November 21 zodiac sign

When the Sun enters Sagittarius, year by year

The exact moment for every year from 1940 to 2035, and what that made November 21. Switch the time zone to match where you were born.

November 21 in the sky

By November 21 the Sun is about two-thirds of the way from the September equinox to the December solstice. The clocks have fallen back, and in much of the country the sun sets before five. Scorpio covers this middle stretch of fall. It's a fixed sign, the kind that holds a season steady, and a water sign, the element of feeling and memory. On this date the Sun sits at or near Scorpio's last degree, which some traditions call the anaretic degree and read as a sign pressing its themes hard before it lets go. Sagittarius, mutable fire, is next in line.

Scorpio at the far edge of the sign

A November 21 Scorpio gets the sign in full, right up to its final stretch. Mars, the traditional ruler, gives you a steady, private drive, and Pluto, the modern co-ruler, adds an appetite for whatever sits under the surface. You tend to pick a few people and go all in with them. You also remember, years later, exactly who showed up for you in a bad week and who sent a thumbs-up instead.

Plenty of late Scorpios also describe a restless streak that shows up at odd moments. You might guard a secret for a decade, then suddenly want to talk it through at 2 a.m. on a road trip with a friend you trust. That outward pull usually comes from elsewhere in your chart, often Mercury, since your Sun stays put in Scorpio. The friction is holding on too tightly, whether to a grudge or to control of a plan. Saying what worries you out loud, before it hardens, lets people help you instead of guessing.

When November 21 is Sagittarius

Sagittarius shows up on this date only in some years, and in Eastern time never before early afternoon. Those early arrivals began in the 1970s and have come more often since 2000, in leap years and, lately, the year after. The West Coast sees more of them, because Pacific clocks run three hours behind, which pulls the change back onto the 21st more often and, in a few years, as early as late morning. If you're one of these Sagittarius Suns, you sit at the very first degree of the sign. You may come across as more outgoing and blunt than the Scorpios who share your birthday, though Mercury in Scorpio, common on this date, can keep a private streak.

Scorpio or Sagittarius: what changes

Almost everything about the sign changes when the Sun leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius. Water gives way to fire, so the focus moves from feeling a situation through to acting on it. Fixed gives way to mutable: Scorpio digs in and finishes, Sagittarius adapts and moves on. The ruler changes from Mars, with Pluto, to Jupiter, the planet of growth and big plans. Day to day, a Scorpio tends to keep a short guest list and a long memory, and a Sagittarius tends to invite the whole floor and forget why they were annoyed. If the guarded one sounds more like you, that fits the Scorpio Sun this date almost always gives.

Why a November 21 birthday can feel like both signs

Being born on the cusp doesn't make you half Scorpio and half Sagittarius. At any moment the Sun is in one sign, and on November 21 that sign is almost always Scorpio. The Sagittarius side some of you feel has real sources, though. Mercury, the planet of thinking and talking, never strays far from the Sun, and about half of people born on this date have it in Sagittarius, which can make your conversation blunter and funnier than your Sun suggests. Venus can sit in any of four signs from Libra to Capricorn. Your Moon and rising sign, shown in your birth chart, can tilt things further.

Share of people born on November 21, 1940 to 2030, calculated for noon Eastern time. About 53% have Mercury in Sagittarius.

A November 21 birthday

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