Monday repost: Born on the Cusp

With over six years of archives, there are some older posts that still have relevance today.  This is a post from 2005 that I have updated and expanded for your reading enjoyment.

The signs of the zodiac change every 30 days, and there is a brief period while the Sun passes from one sign to another that is known as the “cusp.” Some people believe that individuals born several days before or after this time possess aspects of both signs, but in actual fact a planet is either one sign or another, there is really no such thing as a literal cusp.  The idea of the Sun being on the cusp arose from newspaper so-called “horoscopes” which can’t pinpoint a Sun Sign for every reader because the date of entry of the Sun into a sign varies from year to year.  Technically, the Sun is said to enter a sign when the actual center of the Sun is aligned with the zero degree point of that sign.  However, in some cases the experience of being “on the cusp” does manifest in a chart.

When the Sun is leaving a sign, during the last two degrees or so, it’s focus is moving towards the next sign and we often find an influence from the next sign beginning to make itself known; however, that doesn’t mean that individuals born during this time are hybrids of both signs.  If your birthday is on the last few days of Sagittarius, you are definitely a Sagittarian, but aspects of Capricorn are peeking into your personality. You may possess a greater degree of responsibility than those born even just a few days before, you may be more goal oriented and have less of a desire for adventure.

Once the Sun passes into the next sign, however, it fully takes on the quality of that sign and there is no “cusp” effect. Think about a person in a doorway ready to walk from one room to another. Their body may be in the room they are leaving, but their attention is fully in the next room.  Consequently, those born with the Sun in the first few degrees of an astrological sign can consider themselves fully members of that clan!