Verseau

The water-bearer is identified with Ganymede, the beautiful Trojan youth abducted by Zeus's eagle to serve as cupbearer to the gods on Olympus -- the first mortal elevated to divine service. Another association is with Deucalion, the Greek Noah, who poured the waters of renewal over the earth after the great flood. Both myths involve the pouring of something essential from above for the benefit of all: a fitting image for the sign of collective ideals and humanitarian vision.

Aquarius is an air sign traditionally ruled by Saturn and in modern astrology co-ruled by Uranus. It governs collective life, social ideals, friendship, and the impulse to reform structures for the benefit of the many rather than the few. Planets here operate with intellectual detachment and a strong sense of the future. Aquarius values freedom -- its own and everyone else's -- and resists any authority it has not chosen. The shadow is emotional aloofness and a rigidity of opinion that ironically mirrors the conformity it opposes.