You are an Aquarius

You're genuinely interested in and concerned for your fellow humans, and you have a strong need to make some kind of contribution to make the world a better place. Relating to a single individual, however - especially when it involves strong emotions - can be a bit trickier. Aquarius is concerned with ideals, and the ideals of love and equality are among many constantly formulated in your innovative, forward-looking mind. Aquarius is also, broadly, about science and knowledge, invention and discovery. The noblest of human visions are spun from this last of the airy signs. But your ideals are often ahead of their time, and collide head-on with the reality of human nature.

Without an ideal, no progress of any kind can take place. But the anchoring of an ideal takes time, flexibility, and sensitivity to the limitations of the human heart. Despite your keen intelligence, you aren't overly gifted in any of these things. You're usually impatient, and want to see the ideal made flesh this minute. You're a great lover of truth, but not, if the truth be known, very flexible. And you sometimes show astonishingly little understanding of, or patience with, the fluid depths of the human heart - most particularly your own.

You're the true democrat of the zodiac. One of your most attractive qualities is your sense of fairness and integrity. You've got a finely honed conscience and a horror of being what you call "selfish". That's noble, but not always psychologically healthy. Regardless of your personal likes and dislikes, your dedication to your beliefs is unshakeable.

Sometimes that courageous fixity of ideals can become stubborn fanaticism, whether scientific, political or spiritual. Political correctness can only have been invented by an Aquarian, because it's a paradigm of this sign's noble intentions coupled with complete intolerance of individual human emotional needs and differences.

The subtleties of human relationships can pose a big problem to you, because emotional conflicts can't be solved by logic and high ideals alone. Aquarians are often embarrassed by emotions, and find them distasteful both in themselves and in others. You're proud and self-controlled, and displays of emotion are seen as a weakness. That doesn't mean you're unfeeling. Far from it. You have an immense capacity for devotion and loyalty. But in the end, logic, self-control and idealism usually win, and that can mean ruthless suppression of, or dissociation from, unpleasant emotions like jealousy, aggression, neediness and anger.

Aquarians often have a gift for analysis of the human temperament, and many reach prominence in the psychological field. Everything about human motivation is clear and obvious to your penetrating, concise mind. And there is often a wonderful capacity to understand and feel detached compassion for even the most frightful behaviour in others. This is why you can talk to all kinds of people from every walk of life, and find something interesting and worthwhile in all of them.

The trouble is, the closer the relationship, the harder it gets for you to express personal feelings. You know what you think you feel, what you think you ought to feel, what you think you should and shouldn't feel, and what you think others think about what you think you feel...Well, it can all get very fraught in the sphere of intimate relations. You're capable of sacrificing your life for a loved one, yet you can forget to say, "I love you". A partner's need for flattery, sentimental displays of affection, and emotional and sexual reassurance may entirely elude your brilliant but often blind intellect.

Some zodiacal signs have a knack with personal relating, and others don't. You Aquarians have more difficulty than any other sign here, because you often have so little real appreciation of the personal - including your own person. But that's easy to remedy. Just take that marvellous, genuine love of humanity and extend it to include your own very human self.