What Aries means: the sign that starts the zodiac

A twelfth of the Sun's path

A sign is not a constellation. It is a twelfth of the ecliptic, the circle the Sun appears to travel in a year, measured from the point where the Sun crosses the equator heading north in March. That point is zero degrees Aries by definition, and every sign is the thirty degrees that follow the one before.

The equinox point drifts slowly backward against the stars, about one degree every seventy-two years, so the sign Aries and the constellation Aries parted company long ago: the Sun is in the sign Aries in late March while it stands in front of the stars of Pisces. This is the tropical zodiac, and every page on this site uses it. The dates shift by a day with the year, because the calendar and the equinox do not keep the same time, which is why every date here is approximate and carries the word 'about'.

What Aries does to a planet

A sign adds nothing to a planet; it sets the manner in which the planet works. In Aries the manner is immediate. Whatever the planet governs, it is done first, at once, and out loud, with more force at the start than at the end. Mercury in Aries says the thing before checking it. Venus in Aries asks on the first evening. Saturn in Aries pushes hardest at the beginning of a job and has to go back for the finish.

Sun, Moon and Ascendant in Aries

An Aries Sun feels most itself at the start of something: the first day, the blank wall, the race before the gun. It volunteers before the question is finished and is halfway down the corridor while the others are still agreeing.

An Aries Moon settles by acting. Upset, it goes for a run, moves the furniture, or has the argument now, and twenty minutes later cannot remember what the fuss was about. It needs to be allowed to be angry and allowed to be over it.

Aries rising arrives before the introduction. The hand is out first, the door is held open and then let go, and the plan is in motion before anyone has explained the plan. The first impression is speed.

Libra, Mars and the 1st house

Libra sits opposite Aries, so the two share an axis, the self at one end, the other person facing it, and a planet in Aries has to answer to whatever stands in Libra. Mars rules the sign, and the two are read together: Aries is where Mars's way of going after things is at home. In the natural order of the houses, Aries corresponds to the 1st: the body, how a person arrives, the first impression.