A modality is one of three traditional ways of grouping zodiac signs: cardinal, fixed, or mutable. Each group contains four signs and describes a stage in a repeating cycle.
Cardinal signs are associated with initiating, fixed signs with sustaining, and mutable signs with adapting or transitioning. These are symbolic vocabularies, not behavioral test results.
Modality is independent of element. Every sign has one modality and one element, creating twelve distinct pairings across the zodiac.