You're such a typical....

Aries are loud, proud, strong and brave on the one hand, but needy, demanding and emotional on the other! They command your full attention in exchange for total loyalty but get easily bored and restless. They like winning, leading and being challenged. Capable of great passion and strength like the symbol of the Ram, charging in, head down and horns out to push their way into the fray.

Headstrong and bold but childish with a short attention span. The Ram has been the symbol since written records began. In modern terms think of the Looney Tunes character of the Tassie Devil, a whirlwind force of nature that disrupts all and leaves a wake of destruction in it's wake.

Google Aries and you get a list of positive traits and their negative interpretations or the flip side of the coin. Words like:

Courageous ----->Reckless, Competitive ------> Insecure, Honest ------> Tactless, Driven ------> Pressurised, Generous ------> Overbearing, Energetic ------> Exhausting!

If you want to read the positive courageous, competitive, honest, driven, generous and energetic paints a great picture of someone everybody would want to be a part of their life. Sounds fantastic doesn't it? Reckless, insecure, tactless, pressurised, overbearing and exhausting. Not so crash hot are they? Surely you must be describing different people.

The problem is that these are such broad generalisations that people grab onto with both hands. Of course I'm all of those good traits and yes occasionally some of the negative ones may come up but I guess you have to take the good with the bad!

Capable of a mix of all those things and none. Like throwing darts at a board, you'll hit some you like and some you don't. Sometimes you'll miss the board completely. If you're unlucky you'll get a dart in a big scary bloke who will share his displeasure at your lack of skill.

Personally I have chosen to embrace the positive traits and ignored the bad. I looked up the star signs in the paper or listened to the soft voice hippy on TV each week give a reading of what each star sign will expect for the following week. Aries were always first and if I caught Karen mid way through I missed mine, while others waited impatiently for theirs and demanded silence in case they missed these trusted prognostications.

I guess I never questioned the logic of birth dates dictating character traits of all those born in that bracket. Then someone can make generalised predictions about the future experiences of each sign. Is it mass hypnosis that allows millions to accept it as statements that with one eye squinted make perfect sense and apply perfectly, unless they don't and that means they applied to other people and not them.

Logic would dictate that the stars have little or no influence on my character. I have to think that people love to believe in explanations of all the things they don't know. They grasp at straws that give them hope and a reason to look at their date of birth and adopt all the good things about themselves that match.

What if you feel some of those traits or predictions don't apply, well then that is down to the fact that I was born at the end of the cycle, so I actually have more of the traits related to the next sign! If the prediction was off it is because I am not your typical Aries!

Have I ever asked a girl, "So what's your sign?" as a pick up line? Yes, I have and nodded and grinned as she says, "Oh, you're such an Aries!" and responded "Well yes I am bold, brave and a natural born leader! I may not have a sporty or athletic bone in my body, but that is just the non-Aries part of me!" Was that in total expectation that if she believes in all that 'stuff' then if I play along she'll be more receptive and accepting of all my negative flaws that I can call part of being an Aries.

Equally when the relationship was breaking down I have also taken great physical pleasure in finally shouting at her in the middle of the break up, "Oh, by the way, all that star sign 'stuff' is complete nonsense only believed by idiots!"

I do have many traits both positive and negative of an Aries, but if I bothered to investigate I probably have many traits ascribed to a Cancerian or a Gemini too. As far as mass delusions go, compared to extreme destructive ideologies, star signs are light, fun and extremely entertaining!

Live long and prosper!