Element guide
Fire Signs
Aries, Leo and Sagittarius — the three signs of action, willpower and spirit.
Fire signs are traditionally read as the zodiac’s initiators: quick to act, quick to want, and energised by momentum. The temperament is spirit rather than intellect or matter — fire signs tend to trust their gut and move before they’ve fully thought it through, for better and worse.
- confident
- impulsive
- passionate
- restless
The fire signs
Aries, Leo and Sagittarius share the fire element. Signs of the same element are traditionally read as sharing a basic temperament — the way they take in and give out energy — even where the rest of the chart differs.
How modality splits the fire signs
Element describes temperament; modality describes how a sign meets change. The three fire signs each carry a different modality, so no two of them express fire the same way.
- Aries
- cardinal — starts things, and initiates the element’s energy.
- Leo
- fixed — holds and sustains the element’s energy once it’s moving.
- Sagittarius
- mutable — adapts the element’s energy, bending it to whatever the moment needs.
Traditional compatibility
Fire and air signs are traditionally described as energetically compatible with each other, which puts the fire signs alongside the air signs. Treat this as a starting heuristic rather than a rule — a whole chart has far more to say about two people than their sun signs do.
The other elements
Every sign belongs to one of four elements. See how fire compares to the rest.
All four elements →All 12 sign guides →Full compatibility grid →