The first decan of Aries

The opening ten degrees of the zodiac, and the only part of Aries that both rulership traditions hand straight back to Mars.

The technical picture

Degrees: 0 to 10 degrees of Aries
Sun here roughly: March 20 to March 30. The boundary shifts by about a day with the leap cycle, so a birthday within a day of either end needs a calculated chart.
Sign ruler: Mars, over all three decans
Traditional face ruler: Mars, from the Chaldean order
Modern triplicity ruler: Mars, by way of Aries
Do they agree: Yes. Both traditions give this decan to Mars, which is true of only nine of the thirty-six.

The core of this decan

Zero degrees of Aries is where the zodiac starts, and this decan carries that. Planets here tend to behave like beginnings: unhesitating, uncomplicated by what came before, willing to be wrong at speed. There is very little dilution. Whatever the planet is, this decan lets it be that thing without apology, which is why astrologers reach for words like raw and undiluted when describing it and rarely find much to qualify.

How it differs from the rest of the sign

Aries has three decans and they are not interchangeable. This one is the most simply Aries of the three, since Mars rules it in both schemes and no second planet is pulling at it. The second decan picks up the Sun and gains a wish to be seen; the third picks up a wider, more philosophical ruler and starts asking what the charge is for. Here nothing asks. A planet in the first decan of Aries is usually the one that moved before the question had finished forming.

The two rulers

Nine of the thirty-six decans have both schemes agreeing, and this is one, on Mars, twice over. The old face system runs the seven planets in Chaldean order and lands on Mars for the opening of Aries. The modern triplicity system keeps each decan within its element and gives the first decan of any sign back to the sign's own ruler. Both arrive at Mars. That doubling is the whole character of this decan.

Where the friction is

Undiluted is not the same as effective. A planet here can spend itself completely on something that did not need any of it, and the absence of a second influence means nothing is available to slow the spending down. Beginnings are easy and endings are somebody else's problem. The pattern most people report is a life with a great many strong starts in it, and a smaller number of things carried through to the point where they paid anything back.

Working with it

Aim it. That is nearly the whole instruction, since the force is not in question and the direction usually is. It helps to attach anything begun here to a person or a date that will still be there in three months, because this decan supplies no follow-through of its own. And notice which of your starts you actually wanted, as opposed to which were simply the nearest available thing to begin.

Questions to sit with

Which of your recent starts did you actually want, and which were just nearest?
What are you spending full force on that would survive half?
Who or what carries your projects through the middle, when you have moved on?

The other decans of Aries

The rulers involved

Start here

Find which decan your own planets fall in.

Educational and reflective. This describes tendencies, not predictions, and is not medical, legal, financial, or psychological advice.

Drafted from an expert brief, reviewed by a practising astrologer with 30 years of experience, and grounded in computed chart data.