Toni Morrison, an Aquarius.
Photo illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos Getty
On Thursday, the love planet Venus enters the unconventional Aquarius. This is an opportunity to evaluate what you need from your close relationships: If conventional expressions of love do not work, you can say so. If main visions of love leave you cold, you can look for something new, something brighter and fairer and freer.
Venus entering Aquarius also means that for the next two weeks a total of five planets in Aquarius (and next week the moon will also join for a few days). Although the sign of Aquarius is so dense with activity, you should expect the Aquarius themes of idealism and independence to assert themselves in your life. Expect your attention to move away from the limitations of the past and to the wild possibilities of the future.
It is very easy to draw your attention to the gap between the world as it exists and the world as it should be, the gap between what you have been given and what you deserve. It’s crazy to have this kind of clarity, crazy to feel like it’s haunted by an unrealized vision. But you hold on to this clarity, if you dream bigger than you are entitled to, the magic begins. This is when the world around you begins to shift – to shine with true, honest possibility.
Lately you have been asked to adapt to far too much change and to do it too fast. You have been asked to rethink your whole worldview. Although sometimes surprises bring sweetness, sometimes they just bring work. So it is good to use the structures that already exist this week, rather than continue to build new structures. You do not have to start from scratch to move forward – you can just move from where you are.
This week you might get so tired of all this heaviness and seriousness and pain. Eventually things will get light again – the world will be cheerful, sweet, even delicious – but lately it has been difficult to see the present. This week, however, you can take a look at the world as it belongs, the world you are working towards. This week, just on the horizon, you can see all the goodness you have ever dreamed of. It happens so slowly, but that does not mean it does not happen.
This week you may just feel dissatisfied – frustrated with the slow progress you have made with your projects, with the state of your relationships or with the uneven shape of your life. But feelings of dissatisfaction can actually be very helpful. Dissatisfaction is not necessarily a sign that you need to change your life. At the moment, it can function like a guideline, a clue, a map: it can show you what you really want, in which direction you need to move. Just pay attention to your desires – for yourself and for the world – and let them guide you.
This week you may feel surprisingly reluctant to stand under the spotlight, surprisingly anxious to be watched too closely or too much. Fortunately, this does not mean that you have to isolate yourself in isolation or boredom to give up your need for human connection. All it means is that you can free yourself, at least for the time being, from your obligation to act for others, to be a hero, a role model, a star. There is a greater satisfaction this week to be one person among many, part of a joyful collective.
Magic awaits you, there is sweetness on the way, and this week your task is to make sure that your frustration and resentment do not eat you alive until the good things have time to come here. Although it is possible in emergencies to run alone on anger, the anger will eventually burn through you. So offer this week softness and rest whenever you can. Protecting your heart is no small task – the world is so full of hardship, isolation, anger – but in the end you will not have done it for nothing.
This week you can feel your strengths being tested, your strength challenged. That’s a good thing, though it may not sound like it. It’s a chance to stretch your legs, a chance to use your muscles, a chance to remind yourself that you’re capable and wise. If you tackle this week’s challenges, you’ll be rewarded for it. Any energy you put out will double back on you. You can rely on your own magic; you have a lot of it. And if you forgot, you will be reassured this week if you begin to doubt yourself.
This week, you may feel a strong desire to restore yourself – to prove that you’re still weird, still brilliant, still here. It’s not because you are hungry for recognition, but just that in this long season of loss you need confirmation that you have at least not lost yourself. So it might be helpful to make a little noise this week and remind yourself that your throat is still working. It can be helpful to appeal to your friends and remind them that they can still see you. Invisibility has its uses, but sometimes it’s better to be hard, undeniably present.
You have been feeling so anxious lately that you just are not doing enough – not enough for the world, not enough for the people you love, and not even enough to stay afloat in your own life. . In times of large-scale change, it’s hard not to fear that you should have lived better. It’s hard not to worry that you made the wrong choice when choosing your skills and experiences. But this week you can rest assured that you did the right thing, that you followed your own path. You do not have to know everything; the wisdom and tools you have gathered are enough to carry you further.
The simple truth is this week that there is no way to truly care if you are not willing to receive it either. There is no way to protect those you love if you do not want to let them protect you too. Sometimes it’s tempting to believe that you can love yourself to everything – that you can retreat behind walls, to retreat to the mountains, you can retreat to a tower where no one can find you. But this week, love asks you to show yourself. It asks you to leave your isolation, even if only for a moment, and rather seek reciprocity.
This week you will be reminded that your possibilities have not yet dried up, that your energy has not given up on you, that the future you dream of is not ruled out. The challenge is that the real possibility demands it much of you. Hopelessness is, if not easy, at least predictable. However, possibility requires that you show up, that you get involved, that you open up your life to other people. It requires conflict and decisions. It asks you not to save your ideas, but to use them. Choose this week, as much as you can, action over stasis; you will be rewarded for it if you do.
You are usually not someone who needs to know exactly what the future holds: you feel comfortable with the world’s variability and movement. Lately, though, you needed a little bit of certainty, and you had to make sure it was at least there. shall be a future for you. This week, although you may not have the total clarity you are looking for, there are a few things you can do be sure of: that your heart is good and that the world needs you very much. It’s not much, but it’s true.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of January 25 weekly horoscopes for the week of February 8 will be online next Sunday.
Get the book by Claire Comstock-Gay, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, now out.