Signs: Cardinal Cross—Aries

Aries: rulers

• Orthodox: Mars
• Esoteric: Mercury
• Hierarchical: Uranus

The three ruling planets of Aries cover “three crises” in the life of inner development, each one leading to or invoking another astrological sign. The specific experiences of each rulership are covered below under each planet, while the processes and other signs on the journey through each “crisis” are summarised here from Esoteric Astrology (EA 101):

1. The crises of the battle field, leading to the culminating battle in Scorpio and the liberation into life in Capricorn, the place of the higher initiations, after the reversal of the wheel.

2. The crisis of the birth place in Virgo, brought about through the activity of Mercury, leading through Leo to the birth of the [soul or Christ-consciousness] in Capricorn. The self-conscious individual in Leo (Sun, fire/Ray 1) becomes the [soul]-conscious Initiate in Capricorn.

3. The crisis of the burning ground, …brought about through the activity of Uranus [and] entered through the free choice of the initiate … in Libra, the point of balance where—usually—the… reversal of the wheel takes place. There [we] decide whether to proceed as usual … or, reversing the wheel, to pass through the burning ground to liberation. Libra [esoteric ruler Uranus] is the polar opposite to Aries and therefore closely related.

Orthodox: Mars ⇧

The most archetypal sense of Aries being the first sign of the zodiac is mirrored in the orthodox rulership as it governs the sheer physical presence of our material lives, through which we experience, learn to face and eventually resolve conflicts, inner and outer:

Mars is definitely the planet which rules and controls the physical vehicle. Mars appears first of all as the orthodox ruler in Aries, the sign in which the first move is made towards bringing about objective manifestation, or physical incarnation. [We start] in Aries with Mars ruling, and the great war between the dualities which constitute [an individual] began. The pairs of opposites were thus brought into relation with each other. (EA 210)

As this process affects us personally during our human development and outer life, Mars drives the process in various ways:

Mars embodies sixth ray force which leads to idealism, destructive fanaticism frequently, struggle, strife, war, effort and evolution. [The archetypal] idea in Aries becomes the concrete plan in Capricorn where Mars is exalted whether that objective is the full flower of the planetary life in all its forms, the ambition of a personality working out its own ideas and ambitious worldly projects or the spiritual aspiration (worldly ambition transmuted into its higher aspect) of the initiate, who seeks to work out [and own the archetypal] plans… In every case, Mars leads to the battle ground of Scorpio. (EA 99-100)

Esoteric: Mercury ⇧

Mercury, embodying the energy of the fourth ray, eventually carries the [us] around the wheel of life and through the medium of conflict enables [us] to achieve harmony. Mercury illumines the mind and mediates between the soul and the personality, being the Messenger of the Gods. This mediatorship, in the first instance, produces an inevitable opposition between the pairs of opposites and a long drawn out conflict. This conflict finally works out into victory and the dispelling of illusion through the illumination of the lower mind. Mercury and the Sun are one, we are frequently told in the occult literature. The Sun is the symbol of the “Son”… the mediator between Father-Spirit and Mother-Matter. Mercury, therefore, leads Aries to Virgo… where the [archetypal] idea… begins to take form, and consequently the latent life in Aries comes to the “crisis of the birth hour,” prior to the birth of [spirit within matter or the second principle or cosmic Christ] (EA 100, edited)

Personally, this leads to clarity of mind, the ability to cut through illusion, incisive perception and the harmonising of conflicts.

Through the fiery processes of war and strife, brought to the individual through the influence of the planetary ruler [in Aries], Mars, the God of War, a needed purification takes place. The same purification, but this time through vision, comes to the developed [individual] through the activity of the subjective ruler of the planet, Mercury, who is the illuminating principle which releases the mind, directs [our] way… through life and enables [us] to become aware of the divine Plan which underlies all [our] fiery experience. (EA 95-6)

When conflicts—inner or outer, personal or global—are honestly faced, there is the opportunity for resolution or at least an agreement to disagree yet continue to communicate with the likelihood of finding common ground.

Mercury, embodying the energy of the fourth ray, eventually carries the [us] around the wheel of life and through the medium of conflict enables [us] to achieve harmony. Mercury illumines the mind and mediates between the soul and the personality, being the Messenger of the Gods. This mediatorship, in the first instance, produces an inevitable opposition between the pairs of opposites and a long drawn out conflict. This conflict finally works out into victory and the dispelling of illusion through the illumination of the lower mind. Mercury and the Sun are one, we are frequently told in the occult literature. The Sun is the symbol of the Son of God… the mediator between Father-Spirit and Mother-Matter. Mercury, therefore, leads Aries to Virgo… where the idea or Word of God begins to take form, and consequently the latent life in Aries comes to the “crisis of the birth hour,” prior to the birth of the Christ, cosmically considered, though the birth of the individual Christ takes place in Capricorn, at the close of the needed gestation period. (EA 100)

Hierarchical: Uranus ⇧

Uranus embodies the energy of the seventh ray and its work is analogous to that of Mercury, for the seventh ray is the ray which relates spirit and matter and brings together electric fire and fire by friction, thus producing manifestation. Uranus leads the soul to the burning ground during the final stages of the Path, when the fire of Aries and the fires engendered through the potency of Uranus produce the flaming heat of the final burning ground. Through this burning ground, the initiate has finally to pass. Uranus rules the occult Way and is, in an esoteric sense, connected with the Hierophant of the Mysteries of Initiation. (EA 100)

Shared between Libra-Aries: The methodical instigation of new structures and necessary conceptual change, the establishing of inner templates and mental patterns for coming developments.

The background to Ray 3 and Uranus as polar pair Aries-Libra esoteric and hierarchical rulers:

Alcyone impregnated the substance of the universe with the quality of mind. As a consequence of this most ancient activity, the same force was present at the time of individualisation in this solar system, for it is in this system, and primarily upon our planet, the Earth, that the major results of that early activity have made themselves felt. Two of our planets, the Earth (non-sacred) and Uranus (sacred), are directly the product of this third ray activity. (EA 200)