The Fire Signs

Aries: is Cardinal Fire. The Cardinal Signs take action and Aries has a reputation for charging right in. The placement of the sign of Aries in your horoscope shows one of the places where you tend to take initiative and plunge right in. The other place you act this way is shown by the placement of Mars, the ruling planet of Aries.

An example of someone with the sign of Aries on his Mid-Heaven (career) is Bill Gates.  Another example, this time with Aries intercepted (meaning it does not appear at the beginning of any house) in his 12th house (prisons, restrictions, psychological problems) is Charles Manson.

There were many other factors in making Manson behave the way he did so if you also have this one, don’t think that you have to wind up like him. There are both positive and negative ways to manifest any placement in the horoscope.

Leo: is Fixed Fire. Fixed signs like to stay put and have everything else around them move. Leo is ruled by the Sun, and, just as the Sun is the center of the solar system with the planets dancing around, so those with a Leo emphasis like to stay in the center of things and have everyone else dance around them.

The house that has Leo on the cusp (beginning) shows one place where you want to express yourself and receive praise or admiration. That can also be the place where you want to be treated royally and have others do things for you. The motto of Leo is “Nothing but the best”. It takes very hard work to be the best and Leo is the place where we don’t want to be embarrassed by failure.

This means that we will either work very hard there and tend towards perfectionism, or give up the struggle, be lazy,  and fool ourselves into thinking that we are above it all.

An example of someone with Leo on the Mid-Heaven (career) is Martha Stuart, a legendary workaholic, running a media empire named after-what else-her. The other place we want to express ourselves, receive praise and admiration, and have “Nothing but the best” as our motto is the house where our Sun is placed.

Martha Stuart has her Sun in the Ninth House, (higher education and publishing) and she publishes a magazine that shows how to do everything to perfection.

Sagittarius: is Mutable Fire. Mutable signs are communicators. Gemini gathers facts quickly. Virgo gathers them slowly and carefully (Virgo is the best sign for details). But Sagittarius is the sign of the Big Picture. Never mind this fact or that. How does it all fit together?

In your horoscope, the house with Sagittarius on the cusp (beginning) is one of the places where you tend to feel optimistic, safe and secure, so you will be more adventurous in this area of your life. Since “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”, this can be a place of your biggest  achievements.

On the negative side, it will show the place where you can be over optimistic, charge in thinking that nothing can go wrong, and fall flat on your face. The other place in your horoscope where this will tend to be true is the house position of Jupiter, ruling planet of Sagittarius.

Muhammed Ali for example, has Sagittarius on his 5th House, the house of sports and games. Any doubts about where he felt, safe, secure, and lucky? Jupiter, the ruler, is in his 10th House, career and public image, showing that he could make a career from sports or “creative” pursuits, and that whatever he did here would tend to come before the public.

Martha Stuart has Sagittarius on her 2nd House cusp. The 2nd house is money. Jupiter, the ruler, sits in house number eight (other people’s money). She became a “paper billionaire” after her IPO. Now you couldn’t tell just by looking at her horoscope that she would become a billionaire. But you could have seen that money would tend to come to her from sources other than her own salary.

The next lesson 4.5 discusses the Earth Signs.