Aries Moon

Before the fourth noise complaint, my roommates and I would host house parties—a thrilling opportunity to feed my obsession with people-watching. Despite the pulsing of my speaker or the roars from our vacuum collecting glass, an Aries’ moons entrance never went unnoticed. One, in particular, would shout his own name upon arrival. Another one burst my bedroom door open only to yell gibberish, then slam it shut again. I briefly dated an Aries moon. He would arrive to the party late with a booming voice, but little fanfare. As a D-list celebrity, he didn’t have to command attention in a room full of recent theatre grads. His expensive sneakers and eccentric posse functioned like a spotlight.

This need to feel noticed, which is actually a need to feel special, is the defining characteristic of Aries moons. Really, it’s a defining quality of the human ego. We all want to feel like we matter. But Aries requires more than an offspring or stylish career to achieve a sense of value. As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries represents the core of our human experience, before laws or civilization. It’s the animal within us, raw, unpredictable, and bursting with imagination. Unlike Survivor, the animal kingdom doesn’t reward impressive resumes or demonstrations of empathy. It celebrates the ability to catch prey, to use force and defeat opponents in order to meet basic needs. Aries is quite simple-minded in this sense, but today’s society isn’t built for drama or feats of bravery. Perhaps this is why Marvel continues to thrive despite its predictive formula. Collectively, we’ve disowned our animal instincts—projecting them onto cinema and WWE. It’s no wonder Aries moons can be too much for the more feminine types; we must seem horribly boring to them.

I don’t know Lebron James personally, but I do know his moon is in Aries, although, it’s hard to imagine him shouting his name at my doorway. Lebron keeps his inner fire raging every day: competing, fighting to win, displaying his strength for thousands of people who cheer him on, as if the Clippers are a Lion and the Staples Center is the Coliseum. Obviously, we can’t all be professional basketball players, but it’s important that this natal placement finds a way to play hero, to organize their lives in a way that allows expression of their Herculean spirit. Otherwise, that inner fire can easily manifest into Aries’ shadow qualities: attention-seeking behavior, or even impulsive anger.

There’s at least a handful of discussions I’ve found on Reddit, various bands of Aries moons bonding over their short tempers, and seeking advice on how to extend them. Aries is a masculine sign. It’s a doer, containing all the energy and valor of a wildfire. With the feminine moon here, its expression is like an oxymoron. The moon reflects. It’s nurturing and vulnerable. Aries enflames. It doesn’t have time for reflection; it’s confident and spontaneous…of course this contradiction lends to frustration. If I were to offer readings to the dozens of Reddit users looking for answers, I would start with their childhoods. Since the Moon’s position typically reflects our experience of mother, most often, the Aries moon child experienced mom as domineering. Whether it’s true or not, the child may have felt that mom was stifling their will, ignoring how special and capable they are.

If they were never able to get their way when they were young, this perception often lingers, coloring their experience of road blocks ahead. So, when an Aries moon’s temper is triggered, it’s probably this sensation from childhood that is being activated—stamping their feet for the kid who never got to go to sleepaway camp. In other instances, this natal placement can be a karmic inheritance. If mother didn’t honor her own fire, it becomes the child’s subconscious responsibility to let it rage. With every moon position, the chart holder must discover their own creative way of molding the sign’s qualities into a safe container. The moon is where we land when we fall. It’s our emotional habits and triggers. A well-nourished moon provides the foundation for healthy ego-formation. And since Aries embodies the ego-archetype more than most signs, proper nourishment is essential.

Many of these individuals fuel their inner fire through fighting for a cause. I knew a double Aries in college who used every ounce of will she possessed in the name of charity. For a whole semester, she was notorious within my college theatre program. Everyone had a story about how Bethany tracked them down. Whether it was blocking me in my path to Bio Lab, tagging students in Facebook statuses, or sending text message reminders once a week, accumulating donations for the Children’s Hospital was her sole mission, and she didn’t let rules of social etiquette hinder her efforts. I hate to admit that I walked around campus on high-alert, running the opposite direction when I saw her fuchsia hair bow bouncing along Call Street. But she did convince me to donate.

By the end of the semester, she was no longer stalking theatre majors. Her Instagram transformed overnight, from a collage of pleas to a display of victories. It turns out she had broken school records, raising more money than she had even anticipated. This is my favorite example of Aries’ initiative, of passion that never loses steam. Aries loves to fight for an underdog. I think many discover themselves through this process. It’s no wonder Steve Jobs and Bernie Sanders also share this natal position. They belong to an exclusive club of fighters, one our society counts on, but the call to heroism is often challenging.

​For a straight-forward sign, this natal position is surprisingly complex. I describe the Aries moons in my life as thoroughly consistent, yet unpredictable. But each of them have left an impression containing far more permanence than a flame, if not for their party quirks, than for their inspiring nature. Their combination of fearlessness and willpower is penetrating; I’d almost define it as super-human. Liz Greene says that all fire moons have an intense need to feel special, to feel as if they’re one of the gods. When the Aries moon accomplishes this goal, they truly appear as such. As a collective, we’ve always needed our heroes, however big or small. Thank God we have our Aries moons, the rare individuals who can rise to the challenge.