What would you do if you didn’t have to live up to other people’s standards — if you didn’t care what story your Instagram feed told or worry what the bosses of the world thought of you? The sun and Venus in Aquarius say it’s time to find out. Aquarius is the Zodiac’s rebel persona, the sign that reminds you that the person to impress is yourself. Aquarius is also the community creator, because when we know who we are, we find our true friends: the people whose jagged edges line up with our own.
The dark side of Aquarius is conformity — what happens when we contort ourselves into agreeable pretzels to belong. This strategy tends to backfire. People who are self-editing can be spotted from the back of a dimly lit room and often end up being escorted out. Flaunt your Aquarian streak to best effect this week by starting with what you love to do and recruiting your fellow geeks and fangirls to join you.
The moon in me-first Aries from Sunday evening through Tuesday will be broadcasting that inner voice at deafening volume. Whether your true self wants to eat fajitas and binge-watch Insecure or to save the world in a Catwoman suit, you’ll know (and want to do it now). On Friday, Mars, planet of action, enters spontaneous Sagittarius, throws petrol on the flames of your passion. Invite your people to the bonfire — it might just spread.
Aquarius
January 20 to February 18
Sometimes things are as simple as they seem. A plan doesn’t need to be researched, a crush doesn’t require internal debate, skirt vs. slacks can be an impulse call. Sometimes every choice is the best choice.
With Venus and the sun in your sign, love and joy are available for your taking, Water Bearer, — if you resist the urge to overthink. Act like a birthday kid (the non-crying kind) and grab the shiniest object like it belongs to you (it does). Go towards what makes you so excited you can’t stop talking and who makes you laugh in inappropriate situations. Another good sign is if you embarrass yourself. Usually this means you’ve showed emotion or gotten something wrong. That’s healthy! (We non-robots take those as signs of life.)
Second-guessing and playing devil’s advocate with yourself are escape routes from the real risk of putting yourself out there. And honestly, the stakes are low. Collectively, human beings are in an Aquarian mood right now, meaning we’ll be impressed by how easily you wear your originality, braininess and high ideals. Whatever sparkly piñata the planets hang over your head this week, crack that baby open.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Pisces
February 19 to March 20
How do you find connection in a disconnected world, Pisces? With so many planets in chilly Capricorn or too-cool Aquarius, many of us are living in our heads. This can be useful when dealing with practical problems, but it means intuition isn’t operating as well and the unspoken is going unheard.
Fortunately, the moon in your sign on Sunday provides a personal recharge. What you need and want are in harmony, giving you a chance to breathe and connect to your centre. Spend time during the day making your home feel more spacious or open your heart with a retreat to an outdoorsy spot that reminds you of where you come from.
While others get stuck in their logical brains, be aware of your worrying streak. On Thursday, mental Mercury aligns with paranoid Pluto, making for guarded communication with fears written between the lines. Others’ moods tend to rub off on you, so stay conscious of what’s yours and what’s not. You can use this energy positively to explore your fears with (helpful) detachment.
Connection arrives in abundance on Saturday, when the moon briefly connects with your ruler, Neptune. Compassion is a sign that you’re fully present, but avoid the temptation toward self-pity.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Aries
March 21 to April 19
At any given moment you know what you want to do and, if humanly possible, are probably already doing it. The question is: How do you find the partners-in-crime to be doing it with?
The moon in your sign at the beginning of the week has you brimming with energy and 20 projects you want to do all at once. You’re a Tasmanian devil of dishwasher repair, cake baking competitions, late-night Tinder pick-ups, impulse pool break-ins, and cute cat video re-posts. Whatever catches your interest, you will dive into it wholeheartedly, without a look to see who’s watching. Your attention to what’s in front of you is a good thing, Aries. It also means that when you want connection, you don’t always know where to look. You tend to pick friends based on who happens to be standing around when you come out of your Tasmanian devil spin. These people might be hanging around because they genuinely get your joie de vivre; a bunch, though, are aimless energy vampires, who will never, ever, ever do anything fun without your constant encouragement.
A good road test for a potential friend is throwing one of your inspirations at them to see what they do. Do they catch it and start juggling or hold onto it listlessly while their clothes burst into flame?
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Taurus
April 20 to May 20
Things are running smoothly in the friend department this week, which is a good thing if those friendships are happy — but things may feel lonely if they’re not. The moon in your sign from Wednesday to Friday has old friends checking in, wanting to share a pot of gourmet mac 'n' cheese and clink glasses of herbal tea. Long-term friendships come with a ton of side benefits, like having another person who knows that you like Moroccan mint tea but not coffee, who can fill a pause with quiet understanding, and who doesn’t demand to have your preferences spelled out. That said, old friendships can also drag along heavy baggage — and sometimes those pauses are filled with resentment, strings of hurts too dated to address and too painful to leave behind.
On Thursday, talkative Mercury’s meet-up with self-protective Pluto makes us preoccupied with whatever hurts and we'll feel disinclined to speak up. The net result is a less-than-comfortable silence that leads us into fear-based assumptions. A strong bond only deepens when we share our misgivings. Because Mercury and Pluto are in blunt Capricorn, you won’t need many words. Often, the fear is built into the secret, so that just saying it aloud gets it to move on.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Gemini
May 21 to June 20
Friends offer all kinds of benefits that lovers don’t. Even the most open-minded lover usually demands a degree of exclusivity on your time and attention, but most friends assume you have a full, complicated life and that they’re just one part of it. This is important for you, Gemini, because you are happiest when inhabiting at least two parallel lives. Your friendships reflect the variety of your interests and personas, which means you know the people to invite for a night of dancing and who to message when you just got dumped. Friends will get upset when they feel lied to, though, even if you were saying what you thought in the moment.
No one should expect you to be 100% consistent in your outlook — that would be like asking you not to be you. There are situations, though, where most sensible people would agree on a truth. This Thursday, your planetary ruler, talkative Mercury, meets up with secretive Pluto, bringing out your natural persuasiveness. It will be tempting to leave out important details in order to create the effect you want in your listener — especially if you're trying to mend some fences. A more interesting use of this energy, though, is to start Pluto-type conversations. Bring up the taboo (sex, drugs, death) and the really fascinating people will turn their heads and start spilling.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Cancer
June 21 to July 22
Before you can figure out what you want, you need a minute to muddle through your feelings. Sometimes, though, it’s easier and faster to express yourself loudly and messily, then find out how you feel from what you did. A putter-y, lazy Piscean moon on Sunday will have you leaning toward the first method, but when the moon shifts to Aries that evening, it’s your cue to change tactics: Act first, ask questions later. On Wednesday, the moon slows to a Taurean standstill — bring on the puttering! — but by Friday, your restlessness needs a physical outlet.
Because the moon is your ruling planet, you’re extra sensitive to its back and forth motion and how it swings from inner process to outer expression. With your equilibrium so subject to influence, it can be tempting to choose friends based on who makes the least fuss about your needs. Convenient friends are like the breads at the bottom of the '90s food pyramid. A person can live on bread, but most of us feel better when we eat food with some colour to it. I’m not suggesting you go gluten-free on the friend front, but take a look in your kitchen cupboards and see if you can’t find a few shiny strawberry people (or a chocolate cake person!) in there too.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Leo
July 23 to August 22
Whether or not it makes you happy, romance comes naturally to you. There’s just something about the intensity and realness of a sexual connection that gets all your cells to fly in formation. Friendship can be more complicated. Groups of friends lack that fiery, staring-into-one-another’s-eyes focus and besties easily end up competing over a crush or mutual goal.
With your ruling planet, the sun, in Aquarius, your best, most loving, generous, and authentic self wants to come out and play with its friends. Because you’re so good at romance, you can create it in groups when you choose. Friend groups are incredibly romantic when they’re collectively in love with an ideal or group project. To fall in love, the group needs to be wooed. Whether there’s a community you want to belong to, or a bunch of good people you dream of getting in the same room, court them with your dream. Project a bright and true (shared) vision for them to applaud.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Virgo
August 23 to September 22
Because usefulness matters to you, what you love to do is often tied up with what others need. This path might not fit the heroic arc of a Hollywood movie, but it can be an awesome one for you, Virgo, so long as you can develop your skills and work your brain. Meaningful service is often more fulfilling for you than going your own way. (It’s also a great way to build community.)
On Sunday, the moon opposes your sun in Pisces, putting emphasis on where and who you serve. Seek out places to be helpful where the person you’re serving truly values the assistance. This can be a confusing moment if you worry about knowing exactly what’s going on. The fact is, you don’t have all the information right now. Pay attention to the details without forming a judgment; the bigger picture will eventually come clear.
On Thursday, your ruling planet, Mercury, cosies up to secretive Pluto. If you can get past your biases to look at the uncomfortable truth, you’ll glimpse the workings of an underlying system. This system could be a political one, like racism or misogyny, a technical one, or even your own psychological workings. The cost of looking is that you’ll have to let go of some pretty illusions, but the reward is that you can also let go of a fear.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Libra
September 23 to October 22
From Sunday through Tuesday, the moon in your opposite sign has your desire to connect facing off against your need to do your own thing. As you well know, opposites can have a lot in common; find a middle ground by making a bold, personal effort on behalf of someone else. Making a friend’s goal your own is a great way to focus your energy when you’re feeling pulled in two different directions. This is one of your gifts and supportive Venus travelling so close to the motivated sun makes it even easier to see how much common ground there is between what you and others want.
Despite your preference for one-on-one time, you have the potential to thrive during Aquarius season. Collectively, we’re more aware of one another and that means that others are more likely to reciprocate the help you’ve given. It also takes away some of the pressure to do it all yourself. Instead of debating what you want to accomplish, get your besties together in one room. Once all those interesting people start talking, you can sit back, listen, and soak up the inspiration.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Scorpio
October 23 to November 21
On the inside, you know exactly who you are — an ever-evolving set of complexes, desires, and top-secret intelligence on the human species. You have the finesse to keep your true self to yourself except when you decide to bare all. The Aquarian ideal of independence is cool-kid aloofness, so you’re likely to see a lot of people acting extra detached over the next several weeks. While this way of moving through the world doesn’t make much sense from an intense Scorpio perspective, it does give you plenty of emotional privacy ( if you want it).
When your co-ruler, driven Mars, moves into flamboyant Sagittarius on Friday, what you’ve been pursuing in secret wants out. Your passion kicks into high gear and many of your hang-ups fall away, because you’re so high on doing what you love. That moment — when you’re acting for the thrill of being alive — is also, incidentally, an awesome experience to share with your friends.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Sagittarius
November 22 to December 21
People say you Sagittarians always think you’re right, but whatever. Your conviction (when it’s based in love) shines like a big, shiny beacon drawing awesome people your way. The love part is really important. You have the power to open people up or shut them down — and a lot depends on whether your god complex is the lightning-zinging kind or more of the kumbaya kind. Attract the kinds of friends who fill you up with faith by advertising your love for humanity at an inappropriately loud volume.
On Friday, passionate Mars moves into your sign, making you feel capable of anything. You may actually be as all-powerful as you feel right now. If you want to get anything done, though, choose an achievable goal. (Achievable for a mere mortal.) Other people may fail to see your superior wisdom, and you know what, why not let them? You’ve got bigger battles and adventures up ahead. Don’t get slowed down in an ego tug-o-war.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Capricorn
December 22 to January 19
The nice thing about other people’s standards is that they seem objective. Earning a degree or working your way up to manager can help shore up your own worries about self-worth. Unfortunately, Sea Goat, once you climb the mountain you’ve set yourself, that same old baggage will be waiting for you at the top. From that vantage point, you may also find that the earned status that seemed so real and solid was an illusion of perspective.
With the sun out of your sign, you have access to a broader perspective. It’s a good time to check in with what you may have missed while struggling toward your goals. Where Capricorn engineers structures to last, Aquarius changes them to better fit the people who use them. As the architect of your life, what uncomfortable standards are you holding yourself to? Do those standards reflect your deepest hopes and dreams or are you building based off someone else’s blueprints? More importantly, as you climb that mountain are you acknowledging and accompanying yourself, or treating yourself like a person to escape from? The question isn’t can you climb that mountain (we know you can), it’s do you truly want to?
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.Related Video
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