The star sign Aries: when spring picks up the pace

Aries opens the zodiac, and the sign shows it. Anyone born between 21 March and 20 April carries an energy that would rather get going than wait. This has nothing to do with impatience as a character flaw. It has to do with the place this sign holds in the course of the year: the point where, after months of stillness, everything suddenly starts moving again.

Why the circle starts here of all places

The calendar on your wall begins in January; the astrological circle does not. It follows the position of the Sun, and its zero point lies where day and night are of equal length in spring. For astrology that is not a mere date but an image: ground turning soft, shoots breaking out of the wood although frost can still come. Aries takes the first step before the situation is clear – that is its strength and its risk at once.

Aries is assigned to the element fire, which in astrology does not mean hot-headedness but drive and the ability to set other people alight. On top of that it belongs to the cardinal signs, the ones that open a season. Being able to begin is therefore what it is really about. How this division works is set out in the overview of the four elements.

How Aries energy shows in everyday life

In practice you rarely recognise the sign by grand explanations, mostly by the pace. An Aries decides while others are still sorting out arguments. They say what they think and are surprised afterwards that someone took it badly. With this make-up, the first impulse is often remarkably accurate, because it arrives before caution has sanded it smooth.

You probably know the other side as well. Anything that drags soon loses its appeal: the cellar that has been waiting to be cleared out since spring, the language course after the fourth lesson, the idea that was brilliant for as long as it was new. Aries people rarely have trouble starting something, and often have trouble finishing it.

Courage is not the absence of fear

Aries is readily credited with fearlessness. It is more accurate to say that it does not wait for fear: it acts, and the hesitation catches up only later. That order explains both things, the directness and the exhaustion afterwards. Anyone who has learned to put three breaths between impulse and action loses nothing of that strength – only the wreckage that would otherwise be left behind.

The famous irritability belongs here too. Anger in this sign is hot and short: it flares up, gets loud and is forgotten ten minutes later, while the other person is still chewing on it days afterwards. What sounded like a break was, for an Aries, often only a sentence.

Closeness, work and staying power

In their relationships Aries is warm, uncomplicated and surprisingly loyal. They love directly, without tactics, and expect the same in return. What leaves them at a loss is hinting. Anyone who wants an Aries to understand something says it to them. What does them good is someone opposite them who can take a headwind without catching fire in turn – someone who stays calm and still does not give in brings out their soft, almost touchingly devoted side.

At work, everything that has to be set going, rescued or fought for suits them. It becomes difficult with tasks that consist of holding patterns and rounds of consultation. An Aries who is bored does not turn lazy but restless, and that restlessness looks for a target – usually an unsuitable one. Hence the most important practical trick for this sign: divide large plans into stages that can really be completed. Anyone who sets up plenty of small beginnings keeps going for a long time.

The sun sign is only the beginning

All of this describes a basic colouring, not a person. Two Aries can be entirely unlike one another, because the Moon, the ascendant and the position of the planets shift the picture. The ascendant decides how you come across to others before you have said anything; you can read about that on the ascendant page, and the zodiac signs page gives an overview of all twelve signs. What remains the most likeable thing about this sign: Aries does not hold anything against itself for ever. It gets up, dusts itself off and tries something else.