Usually, astrology includes talking a lot more about what's happening in the sky. But I'm interested in freedom and love more than I am in astrology, so when I'm trying to decide what to write, usually it's whatever I can think of that includes thought experiments which lead as directly as possible to more freedom and more love.
Astrology is one tool that helps me and others get more intimate with the freedom and love that's already there, here, right now. But astrology can't tell you how to align with your own integrity, or what job to do, or who to date. Astrology readings, and horoscopes to a much lesser extent, can provide the experience of being seen, on a spirit level. The healing in this cannot be underestimated - to be seen not for our accomplishments or lack, or any other external signifier, but as being itself. When we are reflected in this deeper way, and when we develop names for our patterns, we immediately begin to heal ourselves.
Byron Katie, whose work I've been revisiting and cherishing again, says she has no doubt in people's capacity to understand the truth themselves. So the power of her work, in essence, is that she sits there knowing that the person will come to their own wisdom, inviting them to do so. Sometimes it seems that if we admit this is what healers are doing we will put ourselves out of a job, but this is the way it works in my experience and this does not diminish the importance of the role. It's actually fully acknowledging the power of seeing and trusting in another's process! (I pay and ask people to do this for me all the time, because I can't do what I do for other people for myself.) I'm skeptical of anyone who says, "I heal others." I'm excited by anyone who says, "I'm here to trust in your ability to heal yourself, and remind you of it."
Often when I sit to write these horoscopes, I don't want to say anything at all. I want to create a space for you to come back home to yourself, for these few moments while I have your attention, full of quiet, full of stillness, for you to remember what you already know, for you to give yourself your full attention. The truth usually feels like this - something we'd forgotten but knew all along. We just sometimes don't make enough space to remember, and this is the invitation from healers - that you - even you - can remember how to do this. You've always known and just forgotten. It's available to you right now, in the silence you give yourself, the few moments where you put down your device, breathe, and say yes to yourself, to your own nature, which is also the nature all around you. You don't need to know what is in retrograde. (You actually don't even need to put down your device!) You don't need to know anything but what you already have available.
You can rest in the home inside yourself, right now.
ARIES | March 21-April 19
Question - When do you douse yourself in water, when do you put your body in water?
Meditation - water.
Assignment - Get in the water, let the water wash it all off. Sometimes the water can help slow down your burn a bit, to remind you to float more, to not burn out, to not burn up. Float, and look up, and relax. Consider your feelings, and receive, as water element does. Practice floating as a way of taking a break from initiating everything.
TAURUS | April 20-May 20
Question - What topics dominate your thinking?
Meditation - spaciousness.
Assignment - Make a list of what you think about most. Is it what you want to be thinking about? What would you like to think about more, if there was more available free space? Make a list of that - what you'd like to be thinking about more. Look at that list when you feel down, and try to practice thinking about those things!
GEMINI | May 21-June 20
Question - What actually connects you to others?
Meditation - connection under the surface.
Assignment - There's a relationship between the time you are spending and your connections. If you are feeling disconnected, look at the amount of time you are spending on connecting. What does connecting actually look like for you? What feels disconnecting? What are you spending your time doing, and how does that reflect in how you feel about your life? Write about this. Spend time with it, in a generous way.
CANCER | June 21-July 22
Question - How is this new year of your life going so far?
Meditation - the moment is what's available.
Assignment - Did you make any plans about this coming year? Did you set goals? Does it feel different to be this new age? The way we make the changes that we want is in the moment. When your mind goes to the future and the past, bring it back to right here. How can you bring in the new things you are wanting, the spirit of them, to the here and now, with what you already have? Give yourself the relief of remembering that the present is all you have.
LEO | July 23-August 22
Question - What do you want for this coming year?
Meditation - ritual
Assignment - Ritualize your birthday. Create a form for a change you want to enact, invite your friends, say it out loud. Give yourself permission to set intentions to change what you want to! Don't do it half way - let it take up time and space in your life to mark this time and create. Don't isolate yourself - invite people to share it with you. Come down from your tower and include your loved ones so that they can welcome you back to yourself.
VIRGO | August 23-September 22
Question - When do you let yourself eat what you want?
Meditation - a rainbow of color.
Assignment - Eat the rainbow of foods this week. Continuing in Leo season, let yourself go a little bigger than you're used to. Go to the store and pick foods that feel good to your body, that feel enlivening. Choose foods that include lots of different colors. Do this because nourishing your body is the most practical thing you can do to prolong your life. Let there be pleasure in the simple magic of plants as food.
LIBRA | September 23-October 23
Question - How often do you see and engage with art?
Meditation - the humanity of art
Assignment - I want you to contact art this week, to experience it in some way, to let it affect you. To remind you of the messiness of human life, that this is a big part of its beauty. That it's necessary to live, to engage with and reflect on what we are doing here. That this is a powerful thing that art can do, and connect us to. It can remind you about the importance of tension and conflict - most good art has some of that within it! And it makes the entire piece stronger because of it.
SCORPIO | October 23-November 21
Question - What do you notice growing in your life?
Meditation - growth as a process of nature.
Assignment - Don't get caught up in ideas of growth that feel like effort, or what you have to do or say to be a good person - just take notice of what Is growing in your life. Where is your attention lately and what does that mean about what you are helping to grow? What is growing without your attention? What might grow better without as much of your attention? What plant life do you have around on a regular basis, to commune with growth itself?
SAGITTARIUS | November 22-December 21
Question - When and where do you find big sky in your life?
Meditation - perspective!
Assignment - Get to a space where you can see more - hopefully literally but also metaphorically - whatever that means to you. This is your comfort space, when you have a lot of room to see and experience it all, so give this to yourself in a pro-active way this week. Give yourself room for looking broadly. Up high, look out far away, so you can get that perspective you thrive on.
CAPRICORN | December 22-January 19
Question - Who all do you communicate with in a week?
Meditation - divine communications
Assignment - What communications in your life are obligatory? Which ones feel effortless? How many people do you communicate with at any given time? How often do you say what you really think in those interactions? What communications are you receiving? How is the balance between what you receive and what you offer? Does any of your communication happen with the mysterious or unseen, divine? Write about all of this. See what you notice. Investigate your communications this week.
AQUARIUS | January 20 to February 18
Question - When and how do you care for your skin?
Meditation - where you meet the world
Assignment - So much of how we think about skin is staving off the inevitable process of aging, but what if we remembered that it's where and how we meet the world with our bodies? What if we respected it with this remembering? Caring for your skin could be another way of thinking about what influences you can control that you are subject to. What people, places, environments feel good for your skin? Which ones don't feel good? Just notice your skin this week, and what is happening with it. Let it be a way to return to your body, a surface organ that brings you back to yourself.
PISCES | February 19 to March 20
Question - What supports you?
Meditation - seeing your supports.
Assignment -. Make a list of what supports you. Reread it and add to it. How are you already supported. What are you sitting in / standing on right now? What air are you breathing? What food are you eating? Who are you communicating with? Who is influencing you? Who built the pipes which bring water to your house? Who made the tires on your car, or bike, or bus? Who ate the food while you were in their womb to allow you to grow into the living being that you are right now? All of these are just a few ideas of where support might be coming from, to name a few. The list is endless, even if it feels like you are lacking support right now. This is why it's so important to write them down. Not to be a 'good person' and 'grateful', but because it's a more accurate picture of the truth of the situation. And the more in accordance with reality we are, the more peace we feel.