join us on Patreon. For our next episode, Ember and I will be doing our deep dive into the feminine fixed earth sign ruled by Venus we all know and love as Taurus. As always, this podcast is my practice of asking big questions, uncovering the hidden truths, and creating an accessible space for others to do the same. Thank you so much for being a part of our journey, and we'll see you back in the study room every other Tuesday.