The essence
Aries opens the astrological year at the March equinox, when daylight in the Northern Hemisphere begins to outlast the night. It is cardinal fire, fire that ignites rather than sustains. Leo keeps a steady warmth and Sagittarius carries the flame outward, but Aries is the match strike, the decision to move while everything else is still.
Its symbol is the Ram, head lowered and charging. The sign takes its name from the constellation, and the constellation recalls the golden ram of Greek myth, which carried the children Phrixus and Helle away from danger and whose fleece Jason later sailed to find. The sign's ruler, Mars, is the Roman form of Ares, god of war. Together they hold both sides of Aries: rescue and confrontation, and the willingness to risk yourself for what needs to happen. Because of precession, the Sun now stands among the stars of Pisces at the equinox, yet the sign of Aries still begins there.
Where other signs ask how or why, Aries asks now. It is the body before the mind, desire before justification.
