Happy Astrological New Year

Do you feel alive again? Did you just wake up from seasonal-depression as if it were a coma you weren’t aware that you were in? Welcome to the astrological new year! I’m glad to see you made it out okay. So did I, if you can tell, as I post for the first time in two months. Let’s talk about what a new astrological year means for you, me, and everybody else. Let’s end this post with a reading for each sign about the themes of this 2021-2022 astrological year.

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The astrological new year, which takes place on the first day of Aries season, feels far more real than the societal new year, which is placed just one week into Capricorn season. These two signs, one fire and one earth, create completely different energies for beginnings to be founded on. Unsurprisingly, the eldest earth sign Capricorn inspires beginnings in the form of new year’s resolutions. When a person tells me they have Capricorn placements, they have one of two things to say about it: 1. “I don’t really believe in astrology, but I know I’m a Capricorn.” or 2. “I’m interested in astrology, but I don’t hear a lot about Capricorns.” I believe that the qualities of Capricorn explains these responses; Capricorns are too busy being Capricorns to think about the fact that they are a Capricorn. In general, earth signs tend to contact me for birth-chart or tarot readings when change is on the way. Uncomfortable in the forced chaos of the human experience, my Tauruses, Virgos, and especially Capricorns come to me for help making a plan. This encompasses the societal expectation brought on by the new year humans celebrate every January 1st. Even right now, in this moment, think of your thoughts during or after the most recent new year. Even after the mind-blowing experience that was 2020, people still made a list of new goals or old goals revised. This is the difference between the average perceptions of what it means for a new year to begin and the introspection that surrounds astrology-lovers during the astrological new year.

Spring cleaning usually occurs during the astrological new year. Though it differs year to year, the days of March 20th and March 21st typically indicate that the year illustrated by the stars has reset. Feeling this, unconsciously or consciously, human beings clean every inch of their home, get rid of unnecessary physical belongings, and prepare themselves for the year ahead. I am grateful that, even on an unconscious level, spring cleaning being a tradition represents the power of astrology. We can credit this to Aries being the first season of the year. To better understand why the astrological new year takes place when it does, I want to detour into the concept of “age” which is vital to understanding the signs on a deeper level.

In order, the “age” of the signs is represented by the chronological placement of their seasons. Therefore, the order is:

Aries (March 21st to April 19th)
Taurus (April 20th to May 20th)
Gemini (May 21st to June 20th)
Cancer (June 21st to July 22nd)
Leo (July 23rd to August 22nd)
Virgo (August 23rd to September 22nd)
Libra (September 23rd to October 22nd)
Scorpio (October 23rd to November 21st)
Sagittarius (November 22nd to December 21st)
Capricorn (December 22nd to January 19th)
Aquarius (January 20th to February 18th)
Pisces (February 19th to March 20th)

Like I said before, the dates can vary by a day so don’t worry if it doesn’t match up to your year of birth or this year specifically. Regardless of the exact day, Aries is always the first and youngest of the signs and Pisces is always the last and oldest. It’s important to understand that “age” doesn’t necessarily allude to how mature or intelligent a sign is. The concept of tying maturity and intelligence to age is a human experience and doesn’t apply to astrology. It represents only the chronological experience every single one of us have, regardless of our personal placements. Any life, experience, or process can be applied to the Aries to Pisces concept. One way I make this astrology concept easier to understand is by applying it specifically to the elements. Here is what that looks like visually, so you can follow along as I explain:

Fire

Aries
Leo
Sagittarius

Earth

Taurus
Virgo
Capricorn

Air

Gemini
Libra
Aquarius

Water

Cancer
Scorpio
Pisces

Maybe it’s because I’m one of three kids, but I like to perceive the elements as siblings. The youngest siblings of each element would be Aries, Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer. The middle children would be Leo, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpio. And the oldest, of course, would be Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Just like siblings, these signs hold the qualities of their “age.” The youngest signs tend to react the strongest to life’s experiences, being more impulsive, emotional, and curious than the others. The middle signs, like humans, tend to have more to prove, looking more for attention, success, and self-actualization. Lastly, the oldest signs tend to be veterans of life from the moment they’re born, yearning more for community, creativity, and introspection. The words I chose to describe each age group have neither positive or negative connotations to them, they simply represent three parts of existence; the youngest representing the internal, the middle representing the external, and the oldest representing the collective consciousness that combines them.

In any case, explaining the concept of “age” in astrology was for catching you up to the understanding of an astrological year as opposed to the typical concept of a year. As I write and post this blog post today, it has been exactly one week since the beginning of the 2021-2022 astrological new year. Since it began, I have felt a calling back to writing on this blog. The last time I posted was on January 22nd, two days into Aquarius season. You see, my solar return is in Aquarius season and that elicits an interesting emotional reaction in me. Aquarius is the oldest of the air signs, representing the 11th house of community, and ruled by the planet Saturn which operates discipline and responsibility. For me, this means that for most of the year I think of others and how I can better connect with them. But in Aquarius season, as the sun moves into where it was during my birth, I find myself thinking more about my individual self. Have you heard anyone describe Aquarius as aliens? It’s all about the difficulty in viewing ourselves as actual humans, experiencing life just like everyone else is. Especially since so many planets were in Aquarius during Aquarius season, including Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury (which was also in retrograde). Ironically, the very sign that encourages me to share my thoughts with the world was the one that, when oversaturated, caused me to stay quiet and introspective instead. On my birthday this year the Sun moved into Pisces, the oldest of all the signs, and I ended my 21st year with the self-love necessary to allow a temporary hiatus from this passion project.

I’m sure you felt it too when the Sun and Venus moved into Aries, the spontaneous and wild youngest sign. Regardless of your personal birth-chart, you can feel when the stars begin again. The weather gets warmer and the plants begin to bloom. Death, that inevitable part of life shown through cold and lifeless winter days, takes its turn to hide until we need it again. Humans usually have a distaste for the wintertime; most people do not like the forced spiritual hibernation of short days and less new experiences. So when the weather warms to our liking, during the weeks surrounding the arrival of Aries season, we wake up like we are reborn… and we are.

I had a short morning shift today, and while I made lattes and cappuccinos words roamed through my mind over and over again, and they were: “A new season, a new year, a new way of writing poems.” For the first time in months, I could feel lines and stanzas giving birth to themselves in my mind. And though it happens each year like clockwork, I am flooded with a sense of relief at the arrival of my words. They’re back.

I did not make a list of new year’s resolutions in January, but I did begin putting together my soul studio, a room where I can paint, write, film, meditate, read, and create infinitely and in any direction. In one corner, in front of a mirror, I built a shrine to myself where I bow to a framed poster of my birth-chart and place offerings like dried roses and money. There are notecards with written admiration of coworkers, prayer beads, pictures of my younger self, manifestation jars that have long been fulfilled. It’s been eight zodiac seasons, or ninth months, since I’ve had a wall I could hang my own paintings on. This opportunity was created by and embraced because of the astrological new year. A week before Aries season, I was given a space for manifestation and creation, for the life and death of my past, present, and future self.

One thing I love about beginning the zodiac cycle again is the annual gift of letting go. For just a moment, everyone is given the opportunity to cut loose ties and free ourselves from the past without much effort needed. Maybe in the winter you would’ve clung to a t-shirt you never wear, but right now you can toss it in a donation bag with ease. Personally, I find comfort in knowing that I am not held to the formatting of my previous posts. Those were from another version of myself, one that died when the cycle began again. We are all young in spirit right now, free to see the world as if it was the first time. We are delighted by things as simple as a flower or cloud, whereas just a month ago we may have been struggling to get out of bed in the morning. If I hadn’t waited, if I had been hard on myself and forced myself to write just because I said I would in the beginning of Capricorn season, then I would’ve been stuck writing new feelings in old ways. No, not even my Virgo rising can stop me from giving birth to a new format and, not only that, but stop myself from editing old posts to look like my new format. Maybe you understand what I mean, in your own way with your own personal creations. Right now, a painter can switch from monotone pieces to pastel ones, a writer may trade short stories for personal essays, an astrologer may find more passion in whole sign houses than placidus.

It has been a week since the first day of Aries season, and today specifically there is a full moon in the beautiful sign of Libra. Tonight let’s do a ritual. Do it if you read this post today, during the full moon. Do it if you read this post days, months, or years later. While you process the concept of “age” in astrology terms, forget not that time itself isn’t real anywhere besides where we need it to be. What ritual should you do? Well, I think I’ll use my reading to help decide. Some aspects of this new year are set in stone for you, like your profection year for example, which is the idea that one of the astrological houses rules each age. (I’ll explain profection years in my own terms in a future post, but for now you can use this resource to understand what they are if I just piqued your curiosity). Just remember that regardless of the transits that affect your personal birth-chart, manifestation is the most powerful of all magic. So tonight, write a letter to the stars. From now until the next first day of Aries season, what do you want? Write what you want, why you want it, and how you’ll get it. Beneath the beauty of the moon, read the letter to the stars and then burn it so that it becomes part of the universe itself in spirit.

If you need help figuring out what you want or how you’ll get it, that is where my reading might be able to help. One important thing I forgot to explain in my previous blog posts is how to apply the readings for each sign to the planet you have that sign in. Normally, I would just write, “Applies to Sun, Moon, Rising, Mercury, Mars, and Venus.” My readings do apply to every personal placement, but remember to use the focus of the planet to understand the reading best. For example, if you have your Mars in Taurus, and the reading for Taurus says, “You should handle this situation alone,” that would refer to handling a situation that makes you angry or that you’re passionate about without others’ opinions. If you were using that same Taurus reading for a Venus in Taurus, instead consider handling a romantic endeavor or change in your style without others’ opinions. If that was already clear then I’m glad! I just believe that explaining each little detail can go a long way. I want everyone, regardless of astrological knowledge, to enjoy my perspectives of astrology. And finally, the reading itself…

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This Astrological New Year… a Reading for the Signs

For the reading, I will pull a card from a new deck of mine. It was a birthday present and I love receiving new decks as gifts! This deck is an oracle deck called Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein with art by Micaela Ezra. This is a link if you’d like to purchase this deck on Etsy. I’ll also roll a 12-sided dice, with each number representing the astrological houses. Think is a link to a reference on what the astrological houses represent. I think the combination of a manifestation oracle deck and the astrological houses will help us see what this year looks like for you and what areas of your life are best for manifestation. Here we go!

This reading applies to your Sun, Moon, Rising, Mercury, Mars, and Venus.

ARIES ♈︎

“The more I attune my energy with appreciation, the more the universe will deliver.” / 10th House

What is the purpose of achieving success if you do not take the time to be grateful for it? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, the energy that makes up the universe is asking for you to be as present as possible. When we are not present we move too quickly between the past, present, and future. Humans claim that we cannot time-travel and yet any person that is not present in the moment is doing exactly that. Do not think of how you got here or where you’re going, but rather where you are and what is happening right now. You will find more manifestation power in being present than in any plan making or goal setting. The next time something amazing happens to you, be a sponge and soak it in. Stretch out each second by focusing on your five senses. What do you hear, feel, smell, taste, and see in the moment that this great experience occurs? Whether you’re walking your dog when you get a call about a job offer, or whether you hit 1,000 followers on your TikTok account during an online class… take in the entire moment from the color of the sky to the smells in the kitchen. You deserve the good that is coming your way.

TAURUS ♉︎

“My super attractor power comes from how I feel, my faith in love, and the joy I put out.” / 7th House

At the crossroads of optimism and pessimism, which path do you take? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, focus on the concept of romance. We’re not just talking about two lovers here, we’re talking about romance in all of its forms. Believe it or not, the process of falling in love with yourself is exactly the same as the process of falling in love with another person. Rewrite the meaning behind love songs you’re too afraid to listen to anymore. Stare at your own face in the mirror until every feature is your favorite feature. Make a playlist for your sibling just as you would for someone you have a crush on. Find the fine line between romance and love, between sex and affection, between here with these humans and somewhere else with other humans. If you launch a rocket into space, it will blast straight forward no matter where you aim it. If you give love away, it will heal you no matter where you put it.

GEMINI ♊︎

“I am kind and loving towards others while creating clear boundaries that protect my good feeling emotions.” / 10th House

How does your reaction to others hurting you differ from your reaction to yourself hurting others? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, reflect on reflections. In a mirror we see our body, but in other humans we see our self. Consider that each time someone crossed one of your boundaries, the anger you felt toward them was actually anger you felt toward yourself. When you wonder why you were born with this family member, why you decided to make this person a friend, why you didn’t stand up for yourself to a stranger, consider why these things are positive experiences for you. The lesson one of your parents taught you about love; the opportunity to understand the inevitably of change with a person you chose to have in your life; the softness to not react angrily to a person you don’t have pre-existing empathy for. Boundaries are not just what should happen, but what has happened and why. Boundary setting isn’t just about pain and empowerment, it’s also about learning when to let go. You can set as many boundaries as you want, but it won’t matter until you let go of the experiences that caused you to set those boundaries in the first place. You are already free, whether you believe so or not.

CANCER ♋︎

“I accept that good things come easily. I am a super attractor!” / 10th House

How long did it take you to realize and accept that you were born worthy of love? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, you will find the success you have spent a long time looking for. Success is usually associated with careers, fame, and fortune. Yes, you will experience success in those areas this year, but it’s about more than just that. You will find success in your emotional awareness, your intuition, your manifestation powers. Letting go of the concept of a spiritual “breakthrough,” allows you to see that spiritual growth happens on a constant upwards trend. In the past you might’ve believed that it was possible for you to go backwards, as if the spiritual journey is like biking up a hill and if you run out of steam you’ll end up in a past karmic cycle. You know better now; you know that even sadness and pain can be nostalgic. Like the feeling of sunlight on your skin during the first warm day of the year, soak in the good that has arrived in your life. Worry not of future days that will be cold again, exist solely on the edge of your skin where the sunlight touches you. Remember the days you couldn’t wait to be where you are right now, and appreciate this moment for that past version of you.

LEO ♌︎

“In stillness I receive.” / 8th House

Do you treat every aspect of your life as competition with your past self? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, clean the dust from the corners and crevices of your inner self. You know better than any other zodiac sign that the ego can be a tool, but recognize when this tool feels more like a drug. Self-awareness never was and never will be a competitive process, not with others and not with yourself. Take time to define “stillness.” It isn’t just a way to describe a lack of movement, it’s also about what happens during that lack of movement. When the power goes out and all the background noises we’ve gotten used to stop, that is a gift not a curse. And the first thing we usually do is light a candle, finding comfort in not only the light but the lack of stillness in the air as it makes that sound candles make when their flame flickers. In this next year, you will feel as though silence has fallen upon you like a blanket of thick snow, locking you in your own mental home. When a writer works on a novel or a musician records a new album, they find a place of solitude and they get to work. Stillness doesn’t mean a lack of progression, it’s about the concentration it takes to create something entirely new.

VIRGO ♍︎

“Instead of worrying about the future I know all is well when I’m aligned in the moment.” / 2nd House

How does the way you make money change the way you use that money? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, you will find yourself defying Virgo stereotypes. Rather than looking for the next thing to invest in or build, this next year is about living in the current manifestation. You spent so much time, energy, and magic on getting to where you are right now. In the past, you may have felt like you were taking gentle, nervous baby steps into your life. Not anymore. Trade the sneakers for boots and march forward like you created the earth beneath you. To be aligned in the moment is to take account of all the things you have gifted yourself. Your current self is the manifestation of your childhood self, your adolescent self, and even your future self. Take all of the possibilities off the table by assuming you could always be doing better, you could always be doing worse, but here you are doing it exactly as you are right now. Stop arguing with the universe as if you were its stubborn teenage child. It raised you to be where you are right now, a process that started long before you were aware of magic or money. Live your life as if you have just one superpower: everytime you reach for something you need, it’s there for you to grab.

LIBRA ♎︎

“When I connect to the spiritual realm, I open the door to receive divine guidance, clear direction, and great wisdom.” / 6th House

What daily habits do you have that are connected to and inspired by your spiritual journey? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, you will watch as the balancing power of Libra combines your reality with the other side. One of the most difficult aspects of being a human being is the unavoidable experience of reality. In our lives, we can choose to bring spirituality into our reality but we cannot stop reality from affecting our spirituality. Being home or in nature and having the space to meditate and talk to your higher power allows for more inner peace than being at work or in public. The ultimate truth is that it is your responsibility to find a way to work these two extremes into one another. Maybe you can’t meditate at work, but there is a breathing method out there that will reconnect you to the flow of the universe, even under fluorescent lighting. Even though it can often feel like it, the spiritual part of ourselves can’t be left at home. Your spiritual energy walks with you to your classes, to the date you’re going on, to your car where you experience road rage. Imagine that you are both the teacher and the student to your individual human experience. Place a crystal in your pocket and teach yourself how to use it when you’re stressed. Make a homework assignment for yourself where you look for the color of your peers’ auras. You were born to experience this human life, so maybe you’re not supposed to be one of those monk-like humans who are always calm and grateful. Create easy pathways for you to cross over to the other side no matter where you are or what responsibilities lie ahead.

SCORPIO ♏︎

“When I live and act from a place of spiritual alignment, I can trust that everything is working out for me, even if I don’t know when or how it will happen.” / 2nd House

If something does not work out in your favor, do you curse the universe or thank it? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, you will give in to one of the most beautiful experiences on this earth: acceptance. No matter how many manifestation jars you make or how many tarot spreads you ask for advice, you will still only receive what you are ready to receive. If you want something and the universe does not give it to you, try and say thank you even if you don’t mean it. Right in the moment you want to give up, that’s the exact time to push harder. Regardless of how many clouds are in the sky, the sun is still behind them. You want your higher power to consult with you on the experiences coming your way as if that’s the reason to be here. It’s okay to regret choosing to come to this planet and be a person on it, but you did make the decision on the other side for a reason, a very good reason. This isn’t about trusting your spirit guides, it’s also about trusting yourself and considering yourself as one of your spirit guides. When you lose hope, you react in ways that are uncharacteristic of your inner self. A hopeless person still has infinite things to live for. For a while now, you’ve felt as if you’ve been lost at sea. When you finally see land, do not worry that it is a figment of your imagination, just start rowing.

SAGITTARIUS ♐︎

“Manifesting is the creative process of aligning with the energy of the universe to co-create an experience that elevates my spirit and the spirit of the world.” / 5th House

Where do you put your feelings when they finally rise to the surface? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, you will feel like a child again. If you look to the past or the future, you will become exhausted for a version of yourself that does not presently exist. Instead, create something that gives you more energy than what you started with. Making art with the universe is about not asking any questions, just allowing the flow to push your hands where they need to go in order to make anything. Inside of you lives your childhood self and all they do is play on the seesaw with the universe, one goes up the other comes down. When it is your turn to touch the sky, do so as if you’ll float away. Like humans in love with each other make babies, when you are in love with yourself you make art. Spend little to no thought on the medium you use, the subject of the piece, or who will when it’s done. Create as if you were raised without the linear concept of time, as if you were a room that could not be disturbed. It’s been a while since you’ve been able to lose your physical self, but it’s your choice whether or not you experience adventures. Lose your spiritual self in the act of creation.

CAPRICORN ♑︎

“When I’m grateful for what I have, I can feel good along the way to what I desire.” / 4th House

What parts of yourself are you proud to have inherited from your parents? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, femininity is taking over the energy that surrounds your reality. Masculinity represents individualism and is commonly used by humans who want distance between them and those who can hurt them. It certainly seems like the right idea, but we know that from a spiritual standpoint the collectivism of feminity is what heals us so we can stop picking our emotional scabs. If your parents didn’t love you the way you needed to be loved, do not look for that love in someone new. Look for that love in yourself. It’s normal to feel uncomfortable when you start doing the things you’ve always wanted someone else to do for you. Whether it’s rubbing your own back or reading yourself a story before you go to sleep, it is just as powerful for you to do this for yourself as it would’ve been for someone else to do it for you. And when there’s a noise in the night and you no longer look for someone else to protect you, you transcend. The only person you’ll spend every day of your life with is yourself, so love them just as you would love someone else. Just because we decided we didn’t like being alone, that doesn’t make it inherently bad. Gratitude is about the way spring air smells, the memories that will never die even if everything in them has, and the concept of “today.”

AQUARIUS ♒︎

“Believing in spiritual guidance gives me the certainty and the freedom to keep dreaming, even when I can’t yet see the result.” / 12th House

Do you still believe that you can save the entire world all alone? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, measure success on a smaller scale. Act as though every dream and every angel number sighting are as important as reaching a new level of enlightenment. Your passions are an easy place to get lost; they are bigger than life itself. It’s incredibly valuable how much you believe in your ability to succeed in your sense of purpose. Remember that just because the universal comes naturally to you, does not mean that the temporary and individual experiences are less valuable. Looking at the big picture all the time inhibits you from embracing the beauty of detail. The universe did not create flowers so that you can spend your whole life watching the clouds pass by, looking for images and signs. The Aquarian beauty is in your ability to accept yourself as a vital part of the collective consciousness, but in the same sweeping motion you prevent yourself from embracing the temporary state of your being. In your passions towards life, you rival Jesus and Mother Theresa and Gandhi. In the present moment though, which is all we have, you are already irreplaceable even without the whole world knowing who you are.

PISCES ♓︎

“Directing my focus onto what’s thriving creates more of what I want.” / 11th House

Could you tell the difference between a blossoming plant and a dying plant if they both looked the same? For this cycle, from this Aries season to the upcoming Pisces season, you will realize you’ve already had what you needed. The sense of community and support that you crave on a daily basis has been there all along. Like light through a prism, you will find that what you sometimes cannot see is the most beautiful thing to look at. Try to not hold the people you love to standard that your past self created; if you want them to accept that you are ever-changing, work on seeing them through that same lens. Stop mourning past versions of your family and friends, as if they could have somehow been a better version of themselves then. There is no final version of ourselves to achieve, but at the same time we are constantly improving. In the next year, try talking to people as if they were you. Visualize your own physical features over them if it helps, just speak the way you would want them to speak to you. You cannot run out of patience if you keep searching for it. You cannot lose gratitude if you do not let it go. You are the sign most tormented by infinite possibilities life gives us, but torment was not the intended feeling. If you were given a million dollars, you would not stress over how to spend it, you would be grateful to see so many opportunities now available to you. React the same way to life.

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