The three modalities

If the elements describe what a sign cares about, the modalities describe when it acts. Each modality contains four signs - one from each element - and the four have almost nothing in common temperamentally. What they share is a relationship to timing.

Cardinal signs open. They sit at the start of each season and they are the ones who initiate, decide, and push a situation into existence. Fixed signs hold. They sit at the height of a season and their instinct is to consolidate, defend and outlast. Mutable signs release. They sit at the end of a season, and they are built to adjust, translate and let go of a form that has stopped working.

Modality is the classification most readers skip and the one that explains the most friction. Two people who share an element and clash constantly are usually both Fixed.