Sign compatibility
The easy pairing that assumes it needs no upkeep
- Elements
- Fire
- Air
- Modalities
- Cardinal
- Fixed
- Rulers
- Mars
- Uranus
Aries and Aquarius both bristle at being managed, and recognising that in each other is most of the initial attraction. Neither asks the other to account for their time. Neither takes an absence personally, at least not at first, and neither expects to be consulted about a decision that only affects one of them.
Sixty degrees separate them, a sextile, and the elements involved support each other, so the pair has an easy time whenever it reaches for it. That last clause is the whole point: nothing about this angle insists, and this is a combination that can go for months on goodwill and no attention at all.
The angle between Aries and Aquarius
Aries and Aquarius stand 60° apart on the zodiac wheel, and astrology calls that distance the Sextile. The angle never changes: it is the same for every pair of these two signs, whatever else the two charts hold.
Fire and Air are the classically supportive elements: each one gives the other what it does not produce on its own.
Cardinal and Fixed are two different speeds: one sets the pace, the other decides how long it lasts.
The pair has two rulers, Mars and Uranus, and each side reads the relationship through its own.
Two kinds of independence
Aries is independent in the moment: the decision was mine, I made it, here we are. Aquarius is independent in principle: I do not accept that anyone gets to decide this for me, including you, including in ten years.
The first is easy to live with and occasionally inconvenient.
The second is harder to argue with and easier to forget about, until it appears at the worst possible time about something apparently minor.
Heat and distance
Aries reacts immediately and expects the same. Aquarius goes away, thinks, and returns with a position that has been properly worked out — often days later, when Aries has entirely finished with the subject.
That mismatch is the daily texture of this pairing. Aries experiences the delay as indifference; Aquarius experiences the demand for an instant reaction as a way of being pushed into agreement.
What the pair does well
This is one of the better combinations for doing something unusual. Neither is deterred by other people's disapproval, neither needs the plan to be conventional, and both are entertained rather than frightened by an idea nobody has tried.
Aries supplies the start and Aquarius supplies the reason it is worth doing at all, which is a combination that gets a surprising number of odd projects off the ground.
Where this pair rubs
The rub is that neither of these two tends the relationship. Both assume it is fine because nothing has gone wrong, and both are busy with something else. Affection here is real and rarely stated, and the pair can drift a long way without a single argument.
The other rub is temperature. Aries wants it out, now, at volume. Aquarius will not be shouted into a conversation and simply becomes cooler as the heat rises, which reads to Aries as contempt and is closer to self-defence. By the time Aquarius is ready to talk properly, Aries has usually decided the whole thing was settled or abandoned.
Compare the real charts
A Sun sign is only the outline. A synastry chart puts two full birth charts side by side — Moon, Venus, Mars and the houses — and shows where the two of you actually meet.
Open synastryAries: the other pairs
- Aries and Aries
- Aries and Taurus
- Aries and Gemini
- Aries and Cancer
- Aries and Leo
- Aries and Virgo
- Aries and Libra
- Aries and Scorpio
- Aries and Sagittarius
- Aries and Capricorn
- Aries and Pisces
Aquarius: the other pairs
- Aquarius and Taurus
- Aquarius and Gemini
- Aquarius and Cancer
- Aquarius and Leo
- Aquarius and Virgo
- Aquarius and Libra
- Aquarius and Scorpio
- Aquarius and Sagittarius
- Aquarius and Capricorn
- Aquarius and Aquarius
- Aquarius and Pisces
The ruling planets of this pair
Answers
Aries and Aquarius: common questions
They are one of the easier pairings and one of the most likely to be neglected by the people in it. Independence, honesty and appetite for the unconventional are shared. What has to be built is maintenance, because neither sign supplies it and both assume silence means everything is fine.
Because rising heat is met with rising distance on that side, which is a defence rather than a punishment. Aries reads it as disdain and raises the temperature further. The pattern is entirely mechanical and stops as soon as one of them names it.
It is the 60-degree angle between signs whose elements support each other, and it offers rather than compels. The cooperation is easy to reach and nothing forces the pair to reach for it, which is why these combinations are pleasant and easy to leave idle.
More often than most, and with unusually little bitterness. Neither keeps a long account of grievances and both value the other's company independently of the relationship. That same lightness is what made it easy to drift apart in the first place.