Aries the Ram - First mitten of the Zodiac

Aries the Ram mittens

One the many fun things on my design-to-do lists is astrology signs. You can find the 12 signs of the Zodiac on all forms of jewelry, keychains, coffee mugs, posters, candles and t-shirts just to name a few. So why not Aries mittens? Challenge accepted! As a kid, I loved looking up my horoscope in the daily newspaper, and reading the "funnies" of course. Even today, I'll occasionally pop on a website and see what the internet oracle has to say. Just type in a search on the internet for “horoscope” and the great and mighty Google spits out thousands of sites proving that astrological fortune telling continues to fascinate us today, all the way from ancient Babylonian history. It proves there is still room for the mysterious and magical in our modern world.

For me, one of the most fascinating parts of the Zodiac signs are their origin stories and Aries the Ram, first 30 degrees of the astrology circle, does not fail to disappoint. In the original Babylonian calendar, the Aries constellation lined up with spring planting and the birthing time of lambs and was therefore associated with a shepherd or hired farm hand. The Aries symbol that we think of as a ram was also a new sprout breaking out of the spring soil. Makes sense. But that was way too boring for the Greeks when they adopted the zodiac and so enters a classic and tragic fairy godmother vs. evil stepmother tale. Here goes…

Once upon a time there was a King Athamas who married a cloud nymph and had twin children. The cloud nymph missed her home and went back to the clouds leaving her children behind. Best mom ever. Along comes wife number 2 who gives King Athamas several more children. The twins being the oldest and legal heirs to the kingdom clearly need to be taken out of the picture for the children of queen #2 to have any chance at the throne. So now the new queen becomes the evil stepmother devising a clever plot involving famine and oracles which leads to the kingdom to say, Hey, lets sacrifice the twins to the gods. Cloud nymph mom somehow finds out about this plan and sends the Ram with the Golden Fleece, (who also happens to fly) down to earth to save her children just in the nick of time. After saving them, the twins sacrifice the ram to Zeus as thanks - yikes! Zeus is so pleased (gotta love gifts of dead, heroic flying golden sheep) that he creates a constellation in honour of the brave ram of the golden fleece and calls it Aries.

Aries mitten

Aries in the modern Zodiac is described as fiery and energetic, loving to be first in line, confident and courageous. Astrologers believe that each sign learns the lessons of its preceding signs. As Aries is first in line, there is no inherited wisdom, just the bravery of the unknowing. For the Aries mittens, going with the ideas of bold and on fire, I went with the colours, orange and red and black. The idea of the ram as a sacrificed burnt offering to please the gods is also ancient so I added an Astral flame above the head of Aries. For the palms I did an old mosaic pattern, simple and bold like Aries.

One down, only 11 more to go…