THEORY ONE, Part 2. ‘I was born ‘on the cusp’ between Taurus and Gemini. Which horoscope should I read, and is my personality affected by the other sign at all? I sense that I must be a Taurus, rather than a Gemini, and I would be interested to know if this is true.” This is an interesting question, because it neatly illustrates one of the common misconceptions about astrology. When reading sun sign columns, someone born on the cusp is often unable to tell which of the two possible sun signs to read. The truth is that the notion of being born on the cusp is rather misleading. There is a definite time during a ‘cusp day’ when the sun moves from one sign into the next. With an accurate birth time, it is a very simple matter for an astrologer to calculate where that person’s natal sun is. With the data that this lady gave me, it was easy to see that her sun is in Gemini – the Sun moved into Gemini at 11:53 on the morning of her birth, and she was not born until late afternoon. Anyone born before 11:53 on the same day and roughly the same place as her will have their sun in Taurus. Take Account of the Ascendant Sign However, astrology is about rather more than your sun sign. The sun is indeed an important ‘planet’, but the degrees and the positions of all of the other planets have to be synthesised together to give us an accurate picture of an individual’s personality. First of all, the ascendant sign, the degree of which changes every four minutes, is probably the most important factor in any natal chart, more so than the sun in my opinion, but in any case equally important. This lady’s ascendant sign is Virgo, so straight away we have to add a generous helping of Virgo qualities into her makeup. Virgoan and Taurean qualities are easily confused by a lay-person, and this probably partly contributes towards her feeling ‘more Taurean’ than Gemini. Factoring in Mercury The ascendant sign aside, however, people are often confused when born on the cusp because when they do discover what sign their sun is in, they often feel more affinity with the other sign. The most common reason for this is mercury. Because of the astronomical position of mercury, it is never more than 28 degrees from the sun. A lot of the time they are in the same sign, but when the sun is moving from one sign to the next, mercury will be a little bit astray, again depending on it’s exact position at your time of birth. In this lady’s case although her sun has moved into Gemini, her mercury is still firmly in Taurus. This results in her ego being symbolised by Gemini, but her thought processes, the way she communicates and the way she processes information are all symbolised by Taurus. These are of course very noticeable things, and this could well be another reason why she ‘feels’ more Taurean than Gemini. Progressed Sun Signs Adding to the general “huh?” of the cusp layperson: although you retain the astrological makeup you were born with, for all of us the sun ‘progresses’ by one degree per year (in terms of the astrological technique progressions). So if you were born with the sun in a very late degree of, say, Scorpio, then by the time you started school your progressed sun may well have moved into Sagittarius, giving you quite a different outlook on life. This can often be the explanation when someone really doesn’t ‘feel’ like their sun sign. By the time we reach 30 years old, all of our progressed suns have necessarily changed signs, and this is an interesting way of tracking the shifts in our focus and priorities throughout our adult lives. No Blending of Sun Sign Energies Many astrologers believe that when a planet reaches the final degrees of one sign and is about to enter the next, there is a blending of energies. I disagree. In my experience, when a planet changes sign, it does so and that is that – there is no overlap period, or blending. This can easily be tracked by using the moon as an example, which changes signs roughly every 2-3 days. If you get hold of a table of positions for the moon, and track it’s changes through your daily life, you will often find it relatively easy to notice a change in your own attitude or in your feelings at the time that the moon changes signs. All of astrology is about a synthesis of energies, but there is simply no reliable evidence to suggest that someone born on the cusp between two signs has sun energies pertaining to both signs.

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