Horoscope Principles for the week of January 12, 2026
This moment is about the chaos and collapse of institutions and how it meets up with the power of community safety, loyalty to those we love, and invitation to return to true security and safety. This time asks us to question our ideals and whether they are reliant on institutions that oppress us.
In some ways this is a collapse of the veneer of peace at the expense of exploited people. In other ways this is a time that is devastatingly filled with violence and loss. The more love we have and the more connected we are to our communities, the more we feel this loss.
If you feel impervious to the violence in the world right now, or protected from it, that experience of disconnect is its own loss. Connection with boundaries brings true safety.
This week is triggering, no matter where you land on these issues.
(Photo by me in the Palm Springs leg of my Inanna Underworld journey.)
For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events (this is a busy week and I’m not giving exact times on some of these because the energy is larger and will likely be present for longer periods):
Last week, on Saturday, January 11, 2026, at 8:13am Pacific, Venus squared Chiron. The Sun squares Chiron on Monday, January 12, 2026 at 12:31pm Pacific, followed by Mars on Tuesday at 2:33pm, Mercury at 10:20pm on Thursday, and as if that weren’t enough the Moon squares Chiron on Sunday the 18th at 12:16am. Sooooooooooo . . . if your ego or your inner child feel overwhelmed and triggered by the collapse of institutions around you and the chaos in the world right now, you are not alone. This week brings hit after hit to our places of wounding and invites us to use those places of wounding to help others, even though we are not fully healed. Don’t wait to be present with those around you until you are perfect. Community requires presence not perfection.
Jupiter continues in Cancer, and the Sun, Venus, and Mars in Capricorn opposed Jupiter last week on Friday and Saturday. Mercury opposes Jupiter on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, at 12:17am Pacific. This contributes to an overall vibe of boasting and exaggerating the truth this week.
Saturn and Neptune are still dancing around each other in Pisces, getting ready for their big conjunction in February in Aries. This week Venus, Mercury, and the Sun in Capricorn make sextiles with Saturn and start making sextiles with Neptune on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. This brings supportive energy from the lessons we’ve learned around boundaries and the structures we can rely on when all else fails. In the context of the broader international climate, though, this could be supportive Piscean idealism or propaganda for the fascist institution. Check the information you’re getting with your own experience.
Venus, the Sun, and Mercury in Capricorn also trine Uranus in Taurus this week on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. This brings supportive energy from innovation to the larger institutions, and again this makes me cautious about AI-based propaganda and the sense of unreliability in the messaging we get. However, I am hopeful that it means that the protests (Uranus influences technology and also liberation and innovation) we have been seeing make significant impact and changes to the institutions causing so much harm internationally. Check in with your body this week and trust what is in front of you.
The New Moon is happening on Sunday, January 18, 2026, at 11:51am Pacific at the very last degrees of Capricorn. The New Moon is a great time to set intentions, and this could be a good opportunity to set intentions for 2026. However, this week could teach us a lot about how our bodies and our inner wounding handle triggers from the outer world, so I encourage you to set intentions that are nurturing and safe.
These are the principles to consider for each rising sign (visit astro.com to find your rising sign) in the week of January 12, 2026:
Aries Rising: Be yourself. If the institutions you’re involved in, especially at work or in your public life, or even the government institutions around you, are bringing up childhood wounds, pay attention to that. Who you are, your integrity, and your courage matter, and even if you may feel pushed to exaggerate your ambitions or accomplishments this week, it is more important to make sure your integrity is aligned with what you say and do. If you can’t be yourself in the structures of your public life, adjust those structures to you and help other people do the same. Being authentic and having integrity is more important than ambition. Suffering for the sake of blind ambition is not brave. Being yourself is brave.
Taurus Rising: You know you’ve made inner shifts when your external reality changes, not when you feel good all the time. Your belief systems have undergone a major revamp lately, including periods where you’ve felt major breakthroughs and major low points. Your social groups have also likely changed dramatically over the past 2+ years and you’ve learned a lot about connection and boundaries. All of these are part of what makes your personal religion. If you were the deity of your belief system, and your congregation was your local coven, what would your central thesis be? What would your 10 commandments be? The triggers you experience this week may give you some insight into your personal scripture.
Gemini Rising: It is uncomfortable to compromise what you want because of other people’s values, and it is also uncomfortable to go after what you want and risk disapproval. The question is whether you want to honor yourself and what you want or comply. This week triggers may come up in how other people express their values in your social circles, and this invites you to be more committed to going after what you want, not more compliant (your choice, but that’s my take). Your discomfort and social wounding may be painful to you, but it helps you have compassion for others and connect to others. You know what you want, that is not the question, but especially as the confusion and boundary violations in your work life wrap up over then next month, you are invited to honor what you want over compliance to the institutions around you or even the way your ambition may seek approval from others.
Cancer Rising: Partnership is meant to support us, both publicly and privately, not to weaponize our vulnerabilities. The wounding you’ve experienced in your career or public life is getting triggered by your partnerships and accomplices this week. This may not be their fault and it may just be because of the chaos in their lives right now. Regardless of their intent, it is okay for you to take breaks, focus on your experience, and receive these triggers as information about the growth that you’re experiencing. Enforcing your boundaries (especially your internal boundaries around that voice that says you should be everything to everyone) is key. While this ultimately contributes to the expansion of who you are as a person, right now it doesn’t feel like that, and it is okay to survive without putting a positive or nurturing spin on it for other people.
Leo Rising: Your ideals need to serve your physical and mental health or else they are out of alignment. Your body has gone through a lot not just in this past month, but this month may have brought up the way your relationship to your body has transformed since 2009. This week, the messages your physical health and daily routine have been giving you trigger some wounding that you have around your ideals. This wounding to ideals or beliefs could have come from early experiences in high-control religion, but really so many groups we belong to or follow can weaponize group think into unrealistic ideals. For example, athletics often teaches one version of ideal health. Academics teaches one version of ideal intellect. TV teaches one version of the ideal female body. The triggers you experience this week may ultimately give you insight into the ideals that align with who you truly are. But this week it may just feel disappointing. Enforce boundaries around other people’s judgments, and if you are sick, rest.
Virgo Rising: Approve of yourself and your projects, even when you run into haters. You may feel triggered this week related to other people’s values and their judgments of your creative projects or children. Confusion and misunderstandings you’ve been experiencing over the past 2+ years with your closest partners might contribute to this. Ultimately, your projects and what you create are valuable, even if other people don’t understand. But, this week, enforcing boundaries even with the people closest to you may give you some peace to focus on wrapping up loose ends related to what you’ve been working on for the past month.
Libra Rising: If you are not yourself in partnership, then your partners are together with a scarecrow version of you, not with you. You know this, and this week the wounding you have around being authentically yourself in partnership is on blast, especially from your home and most intimate spaces. If it feels like this threatens the expansion you’ve had in career, just know that even if the wounds don’t heal fully, this time of being triggered will pass. The boundaries you’ve been learning around your daily routine and health are supportive of your home life and intimate experience, as are the innovations and shakeups you’ve experienced related to other people’s money and sex. Let these supportive energies get you through the triggers around partnership, and know that your expansion related to career and public life isn’t done.
Scorpio Rising:
If you feel overly idealistic about what you can accomplish or how you can show up for other people, your body may suffer. Ultimately, your body, your mind, and your spirit need to be in alignment for you to be your most effective. If you feel pulled in different directions by what you expect of yourself and chaos in your community, take a pause. Release expectations. Make sure your ideals serve you. The New Moon this week gives you the opportunity to renew and revisit your local community and coven obligations so that they work for everyone.
Sagittarius Rising: Do a money ritual. You might feel like your creative projects are at odds with your finances and while you watch other people’s money grow, your wounding around your creative endeavors is triggered. You can substitute anything you value for “money” in that sentence. You may value stability, predictability, and hiking, and so you can sub those in where I said “money.” Even if this week brings up some compare and despair tension and triggers your wounding about what your creative projects or children, this week’s New Moon is a good time to do a reset related to what you value and what abundance means to you. Look up a money ritual, and even if it feels silly, try it out! If you have a tried-and-true money ritual, this New Moon is a great time for it.
Capricorn Rising: Ask for what you need. You may feel like the past 2+ years has been fraught with communication breakdowns. If you have done your homework from the universe, hopefully you have probably gotten a lot better about communicating your literal boundaries and needs, rather than passively hoping people intuit them. This week, what you have learned related to communication should support you in communicating who you are and what you need, especially related to your partners or closest accomplices, and especially as it relates to your home life. Your partners’ expansion and the chaos and activity you’ve experienced this holiday season triggers wounding around what you want for your home and most intimate spaces this week. That may be combined with the fact that institutions and reliability are important to you and we are facing national and international breakdown of those, which can feel very triggering for our safety at home. Pausing and communicating your needs very literally may offer some healing in this tough time.
Aquarius Rising: Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Your physical and mental health provide clues about the transformation that will serve you over the next 20 years. Right now your mental and physical health are triggering wounding you’ve experienced in your early childhood education or related to communication. If you find it hard to explain especially any mental health struggles you are having, which could be related to depression, one strategy is to start at the most simple level with emojis. Do you feel 😀, 😔, 😡, 😱? This may feel too simplistic for you, but at its most basic level, communication starts with ourselves. The more authentically you can communicate with yourself about your mental health, the more you will be able to communicate with others. Asking for help is scary and brave.
Pisces Rising: Check in with your bank account (metaphorically and literally) before going out to party or buying new paint brushes. If your social groups are very active right now, check in with what you truly value before committing. The tension between the inspiration you’re experiencing in your creative life and your social groups is triggering your wounding related to your values and money this week. While this might feel confusing at first, remember it is okay to enforce your boundaries and choose what you love over the obligations you feel. Really. It’s okay! It’s even good! That may feel hard and triggering right now, but this will pass. Make sure your bank account, and your reservoir of abundance, is still there to serve you as you renew your relationship to your social groups at the end of the week. Your values are for you, as is your money. Your supportive friend groups will get that, and if they don’t, choose yourself first.
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