In this series, I’ll go through the signs of the zodiac and how they are perceived in Jyotish (Vedic astrology). I plan to write one post a month on each sign for the 12 months, so stay tuned!
To start off let’s look at the first sign: Meṣa (the Sanskrit word for Aries).
Rather than simply making a list of character traits for Meṣa (pronounced Meh-suh), let’s look little deeper into this sign.
We’ll start by looking at what Aries rules in the natural zodiac and the animal it symbolizes.
Aries as the natural ruler of the first house
In the natural zodiac, Aries rules the first house.
The first house includes your Lagna (ascendant), which is the exact degrees of the astrological sign on the Eastern horizon at the moment of your birth.
What is birth?
It’s a beginning, an initiation, a bursting through. This is true no matter what sign your Lagna is in.
However, if you do happen to have Aries Lagna, you will embody this energy directly.
People with Aries Lagna often have a pioneering, task-oriented nature that gets them more quickly into taking charge and initiating action than their peers.
Which brings us to an important point: In Jyotish, the Langa (and Nakshatra) is considered more important for determining such traits than your Sun sign.
A deeper look at the Ram
The symbol for Aries in both Jyotish and Western astrology is the ram.
When I was a teenager, I once visited a small farm with a friend of mine. We had the rather stupid idea of getting into a pen with a flock of sheep and a ram.
The sheep were freaked out by our presence. They were running back and forth and bleating in panic.
The ram, however, charged at us.
He tried to run us off by bellowing out a deep bleat and kicking his little legs at us. I backed off, but my friend continued teasing him. After a few minutes, he charged at my friend full force. He head butted her and she, in turn, fell flat onto her ass.
My friend and I learned our lesson (luckily, she wasn’t really hurt). We left the pen and soon the ram and his sheep went back to placidly munching grass.
The behavior that ram exhibited are all typical Aries traits:
leading and charging ahead of the pack
not shying away from a fight
a stubborn attitude that does not give up very easily
irritable and quick to anger, but with the ability to move past these emotions quickly (the ram definitely didn’t brood under a tree once he finally got us out of there).
More negative Aries traits that move beyond the beast include:
impatience and carelessness
aggressiveness (ok, so that ram did have this trait, but the poor guy was provoked!)
bluntness and insensitive words and actions
These traits, both positive and negative, also correspond to Mars, which is the planet ruling Aries.
Aries significations
While modern Western astrology tends to focus mostly on the meaning of the planets in Aries (particularly the Sun), both Jyotish and traditional Western astrology have a broader list of significations for each zodiac sign.
These include colors, places, stones and body parts.
For Meṣa, this list is as follows:
Color: blood red
Body part: the head
Places (traditional list): Forests, gold/silver mines, diamond mines, canals, serpent’s abode
Gemstone: red coral
Whenever working with traditional texts, it’s important to modernize a bit. For example, a “serpent’s abode” could be places with natural caves, gold and silver mines could be areas where these metals are known to have deposits (California for gold and Colorado for silver come to mind). Stretching things poetically a bit further, Aries places could perhaps be places where there are “royal riches of the Earth” in general.
(A little extra astro nerd knowledge: Although the the characters traits and significations for Aries are the same in Vedic astrology as they are in traditional Western astrology, the places this sign rules are somewhat different. In Dr. J. Lee Lehman’s The Book of Rulerships, the places ruled by Aries listed include “high & sandy ground” and “hilly ground.”
I’m not sure which cities and countries Jyotish considers to be ruled by Aries, but the list in Lehman’s book includes Denmark, Naples, Italy, Krakow, Poland and Marseilles, France.)
Looking deeper into Aries
Contemplating the “best” and “worst” of
Ok, let’s go back to Sun signs for a minute (although, again, they play a much smaller role in Jyotish than in modern Western astrology!).
Here’s an important point for understanding this sign: Aries is considered the “best-of” of for the Sun:
This is because Aries is the sign of the Sun’s exaltation (=highest position).
The leadership qualities and pioneering spirit of Meṣa are an ideal match for what the Sun stands for. Both the Sun and Aries have the bright allure of royalty (the Sun is the King and Mars, the ruler of Aries, is the Head General), which is another reason why this is the ucca (Sanskrit for exalted) placement for the Sun.
On the other hand, Aries is the sign of debilitation (=worst sign) for Saturn.
Saturn stands for the elderly, the down and out, the working class and democracy — and the harshness of Aries isn’t a good fit here.
Innovation and new beginnings are good things, true, but that doesn’t mean you should impulsively (a very Aries word!) throw the baby out with the bathwater. Some things require tradition and sound structures built to last (both Saturnian concepts), which is not something Aries can deliver.
As history has told (is telling) us, “kings” (i.e., leaders and politicians) and “generals” (i.e., those who enforce the rule of law) often do not command with the interests of the disadvantaged (Saturn) in mind. Therefore, Aries is the nīca (Sanskrit for debilitated) placement for Saturn.
Understanding the Aries placement in your chart
Even if you don’t have any planets in Aries in your chart, the house placement of the sign can give you deeper insights into your chart.
For example, if Aries is the sign of your 4th house (=house of mother, heart and home), this could indicate that your mother has Aries-like traits (we would look to the moon here to confirm), that you may sometimes struggle with impatience, reactivity and anger or that you would feel particularly at home in a place ruled by Aries.
If you have Aries as the sign of your 6th house (=the house of illness, enemies and pets), this could indicate you are prone to illnesses that affect the head (e.g., migraines) or that your pets have Aries-like traits (maybe the farmer with that pissed off ram all those years ago had this!). When it comes to enemies, it is a positive sign to have on this house as it can show you have the stamina and courage to fight against those who oppose you (we would look at Mars or any other planets in the 6th to confirm this).
If you have Aries as the sign of your 7th house (=the house of relationship and partnership) this energy might be one you experience in your romantic and business partnerships, whereas if you have in on the 10th (=the house of career and social status) you could bring it into your job.
As is always the case with astrology, you would need to comb through all the fine details (e.g., take a look at the lords of the houses, aspects, etc.) before making any definitive statements. However, just taking a peek at the sign of each house alone can already give you clues and tell you plenty.
Aries: the (Vedic) astro stats
Here are a few more details about Aries:
Sanskrit name: Meṣa
Element: Agni (fire)
Ruling planet: Mars
Gender: Masculine
Quality: Cara (movable sign)
Natural ruler of: the first house and the head
Similar or different than Western astrology? Bascially the same, with a few minor differences