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After five weeks and a general malaise, January is behind us, and the brief, bright month of February lies ahead.
On Feb. 4, Jupiter — our planet of luck, levity, growth and gains — will go direct in Gemini after a four-month retrograde. In Gemini, Jupiter encourages curiosity and duplicity, high art and lowly gossip, illumination and inundation.
Now that the planet is moving directly, we’ll be better able to integrate the lessons of its retrograde and hopefully emerge with newfound reverence for the power of language and how our words can function as both cure and curse.
On the same day, Venus — our planet of wealth, worth and wanting — climbs out of the bathtub EDM trance of Pisces and is vitalized by the hellfire and primal passions of Aries. That shift encourages both getting it on and getting your way, a welcome respite from the inertia of the past few weeks.
A full snow moon in Leo on Feb. 12 is a summons to let your freak flag fly — and your bleeding heart sit right on your sleeve.
On Feb. 18, the sun slides from air to water, fixed to flexible when we move from space alien Aquarius to martyr/nihilist Care Bear Pisces.
Ride the wave, not the undertow, folks.
On Feb. 23, Mars — our planet of will and war, action and ambition — will turn direct in Cancer and, good gods, not a moment too soon.
If the new year has thus far felt more like slow motion than positive progress, fear not; Mars’ direct action will be a much-needed boost. Everything will still hurt, because Cancer, but it will feel less hopeless, especially when the planet moves into the regal bonfire of the vanities sign of Leo in early spring.
The month draws to a close with a new moon in Pisces on Feb. 27. This moon brings with it heightened intuition, sensitivity and creativity. Do collaging, foot soaks, salt caves, uncomfortable eye contact, past-life regressions and painting in the dark. Avoid crowds, confessions, triggering siblings and clinical environments.
Good luck out there, folks; read on to learn how February will challenge and charm your zodiac sign. Read for your sun and rising sign.
Aquarius season highlights your 11th house of community, Aries, and you may feel called to connect and collaborate, but remember that when it comes to bonds, depth bests bulk.
When Venus enters your sign on the fourth, you might find that friendship fans the fires of something hotter. You never struggle to be direct about your desires, and now, more than ever, your clarity can support your carnality.
Get it while you can, folks, because when the sun moves into Pisces, you need to suture the kind of wounds that require a steady hand, a fearless heart and the sanctity of solitude.
Ahoy, Taurus! Come Feb. 4, Venus, your ruling planet, will take up residence in Aries and bring a blowtorch to your 12th house of dreams and delusions, endings and enemies, a summons to retreat to plan a radical path forward.
To coax your imagination out of the box — or pasture, as it were — and into the ether of possibility, I offer you the sage wisdom of Sir Cecil Beaton: “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
Welcome to February, you trickster/charmers, spinner of yarns and tellers of tales.
The sun and Mercury in the cult leader climes of Aquarius highlight your ninth house of broadened horizons and spiritual homework this month, Gemini.
The ninth house is home to journeys of every kind, and with your ruling planet in the sign of the idealistic weirdo, you’re encouraged to seek the strange and the company of strangers. As Mercury is the planet of exchange and Aquarius the sign of community, it is worth noting that the medieval definition of share is “to enjoy or suffer (something) with others, to each take a portion.”
Whether it’s deep pain or glad tidings, let it be shared with those who can help you carry it and help you carry on.
Hibernate to dominate, Cancer.
With the sun shining in the dark attic of your eighth house of sex, death, and regeneration and Mars — the planet of action retrograding in your sign — the time is nigh to take a knee, a nap, and probably a bubble bath.
It is not so much that you should stop making an effort, but you should let yourself off the hook of needing to accelerate. This particular blend of star soup is a summons to slow down and go in — two directives that can’t be resolved with the urge to get ahead or run away.
Aquarius season shines a flood light on your seventh house of partnership, Leo.
Aquarius is the sign of radical independence, and Leo bears the mark, or mane, of the doomed romantic. This month calls you to question how you can feel safe and free, connected but sovereign in and through your closest connections.
Remember that autonomy can and should support intimacy and vice-versa.
On and around the full moon in your sign on Feb. 12, play your cards close and be careful what you reveal about yourself and to whom. Think of getting to know people and letting them know you as more of a strip tease than a glory hole.
Howdy, Virgo! The sun in space cowboy Aquarius highlights your sixth house of rituals and daily devotion.
While you’re out there reflecting on how you want to feel in the hours, days, weeks, months and years to come, may I humbly suggest you add more flexibility to your routine?
Without the space for surprise and a mind trained toward delight, the proverbial magic has a harder time breaking through to you.
Keep it loose but purposeful, and you’re bound to beckon the unexpected.
The full moon in Leo on the 12th hits hard and claws out in your 12th house of the unconscious mind. Make time to meditate, but don’t force profundity or be precious about location.
As the late, great filmmaker and lunar Virgo David Lynch maintained, “You don’t need a special place to meditate. You can transcend anywhere in the world. The unified field is here, and there, and everywhere.”
The sun in Aquarius turns on the carnival lights in your fifth house of pleasure, play, creation and consummation, Libra.
Remember that creativity runs the gamut from procreation to pie-baking, changing a thought pattern to changing your outfit.
In the “let freedom ring” spirit of Aquarius, I challenge you to create something new every day to delight yourself. Add sprinkles, use a new word, paint a wall, buy a sex toy, make a picnic for one, or write yourself a lipstick love letter on your front door.
In the season of Valentine’s, do all things for you, from you.
Let’s talk about the ties that bind and the apron strings that suffocate, Scorpio.
Between the sun in Aquarius highlighting your fourth house of home and ancestry and Mars — your ancient ruler spending the bulk of the month retrograding in nostalgia as masochism, care-as-control Cancer — you’ve no doubt got an eye on the past and a tether to its pains.
I spoke to a trauma therapist this week who told me the key to survival is to remember rather than relive difficult memories. Yet, the key to vitality is to fully embody fleeting moments of joy. I hope your pains feel like a distant echo and your jubilation as visceral as a brass band playing in your blood.
With the water bearer ruling the sky, your focus, or target, falls on communication and exchange, language and learning, Sagittarius.
As American luminary June Jordan tells us, “To tell the truth is to become beautiful, to begin to love yourself, value yourself. And that’s political, in its most profound way.”
In this way, and under these stars, you can become, by merit of the words you speak, not just a communicator of truth but a facilitator of change.
At the beginning of the month, Venus moves into the hellfire and hotpants sign of Aries, throwing a match on your fourth house of home, Capricorn.
This could mean it’s time to revitalize your living space, play host to your chosen family, make a bold declaration of desire, or lean into the pleasure of being warm and still in the place you call home.
On the same day, drunk-on-luck planet Jupiter goes direct in Gemini in your sixth house of rituals and routines. There, Jupiter asks you to give instructional language to your dreams and a steady voice to your needs and nonnegotiables.
In her illustrated children’s book for anger management, “Anger is a Storm,” Lauren Martin writes, “Setting a boundary means protecting your joy and well-being by telling someone to stop harmful behavior. Practice setting a boundary, try saying: ‘I can’t let you X. I need Y.’”
You’re well versed at the “can’t let you,” Capricorn, less so with the “I need.” No time like the present to practice.
Happy return of the sun to you, Aquarius! The sun will shine in your sign, where it will be joined by Pluto and Mercury for most of the month.
All of this energy is concentrated in your first house of self, identity and perception. This holy trinity of expression (Mercury), trajectory (sun) and regeneration (Pluto) suggests that now is the hour for rebranding and rebirthing.
Consider how the ways you express passion and hold power can light the match of possibility for others.
The full moon in the lion heart of Leo activates your seventh house of partnerships. It can be easier for you to disengage than stand and deliver, but this lunation calls for absolute honesty.
Remember, vagueness is its own kind of cruelty — and lukewarm can, in fact, be ice cold.
The sun in Aquarius highlights your 12th house of endings and intuition, Pisces, making the first few weeks of February a fine time to commune with your respected dead and cut ties with the living that make life a bore or a bother.
You live with most of your faculties adrift in the land of dreams, but now, more than ever, the messages you receive from beyond the veil and the land of nod can come through with astounding clarity and the power to become the bedrock on which you build.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the star
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.
