Aries 2025 (21 March - 19 April)

original art by Bex McKay

Anne McCaffrey: Butting Heads With the Establishment

Anne McCaffrey, born 1 April 1926, showed true Aries ambition: her first short story, “Freedom of the Race,” earned a $100 prize, and her second was published in The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

This month’s tarot card, the two of wands, signifies emigration or wanderlust, and McCaffrey left the US in 1971 for Ireland where she wrote the first books of the Dragonriders of Pern series. That love of travel shows up in so many of her books, where humans overcome obstacles on Earth by heading to other planets. And true to her Aries cheer and love of simplicity, she decided to write stories for younger audiences. McCaffrey also decided to aim her stories at young women, because not enough girls were being encouraged to read or write science fiction. Aries can have hot tempers, and some of McCaffrey’s books, including her first novel Restoree, expressed her anger at women’s place in science fiction and in society in general.

McCaffrey showed typical Aries passion, in her case for gender equity in science fiction. She didn’t let herself be relegated to the lighter fantasy genre, and although she wrote many young adult novels, her books are still enjoyed by people of all ages. Aries are also pioneers, and McCaffrey’s writing earned her a place in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, a Robert A. Heinlein Award, a Nebula award, a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master award, and made her the first female science fiction writer to win a Hugo award and to hit the New York Times bestseller list.

Reversed, the two of wands expresses a fear of the unknown, and Anne McCaffrey attempted to alleviate her fear of putting out scientifically inaccurate information by consulting experts in the various subjects her works touched on. This system wasn’t foolproof, though, especially when it came to sex and sexuality. Long after the publication of the Dragonriders of Pern series, McCaffrey was taken to task for its views of homosexuality.

Even with the controversy, McCaffrey’s intense Aries energy meant that anyone could find something to love in her 14 series, 13 standalone novels, and 4 story collections, with her last novel, a collaboration, being published just a year before her death.