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Your Horoscope This Week: January 2nd To January 8th, 2022

The first week of January starts out in earnest with a new moon in Capricorn on 2nd January. The energy is ambitious if not a little bit overzealous, what with Mars still transiting Sagittarius and applying a square to Neptune in Pisces. If ever there was a moon that urged her guests to read the room, this one is it. And, if the room in question is the court of Capricorn, then the room is crowded and deeply uncomfortable – despite Mercury’s departure toward the stars of Aquarius. Perhaps because the planets know that the shadow of Mercury retrograde promises that the departure will be a short one. Perhaps the heat of whatever Venus retrograde has set into motion has some of us wondering if it’s even possible to get out of the kitchen. Or, metaphors aside, perhaps the heartbreak of beginning yet another year subject to a surging virus and a government that offers no true recourse feels spiritually untenable and morally deflating — even for those of us who have always lacked faith in government leaders, even for those of us who strive to be ungovernable. If the cosmos offers us moments of hope, or at least ingenuity, it comes in the form of a trine between inquisitive Mercury in Aquarius and a well-connected true node in Gemini. Although, with a square between Jupiter in Pisces and true node in Gemini hours later, we’re reminded that the distance between what we hope for and what’s possible isn’t always easy to ascertain, and falling is always a possibility. It might be true that there’s no reward without risk, but it’s also true that not all rewards are worth the risk, and not all risks result in a reward. So, it’s important to evaluate the stakes, to recognise the difference between moral strength and stubbornness, between creativity and arrogance. There’s an echo of these sentiments throughout the week that begins with a sextile between Venus Rx in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces on the 5th,  followed by a conjunction between the Sun and Venus Rx in Capricorn on the 8th.

Aries Sun & Aries Rising

There’s something about writing our New Year’s resolutions (or collecting them privately in our minds like vows to ourselves) that feels not unlike the permission to be a child again. To imagine who you will become in fantastical detail: an Egyptologist! A veterinarian! An Olympian! As the years go by, some possibilities seem foreclosed, while others open before us — because we become more of ourselves, because we walk down a path long enough to recognise where it is and isn’t taking us. The truth is, the child in you still wants to believe that anything is possible, that you can make a right turn onto a grand adventure, and the truth is, that child is right. Consider, Aries, what tools and resources you might need to prepare for the child within you to choose the way?ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Taurus Sun & Taurus Rising

Have you ever tried to intentionally subtract the word “should” from your vocabulary? Could you imagine going a week without it? It sounds easy enough, on the surface, but we both know that you are person who does things right or not at all, so if you were to try it – you’d have to subtract the “ought to” and all the condemning adjectives you save for yourself when you don’t do what is you think is right. What do you think lies on the other side of rigid expectation? What do you think governs your strength of spirit when the authority within you is given leave? Imagine there are no shoulds, no perfect solutions, no agreed upon course of action. All you can do is meet the world where it’s at, let it show you where you’re at, even if it’s a difficult place to be.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Gemini Sun & Gemini Rising

There’s something about Mercury shifting under the stars of Aquarius that can feel like an opening for you, even if Aquarius is a fixed sign. Aquarius knows that life has to be lived before we can know what it is – and even then we only know what we’ve lived. There’s a sense of possibility in that kind of approach, a strong curiosity about this thing called life and where it leads us when we least expect it. It’s okay, Gemini, if it’s not an opening that feels easy for you, even if it feels right. It’s okay to find yourself floundering a little when the pressure is off. Most people have been trained to wait, to live inside of potential energy. To be kinetic, to move first, to change positions is an act of faith – in your ability to change your place without losing yourself.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Cancer Sun & Cancer Rising

“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.” wrote bell hooks, “Healing is an act of communion.” But, it’s also true that isolation is not the same thing as solitude. Community, relationship, is something we build with others. We build it around ourselves and within ourselves so that when we’re apart from each other, when we take time away, we carry love like an eternal flame. All paths toward healing are paths toward intimacy, even solitary ones, even spiritual ones. It’s a beautiful thing to choose solitude, to step away so that you might spend time with the fire that’s been fed within you. It’s not the same thing to choose isolation, to reject that which tethers you to others, to imagine that you have built that fire on your own. ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Leo Sun & Leo Rising

Philosophers and poets alike have lived through pain long enough to call pain their teacher. But it’s one thing to take your seat in pain’s classroom and another to learn your lessons. If pain is a teacher then pain has a pedagogy, an art that relies on the student for feedback, for efficacy. Are you capable, dear Leo, of recognising the many ways that pain has been your teacher in the past year? And can you reflect, with humbleness, on the moments when you refused to be a student and what remained unanswered – like a workbook full of material you didn’t know how to be present for? And, because you are here, because every day that you’re here you return to the classroom, can you recognise your own rigor and apply it to your doubts? ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Virgo Sun & Virgo Rising

Everyone knows that anyone who claims a new year ushers in a new you is lying. A person is never one thing and then another, a person is neither a new nor old version of who they are. We are always changing and we are always ourselves. Besides, a date is just a number that follows you wherever it is you’re going. You have free will and so long as you do, whether it’s a month or a year, everywhere you look – there you are. It’s the act of being alive that transforms us, it’s our relationships to others that transform our relationship to ourselves. And it’s your acceptance of who you are at this moment: your ambitions, your longings, your beliefs, that will alter what you call home, help re-negotiate your commitments, and reimagine your relationships.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Libra Sun & Libra Rising

Libra isn’t one for waiting around until something happens. A cardinal sign with an independent streak, Libra loves to set things in motion for the sake of the collective – even if they’ve got to do it alone. Of course, most Libras would prefer some company or, at least, a witness. Someone to remind them that setting things in motion isn’t always the answer. Someone to remind them that stillness and acceptance is also a kind of forward movement. Let this horoscope act as that someone for you, dear Libra, if you do not have someone close. And, if you reject the reminder, if you’re feeling keen, remember this: What flies from you has a life beyond your control.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Scorpio Sun & Scorpio Rising

As Jupiter settles into his Piscean home, you might find your desire for pleasure expanding. Pleasure, here, is erotic but in the most expansive way possible; the erotic as (Piscean) Audre Lorde spoke of in Uses of the Erotic when she wrote, “The very word erotic comes from the Greek word eros, the personification of love in all its aspects – born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony. When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.” To distract this desire with material things is to keep it small. Surely, that’s not all that you’re after.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Sagittarius Sun & Sagittarius Rising

There’s something about this time of year that can have you relying on coping mechanisms you learned when the world felt too large and you felt small. Something about post-festive season fatigue and the despair (material and existential) of COVID’s ongoingness that might have you running on empty. Rest is easy enough to suggest, but not everyone knows how to rest, how to unplug in ways that give heavy feelings room to rise to the surface. So maybe, rest is a thing one must rise to rather than lie down. Maybe it’s time you made a plan, Sagittarius, and packed a bag with all the emotional tools you’ve got, so that when those emotions rise, you rise to meet them.
ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Capricorn Sun & Capricorn Rising

It might be a little intimidating to look out into the cosmos and know that so many planetary bodies are roaming under your stars, getting up to good and no good depending on where the terrain takes them. But, what is a trip of goats to a Capricorn but a herding challenge? What better time to place one hoof in front of the other than under the auspices of a new moon in your sign? So what if the moon is in cahoots with Uranus, destabiliser extraordinaire? What, to a sure-footed goat, is a loose rock or two but a creative prompt? Yes, there are wounds that need tending to; yes, you are running low on provisions. So rest when you need to and don’t give up out of self-doubt – you’ve gotten farther working with less. ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Aquarius Sun & Aquarius Rising

Some signs revel in their season, enjoying the Sun nearby, and maybe you are one of those. More likely, Capricorn is a heavy time for you. More likely, you find yourself both restless and exhausted, your spirit ringing an alarm you can’t seem to turn off on your own. A fixed sign with a penchant for prophecy, it’s not the alarm that surprises you. So what is it that keeps you in this anxious loop? In the 12th house, Capricorn faces both imprisonment and fulfillment: Could it be that your intuition, your own brand of magic, requires a different kind of work from you? Or, perhaps, a different accomplice? In the 12th house, Capricorn must rely on others, on reception. Who can you trust with your dreams, Aquarius? Who are you willing to invite into them?ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

Pisces Sun & Pisces Rising

There’s a lot of talk about Jupiter shifting into Pisces, a lot of sparklers lit for what might be. It’s good to light up for the pleasure of it, to revel in a promising idea, but it’s in your best interest to recognise that Jupiter is not a planet that submits to anyone’s plans – not even a sign that it favours. Jupiter expands and Jupiter magnifies; Jupiter might have you betting it all just so you recognise what you’ve got to lose. But you know more than most that no planet works alone, that all cosmic movement is interconnected. Let the new moon in Capricorn on 2nd January guide your hand as you place your bets. Be honest about what’s at stake. Know who you have in your corner.ILLUSTRATION BY TAN SZE YAN

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