I have often wondered about the nature of the 12 zodiacal symbols as they appear today. I imagine them as pictographs, perhaps premonitions, of events, archetypal phenemonena, or ubiquitous experiences. I find them possibly representing the deepest primordial impressions of the universe upon the human psyche. Here are my personal interpretations of the glyphs themselves, along with their traditional associated elements and states.

The four elements correspond as follows:

Earth - physical world, resources, material things
Air - mind, ideas, communication
Fire - will, spirit, energy
Water - feelings, emotions, compassion

The quadruplicities (so named because the zodiac is divided into four quadrants,
3 x 4 = 12):

Cardinal - start, initiate, lead
Fixed - maintain, stabilize, continue
Mutable - adapt, stop, end

Aries

creation, genesis, manifestation, bursting forth, outward, upward, the first idea

traditional: Tarot - Emperor IV
Fire, Cardinal