Your most eccentric pal is probably an Aquarius. And while most of the time they're cool, friendly, eclectic, and quirkily brilliant, Aquarius, like all signs of the zodiac, can have a dark side. The dark side of an Aquarius can be cold, calculated, unfeeling, and ruthless. Although the typical Aquarius gets along with everybody and greets the world with a sunny smile, when an Aquarius's negative traits surface, it can be disconcerting.
Aquarius's Dark Side
Strictly speaking, Aquarius's dark side isn't super dark, since one of the defining characteristics of the Aquarius-Leo opposition, composed of fixed fire and air elements, is light, and plenty of it. Everything is visible there, so the problems and pitfalls (dark side) of an Aquarius personality are obvious.
Aquarius Can Be Detached
In a healthy person, the Sun is always in balance with its opposite earth sign. When Aquarius detaches from its opposite, Leo's warmth and energy disappear. Leo represents the core of identity, radiating the warm light of the true self. Without Leo, Aquarius must be distant, cold, and detached. Fixed air observes, but cannot relate to others. This type views earthly affairs from a godlike overview position.
Aquarius Can Be Cold and Rigid
Dark Aquarians exhibit a chilling lack of emotion. To a varying extent, they can embrace elaborate structures of ideas, accept them as fact, and use them to shore up a delusional worldview. Lacking a central presence of self to illuminate and energize their persona, they can become robotic and formulaic. Saturn's ancient rulership of Aquarius illustrates this side of Aquarius.
Related: Aquarius Air Element in Astrology
Aquarians Believe They Know What's Right
Aquarians look at life through a unique perspective of their own. As a fixed sign, nobody is more certain of their own rightness than an Aquarius expressing their more negative traits. Arguments with them can be an exercise in frustration because they know what they know, and there is no swaying their perspective. Because they lack a personal will, the fully detached Aquarius can't sense or see the nature of a given situation, so they remain unaware that there is anything missing in themselves or from their picture.
Aquarius Can Lack Empathy
There is no question that the dark side of Aquarius can be dangerous. Their inability to empathize with others' emotions combined with their intellectual brilliance is a recipe for cruelty, though it's most often expressed in socially accepted (yet arguably evil) forms, such as vivisection or the calculating, power-driven corporate world. Aquarius knows how to work the system very well because they helped to create it.
An Aquarius Man in Love Can be Distant and Aloof
An Aquarian man can be distant, aloof, and uncomfortable with emotions. These traits are particularly detrimental and confusing when it comes to love. Aquarians can adopt a "love me or don't" attitude and won't waste their time trying to win a person's love.
An Aquarius Woman's Negative Traits Include Being Icy and Distant
Aquarius women have difficulty with intimacy, but when they go to the dark side, they can be true ice queens who are cold-hearted, aloof, and always ready to match wits with everyone. A dark Aquarian woman feels she must be tougher and smarter than her male rivals.
Aquarius Can Be Unpredictable
Repressed emotions can burst forth under pressure. Aquarius can be capricious and unpredictable, prone to lightning-bolt-like bursts of temper. Such an excessively detached Aquarius is judgmental and contemptuous of others' vulnerable feelings. Always on the outside, they watch the rest of humanity dispassionately, yet critically. Intimate connection is their kryptonite; they strive to maintain a certain distance from others even in intimate situations.
A Dark Aquarius's Anger Can Erupt
When an Aquarian gets angry, they get agitated but attempt to remain emotionally aloof and completely ignore the person. However, they can be infuriated to the point of blowing up and becoming wild and unsympathetic. This is the point when they can say hurtful things and become verbally threatening.
Some Aquarians Are Darker Than Others
Though studies have not been done, it would not be surprising to find that many psychopaths have an emphasis on the eleventh sign in their charts. Famous psychopath Charles Manson, a charismatic Scorpio Sun, had an Aquarius Moon, Saturn, and North Node.
The Bright Side of Aquarius
An Aquarius sun in perfect balance with its Leo earth is a bright light in the world; they shine like diamonds. Such beautiful and charismatic types can be highly influential in the world. They can be intimidating because they seem to be perfected souls without any flaws. Their brilliance and quickness of mind are the stuff of legend. Often, they achieve greatness in one form or another.
The Dark Side of Aquarius's Bright Side
Aquarius and Leo may be in balance, but there are four elements that comprise the human sphere, and emphasis on two of them leaves out half of the self. Fixed Aquarius-Leo types, with all their genius and personal power, can forget that such things as physical sensations and emotional responses exist within themselves and others. It is too easy for this polarity to forget the rest of the self. A dozen and more forces, described in the natal chart, drive people. When any of them are ignored or suppressed, problems will ensue. To become whole, Aquarius must strive to integrate their emotional and physical selves as well as find a balance between their consciousness (sun) and their physical matrix (earth).
Not Everyone Displays Aquarius's Negative Traits
Most of those born under this sign are kind and decent folks if a bit misanthropic and prone to eccentric beliefs and attitudes. One Aquarius may be the lighthearted life of the party while another is a housebound introvert with extremist opinions.
