Happy New Year! The spring equinox is here, and with it, a new zodiac year begins. Can you feel the ground thawing, and the world coming to life again, and your desires suddenly flowering as spring does? Can you feel the world opening its arms to you once more? Now that winter is ending, everything holds fresh promise, and everything is about to change.
After Pisces season — when dreams are vivid and emotions run fluid and deep — Aries season calls you back to your body, to your straightforward, physical desires. When the sun moves through Pisces, boundaries feel porous. And while it’s beautiful and necessary to understand the ways we’re all connected, it also makes everyday life complicated. So once the sun enters Aries, everything becomes simpler. Your thinking doesn’t need to be universal: It’s enough just to be you.
Aries — the first sign of the astrological year, from about March 20 to April 20 — is represented by the ram. Think of a ram with its powerful horns, charging forward to meet the world head-on. Less traditionally, Aries is also sometimes called the newborn baby of the zodiac. That doesn’t mean you’re helpless or immature or babyish; rather, it’s about newness and potential. From here, everything is possible. From here, it’s fully within your power to create the life that you need.
Like all the signs that mark the start of a season, Aries can be more comfortable with new beginnings than with maintaining a status quo, more comfortable taking decisive action than waiting to respond. Since Aries isn’t just the first sign of the season, but of the entire zodiac year, Aries season can be a particularly bright time for beginnings — new projects, new jobs, new relationships. It’s also, more broadly, a time for thinking boldly. You don’t have to mold your desires or temper your expectations when it’s within your power to change what is possible.
Aries energy tends to run hot, impulsive, and direct. It’s a fire sign, and it’s also ruled by Mars, the planet of drive and desire. The fact that Mars shares a name with the god of war can give the impression that Aries is somehow a “warlike” or particularly aggressive sign, but that’s not necessarily true. What is true is that Aries carries a powerful drive and determination. It’s not reason or intellect that propels Aries through the world but pure force of will. This confidence can sometimes seem like aggression, but it’s often simply straightforwardness, an unwillingness to scheme or tiptoe or lie.
The flip side of this hot energy is that Aries tends not to be the most thoughtful or careful of the signs, so while Aries season can be an incredible time to start new things, it’s not always the best time for thinking ahead to the long term. Trickery, games, and deception are also unlikely to deliver positive results, and attempts to appease others or read between the lines will often fail. If you’re accustomed to treading carefully around others and holding your true feelings back, you may fear that this straightforwardness can only result in mistakes and hurt feelings. But during Aries season, being direct can unlock powers you didn’t know you possessed.
At its best, though, Aries can provide the fire you need to feel alive, to assert yourself, to make a bright change to your life. Think about Aretha Franklin performing in a long gold gown and floor-length fur coat (think about Aretha Franklin’s voice, in general). Aries season is inviting you to embody that kind of joyful, commanding beauty. Think about every wild high-fashion outfit Celine Dion has ever worn — Aries season offers the chance to be that boldly, assuredly yourself.
In Aries season, you don’t need anyone else to believe in you — you’ve already got the confidence you need. You don’t need permission — you already know that you have a right to be here and to live your life exactly as you are. At its best, Aries season can give you the energy you need to go for it, to do your thing, to shoot your one big shot. Why not? You have this bright springtime courage, so use it!
