Aries: The Ram, The Leader, The Warrior, & The Fool
Zodiac Sign & Constellation: Aries ♈
Element: 🜂 Fire 🔥
Ruling Planet: Mars ♂️
Symbol: The Ram 🐏
Phrase: “I am” 💪
Keywords: action-oriented, active, adventurous, aggressive, angry, antagonistic, anxious, assertive, athletic, blunt, bold, brash, brilliant, challenging, chaotic, childish, competitive, confident, confrontational, courageous, creative, daring, daredevil, direct, dynamic, energetic, enthusiastic, exciting, explorative, fast, fierce, fighter, foolish, frustrated, fun, gambler, go-getter, guardian, headstrong, honest, hot-headed, humorous, impatient, impulsive, independent, innocent, insensitive, irritable, leader, naive, passionate, pioneering, playful, protective, quick, risk taker, reckless, restless, silly, selfish, short fuse, spontaneous, stimulating, strong-willed, temperamental, trailblazer, youthful, warrior, wild
Table of Contents:
The Ram’s Head
You know that scene in Toy Story 2 where Buzz and the gang are on a rescue mission to save Woody, but when they find him in Al’s apartment, there is a metal floor vent blocking their way, so Buzz suggests to Rex to “Use your head,” only to mean it rather literally?
Yeah, that one!
That’s so Aries, baby.
Like poor Rex here, Aries placements are known for diving in head first, but rather than using their head as a weapon of intellectual authority as the universe intended, they use it as a literal weapon. Take for instance, the symbol of Aries, the ram, who are known for their majestic headbutting ways.
These gloriously headstrong creatures are perfect representations of Aries’ fighter energy because fighting with their sturdy horns are how male rams establish dominance. Charging as fast as 40 mph (64 km/h), male rams crash their huge horns into each other, sometimes over the course of several hours, to decide which one of them will become the dominant male in their group. Once one of the ram subsides, that’s that — the winner is the new leader!
Rams calling it a day after a good battle reminds me of how Aries (Sun, Moon, Ascendant, and Mars placements in particular) do not hold grudges for long or ruminate on all the ways one has fucked them over. In the heat of the moment, they’ll surely rip you a new one — never one to be “above” a good argument or tussle — but once it’s over, their steam is successfully blown off and their anger subsides. That is, as long as the conflict isn’t long-term and a slow build-up into several full-on crashouts.
Luckily, their eagerness to move forward after conflict means they are more likely to forgive and forget (mostly forget) as soon as possible. Unluckily, if the argument was severe, doling out second chances is the last thing they’re willing to do; they aren’t fans of fighting over the same issue, and doing so with an Aries may lead to an escalation of nuclear proportions, so it’s best to pick your battles wisely with them.
Really, the only time Aries placements will hold a grudge is if you consistently hold one against them. And while they won’t treat you incredibly differently after they’ve cut ties with you, usually redefining the relationship into something less serious, once they are done, they are done done. And just the same, any Aries who errs on the side of insensitivity, mean-spiritedness, or over-assertiveness rarely receives second chances in life as well.
After all, Aries rules the head, so they are the most predisposed to hot-headedness. Being the first sign of the zodiac, Aries have the most kiddish energy, so their hot-headedness manifests most often as tantrums when they don’t get what they want. And while they may not be apt to hold grudges, like how kids forgive and forget far quicker than adults, they also tend to struggle with fully understanding others’ point of view because of their limited perspective, having never experienced the rest of the zodiac wheel. Aries rule over first impressions, so they sometimes struggle to see beyond their initial opinion of a person and may unfairly tout that they “hate” someone simply because that person didn’t impress or interest them enough.
Take the case of two male friends of mine who are an Aries sun and Pisces sun. Even though these signs are next to each other on the zodiac wheel, they couldn’t be further apart in personality and values. Aries is the start of the zodiac, the alpha, while Pisces is the end of the zodiac, the omega; the former is all about kick-starting new beginnings, expressing their daring self, and practicing extroversion, while the latter is all about closing karmic endings, serving the spiritual collective/purpose, and practicing solitary introversion.
So, when these two first met, the Pisces was much more open to being part of the friend group because of his hermit lifestyle, while the Aries wanted nothing to do with him. Everything about the Pisces turned the Aries off and bummed him out, so he grew a habit of not including or engaging with him at social events at first. This othering reflects how the Aries’ ego dominated his perspective with headstrong impatience, leaving very little room to budge, but there was hope considering the Venus-ruled placements that made him such a great friend in the first place. This Aries had (and has) a big heart, and slowly but surely, the Pisces chipped away at the Aries’ ego, making him rethink his first impressions.
In less than a year, he has gone from largely disliking the Pisces to adoring him and actively inviting him to hangouts and movie nights, proving that intense fire and water energies can coexist beautifully and learn so much from one another. Aries teaches Pisces to have fun, laugh without feeling self-conscious, and not take themselves and life so seriously, while Pisces teaches Aries to be more intentional with one’s actions and to be open and accepting like the sea.
Another area Aries placements struggle with involves giving fair breaks because, to put it frankly, they barely allow themselves a break due to their constant pursuit of immediate satisfaction. This is particularly a struggle for any sign with a Cardinal modality (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) because they love to start projects quickly and vigorously but struggle finishing them. In this day and age, a majority of folk are overstimulated, but Aries and other Cardinal placements in particular must be careful not to exhaust themselves with high-dopamine activities in a quick succession or else they are at risk of severe anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure, making all previously “fun” activities underwhelming and unfulfilling.
To avoid this, Aries should rely on their spontaneity when it comes to developing fresh ideas to keep life interesting and following through on finalizing projects involving these ideas. Honestly, so many of their ideas are amazing because they tend to be in the rawest, purest form an idea can be. While not every idea of theirs is a masterpiece, they are the most likely to convince others to join in on their best ones, especially if they have a Virgo or Capricorn friend to help plan and organize their ideas to a concrete reality.
Aries placements are the best at coming up with games and activities that never allow for a dull moment, as well as often finding the latest, trendiest venues to explore with friends. They are one of the most willing zodiac signs to take risks on new recreational and culinary experiences, such as exploring extreme, adrenaline-pumping adventures or trying experimental dishes, typically showing off these finds on social media as well.
Also, Aries can be pretty horny people. I mean, rams are defined by their horns and their mating habits, and Mars, Aries’ ruling planet, is the symbol of sex and masculinity, so it’s just par for the course. If they aren’t horny in that way, then they’re prone to seeking out constant stimulation in the ways I mentioned before.
These habits and characteristics just barely scratch the surface of what makes an Aries an Aries, so let’s go in depth over the archetypes that better define the #1 zodiac sign and the real-life, as well as fictional and mythological, examples that fulfill them, shall we?
The Aries Archetypes
While there are many more archetypes that fall under the Aries personality umbrella than the three I’ll discuss, I find that the Zodiac’s first sign most often manifests as trailblazing, feisty, and naive energies. For these reasons, the archetypes I find most significantly tied to Aries are The Leader archetype, The Warrior archetype, and The Fool archetype.
In discussing these archetypes, I will predominately focus on what is referred to as a person’s astrological Big 3 — their sun, moon, and rising — because these are the placements that are the most noticeable, prevalent, and natural expressions of personality in the everyday.
**Go ahead and skip to the next section on The Leader Archetype if you are already familiar with what the Big 3 represents**
The sun, moon, and ascendant/rising placements are known as the Big 3 because they are considered the most vitally representative placements of one’s person by a majority of astrologers. The sun indicates the ego, the moon indicates emotions, and the ascendant indicates appearance and immediate impressions of personality.
The sun sign is determined by where the sun is located at the time of birth, moving from one zodiac constellation to the next every thirty days from our earthly perspective.
The moon sign is determined by where the moon is located at the time of birth, moving from one zodiac constellation to the next every 2 1/2 days.
Finally, the ascendant sign is determined by the what sign the eastern horizon is located at the time of birth, moving from one zodiac constellation to the next every 2 hours or so. The ascendant sign also determines the 12 houses of a chart, always starting with the 1st house corresponding with the sign of the ascendant.
There are multiple house systems, such as Porphyry, Placidus, and Whole House, that differ on how place of the the angles and size of the houses are determined, but for the sake of simplicity, I will use the Whole House system in my chart analyses, meaning all 12 houses are of equal size, 30 degrees, starting at 0 degrees each.
Now that’s said and done, let’s get into the archetypes, starting with Aries as The Leader!
The Leader Archetype
🎶 We’re following the leader, the leader, the leader… 🎶
As the leader of the Zodiac, there is no better sign to follow than a strongly placed Aries.
In fact, Aries ascendants/risings especially have the perfect house placement because every house is placed in the sign of their rulership. There are 12 zodiac houses that follow the same order as their corresponding zodiac signs, starting with the Aries-ruled 1st house and ending with the Pisces-ruled 12th house. This illustration beautifully lays out what each house signifies:
As you can see, the Zodiac Houses begin at the west side of the chart (although the ascendant represents the eastern horizon. Confusing, I know.) and move counter-clockwise. Aries rules the first house of the self, physical appearance, identity, and first impressions. Depending on the time of birth, your ascendant/rising sign will vary, so you do not absolutely have to be an Aries ascendant in order to have a strong sense of self or bold appearance or to experience the 12 houses with relative ease. But if you are an Aries ascendant/rising, then your houses are right at home, so it’s hard not to follow your lead!
There are many famous athletes who are Aries risings because their house of sports, the 5th house, is in Leo, the next fire sign of the zodiac. Aries rising’s athleticism is incredibly expressive, creative, and fun to watch. Some notable Aries rising athletes are Shaquille O’Neal, Candace Parker, and Sofia Boutella.
I’d like to highlight Boutella’s chart for a moment because it is super interesting and very telling about her life: she has an Aries stellium (3 or more planets/angles in a sign or house), including Sun, Mercury, and Ascendant, meaning her ego, communication, and personality are unbelievably fierce. At the age of 10, her family left Algeria in the midst of the country’s Civil War. Shortly after, she became involved in rhythmic gymnastics and dancing, particularly hip hop and street-dance. She became famous for modeling for Nike and has acted in a ton of action films, including 2017’s The Mummy (Princess Ahmanet), Atomic Blonde (Delphine Lasalle), and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Gazelle). Her surname Boutella means, “the men of the mountains,” which feels super ram and Aries-coded. As someone who also has a fire stellium, I suspect that she’s super fun, full of life, and unafraid to take charge! I hope to see her lead in many more projects to come.
Additionally, because of the 5th house’s creativity (yay Leo rulership), many famous Aries Risings become pioneers in their fields of writing, acting, and/or music, such as James Dean, Heath Ledger (Sun & Asc. conjunction, too!), Brie Larson, Lea Salonga (known for her voice acting roles as Mulan and Jasmine, the most Aries-coded Disney princesses imo), John Lennon, Stevie Nicks, Rihanna (Aries Stellium - Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Asc.), Cardi B, Shakira, Walt Whitman, Philip K. Dick, and Ron Howard & his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard.
I especially love Philip K. Dick from this Aries Ascendant group because of his leadership in science fiction writing. He wrote such classics as The Man in the High Castle, The Minority Report, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was the basis behind Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner. PKD is a big inspiration for me in my own sci-fi writing, so I absolutely adore that he is an Aries Ascendant, namely because his Aquarius Moon and Venus (i.e. his unique emotional tie and love for sci-fi) fall naturally in the 11th house of technology and collective awareness. So perfect!
There are likely many more Aries Ascendant examples, but because the angles (Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven, and IC) are based on birth time, they are the least documented astrological points in celebrity charts, and even those who do have a birth time listed aren’t always perfectly accurate.
Additionally, while I find Aries Rising to be a pretty perfect house placement, there is a sort of “basic” quality to them. There isn’t a huge complexity to how the signs manifest their energies within the houses because there is no variation. The first house of the self embodies the self-assured energy of Aries as necessary, the second house of money embodies the materialistic energy of Taurus as necessary, the third house of communication embodies the curious social energy of Gemini as necessary, and so on. While the house placements are at its purest, the wild card variety of all other rising signs can provide some interesting dynamics that just don’t happen for Aries risings.
Now, do not equate “basic” with “boring” because Aries risings are not boring! All fire risings approach the world with excitement and a sense of action & adventure. Just don’t expect a ton of complications in the houses when Aries risings have a “default” quality to them, which honestly isn’t bad at all; when they need to be grounded, they tend to find that easier, when they need to be emotional, they can dig deep easier, and where they need to be transformative. . .you get the idea. They can access where they’re supposed to be a little easier than the other rising signs because their house energies might be working against them depending on the dynamic present.
And like any good leader, Aries placements know when to take risks and how liven up the world with a fresh new outlook on life. Anytime things get stuffy, dusty, and crusty, Aries (like the other Cardinal modalities) have a knack for assessing what needs the most immediate change and spiff things up a bit, particularly the tasks that can be done the quickest and simplest. Ultimately, there is a lot of pure simplicity and impermanence to them because their Mars rulership demands constant action.
Take for instance my character Ellise Kyteller, who is a Cancer Sun, Gemini Moon, and Aries Ascendant. Funny enough, she is the first of the Twelve POVs that I came up with back in the Spring of 2021, created in tandem with my Leo Sun character, Elliott Alleister.
When we first meet Ellise, she is on fire — figuratively, of course.
Well . . . mostly figuratively.
She and Elliott are the two of my twelve main characters who can channel plasma, which is the most dangerous and unpredictable of the elemental combinations within the series. Because of plasma’s overabundance of fire and air energies, Ellise’s watery Cancer sun tempers the powerful plasma to wield at her will.
In her first chapter, she and Elliott have to complete their final evaluations to prove their mastery in plasma channeling, but beforehand, we see just how ridiculously brilliant and anxiously prepared she is through a aggressive run-down of her dense schedule and future plans. Ellise is a STEM girlie through-and-through and knows exactly what she wants from life: to be the best in her field of plasmatic engineering. In other words, she intends to utilize her talents in channeling plasma to manufacture and restore robots, which are called Autogenetics or Autogenes for short.
And the girl does not know how to slow down! Her thoughts are always racing and she is always on-the-go, constantly exploring new methods to improve herself and her skills in channeling water, air, fire, and plasma. By far, she is one of the most put-together characters at the beginning of the series because of her adamant dedication to tempering her bold fire appropriately.
When it comes to her channeling style, Ellise is black and white, mixing hyper-cautionary precision with highly volatile power. It is frightening to watch like a death-defying circus act, but she almost always sticks the landing, perfectly reflecting her daring personality. Elliott is a little more gray because of his Pisces Ascendant, gracefully wielding high-powered yet controlled energy. His channeling is like a walk in the park on a summer morning that ends with sunbathing on the beach. I love their song of push and pull, but there is no denying that Ellise is the showstopper of the two.
My characters’ demonstrations of fire-wielding badassery lend credence to how Aries and all other fire placements are typically outrageously flashy. Fire signs (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius) are rigorously ambitious and are far from the type to blend into the background. After all, as the only element which produces light, fire signs belong in the spotlight one way or another, and it is hard not to recognize them! They’re spicy hot! They’re passionate! They’re on fire! So, fire signs make the naturally best leaders out of all other elements.
A downside to their “hotness” is how fast fires burn out. There might be a whole lot of exuberant energy in the beginning of a project or venture, but too much action and not enough rest can dwindle those roaring wildfires into tiny, weak flames. An excellent example of this pertains to my thespian friends with Aries placements. During show rehearsals, they tend to be the first to vocalize that they’d rather be somewhere else or get through a particularly difficult scene asap because staying present in a stressful situation is quite hellish for them. Yet, once the show is over, they’ll be like, “Oh! That went by so fast.” They can’t quite believe it and are pretty guaranteed to get the post-show blues, especially if they put their all into their performance.
As the leader of the pack, Aries is the firestarter and must be careful not to overdo it with their pyrotechnical showboating unless they want to burn everything down.
On the opposite end, others would do well not to dampen or suppress an Aries’ flames into submission or else they’ll be playing with fire in another matter entirely.
Speaking of which...
Maya Angelou - “There is nothing more unappealing than a constantly morose child.”
...Aries are one of the hardest placements to parent because of their fiery nature. “Because I told you so” simply doesn’t cut it with Aries. If you cannot give them an immediate reason, they will rebel, and even if a sound reason is given, Aries still tend to learn the hard way. They have to see for themselves the consequences to their impulsive actions or else the little lessons that teach them the basics, like safety and thinking before acting, will build into big, dangerous lessons.
However, there is a ton of beauty in having an Aries child. They remind us to be kids at heart and to have fun! Let go! Stop being such a stickler all the time! That kind of thing. Plus, if they do learn the hard way, then they have the perfect opportunity to act as great teachers for their younger siblings and peers.
Strict, no-nonsense parents will have the hardest time keeping control of their Aries child because Aries want freedom first and foremost. Like all fire signs, they love to explore and experience the most out of life, so stifling them from a young age can lead to huge repercussions of resentment, apathy, and depression. At worst, the moment they get the chance to, Aries will forge their own path, leaving behind any authority that restricts them, but in doing so, they also leave behind the proper guidance needed to make logical decisions or plan accordingly; without a mentor or guide to show them the solid path ahead, Aries are doomed to perpetually fly by the seat of their pants, barring them from long-term stability and adequate structure.
One of the finest examples of a parent (and other adults) stifling their Aries child occurs in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings. Now, while not all writers write characters like they’d write themselves, imbuing parts of their Big 3 into their characters to a T, the book is an autobiography, so young Marguerite Johnson, Angelou’s birthname, is the beautiful combination of an Aries Sun, Libra Moon, and Leo Ascendant.
Before Dr. Maya Angelou (1928 - 2014) became a leader in poetry, autobiographical writing, and Civil Rights activism, she was Marguerite Annie Johnson, a St. Louis native and the granddaughter of Annie Henderson, the owner of the only general store within Stamps, Arkansas run by a black woman.
Her grandmother was a leader in her own right and quite the formidable woman. Her grandmother, whom Angelou refers to as “Momma,” endures racist, degrading, and dehumanizing behavior throughout the autobiographical novel while holding her head high and maintaining her dignity. Marguerite is often angry on her own behalf but quickly realizes that her grandmother largely wins the battles through her grace and high self-regard. At a later point in her memoir, she even imagines her grandmother absolutely tearing a racist white dentist a new one, which was catarthic if only a child’s fantasy. Her grandmother instills an incredible amount of faithfulness into her grandchildren that deeply affects Marguerite’s worldview, such as when she writes,
“But Momma convinced us that not only was cleanliness next to Godliness, dirtiness was the inventor of misery. The impudent child was detested by God and a shame to its parents and could bring destruction to its house and line” (27-28).
This conviction is the first of many examples around the theme of shame that Angelou tackles. Disobedience, a common occurrance for any child, is a natural habit for Aries placements especially because of their need to feel in control, even when they know adult authority reigns supreme.
She embraces obedience out of necessity and manages to find her ways to keep control through “turning off or tuning out people” in what she considers her “highly developed art,” preferring to “not see or hear if [obedient children] chose not to do so” (41). The downside to this rebellious obedience is that she turned inward to the point that any outward expression, which fire signs are famous for (remember, she’s double fire), was largely suppressed. She even indicates as much during her stay with her mother in St. Louis when she says,
“If we got on her nerves or if we were disobedient, she could always send us back to Stamps. The weight of appreciation and the threat, which was never spoken, of a return to Momma were burdens that clogged my childish wit into impassivity. I was called Old Lady and chided for moving and talking with winter’s molasses” (68-69).
By all means, a detached Aries child is the antithesis of the active, youthful archetype the sign is known for. Plus, seeing a parent name-call their own child, especially over something they have caused or have done little to nothing to alleviate, elicits a kind of despondent anger in me that is difficult to assuage, which is only worsened by the sexual abuse Marguerite endures by the hand of her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. The couple chapters involving this abuse are very difficult to read through because she does not hold back from describing the multiple instances of sexual abuse from her eight-year-old perspective. Each instance gets more and more rage-inducing, so please approach reading Chapters 11 & 12 with extreme caution; nonetheless, you should read her harrowing true story.
There is a further separateness, silence, and impassivity that this abuse forces her into, both under Mr. Freeman’s threats and by choice when he is killed, presumably, by her uncles. Marguerite believes that her voice is so powerful that it killed him, obligating her to stop talking nearly altogether out of fear that her voice could bring even more destruction into her life. However, this vow of silence brought more strife in the form of judgmental name-calling, with doctors and family members calling her “impudent” and her muteness “sullenness” (88). To avoid the stark confrontation of trauma, her mother sent her and her brother Bailey back to Stamps.
A light in Angelou’s childhood, who she considers her first life line, came in the form of Mrs. Bertha Flowers, whom Angelou deems as “the aristocrat of Black Stamps” (93). Flowers instilled a love of poetry and writing into young Marguerite, introducing her to such icons as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, all of whom became integral inspirations in Angelou’s writing later in life.
Marguerite stays largely quiet while she envelops her world into her love of poetry and fiction, but she learns to laugh — really laugh — again through her friendship with Louise Kendricks, who reminds her of Charlotte Bronte’s genteel character Jane Eyre. Angelou shares a beautiful moment between the two of them during a picnic outing, saying,
“At last I began to comprehend what girls giggled about. Louise would rattle of a few sentences to me in the unintelligible Tut language and would laugh. Naturally, I laughed too. Snickered, really, understanding nothing. I don’t think she understood half of what she was saying herself, but, after all, girls have to giggle, and after being a woman for three years I was about to become a girl” (142).
These moments of freedom for Marguerite are so fucking beautiful, man. I wish there were more but that wouldn’t be true to her story. Almost every time she expresses herself in truth, she is shamed, belittled, or peach-switched into silence. It isn’t until she becomes a teenager when she is finally able to be a little bolder without condemnation. Some of the best lines demonstrating this are
“Hadn’t I always, but ever and ever, thought that life was just one great risk for the living?” (211),
“From disappointment, I gradually ascended the emotional ladder to haughty indignation, and finally to that state of stubbornness where the mind is locked like the jaws of an enraged bulldog” (265),
and my personal favorite,
“‘I’m going to slap you for that, you silly old bitch.’ I warned her and I slapped her” (245).
There she is.
While there remains multiple moments where her fires are snuffed out, including her first drive ending in a car crash and her first consensual sexual experience leading to a pregnancy, the memoir of Maya Angelou’s life up until the age of 17 demonstrate the challenging beginnings that define so many great leaders.
Her deep understanding of the black experience within the segregated South and detached metropolises was fundamental in kick-starting her writing career in the Harlem Writers Guild and her contributions to Civil Rights activism. She was outspoken about her anti-apartheid views (and it really shouldn’t be controversial to be anti-imperialist or anti-apartheid, but that’s just me speaking...) and she made close connections with other activists and freedom fighters such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Vusumzi Make, Jene Genet, Abbey Lincoln, and Rosa Guy. She was a non-stop tour de force who took on several creative pursuits beyond writing, such as dancing, acting, and composing music. For instance, I absolutely adore this photo of her from the first movie she starred in 1957, Calypso Heat Wave, where she performed her own compositions!
Dr. Maya Angelou proves that an Aries fire can never be suppressed for long. She forged her own path with courageous boldness and creative brilliance despite the difficult and traumatic upbringing she endured. Angelou, whom I consider to be one of the greatest souls to ever grace this earth, is easily the kind of exquisite human being to emulate and the epitome of The Leader archetype.
A Happy Accident
Before we move onto the next archetype, I’d like to quickly connect Maya Angelou to my Aries character, Bastien Bakari, because I have a sneaky suspicion that she inadvertently (or totally adverdantly — idk what existing beyond the grave is like) influenced his placements.
When I came up with Bastien, I needed to make someone who is strong-willed but diplomatic, fierce but kind, and daring but prudent. Bakari is from one of eleven royal families of nomarchs within a war-torn country. In Ancient Egypt, nomarchs were provincial governors of the country’s 42 provinces, called nomes, appointed by the presiding pharaoh. My series’ nomarchs are similar, but there is no longer a pharaoh to delegate the nomarchs, which were all within the royal bloodline of the first ruling pharaoh, so the eleven families formed a council to make decisions on behalf of the country and individually decide their nomes’ laws and regulations. As the oldest (and only) son of the late nomarch of Sabre, the Bakari family’s nome, Bastien begins his chapters with taking on the extensive and burdensome responsibilities of a royal leader as he transitions into the ruling nomarch. Naturally, I had to give him a Big 3 that would fit the bill, so I settled on Aries Sun, Libra Moon, and Leo Ascendant.
When I decided this, I had no idea Maya Angelou shared the exact same placements. I discovered their shared Big 3 when I was researching authors with similar placements, as I make it an effort to gather as much inspiration as possible to bring these characters to life with relative accuracy. After all, I am only one gal with one natal trinity of my own (that’s what I call the Big 3 in my series btw), so authors’ voice styles and similar astrological personalities are invaluable to my writing process.
I utterly died of laughter when I searched the exact sun, moon, and ascendant placements in Astro-Charts.com’s celebrity chart search category. You don’t get much luckier than that!
She also gave me the best words to live by for Bastien as well: “At fifteen, life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice” (249). Certainly, learning the art of surrendering is a powerful trait for any young leader to embrace.
So, I completely owe it all to Angelou for her divine intervention in Bastien’s development, and between just her and me: Thank you, I love you, and I hope I do your Big 3 justice through him. ❤️🔥
The Warrior Archetype
God of War - “I am what the gods have made me!”
The Mars-ruled Aries is named after Ares, the Greek God of War. Mars is his Roman counterpart, who was much more popular and worshiped extensively throughout Rome (because of course he was. The military power of the Roman empire was beastly and many history buffs and dudebros of today create their entire personality around their historical know-how of the empire’s brutality). Despite the difference in adoration, Ares and Mars represent the same divine force and their energies are the main associations for the zodiac sign Aries and the planet Mars in astrology, but we will still go over the different mythologies to better understand both the Greek and Roman viewpoints of the God of War.
Son to Zeus and Hera (Jupiter and Juno in Roman mythology), Ares represents the violent, unpredictable, and darker aspects of war. He is often depicted as an extremely muscular and imposing figure, clad in a full set of armor, and riding a four-horse chariot with his twin sons, Deimos and Phobos beside him, the God of Dread and Fear, respectively. Ares is the half-sibling to Athena, the Goddess of Warfare, but despite the similarity in domains, the two were depicted very differently in Greek mythology. Most Greeks preferred Athena for her calmer, wiser approach to warfare, as she understood that most conflicts should not escalate to war and that violent bloodshed was rarely warranted. Ares’ unforgiving, ruthless brutality as a ferocious warrior contrasted Athena’s wisdom as a scholar and war strategist, making the two bitter rivals. This rivalry was worsened by the fact that Zeus predominately favored Athena, which worsened Ares’ rage.
Ares does use his fiery aggression for good as well though, demonstrating a passion for love as much as he does for war with his consort Aphrodite, or Venus in Roman mythology, the Goddess of Love and Beauty. These two are why people say “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus,” because they represent the masculine and feminine to the nth degree. It was love at first sight with these two, and they couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other despite Aphrodite’s marriage to Hephaestus (it was loveless and he was notoriously ugly, so it never would’ve worked out). Aries and Aphrodite bore a son, Eros (Cupid), the God of Desire, which is the child playing at Ares’ feet in the picture at the top of this section. While they are punished for their affair and ordered to separate permanently, they still have seven more children.
Like, I said...couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other...
I find these two incredibly indicative of the passionate domains they rule and love how the Mars-ruled signs, Aries and Scorpio, are opposite, or sister, signs of the Venus ruled signs, Libra and Taurus. I play around with these fun dynamics quite prominently in my series.
Back to the war-side of Ares: in Homer’s epic poem The Illiad, Ares plays a key role in the Trojan War and is present in many of their battles. Ares goes against his initial promise to Hera and Athena to side with the Achaeans because Aphrodite persuades him to side with the Trojans instead. With help from Athena, Diomedes led the Achaeans into battle but quickly retreated out of fear when Ares entered the battlefield. When Athena ordered Diomedes to launch a full-scale attack on the Trojans, she guided Diomedes’ spear as he launched it toward Ares, impaling the God of War. With a wounded Ares, the Trojans flee the battle, knowing they cannot win without the God of War at their side, but not before Ares’ cries of pain trembled both sides of the conflict with terror. Ares later enacted his revenge against Athena for this injury, but he was bested by his sister yet again when she hurled an enormous boulder at him.
That’s what you get, hothead.
Overall, the Greeks preferred to demonstrate taming the chaos of war through Athena’s prevailing wisdom over her reckless brother, which makes sense considering the Greeks’ focus on abstract thinking through philosophy and cosmology. They viewed war as an unfortunate necessity rather than something to be glorified.
On the other hand, the Romans revered Mars for his physical prowess and hyper-masculinity because they highly valued their military. They viewed war as the ultimate test of strength and a means of keeping long-lasting peace. To the Romans, Mars was a protector and peacekeeper, serving as a guardian of agriculture when he wasn’t commanding over battles. He was the definition of virility, or “male life force,” marked by strength, vigor, and sturdiness. Any amount of savagery associated with Mars came from his origins as the God of the Wild, untameable and unimaginable by human understanding. The Romans view Mars as second to Jupiter due to his resounding power of protection, while the Greeks view Athena as second to Zeus due to her strategic sense of wisdom.
Regardless of the cultural association, all of these deities play a cosmic role in astrology, and the personal associations we hold for them are the most important in our intuitive understanding of the divine play.
Being the God of War means Aries dominants care little for other’s feelings in the heat of a battle. If they are not focused on fulfilling their strategic mission, then they are certainly too caught up in their own feelings, leaving no room to be preoccupied with the sensitivities of others. I find this especially true for Aries Moons.
When Mars and the Moon are engaged in a cosmic game of chess, Mars is quick to make moves to intimidate the opponent, making them doubt themselves, while the Moon is all about slowing down and determining what move will be the most fulfilling to prepare for the next phase of life. There is a ton of push-pull with this dynamic, as well as contradictory actions and feelings. In this state, Aries moons will overreact and step out of line, and even hurt people if they aren’t careful, because they are not in that place of delicate sensitivity that the moon requires.
Aries moons aren’t the type to hold your hand and say, “Don’t worry, sweetie! Everything will be okay.”
No, they’re going to smack you and say, “Snap out of it!” like Cher in Moonstruck.
They simply do not have the time or patience for it. While I believe all moon placements are difficult because emotions suck (Capricorn Moon in detriment life 🙌), Mars-ruled moons like Aries and Scorpio really have a tough time breaking through these contradictions in order to find fulfillment through sensitive coddling.
This does not mean Aries Moons are all insensitive assholes all the time, though. They just struggle with showing tenderness now and again, especially if they don’t have water or earth placements to balance them out. Some of the sweetest, most caring people I know are Aries Moons, so as always, taking someone’s full chart in account is key to understanding someone astrologically.
Side note: if you start to form biases where you don’t associate with people because they have “this and that placement,” maybe step away from the online astrology circles for a bit and assess what these people are really teaching you about yourself. Living by the stars becomes pretty useless when you forget how to treat others with fairness and grace like you were taught. 😊
Anyway, back to it. We can also try to understand why Aries struggle with sensitivity because of something inherent to constantly being at war: trauma. When you are constantly at war, you rarely want to stay in a place of presence. Even if a physical war isn’t in the picture, the war of the mind is exactly what makes sensitivity so foreign to Aries. I mean, even if you don’t have Aries placements, think of a time where you were at war with yourself: were you super kind and gentle with yourself, comforting your anxious, depressive thoughts like a parent would? Probably not. You likely wanted to avoid the present suffering as soon as possible, resorting to quick fixes that could never quite solve the bigger underlying issue. That’s a constant for a traumatized, mentally ill, war-torn Aries.
Still, an Aries who experiences and assesses their trauma often have the strongest fighting spirits, not the weakest. Their trauma is not what makes them resilient; it is their willpower that pushes them to stand back up and fight like hell. They aren’t about to let anyone or anything beat them to the grave, especially not a weakass coward who runs away from a good fight.
Always remember this about Aries: they do not mess around. While they may know how to have fun and fool around with friends, they have absolutely no time or patience to entertain bullshit or consider someone’s flawed point-of-view. While this can mean they tend to have a one-track mindset — not super in-tune with or learning from other people if they’re overly preoccupied with themselves — anytime they do shift their self-awareness into social awareness, they’ll be one of the first to knock some sense into your head and be like, “What were you thinking?! Like, no, actually, what were you thinking?!”
The best Aries placements will vocalize their disapproval and fight back against negligence and toxic behavior. They are aggressively passionate, own their emotional convictions, and absolutely mean it when they say they’ll throw hands or fight a bitch. Most of the time, physical aggression does not occur, and they mostly say these things to blow off some steam because their frustration, especially Aries moons, has to be spoken aloud so that it doesn’t build up and boil over.
Or, you know, go fucking nuclear.
So, heed this warning: one should always think twice before engaging in any battle with an Aries-dominant person. You very well might have started a war (and will probably lose).
On the flip side, Aries’ aggression can also come from a place of burning-hot passion, so some of the reason why they are so quick to fight is because they love fiercely and unapologetically. They will stand up for their loved ones without question and speak their truth! While they may get caught in passionate affairs like Ares and Aphrodite, Aries hate being dishonest and sneaking around overall, so if cheating does occur, the affair will hardly be long-lasting and they’ll likely get caught early anyway for being horrible liars.
Honestly, I cannot think of or find any Aries who are serial cheaters — only those who find someone else during a committed relationship or marriage and have a short affair, such as Kristen Stewart, or move quickly into the new relationship before cutting off ties officially, such as Ewan McGregor (rumored). Thomas Jefferson is the only exception but his affair with Sally Hemings was not consensual, so I’d hardly call him a cheater; he’s more of a monster man whose bad political influence (not all but most) have lingered on in America for far too long.
Alright, I’ll stop myself from getting preachy and move onto something fun: Aries warriors in TV Shows!
Doctor Who - “When a good man goes to war…”
In doing research for this piece, I noticed some interesting patterns between action/adventure-oriented media and the actors with Aries placements that star within them.
For instance, Doctor Who, the longest sci-fi show in television’s history, is centered around The Doctor, a time-traveling, regenerating Time Lord whose actual age is indiscernible (They could be thousands if not millions of years old). There have been nearly twenty iterations of The Doctor played by several actors, all of whom give their unique spin on this beloved British TV character. Even then, there is a sort of “baseline” of The Doctor because of the show’s tendency to write and dress The Doctor in some zany, colorful, and off-the-wall ways. The Doctor is largely written as a kid-at-heart who strives to explore through time and space with his many companions, helping many along the way. However, there is a warrior-like complexity given to the Time Lord who loves to run amuck, as they choose not to save everyone they encounter out of an obligation to not meddle with history, and they often demonstrate a chilling, unmerciful rage against his foes if pushed too far.
These goofy, yet severe, kiddish, yet mature qualities paint The Doctor as a perfect example of The Warrior archetype. To connect with the energy of Aries, here are the Aries placements of the actors who have played The Doctor:
Aries Placements of Doctor Who’s The Doctor:
2nd Doctor - Patrick Troughton (Sun & Chiron)
4th Doctor - Tom Baker (Moon & Uranus)
5th Doctor - Peter Davison (Sun)
6th Doctor - Colin Baker (Mars)
7th Doctor - Sylvester McCoy (Sun & Midheaven)
War Doctor - Sir John Hurt (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, & Midheaven)
9th Doctor - Christopher Eccleston (Moon, Venus, & Jupiter)
10th Doctor - David Tennant (Sun & Chiron)
12th Doctor - Peter Capaldi (Sun & Mercury)
13th Doctor - Jodie Whittaker (Moon)
Yeah, John Hurt was the perfect casting for the War Doctor. THE warrior of The Doctors by all means. Let’s go into this role (and a little on other classic John Hurt roles) a little deeper:
The War Doctor is first introduced in the two-part special that ends Matt Smith’s run as the 11th doctor, starting with episode “The Name of the Doctor.” These are some of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who ever since they feature several iterations of past doctors, briefly tease Peter Capaldi as the 12th doctor, and are full of timey-whimey goodness the show is famous for.
The first episode of the two-part special ends with the introduction of the War Doctor, a “lost” iteration of the doctor who has the worst, most daunting task of ending the Last Great Time War through destroying The Doctor’s greatest enemy, The Daleks, but also his people, The Time Lords.
There’s a lot of ins and outs to how the 10th, 11th, and War Doctors and their companion Clara go about preventing the outright destruction of his people that I won’t spoil, but I will say that there are a ton of themes surrounding trauma in these episodes. In fact, it is the War Doctor’s destruction that leads all the subsequent iterations, 9th-11th at this point in the series, to behave rather differently than the Classic Who Doctors. While The Doctor has largely been defaulted to an eccentric goof because the original show was meant to get British kids interested in Sci-Fi, the ravages of war pay their toll on the New Who Doctors, which gives them a certain “edge” that previous iterations lacked. The Doctor following the War Doctor is played by Christopher Eccleston, the only other actor with an Aries stellium as well, so his Doctor gets the brunt of the traumatic aftermath of his people’s erasure. I also find it really fitting John Hurt’s Aries placements in all of this because he is the one to essentially kick-start the traumatized Doctors. For instance:
His Aries Mars is in its domicile, giving him a precise sense of action. He was willing to make the moves and decisions that others were too afraid or unwilling to make.
His Aries Jupiter is about an abundant expansion of warrior energy in his 9th house, which is about travel, philosophy, and teaching, so other people learn how to challenge their opponents/obstacles through his example.
His Aries Saturn is about how he was challenged by opponents/obstacles, so he had to learn how to avoid too much bold assertiveness and anxious impulsivity over the course of his life. The Doctor is a Time Lord after all and Saturn is all about time!
Couple side notes: 1) I’m not surprised at all by how I’m writing about Doctor Who during the peak of my Saturn Return. 2) There are actually such things as “Time Lords” in astrology, known as annual profections.
His Aries Midheaven is conjunct his Saturn by 2 degrees, so his fame angle highlights how he became known for his bold Aries energy in film but tamed this down with age, taking on less assertive roles in the latter part of his career.
John Hurt’s Aries placements really establish how you don’t need to have a particular zodiac sign in your Big 3 in order to embody that sign’s energy extensively.
With that, I’d like to highlight some of his most Aries-coded roles before moving on: Caligula in I, Claudia (1976), Max in Midnight Express (1978), Laurence Fassett in The Osterman Weekend (1983), Mitchell Braddock in The Hit (1984), Stephen Ward in Scandal (1989), Adam Sackler in V for Vendetta (2005), and King Cotys in Hercules (2014).
Game of Thrones - “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.”
Once upon a time, I considered Game of Thrones my favorite television series. When the show closely followed George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, it was pretty incredible. Now that I’ve read the first book of the series, I do have a much more critical lens of the show’s first season, but it still remains beloved to me.
And then they fucked it all up.
I may have gotten in an inappropriate verbal argument or two over how there is no defending the last season (really, the last few seasons) of the show, and my willingness to die on that hill is rare for me. I almost never get in serious arguments over trivial shit, but the rage-inducing lack of polish or care in the writing of the show’s final seasons and its characters’ fates will always get me heated.
Sometimes, I really wonder how George RR Martin felt about the downfall of the show. He is an Aries Moon, so I can only imagine how not impressed he was at the least and full of similar rage at the most. He clearly loves and cares for his characters even though he kills them off frequently and brutally. But any good writer knows that you have to kill your darlings in ways that matter for their characters, and he always has purpose for bringing them ill-fortune. The show writers on the other hand...you know what? I will stop myself there before I get mean and petty. Unlike the best Aries folk, I hold grudges.
So, obviously in this show about the politics of war, power, and kings, there is a huge cast and a large variety of actors at that. While there is no real way of telling just how many actors/writers with prominent Aries placements are involved with this show (I couldn’t manage to pin down any Aries ascendants because birthtime is so rarely documented), I did manage to create a neat list of some Aries Sun and Moons for your enjoyment.
Game of Thrones Cast Aries placements:
Sun: Sean Bean, Pedro Pascal, Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Peter Vaughan, David Bradley, Julian Glover, Stephen Dillane, Finn Jones, Brenock O’Connor, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Joseph Mawle
Moon: Sophie Turner, Charles Dance, Max von Sydow, Harry Lloyd, James Cosmo, Jacob Anderson, George RR Martin (book series author) and Daniel B Weiss (screenwriter)
I love in particular how pretty much all of the Stark family members have significant Aries placements: Sean Bean (Eddard), Maisie Williams (Arya), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran), and Sophie Turner (Sansa). Kit Harrington (Jon Snow) and Robert Madden (Robb Stark) both have a North Node in Aries, so they’re meant to move toward that energy, and Michelle Fairley (Catelyn) has an Aries Jupiter, expanding that energy.
After all, the Stark family are a sturdy bunch who live in the snowy North but whose home of Winterfell is located on a natural hot spring. There is always a fire burning and churning beneath the surface, so even when they are attacked and brutalized, the Starks always manage to fight back and prove their house as the strongest and most consistently warrior-like. Martin really imbued a ton of his Aries Moon into the Stark characters, which is why they’re the best.
Some historical warriors, I guess…
I won’t go into too much detail on these Aries suns because I am not a history girlie, but I wanted to include some famous historical Aries warriors (and warrior-adjacent) for you history buffs:
Aries Military Leaders & Activists:
Sir William Wallace
A Scottish knight and one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence
Tokugawa Ieyasu
The founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan
Matthew C. Perry
United States Navy Officer who commanded ships during the War of 1812 and the Mexican—American War and led the Perry Expedition that ended Japan’s isolationism.
You know, this guy:
Hari Singh Nalwa
Commander-in-Chief of the 'Sikh Khalsa Fauj', The Army of the Sikh Empir
Otto von Bismarck
Chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890 during the country’s unification
Georg von Trapp
Austrian naval officer and patriarch of the Trapp Family Singers
Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965) Isoroku Yamamoto
Japanese Naval Officer who conceived the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941
Booker T. Washington
American educator, author, and orator who was one of the founders of the National Negro Business League
Colin Powell
United States Department of Defense Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman from 1989-1993 and 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 and 2005
Fun fact: He shares a birthday with Booker T. Washington Both are born on April 5.
With all these serious (and seriously awesome) warriors out of the way, let’s close out Aries with a horribly lengthy analysis of The Fool Archetype! I apologize in advance for the long read (it wasn’t my original intent, I swear!).
The Fool Archetype
The Wise Fool - “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” (Shakespeare)
Closing out with our final archetype, it’s important to understand that being “The Fool”’ is not inherently a pejorative title. Truthfully, there is a brilliance to Aries that often goes understated within the astrological community. While they are not ruled by the “brainy” planet Mercury like Gemini and Virgo, Aries has an advantage as a Mars-ruled sign when it comes to taking chances. They will not get bogged down by overthinking every little detail or falling into perfectionist traps because Mars is all about action, baby, so often they experiment by doing first and reflecting later on what worked and didn’t.
This brilliance may not be ripe with maturity or particularly filled with experienced wisdom, but Aries placements might shock you with their sense of “foolish wisdom,” uttering bits and pieces of sound advice and insight that they don’t always fully understand themselves. And just as quickly as this sudden wisdom comes to them, it goes, so they are not the kind of wizened guru to go to when you need answers to complex issues. Rather, when they aren’t being led by the desire for immediate action, they tend to settle easily into utilizing common sense, reminding those closest to them to not think too deeply about something that could be resolved by going back to basics.
Because Aries is at the very beginning of the zodiac, its energy is closest to the “source” of being, compelling those with Aries placements to embody existence from a fresh perspective and with a can-do attitude. With this embodiment, there is no fear of looking foolish to hold them back from discovering life’s greatest possibilities.
“The Fool” tarot card visually explicates this innocent pursuit of life with the image of a young adventurer ready to take on the world with a travel bindle in one hand and a white rose, further symbolizing this innocence, in the other. There is also a happy young white pup at his feet and a sun shining brilliantly in the corner, illuminating the future with endless possibility. Is the fool a little too precariously close to the edge of that cliff? Certainly, hinting at the recklessness that fools are known for, but just look at how high that chin is! This kid is confident that nothing can bring him down!
Furthermore, like Aries on the zodiac wheel, “The Fool” card is the first card that opens every tarot deck, starting with “0.” Honestly, the font of the Rider-Waite deck makes the zero look like the letter “O,” which makes me think of the world, wholeness, and the Ouroboros.
Other depictions of this tarot card replace the young adventurer with a court jester, adorned with colorful motley, such as this illustration:
Because they have not encountered the experience of all other signs following them, there is a distinct level of naivety of “The Fool” that most will outright dismiss as stupidity or irrationality, but this in and of itself is a foolish game to play, especially with Aries.
Like the jesters and town fools of old, Aries are incredibly apt at dressing someone down to their lowest self, revealing others’ insecurities and weaknesses so that they, too, are aware of their foolish nature. This poignant social awareness is most excellently displayed by the wise fools of traditional Greek and Shakespearean storytelling, whose degree of wisdom covers such topics as vain elitism, hopeless romanticism, and the thin line between sanity and insanity. Aries have a personal understanding of the errors behind diving deep into unknown territory with reckless abandon, but even this understanding does not always prevent them from repeating foolish endeavors if the lesson was not internalized and put into practice.
Naivety is only charming for so long until it becomes willful ignorance.
It is not enough to simply point out others’ foolishness; self-awareness is key for every person, and because Aries is all about learning what drives the self, it is necessary that they are self-aware if they ever wish to mature into the best version of themselves.
One of the other greatest lessons an Aries can learn is to slow down and find purpose in presence. The anxious drive to look outside of themselves and go, go, go can be exciting and lead one to many interesting places, but without utilizing periods of reflection, such as when Mars goes in retrograde and moves backwards from our earthly perspective, Aries will be forced to encounter the worst parts of themselves: arrogant, irritable, temperamental, self-destructive, and quick to anger (or even rage). These are what makes a fool truly foolish and where they fall far from the “wise fool” title.
To get a better idea of “the fool” as an archetype, both in its positive and negative aspects, let’s take a look at two celebrities who just so happen to be born on April 1st, aka April Fool’s Day: Troy Baker and Logan Paul.
Before I go into their placements in depth, it is important to know that the planets, signs, houses, and degrees have their own distinct purposes but are associated with one another; the 10 major planets & numerous celestial objects describe WHAT energy is expressed, the 12 zodiac signs describe HOW energy is expressed, and the 12 houses describe WHERE energy is expressed. Degrees add another, more nuanced layer to how energy is expressed, making up thirty degrees of each house and totaling to 360 degrees within the whole chart. Like the 12 houses, degrees have their associations with the corresponding zodiac signs in the order of the zodiac wheel — with Aries associated with degrees 0-1, 13, 25, Taurus with degrees 2,14,26, and so on — but keep in mind that these houses and degrees are not the signs themselves, just corresponding energies. After all, the planets rule their assigned zodiac sign, while the zodiac signs rule their assigned house and degree.
For example, a Pisces Ascendant at the 13th degree would have their 1st house of the self and appearance, ruled by Aries, in Pisces because the Ascendant/Rising angle always begins the 1st house using the Whole House System, so their self-expression and looks carry an air of dreaminess (Pisces) that is undeniably bold and striking (13th degree - Aries rulership).
With that out of the way, I’ll start with my favorite of the two and one of my favorite voice actors ever: Troy Baker.
Troy Baker - “Some of the things I’m most proud of, it isn’t because I think it’s my best work; it’s because of something that it’s taught me.”
Troy Baker prolific video game voice actor, known for iconic roles such as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Joel Miller in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II, Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite, and The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins, has been on my radar for over a decade because of his immense talent of emotional expression and resonance in his work, as well as being an outright cutie patootie who wears funny hats.
Because he is so experienced and lauded in the industry, having worked in video games for over two decades now, even those who can only list maybe two or three video game voice actors will more than likely mention Baker as one of them. And you know, I could not help but laugh at how many times Baker was highlighted in the recent Entertainment Weekly exclusive on video game voice actors, and I was further humored by how frequently he was the first face advertised. He attracts viewers to tune in and find out more about this growing industry, and that is no easy feat. His ability to take risks early in his career catapulted him to stardom, earning him over 100 voice acting credits. He even holds the record for the most acting nominations at the BAFTA Games Awards. I think it’s fair to say that no matter where he’s headed in the future, he will forever be considered a legend in the industry. Truly champion behavior. 🔥
By looking solely at his esteemed career, he fits the Aries leader archetype perfectly: he’s a risk taking, trendsetting, go-getting, and iconically badass guy! So, how does the golden boy of video game voice acting earn the title of “The Fool” as well?
Well, while I believe his idealistic sense of adventure and originality in his work demonstrates the positive traits “The Fool” is known for, there are some instances where Baker’s reckless choices veer toward the negative side of the archetype.
As much as I love the guy, he has made some controversial decisions when it comes to influencing his followers in the past, namely concerning his initial support for NFTs (Non-fungible tokens). Back in January of 2022, Baker partnered with VoiceVerse, a new NFT company that claims to be the first Voice NFTs to be powered by AI. In his words, Baker tweeted that this partnership would “bring new tools to new creators to make new things, and allow everyone a chance to own & invest in the IP’s they create,” ending the tweet with the loaded statement, “You can hate. Or you can create.”
Ah, yes, if you aren’t willing to dole out the cash for an overpriced soundbite that uses stolen art through AI generation, you must be a hater.
Baker received a lot of pushback from fans who expressed their disappointment in this partnership, believing NFTs to be a threat to the future of voice acting and nothing more than another environmentally-compromising grift that are widely inaccessible and unappealing to most consumers. At the end of January — just two weeks after this tweet — Baker went back on this decision, ending his partnership with VoiceVerse and apologizing for his divisive language and accusation that anyone who disagreed with this partnership chooses to “hate” rather than create.
For a guy who has been in several Spider-Man game titles, you’d think he’d heed the warning “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
Really, I don’t see this blunder as proof that he is some seedy influencer looking to make a quick buck off his followers. Rather, he did what many celebrities did when NFTs first dropped: over-sensationalize a product in its infancy with no foresight on its potential hazards. He gambled and lost spectacularly; at the very least, he reflected on this mistake and made amends urgently, which fits his status as an Aries Sun with an Aries Mercury conjunct at the 12th degree (Sun = Ego, Mercury = communication, and 12th degree = dreamy artistry [Piscean degree]). It is naturally in his best interest to speak with a sense of urgent command on his art because of the strong connection between his communication style and his ego. The moment people challenged his egoistic choice and use of language, it hit him where it hurt, so he backtracked to protect his sense of self and respect within the gaming community.
While I’d love to say this was the only foolish move in Baker’s history as a prestigious pioneer in video game voice acting, there is another instance where he voiced some questionable opinions on his work, such as calling his character Joel Miller, the morally ambiguous lead of The Last of Us, a mirror to the character David, a cannibalistic leader who attempts to kill (and potentially sexually assault) 14-year-old Ellie Williams. In this conversation on The Official The Last of Us Podcast, Baker stated rather confidently, “Tell me one thing that David did that was wrong. You tell me one thing that makes him the bad guy.”
Oof.
I think he meant to say Joel and David are foils rather than “mirrors,” as the two are given similar leadership positions but go about this leadership in vastly contrasting ways. Joel kills out of relative necessity in the post-apocalyptic setting of The Last of Us — with the zombie-like infected making up most of his kill count — and he practices protectiveness over Ellie as a surrogate father-type, preferring scavenging for food over resorting to cannibalism and certainly never engaging in pedocide or pedophelia. While I cannot find anything on Baker retracting this statement, I do find it ironic how he played the character of James, David’s partner-in-crime and second-in-command, in The Last of Us TV show, and is ***SPOILER*** felled by Ellie, much to the chagrin of David.
You know, David, the fucked up bad guy with no amount of moral grayness in his characterization. Yeah, that guy.
“They’re mirrors.”
...sure, maybe if we’re talking about a funhouse of horror set of mirrors.
I digress.
What I make of Troy Baker’s short list of foolishness is thus: when an Aries dabbles with even a little bit of arrogant jackassery, their exciting fires can blow their ego out of proportion, making them come off as way more arrogant and foolish than they actually are or intend to be. As a Leo Sun with a Scorpio Ascendant, I can unconsciously come off as way more intense and dramatic than I consciously intend, so I get it. Seriously, no hate to Troy Baker. Any serious condemnation and finger-wagging can be saved for our next April Fools Aries, Logan Paul.
Logan Paul - “There comes a time when you have to grow up and start thinking for yourself.”
I have never been a fan of Logan Paul or his family of entertainers since they entered the Youtube and Vine scene back in 2014, so I will try my very best to be as objective as humanely possible. Let’s start with his Aries placements. He has an 11th degree Aries Sun and a 25th degree Aries Moon in his 4th House using the Whole House system (Sun = Ego, 11th degree = unpredictable innovativeness [Aquarian degree], Moon = Emotions, 25th degree = impulsivity [Arian degree], 4th House = the home and family). With these placements in mind, let’s break it down.
Paul’s Aries sun in the 4th house indicates that his bombastic ego is strongly tied to his family and the foundations they create together. There is additionally a strong emotional connection to his family’s success because of the presence of his Aries moon also in the 4th house.
For instance, him and his younger brother Jake started filming themselves as pre-teens and by the time they were in their late teens, they became two of the most well-known creators on Vine, individually accruing a substantial following with Jake amassing over 5 million followers and Logan garnering over 8 million before the short-form entertainment app’s discontinuation. The death of Vine was not the end for the brothers’ career in entertainment, as they had already launched their separate Youtube channels before the app’s closing to post Vine compilations and vlogs aimed at younger audiences, predominately pre-teens. Their early success on Vine and consistent upload schedules quickly propelled the brothers into celebrity territory with Logan making several TV show and advertising appearances and Jake creating music featuring his entertainment group Team 10 and popular rap artists such as Gucci Mane. Currently, Logan has 23.6 million Youtube followers, whom he calls “Mavericks,” and Jake has 20.9 million Youtube followers.
The family’s success in entertainment doesn’t stop at just the brothers, as their parents Greg and Pam also launched their own Youtube channels in 2014 and 2017, respectively; both channels have been inactive for some time now, with Pam staying out of the spotlight, only making public appearances to support Jake and Logan’s current boxing and wrestling careers, while Greg regularly uploads on Instagram but otherwise keeps a low profile after his son Jake claimed his father physically abused him as a child in the Netflix documentary Untold: Jake Paul the Problem Child. More on this later.
With Logan Paul’s Aries sun at the 11th degree, the ideas he creates involving his ego are filled with rebellious ingenuity and spontaneity. This is because the 11th degree is ruled by Aquarius, and as the only Uranus-ruled sign, Aquarian degrees gives an edge over social media and technological innovation. Those with Aquarian degrees are prone to experimenting with original ideas, often providing art forms that defy tradition and offer unique, albeit occasionally strange and off-putting, perspectives of the world. Paul identified a growing market in online entertainment and vlogging and seized the opportunity to become a leading content creator, utilizing his ostentatious and excitingly engaging video style, his goofy, non-threatening personality, and his juvenile sense of humor at an incredibly young age.
He was bound to garner attention one way or another, but even at his height of his Youtube career, there were plenty of critics who believed he grossly misused his influencer position to excessively market his merchandise (and later his brands like Prime energy drinks) to impressionable children whom he made believe that they, too, could take charge of their lives and be free-thinkers like him if they buy his overpriced Maverick hoodies and socks with his pet bird on them. Critics also felt that his content was excessively crass and misleading, often resorting to suggestive “clickbait” thumbnails and overly-embellished material.
Take for instance the 2016 video “THESE GLASSES CURED MY COLORBLINDNESS!” in which Logan Paul very dramatically and hilariously pretends to see a sunset in its full glory for the first time despite the fact that the brand of color correcting glasses he used, EnChroma, are generally regarded to be ineffective in substantially “enhancing” color when Paul falsely claims these glasses “cure” colorblindness and make him see color for the first time ever. Nearly a year later, he uploaded a video titled, “THE TRUTH ABOUT MY COLORBLINDNESS…” (and yes, nearly all of his videos are in ALL CAPS because obnoxious attention-getting titles are par for the course with him), he admits that he exaggerated his reactions but did not wholly lie but rather embellished to “heighten the circumstances and make it a little more fun but there is a core and a truth to it.” It wasn’t until 2019 on his Impaulsive Podcast (an incredibly fitting name for an impulsive Aries man) that Logan Paul admitted that, while he expected the glasses would make some difference to his red-green colorblindness, when he put the glasses on, there was absolutely no change whatsoever, stating, “I had a moment in my mind where I was like...I have to fake this. I put my acting jobs to work.”
Man, it sure takes him a long time to admit the full truth of the situation. I wonder if there is an example of his foolish behavior where his response wasn’t so latent and half-assed…
Well, there is one example that mostly fits this bill.
Content Warning: Suicide
When I first mentioned that Logan Paul matches “The Fool” archetype, most of you reading this already knew what I’m about to discuss, but for those of you unaware, Paul very infamously filmed and uploaded a video on December 31, 2017 about his visit to Japan’s Aokigahara Forest, located on the northwestern flank of Mount Fuji, that included footage of a deceased man who had recently hung himself. Aokigahara forest is termed the “suicide forest” because of its high rates of suicides, more than any other site in Japan; having visited the forest myself in March of 2019, I have a few things to say from a personal standpoint.
Visiting Aokigahara was the most sobering experience of my life. It demands a somber reverence from those who walk its long trails. It is not a place that inspires entertaining content, intrigue, or sensationalist horror stories because it is one of the saddest, most heartbreaking places to visit in this world — I cannot help but tear up as I write this because the profound impact of that place still hits me so deeply. Aokigahara is an incredibly beautiful forest, which is clear by these photos I took during the trip, but the air is filled with the haunting reality that this is the resting place of so many lonely and broken souls. My travel partner and I encountered no one on our nearly two hour walk through the forest, as it is considered extremely taboo among Japanese folk to even visit there. On one of the branching paths, we found a jacket placed on a trail marker, likely left by one of the many volunteers who search for the deceased, for anyone who wants to stay warm while they find their way back to the main roads. There are many brightly colored tape markers that lead back to the main trail for those who change their mind, so those who set up tents and contemplate their decision trek deeply into the forest, far off from the paths. It is highly unlikely that anyone walking these paths would see a deceased person near the trail, so it is evident that Logan Paul and his film crew went deeper than the 100 yards they claim to be from the parking lot.
You can watch this video, titled “We Found a Dead Body in the Japanese Suicide Forest,” for yourself on the Internet Archive and discover Logan Paul donning a ridiculous Toy Story alien hat and behaving in the most unserious manner possible. The goofiness he’s known for is in full force when they come across the dead body, emoting and speaking frantically with over-exaggerated shock like he was just told he’s in being sent to the principal’s office for vaping in class. His cringy hmms, forced voice cracks, and casual swearing in lines like, “Yo, what the f*ck am I looking at?! Bro, did we just find a dead person in the suicide forest?” all set the already hard to watch scene for the worst moment in the video when he approaches the body and bafflingly yells, in English no less, “Hello? Yo, are you alive? Are you with us?” As the Japanese security guard he hired for the trip calls the police to report the body, Logan Paul goes into a rapid mental health talk, repeating the same phrase he said before they entered the forest, “Suicide is not a joke,” now at least without a hint of laughter or smile as before.
You know, as someone who had taught high school students for several years, reacting to difficult topics through awkward laughter is not uncommon, especially when they have no prior experience processing death. Since this is the case for Logan Paul, I am not surprised by his insensitivity. What upsets me most is that after this encounter, he went through the process of editing the video with his usual wacky flair by including a loud DUN after stating “the suicide forest,” censoring expletives with squeaky rubber duck soundbites, adding melodramatic music fit for a shitty movie trailer, and ending the vlog-portion of the video with a “If you’re not part of the Logang, make sure to subscribe” sign-off. Adding a content warning at the beginning and the suicide hotline number at the end with the message, “You are not alone. You are stronger than you realize,” is obviously not enough to make up for this horribly offensive coverage of a person’s suicide, which he knows as much after all the backlash he faced for this stunt.
The next day, on January 1, 2018, Paul removed the video after it garnered over 6 million views in less than 24 hours. He apologized on Twitter, although he mainly focused on how his critics were “missing the point” and became defensive that people would call him self-centered over this obviously self-centered series of decisions. The next day, he posted an apology video, admitting he made a “severe and continuous lapse of [his] judgment” and didn’t expect forgiveness for his apology. He regretted continuing to film after the encounter and asked his fans not to defend his actions. While he said he wants to apologize to the victim and his family, it is important to note that he never says “I’m sorry” directly, which is unfortunately a trend within Youtuber apology videos. I do believe to an extent that he is disappointed and ashamed in his actions like he says he is, but more than anything, his tone comes off as lifeless and monotone with forced sincerity, which makes me believe he’s more disappointed in how he’s publicly perceived than how his egotism led to this event.
While he may have made quick actions to take down the video as damage control, certainly quicker than most other controversies he previously faced, I frankly don’t believe he’s being entirely honest with himself or his audience. He bends the truth yet again when he says what he came across in Aokigahara was “obviously unplanned” and that his reactions were “raw” and “unfiltered.” Visiting the forest for his vlog had the fundamental intent to find evidence of suicide victims — if not a dead body, then an abandoned tent or human bones to sensationalize other people’s tragedies. I can imagine that when him and his friends were coming up with this video, they planned to bring camping gear in order to prank each other at night in a similarly callous manner if they couldn’t find anything. Their “raw” and “unfiltered” reactions were incredibly phoned in and entirely removed from the gravity of the situation because, really, how can they earnestly react to serious, harsh realities when they are conditioned to perform like American doofuses for these silly, fun-time travel vlogs?
One of my favorite video essayists, Big Joel, goes into this event in his video “The Existential Horror of Logan Paul,” saying how a string of egotistic actions inevitably led up to this reveal of the character and persona he’s so carefully constructed over his career. Like any other vlog of his, Logan Paul comes up with a video that demonstrates his identity “defined by egoism and safe emotional expression” and then transition this identity into a merchandisable brand. There’s nothing leading up to this particular vlog that would make Logan Paul believe that what he is doing is unreasonable or over the line. What would be an unbelievably surreal experience to the average person, seeing a dead body does not threaten his ego or his approach to the vlog because, in his mind, nothing about the experience is separate than all other content he films. He doesn’t experience the countries he travels to, “he happens to it.” The gravity of his actions cannot possibly sink in because “to Logan, the world is made of cardboard. He’s the only thing that has any definition. Everything else feels like a prop.”
More on the astrological side of things, the areas regarding of travel, death, and fame within his birth chart manifest in some interesting ways. His North Node, a fate-related point, and his Midheaven, the fame angle, are located in his 11th house of Scorpio. His public image and a key pursuit in life are similar to his ego and emotional disposition because the sign of Scorpio is traditionally ruled by Mars, sharing the dynamic, passionate, and protective traits with Aries. When the outer planets of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were discovered, Scorpio was given Pluto as its secondary rulership, so there are certain traits in Scorpios that Aries don’t tend to embody, such as strong intuition, psychic sensitivity, emotional depth, alluring magnetism, secretiveness, and jealous possessiveness. Since Scorpio is in his 11th house of humanitarianism, technology, and the collective consciousness, I find that his tendency to quickly defend himself online, even when he is clearly in the wrong, stems from this inherent need to control his public image and place in the collective narrative.
This self-defensiveness also stems from the fact that his Capricorn Ascendant (yes, his Big 3 is entirely Cardinal) has a whopping ten major aspects (angular relationship between two planetary/angular placements, including conjunction 0°, sextile 60°, square 90°, trine 120°, and opposition 180°), one of which harshly squares his Aries moon, providing a constant feeling of being under personal attack (wait ‘til we get to the lawsuits...).
He does not want to be misunderstood or misconstrued because so much of his emotional blueprint depends on his fame thanks to the challenging quincunx minor aspect between his Aries Moon and Scorpio Midheaven. Scorpio and Pluto also have connections to death and self-destruction, so his first real encounter with death through discovering a victim of suicide was intensely public and brought in millions of concerned onlookers. I’d argue this event is what turned Logan Paul’s fame into infamy territory.
And, what do you know, his 0 degree Pluto Sagittarius is close to his Midheaven, indicating that his radically confrontational (0 degrees = Arian degree) experience with death and transformation (Pluto) is closely tied to the wisdom he receives from his travels (Sagittarius). Incredible stuff.
Additionally, his Virgo Chiron (asteroid), the wounded healer, is in his 9th house of travel and higher wisdom and is opposite his Pisces Saturn, the planet of restrictions and challenges, indicating that he will perpetually struggle to heal the blunders he’s made during his world adventures, but he can and will try to heal them no matter. On his podcast, Logan Paul revealed that while he was not banned from Japan like gossip circles claimed, he does regret damaging his relationship to Japan and Tokyo, which he considers his favorite city in the world. He hopes to revisit the city that he describes as “beautiful” and “a giant arcade game,” and if he does, I’m sure it will be moment of redemption for Paul, even if others still hold his shortcomings against him all these years later.
On January 24, 2018, Logan Paul uploaded his next video titled “Suicide: Be Here Tomorrow.” in which he noticeably has cleaned up his appearance with a fresh haircut and plain clothes. She speaks with Kevin Hines, a man who survived an attempted suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge when he was 19; Bob Forrest, the Founder of Alo House Recovery Centers, who brilliantly points out that it’s odd how Paul didn’t know anyone who had killed themselves when suicide is the second leading cause of death in Ohio, where Logan Paul was born and raised; and Dr. John Draper, the Director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, who provides Paul five steps to suicide prevention. Even though the video would have benefited from less coverage of his scandal and more from those he interviewed, it was informative, concise, and far more necessary for his young audience to watch than his usual content.
Overall, this major fumble cost Paul several business deals, he was sued by Planeness Pictures for $3 Million over jeopardizing their promotional deals with Google, which was settled in May of 2024 after over four years of court battles, and Youtube temporarily suspended all advertising after this and several other incidents that showed an unsavory “pattern of behavior,” such as him jokingly giving CPR to a fish he removed from a pond and tasering two dead rats.
Yikes, my guy.
Logan Paul has since transitioned his focus to podcasting, boxing, and professional wrestling, which I find very fitting for him and similarly rambunctious Aries suns. He has not kept himself out of controversies altogether, making some awfully ignorant statements on his podcast, such as implying being gay is a choice by “going gay for a month” — just a year after the suicide forest controversy, mind you — and releasing a NFT-based game called CryptoZoo in September 2021. Unlike Troy Baker, Paul has never properly apologized for this grift and the “apology” he did provide came much later, spending over a year disputing criticisms and threatening legal action against the YouTuber Coffeezilla for exposing the game’s unfinished state upon release, lack of functionality, its marketing towards children, and how he and his team purchased cryptocurrency before announcing the launch of the project.
In January 2023, Paul’s “apology” came with a promise of refunds for NFT holders if they agreed not sue him; even by the time the refund program began, he still denied most of his Coffeezilla’s claims and decided to follow-through on suing Coffeezilla for defamation in June 2024. Paul filed this defamation lawsuit just after Coffeezilla asked him about a new investigation into Liquid Marketplace, a blockchain-based marketplace co-owned by Logan that was accused of “multi-layered fraud” by the Canadian Government.
Seriously, what is with these Aries men and their interest in NFTs?!
While he still largely struggles to stay away from controversies, I am glad to relay some positive news: he and his fiancée Nina Agdal, also an Aries sun, welcomed their first child on September 29, 2024. I think everyone is born exactly when they need to be, and I absolutely adore the timing here because she is just what he needs: a Libra daughter who can balance his fieriness with rational diplomacy. The air sign of Libra, ruled by Venus, is the opposite, or sister, sign of Aries, so there will be some necessary push-pull between her and her parents that’ll hopefully lead them to more cooperative, peace-driven solutions down the road. Her Virgo moon will also ground his Aries temper and help her point out his arrogant stupidity with analytical precision — not that it takes a Virgo to see how dumb he can be; it’s just that children can teach lessons that aren’t as easy to neglect as, say, lessons from society, so it’s nice to know that her moon in Virgo will force emotional practicality on him in unavoidable ways. I genuinely wish them all the best and want to leave all of those reading this (thank you for sticking around this far by the way) with this adorable photo of the happy family.
The last thing I’d like to cover on Logan Paul’s life has to do with his upbringing. I mentioned earlier that his younger brother Jake Paul claimed their father physically abused him. In his Untold documentary special, Jake said that both his parents were “really strict” and that his father “would slap the shit out of [him].” Logan agreed that their father Greg was harsh with them, stating “Greg Paul is a fucking being. He’s a menace. That guy’s intense,” but he differed from Jake’s view of their father’s parenting, adding, “Jake may throw around the word ‘abusive.’ I prefer ‘not quite legal.’”
Gregory Paul’s sun is in Scorpio, a Mars-ruled sign like I mentioned before. While there is no excuse for abusive or not-so-legal mistreatment of children, the passionate intensity that Scorpios are known for can easily turn into destructive and vindictive territory if there is an imbalance of negative traits over positive ones, which seems to be the case for Greg.
Really, any sign can be abusive and shitty,so being a Mars-ruled sign is not indicative of abusive behavior. The planets never cause anyone to behave in a certain way, so blaming that Mercury retrograde for being a bitch is just bypassing. Maybe you’re just a bitch. Own that. The cosmos simply demonstrate the correlation between human behavior and the planetary positions, which have been recorded and analyzed for thousands of years. We have free will over our choices, so while astrology can indicate how, where, and what certain energies manifest, they are only tendencies and likelihoods, not the deciding factor of poor behavior. That is solely the person and their bad choices. The fact that there is so much toxic Mars energy in the Paul family is an interesting pattern more than anything.
Jake still largely defended his father within the documentary, stating that his disciplinarian parenting style stems from a different era of parenting. Logan provides a similar defense probably because neither brother wants to fully disparage the man who instilled such ambition in them from an early age, especially considering Logan’s Aries’ moon in the 4th house.
Any moon in the 4th house or close to the IC angle often indicates a tough childhood within a toxic household, a tendency to create an us vs. them dynamic between siblings and parents from an early age, and a struggle to balance the emotional give-and-take, often giving more emotional support than receiving.
Yet, paradoxically, these complications do not keep 4th house moons from putting most of their emotional dependency and fulfillment into family life, often over-forgiving the harshest family members to avoid further conflict. Aries moons in particular thrive off passionate family dynamics, so having a father who encourages fervent ambition, leading by firm example, is ultimately one of the biggest components to Logan’s success in life. Logan’s Aries Moon quincunx his Scorpio Midheaven means that his father’s ego depends upon his son’s fame and success so directly, so Logan could not help but feel obligated to fulfill this as soon as possible.
So, with his incredibly long list of errors, shortcomings, and controversies out of the way, it’s time I ought to finalize my analysis of the astrological, behavioral, and even neurological, reasons behind Logan Paul’s Logan Paulisms.
By now it’s obvious that Logan Paul’s ego is incredibly large. He consistently leans into the worst aspects of Aries sun and moon men, displaying fervent arrogance, stubbornness, egotism, selfishness, recklessness, impatience, impulsivity, irrationality, immaturity, insensitivity, rudeness, crassness, bluntness, hyper-aggression, combativeness, competitiveness, and (of course) moronic foolishness time and time again. He does not learn from the harsh lessons he creates for himself, nor does he particularly seem to care about the damage his rhetoric, behavior, and business decisions cause anymore. He has admitted to becoming more closed off the more successful he’s become to the point where he “doesn’t give a fuck about” most people anymore. He is overly reactive to people’s often fair criticism of his insane character, defending himself and his scammy businesses at every junction and threatening legal action to anyone who points out his crooked ethics. He is far too comfortable with compulsively lying and playing the part of the bully, whether the cameras are on or off.
And to tell the truth, I feel bad for him.
It took me a few days of watching his videos, listening to his podcast, and reading articles about him to prepare this piece, and much to my surprise, I found that there are some aspects of Logan Paul that I genuinely liked, especially earlier in his career. When he was in his late teens and early twenties, he truly was a forever kid-at-heart, hyping up his family, friends, and audience with outrageous levels of infectious energy. He was light-hearted, silly, enthusiastic, passionate, vivacious, bold, daring, and determined — some of the best qualities an Aries can embrace. Yeah, he’s always been annoying and not my brand of humor, but he brought millions of kids joy and made them feel like they belonged in a group filled with the most fun and frivolous people imaginable. I honestly miss cringing at his goofy mannerisms and vapid observations because now I can only cringe at his casual tolerance of ignorant intolerance (I haven’t gone into the his interview with Donald Trump from June of last year because it largely speaks for itself, and I’m not opening that can of worms until I get to my Gemini piece).
Even though Paul’s never been super genuine or vulnerable in his work, he was once the kind of harmless fool who dedicated his entire being into juggling a ridiculous amount of jobs and projects in entertainment, all while making all of it look effortless and natural, and who made poking fun at him a timeless tradition. When he put his mind to something, he put in 1000% of effort to get it done quickly, uniquely, and optimistically, which I admire and wish I could emulate as a slow, methodical creator. I haven’t even mentioned the fact that we are the same age, only four months apart, so it’s no wonder why his younger self reminds me of some of my old classmates and even a few of my former students, especially concerning his overconfident naivety.
He never made it seem like he wanted to cause harm or serious trouble wherever he went because his goal was never to be a stupid fucking prick. A jackass? Sure. A prankster? Yes. A clown? Absolutely. But never once in his early vlogs did I get the impression that he was intentionally malicious for the sake of being malicious or because he didn’t get his way, which I cannot confidently say is the case today. Rather, I see how stuck Logan Paul has become in the hell of his own making, as those who deteriorate into the worst versions of themselves so often do, forcing himself to continue a tired charade that has long overstayed its welcome and has become the primary limitation to his substantial growth as a public figure.
Logan Paul has consistently sold this idea of being true to oneself while bending the truth about himself and his products.
He wants to place value in intrinsic matters like spirituality and pursuing freedom, but he cannot go one minute without plugging his merchandise and brands in almost every one of his vlogs and podcast episodes. The egregious amount of Prime bottles or Lunchly boxes placed everywhere in the Impaulsive recording space hurts the eyes. Every angle, every frame of his podcast has at least one Prime bottle, but usually there are several.
He is way more open to touching on vulnerable topics than in the past, such as sharing his experiences with anxiety and depression, but he only discusses these things largely with neurotypical guests and those in his close circle rather than inviting in doctors, professionals, and survivors to properly go into depth about the heart of why there is a mental health crisis in this country. The 7-minute video from 2018 barely scratched the surface of a largely complex issue, and because he is poignantly aware of how over his head the topic is, he refuses to dive deeper in a public way, keeping him from true redemption in that huge part of his story arc.
He strives to understand what he cannot relate to, but he does not bring in the kind of guests who can challenge his limited perspective or encourage radical compassion, and he often leaves his Impaulsive co-host Mike Maljak to breakdown any short discussion of empathy.
And of course he does. This man has confirmed that he has long-term brain damage, which he sustained from fracturing his skull in the 7th grade and later partaking in wrestling and high school football as a linebacker and running back. He is the ram who rammed his head around far too many times. This and other subsequent injuries largely affected his prefrontal cortex, the area that controls focus, memory, planning, organization, forethought, and — most critically — basic levels of empathy. It was an oddly moving experience to watch Daniel Amen, the celebrity doctor who diagnosed him back in February 2019, point out to Paul just how integral this part of the brain is to being a thoughtful human being. Again, I cannot help but feel sorry for the guy because I believe a life stripped of basic compassion and connection to our collective humanity is a sad one, and, as Paul pointed out years after this video, all too many Americans lack these fundamental human components of empathetic understanding. Unfortunately, this sudden moment of wisdom is honestly too few and far between, and that is a sad disparity to maintain over the course of 10+ years in the entertainment business.
So while I don’t believe he’s ever been “the wise fool,” and maybe he’s too in-deep in reckless endeavors to ever become one, I believe he’s gone from being an innocent fool to a fool’s fool, convincing himself that he has matured into a considerably better man as he repeats the same (or considerably worse) vicious cycles as those from early in his career and surrounding himself with those who only want to champion him for the improvements he has made, while never properly holding him accountable for recent bouts of aggressive antagonism. Sure, he and Maljak can blab all day about how much he fucked up in the past, but does Logan have the level of humility necessary to admit or even recognize that pathological fiery impulsivity, the defining characteristic of his persona, has done more damage to his current public image than good? Does anyone who’s so demonstrably foolhardy?
Ultimately, the fool’s fool does not instill faith that humanity will learn the errors of their ways before it’s too late. They epitomize these errors and let others clean up the mess they leave in their wake. They are the ultimate cautionary tale, teaching us not to hold our breath for those who prove time and time again that they are only reliable at disappointing and fooling everyone around them — but most considerably themselves. Above all, the fool’s fool is not the kind of person to idolize or emulate, and from an astrological perspective, this extreme version of the fool archetype fulfills some of the most disastrous illustrations of Aries energy.
Closing Thoughts
Phew.
Gotta say, the real champion of this piece is you for getting this far. Perhaps going that deep into Logan Paul’s life and astrology was a fool’s errand — pun always intended — but there was so much to say! He is the perfect example of what not to do as an Aries sun and moon combo, so if you have these or any double Aries placements in your Big 3, be super glad your least savory moments aren’t as catastrophic or as public.
I didn’t even mention how funny it is that the two people I discussed the most both have their ascendants in 10 aspects (I would write both their names in the same sentence, but I don’t feel like that’s respectful to Dr. Maya Angelou). I just love the fact that these two who share so much about themselves are Aries suns, the ruler of self-expression, and have that many aspects to to their ascendants, the angle of the self.
Anyway, as I’ve clearly established, I prefer long-form content, so expect a super lengthy piece on Taurus The Bull this time next month!
Thank you so much for checking out my astrology content. It means a lot to me ❤️. Please consider subscribing to my Substack or following me on my socials for more on my astrological insights and analyses, as well as updates on my sci-fi/fantasy series! Thanks again, and I’ll see you soon!