Wednesday, December 18, 2013

READing Your Style: Legends of the Zodiac - Aries

Oh joy, to the internet and how it makes life so much more convenient! I have finally found a useful purpose for Pinterest! Now, I have had a Pinterest account for a few months and it has taken me a while to take a liking to it, especially considering all the other social media platforms I already have. But this month, as I was searching for jewelry to feature for this here series on 'Jewelry for the Holidays based on Zodiac Gemstones', I found Pinterest to be a great tool as an online buying guide, especially for all my last minute gifters. What I have been able to do is create a ‘board’ for each sign of the zodiac, and based on the gemstone that correlates with each sign, I was able to scour other Pinterest boards, and ‘Pin’ jewelry that I found to be great buying options based on the gemstone I wanted to feature for each sign. Please visit and follow my Pinterest if you have one, and create on if you don’t, for I have found jewelry of all price ranges from different sources ranging from Bulgari to Etsy.com. If perhaps your “ballin’ on a budget”, I include more reasonably priced look-a-like pieces of the gemstones featured for each zodiac that are made of crystal, and even plastic. In my fashion, it’s all about the look and what your jewelry means to you, not the price! I was pleasantly surprised at how good a resource Pinterest is for shopping and selling. I say, if you are salesperson, consider Pinterest to display your product, especially if you have unique items. I can just imagine how many people want interesting, one-of-a-kind pieces, but don’t know where to go to shop for just what they want. For consumers, Pinterest is a great way to find those pieces, and for sellers, it’s a great way to market your pieces to the worldwide market.

The InMyFashion Pinterest

As I promised in my December Editor’s Letter, I hope you find the ‘Legends of the Zodiac’ stories from, ‘The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need’, as entertaining as I did. They are intended to educate and inspire more intimate and intriguing reasons for adorning oneself with such gems inspired by the zodiac. As I have always championed on #IMFblog, items worn with a certain intention make for stronger individual style, and in my fashion, the items we wear provide their own energy in the same way our personalities provide/receive energy from other people. If you think about it, it is interesting how the jewelry we wear, or see others wearing, can affect our mood. Whether it’s more of a mental process, or that gems/jewelry radiate a  certain “life energy”, there is something to be said about jewelry’s transformative qualities on our perceptions of ourselves or other wearers.   

Bravery, physical strength, sex drive, and fertile are qualities attributed to Aries, who are also known for their pioneering drive to forge new trails and rise to every challenge. Think about it, with Mars endowing them with healthy sexual vigour channelled into their powerful and energetic approach to life, no wonder the diamond associated with the element of fire, brings out the Arian personality with such egotistical overtones. (Read more from Frank Pilkington)

The first sign of the zodiac is represented by the Ram. In mythology, the Ram has always been courageous and enterprising, a lively, energetic animal able to bound over obstacles and rocky terrain.


The Story of the Ram begins in ancient Greece with a king named Athamus who ruled the province of Boetia. Athamus married a woman called Nephele, and they had two beautiful children, a son and daughter they named Phrixus and Helle.

After a time, Athamus grew tired of Nephele, and deserted her. He took a second wife, Ino, and they had two sons. Ino was a jealous and conniving woman who hated her stepchildren Phrixus and Helle, and set about plotting their deaths.


The first thing she did was convince the women of her country to roast the corn before planting it. This effectively cancelled out the crops that year. Famine swept the land. The king sent a messenger to the Oracle at Delphi to find out what caused the crop failure. Apparently, it never occurred to him to ask the women who planted the crops, but this is the sort of oversight of which some modern political leaders are also guilty.

Ino managed to bribe the king’s messenger to return from Delphi and tell the king that the crops would not grow again until the lives of his children Phrixus and Helle were sacrificed to the god Jupiter. The gullible king planned to have his son and daughter killed in order to save his people.

A quick shift now to Phrixus and Helle, who were tending their sheep. In their flock was a Ram with golden fleece. This Golden Ram had been given to their mother Nephele as a present from the god Hermes (mercury). Nephele, getting wind of what evil was afoot, begged the Ram to save her children. The Ram spoke with the voice of a man to warn Phrixus and Helle of their danger, then told them to climb onto his back. Then he flew with them across the sea.

Unfortunately, as they were crossing the strait that divides Europe and Asia, Helle grew dizzt and faint and slipped off the Ram’s back. She fell into the sea and drowned. To this day, the strait into which she fell is named after her, the Hellespont.

Her brother Phrixus, however, was carried safely to the land of Colchis. This put an end to the plot of the villainous Ino, though it does not seem to have done much to relieve the famine or to have brought King Athamus to his senses.

Rather ungratefully it would seem, Phrixus killed the Golden Ran as a sacrifice to Jupiter, who in turn placed the Ram’s likeness among the stars in heaven to honor him for his heroism.

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