Aries: independence + integration

We begin the zodiacal cycle with the Sun transiting across the constellation of Aries. This marks the zodiacal new year, the beginning of Spring in the northern hemisphere, and the Spring equinox. It is a time of renewal, of life returning to a sleeping environment.

The words of Aries are “I AM.” This archetype speaks to individuality while encapsulating the oneness of the collective. At first glance Aries may appear selfish or self-interested but in it’s most empowered expression, the individuality is wholly integrated into the collective One. The baby of the zodiac is much like human baby who may present like a tiny tyrant but who have not yet developed a distinction between themselves and others. Their demands are not tyrannical, but an assertion of willful desire for collective needs to be met. Like the Warrior who may be seen as bold, brash, and ego driven, empowered Aries offers these qualities to the collective with the wisdom and purpose of selfless devotion to the common good.

The lessons of Aries are of independence and integration, assertion of will, ambition, leadership, and pioneering or initiating action. Aries is called to go first, to bleed first for the cause, to start sh*t. Without a leader, or at least someone willing to go first, we are stagnant and stuck in chaos without a beginning or an end. The bravery, independence, and audacity of this archetype teaches us the value of the individual in service to the collective.

While independence is one side of the spectrum navigated by the archetype of Aries, the other is integration. As shown in the etymology of the word, integration embodies oneness, wholeness, completeness. Empowered independence is not about isolation or detachment from the collective, it is the embodiment of leadership that is conscious of and devoted to the community it leads. Integration is not the loss of individuality to the group, but the awareness of unity and wholeness in the self.

Selfishness is the art of Aries. To articulate need and desire, is what this archetype teaches us. While we cannot guarantee receipt of our needs and desires, we are nearly promised never to receive them without asking. We may risk disappointment or the vulnerability of exposing our will, but this act of vulnerability is the price we pay for a chance to have our needs and desires met.

In American culture, independence is a highly glorified quality. From a therapeutic perspective however, this privileging of independence can present some concerning issues. While it is often Libra, the opposite sign from Aries, that is associated with codependency, the other side of the codependent coin is hyper-independence. This is the deluded belief that an individual can ‘do it all alone.’ The behavior that insists on never sharing it’s needs for fear of exposing the need to receive support or worse, asking and being rejected. Not only does absolutely nothing occur in a vacuum on our planet, but humans are a pack animal, communally oriented and requiring of family, a village, to achieve anything.

While leadership is an honorable quality, it is nothing without a community to lead. The same is true for the archetype of Aries; independence is noble but without a sense of integration, connection to the collective, it is isolated and adrift without purpose.

Birth of An Aries

I am an Aries Sun, born on the very first day of Aries season in 1994. My life began in the most Aries way I can imagine. During a wild blizzard, my mother sent my two older brothers to stay with a friend so she could bring me into the world in a quiet and peaceful house that I would call home for the first twelve years of my life.

My mother first went into labor in her own home on March 11th, squarely in Pisces season. My parents called the midwives, and everything but it turned out it was a false alarm. Despite contractions occurring just 7 minutes apart, my mom would continue to carry me for another 10 days. During the final day of Pisces season, my mother took things into her own hands and in a classically Aries assertion of will she initiated my birth by taking castor oil. She had already had two children and was confident in her birthing, leading her to choose to give birth quite independently. She had the support of my Dad, a physician, and two midwives, one of whom would later become the nurse at my school. (We’re nothing if not connected, integrated on a deep, karmic level.) Just as quickly as labor began, her contractions stopped.

Then, at midnight, on the 21st of March, her contractions began again, this time as fast and furious as the Cardinal Fire sign of the zodiacal new year. Only 12 minutes past midnight, I was born into my family on the Spring equinox.

As I was put on my mother’s chest, my father reached out to jostle my newborn body, encouraging me to cry and take my first breath, as his training had taught him. One of the midwives caught his hand, assuring him I would take my first breath independently. My Dad loves to tell this story, and it’s always helped me understand myself on a deep level that has been integral to my self-actualization. I took my first breath entirely of my own accord and in an instant, turned from blue to pink. Then, much to my mother’s surprise, I took a nap.

Napping is still an essential tool of well-being for me, it acts as a “turning it off and back on again.” Breathing techniques also provide me much comfort and serenity, as I feel the power of recognizing my own equilibrium through balancing the pressure of my lungs and calming my entire nervous system using my own body, my own life force, my own breath.

A sweet friend of mine, who shares the March 21st birthdate, calls us “blast off babies,” because…three…two…one BLAST OFF! This day is the ignition of a new zodiacal season, a new trip around the sun, a new season of growth, an initiation of action for all life on Earth (at least in the northern hemisphere.)

I have always considered my birthday to be special, given the peaceful nature of my birth, too often a traumatizing experience for everyone involved. The fact that it is on the Equinox and often the first day of Spring also gave me an obnoxious sense of originality. But it was only when I became a practicing astrologer that the power of my 0º Sun, exalted in the sign of Aries, became a signature that has supported my compassionate self-actualization and empowered sense of self.