October Zodiac Sign: Libra or Scorpio?

October has two zodiac signs: Libra from October 1 to 22 and Scorpio from October 23 to 31. Libra, the sign of the scales, holds the first three weeks of fall color, and Scorpio takes over for the final nine days, Halloween included. In 2026 the change lands on the date the lists give, at 5:38 a.m. on October 23, Eastern time.

At a glance	Libra	Scorpio
Days in October	October 1 to 22	October 23 to 31
Full sign dates	September 23 to October 22	October 23 to November 21
Element	Air	Water
Modality	Cardinal	Fixed
Ruler	Venus	Mars, modern Pluto
Symbol	Scales	Scorpion
Sun enters in 2026	September 22, 8:05 p.m. EDT	October 23, 5:38 a.m. EDT

Every day of October by sign

This is the October split most astrologers and almanacs use. In 2026 it holds exactly, apart from a few early hours on the 23rd.

Date	Sun sign
October 1	Libra
October 2	Libra
October 3	Libra
October 4	Libra
October 5	Libra
October 6	Libra
October 7	Libra
October 8	Libra
October 9	Libra
October 10	Libra
October 11	Libra
October 12	Libra
October 13	Libra
October 14	Libra
October 15	Libra
October 16	Libra
October 17	Libra
October 18	Libra
October 19	Libra
October 20	Libra
October 21	Libra
October 22	Libra
October 23	Scorpio
October 24	Scorpio
October 25	Scorpio
October 26	Scorpio
October 27	Scorpio
October 28	Scorpio
October 29	Scorpio
October 30	Scorpio
October 31	Scorpio

Scorpio begins on October 23, 2026

Daylight saving time runs until November 1 this year, so the change comes on Eastern Daylight Time. The Sun enters Scorpio on October 23, 2026, at 5:38 a.m. EDT, which is 09:38 UTC. That figure comes straight from the Sun's computed position in the NovaOracles astronomy engine. A baby born in the Eastern time zone on October 23 before 5:38 a.m. has a Libra Sun, and one born after it has a Scorpio Sun. On the Pacific coast the change comes at 2:38 a.m., so there only a birth before 2:38 a.m. on the 23rd is still Libra.

Libra and Scorpio, air and water

Libra is cardinal air, ruled by Venus, and tradition reads it as diplomatic and attentive to fairness, the sign most at ease in partnership. Scorpio is fixed water. Mars is its classical ruler, and modern astrologers add Pluto, found in 1930. Its reading is intense and private, with a loyalty that runs deep once trust is earned. In modality, Libra starts a season and Scorpio holds it steady, so October turns from weighing things up to committing to them. Tradition also notes that both signs care about relationships: Libra looks at the balance between two people, Scorpio at what lies underneath.

Libra or Scorpio: which is your October sign

The first twenty-one days of October are Libra and the last seven are Scorpio, in every year from 1930 to 2030 by our own calculation. The 22nd to the 24th need a check. In recent decades the change has usually come on the 23rd in Eastern time, sometimes the 22nd, and in several years between the 1930s and the 1950s it came on October 24, which made the 23rd a Libra birthday. Your sign follows the date and time of birth and nothing else. With your birth year, the zodiac sign dates tool shows the Sun's sign for your date and whether the change fell on it.

What your October sign leaves out

Your October birthday names your Sun sign, the base note of the chart. The rest of the chart changes the tune: the Moon speaks to your feelings, the rising sign to how people first read you, and Venus and Mars, the two planets that rule October's signs, to what you are drawn to and how you go after it. A Libra with Venus in Scorpio may love far more intensely than the Sun sign lets on. The birth chart calculator shows all of it from your date, time and place of birth.