Happy Birthday Aquarius

Aquarius - the Water Bearer 

1/20 - 2/18

Basic Traits:

Often simple and unassuming, the Aquarius goes about accomplishing goals in a quiet, often unorthodox ways. Although their methods may be unorthodox, the results for achievement are surprisingly effective. Aquarius's will take up any cause, and are humanitarians of the zodiac. They are honest, loyal and highly intelligent. They are also easy going and make natural friendships. If not kept in check, the Aquarius can be prone to sloth and laziness. However, they know this about themselves, and try their best to motivate themselves to action. They are also prone to philosophical thoughts, and are often quite artistic and poetic.



The Deeper Meaning:

Aquarius witnesses to our membership of the human race, and to the importance of the creative activity of humanity. Following Capricorn, which emphasizes the importance of the proper functioning of society, and the need to be a responsible member thereof, Aquarius may be seen as observing the boundaries and structures that people have made for themselves in order to live satisfactorily with each other, and noticing that people can be trapped therein, disabling them from living a fully human life unfettered by duties and responsibilities.

So Aquarius aims to show how to live within society without being bound by it in such a way as to stifle human creative activity. As an air sign, it does this by having an ideal about how life for humanity ought to be - but like all ideals, it has to deal with reality in terms of what human beings are really like, rather than simply how the mind considers they ought to be like, and this can lead to some painful lessons in life.

Aquarius ideals are rarely experienced in isolation. Aquarius is a socially oriented sign, and Aquarius usually function best with others, with friends or in a community of some kind - some may lose their sense of being individual human beings in the process, even to the extent of leaving themselves little to contribute to the associations they belong to.

Aquarius is co-ruled by Uranus, the first planet to be discovered beyond the boundary of Saturn. Uranus is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, when new ideas were flooding into society, many of which were upsetting at first. When Aquarius are functioning properly they may be a disturbing influence, for they bring people's self-imposed limitations to awareness, offering a more enlightened approach. Other features of their birth charts may show how sensitive they are to people's resistance to the ideals they espouse. Some placements of Mars, for instance, may show a determination to ram one's point of view down someone else's throat, never mind whether or not the other person is ready to receive such ideas! Compatibility in love will of course be an issue here.

One implication of the socially oriented nature of Aquarius is that if you have significant planets in the more personal signs (e.g. Aries or Taurus) in your chart, then you may experience your personal needs as getting in the way of your social conscience. Just remember you are a human being with human needs, and there is no shame in admitting them. Indeed, you must honor them in order to fulfill your destiny, for no amount of enlightenment will appeal to people if there is no place to be simply human, and if they see you ignoring or denying your human needs, your ideals will have no lasting appeal.