Linda Goodman's Sun Signs

by Linda Goodman

  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 individuality 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 can 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.

  Another reason why Uranians often meet with hostile criticism is that they’re so full of surprises. They can lead you west, then suddenly turn and march east, without warning. Aquarius has an obstinate way of not letting you know what he’s up to. For weeks, the February-born father of a friend of mine ignored his wife’s complaints about a stove that didn’t work. He buried himself in his newspaper, oblivious to her desperate hints. Suddenly one day, a truck pulled up, two men unloaded a brand new stove, and connected it in the kitchen under the surprised eyes of his wife, who should have learned to expect such behavior.

  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 what’s behind that face, and he’ll ask some mighty embarrassing questions to find out. But it’s comforting to know that, once you’re accepted, he’ll be 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.

  Uranus illnesses are usually connected with the circulatory system. Aquarians shiver and shake in the winter, and suffer with the humidity in the summer. They’re susceptible to varicose veins and hardening of the arteries in old age, if their emotions are directed into negative channels, and they tend to have accidents to the legs, especially the shin and ankles. The ankle bones are often weak, and there may be pains in the legs, due to poor circulation; frequent sore throats; and sometimes heart palpitation, usually not serious, unless there are severe afflictions in the natal chart. Uranians need lots of fresh air, sleep and exercise, but they seldom take advantage of these remedies. They don’t get much fresh air because they close their windows, pile on the blankets and still complain that they’re freezing. The high frequency nervous tension that accompanies Uranus mental activity keeps them from getting enough sleep, and often the rest they do get is troubled by strange dreams. As for exercise, unless the Aquarian developed an early love of sports by playing stickball in his neighborhood, it’s difficult to prod him into moving fast, let alone running around the track. His mind gets a continual workout, but the body needs a strong push. Aquarian health is usually excellent in childhood, barring weird, Uranian complaints—impossible to diagnose. The real troubles don’t begin until maturity increases stubbornness. These people are extremely susceptible to hypnosis. Intuitively, lots of them sense this and won’t expose themselves to it for love nor money, but this is a mistake, because hypnotic suggestion from a good medical hypnotist could successfully remove their myriad phobias. They’re acutely responsive to electrical treatment, too, which can be just as beneficial.

  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 absentminded 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 Aleutian 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 she came closer he stared 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.

  What the Aquarius man or woman thinks is always a clue to tomorrow. The uncanny Uranus ability to plunge into the unknown and absorb mystical secrets without half trying leads to a peculiar sort of intuition which gives them a high degree of psychic precognition. I know one who literally answers the phone before it rings, and what’s more, he knows who’s on the other end before a word is spoken. Abraham Lincoln had several premonitions of his own death in startling detail. Almost every Aquarian has a unique kind of sensitivity that lets him know your inner desires. Without talk, he understands a need buried so deep that you’re almost unaware of it yourself. Using that magical osmosis, the Aquarian can transmit his own thoughts with an unseen charge of electrical current. Even when his back is turned, he can project strong feelings by this strange process. During a long silence on the telephone, he may be sending and receiving vibrations when you think he’s fallen asleep. Some Uranians don’t need
Western Union to send a telegram.

  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 ideas one 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 unexpectedly conservative. You can see that his liberalism has its boundaries.

  Aquarians despise lying and cheating, and they avoid borrowing and lending. They’ll give you money as a gift, but don’t ask them for a loan. Did you ever try to touch Aquarian Chris Rock for a fast fifty? Chris may surprise you by saying yes, but be sure you pay him back promptly. A broken promise or bad debt can put a wide crack in your friendship. Aquarians keep their word and pay their bills, and they expect others to do the same. Charge accounts don’t normally excite them and credit cards can frighten them. All this love of honesty, however, can sometimes be distorted into questionable behavior. As much as he hates hypocrisy and double-dealing, the Aquarian can somehow answer questions so cleverly that he gives a false impression. Yet he’ll be outspokenly indignant if he catches anyone else guilty of such a delicate nuance of deception. He’ll seldom tell an outright lie, but he can fool you in very subtle ways, which is hardly the essence of the honesty he so constantly preaches. His unrelenting search for truth and the desire to hide his own motives are incompatible traits, and the Aquarian must eventually face this inconsistency if he’s going to learn the real truth about himself.

  Aquarians get credit for being idealists, perhaps too much credit, for true idealism consists of blind faith and optimism, and the Uranian is too shrewd to fool himself with lost causes for long. He knows that most dreams are illusions, like the rainbow he has examined so closely and still loves. Tradition and authority leave him unimpressed. He’ll politely respect them, but they won’t stop his compulsive drive to uncover fallacies, distortions and illogical assumptions.

  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 viewpoint 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 word “daffy.”

  The soul of the water bearer is constantly torn 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 Aquarian Personalities

  Hank Aaron Christian Dior Yoko Ono

  Alan Alda Thomas Edison Ayn Rand

  Jennifer Aniston Clark Gable Ronald Reagan

  Francis Bacon Peter Gabriel Vanessa Redgrave

  Christie Brinkley Galileo Galilei Chris Rock

  Tom Brokaw Langston Hughes Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Lewis Carroll Michael Jordan Rene Russo

  Stockard Channing Abraham Lincoln Adlai Stevenson

  Charles Darwin Norman Mailer John Travolta

  Geena Davis Sarah McLachlan Oprah Winfrey

  Charles Dickens Paul Newman Boris Yeltsin

  The AQUARIUS Man

  All this time the Guard was looking at her,

  first through a telescope,

  then through a microscope,

  and then through an opera-glass.

  At last he said, “You’re traveling the wrong way,”

  and shut up the window …

  To wade bravely smack dab into the center of the problem, don’t expect an Aquarian male to behave the way people in love are supposed to behave. If you do, you’re in for quite a jolt, maybe even a series of jolts. When it comes to friendship, he’s all you could ask for in a pal or a confidant. Love? Well, as an Aquarian I once knew said, “Anybody can have a woman. But love is something else again.” That was an astute observation. It’s “something else,” all right, with Aquarians.

  It’s when he acts as though he doesn’t like you that he’s close to being hooked, and the reason is elementary—simple logic. The Aquarian water bearer likes everybody. Everyone is his friend. He’ll even refer to his worst enemy as “my friend.” So it means something when he says he doesn’t like someone. Just what it means may take some study. The various nuances can be complicated.

  An Aquarian man doesn’t want to reveal his true feelings, in spite of his favorite pastime of penetrating the feelings of others. His own reactions and motives are complex, and he intends to keep them that way for the pure pleasure of fooling you. Many strange experiences will come to this man, through both love and friendship, and he’ll scrutinize each one avidly. Until you get him to the altar, you’re just another experience, another experiment, hard as that may be to take. Don’t sniffle. He can be tricked, for all his caution. But before you start tricking him, you’d better try to understand how to cope with his unique outlook about people.

  He’s a group man, and teamwork comes naturally to him. Aquarius understands the fair play rules of sports as if he had invented them, and he carries these rules into his personal relationships. His interests are scattered all over the place. That’s because his love of people is so impersonal; he gives a certain value to everyone he meets, while the rest of us save such efforts for only the very special people in our lives. To an Aquarian, everyone is special. And I mean everyone. Even those he hasn’t met yet. Few Uranus men are either selfish or petty. When he does show those qualities, a gentle reminder that he’s being narrow-minded will bring him around. Aquarians just can’t stand to be called narrow-minded.

  He responds to unusually high ideals, thanks to his rigid moral code (though you’d better understand that it’s his own code, which may not necessarily reflect or correspond to the one accepted by society in general). He’ll almost surely lead a life of change, controversy and unexpected events. Yet there will often be moments of perfect tranquility with him, impossible to find with any other Sun sign. Once he’s over the shock that he’s allowed himself to become interested in one woman above all of mankind, he can be an extremely considerate lover. The danger area is before he’s over the shock. Since he’s so accustomed to neglecting his own problems in the interest of the majority, hopefully some of this attitude will rub off on his love life. Don’t count on it, though. The chances are just as good that he’ll suddenly realize he’s devoting his complete loyalty to you, when there are all those other nameless faces out there that need him. Then he may lean over backwards to prove to himself that he hasn’t lost his love for his friends and the rest of humanity by being attached to just one person.

  Forever analyzing, the Aquarian man will frequently ask himself, “I wonder what she meant by that?” He won’t rest until he finds out either. A puzzle drives him simply wild and don’t be fooled by his nonchalance. When he senses something is hidden, he just won’t sleep at night until he’s unraveled the mystery and penetrated the veil. There’s always the possibility that he might be disappointed in what he finds, so make sure it’s worth discovering. If it isn’t, he’ll have no qualms about making it painfully evident—and off he’ll go to unravel a new veil.

&nb
sp; The woman who wants to land him eventually has first to intrigue him. An open book will never pique his curiosity. He’s attracted to closed pages, the more tightly closed, the better to arouse his detective instinct. When a female either ignores him or keeps her own counsel, in the beginning at least, his eyes will open a little wider and he’ll get an alert expression, amazingly like that of a bloodhound on the scent of something missing. Why is she so emotional? (You can be emotional, you see, as long as you don’t explain why.) Is she really so changeable or is it an act? Why does she wear all that perfume and make-up and such low-cut dresses, and then get insulted when those Leos and Sagittarians and Scorpios whistle at her? Does she want male advances or doesn’t she? Is she a puritan or promiscuous? What makes her tick? As he probes and questions and examines, the woman is at first flattered, naturally—but when she sees he’s just as intently curious about the waitress who just served them (not to mention the bus boy), she begins to cool somewhat. Feeling like an insect trapped under a scientist’s cold eye isn’t exactly calculated to cause the heart to flutter in any feminine bosom. So she finally drifts (or runs) away to a more fiery or earthy male and the Aquarian sadly sighs for an instant or two before he begins his next romantic investigation. (If some new invention or unique idea hasn’t aroused his interest first. In which case the next female research project must wait.)

  Aquarian men can be touchingly gentle and docile, but you’d better tie a bright blue electric string around your finger to remind you that his surface calmness is a mirage. So is his apparent pliability. He won’t tolerate an ounce of opportunism from a female. If he thinks he’s being exploited, that unpredictable Uranian charm can vanish so quickly you’ll think Hal Holbrook has turned into the Grinch, poised to throw a grapefruit-half in your face. The frightening thing is that an extremely upset Aquarian is perfectly capable of such shocking action. What’s even more frightening is that you may forgive him. Don’t. At least, not more than once. He admires a woman who holds her ground, if she’s not too masculine about it, and if she lets him fly hither and yon, unencumbered by mushy promises and tearful accusations. As for that grapefruit, it’s only fair to point out that Aquarians are usually most gallant with the fair sex. But sometimes they can forget to distinguish between the sexes in the throes of excitement. Couple that with the Uranus unpredictability, and it does add up to a possible squirt of grapefruit juice in the eye.