November 4 zodiac sign: Scorpio

A few days from the midpoint of autumn

The Sun is about 12 degrees into Scorpio on November 4, at roughly the middle of the northern autumn. The astronomical cross-quarter point, halfway between the equinox and the solstice, arrives a few days later, around November 7, when the Sun reaches 225 degrees; many traditions keep their autumn feast close to it, with Samhain on November 1 the best known.

In the United States, Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, so it falls between November 2 and 8, and November 4 is that Tuesday in some years. It is a calendar coincidence, but it explains why the date is one many people know without an astrological reason.

In the United States clocks have gone back on the first Sunday of November since 2007, a date that runs from the 1st to the 7th, and November 4 is that Sunday in some years. From 1967 to 2006 the change came on the last Sunday of October, so a November 4 birth in those years was already on standard time. It matters to charts, because a birth time recorded around the changeover needs to be marked as daylight or standard time, and other countries follow other rules. A one-hour error does not change the Sun sign, but it can change the rising sign.

Where November 4 sits in Scorpio

Mid-Scorpio is the sign as the tradition draws it: fixed water, private, determined and drawn to what lies below the surface. Since the boundary with Sagittarius is more than two weeks off, no cusp reading applies. Whatever blending is attributed to this birthday comes from the decan or the Moon, not from a neighbouring sign.

The Sun does not change sign on this date in any year or time zone we checked. The next sign, Sagittarius, starts on November 22 on the calendar, so November 4 reads as Scorpio throughout.

The Scorpio decan for November 4

November 4 falls in decan 2 of Scorpio, November 2 to 11, ruled by Pisces. Each sign is cut into three decans of about ten days, ruled in turn by the sign itself and the next two signs of its element.

Pisces, the other water sign, takes the second Scorpio decan, and the reading adds a dreamier, more porous note to Scorpio's focus. In the old decan tables this middle stretch is the one most associated with imagination and secrecy, which is an observation about the tradition, not the person.

Birthday number 4 for November 4

The day 4 is already a single digit. No step lands on a master number.

A 4 stays a 4, and numerology reads it as the number of structure, there being four seasons, four directions and four elements in the zodiac scheme itself. The date's digit therefore matches something the zodiac already uses, which is a tidy coincidence for readers who enjoy that sort of thing.

The November birthstone

Birthstones follow the month and not the day, so a birthday on November 4 shares Topaz (also Citrine) with every other November birthday. See November birthstones.

Dates next to November 4

• November 3: Scorpio
• November 5: Scorpio

Other November dates with their own page: November 19, November 20, November 21, November 22, November 23.