Season of the Ram: Your Guide to Aries Season
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 OF THE ZODIACS
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. 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? Combined with the planetary alignments with this year’s Spring Equinox - now is the time.
the ASTROLOGY
Aries season begins on March 20 this year, with the new moon landing the next day, March 21, around 1:30 p.m. EDT. That fiery Aries energy is going to be palpable. The sun, moon, Mercury, Jupiter, and Chiron will all be in Aries, which is going to encourage us all to tap into our sense of purpose and leadership.
Chiron is the asteroid that has a lot to do with feelings of doubt or limitation due to this pain that we all carry inside—but it corresponds to transmuting that pain into some kind of productivity, and this is also the context of this new moon.
And Aries is definitely one of the zodiac's best self-starters, so under this new moon, we'll be initiating changes with regard to our identity, how we meet our own needs, or even our larger sense of direction in life.
As such, this is a great moon to manifest under. Plus, with the North Node and Venus conjunct in Taurus, it would be a particularly good time for manifesting money or relationships.
Lastly, on the day of the new moon, Chiron and Jupiter will be in a very close conjunction, which could reveal areas that are holding us back from moving forward. Most of us will understand what it is we have to let go of in regards to our own self-limitations and limiting beliefs - a lot of the heaviness we've felt recently will feel like it's lifting.
WORKING WITH ARIES ENERGY
As aforementioned, this is a really potent new moon to practice some manifesting rituals—but there's one caveat. When the new moon is exact around 1:30 p.m., it will be a "void of course" moon, which just means it will be making its final major aspect before moving into Taurus and subsequently isn't the best time to do rituals.
That said, it is advised to hold off for at least six hours, or even until the next day, for your manifesting rituals. We're still processing what it is that we truly want to manifest—we may even channel in some energy we didn't actually want in the first place. It’s crucial to understand and process your information or ideas and let them digest a little bit before we act on it. Keep in mind, the universe moves at your command - whether you meant to or not.
In terms of which manifestation rituals to actually do, Aries season works well with a fire ritual, given all this fiery energy. Because Mercury will be in Aries as well, it could also be a good time for verbal and/or written affirmations.
A great ritual you can do is a fire ritual—obviously in a safe place—where you write down a whole list as to what you want to achieve, any goals you want to cross off, and hover it over a candle. In this sense, you're not burning your goals away, but rather transforming them and releasing them to the universe.
