Aries and Sagittarius compatibility

Love and romance scores 85. Angle and element give it everything they can; only the middling ruler input holds it back.

Ptolemy counts the trine as “harmonious”. Of Jupiter he says that he “has a favourable temperament”, and that his houses stand at a “trinal distance from the houses of the luminaries, which distance harmonises with the operation of good”.

Alan Leo, for once, makes a comparison himself: “Although not so demonstrative as the Aries, or as steady and fixed as the Leo, still the Sagittarian is expressive in his feelings.” He also calls the Sagittarian “generally wise in his love expressions”. Of Aries people he says “they make splendid companions, being affable, genial and witty”. Adding the Aries line beside his is our doing.

Trust is the lowest facet for this pair, at 68, and steadiness is the cause. A mutable sign adds nothing to steadiness in the formula and a cardinal sign adds half, so the pair’s average is small.

Mutable signs are the ones Ptolemy calls bicorporeal. Placed between the fixed and the tropical signs, he says, they “participate in the constitutional properties of both”. William Lilly’s line for Sagittarius has the same idea in the words “Common, bycorporall or double bodied”; Lilly is listing the qualities of a sign for judging a chart, not describing people. Reading a double nature as less steadiness in a person is our step, not theirs.

Alan Leo’s portrait points the other way. The Sagittarian is “always frank, honest, generous and sincere; loyal to whomsoever he becomes attached”. Of Aries he writes: “When not living up to the highest strength of their character, they have a tendency to jealousy, they expect loyalty from others and may be somewhat exacting in this respect.” Set side by side, which is our doing, one portrait offers loyalty and the other asks for it.

Communication is the highest facet, 89. It draws on the shared element, the trine and adaptability, and all three are strong here.

Both of Alan Leo’s portraits, as we read them, are of plain speakers. Sagittarians “have a decisive way of expressing themselves which can never be mistaken”. Aries people are “frank and outspoken by choice”, and “They are never at a loss for a word, and make excellent conversationalists”. That the two would talk easily together is our inference from separate chapters; he does not say it.

Emotions scores 88, lifted by the element, which counts for nearly half of this facet.

Lilly’s quality lines for the two signs nearly repeat each other. Aries is “in nature fiery, hot and dry, cholericke”; Sagittarius is “in nature fiery, hot, dry, Masculine, Cholericke”. Alan Leo says Sagittarians have “a bright, hopeful, and happy disposition”. Of Aries people he writes: “Their mental sympathies are always quick to respond to the least good which they may find in others.” Two warm temperaments, in our reading of the two portraits.

Values comes out at 71, lower than most of this pair’s facets because it also counts steadiness.

Alan Leo writes: “The Sagittarians make splendid characters when allowed perfect freedom.” Aries people, he says, “nearly always live in a world of theory”. Our reading is that freedom matters most in one portrait and ideas in the other; he does not weigh the two against each other.

Shared activities scores 88. Like communication, this facet gains from adaptability on top of the element and the angle.

Alan Leo sums up the Sagittarian as “an introspective, impressionable, active and enterprising person”. Aries people “can always be relied upon to provide plenty of entertainment”. Both chapters also speak of restraint. Of Aries: “it is exceedingly difficult to restrain them”. Of Sagittarians: “when bound or placed under any restraint, they become fretful, irritable and rebellious”. Neither portrait, set next to the other by us, is of someone easily held back.