Those born from March 22 to April 21, or those who have this sign rising at birth (which can be ascertained only through a knowledge of the hour of birth), will come under the dominion of the fiery, cardinal sign Aries, symbolized by the Ram, which rules the head.
The sign of Aries, or the Ram, is the first in the zodiac. Mars, the "God of War," is its ruler, and the Sun is exalted therein. In the Tarot, it refers to the card called "The Emperor," and by putting together these four facts we get a fairly complete hieroglyphic of the meaning of the sign.
Each of the signs is divided into two main types, the active and the passive. As a general rule, the active type may be called the masculine; the passive, the feminine. In Aries, on the one hand, we have the restless and butting ram; on the other, the helpless and unoriginal sheep. It should be remembered that Aries is a sign of short ascension, so that the Ascendant is always complicated by Taurus. The pure Aries type is rare, which is fortunate, perhaps, as the active type especially needs the steadying modification of a more stable sign and the passive type can be strengthened by forceful characteristics due to such modifying relations. {3}
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The personal appearance of those with Aries rising is very often characteristic of its symbol and, in the great majority of cases, the expert Astrologer can distinguish at a glance what sign was rising at the nativity of any Aries person. The indications are not infallible, however, because it sometimes occurs that planets of a nature contrary to the sign are rising in it, or the lord of the sign may be so weak and afflicted that the characteristics are blurred. Sometimes this blurring is not sufficient to upset the judgment. It is of the utmost importance that the Astrologer practice constantly his judgment in this respect, verifying it wherever possible. In this way he will be able to make sure of obtaining the correct time of birth in cases where people do not know their hour.
The active type of Aries is tall, slim, muscular. The physical energy is very great, but somewhat spasmodic; there is no great power of endurance. The energy increases as long as things are going smoothly, and momentary opposition is easily broken down, but there is little capacity to fight an uphill battle. The head is usually marked by a cranium long in proportion to its breadth. The hair is often light brown or reddish; the eyes are somewhat blue and cold, with a keen and haughty expression. The Aries man is intensely proud, often insufferably so. This characteristic is seen in the general expression of the face. The most characteristic of all the Aries signs is the shape of the nose. This need not be actually very big or long, but even when small it has a trick of standing out from the face: it is an uncompromising nose. Its line is sometimes aquiline, but more usually {4} straight. In the latter case, it sometimes possesses a slight waviness. It seems to radiate independence and strength of character, but this is only too frequently somewhat delusive. The mouth is usually thin and the chin sharp and prominent. There is a severity and reticence in the type. The body is usually well formed, with a tendency to length of limb. This type very rarely accumulates fat.
The constitution is powerful, but rater delicate. Sudden effort is more natural to it than endurance. Aries governs the head and face, and people born with this sign rising are particularly liable to fevers, apoplexy, stomach trouble, headaches and violent diseases in general. The nervous system is high-strung, and people with this sign rising often have trouble in this respect, particularly if subjected to any long-continued strain. They sometime die suddenly, and in any case are not likely to suffer from long or chronic illness. Either they die or they recover in a short space of time, because their constitution is not adapted for a long fight. These people are peculiarly liable to wounds and accidents, possibly because of the physical fearlessness they possess.
The passive type of person with Aries rising is rather like a caricature of his more fortunate brother. The skull is more rounded, the eyes are also pale and blue, but they have a timid and furtive expression. The nose is fleshier, the mouth fuller, the chin less pronounced, and the profile exceedingly like that of a sheep, or suggestive of it. The body is short and given to quick, restless movements, timid and purposeless, as if perpetual irritation were present. There is no general physical activity; the ambitious and dominating attitude of the noble type of Aries is replaced {5} by a cringing greed. The eyes often bulge like those of Pisces people. The man seems always to be apologizing for his existence.
With women, the active type is so unfeminine that those who are built on this model are apt to be sympathetic to the average man. They lack seductiveness and repose. The lower type is, in a way, more tolerable, because more tractable. To those, however, who see deeper than the surface, the active type of Aries woman will appear one of the best that exists. To such minds there is something extraordinarily attractive in the clean, proud appearance of such women with their highly developed personality.
MORAL CHARACTERISTICS
Aries is the pioneer among the signs. He may not discover a new continent but he is the man with the ax who makes the clearing for the settlement. He is capable of initiative, but lacks persistency in execution. The right orders being given, though they may be accepted with some impatience, are carried out with immense energy. There is something of the cavalryman about the Aries man. If his charge is successful, well and good, but if it is broken he can do little to repel a counter-attack.
The characteristics of the ram are singularly strong in these people. They are extraordinarily aggressive and self-willed. Their ambition is boundless, and opposition merely excites them to greater effort. At the same time, they occasionally lose interest in a matter as suddenly as they take it up. They are headstrong, excitable and impulsive.
People born with Aries rising are often narrow in outlook. {6} To begin with, their horizon is apt to be limited by the material plane. The English, who bitterly opposed the introduction of the steam engine, were totally unable to conceive that their beloved commerce would ultimately be made easier and more profitable by this "crack-brained invention." Not only is the horizon limited in this way; it is narrow in that the ambitions and desires of the Aries man are in a small grove, even with regard to things which more sensible people look upon as parallels; thus, a lawyer with Aries rising will have little comprehension of the work of a doctor or an architect. Indeed, in his own profession he is likely to have little sympathy with other branches than his own specialty. In religion, Aries people are naturally extremely intolerant. It is difficult to say whether the characteristic pride of the type is cause, effect or a concomitant of this mental narrowness.
The Aries man is intensely practical, once he is set to a business he happens to understand, but even in this case, he lacks the power to carry on against opposition, especially if it be of the type
of reasoning that goes over his head. He is bewildered by men who are in advance of him, either mentally or morally. He feels that it is horribly unfair when people will not fight him with weapons of his own choice. He is, as a rule, incapable of visioning new ideas, but he always believes himself an original thinker, and he is extremely stubborn and bigoted with regard to everything that he believes.
His enthusiasm is infectious. People seek his company because he has the air of being so original, yet says nothing to shock. The Aries man is, in a sense, always young. He is optimistic because he has no means of gauging the forces opposed to him. He goes ahead magnificently, without {7} in the least appreciating the size of his job, and so confident is he of his own strength that he often fails through sheer lack of proper preparation. The attitude of the English in the present war is extremely typical of Aries -- they had no idea of the power of Germany. They expected to finish the business without any trouble. It took months to arouse them to a sense of the seriousness of the situation. Similarly, at the outbreak of the Boer war, everyone was quite sure that the British Army would eat its Christmas dinner in Pretoria. It is fortunate that Taurus, the succeeding sign, has also an influence on the English, for it is to this sign, not to Aries, that they owe their bulldog power -- the ability to reorganize in the midst of disaster and to hand on in spite of whatever blows may be inflicted upon them. The result of all his optimism is that the Aries man is constantly getting into trouble. When he can take any reputable step without too much bother, he does so. He marries without reflection or starts a business without calculation.
But although original thought is not a mental characteristic of this type, the brain is extraordinarily fertile in the devising of expedients. The Aries man is a master of diplomacy -- that is, the diplomacy of the moment, the diplomacy of emergency. In the Napoleonic wars, England continued from combination to combination in a masterly fashion, until the quarry was pulled down. It will be noted, however, that such combinations are based entirely upon the expediency of the moment; consequently one finds what seems the most extraordinary reversal of policy. The man with Aries rising can think of only one thing at a time, and when Paul has to be paid, he has no hesitation in robbing Peter for the purpose. The subsequent {8} explanation with Peter must take care of itself. He has no idea that he is being insincere or tricky, and he is furiously indignant if anyone calls attention to his policy as a whole. He cannot grasp the significance of an operation that extends over a lengthy period, and derides, as theorists or doctrinaires, those who do habitually so conceive of things.
In regard to money, people with Aries rising are extremely honest. They are generous and ready to spend freely, but they are extremely meticulous in their conceptions of what is right to spend money upon.
Aries people make very bad correspondents; their style is usually curt and dogmatic, so that the recipient is likely to feel that he is being dictated to.
Aries people are not fond of home ties; they resent parental authority, and they like to break new ground. This frequently leads them to leave home early in life. As a rule, however, the conventionality of their ideas makes them slow to recognize that they are unfilial or impatient. In matters of love, the Aries man is very rigid and conventional. He is passionate and selfish, taking somewhat the attitude of the Oriental. If he is immoral, it is in a very conventional way. He has a contempt for any advanced ideas on this subject, and is irritated at the idea of anybody presuming to think for him on this matter. The Aries woman is often quite contrary to her male parallel in matters of love. She is exceedingly independent, active and unhampered by any considerations beyond her own desires. Such women may be described as "free lances." In dealing with children and inferiors, Aries people are kind and generous but not sympathetic or considerate. {9} There is much of the martinet in the character. In the base Aries type, this amounts to studied brutality; systematic bullying. The domestic relations are consequently rarely fortunate; revolt is bound to be excited by such an attitude. Aries people are impatient of sickness. The Aries man is naturally irritable, and sickness not only offends him, as if it were the inexplicable revolt of a previously well-mannered animal (for Aries constitution is usually sanguine and strong), but there is mingled with it a sense of extreme alarm, for Aries people are very much afraid of death. They lack consciousness of immortality and like to have somebody in authority promise it to them.
In dealing with public affairs of a routine character, the Aries man is more capable than almost any other type. Similarly, in a matter like marriage, he knows his own mind so well that he wins out against men greatly superior to him, who are hampered by some lurking doubt of the wisdom of the proceeding. Routine business where the habit of quick decision, of authority, of unbending firmness is more valuable than many higher qualities, is the very atmosphere for Aries people. They fall down only when confronted by something outside of the routine. The unexpected leaves them without resources, except those of mere adroitness; once get them off the beaten track, confront them with a genuinely new problem, and they are completely at sea. In general mental work, we find the same traits of character. A man of science, for example, will do a great deal to advance his particular branch on conventional lines. He will be unable to get new light from analogy or to take advantage of development in other lines of life, {10} unless the parallelism be extraordinarily close. His conservatism will often allow other people to get ahead of him. He is not sufficiently adaptable to make himself the equal of constantly changing conditions. In commerce, what was good enough for his grandfather is good enough for him, but always with the latest improvements. He can progress on given lines, but he cannot change radically.
There is some danger that the Aries man, especially of the more thoughtful type, may be a jack-of-all-trades. He is usually very quick at picking up elements of anything, but when he comes to the hard work, where his energy has to be supplemented by a great many other qualities, he is only too likely to throw up the whole business in disgust. Similarly, his friendships do not easily stand the stress of disagreement. In all friendships there comes a time when the fundamental differences come to the surface. Then it is that friendship is really tested. Aries people are apt to fly off in a rage, and though the anger may be short-lived, it often ruptures relations.
Aries people are often very eloquent and make the most popular orators because of their power to arouse enthusiasm in their hearers. They are quick, sharp, and precise in speech and go straight to the point, and while in private friendships these qualities often lead to disagreement, in appeals to the masses they are invaluable assets.
Aries people find it difficult to distinguish between the creations of their imagination and facts, and often seem to be untruthful or irresponsible. For this reason, Aries children should be encouraged to transmit their vague imaginings to paper, as this will release their pent-up energies, and may lead to something creative later in {11} life. If their imagination is suppressed, it is likely to have a very disorganizing effect on their nervous system. Parents would do well to train their Aries children not to live too much in their imagination, and to realize the realities of life. Their mental faculties are very alert, and their whole mentality keen and passionately organized; so there will be a constant tendency for them to embroider facts and present reality under an imaginative guise. The Aries nature is naturally very proud, as well as sensitive, and in youth it is inclined to resent control. Instead of protecting these children from a hot stove, let them find out by experience that it burns, bearing in mind that each succeeding stove that Fate provides may be hotter than the last.
Lack of concentration and application, as well as exaggeration, are the paramount faults of the Aries child. These children should be taught the value of rest as apart from sleep, for as a rule the nervous system is overactive. If they lose their ability to sleep, it is a sign of danger, and if
insomnia is neglected it can result in their suffering from a hypersensitive, overcritical, and most unhappy disposition. Even when given great care, they are naturally restless in mind and body, even in repose. They should practice the art of taking moments of relaxation frequently during the day.
People born from the 24th of July to the 24th of August, when the Sun is in the fiery, magnetic sign Leo, and from the 23rd of November to the 23rd of December (Sagittarius) are naturally sympathetic and helpful to those born under Aries. Because their characteristics are complementary, they are good partners for the Aries born, matrimonially or otherwise. If too intimately associated {12} with those born from the 22nd of June to the 24th of July (Cancer), 24th of September to the 24th of October (Libra), and 23rd of December to the 21st of January (Capricorn), the Aries people will find it necessary to be very adaptable; such an intimacy might result in the native of Aries becoming too dictatorial and overbearing.
Even if associated with the congenial souls, there is still a tendency for the Aries people to take an attitude indicating that they give too much thought to their own importance, or that they are disregardful of the rights or feelings of others. They must hold themselves in check and be most considerate or they will court misfortune and misunderstandings. They should cultivate the attitude of not showing authority, and strive to live in harmony with their associates.
A period of about seven days -- April 19 to April 27 -- when the vibrations of Aries are merging into those of Taurus, and Taurus still retaining some of Aries, is known as the cusp. People born between these dates will partake of the idealistic side of Aries as well as the practical side of Taurus, or a combination of the two. As Mercury, ruling the mentality, and Venus, the love nature, are so close to the Sun, they, too, may partake of some of the qualities of the adjoining signs of Aries. This will account for some of the complex personalities so difficult of comprehension.
As these deductions are drawn from the position of the Sun or Ascendant, it is probably that, among one’s best friends or uncongenial associates, some will be found who were not born at the times mentioned above. In such cases the individual horoscopes must be consulted to ascertain how the stars combine with those of the Aries-born, {13} and thus determine what effect the combinations of influences have upon each other.
These indications are only general and will not cover all the characteristics of an individual as he knows himself, since those born under the sign Aries are subject to modification by the planets. All the planets vibrate true to their own laws at any given moment of time, and it is evident, therefore, that a detailed statement or horoscope must be made to discover the whole truth.
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