New shoots, grasses, and ferns interrupt the continuity of last year’s fallen leaves, like bedsheets and covers being slowly set aside after a long night’s sleep. The gray, drab monochrome of the forest is pierced through by new buds and life all around us like sunlight piercing a veil of clouds.

At long last, spring has come. The victory of the Sun and the triumph of the light over the darkness shines around us. The raw power of magic has returned to reanimate the tabula rasa of a world freshly awoken from the cold months’ slumber. The power of winter is broken. The Sun enters into Aries, the cardinal fire sign of Mars, on March 19th at 11:06pm eastern time. I wish all my readership a happy spring equinox!

Since the fall equinox when the Sun entered into the sign of Libra, the nights have been longer than the days - darkness has overpowered the light. Libra heralds the inevitable descent of the world back into the seasons of darkness and cold that will predominate for the following 6 months.

But ever since the winter solstice, the amount of light in the day has been slowly but surely increasing. The return of the light has germinated day after day, and at long last, the power of the light finally outweighs the power of the dark.

Because Aries marks the pivotal shift from the hegemony of the nighttime to the hegemony of the daytime, it carries associations with victory, achievement, and success. After all, this is the sun’s exaltation, the sign of victory where the light finally triumphs over the dark. Just as the return of springtime heralds warmth, brightness, and a feeling of conquest and vanquishing the foe of winter, so too does the Sun’s ingression into aries instill in all of us a sense of accomplishment and bright optimism at the possibilities contained within a sunny, welcoming future.

Aries represents the new dawn, the break of daylight after a long night, and the immediate rush of light and vibrance that dispels the gloom. If you understand the timbre of these moments in life, then you understand Aries.

Aries is ruled by Mars, the god of war. There are many tropes of wartime - especially success in wartime - within the archetype of Aries. As the Sun vanquishes the darkness, this zodiacal season carries strong associations with victory, success, and conquest. This theme is also echoed in Christ’s resurrection at easter - Christ’s vanquishment of death and sin mirrors the victory of the heavenly Sun over the darkness of winter.

These metaphors of wartime battle illustrate a season of the year that emphasizes personal desires, autonomy, and self-interest. Aries invites us to claim our territory and take what is rightfully ours. Aries welcomes us to seize the day and all the bounty it has to offer us.

Aries represents the principle of self-interest - Aries shows you what you need to flourish and be happy, and how to take what you need to flourish and be happy, regardless of how other people might feel about it. Aries represents the healthiest kind of self-interest rooted in proper boundaries and self-care.

Aries is not just healthy self-interest, but also achievement and success from self-interest. It’s not just a battle but a successful battle in which absolute goodness inevitably triumphs over darkness, and everyone’s lives are immeasurably better for it. Aries heralds joy, enthusiasm, and the enactment of a bright future. Aries heralds happiness and unshakeable, almost naive enthusiasm at the possibilities that the future holds.

On a material, practical level, the placement of the Sun in Aries creates fast-acting change. Civic events move forward quickly. Companies, organizations, and social circles receive an infusion of new energy, life, and enthusiasm. People make decisions that set the course for the rest of the year. Historically, this was a time when city-states and nations would go to war. More on that below.

On an internal, spiritual level, Aries season is the best time to identify what you need to be happy and then claim it for yourself. Aries shows you how to conquer your suffering. Aries shows you what you need to do for yourself, regardless of the thoughts of others. This is not the time to become burdened by the perspectives and opinions of those around you - this kind of reflection is better suited for Libra season. Now is the time to identify what you need and take it.

What do you need to be happy? Are other people in your life standing in the way of your happiness? How can you vanquish the suffering and darkness within your own life?

This is the pivotal season for action. Do not hesitate - act. Move forward. This is not the time to pause, think, reflect, and deliberate. You had all of winter to do that. Now is the time to act in the moment. Honor your impulsive aspects and components of your character that want to move forward and initiate quickly, unencumbered by deliberative indecision and the bureaucracy of the mind.

This season privileges initiative. Your actions during this period will set the timbre and direction for the remainder of the year. This is the moment to implement the insights and reflections you labored for during wintertime. Now is your chance to capitalize on your dreams and create the life of your choosing.

Aspects-wise, there are several challenges that impede the good fortune of the Sun moving through its exaltation.

First, the Sun forms only aspects one other planet period - a conjunction to a retrograding Mercury. All the standard issues of Mercury retrograde apply here - the miscommunications, misunderstandings, difficulties with travel, troubles with technology etc. In Aries, Mercury-related kerfuffles are more likely to occur in a volatile, explosive way. People tend to become incensed and infuriating by the issues that arise, since the nature and manner of the problems can really get under people’s skin. The challenges are more likely to create disagreements, arguments, and fights.

As these issues come up, make sure not to make impulsive decisions or to respond too dramatically to the issues that arise. You may think that you are acting on your feet and being adaptive, but with all things Aries-related it is easy to act without thinking and make situations even worse.

We also have a Mars-Saturn conjunction in Pisces during this sign. This is a very challenging transit that occurs every two and a half years or so. When Saturn, the planet of coldness and delays, conjoins Mars, the planet of excessive heat and aggravation, then we get the worst of both malefics at once. Imagine slamming on the brakes of your car so hard that the tires start to burn. All the things slowing us down and getting in our way intensify, and they create great amounts of stress. Anger and volatility become far more common. This aspect perfects on the 10th, shortly after the eclipse. Pay very close attention to the house it transits in your own chart.

This Aries season is also an eclipse season: we’ll see the lunar eclipse happening shortly after the Sun’s ingress on the 24th, and then the solar eclipse on April 8th. While I will be dedicating individual posts to each of these eclipses, I do want to highlight that these eclipses are fairly troubling, especially since the solar eclipse coincides roughly with the perfection of the mars-saturn conjunction. These eclipses were traditionally associated with war. The Israel-Gaza war began on October 7th last year, after the lunar eclipse in Aries and 6 days before the solar eclipse in Libra. I really hope to be wrong, but I would be prepared for more upheaval at the geo-political level around the world.

Forewarned is forearmed. It is more important now than ever to keep up with our own spiritual practices and continue to maintain a balanced, connected lifestyle, to ensure that we can be of the best possible service to those around us who are suffering. As always, I recommend spending as much time outside with your bare feet on the earth as possible to flow gracefully with this shift, especially as the natural world has just undergone one of the four most pivotal shifts of the year. This is especially important now that we are transitioning from the half of the year where darkness dominates to the half of the year where the light dominates.

If you spend most of your time each day indoors, looking at screens and disconnected from the natural world, your body can’t sync with the rhythms of nature. You end up out of sync with the energy around you and disconnected from your natural power source. Ill health and troubles with one’s mood arise as a result.

Lepidolite creates peace and serenity without bringing any sedation. As a result, it is a good stone for staying centered and grounded while still having the energy to act. Ruby (raw ruby is very inexpensive) opens up the heart and strengthens one’s connection to their willpower. It is a good choice for people who easily fall into inertia and lack the motivation to act.

Vigorous sun salutations done in the morning facing the east are an excellent way to connect with the power of the Sun, which is currently exalted in this sign. Amongst other things, Sun salutations open up the heart and spine and greatly strengthen the core. A strong core with an open heart is exactly what you’ll need to make the most of this Aries season.

As this ingression into Aries - a normally positive period for personal transformation - coincides with such challenging circumstances at the macro scale, it’s necessary to index out our own self-interest and goals with the needs of those around us. Achieve victory in your personal sphere - chase your purpose, pursue your calling, live your dharma; but always be certain that your own agendas are coming from a place that will benefit the lives of all others here. Anything else is illusion.