While Valentine’s Day is for lovers, some among us lay on the roses and the schmaltz, the candlelight, the cutesy s–t and revel in an unabashedly romantic flare a full 365 days of the year.
Romance is spoken and demonstrated by all the signs in different forms and many of the most romantic gestures in history were made by zodiac signs that didn’t make this particular list; OG f–k boi Casanova was an Aries, a bereaved Capricorn commissioned the Taj Mahal as tomb/testament of love for his departed wife and Gemini composer Richard Wagner wrote a symphony for his lady love and had a full scale orchestra perform it outside of her bedroom door. Casual.
In terms of fixed signs, Shakespeare was a Taurus and fellow bulls and unabashed love birds Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox routinely drink each other’s blood as a sign of their devotion. Be still my beating goth heart. In a similar vein, there is a naturally obsessive, extreme air to the Scorpio brand of romance, think Gunter “drop thousands of roses on your house from my helicopter” Sachs, Richard “write a love letter on my death bed to my ex-wife” Burton, Jenny “put your name in the sky” McCarthy and of course the tattoo your love if it be true modality favored by romantic Scorpions Travis Barker and Pete Davidson.
I would argue that we are at our most ridiculous, irrational and absolutely beautiful when we are declaring or demonstrating love in a gas station parking lot. With the right person, a gas station can be every bit as romantic as a high end hotel. As Elinor Glyn, a Libra and inventor of the modern romance genre as we know it mused, “Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze.”
In a surrender to that haze and in honor of eros, agape, passion and performance, Valentine’s Day and every other day born of love and longing, I bring you a list of the most romantic signs in the zodiac. Make sure and read for your Venus sign as well and if you’re at a loss for how to bring the romance to your date night, have a look at our guide. Read on, love on, shine on.
Ruled by the moon and governed by emotion, romance is the siren song of this cardinal water sign. If it is shamelessly sentimental and borderline cringe, it’s Cancer, like that time Arianna Grande released as song called “Pete Davidson,” or when Tom Cruise went bat***t crazy and feet on couch in the name of love. When the mood strikes or the moon compels, this sort is easily swept away by reckless romanticism, think getting matching tattoos after a few weeks (looking at you Ari) or married after four days, a la Pamela Anderson.
Indeed, Cancers are willing to go to great lengths, unbelievable depths and suffer terrible pain in the name of love. Examples of romantic Cancers include poet Pablo Neruda and royals Edward VIII who abdicated the throne to marry the American woman he loved and Henry VIII who was willing to get himself excommunicated and his wives executed to fulfill his romantic impulses. Cancer is the most nostalgic and forgiving of all the zodiac signs, the classic recipe for a hopeless romantic. Given the vantage of time, all things become acutely beautiful to the Cancer native including but not limited to high school and the ex that ruined their credit and tried to run them over with a golf cart.
As rulers of the fifth house of passion and play, love and creativity, Leos make an art of romance. Lions oft conceive of themselves as demigods deserving of worship which would be insufferable were it not for the fact that they are willing to bend the knee, buy the rose and burn the sacrificial offering for the ones they love. Indeed Leo gives as good as it gets and there is a theatrical ‘roar it from the rooftops’ quality to their romantic side. Case in point, lion Ben Affleck placing advertisements in Variety Magazine and The Hollywood Reporter to list his favorite things about Jennifer Lopez while she was still married to Chris Judd. Bold my dude, bold.
Lion king Jason Momoa, who has both sun and Venus in Leo upped the stakes and the horse power on romance when he restored then wife Lisa Bonet’s first car, a 1965 Ford Mustang. Further examples of romantic lions include Zelda Fitgerald, Charles “Raw With Love” Bukowski, Emily Brontë, Alfred Tennyson, James “I’ll Never Let Go” Cameron and P.B. Shelley.
Prone to whimsy and weeping, flights of fancy and always smelling lightly like glitter body lotion and cherry lube, Pisces is the placement of poets and doomed romantics. What differentiates Pisces from the rest of the romantics is their ceaseless optimism about love. No matter what manner of degenerate they’re tangled up with they earnestly believe that person is made of magic, redemption is nigh and love can and will conquer all; infidelity, apathy, insanity and addiction be damned!
As Pisces Elizabeth Taylor said of her tempestuous relationship with Scorpio Richard Burton, “When you are in love and lust like that, you just grab it with both hands and ride out the storm.” No one digs the ride, the fall, the storm or the wreckage quite like the people of the fish who often lose themselves in love and are equally enamored with the pleasure and the pain promised by romantic attachment.
Pisces is ruled by Neptune, planet of dreams, cinematic escape and illusion/delusion. As such these people buy hard into the fairy tale and are wonderful at making waking life feel dreamy AF for the object of their affection. Case in point, power Pisces Seal who proposed to Heidi Klum in the remote Canadian wilderness inside an IGLOO he designed for the occasion and who later insisted on renewing their wedding vows EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR.
Further evidence of the romantic temperament of Pisces can be found in double Pisces (sun and Venus) Justin Bieber who ain’t afraid to post a poem about light, abysses and the redemptive quality of Hailey Baldwin on Instagram, and who once rented out the Staples center so he and former flame Selena Gomez could watch “Titanic” on a jumbo screen.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.
