Aries

What the sign is like

Aries opens the zodiac, so I always think of it as the one who goes first. When a path needs clearing so other people can follow, Aries picks up the tools.

The energy comes in bursts. Give Aries a clear direction and it moves with real force. It lights up when there is something to push against, and it can lose interest just as fast once the thrill wears off.

There is a lot of courage here, and a lot of honesty. The older books also saw impatience, a habit of charging ahead before the ground is checked, and a mind that is wonderful in an emergency and less keen on the long plan.

With other people

Aries people are often easy to be around. Their enthusiasm is catching, and they stay young in spirit for a long time.

They can flare up fast when they disagree with someone they love. The anger usually passes quickly. The words said in it sometimes stay. The old advice was simple: slow down, consider the other person, and you will keep the people who matter.

The older books said Aries feels most at home with the other fire signs, Leo and Sagittarius, and has to bend a little more with Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.

How it was read before

Older astrology read a sign by putting several symbols side by side. For Aries that meant Mars as its ruler, the Sun at its strongest here, the Ram, and a tarot card. Together they made one picture.

The same books split each sign into an active and a quieter type. For Aries they set the ram that butts ahead against the sheep that follows the flock. The ram was the one they hoped you would grow into.

They also noticed the cusp. Someone born in the last week of Aries, as the Sun moves into Taurus, was thought to carry a little of both: the Aries spark with some Taurus patience.

Its tarot card

The card for Aries is The Emperor. The 1927 book names it on its very first page about the sign.

I read The Emperor as structure, protection and leadership. Put that next to the Ram and you see the best of Aries: the courage to begin, held steady by something solid.

Sit with this

If you have a lot of Aries in you, your energy wants to move. That is a gift. Ask yourself where it is going.

Starting is easy for you. Staying is where the growth is. Before you charge in today, take one breath and check the ground.

Your fire is yours to direct. Energy shifts and changes, and so can the way you use it.