Aries

The Sun is in Aries from about 21 March to about 19 April. The boundary moves by a day either way depending on the year and where you were born, so if your birthday sits within a day of either end, check your actual chart before you claim the sign. Aries is a fire sign, cardinal in mode, and it is ruled by Mars. If you have read The Elements and Modes page you already know most of what that means: fire that starts things.

The nature of Aries

Aries is the beginning of everything. In the northern hemisphere, where the zodiac was first drawn up, the Sun enters Aries at the spring equinox, and the whole sign carries that feeling of a season kicking off. It is energy pointed forward.

An Aries sees what needs doing and does it. There is very little gap between the thought and the action, and almost no gap between the feeling and the words. What an Aries feels, you will hear about. What an Aries believes, an Aries chases. I have always found this restful to be around, in a strange way. You never have to guess where you stand.

It is a warrior sign, but I would rather call it a starter sign. Aries takes the first step, and in taking it shows everyone else that the step can be taken. The Number 1 page in the numerology section names Aries as its partner, and the two share almost everything, including the parts that make them hard to live with.

Strengths

Courage, first and plainly. Aries will walk into a situation other people have spent a month circling. That is rarely recklessness. Underneath it sits a simple belief that whatever comes, they can handle it, and most of the time they are right.

Aries recovers fast. It falls over, dusts itself off and goes again, and it does not carry the fall around for weeks. It is independent to the bone and would rather cut a new track than follow the one everyone else is on. It is direct, so people learn quickly that they can trust what it says. And it has a physical energy that seems to come from somewhere the rest of us do not have access to, enough to run three things at once and start a fourth.

Challenges

The shadow of Aries is speed. The same quickness that gets things started means leaping before looking, decisions made in the heat of a moment that would have looked different after a walk round the block. Patience is thin. Projects get abandoned when the results do not come straight away. Directness tips into bluntness, and the Aries who said exactly what they thought is often baffled that anyone minded.

Competition is in the blood, and it can turn into steamrolling. An Aries in full flight can forget that other people have a view, or feelings, or a slower pace that is not a fault. There is a temper, and it arrives like a storm, loud and then gone. And there is a stubborn streak once a position has been taken.

I say all this kindly. In my experience the Aries temper hides something softer, a sensitivity to criticism they would never admit to, and a loneliness that comes from always being out the front on their own. The work for Aries is small and daily: pause before you act on the feeling, and listen before you decide.

In love and friendship

Aries falls fast and burns bright. They rush in, they are generous with attention and affection, and they want a partner who can keep up, someone with their own fire who is not frightened of a raised voice. A quiet, dependent partner bores them within a month.

The difficulty is what happens after the chase. Once the conquest is complete the Aries eye can wander, looking for the next new thing. Learning to stay past the first rush, to let love settle into love rather than chasing the spark forever, is the big lesson here. Aries is also fiercely loyal and will defend the people it loves like a mother bear. The friend who turns up at 2 am without being asked is very often an Aries.

At work

Give an Aries a challenge, tell them to achieve it, and get out of the way. They are at their best starting things, leading from the front, and responding to a crisis with their head clear while everyone else is still working out what happened. They are drawn to anything where courage and quick decisions count: sport, emergency work, the services, running their own business.

They are poor at routine, worse at paperwork, and allergic to being managed closely. Self employment suits them far better than a long chain of command. They are persuasive and good in a negotiation, as long as they remember to listen. The Aries who learns patience becomes a very good leader. The one who does not becomes a good solo operator, which is also fine.

Aries as a Moon sign

With the Moon in Aries, the feelings arrive quickly and in clear colours. An Aries Moon knows what it feels almost before the situation has finished happening, and the feeling usually has a direction: toward or away, fight or chase. Boredom is felt as strongly as anger. What soothes this Moon is movement, physical activity most days, and room to act on its own impulses. Silent resentment in a partner is harder for an Aries Moon to bear than an open row, and that is worth knowing if you love one. The work is the same as for the Sun sign: learn to pause, and make peace with stillness before a life of pure action burns you out.

Aries as a Rising sign

With Aries rising, the first impression is energy. People meet someone direct, quick to engage, often walking a little faster than everyone else. The body is often lean and the manner is forthright whatever the Sun sign is doing underneath. A word of caution, though. The Rising sign needs your birth time to within about fifteen minutes, because the Ascendant changes sign roughly every two hours. "Around 2 am" is not good enough. A chart built on a guessed time is a different chart, and the Rising sign is the first thing it gets wrong.

The season of Aries

In the northern hemisphere Aries is the start of spring. The Sun crosses the equator at the equinox and the days begin to outrun the nights, which is why the sign carries so much new beginning energy. Here in Perth it is the start of autumn. The heat finally breaks, the light softens and the garden gets a second wind. The spring equinox post explains the equinox itself, so I will not repeat it here, but I think the southern view of Aries is worth sitting with. The fire of the sign does not need warm weather. It is the fire of starting, and autumn is a fine time to start something.

Across the traditions

In the tarot, Aries belongs to The Emperor, the card of structure, authority and the will to build, which is where the Aries fire goes when it grows up. Its element is fire and its mode is cardinal, and in numerology its partner is the Number 1. Each of those has its own page in The Library, and the links beside this page take you to them. The Rashis pages in the Vedic Astrology section give you the sidereal view of the same stretch of sky, which places the boundaries differently.

What would you start this week if you stopped waiting to feel ready?

If you would like your own chart read, my readings are here.

Related pages
Aries in Vedic Astrology · The Alder