Aries
Aries opens the zodiac. As the first sign of the astrological year, it describes an energy of beginnings: the urge to act at once, to go straight for the goal and to test itself against the real world. Any planet placed in it takes on that colour of drive and candour.
The fire of beginnings
Aries is a fire sign, like Leo and Sagittarius. Fire is the element of enthusiasm, confidence and vital drive: it warms, it lights the way, it pushes people to take things on. Its modality is cardinal, shared with Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, the signs that open a season. Aries is therefore fire at the moment of its birth, the spark rather than the hearth, and the Sun enters it just as spring begins in the northern hemisphere.
Mars rules the sign and is at home here: assertion, courage and the wish to act go straight to the point. The Sun is exalted in Aries, which says how easily will and vitality unfold in this sign. Venus is in detriment, since patient seduction is not this sign’s language, and Saturn is in its fall, caution and the long haul sitting uneasily with it. Opposite lies Libra, and together they form the axis of self and other: what Aries dares alone, Libra learns to do with someone else.
A pioneer’s temperament
Aries lives in the present and in action. It sees an obstacle and immediately looks for a way over it; it has an idea and wants to try it the same day. This temperament has a gift for initiative: it launches the projects others leave to ripen indefinitely, it dares to ask the first question in a meeting, it stands up for whoever is being pushed around. Its frankness is often disarming, and its anger, quick to flare, dies down just as fast, without a grudge.
Its excesses come from the same source. In a hurry to move on, Aries can overlook details, deadlines and other people’s sensitivities, then be surprised to find it has hurt someone. It struggles with waiting, with lengthy procedures, with routine that leads nowhere. It sometimes starts a great deal and finishes little, once the appeal of novelty has worn off. Its fire carries further when it gives others, and things, the time to catch up.
Aries with others
Aries loves beginnings, and its bonds are often born of a surge: a conversation that catches light, a project launched with a few others, an attraction declared without beating about the bush. It suggests, it leads, it says what it thinks, so that people always know where they stand with it. Its friends find in it an ally who defends them without hesitation. At work as in love, it needs ground where boldness counts and the sense that nothing is falling asleep.
What it offers is a wholehearted presence and an energy that wakes others up. What it has to learn is listening: slowing down to hear what the other person has not yet said, accepting that someone close may not share its pace. Arguments with it are frank and short, which can unsettle slower temperaments. It forgives quickly and forgets even more quickly, to the point of being surprised at times that a friend or partner has not yet turned the page.