Cardinal
Cardinal is the modality of the four signs that open the seasons. It stands for initiative and the decision to set something in motion. In a chart, the weight of Cardinal measures how much of the personality starts things.
initiative, opening, direction
Overview
The modality that starts: each of these four signs opens a season.
Cardinal is the moment of turning — the equinoxes and the solstices. It is the impulse that produces a direction, not the endurance that keeps it.
Interpretation
The four cardinal signs begin the seasons: Aries opens spring, Cancer summer, Libra autumn, Capricorn winter. Each acts in the register of its own element — Aries by force, Cancer by care, Libra by relation, Capricorn by structure — but all four share the instinct to initiate rather than to wait.
Abundant Cardinal gives drive, decisiveness and a talent for openings, together with a long trail of unfinished beginnings. Scarce Cardinal gives depth and continuity, and the tendency to wait for a push from outside, or from a situation that has become intolerable.
In the chart