The Aliens of Astrology

Aquarians. The outlaws of astrology. The aliens. If it's weird and unconventional, we're probably into it, and we probably heard of it way before you. Welcome to the Air Sign whose creativity and outlandishness truly floats above and beyond most people's heads.

I've always identified very heavily with my sign. If you ask any of my friends to describe me, the adjectives they choose will all be synonyms of 'different', (trust me, I've actually done this before) or 'quirky'. We crave the unusual, the outside-of-the-box, and we hate, HATE, to be restricted by conventions. But here is where the tricky part comes in: our zodiac history shows us as a sign of contradictions.

With our ancient ruler being Saturn - the disciplinarian, the traditional one - and our modern ruler being Uranus - the rebel planet - we are most definitely a sign of two halves. My need for order, tidiness, and discipline, when doing my job as a tutor, is often at odds with even the very concept of having a 'job', and paying those things called 'taxes'. It's like my being baulks at anything representative of convention and institutionalism. What's more, my love of being in the comfort of my home regularly locks horns with my fierce compulsion to travel to far-flung corners of the world, and lose myself down side streets, and up misty mountains. It can be truly EXHAUSTING to be an Aquarius.

The competing factors at play in this sign do not rest when it comes to relationships and romance. We are a sign that longs to be known deeply by a partner, and that can love fiercely in return...if we ever get over our aversion for expressing those yucky things called 'feelings'. For being a sign that is connected with humanitarian inclinations, and the desire to help others and do good, our care and compassion often doesn't extend to that of our own feelings; we instead tend to run for them. The oxymoron here is that this can lead many to thing of us as cold cyborgs, devoid of any human feeling when, in reality, it is because we feel so very, very, deeply that we find it hard to express our emotions for fear of getting hurt. Our wild hearts strain at the thought of love having control over their intelligent brains, and this has often led to intimacy issues within my own relationships.

All of this cosmic confusion often leads us on long paths of self-discovery in an attempt to marry our contradictions, and find our life's purpose. This is the exact journey I have embarked upon as I enter my 30s: who am I? What do I want to do with my life? What am I MEANT to do with my life? This journey is made even more interesting by the fact that we also often seek to combine our cerebral prowess with our spiritual souls; we want to use our intelligence in a way that also connects us to something beyond the confines of money, status, and traditional accolades. I suppose this is why many Aquarians are drawn to humanitarian or charity work, although interestingly this has never held much draw for me. I want to help the world, but in my own unique way - and you know what, there's nothing more Aquarian than that!