Can you believe it's May? Can you believe that Venus in Retrograde is over and Mercury Retrograde is almost over and, like, we've still managed to get to our destinations and write our dissertations and some of us didn't even break up with our girlfriends and boyfriends and jobs and business partners? Okay, maybe you're not so impressed. Maybe you're like, “Yeah, I'm into my sign but these retrogrades retrograde-me-not." Cool, well, can you believe we've made it through the turbulence of our current political climate for four months? Four months! No? Me neither. In fact, I'm entirely unconvinced that any of us really have.
That said, I congratulate you and myself, too, for moving forward in whatever ways we have by whatever means were available to us. It hasn't been easy; in fact, for many of you, it's been downright disastrous.
Perhaps now is the time for reprieve and restoration. For sitting with each other in the buzzing hum of full spring, the cicadas singing and imagining the planets of our solar system suspended overhead. Read ahead to find out.
ARIES
Can you feel it, Aries, your heart turning soft and thawing? Venus goes direct and while the shadow of retrograde lingers for a bit (and, with it, some uncertainty about various commitments and conflicts) you no longer feel the need to fight so hard for life as you want it.
The tides might ebb and flow as they did yesterday, but (with no small push from the asteroid Pallas) within you grows the capacity to witness and respond to emotional complexity without fear or resistance. Language for what once felt indescribable feels easier to come by now, and forgiveness too. This is no small part thanks to Mercury direct in Aries until mid-month. Relish it, Aries, and stand ready for what the transition of Mercury into Taurus might teach you about serving one’s self-interest versus serving the greater good.
Sometimes, the heroine in the story is not the one who charges to save the day. Sometimes she is the one who mends and rebuilds, not out of duty or resentment, but because she knows that acts of nurturance are acts of resistance against a greater culture of capitalism and war.
TAURUS
Spring is your season, Taurus, and don’t you feel imbued with a brand-new sense of purpose? The Sun and Moon in your sign, intuitions and self-discoveries of months past culminated at a turning point and all that was left to do was climb up and over. What you might have thought of as the end of a journey, a destination, was a wall you had to work around so that you might see the true shape of the road ahead.
Now you know what stood between the life you’ve been living and the life you want to manifest for yourself was not the hand of fate at all. Only an obstacle, only a self-belief you needed to let go of. Don’t hesitate, Taurus, move forward. Have faith that you have learned from past mistakes, that you know how to move with mindfulness in your best interest.
All good actions return to you in karmic reciprocity. Mercury wants you to feel this moment through so revel, Taurus, in this month of truth. Speak honestly of your proud heart and let all connections deepen.
GEMINI
With Mercury finally going direct in Taurus, you might find that all the fight-y energy Mars brought into Gemini is now tempered with a better sense of focus and purpose. Yes, there are things you need to get off your chest, and, yes, there’s some communication breakdown that has yet to be worked out, but right now you’ve got to focus on what you can do for yourself rather than what you can fix between you and others.
Steer yourself away, Gemini, from the impulse to explain your intentions or define your motivation. The shadow of Mercury’s past retrograde will likely cast confusion and might leave you saying things you don’t mean, then eating your words right after.
Better to busy your hands and work in the material world. Start up a home improvement project or learn a new tactile skill. Maybe play some basketball out in the spring air! A little competition will satiate your need for a battle and leave all unscathed. Besides, with Eros in your corner, you might do well to fuck, rather than fight.
CANCER
For a long time now, maybe too long, the asteroid Vesta has been visiting you. Vesta, a lesser known influence, is a goddess that highlights devotion and healing. She keeps boundaries, establishes limitations and maintains them. When she feels safe and valued, then she is a protector, a keeper of the hearth, and a mama bear. But, if she is mistreated or insecure in her position, then her care turns inward and becomes self-protective. Her nurturing energy shifts toward building a fortress she will not let you past.
Whether you’ve spent months fortifying your family and those who depend on you or months fortifying your walls and sense of self, Vesta is ready to move on and you should too. The lessons she’s taught you about your power and healing capacity are vital to your path, and it would be a mistake not to reflect on them. But, Cancer, what needed protecting before needs action now. The time has come to be brave and let the fortress down.
LEO
Has the turning of the wheel found you on top again, Leo? Have you, despite all setbacks and disappoints, begun to feel a renewed sense of purpose? As Vesta re-enters Leo after a long time away, you might find yourself slowing down and checking in with what matters most: your commitment to yourself.
What does it mean to commit to yourself in a world that asks for your labor and your capital but rarely validates your spirit? It means finding ways to validate your spirit through other channels: your community as well as your solitude, your partnerships and your projects. It means using sheer determination to carve out a space where your selfhood is not only thriving but celebrated.
Yes, that might mean meditation (maybe even orgasmic meditation!), yoga, swimming, biking, anything that calls you back into your body which houses your spirit and reflects it. And, yes, that means carving out time to be creative for your own sake and with no deadline in mind.
VIRGO
With Mercury going direct in Taurus, a fellow Earth sign, mid-month, you might start to feel a little more grounded in your connections with others. While Mercury’s retrograde in Aries might have left a few casualties on the battlefield, communication will start to feel more natural and dependable. You can now look forward to fewer misunderstandings and disagreements.
In short, you’ll have better luck keeping your word and making plans that don’t shift with each swing of the weather vane (also called a weathercock—if you’re curious). And, with better planning comes a better sense of your time—which will prove important since this month is all about time management.
Once you get your calendar in order and your commitments sorted, you’ll find what lies ahead is a less of a schedule and more of a roadmap. With all your social graces intact, you can safely venture forward knowing, in your own intuitive way, that the contacts you are making now will serve you in more ways than you know.
LIBRA
If your life has started to feel like a dark stage with a spotlight waiting for your queue, I wouldn’t be surprised. Your natural talents and creative force have begun to overflow from their container and whether you’ve called attention to them or not—they are getting noticed.
Perhaps this might have something to do with the long stay Jupiter’s had in your sign, or maybe it’s the influence of Saturn and Neptune that will combine with Jupiter this moth to usher you into a new a phase of your creative journey. It’s vital, Libra, that you pay attention to the signs and what you have invoked for yourself. Too much time with your head down looking at the spilled cups might have you missing the fountain standing right behind you.
Don’t exert all your energy fixing unfixable things (or people). Stay present and bear witness to what you have accomplished amid so much chaos. What comes might not be what you’ve been anticipating or even needing, but it can be bigger—a wish fulfillment a long time coming.
SCORPIO
The Full Moon in Scorpio second week in May will have you in your feelings for sure, so it’s best to get ready. Spend some time now noting the abundance you’ve called into your life, what you’ve accomplished so far, and what you plan to do with what you’ve got. You’ve got no time to obsess over the past, because the future is right around the corner!
Besides, the mayhem of Venus Rx taught you a valuable lesson: If it’s not material, it’s not yours to fix. What falls under the “Don’t Waste Your Time Obsessing” list includes everything from family dynamic to your partner’s sex drive to your oppressive energy at your work place.
If you’re out on the road and everyone’s irately honking at traffic thinking that’ll fix the issue, all you can do is roll up your windows and blast the radio. Plus, with Sappho hanging out in Scorpio, you might be feeling a whole new reserve of patience since pleasure is your primary focus.
SAGITTARIUS
It’s gotta let up sometime, doesn’t it Sagittarius? At least that’s the hope when Saturn parks his car in your driveway and won’t leave for years. Saturn is a difficult influence, a challenge to any sign but especially to mutable Sagittarius who just wants to play and explore and drink a little G&T in the sun. But, with Saturn’s foundation-first attitude, you might find yourself working into exhaustion so that even when a little fun is on the table, you can barely make it through the door.
With Jupiter (your ruling planet) around to influence Saturn this month, you might have a little more luck carving out real restorative time for you and all your wild pony impulses. That includes everything from creative exploration to sexy escapades.
Finally, don’t be afraid to lean a little more into your dreamer self. Listen to your psychic visions, your unsourced “knowings,” your micro-doses of mushrooms. Just because Saturn’s got you building your material wealth all day doesn’t mean you can’t spend some time with stars.
CAPRICORN
When Juno stations retrograde in your house, Capricorn, it’s time to clean it. Juno commits her energies to partnerships, marriages, and commitments so if that part of your life has been feeling imbalanced, prepare to have your scales balanced.
What does it look like when Juno Rx is in your court? Expect to examine the relationship between your expectations or assumptions and your reality. This will include everything from financial goals to the unwritten rules that govern our relationships. If your one-on-ones have stagnated or suffered under the weight of standards that are inorganic to their context, expect those standards to come into question. If compromise has been a one-way street, your street’s about to go under construction.
In short, a formal review is underway and the only way to do well is show up ready to change.
AQUARIUS
What is freedom, Aquarius, and when have you felt it? Was it in your childhood on the seat of your new bike that you’d just learned to ride, peddling faster and faster down a steep hill—not knowing if you could trust yourself to slow down but surrendering anyway? Was it your first big love, the waves of emotions so infinite and intense, your heart expanding past the limits of your body?
Once freedom must have visited you as expansiveness, as the moment you recognized that your body, in an airplane amongst clouds, as truly separate from earth and not beholden to gravity. And, sometimes, freedom has visited you as a great loss, as the desire and need to feel untethered from everyone and everything you have ever known so that you might never feel the wrenching solitude of grief.
Whatever form of freedom has come upon you now, be it born of passion or of pain, it wants you to surrender, and I think you should. I trust you, Aquarius, to land safely when it’s time.
PISCES
First Venus comes around but she’s Rx so you’ve got to deal with all your old relationship trauma. Then she comes around direct, but there’s still an Rx shadow and Mercury Rx, too, so you’re filled with flirty energy, but somehow it keeps becoming fight energy. Or, if not outward fighting then inward discord. Can’t a watery babe just have a little sensual fun without being weighed down by her own baggage?
Listen, don’t get down about love because there’s plenty more where that came from. Especially not with asteroid Cupido in your corner. Besides, in this current climate, it’s good to be healing and healed when so many are struggling to live. Sunrise, sunset, amirite?
Take heart, Pisces, and have faith. Your last year with the influence of Chiron (the wounded healer) will be a year of self-expansion and empowerment. You’re basically a butterfly or that song by Mariah Carey about butterflies.
