Toni Morrison, an Aquarius.
Photo illustration: by Preeti Kinha; Photos Getty
Love planet Venus enters unconventional Aquarius on Thursday. This is an opportunity to re-evaluate what you need in your close relationships: if conventional expressions of love don’t work, then say so. If regular visions of love leave you cold, you can look for something new, something brighter, more honest, and more free.
Venus entering Aquarius also means there will be the next two weeks in total five planets in Aquarius (and next week the moon will join in for a few days too). Although the sign of Aquarius is so full of activity, you can expect 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 into the wild possibilities of the future.
It’s very easy to focus all your attention on the gap between the world as it exists and the world as it should be, the gap between what you have received and what you deserve. It’s crazy to have this kind of clarity, crazy to feel haunted by an unrealized vision. But you hold on to this clarity, when you dream bigger than you are entitled to, then the magic begins. That’s when the world around you starts to change – to glitter with real, honest possibilities.
Lately, you have been asked to adapt to far too many changes, and do so far too quickly. You have been asked to reinvent your entire worldview over and over again. While surprises sometimes bring sweetness, sometimes they just bring work. So this week, instead of constantly building new structures, it’s okay to use the existing ones. You don’t have to start all over to move on – just pick up where you are.
This week you will find yourself getting so tired of all this heaviness, severity and pain. Eventually things will light up again – the world will be happy, sweet, even fun – but lately it’s been hard to see beyond the present. However, this week you can get a glimpse of the world as it should be, the world you are working towards. This week, just on the horizon, you can see all the good you have ever dreamed of. It’s happening so slowly, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
This week you may just feel dissatisfied – frustrated with the slow progress you’ve made on your projects, or the state of your relationships, or the uneven shape of your life. But feelings of dissatisfaction can actually be very helpful. Dissatisfaction isn’t necessarily a sign that you need to rush to change your life. Right now it can function as a signpost, a clue, a map: it can show you what you really want, in which direction to move. Just watch your desires – for yourself and for the world – and let them guide you.
This week, you may feel surprisingly reluctant to be in the spotlight, surprisingly afraid of being watched too closely or too much. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to isolation or boredom to give up your need for human connection. It just means that you can free yourself, at least for now, from your obligation to perform for others, to be a hero, a role model, a star. This week it is more fulfilling to be one of the many, to be part of a joyful collective.
Magic awaits you, sweets are on the way, and this week your job is to make sure your frustration and resentment don’t eat you alive before the good things have time to get here. While it is possible to run on anger alone in an emergency, that anger will eventually burn right through you. So this week offer yourself gentleness and rest if you can. Protecting your heart is not a secondary task – the world is so full of deprivation, isolation, anger – but in the end, you didn’t do it for nothing.
This week you may feel your strength being tested, your strength being challenged. This is a good thing, although it may not sound like it. It’s an opportunity to stretch your legs, an opportunity to use your muscles, an opportunity to be reminded that you are capable and wise. If you take on this week’s challenges, you will be rewarded for it. All the energy you spend is doubled back to you. You can rely on your own magic; you have had enough. And just in case you’ve forgotten, in case you start to doubt yourself, this week will put your mind at ease.
This week you may feel a strong desire to reaffirm yourself – to prove that you are still strange, still brilliant, still here. It’s not that you’re hungry for recognition, just that in this long season of loss, you need confirmation that at least you haven’t lost yourself. So this week it might be helpful to make some noise to remind yourself that your throat is still working. It can be helpful to call up your friends to remind yourself that they can still see you. Invisibility has its uses, but sometimes it’s better to be loud and unmistakable.
You’ve been feeling so much fear lately that you just aren’t doing enough – not enough for the world, not enough for the people you love, and not even enough to survive in your own life. In times of massive change, it is hard not to fear that you should have lived better. It’s hard not to worry about making the wrong choice when choosing skills and experiences. But this week can reassure you that you did well, that you followed your own path. You don’t have to know everything; the wisdom and resources you have gathered are enough to help you along.
This week the simple truth is that there is no way to give real care if you don’t want to receive it. There is no way to protect your loved ones if you are not willing to let them protect you too. Sometimes it’s tempting to believe that you can distinguish yourself from everything – that you can retreat behind walls, retreat to the mountains, retreat to a tower where no one can find you. But this week, love is asking you to show yourself. It asks you to leave your isolation, if only for a moment, and seek reciprocity instead.
This week will remind you that your possibilities have not dried up after all, that your energy has not failed you, that the future you dream of is not excluded. The challenge is that the real possibility demands it a lot of yours. Hopelessness is, if not easy, at least predictable. However, the opportunity requires that you show up, that you participate, 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. This week, choose action over stagnation as much as you can; you will be rewarded for doing so.
Typically you are not someone who needs to know exactly what the future will bring: you feel comfortable with the changeability and movement of the world. But lately you have an urgent need for a little assurance, an urgent need for reassurance that there is at least will be a future for you. This week, while you may not feel the total clarity you are looking for, there are some things you can do be sure that your heart is good and the world desperately needs you. It’s not much, but it’s true.
Read the weekly horoscopes for the week of January 25. The weekly horoscopes for the week of February 8th will be online next Sunday.
Buy Claire Comstock-Gay’s book, Madame Clairevoyant’s Guide to the Stars, out now.