The last days of January are not without their impact, marked by a tense square between the Sun in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus. There’s something particularly willful about this aspect, especially since the Sun will be applying a conjunction to Saturn that gets stronger by the day, bolstered by a new moon in Aquarius on February 1. The asteroid Juno enters Aquarius on the same day, echoing themes around power and how we negotiate it. While these themes might loom large over the collective, especially when it comes to ideas around personal freedom vs. responsibility to the greater whole, they show up in our lives in all kinds of meaningful ways. It’s a time to ask more questions, draw firmer boundaries, and reckon with your own authority — where you could stand to claim more and where you could admit having less. Mercury stations direct in Capricorn on February 3, forming a sextile to the moon in Pisces with Neptune only a few degrees away. While the shadow period continues, the release is palpable and the river of communication flows gently forward, inviting insightful exchanges and valuable interactions with Venus in the mix. A Mars sextile to Jupiter the next day deepens this flow and expands its reach, providing small steps forward. The Sun’s conjunction to Saturn on the same day recalls some of the tensions brought up earlier in the week, but by then our discernment is sharpened by intuition and insight and we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.
Aries Sun & Aries Rising
The week ahead has a lot of sweetness to offer you, if you’re ready to receive it. The new moon in Aquarius that introduces the week is optimistic and friendly, open to new collaborations in realms both professional and personal. Part of the new moon’s power, and her favor to you, is her recognition of the hard work you have put into building and maintaining boundaries, especially with people you take care of. The lines you have drawn around your needs have allowed you to better ascertain your desires, what you are and aren’t willing to compromise on to get what you want. While Mercury will still be in her shadow throughout the week, her direct station on the 3rd and a sextile to the moon supports the adventures that you are dreaming up. Just take your time before putting your resources in the mix — the price is sure to fluctuate.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Taurus Sun & Taurus Rising
Aquarius season isn’t generally a relaxing time for Taurus placements, especially placements that find themselves on the receiving end of a square from the Sun and the new moon. That said, just because things aren’t relaxing doesn’t mean that they’re not going well. Especially now that Venus, your ruling planet, is taking care of business directly in Capricorn. Sometimes, all one needs is a sense of the bigger picture. Sometimes a little pressure is just what it takes to open things up. It’s important that as you prepare to hold the energy of the new moon this week, you take time to sit with old patterns you have around stress and avoidance. What if the tension you feel is a sign that something new is getting ready to burst forth in your world, or from you?
How can you transmute the tension you feel if what you’re holding is an eggshell ready to crack?ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Gemini Sun & Gemini Rising
With the new moon in Aquarius on Monday evening, it’s a great week to change your seat and seek a different perspective. Changing your seat can be as figurative or literal as you want it to be: put in a request to switch roles, seek the company of a worthy opponent, or spend a day looking out over an unfamiliar landscape. A funny thing about life as we have known it is that the changes we make are not proportional to their results. Small shifts can make a big difference, even if it takes a long time to notice what’s altered. Mercury in Capricorn stations direct on the 3rd and makes a helpful sextile to the moon in Pisces just a couple of degrees from Neptune. Your intuition is your trusty guide in the days ahead, Gemini. It knows exactly where you want to be and with whom. It will help you make the kind energetic connections you need to get you there.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Cancer Sun & Cancer Rising
Never a dull moment for Cancer babes who bow to the moon: The week ahead ushers in a new moon in Aquarius and the beginning of the Lunar New Year. It can be a relief to recognize that while certain calendars mark time one way, they are hardly the arbiters of time. The Aquarius new moon is irreverent, bolstered by the authority of Saturn and well-versed in the upheavals Uranus brings forth. Here, lunar wisdom reigns supreme, reminding us of a dual reality that Cancers in their crab shells know all too well: all cycles end, all cycles are connected. So what if you imagined you would begin again a month ago? So what if your new year began in September of last year? Time is an illusion, calendars man-made. The moon is an Earthling’s closest light — go ahead and start again.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Leo Sun & Leo Rising
Life depends on the Sun and life is sustained by it, a responsibility every Leo feels in their big bright hearts even if they can’t always claim it. But, while the Sun gives way to the moon as luminary of the night, Leos rarely get to hand their role in the cosmos over to someone else. Of course, the truth is that few of us do. It’s just that Leos have a tendency to put a lot of pressure on themselves, to feel charged with the well-being of all their relations. While one can’t exactly lay down the role one plays in their own life or their community, one can release the reins. Here, the new moon in Aquarius arrives just in time in your house of relationships and the other. Here she reminds you that care for yourself is care for others, that when you release the obligations which drag you forward, what remains is a heart that knows exactly where to go and how fast.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Virgo Sun & Virgo Rising
Emphasis falls on Mercury, your ruling planet, as it stations direct this week. But, Mercury’s direct station is not the only sign that things are about to turn around. Mercury’s co-presence with recently direct Venus and ardent Mars under the stars of Capricorn indicates broken ground and new developments in your house of pleasure and creativity. And, at the time of his direct station, Mercury makes a sextile to moon in Pisces in your house of relationships, bringing eros to the forefront of your most significant connections. There’s no need to prepare for these cosmic machinations. The planets, in their own ways, have already been preparing you. What’s worth noting is the Aquarius new moon just days before Mercury’s direct station, which has the ability to bring forth some major shifts in your routine. Try your best to accept these shifts with whatever grace is accessible; good things are coming.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Libra Sun & Libra Rising
There’s plenty of good news in the sky for you, Libra, but not all good news arrives in a way that feels legible to us. It’s true that your ruling planet, Venus, stationed direct last week and joined efforts with Mars under the sign of Capricorn and Mercury stations direct this week in the same sign. While both Venus and Mercury still grapple with the shadows of what transpired this past month, you should feel more grounded and secure moving forward. What’s more, these planets are in a supportive relationship with different cosmic events happening in your house of health and work, especially following Mercury’s direct station. To recognize good news, it’s important to stay open to the many forms it comes in, to clear space for it, and invite it in. Let the new moon in Aquarius on the February 1 initiate you into that process and light your way through it.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Scorpio Sun & Scorpio Rising
Unlearning can sound like an incredible burden. It’s taken you as long as your life to know what you know now, after all. How long will it take to wind the tape back until it’s time to record again? But, like the moment when you gently erase the pencil lines and lay down the watercolors, what you clear away is what guides you forward and transforms the entire image.
Your memories stay with you and they change too, as you change, reshaping how you relate to people from the past, reshaping the way you relate to people now. Unlearning is work, yes, but it is meaningful work. It opens the way for new skill sets, new ventures, new connections, and a new way to define yourself. Even with the old pencil lines gone, each color creates a richer layer, and a different understanding of the light you work with and the shadow too.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Sagittarius Sun & Sagittarius Rising
In astrology we say that the moon is your sense of security, where you feel familiar, where you can rest. But, the moon is also charged with your emotions — and charges you in turn. Perhaps there’s a loop here, a circle. You come to a rest and, in the clearing, your feelings have time to catch up with you. With this new moon in Aquarius, the feelings that arrive are larger than just one life. They are a collection of understandings, exchanges between friends, collective hopes and collective disappointments. When these feelings come, they come in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of forms, but they are all messengers. They are charged by the Sun and fortified by Saturn and they do not mean for you to retreat. The information these feelings give you, about what has transpired and what comes next, are like a spell. The more you trust them, the more it works.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Capricorn Sun & Capricorn Rising
It might be Aquarius season, but by the looks of the planets, the cosmos is your corner. Venus continues under your stars, putting her discerning shoulder to the wheel as you whisper goodbye to an old story in the rearview. And while shadow periods are not exactly ideal for making big bold moves, Mercury’s direct station on the 3rd is gonna make sure that you receive the sign you've been anticipating. Of course, while the sign can *ahem* open up your mind, it’s gonna be on you to drag yourself into the light where you belong. Good thing that Mars is making headway in Capricorn, then, while the Sun connects with Saturn in your house of resources. The moon in Aquarius is in the mix, and she’s all about wish fulfillment. Here, in the world of the living, you’ve got what you need to move forward, and what you don’t have yet is on its way.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Aquarius Sun & Aquarius Rising
It’s good to have the Sun in your corner, even if it doesn’t always feel good. It’s a vital force that invigorates your relationship to yourself. But relating to yourself isn’t as easy as all that, is it? Fixed signs like Aquarius make it look easy, but underneath that cool and consistent surface is an Earthling that is deeply affected by every living thing they form a connection with; an Earthling that carries and tends to the feelings of the world as if they are a precious resource. This week’s new moon in Aquarius is an invitation to reconnect with the power of the wave as separate from the water; to trace the energy that you use to carry the emotions of the world back to its source. Let Saturn’s presence under your stars charge you. You are the authority of yourself, of your strength. Or, as Team Dresch once sang, “Make up who you are, it makes up who you are.”ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Pisces Sun & Pisces Rising
It’s true that as we continue facing an international health crisis, making social plans, whether big or small, can feel like a game of Whac-a-mole. But Pisces are mutable signs, and while they are very good at entertaining themselves and spending time alone, they flourish in company. This week’s new moon in Aquarius helps you clarify your relationship to your alone time, how it enriches you and how it prepares you to be your most mindful self around others. More of a recharge than a reflection, the new moon fuels your most optimistic ambitions. With Mercury in Capricorn stationing direct a day later and forming a helpful sextile to the moon in Pisces, chances are good that the plans you make are more likely to stick. And, once the ball gets rolling, the good times can get rolling too.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
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It’s officially Aquarius season and if you’ve got a freak flag well, by all means, fly it. And if you don’t, then simply avert your eyes and mind your business while waiting for Mars to move into Capricorn on the 24th. Either way, revel in the unexpected when the Sun in Aquarius makes a conjunction to Mercury Rx in Aquarius on the 23rd. If the universe has a haircut, this week’s ‘do would be a reverse mullet: party in the front and business in the back — although the words “party” and “business” have been highly altered to reflect humanity’s current state of affairs, and a last quarter moon in Scorpio on the 25th is a great time to sit with those alterations and their effects on the psyche. This is an opportunity to hold our attachments (and our compulsions) up against the evidence of what’s possible, and generally to make peace with our limits. This is especially underscored by the quarter moon’s square to the Sun in Aquarius. A trine between Mercury in Capricorn and the True Node in Taurus on the 26th ushers us toward the realization that accepting one set of terms is not the same as throwing in the towel. Instead, it’s an invitation to not only re-evaluate strategies, but push forward with a renewed desire to break ground and create new pathways toward the world we want. Mercury meets Pluto in the sky on the 28th, but whatever gets unearthed is something we’ve long since prepared for. The next day, Venus in Capricorn stations direct on the 29th followed by a square between the Sun in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus. What’s cosmically clear is that there are no easy answers on the table, all progress will require negotiation, and there are bound to be more compromises than anyone prefers.T
Aries Sun & Aries Rising
It’s true that all the pieces appear to be in place, and if you’re ready to return to the material world then, baby, it’s ready to have you. It might be worth your time, however, to figure out if the material world you’re venturing toward is the same one you left behind. Perhaps, in your absence or abstention, it’s changed. And if not — then maybe you have. Mars’ foray into Capricorn has you doubling down on strategy. You’ve always had the will to get it done — whatever *it* is — but these days that willpower collects in you, and you’d rather take your time and do it right. You know that the difference between getting what you want and getting something you want long after you have it means being more discerning. It’s not that you lack discernment, far from it, but just because you have something doesn’t mean you know when to use it. One thing to keep in mind is that discernment is not the opposite of courage. Whether your struggles are internal or external, sometimes facing a formidable beast requires a stakeout, not a sword. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Taurus Sun & Taurus Rising
It’s the last week in the trenches of Venus’ retrograde transit through Capricorn and while there are plenty of valid reasons to keep your head down and stay out of the way, we both know you’re not the type. What a Taurus loves even more than rest is a valiant challenge worthy of needing it. Perhaps, then, it’s worth noting that this week begins with a last quarter Scorpio moon, a moon tired of suffering fools — especially, but not only, the ones that we shelter within ourselves — and ready to shed them. And as Venus approaches direct station on the 29th, it makes an imperfect trine to Uranus, planet of destabilizing change, which moves steadily forward in your sign. If you’re looking for a go-ahead, a green light, the universe is full of them. But keep this in mind: a strike in one area does not create an isolated wreck. It reverberates, it moves you. You have to be ready for waves, for a sea change. You have to want the wreck and not the story of the wreck. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Gemini Sun & Gemini Rising
What’s a little Mercury retrograde to a Gemini living through the plague years? Surely, the planet’s apparent backward movement is not unlike a Gemini combing through the tangles of threads and projects left dangling. Focus on the small and tangible things, the ones that feel good to do, the ones that help you feel a part of this very human planet. What project needs your valuable input, dear one? Who was it you meant to call back? Where can your attention return, renewed? While it’s possible for one person to be good at many things, there are only so many things one person can do at any given time — especially with the world in the state that it is. This retrograde is a beautiful time for you to examine what has and hasn’t held your interest, to note the kinds of endeavors you’re more likely to sustain and relinquish responsibility for those that have proven themselves unsustainable. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Cancer Sun & Cancer Rising
While Jupiter’s ingress into Pisces might have you getting more comfortable about sharing yourself with the world, Venus’ retrograde transit is still in the midst of teaching you what it means to share yourself in ways that require more than just taking up space — ways that ask you to be vulnerable and accountable in your relationships. And while there’s no direct feedback loop between the two, there is the general understanding that confidence breeds confidence. When you’re feeling yourself in one area of your life, you start to think about what it would be like to feel yourself in others. You stretch a circle in one spot and the whole thing widens. In this time of widening, of allowing yourself to be more and asking for more, it’s okay to keep some benchmarks to yourself. But take some time mid-week, Cancer, to celebrate the space you’ve carved out for yourself, your creativity, and your courage too.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Leo Sun & Leo Rising
Aquarius season has a way of pulling Leos out from their big kitty slumber and into a congress of the wild cats. Of course, social desires and social realities aren’t always aligned, and if it’s not a country-wide viral surge, then it’s a conjunction between the Sun and Mercury retrograde that has us reaching out and stumbling back. Don’t let what falls through dishearten you, dear Leo; let it fill you with tenderness for all the ways that we strive to connect with one another, even when connection is tied up with fear and risk and loss. So, if you’re lonely and you find yourself uncertain of who to reach out to, you’re not alone in those feelings. And wasn’t there a way, before, to share your world with someone even if you weren’t in the same room? A way more thoughtful, more sustained than a Zoom call? When was the last time you made a playlist for someone else, a care package? Wouldn’t it feel good to sew a silly patch onto something and send it away?ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Virgo Sun & Virgo Rising
Most people have a public face and a private one — at least one of each — and Virgos are no different. Concerned with the public discourse, engaged with all matters of engagement, even the most introverted Virgo knows how to keep a conversation going. But talking about matters that concern the world at large can be a lot easier than talking about matters that concern the private chambers of your own heart. Especially if you’re not sure whether or not these matters mean as much to others as they do to you, especially if you’re protective of their meaning. Switching faces can exhaust even the most ardent Virgos, however, and there’s no greater relief than finding someone who sees all your faces and still sees you. Of course, that relief is the reward of vulnerability, not the precursor to it. It doesn’t have to be easy, Virgo, to be at the right time. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Libra Sun & Libra Rising
Conversations about resources, about wealth, about what a person has, are necessarily complicated. What belongs to us and what we are raised to believe we are entitled to isn’t just a matter of individual privilege, it’s the result of an ongoing system of inequality. That said, there are energetic aspects of wealth, of receiving and having, that prevail despite circumstantial differences. For instance, it is nearly impossible to imagine more for yourself if you don’t believe that more is possible. And, it’s very difficult to invite in all that’s available to you when you’re afraid that there’s not enough to go around and you don’t think that you deserve it. But unlearning scarcity is no easy feat. It takes time, and it takes small, sustainable practices. This week invites you to transmute whatever material fears rattle within you by doing an inventory of your resources — an inventory as simple as holding your own hand and breathing in before saying, “good things come.”ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Scorpio Sun & Scorpio Rising
Despite the internal or external pressures you’ve collected, there really is no deadline for being sure. You can tally up your pros and cons, comb through evidence, and search the undersides of everything you love only to come up with proof that — yes — there are two sides to whatever it is you’re doing and at least two ways to go. If you can accept that even being 100% sure is in itself a temporary feeling, like an angel that simply moves you from one spot to another, then you can try calling on as many angels as you want: An angel like a second wind that carries you from one task to the next, assuring you that showing up counts as doing your best. An angel like a crying jag that moves an old sadness through your body, a sadness that’s both precious and mysterious to you. If certitude is temporary, so is waywardness. It might even be that the angel of temporary pleasure, of play, knows the angel of purpose. You don’t need to be sure to call on one or the other. Just a little desire will do. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Sagittarius Sun & Sagittarius Rising
There’s something sweet about your ruling planet under the stars of Pisces. And, perhaps it’s returning to you, that sweetness, even if it’s mixed with sadness: a belief in home as an ever-evolving thing, especially if you understand home through your relationship with other people. I’m reminded of these lines from a poem by Stephen Dunn, called “Sweetness”
Often a sweetness comes
as if on loan, stays just long enough
to make sense of what it means to be alive,
then returns to its dark
source. As for me, I don’t care
where it’s been, or what bitter road
it’s traveled
to come so far, to taste so good.
Maybe you do care, Sagittarius, maybe you’ve spent your life wishing you didn’t care so much. This week offers you all kinds of small rituals strong enough to keep that heavy sweetness at bay. But, your magical ability to reject is just as powerful as your ability to receive. You can turn a spell around, if you want to. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Capricorn Sun & Capricorn Rising
You don’t have to believe in ghosts to have their blessing and you don’t need to be the kind of person who really believes they have a safety net in order to feel seen and loved. You can just take it day by day, walking out onto the high wire that is being alive, balancing yourself on the taut rope of this world, and whatever flies above you and stretches beneath you is bound to do the rest. But, if you want to believe in something, even if that something is simply your own magic, it might make the tightrope feel more manageable. And, not that you need it, but if you’d like to have the option of the easier way, you’ll find that the more you believe in the numinous. the more it helps you. Remember, belief is cultivated in the interior, so don’t bother with comparisons. All magic, all love, is incomparable — including the kind we nurture for ourselves and for others.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Aquarius Sun & Aquarius Rising
As we move further and further from the solstice, the sun beckons us to take up space in the world again. But, what kind of world is this? Yes, there’s more to life, to being alive, than the ever-collapsing state of our institutions. But, up against the global climate, letting your intuition lead the way can feel like following a dry riverbed: the memory of water and the course it needed to take. But, you know that proof of what once was is powerful. You know that within it lies the promise of what can be again. Perhaps the way forward for you this time isn’t about jumping into the unknown but in honoring what you do know — what’s remained. Can you accept that one river is dry without foreclosing the possibility of new rivers? Can you pull close that which pulses with life around you and feel into its possibility? What do you have? What do you want? What feels good? What changes can you make now to have more of that?ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Pisces Sun & Pisces Rising
There are seasons in our life when memory and experience will have to do for truth, even if we know deep down that truth is a lot more complicated than one person’s recollection. And maybe hindsight is 20/20, or maybe it’s just easier imagining what we could have done better, differently, when the chance to do so is already long past us. While it may be hard to accept, imagining is not the same thing as living through it. There are no guarantees, only wild bets and the dice falling. Knowing this doesn’t make moving forward any easier. So maybe it’s not supposed to get easier. Maybe you just get better at catching on. Maybe you don’t need the truth as it was then, only as it is now: What you value in yourself, what you value in others, what you would like to remember. Sometimes, it can take a while to find your way out of the past and its looping roads. Follow the signs that guide you toward the connections you want; emulate their language. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
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In a world that can often feel off the rails, there’s reassurance in a pattern. Human behavior may alter the course of human history, but the course of the stars, the planets, the moon, and the Sun remains. Reassurance, of course, is not the same thing as relief — unless what we mean by relief is surrender. You can rest assured that a moon will cycle. You can look up at the darkening January sky expectantly, waiting for the Cancer full moon to cast herself against it. But whether what fills her heavenly body, and our earthly bodies in response, is a balm or a burden is anybody’s guess. Or, anybody’s right to attest.
Under the Cancer full moon, which occurs on Monday, January 17, we know what’s shared begins in the celestial sphere and moves down into our atmosphere. We know that when the moon is full, she’ll be opposite Pluto in Capricorn as well as the Sun. And, if we are to believe the ones who study the movements of the cosmos, we know that the Sun is a planet that lends vitality to the planets it is near (though not too near!). What powers does the Sun stir in Pluto? “Pluto reminds us that we all do have ‘a mess.’ It brings out our prima materia from the shadows. It connects us to our ‘shit.’ The base material for psychotherapy and other Plutonian processes,” explains Judy Hall in her book The Hades Moon. “As the alchemical process proceeds, our past experience becomes the breeding ground for insight and experience.”
What better time to use our past experiences as a breeding ground for insight than when the moon is full in Cancer, her cosmic home? Of course, insight isn’t as readily available or compact as an old journal or a shoebox of memories. But, most Cancerian placements grip tightly to those very things, holding the evidence of their experiences and past selves as sacrosanct. And perhaps it’s this very grip on the past as we want to remember it, the tight lid of it, that keeps us from being close to it.
Obsession is antithetical to intimacy. Pluto is opposite the moon. To love something is to strive to see it everyday as it is, not as it was or as we hope it to be. To cling tightly to a story frozen in time — about yourself, about another person, about love, about a country — is to refuse the living story and the ones who live it. Pluto in Capricorn is structural. It means to strip the house down to the bones and uncover the skeletons beneath it. It’s a reminder that our compulsions run deeper than one workshop or retreat can cure. They run deep down into the essence of who we are and how we were raised. They are historical.
Venus in Capricorn continues her retrograde cycle through Capricorn in the midst of these negotiations between what we value within ourselves and what we can expect from others, applying a trine to Uranus in Taurus, which stations direct the day after the full moon. Mercury, meanwhile, applies a waning trine to Uranus and has stationed retrograde in Aquarius — the sign of the collective, the sign of humanity and interdependence, which is a kind of hope. Retrograde, we know by now, doesn’t mean a time of stagnancy. It’s a time of retracing, reestablishing; it’s a purposeful return to the present moment. It’s the same within us and between us: to understand how we got here and how far we’ve left to go, we have to account for our personal and collective histories. Even if the evidence of the past casts our most intimate stories and solemnized experiences in a new light. Even if it hurts.
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The week begins with a heavy and emotional full moon in Cancer, which opposes the Sun in Capricorn conjunct Pluto. There’s an understanding between the stars and between the Earthlings who study them that even those of who have private cause for celebration are steeped in the thick grief that weighs down the collective, a grief that runs deep even as it nurtures resilience in many of those who observe it. Resilience is not the same as vitality, however, and with Mars still making a waning square to Neptune, a sense of general exhaustion is enduring. Still, we, like the planets, press on, however recklessly. Mercury in Aquarius, stationed retrograde on the 14th, makes a sextile to Chiron in Aries on the 18th, tempting us toward more than a little wound-dwelling. While results may vary, chances are good that the more you can limit your excavation to healing spaces (like therapy, grief groups, or dedicated internet spaces) the better for everyone involved. On January 18, ungovernable Uranus stations direct at 10 degrees while our true node retrograde transit shifts under the last degrees of persistent Taurus, still working off a tense square to Jupiter in Pisces. Perhaps this a tension between what Taurus knows they can will into existence and the que sera sera mentality a Pisces brings to the very end of a rope. Of course, in reality, the rope doesn’t end. Or, if it does, then it’s simply one of many ropes, many ways of getting from here to there — something the Sun in Capricorn’s trine to Taurus true node is sure to remind us on the 19th before the Sun shifts into enterprising Aquarius later that day. The Sun in Aquarius makes a conjunction to Mercury in Aquarius on the 23rd, and while retrogrades abound, there’s something to be said about taking the time to make sure that everyone is not only on the same page but on the same planet before moving forward – especially if those moves affect a wider audience.
Aries Sun & Aries Rising
The last days of Mars in Sagittarius are upon us, and so too is a kind of exhaustion most associate with the end of a year rather than the beginning of one. Perhaps, then, this a great time to reevaluate our relationship to numbers — however arbitrary — and recommit our attention to what the seasons mean to teach us. Whether you’re in the Northern or the Southern one, the Capricorn Sun has done his job turning the wheel and what lays before us, on the other side of that thrust, are days that require rest. Of course, Capricorn season would not let you lie down idle, not when all that cardinal energy stirs in you. So, don’t think of it as idling, think of it as a time for inventory. The full moon in Cancer that opens this week is an invitation to get comfortable, to settle into the place you have landed and assess the grounds. How does it feel to be where you are? How can you make where you are feel more like home?ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Taurus Sun & Taurus Rising
When you come up against the edges of what you know, it might feel like whatever lives on the outskirts of that boundary is beyond you. In those moments, it can be enough to simply revel in a very human experience: the relief of limitation. Yes, humans love limits, though they rarely admit the depth of that love — how, often, the absence of a line can feel like a current dragging you toward a cliff, how tempting it is to throw oneself deeper and deeper until the bottom can be known, felt. To be on the other side of that feeling is a kind of freedom, even if it appears to be just the opposite. It’s available to you, this freedom, to rest and to revel in knowing all that you need to know for now. But so too is the other option that arrives on the other side of acceptance: re-learning to live into your body, your spirituality, your education as the self you have and not the self you are looking for.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Gemini Sun & Gemini Rising
It may not feel appropriate, but joy and our yearning for it is a vital part of what binds us to each other. There’s a book that I think of very often. It’s a collection of essays written in exile in 1918 called From Moscow to the Black Sea by the Russian satirist Teffi. In particular, this passage comes to mind this week: “With my own eyes I have seen sailors taking a man out onto the ice in order to shoot him – and I have seen the condemned man hopping over puddles to keep his feet dry and turning up his collar to shield his chest from the wind. Those few steps were the last steps he would ever take, and instinctively he wanted to make them as comfortable as possible. We were no different. We bought ourselves some ‘last scraps’ of fabric. We listened for the last time to the last operetta and the last exquisitely erotic verses.” The pull you feel is an ancient one: the thread of beauty as the enduring thread of survival. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Cancer Sun & Cancer Rising
If you look up synonyms for the word moony, you’ll find words that don’t necessarily belong together: gentle and nightmarish, fanciful and pensive. But there’s something about the fluctuations of meaning in those descriptors that feels befitting the moods of the moon, since she too is known to fluctuate. The week that follows the full moon in Cancer invites you to sit with the many feelings that the moon generated. Like a good host, you create space for all that you’ve been feeling and working through, you give your emotions a container to pour into. Yes, a container is a good thing, but it need not be a container that has a lid or a container that stifles you. It can be as simple and transformative as a haircut, as private and powerful as a night of bedroom dancing, as introspective and contained as a goodbye letter that you seal with a kiss and bury in the ground. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Leo Sun & Leo Rising
Sometimes retreat from the known world has to take on a couple different shapes before you know what it is and what it’s not — avoidance vs. meditation, fear of love vs. self discovery. Imagine the various ways this shows up in the Tarot, for instance. The Fool leaves the world he knows for the vast unknown; this kind of retreat is also an endeavor, an enterprise. The hermit requires withdrawal and solitude; the kind of retreat is interior and into the realms of consciousness. The Hanged man, on the other hand, remains present but on his own terms, seeking a new perspective. His is a retreat from expectation and old ways of being. The days after the full moon in Cancer are days that offer you glimmers of insight about the retreats you have chosen and the ones that chose you. As the Sun shifts into Aquarius, use these insights to examine the space that’s grown between you and your web of relations. Are you ready to return?ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Virgo Sun & Virgo Rising
Well, it’s that special time of year again when the internet floods with humans who are shaking their fisticuffs at the sky due to technological errors and communication breakdowns, wondering aloud if Mercury is retrograde. Yep, Mercury is retrograde and in Aquarius, which is a sign often associated with the internet and with friend groups and, well, with humanity as a whole. And, if you’re a Virgo rising, then Aquarius governs your place of work and your general wellbeing. The message might be “stay home and be patient, expect clerical errors,” except such a message might as well be a description of the past two years. So why not tack another message on top of the one that proves enduring? To your caution, add your creativity; to your patience, add a bold belief in your inventiveness and innovation. If you can’t get whatever it is to lift off, then get comfortable on the ground.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Libra Sun & Libra Rising
You must be keenly aware that the Capricorn pile-up is slowly dispersing, especially if you‘re a Libra rising enduring constant tensions between your first and fourth house. With a full moon in Cancer to begin the week, it’s clear that the stars have a story to tell the cardinal signs, a story about cycles and about letting go of things that once helped us feel safe (rigidity, walls) in order to recognize what security can look like with an open heart, a shared life. Like all water signs, Cancer teaches us about transformation. But unlike Scorpio or Pisces, Cancerian transformation begins in the interior. Here, you can relate as you see fit to a crab who recognizes that the shell around her can not hold all of who she is and so she sheds it at great risk and begins the slow process of growing a new one. Let the crab guide you into this week and remind you that what you shed is only a container. Who you are and what you lived through remains within you. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Scorpio Sun & Scorpio Rising
It’s never too early to prepare for eclipse season, Scorpio, especially when the true node has entered the Taurus chat. It's a conversation, not just between you and your partners, but between Capricorn and Taurus: between what one is capable of doing and what one is capable of becoming. And, when the full moon in Cancer is in the mix, it's a negotiation — a reminder that throughout your becoming, your worldview has been a testament to the feelings you were strong enough to feel all the way through. Proof of who you have cared for and who you’ve allowed to care for you. While you spend the next week patiently putting certain things at home to rights, you might find yourself facing the results of spells you cast a long time ago. Here is your chance to recognize two similar but very different things that will be of great importance in the months to come: your inner sense of what is right and your ability to know when it’s not right for you.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Sagittarius Sun & Sagittarius Rising
With willful Mars continuing to make tense aspects to watery Neptune (albeit waning) and a full moon in Cancer sitting heavy in your house of debts, this week sure doesn’t seem like the kind of week when a lot of things get done. In fact, you might find that the more that you endeavor to contain your emotions, the more uncontained they feel. Most transformative journeys begin this way, with various forms of resistance (denial that anything is different, for instance, denial that what you do from now on matters). Because you are a creature of habit, there will be days when you reach for old coping mechanisms, or desperately seek practical material things that might help you actualize the change you (finally) admit is coming. It’s okay to seek out these things, and it’s an eventual reality that while some of them will be useful, none of them will be necessary. All that you need you already have, and all that’s left to do is surrender or at least move out of the way.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Capricorn Sun & Capricorn Rising
Even the most disciplined and independent Capricorns deserve a little tenderness, a tucking in, or simply a date where someone else foots the bill. Even hardworking sea goats can have a little bit of respite, as a treat. Or, in all honesty, as more than a treat — as a consistent and sustained life practice. But, we all have to start somewhere and starting small is the next easiest thing to not starting at all. Perhaps, in service to the full moon that shines in your house of relationships, and in acknowledgement of Venus’ work in your house of self, you might move toward this week with a kind of vow to yourself: that you will only say yes to what is within your capacity in this current moment, no matter how urgent the matter is to someone else. That you will reclaim your time as you see fit and cancel plans at your leisure. That you will choose what you do by tuning into what feels good in your body. It’s only a week, after all. What the best that could happen?ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Aquarius Sun & Aquarius Rising
It’s not an act of ingratitude to grieve. It’s not a privilege to lie down alongside your sadness even when you know that there’s so much abundance around and above you. While you may not always have the strength to do it in a sustained way, it is your job to bear witness to this world, to be one with both its joys and its sorrows. And, while certain kinds of joys — consistent, meaningful work, wealth of opportunity, revitalized connections — might be more obvious than amorphous sorrows, they are not more significant. If an amorphous sadness covers you, remember that an amorphous feeling can be a blurred boundary between your own spirit and the spirit of the world. It can be a collective feeling — both ancient and ever-new — that is not so different from the amorphous gladness that the susurration of a river or an aspen forest produces. Try to remember that sweetness and sadness take turns with you, that one dance is followed closely by another. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Pisces Sun & Pisces Rising
It’s not a shame to want to be known for the love and care you offer others. It’s a kind of instinct toward pleasure that’s easy to identify in nurseries both human and floral. The green-thumbed gardener takes pride in both the progress of her plants and the role she played in that progress. The role is not mundane, but it is earthly and it is erotic. Between living things, something new is nurtured: a child, a flower, a poem. It would be a blessing if you could stay there ongoingly in all that you do for others, in that energy exchange where eros reigns. But have you noticed how often one part of a plant must fall away in order for another part to thrive? The flower for the seeds, the narrative for the metaphor. Of course, pain is inevitable. But, it’s not a betrayal or a loss if you don’t want it to be one. It’s just proof of a season, of a garden and a gardener.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
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This week begins with an initiatory first quarter moon in Aries, which makes a trine to inquisitive Mars in Sagittarius and a square to discerning Venus Rx and the steadfast Sun in Capricorn. There’s a sense that restriction can only hold a heart back so much, that carefulness and consideration want to rub up against boldness and adventure, that one can only stand sentinel over one’s day for so long until one craves a change of scenery or at least a changing of the guard. A sextile between Mercury in Aquarius and Chiron in Aries the following day on the 9th invites good spirits even in tough times, and a gentle reminder that while things may not look the same or work the same, the wells of validation, empowerment, and generally good vibes are not dry. The Sun in Capricorn makes a sextile to Neptune in Pisces the following day, on the 10th, echoing these sentiments with an air of determination. This is a great week to return to personal affirmations and rituals that endear us to ourselves — an especially important return as we prepare for Mercury’s retrograde station in Aquarius on the 14th, when staying connected to our own power and presence will help us navigate how and when we can best connect with others.
Aries Sun & Aries Rising
Little rams need a little rest just as much as the next creature, but Aries are known to build up energy much quicker than most, and when they do, they need to expend it! This week begins with a trine between Mars in Sagittarius and the first quarter moon of the month in your sign, and the lunation might have you feeling restless and eager to make some big changes. If you find yourself tempted by the old “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mentality, it might be time for you to face it head on instead of letting it take you by the horns and wear you out. With both Venus and Mercury retrograde by the end of the week, your progress depends on your ability to assess how you can work smart instead of just working hard. While it may not be time to call in favors quite yet, there’s plenty of time to create a schedule that takes your distractions into account.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Taurus Sun & Taurus Rising
Taurus might be a sign known for their love of things they can touch, a sign that demands proof. But to love a Taurus is to know the demanding dreamer within them. And isn’t the first step always the dream? The part where you allow your mind to wander like a bull through a field, seeking out whatever experience awaits in its fullness? Dreaming, giving your imagination range, is no small feat. It’s a courageous task and it will require some irreverence on your part. It’s your turn to turn your back on voices that speak over you, to close the book on teachings that don’t account for what you’ve learned. Let the naysayers have their say, but prioritize what your dreams lead you to this week, dear Taurus, and give them way. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Gemini Sun & Gemini Rising
If you’re feeling more open to possibility this week, more interested in connection, you’re not alone. There’s something about the days ahead that feels not unlike a blanket of snow over a familiar landscape: a reminder that circumstance can shift your experience, transforming the known into the unknown. Here lies opportunity for wonder without expectation, a chance to touch hopefulness at its root, to find where it lives in you. And, while it may be tempting to seek out company while you go about uncovering and exploring, it’s worth remembering that what we discover on our own and what we discover alongside others are necessarily different things. Can you choose one and not relegate the other?ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Cancer Sun & Cancer Rising
It’s not always advantageous to be visible. But, neither can a person thrive in shadow, hiding oneself away in the name of growth when one look at a green living thing can tell you all you need to know about that. Of course, it doesn’t have to be do or die. You have a right to take it slow, to share yourself with the world when it feels right and real for you. But how do you know when you’re responding to your intuition and when it’s fear that limits you? Sometimes, the first step is simply making a bold move in a new direction, against the grain you’ve been going with, and assessing the results. Begin with your body, breathe into buzzing, the tightness, the emotional muscles you’re working and stretch out of your comfort a little more.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Leo Sun & Leo Rising
Sometimes, a change of heart is a thing that happens to you, like waking up adrift and finding that the anchor which claimed you has yielded in the night. But sometimes, a change of heart is a thing you seek out for your own sake, your own sanity, because your heart is heavy, a burden you’d like to put down. Often, the first ingredient to a change of heart is a change of perspective. And, while this change of perspective can come from switching up your scene or engaging a new philosophy, it doesn’t have to. Teachers are everywhere and they often wear disguises. Their voices resonate over time but if you repeat your story loud enough, you’ll drown them out. To unburden your heart you’ll have to listen harder, stay longer, move from the understanding that what you thought you knew – you don’t know yet.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Virgo Sun & Virgo Rising
Slowing down and back-tracking, evaluation and assessment – these steps are part of any Virgo’s trade. Even the most chaotic of Virgos has a system, a way to assess their progress and their benchmarks. Even the most wayward amongst you has a keen sense of the road – the deviation and the rerouting possibilities. This week begins with a sextile from Mercury in Aquarius to Chiron in Aries, and you might find yourself trying to balance your accounts. But, new agreements aren't foolproof in a week that leads into Mercury retrograde. You’re better off balancing your accounts and asking for support than you are asking for what dear ones might owe you. Allow things to work out as they do, and don’t set your heart on it. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Libra Sun & Libra Rising
Everything is connected, the rain, the dirt, the rose, the spider, the aphids. In the natural world, all you have to do is witness. But, in our interior world, witnessing is harder. It takes a great deal of patience with yourself, a commitment to extricating projection from perception, a desire to know yourself fully without relying on the mirror of the other – things that are hard to cultivate at first but strong and persistent as you keep going. Like roses. And like a garden, relationships change all the time, but to change alongside each other is work. It requires companion planting, understanding what each plant needs separately and then together. This week offers you invitation after invitation to get your hands into the dirt of yourself and assess the quality of the soil, what it nurtured before, and what wants to live there now. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Scorpio Sun & Scorpio Rising
In some ways, time is an arbitrary thing. The days and weeks and months that lead into years can have you waking up nursing a heartache from a different decade, before you remember who you are in this moment, in this age. But one does remember, even if that remembering is more ritual than revelation. In this way, keeping time is a kind of magic, a kind of spell against stagnation, and far from arbitrary. If you mark these moments of heartache and acceptance by the hour, like one writes dreams down in a journal, even if the moments themselves feel small, you’ll find that you return to yourself throughout the day. This is a week that demands your attention, your commitment to ritual. If you have been waiting for a change to come, assess what has already changed. If you’ve been waiting for all your selves to return, stand vigil. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Sagittarius Sun & Sagittarius Rising
Fire signs can be described as pretty direct people, but directness isn’t always the best way to start a fire. Imagine a fireplace: the seasoned wood won’t take on its own. A fire requires kindling. The twigs, the occasional – and contested! – pinecone, some shredded paper bags, and the treasured fire-starter all come into play. And, even then, there’s work to be done, rearranging, a gentle blow at the dwindling embers, a bellow if you’re feeling bold. What I’m saying is, while something might seem easy enough to attain, the truth is that even the most basic pleasure requires a certain amount of build up and sustained attention. If what you’re longing for is slow going, let it be slow. Give it kindling, give it a firm prod, and don’t give up.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Capricorn Sun & Capricorn Rising
The astrological weather might seem formidable in Capricorn territory, but the truth is that most things Capricorn-related can seem formidable at first. Upon closer inspection, even the most demanding transits can grant us a great deal of grace and permission to approach difficult interactions with clarity and compassion. Of course, grace, clarity, and compassion can feel like a tall order when all one really wants to do is relish the month of your solar return and let off a little steam. Well, let it off Capricorn, open the pit, beat the earth, wear the playground out. But do yourself a favor and don’t do it alone, not if you can help it. Call in your heart’s cavalry, the people who see the child in you and celebrate it. Let them remind you what it means to feel at home with others, let them remind you where you belong.ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Aquarius Sun & Aquarius Rising
It’s true the Mercury stations retrograde in Aquarius this week but that doesn’t mean you’ve got to close your date book. If anything, you might find yourself called to crack it open and pore over the days ahead, looking for the rhythm in them, a sign that something good this way comes. What if, this time, a sign is something you have to call in, like a petulant child that requires attention? Could you let yourself ask for a little bit more than synchronicity; could you give yourself permission to make demands of the universe? This is not a time to be demure, Aquarius, and it’s certainly not a time to pretend that you’re better off going at it alone. Spells are amplified by energy, by like minds and willing hearts. Treat Monday night as your witching hour, this week as your window of invocation. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
Pisces Sun & Pisces Rising
As Jupiter continues to spread out in Pisces, you might find yourself growing more ambitious, more invested in a new story about yourself. And while the first quarter moon in Aries and a sextile from Mercury to Chiron might have you securing some sure bets in the name of remediation, it’s important that you set some limits for yourself – even if they are ultimately arbitrary. Imagine what lies before you as a feast, a table bedecked with the stuff of dreams not unlike the kind the boys imagined in Hook. Look around the table and see who sits beside you, whose company enriches the feast and who is missing. Give yourself time to take in what’s now available to you, to appreciate how much has changed, to assess what has remained the same within you despite those changes. Start small and start slow, knowing faith breeds continuing abundance. ILLUSTRATION BY barbarianflower
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The first week of January starts out in earnest with a new moon in Capricorn on January 2. The energy is ambitious if not a little bit overzealous, what with Mars still transiting Sagittarius and applying a square to Neptune in Pisces. If ever there was a moon that urged her guests to read the room, this one is it. And, if the room in question is the court of Capricorn, then the room is crowded and deeply uncomfortable – despite Mercury’s departure toward the stars of Aquarius. Perhaps because the planets know that the shadow of Mercury retrograde promises that the departure will be a short one. Perhaps the heat of whatever Venus retrograde has set into motion has some of us wondering if it’s even possible to get out of the kitchen. Or, metaphors aside, perhaps the heartbreak of beginning yet another year subject to a surging virus and a government that offers no true recourse feels spiritually untenable and morally deflating — even for those of us who have always lacked faith in government leaders, even for those of us who strive to be ungovernable. If the cosmos offers us moments of hope, or at least ingenuity, it comes in the form of a trine between inquisitive Mercury in Aquarius and a well-connected true node in Gemini. Although, with a square between Jupiter in Pisces and true node in Gemini hours later, we’re reminded that the distance between what we hope for and what’s possible isn’t always easy to ascertain, and falling is always a possibility. It might be true that there’s no reward without risk, but it’s also true that not all rewards are worth the risk, and not all risks result in a reward. So, it’s important to evaluate the stakes, to recognize the difference between moral strength and stubbornness, between creativity and arrogance. There’s an echo of these sentiments throughout the week that begins with a sextile between Venus Rx in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces on the 5th, followed by a conjunction between the Sun and Venus Rx in Capricorn on the 8th.
Aries Sun & Aries Rising
There’s something about writing our New Year’s resolutions (or collecting them privately in our minds like vows to ourselves) that feels not unlike the permission to be a child again. To imagine who you will become in fantastical detail: an Egyptologist! A veterinarian! An Olympian! As the years go by, some possibilities seem foreclosed, while others open before us — because we become more of ourselves, because we walk down a path long enough to recognize where it is and isn’t taking us. The truth is, the child in you still wants to believe that anything is possible, that you can make a right turn onto a grand adventure, and the truth is, that child is right. Consider, Aries, what tools and resources you might need to prepare for the child within you to choose the way?ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Taurus Sun & Taurus Rising
Have you ever tried to intentionally subtract the word “should” from your vocabulary? Could you imagine going a week without it? It sounds easy enough, on the surface, but we both know that you are person who does things right or not at all, so if you were to try it – you’d have to subtract the “ought to” and all the condemning adjectives you save for yourself when you don’t do what is you think is right. What do you think lies on the other side of rigid expectation? What do you think governs your strength of spirit when the authority within you is given leave? Imagine there are no shoulds, no perfect solutions, no agreed upon course of action. All you can do is meet the world where it’s at, let it show you where you’re at, even if it’s a difficult place to be.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Gemini Sun & Gemini Rising
There’s something about Mercury shifting under the stars of Aquarius that can feel like an opening for you, even if Aquarius is a fixed sign. Aquarius knows that life has to be lived before we can know what it is – and even then we only know what we’ve lived. There’s a sense of possibility in that kind of approach, a strong curiosity about this thing called life and where it leads us when we least expect it. It’s okay, Gemini, if it’s not an opening that feels easy for you, even if it feels right. It’s okay to find yourself floundering a little when the pressure is off. Most people have been trained to wait, to live inside of potential energy. To be kinetic, to move first, to change positions is an act of faith – in your ability to change your place without losing yourself.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Cancer Sun & Cancer Rising
“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.” wrote bell hooks, “Healing is an act of communion.” But, it’s also true that isolation is not the same thing as solitude. Community, relationship, is something we build with others. We build it around ourselves and within ourselves so that when we’re apart from each other, when we take time away, we carry love like an eternal flame. All paths toward healing are paths toward intimacy, even solitary ones, even spiritual ones. It’s a beautiful thing to choose solitude, to step away so that you might spend time with the fire that’s been fed within you. It’s not the same thing to choose isolation, to reject that which tethers you to others, to imagine that you have built that fire on your own. ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Leo Sun & Leo Rising
Philosophers and poets alike have lived through pain long enough to call pain their teacher. But it’s one thing to take your seat in pain’s classroom and another to learn your lessons. If pain is a teacher then pain has a pedagogy, an art that relies on the student for feedback, for efficacy. Are you capable, dear Leo, of recognizing the many ways that pain has been your teacher in the past year? And can you reflect, with humbleness, on the moments when you refused to be a student and what remained unanswered – like a workbook full of material you didn’t know how to be present for? And, because you are here, because every day that you’re here you return to the classroom, can you recognize your own rigor and apply it to your doubts? ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Virgo Sun & Virgo Rising
Everyone knows that anyone who claims a new year ushers in a new you is lying. A person is never one thing and then another, a person is neither a new nor old version of who they are. We are always changing and we are always ourselves. Besides, a date is just a number that follows you wherever it is you’re going. You have free will and so long as you do, whether it’s a month or a year, everywhere you look – there you are. It’s the act of being alive that transforms us, it’s our relationships to others that transform our relationship to ourselves. And it’s your acceptance of who you are at this moment: your ambitions, your longings, your beliefs, that will alter what you call home, help re-negotiate your commitments, and reimagine your relationships.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Libra Sun & Libra Rising
Libra isn’t one for waiting around until something happens. A cardinal sign with an independent streak, Libra loves to set things in motion for the sake of the collective – even if they’ve got to do it alone. Of course, most Libras would prefer some company or, at least, a witness. Someone to remind them that setting things in motion isn't always the answer. Someone to remind them that stillness and acceptance is also a kind of forward movement. Let this horoscope act as that someone for you, dear Libra, if you do not have someone close. And, if you reject the reminder, if you’re feeling keen, remember this: What flies from you has a life beyond your control.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Scorpio Sun & Scorpio Rising
As Jupiter settles into his Piscean home, you might find your desire for pleasure expanding. Pleasure, here, is erotic but in the most expansive way possible; the erotic as (Piscean) Audre Lorde spoke of in Uses of the Erotic when she wrote, “The very word erotic comes from the Greek word eros, the personification of love in all its aspects – born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony. When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.” To distract this desire with material things is to keep it small. Surely, that’s not all that you’re after.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Sagittarius Sun & Sagittarius Rising
There’s something about this time of year that can have you relying on coping mechanisms you learned when the world felt too large and you felt small. Something about post-holiday season fatigue and the despair (material and existential) of COVID’s ongoingness that might have you running on empty. Rest is easy enough to suggest, but not everyone knows how to rest, how to unplug in ways that give heavy feelings room to rise to the surface. So maybe, rest is a thing one must rise to rather than lie down. Maybe it’s time you made a plan, Sagittarius, and packed a bag with all the emotional tools you’ve got, so that when those emotions rise, you rise to meet them. ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Capricorn Sun & Capricorn Rising
It might be a little intimidating to look out into the cosmos and know that so many planetary bodies are roaming under your stars, getting up to good and no good depending on where the terrain takes them. But, what is a trip of goats to a Capricorn but a herding challenge? What better time to place one hoof in front of the other than under the auspices of a new moon in your sign? So what if the moon is in cahoots with Uranus, destabilizer extraordinaire? What, to a sure-footed goat, is a loose rock or two but a creative prompt? Yes, there are wounds that need tending to; yes, you are running low on provisions. So rest when you need to and don’t give up out of self-doubt – you’ve gotten farther working with less. ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Aquarius Sun & Aquarius Rising
Some signs revel in their season, enjoying the Sun nearby, and maybe you are one of those. More likely, Capricorn is a heavy time for you. More likely, you find yourself both restless and exhausted, your spirit ringing an alarm you can’t seem to turn off on your own. A fixed sign with a penchant for prophesy, it’s not the alarm that surprises you. So what is it that keeps you in this anxious loop? In the 12th house, Capricorn faces both imprisonment and fulfillment: Could it be that your intuition, your own brand of magic, requires a different kind of work from you? Or, perhaps, a different accomplice? In the 12th house, Capricorn must rely on others, on reception. Who can you trust with your dreams, Aquarius? Who are you willing to invite into them?ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
Pisces Sun & Pisces Rising
There’s a lot of talk about Jupiter shifting into Pisces, a lot of sparklers lit for what might be. It’s good to light up for the pleasure of it, to revel in a promising idea, but it’s in your best interest to recognize that Jupiter is not a planet that submits to anyone’s plans – not even a sign that it favors. Jupiter expands and Jupiter magnifies; Jupiter might have you betting it all just so you recognize what you’ve got to lose. But you know more than most that no planet works alone, that all cosmic movement is interconnected. Let the new moon in Capricorn on January 2 guide your hand as you place your bets. Be honest about what’s at stake. Know who you have in your corner.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN
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