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Mutable

The signs

The mutable signs are Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, one of each element, each a square from the next and an opposition from the third: the mutable cross. They are the last of the three modes, following the cardinal and fixed signs.

The seasons

The Sun passes through the mutable signs at the end of each season, when one season is giving way to the next: late spring in Gemini, late summer in Virgo, late autumn in Sagittarius, late winter in Pisces. Lilly called them common signs, constituted "between moveable and fixed", which "retain a property or nature, pertaking both with the preceding and consequent Sign". He also called them bicorporeal or double-bodied, "because they represent two Bodies: as Gemini two Twinnes, Pisces two Fishes" — and Sagittarius, half human and half horse, and Virgo, often drawn with an ear of wheat beside her, belong with them.

In horary astrology the common signs sit between the speed of the moveable signs and the slowness of the fixed: Lilly counted time in weeks or middling units when the testimonies fell in common signs and succedent houses. A significator in a double-bodied sign can also signify that a matter happens twice, involves more than one person, or is not settled at the first attempt.

What mutable inclines toward

Mutable energy adapts: it adjusts, learns, distributes and prepares for what comes next. Each element shows it differently — Gemini through curiosity and communication, Virgo through analysis, improvement and service, Sagittarius through exploration and the search for meaning, Pisces through empathy, imagination and letting go.

A chart heavy in mutable signs may incline toward flexibility, versatility, a quick mind and a gift for seeing many possibilities and connecting people and ideas. The other side is restlessness, scattering of energy, indecision and difficulty committing — so many options that none is chosen.

A chart light in mutable signs may incline toward difficulty adapting when plans change, or toward holding on to a course of action after it has stopped serving. Learning to bend, and to let things finish, is often part of the work.

Patterns

A T-square in mutable signs is read as tension that tends to come out as nervous energy, worry or a sense of being pulled in too many directions — met, at best, with flexibility and ingenuity. A Grand Cross in mutable signs is often described as many demands arriving at once, with the corresponding gift for juggling them. The Yod, built on quincunxes, has a strongly adjustive quality in any mode, and is sometimes compared to the mutable signs for that reason.

In the tarot

The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow.

Cards of its signs:

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