How to recognize AQUARIUS

Lots of people like rainbows. Children make wished on them, artists paint them, dreamers chase them, but the Aquarian is ahead of everybody. He lives on one. What's more, he's taken it apart and examined it, piece by piece, color by color, and he will believes in it. It isn't easy to believe in something after you know what it's really like, but the Aquarian is essentially a realist, even though his address is tomorrow, with a wild-blue-younder zip code.

Like the bewildered Alice, taken through the maze of wonderland by Aquarian Lewis Carroll, you'll have to be constantly prepared for the unexpected with Uranians. Generally kindly and tranquil by nature, Aquarians nevertheless enjoy defying public opinion, and they secretly delight in shocking more conventional people with occasional erratic conduct. These normally soft-spoken and courteous souls can suddenly short circuit you with the most amazing statements and actions at the most unpredictable times. The typical Uranian is half Albert Schweitzer, and half Mickey Mouse. His feet can be wearing sandals, boots, oxfords, or hush puppies, and he'll seldom bother to check whether they're appropriate for the occasion. He'll show up barefoot if he feels like it, and laugh at you for laughing at him. Aquarians often deliberately adopt weird attire to show their refusal to conform.

Look for a strange, faraway look in the eyes, as if they contained some kind of magic, mysterious knowledge you can't penetrate. Aquarius eyes are typically vague, with a dreamy, wandering expressions, and often (but not always) blue, green, or gray. The hair is frequently straight and silky, likely to be blonde, sandy or light brown; the complexion is pale and the height is usually taller than average (though the ascendant can modify the appearance of any sun sign) you'll notice a marked mobility of profile. Uranus features are finely chiseled, suggestive of Roman emperors cut on old gold coins. True Aquarians will often adopt a problem, or just after they've asked a question. The head drops abruptly forward or cocks to one side, waiting for your reaction. Curiously, thanks to the dual sexuality of Uranus ' there are often feminine characteristics in the male bodies, such as broad hips, for example- and masculine characteristics in the female body, such as broad shoulders.

Freedom-loving Uranians can be acutely funny, perverse, original, conceited and imdependent, but they can also be diplomatic, gentle, sympathetic and timid. The Aquarian will almost desperately seek the security of crowds and saturate himself with friendship. Then he'll fall into a gloomy, morose spell of loneliness, and want to be strictly left alone. But whether he's mingling or singling, he'll retain his sharp perception, which is at once both deeper and quicker instinctively feels that all old customs are wrong, and that drastic alteration and revolutionary change is what the world and people need ( although if he's in politics, he's clever enough not to broadcast his views prematurely and spoil his strategy)

To this end, Aquarians are always analyzing situations, friends and strangers. It can be disturbing when they start asking pointblank questions, with a bare minimum of tact, as they probe into the heart of your private feelings. When they discover the puzzle wasn't so complex after all, they become bored, sometimes even upset. Nothing is more become bored, sometimes even upset. Nothing is more insulting than to have an Aquarian tire of his game of microscopic examination and turn to the next interesting person, just when he's convinced you he thinks you are the most important human being on earth. It sings.

Despite their fixation on friendship, Aquarians don't have many intimates. They seek quantity rather than quality in their associations, and they seldom settle down to a steady relationship for more than a limited period. There's too much to discover around the next corner to remain tied to one or two friendships exclusively. It does little good to make a emotional appeal to such an impersonal nature, but if you touch the heart of an Aquarian (which is not the same thing as mere emotion) he'll usually get off his bicycle and come back to see what he might have missed.

Uranians are a curious mixture of cold, practically and eccentric instability and they seem to have an instinctive empathy with the mentally disturbed. It's curious fact that almost any Aquarian can substantially reduce the anxiety of the insane simply by talking to them quietly. He has a marvelous knack for calming hysterical people and soothing frightened children. Is it because of his own thinly-covered, highly acute nervous system that he has such a deep understanding?

The Aquarian outlook is so broad that you'll seldom find one who is prejudiced, unless there are severe planetary influences in the natal chart. Even then, he'll be deeply shocked when his prejudice is pointed out. The brotherhood instinct is so strong in him that when a rare Aquarian is guilty of being intolerant, he's not only unaware of it, he hates the label. Ordinarily, everyone is his brother or sister. He'll wander through affluent society and the slums alike with his symbolic jar, gathering the waters of knowledge and pouring them out again, except for those occasional lapses into hibernation. But his hiding out periods seldom last long, and before you get a chance to miss him the Uranian is back gregariously making the rounds again. Don't try to interrupt his solitude. When he wants to be alone, he wants to be alone, but he hasn't retired from the mainstream permanently, even if he does take a sudden Uranus notion to get an unlisted phone number. His address hasn't changed, and neither has he. He can never renounce people for long. Ignore him and he'll soon be walking around town on those home-made stilts, as alert and inquisitive as ever.

Ordinarily it's difficult to get an Aquarian to make a precise appointment. He'd rather keep it loose, because he doesn't like to be pinned down to specific duties or obligations at specific times. He prefers a casual "I'll see you around-may be sometime" Tuesday" to a definite hour for a meeting. (And he sometimes means the second Tuesday of next week) However, I will say that once you've succeeded in nailing him and he gives you his word he'll meet you at a particular hour he will be there on the dot. You can count on it, even set your watch by his punctuality, and you'd better not be late yourself. He'll show up dependably, unless he's been kidnapped on the way (which being an Aquarian, he could be. Anything can happen to these people at any time. I mean but anything)

You can expect him to give his opinion frankly, but he won't try to dictate how you should think or how you should live your life. Conversely, he doesn't intend to let you tell him how he should think or live his. Unlike Aries and Leo or Gemini, he has no desire to hard sell his ideas to others. The Aquarian philosophy is that everyone has his thing, his special yearning. Each person dances to his own fiddle music, and individually should be respected. It's interesting to see that, as the world moves into the Aquarian age, the heralds of the new era are the flower people and the Gurus. In exaggerated fashion, they are simply reflecting the Aquarian ideals, equality-brotherhood-love for-all-live and let live-seek the truth -experiment-and retire to meditate.

You'll rarely find the Aquarian fighting fiercely for a cause. They live their code, and feel that's enough. Let Aries, Scorpio, Leo and Sagittarius grab the sword and battle gloriously to free the downtrodden. The Uranus ruled souls are too busy figuring out the reason for the revolution, listening to people's troubles and sharing sympathetic understanding. Aquarius believes in violent change, but he leaves the violence to others. He's not a moral or a physical coward. He just isn't geared for battle. When a fight catches him unaware, he may strike out blindly in confusion, or he may simply agree, to end the argument. His reaction is unpredictable , but one thing is certain. The next day his opinion will be as fixed as it was before. Anyone skilled in debate usually get the best of him, since his attention can so easily wander to the abstract in a battle of wits. The Aquarian fights best with his hat. He puts it on and leaves. His truth-respecting mind, however, won't budge an inch when he has a firm conviction, despite his distaste for unpleasant confrontations. All the shouting and emotional pressure in the world won't keep him from determinedly going his own way with his independent ideas, while the fireworks explode all around him. Our two Aquarian presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, demonstrate this principle perfectly. The concepts were equally original and strikingly unpopular in both cases. There was no aggressive insistence on personal theories, yet the sweeping reforms were made, regardless of lack of cooperation and bitter opposition.

Trusting people doesn't come naturally to the Aquarian until after he's scrutinized your motives, even your soul, if possible. It's easy to grow restive under his intent analysis of your every word and gesture. You get the feeling it's all being filed away in that penetrating mind for future reference, and it is. He may seem to be in a dreamy fog now and then but don't you believe it. He can probably tell you how many eyelashes you have. Never expect the Uranian to take you at face value. His innate courtesy will never keep him from shining the Uranus spotlight on you from head to toe. He wants to know that once you're accepted he'll loyal and his friendship will be unshaken by malicious gossip. If you're his real friend, he won't believe the nasty whispers of your enemies, although he'll undoubtedly listen to them out of sheer curiosity. Rest assured however, that he'll make up his own mind in the final analysis.

Aquarians don't have the best memories in the world, but then they really don't need to memorize much, since they seem to pick up knowledge out of thin air, with some kind of invisible antennae. Why should they clutter their minds with information they may never need, when they can reach out by osmosis and grasp just about anything they want? They're likely to come home from the store without the most important item on the grocery list, because they can't be bothered with remembering what is, to them, non-essential. The typical Aquarian is the embodiment of the legendary absent-minded professor. I know one who planned to meet his wife in front of the city squire motel at noon. But he arrived early and ran into an old friend. ( Aquarians are always running into old friends. In Africa or the Aleutians Islands they will be sure to find somebody they know) The Uranian was engrossed in conversation with his pal when his wife approached, all smiles. As the came closer he started at her blankly, gallantly tipped his hat, then turned ,took his friend's arm and walked down the street, deep in conversation, leaving the furious, frustrated woman standing on the corner, alone and forgotten.

The Uranus power of concentration can be awesome. Yet, they're also able to pick up things going on around and behind them when they choose, like a radar screen. They can carry on a complicated discussion and still not miss an inflection of what's happening in the other part of the room, if they decide to tune in. Sometimes you could swear the Aquarian paid no attention to anything you said, but the next day he'll repeat it back to you like a tape recorder. Never underestimate the Uranian process of soaking up knowledge while they seem to be oblivious even though now and then they get lost in concentration like my friend who left his wife standing on the street, in a mood to kill.

Yet there's nothing superstitious about their thinking. A true scientist even if he's a mechanic or a musician, the Uranian won't jump to a conclusion until it's passed the test of his keen mind. However, once he forms an opinion, it remains firmly fixed in his brain, and I do mean firmly. As strongly as he loves change in society and government he won't change his own iota for anybody. He's completely open-minded about world progress, but his mind clamps shut when it involves his personal behavior, which can be unexpected conservative. You can see that his liberalism has its boundaries.

His mind and body must both be as free as the wind. To try to pin down the Aquarian is to try to stabilize the butterfly, to stuff a spring breeze into a closet or confine a winter gale in a bottle. It can't be done, and besides, who in the world would want to try? Though he's so far ahead of his time that you have trouble catching his view-point immediately, it's still worthwhile to make the attempt. You'll always come away a little wiser, if a little bewildered. His astrological flower is the daffodil and now you know the derivation of the world "daffy."

The soul of the water bearer is constantly from asunder by Uranus the unpredictable and violent planet of change which lets him see ahead with electric blue clarity to the future. Aquarius belongs to mankind. He represents its truest hopes and its deepest ideals. Even his metal, uranium, is not really a metal, but a radioactive, metallic chemical, found only in combinations. It's important in atomic research , and it can undergo continuous fission. The magnetic majesty of eight bolts of brilliant lightning reflected in the Aquarian sapphire can split open his secrets for those who seek to know him-but only for an instant can you see into his lonely heart, long ago infused with Saturn's ancient wisdom unless you too live in tomorrow.

Famous Aquarius Personalities

Francis Bacon, Jack Lemmon, Charles Darwin, Paul Newman, Abraham Lincoln, Lewis Carroll, Katharine Cornell, Kim Novak, Galileo, Ann Sothern, Jimmy Durante, Louis Nizer, Paul Newman, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Roosevelt, Mia Farrow, George Burns, Somerset Maugham, Jeanne Moreau.