ARIES
March 21-April 20 Birthdays
Symbol of the sign: the Ram
Planetary ruler: Mars
Birthstone: Diamond
Best day: Tuesday
Element: Fire
Type: Cardinal
If the Sun was in Aries at your birth, you are the lucky possessor of all the qualities needed for success both in business and in love. You have courage, initia¬tive, optimism and daring. Your faults are the opposite of these splendid qualities: you are inclined to start too many tilings and let your enthusiasm wane before you have pushed far enough to reach your goal; you can be impatient, reckless, sometimes arrogant or even bullying.
Ruled by Mars, the planet that gives energy and initi¬ative, the characteristic mode of expression of Aries peo¬ple is action. Faced with a problem, your reaction is not to withdraw and think it over, or plan carefully step by step how to overcome it. Instead, you look on the prob¬lem as a challenge, and you plunge right in to try to solve it. Sometimes this works, and in those cases Aries people can accomplish brilliant success. On the other hand, sometimes you stub your toe and have to fall back in retreat. It has been said that Aries people are like cavalry, making a reckless charge but incapable of sus¬taining the advance if it meets with real opposition.
Fortunately the next sign after Aries is Taurus, the sign most noted for its determination—and some Aries people are lucky enough to have planets in Taurus, giv¬ing them that extra measure of strength to dig in and hold on till a problem is solved. If you do not have any Taurus qualities, it is up to you to cultivate the habit of sticking to anything you have started. With the Aries ca¬pacity to advance to new ground, and enough determi¬nation not to slip back, there is no limit to what you can achieve.
Aries is the first sign in the zodiacal year, springtime in the calendar year. It partakes of the qualities of both these times; people born under this sign have a youthful optimism, a youthful drive and ambition, a youthful love for bright, gay things, people and happenings—and also a youthful selfishness.
Aries is the most individualistic of all the signs; its people are complete in themselves, and have to learn to consider the wishes and feelings of oth¬ers. At their best they are charmingly independent, lead¬ers and excutives that other people respect and follow; at their worst they can be arrogant and thoughtless, trampling on people's sensibilities and passing on with¬out even realizing what they have done.
The people of Aries have been called the pioneers of the zodiac; in their determination to push on they often manage to be ahead of the pack. They love what is lat est, newest, most modern. They love to travel, especially to out-of-the-way places or those areas where nature's beauty has managed to survive unspoiled. If a rocket ever goes to the moon, it is almost a certainty that there will be at least one Aries-born person in the crew.
Oddly enough, along with all of Aries' initiative also comes a tendency to look back to the past. Like the two-headed god Janus for whom January—the beginning of the calendar year—was named, Aries, the beginning of the zodiacal year, also has a tendency both to look to¬ward what is ahead and to look backward and assess what has gone before.
You of Aries are inclined to be in¬terested in history—especially military history, because of Aries' rulership by Mars, the god of war. Medieval history is also appealing because of its color, drama and individualism. A modern Aries executive, going soberly about his nine-to-five job, may secretly be dreaming of himself as a knight in armor riding forth in search of ad¬ventures, or performing individual feats of daring in a tournament.
Aries is the cardinal Fire Sign. A characteristic of car¬dinal signs is that they tackle problems and solve them, using whatever means is nearest to hand. The method varies, however, according to the nature of the sign it¬self. Where Cancer, for instance, would wear down the opposition gradually, Aries plunges in headlong, knock¬ing down the opposition as it sweeps on its way. The Latin word for battering ram, a weapon used for break¬ing down walls, is "ares." You can see why!
As one of the three Fire Signs (the other two are Leo and Sagittarius) Aries shares with them a capacity to arouse enthusiasm in other people. This is what makes you of Aries so successful as orators, military leaders or executives. You can inspire others to emotion, to action; you can fill them, at least momentarily, widi your own courage and desire to plunge ahead. Other people usual¬ly like you, but even if they don't they admit that noth¬ing can remain gloomy or stagnant while you are around.
You are in all things an activist, a doer. You are not especially a joiner, and you never join a club just for the sake of being part of the crowd; but if you feel strongly about anything, whether it be civic betterment or pro¬viding a home for stray cats, you will do something about it—even if it means running for public office your¬self or taking the cats into your own home. You are not the kind who says, "Wouldn't it be nice if somebody could. . . ." You not only can—you actually do. This often involves you in controversies you might easily have avoided, but Mars-ruled Aries is not especially con¬cerned with sidestepping a fight. In fact you sometimes go out of your way to find a fight to get involved in, snce you can get as much enjoyment out of flexing your psychic muscles as a good athlete does from exercising his physical prowess.
This can be a boon to your friends, who can always count on you to back them fearlessly if you feel they are being mistreated. The socially-developed Aries person can extend this combativcness into the realm of public welfare—fighting for civil rights, slum clearance and other social improvements that do not personally affect themselves or their friends. Of course there is also a neg¬ative side to Aries' combative qualities. Aries people may become domestic tyrants, overbearing bosses or the kind of crank who is always involved in legal squabbles and arguments with the neighbors.
The Mars rulership gives Aries people quick tempers, and this can sometimes be a problem to you. You can fly off the handle at a moment's notice, tell off your boss, a friend or your marriage partner, and cause upheaval the consequences of which may be difficult or even impossi¬ble to repair. If you have already learned to control your combativeness and direct it into constructive channels, you have reason to be proud. If you still allow yourself to get angry in situations where you can hurt people's feelings or spoil your own chances for success and hap piness, you must learn to count ten before you start sounding off with typical Aries vigor.
You also share with the other Fire Sign people a tend¬ency to be outgoing, both with friendliness and affection and with money. Aries people are never miserly, never hoard; what they have they want to give, and they do give, sometimes to the point of foolishness. On the other hand, subtlety and sensitivity are not part of your na¬ture, and you can sometimes unintentionally hurt the feelings even of those who have good reason to be grate¬ful for your generosity. You need to watch the tendency *o be so blunt, outspoken and forceful that more sensi¬tive people begin to think of you as arrogant, even cruel.
Along with the thrust outward, the Aries drive is up¬ward; in astrological terms the key word for Aries is "as¬piration." You always aim high, and if you do not make your goal the first time you have a marvelous capacity to pick yourself up, and start all over again. This is a part of the Aries nature, and you are not being true to your¬self if you lose your self-confidence through too many failures and stop trying. Seek friends or a marriage part¬ner who understand this need, who support your ego and help you keep your chin up when the going gets tough.
In your vocational choices, seek a job where you can aspire to leadership, or where you have at least a small area of individual decision. Aries people are not the kind who fit smoothly as "organization men" or members of committees; they must plunge ahead, and do not really care if anyone is following them or not. You have great ambition and a great capacity for leadership, and an Aries who is held back by a need to conform to an es¬tablished standard, or a timid, unimaginative boss, can become very frustrated and unhappy indeed.
Your drive for power is not caused mainly by a love for material possessions, as is the case with Taurus, or by a love for power as an end in itself, as is the case with Capricorn, Instead, you see each situation that arises in life as a chance to express yourself more fully— and you cannot develop to your fullest potential if you are in a subordinate position where you do not have this chance to express yourself.
Aries people are competitive in play as well as in work. Aries men enjoy the rougher sports, like football and boxing, and Aries women, though not necessarily tomboys, are not the kind to sit home sewing a fine seam. Since Aries rules the sense of balance, both sexes like sports where this is important—for instance, ice skat¬ing, skiing and dancing.
You born with the Sun in Aries most likely are athleti¬cally built, tall and wiry. You are careful about your ap¬pearance. Aries men tend to indulge in body building exercises; Aries women are not so concerned with keep¬ing "fit," but their interest in their appearance shows in the way they dress. They are pioneers even in this; they like bright colors and are among the first to adopt any new fashion, which they wear with dash and assurance.
But the typical Aries is not an all brawn and no brains type; you have a clear, practical and sometimes brilliant mind, and are well able to think on your feet and cope with any emergency. When a problem arises you tackle it with enthusiasm and are almost always able to find ways to get around it—sometimes very new ways. You have the courage to try solutions that have never been used before.
For all these reasons, you are often considered to be a very original thinker, but this is not actually true. You do not usually get the way-out idea in the first place; what you do is to develop someone else's idea as far as it can go, and this sometimes takes you into very new ter¬ritory. Once you get there, though, you become a little frightened; you are excellent at putting the latest trim¬mings on an old idea, but once confronted with an entirely new situation that requires rethinking along completely original lines you don't know which way to go. Your strong individualism keeps you from seeing how someone else's solution in a different field might be applied to your problem. The Aries viewpoint is inclined to be rather narrowly self-centered.
Because you are so quick at picking up ideas and pushing them forward, even though there is a limit to how far you can go, you have to be careful of & tend¬ency to become a jack of all trades who never quite makes it in any field. Once you have reached the limit of one idea you do not settle down to work hard at it, en¬joying the position you have attained; instead, you go galloping off in another direction, often letting more pa¬tient people reap the profit from something you have started.
CAREER POSSIBILITIES
With your Mars rulership and your capacity for initia¬tive, energy and resourcefulness, you are a natural lead¬er and pioneer, breaking new ground in many fields. To name just a few Sun in Aries people: Leonardo Da Vinci, the giant of medieval art and sculpture; Thomas Jefferson, who put into words many revolutionary new ideas in politics; Wilbur Wright, pioneer in the field of flight; Charlie Chaplin, originator of a land of comedy that has never been successfully imitated by anyone else. Famous women of Aries show the same forcefulness and individuality; they include Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Ilka Chase and Clare Booth Luce.
Less outstanding Aries people often succeed in fields where physical action, sharp implements or things made by fire (all of which come under Mars rulership) are important. Policeman, fireman, soldier, prizefighter, butcher, gun maker, metal worker are typical Aries oc¬cupations. Since Aries rules the head, barbers, hairdres¬sers, beauty shop operators and hat manufacturers also come within the province of your sign.
Impatient and not especially adaptable to other peo¬ple, you are not likely to be successful in occupations calling for a diplomatic or conciliatory approach in deal¬ing with the public. You may, however, be an excellent teacher, lecturer or salesman because of your forceful-ness and your contagious enthusiasm.
If other factors in your horoscope give you more pa¬tience than Aries usually has, you can do well in such Mars-ruled occupations as surgeon, dentist, carpenter or mechanic. Your strong individuality and self-confidence also help you succeed in fields where you can be a "per¬sonality": acting or politics, for instance.
HEALTH
You are not likely to worry much about health, and on the whole it is not necessary, since you have a naturally sound and strong constitution. But you should be a bit more careful than you usually are about getting the prop¬er amount of rest. The Aries constitution is high strung and has no great power of endurance, and long-contin¬ued strain may cause a breakdown of some sort.
If you work yourself into a breakdown you are very impatient with your illness and insist on getting up and around again in as short a time as possible. The Aries person is not the kind to languish in bed enjoying his ill¬ness and the extra attention it brings him. Luckily, while your illnesses can come suddenly, they usually go just as suddenly; you have great powers of recuperation and are generally fit and in good condition because of your active way of life. Low-key chronic illnesses that go on for years are not characteristic of Aries.
Your sign rules the head and eyes, and if you have any chronic health trouble it is likely to be in this area-migraine headaches, sinus infections and eyestrain, for instance. Aries people often suffer from insomnia, as they find it difficult to relax their forceful drive enough to fall asleep.
The Mars rulership of your sign makes you liable to fevers and apoplexy. You also have an inherent proneness for violent accidents; your impatience and your habit of flinging yourself recklessly into dangerous situa¬tions aggravates this, making it necessary for you to exert a real effort to avoid physical injuries—unless, of course, you think it makes you look dashingly adventur¬ous to go around with an arm or a leg in a cast.
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
The ardor and enthusiasm that characterize Aries in everything else also applies to love, and your emotions are physical and powerful—while they last. They may not last long, and the idea of building a shrine, symboli¬cally speaking, to a lost love, as Pisces would, or cherish¬ing a quiet, lifelong devotion, as Taurus does, is foreign to the Aries nature.
You may be lucky enough to marry someone who can hold his or her own with you, in which case marriage will be an amusing duel, since you have a good sense of humor. Or you may marry someone who is gentle and adaptable, who can smooth off your rougher edges and patiently follow behind to fix up the damage you have done with your bluntness and forcefulness. What you absolutely do not want is someone who neither accepts you as you are nor stands up to you, but turns away and cries with hurt feelings because you are not the way he or she wants you to be.
Aries people are inclined to be carried away by the emotions of the moment and often get involved with im¬petuous marriages—and equally impetuous divorces—be¬cause they simply can't stick to anything long and pa¬tiently enough to make a go of it when difficulties arise.
An individual horoscope is necessary to determine the proper marriage partner for any particular person, but generally speaking you would find your most suitable mates in the other Fire Signs, Leo and Sagittarius, who can match you in impetuosity and ardor, or the Air Signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, who can accept your fiery nature without being either alarmed or over¬whelmed by it.
The Water Signs, Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, would be too deeply emotional and sensitive for you. You would find the Earth Signs, Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo, a bore, and they would, besides, limit your aspira¬tions to the purely material plane, which would keep you from realizing your highest potential goals.