Every other sign is called yang, the others yin, alternating from Aries.
Polarity sorts the signs into two alternating groups, yang for fire and air, yin for earth and water, with no relation to a person’s gender.
The signs alternate around the zodiac.
Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius are called yang, or positive. Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces are yin, or negative. This division overlaps with that of the elements: fire and air are yang, earth and water are yin.
The vocabulary has varied. Modern astrology speaks of yang and yin signs, of active and receptive, or of extraversion and introversion. The Greeks said masculine and feminine, diurnal and nocturnal: an old vocabulary, still found in classical texts. None of these words designates a person’s gender: a yin sign says nothing about the identity of whoever carries it, any more than a yang sign does.
According to tradition, a yang sign would turn toward action and the outer world, a yin sign toward receiving and the inner world. These are polarities, not values: action without listening becomes abrupt, receiving without drive fades away. Every chart contains both. Counting the yang and yin signs occupied by planets gives a distribution, which you read as a balance of tendencies rather than as a verdict: nothing requires it to be even, and an imbalance is not a flaw.
In Book I of the Tetrabiblos, Ptolemy sorts the signs into masculine and feminine, alternating from Aries, linking them to day and night.
The yang and yin vocabulary is much more recent: it comes from Chinese philosophy and was borrowed by Western astrology in the 20th century, to describe the same alternation in less loaded terms.
Some astrologers find the old words masculine and feminine outdated, and prefer active and receptive.
Others keep them out of fidelity to the texts. The words yang and yin themselves are contested by those who see in them a poorly fitting borrowing. Finally, Chinese astrology uses polarity differently, for years, with no link to the Western signs.
Schools do not all agree: the site sets out the positions without deciding for you, and states the setting it uses by default.
The authors and texts that establish or discuss this concept, with the passage when it is known.
Masculine and feminine signs in alternation, starting from Aries.
The diagram’s figures are calculated by the site’s engine (Astronomy Engine) or taken from the recorded facts, never copied by hand.
Yang: Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, that is, the fire and air signs. Yin: Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces, that is, the earth and water signs. The alternation starts at Aries.
An old vocabulary, now replaced by active and receptive or by yang and yin, to describe two polarities of the signs, like day and night. It applies to signs, never to people. Many astrologers today prefer yang and yin, or active and receptive.
No. Polarity describes the nature of a sign, not the identity or gender of whoever carries it. A person can have a Sun in a yin sign and feel very action-oriented, or the reverse: it is a convention, not a portrait.