If you look at the head of the ram - the symbol of Aries - the two horns seen from the front look like a V or a Y:

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Meditating on it you may see the tree of life, or a spring, and get good inspiration from that, but if you were a shepherd watching the head of the charging ram coming up to you, you would get a much more straightforward interpretation.

These animals are powerful; they compete with the shepherd for the leadership of the flock.

To interpret symbols, let’s remember that life is movement.

Don’t ask “What is this?” Ask “How is this moving?” A ram is power in action. It pushes forward and it’s too focused to care about anything else.

Taking it from there, you can find metaphorical rams in all areas. Some emotions are like rams: anger, excitement, a shot of adrenaline… There are intellectual rams: sometimes we “attack” a problem and sometimes we have a “breakthrough”. At a social level, the one who turns a vague group into an efficient team is called a leader. Aries may mean the efficient team or the leader, according to cases. In the eleventh house, it’s more likely to mean the team, in the first, a leader.

A left cerebral hemisphere approach would want a list of defining characteristics. Someone born with Aries predominant in their chart should demonstrate characteristic traits or attitudes. The list is the left-hemisphere ideal, but with life, we will always come across exceptions and contradictions.

A right cerebral hemisphere approach is much more relevant to understanding symbols. Instead of starting from Aries and wondering what it may mean, let’s start from life, and wonder “How are things when they are like Aries in this context?”

For instance, imagine a monk. You wouldn’t think of a monk as a manifestation of the energy of Aries, but if you start with the knowledge that a certain guy is a monk and that Aries is strong in his chart you will wonder what can be like Aries in the life of a monk.

At the time of writing, I didn’t know where this example would lead - I chose Aries and monastic life as an unlikely match, at least according to the common stereotypes, to make my point. And then I remembered a funny concept, in Christian culture: the ejaculatory prayer - or ejaculation. In Christian jargon, an ejaculation is a short and intense prayer. For instance: “Thank you Lord!” or “Oh God Help me!”

The etymology of ejaculation traces back to some Latin that means “throwing a dart” - which fits the energy of Aries very well.

So you see, you may not think spontaneously of the tendency to pray in ejaculatory style when you see Aries in a chart, even if it’s in the ninth house, but in some cases, this will be the right interpretation.

Within the context of spiritual life, Aries will be the energy of fervour, and in a less desirable expression, fanaticism.

Let me rewind: I was talking about Aries in religious life as an illustration of the principle of looking at life first, and seeking for how the symbols manifest in the context we are considering, rather than starting with the symbols and trying to remember lists of things they mean. We need to make more use of our right brain.

In this way, we’ll better understand the essence of the symbols: they don’t mean anything in particular, but they mean something that is common to an infinity of particular things or rather processes.

Before this, I started talking about remembering that life is movement. Aries shows a ram charging. Taurus once was a small calf but it kept grazing and it put on some flesh. The Twins are talking to each other and swapping…

Aries is only one symbol. However, as astrologers, we’re looking at whole astrological charts, and again, an astrological chart may seem like a fixed picture, because we are so conditioned to approach it in left hemisphere style and analyse its parts, but actually it is like the picture of a running horse:

If you believe it's fixed, the picture of a horse with its stretched legs suspended above the ground by no strings, doesn’t make sense. It’s supposed to conjure up the galop, the movement.

A chart is a particular moment of the movement of the cosmic clock; if we try to see it globally and in motion, we’re closer to reality.

Let’s be honest though: I am not able to create a mental picture of all the planets moving through the zodiac signs, at their different speed, anticlockwise, whilst the signs with the planets in them are also moving clockwise, on their way to rising, culminating or setting. This is an ideal too. However it’s possible to have glimpses. What are planets doing when they form, for instance applying or separating aspects? In what order will planets rise on the Eastern Horizon? Which will be the first one? We can look at the Sun and the Moon as a duo and take the phases of the Moon into account…

And we can forget about it, let our right brain work subconsciously and say thank you when intuitions pop in. (It pops better when we asked)

To make the best use of our two minds - our inner twins, the left and right cerebral hemispheres- , let’s remember:

A balanced approach is like breathing. There are two ways, and there is alternance.

So let’s stop believing we have to breathe in more and despise breathing out as if it was being lazy.

Sometimes we need to focus, and sometimes we need to be receptive.

Our own balance is key.

Jean-Marc

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