This week begins with a new moon in Gemini on the morning of 30th May, which makes a challenging aspect to the asteroid Juno in Pisces. Juno in Pisces is a dreamer; she believes another world is possible and she wants to co-create that world with partners whose imaginations are as powerful as hers. The moon in Gemini loves a good story, but she prefers an equal mix of fantasy and facts, especially when it comes to planning for the future. While those two push and pull against each other, Mercury (Gemini’s ruler) makes a square aspect to Saturn in Aquarius, echoing themes of misunderstanding. Mercury’s retrograde status highlights the need for renegotiations and prompts us to examine how we resist coalition when it is most necessary.
Meanwhile, Mars moves alongside Jupiter (Juno’s Partner) in the sky, a combined force that is fiery and forceful in Aries. The fire that burns at the heart of this transit is like all fires: both vital and violent. The elements play a part in how things spread out. What happens under such a transit may appear outside the purview of the airy moon and her conversation with watery Juno but, rest assured, all things are not-so-delicately interconnected.
Aries Sun & Aries Rising
Surely, Mars under your stars has put a little pep in your step. At home in Aries, Mars learns as he goes, acting now and letting the cards fall where they may. Alongside Jupiter, who by all accounts is a betting man, the cards fall farther and faster. For some Aries people, this is a story about going big or going home, and few of you are ready to go home quite yet. That said, I’d be remiss not to remind you that the limit of what you can achieve does not exist, but the limits of your material resources are very real and often inconvenient. Don’t let the magic energy of a Gemini moon spellbind you with her sweet talking and her even sweeter deals. Dream big all you want but don’t write checks that your booty can’t cash.ILLUSTRATION BY BARBARIANFLOWER
Taurus Sun & Taurus Rising
There’s something about Venus in her rightful place under your sign, something about a goddess that knows what she wants and how to invite it in. In Taurus, Venus is practical and resplendent in turns, diligently attending to all that she loves so that she can relish the fruits of that labour and her sense of accomplishment. While Venus under your stars moves slowly, she’s no slouch. A lilac bush needs to be pruned properly so that its blooms return bigger and brighter. Venus in Taurus is fragrant with attention, she knows that beauty is work. Under her influence you may find yourself drawn to making small purposeful adjustments to the way you present yourself to the world. This can be as affirming as a haircut, as involved as a CV, and as personal as a name change. Just make sure to triple check the paper trail — Mercury is retrograde in Taurus after all.
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Gemini Sun & Gemini Rising
With the new moon winking under your sign, and the Sun lending you his vitality, even a Mercury retrograde can’t cast a shadow on your stars. Of course, said Mercury retrograde transits Taurus and might have you feeling like something is amiss, something you can’t quite put your finger on. The square it makes to Saturn on the third can heighten that feeling, especially if there are classes or projects to wrap up. While it’s never a bad idea to make a list and check it twice, you should try your best to not let doubt creep its way into your good time. It’s okay to move toward what makes you feel more like yourself, to devote your heartfelt energy toward life-affirming activities — even if those activities involve taking a break from what you think you owe the world. No matter what you owe others, you owe yourself a whole lot more.
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Cancer Sun & Cancer Rising
The world around you and its incessant cruelties, might have you feeling small these days, Cancer. But would you believe that the cosmos is daring you to dream bigger than you feel? The new moon in Gemini invites you into her imagination incubator, stacking the deck with new possibilities. To sweeten the deal and light a fire under you, Jupiter’s conjunction to Aries encourages ambition, especially when it comes to building the life you want. Of course, ambition is not a quality that’s easy to cultivate. Ambition, for many people, can be a transgressive act, especially when ambition is towards liberation. The world does a good job of managing our ambitions and making sure they don’t carry us beyond the bounds of what we’re expected to aspire to. Notice what distracts you from your ambition. How often do you reinforce that tether?
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Leo Sun & Leo Rising
Lots of people love to riff on of Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, but there’s no denying that the text and others like it have steadily made a cultural impact on our understanding of the body’s functions and dysfunctions as related to traumatic episodes in one’s life. While some might find it illuminating, many others find the revelation of such connection to be overwhelming. What is to be done, after all, with the body’s memory — its archive of scoreboards from high-stakes games long past. The archivist wants to give everything a place and a meaning. The ascetic wants to relinquish anything that burdens them. The body has its own wants, which unfold at their own pace and the body is wiser than we can know. This week, let your body be your teacher. If pain visits, resist the roles that make you feel invulnerable. Aren’t you curious who you are without them?
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Virgo Sun & Virgo Rising
Mercury has a bit of work to do in Taurus before that wily planet stations direct on 3rd June and makes their way back to where you’re sure to appreciate it — pushing business and all the communication that business entails forward. What kind of work? Well, mostly it’s the kind of work that shifts the temperature degree by degree, that changes you long before you see any material change. It’s the kind of work that’s born of patience and some of those other virtues, too — diligence and kindness, for instance, and temperance if you got it. Truth is, anticipating the end of Mercury retrograde might suit your mood but it won’t do much else for you. The same can be said for any circumstantial setbacks you’ve been facing. If there’s a way to attend to impediments creatively, do that. If there’s some control that’s wiggling free from your fist, let it.
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Libra Sun & Libra Rising
When Mars is conjunct Jupiter in Aries and Venus shines resplendent in her Taurean home, it’s safe to say — as Leonard Cohen wrote it — “God is alive, magic is afoot.” And, it’s also right to sing back — as Buffy Sainte Marie changed it — Goddess is alive, magic is afoot. This divine influence (however you relate to it) is really all around you and it’s working on you whether or not you’ve opened yourself up to it willingly. The new moon in Gemini on the 30th helps you acknowledge some of the ways your perspective has changed in the past year; it prompts you to recognise your progress and apply what you’ve learned to the challenges that await you. Simply put, you are not who you once were and who you’re becoming is still in the works. It’s the perfect time to take a leap of faith — especially a leap of love.ILLUSTRATION BY BARBARIANFLOWER
Scorpio Sun & Scorpio Rising
Sweet Scorpio, June arrives again, and Taurus season is over save for the planets that remain under the bull’s stars and invite you to engage with them. You could, if you wanted to, you know, go on a date or a friendship getaway. While the lunar nodes stay where they are, promising echoes of eclipses past and oncoming, the wheel of the season turns and lets the pressure burst out. Meanwhile, Mars conjunct Aries in Jupiter might have you pushing yourself to the limit trying to do it all. The new moon in Gemini on the 30th likes a bit of play, a change of scenery. And she’s no dumdum! She knows that a holiday filled with work is no holiday at all, no matter what the view. Better to set your limit than to crash into it the hard way.
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Sagittarius Sun & Sagittarius Rising
Maybe it’s already occurred to you, but this week it keeps coming on. Like a lightbulb flashing in an old familiar hallway, casting a new light on old surfaces. You can do it differently this time. You can begin again, even if you’re nowhere near where you were hoping you’d be by now, even if the only thing that’s changed is you. But, probably, that isn’t so. Probably, Pluto’s transit through Capricorn has taught you a great deal about having and losing, about transforming something fleeting into something sustained — even if nothing is forever. Now Mars and Jupiter move through Aries, nipping at your heels and daring you to move faster, aim higher, and bet on yourself even if the odds have always been against you. The odds are always changing, after all. And, if you have a good accomplice, the good odds multiply. ILLUSTRATION BY BARBARIANFLOWER
Capricorn Sun & Capricorn Rising
It’s an unfortunate truth that you can’t always be yourself. Or, you can always be yourself, but not everyone will see you as you hope to be seen — not everyone will have the intuition and the range. Probably, that’s a good thing. Like Capricorn astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo likes to remind us: “rejection is protection.” Even if it doesn’t feel good at first, even if it means having difficult conversations, or skipping the conversations altogether and choosing the joy of missing out. It’s better that some people don’t waste their time lest they wind up wasting yours. This week charges you to go back to the drawing board and put your needs at the top of the list. Some compromises are par for the course, but you get to choose where you bend and where you won’t.ILLUSTRATION BY BARBARIANFLOWER
Aquarius Sun & Aquarius Rising
Have you read that poem about a woman crying in the bathroom? It’s a well-loved Kim Addonizio poem that begins in a stall and ranges into various iterations of moody heartache before it ends with a generous return: “if you think nothing & no one can / listen I love you joy is coming.” It’s a poetry crime to give you the last line before you might have read the ones before but, like Addonizio, I feel for you and my will is good. It’s a heavy time for many fixed signs out there, and if the cosmos has found its complicated way into the very home of your heart, you’re not alone. The answer, it may seem, is to stay strong, to be the one who rescues yourself and the one who follows quietly behind, afraid to ask for more — both Orpheus and Eurydice at once. But, if you want to set aside the myth — of strength and of closure — you may catch the beginning of a new thread, a joy that was always coming.
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Pisces Sun & Pisces Rising
The sign of Pisces has a lot of associations. Your lot loves to make connections almost as much as it loves to let those connections linger as you weave an ever expanding web of relations. Traditionally, your sign is ruled by Jupiter, who spent time under your stars earlier this year before shifting into fiery Aries. You may find that Jupiter’s sojourn under Aries is auspicious for you, ushering in a period of rapid-fire next steps made with unprecedented certainty. Modern astrologers place you under Neptune’s rule, and perhaps this explains the shift in your communications this week, when Neptune makes a sextile to Mercury Rx in Taurus. Perhaps you’re finding it easier to explain yourself. Or you’re finding you don’t need to explain yourself at all. Perhaps the new moon (your Tarot association) in Gemini has been moving forward with the clean understanding that *ahem* the girls that get it, get it, and the ones that don’t, don’t.
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