How to Appreciate an Aries
Real Life Guidance on How to Get Along and Be Friends with the First Sign of the Zodiac
By Mary EnglishJohn Hunt Publishing Ltd.
Copyright © 2013 Mary English
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78279-150-8
Contents
Acknowledgements...........................................................xIntroduction...............................................................11. The Sign................................................................42. How to Make a Chart.....................................................243. The Ascendant...........................................................274. The Moon................................................................365. The Houses..............................................................446. The Difficulties........................................................527. The Solutions...........................................................618. Appreciating Tactics....................................................67Astrological Chart Information and Birth Data..............................92Further Information........................................................95References.................................................................96
CHAPTER 1
The Sign
As a kid, I always was obsessed with Houdini.
David Blaine (both Houdini and David Blaine are Aries)
Assertive, honest, impatient. These three qualities are attributedto Aries the Ram, the first sign of the Zodiac in Astrology.
So what is a sign of the Zodiac?
What is Astrology?
Where and why did Aries get its name and what do peoplethink about Aries today?
All these questions and more will be answered in this littlebook.
I learned a little about Aries while researching this book.Originally I'd decided to call it How to Tackle an Aries but one ofmy (very nice) newsletter subscribers objected (quite rightly) tothis rather outdated and unfair portrayal of her character type. Totackle an Aries suggests they are a type of person who is alwayson the lookout for a fight. It's a boxing term. It's also a fishingterm as tackle is what you take along to catch fish.
So Mary (as that is also this lady's name) and I had anexchange of emails:
How to Tackle an Aries!!! Mary, please, not that! It has theconnotation of bringing us to our knees! Bringing us down ... Which,of course, is a favorite pastime of many people.
And right now I'm feeling flattened; so that title is just the lastthing I want to see! Non-Aries people may rejoice at the title, but Ican't imagine any Aries being happy with it. I know the word'tackle' has other connotations; but I sure don't like it one little bit!
Is it not possible to 'Admire an Aries'??? Accept an Aries? Livein Accord with an Aries? Adapt to an Aries? Analyze an Aries?Anchor an Aries? Coexist with an Aries? Appeal to an Aries?Appraise an Aries?
How to Appreciate an Aries would be nice. That gives youplenty of room to list all of our negative aspects as well as how todeal with them.
Mary
Me:
Hi Mary,
I'm glad you replied.
I was worried about the title, which is why I sent the titlesin the email ... will develop a new one and get back to you :)
Mary xx
Mary:
Thank you! I'm sure you'll come up with something clever.M
Me:
How to Anchor an Aries?
Mary xx
Mary:
Not bad; but would you really want to tie us down??? It did soundOK to me at first, but we are pretty independent.
Again, it's one of those words that can be taken two ways – wedo need grounding/anchoring (at least I do, since I'm mostly Fireand Air); but tying us down – anchoring us to a pier/post or in themiddle of the sea – would be anathema! You do want us to be outthere exploring, pioneering, and blazing trails, don't you? ;-)
Why don't you like 'Appreciate'?
Mary
Me:
Oh I missed 'Appreciate' ... I will give that some thought; goodidea! I am working on this today!
Speak soon,Mary xxx
Me:
What would you want people to know the most aboutAries? ... Where has the misunderstanding mostly affectedyou?
Mary:
We may be blunt, but we mean no harm.
Me:
'Appreciate' is good but sounds a bit Leo ... like all an Arieswants is praise.
What about 'Accept'?
You've suggested that already and I'm beginning to likeit ... if more people accepted the way Aries are, exploring,pioneering, trail-blazing ... wouldn't that make it easier for anAries to feel happier?
Hmm ... 'Accept' is beginning to sound nice ... what do youthink?
Mary xx
Mary:
'Accept' is OK, but not terribly catchy. God knows, acceptancewould be a blessing, however!
I guess I still prefer 'Appreciate', which is much different than'Admire', which is more Leonian. We certainly do not look forpraise, but I think we would like our unique talents and abilities tobe appreciated (recognized) in spite of our obvious drawbacks.
How about 'Understand'? How to Understand an Aries.
Mary
Me:
'Appreciate' ... checked with hubbie – his mum was Aries.
'Appreciate' it is!
Thank you Mary xxx, very helpful xxx
This exchange of emails, I hasten to add, occurred not when I'dstarted writing the book, but a few days before I finished it, andwas off to the retreat to complete the writing of it. This is whereAries strength lies. They don't waste energy on something thatisn't needed NOW, this very moment in time ...
As you can see from the above exchange, Mary didn't releaseher grasp from her idea until she was sure I had grasped whatshe wanted me to know. As the exchange went further, shestopped signing her name, didn't begin her email withmine ... she just GOT TO THE POINT ... and it's this that canstartle other signs of the Zodiac: Aries' ability to be so blunt! ButMary was blunt for a reason. This was her sign that she wastalking about. Her moniker. Her flesh and blood.
People can be very protective of their sign of the Zodiac, evenpeople who don't follow Astrology much.
So, there we have it. How to Appreciate an Aries.
Don't need to write the book now, do I? You've completelyunderstood what 'appreciate' is all about.
No?
Let's get a little perspective on Astrology itself before we getfurther into understanding this sign.
So what is Astrology? As Nicholas Campion says: 'Astrology'scharacter descriptions constitute the world's oldest psychologicalmodel ... which remains the most widely known form of personalityanalysis.'
This is very true. We use Astrology to describe people'spersonalities, not just make predictions. I don't actually do muchpredicting in my practice; I mostly do E.F.A: Emotional First Aid.
Astrology began a long, long time ago, more than 2,000 years.It's even mentioned in the Bible – remember the Three Wise Men?They were following a star ...
A Very Brief History of Astrology
Christopher McIntosh, a historian, tells us in his Man, Myth andMagic: Astrology:
In Babylonia, where Astrology began, astrological knowledgewas regarded as an important part of a man's education. It wassaid, for example, as proof of the indolence of King Ninus that'he saw no star, nor seeing it took note'.
The less educated classes worshipped the stars in a cruderway, looking on them as deities, but everyone was familiarwith the planetary and constellation figures ...
Babylonian astrology was, at first, used only to predictgeneral events such as natural disasters, wars, rebellions andthe like. But about the time of Alexander's conquest of thatarea (4th century BC), individual horoscopes began to be cast.
Eventually Astrology made its way, by word of mouth, across theoceans to Greece, Egypt, Rome in Italy, and then to the rest ofEurope, changing little in meaning and delivery in that time. Thesymbols we use today are still the same universal symbols, sothat people from all walks of life can understand them, and youwill too.
Early astrologers had to be able to read and write andcalculate difficult mathematical placements of the planets,something that computers now do easily. You won't have to doanything difficult to make the birth charts we're going to make inthis book.
I'd like to make a few distinctions about what Astrology is,and isn't. A lot of people seem to think that Astrology is all aboutprediction. As if all astrologers do all day is look 'into the future'.This is not entirely true. There are all sorts of astrologers, just asthere are all sorts of people.
Some astrologers are interested in the history of Astrology;some involve themselves in counselling, or business advice, orSun-sign columns in the media, or personality profiling. Someare interested in psychology, health, relationships or politics, butall, mostly, are interested in the 'whys' of life and the reasons.They are interested in the meaning of life.
Basic Principles
When we talk about Sun signs, what we mean is the sign that theSun (that big ball of flames) was in on the day the person wasborn. And when we say 'sign' all we mean is the portion of thesky we've denoted to 'be' that sign of the Zodiac. Just like I livein the county of Bath and NE Somerset, while you might live inNew York, NY. The signs of the Zodiac are simply divisions ofthe sky above us. Nothing more, nothing less.
And Astrology isn't just about the Sun. Along with the Moonand the Sun there are at least nine other celestial bodies in thesky that we observe and plot their paths as they orbit around theSun: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the three morerecent discoveries of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto which Idiscussed in my books How to Bond with an Aquarius, How toSurvive a Pisces and How to Win the Trust of a Scorpio respectively.
Astrology and astronomy were once the same science butthey've now parted company. We still use astronomical data tocalculate a birth chart, but the difference between astronomersand us is the meaning behind those planetary placements.
The Study of the Planets, Not the Stars
Astrology is the study of the planets. Not the stars. The stars justhang in the sky millions of miles away. They don't orbit aroundour Sun, and they are visible all year round from Earth. Not inthe same places because, don't forget, the Earth moves on its axis,so at different times of year, different parts of the Earth are facinginto different parts of space.
The planets are in our neighbourhood and orbit around thesame Sun as us. If we were to make a little map of those planetson the day you were born, that would be what we call a'horoscope', or 'birth chart' or, as they call it in America, a 'natalchart'.
So there we are, orbiting around the Sun. All day, every day.
And all these other planets in our solar system are doing thesame thing. Not at the same time, or the same distance or eventhe same speed, but for the last gazillion years and a few moregazillion to go, we will be orbiting the Sun.
Now the early astrologers didn't know that we orbited theSun. All they knew was what they could see, which is the Sunmaking its way across a thing called the 'ecliptic path' every day,and as they plotted it, they saw that at certain times of the year itwas in different places. They thought, quite understandably, thatthe Sun orbited around the Earth, because at night it isn'tvisible ... where has it gone? They weren't daft. They knew theSun and the other planets would appear again ... but when?
That's when the early astronomer/astrologer Babyloniansplotted the paths of the bits they could see in their clear nightskies. They saw that only certain blobs in the sky moved. Somewere always there, like the Polaris star or Pegasus ... but blobslike Venus came and went.
They also came to the conclusion that there must be aconnection between these heavenly bodies and our life here onEarth. And why wouldn't it be so? We're all part of the sameuniverse. All living in the same bit of space. Surely there must besome sort of connection between us?
Neighbourhood Watch
It's a bit like neighbours. You might be like most people, nevervisiting or talking to your neighbours, getting on with your life,sure in the knowledge that they're doing their thing and you'redoing yours. But what if you found out their names, and whatthey did for a living? ... Maybe they could help you if you have aflood when your washing machine breaks down, or you coulduse their freezer when yours conks out, or when they're goingaway on holiday you could feed their budgie/cat/hamster/rabbit.
It's like that in the universe. It doesn't necessarily make ourlives any better knowing our neighbours, but if we noticed thatevery time we had a hurricane, Mars was in Gemini, we mightpay more attention.
That's the basic principle of Astrology. An awareness of ourneighbours and an understanding that we're not alone in theuniverse, and those planetary bodies are our friends.
Our Cosmic Fingerprint
So a horoscope is a bit like a fingerprint; it tells us aboutourselves and our potential.
So what is an Aries? An Aries is a person who is born whenthe Sun was in the bit of the sky we've called 'Aries'. And that bitof the sky (from our view on Earth) is determined by the springsolstice. That happens generally around 21st March and, as thereare 12 signs of the Zodiac, we divide the year up into 12 equalportions, and the Aries portion lasts until 20th April.
However, just to make things difficult, it does depend onwhere in the world you were born and at what time of day. Ifyour Aries was born at 2am on 21st March, they might still be aPisces, so we're going to use a nice reliable website to give us thecorrect and accurate information.
Each sign of the Zodiac has a planet that 'looks after it'. Wecall it their 'ruler'. The ruler to Aries is Mars, the God of War.
The Astronomy of Mars
The surface of Mars is covered with a layer of iron oxide or rust,which makes it look red from our view on Earth. It is often called'the red planet' and most resembles Earth even though it is a lotsmaller, just 4,222 miles in diameter.
Unlike the Moon, Mars' surface is weathered by winds and itsdesert surface has seasonal dust storms. Various probes havebeen sent to the surface over the years and have discoveredchannels and gulleys which appear to have been sculpted byrunning water.
Like the Earth, Mars has seasons and weather and it takes justover 24 hours to rotate once on its axis. However, it takes 687days to orbit the Sun, which is longer than our year of 365 days.
During a winter on Mars, a third of its atmosphere can remainfrozen above the polar ice caps. It also bears the scars of a heavybombardment of meteoroids that formed impact craters andbasins.
It was first viewed by the USA's 'Mariner 4' in 1965; then againbetween 1971 and 1972 'Mariner 9' viewed the planet. In 1976 theUS spacecraft 'Viking' descended to its surface but producedinconclusive results. During the 1990s the Mars 'Pathfinder'landed in the Valley of Ares, which is rather fitting as a name!
Since then, further information has been recorded about itsatmosphere, rock surface and weather conditions.
Mars is also host to two moons named Phobos and Deimosafter two of Ares' sons, according to Greek mythology.
The best time to observe Mars is when it is in opposition to(opposite) the Sun and closest to Earth. During this alignment ofMars, the Earth and the Sun, which takes place every 26 months,Mars' red glow can be seen with the naked eye.
Mars in Astrology
Mars is the red planet, the colour of blood and emotion and, notsurprisingly perhaps, the God of War to the ancients. If Venus isthe archetypal girlie of the solar system, Mars is the original lad,standing for ambition, competitiveness, willpower and the activepursuit of the attractive.
Mars was the Roman God of War, and the planet Marssymbolizes our aggressive nature. The appearance of the planetMars, in its fiery red colour, suggests action. We also tend to hearit being referred to as 'the angry red planet' and other suchterms. Mars represents how we go about getting the things wewant, how we assert ourselves and express our independence,and also how we defend ourselves when we are underattack. Mars is the complement to Venus, and both have to dowith the mechanics of desire and attraction.
Mars also represents our courage, determination, andfreedom of spontaneous impulse. People ruled by Mars arenoticeably ambitious, positive and fond of leadership. They arequite inventive and mechanical and can become good designers,builders and managers, and usually make their way to the frontof whatever they undertake.
Words that are related to Mars are the name of the monthMarch, the name of the planet Mars (hence the Martians), martiallaw and martial arts.
Now don't just take my word for it. I'm not the first astrologerto write about the Sun signs.
The Best-Selling Astrological Author
Someone who wrote only about the Sun signs (not the otherplanets or how to make a chart) and who managed to get herbook Linda Goodman's Sun Signs onto the New York Times BestSellers List with over one million copies sold by 1976 was, as thename suggests, a lady called Linda Goodman.
Linda was an Aries, so we can be sure that her description ofher sign is accurate, as writing about what you know is easierwhen you're actually living it:
Have you recently met an unusually friendly person with aforceful manner, a firm handshake and an instant smile? Getready for a dizzy dash around the mulberry bush. You've justbeen adopted by an Aries. Especially if you found it a littletough to take the lead in the conversation.
Is he committed to some idealistic cause and angrilydefending the underdog? That figures. Male or female, thesepeople will fight what they feel is injustice on the spot, andthey're not bashful about voicing their opinions. The ram willtalk back to a traffic cop or an armed gangster with equalvigour; if either one happens to annoy him. He might regret itlater, but caution won't concern him in the heat of themoment. Mars people come straight to the point, with noshilly-shallying.
(Continues...)Excerpted from How to Appreciate an Aries by Mary English. Copyright © 2013 Mary English. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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