Confirmed: Lana Del Rey Is a Cancer, Not a Gemini

Download the Astro Guide app by VICE on an iOS device to read daily horoscopes personalized for your sun, moon, and rising signs, and learn how to apply cosmic events to self care, your friendships, and relationships.

The long-running dispute over whether Lana Del Rey is a Cancer or Gemini is now over, because Lana Del Rey tweeted her birth time at me.

The singer and poet’s birth time was once thought to be 2:46 AM on the summer solstice, June 21. This is according to astrology website Astrotheme, which, this time, sourced the information from a comment thread on a now-deleted Instagram post that looks like it’s from 2013. The 2:46 AM birth time would make her sun sign Gemini—but according to Del Rey’s seminal Twitter reply, she was born at 4:47 PM, making her sun sign Cancer.

Del Rey’s old chart made perfect sense to me! As a Gemini enthusiast, LDR stan, and cusp myth-buster, I always advocated for Lana as an exemplary Gemini. I once thought that it made sense for her to be mistaken as a Cancer sun because regardless of the time of day, Gemini’s planetary ruler Mercury is in Cancer on June 21, 1985, which is what I would have pointed to if someone described her emotionally lucid lyrics and sometimes tearful stage presence as an expression of her Cancer sun.

There are photos of her wearing a necklace that says “Gemini,” too, but she must have only recently found her birth certificate, because it turns out she’s a Cancer. This could also be a classic Gemini prank, though her new birth chart checks out.

Judging by her lyrics, I think she’s known about her updated birth time for a while: Her most recent album, Lust for Life, has mentions of the “tropic of Cancer” in the lyrics of “Tomorrow Never Came,” a collaboration with Sean Ono Lennon released in 2017. A poem published to Instagram mentions the tropic of Cancer and even has the line, “I’m the crying crustacean.” Another poem, published to Twitter, uses astronomy terminology.

Whenever a birth time is updated, things can change in a natal chart: the angles, which tell one’s rising sign and houses, and placements for planets that are at the very beginning or end of a sign. For people born at the beginning or end of a sign’s season, a one-minute difference can change their entire sun sign. (And, no, cusps are not real!) An exact birth time is the best way to get the most out of astrology as a tool.

What does Lana Del Rey’s new natal chart look like? She used to be a Taurus rising, but now she is a Scorpio rising. Scorpio is Taurus’s opposite sign, so her chart has been rotated 180 degrees. It makes sense this way, and it makes sense why the old way made sense, too: Scorpio rising characterizes her mystery and Scorpio’s driven planetary ruler Mars is in competition with the rays of the sun. Aggressive Mars and the sun can together be described as a lust for life, but also echoes the “Coachella - Woodstock in my Mind” lyric, “critics can be so mean sometimes.” Taurus is still an important sign in Lana’s chart: She was once proud of being a Taurus rising, but now she is a Taurus setting (the technical term is "descendant"). Taurus, the stubborn, sensual, and glamorous earth sign, more accurately describes how she relates to others than her own individual presence. Venus—the planet that rules love, beauty, and values—at home in vocal Taurus is an apt placement for a singer.

Her Cancer sun is in the 9th house, illuminating the sector of her chart associated with publishing and religious faith, among other things, along with communication planet Mercury and action planet Mars, which reveals a strong impulse to share her writing in a way that resonates with the world on a dreamy, spiritual, universal subconscious level. This chart gives me major high priestess vibes: The sun is in the house of the moon, and the moon is in the house of the sun. This is one powerful mutual reception. Her moon is in high-drama Leo, but with her new birth time it’s in the 10th house of fame and recognition—stardom is written in her destiny.

Randon Rosenbohm is an astrologer writing horoscopes for Vice's Astro Guide. Follow her on Twitter.