Aquarius is the time of year that marks the middle of summer in the southern hemisphere and the middle of winter in the northern hemisphere…

… Aquarius is a fixed air sign (surprise! not a water sign actually, even though the constellation Aquarius is also known as the ‘Water-Bearer’ or ‘Cup-Bearer’). the traditional ruler of Aquarius is Saturn and the modern co-ruler is Uranus. Aquarius is also a diurnal sign.

Aquarius energy is associated expansive intellect, humanitarian tendencies, high principles and a unique ways of looking at things. it is also an energy that can be rigid, tending to either / or thinking and can feel quite solitary, peculiar or lonesome. Aquarius always makes me think of aliens and quirks. some other keywords we can associate with Aquarius are: space, perspective, collectives, contrariness and unpredictability.

this year, Aquarius season is from 20 january to 18 february. on 17 february we will have an Annular Solar Eclipse at 28° of the tropical zodiac of Aquarius. i don’t address eclipse season concretely in these horoscopes but will write a separate post on the upcoming eclipses and what it may mean for each sign.

ps: you may find the song associated with each sign to be more relevant to your rising sign : )

aquarius

these days, to be able to have a sense of tomorrow is not easy. you are someone who has some kind of sense of tomorrow. this is not easy. and right now your internal compass is covered in fog (also not easy). the fog won’t last forever, but while it does move cautiously. there something so vulnerably exquisite about moving cautiously in fog – your entire body becomes your eyes, explore this.

the empty space inside of you is much wiser than you know. look at trust through the rear-view mirror. maybe you can’t see hope right now but when you are quiet and empty, you are able to feel it. it’s not easy. but when you let yourself be and be weird, you’re weirdly good at things not being easy.

listen to the song “22nd Century“. the original writer was Exuma, but i like the Nina Simone version the best. Exuma was a visionary Bahamian musician and an Aquarius. he was born in 1942 when the world was busy with its second world war. the guy had vision. he released the song “22nd Century” in 1971 when the North Node was moving through Aquarius, which it will start to do this year too. Nina Simone’s cover chills me to my core. she was a Pisces Sun, but an Aquarius rising… this song feels so Aquarius to me: weird, beautiful, heady, tragic and able to envision a brand new world. we really, really need people who can envision a new way of doing things. we need them alive and involved.

look at the lyrics of this uncanny song – the role of time, of history, the un-sense that is folded into sense. there is something of both sorrow and resilience hidden in this song. you are like this song, a brilliant understated opus of insight. my hope is that you move into a season where you let the song that is you be played more loudly, be heard by more people. my other hope is that you let the song carry you through that empty space inside of you where both your grief and your resilience reside. remember to let your entire body become your eyes.

pisces

something very heavy is emptying, leaving your body and soul. there is a letting go for you this season. and it is good. you’ve grown used to a certain heavy sensation of ‘consequence’ that has accompanied you over the last two or three years. you have learned some lessons the hard way, the slow way, and you are readying yourself to gradually release.

trust that the slow fruits of these weighty lessons will eventually reveal themselves to be lifelong benefits, subtle but oh so solid gifts. trust the ways in which your ideas around sacrifice have become more developed, more nuanced. give yourself permission to withdraw if needed, but look back on the year with a quiet sense of admiration for going through all that you’ve gone through…

listen to “Empty House” by Air from the iconic ‘Virgin Suicides’ soundtrack. listen to it and sway your body however way you need to, fast or slow. sway in a soft circle. as you sway, really sense the weight of your body, the dramatic beauty of the fluids in your body. with this song as a kind of anthem, give yourself permission to float on solitary airwaves this season. you can really float because you know sensations of weight intimately. even through the most challenging of times, there is always a rhythm that carries your joy. the rhythm may not be so easy to track, but it is as massive as the ocean. permit your rhythm to ebb and flow, and find joy’s slow arrival in your emptying.

aries

you are entering a phase that wants you to grow up in all the annoying ways. this means learning patience. it’s a growing up that feels like waiting in a very long queue in very hot weather, only to get to the front and realize you forgot the thing. this next phases teaches you to remember the thing. plus, you’ll learn to understand (with your whole body) that you can, actually, survive waiting. once you get this, you’ll meet a new superpower inside of you.

you’ll also learn that waiting can introduce the most marvelous flashes of brilliance. look to your community, locate one or two bad-ass elders who live such a spacious life that it almost feels they are from another planet. learn from them. invite that possibility of spaciousness into the act of waiting…

listen to the electric version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hear My Train A Comin‘”. listen to the whole song. it’s a 12 minute song. whether or not you’re a fan of blues or rock or long electric guitar solos – i challenge you to sit down (or stand up) and listen to the whole song. tune into the laborious skill of passion, to the way in which the song invokes anticipation, departure and tragic readiness for the road from Voodoo Child to Magic Boy.

listen to the patience enmeshed in years of practice and failure. listen to years of playing that allows the relief and release off letting loose and letting go. let whatever emotions this song brings up soar through your body. those brilliant insights that been stewing in the background are ready to materialize – but they will do so in their own time. the train is coming… just keep going. and have patience.

taurus

you are so incredibly ready to be yourself. i want you to gather all of the practices you have that connect you to your desires and longings, and do them. do them with flair, do them awkwardly, but do them. do the things that connect you to your desire and i don’t mean your immediate desires. i mean the long-term goals and dreams that you’re almost afraid of.

aquarius season may start off pretty roughly for you, but any tensions you encounter are not without the possibility for break-through. breathe deeply through pressure. things may feel a little confusing or out of sight for the time being but do your best to trust the ways in which you are so ready to stop apologizing and simply be yourself. you’re also ready to let outdated obligations and relationships sort of drift on by as you relish in the feeling of your you-ness…

listen to “Grown Woman” by Beyoncé and envision accolades and applause surrounding you, not for anything you’ve done but for who you are – beautiful, messy, weird and ordinary. you are grown, you have grown and you will keep growing because you are alive like a tree is alive. we don’t always notice a tree growing, but when we do – we should celebrate it. take this crazy aquarius season as a cue to celebrate your growth. let a kind of vital juicy joyfulness penetrate all of your strange ambitions. something new is ready to come in, let your self-acceptance accept the ways in which you grow, you change and you shine.

gemini

sometimes we leave very important things behind. it’s not such a big deal to go back and get them. this season, go and fetch it – that thing that keeps your aliveness intact. go and get that thing again, whether it’s a practice, a fantasy, a dream, a goal.

it is becoming increasingly apparent, that perhaps it’s simply not so possible to continue living a life that is not aligned with your values. unfortunately the external world makes inner alignment a terribly complicated and difficult thing to do. you know how to compromise and adapt and that’s what makes you so resilient. and when it comes to embodying a totally new expression of your values, you have support to take the next step. let yourself surprise yourself. there’s a big shift in your path waiting for you.

keep yourself steady and ready for the shift by listening to “Fetch Your Life (feat. Msaka)” by Prince Kaybee. remember that meangingful change does not always arrive with a bang (i mean, sometimes it does). but there is a kind of steadiness, a regular beat that is required when shifting closer towards alignment. remember that alignment is something that is dynamic and changing. introduce yourself to new gods, new divinities, new philosophies. and as you do so, relish in the ways you have already made your life what it is, relish in the aliveness of your body moving through space, moving through time.

cancer

the thing is, dear cancer, your emotions are so vast that you actually need other people to be able to feel them all. you probably know by now that you are an exquisitely energetically porous being who can sense those around you (and also their ancestors if you’re not careful). this sometimes exhausting sensitivity can also work to your advantage. with intention and consent, allow others to also become the containers that help you feel what you feel. sensitivity can work both ways, emotions can leak to share a load.

for you, sorrow is a communal labour. you’re simply not designed to do it alone. when you are mourning our planet, processing our losses and fears, feeling grief – open your little claws to those who are grieving alongside you, imagine the weight being shared across bodies. you’re not alone, don’t feel it alone.

listen to “Fond Affections” by This Mortal Coil. as you listen, tune into the Let’s all part of Let’s all sit down and cry. tears are the result of a necessary and complex drainage system in our body. the emotional and psychic drainage systems of our society are surely deeply blocked. and perhaps everyone simply sitting down and crying might do something to clear up the system. this season, i invite you to invite a long-trusted friend into a conscious crying session. this usually private act wants to be respectfully and quietly witnessed, both for you and the other. it’s okay to feel awkward, as long as it moves something.

leo

there is a deeply profound and widely expansive concentration of energy in the department of relationships for you right now. how that energy feels and how you work with it, is of course up to you. try surrender to the intensity that seems to underlie your life right, it is intense because it matters.

you know, pop astrology tends to label leo as ‘selfish’ and yet, i find one of leo’s most consistent qualities is shining light upon others. you are a steadfast observer and witnesser of those in your life. and of course, in return, you need to be witnessed. reciprocation is a natural law. leo becomes selfish when it is not being authentically and fully seen, when its natural shine is not basked in. seek those who see you. and as you do so, ask yourself what needs to be let go, for you to be fully seen…

listen to the song “Look Me in the Eye” by Austra and practice being seen, whether by familiars or strangers, plants or animals. tune into the sensation of feeling seen, are you ready to cultivate that feeling? tune into the moments where you feel not-seen. are you ready to dis-identify with that feeling? look at yourself, too. look at your own body curiously and creatively, with a child-like wonder, as though an alien was staring upon you with no expectation of what kind creature you might be. you are in the process of returning to yourself, leo. get excited.

virgo

the glorious thing about you, dear virgo, is that on the surface you seem perfectly compliant. you’re quick, low-key and seem to simply get on with it. but in a fundamental way, at your core, you are a rebel. this is the medicine you offer to the world. you give it in the most mundane of ways, and boy do we need it. we need your casual polite ‘fuck that’ like we need air.

you’re good at saying ‘no’. this season, letting saying ‘no’ be part of your beauty routine and your work-out program. you need to rest. and you rest by being weird and contrary and peculiar. as busy and demanding as aquarius season is for you, be strict about rest. something demanding and heavy that has been shaping you for the last few years is finally going out of view. wave goodbye with a grateful nod and give the finger to whoever needs it…

listen to “Get Your Fckn Laws Off My Body” by Planningtorock and dance out your ‘no’, sweat out your resistance, shout out your boundaries and limits. what needs to get off your body? as you release your ‘no’, feel a strange power come to you, feel the edges of your body as they bring you closer to your body. your body knows, your body is and has power. and we need it, we need your body – alive, rested and saying ‘no’.

libra

“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” this is a misquote from Emma Goldman, the anarchist born in 1869 in what was then the russian empire. but she essentially said as much in her autobiography where she writes about being criticized by her anarchist/activist circles for wanting to dance and enjoy herself.

this aquarius season, i want you dance and enjoy yourself. you have a fundamental understanding of pleasure’s role in social cohesion and social transformation. you’ve known this long before ‘rest as resistance’ became popular rhetoric. remember, your ways of doing pleasure may not look normative. pleasure can be solo and/or strange, it can even be what some call work. if it gives you pleasure, it gives you fuel and you need fuel to dance in the revolution.

listen to the RnB classic “Dance Tonight” by Lucy Pearl. let desire for pleasure ripple through your body. see if you can permit yourself to dance through the complexities of living in a society that equates pleasure with consumption. observe that your body actually needs very little to dance and move in joyous rhythm. you are starting a period whether you will be asked to refine and define your own values and sense of self in an increasingly unstable world. prepare for this by allowing dancing and enjoyingment to become a regular practice in resourcing yourself.

scorpio

there is a long, slow and electric sort of rooting sensation that wants to ground you this season. it’s weird and it’s personal, it’s slow and it’s fast. it’s an obvious mystery. let the obvious mysteries mutate into a kind of alien anchor. let weirdness anchor you.

you’ve always felt at home being the odd one out. although then again, you might also be questioning this. or it could be that as the world becomes stranger, you strangely see more space for yourself. either way, let yourself question some fundamental architecture of your life. letting go can also be building up. designing new ways of nesting will work to serve you, as your body might be feeling increasingly porous as well as heavy. do what you must to make your nervous system the nest you need, a place to safely to return to each night…

listen to “Going Home” by Alice Coltrane as you get home or on your way home. play it loudly or softly, play it in the dark, at night or with eyes closed. let its gradual crescendo and the spacious unapologetic warpy grandeur become a sort of secret temple into sleep. it’s okay if you find you need to sleep a lot this season. cry if you need to. the challenges and blockages that have been dominating your creative-erotic life are moving on. you’re not the same as you were three years ago. you’re older, wiser and infinitely more equipped to create what you need to with the boundaries you’ve learnt to embody. celebrate yourself quietly.

sagittarius

even though everything is a shit-show right now, there is a possibility for lightness awaiting you and that possibility lies in chit-chat and gossip. i heard somewhere that gossip is the glue that holds community together. in this way, anecdote and casual conversation becomes the ordinary stuff of divine connection and union with the whole.

indeed etymologically, the word gossip comes from the Old English ‘godsibb’, originally meaning sponsor or godparent, from ‘God’ + sibb (relative/sibling), later to include neighbors and in the 1300s it was used especially for women-friends invited to be present for a birth. in this way a child was born into the verbal net of community. this season, i want you to really understand that the divine is present when you have a lil kiki with your friends…

so let’s not make it complicated when we don’t have to. listen to “Let’s Have a Kiki” by Scissor Sisters with your friends or siblings, blast it so your neighbors can hear. pick up the phone three times a day to call them, swap stories, spill the tea, complain, scroll together, exchange memes – maybe even have a small dance together. but while you engage in this ordinary activity of just talking with friends, understand that beneath the gossip, within the chit-chat, there is seriously holy work at play. it is the mundane stuff of social togetherness, which something we need more than ever. it is the radically commonplace action of knitting people together. kiki’s keep us invested in each other, now more than ever do we need to stay invested in each other.

capricorn

i don’t know if you’re a sign that consciously thinks so much about freedom. for you, freedom may be a word too sullied by individualist notions, a concept misshapen by neoliberalism. when people say ‘freedom’ you say ‘accountability’. and yet, freedom is something so fundamental to how you sustain yourself in the world. indeed, now is the time to be contemplating how freedom not only co-exists with, but also co-creates our practices of accountability.

think about these things in relationship to your values, in relationship to nourishment and what keeps you alive. your foundations are preparing to change. it’s time to take risks, and to trust that you can take risks wisely. it’s time to be courageous, perhaps a little out of character. it’s time to ask yourself: what is behind that curtain…

listen to “Born, Never Asked” by Laurie Anderson. consider the connections between being born and being free. consider what might be behind the curtain, what is the curtain that you keep closed? when you imagine all kinds of people in a large room – who are they? what are they wearing? are they naked? the answers can be as simple as the beat of the song, or as layered as the rhythm. the questions can be as tense or as playful as the song itself. as long as the questions, the answers, or some secret third thing is nourishing you.