Aries I: Portal
Cardinal fire: birthing, thresholds, casting the spell
Atmosphere: Portal
Sign: Aries
Plant: Basil
Planet: Mars
Dates: 21 - 30 March
Tarot: 2 of Wands
A green, heatless flame. A spear tip but soft in the hand.
Every birth begins with a portal.
Kening Zhu’s illustration is a magical, elemental combination of snow, fire, and the ‘green heatless, flame’ of basil. We don’t know what is going to happen if we pass through the threshold, inhale the green flame, and move towards the fiery portal of the new world. It requires a creative risk; a leap of faith.
During Aries I, I have been thinking about mothering and birthing and how the more than human world can birth us, and mother us, especially in Aries season.
In 36 Portals to Aliveness, Shea in the Catskills, Cory Nakasue + Elena Solano describe Aries I as both generative and violent; a Martial combination they describe as ‘Crowning’, in reference both to the birthing process and a sense of sovereignty that Aries I confers. They write that, ‘the beginning of encountering a new world by piercing a hole through the old one’.
What do we need to pierce a hole into the new world?
What do we need to pierce a hole into the new world? What plant ally might be supportive for such a venture? Guided by the writing of herbalist and astrologer Maeg Keane, I draw on basil for support.
Aries I is the perfect time to simmer rich tomato sauces spiked with basil; incarnadine red tomato and fiery basil are foods fit for Mars.
I was stirring a tomato sauce that required tending and simmering. A Martial recipe that called for scalding, cutting, and heating. The dish was spiked with basil – that ‘heatless flame’ that once introduced changes the entire alchemy of the sauce.
I felt satiated by the process of stirring and tasting, and knowing I would eventually be nourished by the fruits of the process.
My Mars is in Cancer, and my relationship to nurturing and care, is always shot through with a Martial blade.
I felt the deep heat of Mars working through the sauce and mothering me, feeding me. I felt the power of Aries I.
As Maeg Keane writes: ‘Mars plants offer vigor and vitality. They wake us up. They get us moving. They shift us out of coldness, slowness, tension, stuckness, and sluggishness. Basil fits every one of these descriptions.’
T. Susan Chang reminds us that no new life can emerge without Martial violence. ‘With his iron plow or cultivator, the spring farmer must break a soil crusted over by winter's inertia. The sperm must break the wall of the ovum for the new life to take hold.’
ARIES I + TWO OF WANDS
The Two of Wands contains a cleaving within it.
Twos are about harmony and balance, but also about opposition. They represent two halves of a situation, like the story of Persephone which we explored in Aquarius III: Otherworlds.
Wands represent the element of fire, and they give us a spark, a way to generate creative energy.
For some of us, the heat can spark energy in the moment and for others it means storing up heat to be used at a later time. If there is too much heat we burn out, too little and we freeze.
The Two of Wands is about the way we fuel our creativity. How we ensure a stable supply of energy for our art, our work, and our lives.
This image from the Wild Unknown deck is like a gateway. It is an invitation to an adventure, asking you to step across the threshold.
It is the opposite of the previous decan, Pisces III, which T. Susan Chang calls ‘the rainbow unwoven’. Here, the rainbow reweaves, ready for the new astrological year.
It is also like a wishbone, or two divining rods. It offers a chance to make something happen through the power of intention and divination. There is a clear pathway and if you follow it, you can create something out of seemingly nothing.
This card speaks of the energies of the universe, captured in a single place. What would it feel like to harness that energy? To take the whole wide rainbow and focus it into a point? To create something wild through energetic intensity?
The message of the Two of Wands is that you have your own personal power, connected to the universal. By letting that universal magic move through you, you will move inexorably towards your creative work.
This is a card of discovery, not certainty. In harnessing these wild flames, in claiming them for yourself, you can come back to your work in a spirit of experimentation, and faith that it will work out.
Any choice can feel painful as it means losing something and grieving something. Aries I, Basil, and the Two of Wands won’t let you keep all your options open; they ask you to choose.
Once there’s basil in the sauce, it’s not going to taste of something else.
Aries I invites you to be wild and adventurous, to feel the whole power of the universe inside you ready to be divined.
This is fiery, magical work, and you need to be able to accept what comes through the portal.
Your creativity is a sanctuary, and a retreat from the world, but you are still part of the universe, and not working in isolation.
Let inspiration in, but don’t be overwhelmed. Know your inner values. Stay on the path. The rainbow never changes.
Creative Spell for Aries I – Portal
(adapted from Diana Rose Harper’s ritual for planetary prayers)
Bring a basil leaf with you, fresh or dried, and take a moment to inhale the ‘green, heatless flame’. If you do not have basil, you can imagine it.
Get the body present via some gentle movement.
Let your thoughts do whatever they want for one minute.
Attend to your breath, deepening it and expanding it.
Imagine yourself arriving at a place that is familiar to you. It could be a part of your home or neighbourhood. It could be a place from childhood. It could be a vacation spot that you remember fondly.
Now, you notice something is there that has not been there before. A portal that appears to be cut out of the surface of the space. It might be a black hole in a kitchen floor, a fiery oval hovering on the beach, or a glowing archway in your childhood bedroom.
Within, or just beyond, the portal there is an object, substance, or being. You are drawn towards this entity.
Do you recognise this entity or is it mysterious?
How does it feel to encounter this entity?
Spend some time feeling into the forcefield around the portal and deciding whether to go through.
What is the encounter like?
When you are ready, step back into the familiar space and allow the portal to softly close.
Note down any images or messages that came through during the ritual.
Creative Invitations
Rewilding:
Using basil as a guide, consider a place in your current work-in-progress where your character(s) or narrator(s) need ‘vigor and vitality’ or to be woken up or shifted out of ‘coldness, slowness, tension, stuckness, and sluggishness’. What, or who, might cause this shift? How does it affect the existing piece?
Generating:
Continue the work from the ritual. Imagine a scene about a portal with something inside or beyond it. The object, substance, or being exerts a powerful pull over you or the character. Decide whether to reveal what is inside.
Write a scene where your characters or you are making a sauce, soup, or potion of some kind. Perhaps it is medicinal or toxic. Perhaps it is heartbreak food or food for a celebration. How does the process of creating the food affect the character and the world around them?
Process
Research basil and its connection to literature and history in order to prepare an artwork, research project, audio essay or other form of creative work.
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Syllabus
https://www.third-sister.com/writing/basil-part-1
https://www.third-sister.com/writing/of-basil-and-venom-part-2
https://nutritionalgeography.faculty.ucdavis.edu/spices/basil/
https://cloverleaffarmherbs.com/basil/
https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-history-of-basil-1807566
https://medium.com/university-of-oxford-botanic-garden-and-arboretum/basil-9f41babdc6f1
https://www.tsusanchang.com/blog/2019/3/23/reading-the-decans-seeds-of-dominion-aries-i
https://sheainthecatskills.com/2026-planner/
https://www.third-sister.com/writing/basil-part-1
https://www.third-sister.com/writing/of-basil-and-venom-part-2
Connected writing
Aries I scholarship
T. Susan Chang ‘Seeds of Dominion’
Kira Ryberg and Chloe Margarita ‘Blood, Sweat, and Tears’