Tarot and the zodiac · Aries
Aries in the tarot: The Emperor, and the first fire of the year
The Golden Dawn gave the first sign of spring to the card of the ruler on the stone throne. Under it sit three Wands cards, one for each ten degrees of Aries.
Urania's Mirror, London 1824 · Library of Congress
At a glance
The Aries tarot card is IV The Emperor. Its decan cards are the 2 of Wands, 3 of Wands and 4 of Wands, and the Sun crosses them Mar 20 to Apr 20, 2026.
- Major Arcana
- IV The EmperorHebrew letter Heh · Thoth: The Emperor
- Decan cards
- 2 of Wands, 3 of Wands, 4 of Wandsruled by Mars, Sun, Venus
- Court cards
- Queen of Wands (0° to 20°), King of Pentacles (20° to 30°)Book T's spans
- Sun in Aries, this cycle
- Mar 20 to Apr 20, 2026enters Mar 20, 2026, 14:46 UTC
- Ruler's card
- XVI The TowerMars rules Aries
Find your exact decan cardBirthday in, five Golden Dawn cards out.
The card
Why Aries is The Emperor
Try this today
- Pull The Emperor from your deck and leave it face up on your desk for a week. Notice when you want to rush and when you want to rule.
- Write down one thing you started this year that needs a structure now, not more speed.
- If you have Aries rising or an Aries Moon, read this card for that placement too. The attribution is to the sign, wherever it sits in your chart.
Aries zodiac sign: dates and traitsAries myth and constellation
You know the Aries move. Someone has to go first, and before the group chat finishes deciding, the Aries has already booked the table. The tarot puts that energy on a throne.
In the Golden Dawn's tarot manual, Book T, Aries belongs to IV The Emperor, called "Sun of the Morning, Chief among the Mighty." The title fits the season. Aries opens the tropical zodiac at the March equinox, the morning of the astrological year, and the Emperor is the card of the first structure built on fresh ground.
There is a catch that makes the pairing interesting. Aries is quick, hot and impatient. The Emperor is steady, seated and built to last. Read together, they describe a specific kind of courage: not only starting things, but staying long enough to make them hold. The rams' heads carved on the Emperor's throne in the 1909 Waite-Smith card are a quiet nod to the sign.
The sky behind it
Book T calls The Emperor "Sun of the Morning, Chief among the Mighty" and gives it the Hebrew letter Heh. Its number, IV, never moved: Marseille, Waite-Smith and Thoth all agree on it.
On the 1909 card
What The Emperor shows, and what it asks a Aries
A crowned ruler on a stone throne carved with rams' heads, an ankh-topped sceptre in one hand and an orb in the other, bare red mountains behind him.
For an Aries, this card is less about bossing people around and more about owning your own decisions. The orb and sceptre are responsibility, not just power. The barren mountains behind the throne suggest someone who built order where there was none.
When The Emperor turns up in a reading for an Aries, a useful question is: where are you being asked to lead with a plan instead of a sprint? It can also flag the opposite, a moment when your need to be in charge is louder than the situation needs.
The three decans
Aries's three minor cards: the 2, 3, 4 of Wands
Aries is a fire sign, so its three decans are Wands, the suit of fire in the Golden Dawn system. They are the 2, 3 and 4, because the Golden Dawn starts the minor-card sequence at the cardinal signs with the Twos.
2 of Wands, Lord of Dominion · Mars in Aries, 0° to 10° Aries · Mar 20 to Mar 30, 2026
On the Waite-Smith card a man stands on a battlement holding a small globe, a second wand fixed to the wall beside him. Mars in its own sign gives the first ten degrees a sharp, planning edge. Dominion here is the moment of choosing a direction, with the world quite literally in your hand.
3 of Wands, Lord of Established Strength · Sun in Aries, 10° to 20° Aries · Mar 30 to Apr 9, 2026
The card shows a figure on a cliff edge with three wands planted beside them, watching ships sail out below. The Sun's decan is about momentum you can see. The ships are already moving. Established Strength reads as confidence that comes from things actually underway, not just imagined.
4 of Wands, Lord of Perfected Work · Venus in Aries, 20° to 30° Aries · Apr 9 to Apr 20, 2026
Four wands hold up a garland of flowers while two figures raise bouquets in front of a castle. Venus closes the sign on a softer note. Perfected Work is a celebration: a house-warming, a launch party, the point where the fire has made somewhere worth gathering.
The sky behind it
2 of Wands: 10.1 days. 3 of Wands: 10.2. 4 of Wands: 10.2. Longest this cycle, the 4 of Wands; shortest, the 2 of Wands.
The court cards
The Queen of Wands and the King of Pentacles
The Queen of Wands ("The Queen of the Thrones of Flame", 20° Pisces to 20° Aries, Sun Mar 10 to Apr 9, 2026) holds Aries's first twenty degrees; the King of Pentacles ("The Prince of the Chariot of Earth", 20° Aries to 20° Taurus, Sun Apr 9 to May 10, 2026) has the last ten.
The Queen of Wands carries most of Aries season. She is the confident, warm fire of a person who knows their own mind and makes others feel braver around them. In Book T her span begins at 20° Pisces, so she bridges the old year and the new.
The last ten degrees go to the King of Pentacles, the card Book T calls the Prince of the Chariot of Earth. Here Aries starts turning ambition into something you can hold, a hint of the Taurus season to come.
The ruler
Mars, Aries's ruler, and The Tower
Try this today
- Lay The Emperor and The Tower side by side. Name one plan that would survive a lightning strike and one that would not.
- Look at where Mars sits in your birth chart. That house is where astrologers say your drive shows up first.
Aries is ruled by Mars in traditional astrology, and Mars' Major Arcana card is XVI The Tower. That pairing tends to make people nervous, so it is worth slowing down. The Tower is the card of sudden change: lightning, a crown knocked off, people falling from a height. Behind your Emperor sits a card about structures that were not built to last.
Read together, the two make a sensible pair rather than a scary one. The Emperor builds; the Tower checks whether what you built was honest. An Aries who keeps both in mind tends to build quickly but sensibly, and doesn't mind tearing down a plan that has stopped working.
Find your card
Which Aries card is yours?
The Emperor belongs to every Aries; the 2 of Wands, 3 of Wands, 4 of Wands split them three ways. Your birthday picks one.
Clock: UTC.
First decan · 0° to 10° Aries
2 of Wands
Lord of Dominion. Mars in Aries. This cycle: Mar 20 to Mar 30, 2026.
Second decan · 10° to 20° Aries
3 of Wands
Lord of Established Strength. Sun in Aries. This cycle: Mar 30 to Apr 9, 2026.
Third decan · 20° to 30° Aries
4 of Wands
Lord of Perfected Work. Venus in Aries. This cycle: Apr 9 to Apr 20, 2026.
A three-card Aries reflection
The Emperor · 2 of Wands · Queen of Wands
Lay out IV The Emperor, the 2 of Wands and the Queen of Wands. One question:
What am I building that needs a throne rather than another sprint?
More to read
Shorter reads. Each opens in place.
When it comes up hard
The Emperor reversed, or on a bad day
Reversed, or on a rough day, The Emperor can show up as control: the need to win the argument, the plan you will not let anyone else touch. For an Aries the fix is rarely to stop leading. It is to let the structure do some of the work, so you can stop holding everything together by force.
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Either side
Between The Moon and The Hierophant
Pisces hands over XVIII The Moon; Taurus picks up with V The Hierophant once the Sun leaves Aries, on Apr 20, 2026, 01:39 UTC.
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Plan ahead
Aries's cards in the 2027 cycle
Mar 20, 2027, 20:25 UTC: Aries opens again. The 2 of Wands runs Mar 20 to Mar 30, 2027, the 3 of Wands Mar 30 to Apr 10, 2027, and the 4 of Wands Apr 10 to Apr 20, 2027.
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Aries tarot cards and their dates
Both cycles, all seven Aries cards.
| Card | Book T title | Span | 2026 cycle (UTC) | 2027 cycle (UTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IV The Emperor | Sun of the Morning, Chief among the Mighty | 0° to 30° Aries | Mar 20 to Apr 20, 2026 | Mar 20 to Apr 20, 2027 |
| 2 of Wands | Lord of Dominion | 0° to 10° Aries | Mar 20 to Mar 30, 2026 | Mar 20 to Mar 30, 2027 |
| 3 of Wands | Lord of Established Strength | 10° to 20° Aries | Mar 30 to Apr 9, 2026 | Mar 30 to Apr 10, 2027 |
| 4 of Wands | Lord of Perfected Work | 20° to 30° Aries | Apr 9 to Apr 20, 2026 | Apr 10 to Apr 20, 2027 |
| Queen of Wands | The Queen of the Thrones of Flame | 20° Pisces to 20° Aries | Mar 10 to Apr 9, 2026 | Mar 10 to Apr 10, 2027 |
| King of Pentacles | The Prince of the Chariot of Earth | 20° Aries to 20° Taurus | Apr 9 to May 10, 2026 | Apr 10 to May 10, 2027 |
| Mark | 2026 cycle | 2027 cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 0° Aries | Mar 20, 2026, 14:46 UTC | Mar 20, 2027, 20:25 UTC |
| 10° Aries | Mar 30, 2026, 16:59 UTC | Mar 30, 2027, 22:41 UTC |
| 20° Aries | Apr 9, 2026, 20:41 UTC | Apr 10, 2027, 02:14 UTC |
All times are UTC. In the Americas the local date can be a day earlier; in Asia and Australia a day later.
Quick answers
Why is The Emperor the Aries card?
Book T, the Golden Dawn's tarot manuscript, gives Aries to the Emperor through the Hebrew letter Heh. Aries opens the zodiac at the March equinox, and the Emperor is the card of authority and first order. The 1909 Waite-Smith card even carves rams' heads into his throne.
Is the Tower an Aries card?
Not directly. The Tower belongs to Mars, the traditional ruler of Aries. So it sits behind the Emperor as the ruler's card, but the sign's own Major is The Emperor.
What is the Aries tarot card in the Thoth deck?
Still The Emperor. Aleister Crowley swapped the Hebrew letters of The Emperor and The Star in his Thoth deck, but both cards kept their signs, so Aries stays with The Emperor and Aquarius with The Star.
What tarot card is Aries rising?
The same card, The Emperor. The Golden Dawn attributions are to the sign itself, so they apply to any placement in Aries: Sun, Moon, rising or Venus. Some readers use the rising sign's card for how you come across and the Sun's card for who you are becoming.
When is Aries season in 2026 and 2027?
Mar 20, 2026, 14:46 UTC to Apr 20, 2026, 01:39 UTC, then Mar 20, 2027, 20:25 UTC to Apr 20, 2027, 07:18 UTC.
