Element: Fire, Quality: Cardinal, Ruler: Mars.
Character
Aries gets things started and then pursues them with gusto (but maybe not much practical common sense). Life is like a battle to be entered into and won. Your will must prevail. All is possible. If impossible it just takes a little longer (or so you believe).
Pitfalls
If not the team leader will battle with whoever is. Acts first, thinks afterwards when it may be too late. Reckless and short-sighted.
A word of advice
When you get bored with a project, hand it over to someone else skilled in the practical application of your inspired idea, not forgetting (this is the difficult bit) to mention all those vital details without which the project will fail. Then you are free to start something else.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate is someone who lets you win a hard-fought battle, or who is content when you do (at which time you may have to pick a fight over something else). In practice, someone more down to earth might help sustain the relationship provided, of course, that you can get away with the idea that you're in charge.
Taurus Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Earth, Quality: Fixed, Ruler: Venus.
Character
Taurus enjoys the sensual world for it's own sake (compare Virgo which has to do something with it). Down to earth, pragmatic, will stubbornly pursue a task to completion without deviation once it has the impetus to get going (which may take a while).
Pitfalls
Has difficulty seeing beyond the end of its nose. Philosophy? The spiritual realm? Forget it! The earth is all there is and I'm going to enjoy it. So limited resources when the earth disappoints.
A word of advice
When in the depths of disillusionment and your own solutions show no signs of working, just consider the possibility (oh yes, I know, it's very unlikely) that there may be something in another's idea.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate will be happy to indulge your big sensual and sexual appetite. Your habit of attracting partners with strange ideas and life paths which seem to you unnecessarily complex is frustrating I know, but whoever said relationships were straightforward?
Gemini Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Air, Quality: Mutable, Ruler: Mercury.
Character
Gemini takes an interest in anything initially but gets easily bored. A seeker after information, passing it on to others whether or not it's worth the trouble. A winner if clear thinking is what is needed in a crisis.
Pitfalls
Feelings are fascinating but hard to handle. Can't always see that the emotions need to be engaged in order for the mind to function at its best, for ideas to be fertile not sterile. An interesting new idea may lead to the abandonment of work on a vital existing one.
A word of advice
You can't explain away complex feelings. Try to enter into them. The Gemini mind can then take the vantage point of an compassionate observer, finding ways to bring them creatively into daily life. Emotions can be interesting as well as ideas!
Compatibility
Your ideal mate will be most interested in the profundity of your insights and have some more to add. You may attract ones who try to make a deep spiritual system out of them, which you may think is not the point. Your fascination with emotions will attract you to partners who challenge you to face your own creatively.
Cancer Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Water, Quality: Cardinal, Ruler: the Moon.
Character
Cancer is the home and family lover of the zodiac. The break-up of families and the use of houses as just somewhere to live rather than places to create real homes is painful, and leads to the forging of alternative families in other settings so that the feeling of being at home can be enjoyed.
Pitfalls
The sense of security that home and family (of whatever kinds) can give may lead to a clinging on to them when they no longer serve for further progress in life. Thus Cancer can live in the past rather than creatively in the present.
A word of advice
Ideas that feel good may not be the best ones to follow. Feel how tenaciously you cling to them when someone challenges them and see if you can watch them more objectively.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate will be there for you when you come home, or will enjoy the protective shield you provide. Water naturally flows and needs to be contained if it is to be channelled constructively. You may attract partners who provide such containers and it may feel constricting. If you attract someone with amazing powers of rational and logical thought that will fascinate and frustrate you!
Leo Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Fire, Quality: Fixed, Ruler: the Sun.
Character
Leo radiates warmth, light and goodwill like the Sun which rules it - and likes it if you notice it doing so! Leo at its best is confident and decisive, has an overall perspective on life and can bring out the best in others.
Pitfalls
Lack of obvious appreciation by others can lead to vanity and egotistical behaviour. A poor self-image is then covered up with a veneer of confident self-reliance, both of which serve to make empathy with others impossible.
A word of advice
Love yourself with all your faults (yes, you do have some!), observe yourself with compassion, then you won't depends on what others feel about you and will have more to give. Then you will get the appreciation you long for.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate bends the knee before your majesty and won't probe too deeply beneath those purple robes. What actually happens is that if you over-inflate a pin is applied, which is a mercy but may feel devastating. You may attract partners with flair for the details of practical living, which is just as well if frustrating.
Virgo Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Earth, Quality: Mutable, Ruler: Mercury.
Character
Virgo's great gift is the ability to discriminate between what is useful and what isn't. It is at home with the details that others find boring. When Virgo relates to you an important occasion you may boil with frustration waiting for the relevant conclusions to emerge from the carefully ordered account of events leading to them - Virgo knows what is useful but bores you with the details anyway.
Pitfalls
Can't see the wood for the trees. No overall perspective on life. Frightened of chaos so tries to control it or denies its existence until proved by scientists (that is, scientists who don't believe in chaos).
A word of advice
Compassionately observe yourself criticising what you see as the deviant behaviour of others. Consider what the world would be like without it … !
Compatibility
Your ideal mate gives you material of any kind and is content while you organise it, file and collate it, and discard what cannot be used. Some of the material (a planned expedition to the South Pole for instance) may be too big to swallow without cutting it up first hoping to find at least a hint of anything useful in the plan.
Libra Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Air, Quality: Cardinal, Ruler: Venus.
Character
Libra, symbolised by a pair of scales, has an ideal of peace, balance and harmony in all life. A pity reality rarely matches this ideal for long. The desire for relationship is strong, but like all air signs Libra has a problem with the emotional complexities therein.
Pitfalls
Libra is a cardinal sign so wants to take the initiative. The problem is it doesn't know what to do, or fears to act lest the delicate balance in any matter be disturbed. Contrast Aries, the opposite sign, which has no problem at all here.
A word of advice
Consider a matter carefully before deciding, certainly, but then act boldly and risk getting it wrong. Perhaps more than any other sign Libra learns through its mistakes. And who knows, maybe your mistake is someone else's opportunity. The deeper level of the soul may have a different idea of what constitutes a mistake than the mind does.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate is attractive and full of ideas, and wants to be close to you without clinging. You may attract partners more assertive than you are, which may please you (it saves you having to make up your own mind about something) provided you can see it as balancing your own more diplomatic nature.
Scorpio Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Water, Quality: Fixed, Rulers: Mars Pluto
Character
Scorpio needs to delve beneath appearances to reality. Nothing superficial will do. Try small-talk and Scorpio will move away to look for more fertile pastures where its emotional intensity can be engaged.
Pitfalls
Scorpio's insight can give it great power and there can be a temptation to use this to control and possess others so that they become dependant. Prone to intense jealousy if they then manage to escape and show attachment elsewhere.
A word of advice
Your can penetrate to the faults and sore spots of others. Use this power to heal, not criticise. If you do not forgive and accept others as they are then yours is the greater fault, and you could find yourself isolated and feeling lonely.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate feels as intensely as you do while allowing you to feel in charge. Hopefully you will attract someone who can observe emotional quagmires from a distance and use mental powers to help resolve them. When you are deeply engaged in a project and you hear 'dinner's ready' from your more easily contented partner, ease up and enjoy!
Sagittarius Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Fire, Quality: Mutable, Ruler: Jupiter.
Character
Sagittarius strives for what is beyond day to day human experience, whether it travel to distant lands, broadening knowledge by education or by exploring the spiritual dimension of life.
Pitfalls
May look with disdain on those at home with earthy daily existence. If they consider themselves 'evolved' (ask them what that word means) may despise those who are not, or will attempt to educate them in spiritual matters and turn them into second-hand Sagittarians (advice to victims: stay true to yourselves).
A word of advice
If lost in the clouds come back to earth for a while, bringing any worthwhile experience with you to give meaning to everyday life. Don't use your spiritual aptitude as an excuse to avoid self-knowledge - you may be a danger to ordinary mortals attracted by your charisma.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate won't mind at all if you say 'goodbye darling, I'm off exploring the Himalayas for a year, stay at home and look after the family'. In reality you might have to be a more subtle than that! Being true to yourself includes care for someone you truly love.
Capricorn Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Earth, Quality: Cardinal, Ruler: Saturn.
Character
Capricorn is content to work within the social order in which it finds itself and seeks success therein. A great sense of responsibility and a determination to complete any project once started. Seeks tangible results.
Pitfalls
Reluctant to take time out for the simple pleasures of life. Must complete the task in hand within a set framework - fearful of innovation. The child who becomes an adult too early. Keeps feelings separate from the task in hand when engaging them would make it more wholesome.
A word of advice
Your strong sense of duty is a great gift, but if you allow it to take you over and stop you having fun you will antagonise those you love and you will have less to give. Don't take on more responsibilities than you can handle.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate gives you time to open up to your feelings and welcomes your dependability. You may attract fiery exuberant partners who challenge your reticence, which can be very exciting as well as scary.
Aquarius Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Air, Quality: Fixed, Rulers: Saturn Uranus.
Character
Aquarius has ideas to take humanity out of its restriction to the social order into a wider sense of community. Values freedom and equality, encouraging others to claim what it considers is their due.
Pitfalls
Attracted to 'isms' - ideological systems of thought that can end up in leaving people just as trapped as before. Ideals become wishful thoughts to which one can escape - 'at least I know what the world ought to be like even if I can't make it that way' (especially if Moon in Aquarius.
A word of advice
Check this out: does your concern for the 'brotherhood of man' arise, at least in part, from a lack of a strong sense of your own individual worth? Watch this especially if you think you are entitled to prior consideration on account of your advanced ideas.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate listens admiringly while you expound your thoughts and won't embarrass you with tears when you keep an ice-cool distance. You may attract a partner who will feel more strongly than you do, and allowing yourself to open up and finding yourself loved for it will do wonders for your self-esteem.
Pisces Zodiac Sign - Basics:
Element: Water, Quality: Mutable, Rulers: Jupiter Neptune.
Character
Pisces has an instinctive connection with life beyond space and time such that ordinary daily life can seem a burden. As an actor on the stage can lift an audience out of itself so can Pisces give life by infusing this world with intimations of another.
Pitfalls
Dreams of life without limitations takes one away from dealing with issues of life on earth. Sickness is another form of escape allowing demands on the attention of others, or it may be the other way round - you give in easily to the demands of others who would be better standing up for themselves.
A word of advice
Check what your sacrificial service to others is doing to you. If it's destroying you then you have nothing to give. If your reward is more joy in life all well and good.
Compatibility
Your ideal mate warms to your sensitivity and devotion, welcoming your empathetic attention when needing it. You may attract partners who need so much attention they suck you dry before you know what's happened - see pitfalls above. Others may be cool and thoughtful, needing to keep their distance from excessive concern - a need you'd be wise to respect.